Following British Example

Although Secretary Root, of the War Department, has temporarily side-tracked the opium business in the Philippines in order to get the people to quit thinking about it, it undoubtedly is the intention of the American administration to establish an opium monopoly in those islands. When it does it will receive a rake-off amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. This sort of monopoly should work wonders in the archipelago. The merits of opium as a Christianizing and civilizing agency are well established. Perhaps the government obtained valuable pointers from Downing street in regard to the advantages of an opium monopoly.

The British have done a lucrative and flourishing business in opium ever since they introduced it in China. Considering the splendid effects which the dope has produced in the Celestial regions, Taft's Government has every reason to be exuberantly optimistic about the consequences to follow the setting up of an opium monopoly in the Philippine Islands. The dope should prove more efficacious than Bibles and guns.