A Roman correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, who seems thoroughly
informed, states that the failure of the American mission about the Philippines was due to a struggle within the Vatican. One party among the Cardinals urges that America with its vast resources can now be conciliated; but another, to which the Jesuits incline, maintains that American Catholics, with Archbishop Ireland at their head, constitute a danger to the Church, and must be reduced to obedience. As they favoured, and indeed suggested, President Roosevelt's policy in the Philippines, the opportunity has been taken, in spite of the reluctance of the Pope, to give them a decided snub. The Pope might not have yielded but that the American Commissioners persisted in ignoring his claim to the "Temporal Power," which he considers essential to the freedom of his' Chair. Americans, naturally, do not see why the Bishop of Rome, whatever his ecclesiastical supremacy in his Church, should also be a Sovereign. It should be noted that the headship of the Propaganda vacant by the death of Cardinal Ledochowski has been bestowed on Cardinal Gotti, who is a friar, and supposed to be devoted to the party which will concede nothing.
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