4"
The Commoner.
!
that he fails to pay and the creditor will thereupon
take the debtor's child son or daughter or his
stater or brother as a slave. These are the usual
methods converting free people into slave's, but
not the only ones.
"When a slave is obtained in any iway he is.
eimply the property of the owner. The owner
will find htm and otherwise take care of him. It
is to his interest to do so, for. the same reason
that it is to his interest to take care of a horse
or a carabao that belongs to him I. e., because
he is his and is property that has a value.
'The master has the same right to sell Jiim
that he would have to sell a horse, and they arc
constantly being bought and sold everywhere on
the island, xcept among the Zamboangenians in
the Zamboanga district.
r "The offspring of slaves belong to the masters
of the parents. Generally in this island the
frther and mother belong to the same person, and
in cases where they do not it is the rule among
some of the peoples for the offspring to belong to
the owner of the father, while with others they
belong to the owner o the mother.
"Among the Christian Visayans on this island
slaves over twenty-one years old who become
Christians are liberated by direction of the Cath
olic priests after they shall have been baptized
by thein.
"As was also the case in the former slave
states of the United States, owners do not have
the right to kill slaves because they belong to
them. I am not quite sure that this is- the case
everywhere here, but the opinion I have formed
from what L have learned is that it -is. Moros en
nlave Moros, as well as pagans, and pagans .en
slave othar pagans. But I do not think that thqre
are any pagans who enslave people of their own
tribe, except in cases where bad men steal the
children of others of their own tribe and run them
off and oell them to Moros or Christians, or to
pagans of other tribes.
"Among the people newly enslaved the young
boys and girls sell for more than men and women
do, unless the women have children that are en
slaved, and which they will not run away from
and leave in slavery. The men are very apt to es
cape, and therefore wil sell for very little
"Twenty-five Mexican dollars (worth ' $12.50
in American gold) is about the average price for
a good boy orgrl, according to my information.
JMen are o. so little value that I am told that those
who Tall into the hands of slave-takers along -svith
the women and children are apt to be killed
rather than taken."
A Voice From Porto Rico,
, When Mr. Allen, Governor of Porto Rico,
recently arrived in Boston he was interviewed
by a reporter from the Boston Herald. In
that interview Mr. Allen declared that Porto
Rico is a hapny island, that it has no public
debt, that its expenses are covered by its taxes,
that for him (Mr. Allen) it entertains th6
moBt cordial feelings, and that the federal party,'
the only one which before opposed the gov
ernment, has now repented, and through" tlio
voice of its leaders confesses itself humbled.
The Porto Rico Herald, commenting upon
these statements by Mr. Allen, Bays: '
"To "the first assertions we will answer:
"1st. That Porto Rico is a happy islandIn
which the people re -dying of starvation, and
from which, in order not to die, hundreds of fam
ilies are emigrating to Cuba, to Ecuador, to Santo
Domingo arid the Hawaiian islands.
'2nd. That Porto Rico has no public debt
now and has never had one; and this 4s a serious
evil, for, being ahle to do so, she does not utilize
her credit to increase her monetary circulation and
give an impulse to her agriculture.
, "3rd.-That Porto Rico covers her expenses
with her taxes because these are levied without,
any consideration whatever, as if it were a ques
tion of laying waste another's cornfields, or rather
the cornfields of an enemy, whose ruin is of no '
consequence to anyone.
"4th.4 That M'r. Allen has warm partisans
among the republicans, who, thanks to his direct
and Unjust assistance, have acquired in the coun
try a fictitious preponderance, which they would
never have acquired through the votes of the
pfcople.
"5th. That the federal party changed its policy
of opposition, softening It weakening it, and car
rying 'it to the utmost extreme of mildness, be
cause its leader considered that no other conduct
was possible, to avoia the ferocious attacks of
which the federals were made the victims.
"And at this point we will stop. It is absolute
ly necessary to determine precisely what value and
what meaning are to be attached to the attitude of
r.ny hody which it adopts through force, through
the pressure of events, because it can resist no
longer the systematic revenge of which its help
less and defenceless members are the objects.
From the time when the two federal representa
tives withdrew from the executive council, the gov
ernor had only one purpose to destroy the fed
eral party, since it was difficult to reduce it to a
servile respect for the acts of injustice committed
by the administration.
"To attain this end no means were stopped at." '
The Herald then proceeds to itemize its
complaint. It prints a long liBt of injuries it
claims the people of Porto Hicohave been sub
jected to at the hands of the authorities. The
Herald's reply, to ,Mr. Allen is, entitled "Satis
fied, No; Subdued, Yes,"
It is .very .- evident that the American- people
have hot yet learned one-half . the truth con
cerning our -dealing witlr "our hew posses
sions.
w
Dr. Lambert Defends Jefferson.
On another page will be found a strong de
fence of Jeffersonian doctrines by Rev. L. A.
Lambert.
Father J. ft. Sheehan of Pocantico Hills,
New York, wrote a letter to the Freeman's
Journal, criticising Jefferson and the Declara
tion of Independence. In the course of the
letter he said, "The equality of men is a crea
tion of our minds; outside of our minds it does
not exist either on earth, in Heaven or in hell.
Jefferson' preamble contains the principles of
anarchy, the principles of the Reign of Terror;
it has never been taken seriously by Americans,
not even by those who signed the Declaration
of Independence, for whilst they Bpoko of
man's equality they held their fellow men as
slaves, but nevertheless these principles are at
work, at the bottom of all social discontent
and disorder."
Dr. Lambert, the able and scholarly editor
of the Freeman's Journal, replies in a lengthy
article which is published in full by the Irish
World. The extract given in this issue dis
cubscs the meaning of the word "equal" as
used in the Declaration of Independence and
effectively disposes, of Father Shechan's criti
cism. He also shows by numerous quotations
that the doctrine that governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed
is 'not .anew one. His argument is a valuable
contribution to anti-imperialistic literature.
t i v
w
Desecration of the Flag.
The attempt of the Job ton authorities to
suppress the Irish World for publishing a pic
ture of the flag with a caustic criticism of the
Supreme Court decision has scrvo'd at least
one useful purpose it has Bhown that nearly
all the papers, Republican as well as Demo
cratic, resent any interference with the free
' dom of the press. The World did not vio
lateany law and if its acthad constituted a vio
lation of the law, the law ought to be repealed
at once. Some of the Republicans who object
to a caricature of the flag endorse the policy
of imperialism which entirely changes the
character and meaning of our ilag. They are
actually desecrating the flag themselves while
they express great solicitude lest others8hould
show it disrespect.
Bingen on the Rhine.
lis Mrs. Norton.
A soldier or the Legion, lay dying in Algiers,
There was lack of woman's nursing, there was
dearth of woman's tears.
But a comrade stood heside him, while his life
blood ebbed away
And bent with pitying glances, to hear what ho
might say.
The dying soldier faltered, as took that comrade's
hand,
And he said: "I never more shall see my own,
my native land.
Take a message and a token to some distant friends
of mine,
For I wis born at Bingen, at Bingen on the
. Rhine."
"Tell my brothers and companions, when they
meet and crowd around
To hear my mournful story, In the pleasant vine
yard ground,
That we fought the battle bravely, and when tho
day was done,
Full many a corpse lay ghastly pale, beneath he
setting sun,
And 'mid the dead and dying, were some grown
old in wars, , ,
The death wound on their gailant breasts, the last
of many scars,
But some were young, and suddenly beheld lire's
morn decline,
And one had come from Bingen, fair Bingen oir
the Rhine."
"Tell my mother that her other sons shall com
fort her old age,
For I was aye a truant bird, that thought his
home a cage;
For my father was a soldier, and even as a child,
My heart leaped forth to hear him tell of struggles
fierce and wild,
And when In died, and left us to divide his scanty
hoard, s
I let them take whate'er they would, but kept my
father's sword,
And with boyish love, I hung it where the brieht
light used to shine,
Gn the cottage wall at Bingen, calm Bingen on
the Rhine." . -
"Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with
weeping head,
When the troops are marching home 'again with
gay and. gallant tread,
But to look upon them proudly with calm and
steadfast eye,
For her brother was a soldier, too, and not afraid'
to die.
And if. a comrade seeks her love, I ask her in my.
name,
To listen to him kindly without regret or shame,
And to hang the old sword in ite place (my1.
' father's sword and mine) . .
For the honor of old Bingen dear Bingen on the
Rhine."
His voice -grew faint and hoarser, his grasp was
childish weak,
His eyes .put on a dying look, he' sighed and
ceased to speak.
His comrade bent to lift him, hut the spark of life
was fled,
A soldier of the Legion, in a foreign land was
dead.
And the soft moon rose up -slowly, and clamly Bho'
looked down,
On the red sands of the battle field with bloody
corpses strewn.
Tea, calmly, on that dreadful scene, her pale light
seemed to shine,
At It shone on distant Bingen, fair Bingen on th
Rhine.