History for ready reference, Volume 7 (part 6 of 11)
MOHAMMID RESCHAD EFFENDI: Made Sultan of Turkey as Mohammid V.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
MOHONK (LAKE) PEACE CONFERENCE.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1909.
MOISSAN, H.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
MOLTKE, COUNT KUNO VON: His Libel Suit against Maximilien Harden.
See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1907-1908.
MOMMSEN, THEODOR.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
MONASTIR: Beginnings of the Turkish Revolution.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).
MONETA, ERNESTO T.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
MONEY. See (in this Volume) Finance and
MONO-RAIL SYSTEM.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION: RAILWAYS.
MONOPOLIES.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL.
MONROE DOCTRINE: Interpreted relatively to German Claims and Complaints against Venezuela. Its Recognition by Germany.
See (in this Volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1901, and UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1903.
MONROE DOCTRINE: Impliedly recognized by the Hague Tribunal.
See (in this Volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1902-1904.
MONROE DOCTRINE: In the case of San Domingo.
See (in this Volume) SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1904-1905.
MONROE DOCTRINE: Stated as an All-America Doctrine by Secretary Root, at the Third International Conference of American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro, in 1906.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
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MONROE PALACE, The.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.
MONTAGUE, A. J.: Delegate to Third International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
MONTENEGRO.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
MONTES, I.: President of Bolivia.
See (in this Volume) ACRE DISPUTES.
MONT PELÉE, Volcanic explosion of.
See (in this Volume) VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS: WEST INDIES.
MONTT, Pedro: President of Chile.
See (in this Volume) CHILE: A. D. 1906.
MOODY, William H.: Secretary of the Navy, Attorney-General and Justice of the Supreme Court.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905, and 1905-1909.
MOOR, F. R.: Premier of Natal. At the Imperial Conference of 1907.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
MORALES, President Carlos F.
See (in this Volume) SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1904-1907.
MORENGA, Chief of Hereros.
See (in this Volume) AFRICA: GERMAN COLONIES.
MORET Y PRENDERGAST: Premier of Spain.
See (in this Volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1907-1909.
MORGAN, J. Pierpont: His Intervention in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902.
See (in this Volume) labor organization: united states: A. D. 1902-1903.
MORGAN, J. Pierpont: His organization of the International Mercantile Marine Company.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: INTERNATIONAL.
MORGAN, J. Pierpont: Enlarged Control of Banking Interests.
See (in this Volume) FINANCE AND TRADE: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909-1910.
MORLEY, John, Viscount: Secretary of State for India.
See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
MORLEY, John, Viscount: On the Indian Councils Bill.
See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1908-1909.
MOROCCO (Maghreb el-Aksa): The Name.
Maroc or Morocco, the name given by Europeans to the empire of the Moorish Sultan as a whole, is not so applied by the natives of the country. According to them, the Maroc or country of Marrakech, the Marruecos of the Spaniards, is only one of three States submissive to the authority of the Sultan-Shereef. At the north the kingdom of Fez, at the southwest the oasis of Tafilet, make up his real empire. Beyond these, vast territories occupied by numerous independent tribes, stretch over the space that is marked on our maps with the name Morocco. Its inhabitants have no common name for it as a whole. Their country, indicated in a general manner, with no precise delimitation, is the Maghreb el-Aksa,—that is to say, "The Extreme West."
_Élisée Reclus, Nouvelle Geographic Universelle, Volume 11, page 653._
MOROCCO: A. D. 1896-1906. The Creeping of the French Algerian Boundary into Moroccan Territory. A Justification of the Encroachment.
"Something has happened during the two weeks preceding the Conference at Algeciras [see EUROPE: A. D. 1904-1906], which may or may not be brought to the attention of the international diplomats. France from the start has refused to submit her doings along the Algerian frontier to the discussion of the conference. That concerns herself and Morocco alone. What has been happening would in any case put the conference in face of an accomplished fact. Some time ago M. Jonnart, Governor-General of Algiers, was informed that emissaries from Fez were notifying the frontier tribes, whose submission to France dates only from the last few years, that Germany would help the Sultan very shortly to force the French to evacuate their tribal territories. … M. Jonnart at once set out on a long and ceremonious visit to the tribes along the extreme southern frontier. He was accompanied by General Lyautey, the ‘pacificating’ general, who has been M. Jaurès’ bugbear in this Moroccan affair. The Governor-General returned to Algiers Friday last, just in time to have his news ready for the conference. He has reason to be satisfied. Except for a vague idea that the Moroccan territory along the Algerian frontier is a ‘hled-es-siba’—a country where the Sultan has difficulty in collecting his taxes—the foreign press has not kept pace with what has been going on for the last ten years. In one word, during that time France has brought under her domination a stretch of territory of some thousands of square miles. It is true that this territory is sparsely settled by wilfully independent tribes, who so far alternately aided in the Algerian harvests and raided the French outposts. This situation quite justifies the action of the French troops, which has consisted in throwing forward the unbroken line of outposts that enclose and keep in order the French dominion, and not in any military conquest of volatile tribes. M. Jaurès always fell foul of the latter policy, which he ascribed to the military; but it would be as useless as it is absurd. What General Lyautey has been doing all these years, without Germany or any other friend of the Sultan giving sign of life, is not only reasonable: it is better—it has proved effective. And M. Jonnart’s tour has secured the formal submission of these tribes whose territory geographers have all along made a part of Tafilalt--the southeasternmost of the four ancient kingdoms which, together, make up the empire of Morocco. The boundary between Morocco and French territory in Algiers has never been settled since the original treaty of 1845. That drew a line from the coast southward about a hundred miles to Teniet-es-Sassi, four degrees of longitude west from Paris, and then stopped. Whatever was to the south—then a No Man’s Land, so far as France was concerned—was to be divided amicably along as natural a line as possible, leaving the east to France as a sphere of influence (the word had not yet been invented). During these sixty years the frontier line has remained about the same on the maps. But France has steadily prolonged her settled domination southward, gaining over a Mohammedan population by serving their material interests without offence to their religion. The railway now reaches Beni Ounif, only a short distance from Fighig, whose Amel is among those notified that Morocco with German help will soon send the French over the desert and far away. At Beni Ounif, besides the Grand Hotel for tourists, there are extensive counting houses for the trade of all the Hinterland, with an appropriate banking system, and everything to draw the Moroccan tribes. There is no doubt that this territory has always been nominally a part of Morocco. … And now M. Jonnart has visited officially the great Zaouia, or religious centre of Kenadsa, still farther to the west."
_Paris Special Correspondence New York Evening Post, February 3, 1906._
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MOROCCO: A. D. 1903. State of Affairs in the Moorish Sultanate. Abd el Aziz, the young Sultan. His expensive tastes. His enjoyment of the Playthings of Civilization and Science.
"Regarded as a Moorish ruler and leader, the late Sultan, Mulai Hassan, was a strong man, almost, perhaps, a great man. The loss of Morocco is that apparently she cannot produce his like in the present generation. She was richer a few years ago; and that is part of her decadence. Mulai Hassan had a companion of his right hand: Ba Hamed, the Grand Wazeer. In them Morocco could boast the possession of two strong men; crude, narrow of vision, even brutal and merciless, if judged by European standards, yet genuinely strong men. The greater of them died, and his subordinate successfully hid the fact (though the Court was journeying at the time) from all Morocco, masquerading as one in close attendance upon a Sultan whose corpse, as a fact, was tied in its litter, until city walls were reached, preparations made, and the succession of the youth Abd el Aziz assured. Be it remembered that Ba Hamed, the survivor, was a strong man in his own right. Young Abd el Aziz [who succeeded his father in 1894] was docile perforce, and Ba Hamed ruled, without pity, with greed, and quite unhampered by what Europe calls honour or justice. …
"Rather more than two years ago [1901], when already the country was perturbed by news of the French advance upon and occupation of Igli, the Moorish town which was regarded as the depot and junction via which the caravan traffic of the desert filtered through Morocco to the coast; at this critical juncture, in the thick of conflicting intrigues, poisonings, and official treachery, Ba Hamed, the greatly feared, greatly hated, and rigidly obeyed Wazeer, died at Marrakish, leaving many scheming heirs-presumptive to his office, but no single successor to the mantle of his authority, the inherent masterfulness of his personality.
"Still youthful Abd el Aziz IV. stretched forth both hands and personally took up the fallen reins of government with a great flourish of trumpets and display of energy. … Optimistic Europeans, naturally gratified by the active good sense with which Abd el Aziz checked his Filali tribesmen’s turbulent resentment of contact with the French in Igli and its oasis, freely predicted a new lease of life for the Moorish Empire. They credited the new broom with powers which, in view of its origin and environment, had been little short of miraculous. And they omitted reflection regarding the hand which moved the new broom. This was a power behind the Parasol, a latent intelligence, not wholly Moorish, capricious, feminine, subtle, unstable, and somewhat vitiated from long repression in an unwholesome atmosphere. The late Mulai Hassan’s Circassian wife, young Abd el Aziz’s mother, Lalla R’kia, had also found a dangerous emancipation in the death of Ba Hamed. …
"Casually observant Nazarenes saw rich, cruel officials swept from their high estate by wholesale, and predicted the birth of probity at Court. Notorious gainers by oppression were loaded with chains in Kasbah dungeons; the young Sultan’s brother, the One-Eyed, whom cautious Ba Hamed had kept secure in Tetuan prison, was established on parole at Mcquinez, and ‘Here’s positive purity of administration!’ cried the surface-reading hopeful in Christian-ridden Tangier.
"Of a sudden, all movement ceased. The young Sultan was lost sight of—behind the curtain. … It is not given to us to know anything of pale Lalla R’kia’s attitude during this breathing space. … (Lalla R’kia died last year.)
"Speaking metaphorically, his Shareefian Majesty Abd el Aziz reappeared on the arm of a commercial agent, a French Israelite, with a genius for the ‘placing’ of imported commodities. Allah’s Chosen had been initiated into the select manias of Europe, and become addicted to golfing, the use of the camera, the bicycle, and other less pretty pastimes from the West. …
"Commercial agents continued to press upon the young Sultan the latest and most expensive of electrical and other toys, and those far-seeing gentlemen, the newspaper correspondents, bade Europe take note of the remarkable enlightenment and progressive wisdom of the ruler of Morocco, as evidenced by his interest in motor cars and Broadwood pianos. And the friends of these optimistic gentry criticised the present writer as a croaker and a bird of ill-omen when he published in The Fortnightly Review for July, 1901, the following extract from a letter sent him by a Moorish friend:
"‘To sum all up, my friend, I grieve because I find the affairs of my native land in parlous order, demanding as never before in the history of Morocco the guidance of a strong, clear mind, a veritable Sultan. That my country’s affairs most urgently need. They have a governing power composed of half a dozen corrupt creatures, of a corrupt, short-sighted, cruel, and desperately greedy Wazeer, whose rightful Lord is occupied exclusively in—Bah! We have spoken of those whose graves will be defiled, and of the trumpery gauds from Paris bazaars. And this, while the turbulent Sus is aflame, the far south-east a mine charged by French aggression, waiting only the match of knowledge of our Lord’s indifference; the country between Tafilalt and Fas is openly given over to brigandage and anarchy, and even Al Ksar, Arzila, and the Gharb, Tangiers outskirts, are full of unrest and disorder, crimes and indifference to crimes.’"
_A. J. Dawson, Morocco, the Moors, and the Powers (Fortnightly Review, February, 1903)._
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"I have not seen the Sultan face to face, but I have conversed with nearly all the leading Europeans who have been with him either at Marrakesh or Fez, and from what they have told me I have been forced to conclude that Mulai Abd-el-Aziz is a charming, kindly, headstrong man, suffering badly from youth, who delights in reforms for the sake of their novelty and lacks the brain power that distinguished his father, Mulai el Hassan, and his grandfather, Mulai Mohammed. While he stayed in his southern capital he was comparatively free from the attacks of commercial attaches and other rogues, whose designs upon his treasury should have been obvious, though he was guilty of many extravagances, including displays of fireworks that made his envoy to England speak slightingly of the special display arranged in his honour at the Crystal Palace. In Fez the agents surrounded him like summer flies. He has twelve motor cars and no roads to ride them over; he paid between three and four thousand pounds for a yacht, sixty feet long, that was to be used on the Sebu river, which is no more than thirty feet wide; in spite of the Koran’s prohibition, he has purchased a crown at a price I am afraid to name. He has put some of his soldiers into European uniforms and boots, only to find that they run away from Bu Hamara as readily as they did when dressed in native garments. He has developed an enthusiasm for photography—I have seen some of his work—and in addition to cameras with cases of pure gold, he has one apartment of his palace loaded from floor to ceiling with dark plates, and he was persuaded to order ten thousand francs’ worth of printing paper. He has a menagerie in the grounds of the palace at Fez, and on a day when it was reported that the lion sent from England had quarrelled with and killed the lion sent from Berlin, one of the European visitors to the court suggested to him that a contest between the victorious lion and the Bengal tiger would afford good sport. ‘No,’ said Abd-el-Aziz, ‘the lion cost me three thousand pounds!’ All Europe knows that the Sultan is poor."
_S. L. Bensusan, Britain, France, and the Moorish Empire (Contemporary Review, November, 1903)._
MOROCCO: A. D. 1903-1904. Appearance of the Mahdi, Bu Hamara, as a leader of Insurrection.
In 1903 there appeared in Morocco one of the prophetic pretenders called Mahdis, of whom so many have arisen in the Moslem world, to take advantage of occasions of religious excitement, and to lead a rising of wild tribes. This Moorish Mahdi, known as Bu Hamara, was helped to a leadership of insurrection by an incident which greatly stirred the religious temper of tribes wherever known. An English missionary was killed at Fez, and the murderer, flying to a sanctuary of special sanctity, was pursued thereto by the Sultan’s guards, and slain within the sacred bounds. Against this sacrilege, committed to satisfy hated Christians, Bu Hamara roused the country, preaching extermination of all Christians within it. The insecure throne of Abd el Aziz was made more insecure, English influence in Morocco was shaken, the French frontiers east and south were endangered, and Bu Hamara’s revolt appears to have had much to do with the producing of all that followed,—in the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904, the Algeciras Conference, the dethronement of Abd el Aziz, etc.
MOROCCO: A. D. 1904. Declarations of England and France concerning Morocco in the Agreements of the Entente of 1904. Explanatory Despatch.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).
MOROCCO: A. D. 1904-1909. Exploits of El Raisuli. The Kidnapping and Ransoming of Messrs. Perdicaris and Varley. The Capture and Ransom of Kaid Sir Harry MacLean. Present Respectability of Raisuli as a Moroccan Governor.
One of the chiefs in that mountainous strip of northern Morocco, nearly parallel to the Mediterranean, which is called "The Riff," has played a startlingly troublesome part in recent Moroccan history. His name is Mulai Ahmed ben Mohammed, but he is commonly designated in all news-mentions of his doings by the title he bears,—El Raisuli, chieftain of a clan. The first exploit which made this title familiar to all the world was in May, 1904, when he kidnapped, from their residence near Tangier, a naturalized American and an Englishman, Mr. Ion Perdicaris and his stepson, Mr. Varley, carrying them into the mountains and holding them captive until he had extorted a ransom of $70,000, despite the utmost efforts of France, Great Britain, and the United States, with the aid of the Sultan, to obtain their release on less humiliating terms. This success failed, however, to satisfy the audacious brigand, and in July, 1907, he laid hands on another important hostage, this time a British officer, Sir Harry MacLean, who had been long in the service of the Sultan of Morocco, as military adviser, with the title of Kaid. Kaid MacLean ventured to visit the brigand in his mountain retreat for some negotiation, and was detained in pawn. Raisuli held this notable captive until the following February, and released him then on receipt of $25,000, cash down, with a pledge of $75,000 more at the end of three years, if he gave no fresh trouble within that time. Meanwhile, he and twenty-eight of his family were to be under British protection. Before this transaction was closed a new Sultan had won the Moroccan throne (as will be explained below) and he thought it wiser to employ the energies of Raisuli officially than to try to maintain a contest of authority with so unmanageable a subject. Accordingly, in February, 1909, Raisuli was appointed governor of twelve tribes in Northern Morocco, and is now one of the most respectable representatives of government in the last of the Barbary States.
MOROCCO: A. D. 1905-1906. German hostility to the Anglo-French Agreement. The Kaiser’s speech at Tangier. The International Conference at Algeciras. The resulting Act.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.
MOROCCO: A. D. 1907-1909. Mob-murder of Dr. Mauchamp at Morocco City. Conflict with Tribesmen at Casablanca. Bombardment by French and Spanish Ships. Campaign against the Tribes. Dethronement of Sultan Abd el Aziz by his brother Mulai Hafid. Fresh friction between France and Germany. Its Pacific Settlement by Arbitration at The Hague.
Organization of police forces for the service which France and Spain were commissioned by the Powers at the Algeciras Conference to perform in Morocco was retarded, necessarily, by the prevailing anarchy in the Empire, and fresh causes of disorder occurred before the means for prompt treatment of them were prepared. In the spring of 1907 a French citizen, Dr. Mauchamp, at Marrakesh (Morocco City), undertook to install at his house the apparatus for wireless telegraphy. His Moorish neighbors suspected some diabolical intention, when he raised the necessary mast on his house, and proceeded with fanatic enterprise to kill the man of too much science and to demolish the house. The French Government demanded punishment of the outrage, with indemnity to the family of the victim, and put a force in motion, under General Liautey, which occupied the city of Ujda, not far from the Algerian frontier, to hold it until the demands of justice were complied with. None of the Powers signatory to the Algeciras Conference raised objections to this proceeding.
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A more serious intervention was occasioned in July, 1907, when the French took control of the collection of customs at the ports, as directed by the Algeciras agreement. At Casablanca, on the Atlantic coast, the tribesmen attacked a number of European laborers, employed there in quarries, and killed eight. All the foreign residents of the region were in danger, and French and Spanish war-ships were hurried to the scene. The local Moorish official confessed his inability to protect the threatened foreigners, who had taken refuge in the French, Spanish, and British consulates, with hostile tribes swarming around the town, and he asked for help. Marines were landed on the 4th of August and were attacked. "A sanguinary battle followed between the Arabs and the European soldiery, the French cruiser opening fire and shelling the Moorish batteries. Scenes of great disorder and violence followed upon the firing, a raging mob of Moors attacking and pillaging the entire city. The Jews particularly were massacred by hundreds. Another French warship soon appeared upon the scene, accompanied by a Spanish cruiser, and troops were landed to the number of 4000. General Drude, the French commander, was chosen to head the allied troops, Spanish and French, and reinforcements were hurried from France." A number of encounters followed. "The most serious were the attacks, on August 28, and September 2, upon Casablanca and its outskirts, both resulting from a reconnaissance in force by the French Algerian irregular cavalry and the famous Foreign Legion. Seven or eight thousand Moors attacked the Europeans, sweeping down from the hills with all the ferocity and courage traditional in their race. By the aid of machine guns and the batteries from their warships the French succeeded in repelling the tribesmen with considerable loss of life."
Justification of the bombardment of Casablanca was somewhat questioned at the time, and with good reason if the following account of the circumstances, by an eye-witness, a Scotch missionary, are to be believed. His statement was published in the Glasgow Herald, and is given here as summarized in The Outlook, of September 21, 1907.
"This missionary, Dr. Kerr, has lived many years in the country, and he asserts that in many ways the French residents and officials have continually irritated the Moors and provoked them to anger. Dr. Kerr states that no further outbreaks occurred after the massacre of French and Spanish workmen on July 30, and that when the bombardment began on August 1 there was absolutely no immediate provocation for it. He denounces it as contrary to the usages of civilized war and as ‘wicked and unjustifiable,’ adding that the British merchants in Casablanca will probably sue the French Government for damages caused to their property by what they consider an unnecessary bombardment. The punishment of the Moors concerned in the murder of the eight workmen, says Dr. Kerr, no one could object to, but instead of this the punishment took the form of an unprovoked massacre of persons many of whom were entirely innocent. The details of the affair as he gives them are certainly deplorable, and if his assertion that the landing force of the French fired the first shot is true, the succeeding episodes described are unpardonable. One of these episodes may be quoted here:
"‘I saw two young women walking as quickly as they could. … Suddenly a volley was fired into them by the Spanish marines. They fell, but picked themselves up, and took refuge in a ledge of a wall. After waiting a few minutes they made to return, when another volley was fired at them, and they fell again. … One of these brave daughters of Ishmael refused to flee without taking with her the "khaik," or outer garment, which fell from her [thus leaving her face uncovered, contrary to Moslem law]. She turned back, picked up her garment, and fled as fast as she could, bleeding all over.’"
In the fall of 1907 General Drude was succeeded in the command at Casablanca by General d’Amade, who prosecuted a more vigorous campaign against the obstinately hostile tribes of the region, and made but slow progress in reducing them to submission.
Meantime a rising against Sultan Abd el Aziz, in favor of one of his brothers, Mulai Hafid, had been started and was making rapid headway. Mulai Hafid was proclaimed Sultan at Marrakesh on the 25th of August, 1907, and on the 4th of the following January his supporters had gained possession of Fez and proclaimed him there. Abd el Aziz kept the field against his rival until August, 1908, when he had practically no following left, and the direction of Government was assumed formally by Mulai Hafid. His authority had soon become established so fully that the German Government addressed a note to the Powers proposing an immediate recognition of it. France and Spain objected, insisting that Mulai Hafid must confirm existing treaties, accept responsibility for the debts of the previous regime, give pledges of indemnity for the Casablanca outbreak, disavow the "Holy War" which he had countenanced and which had given him his success, and take effective measures for securing the safety of foreigners in the Empire. Their objection was approved generally; Germany assented to the requirements proposed, and it was not until Mulai Hafid had satisfied them that he obtained recognition as the legitimate sovereign of Morocco. This was given in the following note, handed to his representative on the 5th of January, 1909, by the doyen of the Diplomatic Body at Tangier:
"The signatory Governments of the Act of Algeciras have received the letter which Mulai Hafid sent to them through the agency of the Diplomatic Body at Tangier in reply to their communiqué of November 18. The Governments represented in Morocco received with satisfaction this reply, in which they saw a proof that the explanations which they formulated in their Note of November 18, in the interest of the relations of friendship and confidence which they desire to maintain with the sovereign authority of the Shereefian Empire, are in accordance with the views of Mulai Hafid. In consequence the signatory Powers of the Act of Algeciras have decided to recognize his Majesty Mulai Hafid as legitimate Sultan of Morocco, and have charged the doyen of the Diplomatic Body at Tangier to notify their recognition of him to the representatives of his Majesty in that town."
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Before this settlement was reached an incident had occurred at Casablanca on the 15th of September, 1908, which irritated the chronic sensitiveness of feeling between Germany and France. Five or six soldiers of the Foreign Legion in French service at Casablanca, including three Germans, deserted, and the German Consulate attempted to protect the Germans when their arrest was undertaken by French gendarmes. There was some struggle, but the arrest was accomplished, and the demand of the Consul for the release of the three Germans was refused. Germany demanded satisfaction for the treatment of her Consul. France maintained that satisfaction was due to herself for the interference of the Consul with her military rights; but offered to submit the affair to the Hague Tribunal for arbitration. Germany was willing to arbitrate the questions involved if France would first express regret for the official conduct on her side of the matter. France in reply suggested expressions of regret by both parties; and on these terms, supposedly vindicating national dignity on each side, the case went to The Hague. The Court of Arbitration held its first meeting on the 1st of May, 1909, and announced its judgment on the 22d of the same month. As summarized in an English despatch from The Hague, the opinion of the Court was as follows:
"The Court considered that in this case there was a conflict of jurisdiction between the Consular and the military authority of two foreign Powers, the one Power exercising full Consular authority over her subjects, who happened to be soldiers in the Foreign Legion of the other Power. The latter Power had effected the military occupation of a certain territory, and in consequence exercised full authority over that territory. As it was impossible to decide this conflict by any absolute ruling, which might indicate in a general way the precedence of either jurisdiction, the Court considered that the question must be determined by the particular circumstances of any given case.
"In this case the jurisdiction of the occupying force had precedence because the persons in question did not leave the territory occupied by that force. The Court decided that the Secretary of the German Consulate at Casablanca wrongly and through a grave and manifest error tried to embark in a German steamer deserters of the French Foreign Legion, who were not of German nationality. The German Consul and the other officials of the Consulate were not responsible for that fact; the Consul, however, in signing the safe conduct, which was laid before him, committed an unintentional error.
"The German Consulate in the circumstances obtaining at that time was not entitled to grant its protection even to deserters of German nationality; the legal error, however, which was committed in this connexion by the officials of the Consulate could not be reckoned either as an intentional or as an unintentional error.
"The French military authorities were wrong in not respecting, as far as possible, the de facto protection exercised over those deserters in the name of the German Consulate. The circumstances did not justify either menace by revolver on the part of the French soldiers, or the blows given to the Moroccan soldier of the Consulate."
This proved satisfactory to all concerned, and the Casablanca incident was happily closed.
A more important adjustment of matters between Germany and France, aiming at a general clearing of causes of friction in their relations, so far as concerned Morocco, had preceded the Casablanca arbitration by nearly three months. All Europe had been surprised and delighted on the 9th of February, 1909, by the announcement of a Franco-German Agreement, just concluded, in the following words:
"The Government of the French Republic and the German Imperial Government, actuated by an equal desire to facilitate the execution of the Act of Algeciras, have agreed to define the significance which they attach to its clauses with a view to avoiding any cause of misunderstanding between them in the future.
"Consequently, the Government of the French Republic, wholly attached to the maintenance of the integrity and of the independence of the Shereefian Empire, decided to safeguard economic equality there, and accordingly not to impede German commercial and industrial interests, and the German Imperial Government, pursuing only economic interests in Morocco, recognizing at the same time that the special political interests of France are closely bound up in that country with the consolidation of order and of internal peace, and resolved not to impede those interests, declare that they will not prosecute or encourage any measure calculated to create in their favour or in favour of any Power whatsoever an economic privilege, and that they will endeavour to associate their nationals in business for which these may be able to obtain contracts (l’entreprise)."
This most important agreement resulted from negotiations that were said to have been opened by a suggestion from the German Foreign Secretary, Baron von Schön. Its importance to Europe was hardly exaggerated by the Paris Matin, when it said:
"It is a great and happy event, the importance of which need not be emphasized. … This close of the Moroccan quarrel may, if such be the desire, mark a date of capital importance in the history of Europe. In fact, as Prince Bülow has said and repeated, Morocco was only a pretext. If therefore it has become an object of agreement, it is not merely because it has been recognized that the local problem was not insoluble, but also because the general situation has changed or because the ‘opportunity’ no longer exists."
MOROCCO: A. D. 1908. A German Statement of the Moroccan Policy of Germany.
See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1908.
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MOROCCO: A. D. 1909. Discontent with the new Sultan. His struggle with Pretenders. Spanish War with the Tribes of the Riff. Success of Mulai Hafid against his Rivals. French operations in and around the Moorish Empire. French Mauretanie. French Demands. The Mannesmann Mining Concession.
France and Spain were now strengthened in the execution of their Algeciras commission, by a harmonious backing in Europe, and the native Government in Morocco had acquired, seemingly, a strong and capable man at its head. Sultan Mulai Hafid made that impression very positively on a correspondent of the London Times, to whom he gave audience on the 13th of February, and who wrote of him that day: "It is quite evident that Mulai Hafid is a man of large and independent ideas, with a leaning toward democracy. In appearance and manner he is most attractive, and both his looks and his conversation betoken a character at once strong and of quick decision. Everything he says is very much to the point, and his remarks are often touched with humour and even cynicism. His openmindedness and cordiality extend almost to breaches of the rigorous Moorish etiquette."
Five days later the same correspondent wrote again: "The Fez Moors had hoped at Mulai Hafid’s accession for material though indefinite advantages, for they felt that the new Sultan, who owed his throne not to inheritance but to election, would be an instrument in their own hands, and that they would be able to exert their influence for their own purely selfish ends. But they had counted without Mulai Hafid. Once on the throne, he consolidated, at all events locally, his power, and the Fez population, who during the previous reign had undoubtedly held and used considerable influence, found themselves in the hands of a firm, masterful man, who did not hesitate to tax them to an extent formerly unknown, and gave them clearly to understand that he would brook no interference in matters of policy. The effect was instantaneous. The Fezzis began openly to regret the slack régime of Mulai Abdul Aziz, and Mulai Hafid became unpopular, as any monarch who really governs in Morocco must always be.
"But if Mulai Hafid was unpopular, he inspired at the same time a wholesome fear. His indifference to public opinion, his breaches of the absurd prescriptions of Moorish etiquette, his personal supervision of every detail, and the publicity in which he lives show not only remarkable courage, but also remarkable knowledge of the people whom he governs. … Yet he has but a small army, and he is financially hampered. He receives Europeans publicly, and grants audiences in the presence of the whole Court, often before the whole army. He invites his guests to be seated, and chats in a natural and sympathetic manner on all kinds of subjects. But it is quite apparent that his entourage is in terror of him. Never have the viziers had less freedom or fewer opportunities for plunder. The Government is Mulai Hafid, and Mulai Hafid alone, and yet Mulai Hafid is a democrat. He desires to put down—and has already largely done so—the fanatical and always mischievous influence of the great Shereefian families. He works from morning till night, and keeps every one else working. His negotiations with the French Minister are progressing in a way that astonishes every one. … Mulai Hafid obtained the throne by preaching a holy war against Europeans. He will maintain himself upon the throne by a policy of reform which will win for him the assistance of France against his own fanatical people."
But subsequent events did not realize the confident expectations of this writer. A month later he reported:
"Shereef Sid Mohammed Kittani, a descendant of a former dynasty and chief of an important reactionary religious sect, who was freely spoken of as possible Sultan before Mulai Hafid’s proclamation, left Fez secretly yesterday. Apparently he had previously succeeded in dispatching his family and movable property from time to time to some spot in the Berber tribelands without exciting suspicion. His flight has caused what can only be described as consternation. His influence is very great, and he is known to lay claim to the Throne."
Within another month this pretender had defeated Mulai Hafid’s forces in a sharp engagement and had an army encamped about eighteen miles east of Fez. French officers were reported to be doing notable work in organizing and equipping the Sultan’s troops. On the 8th of May there was alarming news that Mulai el Kebir, another brother of Mulai Hafid and of the ex-Sultan, Abd el Aziz, "who was accompanying the Southern Kaids to Fez, had left their camp secretly by night and had fled into the Zimmour country," and "many believe that he will take advantage of the Sultan’s unpopularity to raise a rebellion." Two days later "nothing is known of the whereabouts of Mulai el Kebir," and "the Sultan does not conceal his anxiety. Mulai-el-Kebir was on the best terms with his Majesty, but the Sultan’s severe treatment of other members of his family no doubt filled him with fear."
From Paris, on the 26th of May, it was telegraphed that the Sultan’s Minister of Finance, El Mokri, then visiting Paris on a financial mission, "observes that Mulai Hafid’s authority is more solidly established at present than might at first sight appear to be the case. At no time has any Sultan been recognized over a much wider area of Moroccan territory. In the Beled el Makhzen his sway is uncontested. The kaids of the Haouz and the southern Atlas have always been his partisans. El Mokri has no fear of the pretenders."
There were now two pretenders in the field: for Mulai Kebir had been heard from, "beyond Mekinez," where he had raised the standard of revolt. And Bu Hamara was on the stage of civil war again, east of Fez, with an army which "is camped at less than four hours distance from the capital," and which is "actively pillaging the only tribe that remains loyal to Mulai Hafid in that region." Troops sent against him a few days later were said to have been badly beaten. The Sultan was reported to be in quarrel with his viziers; was ill,—invisible in the palace,—and the situation did not seem to look well for him.
Then, suddenly, all news reports from Morocco became silent as to Mulai Hafid and his rivals, and gave entire attention to a serious outbreak of warfare in that northeastern corner of the empire, known as the Riff, where Spain has had a long recognized "sphere of influence," and where she had undertaken the working of valuable iron mines near Melilla. Hostilities were begun in July by an attack of tribesmen on the miners, killing several, and the Spanish troops sent to the scene met disaster, being insufficient in force. In the end, so extensive a rising of Moorish tribesmen had occurred that Spain was obliged to put a large army into the field against them and organize a costly campaign. It was not until late in September that much success attended the Spanish arms, and not until late in November that the campaign was regarded as closed, the Spanish forces having secured positions which, when fortified, were expected to give them a firm footing in the region, and having brought most of the tribes to terms.
{430}
Meantime, the war had been bitterly unpopular among large classes in Spain, and the feeling had been manifested in destructive rioting at Barcelona and elsewhere.
See (in this Volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1907-1909.
What France had been doing meanwhile, in and around Morocco, has been told by a writer in The Atlantic Monthly:
"During the year [May, 1908, to May, 1909] the French army under General d’Amade, has continued occupying Casablanca, and the fertile Chaouïa (Shawia) region. It has forced peace, law, and order, and open markets on the inhabitants, to their great advantage. Agriculture has revived; and German trade itself has run up two million francs. Even so the ‘economic interests’ of Germany in Morocco are scant indeed compared with those of France and England; they are perhaps less than those of Spain—and yet they have long threatened the peace of Europe. … Meanwhile the interior of Morocco has been chiefly occupied in the unmaking and making of Sultans. Toward the German Emperor these fighting Moors have now a feeling much like that of the Transvaal Boers when the Kruger telegram failed to lead to eventualities. … The real success of France is along the entire land-frontier of Morocco. For its whole length this is now also the frontier of French territory,--Algiers to the east, the Sahara with its line of French posts to the south, and so on to the Atlantic Ocean through the new French civil territory of ‘Mauritanie.’ Here foreign geography will still be incomplete for some time; but it is childish to dismiss these territorial stretches as so many acres of sand. The empire which France might have had in Canada was, in like manner, denounced by Voltaire as acres of snow.
"France absolutely refused to allow any question concerning this land-frontier to be brought up at the Conference of Algeciras. It is no business of Europe; it concerns the two neighbors, France and Morocco, only.
"General Lyautey has had its more than eight hundred miles well under control. … Of late years France has successfully occupied territory farther and farther to the south, pushing forward the railway, and throwing out a long line of military posts through the Sahara. People who amuse themselves marking obscure changes of conquest on the map, may safely stick their pins one full degree farther west all along this part of Algiers, beginning where Spain at Melilla blocks the way along the Mediterranean coast."
_Stoddard Dewey, The Year in France (Atlantic Monthly, August, 1909)._
When newspaper attention reverted to Mulai Hafid a great improvement was found in his affairs. Seemingly, the pretenders to his throne had disappeared, and Bu Hamara, the rebel, now styled El Roghi, was decisively routed by troops of the Sultan on the 16th of August, captured a few days later, and taken to Fez in an iron cage. On the 13th of September it was announced that he had been executed the day before. Later, this was contradicted, and there seems to be no certainty as to his fate.
The Moroccan Government was now being sharply pressed by France with demands over which negotiation had proceeded hitherto very slowly. M. Pichon, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, made a statement on the subject to the Chamber of Deputies on the 23d of November, to the following effect: "On August 14 the representatives of the Sultan received a note summing up the conditions imposed by the French Government. These conditions were the evacuation of the Shawia region on condition of the organization by the Maghzen of a force; the evacuation of Casablanca when the French Government felt convinced that the organization of the Shawia police had become sufficiently effective; the organization of the police service on the Algero-Moroccan frontier; the payment of the Maghzen’s debts and the reimbursement of the costs of the French military expeditions. The Maghzen owed at present £3,200,000, more than £400,000 of which was due to private creditors. The French Government would allow the Moroccan Government to raise a loan in France in order to facilitate the payment of its debts. … The French conditions had been acknowledged to be very moderate by all who had had cognisance of them. Germany had recently informed the Maghzen that it was high time to contract a loan. M. Pichon dwelt on the loyalty with which the Franco-German Agreement had been observed by the Berlin Government. Nevertheless the adhesion of the Moroccan Government had not yet been obtained. That Government had admitted the principle of the loan of 80,000,000f. and that of the indemnity of 70,000,000f. for the French military expedition, but there was disagreement still in regard to the guarantees required for the realization of that operation. Mulai Hafid, moreover, demanded the immediate evacuation of the Shawia and of Casablanca. On November 6 M. Pichon informed the Sultan’s envoys that it was futile to continue the pourparlers if France did not obtain a satisfactory reply. It would not be without danger for the Moroccan Government to persevere in its attitude."
A little later it was made known that the Sultan had yielded to the terms prescribed by the French Government and was to obtain the loan which would help toward the payment of his debts.
By this time a new Morocco question had sprung out of a sweeping mining concession which certain German exploiters, the Brothers Mannesmann, had obtained from Sultan Mulai Hafid, in distinct violation of the agreements at Algeciras which the Sultan had been a party to. The Mannesmann mining rights under this concession, if allowed, would swallow up all others, and large interests, French, Spanish, German, English, Italian, and Dutch, were arrayed against their claims. The backing of the Mannesmanns in Germany, however, by commercial and newspaper influence, appears to have been very powerful, and it has not been easy for the Government to resist being drawn into alliance with it. But the attitude of the Imperial Government appears to have been strictly loyal to the Algeciras agreements, and it has gone no farther for the Mannesmanns and their partisans than to negotiate with the other Powers concerned for a submission of the question of legality in the Mannesmann concession to a Court of Arbitration. That will probably be the mode of settling it.
{431}
MOROS, The.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901-1902.
MORRIS, SIR EDWARD: Premier of Newfoundland.
See (in this Volume) NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
MORTON, PAUL: Secretary of the Navy.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.
MORTON, PAUL: President of Equitable Life Assurance Society.
See (in this Volume) INSURANCE, LIFE.
MOSCOW, Risings and Disturbances in.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA.
MOSLEM LEAGUE.
See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1907 (December); also, 1907-1909.
MOSQUITO TERRITORY, THE.
See (in this Volume) CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1905.
MOTIENLING.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MOVING PICTURE SHOWS.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION.
MUIJTEHEDS: The higher Persian Priests.
See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
MUKDEN: A. D. 1903. Opened to Foreign Trade.
See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1903 (MAY-OCTOBER).
MUKDEN: Battle of.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (SEPTEMBER-MARCH).
MULAI AHMED BEN MOHAMMED, EL RAISULI.
See (in this Volume) MOROCCO: A. D. 1904-1909.
MULAI HAFID: Sultan of Morocco by Dethronement of his Brother.
See (in this Volume) MOROCCO: A. D. 1907-1909, and 1909.
MULAI HASSAN, Late Sultan of Morocco.
See (in this Volume) MOROCCO: A. D. 1903.
MULLAH, ABDULLA MUHAMMED.
See (in this Volume) AFRICA: SOMALILAND.
MULLAS: The common Persian Priests.
See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
MUNICIPAL COMMITTEES IN INDIA.
See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1907-1909.
----------MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Start--------
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: American Democracy’s most Serious Problem. Present Interest in it. Hopeful Movements.
Americans have long been forced to acknowledge that political democracy in the United States makes its worst showing in the government of municipalities; and those who give any searching thought to the matter have little dispute over reasons for the fact. It connects very plainly with another fact, namely, that municipal politics, as a political interest distinct and apart from the interests of government in Nation and State, has had no growth in the country as yet. Up to the time of the formation of the national union, the few cities of America had a quite positive political life of their own, which might have carried them into conditions very different from what they have realized since, if it had not undergone the absorption that it did in the politics of a national government. The national political parties formed then on exciting issues, sectional, constitutional, and economic, caught all political feeling into their embrace, not instantly, but gradually, and surely, and appropriated the whole mechanism of political organization to themselves. Cities are the natural centers of such mechanism, and the great parties of Federal politics were able easily to impose on them a domination which left no free working of public opinion on the immediate concerns of the cities themselves. All political action was drawn into the mill which turns out Presidents, Congresses, Tariffs, Bank Acts, etc., and the mere by-product of Mayors, Aldermen, and City Ordinances which it drops incidentally into the cities, receives almost no stamp of quality or design from the local mind.
Until the wheels of local government are loosened in some way from the clutch of the great party machines, and can work independently, under motive forces of their own, to produce the satisfaction of local needs, interests, and aims, there will be little success in undertakings of municipal reform. How to accomplish that political ungearing is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the problems now occupying the minds of the American people. Fortunately it is occupying their minds. Within the last few years they have given more thought to this subject than it ever received from them before; and it has been bold thought, as well as profoundly earnest. It has not been afraid of hospitality to new ideas and new experiences, but is giving them fair hearings and fair tests. The present attitude of the whole country in this matter is of the happiest hopefulness, and every day brightens the prospect of a better future for municipal government in America.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: BOSTON: A. D. 1909. A Plan of Government chosen by popular vote.
In connection with the election of November 2, 1909, the citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, had two plans of City Government submitted to their vote, and the charter under which the City will be ruled and its business conducted after the beginning of February, 1910, was determined by the choice between these plans which a majority expressed at the polls. One of the plans emanated from an official body, called the Finance Commission, which had been appointed to investigate bad conditions in the City Government, and whose investigations had given rise to the demand for a radical reform. This plan had the approval, moreover, of a citizens Committee of One Hundred, which had given much attention to the subject; but it was exceedingly unsatisfactory to the party politicians, whose personal interests were flagrantly disregarded in its scheme. These drafted a form of charter which fitted their own purposes, and the two plans were submitted to the Legislature in the winter of 1909. That body escaped the responsibility of a decision between them by referring both to the voters of Boston. The charter wanted by the party managers was designated as "Plan No. 1"; that of the Finance Commission and the Committee of One Hundred as "Plan No. 2." {432} A strenuous campaign of education was fought for some weeks before election day by the supporters of Plan No. 2, who seem to have included practically all single-minded seekers of good government, and an equally active campaign of wire-pulling was carried on by the champions of Plan No. 1. The education was successful in convincing 39,175 voters that Plan 2 should be preferred, while 35,306 were persuaded to the contrary, and about 34,000 remained so indifferent or undecided that they gave the question no vote. But public considerations prevailed over party motives and influences by 3869 votes, which is a highly important fact.
The charter thus adopted for Boston differs in many features from what has acquired the name of "the Des Moines plan," but is fundamentally akin to it in principle and aim. Its prime purpose is to divorce local politics from national politics, freeing municipal elections from the baneful control of parties which have nothing rightly to do with the city’s affairs. Its secondary object is to concentrate official responsibility in a moderated way. It subjects the mayor of Boston, at the middle of his term, to a reconsideration of the vote which elected him (in the nature of the Swiss "recall"), but it does not introduce the initiative and referendum. The operation of the new charter under its provisions was outlined as follows by the Boston Herald on the day following its adoption:
"By the acceptance of plan 2, party and all other designations will be eliminated from the ballots for the municipal elections, which will be held on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in January of each year. The coming city election will be held on January 11.
"Candidates for mayor must be nominated by petition of not less than 5000 registered Boston voters. The candidate who receives the highest vote at the city election will hold office for four years, unless recalled at the end of two years. The salary will be $10,000 a year.
"At the state election in the second year of the mayor’s term the ballots will contain the question: ‘Shall there be an election for mayor at the next municipal election?’ And this will be answered by ‘Yes,’ or ‘No.’ If a majority of the registered voters vote ‘Yes’ an election for mayor will be held at the following city election.
"Whether recalled or not, the mayor holding office will have his name on the ballot at the city election unless in writing he requests the election commissioners not to place his name on the ballot. The mayor then elected will hold office for four years, subject to recall at the end of his second year.
"The city council will consist of nine members, all elected at large. The salary will be $1500 each. In the election on January 11 the voters may vote for nine candidates, and the nine receiving the highest votes will be declared elected. The three highest will have three-year terms, the three next highest will serve for two years and the next three for one year each. Each year thereafter three candidates-at-large will be elected, and the voters may vote for three. All members of the city council will be elected at large, and there will be no ward members of the body. By the abolition of party designations no primary elections or caucuses for municipal offices will be held.
"All candidates for mayor, city council and school board must be nominated by papers of not less than 5000 registered voters. No voter may sign more than one paper for mayor, not more than nine for council for the first election and for three candidates thereafter, and not more than two papers for the school board when there are two members to be elected.
"If a candidate for any of the offices decides to withdraw from the contest before the election, vacancies in nominations for any cause may be filled by a committee of not less than five persons authorized in the nomination papers to fill such vacancies.
"Members of the street commission, formerly elected at large, will be appointed by the mayor, subject to approval by the civil service commission, but without restriction as to their political affiliation. All department heads will be appointed by the mayor, subject to approval by the civil service commission.
"The new municipal year will begin on the first Monday in February, when the mayor and city council will be inducted into office."
The election, held at the appointed time, January 11, 1910, was managed so badly as to divide the vote of the reforming element between three candidates, against one, the former Mayor, Fitzgerald, whose scandalous administration had afforded the prime incentive to the reform movement, and thus giving opportunity for his election by a small plurality. A committee of the reform leaders had chosen for their candidate Mr. James J. Storrow, President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and strove to concentrate the opposition to Fitzgerald upon him; but the Mayor in office, who had secured renomination, persisted in keeping the field, and won the petty number of 1816 votes, which a little more than sufficed to elect Fitzgerald. The vote given the latter was 47,142, against 45,757 to Mr. Storrow, and 613 to the fourth candidate, Taylor. A recount of the vote was secured, but made no substantial change.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: California: Charter-framing Power given to Cities.
"All cities in California except the very smallest are permitted to frame their own charters, which become effective upon ratification by the legislature. The cities are quick to avail themselves of this privilege, with the result that almost every possible experiment in municipal organization may be found on trial somewhere in California. That the cities are progressive is shown by the fact that within the past decade every city of any size in the State has remodeled its organization either by a new charter or by far-reaching amendments. A high standard of efficient city organization has been set by the recent charter of the city of Berkeley [adopted 1909], which furnishes a very perfect example of the ‘commission’ plan. Elections are freed from the influence of national parties, and the possibility of a final choice in the direct primary is sufficient to bring out the entire vote of the city.
"The popular initiative, the referendum, and the recall are now generally established in all the larger cities of the State, but outside of San Francisco and Los Angeles without sufficient use to test their value for good government. In San Francisco the popular initiative has been used more frequently for bad measures than for good. In Los Angeles the spectacular removal of the mayor in 1909 will doubtless be regarded as a justification of the method of recall."
_Frederick H. Clark, Head of History Department, Lowell High School, San Francisco, California._
{433}
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Chicago: The Municipal Voters’ League.
In 1896 there was thought in Chicago of attempting to organize a strictly Municipal Party for action in municipal politics alone, and a conference of citizens appointed a committee to deal with the scheme. The committee decided this project to be impracticable, but its deliberations resulted in the creation of a Municipal Voters’ League, acting through a non-partisan committee of nine, whose function was to scrutinize all candidacies and nominations for the City Common Council, and afford information concerning them to voters of all parties who desired the election of honest and capable men. A permanent office force was employed, and thorough investigations made as to the record and character of every nominee for the Council. The results of these investigations were published, with recommendations for or against the respective candidates. The league brought pressure to bear, in the first place, to prevent the nomination of objectionable candidates, and then exerted its influence to defeat such candidates at the polls.
This has been done with such effect in election after election as to produce a remarkable change in the character of the Council. Similar agencies have been brought into action in a number of cities within the few last years, with equally good results.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Chicago’s Struggles for a Better Charter.
A body known as the "Charter Convention," made up of delegates appointed by or representing the Governor of the State, the State Assembly, and the several branches and departments of the City Government, was organized in December, 1905, and labored at the framing of a new City Charter until the early part of 1907, when the product of its labors was submitted to the Legislature of Illinois. Some of the main features of the charter were these:
Consolidation in the municipal government of Chicago of the power vested in the board of education, township, park, and other local governments within the city;
submission of propositions to popular vote;
aldermen to be elected once in four years;
the raising of adequate revenue by the issue of bonds and by other means;
the power to own, maintain, and operate all public utilities in the city, including intramural, railroads, subways and tunnels, and telephone, telegraph, gas, electric lighting, heating, refrigerating and power plants;
the parks to be under the management of a city department of parks;
the public-school system to be a department of the city government and under the control of a board of education of fifteen members appointed by the mayor for terms of three years;
the public library to be managed by a board of nine directors appointed by the mayor for terms of six years.
As it went to the Legislature this draft charter represented much compromising of divergent opinions, and, probably, was not really satisfactory to anybody. The Legislature made it less so by amendments, and when it went to the people of Chicago, in September, 1907, for their verdict on it at the polls, they rejected it by 121,935 votes against 59,786.
Early in 1908 the Charter Convention was reassembled and revised its former work, cutting the requisite legislation up into seven distinct bills, with a view to securing better chances of success for some reforms, if the whole could not be won; but the entire lot was killed in the Legislature.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: The Galveston or Des Moines Plan. Its Features. Extent of its Present Trial.
Curiously enough, the present trend of opinion on the question, "What structure of municipal government will lend itself best to the reforms that it needs?" is in a direction that was given to it by accident, about ten years ago. Perhaps nothing short of a great catastrophe, like that of hurricane and flood, which wrecked the city of Galveston, on the 8th of September, 1900, could have broken the conventional pattern on which our cities were constructed so long. At all events, it was that catastrophe which started a crack in the antique pattern first. In improvising for the needs of a desperate emergency, the wrecked community had sense and energy enough to follow the plain instincts of business, and put itself, as a municipal corporation, under the kind of administration that any other corporation would construct. All the folly of localized interests in this and that part of the town, requiring to be "represented" by ward aldermen, went out of their heads. Their common calamity compelled them to understand that particular interests within the narrow bounds of a civic commonwealth are either included in or superseded by the common interests of the whole. They acted accordingly; dismissed their locally representative aldermen, dropped their old corps of administrative functionaries, and put the undivided management of their affairs into the hands of five commissioners, with a "mayor-president" at the head.
It would not seem to have needed much political wisdom to predict the success of this experiment; but the quick effect of its teaching was more than there could be reason to expect. Houston, the near neighbor-city, was prompt to receive and apply the lesson, but bettering it somewhat. For Houston employed the whole time of its five business managers, paying them fair salaries for the service; whereas Galveston contented itself with less service and paid less.
The two examples then presented, of a municipal corporation conducting its business in the plain mode and by the plain methods of the commercial corporations, drew increasing attention, in all parts of the country, west and east. Boston was soon discussing the Galveston experiment with deep interest, and at a meeting of the highly influential Economic Club of that city, in January, 1907, President Eliot, of Harvard University, declared that he saw in it the dawning of a brighter day. "We have got down very low," he said, "in regard to our municipal governments, and we have got dark days here now, but we can see a light breaking, and one of the lights broke in Galveston. I have personally been interested in the enormous improvement in just one branch of municipal business in our country within the last ten years—that is, school boards and school administrations. There has been a real wave of reform sweeping over the country, in the great cities particularly, with regard to school boards, and every bit of that experience goes the way I am describing it. {434} It is all in the direction of a few men not paid, originally determining the general policy of the schools of the city and trusting entirely to experts for executive action. Our whole experience in Massachusetts with the commissions we have had, tends the same way. If we ask what have been the best performances of the governmental functions in Massachusetts for the last twenty-five years, we have but one answer to make, namely, the work of our commissions, water, sewage, railroads, gas and electric lighting, public libraries where owned by the city, hospitals where owned by the city. You can think of numerous instances in Massachusetts where admirable work has been done by commissions acting on the principles which I have described. I say the day is dawning. What it needs, that the light may grow and get to full noon, is that the people, the great body of the people, should be convinced that municipal government means nothing but good, intelligent conduct of business."
Meantime, in the West, action was already following study of the Galveston plan of city government, and the four states of Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota passed acts in 1907 to enable the adoption of it by any city so desiring. One of the first to exercise the privilege was the city of Des Moines, Iowa, certain of whose progressive young business men had been studying the municipal problem of late, and who had determined to bring some system of local government into operation that would make their city what it ought to be. On the basis of the Galveston plan they worked out the details of a charter which has become the model of its species most widely accepted, so that more has been heard latterly of "the Des Moines Charter" than of "the Galveston Plan." What is called the Des Moines charter, however, was no special enactment for that city, but a legislative frame of municipal government which any city in Iowa having not less than 25,000 inhabitants may fit itself into.
It confides the whole management of strictly local affairs in the city to four councilmen and a mayor, all elected by the voters of the city at large. It divides their administration into five departments, namely: The department of Public Affairs; The department of Accounts and Finances; The department of Public Safety; The department of Streets and Public Improvements; The department of Parks and Public Property.
The mayor, by virtue of his office, is chairman of the council. He is also superintendent of the department of public affairs, and exercises a general supervision over the whole of the city administration.
The council thus composed, with the mayor at its head, is invested with all executive, legislative and judicial authority, formerly exercised by perhaps twelve different officers, and twelve different boards. It appoints the city attorney, the city treasurer, the city auditor, the city engineer; and, in fact, every other appointive official. It makes every appropriation, and conducts the entire affairs of the city. "At the first meeting of this council, immediately following the election of its members, the work of the city is assigned to its most appropriate department; to one of these five departments. Each of the members of the council is also named as superintendent of a particular department; the theory of the law being that the man who is best qualified, by reason of his experience and training, will be placed at the head of that department where his training and experience will be of most value. As superintendent of this department, he is held strictly accountable for all matters which come within his jurisdiction; he is also charged with responsibility for all that is done or not done in his particular department." In the nomination and election of this important council, no party names are permitted to be connected with the candidates, in any manner whatsoever. Each candidate for the office becomes so by the filing of a petition with the city clerk, bearing the signatures of not less than twenty-five citizens, who make affidavit to the effect that the man is of good moral character, of age, and qualified to fill the office. "Ten days before the election is held, the city clerk takes the petitions which have been filed and prepares the ballot. He does this by arranging the names of candidates in alphabetical order. The candidates for mayor are arranged under the heading ‘Mayor’; the candidates for councilmen are also arranged in alphabetical order under the heading ‘Councilmen.’ There is no party designation, and because of this alphabetical arrangement there can be no favorite position on the ballot. The result is, that the candidate comes before the whole people of the city on his own merit, and on his own record."
As a citizen of Des Moines has described the proceeding, "after the primary has been held the general election is called, and in order to secure names for the ballot in the general election, we take the two candidates who have received the highest number of votes for mayor at the primary, and place their names on the ballot. In order to secure the councilmen, we take the eight candidates for councilmen who have received the highest number of votes at the primary and place their names on the regular election ballot. This gives us two opportunities to weed out undesirable men. In the first place, we have the choice among all candidates at the primary. At the election, we have the choice of one of two men for mayor, and the choice of four out of eight candidates for councilmen."
A most important provision of this Iowa charter for cities has to do with the civil service. "At the first meeting of the city council, after the election of these five commissioners or five councilmen--they are not commissioners—they appoint a civil service board composed of three members, and this civil service board, in whose charge is placed the work of preparing a civil service examination, is appointed for a period of six years. Thus they are removed from any influence that might be exerted by the councilmen, who are only elected for two years. This civil service commission prepares once a year an examination for all employees of the city, with the exception of unskilled labor and the heads of the departments, such as city attorney, city treasurer, city assessor, etc. (all of whom are appointed by a majority vote of the council). Having passed the examination successfully, the applicant is placed in a position, and so long as his work is satisfactory and he remains competent, he cannot be removed. He may be suspended, but he cannot be removed, and he is entitled to a hearing before the civil service board. This provision at once takes away all chance of a machine being built up through patronage."
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This is a sufficient description of the official frame of government that has been instituted at Des Moines and other cities of Iowa under a general law of that State. The law goes farther, and connects with this frame or system a supplementary provision of methods for giving the whole body of the people an immediate agency in municipal legislation and a power to recall their election of any elected official during his term. By the use of the Swiss process of "initiative," a sufficient number of voters (25 per cent. of the whole) can propose measures which the Council must either adopt or else submit to the general vote, and can suspend measures adopted by the council until the general body of citizens has voted for or against them. These features, of the initiative, the referendum and the recall, are no more essential attachments to the Des Moines or Iowa form of municipal organization than to any other. To what extent the States and cities making trial of the general features of the Galveston scheme of municipal organization have followed Iowa in making the Swiss additions to it, information at present is wanting. Apparently the Des Moines pattern is having wide acceptance.
In the fall of 1909 the towns in the United States which had adopted the so-called Des Moines plan of government were reported to number 12 in Texas, 7 in Kansas, 6 in Iowa, 3 in Massachusetts, 3 in California, 2 in Colorado, 2 in Missouri, 2 in Tennessee, 1 in West Virginia, 1 in Mississippi, 1 in North Dakota, 1 in South Dakota, being 42 in all. Movements looking to the introduction of the same system were on foot in other cities. At the November election a draft of charter on the lines of the Des Moines plan was submitted to popular vote in the city of Buffalo, New York, and approved by 8848 electors, out of a total of 11,346 who expressed themselves on the subject. The total vote, however, was only about one-sixth of that cast for candidates at the election. On the strength of the opinion expressed, the Legislature is now being asked to enact the charter. Should it do so, the form of government will have trial in the largest city that has yet introduced it.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: London, England: Defeat of the Progressives in the County and Borough Elections.
See (in this Volume) LONDON: A. D. 1907-1909.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Los Angeles, California: Experiments and Experiences.
Since 1900, Los Angeles, California, has been going through some interesting experiences, due to a series of charter amendments. The former charter of the city had been of the common pattern, organizing the municipal government under a mayor and a board of aldermen elected by wards. The amendments of recent years have created a Board of Public Works, with large powers in the management of municipal work; have changed the Board of Education from a body of nine members elected by wards to a membership of seven chosen from the city at large; have provided an elaborate system of municipal civil service regulation; and finally have provided for a complete system of popular initiative and referendum in municipal legislation, and for recall of elective officers. Popular initiative in legislation is made possible upon the demand by petition of 15 per cent of the voters, estimated upon the total vote for mayor at the preceding municipal election; referendum in ordinary legislation is required upon a petition of 7 per cent of the voters; a recall election must be ordered upon the demand of 25 per cent of the voters concerned in the filling of the office. The official whom the petition seeks to remove is made a candidate for reflection without other nomination, unless in writing he notifies the city clerk that he is not a candidate.
The recall methods, provided for in charter amendments of 1903, have been put into actual service; first, in 1906, when a councilman was replaced by vote of the Ward, and again in February, 1909, when a recall election was ordered for the office of mayor. The proceedings in this case attracted widespread attention and interest throughout the country. They failed, however, to afford a perfect test of recall methods for the reason that after the election had been ordered but before the date had arrived the mayor in office resigned, thus surrendering without a struggle to the opponents who had sought his removal.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Michigan: Home Rule for Cities.
The lately revised Constitution of Michigan authorizes cities and villages to frame, adopt and amend their charters, and to pass laws and ordinances in regard to their municipal concerns. Under this improved Constitution, the Michigan Legislature of 1909 adopted the necessary legislation for the formulation of action and for the limitation of taxes and debts. The following, from the New York Evening Post, is a summary of the more important provisions of the Act: "Charters of new cities will be framed by a commission of nine electors chosen by popular vote. Revised charters of existing cities will be framed, after a vote of the electors in favor of revision (submitted by a two-thirds vote of the local legislative body or on an initiatory petition of twenty per cent. of the total vote cast for Mayor), by an elected commission of one member from each ward and three electors at large. Candidates for charter commissioners are to be placed on the ballot without party affiliations designated. Charter amendments may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of the local legislative body, or by an initiatory petition of twenty per cent. of the vote for Mayor.
"Every charter and charter amendment, before submission to the electors, must be submitted to the Governor of the State, but if disapproved by him, and passed on reconsideration by a two-thirds vote of the Charter Commission or local legislative body, shall be submitted to the electors. Copies of charters and charter amendments approved by the electors of the city shall be certified to the secretary of state, and shall thereupon become a law.
"The law names certain things which each city charter shall provide, and imposes certain restrictions on the powers of cities. There must be an elected Mayor and a body vested with legislative power; the clerk, treasurer, and assessors, and other officers may be elected or appointed. This permits the establishment of a commission system, or of a Mayor and council with distinct powers. Provision must be made for the levy, collection, and return of State, county, and school taxes, for annual appropriations for municipal purposes, and for a system of accounts.
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"Provision may be made for municipal taxes and for borrowing money up to prescribed limits, for the regulation of trades, occupations, and amusements, for the purchase of franchises, for a plan of streets within three miles beyond the city limits, 'for a system of civil service,' for the referendum, and the following omnibus clause: for the exercise of all municipal powers in the management and control of municipal property and in the administration of the municipal government, whether such powers be expressly enumerated or not; for any act to advance the interests of the city, the good government and prosperity of the municipality and its inhabitants, and through its regularly constituted authority, to pass all laws and ordinances relating to its municipal concerns, subject to the Constitution and general laws of the State.
"Limitations include the following: Existing limits to the tax rate and borrowing powers to remain until a change is authorized by vote of the electors, with a maximum limit of 2 per cent. of the assessed valuation for the tax rate and 8 per cent. for loans; but, as authorized by the Constitution, bonds may be issued beyond this limit for public utilities, when secured only upon the property and revenues of the utility. A sinking fund must be provided for bonds. A charter or charter amendment may not be submitted oftener than once in two years. The salary of public officials may not be changed after election or appointment. Certain municipal property may only be sold or vacated when approved by three-fifths of the electors voting thereon.
"A separate act was passed for villages. This follows the main features of the law for cities, but is briefer."
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: New York City: A. D. 1901-1909. The Municipal Elections of 1901, 1903, 1905, and 1909.
See (in this Volume) NEW YORK CITY.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: New York City: A. D. 1905-1909. The Working of the Bureau of Municipal Research.
The Bureau of Municipal Research, instituted in New York City by an organization of citizens in 1905, has proved to be as effective an agency as has ever been employed for the straightening of crookedness and the correcting of negligence in the conduct of municipal affairs. Its working is described fully in an article which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of October, 1908, by the head of the Bureau, Dr. William H. Allen, under the title, "A National Fund for Efficient Democracy." What the writer aims to do, and does most effectively, is, first, to show how inefficient our democracy is in its practical working, how demoralizing that inefficiency is, how feebly education and religion are struggling against its demoralizations, so long as they do not work to make government efficient; and then he unfolds the remedy indicated in results obtained already from the public enlightenment—the citizen education—which the Bureau of Municipal Research is developing in New York. His final purpose is to plead for the great national fund that would establish a central foundation for the extending and organizing of similar educational work throughout the country at large.
The simple object of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research has been to make and to keep the public acquainted with the working of things in its government; to make and keep it attentive to the facts of efficiency or inefficiency in that working, which proves to be the kind of political education that bears the most practical fruits. The aim of the bureau, says Dr. Allen, has been "educative, not detective. Infinitely more interested in pointing out what is needed than what is wrong, it realizes that the great problem of democracy is not the control of the officer, but the education of the citizen. It began, not by laying down principles of government or discussing men, but by studying the needs of the community and its official acts. It would educate democracy in facts about democracy’s acts and methods, democracy’s need, and democracy’s opportunity." Something of the results achieved is set forth in the following passage:
"Three years, $150,000, and scientific method, have accomplished results surpassing all dreams of those who outlined its programme. So convincing are these results that onlookers who said three years ago, ‘The tiger will never change its stripes,’ are now saying, ‘You could hardly do this in cities where the tiger marks are less obvious.’ Although many phases of municipal administration have not yet been studied, there is hardly an obstacle to efficiency and honesty that has not been encountered and overcome by light. The real-estate bureau that eluded all graft charges is being reorganized to prevent either graft or one hundred per cent. profits for land sold the city at private sale. While its own staff, consisting of three investigators in 1907 and 40 in the summer of 1908, can of itself do no inconsiderable educational work, the bureau gauges its effectiveness, not by what its own staff accomplishes, but by what the city’s staff of 70,000, and through them the city’s population of 4,000,000, are enabled to accomplish because of its educational effort.
"Methods that manufacture corruption and inefficiency, and that for 50 years defied political reform, are giving way to methods by which 70,000 employees must tell the truth about what they do when they do it, about what they spend when they spend it, in clear, legible form. … Tammany officials, when interested, make excellent collaborators. The commissioners of accounts, for 30 years, through reform and Tammany administrations alike, a whitewashing body that condoned and glossed over wasteful and corrupt acts, have become, as a direct result of the bureau’s work, a great educational agency."
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: New York City: A. D. 1909. Proposed New Charter, not acted on in the Legislature.
A Commission appointed for the purpose by Governor Hughes, after long and careful study of the subject of a new charter for Greater New York, reported in March, 1909, submitting a recommended draft, which was submitted to the Legislature then in session, but obtained no action from that body before its adjournment. The ruling principle in the work of the Commission had been that of reducing the number of elected administrative officers, of putting into separate hands the power to appropriate and the power to spend money, and of concentrating power and responsibility in a few. {437} As originally organized, the "Greater New York" City is divided into five boroughs. At the head of each borough is a Borough President, who has charge of the streets and the public buildings within the borough. There is also a Board of Estimate and Apportionment, consisting of the Mayor, Comptroller, the President of the Board of Aldermen, and the Borough Presidents. There is also a Board of Aldermen. The Commissioners proposed that the Borough Presidents shall cease to have administrative functions and shall devote their attention exclusively to the great financial work of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment; that the administrative work be given to heads of departments responsible to the Mayor, and to bureaus, some of them under the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and some under the various departments; and that the Board of Aldermen be supplanted by a Council of thirty-nine members to serve without pay; to have enlarged legislative powers, but none connected with the grant franchises, which the Board of Estimate and Apportionment should control. A new Department of Street Control was proposed, to take over all street work, abolishing the Street-Cleaning Department.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Philadelphia: A. D. 1905. A Temporary House Cleaning of the Municipality. Mayor Weaver’s Conversion.
"Philadelphia has reformed. It is the swiftest and most thorough municipal revolution known in American civic annals. Without an election and without primaries, without warning and without preparation, the great deep of small householders,—which is Philadelphia,—moved from below. When the work was over, Mayor Weaver, who led the revolution, had not only changed the heads of the two executive departments, with ten thousand employees, but he was in full control of City Councils; he was recognized as the head of the city Republican party organization; he had forced the city Republican committee to withdraw the local ticket already nominated and await the choice of another ticket by the reform leaders; he had begun criminal prosecution, stopped work on contracts for filtration plants, boulevards, and highways amounting to some twelve million dollars, beginning a searching investigation by a board of expert engineers, and had defeated two grabs, one a contract for seventy-five years in gas and the other a street-car grab of one hundred and ten miles of streets, sought by the two local public-service corporations, the United Gas Improvement Company and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. Both had been successfully passed before this revolution broke, and both were recalled, on the demand of the mayor, by the same councils that had passed them.
"The coherent homogeneous vote of the myriads of small homes which make up Philadelphia has made this sweeping victory possible against great odds. The party majority in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia is the strongest in the country. The city machine is as well organized as Tammany Hall. It holds city, State, and federal patronage. For ten years it has without challenge chosen the executive officers at Harrisburg and Philadelphia and held the Legislature and Councils. The city ring, in a decade of unchecked rule, has issued $40,000,000 of city bonds; let on the filtration plant alone $13,660,000 of contracts; as much more on various public improvements, and had pending work authorized, but not let, costing about $30,000,000. The criminal investigation already made indicates that on the filtration-plant contracts alone the margin of loose profit is from 28 to 30 per cent. In this period the city gas works have been leased for a term ending in 1927, on provisions which yield $2,000,000 a year, twice the expected profit to the lessee, the United Gas Improvement Company. The other public-service corporation, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, has had a free gift of a subway and over two hundred miles of street without payment and without limitation. The combination, under an antiquated law which threw no safeguards about the ballot of a venal vote controlled by machine office-holders of the great corporations, railroad and public-service, and of a corrupt combination of contractors and politicians, seemed omnipotent. By the adroit use of State and city appropriations for private charities and educational institutions, the respectable were placated. The leaders of this organization were also wise enough to meet reforms non-political halfway. The last State legislature passed excellent sanitary legislation, reorganized on sound lines the city schools of Philadelphia, passed efficient child-labor laws, and at many points improved State legislation. Carefully separating political management and elected officers, the leaders of the machine chose judicial candidates usually unexceptionable, and elected as governor of the State and mayor of Philadelphia men honest, dull, highly respected, without stain but pliant.
"In April, so far as Philadelphia was concerned, self-government seemed to have disappeared. Its charter was amended, in the teeth of universal protest, so as to rob future mayors of all powers. Senator Boies Penrose and Insurance Commissioner Israel W. Durham made all nominations, State and city. The former awaits investigation. Durham has been shown to be a silent and secret partner in a contracting firm holding $13,660,000 of contracts, under city ordinances he passed, led by officers he chose, and yielding some 30 per cent. profit. In Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, the corporation pays the machine and the machine aids the corporation. It is like this in other States, but preeminently in that founded by Penn. After a long series of like gifts and franchises, councils voted the Rapid Transit Company one hundred and ten miles of streets, passed a costly boulevard system, and in return for $25,000,000 intended for more contracts proposed to lease the city gas works for seventy-five years, postponing reduction in the price of gas for three-quarters of a century.
"This ran the pliant fingers of the machine into the pockets of every householder who had a gas bill to pay, some two hundred and eighty thousand in number. Suddenly this great mass moved from within. The pulpit of small churches knew it before the press, the little division leaders before the ward managers, and they before the chiefs of the organization. In a week, the city seethed. Children of councilmen came crying from the public schools. No one would play with them. Callous, thick-skinned politicians found their mail, their telephones, and their daily tours one hot rain of protest from their old neighbors. Division leaders reported defection by the avalanche. {438} The small householder, the narrow burgher, comfortable, contented, owning his house, careless over ideals, education, corruption, and venal voter, was aflame over a bigger gas bill. It is the old story of ship money and stamp taxes. No vote was necessary. No primary was needed. The leaders of a political machine are ignorant of much, but they know the voice of the voter in the land. John Weaver, the mayor, chosen by the machine, and its lifelong friend and supporter, had been a fair case lawyer and district attorney. Honest, narrow, clean-lived, of a legal mind, restive at the way he was treated as a mere figurehead, he recognized the civic revolution because he was himself of the class that had risen. He had, moreover, in his day won his division and was a ward leader."
_American Review of Reviews, July, 1905._
The Israel W. Durham referred to above, who was the absolute "boss" of Philadelphia from 1896 to 1905, died on the 28th of June, 1909.
See, also, PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1906.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: A. D. 1909. The old Evil Conditions revived. Defeat of Revolt against them.
The old mastery of the City Government by an all-powerful and shameless political "machine" was recovered at the end of the term of Mayor Weaver, and conditions were soon as rotten as before the momentary and partial cleansing had been performed. In 1909 a hopeful revolt against them was undertaken, under the lead of D. Clarence Gibboney a young lawyer who as secretary of an active "Law and Order Society," had shown inspiring powers of leadership and high qualities of sincerity and resolution. Gibboney had been put forward for District Attorney in 1906 on Democratic and Independent tickets, and had suffered defeat. Now he was brought again to the front, for that office, from which the plunderers of the city could be most advantageously attacked. A William Penn Party had been organized in the interest of reform, and his nomination by this was endorsed by the Democratic organization. A great effort was made to rouse the conscience and the self-respect of the city, to throw off the thraldom of blind partisanship under which it submits to be corrupted and robbed. But the effort failed. Gibboney was rejected by a majority of about 40,000 voters.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Pittsburg: Achievements of a Reforming Mayor.
George W. Guthrie became Mayor of Pittsburg in 1906. "When Mayor Guthrie went into office there was no merit system in Pittsburg; but he soon established an effective one of his own, and at the 1907 session of the Pennsylvania Legislature effectively co-operated with the Pennsylvania Civil Service Reform Association and similar bodies, with Mayor Dimmick, of Scranton, and the business bodies of second-class cities, to secure a law which would permanently establish the merit system in them. He and his colleagues succeeded. A short time ago some one asked the Mayor how many Democrats he had appointed to office. His immediate reply was, 'I haven’t the least idea. The question of party has never entered into the matter.’ …
"The tax levied in February, 1906, before Mayor Guthrie assumed office, was 15 mills. That levied in February, 1907, the first under his administration, was 12½ mills. This year, had it not been for the annexation of Allegheny, the city would have required only 10 or 10½ mills. The Mayor’s first estimate was 11 mills; but the final figures, as made up by the Finance Committee, showed that the lower figure would have been sufficient. When the Mayor entered office, there was a cash deficit of $400,000, caused by the payment of bills left over from the previous administration. He closed his first year with a small surplus, and the second (1907) with a large one. The total tax valuation of the old city of Pittsburg is $599,852,923. Its total bonded indebtedness is $24,956,001, and its net indebtedness (arrived at by deducting bonds in the saving fund) is $16,532,425, or .0275 per cent of the valuation. This highly desirable financial result, however, has not been reached by any false economy. Inadequate salaries have been raised. All the street repairing for 1907 was paid for out of the tax levy, and the work on the filtration plant has been pushed unceasingly. Enough of the filter beds are finished to provide for present needs, and as soon as they are ‘ripened’ and the pumping machinery rearranged the city will have filtered water. …
"For many years, under the old regime, Pittsburg had been free from many of the evils of an open city; but a syndicate of Councilmen and politicians had made immense sums out of the business. They controlled the leases of the houses, which they sublet at exorbitant sums. They also controlled the supplies which were furnished to them. The Mayor issued but one order for the regulation of this district. He made no attempt to solve the entire problem. As the law was plain about the sale of liquor, he declared that that must stop absolutely; and that no house could be run on streets on which there were surface cars. This order proved to be the death-blow of the combination that had previously existed. The politicians, when they heard the order, laughed. They had fooled every other Mayor, and they thought they could fool Guthrie. He would need Councils and must necessarily ‘deal’ with them. But he needed no one, and he ‘dealt’ with no one. He waited six weeks for his warning to be taken, and then he acted. One Saturday night the police drew a net around the district, and over one thousand arrests were made. Then came the final blow that stopped political interference. Under the old system police magistrates had been in the habit of holding fines or delaying sentences, which, under the pressure of political influence, were remitted or suspended. Such money as was paid in was held for a month before being turned over to the city treasury. … Mr. Guthrie established the rule that all fines and jail sentences, once imposed, would have to stand unless revoked by the county courts. Not only have the revenues of the city largely increased by this policy, as we have already seen, but one of the greatest sources of political evil has been removed. Since this policy was inaugurated there has been no political or machine interference in the administration of the law. Incidentally, I may mention that one Councilman went to jail for his complicity with the protection of the social evil.
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"The situation in Pittsburg is so changed and improved that the Secretary of the Civic Voters' League was able to say recently; ‘While we have forced Councils to be good, elected the best Mayor in the country, put in county offices men of ability and honesty, forced the politicians to give us a good civil service measure, I am convinced that our most important victory has been to convince the political leaders and bosses that there is a new era in politics, and that for the future none but the best men can be elected to public office.’"
_Clinton Rogers Woodruff, A Mayor with an Ideal (The Outlook, April 25, 1908)._
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Defeat of the Reforming Mayor in 1909, but no Discouragement of the Reforming Activity of the Voters’ League. Unparalleled Success in convicting Bribed Officials and their Bribers.
Mayor Guthrie, nominated for reëlection in 1909, was defeated by the nominee of a corrupt party "machine"; but this put no check on the efforts of the Voters’ League behind him to hunt down the corrupting influences and agencies which had mastered the city once more. A fortunate accident gave the League a single clue to the hidden labyrinth of rascality, and it sufficed for astounding revelations. It tracked and caught, first, a single ex-Councilman, who had handled large sums of bribe-money, receiving and dividing it among his fellow members of a gang known as the "Big Six." This man, John P. Klein, when he found himself helplessly in the toils, and likely to be the scape-goat for all his confederates and their corrupters, made confessions which uncovered much, if not all, of the bribe-giving and bribe-taking of several past years. Down to the 23d of March, 1910, when the following summary was published, the results coming from this confession had been as follows:
In penitentiary— W. W. Ramsey, ex-president of the German National Bank; William Brand, ex-president of the Common Council; Joseph C. Wasson, ex-Councilman, and H. M. Bolder.
Under sentence to the penitentiary— John F. Klein, ex-Councilman.
Awaiting disposition of their cases— E. H. Jennings, president of the Columbia National Bank, and F. A. Griffin, cashier, who pleaded nolo contendere.
Under indictment— Forty-one Councilmen.
Confessors of bribe-sharing— Twenty Councilmen, former and present, Select and Common.
More confessors awaiting turn— Ten former and present Councilmen.
As this goes to the printers, the bribe-givers, including some of the multi-millionaires of Pittsburg, are being dragged into court.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: St. Louis: A. D. 1900-1940. The Unearthing of Thievery and Corruption by Circuit Attorney Folk. Prosecutions, Confessions, and Convictions.
One of the most notable and effective cleansings of a corrupted municipality that has occurred in the United States was accomplished in St. Louis by Joseph Wingate Folk, using the powers of the office of Circuit Attorney of the City, to which he was fortunately elected in the spring of 1900. That bribery was active among the Aldermen and Councilmen of the two chambers of the municipal legislature, and that unscrupulous men of business were habitually employing it to secure iniquitous franchises and jobs, appears to have been a matter of common belief; but the belief had not roused feeling enough to bring about any change, until the opportunity to act was given to Mr. Folk.
One notoriously suspicious transaction, which consolidated the street railways of the city, was outlawed for all but a single actor in it by the Missouri statute of limitations, which bars criminal proceedings after three years; but the one man had been absent from the State during so large a part of those three years that he could be reached by the law, and the Circuit Attorney turned the search light of a grand jury investigation on his case. This man, R. M. Snyder, of Kansas City, was indicted, arrested, and held for trial under bonds of $50,000. From that beginning Mr. Folk went on to the probing of a more recent franchise grant, and unearthed the fact that two deposits of cash, for sums of $60,000 and $75,000 were boxed in safety deposit vaults, each guarded by duplicate keys held on one side by a corporation agent, and on the other side by agents of the Council and the Aldermanic body respectively, waiting for distribution among the officials who had sold the public franchise for those sums. A rival corporation had, meantime, attacked the legality of the grant, held it up by an injunction, and so kept these corruption funds in suspension between the bribers and the bribed.
By what resolute persistence, what shrewdness, what bold ventures of surmise, Mr. Folk uncovered the cunningly secreted facts, terrified the "boodlers" and the bribers into betraying one another, and fastened their crimes upon them, cannot be told here. Two of the wealthy buyers in the rascally trade, a Mr. Turner and a Mr. Stock, became witnesses for the State against the men whose crime they had bought. The two agents for Aldermen and Councilmen, who held the keys of the deposited bribe, J. K. Murrell and Charles Kratz, fled to Mexico, forfeiting their bail. Three others of the accused, Emil Meysenberg, Julius Lehmann and Harry Faulkner, were tried, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for three and two years. The escape of Murrell and Kratz beyond reach of extradition embarrassed the prosecution of the remaining confederates, who seemed likely to go free for lack of sufficient evidence; but unexpectedly, in September, 1902, Murrell reappeared in St. Louis, saying that he could not endure exile any longer and was ready to bear the penalty of his wrongdoing. On his confessions eleven aldermen were arrested, charged with bribery in two cases and with perjury before the grand jury. Seven others made successful flights.
In the course of the next year another of the refugees from justice returned, supposing his time of danger to have passed. This was Charles F. Kelly, who had been Speaker of the St. Louis House of Delegates and a ready tool of Edward Butler, the St. Louis political "Boss" and legislative broker. Butler had been involved in the prosecutions, and Kelly had fled to avoid giving testimony against him, being paid, as he confessed finally, $50,000 for his retirement into obscure foreign parts. What happened to him later, and what confessions he made were the subject of a brief story in THE OUTLOOK of November 5, 1904, in part as follows:
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"Returning when it was believed that his patron was secure through the operation of the statute of limitations, Kelly was arrested and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary for perjury in his testimony in one of the boodle cases. He appealed to the Supreme Court, and meanwhile was rearrested on the charge of accepting a bribe in another deal. At, this juncture he complained that Butler had deserted him and had advised him to plead guilty. ‘It didn’t look right,’ he said in an interview, ‘that we should take our medicine and that he should go free.’ Therefore he determined to relate his dealings with Butler in the bribery cases. In his statement he says that he has reason to believe that boodling had been in progress in the St. Louis Municipal Assembly for the last twenty-five years. The boodlers did not fear exposure, because they ‘knew that most of the politicians and many of the large financiers of St. Louis’ would be with them. One prosecutor who attempted to bring them to justice was ‘bluffed off.’ When Mr. Folk began his work, there were threats of assassination, and finally a deliberate plot was arranged to ruin the prosecutor’s influence by falsehoods. ‘Prominent financiers’ as well as the boodlers were engaged in this attempt, according to the confession.
"The general scheme of the boodle ‘combine’ is already fairly well known, but Mr. Kelly adds some interesting details. There were nineteen members, and the combine was ‘not along party lines.’ ‘My experience,’ he remarks, ‘has been that boodlers line up according to their interests, and not under party standards.’ The members of the combine held regular meetings, and decided by a majority vote on the prices to be charged for various measures. There was a ‘fixed schedule of prices’ for bills in accordance with the value of the privileges to be given. The combine rarely sold out for less than a thousand dollars, though once ‘some of the boys took five dollars each, but were so ashamed of it they would not speak of it afterwards, because the price was so small.’ The combine was in the habit of selecting one of its members to act as agent in the deals, and only in one or two instances did the representative prove untrustworthy. ‘Among ourselves,’ says this frank boodler, ‘we had a high code of morals, and it was considered extremely dishonest for a member of the combine to accept bribe money without dividing it among his fellows.’ A particularly interesting feature of the confession is the warning which it gives to St. Louis of the danger of a relapse to the old conditions when Mr. Folk’s term as Circuit Attorney shall have expired. Kelly asserts that Butler advised his indicted friends to get continuances until a new Circuit Attorney should be elected, and that he promised them that the prosecutor should be ‘his man.’ ‘What,’ asks Kelly, ‘has been done in St. Louis? Nothing at all. The prosecutor has, after three years’ fighting, whipped us. But it seems to me, such is the condition of public sentiment in St. Louis, that when the new prosecutor, who of course will be Ed Butler’s man, takes charge, boodlers will be in clover again.’ In his opinion the great trouble is that ‘so many of the large corporations of the city are mixed up in boodle one way or another’ that the town is willing to tolerate corruption."
Here, as in all exposed cases, the power to organize "boodle" or "graft" in municipal government is found to have been derived from the "machines" of the national political parties.
The exhibit of character and ability made by Mr. Folk in his extraordinary enforcement of law in St. Louis, to the overthrow of the stronghold of municipal thieves and corruptionists, so commended him to the people of Missouri that they nominated and elected him Governor of the State in 1904, despite the most desperate endeavor of the party organizations to defeat him. In his higher office he continued his work of reform.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1901-1909. The Struggle with Political Corruption.
"Before the enactment of the charter of 1899 the mayoralty in San Francisco had little power, and successive political bosses had ignored it. Instead of this, they aimed to control the municipal Board of Supervisors, which had the awarding of contracts and franchises. The charter of 1899 changed all this, by concentrating vast powers of appointment and removal in the mayoralty, the office being filled by biennial election. The office was ably and honestly administered for the first two years by Honorable Jas. D. Phelan.
"During the latter portion of Phelan’s term there occurred a long and bitter industrial struggle, known as the ‘Teamsters’ Strike,’ in which the sympathy of other labor organizations was deeply stirred. At the request of the employers Mayor Phelan consented to placing the city police upon drays and wagons as guards for non-union drivers. This action aroused violent denunciation on the part of the union labor leaders. It also served as a political object lesson. It was seen that to gain possession of the mayoralty in the interest of union labor would be a great political advantage, especially in a recurrence of industrial strife.
"In the following election (1901) Eugene E. Schmitz, orchestra leader at the Columbia theatre and head of the musicians’ union, the candidate of the union labor party, was elected mayor by 21,776 votes as against 30,365 votes somewhat evenly divided between the Republican and the Democratic candidates. Two years later (1903) Schmitz was reëlected in the same way, and in 1905 he was again successful, this time securing a large majority over the fusion candidate nominated by the Democratic and Republican parties combined. Throughout the whole period Schmitz's chief political manager was Abraham Ruef, a native of San Francisco, well educated, gifted and ambitious, an adroit politician, previously affiliated with the Republican party. In 1904 he was a delegate at large for California in the Republican national convention at Chicago.
"Almost from the beginning of the Schmitz administration it became recognized throughout the city that the most certain way of obtaining favors from the mayor’s office was through the law office of Abraham Ruef, who acted as the legal and political adviser of Mayor Schmitz. Ruef steered a different course from political bosses generally. He kept his office open for all comers, high and low. He was thoroughly accessible. He welcomed all applicants and dealt out encouraging assurances to every request. It soon became a matter of general belief that under the guise of legal services Ruef was selling licenses, securing special privileges for favored clients and protecting illegal concerns. Ruef’s income increased enormously during the Schmitz regime, but to the end he maintained this pretense of ‘attorney’s fees,’ and only a few months before he was indicted for extortion he stoutly maintained before a public meeting that he had never made a dollar out of politics.’
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"In 1905 the grand jury made a thorough investigation of the municipal administration and became convinced of the existence of a wide-spread system of bribery and corruption. In its report to the Superior Court, filed August 19, 1905, it stated: ‘that wholesale and wide-spread violation of law is open, notorious and flagrant; that it meets with the acquiescence of the mayor; that it receives the approval of the police commission; that it is aided, abetted and protected by police officials. … We find that vice and crime have been organized so systematically, and fostered with such vigilant attention to detail, that nothing which business acumen or political expediency could suggest has been neglected or omitted.’ For lack of legal evidence, however, or the funds with which to carry on an investigation for securing it, no indictments in these matters were returned.
"The municipal election of 1905 gave to Ruef the control of the Board of Supervisors as well as the administrative departments of the city. The great upheaval in business conditions produced by the earthquake and fire of April, 1906, brought new and wealthier clients to his office. Evidence made public in the later prosecutions goes to show that Ruef was paid to secure from the Board of Supervisors for the United Railroads permission to use an overhead trolley system for operating its street cars instead of the cable system in use before the fire; that the gas company had bribed the supervisors to raise the price of gas from 75 to 85 cents per thousand feet; and that the telephone companies had used the same means to promote their interests.
"The work of securing the evidence upon which criminal indictments could be based was performed by a few determined men. Rudolph Spreckels, a young man of large fortune, came forward with a pledge of $100,000 for the expenses of a searching investigation. District Attorney William H. Langdon, who had been elected on the same ticket with Schmitz, announced that he would conduct the inquiry without regard to party affiliations, and appointed Francis J. Heney, assistant district attorney. A man of courage and devotion to public honesty, Heney had gained distinction by the successful prosecution of land frauds before the Federal courts in Oregon. Heney requested and obtained the assistance of William J. Burns, a detective in the United States Secret Service.
"Ruef and Schmitz were soon indicted by the grand jury, charged with extorting money from restaurant proprietors. During the progress of his trial Ruef changed his plea from ‘Not guilty’ to ‘Guilty.’ Judgment against him was delayed, however, by the prosecution for the purpose of gaining evidence against others. Schmitz was tried on a similar charge and with the aid of testimony given by Ruef was convicted and [July, 1907] sentenced to imprisonment for five years in the state penitentiary.
"Meanwhile, some of the weaker supervisors having been caught in a trap set for them by Burns, confessions of bribery were obtained by the grand jury from fifteen out of eighteen members of the Board. In return for these confessions the district attorney entered into immunity contracts with the supervisors, and became temporarily the directing power in the municipal government. The office of mayor was declared vacant, and Honorable. Edward R. Taylor, a learned and conscientious man, a professor in the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, was appointed to the position. Gradually the whole Board of Supervisors was replaced by honest and experienced men.
"On the confessions of the discredited supervisors there followed a large number of indictments against Ruef, Schmitz and the various officers and employees of the public service corporations concerned in corrupting the city government. By May 25, 1907, the number of so-called ‘graft’ indictments was 137, against 19 persons. From collateral issues the number of indictments later rose to 160. The indictments against a few of the accused were subsequently dismissed. Five of the original 19 accused persons had been put on trial one or more times previous to January, 1910,—the expiration of the term of office of District Attorney Langdon. These trials were carried on with the utmost rancor on the part of opposing counsel. The greatest difficulties were encountered in securing juries and in several cases juries failed to agree. Throughout the community and in the public prints there developed factional division and bitterness. This factional hatred culminated in acts of violence and terrorism. Two houses in Oakland, Alameda County, one occupied, the other owned by James L. Gallagher, former supervisor and lieutenant of Ruef, later a most important witness for the prosecution, were dynamited and nearly destroyed. For these crimes a culprit was discovered and sent to the state prison for life by the courts of Alameda County. On November 13, 1908, during the trial of Ruef on bribery charges, Mr. Heney was shot from behind while at his post in the court-room by a half-demented sympathizer with the accused. A day later the assassin took his own life while in jail. By the merest chance Mr. Heney’s wound proved not to be fatal, and after a few months he returned to his duties.
"Even in the few cases in which convictions were obtained judgment was arrested by appeals to the higher courts, which uniformly resolved all technical questions in favor of the accused. To the end of 1909, the record of these cases is as follows:
"Number of indictments 160.
"Contracts of immunity 19.
"Tried and acquitted twice: Tirey L. Ford, attorney for the United Railroads.
"Trials in which the jury disagreed: Louis Glass, manager for the Pacific States Telephone Co.; Tirey L. Ford; Abraham Ruef; Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads.
"Judgments reversed by higher court, Eugene E. Schmitz and Louis Glass.
"Plea of guilty nullified by higher court: Abraham Ruef.
"Convicted, but appeals to higher court in progress: Abraham Ruef and M. W. Coffey, a supervisor who broke his immunity contract.
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"Thus it is evident that the prosecution has so far failed to punish extortion and bribery by criminal procedure. The real results of the prosecution are to be found in the prompt reform of the municipal government of San Francisco in 1907, and, in a larger way, in an awakened public conscience and a strengthened sense of civic duty. These results are not limited to San Francisco, but are a part of the great work of political regeneration in which the whole country is concerned.
"The question of further efforts to secure convictions in these ‘graft’ cases was made a political issue in San Francisco by the candidacy of Mr. Heney for the office of district attorney in 1909. That a large number of voters considered such continued efforts useless or hopeless was shown by his defeat by a decisive majority of 10,000 votes against him."
The new Mayor placed at the head of the City Government by this election was the nominee of the same Union Labor Party which had seated Schmitz and his manager, Ruef, and it was made plain that he represented the opposition to all that had been done and attempted toward municipal reform.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: Spain: A. D. 1907-1909. Municipal Reforms.
See (in this Volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1907-1909.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: The Transvaal: A. D. 1909. Introduction of Proportional Representation.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: United States: The "Municipal Program," framed by the National Municipal League.
"At the joint invitation of the City Club of New York and the Municipal League of Philadelphia, a Conference for Good City Government was held in Philadelphia in January, 1894. Out of this conference grew the National Municipal League, formally organized in New York City in May, 1894. The League includes in its affiliated membership, the leading municipal reform organizations of the country, and, in its associated membership the leading students of municipal government. At the annual meeting of the League in 1897 held in Louisville, a special committee was appointed ‘to report on the feasibility of a Municipal Program which will embody the essential principles that must underlie successful municipal government, and which shall also set forth a working plan or system, consistent with American industrial and political conditions, for putting such principles into practical operation; and the Committee, if it finds such Municipal Program to be feasible, is instructed to report the same with its reasons therefor, to the League, for consideration.’
"The Committee appointed under this resolution made a preliminary report at the annual meeting of the League held in Indianapolis in 1898, and a final one at the annual meeting of the League held in Columbus in 1899. The Committee did not claim that its report constituted the final word upon the subject referred to it, but its members were convinced, as a result of their studies and investigations, that ‘A Municipal Program’ which would embody the essential principles that must underlie successful municipal government was entirely feasible, and they recommended certain Constitutional Amendments and a general Municipal Corporations Act, as setting forth a working plan or system consistent with American industrial and political conditions, for putting such principles into practical operation. The Committee’s recommendations were unanimously adopted by the League at its Columbus meeting."
Horace E. Deming, The Government of American Cities, page 203 (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York).
As originally published, the "Municipal Program" has gone out of print, but Mr. Deming, under an arrangement with the League, has reproduced it as an appendix to his book, with an explanatory discussion of it. The main objects sought in it are "to clothe the city government with such broad powers as will enable it to perform all the appropriate functions of a local government without resort to the State Legislature for the grant of additional power"; and to "prevent the interference by the State Legislature with the free exercise by the city of the governmental powers granted it." Beyond this, the designers of the "Program" have worked out what seemed to them the most effective plan of organization in municipal government for the exercise of such full powers.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: WISCONSIN: Organization of a Municipal Reference Bureau by the State University.
Within the past year a Municipal Reference Bureau has been organized in connection with the Extension Department of the Wisconsin State University, its purpose being to offer the widest possible use of the material on questions relative to municipal government which the University has collected, by answering inquiries. The Bureau is under the charge of Mr. Ford H. MacGregor, and will work in cooperation with the very useful Legislative Reference Department of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, which was organized a few years ago and is still conducted by Dr. Charles McCarthy.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
See, also, (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES, AND SOCIAL BETTERMENT.
----------MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: End--------
MURRELL, J. K.: Confessions.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: ST. LOUIS.
MÜRZSTEG PROGRAMME, The.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1903-1904, and 1905-1908.
MUSHIR-ED-DOWLEH.
See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1907-1908 (SEPTEMBER-JUNE).
MUSTAFA FAZIL PASHA.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).
MUTINY IN THE RUSSIAN NAVY.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).
MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY: Legislative Investigation.
See (in this Volume) INSURANCE, LIFE.
MUZZAFER-ED-DIN: Late Shah of Persia.
See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
MYTILENE, International Occupation of.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1905-1908.
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N.
NABUCO, DR. JOAQUIN: President of Third International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
NACIONALISTAS.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
NAGEL, CHARLES: Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909 (MARCH).
NAKAMURA, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
NANSHAN, BATTLE OF.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
NAPOLEON I.: Declining Worship of his Memory in France.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907-1908.
NASR-UL-MULK: PRIME MINISTER OF PERSIA. His exile.
See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1907-1908 (SEPTEMBER-JUNE), AND 1908-1909.
NATAL.
See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA.
NATHAN, ERNESTO: MAYOR OF ROME.
See (in this Volume) ITALY: A. D. 1909.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The.
See (in this Volume) SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The: Its notable Conference on Industrial Disputes. Its great Committee for Intermediation and Conciliation.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The: Its Intermediation in Coal Strike.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1903.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The: National Conference at Chicago, 1907, on Trusts and Combinations.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1907.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The: Its work in Promotion of Trades Agreements.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908.
NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION, The: Its work for Uniformity in State Legislation.
See (in this Volume) LAW AND ITS COURTS: UNITED STATES.
NATIONAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION.
See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: UNITED STATES.
NATIONAL FARMERS’ UNION.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1909.
NATURAL RESOURCES, The Conservation of.
See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.
NATURALIZATION: Convention between American Republics.
The following Convention was adopted and signed at the Second Conference of the American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro, 1906.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
"Article I. If a citizen a native of any of the countries signing the present Convention, and naturalized in another, shall again take up his residence in his native country without the intention of returning to the country in which he has been naturalized, he will be considered as having resumed his original citizenship, and as having renounced the citizenship acquired by the said naturalization."
"Article II. The intention not to return will be presumed to exist when the naturalized person shall have resided in his native country for more than two years. But this presumption may be destroyed by evidence to the contrary."
"Article III. This Convention will become effective in the countries that ratify it three months from the dates upon which said ratifications shall be communicated to the Government of the United States of Brazil; and if it should be denounced by any one of them, it shall continue in effect for one year more, to count from the date of such denouncement."
"Article IV. The denouncement of this Convention by any one of the signatory States shall be made to the Government of the United States of Brazil and shall take effect only with regard to the country that may make it."
NATURALIZATION: In the British Empire: Proposed Uniformity of Law.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
NATURALIZATION: In the United States: The Question of Treatment of Expatriated Citizens who visit their Native Country. The Principle asserted to Germany. New Law of American Citizenship.-
Consequent on an increasing disposition in Germany to curtail the revisiting of their native country by Germans who had become naturalized citizens of the United States, the American Ambassador to Berlin discussed the subject with the German Foreign Minister, on the 12th of August, 1902, and reported the substance of the conversation to Washington: "Statements were made on the part of the embassy as follows: No sympathy whatever is felt with the person who deliberately emigrates and avails himself of the American naturalization laws for the mere purpose of escaping military service in Germany, and there is no wish on the part of the American authorities to enable such persons to make a convenience of their American naturalization. The embassy has also consistently declined to intervene in behalf of persons whose wish was to make their permanent residence in Germany. It is thought, however, that where German emigrants have fulfilled the conditions necessary to entitle them to ‘be treated as American citizens’ they should actually be so treated, and when they have emigrated in good faith they should be permitted to sojourn in Germany, for their business or pleasure, to visit at their former homes, or to enjoy the benefits afforded by German watering places, etc., in accordance with the terms of the treaty with Prussia of 1828. The sovereign right of Prussia to expel persons whose presence is not considered desirable is not contested, but it is thought that the American Government has the right to know why the presence of any American citizen is so considered.
"Dr. Von Mühlberg’s attention was called to a number of cases now pending, where naturalized American citizens have received orders to leave the country after a stay of a few weeks. He said that he would take the matter up personally and would communicate with the Prussian minister of the interior in regard to it at once."
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In reply from the Department of State at Washington, the action of Ambassador White was approved, and it was said further: "You should lose no suitable opportunity to press and to emphasize the considerations which you advanced in your interview with Dr. Von Mühlberg. The essence of the right of expulsion which the German States claim is that it should be reasonably and justly applied in cases obviously calling for so extreme a measure. Expulsion should not be invoked indiscriminately, so as to operate as a deterrent to the exercise of the rights of expatriation and acquisition of new allegiance granted under the naturalization treaties, or so as to neutralize, by indirection, treatment stipulated thereafter regarding the recognition of the new national character."
Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1902, page 441.
The doctrine of citizenship stated by Ambassador White on this occasion was embodied subsequently in a new citizenship law, which came into force on the 2d of March, 1907. The new law was based on a report made by an official commission, one of the members of which has written of it as follows:
"When a future historian shall write an account of the achievements of this the most remarkable administration of our government since the Civil War, he will give prominent place to the naturalization law of a year ago and the citizenship law which was approved last March and is now becoming effective; for these two measures are the culmination of a hundred years of effort for reform, and affect the very foundation of our political structure. …
"So far as the naturalization law is concerned, the objections to it come chiefly from petty courts throughout the country which are now not permitted to naturalize, and which formerly derived part of their prestige and their fees from naturalization business. Dissatisfaction with the new citizenship law flows from those people who have been living abroad in fancied security of their American citizenship, and who now find themselves obliged to take positive steps to preserve a status which they have heretofore supposed attached to them indefinitely, without the performance of any obligations on their part. Both of these laws originated in the House of Representatives, but each resulted from a report made by executive officers, and the Senate can claim little agency in them. The citizenship law was based upon a report made to Secretary Root by a board of officers of his Department, the members being James Brown Scott, the Solicitor for the Department of State, David Jayne Hill, our Minister at The Hague, and the writer of this article, with Samuel B. Crandall, Ph. D., of the Department as Secretary. … From this report sprang a bill, introduced in the House by the Honorable James Breck Perkins of New York, which became a law on March 2nd.
"The law does not change or even modify the American doctrine of citizenship. That was already settled by the Constitution and the decisions of the Supreme Court. Anybody born in the United States, no matter what his race, unless he is an Indian living with a tribe, or however ineligible to our citizenship he may be for any other reason, is a citizen of the United States. …
"Broadly speaking, an individual becomes a citizen of the United States by birth or naturalization, and these facts have been well settled; but how does he lose American citizenship? This was the question to which the citizenship board chiefly addressed itself, and which Congress settled a few months ago by declaring that an American shall be held to have expatriated himself when he becomes naturalized as a citizen of another country, or when he takes an oath of allegiance to another state, or when he lives permanently outside of the United States without intent to return. …
"We have had a constantly increasing number of so-called American citizens living abroad—men who have lived in the United States for only five years and in many cases have fraudulently secured naturalization papers after less than five years of residence; who never were really domiciled there; who never have performed any of the duties of American citizenship and who never intended to do so. … Until the new naturalization law went into effect, it was not actually against the letter of the law for a man to commit this fraud; for, when he applied for citizenship, he was required merely to show that he had resided in the United States for five years, and no inquiry was made concerning his future intentions."
_Gaillard Hunt, The New Citizenship Law (North American Review, July, 1907)._
NAVAL CONFERENCE, INTERNATIONAL, AT LONDON, 1908-1909.
See (in this Volume) War, The Revolt against: A. D. 1907 (appended to account of Second Peace Conference at The Hague).
NAVIES.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: NAVAL.
NAVIGATION LAWS: Proposed British Imperial Policy.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
NEERGAARD, M.: PREMIER OF DENMARK.
See (in this Volume) DENMARK: A. D. 1905-1909.
NEGRO PROBLEMS, IN THE UNITED STATES.
See (in this Volume) RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES.
NELIDOW, M.: President of the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1870-1905. Increase of Population compared with other European Countries.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1870-1905.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1902. Offer of mediation between Great Britain and the Boers.
See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1903. Laws against Railway Strikes. Failure of General Labor Strike to prevent their Enactment.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1903.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1903. Agreement for Settlement of Claims against Venezuela.
See (in this Volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1902-1904.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1904. Military operations against the Atchinese.
A Dutch military expedition against the long-insurgent natives of the old Sultanate of Atchin, in Sumatra, which was said to have carried death to a thousand women and children, gave rise to stormy scenes in the Netherlands when its session was opened in September. The excuse of the Government was that the warriors used the women and children as shields.
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NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1905-1909. Defeat and Fall of the Calvinistic Party of the Reverend Dr. Kuyper. The Suffrage and Education Questions. The six principal Parties. Success of the groups of "the Right" in the latest Elections.
Elections to the lower chamber of the States-General, held in June, overthrew the Conservative majority in that body and gave the Liberals a small majority of 4. An important issue between parties had been on the question of universal suffrage, but the support given to its advocates was not strong enough to justify immediate attempts on their part to carry any measure of law. A royal Commission was appointed, however, to investigate and report generally on the need or expediency of a revision of the Constitution. The defeated Ministry of Dr. Abraham Kuyper represented an ultra-Calvinistic Church element in politics, and its defeat appears to have been due in the main to educational laws which it had carried through. According to the Dutch review, De Gids, from which the following has been translated, the aim of the new laws and the objection to them were much the same as in the English controversy over the Education Act of 1902, when church and clerical influences carried the day against the supporters of secular schools. "These educational laws," said De Gids, "were unanimously supported by, if they did not wholly originate with, the clericals, or the Anti-Revolutionary party, as they call themselves, of which Dr. Kuyper is the astute and able leader and head. They had the undivided support also of the Catholics, but were strenuously opposed by the Liberals and all the anti-clericals, including the Social Democrats. The Anti-Revolutionists and Catholics on the one hand, and the Liberals and their allies on the other, form, respectively, the Right and Left in the Chambers."
Since 1905 there seems to have been little if any change in the Dutch parties. On the approach of the quadrennial general elections of June, 1909, a correspondent of the London Times wrote of "the complex grouping" of the political parties contending in them: "There are six which may fairly claim to be important. The largest is probably the Catholic. It is estimated that a third of the population is Catholic by religion, and of the Catholics a very large proportion belong to the Catholic political party, and vote consistently in accordance with the commands of its leaders. Next to the Catholics come the strict Calvinists, who have been organized by Dr. Kuyper into a compact and most formidable party, generally called the Anti-Révolutionnaire party. It finds its chief supporters among the rural population and the petite bourgeoisie, and owes its name to the doctrine, sedulously preached by Dr. Kuyper, that the Radical and Liberal parties are fomenting an anti-religious revolution, and that it is therefore necessary to choose between Christianity and Heathenism. This doctrine is generally known as ‘the antithesis,’ and, though its influence has waned somewhat in the towns, it still has considerable influence in the country. Closely allied to the Anti-Révolutionnaire party is the Christlijk Historisch party, which is more aristocratic, but less energetic, with many principles but no very definite programme. It not infrequently speaks against the Calvinist party, but as a rule joins it when it comes to voting.
"These three parties, Catholic, Anti-Révolutionnaire, and Christlijk Historisch, form the Right. The Left is composed of the Old and United Liberals, the Radicals or Vrijzinnige Democraten, and the Socialists, representing all shades of opinion from what in England might be called Whiggism to extreme Socialism. The questions which really divide these parties, as distinguished from the party cries on which the election is being fought, are Clericalism and Socialism, and a very large proportion of the electors are not quite sure which enemy they most fear. There is no doubt that the Anti-Révolutionnaire party and the Catholics represent two forms of Clericalism, while the Socialists are openly Collectivists. The other parties, with the exception of the Vrijzinnige Democraten, can be better described as opposed to the two extremes than as presenting any clearly marked characteristics of their own."
The first balloting of this election took place on the 11th of June and the second on the 23d. The Anti-Révolutionnaires came out of it with 23, the Catholics with 25, the Christlijk Historischs with 12, making 60 for the groups of "the Right"; against a total of 40 in the groups of "the Left." Of this minority only 7 were in the ranks of the Social Democrats. Dr. Kuyper was among the defeated candidates.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1906. At the Algeciras Conference on the Morocco Question.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1906. The Second Peace Conference at The Hague convoked by the Queen.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1908 (April). Treaty with Denmark, England, France, Germany, and Sweden, for maintenance of the Status Quo on the North Sea.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907-1908.
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1908-1909. Trouble with Castro of Venezuela.
See (in this Volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1908-1909.
NEW BRUNSWICK: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Reduced representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.
NEWCOMB, PROFESSOR SIMON.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION: CARNEGIE INSTITUTION, AND AERONAUTICS.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1902. British Colonial Conference at London.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1902-1905. Negotiation and Senatorial Destruction of the Hay-Bond Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
In November, 1902, a Treaty of Reciprocity which would have settled the long-standing disputes over American rights of fishing on the Newfoundland coast, on terms of most equitable advantage to both countries, and especially favorable to the interests of the general public in the United States, was concluded and signed at Washington by Secretary Hay and the British Ambassador, Sir Michael Herbert. The Premier of Newfoundland, Sir Robert Bond, had taken a principal part in the negotiation, and the resulting document was known consequently as the Hay-Bond Treaty. It secured to the New England fishermen the coveted privilege of buying bait and other supplies and hiring crews in Newfoundland ports; and it admitted the greater part of American manufactures into the island duty free. {446} On the other hand, it opened the markets of the United States to the fish and fish products, the coal, oil, and ores of Newfoundland, for the benefit of the consumers of the country. The treaty was hailed with satisfaction by the general public of the United States, but opposed by a few interests whose gains might be lessened if any breach in their monopoly of the sale of salted fish and coal and oil should be permitted. The majority which has seldom failed of late to be retainable in the United States Senate for the service of such private interests, against the public good, was promptly organized by Senator Lodge, first for pocketing the Treaty throughout more than two years, and finally for amending it to death, in February, 1905. The provisions that made it advantageous to Newfoundland were cut out, and it was reduced to a state which made it insulting as an offer of reciprocity. It suffered the fate which, in late years, is quite certain to befall any project of real statesmanship that has to go through the hands of the United States Senate.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1904. Convention between England and France touching Fishery Rights.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1905-1909. Renewed Disputes over American Fishing Rights on the Treaty Coast. Arrangement of a Modus Vivendi. Agreement on Questions to be submitted to a Tribunal of Arbitration at The Hague. Constitution of the Tribunal.
The endless friction that has attended the exercise of treaty-rights by American fishermen in the Newfoundland fisheries was freshly roughened in the fall of 1905, by a new enactment of the provincial legislature, to prevent the sale of bait or outfits and supplies of any nature to foreign fishermen, and by orders from the Minister of Marine and Fisheries forbidding vessels of American registry to fish on the Treaty Coast. This reopened debate between the State Department at Washington and the Foreign Office at London, over the intentions and meanings of that first article in the Treaty of 1818 which has been a source of incessant dispute for ninety-one years. The following is the language of the article:
"Article I. Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by the United States, for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, and cure fish, on certain coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks of His Britannick Majesty’s Dominions in America, it is agreed between the High Contracting Parties that the inhabitants of the said United States shall have, for ever, in common with the subjects of His Britannick Majesty, the liberty to take fish of every kind, on that part of the southern coast of Newfoundland, which extends from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands, on the western and northern coast of Newfoundland, from the said Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks, from Mount Joly, on the southern coast of Labrador, to and through the Streights of Belleisle, and thence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice, however, to any of the exclusive rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company. And that the American fishermen shall also have liberty, for ever, to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland, here above described, and of the coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such portion so settled, without previous agreement for such purpose, with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground. And the United States hereby renounced, for ever, any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of His Britannick Majesty’s Dominions in America, not included within the above-mentioned limits: provided, however, that the American fishermen shall be admitted to enter such bays or harbours, for the purpose of shelter, and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever. But they shall be under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their taking, drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them."
With reference to the present obstruction to American fishing in Newfoundland waters, the contention of Secretary Root was set forth in the following propositions:
"1. Any American vessel is entitled to go into the waters of the Treaty Coast and take fish of any kind.
"She derives this right from the Treaty (or from the conditions existing prior to the Treaty and recognized by it) and not from any permission or authority proceeding from the Government of Newfoundland.
"2. An American vessel seeking to exercise the Treaty right is not bound to obtain a licence from the Government of Newfoundland, and, if she does not purpose to trade as well as fish, she is not bound to enter at any Newfoundland custom-house.
"3. The only concern of the Government of Newfoundland with such a vessel is to call for proper evidence that she is an American vessel, and, therefore, entitled to exercise the Treaty right, and to have her refrain from violating any laws of Newfoundland not inconsistent with the Treaty.
"4. The proper evidence that a vessel is an American vessel and entitled to exercise the Treaty right is the production of the ship’s papers of the kind generally recognized in the maritime world as evidence of a vessel’s national character.
"5. When a vessel has produced papers showing that she is an American vessel, the officials of Newfoundland have no concern with the character or extent of the privileges accorded to such a vessel by the Government of the United States. No question as between a registry and licence is a proper subject for their consideration. They are not charged with enforcing any laws or regulations of the United States. As to them, if the vessel is American she has the Treaty right, and they are not at liberty to deny it.
"6. If any such matter were a proper subject for the consideration of the officials of Newfoundland, the statement of this Department that vessels bearing an American registry are entitled to exercise the Treaty right should be taken by such officials as conclusive."
{447}
On the British side, Sir Edward Grey raised two principal objections to these propositions of Mr. Root: First—that "the privilege of fishing conceded by Article I of the Convention of 1818 is conceded, not to American vessels, but to inhabitants of the United States and to American fishermen;" second, that "inhabitants of the United States would not now be entitled to fish in British North American waters but for the fact that they were entitled to do so when they were British subjects. American fishermen cannot therefore rightly claim to exercise their right of fishery under the Convention of 1818 on a footing of greater freedom than if they had never ceased to be British subjects. Nor consistently with the terms of the Convention can they claim to exercise it on a footing of greater freedom than the British subjects ‘in common with’ whom they exercise it under the Convention. In other words, the American fishery under the Convention is not a free but a regulated fishery, and, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, American fishermen are bound to comply with all Colonial Laws and Regulations, including any touching the conduct of the fishery, so long as these are not in their nature unreasonable, and are applicable to all fishermen alike."
To the first of these objections Mr. Root replied;
"We may agree that ships, strictly speaking, can have no rights or duties, and that whenever the Memorandum, or the letter upon which it comments, speaks of a ship’s rights and duties, it but uses a convenient and customary form of describing the owner’s or master’s right and duties in respect of the ship. … The liberty assured to us by the Treaty plainly includes the right to use all the means customary or appropriate for fishing upon the sea, not only ships and nets and boats, but crews to handle the ships and the nets and the boats. … I am not able to discover that any suggestion has ever been made of a right to scrutinize the nationality of the crews." As for the second objection, the American Secretary appealed to history against it. "The qualification," he said, "that the liberty assured to American fishermen by the Treaty of 1818 they were to have ‘in common with the subjects of Great Britain ’ merely negatives an exclusive right. Under the Treaties of Utrecht, of 1763 and 1783, between Great Britain and France, the French had constantly maintained that they enjoyed an exclusive right of fishery on that portion of the coast of Newfoundland between Cape St. John and Cape Raye, passing around by the north of the island. The British, on the other hand, had maintained that British subjects had a right to fish along with the French, so long as they did not interrupt them. The dissension arising from these conflicting views had been serious and annoying, and the provision that the liberty of the inhabitants of the United States to take fish should be in common with the liberty of the subjects of His Britannic Majesty to take fish was precisely appropriate to exclude the French construction and leave no doubt that the British construction of such a general grant should apply under the new Treaty. The words used have no greater or other effect. The provision is that the liberty to take fish shall be held in common, not that the exercise of that liberty by one people shall be the limit of the exercise of that liberty by the other."
As between these chief disputants in the matter, the first result of their exchange of arguments was a ready disposition to arrange some modus vivendi, under which peace might be kept on the fishing grounds until fresh undertakings could be planned for a lasting interpretation of the old enigmas in Article 1 of 1818. But the provincial Government of Newfoundland resented bitterly the imperial interference with its measures, charging that it was in violation of a pledge "given by the late Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords in 1891, to the effect that the colony had been given unlimited power with respect to its internal affairs." They were promptly told, however, that what concerned action under a British treaty went considerably beyond the internal affairs of their colony.
Considerable correspondence on the terms of the proposed modus vivendi brought an agreement on the 6th of October, 1906, set forth in the following communication from Ambassador Whitelaw Reid to Sir Edward Grey.
"I am authorized by my government to ratify a modus vivendi in regard to the Newfoundland fishery question on the basis of the Foreign Office Memorandum, dated the 25th ultimo, in which you accept the arrangement set out in my Memorandum of the 12th ultimo, and consent accordingly to the use of purse seines by American fishermen during the ensuing season, subject, of course, to due regard being paid in the use of such implements to other modes of fishery, which, as you state, is only intended to secure that there shall be the same spirit of give and take and of respect for common rights between the users of purse seines and the users of stationary nets as would be expected to exist if both sets of fishermen employed the same gear.
"My Government understand by this that the use of purse seines by American fishermen is not to be interfered with, and the shipment of Newfoundlanders by American fishermen outside the 3-mile limit is not to be made the basis of interference or to be penalized; at the same time they are glad to assure His Majesty’s Government, should such shipments be found necessary, that they will be made far enough from the exact 3-mile limit to avoid any reasonable doubt.
"On the other hand, it is also understood that our fishermen are to be advised by my Government, and to agree, not to fish on Sunday.
"It is further understood that His Majesty’s Government will not bring into force the Newfoundland Foreign Fishing-Vessels Act of 1906, which imposes on American fishing-vessels certain restrictions in addition to those imposed by the Act of 1905, and also that the provisions of the first part of section 1 of the Act of 1905, as to boarding and bringing into port, and also the whole of section 3 of the same Act, will not be regarded as applying to American fishing-vessels.
"It also being understood that our fishermen will gladly pay light dues if they are not deprived of their rights to fish, and that our fishermen are not unwilling to comply with the provisions of the Colonial Customs Law as to reporting at a custom-house when physically possible to do so."
To explain the stipulation relative to "purse seines" it should be said that the New England fishermen claimed to be driven to the use of them, by the local regulations which hampered their fishing otherwise.
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As formulated in the note of Ambassador Reid the modus vivendi was accepted by the British Government and went into effect. In due time thereafter the two Governments entered upon a discussion of ways and means for accomplishing a definite and final settlement of the whole question of American rights in the Newfoundland fisheries. The outcome was an agreement signed at Washington on the 27th of January, 1909, to the effect that the following questions shall be submitted for decision to a Tribunal of Arbitration, constituted as subsequent articles provide:—
"Question 1. To what extent are the following contentions or either of them justified?
"It is contended on the part of Great Britain that the exercise of the liberty to take fish referred to in the said Article, which the inhabitants of the United States have for ever in common with the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, is subject, without the consent of the United States, to reasonable regulation by Great Britain, Canada, or Newfoundland in the form of municipal laws, ordinances, or rules, as, for example, to regulations in respect of
(1) the hours, days, or seasons when fish may be taken on the Treaty coasts;
(2) the method, means, and implements to be used in the taking of fish or in the carrying on of fishing operations on such coasts;
(3) any other matters of a similar character relating to fishing; such regulations being reasonable, as being, for instance—
"(a) Appropriate or necessary for the protection and preservation of such fisheries and the exercise of the rights of British subjects therein and of the liberty which by the said Article 1 the inhabitants of the United States have therein in common with British subjects;
"(b) Desirable on grounds of public order and morals;
"(c) Equitable and fair as between local fishermen and the inhabitants of the United States exercising the said Treaty liberty and not so framed as to give unfairly an advantage to the former over the latter class.
"It is contended on the part of the United States that the exercise of such liberty is not subject to limitations or restraints by Great Britain, Canada, or Newfoundland in the form of municipal laws, ordinances, or regulations in respect of
(1) the hours, days, or seasons when the inhabitants of the United States may take fish on the Treaty coasts, or
(2) the method, means, and implements used by them in taking fish or in carrying on fishing operations on such coasts, or
(3) any other limitations or restraints of similar character—
"(a) Unless they are appropriate and necessary for the protection and preservation of the common rights in such fisheries and the exercise thereof; and
"(b) Unless they are reasonable in themselves and fair as between local fishermen and fishermen coming from the United States, and not so framed as to give an advantage to the former over the latter class; and
"(c) Unless their appropriateness, necessity, reasonableness, and fairness be determined by the United States and Great Britain by common accord and the United States concurs in their enforcement.
"Question 2. Have the inhabitants of the United States, while exercising the liberties referred to in said Article, a right to employ as members of the fishing crews of their vessels persons not inhabitants of the United States?
"Question 3. Can the exercise by the inhabitants of the United States of the liberties referred to in the said Article be subjected, without the consent of the United States, to the requirements of entry or report at custom-houses or the payment of light or harbour or other dues, or to any other similar requirement or condition or exaction?
"Question 4. Under the provision of the said Article that the American fishermen shall be admitted to enter certain bays or harbours for shelter, repairs, wood, or water, and for no other purpose whatever, but that they shall be under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their taking, drying, or curing fish therein or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges thereby reserved to them, is it permissible to impose restrictions making the exercise of such privileges conditional upon the payment of light or harbour or other dues, or entering or reporting at custom-houses or any similar conditions?
"Question 5. From where must be measured the ‘3 marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks or harbours’ referred to in the said Article?
"Question 6. Have the inhabitants of the United States the liberty under the said Article or otherwise to take fish in the bays, harbours, and creeks on that part of the southern coast of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray to Rameau Islands, or on the western and northern coasts of Newfoundland from Cape Ray to Quirpon Islands, or on the Magdalen Islands?
"Question 7. Are the inhabitants of the United States whose vessels resort to the Treaty coasts for the purpose of exercising the liberties referred to in Article 1 of the Treaty of 1818 entitled to have for those vessels, when duly authorized by the United States in that behalf, the commercial privileges on the Treaty coasts accorded by agreement or otherwise to United States trading vessels generally?"
Of the remaining articles of the Agreement, IV. and V. provide for the determination of future questions that may arise, and for the composition of the Tribunal of Arbitration, which is to be chosen from the members of the Permanent Court at The Hague.
The agreement above was formulated at a conference in Washington between Secretary Root, Ambassador Bryce, Honourable A. B. Aylesworth, Canadian Minister of Justice, and Attorney-General Kent of Newfoundland. In March the following were chosen from the general membership of the Permanent Court at The Hague to constitute the Tribunal for this arbitration, namely: Dr. Luis Maria Drago, Argentina; Jonkheer de Savornin Lohmnan, Netherlands; Judge George Gray, United States; and Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice of Canada, with Dr. H. Lammasch, of Vienna, to be umpire on points of disagreement.
The case for the United States was delivered to the British Embassy at Washington, and that for Great Britain to the American Embassy at London, on the 4th of October. A little later it was announced that the modus vivendi of 1908 had been renewed until the termination of the arbitration proceedings.
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NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1907. Imperial Conference at London.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1908-1909 (November-May). Six Months of Political Deadlock.
From November, 1908, until the following May an extraordinary deadlock resulted from a tie between rival parties in the House of Assembly. The situation, as described by a correspondent of the London Times, was as follows:
"Each side has 18 seats. Neither, therefore, can elect a Speaker, much less undertake the control of public business, when Parliament meets. Sir Robert Bond, who carried 32 seats against 4 in 1900 and 30 seats against 6 in 1904, returns with only half the House—18 men. In the former contests Sir Edward Morris, who now leads the Opposition against him, had been a member of his Cabinet and his ‘right-hand man,’ and the November results prove that Morris’s withdrawal was a serious injury to Bond. Morris went out a year or so previously owing to a disagreement as to raising the rate of wages on public works, and, being the leading Roman Catholic politician of the Island, had 14 seats, of that creed, as a solid block in Bond’s party during all this period. It was therefore felt, when he resigned, that this ‘solid 14’ would be broken, and this conclusion proved correct, because Morris carried half of them in spite of the open and avowed hostility of many of the priests in the diocese of St. Johns."
Sir Robert Bond retained the Prime Ministry until the end of February, 1909, when, having failed to obtain a dissolution of Parliament and a new election from the Governor, Sir William Macgregor, he resigned. Sir Edward Morris then took office, and the continued deadlock made it necessary, in a few weeks, to command a dissolution and call a new election, which was held on the 8th of May. It broke the tie of parties effectually, Sir Edward Morris carrying 26 seats, against 10 filled by the partisans of Sir Robert Bond.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1909. A Year of Misfortune and Depression. Scant earnings from the Fisheries and from Whaling. Attitude of the people toward Confederation with Canada.
"The Fisheries represent fully eighty per cent. of the exports, and in order to understand the financial stringency which has now fairly settled down upon ‘Our Cousin to the East’ it must be borne in mind that while the catch of fish remains about the same from year to year, the price has been steadily increasing for the past ten years, until last year it was double what it was a decade ago. But this year the price has suddenly fallen to what it was at the beginning of the decade. In other words, the value of last season’s catch will be just about half what it was the season before; and, instead of the merchants receiving $7,800,000 for their fish, they will receive considerably less than $4,000,000; and the individual fisherman who at the former price was barely able to earn $350 will receive this year probably less than $175, on which to support himself and family for the year, and to provide himself with an outfit for the next season’s work. Many of course will not receive that much. … Although other industries are springing up in Newfoundland, the codfishery remains the great staple and dependence of the population—the vast majority of which are fishermen, born and bred, who do not readily adapt themselves to other methods of earning a living. The present depression is widespread and far-reaching, and every form of industry and trade, business and commerce in the Colony is suffering seriously thereby. The latest ill report comes from Bay of Islands, to the effect that the winter herring fishery on the west coast—the scene of the present controversy with the United States—is a failure. Last spring’s seal fishery was not up to the average, and owing to many accidents to the fleet, necessitating heavy outlay for repairs, the promoters have realized much less than they otherwise would have secured. The whale fishery, also, which a few years ago had assumed enormous proportions, and was yielding handsome returns, has now almost reached the vanishing point. To complete the sum of the Colony’s misfortunes comes the partial suspension of [iron] mining operations at Bell Island, during the winter months, at the very time when the men need employment most, and when, as a result of the lack of it, they will probably emigrate to other countries.
"This combination of misfortune is not only causing distress among all classes of citizens, but the government will also keenly feel the loss of revenue; for a conservative estimate of the reduction in the customs revenue for the current fiscal year puts the figures at $450,000; in other words, that the revenue will not exceed $2,000,000.
"The great drawback in Newfoundland institutions is the disproportion between the big machinery of government and the small population to be governed. A local politician has aptly described it as ‘the trappings of an elephant on the back of a rat.’"
_Edwin Smith, The Land of Baccalhos (Canadian Magazine, July, 1909)._
Another writer in the same number of The Canadian Magazine discusses the opposition in Newfoundland to union with the Dominion of Canada as follows: "The political leader who should to-day appeal to the Newfoundland electorate on the question of Confederation would be disastrously defeated. But on the day when the leader of a party in the Island Colony makes up his mind to risk temporary defeat for the purpose of accomplishing Confederation, that day brings union between Newfoundland and Canada within the horizon of the proximate future. That leader must—unless the financial exigencies of the Island bring him extraneous aid—face an arduous campaign of education, but it will be a campaign crowned with victory.
"These are the impressions left on my mind by a visit to St. John’s made with the object of studying the political deadlock and the causes which led up to it. … The residents of the outports—all settlements except St. John’s are known as outports—are opposed to Confederation because they have been told that it would mean a heavy increase in their taxes; that their windows, all their domestic animals and all their personal property would be taxed. If this wrong impression were dispelled by a campaign of education, and they understood that instead of higher taxation Confederation would mean the opening up of the country, bonuses for the fishermen, and new markets for the fish in Canada and abroad through the services of Canadian Commercial agents, instead of opponents of union they would become its advocates."
{450}
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1909. (July-August). The Imperial Defence Conference.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY AND NAVAL.
NEW HEBRIDES: Arrangement between England and France.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).
NEW PROTECTION, The.
See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION: THE NEW PROTECTION.
NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY.: Fined for unlawful Rebates.
See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897. Leadership in the Administrative Control of Tuberculosis.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: TUBERCULOSIS.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900-1903. Beginning of Tenement House Reform.
By a steady process, accelerated in the last ten years, the congested tenement districts of New York have become one great aggregation of sunless and airless rooms. Immense buildings have gone up by the thousands, five, six, and seven stories high, in which practically no provision for ventilation has been made; and in which the occupants are undergoing a slow process of asphyxiation. Nor are these disadvantages confined to the submerged proletariat. The New York tenement system is pervasive. … Two-thirds of the total population of New York, or 2,500,000 out of 3,500,000, live in tenement houses, a proportion which is increasing every day. …
"It was not until Governor Roosevelt’s appointment of the De Forest Tenement House Commission in 1900 that the necessary remedial legislation took practical shape. This act itself was the result of many years’ struggle against corrupt politicians,—Tammany Hall, the self-appointed guardian of the poorer classes, has been a bitter enemy of tenement reform,—and against vested interests. Its long delay had greatly exaggerated the problem; for meanwhile the conditions described had accumulated in appalling Volume. The commission, however, was of high civic character, and was composed of men, several of whom had made an exhaustive study of the tenement problem. The law which was passed as a result of their investigation was the first sweeping and effective tenement measure since the enactment in 1867 of the first tenement house act. The newly elected Low administration found the enforcement of this statute one of its most important responsibilities. The law created a new branch of municipal service,—the tenement house department; and gave the tenement commission, in the shape of an elaborate code of housing laws, important supervision over the building of new tenements and the maintenance of old."
_B. J. Hendrick, A Great Municipal Reform (Atlantic Monthly, November, 1903)._
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900-1909. Subways and Tunnels.
It was not until 1900 that the building of subways for city transit in New York was begun. The first line, from the City Hall to Kingsbridge and the Bronx Park, was opened in 1904. During its construction plans for its extension southerly and under East River into Brooklyn were adopted, and contracts were let. The original work was executed under an arrangement with a company known as the McDonald Syndicate, whereby the City gave its credit to secure the requisite funds and would acquire the ownership of the subway and road at the end of fifty years. In 1902 the interests of the McDonald Syndicate were transferred to a new corporation, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, which ultimately acquired a general control of the city railway service, and ran a crooked career to results of disaster, so far as the public was concerned. In 1905 the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners, then exercising authority in this region of municipal affairs, under the New York State Rapid Transit Act of 1891, approved plans for an extensive additional system, comprehending as many as nineteen routes, with various "spurs," and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment consented to the execution of the plan.
The East River Tunnel to Brooklyn was finished early in 1908, and the first two tubes of four Hudson Tunnels, connecting Manhattan Island with New Jersey was opened in the last week of February, the same year. This first pair of the Hudson Tunnels realized a project which had been undertaken as far back as 1878 and which had undergone two financial failures, in 1882 and 1892. In 1902 its remains and its charter were passed on to a third courageous company, organized by Mr. William Gibbs McAdoo, who became the master-spirit of bold enterprise at New York in this engineering field. In 1903 Mr. McAdoo organized another company for the undertaking of a connection of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Jersey City with downtown New York, and also for connecting the uptown and downtown tunnels by means of a north and south line along the New Jersey water-front, so as to connect the Lackawanna, Erie, and Pennsylvania Railroads with the tunnel system, and thereby be able to give to their passengers an uptown and downtown railway delivery.
The second pair of Hudson River tubes (the downtown link) forming this New York and Jersey City Tunnel were opened on the 19th of July, 1909. Writing of the event a few days before its occurrence, the New York Evening Post summed up the existing and prospective conditions of entrance to and exit from the island of Manhattan by under-river passages as follows:
"Since the city entered its rapid transit boom and the practicability of sub-river tunnels was demonstrated to the satisfaction of the leading engineers of the world, fourteen such tubes have been under construction here. Four of them are in operation. The downtown link of the Hudson Company’s system will add two more, and the remaining eight are to be opened in the course of the next two years, according to present plans.
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"After the opening of the downtown Hudson tunnels, the travelling public will look forward to the operation of the other eight tubes, as follows: Two Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels beneath the Hudson River and four under the East River, meeting in Manhattan at the great terminal station now nearing completion, between Thirty-first and Thirty-third Streets, along Seventh Avenue; the pair of Steinway-Belmont tunnels, deriving their name from the originator of the franchise and the present controlling influence, running from Forty-second Street to Long Island City and held practically by the same men who control the operation of the Manhattan-Bronx subway (the Interborough Company).
"The Pennsylvania tubes under the North (Hudson) River are practically completed, and await only the finishing of the depot, while the East River tubes, though a little behind hand on account of difficulties met in the form of treacherous rock ledges, are within possibly a year of opening. The Steinway-Belmont tunnels are completed, and will be ready for operation as soon as the company makes a satisfactory arrangement with the Public Service Commission."
An official party in a passenger car went through the Pennsylvania Railroad’s tubes between New Jersey and Long Island on the 18th of November.
Work on a Fourth Avenue Subway in Brooklyn was begun November 13.
The Hudson Terminal at Cortlaudt and Church Streets is one of the most interesting structures in the world. Below the street is the terminal station, where all the trains "downtown" arrive and depart. This station is wholly below tide level. It is surrounded by a cofferdam of reinforced concrete 8 ft. thick, 400 ft. long, and 177 ft. wide, and is sunk 95 ft. deep to solid rock. Forty feet below the street is the track floor. Twenty feet below the street is the great "Concourse," where all traffic is collected and distributed to the various train platforms underneath. On the Concourse the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley, and the Erie Railroads have ticket offices, where tickets to any part of America may be bought. This Concourse, which is about 1½ acres in extent, is one of the show places of New York. Above the street level are two great office buildings, each 22 stories in height, and containing approximately 27 acres of rentable area.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1901-1903. Municipal Elections. Tammany’s Loss and Recovery of the Government.
Tammany Hall suffered defeat in the municipal election of 1901, the Honorable Seth Low, formerly a notable Mayor of Brooklyn and latterly President of Columbia University, being carried into the Mayor’s office by a roused movement of reform which fused the elements of opposition to the corrupting Tammany power. Unfortunately the Mayor’s term of office had been shortened to two years by the charter amendment of the previous year, and the term was too brief for much depth and thoroughness of reform; but the city was greatly cleansed during those two years. When the next election came, in 1903, Tammany had rallied its hungry forces and secured a highly respectable nominee for Mayor, in the person of Honorable George B. McClellan, son of the famous General of the Civil War. Mayor Low, renominated by a second Fusion of opponents to Tammany, experienced defeat.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1904 (June). The Burning of the Steamer Slocum.
A catastrophe of such horror as to be historical attended the burning of the excursion steamer General Slocum, at New York, on the 15th of June, 1904. The boat left a New York dock in the morning with a Sunday-school picnic party aboard numbering about eleven hundred,—nearly all women and children. While passing through that part of the East River known as Hell Gate, within the New York City limits, fire was discovered in the forward part of the vessel. It was then flood tide, and the eddies and currents in those waters are very strong. The captain decided that it would be folly to attempt to land on either shore, or to beach his boat. He therefore headed the Slocum for an island two miles up stream. As the boat went forward at full steam, the fore-and-aft draught thus created fanned the flames and hastened her destruction. On the discovery of the fire by the passengers, the wildest panic ensued. It was found that the life-preservers with which the Slocum was equipped were worthless. No attempt was made to lower boats or life-rafts. The crew were engaged in trying to cope with the fire, but their efforts were futile. Within twenty minutes, the boat went to her doom, and of the women and helpless children who had embarked so gaily an hour before, more than nine hundred were drowned or burned to death. Hundreds were saved by the heroic efforts of policemen, river men, and the nurses on North Brother Island, the seat of New York’s hospital for contagious diseases, where the Slocum was finally beached. Most of those who met this awful death had come from a single densely populated district of New York’s great "East Side." In some cases, whole families were wiped out.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1905. Institution of the Bureau of Municipal Research.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: NEW YORK CITY.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1905. The Municipal Election.
Especial excitements were given to the municipal election of this year in New York by the appearance in it of William R. Hearst, proprietor of several newspapers in the country which are foremost representatives of the recklessly sensational journalism called "yellow." The methods by which these papers won a great circulation include much that can hardly be described otherwise than as demagoguism, and many groups and classes of people who are restlessly discontented in life, whether reasonably or otherwise, had learned to look on Mr. Hearst as a champion of human rights. This prepared material from which to organize a personal following that took the character, for a time, of a formidable political organization, incorporated under the name of the Independence League; and the great wealth which Mr. Hearst had inherited, and which his prosperous newspapers replenished, was spent lavishly in exploiting, supporting, and controlling the organization. His political ambitions aimed high, and the mayoralty of New York City, for which his Independence League nominated him in 1905, was by no means the contemplated end.
The Tammany Democracy gave its nomination to George B. McClellan, son of the famous General, while the Republican party named William M. Ivins, a prominent lawyer of the city. The canvas was a heated one, and as it progressed the League of Mr. Hearst was seen to be dangerously large. As a consequence. Republicans who feared its control of the City government even more than they feared that of Tammany, threw their votes for McClellan, giving him a plurality of about 3500 over Hearst, and leaving Mr. Ivins far behind. {452} Frauds were claimed and the election contested by Hearst and his supporters, who secured, by order of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, a recounting of the ballots in four election districts, with the result of a gain of seventeen votes for Mr. Hearst. Appeal was then taken to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for an order directing not only a recount but a recanvass of votes. Such an order was granted, but set aside by the Court of Appeals, to which the question went then; the court of last resort reversing, also, the order under which the four boxes had been recounted. The assertion of fraud was still maintained with vehemence, and the legitimacy of Mayor McClellan’s title to the office he filled was denied for more than a year. The Legislature then passed an Act directing a recanvass and recount of the entire ballots of the election, which had been preserved under seal. This was a labor of months, performed under the direction of Judge Lambert, of the Supreme Court. It gave a gain of 1094 votes to Hearst and a gain of 231 to McClellan, leaving a net gain of 863 to Hearst, and diminishing McClellan’s plurality in the total vote to 2791. The validity of his election was thereupon declared.
A more successful and far more notable independent candidacy than that of Mr. Hearst, in the New York City election of 1905, was conducted for the purpose of retaining Mr. William Travers Jerome in the office of District Attorney for the county of New York. He had been carried into the office on a fusion ticket, four years before, and had performed its important duties with a courage, a force, an independence and a rectitude that were beyond praise. The machines of the parties would not nominate him for reëlection; but an extraordinary rally of the friends of good government in all parties put him into the field, with an emergency organization that sufficed to carry him triumphantly through. He was elected by a plurality of about 16,000. So striking a proof of the political popularity which a high quality of public service can win has not often been given.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1905-1909. The Undertaking of Works for a Water Supply from the Catskill Mountains.
In 1905 the City of New York procured authority from the Legislature to construct the works necessary for an adequate supply of water, additional to that which had been drawn for many years from the Croton River for old New York and from the Ridgewood system for Brooklyn. The source determined on was in the Catskill Mountains, including several streams, called creeks,—namely Esopus, Rondout, Schoharie, and Catskill,— having a total water shed of 885 square miles, and estimated to furnish about 770 millions of gallons daily, even in dry years. The plan of the project in its entirety contemplates the construction of eight great reservoirs for storing and controlling the waters derived from these streams. The first to be built and the largest of such reservoirs is named the Ashokan, on Esopus Creek, about 14 miles west of the Hudson River at Kingston, near Brown’s station on the Ulster and Delaware Railway. Work on this was begun in 1907. It is being constructed in the form of two basins, having a united length of about twelve and a half miles, lying between hills which are connected by numerous massive dams. The dams necessary to complete the enclosure of the water have a total length of more than five miles.
In a straight line the distance from the Ashokan Reservoir to New York is 86 miles; but the windings of the course that will have to be given to the great aqueduct from the reservoir to the city will add six miles to its length. The aqueduct is to pass from the western to the eastern side of the Hudson at Storm King Mountain, through a tunnel in solid rock, far beneath the river bed. From Breakneck on the western shore it will cross a corner of the Croton watershed to a filter site, and to two final reservoirs, the Kensico and the Hill View. In connection with both Ashokan and Kensico reservoirs the plan of the system contemplates an aeration of the water, by flinging it to the air in thousands of fountain jets.
In the parts of the great concrete aqueduct that can be built in an open cut its dimensions are seventeen feet of height and seventeen and a half feet of width. Where it traverses tunnels the width is reduced to thirteen feet. Its delivery of water to New York is calculated to add 500,000,000 of gallons daily to the water supply of the city. The undertaking as a whole is claimed to be the greatest that any city has yet engaged in, while the engineering work involved is said to be second only in magnitude to that of the Panama Canal.
_Alfred D. Flinn, The World's Greatest Aqueduct (The Century Magazine, September, 1909)._
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1907 (April). Great Peace Congress.
See (in this Volume) WAR: THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909. Unearthing of Corruptions in the Custom House.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909 (June). The Wall Street Investigation, so-called. Report on the Operations of the Stock Exchange and other Exchanges.
See (in this Volume) FINANCE AND TRADE: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909. Renewed Struggle against Tammany, with Partial but Substantial Success.
Although Tammany elected its candidate for Mayor in the municipal election of 1909, its domination was practically overthrown by the defeat of its nominees for all other offices of importance in the City Government. A coalition of the Republicans with anti-Tammany Democrats and other organizations had presented a fusion ticket headed by a prominent and much-trusted business man, Mr. Otto T. Bannard. William R. Hearst entered the field again, as an independent nominee, and Tammany named Judge William J. Gaynor, who had been one of its opponents, as a Democrat, in the past. Judge Gaynor was elected by a plurality of 73,016, the vote cast for mayor being: Gaynor 250,678; Bannard 177,662; Hearst 153,843. The City Comptroller, four of the five borough presidents, and the President of the Board of Aldermen, were elected by the Fusionists. By the election of Mr. McAneny to be President of the Borough of Manhattan (the old New York City), a very eminent political reformer and one of great force, was brought into the City Government. As president of the energetic City Club, which became a power in reform politics under his lead, and as secretary of the National Civil Service Reform League, Mr. McAneny had given abundant proof of his capacity and his earnestness in work for good government.
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By controlling twelve of the sixteen votes in the important Board of Estimate, the opponents of Tammany stripped that organization of all power over public "jobs." As the fact was expressed exultingly in one of the journals of New York on the day after election, "after January 1 Charles F. Murphy and his associates no longer will say who shall have public franchises; they, too, will no longer fix the budget, sell the city’s bonds, and pay political debts with salary increases. In other words, the Tiger has lost his grip on the city’s purse-strings, and this fact, perhaps, more than any other, has turned his den into a cavern of gloom."
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909. Proposed New Charter, not acted on in the Legislature.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: NEW YORK CITY.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1909-1910. The Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909-1910.
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY: Legislative Investigation.
See (in this Volume) INSURANCE, LIFE.
NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD RAILROAD CASE.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1906.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899-1909. The Barge Canal under Construction.
On the 8th of March, 1899, Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, appointed a committee of private citizens, for service without pay, in studying and reporting on the policy to be adopted by the State of New York in dealing with its canals. The appointed chairman of the committee was General Francis Vinton Greene, and the following account of the recommendations made by the committee is taken from a paper on the subject contributed by General Greene to Volume XIII. of the Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, published in December, 1909:
"The other members were Major Thomas W. Symons of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, then stationed at Buffalo in charge of river and harbor improvements, Honorable Frank S. Witherbee of Port Henry in the Champlain district, Honorable George E. Green, State Senator from Binghamton in the southern tier of counties, Honorable John N. Scatcherd of Buffalo, and the two state officials most intimately connected with the administration of canals, viz., Honorable Edward A. Bond, State Engineer, and Honorable John N. Partridge, Superintendent of Public Works.
"The request of the Governor was simply that we should study the canal problem and advise him. … We devoted the greater part of the year 1899 to a study of the subject, and made our report to the Governor under date of January 15, 1900. … The Governor promptly transmitted the report to the Legislature, adopting the conclusions and recommendations which it contained, and advising that legislation be enacted to carry them into effect. This was done in successive years … ; finally the project was ratified and adopted by an overwhelming vote of the people in the election of 1903. …
"As to our conclusions and recommendations, the first question to be decided was whether or not the canals should be entirely abandoned. It was claimed by many that canal transportation was antiquated and altogether out of date; that ‘the railroads, with their large capital and scientific management, their durable roadbeds, powerful locomotives, larger cars, greater train loads, greater speed, and more certainty of delivery, will be able now or in the early future to reduce the cost of transportation below what is possible on the canals.’ If it should seem probable that the railroads could accomplish this, then it would be manifestly unwise and improper to expend any more public money upon the canals.
"From a consideration of all [the] facts we reached our first conclusion—which, like all the other portions of our report, was unanimously adopted—to wit, ‘That the canals connecting the Hudson river with Lakes Erie, Ontario and Champlain should not be abandoned, but should be maintained and enlarged.’
"The next point to be considered was, to what extent should they be enlarged, what size of vessel they should be adapted to carry, and what would be the estimated cost of construction.
"As to the proper size of the enlarged canal, widely different views were held by engineers and by economists. Some contended that the nine foot canal authorized in 1894 was sufficiently large; others brought forward the supposed advantages of a ship canal large enough to carry ocean-going steamers without breaking bulk from Duluth to Liverpool, or any other port; others contended that a canal of intermediate size would be found to be the most economical, would cost the least amount of money for the results produced, and would, in fact, produce a lower freight rate than either the small canal on the one hand, or the ship canal on the other.
"To these questions we gave the most careful study. The ship canal had many glittering attractions, and there was a large sentiment along the lakes which had found expression in Deep Waterways conventions, which had been held in recent years and had advocated a water route of either 21 or 28 feet depth from Lake Erie to the Atlantic ocean. … But a careful examination of the facts led us to the conclusion that while a ship canal of 21 or 28 feet depth would cost enormously more than a barge canal of say, 12 feet depth, it would not produce as low a freight rate. …
"Having rejected the ship canal project, we had then to consider what size of enlarged canal we should recommend. In any event, we were satisfied that the route of the canal should be changed so as to use the waterways of the Seneca and Oneida rivers, Oneida lake and the Mohawk river in place of the present route; but the question was whether the depth of the canal should be 9 feet, capable of carrying a boat with cargo capacity of 450 tons, or a depth of 12 feet, carrying a boat with a cargo capacity of about 1,000 tons. With such data as we could obtain in the short time at our disposal, and without adequate surveys, we estimated the cost of the smaller project at a little more than $21,000,000, and of the larger project at a little less than $59,000,000.
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"Our conclusion was in these words: ‘In our judgment, arrived at after long consideration, and with some reluctance, the State should undertake the larger project on the ground that the smaller one is at best a temporary makeshift, and that the larger project will permanently secure the commercial supremacy of New York, and that this can be assured by no other means.’ …
"We made a fourth recommendation in the following words:
"‘That the money for these improvements should be raised by the issue of eighteen-year bonds in the manner prescribed by the State Constitution, and that the interest and principal of these bonds should be paid out of taxes specifically levied, for benefits received, in the counties bordering in whole or in part on the canals, the Hudson river and Lake Champlain; such taxes to be levied in proportion to the assessed valuation of the real and personal estate in such counties. These taxes will amount to about 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation annually during the period of eighteen years.’
"Our object in making this recommendation was to disarm the opposition of the non-canal counties. … We also submitted statistics in tabular and graphic form showing that the valuation of the river and canal counties was 90% of the entire valuation of the State. In any event, they would bear 90% of the expense, and it was thought wise to suggest that they bear the entire expense so as to remove every ground of alleged injustice in taxing the counties which claimed to derive no benefit.
"This recommendation was not adopted by the Legislature, nor submitted to the people. …
"At the election the non-canal counties voted against the project by large majorities, St. Lawrence county, for instance, being 12 to 1 against it, and Steuben county, 10 to 1 against it; but, on the other hand, the canal counties voted in favor of it by almost equally large majorities, New York being 9 to 1 in favor of it; Kings, 8 to 1; Queens, 5 to 1, and Erie, nearly 5 to 1. For some unexplained reason Monroe county, in which Rochester is situated, and Onondaga county, in which Syracuse is situated, voted against it. The overwhelming vote, however, in the counties at the two terminals, New York and Buffalo, made a majority of 245,312 in the entire State in favor of the project, and a total vote of 1,100,708.
"Our fifth and final recommendation was as follows:
"That the efficiency of the canals depends upon their management quite as much as upon their physical size, and that no money should be spent for further enlargement unless accompanied by measures which will accomplish the following results:
"(a) The removal of all restrictions as to the amount of capital of companies engaged in transportation on the canals, and the encouragement of large transportation lines for handling canal business, in place of hampering them, as has hitherto been the case.
"(b) The use of mechanical means of traction, either steam or electricity, in place of draft animals; and the use of mechanical power in place of hand power for operating the gates and valves, and moving boats in locks.
"(c) The organization of the force engaged on the public works of the State on a more permanent basis, so as to afford an attractive career to graduates of scientific institutions, with the assurance that their entry into the service, their tenure of office, and their promotion will depend solely on their fitness, as determined by proper and practical tests.
"(d) A revision of the laws in regard to the letting of public contracts by the State, so as to make impossible a repetition of the unfortunate results of the $9,000,000 appropriation.
"Legislation has already been adopted to carry into effect (a) and (c); the adopted plans for the canal are in accordance with (b); and the specific form of contract which we recommended in connection with (d) was not adopted, but another form of contract was adopted which will practically accomplish the same result.
"It only remains to speak of the cost of the project. With such data as we had available and with such surveys as were possible during the year 1899, we estimated the cost of the project we recommended at $58,894,668 for the Erie Canal and $2,642,120 for the Oswego and Champlain canals, making a total of $61,536,788. This contemplated a canal with 12 feet depth and suitable locks for carrying a barge of approximately 1,000 tons capacity from Buffalo to the Hudson river, but as to the Oswego and Champlain canals, it recommended only the completion of the work already undertaken to provide for boats of six feet draft. … It was ultimately determined to enlarge the Champlain and Oswego canals to the same size as the main canal between Buffalo and the Hudson river, and also to include the dredging of a 12 foot channel in the Hudson river, which we had anticipated would be done by the Federal Government. This enlargement of the project very materially increased the cost, and in the interval between the time of our report and the completion of the detailed report of the State Engineer, the prices of labor and materials had very largely advanced. In order to cover all possible contingencies, the State Engineer carried his estimate to $101,000,000, and this was the amount appropriated by the Legislature and ratified by the people at the election of 1903."
_Francis Vinton Greene, The Inception of the Barge Canal Project (Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Volume 13)._
The first six contracts for the construction of the Barge Canal were let in April, 1905. The state of the work at the end of the year 1909 was announced by Governor Hughes in his Message to the next Legislature as follows:
"The contracts in force for the Barge Canal improvement amount in total price to $48,229,467, and the contract value of the work performed to December 1, 1909, was $15,821,275. It is estimated by the State engineer and surveyor that during 1910 work will be completed amounting to $16,000,000, and it is expected that the work for the entire length of the Barge Canal system will be under contract by April 1, 1910. At the present rate of progress, it is said that it is not unreasonable to expect that the Barge Canal system will be completed by the end of the year 1914. It is further stated that the work is being carried on within the original estimates. This enterprise should be pushed to completion as speedily, as economically, and efficiently as possible."
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1901-1909. Legislation developing the Parole System of dealing with Convicts.
See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: INDETERMINATE SENTENCES.
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NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1905-1906. Legislative Investigation of Life Insurance Companies and the State Superintendency of them. Startling Disclosures. Remedial Legislation.
See (in this Volume) INSURANCE, LIFE.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1906-1910. The Epoch of Governor Hughes. The Special Significance of his Administration. His Exemplary Fidelity to Fundamental Political Principles. His Public Support against Hostile Party-Managers.
The election of 1906 is likely to be marked in the political history of New York as the introduction of an epoch,—the Epoch of Governor Hughes. The State has had a number of very notable Governors, in both early and late times,—Governors who left a deep and lasting impression of themselves on its history, and who have been large contributors to its prestige and influence as the Empire State of the American Union; but Governor Hughes is of a type so different from any of his predecessors, and his conduct of the Governor’s high office has been so distinctive in principle and method, that his administration can hardly fail, in the retrospect, to take on a special significance of its own.
As counsel to the Legislative Committee which investigated the scandals of life-insurance management in 1905-1906 (see, in this Volume, INSURANCE, LIFE), the conduct of the investigation by Mr. Charles Evans Hughes drew public attention, and made him known so favorably that when in the autumn of 1906 the Republican Party of the State had special need of a personally attractive candidate for Governor, an unmistakable expression of popular opinion directed the choice to him. The Independence League which Mr. William R. Hearst had rallied and organized, and which had served him the previous year in his candidacy for the mayoralty of New York (see, above, NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1905), had been recruited so successfully throughout the State, and had absorbed so much of some elements of the Democratic Party, that the latter made terms of combination with it, and adopted Mr. Hearst as its gubernatorial nominee. The combination was one which the ordinary forces acting for the Republican Party could hardly hope to overcome; but the recent prestige of Mr. Hughes might call out reinforcements that would save the day. It was not willingly that the professional managers of the party consented to his nomination, and it was not willingly that he accepted it. He was heartily a Republican in politics, but never active in its affairs, being devoted to his profession and plainly reluctant to be turned aside at all from the career it had just fairly opened before him. But he yielded, as the party managers did, to a call from the public of the party, and the result of the election afforded proof of the reality and sincerity of the call. Hughes alone on the State ticket of the Republicans was elected; Hearst alone on the ticket of the Democratic-Independence-League combination was defeated. Governor Hughes was thus placed, on the 1st of January, 1907, at the head of an administration in which every other elective office was filled by his political opponents.
This political aloneness of Governor Hughes in his office would have mattered very little, however, if his own party surroundings in it had been friendly and sympathetic; but very quickly it was seen that he had conceptions of official duty which those who controlled the machine-like "organization" of the party, with consequent powers of influence over its representatives in the legislature and in other official places, could in no wise comprehend. With a degree of precision and decision hardly matched by another executive, this Governor had studied, constitutionally and ethically, and had defined to himself, the obligations and limitations of his office, and had resolved them into principles of action from which he never swerved. In one particular, especially, this held him to a course which some former governors had adhered to in the main, but none, perhaps, with a consistency as firm. In the use of two powers confided to the Governor, that of the veto in legislation and that of appointment to many State offices, there had always been more or less of giving and taking between the Executive, on one side, and the Legislature and the controlling leaders of party organization on the other. A Governor actuated by personal motives, of ambition or other self-interest, would use these powers freely, in bargaining for or enforcing his desires; and a Governor who cared for public interests alone would sometimes feel driven to secure measures needful to that end at some price of concession in appointments and in the approval of bills, or some coercive use of the veto whip. Governor Hughes would do neither, and his attitude in this matter stands out so conspicuously as to mark in itself an epoch of great example in the right exercise of executive power.
No Governor has ever interested himself more earnestly in the work of the Legislature, with a watchful eye to the needs, interests, and rights of the public and to the demands of good government on every side. No Governor has ever taken a more active and effective part in the production of important legislation, and none has ever put his stamp on more of such legislation within the same time. But all that he has done in that line of executive duty has been strictly by recommendation and by argument, addressed first to the Legislature and then to the public behind it; never by any other means. Legislatures have been coerced irresistibly into compliance with his recommendations, by public opinion, wakened by the Governor’s voice; never directly by him. There has been no departure from the principle of action which he stated once in these words: "I have not attempted, through the use of political patronage or political machinery to coerce anybody, and I don’t propose to do so. But under the constitution, it is my privilege and my duty to recommend legislation. If I mean what I say when I recommend, I ought to be able to tell why it is recommended, and my constituency is not the Legislature, and not any particular part of the people, but my constituency is the people of the State, and I propose, therefore, whenever I make a recommendation, and there is any question about it, to tell as forcibly, as fully and as frankly as possible why I stand for it. If it is wrong, you will know it all the sooner; if it is right, you will give it the support it deserves. I call that American government, and if we had a little less trading, a little less wirepulling and bulldozing, we would prosper to a far greater degree."
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The Legislature of New York has been honored by this highminded and respectful treatment of it, which the highminded among its members have appreciated; but these have been at most times a minority. The majority, obedient to resentful party "bosses," have acted sullenly with him when the lash of public opinion has driven them to his side, and defiantly against him when they dared. His obstinate antagonists have found a reflection hard to obtain.
The most signal showing of the attitude of the public toward antagonists of Governor Hughes in the Legislature occurred in connection with a bill, recommended by the Governor in 1907, for the amendment of a disgraceful existing law relative to race-track gambling. The State Constitution, as revised in 1894, prohibits all forms of gambling, and declares that "the Legislature shall pass appropriate laws to prevent offenses against any of the provisions of this section." In 1895 an Act (known as the Percy-Gray Law) was got through the Legislature, professedly in obedience to this mandate of the Constitution, which verbally prohibited betting on races, but penalized it only by providing that the loser of a race-track bet might sue the winner and recover twice the amount of his bet, while betting and gambling in other places were punished heavily by imprisonment and fine. This scandalous favor to the race-track interests carried a bribe at the same time to the farmers of the State, in the form of a cunning provision of the Act, which appropriated five per cent. of the gross receipts of racing associations to the benefit of agricultural societies. Repeated attempts to correct so contemptuous a violation of the Constitution had failed; but Governor Hughes renewed the attempt, with a feeling of reverence for Law and for the honor of the State which could not tolerate defeat. When the amending Bill that he recommended was put in suspense by a tie vote in the Senate, the Governor called a special session of the Legislature, and brought the question before the people in speeches which made a mighty stir. The racing interests in the State were so powerful that they almost defied defeat, and all their influence came into play. Meantime a special election to fill a vacancy in the Senate was pending in Western New York, and the issue on the race-track gambling bill was fought out there, with the Governor in the field, contending for an honest enforcement of the constitutional law of the State. The result of the election gave support to that contention, and when, at the special session, the Bill in question was again called up in the Senate, as it could be, it was passed by a majority of one. The Republican senators who voted against it were most of them retired to private life by their constituents at the senatorial elections of the ensuing fall.
Almost everything of importance in New York legislation since Governor Hughes entered office has had its origin in his recommendations, and has been carried by the weight of public backing which belief in him calls out, against resisting influences that would ordinarily have prevailed. This was notably the fact in the case of the Public Service Commissions Act of 1907 (See (in this Volume) PUBLIC UTILITIES), which established an effective supervision and regulation of corporations engaged in public services, by placing over them two commissions, appointed by the Governor, one with jurisdiction in New York City, the other in the remainder of the State, both armed with large powers. The services covered are those of railways, gas and electric light and power companies, and the authority established over them extends not only to their rates, but to their capitalization, their issues of stock and bonds, their franchises, the labor conditions under them, their equipment, and the sufficiency and quality of the service they render. The excellence of the Act has been proved by its working, in the hands of the commissions appointed by Governor Hughes.
In the checking of improper legislation by his vetoes, especially against encroachments on local rights of self-government, and against special enactments that intrude on general laws, Governor Hughes has been a teacher of political principles, as importantly as in the legislative advice which it is part of his constitutional duty to render. He taught a great lesson to every legislative body and every executive in the Union, when he disapproved a highly popular bill which prescribed a fixed rate of railway passenger fares at two cents per mile, on the ground that it was not a matter to be dealt with summarily,—without careful investigation and determination of the facts involved. So consistent, so forceful, so effective a teacher, in fact, by precept and high example, of the fundamentals of principle in political action, has rarely appeared in any country.
That Governor Hughes was renominated and reelected in 1908 for a second term was again by reason of a public insistence which neither he nor the hostile manipulators of caucus-work in his party could resist. If the election had not been coincident in time with a presidential election the "bosses" of the party would have refused the nomination to him at any cost. They were able to secure a convention of delegates that would eagerly have made that refusal; but when the Governor was persuaded to say that he would accept renomination, they dared not imperil the national interests of the party by flouting demands which came from every quarter of the land. He had become so national a figure that interest in his reelection was nation-wide.
On the powerful movement in New York to break down the practical exclusion of the people from the choosing of candidates for office, which Governor Hughes inspired.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES: DIRECT PRIMARY NOMINATIONS.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1906-1909. Work of Reforestation.
See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: UNITED STATES.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1907. The Gift of Letchworth Park.
A noble gift to the State was made in January, 1907, by the Honorable William Pryor Letchworth, a gentleman of distinction in benevolent work, officially as president for many years of the State Board of Charities, and privately, at the same time, as a profound student of and writer on, some of the gravest of the problems of philanthropy, especially that of the treatment of the insane. The home of Mr. Letchworth for many years has been on a great estate which embraces the finest and most famous scenery of the Upper Genesee River, lying on both sides of the cañon [canyon] down which the river plunges in three successive falls. {457} The thousand acres of the estate enclose all three of the falls. This magnificent domain, preserved in all its natural beauty and improved with careful taste by half a century of Mr. Letchworth’s care, has been conveyed in trust to the State, under the future custody of The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, to be forever, after the death of Mr. Letchworth, a Public Park. A generous citizen has thus saved from destructive uses a piece of scenery which has hardly its equal for picturesque and varied beauty in another part of the State.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1907. Enactment of the Public Utilities Law.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC UTILITIES.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1907-1909. Creation of the Probation System.
See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PROBATION.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1909. Gas Company’s Refund.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC UTILITIES.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1909. Historical Commemorations. The Champlain and the Hudson-Fulton.
Three notable events of the far past were notably commemorated in New York during the summer and autumn of 1909. The tercentenary year of Champlain’s discovery, in July, 1609, of the Lake which bears his name, was signalized by a week of historical pageants, fêtes, and gatherings for speech and ceremony, on and around the lake, beginning on the 4th of July. France, England, Canada, and the United States were represented in the addresses and exercises of the occasion, by the British and French Ambassadors, the Postmaster-General of the Dominion, President Taft and ex-Secretary Root, Governor Hughes of New York and Governor Prouty of Vermont. A large number of Indians took part in the pageants, occupying a floating island constructed for the occasion on the lake, and representing scenes of Indian life and warfare, the story of Hiawatha, and other reminders of the time when men of their race were the lords of the region of Lake Champlain. The occasion was made one of great interest.
Still more of interest was given to the double commemoration, in September, of Hendrick Hudson’s exploration of Hudson River and of Robert Fulton’s first practically successful undertaking of steamboating, on that river. The celebration of the event first named was timed appropriately on its third centennial anniversary. That of the second was belated by two years; but the two were most fitly connected. The people of Holland joined heartily in the Hudson commemoration, building and sending over to New York an exact replica of Hudson’s little ship, the Halve Maen, or Half Moon, in which his voyage was made. Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont, was also reproduced for the occasion, and the two small, quaint vessels, strikingly in contrast with the monster battle ships and ocean liners that surrounded them, lent a singular interest to the affair. Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Cuba, and the Argentine Republic accepted invitations to take part in the naval parades which formed a grand feature of the celebration, and an imposing assembly of great ships of war was shown. Eight days, from Saturday, September 25th, until the following Saturday, were filled with church services, school exercises, historical exhibitions and processions, military and naval parades, aquatic sports, carnival doings, aeroplane flights, banquets to foreign guests, etc., at New York City, after which the Half Moon and the Clermont proceeded up the river and the celebration was continued in various towns.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1909. Defeat of the Direct Primary Bill.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES: DIRECT PRIMARY NOMINATION.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1909-1910. Munificent Gifts of Land on the Hudson for Park Purposes offered.
In his annual Message to the Legislature, January 5, 1910, Governor Hughes announced the details of a munificent project of gifts proffered to the State for the purpose of creating a noble State Park on and near the Hudson River. Mrs. Mary W. Harriman, widow of the late E. H. Harriman, offered to convey to the State a tract of about ten thousand acres of land in Orange and Rockland counties, to be held in perpetuity as a State park; offering further to give the State $1,000,000 in trust, to be used for the purchase of land lying between the tract mentioned and the Hudson River, so that the park may have the advantage of a river frontage. Other gifts for similar purposes amounting to $1,625,000 were announced as a result of the activity of the Palisades Park Commission, from residents of New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. John D. Rockefeller and J. Pierpont Morgan each subscribed $500,000; Margaret Olivia Sage, William K. Vanderbilt, George F. Baker, James Stillman, John D. Archbold, Frank A. Munsey, Henry Phipps, E. T. Stotesbury, E. H. Gary, and George W. Perkins gave $50,000 each: Helen M. Gould and V. Everit Macy contributed $25,000 each, and Ellen F. James and Arthur C. James jointly gave a similar amount. These subscriptions were secured upon conditions stipulating, among other things, that New York State shall appropriate $2,500,000 for the acquiring of land and the building of roads and general park purposes; that the State of New Jersey shall contribute a fair share, and that the State discontinue work on the new State prison at Great Bear Mountain in Rockland County, where preliminary work on the site for a new $2,000,000 structure has been under way for several months.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1886-1893. Extension of the Suffrage to Women.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1896-1908. Twelve Years of Local Option. The working of the Law. Warning to the Liquor Trade. The Vote of Women.
See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM: NEW ZEALAND.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1902. Colonial Conference at London.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1903. The Maori King a Colonial Minister.
The old fierce conflict of the Maoris with the English colonists in New Zealand would seem to have been effectually ended, since the Maori King accepted a seat in the colonial Cabinet, as a responsible Minister, in 1903.
{458}
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1905. Government Ownership and Long-leasing of Land. Its working. Government Loans to Farmers.
The land system of New Zealand, as it was in 1895, is described in Volume VI. of this work (see NEW ZEALAND). It has since been carried farther on social-paternalistic lines, by extensive expropriations or compulsory sales of large estates to the Government, and by the institution of public loans of capital to farmers at a moderate rate of interest. The operation and result are thus described in a recent work:
"So far the government has lent to the farmers about $20,000,000, but it has saved them $20,000,000 in interest, because as soon as it came into the field with its cheap loans, interest rates dropped everywhere. You see Shylock has fled from these shores and will not return. The government has never lost a cent in these loans. Reform proceeded next, with a land tax graduated to an ascending scale, to discourage land-grabbing, and land speculation; so that the more land a man owns the higher is the tax-rate upon it. Thus for farms of ordinary size the rate is two cents in every $5 of assessed valuation; but on estates of more than $25,000 the rate increases in regular ratio to the maximum of six cents for every $5, except for absentee owners. They must pay fifty per cent. more than residents. You can see that in New Zealand the chance for fine old families and landed gentry is slim. No doubt the theory of these things is extremely reprehensible, but the practice is excellent. What with seizing the big estates, and what with the graduated land tax, the size of holdings has been so reduced that of 115,713 landowners in 1905 only 22,778 came under the operations of the augmented land tax. The others, having small properties, paid the smallest rate. Under the land purchase act the government has seized 691,594 acres, mostly hunting fields and uncultivated family inheritances. These have been partitioned into small farms and are occupied by actual settlers. Under the operation of all the new land laws together, the produce of New Zealand has trebled, and the New Zealand farmer has become the most prosperous in the world."
Charles E. Russell, The Uprising of the Many, chapter 29 (copyright, 1907, by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1907).
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906. The Democratizing of Competition. Labor Group Coöperation.
See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906-1909. The Liberal Party and the Liberal Ministry. Their years of Great Power. Their Strength shaken in the latest Election. Its Method and Result. The new Ministry of Sir Joseph Ward.
In June, 1906, the Liberal Party in New Zealand experienced a great loss, in the death of Mr. Richard J. Seddon, its strong leader, and the Prime Minister of Government for some time past. His place was taken temporarily by Mr. Hall-Jones, until Sir Joseph Ward, then absent from the country, returned and received the chief ministerial seat. Since 1893 the Liberal Party had derived large majorities in Parliament from each triennial election. The Liberal Administration had advanced accordingly, says a recent letter to the London Times, "under the banner of labour legislation, new land laws, and State Socialism, and was strengthened in its position by the general prosperity of the country and the expenditure of large sums of borrowed money upon public works. At the end of last Session, it was still at the head of affairs with a majority (including the four Maori members) of no fewer than 46.
"In the meantime, however, the guiding hand of Mr. Seddon, the great apostle of New Zealand democracy, had been removed from the scene, the harsh working of the Compulsory Arbitration Act had begun to alienate the sympathies of both employers and workers; the anti-freehold tendencies of the present Administration were effecting a change of feeling in the country constituencies, and the drop in the prices of some of our staple products, combined with the stringency in the local money market, began to act as a check on our commercial prosperity. Finally, the Government made some tactical blunders." Hence the Opposition, at the Parliamentary election of November, 1908, was greatly strengthened, though the ascendancy of the Liberals was still maintained. The conduct of the election and its result are described by the correspondent already quoted, as follows: "An election in New Zealand is conducted in a most orderly manner. The distribution of literature, the wearing of badges, and any touting for votes from electors on their way to the polls or in front of the polling booths are strictly prohibited by law. A half-holiday has to be observed in shops and offices, and factory owners must allow their employés time off to vote. The publichouses remain closed from noon until the polls are closed, the closing hour being in the country 6 P. M., and in the cities 7 P. M. Time was, in the very early days, when the polling booths were in some cases located between two drinking saloons that did a roaring trade, and the result was much loud disputation, bad language, and fighting. Nowadays all that is changed, and women can walk into the polling booths with complete unconcern. For the 76 seats 213 candidates had been nominated. Of these 114 claimed to be Ministerialists and 52 Oppositionists, while 46 were Independents, among whom were a few Socialists and Independent Labourites. The result of the first ballot was that 34 Government supporters, 16 Opposition candidates, and three Independents were elected by absolute majorities. In 23 constituencies the candidates at the head of the poll failed to secure absolute majorities of the total votes polled, and it became necessary to hold second ballots, the number of these being practically double what was estimated by the Prime Minister. … Twenty-two of these were held a week later, and resulted in a further strengthening of the Opposition party. One—in a widely scattered country constituency—has yet to be held. The Government secured 12 of the seats, the Opposition nine, and Independent Labour one. …
"The result of the elections, as a whole, is greatly to strengthen the Opposition, and correspondingly to weaken the Government. The next most noticeable feature about it is the unusual change it has made in the personnel of the House of Representatives. While not a single Opposition member of the last Parliament who stood has lost his seat, no fewer than 17 followers of the Ministry have been relegated to private life; while the new Parliament will contain 27 new members out of 76. {459} The position of parties, with one second ballot yet to be decided, is—Government, 45; Opposition, 25; Independent, 4; Independent Labour, 1. At the end of last Session (excluding Maori members) the Government were 59 strong, while the Opposition, including one Independent, numbered only 17. Thus, whereas in the last Parliament the Government could reckon on a majority of 42, they cannot now be absolutely sure of a majority of more than 15 of the European members on certain issues. There are four Maori members still to be elected, and as these generally vote with the party in power the assured Ministerial majority will be 19. This should be amply sufficient to enable Sir Joseph Ward to continue in power for the full term of the Parliament—three years."
Early in January, 1909, the Ministry was reconstructed, the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, burdening himself with the portfolios of Finance, Defence, Lands, Agriculture, and the Post Office. This was said to be made necessary by the inexperience in office of the new Ministers whom he called to his side.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1907 (April-May). Imperial Conference at London.
See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1907-1909. Working of the Compulsory Arbitration Law.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: NEW ZEALAND.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1908. Population.
The population of the Dominion of New Zealand on December 31, 1908, was estimated as follows: Europeans 960,000; Maoris, 49,000; Cook Islanders, 12,000. There was an increase of Europeans during the year of 31,000, being at the rate of 3.36 percent. The excess of immigration over departures was 14,000—a record; while the natural increase was 17,000. The death-rate was 9.57 per thousand, as compared with 10.95 in 1907; and the birth-rate was 27.45 per thousand, as compared with 27.30.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1908-1909. Labor Strike caused by Legislation making "Miners’ Disease" a ground of Compensation from Employers.
See (in this Volume) LABOR PROTECTION: EMPLOYERS’ LIABILITY.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. Announcement of Railway-Building Policy.
See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: NEW ZEALAND.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. Act establishing compulsory Military Training.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY: NEW ZEALAND.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. The Prime Minister’s testimony to the good working of Woman Suffrage.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909 (July-August). Imperial Defence Conference. Offer of a "Dreadnought" to the Imperial Navy.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY AND NAVAL.
NIAGARA FALLS: Preservation of their "Scenic Grandeur."
An Act of Congress, designed "to preserve the scenic grandeur" of Niagara Falls, approved in June, 1906, authorized the Secretary of War to grant permits for the diversion of water for the creation of power to an aggregate amount not exceeding 15,600 cubic feet a second, and to grant permits for the transmission of power from Canada to an aggregate quantity not exceeding 160,000 horsepower. The then Secretary of War, Mr. Taft, since elected President of the United States, after careful investigations and hearings, granted permits for the diversion of the maximum amount of water under the act and for the admission of the maximum quantity of power. In reporting his decision Mr. Taft explained why he believed that the diversion authorized could be made without harm to the Falls: "I have reached," he said, "the conclusion that with the diversion of 15,600 cubic feet on the American side and the transmission of 160,000 horse power from the Canadian side, the scenic grandeur of the Falls will not be affected substantially or perceptibly to the eye. With respect to the American falls this is an increase of only 2,500 cubic feet a second over what is now being diverted and has been diverted for many years, and has not affected the Falls as a scenic wonder. With respect to the Canadian side, the water is drawn from the river in such a way as not to affect the American falls at all, because the point from which it is drawn is considerably below the level of the water, at the point where the waters separate above Goat Island, and the Waterways Commission and Dr. Clark agree that the taking of 13,000 cubic feet from the Canadian side will not in any way affect or reduce the water going over the American falls. The water going over the Falls on the Canadian side of Goat Island is about five times the Volume of that which goes over the American falls. … If the amount withdrawn on the Canada side for Canadian use were 5,000 cubic feet a second, which it is not likely to be during the three years’ life of these permits, the total to be withdrawn would not exceed ten per cent, of the Volume of the stream, and, considering the immense quantity which goes over the Horseshoe Falls, the diminution would not be perceptible to the eye."
See, also, provisions of "WATERWAYS TREATY," in this Volume, under CANADA: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY).
NIAGARA MOVEMENT, The.
See (in this Volume) RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES.
NICARAGUA.
See (in this Volume) CENTRAL AMERICA.
NICHOLAS II., TSAR OF RUSSIA.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA.
NICHOLS, ERNEST FOX: President of Dartmouth University.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1909.
NICOLSON, SIR ARTHUR: British Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Convention with Russia.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907 (AUGUST).
NIEL, M.: The head of the Confédération Générale du Travail in France.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1884-1909.
NIGERIA.
See (in this Volume) AFRICA: FRENCH CENTRAL.
NIGHT RIDERS, of the Tobacco Farmers’ Union.
See (in this Volume) KENTUCKY: A. D. 1905-1909.
NILE BARRAGE.
See (in this Volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1902 (DECEMBER).
{460}
NOBEL PRIZES.
By the will of Alfred Bernard Nobel, the distinguished Swedish engineer and chemist, pupil of John Ericsson and inventor of dynamite and other explosives, five great prizes, averaging nearly $40,000 each in value, were instituted, for annual reward to persons who shall severally have made the most important discovery or invention in the domain of physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine; to the writer who has produced in literature the most distinguished work of an idealistic tendency, and to the person who has most or best promoted the fraternity of nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and increase of peace congresses. The award of the two prizes first named to be made by the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm; the third by the Caroline Medical-Chirurgical Institute in Stockholm; the fourth by the Swedish Academy in the same city; the fifth by the Storthing or Parliament of Norway.
The presentation of prizes on the first award was made with impressive ceremonies on the 10th of December, 1901, that being the fifth anniversary of Mr. Nobel’s death. Each year since, the awards have been made on that anniversary day. The recipients have been as follows:
PHYSICS.
1901 William Conrad Roentgen, professor of physics at the University of Munich.
1902 Divided equally between Henrik Anton Lorentz, professor of physics at the University of Leyden, and Peter Zeeman, professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam.
1903 Half to Antoine Henri Becquerel, professor of physics at the École Polytechnique and at the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, member Institut Française, and half to Pierre Curie, professor of physics at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and teacher in physics at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, and his wife, Marie Sklodovska Curie, preceptress at the Higher Normal School for Young Girls at Sevres.
1904 Lord Rayleigh, professor of natural philosophy, Royal Institution of Great Britain, London.
1905 Philippe Lenard, professor of physics at the physical Institute of Kiel.
1906 J. J. Thomson, professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge.
1907 Albert A. Michelsen, professor of physics at the University of Chicago.
1908 Professor Gabriel Lippman of the University of Paris.
1909 G. Marconi, Italy, and Professor Ferdinand Braun of Strassburg.
MEDICINE.
1901 Emil Adolf von Behring, professor of hygiene and medical history at the University of Marburg, Prussia.
1902 Ronald Ross, professor of tropical medicine at the University college of Liverpool.
1903 Niels Ryberg Finsen, professor of medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1904 Ivan Petrovic Pawlow, professor of physiology in the Military Academy of Medicine, St. Petersburg.
1905 Robert Koch, member of the Royal Academy of Science, Berlin.
1906 Professors Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi of the Pavia university, Italy.
1907 Charles L. A. Laveran of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
1908 Dr. Paul Ehrlich of Berlin and Professor Elie Metchnikoff of the Pasteur Institute, Paris.
1909 Professor E. T. Kocher, Switzerland.
CHEMISTRY.
1901 Jakob Hendrik van’t Hoff, professor of chemistry in the University of Berlin.
1902 Emil Fischer, professor of chemistry in the University of Berlin.
1903 Svante August Arrhenius, professor at the University of Stockholm.
1904 Sir William Ramsay, professor of chemistry in the University college, London.
1905 Adolf von Baeyer, professor of chemistry at Munich.
1906 H. Moissan, professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, Paris.
1907 Eduard Buchner, professor of chemistry in the agricultural high school of Berlin.
1908 Professor Ernest Rutherford of the University of Manchester, England.
1909 Professor W. Ostwald of Leipsic.
LITERATURE.
1901 Rene Francois Armand Sully-Prudhomme, member of the French Academy.
1902 Theodor Mommsen, professor of history at the University of Berlin.
1903 Bjornstjerne Bjornson, author, Norway.
1904 Half to Frederic Mistral of France and half to José Echegaray of Spain.
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz, the author of "Quo Vadis?"
1906 Professor Giosue Carducci of Bologna, Italy.
1907 Rudyard Kipling of England.
1908 Professor Rudolf Eucken of the University of Java.
1909 Selma Lagerlof, Sweden.
PEACE.
1901 Divided equally between Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross Society of Geneva, and Frederic Passay, founder of the first French peace association, the "Société Française pour l’Arbitrage Entre Nations."
1902 Divided equally between Elie Ducommum, secretary of the international peace bureau at Bern, and Albert Gobat, chief of the interparliamentary peace bureau at Bern.
1903 William Randal Cremer, M. P., secretary of the International Arbitration league, London.
1904 The Institute of International Right, a scientific association founded in 1873 in Ghent, Belgium.
1905 Baroness Bertha von Suttner for her literary work written in the interest of the world’s peace movement.
1906 Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, for the part he took in bringing the Russo-Japanese war to an end. Money set apart by the president for the establishment of a permanent industrial peace commission.
1907 Divided equally between Ernesto T. Moneta, president of the Lombardy Peace union, and Louis Renault, professor of international law at the University of Paris.
1908 K. P. Arnoldsen of Sweden and M. F. Bajer of Denmark.
1909 Baron d’Estournelles de Constant, Paris, and M. Beernaert, Holland, ex-Premier.
[For a contemporary list see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates]
NODZU, General.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), and after.
NOGI, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), and 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
NOMINATIONS, Political: By Direct Primary Vote.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.
NOMINAVIT NOVIS CONTROVERSY.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.
NORD ALEXIS, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume) HAITI: A. D. 1902 and 1908.
{461}
NORDENSKJÖLD, DR. OTTO: Commanding Swedish Antarctic Expedition.
See (in this Volume) POLAR EXPLORATION.
NORDEZ, BISHOP LE.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1900.
NORTHCOTE, LORD: On the Australian Land and Immigration Questions.
See (in this Volume) IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION: AUSTRALIA.
NORTHERN SECURITIES COMPANY CASE, THE.
See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.
NORTH SEA AND BALTIC AGREEMENTS.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907-1908.
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADIAN: A. D. 1896-1909. Their Rapid Settlement. The "American Invasion."
See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1896-1909.
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADIAN: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Increased Representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume) CANADA: 1901-1902.
NORWAY: A. D. 1902-1905. Result of the Consular Question. Secession from the Union of Crowns with Sweden. Acceptance by King Oscar of his virtual Deposition. Election of Prince Charles of Denmark to the Throne.
The discontent of Norway in its union with Sweden, especially because it could have no distinct national representation, consular or diplomatic, in foreign countries, is described in Volume VI. of this work.
See (in this Volume) SWEDEN AND NORWAY.
In 1902 a Swedish-Norwegian Consular Commission was appointed to investigate the practicability of separate consuls for each of the united kingdoms, with joint diplomatic representation. The Commission produced a report very favorable to the proposition. Prolonged negotiations followed, between representatives of the two governments, and the outlines of a system under which Norway should acquire a separate consular service were definitely settled and accepted formally by the King, on the 21st of December, 1903. When it came, however, to the definite framing of laws for carrying the plan into effect, irreconcilable disagreements arose. Several details of the arrangement which Sweden insisted on implied a precedence and superiority of standing for that kingdom in the union of crowns which offended Norwegian pride. The Norwegian Government objected to having its selection of consuls made subject to the approval of the Foreign Minister of the dual monarchy. It objected to having the King, in his commission to them, entitled "King of Sweden and Norway"; and it rejected the Swedish proposals on other points. When the Government of Sweden replied that, while it might be willing to consider some modifications of its proposals, it must maintain the important parts of them, the Norwegian Government announced that it had no further statements to make, indicating that negotiation in the matter was at an end. Thereupon, on the 7th of February, 1905, the King made public the following statement:
"Under the present circumstances I do not see that I can resolve otherwise than to approve of what the Foreign Minister has proposed; but I cannot refrain from expressing to both my peoples my hearty desire that the two kingdoms, which have now been united for nearly a century, will never let any difference of opinion be hurtful to the Union itself. This Union is in truth the safest guarantee for the independence, the security and the happiness of both my peoples."
Feeble health now compelled King Oscar to yield the functions of royalty to his son, and the Crown Prince visited Christiania, as Regent, to confer personally with the leaders in Norwegian affairs. The outcome of his visit was the resignation of the Ministry of M. Hagcrup on the 1st of March, the formation of a new Cabinet, under M. Michelsen, and the announcement by the latter that the Government would steadfastly maintain the sovereignty of Norway, as an independent kingdom, according to the words of its constitution, the realization of which must depend on the strength and will of the Norwegian people. All attempts in the next three months to overcome or much modify the attitude of Norway were unsuccessful. In May, the Storthing passed an independent Consular Bill and laid it before King Oscar, who had resumed his duties, and the King refused to sanction it, saying: "The Crown Prince, as Regent, in Joint Council of State of April 5, has already shown the only way in which this important question can be advanced and all difficulties most likely removed, viz., through negotiation. I entirely agree with this view, and do not for the time being find it expedient to sanction this law, which means an alteration of the existing joint consular service which cannot be severed except by mutual arrangement. … When I now refuse to sanction this law I do so in accordance with the right conferred upon the King."
See in Volume I. of this work Section 30, Title 3, of the CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY.
"… It is my equally great love to both nations which makes it my duty to exercise this right;"
On the 7th of June, M. Michelsen, the Prime Minister, and his colleagues, gave their resignations to the Storthing, whereupon that body, by unanimous vote, adopted the following resolution:
"As all the members of the Council of State have resigned their offices; as his Majesty the King has declared himself unable to give the country a new Government; and as the constitutional kingdom has thus ceased to function, the Storthing authorizes the members of the Ministry, to-day resigned, to exercise in the meantime, as the Government of Norway, the authority vested in the King, in accordance with Norway’s constitution and existing laws, with the alterations necessitated by the fact that the Union with Sweden under one King has ceased on account of the king having ceased to act as Norwegian King." This action was proclaimed to the people on the same day. On the 9th the Union flag was lowered from Norwegian forts and war ships and the Norwegian flag raised in its place. On the 28th of July with King Oscar’s consent, the Swedish Riksdag adopted a resolution assenting to the severance of the Union, on condition that it be approved by a vote of the people of Norway. Accordingly the question was submitted to the people on the 13th of August, and all but 184 out of 368,392 votes were given in favor of the separation. A conference at Karlstadt in September arranged the future relations of the two kingdoms with success, and the dissolution was complete. It was formally acknowledged by King Oscar on October 26th. {462} As he made it known that he did not wish any member of his family to accept the crown of Norway if offered, the Storthing authorized the Government to open negotiations with Prince Charles of Denmark, with a view to its acceptance by him, if its proffer should be sanctioned by a popular vote. Again a plebiscite was polled and a large majority given in favor of the proffer of the crown to Prince Charles. The Prince accepted, with the permission of his grandfather, the Danish King, and proposed to take the name of Haakon VII. The name was well chosen for its significance, Haakon VI. having been the last of the old royal line of Norway, which became extinct at his death in 1387. The King-elect and his wife entered Christiania on the 25th of November and took the oath of fidelity to the Norwegian Constitution on the 27th. In the following June King Haakon was anointed and crowned with solemn ceremonies, in the ancient cathedral of Trondhjem, the capital of the first King who reigned over the whole Norse realm.
NORWAY: A. D. 1903. Agreement for Settlement of Claims against Venezuela.
See (in this Volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1902-1904.
NORWAY: A. D. 1907. Treaty with Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia guaranteeing the Integrity of the Kingdom.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907-1908, and 1908.
NORWAY: A. D. 1908. Parliamentary Suffrage extended to Women. See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
NORWAY: A. D. 1909 (October). Arbitration of the Frontier Dispute with Sweden.
The maritime frontier dispute between Norway and Sweden, consequent on their separation, was referred to The Hague Tribunal, and decided in October, more favorably to Sweden than to Norway, but the decision was loyally accepted by the latter.
NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Reduced Representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.
O.
OBOLENSKI, PRINCE JOHN.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1905.
O’CONOR, Sir N.: British Ambassador to Turkey.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1903-1904, and 1905-1908.
OCTOBRISTS.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905. and 1907.
ODESSA, Disturbances in.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
OGDEN, Robert C.: Promoter of the Annual Conference for Education in the South.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1898-1909.
OIL, PETROLEUM: The Supply and the Waste in the United States.
See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.
OKLAHOMA: A. D. 1904. Marvelous Growth of Fifteen Years.
"Oklahoma is the Minerva of the States. With her there was no period of slow settlement. On the day that her borders were opened to the settler she sprang full-fledged, a vigorous young commonwealth, into the Union. And on the day that Congress admits her to Statehood she will take rank with the foremost of the Western States. Her population of a million and three hundred thousand—which is the combined population of Oklahoma and Indian Territory, according to the annual report of Governor Ferguson for the year ending June 30, 1904, it is probably somewhat more than that now [1905]—will place her in advance of at least twenty-one of her sister States, several of them among the original thirteen. Not counting Texas, only two States west of the Missouri will be her equal in number of people—Kansas and California. In old New England, three States—New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island—could be combined and still not contain as great a population as this new commonwealth in the West will have on the first day of its Statehood.
"No other State ever had such a remarkable growth and prosperity as Oklahoma. Sixteen years ago last March the prairie winds blew over wide expanses of plains with no signs of human habitation on them for miles at a stretch. A month later, on April 22, 1889, upward of one hundred thousand persons engaged in the most spectacular race in history--a race for homes.
See, in Volume V. of this work, UNITED STATES: A. D. 1889-1890].
That was the day when the first Oklahoma counties were opened for settlement. … At nightfall of that first day of its history Oklahoma had a larger population than the State of Nevada. Towns were surveyed, and sprung up in a night, and in a week a new empire had been created in the Southwest. A year later the Iowa, Pottawatomie, and Sac and Fox reservations were opened for settlement."
_Clarence H. Matson, Oklahoma (American Review of Reviews, September, 1905)_.
OKLAHOMA: A. D. 1906-1907. Joined in Statehood with Indian Territory and admitted to the Union.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1906. See, also, (in this Volume) CONSTITUTION OF OKLAHOMA.
OKU, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), and after.
OLD AGE HOMES, in Vienna.
See (in this Volume) POVERTY, THE PROBLEMS OF.
OLD AGE PENSIONS.
See (in this Volume) POVERTY, THE PROBLEMS OF.
"OLD BELIEVERS," RUSSIAN.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (APRIL-AUGUST.).
OLDENBURG: A. D. 1906. Committed to Universal Suffrage.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.
OMAR JAN.
See (in this Volume) AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1901-1904.
ONTARIO: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Reduced Representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.
ONTARIO: A. D. 1906-1907. Political Experiments. The Salaried Leader of Opposition, etc.
See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1906-1907.
"OPEN DOOR," THE COMING OF THE EPOCH OF THE.
See (in this Volume) WORLD MOVEMENTS.
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OPIUM PROBLEM: China: A. D. 1900-1906. Progressive Tariff and Internal Taxation measures to check the Consumption of the Drug.
The following is from a report on opium production and taxation in China prepared by Mr. Williams, Chinese secretary of the United States Legation at Peking, and sent to the State Department at Washington, in September, 1906:
[Transcriber's note: The following paragraph includes a variety of spellings and possibly defective type slugs. The tael was said to be worth 73 cents in gold in 1905. The weight of the picul is 133½ pounds.]
"Previous to 1900 native opium passing through the maritime customs at Ichaug had been paying a total charge of taels, 60 per picul exclusive of taxes at the place of production. In July, 1900, the viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, with a view to cheeking the consumption of opium in the territory under his jurisdiction, increased this charge to taels 72 per picul, and near the close of 1901 increased it again, making it taels 80 per picul. This, with the likin charged in Szechuen, made a total on the product coming from that province of taels 84.76. Opium designed for local consumption was still more heavily taxed, being required to pay taels 90 besides the likin of Szeehuen, or a total of 94.76 taels per picul. The immediate result of this action was to greatly increase smuggling and to drive legitimate traffic to the use of native junks or roundabout land routes controlled by the native customs or likin offices, and thus to reduce the receipts of the maritime customs. Another significant result was the importation of a small amount of foreign opium to a district where it had been unknown for many years. In view of these facts, in 1903 the authorities reduced the tax to a total of 76.75 taels per picul, including the Szcchuen likin.
"In February, 1904, the same tax was imposed in the province of Hunan, also in the jurisdiction of the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, and in the summer of the same year an agreement was made with the provincial authorities of the provinces of Kiangse and Anhui that one consolidated tax, to include both likin and customs duties, should be levied at a uniform rate in the four provinces, and to prevent discrimination by the native customs as against the maritime service it was agreed that the collection of this consolidated tax should be intrusted to the imperial maritime customs at Ichang and to branch offices under its control. The port of Ichang was chosen because it is at the head of steam navigation on the Yangtze, for which reason most of the opium from Yunnan and Szechuen was sent thither for distribution. In 1905 this arrangement was extended to four other provinces, Kiangse, Fukien, Kuangtung, and Kuangsi, and the tax increased to taels 134.79 per picul for opium destined to the four inner provinces and taels 104 for that going to those on the seaboard. Previous to this latter arrangement, however, after the experience of 1902, it was seen that unless the tax on foreign opium should also be increased the effort to stamp out the vice by heavy taxation would fail, and therefore in 1903 representations were made to the British Government by the Chinese minister in London looking toward the increase of the duty upon Indian opium. The reply of the British Government, as quoted in the Peking Gazette, was that the tax on the native drug ought to be increased by the same amount as any addition made to the duty on the foreign article. Upon this a memorial was submitted to the Imperial Chinese Government, asking that the customs duty and likin on foreign and native opium be increased by an equal amount, and the matter was referred to the proper boards for consideration and report. No further report has as yet appeared relating to the negotiations respecting foreign opium. As to the native drug, the steps to increase the taxes upon it in eight of the provinces have been related above. The success of this arrangement has been so pronounced that on the 7th of May this year (1906) an imperial edict appeared directing that the system adopted in the eight provinces mentioned above should be at once extended to all the provinces of China proper and at a later date, to be hereafter determined, to Turkestan and Manchuria."
OPIUM PROBLEM: A. D. 1906. Imperial Edict against the use of Opium. Undertaking to suppress it in Ten Years.
By a formal edict from the throne, published in September, 1906, the imperial Government of China undertook to eradicate the use of opium in that empire, and to do so by heroic measures within ten years. A register was ordered to be made of every consumer of the drug (estimated at 40 per cent. of the vast population of the empire) and of the quantity that he consumes. Those who are under 60 years of age must thereafter diminish their consumption by not less than twenty per cent, each year, till they are free of the habit and the use is stopped. Meantime there would be a public provision of medicines to assist the cure. To those beyond 60 years in age, and to the princes, nobles, and magnates of the empire, a certain relaxation of these rules would be allowed. But all minor officials under 60 years must drop opium entirely, at once, and there would be no toleration of an acquirement of the opium habit thereafter. No further cultivation of the poppy would be allowed, and, of course, the importation would be controlled.
Tang Shao Yi, the special Chinese envoy who visited the United States and England early in 1909, had much to do with this measure on the part of his Government, and, in addressing a deputation which called on him in London, had this to say of the circumstances connected with it:
"He had always taken a deep interest in the anti-opium movement ever since he was a student in America in the early seventies. He had never realized, however, that they could attempt to make such a movement in China till he was sent by his Government to India in 1905 in connexion with the Lhasa Convention. While there he had opportunities of studying the opium question, and he was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of the finance secretary, Mr. Baker. From him he learnt that the Government of India could dispense with the revenue derived from opium. Nothing was more surprising to him and nothing gave him greater joy than to hear that. In that year the question was brought up in England, and when he returned to China in the winter of 1905 he informed his Government that the British public was very ‘anti-opium’ and also that the Indian Government was not at all anxious for the revenue derived from opium. Therefore, he told his Government that it was for the Chinese themselves to put a stop to the opium trade, and that they must not rely upon others. He had already got regulations in his head and the Government asked him to draw up certain rules to put a stop to the opium curse. {464} In order not to be too radical, he suggested that three years should be allowed for putting an end to it, but the Cabinet said that was too radical, and, although he suggested six years, the final decision of the Government was to make it ten years. He said that unless they put a stop to it in two or three years they might as well let this generation die out. They fully appreciated the co-operation of gentlemen in England, and he begged that they would keep up the agitation not only for their own sakes but for the sake of the Chinese people. The Chinese people wanted to be reminded that they were opium smokers and that they must give up the practice. Some scepticism had been expressed as to the genuineness of the movement in China, but he was sure that the people there were in earnest, and he trusted that his Government and people would not disappoint Great Britain."
OPIUM PROBLEM: A. D. 1909. Progress in the Opium Reform.
An official report on the progress of the opium reform in China, by Mr. Max Müller, Councillor of the British Legation at Peking, was published as a Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 4967), early in January, 1910. In communicating the report to the Foreign Office, Sir N. Jordan wrote:
"This report shows that considerable progress continues to be made in the task which the Chinese Government undertook three years ago. There has undoubtedly been a very sensible diminution in the consumption and cultivation of opium, and a public opinion has been formed which will greatly strengthen the hands of the Government and the provincial authorities in the drastic measures which they contemplate taking in the near future. … That the end, however, is so near as many of the official pronouncements would seem to indicate is, I venture to think, very doubtful. We have full and reliable information about only two of the provinces—Shansi and Yunnan—and the annexes to Mr. Max Müller’s report furnish eloquent testimony of the good work that has been done in both. At the opposite extreme stand Shensi, Kansu, Hupei, and Szeehuan, in all of which comparatively little has been accomplished to check either the consumption or cultivation of the drug. The last-named province, which is by far the largest producing area in the Empire, will furnish the supreme test of the success or failure of the programme of total prohibition, and as the order has gone forth that no poppy is to be sown this autumn the issue on which so much depends is doubtless being fought out as this report is being written."
OPIUM PROBLEM: International Opium Commission, in Session at Shanghai, February, 1909.
On the suggestion of Bishop Brent, of the Philippines, the Government of the United States took the initiative in bringing about the appointment of an International Commission to investigate matters connected with the use of and traffic in opium. The Commission, composed of delegates from China, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Turkey, and the United States, met at Shanghai on the 1st of February, 1909, and was in session until the 26th of that month, under the presidency of Bishop Brent. Its study of the subject appears to have been made difficult and definite conclusions prevented by the lack of trustworthy Chinese statistics of the production of opium in the Empire itself, and of other important facts. The results of four weeks of investigation and discussion were embodied in nine resolutions, the first of which recognized the sincerity of the endeavor of the Chinese Government to eradicate the great evil from its dominion, in these words: "The Commission recognizes the unswerving sincerity of the Government of China in its efforts to eradicate the production and consumption of opium throughout the Empire, the increasing body of public opinion among the Chinese by whom these efforts are supported, and the real, though unequal, progress already made in a task of the greatest magnitude."
Of the further resolutions, one urged upon all governments the importance of drastic measures to control the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia and other noxious derivatives of opium; another recommended scientific investigation of so-called opium remedies; a third said all countries should adopt reasonable measures to prevent the shipment of opium or its derivatives to any country which prohibits their entry. By the terms of the remaining resolutions the delegates were urged to influence as far as possible their own governments to take steps for the gradual suppression of opium smoking in their own territories respectively; to further examine into their systems for the regulation of the traffic, in the light of the experience of other countries; to enter into negotiations with China to insure the adoption of effective and prompt measures to prohibit opium traffic in those concessions and settlements. Finally, the conference recommended that each government apply its pharmacy laws to its subjects in consular districts, concessions, and settlements in China.
In some quarters the outcome of the meeting was sharply criticised as being empty of any practical fruit, and England was accused of having rendered it so, under the influence of the Indian opium trade. But the State Department at Washington gave expression to a very different view. There it was pointed out that the Commission had been one of inquiry, only; that its instructions had been "to study the opium problem and report as to the best and most feasible means of solving it," and that this programme was executed "to the entire satisfaction of the Governments concerned." Bishop Brent, who presided over the Shanghai meeting, declared in his inaugural address:
"It devolves upon me to pronounce with emphasis that this is a commission, and as those who are informed—as all of you must be in matters that pertain to international affairs of this kind—a commission is not a conference. The idea of a conference was suggested, but it seemed wise to choose this particular form of action rather than a conference, because, for the present at any rate, we are not sufficiently well informed and sufficiently unanimous in our attitude to have a conference with any great hope of immediate success."
{465}
As between China and Great Britain there is an opium problem which does not affect other parties. An important part of British Indian revenue is derived from the opium trade, and the Government of India can hardly be expected to throw it carelessly away, not knowing with certainty that it will not be picked up as gain for somebody else. In 1906, when China opened her campaign against opium, she entered into an agreement with England that her own production of opium should be reduced to extinction within ten years, and that the importation from India (under former commercial treaties), then amounting to 51,000 chests annually, should be reduced at the rate of 5100 chests per year. It seems to have been the lack of definite evidence as to the effective fulfilment of this agreement which made the British attitude at Shanghai a halting one.
The United States Government has not suffered the movement against opium to rest where it was left by the Shanghai Commission, but has asked the governments represented in that Commission to send delegates to a formal International Conference at The Hague.
OPIUM PROBLEM: The Philippine Islands, taking Instruction from the Japanese in Formosa.
A committee appointed by the Philippine Commission, to investigate methods of dealing with the sale and use of opium, included an American army officer, Major Carter, a Filipino physician, Dr. Albert, and the missionary bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Bishop Brent. The following is from a summary of the committee’s report, published in The Outlook of March 4, 1905:
"Although the Committee visited and studied Java, Cochin China, the Straits Settlements, and various places in China, including Hong-kong, it really found the solution of the question in the Japanese administration of Formosa. …
"It is not surprising that the Committee recommend what is practically an adaptation of the Formosan system for the Philippines. For the maintenance of this system it is indispensable that the ‘opium and the traffic therein be made a strict Government monopoly immediately.’ That is the first provision. ‘Second, prohibition, except for medicinal purposes, after three years. Third, only licensees, who shall be males and over twenty-one years of age, shall be allowed to use opium until prohibition goes into effect. Fourth, all venders or dispensers of opium, except for medical purposes, shall be salaried officials of the Government. Fifth, every effort shall be made (a) to deter the young from contracting the habit by pointing out its evil effects and by legislation, (b) to aid in caring for and curing those who manifest a desire to give up the habit, and (c) to punish and, if necessary, to remove from the islands incorrigible offenders.’"
OPIUM PROBLEM: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909. Act to Prohibit the Importation and Smoking of Opium.
A stringent Act prohibitory of the importation and use of opium for any other than medicinal purposes passed the Senate of the United States on the 2d of February, 1909, having already been adopted by the other House. Smoking opium is positively forbidden; no one can bring it into the country without facing a fine of from fifty to five thousand dollars and imprisonment for two years; the mere possession of opium, a preparation of, or derivative therefrom, is to be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction. For medicinal purposes, opium may be brought in under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.
OPSONINS.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: OPSONINS.
ORANGE FREE STATE: End of the Republic.
See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
ORDER OF RAILWAY CONDUCTORS.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES.
ORGANIC STATUTES, The.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.
ORMANIAN: Armenian Patriarch.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1903-1904.
OSAKA, The Burning of.
A large part of the city of Osaka, in Japan, was destroyed by fire in August, 1909. "Had it not been for the canals the region of destruction would have been even more extensive. Citizens by the thousand fled into the surrounding country, leaving the city to its fate. By the time the flames had spent their force more than 12,000 houses had gone up in smoke, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless. Most of the municipal, government, and other important buildings of the city were destroyed. Great numbers of people are ruined, as the Japanese carry no insurance, as a rule. The amount of insurance involved, however, is about 5,000,000 yen. Fortunately, the number of casualties was not great. About a dozen were killed by falling timbers, and several were more or less injured."
OSCAR II., King of Sweden and Norway: Surrender of the Crown of Norway.
See (in this Volume) NORWAY: A. D. 1902-1905.
OSMEÑA, SERGIO: President of the Philippine Assembly.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
OSTWALD, W.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES (CHEMISTRY)
OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Rhodes Scholarships.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Tutorial Classes organized for Working People.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
P.
PACKING-HOUSE INVESTIGATION.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS: UNITED STATES.
PALMA, TOMAS ESTRADA: President of Cuba.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1901-1902 and 1902.
PALMA, TOMAS ESTRADA: Resignation of the Presidency of Cuba.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1906 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
PAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES.
PAN-ANGLICAN CONGRESS, 1909.
See (in this Volume) SOCIALISM: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
PANAMA, REPUBLIC OF: A. D. 1903. Secession from Colombia. Recognized Independence. Treaty with the United States for the Building of the Panama Canal.
See (in this Volume) PANAMA CANAL.
PANAMA, REPUBLIC OF: A. D. 1904. Constitution of the Republic. First Election.
The Constitution of the new Republic was promulgated on the 16th of February, 1904, and the election of President and three Vice-Presidents took place, resulting in the choice of the following: President, Dr. Manuel Amador; first vice-president, Dr. Pablo Arosemena; second vice-president, Don Domingo de Obaldia; third vice-president, Dr. Carlos Mendoza.
{466}
The third article of the Constitution declares: "The territory of the Republic is composed of all the territory from which the State of Panama was formed by the amendment to the Granada constitution of 1853, on February 27, 1855, and which was transformed in 1886 into the Department of Panama, together with its islands, and of the continental and insular territory, which was adjudged to the Republic of Colombia in the award made by the President of the French Republic on September 11, 1900. The territory of the Republic remains subject to the jurisdictional limitations stipulated or which may be stipulated in public treaties concluded with the United States of North America for the construction, maintenance, or sanitation of any means of interoceanic transit.
"The boundaries with the Republic of Colombia shall be determined by public treaties."
PANAMA, REPUBLIC OF: A. D. 1906. Visit of President Roosevelt.
"For the first time in the history of the United States," said President Roosevelt, when he landed at Colon, November 14, 1906, preliminary to a visit and inspection of the Panama Canal, "it has become advisable for a President of the United States to step on territory not beneath the flag of the United States." He received a most hospitable welcome and entertainment in the young republic.
PANAMA, REPUBLIC OF: A. D. 1906. Participation in Third International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PANAMA, REPUBLIC OF: A. D. 1909. Pending Tripartite Treaty with Colombia and the United States.
See (in this Volume) COLOMBIA: A. D. 1906-1909.
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1901-1902. The Second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between the United States and Great Britain. Its Ratification.
After the rejection by the British Government of the Amendments made by the Senate of the United States to the Interoceanic Canal Treaty negotiated in February, 1900, by Mr. John Hay, United States Secretary of State, with the British Ambassador at Washington, Lord Pauncefote negotiations on the subject were renewed, with results of success in removing objections on both sides.
See, in Volume VI. of this work, CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
The new Treaty was signed by Mr. Hay and Lord Pauncefote at Washington on the 18th of November, 1901, and ratifications were exchanged on the 21st of February, 1902. In the preamble of the Treaty its purpose is declared to be "to facilitate the construction of a ship-canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by whatever route may be considered expedient, and to that end to remove any objection which may arise out of the Convention of the 19th April, 1850, commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, to the construction of such canal under the auspices of the Government of the United States, without impairing the ‘general principle’ of neutralization established in Article VIII of that Convention." The agreements and stipulations to this end are as follows:
"Article I. The High Contracting Parties agree that the present Treaty shall supersede the afore mentioned Convention of the 19th April, 1850.
"Article II. It is agreed that the canal may be constructed under the auspices of the Government of the United States, either directly at its own cost, or by gift or loan of money to individuals or Corporations, or through subscription to or purchase of stock or shares, and that, subject to the provisions of the present Treaty, the said Government shall have and enjoy all the rights incident to such construction, as well as the exclusive right of providing for the regulation and management of the canal.
"Article III. The United States adopts, as the basis of the neutralization of such ship canal, the following Rules, substantially as embodied in the Convention of Constantinople, signed the 28th October, 1888, for the free navigation of the Suez Canal, that is to say:
"1. The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of war of all nations observing these Rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic, or otherwise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and equitable.
"2. The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be committed within it. The United States, however, shall be at liberty to maintain such military police along the canal as may be necessary to protect it against lawlessness and disorder.
"3. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual nor take any stores in the canal except so far as may be strictly necessary; and the transit of such vessels through the canal shall be effected with the least possible delay in accordance with the Regulations in force, and with only such intermission as may result from the necessities of the service. Prizes shall be in all respects subject to the same Rules as vessels of war of the belligerents.
"4. No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, munitions of war, or warlike materials in the canal, except in case of accidental hindrance of the transit, and in such case the transit shall be resumed with all possible dispatch.
"5. The provisions of this Article shall apply to waters adjacent to the canal, within 3 marine miles of either end. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such waters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time, except in case of distress, and in such case shall depart as soon as possible; but a vessel of war of one belligerent shall not depart within twenty-four hours from the departure of a vessel of war of the other belligerent.
"6. The plant, establishments, buildings, and all works necessary to the construction, maintenance, and operation of the canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the purposes of this Treaty, and in time of war, as in time of peace, shall enjoy complete immunity from attack or injury by belligerents, and from acts calculated to impair their usefulness as part of the canal.
"Article IV. It is agreed that no change of territorial sovereignty or of the international relations of the country or countries traversed by the before mentioned canal shall affect the genera principle of neutralization or the obligation of the High Contracting Parties under the present Treaty.
{467}
"Article V. The present Treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by His Britannic Majesty: and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington or at London at the earliest possible time within six mouths from the date hereof."
_Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, transmitted to Congress, December, 1902._
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1902. Undertaking of the United States endorsed by the Second Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1903. Purchase of the Franchises and Property of the Bankrupt French Company. Treaty with Colombia for the Building of the Canal rejected by the Colombian Senate. Secession of Panama. Recognition of the Independence of Panama. Treaty with the new Republic for the Building and Control of the Canal. President Roosevelt’s narrative of events.
The transactions that were preliminary to the undertaking of the construction of an interoceanic canal through the Isthmus of Panama, by the Government of the United States, are narrated down to March, 1901.
See (in Volume VI. of this work) CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.
At that time the proposed Nicaragua route was principally contemplated, for the reason that the rights in Panama held by the bankrupt French Company of Lesseps (see, in Volume IV., PANAMA CANAL) seemed unobtainable, on any terms which the American Government could accept. A commission appointed by President McKinley to investigate the situation had reported to that effect in November, 1900, and had recommended the building of a canal on the Nicaragua route. The effect of this report, and of the manifest disposition of the American Congress to authorize the building of a Nicaragua ship canal, was to draw from the French company an offer of its Panama franchises and entire property for the sum of $40,000,000. After long debate this offer was accepted, and negotiations were opened with the Republic of Colombia for the necessary treaty rights. Meantime the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with Great Britain, which the American Senate had amended in a manner objectionable to the British Government, was modified to the satisfaction of the latter, and the enterprise was cleared of questions except those between Colombia and the United States. The next ensuing events can be told in the words of President Roosevelt’s report of them to Congress, in his Message at the opening of the session convened on the 7th of December, 1903:
"By the act of June 28, 1902," wrote the President, "the Congress authorized the President to enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama; it being provided that in the event of failure to secure such treaty, after the lapse of a reasonable time, recourse should be had to the building of a canal through Nicaragua. It has not been necessary to consider this alternative, as I am enabled to lay before the Senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the deliberate judgment of the Congress, and we can now acquire by Treaty the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now, therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal.
"When the Congress directed that we should take the Panama route under treaty with Colombia, the essence of the condition, of course, referred not to the Government which controlled that route, but to the route itself; to the territory across which the route lay, not to the name which for the moment the territory bore on the map. The purpose of the law was to authorize the President to make a treaty with the power in actual control of the Isthmus of Panama. This purpose has been fulfilled.
"In the year 1846 this Government entered into a treaty with New Granada, the predecessor upon the Isthmus of the Republic of Colombia and of the present Republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided that the Government and citizens of the United States should always have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama by any modes of communication that might be constructed, while in return our Government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the above-mentioned Isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the United States a substantial property right carved out of the rights of sovereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away and its territory has been divided. Its successor, the Government of Colombia, has ceased to own any property in the Isthmus. A new Republic, that of Panama, which was at one time a sovereign state, and at another time a mere department of the successive confederations known as New Granada and Colombia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then the other formerly exercised over the Isthmus. But as long as the Isthmus endures, the mere geographical fact of its existence, and the peculiar interest therein which is required by our position, perpetuate the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect our right to freedom of transit across it, and binds us in return to safeguard for the Isthmus and the world the exercise of that inestimable privilege. The true interpretation of the obligations upon which the United States entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given repeatedly in the utterances of Presidents and Secretaries of State. …
"Attorney-General Speed, under date of November 7, 1865, advised Secretary Seward as follows: ‘From this treaty it can not be supposed that New Granada invited the United States to become a party to the intestine troubles of that Government, nor did the United States become bound to take sides in the domestic broils of New Granada. The United States did guarantee New Granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory. This was as against other and foreign governments.’
{468}
"For four hundred years, ever since shortly after the discovery of this hemisphere, the canal across the Isthmus has been planned. For two score years it has been worked at. When made it is to last for the ages. It is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes of the world. We have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the Isthmus and with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in observing our obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action. We have done our duty to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown the utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights.
"Last spring, under the act above referred to, a treaty concluded between the representatives of the Republic of Colombia and of our Government was ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into at the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia and after a body of experts appointed by our Government especially to go into the matter of the routes across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of the Panama route. In drawing up this treaty every concession was made to the people and to the Government of Colombia. We were more than just in dealing with them. Our generosity was such as to make it a serious question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the expense of our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible heed, not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our weaker neighbor, who already owed so much to our protection and forbearance, we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Colombia not merely repudiated the treaty, but repudiated it in such a manner as to make it evident by the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not the scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from them. The Government of Colombia made the treaty, and yet when the Colombian Congress was called to ratify it the vote against ratification was unanimous. It does not appear that the Government made any real effort to secure ratification.
"Immediately after the adjournment of the Congress a revolution broke out in Panama. The people of Panama had long been discontented with the Republic of Colombia, and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect of the conclusion of the treaty, which was to them a matter of vital concern. When it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost, the people of Panama rose literally as one man. Not a shot was fired by a single man on the Isthmus in the interest of the Colombian Government. Not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the revolution. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus, who had long been unpaid, made common cause with the people of Panama, and with astonishing unanimity the new Republic was started. The duty of the United States in the premises was clear. In strict accordance with the principles laid down by Secretaries Cass and Seward … the United States gave notice that it would permit the landing of no expeditionary force, the arrival of which would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of the proposed canal, and an interruption of transit as an inevitable consequence. The de facto Government of Panama was recognized in the following telegram to Mr. Ehrman:
"‘The people of Panama have, by apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence. When you are satisfied that a de facto government, republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own people, has been established in the State of Panama, you will enter into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property of citizens of the United States and to keep open the isthmian transit, in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the relations of the United States to that territory.’
"The Government of Colombia was notified of our action by the following telegram to Mr. Beaupré:
"‘The people of Panama having, by an apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence, and having adopted a Government of their own, republican in form, with which the Government of the United States of America has entered into relations, the President of the United States, in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long and so happily existed between the respective nations, most earnestly commends to the Governments of Colombia and of Panama the peaceful and equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them. He holds that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations, but by the interests of civilization, to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across the Isthmus of Panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars.’
"When these events happened, fifty-seven years had elapsed since the United States had entered into its treaty with New Granada. During that time the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia, have been in a constant state of flux.
[The President then gives a list, by date, of 53 more or less serious disturbances of the public peace on the Isthmus which United States consuls had reported to the Government at Washington between May, 1850, and July, 1902. From this he proceeds:]
"The above is only a partial list of the revolutions, rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have occurred during the period in question; yet they number 53 for the 57 years. It will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years before it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference of the United States has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance of sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States of the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus would have been sundered long ago. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in 1885, in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States war-ships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus was kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian Government asked that the United States Government would land troops to protect its interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. …
{469}
"The control, in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole civilized world, of the means of undisturbed transit across the Isthmus of Panama has become of transcendent importance to the United States. We have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course of domestic dissension, and by protecting the territory from foreign invasion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian minister that we should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the Isthmus in the case of war between Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the treaty, expressed its expectation that in the event of war between Peru and Spain the United States would carry into effect the guaranty of neutrality. There have been few administrations of the State Department in which this treaty has not, either by the one side or the other, been used as a basis of more or less important demands. It was said by Mr. Fish in 1871 that the Department of State had reason to believe that an attack upon Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on several occasions, been averted by warning from this Government. In 1886, when Colombia was under the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that the United States could not but feel, that a European power should resort to force against a sister republic of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under the solemn faith of a treaty.
"The above recital of facts establishes beyond question: First, that the United States has for over half a century patiently and in good faith carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that when for the first time it became possible for Colombia to do anything in requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven years by the United States, the Colombian Government peremptorily and offensively refused thus to do its part, even though to do so would have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the State of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, that throughout this period revolutions, riots, and factional disturbances of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted succession, some of them lasting for months and even for years, while the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace with the rebels; fourth, that these disturbances instead of showing any sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in the immediate past; fifth, that the control of Colombia over the Isthmus of Panama could not be maintained without the armed intervention and assistance of the United States. In other words, the Government of Colombia, though wholly unable to maintain order on the Isthmus, has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to guarantee permanent peace on, and the construction of a canal across the Isthmus.
"Under such circumstances the Government of the United States would have been guilty of folly and weakness, amounting in their sum to a crime against the Nation, had it acted otherwise than it did when the revolution of November 3 last took place in Panama. This great enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to gratify the whims, or out of respect to the governmental impotence, or to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities, of people who, though they dwell afar off, yet, against the wish of the actual dwellers on the Isthmus, assert an unreal supremacy over the territory. The possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as the Isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind. The course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private enterprise, or by any other nation than our own; therefore it must be built by the United States.
"Every effort has been made by the Government of the United States to persuade Colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to our interests and to the interests of the world, but to the interests of Colombia itself. These efforts have failed; and Colombia, by her persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made, has forced us, for the sake of our own honor, and of the interest and well-being, not merely of our own people, but of the people of the Isthmus of Panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world, to take decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had become intolerable. The new Republic of Panama immediately offered to negotiate a treaty with us. This treaty I herewith submit. By it our interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the American Congress to do its part and forthwith this Republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and the nations of mankind.
"By the provisions of the treaty the United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. There is granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea at either terminal, with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works, and with the islands in the Bay of Panama. The cities of Panama and Colon are not embraced in the canal zone, but the United States assumes their sanitation and, in case of need, the maintenance of order therein; the United States enjoys within the granted limits all the rights, power, and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the Republic. All railway and canal property rights belonging to Panama and needed for the canal pass to the United States, including any property of the respective companies in the cities of Panama and Colon; the works, property, and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted from taxation as well in the cities of Panama and Colon as in the canal zone and its dependencies. Free immigration of the personnel and importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal are granted. Provision is made for the use of military force and the building of fortifications by the United States for the protection of the transit. {470} In other details, particularly as to the acquisition of the interests of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway by the United States and the condemnation of private property for the uses of the canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are closely followed, while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants remains the same, being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of ratifications; and, beginning nine years from that date, an annual payment of $250,000 during the life of the convention."
_President's Message, December 7, 1903._
The text of the Treaty with Panama may be found in the Volume of "Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States" for 1904, pp. 543-551.
In the view of a good many critics who are not of a captious disposition, the conduct of the Government of the United States in these transactions was not as unquestionable as it appeared to President Roosevelt. Professor Coolidge, of Harvard University, in his candid and broadly studied work on "The United States as a World Power" (prepared originally in the form of lectures delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris), remarks that "to forbid the landing of Colombian troops was to stretch the meaning of the old American right to maintain order along the line of the railway to an extent hardly justifiable in dealing with a friendly nation, and the haste with which the administration at Washington recognized the independence of the new republic and concluded a treaty with it appeared to many people indecent. The truth was the Americans did not feel that they were dealing with a friendly nation."
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1904-1905. Beginning and Organization of the Work of Construction.
"The treaty between the United States and the Republic of Panama, under which the construction of the Panama Canal was made possible, went into effect with its ratification by the United States Senate on February 23, 1904. The canal properties of the French Canal Company were transferred to the United States on April 23, 1904, on payment of $40,000,000 to that company. On April 1, 1905, the Commission was reorganized, and it now consists of Theodore P. Shonts, chairman, Charles E. Magoon, Benjamin M. Harrod, Rear-Admiral Mordecai T. Endicott, Brigadier General Peter C. Hains, and Colonel Oswald H. Ernst. John F. Stevens was appointed chief engineer on July 1 last. Active work in canal construction, mainly preparatory, has been in progress for less than a year and a half. During that period two points about the canal have ceased to be open to debate. First, the question of route; the canal will be built on the Isthmus of Panama. Second, the question of feasibility; there are no physical obstacles on this route that American engineering skill will not be able to overcome without serious difficulty, or that will prevent the completion of the canal within a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. This is virtually the unanimous testimony of the engineers who have investigated the matter for the Government. The point which remains unsettled is the question of type, whether the canal shall be one of several locks above sea level, or at sea level with a single tide lock. On this point I hope to lay before the Congress at an early day the findings of the Advisory Board of American and European Engineers, that at my invitation have been considering the subject, together with the report of the Commission thereon; and such comments thereon or recommendations in reference thereto as may seem necessary.
"The American people is pledged to the speediest possible construction of a canal, adequate to meet the demands which the commerce of the world will make upon it, and I appeal most earnestly to the Congress to aid in the fulfillment of the pledge. Gratifying progress has been made during the past year and especially during the past four months. The greater part of the necessary preliminary work has been done. Actual work of excavation could be begun only on a limited scale till the Canal Zone was made a healthful place to live in and to work in. The isthmus had to be sanitated first.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: PANAMA CANAL.
This task has been so thoroughly accomplished that yellow fever has been virtually extirpated from the Isthmus and general health conditions vastly improved. The same methods which converted the island of Cuba from a pest hole, which menaced the health of the world, into a healthful place of abode, have been applied on the Isthmus with satisfactory results. There is no reason to doubt that when the plans for water supply, paving, and sewerage of Panama and Colon and the large labor camps have been fully carried out, the Isthmus will be, for the Tropics, an unusually healthy place of abode. The work is so far advanced now that the health of all those employed in canal work is as well guarded as it is on similar work in this country and elsewhere.
"In addition to sanitating the Isthmus, satisfactory quarters are being provided for employees and an adequate system of supplying them with wholesome food at reasonable prices has been created. Hospitals have been established and equipped that are without superiors of their kind anywhere. The country has thus been made fit to work in, and provision has been made for the welfare and comfort of those who are to do the work. During the past year a large portion of the plant with which the work is to be done has been ordered. It is confidently believed that by the middle of the approaching year a sufficient proportion of this plant will have been installed to enable us to resume the work of excavation on a large scale."
_President's Message to Congress, December 5, 1905._
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1905-1909. Prosecution and progress of the work.
Mr. John L. Stevens was in charge of the work on the Canal, as Chief Engineer, until April 1, 1907, when he resigned, and it was then determined by the Government to place it under the direction of an army engineer. The officer chosen for the service was Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Goethals, of the Engineer Corps, with Major Gaillard and Major Siebert as assistant engineers, and this arrangement has been justified amply by results. At the same time a final determination was arrived at, against the placing of any part of the work under contract; and this, too, has been approved by experience in the undertaking since. Shortly before the occurrence of these changes Mr. Shonts had resigned the chairmanship of the Canal Commission, to take the presidency of the Interborough Co. of New York, and Colonel Goethals became Chairman of the Commission as well as Chief Engineer.
{471}
In June, 1906, the original design of a sea-level canal throughout, with no locks, was dropped, after much consideration and under weighty engineering advice. As described very tersely and clearly by an English writer on the subject, the new plan for locks is worked out as follows:
"Beginning at deep water in Limon Bay, on the Caribbean coast, there will be a tide-water channel 500 ft. wide and 6.70 miles long to Gatun. At Gatun there will be the vast dam, the ascent of which will be effected by means of two flights of locks. In each flight there will be three locks, each 1,000 ft. long, 110 ft. wide, and 41.3 ft. deep on the sills. These will give access to a lake formed by the impounded waters of the Chagres river, with a surface level 85 ft. above mean tide level. Through this lake will extend a channel from 500 ft. to 1,000 ft. wide for 23.59 miles to Bas Obispo, the entrance to the Culebra cut. Thence through that cut there will be a channel 300 ft. wide for 8.11 miles to Pedro Miguel, the surface level being the same as that of the lake. At Pedro Miguel there will be a dam with twin locks, side by side, by which descent of 30 ft. will be made to a smaller lake 55 ft. above tide-water. This lake, only 0.97 of a mile long, will be traversed by a channel 500 ft. wide to Miraflores, where there will be another dam, with twin flights of locks, two locks in each flight, bringing the canal down to tide level; and from Miraflores a channel 500 ft. wide will extend 8.31 miles to deep water in the Bay of Panama. The channel will nowhere, save on the lock sills, be less than 45 ft. deep, and the locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores will be of the same dimensions as those at Gatun."
This altered plan received much persistent criticism,—so persistent that, in January, 1909, after the election of Mr. Taft to the Presidency of the United States, but before his assumption of the office, the President-elect, who, as Secretary of War, had been the responsible administrator of the undertaking, went to the Isthmus with a selected committee of engineers, who were asked to examine and report on the plans and methods of the work. Their reports, made in February, endorsed both. In communicating them to Congress the President characterized them as showing that "the only criticism that can be made of the work on the isthmus is that there has sometimes been almost an excess of caution in providing against possible trouble. As to the Gatun dam itself, they show that not only is the dam safe, but on the whole the plan already adopted would make it needlessly high and strong, and accordingly they recommend that the height be reduced by twenty feet, which change in the plans I have accordingly directed." Of the engineers who made the report he remarked that they "are of all the men in their profession, within or without the United States, the men who are on the whole best qualified to pass on these very questions which they examined." The membership of the committee or board was as follows: Frederic P. Stearns, James D. Schuyler, Arthur P. Davis, Isham Randolph, Henry D. Allen, John R. Freeman, and Allen Hazen.
The engineers reported that "as the Gatun earth dam was the central point of discussion, they gave it under instructions from Mr. Taft first consideration in the light of all new evidences," and they added "that the type of dam under consideration is one which meets with our unanimous approval." Dams and locks, lock gates and all other engineering structures involved in the lock-canal project, are "feasible and safe," according to the engineers, "and can be depended upon to perform with certainty their respective functions."
Considering the cost and time of construction of a sea-level canal as compared with the lock type, they held that "most of the factors which have operated to increase the cost of the lock canal would operate with similar effect to increase the cost of the sea-level canal, and at the present time there are additional factors of even greater importance to be considered as affecting the time of completion and cost of a sea-level canal." One of these they found in the Gamboa dam. If work on this were to be started as soon as possible, they asserted it "could not be completed until after the time required for the completion of the lock-canal." Further than this, they said that "a change in the type would result in abandoning work which represents large expenditure." They claimed that by the change the river Chagres and the rivers on the Isthmus tributary thereto, "instead of being allies, would be enemies of the canal, and floods in them would greatly interfere with the work."
Replying to the criticism that "the canal region is liable to earthquake shocks, and that a sea-level canal would be less subject to injury by earthquakes than a lock canal," they asserted that "dams and locks are structures of great stability and little subject to damage by earthquake shocks," but that even if they could regard earthquakes as a source of serious damage to any type of canal on the Isthmus, "their effect upon the dams, locks and regulating works proposed for the sea-level canal would be much the same as upon similar structures of the lock canal."
Finally, they said: " We see no reason why the canal should not be completed, as estimated by the chief engineer, by January 1, 1915; in fact, it seems that a somewhat earlier date is probable, if all goes well."
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1909. Prohibition in the Canal Zone.
See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM: CASUAL OCCURRENCES OF SALOON SUPPRESSION.
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION.
See (in this Volume) BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.
PAN-AMERICAN RAILWAY: Resolution of Third International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PANICS, Monetary, of 1903 and 1907.
See (in this Volume) FINANCE AND TRADE: A. D. 1901-1909.
PAN ISLAMISM.
See (in this Volume) SENUSSIA; also Egypt: A. D. 1905-1906.
PANKHURST, MRS. EMELINE.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
PANLUNG, THE CAPTURE OF.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
PAN-LUN-SHAN REDOUBT, CAPTURE OF.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
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----------PAPACY: Start--------
PAPACY: A. D. 1902. Secession of the Independent Filipino Church.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902.
PAPACY: A. D. 1903 (July-August). Death of Pope Leo XIII. Election of Pius X.
The Papal seat became vacant by the death of Pope Leo XIII. on the 20th of July, 1903. The Conclave of Cardinals for the election of his successor assembled on the 31st of the month, and its choice of Cardinal Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, was made known on August 3d. The new Pope assumed the name of Pius X.
PAPACY: A. D. 1904. Papal Prohibition of Civil Interference with the Election of the Roman Pontiff. The Civil Veto, in all forms, denounced.
In the first year of his pontificate, on the 20th of January, 1904, Pope Pius X. pronounced the following denunciation and prohibition of every kind of intrusion of civil authority or influence in the election of a Roman pontiff: "When first, all unworthy as we are, we ascended this chair of Peter, we deemed it a most urgent duty of our apostolic office to provide that the life of the Church should manifest itself with absolute freedom, by the removal of all extraneous interference, as her divine Founder willed that it should manifest itself, and as her lofty mission imperatively requires.
"Now if there is one function above all others in the life of the Church which demands this liberty it is certainly that which is concerned with the election of the Roman pontiff; for when the head is in question, the health not of one member alone but of the whole body is involved (Gregory XV. Constit. Aeterni Patris in proem).
"To this full liberty in the election of the Supreme Pastor is opposed first of all that civil Veto which has been more than once brought forward by the rulers of some states, and by which it is sought to exclude somebody from the supreme pontificate. If this has happened sometimes, it has never been approved by the apostolic see. On the contrary the Roman pontiffs, in their enactments on the conclave, have been in nothing perhaps more emphatic or more earnest than in their efforts to exclude the interference of all extraneous powers from the sacred senate of the Cardinals summoned to elect the pontiff. …
"But, and experience has shown it, the measures hitherto taken for preventing the civil Veto, or Exclusive, have not served their purpose, and on account of the changed circumstances of the times the intrusion of the civil power in our day is more clearly than ever before destitute of all foundation in reason or equity, therefore we, by virtue of the apostolic charge entrusted to us, and following in the footsteps of our predecessors, after having maturely deliberated, with certain knowledge and by our own motion, do absolutely condemn the civil Veto, or Exclusive as it is also called, even when expressed under the form of a mere desire, and all interventions and intercessions whatsoever, decreeing that it is not lawful for anybody, not even the supreme rulers of states, under any pretext, to interpose or interfere in the grave matter of the election of the Roman pontiff.
"Wherefore, in virtue of holy obedience, under threat of divine judgment and pain of excommunication latae sententiae reserved in a special manner to the future pontiff, we prohibit all and single the Cardinals of holy Roman Church, and likewise the secretary of the Sacred College of Cardinals and all others who take part in the conclave to receive, even under the form of a simple desire, the office of proposing the Veto or Exclusive, or to make known this Veto in whatever manner it may have come to their knowledge, to the Sacred College of Cardinals either taken as a whole or to the individual fathers Cardinals, either by writing, by word of mouth, whether directly and proximately, or indirectly and through others. And it is our will that this prohibition be extended to all the interventions above mentioned, and to all other intercessions whatsoever, by which the lay powers, of whatsoever grade and order, endeavor to intrude themselves in the election of the pontiff.
"Finally we vehemently exhort, in the same words as those used by our predecessors, that in the election of the pontiff, they pay no attention whatever to the appeals of secular princes or other worldly considerations … but solely with the glory of God and the good of the Church before their eyes, give their votes to him whom they judge in the Lord better fitted than the others to rule the Universal Church fruitfully and usefully. It is our will also that these our letters, together with the other constitutions of the same kind, be read in the presence of all in the first of the congregations wont to be held after the death of the pontiff; again after entrance into the conclave; also when anybody is raised to the dignity of the purple, with the addition of an oath binding to the religious observance of what is decreed in the present constitution."
PAPACY: A. D. 1904. Amenities between the Vatican and the Quirinal.
See (in this Volume) ITALY: A. D. 1904.
PAPACY: A. D. 1904. Increased Participation of Catholics in the Italian Elections.
See (in this Volume) ITALY: A. D. 1904 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
PAPACY: A. D. 1905. Relaxation of the Withdrawal of Italian Catholics from Political Action.
See (in this Volume) ITALY: A. D. 1905-1906 .
PAPACY: A. D. 1905-1906. The Separation of Church and State in France.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.
PAPACY: A. D. 1906. Anti-Clerical Movement in Spain. Proposed Associations Law.
See (in this Volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1905-1906.
PAPACY: A. D. 1906 (February). Encyclical "Vehementer Nos," to the Prelates, Clergy, and People of France, concerning the Separation Law.
The following are passages from the Encyclical known, from its opening words in the Latin text as "Vehementer Nos," which Pope Pius X. addressed to the French nation on the 19th of February, 1906, after the adoption of the Law separating the Church from the State:
"To the Archbishops, Bishops, Clergy and People of France. … Venerable Brethren, Well-Beloved Sons, Health and Apostolic Benediction.
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"Our soul is full of sorrowful solicitude and our heart overflows with grief when our thoughts dwell upon you. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, immediately after the promulgation of that law which, by sundering violently the old ties that linked your nation with the Apostolic See, creates for the Catholic Church in France a situation unworthy of her and ever to be lamented? That is, beyond question, an event of the gravest import, and one that must be deplored by all right-minded men, for it is as disastrous to society as it is to religion; but it is an event which can have surprised nobody who has paid any attention to the religious policy followed in France of late years. For you, Venerable Brethren, it will certainly have been nothing new or strange, witnesses as you have been of the many dreadful blows aimed from time to time at religion by the public authority. You have seen the sanctity and inviolability of Christian marriage outraged by legislative acts in formal contradiction with them; the schools and hospitals laicised; clerics torn from their studies and from ecclesiastical discipline to be subjected to military service; the religious congregations dispersed and despoiled, and their members for the most part reduced to the last stage of destitution. Other legal measures which you all know have followed—the law ordaining public prayers at the beginning of each Parliamentary session and of the assizes has been abolished; the signs of mourning traditionally observed on board the ships on Good Friday suppressed; the religious character effaced from the judicial oath; all actions and emblems serving in any way to recall the idea of religion banished from the courts, the schools, the army, the navy, and, in a word, from all public establishments. These measures and others still which, one after another, really separated the Church from the State, were but so many steps designedly made to arrive at complete and official separation, as the authors of them have publicly and frequently admitted.
"On the other hand, the Holy See has spared absolutely no means to avert this great calamity. While it was untiring in warning those who were at the head of affairs in France, and in conjuring them over and over again to weigh well the immensity of the evils that would infallibly result from their separatist policy, it at the same time lavished upon France the most striking proofs of indulgent affection. It had then reason to hope that gratitude would have stayed those politicians on their downward path, and brought them at last to relinquish their designs. But all has been in vain—the attentions, good offices and efforts of our predecessor and ourself. The enemies of religion have succeeded at last in effecting by violence what they have long desired, in defiance of your rights as a Catholic nation and of the wishes of all who think rightly. …
"That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, it is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object, which is man’s eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. …
"When the State broke the bonds of the Concordat and separated itself from the Church it ought, as a natural consequence, to have left her her independence and allowed her to enjoy peacefully that liberty granted by the common law which it pretended to assign to her. Nothing of the kind has been done. We recognize in the law many exceptional and odiously restrictive provisions, the effect of which is to place the Church under the domination of the civil power. …
"With the existence of the association of worship, the Law of Separation hinders the pastors from exercising the plenitude of their authority and of their office over the faithful, when it attributes to the Council of State supreme jurisdiction over these associations and submits them to a whole series of prescriptions not contained in common law, rendering their formation difficult and their continued existence more difficult still; when, after proclaiming the liberty of public worship, it proceeds to restrict its exercise by numerous exceptions; when it despoils the Church of the internal regulation of the churches in order to invest the State with this function; when it thwarts the preaching of Catholic faith and morals and sets up a severe and exceptional penal code for clerics—when it sanctions all these provisions and many others of the same kind in which wide scope is left to arbitrary ruling, does it not place the Church in a position of humiliating subjection and, under the pretext of protecting public order, deprive peaceable citizens, who still constitute the vast majority in France, of the sacred right of practising their religion? …
"In addition to the wrongs and injuries to which we have so far referred, the Law of Separation also violates and tramples under foot the rights of property of the Church. In defiance of all justice, it despoils the Church of a great portion of a patrimony which belongs to her by titles as numerous as they are sacred; it suppresses and annuls all the pious foundations consecrated, with perfect legality, to divine worship and to suffrages for the dead. The resources furnished by Catholic liberality for the maintenance of Catholic schools, and the working of various charitable associations connected with religion, have been transferred to lay associations in which it would be idle to seek for a vestige of religion. In this it violates not only the rights of the Church, but the formal and explicit purpose of the donors and testators. It is also a subject of keen grief to us that the law, in contempt of all right, proclaims as property of the State, departments or communes, the ecclesiastical edifices dating from before the Concordat. True, the law concedes the gratuitous use of them for an indefinite period, to the associations of worship, but it surrounds the concession with so many and so serious reserves that in reality it leaves to the public powers the full disposition of them. Moreover, we entertain the gravest fears for the sanctity of those temples, the august refuges of the Divine Majesty and endeared by a thousand memories to the piety of the French people. …
{474}
"Hence, mindful of our Apostolic charge and conscious of the imperious duty incumbent upon us of defending and preserving against all assaults the full and absolute integrity of the sacred and inviolable rights of the Church, we do, by virtue of the supreme authority which God has confided to us, and on the grounds above set forth, reprove and condemn the law voted in France for the separation of Church and State as deeply unjust to God, whom it denies, and as laying down the principle that the Republic recognizes no cult. We reprove and condemn it as violating the natural law, the law of nations, and fidelity to treaties; as contrary to the Divine constitution of the Church, to her essential rights and to her liberty; as destroying justice and trampling under foot the rights of property which the Church has acquired by many titles, and, in addition, by virtue of the Concordat. We reprove and condemn it as gravely offensive to the dignity of this Apostolic See, to our own person, to the Episcopacy and to the clergy and all the Catholics of France. Therefore, we protest solemnly and with all our strength against the introduction, the voting and the promulgation of this law, declaring that it can never be alleged against the imprescriptible rights of the Church."
_Pope Pius X., Encyclical Letter (American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1906)._
PAPACY: A. D. 1906. Commands forbidding French Catholics to conform to the Separation Law or the Associations Law.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
PAPACY: A. D. 1906. Pacific Relations between State and Church in Mexico.
See (in this Volume) MEXICO: A. D. 1906.
PAPACY: A. D. 1906 (March). Declaration of the new French Ministry on the Church Separation Law.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906 (JANUARY-MARCH).
PAPACY: A. D. 1906-1907. The Separation of Church and State in France. Further Measures and Proceedings. The Encyclical Gravissimo.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906-1907.
PAPACY: A. D. 1907. Effects of the Separation Law in France. The Catholics lose all Legal Organization.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1907.
PAPACY: A. D. 1907 (September). Mandates of the Encyclical on Modernism.
The following passages contain the essential mandates of the Encyclical on Modernism, issued on the 8th of September, 1907:
"The office divinely committed to us of feeding the Lord’s flock has especially this duty assigned to it by Christ, namely, to guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith delivered to the saints, rejecting the profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. There has never been a time when this watchfulness of the supreme pastor was not necessary to the Catholic body; for, owing to the efforts of the enemy of the human race, there have never been lacking ‘men speaking perverse things’ (Acts xx., 30), ‘vain talkers and seducers’ (Tit. i., 10), ‘erring and driving into error’ (II. Tim. iii., 13). Still, it must be confessed that the number of the enemies of the cross of Christ has in these last days increased exceedingly, who are striving, by arts entirely new and full of subtlety, to destroy the vital energy of the Church, and, if they can, to overthrow utterly Christ’s kingdom itself. Wherefore we may no longer be silent, lest we should seem to fail in our most sacred duty, and lest the kindness that, in the hope of wiser counsels, we have hitherto shown them should be attributed to forgetfulness of our office.
"That we may make no delay in this matter is rendered necessary especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church’s open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart, and are the more mischievous the less conspicuously they appear. We allude, venerable brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay, more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, vaunt themselves as reformers, … not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man.
"Though they express astonishment themselves, no one can justly be surprised that we number such men among the enemies of the Church, if, leaving out of consideration the internal disposition of soul, of which God alone is the judge, he is acquainted with their tenets, their manner of speech, their conduct. Nor, indeed, will He err in accounting them the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For, as we have said, they put their designs for her ruin into operation not from without, but from within; hence the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain, the more intimate is their knowledge of her. Moreover, they lay the axe not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root; that is, to the faith and its deepest fibres. And having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to disseminate poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth from which they hold their hand, none that they do not strive to corrupt. Further, none is more skilful, none more astute than they in the employment of a thousand noxious arts; for they double the parts of rationalist and Catholic, and this so craftily that they easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance. To this must be added the fact, which indeed is well calculated to deceive souls, that they lead a life of the greatest activity of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality. Finally, and this almost destroys all hope of cure, their very doctrines have given such a bent to their minds that they disdain all authority and brook no restraint; and, relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a love of truth that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy.
{475}
"Once, indeed, we had hopes of recalling them to a better sense, and to this end we first of all showed them kindness as our children, then we treated them with severity, and at last we have had recourse, though with great reluctance, to public reproof. But, you know, venerable brethren, how fruitless has been our action. They bowed their head for a moment, but it was soon uplifted more arrogantly than ever. If it were a matter which concerned them alone, we might perhaps have overlooked it; but the security of the Catholic name is at stake. Wherefore, as to maintain it longer would be a crime, we must now break silence, in order to expose before the whole Church in their true colors those men who have assumed this bad disguise.
"But since the modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) employ a very clever artifice, namely, to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement into one whole, scattered and disjointed one from another, so as to appear to be in doubt and uncertainty, while they are in reality firm and steadfast, it will be of advantage, venerable brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out the connection between them, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil. …
"Against this host of grave errors, and its secret and open advance, our predecessor, Leo XIII., of happy memory, worked strenuously, especially as regards the Bible, both in his words and his acts. But, as we have seen, the modernists are not easily deterred by such weapons; with an affectation of submission and respect they proceeded to twist the words of the Pontiff to their own sense, and his acts they described as directed against others than themselves. And the evil has gone on increasing from day to day. We therefore, venerable brethren, have determined to adopt at once the most efficacious measure in our power, and we beg and conjure you to see to it that in this most grave matter nobody will ever be able to say that you have been in the slightest degree wanting in vigilance, zeal or firmness. And what we ask of you and expect of you we ask and expect also of all other pastors of souls, of all educators and professors of clerics, and in a very special way of the superiors of religious institutions.
"I. In the first place, with regard to studies, we will and ordain that scholastic philosophy be made the basis of the sacred sciences, it goes without saying that if anything is met with among the scholastic doctors which may be regarded as an excess of subtlety, or which is altogether destitute of probability, we have no desire whatever to propose it for the imitation of present generations (Leo XIII. Enc. ‘Aeterni Patris’). And let it be clearly understood above all things that the scholastic philosophy we prescribe is that which the Angelic Doctor has bequeathed to us, and we, therefore, declare that all the ordinances of our predecessor on this subject continue fully in force, and, as far as may be necessary, we do decree anew and confirm and ordain that they be by all strictly observed. In seminaries where they may have been neglected let the Bishops impose them and require their observance, and let this apply also to the superiors of religious institutions. Further, let professors remember that they cannot set St. Thomas aside, especially in metaphysical questions, without grave detriment.
"On this philosophical foundation the theological edifice is to be solidly raised. Promote the study of theology, venerable brethren, by all means in your power, so that your clerics on leaving the seminaries may admire and love it, and always find their delight in it. For in the vast and varied abundance of studies opening before the mind desirous of truth everybody knows how the old maxim describes theology as so far in front of all others that every science and art should serve it and be to it as handmaidens. …
"With regard to profane studies, suffice it to recall here what our predecessor has admirably said: ‘Apply yourselves energetically to the study of natural sciences: the brilliant discoveries and the bold and useful applications of them made in our times, which have won such applause by our contemporaries, will be an object of perpetual praise for those that come after us’ (Leo XIII. Alloc., March 7, 1880). But this do without interference with sacred studies, as our predecessor in these most grave words prescribed: ‘If you carefully search for the cause of these errors, you will find that it lies in the fact that in these days, when the natural sciences absorb so much study, the more severe and lofty studies have been proportionately neglected; some of them have almost passed into oblivion, some of them are pursued in a half-hearted or superficial way, and, sad to say, now that they are fallen from their old estate, they have been disfigured by perverse doctrines and monstrous errors (loco cit.). We ordain, therefore, that the study of natural science in the seminaries be carried on under this law.’
"II. All these prescriptions and those of our predecessor are to be borne in mind whenever there is question of choosing directors and professors for seminaries and Catholic Universities. Anybody who in any way is found to be imbued with modernism is to be excluded without compunction from these offices, and those who already occupy them are to be withdrawn. The same policy is to be adopted towards those who favor modernism, either by extolling the modernists, or excusing their culpable conduct, by criticizing scholasticism, the Holy Father, or by refusing obedience to ecclesiastical authority in any of its depositories; and towards those who show a love of novelty in history, archaeology, Biblical exegesis, and finally towards those who neglect the sacred sciences or appear to prefer them to the profane. In all this question of studies, venerable brethren, you cannot be too watchful or too constant, but most of all in the choice of professors, for as a rule the students are modeled after the pattern of their masters. Strong in the consciousness of your duty, act always prudently, but vigorously.
"Equal diligence and severity are to be used in examining and selecting candidates for holy orders. Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty. God hates the proud and the obstinate. For the future the doctorate of theology and canon law must never be conferred on anybody who has not made the regular course of scholastic philosophy, if conferred, it shall be held as null and void. The rules laid down in 1896 by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars for the clerics, both secular and regular, of Italy, concerning the frequenting of the universities, we now decree to be extended to all nations. Clerics and priests inscribed in a Catholic institute or university must not in the future follow in civil universities those courses for which there are chairs in the Catholic institutes to which they belong. If this has been permitted anywhere in the past, we ordain that it be not allowed for the future. Let the Bishops who form the governing board of such Catholic institutes or universities watch with all care that these our commands be constantly observed.
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"III. It is also the duty of the Bishops to prevent writings infected with modernism or favorable to it from being read when they have been published, and to hinder their publication when they have not. No book or paper or periodical of this kind must ever be permitted to seminarists or university students. The injury to them would be equal to that caused by immoral reading—nay, it would be greater, for such writings poison Christian life at its very fount. The same decision is to be taken concerning the writings of some Catholics, who, though not badly disposed themselves, but ill instructed in theological studies and imbued with modern philosophy, strive to make this harmonize with the faith, and, as they say, to turn it to the account of the faith. The name and reputation of these authors cause them to be read without suspicion, and they are, therefore, all the more dangerous in preparing the way for modernism.
"To give you some more general directions, venerable brethren, in a matter of such moment, we bid you do everything in your power to drive out of your dioceses, even by solemn interdict, any pernicious books that may be in circulation there. …
"IV. But it is not enough to hinder the reading and the sale of bad books: it is also necessary to prevent them from being printed. Hence, let the Bishops use the utmost severity in granting permission to print. Under the rules of the Constitution ‘Officiorum,’ many publications require the authorization of the ordinary, and in some dioceses it has been made the custom to have a suitable number of official censors for the examination of writings. We have the highest praise for this institution, and we not only exhort, but we order that it be extended to all dioceses."
_Pope Pius X., The Doctrines of the Modernists (American Catholic Quarterly Review, October, 1907)._
See (in this Volume) TYRREL, FATHER GEORGE.
PAPACY: A. D. 1907-1909. Revision of St. Jerome’s Latin Translation of the Bible, known as "the Vulgate."
"In May, 1907, an announcement was made of the Pope's intention to revise the Latin Bible, and the work has already made such progress that the time has come to record not only the main lines upon which the revision is being carried out but also the actual completion of its preliminary preparations. … Pius X. … offered the honourable though costly and arduous task to the learned Order of the Benedictines, by whom it was accepted. A commission of revision was appointed, with Abbot Gasquet, the President of the English Benedictines, as its head, and the International College of the Order at San Anselmo in Rome was chosen as the headquarters of their work. It is here that Abbot Gasquet and his fellow-workers have already made a good start upon the vast labour which their Order has undertaken.
"The object of the Commission, according to the Pope’s definite instructions, is to determine and restore as far as possible the original text of St. Jerome’s Latin translation made in the fourth century. How far St. Jerome’s translation represents the Hebrew or Greek is another question which may be the subject some day for future criticism and another commission. … Pius X. has made it clear to the Commission that he desires their work of revision to be conducted on the most modern and scientific lines, and that neither money nor labour should be spared to make it as thorough as possible. An exhaustive search will be made through all the libraries of Europe in the hope of finding hitherto unrecognized manuscripts of the Vulgate. Already there are 15 collaborators at work in different centres, collating the best-known and most important manuscripts with the Clementine text, while another commission, with its assistants, is making a thorough examination of the libraries and cathedral archives of Spain in search of fresh material. …
"The method of work is as follows. For the purpose of collation copies of the Clementine text have been printed; each page being left blank for two-thirds of its surface, the text being printed on the remaining third with no capital letters, no stops, no word divided, so as to resemble manuscript as far as possible. When a reviser wishes to collate any manuscript he has only to correct this print like an ordinary proof-sheet and so reproduce every difference of the manuscript before him.
"The printing of these copies of the Vulgate, which are to form the basis of the collations, with the preparation of the texts and correction of proofs—no light matter—has been the work of the first year. Three hundred and sixty copies have been printed in all, one hundred upon the best hand-made paper, two hundred upon ordinary book paper, and sixty upon thin paper for the purpose of postage abroad. The Pope himself has defrayed the rather heavy cost of this production. Besides the printing of this Bible considerable progress has been made during the past year with the preparation of a hand list of all the Latin Biblical MSS. in the libraries of Europe, which, when completed, will be of great use to the revisers. As the collators finish their work in the various libraries or archives where Biblical manuscripts are found, they send their annotated copies to San Anselmo, where they are bound up and added to a collection which, when complete, will form a vast library of all the different versions of the Bible. Seven important collations have already been made, and at the present rate of work the number of these Volumes will increase very rapidly."
_Rome Correspondence of the London Times, July 21, 1909._
PAPACY: A. D. 1908. The new Apostolic Constitution of the Curia.
A change of far-reaching and great importance in the ecclesiastical constitution of the Roman Church was decreed by Pope Pius X. this year, by the promulgation of a new Apostolic Constitution of the Curia. It reorganized the numerous Congregations or departments of the Vatican Government which had exercised the judicial functions of the Curia for some generations past. The Pope now restores these functions to an ancient ecclesiastical court, the Rota, which had fallen out of use. The Rota is constituted as an international court, before which questions between priest and bishop, bishop and diocese, and the like, will have their hearing, and from which there is appeal to a tribunal of last resort, the Segnatura, composed of Cardinals alone.
{477}
The reorganization of the Congregation of the Propaganda by this new Constitution removes from that body the ecclesiastical jurisdiction it has exercised heretofore over the Church in Great Britain, Holland, the United States, Canada, and some other countries, thus taking them out of the Roman category of missionary lands.
PAPACY: A. D. 1908. The situation of the Church in France. No Organization that can hold Property.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1908.
PAPACY: A. D. 1909. Increased Participation by Catholics in the Italian Elections. Their Gain of Seats in Parliament.
See (in this Volume) ITALY: A. D. 1909 (MARCH).
PAPACY: A. D. 1909. Church Movement of Agricultural Labor Organization.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: ITALY.
PAPACY: A. D. 1909. Demonstration against the Religious Orders in Portugal.
See (in this Volume) PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909.
PAPACY: A. D. 1909 (April). The Beatification of Joan of Arc.
The ceremony of the Beatification of Joan of Arc was performed at St. Peter’s, in Rome, on the 18th of April, 1909. Proceedings which began about ten years before were brought by this ceremony to the end of their first stage, beyond which they must still be continued for possibly many years, before the Canonization of "the Maid" as a Saint becomes complete. The question of the Beatification had been under consideration in the Congregation of Rites for several years. The grounds on which that question is decided, in every case, were explained by The Catholic Union and Times, in connection with its account of the ceremony now referred to, as follows: The Congregation of Rites "may decide that the life of the person was a very worthy and very holy one, but they require much more than that. It must be proved to their satisfaction that ‘miracles’ have been performed. The Congregation of Rites requires evidence of not fewer than three miracles. In the case of ‘miraculous cures’ it must be shown that doctors have pronounced the cases hopeless, or that diseases have been cured which doctors call incurable. Usually the report contains particulars of a number of ‘miracles,’ from which the Congregation of Rites may make a selection. The three chosen among those attributed to Joan of Arc relate to the curing of nuns belonging to different communities, who are said to have obtained relief from their diseases by her intercession. One of these nuns had suffered for years from cancer and was on the point of death when, it was claimed, she was instantly cured by a prayer of Joan of Arc. When the Congregation of Rites has been satisfied as to the authenticity of three miracles they prepare their report, which is submitted to the Pope, who considers it. There is then a gathering at the Vatican, to which the public is admitted. Cardinals and bishops are present, and a lawyer of the papal court reads out the decision. After this, the ceremony of beatification generally takes place within a few months."
In January, 1910, it was announced in Paris that the ecclesiastical process for the Canonization would begin on February 9.
PAPACY: A. D. 1909 (May). Vote in British House of Commons for removal of remaining Catholic Disabilities.
See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D). 1909 (MAY).
----------PAPACY: End--------
PAPER TRUST.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1906, and 1909.
PARAGUAY: A. D. 1901-1906. Participation in Second and Third International Conferences of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PARAGUAY: A. D. 1902. A nearly bloodless Revolution. Deposition of President Aceval. Elevation of the Vice-President.
The following, translated from the Montevideo (Uruguay) Dia, of January 10, 1902, appears in the annual report of "Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States," 1902, as transmitted by the United States Minister to Uruguay, and is probably an authentic account of the revolution described:
"Yesterday, at 10 o'clock in the morning, a revolutionary movement occurred in Asuncion del Paraguay, without bloodshed, without noise of arms, which immediately resulted in the imprisonment of the President of the Republic, Dr. Emilio Aceval, in the artillery barracks. A strange case—the chief magistrate of Paraguay has fallen, at least for the moment, on account of a revolution, inspired and carried into practice by two of his own ministers, Colonel Juan Antonio Escurra and Señor Fulgencio Moreno, who, although belonging to the same Colorado party as the President, differ in opinion at present, the former considering that a radical policy should be adopted against the liberals or civic accordists, Dr. Aceval not sharing this opinion, but being in favor of conciliatory measures, although this did not win for him the help of his traditional adversaries, who looked unfavorably on him, as is usually the way with those belonging to an opposite party."
In his note transmitting Montevideo newspaper reports, Minister Finch wrote of the occurrence: "It was, as will be seen, a bloodless affair; but out of it grew a discussion in the Paraguay Congress which was followed by shooting, one person being killed and several wounded."
PARAGUAY: A. D. 1904. Successful Revolution.
The beginning of a successful revolution was reported to Washington by the American Consul at Asuncion, in a despatch dated August 11, 1904, as follows: "I beg to confirm my telegram of to-day, stating that a revolution has broken out in this republic. … Revolutionary forces on the river and those of the Government have fought. … The Government forces were defeated, the Minister of the Interior, who led the forces, being taken prisoner. The state of siege as declared … places the entire country under military laws, and the Government, is amassing a large number of troops to suppress the revolution. It is impossible at present to say whether it will be of long or short duration. The revolutionary forces are proceeding up the river in boats, and the Government has placed or erected defenses along the river near the capital.
{478}
"Upon inquiries as to the cause of this revolution I am informed that the opposition to the Government is that the party in power is endeavoring to exclude entirely the liberal element from participation in the administration of affairs, assigning that said party, which is in power, which is denominated ‘Colorados,’ have not sufficient persons prepared for the administration of the Government. On the other hand, the ‘Colorados’ assign that the revolution is due to ambitious persons who form an opposition and are classed under the name ‘Azul,’ colorados meaning ‘reds’ and azul ‘blues.’"
It was not until four months later that the Consul could announce the return of peace, secured by the triumph of the revolution. The president, Colonel Ezcurra, was compelled to resign, and Señor Juan Gauna was elected in his place; the army was reorganized; a general amnesty was proclaimed.
PARDO, PRESIDENT JOSE.
See (in this Volume) PERU.
PARKER, Alton B.: Nominated for President of the United States.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER).
PARKER, Edward Wheeler: On the Anthracite Coal Strike Arbitration Commission.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1903.
PAROLE SYSTEM.
See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.
PARSONS, CHARLES A.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: TURBINE ENGINE.
PARTIES: Agrarian Socialists.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Anti-Revolutionnaire.
See (in this Volume) NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1905-1909.
PARTIES: Azul.
See (in this Volume) PARAGUAY: A. D. 1904.
PARTIES: Blues (Conservatives).
See (in this Volume) COLOMBIA: A. D. 1898-1902.
PARTIES: Boshin Club.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1909.
PARTIES: Cadets.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
PARTIES: Catholic Peoples’ Party.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1904.
PARTIES: Center, or Centrum.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.
PARTIES: Centro Catolico.
SEE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: Christian Workmen.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Christlijk.
See (in this Volume) NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1905-1909.
PARTIES: Civilistas.
See (in this Volume) PERU.
PARTIES: Clerical.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1903, and 1906; BELGIUM: A. D. 1904; GERMANY: A. D. 1906, and 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Colorados.
See (in this Volume) PARAGUAY: A. D. 1902, and 1904.
PARTIES: Confederates.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (January-May).
PARTIES: Conservatives.
See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1906, and 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Conservative-Unionist.
See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906, 1909 (April-December), and 1910.
PARTIES: Continental.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER), AND 1908 (MARCH-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Constitutional Democrats.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
PARTIES: Daido Club.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1909.
PARTIES: Democratas.
See (in this Volume) PERU.
PARTIES: Democratic.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES; A. D. 1904 (MAY-NOVEMBER), and 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Democristiana.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: ITALY.
PARTIES: Democratique and Gauche Democratique.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
PARTIES: Doshi-shukai.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1903 (JUNE).
PARTIES: Fabian Society.
See (in this Volume) SOCIALISM: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
PARTIES: Fedakiarans.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
PARTIES: Federal Party, Filipino.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901, and 1907.
PARTIES: Free Traders.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1905-1906.
PARTIES: Independents.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: Independent Labor.
See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
PARTIES: Independistas.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: Inmediatistas.
See (in this Volume) Philippine Islands: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: Intransigentes.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: Kossuth Party, or Independence Party.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA HUNGARY: A. D. 1902-1903.
PARTIES: Labor Party.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1903-1904, and after; ENGLAND: A. D. 1903, and 1905-1906; also SOCIALISM: ENGLAND.
PARTIES: League of Liberation.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
PARTIES: Liberal-Conservative Separatist.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1904.
PARTIES: Liberals.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1906, and after; ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906, 1909 (APRIL-DECEMBER), and 1910; TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (January-May).
PARTIES: Miguelistas.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1906-1909.
PARTIES: Moderates.
See (in this Volume) LONDON: A. D. 1909 (March); DENMARK: A. D. 1901, and CUBA: A. D. 1906, and after.
PARTIES: Moderate Republicans.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY).
PARTIES: Nacionalistas.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.
PARTIES: National Liberty.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER ).
PARTIES: Nationalists.
See (in this Volume) France: A. D. 1906.
PARTIES: Octobrists.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
PARTIES: Old Finns.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Peoples, or Populist.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER), UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Progresistas.
See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907, PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.
PARTIES: Progressists.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906; JAPAN: A. D. 1909.
PARTIES: Progressives.
See (in this Volume) LONDON: A. D. 1909 (MARCH); SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1904.
PARTIES: Prohibition.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER), and 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Protectionists.
See (in this Volume) AUSTRALIA: A.D. 1903-1904, and after.
PARTIES: Radicals and Radical Socialists.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
PARTIES: Ralliés.
See (in this Volume) RALLIÉS.
PARTIES: Regeneradors.
See (in this Volume) PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.
PARTIES: Republican.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MAY-NOVEMBER), and 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Rikken Seiyu-kai, or Seiyu-kai.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1902 (AUGUST); 1903 (JUNE), and 1909;
See in Volume VI., JAPAN: A. D. 1900.
PARTIES: Sinn Fein.
See (in this Volume) IRELAND: A. D 1905.
{479}
PARTIES: Social Democrats.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA A. D. 1905-1907; GERMANY: A. D. 1903; DENMARK: A. D. 1906; SOCIALISM: GERMANY, SOCIALISM: FRANCE, SOCIALISM: ENGLAND.
PARTIES: Social Revolutionists.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
PARTIES: Socialist, and Socialist Labor.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904 (MARCH-NOVEMBER), and 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES: Socialists, Radical. Socialists, Independent. Socialists Unified.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
PARTIES: Sons of Liberal Ottomans.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
PARTIES: Union Republicaine.
See (in this Volume) France: A. D. 1906.
PARTIES: Yellows (Liberals).
See (in this Volume) COLOMBIA: A. D. 1898-1902.
PARTIES: Young Egypt.
See (in this Volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1909 (SEPTEMBER).
PARTIES: Young Finns.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
PARTIES: Young Turks.
See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PARTIES: Yushin-kai.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1909.
PARTIES: Zayistas.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1906-1909.
PARTY REFORMS, Political.
See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.
PASSAY, FREDERIC.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
PASSIONISTS: Forbidden to Teach in France.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1903.
"PASSIVE RESISTANCE," OF ENGLISH NONCONFORMISTS TO THE EDUCATION ACT OF 1902.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1902, AND 1909 (MAY).
PASTEUR, Louis: Pronounced by Popular Vote to be the Greatest Frenchman of the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907-1908.
PATENTS OF INVENTION: GREAT BRITAIN: A. D. 1907. Patents and Designs Act.
A requirement of the manufacture of patented articles in the United Kingdom, introduced in an Act of the British Parliament passed and approved in August, 1907, which came into force August 28, 1908, seriously changed the operation of patents issued to foreigners. It is contained in the following sections:
"27.—(1) At any time not less than four years after the date of a patent and not less than one year after the passing of this Act, any person may apply to the comptroller for the revocation of the patent on the ground that the patented article or process is manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom.
"(2) The comptroller shall consider the application, and, if after enquiry he is satisfied that the allegations contained therein are correct, then, subject to the provisions of this section, and unless the patentee proves that the patented article or process is manufactured or carried on to an adequate extent in the United Kingdom, or gives satisfactory reasons why the article or process is not so manufactured or carried on, the comptroller may make an order revoking the patent either—(a) forthwith; or (b) after such reasonable interval as may be specified in the order, unless in the meantime it is shown to his satisfaction that the patented article or process is manufactured or carried on within the United Kingdom to an adequate extent: Provided that no such order shall be made which is at variance with any treaty, convention, arrangement, or engagement with any foreign country or British possession.
"(3) If within the time limited in the order the patented article or process is not manufactured or carried on within the United Kingdom to an adequate extent, but the patentee gives satisfactory reasons why it is not so manufactured or carried on, the comptroller may extend the period mentioned in the previous order for such period not exceeding twelve months as may be specified in the subsequent order.
"(4) Any decision of the comptroller under this section shall be subject to appeal to the court, and on any such appeal the law officer or such other counsel as he may appoint shall be entitled to appear and be heard."
Twelve months after the Act became effective the London Times gave the following account of its working:
"During the year which has elapsed since Section 27 came into force, 69 applications for revocation of foreign patents have been made to the Comptroller-General. In 10 cases only were patents revoked by that official. In four of these cases the patentees appealed to the High Court, and in two cases relating to improvements in electric arc lamps, the decision of the Comptroller-General was reversed, evidence having been adduced which was not placed before the Comptroller-General, the effect of which was to show that the patented process was being adequately carried on in this country. The two other appeals to the High Court were unsuccessful, so that the number of patents finally revoked was eight. Those revoked related to the following articles or processes:—Artificial stone slabs and tiles (two patents), sewing-machines, umbrellas, adhesive stays or fastening straps used in box-making, the lubrication of gig-mills, a steam motor-car, and locks. In another case, that of a patent connected with the manufacture of china clay, the Comptroller-General made a conditional order of revocation.
"It is too early, as yet, to say whether this new power of revocation conferred by the Act of 1907 is likely to have any appreciable effect in reducing the number of foreign patents taken out in this country. In the first seven months of this year there were 17,869 such patents applied for—an increase of 1566 as compared with the corresponding period of 1908, though only an increase of 319 upon the larger figures for the first seven months of 1907. Sixteen fewer patents were taken out in 1909 by American subjects than in 1908, and 331 fewer than in 1907. The decrease in German patents has been consistent—2000 in 1907, 1822 in 1908, and 1735 in 1909, and the same may be said of Austrian patents—253, 234, and 192 respectively. French patents, which were 620 in 1907 and 670 in 1908, decreased to 560 in 1909.
PATENTS: Pan-American Convention.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PAULHAN, M.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.
PAUPERISM.
See (in this Volume) POVERTY.
PAWLOW, Ivan PETROVIE.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
PAYNE, HENRY C.: Postmaster-General.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.
{480}
PAYNE-ALDRICH TARIFF.
See (in this Volume) TARIFFS: UNITED STATES.
PEACE.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST.
PEACE, International: Awards for the Promotion of.
See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.
PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE, The Second International.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
PEACE TREATY, BOER-BRITISH.
See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
PEACE TREATY OF PORTSMOUTH.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1905 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
PEARY, Robert E.: Exploration and Discovery of the North Pole.
See (in this Volume) POLAR EXPLORATION: ARCTIC.
PEASANT INSURRECTION IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).
PEASANTRY, CONDITION OF RUSSIAN.
See (in this Volume) Russia: A. D. 1901-1904, 1902, 1904-1905, 1905, and 1906.
PECANHA, Nilo: President of Brazil.
See (in this Volume) BRAZIL: A. D. 1909 (JUNE).
PEKING: A. D. 1902. Return of the Imperial Court.
See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1902.
PEKING-KALGAN RAILWAY.
See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: CHINA.
PELLAGRA.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: PELLAGRA.
PENNA, DR. ALFONSO MOREIRA: President of Brazil.
See (in this Volume ) BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
PENNA, DR. ALFONSO MOREIRA: Sudden death.
See (in this Volume) BRAZIL: A. D. 1909 (JUNE).
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1906. Reform Legislation.
The popular revolt of 1905 in Philadelphia against the intolerable rottenness of municipal government under the dominant party "machine" had prompt effects in the State.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
"When the election, last November, and still more the reports made by working politicians in the best organized and informed machine in the land, showed that these classes wanted a change, the machine and its leaders changed instantly. A pliant governor was as prompt to call the Legislature in extra session as he had been to find reasons for the vilest excess of the political plunderers of the State. The same Legislature as before met, and in a brief session passed every measure for which reformers had been asking in vain for twenty-five years,—two of them in more drastic form than any one had yet proposed. Save that the Corrupt Practices Act is more precise and severe than any yet passed, except in Connecticut, and the separation and protection of the civil service of Philadelphia more complete than has yet been enacted for an American city, the new legislation follows the general trend of such measures in other States."
_Review of Reviews, April, 1906_.
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1906-1908. Frauds in the Construction of the new State Capitol.
On the 4th of October, 1906, the new State House at Harrisburg was dedicated with imposing ceremonies, honored by the President of the United States as the principal speaker of the occasion. The State of Pennsylvania was then indulging more pride in the supposed honesty and economy with which it had been built than in the splendor it displayed; for announcement was made that the Commission charged with the work had saved about 10 per cent of the $4,000,000 appropriated for it. Very quickly, however, there came an humiliation of that honorable pride. Complete accountings showed that, while the naked structure of the building had cost but $3,600,000, a monstrous expenditure of more than $9,000,000 for alleged decoration and furnishing had been added to that sum, by the most audacious "graft," perhaps, that is recorded, even in the national history which included the exploits of the Tweed Ring. The arts of sculpture and painting in the decoration were dealt with most frugally; but royal emoluments went to gas-fitters and cabinet makers and their kind,—$2,000,000 for example, for the equipment of the building with chandeliers. For woodwork in one suite of rooms, which cost the contractor $16,089 the State had paid $94,208. For another, he had received $62,486, on an expenditure by himself of but $6,145.
The investigation of these monstrous frauds, in the fruits of which many people must have shared, resulted in the arrest of fourteen men. The arrests were made in September, 1907, and the accused were released on bail. In the following March four were convicted of defrauding the State, namely J. H. Sanderson, a contractor, W. P. Snyder, former Auditor-General of the State, W. L. Mathues, former State Treasurer, and J. M. Shumaker, former Superintendent of Public Grounds and Buildings. The execution of the sentence was suspended pending an appeal.
Sanderson and Mathues died (of nervous breakdown, it was said), while the appeal was pending. The conviction of Snyder and Shumaker was confirmed finally on the 7th of March, 1910, and their sentence to two years of imprisonment went into effect. At the same time suits were instituted by the State against all parties connected with the frauds, to recover some $5,000,000, estimated to be the amount of plunder taken. Meantime, seven in all of the alleged participants in the conspiracy of fraud had died.
PENOLOGY.
See (in this Volume) CRIME.
PENSIONS, FOR OLD AGE AND INFIRMITY.
See (in this Volume) POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF.
PENSIONS: Military.
See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1902.
PENSIONS: United States: For Teachers.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.
PENSIONS: For Railway Employees.
See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION: PENSIONS.
PEONAGE: In the United States.
The following extracts are from three reports of an official investigation of practices of peonage, conducted by the Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, Mr. Charles W. Russell, in 1906-1907:
"Under the criminal law as now in force the offense of peonage may be defined as causing compulsory service to be rendered by one man to another on the pretext of having him work out the amount of a debt, real or claimed. That is Mexican peonage proper, as defined by our highest court in the Clyatt case (197 U. S., p. 207). But, as fully explained in my report of October, 1907, and January, 1908, where there is no indebtedness either real or claimed, a conspiracy to cause compulsory service of citizens of the United States is punishable; and so, also, according to the only court that has directly passed upon the question, is the carrying or enticing any person from one place to another in order that he may be held in compulsory service.
{481}
"I use the words ‘compulsory service’ as equivalent to the constitutional phrase ‘involuntary servitude’ because the Supreme Court so treats them in the Clyatt case, and I say that a mere claim of debt is sufficient because several inferior courts have so decided, and because in the Clyatt case the indictment, to which no objection seems to have been made, alleged a mere claim of indebtedness."
For an illustration of peonage, Mr. Russell cites the following from evidence produced at the trial of a case occurring in Alabama which he took part in:
"It was proven that Harlan, the manager, had headquarters at Lockhart, where the mill was; that in his back yard were kept what were called bloodhounds—man-trailing dogs; that the object of keeping these was to send after escaping men; that they were so used, and men chased and brought back, one of them tied on the hind part of a buggy; that one of the men, the Bulgarian Jordmans, was unmercifully kicked and beaten by Gallagher for wandering off a few yards, his sore shins being exhibited to the jury as part of the evidence; that by means of telegraph, railroad, and telephone, a justice of the peace, and a deputy sheriff, the force of men were hemmed in so that escape was almost impossible; that the foremen constantly carried pistols and often made threats; that a rope was placed around the neck of one foreigner and thrown over a beam as an object-lesson to others and to frighten him, and that all this went on systematically'. …
"I have no doubt, from my investigations and experiences, that the chief support of peonage is the peculiar system of State laws prevailing in the South, intended evidently to compel service on the part of the workingman.
"It is hoped that an enlightened self-interest and the demand for labor made necessary by the expansion of old industries and the introduction of new will lead to the amendment or repeal of the State laws which are the chief support of peonage practices.
"These State laws take various forms and are used in various ways to uphold peonage and other kinds of involuntary servitude. Some of them are vagrancy laws, some contract labor or employment laws, some fraudulent pretense or false promise laws, and there are divers others. Some few of those in question, such as absconding debtor laws, labor enticing, and board-bill laws, were not originally passed to enslave workmen; but in view of the use to which they are put, need amendment in order that they cannot be so abused.
"These laws are used to threaten workmen who, having been defrauded into going to an employer by false reports as to the conditions of employment and the surroundings, naturally become dissatisfied as soon as they find how they have been defrauded. They are used before juries and the local public to hold the peons up as law-breakers and dishonest persons seeking to avoid their ‘just obligations’ and to convince patriotic juries that the defendants accused of peonage should not be convicted for enforcing, still less for threatening to enforce, the laws of their State.
"Until we began our work in October, 1906, the chief supply of peons came from the slums—i. e., foreign quarters of New York, and from Ellis Island, through the operations of licensed labor agents of New York. These were reaping a rich harvest from the price per head for laborers supplied to employers at a distance, and the temptations to fill all orders and outdo rival agents by a total disregard of truth and honesty in dealing with both laborer and employer was too great for a number of these brokers."
PEPPER, CHARLES M.: Delegate to Second International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PERDICARIS, ION: Ransomed from a Moorish Brigand.
See (in this Volume) MOROCCO: A. D. 1904-1909.
PEREIRA, JOSE HYGINO DUARTE: Vice-President of Second International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PERRY, COMMODORE MATTHEW CALBRAITH: Monument in Japan to commemorate his Advent there in 1853.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1901 (JULY).
----------PERSIA: Start--------
PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907. Beginnings of the Revolutionary Movement, in the Life of Shah Muzaffer-ed-Din. The Taking of "Bast," and its effect. he Extortion of a Constitution and Election of a Representative Assembly. Death of the Shah.
The following account of conditions and events which opened, attended and followed the late constitutional revolution in Persia have been derived, partly from official correspondence of the period, between the British Legation at Teheran (or Tehran) and the Foreign Office at London, as published in Blue Book Cd. 4581, 1909, and partly from letters and despatches to the leading journals of London and New York.
The Shah, Muzaffer-ed-Din, who came to the throne in 1896, on the assassination of his father, Nâsr-ed-Din (see, in Volume VI. of this work, PERSIA), was credited with a desire to reform the government of his kingdom, and made considerable effort to that end in the early years of his reign; but the adverse forces controlling his court were too strong for him, and he seems to have yielded to them completely at last. He was surrounded by a corrupt ring which lived on the spoils of government, and piled debt upon debt. Under the last of the Grand Viziers (Atabegs, or Atabeks) who ruled Persia in his name before the outbreak of revolution, "governments were put up for sale, grain was hoarded and sold at extortionate prices, the Government domains were stolen or sold for the benefit of the conspirators, rich men were summoned to Teheran (or Tehran) and forced to disgorge large sums of money, oppression of every sort was countenanced for a consideration; the property, and even the lives, of all Persian subjects were at their mercy. {482} Finally, there was every reason to believe that a conspiracy was on foot to dethrone the foolish and impotent Shah and to oust the Valiahd [heir to the throne]. In their place was to be put the Shooa-es-Sultaneh, the Shah’s younger son, who was a by-word even in Persia for extortion and injustice. The policy of the Atabeg and his friends had thus aroused the opposition of all classes in Persia: of the few more or less patriotic statesmen, who knew to what a goal the country was being led; of the priests, who felt that their old power and independence would perish with that of their country; and of the great mass of the population and the mercantile classes, who were the daily victims of the tyranny of their oppressors. In December [1905] the storm broke. The Governor of Tehran, without any just cause, ordered an aged Seyed to be cruelly beaten. A large number of the prominent Mujteheds took ‘bast’ [refuge] in the shrine of Shah Abdul Azim, near the capital."
The "taking of ‘bast,’" or refuge, in some sanctuary or other place of protection, is an old Persian mode of political protest or demonstration, to command attention to public discontents. In 1848 the chief persons of the Empire had taken refuge with the English and Russian Legations in order to obtain the exile of a tyrannical Minister, Mirza Aghassi, and since then it had been the custom of persons who had grievances against their own Government to take refuge under the shelter of a foreign Legation. The "Mujteheds" mentioned in the above quotation as having resorted to this expedient in December, are the higher and more influential of the Mohammedan priests in Persia, distinguished from the Mullahs or common priests, whose ranks are open to any believer who can read the Koran and who assumes to interpret its laws.
The Government used vain endeavors of bribery and intimidation to break up the "bast" at the shrine of Shah Abdul Azim. The refugees had stirred up the whole country by a published statement of grievances, appealing to the patriotism of the people, and the Shah surrendered to the effect produced. He made promises of a grant of popular representation, and of administrative reforms. By the end of January a promising state of affairs seemed to have been brought about. "The refugees were brought back to Tehran in the Shah’s own carriages, escorted by an enthusiastic crowd." But dissensions between the popular leaders and the Mujteheds soon arose. "No definite step was taken to give effect to the Shah’s promises, except a vague letter promising Courts of Justice and a new Code, and the appointment of a Council to consider the whole question of reforms. In this Council it soon became evident that the Government could control the leaders of the reform movement, and that the sympathies of the great Mujteheds were not heartily with the popular movement. All was outwardly quiet in Tehran, but in the provinces the people of Shiraz and Resht had taken violent measures to prevent the reappointment of the Shah’s sons as their Governors, and the movement in both cases was successful. In the capital itself the streets and the bazaars were quiet, but every day sermons were preached in the mosques, in which, as one of the popular party said, ‘What we hardly dared to think a year ago was openly spoken.’ The best-known preacher of Tehran, a Prince of the Imperial house, preached every Friday against the tyrannies and corruption of the Government. An order for his expulsion was issued. The chief Mujteheds, incited by the people, pressed the Government to withdraw the measure, and the Government had to yield."
In the middle of May the Shah had a paralytic stroke and was removed to the country. For some weeks there was a lull in the popular agitation. Then, early in July, the principal Mujteheds were roused by the conduct of the Grand Vizier to a fresh preaching of revolt. On the 11th the Vizier ordered the arrest of one of the preachers; a crowd of people attempted to rescue him, and was fired on by the troops. General rioting in the capital ensued, with victory, for a time, on the side of the people; but in the end the Government appeared to have won the day. "The town was in the hands of the troops. The popular leaders had fled. The Shah was in the hands of their opponents. For the popular party the outlook was a grave one."
In these circumstances the leaders had recourse again to the "bast," and this time in a Foreign Legation.
"On the evening of the 9th fifty Mullahs and merchants appeared at the Legation and took up their quarters for the night. Their numbers soon increased, and on the 2nd September there were about 14,000 persons in the Legation garden. Their conduct was most orderly. The crowd of refugees was organized by the heads of the guilds, who took measures to prevent any unauthorized person from entering the Legation grounds. Tents were put up and regular feeding places and times of feeding were provided for. The expense was borne by the principal merchants. No damage of a wilful character was done to the garden, although, of course, every semblance of a bed was trampled out of existence, and the trees still bear pious inscriptions cut in the bark. Colonel Douglas, the Military Attache, kept watch over the Legation buildings, but no watch was needed. Discipline and order were maintained by the refugees themselves.
"The Government sent answers to the popular demands, which they requested Mr. Grant Duff to read to the people. The Government communications were received with derision. At last there appeared to be no other resource than a personal appeal to the Shah. The people stated firmly that unless their demands were granted they would remain in the Legation, as it was their only place of safety, and they maintained that until the Shah knew what was the real situation their requests would never receive due consideration. Mr. Grant Duff obtained the consent of His Majesty’s Government, and announced to the Minister for Foreign Affairs that he demanded an audience. An audience was fixed for the 30th July. The audience, however, never took place. The Commander of several of the Tehran regiments, on whom the Minister of the Court and the Grand Vizier chiefly depended, made the fatal announcement that his troops would not serve against the people, and that they were on the point of themselves taking refuge in the British Legation. The Court party yielded. The Sadr Azam [Grand Vizier] resigned, and the Azad-ul-Mulk, head of the Kajar tribe [the tribe of the imperial dynasty], proceeded to Kum in order to inform the refugee Mullahs that the Shah had granted their demands for a National Assembly and for Courts of Justice.
{483}
"The chief difficulty which then confronted Mr. Grant Dull was that the people had entirely lost confidence in their own Government, and declined to treat with them except through the British Representative. When the Government made the announcement of the projected reforms, the people answered that they would not accept the promise of the Government unless it was confirmed and guaranteed by the Government of the King of England. This was naturally impossible. Acting under instructions, Mr. Grant Duff informed the refugees that he could do no more for them, and entirely declined to guarantee the execution of the Shah’s Decrees. The Government then attempted to come to an arrangement direct. It failed. The popular leaders rejected the Shah’s Decrees as vague or inadequate, and where posted up in the city they were torn down and trampled on. In this extremity the Government again appealed to Mr. Grant Duff and begged him for his assistance. At his suggestion a meeting took place at the residence of the new Grand Vizier, the late Minister for Foreign Affairs, between the Government and the popular leaders. After a long discussion, at which Mr. Grant Duff took no part except when questioned, an agreement was arrived at, and an amended Rescript published which definitely promised a National Representative assembly [in the Persian language a Mejlis or Medjliss] with legislative powers. The Rescript was read out in the British Legation to the assembled refugees and was received with enthusiasm. … On the night of the 16th the Mujteheds returned amid popular plaudits, and on the 18th a grand meeting was held in the Palace precincts as a sort of earnest of the National Assembly."
The Court party, however, had only suffered an appearance of defeat. It spent the next week "in gradually paring down all the Shah’s promises, and in the production of a Rescript in which the original project of the Constitution was hardly recognizable. The late Grand Vizier, who had lingered in the neighborhood, suddenly returned to his country seat near the Shah’s residence, and the Shah absolutely refused to sign the Regulations for the Assembly. The popular excitement was intense. Notice was served on Mr. Grant Duff that the people would again take refuge in the Legation, if necessary, by force. About twenty-five of the leaders actually did take up their quarters there. It seemed as if the disturbances were about to break out anew." But now the Russian Minister came into cooperation with Mr. Grant Duff, in representations to the Shah that overcame the evil influences by which he was swayed. Regulations for the election of delegates to the Assembly were now signed; but fresh difficulties arose from the refusal of provincial governors to carry them out. These in turn were overcome and the elections were held. "Meanwhile it had been decided, in order to avoid delay, that the Tehran Members of the Council should meet at once, without waiting for the provincial Delegates, and the first session of the new Assembly was opened [October 7, 1906] by the Shah himself, in the presence of the priests, the Court, and the foreign representatives. … The provincial Members arrived one by one as they were elected, and as yet there are many vacant places, the provinces not showing much alacrity in electing their Members. The Assembly soon showed its power. It refused absolutely to consent to the Anglo-Russian advance [of a preferred loan] on the ground that the public revenues ought not to be pledged to foreigners. It announced its intention of instituting reforms, especially in the finances of the country, and of providing itself the necessary funds for carrying on the Government by founding and endowing a National Bank. But, before taking any steps of this nature, it insisted on having a signed Constitution. A Committee was nominated to consider the terms of the Constitution, and, in consultation with a Committee named by the Government, a Constitution was drawn up and submitted to the Chamber." It did not satisfy the popular demand and scenes of confusion followed; but in the end it was amended and approved, and, on the 1st of January, 1907, the important instrument, ratified by the Shah and by the Valiahd—the heir to the crown—was delivered to the Assembly and received with joy. One week later, on the 8th of January, the Shah died.
The text of the Constitution, as translated for communication to the British Government, is given in this Volume under the heading—CONSTITUTION OF PERSIA.
PERSIA: A. D. 1907 (January-September). The new Shah, Mohammed Ali. His evil surroundings. Hostility between him and the Assembly. Prime Ministry of Atabeg-i-Azam. The Government without money. Inaction of the Assembly. Discouragement of the Atabeg. His assassination.
The new Shah, who assumed the crown under the name or title of Mohammed Ali Shah, professed acquiescence in the constitutional change which the nation had forced his father to accept; but those who knew him appear to have expected that he would act a perfidious part. That improved conditions in the country were far from settled became apparent very soon. As early as the 30th of January, Sir C. Spring-Rice, who had succeeded Mr. Grant Duff as the diplomatic representative of Great Britain, wrote to his Government: "I regret to state that the prospects of a good understanding between the Shah and the popular party are still remote. The entourage of the Shah, especially his father-in-law, the Naib-es-Sultaneh, is personally interested in the continuance of the existing abuses; and their influence has certainly made itself felt to a regrettable extent, and has led to increasing agitation against the Shah himself. On the other hand the action of the popular Assembly has not been such as to lead to conciliation."
The precariousness of the situation in the country, the paralysis of government and the prevalence of disorder during a number of months following, may be indicated sufficiently by a few passages from the despatches of Sir C. Spring-Rice and Mr. Charles M. Marling, Charge d’Affaires to the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey:
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February 27, 1907. "It is clear that a national movement of a semi-political and semi-religious character does exist and is spreading. The great Mujteheds of Kerbela are now entering on the scene, and delegates are being sent out from the capital to the provinces to preach the principles of liberty. Patriotism, of a distinctive Persian type, has always been the characteristic of the Shiite believers. The present Shah of Persia has no religious status, and, in the view of the religious leaders, no fundamental right to the allegiance of the Persians, whose real chief is no living King, but the twelfth Imam, the coming Messiah, even now present on the earth, though unseen. The patriotism of the Shiite does not therefore centre in the person of the Kaliph, but is, or can be, of a highly revolutionary character."
May 23. An "important question has arisen in relation to an addition to the Constitution, guaranteeing equal treatment for all Persian subjects, irrespective of their creed. The mullahs protested. Of the three great Mujteheds, only one—Seyid Mohamed—declared in favour of it. The others, supported by a large body of the clergy, maintain that Mussulman law must be enforced in a Mussulman country. The clerical world is divided on the subject. A large number of the priests, headed by Seyid Mohamed and the popular preacher Sheikh Jamal-ed-Din, declare openly that the law of Mahommed is a law of liberty and equality, and that those who say otherwise are traitors to their country and unworthy of their religion. The representative of the Parsees informs me that he has great hopes that a decision will be taken favourable to toleration; but the matter is still in suspense."
"The Atabeg-i-Azam [about whom something will be told below] arrived at Tehran the 26th April, and was formally appointed President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the Interior on the 2nd May. He proceeded to the National Assembly on the 4th May, accompanied by his whole Cabinet, and made a statement of policy."
"The tone of the local press is getting more and more democratic, and new papers are constantly appearing. There are at present nearly thirty papers published in Tehran alone, including several dailies. Papers are also published in nearly all the provinces, and a Persian paper of a very anti-dynastic tone is published at Baku and widely circulated in Persia. Anonymous pamphlets are also widely spread in Tehran as before. A number of them are printed at Baku, and are remarkable for their inflammatory character. The Tehran pamphlets are chiefly directed against the Atabeg-i-Azam and the Government."
June 18. "The financial condition of the Government is, if possible, worse than ever. The police of the capital are on strike; it has been found almost impossible to scrape together money enough to induce the Tehran troops to leave for the scene of the rebellion."
"The Government would, if it dared, borrow abroad to meet its present liabilities. But, in view of the popular sentiment, it does not resort to a foreign loan. It appeals to the Assembly for help, in the form of subscriptions to the proposed National Bank. The answer it receives is that the people will subscribe as soon as the rich nobles, who are known to have large sums of money, show the way. This the rich refuse to do. As to raising money by taxation, the Assembly appears to be convinced that as soon as the Government has any money in hand it will use it for the destruction of the Medjliss. Any effective control of expenditure is regarded as quite out of the question. The exasperation against the Shah is rapidly increasing."
"There is a considerable difference between the north and the south. In the south the popular movement has an almost farcical character; it turns on personal or pecuniary questions. In the north there appears to be a more or less definite political aim and a keen sense of patriotism. So far there is no sign of an anti-foreign outbreak."
July 19. "The general condition of the whole country is undoubtedly bad, and is probably slightly worse than last month. The disturbances at Tehran have been chiefly brought about by artificial means to serve the purposes of the reactionaries. There seems, however, no reason to regard it as dangerous, though the Government has every appearance of being bankrupt, and artificial demonstrations are of daily occurrence. There is so far no reason to fear an outbreak and consequent danger to foreign lives or property."
August 15. "The Assembly still continues to sit, and it celebrated the anniversary of the grant of the Constitution amid great scenes of popular enthusiasm. But it has done, and is doing, nothing of practical value. Its proceedings are disorderly, and it comes to no decision. The covert opposition of the Shah and his friends is conducted with considerable skill through a section of the priestly party, who are heavily subsidized. They have obtained some measure of success, and the reactionary forces show a considerable amount of vigour. But the popular leaders are not seriously afraid of these enemies, and confidently maintain that the restoration of autocracy in Persia is now impossible. The chief enemies of the Assembly are its own members."
"The Atabeg is in a state of great depression, is afraid for his life, distrustful of the Shah, and professes that he is anxious to resign. He is useful as a man holding a middle position between Shah and people, and possessing great experience and knowledge of the country, but he is quite incapable of organizing or administering a Government or of carrying out any thorough-going reform."
September 13. "On the evening of the 30th ultimo the Atabeg called on me and talked at length on the political situation. The general tenor of his observations was that the Shah would withdraw his opposition, the Medjliss would work with the Government, and that very shortly the Government would be able to put an end to the disorder which reigned in the country. I never saw him in better spirits.
"The next day [August 31] the Atabeg and the Ministers repaired to the Palace and requested the Shah to accept their resignations unless he would solemnly pledge himself to cooperate with the Government and the Medjliss. They obtained the promise in writing, and repaired in a body to the Assembly. The proceedings of the Assembly on that day were on the whole harmonious and satisfactory. The Atabeg read the Shah’s statement, and explained that the Government and the Assembly would now be able to proceed to the serious work of reform. There was some opposition, but it was overruled. The majority of the Members showed their sympathy with the Government.
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"The Atabeg left the Assembly accompanied by the principal Mujtehed, Seyed Abdullah. They reached the outer door of the Palace inclosure, and had just parted when the Atabeg was shot and killed. One of his assailants was captured, but wounded his captor and escaped; another, finding himself surrounded, shot himself. …
"For some time lately rumours have been spread abroad through the local press and by word of mouth to the effect that the Atabeg was in secret collusion with the Shah, for the overthrow of the Assembly and the sale of the country to Russia. Statements to this effect reached me from Members of the Assembly. There can be no doubt as to the genuineness and intensity of the feeling against the Atabeg. A French doctor, who attended one of the assassins some time before the murder, assured Mr. Churchill that he and his friends were quiet and respectable persons of the middle class, imbued with the strongest feeling of patriotism, and ready to devote their lives to the service of their country. The attacks on the Atabeg had lately gained in virulence, and had attracted universal attention. … Popular sentiment approved the murder, and the assassins were regarded as saviours of their country. The streets of Tabreez were illuminated. The result of the Atabeg’s murder is for the time to disorganize the whole system of government."
In a recent book on Persia, by W. P. Cresson, the writer, an American, who had visited the country during the final Ministry of the Atabeg Azam, and had talked with him, describes him with admiration, having been especially impressed with his liberality of views and his knowledge of European and American affairs. In his periods of exile from Persia (which occurred several times in the course of his public life) he had visited both Europe and America and studied them well.
PERSIA: A. D. 1907 (August). Convention between Great Britain and Russia relative to Persia.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907 (AUGUST).
PERSIA: A. D. 1907-1908 (September-June). A series of Political Overturnings. The Shah deserted. Temporary Supremacy of the Assembly. Nasr-ul-Mulk Premier. Addition to the Constitution. The Shah’s attempted Coup d’État and failure. Attempted Assassination of the Shah. His successful second Coup d’Etat. The Assembly dispersed and its dissolution proclaimed. New Elections promised.
The assassination of the Atabeg Azam was followed soon by a strange series of overturnings in the political situation, outlined, and but slightly explained in the following excerpts from despatches of the British Legation at Tehran:
September 13, 1907. "A deputation recently called on the Mushir-ed-Dowleh [former Grand Vizier] and asked him to take office. He refused unless he was provided with money. He said that he would not take the dangerous responsibility of accepting a foreign loan, and that unless the Persian people supplied the funds necessary to carry on the Government, or consented to the Government finding funds elsewhere, all government would be shortly impossible."
October 2. "Shah has been solemnly informed by a Committee composed of Princes, high military and civil officials, and great landlords, and including all the reactionaries of prominence, that, unless he maintains the Constitution and works with the Medjliss their support will be withdrawn from the throne. The usual reassuring answer was returned by His Majesty. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, whose position is very precarious owing to the strike in his own Department, is opposed to them, but the head of the new Government has promised them support. The members of the Committee yesterday took a solemn oath of fidelity to the Constitution in the Assembly, where they had repaired for the purpose. Excepting support of the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Shah is now practically isolated, though he is supposed still to entertain reactionary views."
October 3. "Saad-ed-Dowleh has been dismissed from post of Minister for Foreign Affairs."
October 10. "The Mushir-ed-Dowleh died very suddenly on the evening of the 13th September.
"On the 27th September the Princes and civil and military officials of note, who had up till then formed the reactionary party, presented an ultimatum to the Shah declaring their adhesion to the Constitution and the National Assembly, and threatening to sever all connection with the throne should His Majesty not cooperate with the National party. … There was little on the surface to indicate the sudden volte-face of the reactionaries. The chief cause must undoubtedly be reckoned to be fear. The murder of the Atabeg … and the suspicion that the sudden death of Mushir-ed-Dowleh was not due to natural causes, had unquestionably produced a very deep effect. …
"The result of the first year’s work of the Assembly has been on the whole rather negative, but at least it has succeeded in asserting its will against the influence of the Shah and clergy, and has now a reasonable prospect of being able to start on the path of reconstruction."
October 25. "New Ministry has been formed under presidency of Nasr-ul-Mulk, reappointed Minister of Finance. Most important members are Mushir-ed-Dowleh, son of the late Mushir-ed-Dowleh, Foreign Affairs; Sanied-Dowleh, Interior; Mukhber-es-Sultaneh, Justice."
November 27. "I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a full translation of the text of the Constitutional Law as passed by the National Assembly and signed by the Shah on the 8th of October.
[This addition of articles to the Constitution signed by the Shah on the 30th of December, 1906, will be found, in this Volume, appended to that instrument, under CONSTITUTION OF PERSIA.]
The Law reduces the Sovereign to practical impotence, but by far its most important part is that defining the powers of the Tribunals. Articles 71 and the succeeding Articles, though ambiguously worded, intentionally so, will, if carried into execution, deal a deadly blow at the judicial powers of the Mollahs."
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December 15. "Disorders are threatening here. Violent speeches, denouncing the Shah and demanding the exile of the Shah’s Chief Adviser and Agent, Saad-ed-Dowleh and Amir Bahadur Jang, were made yesterday at a popular meeting at the principal mosque. The Ministry has resigned, but the Shah refuses to accept resignation. This morning an excited crowd gathered outside the Assembly, but was dispersed by armed men sent by the Shah."
December 15. "Ala-ed-Dowleh, who was sent to the Palace by the Assembly with a message, and another brother of President of Assembly were arrested by the Shah at 3 o’clock this afternoon. Shah sent for Prime Minister at 5 p. m., put chains on him, and threatened to kill him five hours after sunset. I have sent to demand assurances for Nasr-ul-Mulk’s safety from the Palace, and am requesting co-operation of Russian Minister."
December 16. "Nasr-ul-Mulk is exiled, and leaves for Resht to-day. As he fears Shah will attempt his life on the way, he begged me to send a member of the Legation with him, as was done when the late Atabeg was sent to Kum in 1897. This, I said, I was for the moment unable to do. I am, however, sending two gholams. On his arrest the Assembly dispersed, and the Anjumans, on which its real power rested, remained inactive. The other Ministers have all resigned. They were summoned to the Palace and were practically under arrest there till they also left the Palace when Nasr-ul-Mulk was released by my demand on his behalf. … Armed partisans of Shah have occupied principal square since midday yesterday. For the present his coup d’état seems to be successful. The Committees are collecting armed round the Assembly this morning. There is no sign of danger to Europeans, and there has been as yet no fighting."
December 17. "More armed ruffians are being brought into the town and are congregating in Cannon Square, supported by troops and guns. … Round the Medjliss building the Anjumans [popular associations] are again assembling armed."
December 18. "No Government has been formed. The popular party is acting strictly on the defensive, and the Committees are still guarding the Assembly. The Shah last night conceded the Assembly’s demands, which are moderate."
December 22. "Russian Minister and I have just come back from the Palace. He laid the situation before the Shah with the utmost frankness, and the strongest assurances that he would respect and uphold the Constitution were given us by His Majesty. Steps are now being taken by us to let the Constitutionalists understand that it is incumbent upon the two Legations to see that the Shah observes the pledges he has given us."
December 31. "Meantime [after the interview, above reported, with the Shah], the general situation had become more threatening. The Tabreez Anjuman [local assembly or Committee] had succeeded in circulating throughout Persia the threat of deposing the Shah, and the larger cities, where the idea of constitutional government has taken root, appeared to be greatly excited. Telegrams promising armed support against the Shah had been received from Shiraz, Ispahan, Resht, Kazvin, Kerman, and Meshed, and signs of sympathy had come in from other quarters. In Tehran itself, despite unmistakable signs that the Shah must yield, as he did late in the afternoon, the excitement against His Majesty was, if anything, more marked."
"It has been difficult to find a method of conveying the Shah’s guarantee in a manner agreeable to the susceptibilities of the Assembly. However, on Friday Mushir-ed-Dowleh furnished M. de Hartwig with a rough draft of a declaration which we might each communicate to the President of the Assembly, and taking this as the basis we prepared a letter in French."
January 2, 1908. "Although Tehran is now relatively quiet, and the provinces have been much less affected than might reasonably have been apprehended by the knowledge of what was happening at the capital, I fear that relief is only temporary, and that Persia is drifting nearer and nearer to complete anarchy. The struggle between the Shah and his people has resulted in a complete victory for the latter, but I am not sanguine that the prospects of the establishment of constitutional government on a durable basis have been much improved thereby. For the moment, indeed, the Shah has been completely cowed, and is now retired into the Anderoon [harem]."
January 29. "In the early days of the month, though externally the town was quiet enough, it seemed as though another crisis might occur. The Shah, after a few days’ comparative inactivity, recommenced his campaign against the Assembly."
February 28. "The Shah, who had not been out of the Palace since he paid his state visit to the National Assembly on the 12th November, 1907, was proceeding at 3 p. m. to his country seat at Dochantapeh when a determined attempt was made on his life. The procession was formed of a motor-car in front and a carriage behind, with the usual escort of horsemen and running footmen. A little way past the house of the Manager of the Imperial Bank, and before reaching that of the Zil-es-Sultan, a fusillade was opened on the motor-car, in which it was supposed the Shah rode, by some persons from the adjoining roofs, who evidently could not see into the vehicles from their elevated position. Two bombs were then thrown at the motor-car completely shattering it, and killing two persons and wounding about seven others. The Shah, who was seated in the carriage behind the motor-car, immediately emerged and took refuge in a neighboring house."
April 24. "While … the general condition of Persia has been more tranquil, at the capital all the indications show but too clearly that the struggle between the Shah and the Enjumens [Committees or Associations] has lost none of its bitterness. I say advisedly the Enjumens, for in the last trial of strength, in which the Shah was again worsted, the Assembly played a very small part indeed."
May 21. "The condition of the country is going from bad to worse, and the feeble Government is absolutely unable to do anything to restore a decent degree of order, and even if money were forthcoming, it is in the last degree improbable that without foreign assistance any serious measure of reform can be undertaken."
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June 8. "On Saturday morning, the 6th June, an apparent reconciliation between the Shah and the popular party took place, but the next morning it was reported to His Majesty that a telegram had been sent to Zil-es-Sultan [one of the royal princes, and an aspirant to the throne] at Shiraz by the Eujumens asking him to come to Tehran and assume the Regency. The same evening the Zil’s eldest son, also Serdar Mansur, Ala-ed-Dowleh, and Azad-ul-Mulk, the Head of the Kajar tribe [the imperial tribe] who took part in the agitation last week, were arrested by the Shah."
June 23. "About 6 o’clock this morning twenty Cossacks were sent by the Shah to arrest eight persons who were in the mosque adjoining the Assembly House. The demand for the surrender of these persons met with a refusal, and a shot was fired from the mosque. Fighting then started, and is still continuing. The number of people killed is said to be large. Guns are being used by the Shah’s troops."
June 23. "The Assembly building and the mosque have been cleared by the Shah’s forces, and the meeting-place of the Azerbaijan Enjumen has been destroyed. The Shah has arrested the Chief Mujtehed, Seyyid Abdullah, the Sheikh-ul-Reis, and some ten other alleged leaders of popular party. The Cossack Brigade has lost forty men. The loss on the other side is said to be very small, but the exact number is unknown. A state of siege has been proclaimed and the Enjumens have dispersed. Some shops and houses, including that of the Zil-es-Sultan, and the Assembly building, have been pillaged."
June 25. "The first shot was undoubtedly fired by the people in the mosque and Assembly, among whom some Deputies were included. I believe that every preparation had been made to clear the mosque by force if this proved necessary. In any case, the Shah had reasonable ground for taking strong measures, as the attack was made by the popular party on the troops. …
"Efforts are being made to catch Deputies, and several, including the President of the Assembly, have already been arrested. The Enjumens seem to be cowed; their supporters are falling away, and the Shah has complete mastery. Yesterday morning two prisoners were strangled at the Shah’s camp, and there are about thirty persons, other than Deputies, under arrest. There are now in the Legation fifty refugees.
"There has been fighting in Tabreez between the popular party and the Shah’s partisans. There is no sign from the other provinces, and the Zil-es-Sultan is trying to dissociate himself from the agitation."
June 26. "A Proclamation stating that the present Assembly is dissolved has been issued by the Shah. Proclamation announces that new elections will be held in three months, and a Senate will be formed."
PERSIA: A. D. 1908-1909. Final Hostilities between the Shah and the Supporters of the Constitution. Tabriz the Center of a Revolutionary Movement. Entrance of the Bakhtiari into the Struggle. Siege of Tabriz and its Relief by the Russians. Capture of Teheran by the Nationalists and Bakhtiari. Deposition of the Shah. A child enthroned.
The occurrences of June, narrated above, were at the beginning of the final outbreak of hostilities between the partisans of the Shah and the supporters of the Constitution, which soon ran into actual civil war.
When the Shah had established his authority at Teheran, Tabriz became the center of popular opinion on the side of the Constitutionalists, or Nationalists, and the main seat of their strength. Fighting began there on the 23d of June, simultaneously with the conflict at Teheran, and continued intermittently and indecisively throughout July and August, at the end of which time the Nationalists were said to be 10,000 strong. On the 24th of September the Royalists began a bombardment of the town, with five guns, to which the Nationalists responded vigorously with four. October 10th the Nationalists assumed the offensive, attacking the camp of the besiegers, routing their cavalry, and securing possession of a desirable bridge.
On the 24th of September, under pressure from the representatives of Great Britain and Russia, the Shah decreed that a Mejlis (National Assembly) "composed of religious and proper persons, will, by the help of God and the favor of the 12th Imam, be convoked by us for the 19th Shavval"—that is, November 14—and that a law of elections should be made known by October 27. The latter date passed without producing the promised election law and no elections followed in November; but on the 8th of the latter month the Shah’s partisans organized a "demonstration" at Teheran against the Constitution, on the strength of which the mendacious sovereign replied to British and Russian remonstrances against his faithlessness by saying that "a large section of the population regarded a constitutional regime as contrary to their religion." Presently, on the 22d of November, he issued a rescript proclaiming that the Ulema had declared such an institution as a Parliament to be contrary to Islam and therefore he would not convoke it.
Early in 1909 the revolt first organized at Tabriz became rife in many parts of the nominal Empire of the Shah, both north and south. On the 25th of January The Times of India, published at Bombay, where commercial and political interests in Persian affairs are equally keen, described the situation then existing as follows: The "news from Persia is extremely grave, because it indicates the collapse of the Shah’s authority from north to south. The Anjumans [Enjumens—a term which seems to be applied to local assemblies and to all political associations alike] of Astrabad and Lahidjan have repudiated the present regime. This means that the Caspian littoral is being lost to the Shah. What is of even greater consequence is that the spread of the revolt to Lahidjan may mean the cutting off of the trade with Teheran via Resht, which is now the principal route open to traffic. Then in the far south, almost on the Gulf littoral, the Nationalists of Laristan have thrown off all semblance of the Shah’s authority. Recently it was stated that the Bakhtiaris had risen in revolt, and had looted Isfahan. It was not to be expected that the Lars, of which the Bakhtiaris are an offshoot and who enjoy a modified independence, would remain quiescent under these conditions. Reuter is however in error in stating that these tribal fights ‘are interrupting’ communications between Bushire and Shiraz. {488} These have been interrupted for many months, and as we stated on Friday, the muleteers who usually ply between Bushire and Shiraz some time ago removed their animals to the Resht-Teheran road. The insecurity of this route is illustrated by the fact that the Derya Begi, the fount of Persian dignity at Bushire, was held up and robbed on his way from Teheran to his charge on the coast. All these straws point to the rapidity with which anarchy is spreading."
The Bakhtiari referred to in this account of affairs, and who now began to bear an important part in the Persian revolutionary conflict, are a semi-independent and nomadic tribe, occupying the region of the mountains which bear the same name, in western Persia, within the provinces of Luristan and Khuzistan. They claim, it is said, by descent from the Bactrians of remote antiquity, to represent the purest blood of ancient Iran. In connection with recent disturbances, they began to be mentioned in June, 1907. The head of one faction among them, Semsam-es-Sultaneh, had then been removed by the Persian provincial governor from the post of Ilkhani (a title surviving from the Mongol conquest of the 13th century,—see PERSIA: A. D. 1258-1393, in Volume IV. of this work), and his supporters were reported to be "out in every direction attacking caravans." The only mention of them in the following months was as pestilent bandits in the Ispahan quarter, holding the roads and breaking up commerce and travel; but they came at last into Persian history as allies of the Nationalists in the struggle for Constitutional Government.
Press reports from Tabriz in February were to the effect that the Shah’s forces, estimated at 12,000 in number, had closely invested the town; that the besieged Nationalists were provisioned for two months, and were making sorties daily. Also that Resht was full of armed Caucasian revolutionaries. At the middle of March a correspondent of the London Times made his way from Teheran to Resht, and found that the revolutionary movement there was entirely "exotic." "If the Caucasian element was removed," he wrote, "nothing would remain. One can estimate fairly accurately that there are about 600 men under arms in the town and on the road. It is said that 5 per cent. of these are Persians. This morning I watched the departure of a contingent of men for the front. Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, Tartars, Russians—all the Caucasian peoples were represented, but not a single man of the race for the advancement of whose cause these men have taken arms."
This correspondent was led to suspect, as others have done, that the religious movement in Persia known as "Babism" (see, in Volume I. of this work, under BAB) had much to do, in a secret way, with the existing revolutionary undertaking. "Those who are in a position to judge." he said, "estimate the present proportion of Babis in the population of Persia at from 10 to 30 per cent. I have, indeed, heard the Persians estimate it as high as 50 per cent."
Before the end of March the Nationalists were in control of the ports of Bender Abbas and Bushire on the Persian Gulf. On the 30th of March the following went to the London Times from Teheran: "In spite of numerous defections to the Nationalist side during the last fortnight, the situation at Teheran remains practically unaltered. The Cossack Brigade is still the premier factor, and there seems no reason to doubt either its allegiance to the Shah or its ability to deal with any element of disturbance likely to arise in the capital. The bazaars remain partially closed, but the business of the town proceeds without interruption.
"From outside there is nothing to apprehend for the present. The Bakhtiari have made no sign, though their position has been rendered materially more secure by the recent espousal of Nationalism by the most notable family at Shiraz. From Resht the revolutionaries continue to launch remonstrance, warning, and anathema at the Shah, but they are too wise to march on the capital without a lead from elsewhere.
"To-day’s news from Tabriz indicates that the situation of the town is extremely grave. A section of the Nationalists advocate negotiating with the besiegers, but Satar Khan has decided to continue his resistance. The stores of food are to be appropriated for the fighting men, and when the stock remaining is exhausted the inhabitants will have no alternative but to leave the town and run the gauntlet of the Shah’s lambs."
The Cossack Brigade referred to in the despatch above was a body of Persian Cossacks which had been for some time past in the service of the Shah, under the command of a Russian officer, Colonel Liakhoff. In the House of Commons, on the 24th of March, the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs was sharply questioned as to this employment of a Russian officer, and the alleged employment of others, in the Shah’s service, and asked whether they were serving the Shah or the Tsar. In reply he said: "It may be that in the events of the summer—what is called the coup d’État—Colonel Liakhoff, the Russian officer in command of the Persian Cossacks, who had been lent to the Shah for the purpose, I understand, of disciplining that body of Persian Cossacks, to provide a bodyguard for the Shah, and in case of need to preserve order in Teheran—it may be that he exceeded the limit of those purposes. If he did so I am convinced that it was not by the instructions, on the authority, or with the approval of the Russian Government; and since the coup d’Etat there has been no question, according to reports which we have received, that the Russian officers who remained in the service of the Shah have kept within the limits of the purposes for which they were lent to the service of the Shah, and have not taken part in anything that could be called political encounters in Persia. If Colonel Liakhoff exceeded the limits in Teheran, he acted directly under the Government of the Shah, and the question whether the Russian Government approve or disapprove his action is one between himself and them, and is not a matter on which we are called upon to express an opinion."
On the 5th of April it was reported that the sufferings of Tabriz "are increasing daily, and it is undoubted that a great tragedy is approaching. If Tabriz holds out, thousands must die of starvation, while, if it falls, probably tens of thousands will be massacred." A fortnight later, on the 20th. the Shah yielded to the insistence of the British and Russian Legations that he should allow an armistice at Tabriz of six days and the importation into the town of sufficient food for that period. {489} Meantime a detachment of Russian Cossacks, under General Snarsky, had crossed the frontier into Persia, and was marching to Tabriz with supplies. This Russian relief expedition, approved by the British Government, reached the beleaguered city without resistance on the 30th, and its presence brought the conflict at that point to an end. A correspondent of The Times, who had been in Tabriz throughout the siege, taking some leadership in the defence (in company with a teacher attached to the American Mission’s high school, Mr. Baskerville, who met death in the fighting) and who gave, two months later, a graphic narrative of the experience, said in concluding it:
"Tabriz was ultimately saved by the coming of the Russians. Their entry into the town was the direct cause of the opening of the roads, the dispersal of the disappointed armies of the Shah, the promulgation of the Constitution, and the appointment of a Constitutionalist Ministry. It saved Tabriz from a surrender which could not otherwise have been delayed for three days longer, and thereby it averted the complete collapse of the Constitutional movement."
With victory at Tabriz snatched from him, the Shah ostensibly threw up his hands. On the 5th of May it was announced that he had "signed an Imperial rescript acknowledging that the disorderly condition of the country imposed the necessity of taking measures to reorganize the administration. The rescript recognizes that this can only be secured through the constitutional principle, and his Majesty fixes July 19 for the election of a representative Assembly, for the formation of which electoral laws will soon be promulgated."
This revival of promises failed, however, to arrest the revolutionary movement. On the 7th of May the Nationalists expelled a royal force from Kazvin—less than a hundred miles from Teheran—and declared their intention to march on Teheran. "They are well-armed and well-mounted," said a correspondent who came from Kazvin, "and possessed of plenty of money. Their commander, a Sipahdar, and his second in command, an Afghan, are now at Kazvin, and everything points to the possibility of early action. The Bakhtiari, who have assembled at Ispahan and number 3,000, also declare their intention of marching on Teheran."
Of the Sipahdar, who now becomes the fighting leader of the Nationalists, a writer in the New York Evening Post relates that "when a merchant in Tabriz, he offered the government his services in wiping out the brigands who scoured the provinces, and, selecting a picked band, went out to fight fire with fire, by the same methods of terrorizing that the robbers had employed. As a result, he made the provinces safe, at least."
Pressed by the Russian Legation to withdraw from Kazvin, pending the fulfilment of the Shah’s promises, the Sipahdar, commanding there, declared that he could not control his men. The situation was complicated by the presence of the Russians at Tabriz. As The Times correspondent wrote: "The perfectly unambiguous declaration by Russia that her troops will be withdrawn from Tabriz the moment order is restored and danger to Europeans is past is valueless in the eyes of Persians while the troops are there."
The framing of a new electoral law, to the satisfaction of an electoral committee of the Nationalists, was finished on the 6th of June, and the Shah’s signature to it was expected in a few days. High hopes were placed on the coming of Nasr-ul-Mulk, the exiled statesman at Paris, who had been solicited to accept the Prime Ministry, and who seemed slow to take the proffered honor. But the wrecked structure of constitutional government could not so easily be set in motion. The revolutionaries at Kazvin became threatening again, and were in motion toward Teheran before the end of June, while the Bakhtiari began a simultaneous advance. On the 29th of June the Russian Government issued orders "to assemble a considerable force at Baku, to be held in readiness in case of a coup de main against the Persian capital." Meantime the new electoral law had been signed, but not promulgated, "owing to the prevailing excitement," it was said.
On the 3d of July the Russian Government addressed a Circular Note on the situation in Persia to the Governments of foreign Powers, saying, in part:
"The Imperial Government, on consideration of the position of affairs, has come to the conclusion that the principle of absolute non-interference in the internal affairs of Persia and in the conflict between the Shah and the Persian people must remain, now as formerly, the basis of its policy in Persia. In this connexion we could not leave out of sight the fact that in the event of the Bakhtiari and revolutionaries entering Teheran the Russian and other European Legations and European institutions and subjects, as well as our road from Enzeli (on the Caspian Sea) to Teheran, might find themselves in an extremely dangerous position, and the more so because, according to information which has reached us, the only Regular troops at the Shah’s disposal consist of the Persian Cossack Brigade, which is at present so weakened that it is scarcely in a condition to maintain order in Teheran.
"This circumstance imposes upon the Imperial Government the moral obligation to take all measures in order that, in case of necessity, it may be possible to render effective aid to the above-mentioned (European) establishments and subjects and to ensure unrestricted traffic between Teheran and Enzeli in all circumstances. It has, therefore, been decided to send a force from Baku to Enzeli consisting of one regiment of Cossacks, one battalion of Russian infantry, and one battery of artillery. The force will not advance beyond Kazvin (86 miles from Teheran), and will ensure communication between Kazvin and the Caspian Sea.
"The further advance of a portion of the force depends upon the course of events. It can only ensue upon the demand of the Imperial Legation in Teheran in the event of the dangerous situation aforesaid arising."
{490}
The Russian and British Legations attempted mediation between the Sipahdar and the Shah, to check the former’s advance, but his demands made their intervention hopeless. The Shah’s forces pushed out to intercept the on-coming revolutionaries, encountered them on the 11th, 18 miles west of Teheran, and fighting went on at a distance from the city for two days; but forces which slipped between the defensive lines made their way into the capital on the morning of July 13th, and there was fighting in the streets until the 16th. The Shah then sought refuge at the Russian Legation, and the Russian officers of the Persian Cossacks, besieged in their barracks, made terms with the Nationalist leaders.
Four days later the Persian situation was stated to the British House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey, as follows:
"The Shah, after taking refuge in the Russian legation, abdicated, and his son, Sultan Ahmed Mirza [a young child] has been proclaimed Shah by the Nationalist Committee under the regency of Azad-ul-Mulk, head of the Kajar tribe, pending the convocation of Parliament. The commanders of the Fedai and Bakhtiari, as temporary chiefs of the Persian Government, have accepted the services of the Persian Cossack brigade under their Russian officers, on condition that the latter are completely under the orders of the Minister of War. This arrangement was ratified at a meeting between the commanders and Colonel Liakhoff. Teheran is quiet, and the Persian Cossacks are already fraternizing with the Fedai. The Sipahdar has been appointed Minister of War, and the Sirdar Assad Minister of the Interior." Being asked if he would represent to the Russian Government the undesirability of advancing Russian troops to Teheran, Sir Edward added: "In view of the declarations already made by the Russian Government as to the circumstances under which alone Russian troops would be sent to Teheran and in view of the fact that no troops have been sent to Teheran during the recent troubles, in spite of the fact that at one time some apprehension, which happily proved to be unfounded, was expressed for the safety of Russian subjects, such representations would be most uncalled for."
On the 17th the Provisional Government gave notice to the Anglo-Russian legations of the selection of the new Shah, and asked that he should be delivered to their keeping; whereupon, wrote the Times correspondent, "M. Sablin announced the request to the Shah, who replied that he thought his mother would not consent. The Shah then took M. Sablin to his mother and an affecting scene ensued. Both the mother and father broke down at the thought of parting with their favourite son and offered their second son in his place. M. Sablin replied that the selection had been made by the people and that he had no voice in the matter. The boy wept bitterly in sympathy with his parents and declined to leave his mother. Finally their Majesties were persuaded to agree. On receiving the Shah’s assent, the necessary proclamation was immediately promulgated and it was arranged that the Regent and a Nationalist deputation would receive the little Shah.
"An interested crowd witnessed his departure this morning from the custody of his natural guardians. During the morning Sultan Ahmed wept bitterly at the prospect of becoming a King, and it required a stern message to the effect that crying was not allowed in the Russian Legation before he dried his eyes. Then the little man came out bravely, entered a large carriage, and drove off alone, escorted by Cossacks, Sowars, and Persian Cossacks and followed by a long string of carriages. At Sultanatabad he was met by the Regent and the deputation and ceremoniously notified of his high position and of the hope entertained by the nation that he would prove to be a good ruler.
‘Inshallah, I will,’ replied the lad. Arrangements for the Coronation will be made hereafter. In the meanwhile the little Shah, who is guarded by a Bakhtiari, remains with his tutors at Sultanatabad, where his mother is free to visit him."
At Teheran, affairs settled quickly into quiet, but disorders were prolonged in various parts of the provinces, being especially serious at Shiraz. The deposed Shah remained for weeks at the Russian Legation, while negotiations with him for a pension or allowance in return for his surrender of jewels and money to the State went on, and the unhappy child who occupied his palace had more sorrow than he.
Early in August Colonel Liakhoff returned to Russia and was appointed to a regimental command. On the 1st of September a general amnesty, with a few exceptions, was proclaimed by the new government at Teheran. On the 9th of September the deposed Shah left the shelter of the Russian Legation and journeyed, with his queen, four younger children and several friends, under Russian escort, to a residence in Russia, at Odessa, which was his choice. Persia was still waiting for the able and much trusted constitutionalist statesman, Nasr-ul-Mulk, to return from his exile at Paris and accept the offered premiership in the government; but on the 21st of September the report went out that he had definitely declined the post. He returned to Persia, however, in October. On the 11th of October the Russian Government made known that it had decided to withdraw the greater part of the troops it had been keeping at Tabriz. A new Mejliss, for which the Regent had ordered elections, was assembled on the 15th of November. On the 7th of December the Mejliss unanimously approved the proposals of the Government with regard to borrowing abroad and the employment of Europeans in executive capacities for the reorganization of the Finance Department. This, no doubt, will improve the situation very greatly.
PERSIA: A. D. 1909 (January). Destructive Earthquake in Luristan.
See (in this Volume) EARTHQUAKES: PERSIA.
----------PERSIA: End--------
----------PERU: Start--------
PERU: A. D. 1899-1908. Outline of History.
The leading events of Peruvian history are recorded in Volume VI. of this work down to the election of President Eduardo de Romaña, in 1899. "Romaña was a member of a prominent family of Arequipa, and had been educated in England, at Stonyhurst. He further had studied for, and taken a degree as, an engineer at King’s College, London; and whilst he had not acquired much experience in politics, he nevertheless successfully filled the Presidential Chair throughout his term. He was alive to the necessity for the development of the resources of the country, and, fortunately, his administration was not embarrassed by disturbances other than some small political intrigues such as inevitably take place in a country which, as Peru, was evolving a régime of civil government. {491} During this term there was some influx of North American capitalists, who acquired important interests, in the copper mines of Cerro de Pasco, and who commenced the construction of a railway line thereto. … The presidency of Señor Romaña uneventfully expired at its natural time; elections were held, and Señor Manuel Candamo, who had already provisionally been head of the State, was chosen as president in May, 1903. Candamo had been successful in quieting political animosities after the revolt against Caceres and in consolidating the political situation. Peru now showed real evidences of advancement. The old turbulent element was passing away; those leaders who had placed purely personal ambition before the true interests of their country had given place to the natural talent and ability of the best citizens, whom the times were calling to the front. Candamo’s rule promised well for the country. He was surrounded by able men, among whom, as chief cabinet minister, was Dr. Domingo Almenard, an upright lawyer. The fiscal revenue was increased by taxes, against which there were murmurings, but which the country was able to bear, and the tax on tobacco was set apart for the construction of new railways. Unfortunately, this able administrator, Señor Candamo, continued but a short time in office, for he was overtaken by illness, and died at Arequipa in May, 1904. This event left the country under the temporary leadership of the second vice-president, Señor Calderon, for the first vice-president had died also. An election was at once called according to law, the two candidates which were put forward being Dr. Jose Pardo, son of the former president of the same name, and Señor Nicolas Piérola, who had already been at the head of the Government on two occasions. Rivalry between the partisans of these two candidates became acute, and although it was feared for a moment that some disturbance might occur, good sense prevailed, and the elections proceeded without interruption. Both contestants were good men—Piérola representing the party known as the Democratas, whilst Pardo headed the Civilistas. There were not very radical differences of principle underlying these distinctions of name; both were for civil government and for national progress. Piérola had done good work during his former term, whilst Pardo had the prestige of the good name and administration of his father, the former president of 1872-1876, and was also held in esteem personally among the best element of the country. The result of the election—held, probably, more fairly than ever in Peru before—fell to Dr. Pardo, who took the presidential scarf and office in September, 1904, and who still guides the affairs of his country in a manner which has won the esteem of the nation, in a general sense.
Dr. Pardo’s Cabinet was formed of some of the most capable men in the country, prominent among whom was the minister of Finance, Señor Leguia, to whose work is largely due the improved financial situation. At the present time—1908—the best elements of Peru are in the ascendant."
G. Reginald Enock, Peru: Its Former, and Present Civilization, History and Existing Conditions, chapter 9 (Scribner’s Sons, New York).
PERU: A. D. 1901. Broad Treaty of Arbitration with Bolivia.
See (in this Volume) ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL: A. D. 1901 (NOVEMBER).
PERU: A. D. 1901-1906. Participation in Second and Third International Conferences of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PERU: A. D. 1903-1909. Boundary disputes in the Acre region with Bolivia and Brazil.
See (in this Volume) ACRE DISPUTES.
PERU: A. D. 1905. Arbitration Treaties with Colombia and Ecuador.
In a message to the Peruvian Congress, July 28, 1906, President Pardo communicated treaties of arbitration with Colombia, one general in its nature, the other special for the settlement of existing boundary questions. Of the latter the message said:
"As in former treaties of the same character which have been heretofore concluded with that Republic, the controversy is submitted to the decision, to be based upon considerations of equity, of His Holiness Pope Pius X. But as our question with Colombia is connected with the one with Ecuador, it has been agreed that the arbitration with Colombia shall only take place after the termination of the one in which we are now proceeding with Ecuador, upon the adjudication by the royal Spanish arbitrator to Peru of territories which are likewise claimed by Colombia."
PERU: A. D. 1906. Decree for the Encouragement of Immigration.
See (in this Volume) IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION: PERU.
PERU: A. D. 1907. Diplomatic Relations with Chile reëstablished. The Tacna and Arica questions remaining open.
See (in this Volume) CHILE: A. D. 1907.
PERU: A. D. 1908-1909. Seating of President Leguia. Attempted Revolutions defeated.
On the 27th of May, 1908, Augusto B. Leguia became President, succeeding Dr. Pardo. Señor Leguia had previously been Premier and Minister of Finance and Commerce; prior to which he had been managing director of a great English sugar company in Peru. A revolutionary movement had been attempted a few weeks before, in which Dr. Augusto Durand and Isaias Piérola were engaged, and which suffered defeat.
A year later, on May 29, a similar attempt was announced from Lima, and ascribed to the same "agitators," who, said the despatch, "made an assault upon the palace and seized President Leguia. The army, however, remained loyal and came to his support. The revolutionists were obliged to liberate the President, who immediately took measures to put down the movement. Within an hour, although firing was still heard in the streets, President Leguia seemed to be master of the situation. Many shots were exchanged between the troops and the revolutionists and it is believed that the casualties will be heavy."
This was contradicted a week later, so far as concerned Dr. Durand. "It has been proved," said the later statement, "that the revolutionary outbreak of last week was engineered entirely by the followers of the Piérola brothers. A committee of the Liberal party to-day visited President Leguia, and, declaring that neither Dr. Durand nor José Oliva had taken part in the movement, requested that these men be set at liberty. The country is quiet."
----------PERU: End--------
PETER I., King of Servia: His Election.
See (in this Volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: SERVIA.
{492}
PETIT, Archbishop Fulbert.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.
PETROLEUM: The Supply and the Waste in the United States.
See (in this Volume) Conservation of Natural Resources.
PETROPALOVSK, SINKING OF THE.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (February-August).
PHAGOCYTES: THEIR DEPENDENCE ON OPSONINS.
See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: OPSONINS.
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1905. A Spasm of Municipal Reform.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1909. Defeat of Reform.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
----------PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: Start--------
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: Gains to Spain from their Loss.
See (in this Volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1898-1908.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900-1902. The Stamping Out of the Bubonic Plague.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901. Second Report of the Second Philippine Commission. Collapse of the Insurrection. Peace in all but five Provinces. Organization of Provincial Governments. Native Appointments. Central Civil Government. Appointment of Governor Taft. Filipino Members added to Commission.
Down to the capture of Aguinaldo, leader of the Filipino insurgents, on the 23d of March, 1901, and his submission to "the sovereignty of the United States throughout the Philippine Archipelago," as announced in an address to his countrymen on the 19th of April, the history of American rule in those islands is recorded in Volume VI. of this work. The Second Philippine Commission, with the Honorable William H. Taft at its head, had entered on the performance of its extensive legislative duties on the 1st of the previous September, while the Military Governor continued to exercise administrative powers. The Commission had begun the organization of provincial and municipal governments, and the establishing of a system of public schools, as related in the Volume referred to. From its second report, covering ten months and a half, ending on the 15th of October, 1901, the following statements are drawn, to continue the outline of principal events and most important affairs down to that date:
"The collapse of the insurrection came in May, after many important surrenders and captures, including that of Aguinaldo. Cailles, in Laguna, surrendered in June, and Belarmino, in Albay, on July 4.
"There are four important provinces in which the insurrection still continues, Batangas, Samar, Cebu, and Bohol. Parts of Laguna and Tayabas adjoining Batangas in the mountain region are affected by the disturbances in Batangas. In Mindoro also, a thinly settled and almost unexplored island, there are insurrectos. … Outside of the five provinces named there is peace in the remainder of the archipelago. …
"The work of the commission since it began to legislate in September, 1900, has been constant. … We have passed since our last report, in addition to numerous appropriation bills, a municipal code, a provincial law, a school law, a law prescribing an accounting system, acts organizing the various bureaus of the central government, acts organizing the courts, an act to incorporate the city of Manila, a code of civil procedure for the islands, and a new tariff act. …
"The general provincial law provides for a provincial government of five officers—the governor, the treasurer, the supervisor, the secretary, and the fiscal, or prosecuting attorney. The governing board is called the provincial board, and includes as members the governor, the treasurer, and the supervisor. The prosecuting attorney is the legal adviser of the board and the secretary of the province is its secretary. The first function of the provincial government is to collect, through the provincial treasurer, all the taxes, with few exceptions, belonging to the towns or the province. Its second and most important function is the construction of highways and bridges and public buildings. Its third function is the supervision, through the governor and the provincial treasurer, of the municipal officers in the discharge of their duties. Within certain limitations, the provincial board fixes the rate of levy for provincial taxation.
"The governor has the power to suspend any municipal officer found failing in his duty, and is obliged to visit the towns of the province twice in a year, and hear complaints against the municipal officers. … Under the act the offices are all to be filled at first by appointment of the commission. The governor holds his office until February, 1902, when his successor is to be elected in a mass convention of the municipal councilors of the towns of the province. The secretary, treasurer, and supervisor after February next are brought under the civil-service act, and all vacancies thereafter arising are to be filled in accordance with the terms of that act. The fiscal is appointed for an indeterminate period, and is not subject to the civil-service law. …
"The commission reached the conclusion that it would aid in the pacification of the country; would make the members of that body very much better acquainted with the country, with the people, and with the local conditions, and would help to educate the people in American methods, if the commission went to the capital of each province and there passed the special act necessary to create the provincial government and made the appointments at that time. Accordingly, the commission visited thirty-three provinces. …
{493}
"The policy of the commission in its provincial appointments has been, where possible, to appoint Filipinos as governors and Americans as treasurers and supervisors. The provincial secretary and the provincial fiscal appointed have uniformly been Filipinos. It will be observed that this makes a majority of the provincial board American. The commission has, in several instances, appointed to provincial offices former insurgent generals who have been of especial aid in bringing about peace, and in so doing it has generally acted on the earnest recommendation of the commanding officer of the district or province. We believe the appointments made have had a good effect and the appointees have been anxious to do their duty. …
"The central government of the islands established in September, 1900, under the instructions of the President, with a military governor as chief executive and the commission as the legislative body with certain executive functions in addition, continued until the 4th of July, 1901. At that time Major General Adna R. Chaffee relieved Major-General MacArthur as commanding general of this division and military governor. By the order of June 21, previous, in all organized provinces the civil executive authority theretofore reposed in the military governor and in the commission was transferred on July 4 to a civil governor. The president of the commission was designated as civil governor. …
"By an order taking effect September 1, the purport of which was announced the 4th day of July, there were added to the commission, as a legislative body, three Filipinos, Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Señor Benito Legarda, and Senor José Luzuriaga. These gentlemen, the first two of them residents of Manila and the last a resident of the island of Negros, had been most earnest and efficient in bringing about peace in the islands. Dr. Tavera was the first president of the Federal party, had accompanied the commission in its trips to the southern provinces, and was most useful in the effective speeches which he delivered in favor of peace and good order at every provincial meeting. Señor Legarda had been valuable in the extreme to General Otis and to all the American authorities by the wisdom of his suggestions, and the courage and earnestness with which he upheld the American cause as the cause most beneficial to his country. Señor José Luzuriaga was a member of the first government of the island of Negros, organized while there was insurrection rife throughout the islands, as an independent government under the supervision of a military governor, and was most active in preventing the insurrection from gaining any foothold in that important island. …
"The theory upon which the commission is proceeding is that the only possible method of instructing the Filipino people in methods of free institutions and self-government is to make a government partly of Americans and partly of Filipinos, giving the Americans the ultimate control for some time to come. In our last report we pointed out that the great body of the people were ignorant, superstitious, and at present incapable of understanding any government but that of absolutism. The intelligence and education of the people may be largely measured by knowledge of the Spanish language. Less than 10 per cent of the people speak Spanish. With Spaniards in control of these islands for four hundred years and with Spanish spoken in all official avenues, nothing could be more significant of the lack of real intelligence among the people than this statement. The common people are not a warlike people, but are submissive and easily—indeed much too easily—controlled by the educated among them, and the power of an educated Filipino politically ambitious, willing to plot and use all the arts of a demagogue in rousing the people, is quite dangerous. The educated people themselves, though full of phrases concerning liberty, have but a faint conception of what real civil liberty is and the mutual self-restraint which is involved in its maintenance. They find it hard to understand the division of powers in a government, and the limitations that are operative upon all officers, no matter how high. In the municipalities, in the Spanish days, what the friar did not control the presidente did, and the people knew and expected no limit to his exercise of authority. This is the difficulty we now encounter in the organization of the municipality. The presidente fails to observe the limitations upon his power, and the people are too submissive to press them. In this condition of affairs we have thought that we ought first to reduce the electorate to those who could be considered intelligent, and so the qualifications for voting fixed in the municipal code are that the voter shall either speak, read, and write English or Spanish, or that he shall have been formerly a municipal officer, or that he should pay a tax equal to $15 a year or own property of the value of $250."
Report of the U. S. Philippine Commission, from December 1, 1900, to October 15, 1901, part 1, pages 7-20.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901-1902. Report of Governor Taft. Civil Government established in all Christian Filipino Territory. The Moros. Destruction of the Carabao. Cholera. Ladrones. The Native Constabulary.
"When our last report was submitted there was insurrection in the province of Batangas, where the insurgent forces were commanded by General Malvar, and in the adjacent provinces of Tayabas and Laguna; in the province of Samar, where the insurgent forces were commanded by General Lukban; in Cebu, where the insurgent forces were under the insurgent leaders Climaco and Maxilom; in Bohol, where the insurgent forces were commanded by the insurgent leader Samson; and in the island of Mindoro. Vigorous campaigns were begun in November and December by General Bell, in Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas, and Mindoro, by General Smith in Samar, and by General Hughes in Cebu and Bohol. In November and December the insurgents in Cebu and Bohol surrendered, and conditions of peace were so completely established that the Commission soon after received the province of Cebu from the military authorities, and by act numbered 322, passed December 20, 1901, restored the civil government in that province to take effect January 1, 1902; in Bohol the province was delivered over to the Commission early in 1902, and the commission, by act of March 3, 1902, restored civil government there to take effect April 1, 1902. General Lukban, in Samar, was captured in February, 1902, and the entire force of insurgents in that island under General Guevara surrendered in April following.
{494}
"By an act passed June 17, 1902, Number 419, the Commission organized the province of Samar, and established civil government there. In April of 1902, General Malvar surrendered with all his forces in Batangas, and by act passed June 23, 1902, the Commission restored civil government to that province to take effect July 4, 1902. By act Number 424, enacted July 1, 1902, the province of Laguna was organized into a civil government. This completed the organization of all the provinces in which insurrection had been rife during the latter part of 1901, except Mindoro. There were, in addition, certain tracts of territory occupied by Christian Filipinos that had not received civil government, either because of the remoteness of the territory or the scarcity of population." The report then details the measures by which civil government was given to these tracts of territory, and proceeds:
"The question what shall be done with respect to Mindanao is one which has not been definitely decided, first, because so much has had to be done with respect to the northern and Filipino provinces, and, second, because at present there is an unsettled condition in the Lake Lanao country. The hostility to the Americans does not reach beyond the Lake Lanao Moros. The Moros of the Jolo group, of Zamboanga, and of the Rio Grande de Mindanao Valley are all quiet, and all entirely willing to submit to American supervision. It is very possible that an arrangement can be brought about by which the Sultan of Jolo can be induced to part with such rights as he claims to have in the Jolo Archipelago, and in this way questions which now present very perplexing difficulties with respect to ownership of privileges, rights, and lands may be obviated. … I think it wiser on the part of the Commission to postpone the consideration of the Moro question until we have passed legislation to meet needs that are more pressing throughout the northern part of these possessions of the United States. For a great many years to come there will be no question of popular government in the Moro country; the Moros do not understand popular government, do not desire it, and are entirely content with the control by their dattos. Possibly far in the future the control by dattos will cease. There is room for material and industrial development among the Moros, and with their material improvement may come a change in their political views. For the present, however, it is necessary only to provide a paternal, strong, but sympathetic government for these followers of Mohammed.
"The civil government has assumed responsibility for the preservation of order and the maintenance of law throughout the Christian Filipino territory of this archipelago at a time when the material conditions are most discouraging and present every conceivable obstacle to the successful administration of the affairs of 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 people. The war of six years since 1896 has greatly interfered with the regular pursuit of agriculture, which is almost the only source of wealth in the islands. Many years ago there was sufficient rice raised in the islands not only to feed the people but to export it to other countries. For a number of years before the American occupancy rice had been imported. The area of cultivation of the rice has been much lessened during the war and many fields which were formerly tilled are grown now with the cogon grass because of neglect.
"The greatest blow to agriculture has been the loss of the carabao or water buffalo, upon which the cultivation of rice, according to the mode pursued in these islands, is wholly dependent. The war in some degree, and the rinderpest in a much larger degree, have destroyed about 90 per cent of the carabaos; and the natives—never very active in helping themselves—have simply neglected the rice culture, so that now the islands are compelled to spend about $15,000,000 gold to buy food upon which to live. The carabao is not so necessary in the cultivation of the sugar crop or in the cultivation of hemp. …
"The cholera has swept over these islands with fatal effect, so that the total loss will probably reach 100,000 deaths. Whole villages have been depopulated and the necessary sanitary restrictions to avoid its spread have interfered with agriculture, with intercommunication, and with all business. The ravages of war have left many destitute, and a guerrilla life has taken away from many all habits of industry. With no means of carrying on agriculture, which is the only occupation of these islands, the temptation to the less responsible of the former insurgents after surrender to prey upon their neighbors and live by robbery and rapine has been very great. The bane of Philippine civilization in the past was ladronism, and the present conditions are most favorable for its growth and maintenance. … Many who were proscribed for political offences in the Spanish times had no refuge but the mountains, and being in the mountains conducted a free robber life, and about them gathered legions not unlike those of the Robin Hood days of England, so that they attracted frequently the sympathy of the common people. In the Spanish days it was common for the large estate owners, including the friars, to pay tribute to neighboring ladrones. Every Tagalog province had its band of ladrones, and frequently each town had its recognized ladrone whom it protected and through whom it negotiated for immunity. …
"The insurrection is over. It is true that the ladrones, though they live on nothing but cattle and rice stealing, and never attack American soldiers, and prey only upon their own people, do masquerade as insurrectos; but they recognize no authority and have no characteristics other than those of banditti. They have stirred up in some of the provinces the organization of so-called secret societies for the purpose of securing agencies with which successfully to conduct their robbery and to sell the fruits of it. … The picture that I have given of the depressed condition of agriculture, and the tendency to ladronize in the Tagalog provinces and in some of the Visayan provinces, does not apply to those provinces in which hemp is the chief product. They are wealthy and prosperous."
_Report of Governor W. H. Taft (Report of the Philippine Commission, 1902, part 1)._
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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902. Padre Aglipay’s Secession from the Roman Catholic Church. Organization of the Independent Filipino Catholic Church.
"Gregorio Aglipay is an Ilocano, and was an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church in these islands before the insurrection. During the insurrection he continued his priestly functions at Mabolos and took such action as to bring him into conflict with the hierarchy of the Church. What the merits of this controversy were I do not know. Subsequently he assumed the leadership of the insurrecto forces in Ilocos Norte and carried on a very active campaign in the mountains of that province. He was one of the last of the leaders to surrender with his forces in North Luzon. Since his surrender he has been quite active in spreading propaganda among the native priests against the so-called Friar domination of the church in these islands. The definite refusal of the Vatican to withdraw the Spanish friars from the islands was made the occasion for the formation of the Independent Filipino Catholic Church. Actively engaged with Aglipay in this movement was Isabelo de los Reyes, the former editor of an insurrecto paper, published in Madrid, called Filipinas ante Europa, and an agitator of irresponsible and irrepressible character. … Padre Aglipay has secured the active and open cooperation of a number of native priests, 15 of whom he has appointed bishops, himself having the title of archbishop. He has held mass in many different places in and about Manila; his services have attracted large gatherings of people. …
"In order to prevent constant recurrence of disturbances of the peace I have had to take a firm stand with the leaders of the movement by impressing upon them that forcible dispossession of a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, for years in peaceable possession of the church and the rector’s house, is contrary to law, and would be prevented by the whole police power. The leaders of the movement assure me that they have no desire to violate the law and wish to keep within it, but that their followers at times are hard to control. I have said to them that if they claim title to the churches they may assert it through the courts, and if successful will secure not only the confirmation of their title but actual possession. …
"I have taken occasion to say, whenever an opportunity occurred, that the insular government desired to take no part whatever in the religious controversies thus arising; that it would protect Father Aglipay and his followers in worshiping God as they chose just as it would protect the Roman Catholic Church and its ministers and followers in the same rights. But that, if the law was violated by either party, it would become the duty of the government to step in and restrain such lawlessness."
_Governor Wm. H. Taft, Report, 1902, pages 39-40._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902-1903. Governmental Purchase of the Friars’ Lands.
"As early as 1898, the Peace Commission, which negotiated the treaty of Paris, became convinced that one of the most important steps in tranquilizing the islands and in reconciling the Filipinos to the American Government would be the governmental purchase of the so-called friars’ agricultural lands in the Philippines, and the sale of these lands to the tenants upon long, easy payments. … The Secretary of War and the President concurred in the recommendations of the Commission. Accordingly in May, 1902, the writer, as civil governor of the Philippine Islands, was directed by the Secretary of War to visit Rome and to confer with the Pope or such agents as he might designate in respect to the question of buying the friars’ agricultural lands and other questions of a similar character which were pending between the Roman Catholic Church and the Government. The negotiations which were had on this subject in Rome were set forth in the correspondence published by the Secretary of War in his report to Congress for last year. In a word, the Pope approved the purchase of the agricultural lands of the three great religious orders that owned agricultural lands in the islands and appointed an apostolic delegate with as full powers as he could be invested with to bring about this result. …
"In order to determine the value of the estates, the representatives of the various companies and other interests were invited to attend a hearing, when various witnesses were called to testify. The apostolic delegate was also present. …
"In accordance with the agreement reached in Rome, I sent to the apostolic delegate a request for a statement of the exact interests retained by the religious orders in the Philippines in the lands which were the subject of negotiation. No formal answer to this letter was ever received, but informally it was stated to me by the delegate that the authorities in the Philippines had informed him that they had so disposed of their interests that they were unable to make a statement of what their interests were, if any. The value of the lands, as estimated according to the statements of the agents of the companies, aggregated a sum between thirteen and fourteen millions of dollars gold. The estimate of Villegas, the surveyor employed by the Commission, showed the valuation of the lands to be $6,043,000 gold, if his value in Mexican should be reduced to gold at the rate of two to one, which was the gold rate about the time of his survey and classification, though the Mexican dollar fell considerably after that. Considering the bad conditions which prevailed in agriculture, the loss of cattle, the dispute concerning title, and the agrarian question that must always remain in the management of these estates and embarrass the owner, I considered—and I believe the Commission generally agreed with me—that $6,043,000 gold was a full price for the lands. The sum, however, was scouted by the persons representing the owners, and there appeared to be very little prospect of reaching an agreement. …
"Not discouraged, however, by circumstances that seemed most discouraging, the apostolic delegate bent his energies to bringing the parties to a settlement. After some negotiation the delegate first stated that he thought he could arrange a sale for $10,500,000 gold. I told him there was no hope of bringing about a purchase at that figure. … Then followed a long and protracted discussion between the parties who were to be the venders as to how this sum should be divided, and there was much difficulty in arriving at a solution—so great a difficulty, indeed, that I was informed that unless $7,770,000 was paid there was no hope of reaching an agreement. With the approval of the Secretary of War and the Commission, I replied that $7,543,000 was our ultimatum, and that we would not give more than that, and this was ultimately the basis upon which the price was fixed."
_Report of the Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, William H. Taft (Fourth Report of the Philippine Commission)._
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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1905. Report of Committee on Methods of Dealing with the Sale and Use of Opium.
See (in this Volume) OPIUM PROBLEM.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1906-1907. Resignation of Governor Ide. Appointment and Inauguration of Governor Smith. Complete Tranquility in the Islands. Change in the Constitution of Provincial Boards.
"On September 20, 1906, the resignation of the Honorable Henry Clay Ide as governor-general became effective, and on that date the Honorable James F. Smith was inaugurated as governor-general of the Philippine Islands. … Since April of this year complete tranquility has prevailed in every part of the archipelago, inclusive of the Moro province. In 21 of the provinces peace has reigned supreme during the entire year. In Bataan and Batangas there was some disturbance of the public order, caused in the case of the first-named province by the escape of some provincial prisoners, and in the second by the operations of six or seven brigands near the boundary line of the provinces of La Laguna and Tayabas. All of the escaped prisoners and all of the bandits with the exception of two in each party have been captured. …
"The convention of provincial governors held in Manila in October, 1906, recommended that the then existing law providing that provincial boards shall be composed of a provincial governor elected by the municipal councilors and vice-presidents of the various municipalities of the province and a provincial treasurer and a third member appointed by the executive be so amended as to permit of the election of the provincial governor and third member by direct vote of the people. This recommendation was submitted to the Secretary of War, and on receiving his approval thereof the provincial government act was amended accordingly. This innovation in the constitution and selection of provincial boards has been an advantage both to the insular and to the local government. On the one hand it has removed all cause for friction between the provincial governor elected by the people and the two members of the board named by the executive. On the other it has imposed upon the provincial governor and the third member the responsibility for the well-being of the province and has removed from the insular government much of the responsibility for conditions purely of local concern."
_Report of the Philippine Commission, December 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, pages 799-807)._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907. The Philippine Election Law. Election of a Popular Assembly. Political Parties participating in it. The first meeting of the Assembly. Presence of Secretary Taft. His account of the Assembly and of the Parties represented in it.
"In January, 1907, the Philippine Commission passed the Philippine election law. In framing this law the election codes of Massachusetts, New York, the District of Columbia, and California were consulted and features adopted from each, modified in such a way as to meet insular conditions and to avoid the mistakes and abuses that have arisen in some provincial and municipal elections in the islands. The aim has been to provide a law sufficiently explicit and not too complicated for easy comprehension. Every effort has been made to afford the necessary safeguards and machinery to insure purity, secrecy, certainty, and expedition, without causing too great a drain upon the resources of municipal and provincial governments. The prominent features of this law as amended are the division of those provinces not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes into 78 assembly districts, each province to constitute at least one district and the more populous being divided into more districts, in the ratio of 1 to every 90,000 of population and major fraction thereof remaining. In accordance with this apportionment there will be 80 delegates, two of whom will represent the city of Manila, which is considered as a province, within the meaning of the act of Congress, and divided into two districts."
_Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, October 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, page 781)._
"On the 28th of March, 1907, the Commission by resolution, unanimously adopted, certified to the President that for two years following the publication of the census of the islands a condition of general and complete peace had prevailed and then existed in the territory of the islands not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes. … By virtue of this certificate and in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress of July 1, 1902, the President on March 28, issued a proclamation directing the Philippine Commission to call a general election for the choice of delegates to a popular assembly. Accordingly on the 30th of March, 1907, the Commission passed a resolution ordering that an election be held for delegates on July 30 and directing the governor-general to issue a proclamation announcing the election for that date. The proclamation was issued on April 1. By a strange coincidence the day of the month fixed for holding the election was the same as that on which the first legislative body in America, the house of burgesses, met in the year 1619. Under the general election law the delegates to the assembly elected at the elections held on July 30th, 1907, and seated by the Philippine assembly, will serve until January 1, 1910. Subsequent elections for delegates will be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1909, and on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in each odd-numbered year thereafter, delegates to take office on the 1st day of January next following their election and to hold office for two years, or until their successors are elected and qualified.
"The basis of representation in the Philippine assembly is one delegate for every 90,000 of population and one additional delegate for a major fraction thereof: Provided, however, that each Christian province shall be entitled to at least one delegate and that the total number of delegates shall at no time exceed 100. Provinces entitled to more than one delegate are divided into districts. The law declares Manila to be a province within the meaning of the act of Congress authorizing the assembly, and, it is allowed the same representation as other provinces. Thirty-four provinces are represented in the Philippine assembly, which is composed of 80 members.
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"The act of Congress requires that delegates to the assembly shall be qualified electors of the election district in which they may be chosen, 25 years of age, and owing allegiance to the United States. The act of Congress prescribes that the qualifications of electors shall be the same as those prescribed for electors in municipal elections under laws in force at the time of the passage of the Congressional enactment. As the municipal election laws in force at the time of the passage of the act of Congress have undergone some change in regard to the qualifications of electors, the strange anomaly is presented of having certain qualifications exacted from municipal and provincial officials which are not required for delegates to the assembly. One of the results is that felons, victims of the opium habit, and persons convicted in the court of first instance for crimes involving moral turpitude, but whose cases are pending on appeal, are not eligible for election to any provincial or municipal office, but may become delegates to the assembly.
"As announced by provincial governors the elections for assemblymen held on the 30th of July, 1907, resulted in the election of 32 Nacionalistas, 4 Independistas, 7 Inmediatistas, 16 Progresistas, 20 Independents, and 1 Centro Catolico. The total number of voters registered for the assembly elections was 104,966. The number of voters registered for the provincial and municipal elections will be very much larger than that for the assembly elections. The difference in registration and votes cast at the two elections seems to show with considerable certainty that there was far more interest in the elections for provincial and municipal officials than there was in the election for assemblymen. …
"The delegates to the Philippine assembly, in accordance with the call of the governor-general as prescribed by the act of Congress, met at the Grand Opera House in the city of Manila on the 16th day of October at 9 o’clock A. M."
_Report of the Philippine Commission, December 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, pages 810-811)._
The Honorable William H. Taft, United States Secretary of War, former Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, made the long journey to the Islands on this occasion for the purpose of opening the meeting of the Assembly and personally inspecting the state of affairs. After returning, in the following December, he made an extended report to the President, in which he discussed the character of the Assembly and of the parties represented in it at considerable length. Recurring to the formation of the first political party that arose in the Islands after they came under the control of the United States, he said of it:
"It is a mistake to suppose that the war by the Filipinos against the Americans had the sympathy of all the Filipinos. On the contrary, there were many intelligent and conservative men who favored American control and who did not believe in the capacity of their people immediately to organize a government which would be stable and satisfactory, but in the face of a possible independence of the Islands, they were still. Upon Mr. McKinley’s second election many of these persons reached the conclusion that it was time for them to act. Accordingly, they formed the Federal Party, the chief platform of which was peace under American sovereignty and the acceptance of the American promises to govern the Islands for the benefit of the Filipinos and gradually to extend popular self-government to the people. The Federal Party received accessions by thousands in all parts of the Islands and in every province, so that the Commission was enabled during the year 1901, and under the auspices, and with the aid of, the Federal Party, to organize civil government in some 32 or 33 provinces, or in substantially all of them. … The main purpose and principle of the party was peace under the sovereignty of the United States. In drafting a platform its leaders had formulated a plank favoring the organization of the Islands into a Territory of the United States, with a view to its possibly becoming a State. From this plank it took its name. In the first two or three years after its successful effort to bring on peace, many prominent Filipinos having political ambition became members, and in the gubernatorial elections the great majority of governors elected were Federals. And so substantially all who filled prominent offices in the government by appointment, including the judges, were of that party. Then dissension arose among prominent leaders and some withdrew from the party. The natural opposition to a government party led to the organization of other parties, especially among those known as Intransigentes [Irreconcilables]. The Federal Party had founded an organ, the Democracia, early in its existence. The opponents of the government looking to immediate independence founded a paper called the Renacimiento. The latter was edited with especial ability and with a partisan spirit against the American Government.
"For two years before the election of the Assembly the Filipinos who sympathized with the Renacimiento were perfecting their organization to secure a majority in the assembly. Many groups were formed, but they all were known as the Partido Nacionalista. There was some difference as to whether to this title should be added the word ‘inmediatista,’ but the great majority favored it. The party is generally known as the Nacionalista Party. During much of these same two years, the Federal Party was dormant. …
"Some six months before the elections, there sprung from the ashes of the Federal Party a party which, rejecting the statehood idea, declared itself in favor of making the Philippines an independent nation by gradual and progressive acquisition of governmental control until the people should become fitted by education and practice under American sovereignty to enjoy and maintain their complete independence. It was called the Partido Nacionalista Progresista. It is generally known as the Progresista Party. …
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"The campaign in the last two or three months was carried on with great vigor. The Nacionalistas had the advantage of being understood to be against the government. This, with a people like the Filipino people, who had been taught to regard the government as an entity separate from the people, taxing them and prosecuting them, was in itself a strong reason for popular sympathy and support. The Progresistas were denounced as a party of office-holders. The government was denounced as extravagant and burdensome to the people. In many districts the Nacionalista candidates promised that if they were returned immediate independence would follow. There were quite a number of candidates in country and remote districts where the controversy was not heated who did not declare themselves on the main question, and maintained an independence of any party. They were known as Independientes. Then, there were other Independientes who declared themselves independent of party, but in favor of immediate independence.
"The total vote registered and cast did not exceed 104,000, although in previous gubernatorial elections the total vote had reached nearly 150,000. The high vote at the latter elections may be partly explained by the fact that at the same elections town officers were elected, and the personal interest of many candidates drew out a larger number of electors. But the falling off was also in part due, doubtless, to the timidity of conservative voters, who, because of the heat of the campaign, preferred to avoid taking sides. This is not a permanent condition, however, and I doubt not that the meeting of the assembly and the evident importance of its functions when actually performed will develop a much greater popular interest in it, and the total vote will be largely increased at the next election.
"I opened the assembly in your name. The roll of the members returned on the face of the record was called. An appropriate oath was administered to all the members and the assembly organized by selecting Señor Sergio Osmeña as its speaker or presiding officer. Señor Osmeña has been one of the most efficient fiscals, or prosecuting attorneys, in the Islands, having conducted the government prosecutions in the largest province of the Islands, the province and Island of Cebu. He was subsequently elected governor, and by his own activity in going into every part of the island, he succeeded in enlisting the assistance of all the people in suppressing ladronism, which had been rife in the mountains of Cebu for thirty or forty years, so that to-day there is absolute peace and tranquillity throughout the island. He is a young man, not 30, but of great ability, shrewdness, high ideals, and yet very practical in his methods of dealing with men and things. The assembly could have done nothing which indicated its good sense so strongly as the selection of Senor Osmeña as its presiding officer. …
"As a shibboleth—as a party cry—immediate independence has much force, because it excites the natural pride of the people; but few of their number have ever worked out its consequences, and when they have done so they have been willing to postpone that question until some of the immediate needs of the people have been met. I may be wrong, but my judgment is that the transfer of real power, by giving to the people part of the legislative control of the Christian provinces, sobers their leaders with the sense of responsibility and teaches them some of the practical difficulties of government I do not for a moment guarantee that there will not at times be radical action by the Assembly, which cannot meet the approval of those who understand the legislative needs of the Islands, but all I wish to say is that the organization and beginning of the life of the Assembly have disappointed its would-be critics and have given great encouragement to those who were responsible for its extension of political power."
Special Report of William H. Taft, Secretary of War, to the President on the Philippines, January 23, 1908 (60th Cong. 1st Session, Senate Doc. No. 200).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909. Change in the Governor-General’s Office.
General James F. Smith was succeeded as Governor-General by the Vice-Governor-General, Mr. W. Cameron Forbes, in November, 1909.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909. Philippine Tariff Act.
A special Message, transmitting a Philippine Tariff Bill recommended by the Secretary of War, was sent to Congress, April 14, by President Taft. "This measure," wrote the President, "revises the present Philippine tariff, simplifies it and makes it conform as nearly as possible to the regulations of the customs laws of the United States, especially with respect to packing and packages. The present Philippine regulations have been cumbersome and difficult for American merchants and exporters to comply with. Its purpose is to meet the new conditions that will arise under the section of the pending United States tariff bill which provides, with certain limitations, for free trade between the United States and the islands. It is drawn with a view to preserving to the islands as much customs revenue as possible and to protect in a reasonable measure those industries which now exist in the islands.
"The bill now transmitted has been drawn by a board of tariff experts, of which the insular collector of customs, Colonel George R. Colton, was the president. The board held a great many open meetings in Manila, and conferred fully with representatives of all business interests in the Philippine Islands. It is of great importance to the welfare of the islands that the bill should be passed at the same time with the pending Payne bill, with special reference to the provisions of which it was prepared."
The Bill was passed, but certain tobacco interests secured an important amendment in their favor.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909 (November). Success of the Nationalists in the Election.
"Practically complete returns from the recent election indicate that the Assembly will be composed of sixty Nationalists, fifteen Progressists, and five Independents. The Nationalists also gained four provincial Governors over the number elected by that party at the last election. Similar gains in other offices have been made by the Nationalists. Some of the returns are still missing, but they are not likely to make any material change in the figures given."
_Press Report from Manila, November 5, 1909._
----------PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: End--------
PICKETING: The Labor Strikers’ Right. Its limit.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1906 (MARCH).
PICQUART, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
PIEROLA, NICOLAS.
See (in this Volume) PERU.
PINCHOT, GIFFORD: Chief of the United States Forest Service.
See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.
PINCHOT, GIFFORD: On Threatened Water Power Trust.
See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.
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PIOUS FUND QUESTION. Its Decision by the Hague Tribunal.
See (in this Volume) MEXICO: A. D. 1902 (MAY).
PITTSBURG: A. D. 1906-1908. Under a Reforming Mayor.
See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
PITTSBURG: A. D. 1907. Enlargement and Rededication of the Carnegie Institute.
See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1907.
PITTSBURG: A. D. 1907-1908. The Pittsburg Survey. A remarkable Investigation of Living Conditions.
See (in this Volume) SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES.
PIUS X., POPE.
See (in this Volume) PAPACY.
PLAGUE, Bubonic.
See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.
"PLAN OF CAMPAIGN," THE.
See (in this Volume) IRELAND: A. D. 1907.
PLATT AMENDMENT.
See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1901-1902.
PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT, THE.
The first convention of the Playground Association of America, held at Chicago in June, 1907, was a very notable gathering, in the character of the men and women assembled,—in the quality of the discussion they gave to the subject of child-development by wholesome play,—in the spirit imparted to it by the wonderful exhibit that Chicago could make of achievement in this new civic undertaking, and in the great impetus it gave to the playground movement throughout the country. The proceedings and incidents of the convention were reported very fully in the August number of Charities and Corrections that year.
"From one article, ‘How They Played at Chicago,’ by Mr. Graham Romeyn Taylor, we learn that in connection with the convention there was held a festival of sport and play, in which from first to last ‘the play spirit was ascendant.’ More than 5000 persons participated, and among them were President Gulick, of the national association, and Dr. Sargent, of Harvard. The play spirit, says he, captivated every one. ‘Play, according to students of it, means not only a good time, but from the child’s point of view it is serious business: moreover, it has vital significance in educational development.’ This meeting, he claims, marks the transition of playground activity from a more or less sporadic and disconnected series of efforts in our larger cities to a firmly established and well organized national movement. A better understanding of the playground issue means better citizenship and community-life.
"President Roosevelt, honorary president, had requested that delegations be sent to this convention from many cities, ‘to gain inspiration from this meeting, and to see the magnificent system that Chicago has erected in its South Park section,—one of the most notable civic achievements of any American city.’ They came, and returned to their home cities with photographs of the playgrounds and recreation centers in Chicago. On these the city of Chicago has expended during the last four years $6,500,000, and has recently appropriated $3,000,000 additional. Moreover, it has authorized $1,500,000 for similar facilities for children on the north and west sides as well. Each center costs about $30,000 annually. These centers recognize that human needs transcend all other things, and tend to develop a social spirit that one day must permeate our commingled races."
_American Review of Reviews, September, 1907._
"According to the new Year Book [for 1910] of the Playground Association of America, 336 municipalities in the United States are maintaining supervised playgrounds. The actual number of playgrounds operated in 267 of these cities last year was 1,535. About 56 per cent. are in the area of greatest density of population, in the North Atlantic States. The number of cities in those States maintaining playgrounds is 149, and the number of playgrounds established in 123 of them is 873. Massachusetts has led in the movement.
"In about 49 per cent. of the cities operating public playgrounds, the managing authority, wholly or in part, is the city itself, which is working through its board of education, its park department, or other municipal bureau—or by combining the activities of two or more departments. In fifteen cities the Mayors have appointed special commissions, organized, as city departments for the administration of playgrounds, which are no longer left to the philanthropist.
"In fifty-five of the larger cities, local playground associations have been established, and many of the smaller towns have organized committees that will be converted into permanent organizations. Churches, women’s clubs, Young Men’s Christian Associations, Associated Charities, and public-spirited men and women have contributed their help.
"An index of the interest in the movement is afforded by a survey of figures representing the yearly expenditures for sites, equipment, and the maintenance of playgrounds. In many cases specific information on this point is not available, but 184 cities have sent reports stating definitely what it costs them to operate their grounds. The total amount expended in the year by these 184 cities is $1,353,114. In 18 per cent, of the cities the amount of money set apart for playgrounds was appropriated entirely by the municipality, while in 23 per cent. the cities combined with private organizations."
_New York Evening Post, January 5, 1910._
In England, or in London, at least, the movement has been set on foot by an "Evening Play Centres Committee," of which Mrs. Humphry Ward is Chairman. The object of the Committee, as stated by Mrs. Ward, is "to open the school buildings in winter for play, exercise, and handwork, as an alternative to the streets, to children after school hours; and in summer to organize the playgrounds, as is now so largely done in America and Canada"; but thus far its success appears to have been mostly in the opening of indoor play centres for evening entertainment.
PLAZA, GENERAL LEONIDAS: President of Ecuador.
See (in this Volume) ECUADOR.
PLEHVE, M. V. de: Defence of Russian Measures in Finland.
See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1901.
PLEHVE, M. V. de: Russian Minister of the Interior. His atrocious administration. His assassination.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.
PLURAL VOTING, BELGIAN.
See (in this Volume) BELGIUM: A. D. 1902 and 1904.
See in Volume VI., BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
See in Volume I., CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM.
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POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: On Russian Discontent.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1902.
POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: Resignation.
See (in this Volume) Russia: A. D. 1904-1905.
POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: Death, March 23, 1907.
POGROMS: Massacres.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1906.
POLAR EXPLORATION: Arctic: A. D. 1901-1910. Three Expeditions of Commander Peary. His Final Triumph. The astounding Imposture of Dr. Cook, Pretender to an attainment of the Pole a Year in Advance of Peary. Other Arctic Explorations of the Decade.
When the record of Polar Exploration was closed in Volume VI. of this work, on its going to press in the spring of 1901, Commander Robert E. Peary had been working within the Arctic Circle for three years, with no respite, and the Peary Arctic Club was sending a vessel, the Erik, to make inquiries about him. He was found to have proved that Greenland is surrounded by water at the north, and to have further undertakings in hand. He remained another year, in the course of which he made the nearest approach to the Pole that had yet been accomplished, going directly north from Cape Hecla and reaching latitude 84° 17'. Returning to the coast, he was met and brought home, after an absence of four years. In July, 1905, he sailed northward again, equipped with a vessel, the Roosevelt, built expressly for his use. After wintering on the north coast of Grant Land, he started once more with sledges and dogs toward the Pole, and this time pressed his way to 87° 6' of latitude, or within a little more than 200 miles of the Arctic hub. Then he was forced to turn back, with scant supplies, killing his dogs for food. Once more, in July, 1908, Commander Peary set his face Arcticward, on the staunch Roosevelt, with two scientific companions, and equipped himself at Etah with Eskimos and dogs for another journey across the ice-fields, from some point on the Grant Land coast.
Two expeditions were fitted out in 1901 and 1903, by Mr. Ziegler, of New York, the former under Evelyn B. Baldwin, the latter under Anthony Fiala. The latter reached latitude 82° 13', remaining in the Arctic regions until the summer of 1905. In June, 1903, Captain Roald Amundsen, of Norway, sailed from Christiania in the small sloop Gjoa, beginning a voyage which carried him entirely through the Northwest Passage from Baffin Bay to Bering Strait and which occupied three years. Much of that time, however, was devoted to studies and searches of great value in determining the location of the Magnetic Pole. In 1905 the ranks of the Arctic explorers were joined by the Duke of Orleans, who sailed from Christiania in May, in the Belgica, commanded by Lieutenant de Gerlache. In 1907, Mr. John R. Bradley, of New York, supplied Dr. Frederick A. Cook with equipments for an attempt to reach the North Pole, and accompanied him in a schooner yacht to Annatok, a little north of Etah, in North Greenland, where the Doctor, with one white man, Rudolph Francke, were landed, with their supplies, to begin the undertaking. Several attempts were made in successive years by Mr. Walter Wellman to make the journey to the Pole from Spitzbergen by a dirigible airship. Each of them, down to 1909, was frustrated by misfortunes of circumstance or weather. A tragically ended survey of the northeast coast of Greenland was accomplished in 1906-1907 by Dr. Mylius Erichsen and Lieutenant Hagen-Hagen, who perished while groping their way southward in the growing darkness of the approaching winter. These fill out the important items of the record of Arctic exploration, since April, 1901, down to the 1st of September, 1909.
On that day the whole world was startled and excited by a message, flashed first to Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, from a passing Danish steamer, the Hans Egede, and thence to all corners of the earth, saying:
"We have on board the American traveller, Dr. Cook, who reached the North Pole April 21, 1908. Dr. Cook arrived at Upernivik (the northernmost Danish settlement in Greenland, on an island off the west coast) in May of 1909 from Cape York (in the northwest part of Greenland, on Baffin Bay). The Eskimos of Cape York confirm Dr. Cook’s story of his journey."
The next day brought a cabled announcement from Dr. Cook himself, to the New York Herald, briefly telling of his triumph, "after a prolonged fight against famine and frost," and describing the emotions with which he had found himself at the goal which so many had striven vainly to attain. "What a cheerless spot," he moralized, "to have aroused the ambition of man for so many ages! An endless field of purple snows. No life. No land. No spot to relieve the monotony of frost. We were the only pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice."
Two days later the hero was landed at Copenhagen, and all the excited world devoured graphic descriptions of his reception by the enthusiastic Danes: by the Crown Prince, who hastened to welcome him before he had stepped from the ship; by the crowds who cheered him; by the King, who dined him; by the University of Copenhagen which awarded him an honorary degree, and whose faculty he made happy and proud by the promise that it should be the first to examine the record of his observations and the proofs in general that he had reached the Pole.
Two more days passed, and then the climax of this world-spread excitement and astonishment was marked by another radio-electric flash of news out of the Arctic North,—this time from the American North,—proclaiming another conquest of the icy fortress of the Pole. It spoke "to the Associated Press, New York," from "Indian Harbor, via Cape Ray, Nova Scotia," saying: "Stars and Stripes nailed to North Pole. Peary." It reached New York a little after noon of September 6th, and before night, everywhere, people in all languages were asking each other: "Is it possible that two men have suddenly done what none have been able to do before?"
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Other messages from Commander Peary which soon followed the first one fixed the date of his attainment of the Pole as having been April 6, 1909,—being fifteen days less than a year after Dr. Cook claimed to have planted the American flag at the same spot. They brought angry denunciations, too, of Cook’s pretension, which Peary had learned of from the Esquimaux in the North. "Cook’s story," he said in one despatch, "should not be taken too seriously. The two Esquimaux who accompanied him say he went no distance north and not outside of land. Other members of the tribe confirm their story." In another he declared: "Cook has sold the public a gold brick." Dr. Cook, meantime, gave out expressions as to Peary’s achievement very different in temper and tone. He had no doubt that Commander Peary had reached the Pole; but he, Cook, had been fortunately the first to enjoy the favorable conditions which gave success to them both. His magnanimity, his coolness, his easy self-confidence, in contrast with Peary’s words and bearing, won public admiration and sympathy, and the majority in most communities inclined strongly, for a time, to the judgment that both explorers had done what they said they did, but that Cook, in character, was the more estimable man. When he arrived in New York, on the 21st of September, that city gave him almost as wild a hero worship as Copenhagen had done. Commander Peary was then just landing at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and it was some weeks before he would proceed to New York, or put himself at all in the way of receiving any public demonstrations of honor.
But grounds of skepticism as to Dr. Cook were acquiring a rapid multiplication. When he published his story in detail, or told it in lectures, it started questions which people having critical knowledge insisted that he must answer if he could; but he made no attempt. He was in no haste to produce the records which he had insisted would prove his claims beyond a doubt. He required weeks of time to prepare them for examination, and they must go to the University of Copenhagen before any other tribunal of science could see them. Meanwhile, he was harvesting large gains from lectures and newspaper publications, and seemed more interested in that pursuit than in the vindication of his questioned honor. Hence, suspicion of him grew, until it made itself heard and felt at last with a force which drove the Doctor to put his professed proofs in shape and send them by the hand of his secretary, Mr. Lonsdale, to Copenhagen. Before they reached their destination he, himself, disappeared mysteriously from public view, nervously shattered, it was said, and seeking some hidden place of refuge abroad. Reports of him from various places in both Europe and South America have not been verified, and his whereabouts are still (March, 1910) a mystery.
On the 21st of December the report of the scientific committee of Copenhagen University, to which the records forwarded by Dr. Cook were submitted, was made public by the University Council. "The report, which was sent in by the committee on December 18, states that the following papers were submitted to it for investigation:—
"1. A type-written report by Mr. Lonsdale on Dr. Cook’s Arctic voyage, consisting of 61 folios.
"2. A type written copy of 16 folios, made by Mr. Lonsdale, comprising the note-books brought back by Dr. Cook from his journey and covering the period from March 18 to June 13, 1908, stated to have been written on the way from Svartevaag to the Pole and back until a place west of Heibergsland was reached. …
"The committee points out as a result of its investigations that the aforementioned report of the journey is essentially identical with that published some time ago in the New York Herald, and that the copy of the note-books did not contain astronomical records, but only results. In fact, the committee remarks that there are no elucidatory statements which might have rendered it probable that astronomical observations were really taken. Neither is the practical side —namely, the sledge journey—illuminated by details in such a way as to enable the committee to form an opinion. The committee therefore considers that from the material submitted no proof can be adduced that Dr. Cook reached the North Pole.
"The council of the University accordingly declares as a result of the committee’s report that the documents submitted to Copenhagen University contain no observations or explanations to prove that Dr. Cook on his last Polar journey reached the North Pole."
That Commander Peary had accomplished at last the object of his indomitable striving was never in doubt. His own testimony to the fact had sufficed from the beginning, and the decision rendered on the 3d of November by a committee of the National Geographic Society, which examined the records of his march to the Pole, added nothing to the public belief. But his laurels had been lamentably blighted by the atmosphere of scandal, wrangle, and disgust with which Cook’s monstrous imposture had vulgarized the whole feeling that attended the exploit.
The incidents of the final Peary expedition, from start to finish, were summarized by the Commander in a message from Battle Harbor to the London Times, September 8, as follows:
"The Roosevelt left New York on July 6, 1908. She left Sydney on July 17th; arrived at Cape York, Greenland, on August 1st; left Etah, Greenland, on August 8th; arrived at Cape Sheridan, Grant Land, on September 1st, and wintered at Cape Sheridan. The sledge expedition left the Roosevelt on February 15th, 1909, and started north of Cape Columbia on March 1st. It passed the British record on March 2d; was delayed by open water on March 2d and 3d; was held up by open water from March 4th to March 11th; crossed the 84th parallel on March 11th and encountered an open lead on March 15th; crossed the 85th parallel on March 18th; crossed the 86th parallel on March 22d and encountered an open lead on March 33d [23d?]; passed the Norwegian record on March 23d; passed the Italian record on March 24th and encountered an open lead on March 26th; crossed the 87th parallel on March 27th; passed the American record on March 28th and encountered a lead on March 28th; held up by open water on March 29th; crossed the 88th parallel on April 2d; crossed the 89th parallel on April 4th, and reached the North Pole on April 6th.
"On returning we left the pole on April 7th; reached Camp Columbia on April 23d, arriving on board the Roosevelt on April 27th. The Roosevelt left Cape Sheridan on July 18th, passed Cape Sabine on August 8th, left Cape York on August 26th and arrived at Indian Harbor.
"All the members of the expedition are returning in good health except Professor Ross G. Martin, who unfortunately drowned on April 10th, 45 miles north of Cape Columbia, while returning from 86 degrees north latitude in command of a supporting party."
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POLAR EXPLORATION: Antarctic: English, German, Swedish, and Scottish Expeditions. The Successes of Lieutenant Shackleton.
When the account of Polar Exploration in Volume VI. of this work was closed, in April, 1901, several expeditions to the Antarctic region were reported as being under preparation, in England, Germany, and Sweden. The English expedition, for which the ship Discovery was being fitted out, sailed on the 6th of August, 1901, under the command of Captain Robert F. Scott, with Lieutenant Ernest H. Shackleton of the British Navy as second in command. Its object was a further exploration of the great mountainous region named Victoria Land, which Captain James Ross had discovered half a century before. This coast the Discovery reached in January, 1902, and followed it southward, to and beyond the Erebus volcano, skirting the Great Ice Barrier which stretches far eastward, seeming to forbid a penetration of the frozen territory it hems in. In this survey the British explorers reached an unvisited section, which they named King Edward Land. They wintered that year near Mount Erebus, pushing sledge expeditions southward over the snow fields, finding a more upheaved and broken surface of land, less ice-capped, than is the common feature of the Arctic polar zone. In the longest of these sledge-trips the latitude of 82° 17' S. was attained,—far beyond any previous approach to the southern pole, but still more than 500 miles from that goal. Through a second winter the Discovery was held fast in the ice, with considerable sickness among officers and men, notwithstanding which important additions to their survey of the region were made. In January, 1904, they were reached by two relief ships, and escaped from the ice in the following month, arriving at New Zealand not long after.
The German expedition commanded by Dr. Drygalski, left Kiel August 11, 1901, borne by the steamer Gauss, built specially for battling with ice. In January, 1902, it took on stores at Kerguelen Island, and proceeded thence to a point in the Antarctic Circle far eastward of that chosen by the British explorers, being within the region of the discoveries made by Captain Wilkes, about sixty years before, and indefinitely named Wilkes Land. It was the purpose of Dr. Drygalski to establish a station on the section of this unexplored territory known as Termination Land and from thence make thorough surveys. He failed, however, to find the supposed land in its expected place, and was unfortunately frozen in for a year, with sledge expeditions baffled by the violence of winter storms. In geographical exploration the Gauss party seem to have accomplished little, but they made rich collections of scientific data. As soon as they were freed from the ice they received orders from Berlin to return home.
The Swedish expedition, under Dr. Otto Nordenskjöld, left Europe in October, 1901, in the ship Antarctic, destined for Graham Land, south of the South American continent. There, on the east coast of that land, in Admiralty Inlet, Dr. Nordenskjöld established winter quarters in February, 1902, and the Antarctic was sent to South America, to return thence some months later.
A Scottish expedition, under Dr. W. S. Bruce, in the steamer Scotia, was sent out in October, 1903, for special oceanographic investigations in Weddell Sea,—south of the Atlantic Ocean.
All previous Antarctic explorations were eclipsed, in 1908-1909, by that of Lieutenant Shackleton, commanding the barkentine Nimrod, a converted whaling vessel, much smaller than the Discovery, on which Lieutenant Shackleton had accompanied Captain Scott to the same region some years before. The Nimrod sailed from England in July, 1907, and from New Zealand on New Year Day, 1908, going to the same section of the Arctic Circle that the Discovery had sought. Winter quarters were established at a point about twenty miles north of the spot where Scott and Shackleton had wintered in 1902-1903. One of the first achievements of the party was the ascent of Mount Erebus by six of the scientists of the expedition, who began their difficult climb on the 5th of March. Caught in a blizzard on the second day of their undertaking, they had to lie in their sleeping bags for thirty hours; but they made their way to the summit and looked down into the live fire of the crater. The party making this ascent were Lieutenant Adams, R. N. R. (geologist). Sir Philip Brocklehurst (surveyor and map maker), Professor David, of Sydney University, Mr. A. Forbes Mackay, assistant surgeon, Mr. Eric Marshall, surgeon and cartographer, and Mr. Marson a scientist of Adelaide. Early in the spring the sledging journeys were begun.
Speaking at a reception given to him by the Royal Geographical Society, on his return to England in June, 1909, Lieutenant Shackleton gave a brief account of the most important of these journeys, led by himself, with Lieutenant Adams, geologist, Surgeon Eric Marshall, and a third companion named Wild. The march of the party was directly toward the Pole:
"On December 3 they climbed a mountain 4,000 feet high, and from its summit saw what they believed to be a royal road to the Pole—an enormous glacier stretching southwards. There was only one pony left at this time, and, taking this animal with them, they started the ascent of the glacier, which proved to be seamed with crevasses. Progress became very slow, for disaster threatened at every step. On December 7 the remaining pony was lost down a crevasse, very nearly taking Wild and a sledge with it. Finally the party gained the inland plateau, at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, and started across the great white snow plain towards the Pole.
"They were short of food, and had cut down their rations to an absolute minimum; the temperature at the high altitude was extremely low, and all their spare clothing had been deposited lower down the glacier in order to save weight. On January 6, [1909], they reached latitude 88' 8" south [88° 8'?], after having taken the risk of leaving a depot of stores on the plateau, out of sight of all land. Then a blizzard swept down upon them, and for two days they were unable to leave their tent, while, owing to their weakened condition and the intense cold, they suffered from frostbite even in their sleeping bags. When the blizzard moderated on January 9 they felt that they had reached their limit of endurance, for their strength was greatly reduced and the food was almost done. They therefore left the camp standing, and pushing on for five hours, planted Queen Alexandra’s flag in 88' 23" south [88° 23'?], took possession of the plateau for the King, and turned their faces north again.
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"Mr. Shackleton described the difficulties of the journey back to the coast, when the men were desperately short of food and nearly worn out, and attacks of dysentery added to their troubles. … One day on the Barrier they were unable to march at all, being prostrated with dysentery, and they reached each depot with their food finished. On February 23, however, they reached a depot prepared for them by a party from the ship, and on March 1 Mr. Shackleton and Wild reached the Nimrod. Mr. Shackleton at once led a relief party back to get Adams and Marshall, the latter having been unable to continue the march owing to dysentery, and on March 4 all the men were safe on board."
"Lieutenant Shackleton has essentially solved the problem of the position of the South Pole," said the London Times in comments on the expedition; "he may be said, indeed, to have been actually within sight of it on a dreary plateau some 10,000 ft. above sea level. He has been as successful in solving the problem of the South Pole as Nansen was in solving that of the character of the ocean which surrounds the North Pole."
An expedition to complete what Lieutenant Shackleton came so near to accomplishing is being prepared in Great Britain, with intention to sail in July, 1910. It will be commanded by Captain Scott, of the expedition of 1901. The British Government contributes $100,000 to the cost. American and German expeditions are also being prepared.
POLES, THE: Germany: A. D. 1902-1908. Measures for Germanizing the Polish Provinces of Prussia.
See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1902 (MARCH-MAY), 1906-1907, and 1908.
POLES, THE: Russia: A. D. 1904-1905. Revolutionary Disturbances in.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
POLES, THE: A. D. 1906. Their Present Condition.
"The Polish question … resolves itself into a struggle between the local Russian Government, the Patriot, and the Socialists. The local Government though harassed and worried by the Socialists, is secure from any great disaster until the latter have won over all the troops, or the Russian soldier forgets his hatred for the Pole. The Socialists, well organised and energetic, are carrying out their programme with a tenacity which would be astonishing were it not for the fact that the Jewish element predominates in their ranks.
"The Polish Patriot seems to be in the worst case of all; for his hopes are centred on the programme of a party which is without efficient leaders and without the slightest chance of obtaining its demands from the existing Russian Government. The one ray of light on his political horizon is the fact that liberal Russia has expressed sympathy for his wrongs, and promised to redress them as soon as circumstances will allow, but even the most sanguine Patriot admits that his new ally has many battles to win before this promise can be fulfilled. Meanwhile, he is engaged in an unequal struggle with the Socialists and their allies, the anarchists."
_B. C. Baskerville, The Present Condition of Poland (Fortnightly Review, October, 1906)._
POLK, Van Leer: Delegate to Third International Conference of American Republics.
See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
POLLARD PLAN, OF JUDICIAL DEALING WITH DRUNKARDS.
See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.
POLTAVA PROVINCE, Peasant Doings in.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904, and 1902.
POOLING, OF RAILWAY RATES.
See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1890-1902.
POOR LAWS, WORKING OF THE ENGLISH.
See (in this Volume) POVERTY.
POPES.
See (in this Volume and Volume IV.) PAPACY.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1904-1905. Siege and Capture in the Russo-Japanese War.
See(in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (February-July) and (February-August); also A. D. 1904-1905 (May-January).
PORTER, HORACE: Commissioner Plenipotentiary to the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
PORTER, HORACE: Search for and Recovery, at Paris, of the Remains of John Paul Jones.
See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).
PORTLAND, OREGON: A. D. 1905. The Lewis and Clark Exposition.
"The Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair" (to give its full of fecial title), conducted at Portland from the beginning of June until the middle of October, 1905, in commemoration of the first exploration of the American Continent from the Mississippi to the Pacific, was one of the most interesting and attractive of the undertakings of its kind in the last decade. Specially as an exhibit of the wonderful natural resources of the great Northwest, and of the more wonderful rapidity of their exploitation, it seemed wholly satisfying to all who visited it. The reclamation work of the United States Government, shown elaborately by models and otherwise in the Irrigation Building of the extensive national exhibit, afforded a feature of uncommon attractiveness. The associated Forestry Building, with its walls of mighty logs and its grand pillars of firs and cedars, six and seven feet in diameter, was a piece of unique architecture that drew all eyes. "The Oregon Cathedral," it came to be called. In metals, minerals, fruits and grains, the wealth of the Northwest was astonishingly displayed; and the Japanese from the farther side of the Pacific made the most of the opportunity to spread their artistic wares before American buyers.
The scenic setting of the Exposition grounds, on the border of a lake and with a background of hill rising from Willamette River, was a theme of praise in all reports of it.
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PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901-1905. Change of Qualifications for the Elective Franchise.
The fundamental provisions of the Act of Congress, approved April 12, 1900, under which the government of Porto Rico as a dependency of the United States was organized, will be found in Volume VI of this work.
See PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
The Act has received amendment since, making one important organic change. The Executive Council which it created was authorized to fix the qualifications of voters for the first election of a Legislative Assembly. The suffrage in that election, held in 1900, was conferred by the Council on every male citizen of twenty-one years, resident in the island for one year and for six months in his municipal district, "who is able to read and write, or who, on September 1, 1900, owned real estate in his own right and name, or who on said date was a member of a firm or corporation or partnership, or who on September 1, 1900, owned personal property in his own right or name not less in value than twenty-five dollars." The results of the election held under that rule, and a brief summary of the doings of the Legislative Assembly at its first session, which opened on the 3d of December, 1900, and closed on the 31st of January, 1901, are given in Volume VI.
"At its second session, in 1902, the Legislative Assembly availed itself of the power given to it by the organic act and passed a law for the government of future elections. This act followed closely the provisions of the orders that had been issued by the executive council. The system created is similar to that in the American States which have adopted the Australian ballot. As regards the franchise, the only change made was that the provision which gave the right to vote to persons owning personal property to the value of twenty-five dollars was dropped and in its place was substituted the provision conferring the franchise upon those persons meeting the conditions as regards age and residence who on the day of registration are able to produce to the board of registry tax receipts showing the payment of any kind of taxes for the last six months of the year in which the election is held. The law also provided that all persons who were registered during the year 1900 would not be required to register anew or have to meet the new requirements of the law. This was the law under which the second election in 1902 was held. In 1904 the law underwent a very important alteration as regards the qualifications for the enjoyment of the electoral franchise. By this new law the three conditions—ability to read and write, ownership of real estate, or payment of taxes—any one of which qualified a male citizen of Porto Rico who had resided in the island one year and in the district in which he offered to register for six months immediately preceding, to vote, were until July 1, 1906, wiped out, leaving only the conditions regarding sex, age and residence to be met in order to qualify a voter. After that date the additional qualification of being able to read and write must be met. The result of this amendment to the law is to provide for universal manhood suffrage until July 1, 1906, after which no new name can be added to the registration list unless its owner is able to read and write. Those persons, however, who are properly registered before that date are not required to offer themselves for registration, but continue to enjoy the full rights of the franchise."
W. F. Willoughby, Territories and Dependencies of the United States. page 95 (Century Company, New York, 1905).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1905. Extension of Local Government asked for.
A convention of municipal delegates, chosen by the elective municipal councils of the island, assembled at San Juan in July, 1905, formulated a request to the Government of the United States for a broadening of the fundamental law of 1900, which "would largely transfer the control of the local government to their own people. The Governor would remain a Presidential appointee, but the appointments by the Governor would be subject in many cases to revision by a locally elected Senate, except the courts, which would remain as now, for the most part, under our direct control. In other words, the legislative, and largely the administrative functions, subject to the limitations of the Organic Act, would be exercised by the Porto Ricans. The courts, of our own choosing, would construe limitations on these powers, and the Governor, with his police and militia, would be solely responsible for order and the lawful execution of lawful mandates."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1906. Visited by President Roosevelt. His account of it.
"On November twenty-first I visited the island of Porto Rico, landing at Ponce, crossing by the old Spanish road by Cayey to San Juan, and returning next morning over the new American road from Arecibo to Ponce; the scenery was wonderfully beautiful, especially among the mountains of the interior, which constitute a veritable tropic Switzerland. I could not embark at San Juan because the harbor has not been dredged out and cannot receive an American battle ship. I do not think this fact creditable to us as a nation, and I earnestly hope that immediate provision will be made for dredging San Juan Harbor.
"I doubt whether our people as a whole realize the beauty and fertility of Porto Rico and the progress that has been made under its admirable government. …
"I stopped at a dozen towns all told, and one of the notable features in every town was the gathering of the school children. The work that has been done in Porto Rico for education has been noteworthy. The main emphasis, as is eminently wise and proper, has been put upon primary education; but in addition to this there is a normal school, an agricultural school, three industrial and three high schools. Every effort is being made to secure not only the benefits of elementary education to all the Porto Ricans of the next generation, but also as far as means will permit to train them so that the industrial, agricultural and commercial opportunities of the island can be utilized to the best possible advantage. It was evident, at a glance, that the teachers, both Americans and native Porto Ricans, were devoted to their work, took the greatest pride in it, and were endeavoring to train their pupils not only in mind, but in what counts for far more than mind in citizenship—that is, in character.
"I was very much struck by the excellent character both of the insular police and of the Porto Rican regiment. They are both of them bodies that reflect credit upon the American administration of the island. The insular police are under the local Porto Rican government. The Porto Rican regiment of troops must be appropriated for by the Congress. I earnestly hope that this body will be kept permanent. There should certainly be troops in the island, and it is wise that these troops should be themselves native Porto Ricans. It would be from every standpoint a mistake not to perpetuate this regiment. …
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"There is a matter to which I wish to call your special attention, and that is the desirability of conferring full American citizenship upon the people of Porto Rico. I most earnestly hope that this will be done. I cannot see how any harm can possibly result from it, and it seems to me a matter of right and justice to the people of Porto Rico. They are loyal, they are glad to be under our flag, they are making rapid progress along the path of orderly liberty. Surely we should now show our appreciation of them, our pride in what they have done, and our pleasure in extending recognition for what has thus been done by granting them full American citizenship. …
"The Porto Ricans have complete and absolute autonomy in all their municipal governments, the only power over them possessed by the insular government being that of removing corrupt or incompetent municipal officials. This power has never been exercised save on the clearest proof of corruption or of incompetence such as to jeopardize the interests of the people of the island; and under such circumstances it has been fearlessly used to the immense benefit of the people. It is not a power with which it would be safe, for the sake of the island itself, to dispense at present. The lower house is absolutely elective, while the upper house is appointive. This scheme is working well; no injustice of any kind results from it, and great benefit to the island, and it should certainly not be changed at this time. The machinery of the elections is administered entirely by the Porto Rican people themselves, the governor and council keeping only such supervision as is necessary in order to secure an orderly election. Any protest as to electoral frauds is settled in the courts."
_Theodore Roosevelt, Message to Congress (Congressional Record, December 11, 1906)._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1908. Ten Years of Progress.
"Ten years ago exports from Porto Rico to the United States were valued at $2,414,356, while in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, they were $25,891,261. The new figures show a probable further increase for 1909. In 1898, less than $3,000,000 worth of sugar was exported, and to-day shipments are more than $14,000,000. In coffee, once the leading staple, increase is also marked, although sugar now holds first place.
"Four hundred and thirty-five miles of macadamized roads, in good repair, now make communication easy between San Juan and Ponce and cities on the west coast. Two-thirds of the roads have been built since the occupation. The railroad around the island, projected by the Spanish, but delayed year by year, is now built, and harbor improvements have been made in San Juan and Ponce. More than a thousand public schools are educating the Porto Rican children—and sometimes their parents. The net public debt is now less than $3,000,000 or less than 21 per cent. of the assessed valuation, and the bulk of this money has been spent in public improvements."
_Porto Rico Correspondent New York Evening Post, March 27, 1909._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1909. Modification of the Fundamental Act.
In a special Message to Congress, May 10, 1909, President Taft called attention to the failure of the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico to pass the usual appropriation bills, leaving the government of the island without support after the 30th of the next June. In his opinion, the situation indicated that the United States had proceeded too fast in extending political power to the Porto Ricans, and that the full control of appropriations should be withdrawn from those "who have shown themselves too irresponsible to enjoy it." He suggested, therefore, an amendment of the fundamental act, known as the Foraker Act, to provide that when the legislative assembly shall adjourn without making the appropriation necessary to carry on the government, sums equal to the appropriations made in the previous year for the respective purposes shall be available from the current revenues, and shall be drawn by the warrant of the auditor on the treasurer and countersigned by the Governor. Such a provision applies to the Legislatures of the Philippines and Hawaii and "it has prevented in those two countries any misuse of the power of appropriation." An amendatory Act was passed in accordance with the President’s suggestion.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1909. Change in the Governorship.
In September, 1909, Governor Regis H. Post resigned his office, and was succeeded by Mr. George R. Colton, who had had previous experience, both civil and military, in the Philippines and in Santo Domingo. The Secretary of the island underwent a change, also, Mr. Willoughby being called to Washington to take the duties of Assistant Director of the Census, and his place in Porto Rico being filled by Mr. George Cabot Ward.
PORTSMOUTH, Peace Treaty of: Circumstances and Text.
See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1905 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906. At the Algeciras Conference on the Morocco question.
See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909. A "rotative" system of Party Government and its results. King Carlos assumes dictatorial authority. His Minister, Senhor Franco. Murder of the King and Crown Prince. Succession of King Manuel. Recent Ministries.
For many years prior to 1906 Portugal had been governed by two political parties, calling themselves the Regeneradors and the Progressistas, who, it has been said, "relieved one another in office, and in the spoils of office, at decent intervals, by a tacit arrangement between their leaders." This regular ministerial rotation led to the popular nickname of Rotativos, applied to both parties, and significant of the contempt in which they were held. The rotative system of party government, "while ensuring a comfortable livelihood to a class of professional politicians, was of no conspicuous benefit to the country, and it was with a view to ending it that King Carlos summoned Senhor João Franco, in May, 1906, to form a ministry. Senhor Franco, who belonged to neither of the recognized parties, set his hand zealously to the work of reform, but his attempts to purge the Administration soon brought him into conflict with powerful vested interests; and in May, 1907, the politicians whose livelihoods he was reforming away united against him in a policy of obstruction which made Parliamentary government impossible. {506} He then dissolved the Cortes, and with the approval of the King assumed the position of dictator. His work of reform thenceforth proceeded apace. Drastic decrees, each aimed at some abuse, followed one another with amazing rapidity. Strong in the support of the King and of the best elements in the country, execrated by the politicians whom he had spoiled, and by the Press which he had done nothing to conciliate, he continued on his headlong course, and at the end of January, 1908, he signed a decree practically amounting to a suspension of civil liberties."
_Lisbon Correspondence, London Times._
A tragedy followed quickly. On the 1st day of February, 1908, the King, Dom Carlos, and the Crown Prince, Luiz Felipe, as they rode through the streets of Lisbon, with the Queen and a younger son in the same carriage, and attended by an escort, were attacked by a throng of assassins and killed. The younger prince was wounded; the Queen escaped by a miracle, one of the assassins having been shot at the instant his pistol was aimed at her. The two princes fought bravely, and the Queen threw herself in front of her husband, attempting vainly to shield him.
Prince Manuel, whose wound was not serious, succeeded to the throne; but "the shots that killed Dom Carlos and Dom Luiz on February 1 swept away the dictatorship of Senhor Franco and the whole fabric which he had built up at so much cost during 18 months. Within a few hours of the murder Senhor Franco resigned, under pressure, it is said, and left the country, declaring that he had done with politics for ever. From being the saviour of his country, the admiration of all enlightened men, both at home and abroad, he became a pariah. His supporters became mute and his system vanished. From that day to this his followers have had no more than three or four seats in the Chamber, where they have remained voiceless and without influence on the course of events.
"That a seemingly vulgar crime should have so disproportionate an effect was strange, and no less strange was the attitude of the country. Whether owing to the widely entertained suspicion that the murderers of the King were the tools of more important personages whom it would not be safe to discover, or to the fear of a Republican rising felt by the moderate and respectable members of the community, is still a matter of opinion; the fact remains that society lost its nerve. No burst of indignation, no adequate expression of sympathy for the Royal Family was heard; no steps were taken to trace the authors of the crime. … The disappearance of Senhor Franco left the two old ‘rotativist’ parties in presence, the Progressistas under Senhor Luciano de Castro, and the Regeneradores under Senhor Vilhena, the recently elected successor of the veteran Hintze Ribeiro. Compared to these, neither the Republicans, whose strength was supposed to be considerable in the country, nor the ‘dissident’ Progressistas, under Senhor Alpoim, were of any account as Parliamentary factors. A coalition Government was formed on March 4, under Admiral Ferreira do Amaral, consisting of two Regeneradores, two Progressistas, and two so-called Independents, personal adherents of the Premier, who resembled him in having no marked political ideals or convictions. The elections, which took place in April, returned 62 Regeneradores and 59 Progressistas, thus starting the Government on its career with the handsome following of 121 in a House of 155. The matters with which the Government had to deal were mainly three—namely, the revision of the decrees issued by Senhor Franco as Dictator, the question of the Civil List and of the advances made by the nation to the Royal Family, and electoral reform. The Civil List was successfully settled, but little progress had been made with the remainder of the programme when the first serious defection occurred. During the recess the Government announced that the municipal elections, which had been suspended by Senhor Franco in favour of nominated councils, would be held again in November, a decision bitterly attacked by Senhor Vilhena, who announced that the Regeneradores could no longer support the Government. The elections were duly held, and, owing to the deliberate abstention of the Monarchist parties, the Republicans captured unopposed every seat on the Lisbon council. The unpopularity incurred by the Government on account of this unnecessary gift to the common enemy brought about a Government crisis. Admiral Amaral referred the matter to the Council of State, who, to his great surprise and annoyance, advised the resignation of the Government. The Premier and his two independents accordingly retired, and the Cabinet was reconstituted under Senhor Campos Henriques, who together with Senhor Wenceslao de Lima, Minister of Foreign Affairs, continued to represent the Regenerador party. The late Premier’s ‘Independents’ made way for the Progressistas, who thus held five seats in the Cabinet to two held by the Regeneradores. Senhor Vilhena, who had brought about the fall of the late Government, was not offered a seat in the new one, and he immediately resumed his opposition; but on this occasion he only carried two-thirds of his party with him, 22 members deciding to support the Government. This defection of the Regeneradores under Senhor Vilhena, the first serious indication of a return to the old system of ‘rotativism,’ was shortly followed by that of the late Premier and his ‘Independents,’ so that when the Cortes met on March 1, [1909], the imposing Government majority of a year before had dwindled to 10 or 15."
Then followed daily scenes of disorder and obstruction in Parliament until Senhor Campos Henriques surrendered, at the end of March. As The Times correspondent expressed it, "as soon as the Opposition in the Lower House expressed its impatience by a banging of desks, while its leader in the House of Peers solemnly affirmed the ‘incompatibility’ of his party with the Government, Ministers determined to avoid all further unpleasantness by resigning." The resignation was accepted by the King, and three party leaders in succession made attempts in the next month to conduct the Government, without success. Senhor Sebastiäo Telles held the reins for three weeks, and then passed them to Senhor Wenceslao de Lima, who framed up a nominally non-party Ministry on the 13th of May. Senhor De Lima conducted the Government until the following December, when, on the 19th, he resigned, and a "Progressist Ministry" was formed, under Senhor Beirao.
London Times Correspondence of various Dates.
{507}
Writing from Lisbon on the 5th of January, 1910, the Times correspondent said:
"It is the Republicans who alone seem to be making progress. Their activities are unceasing, their newspapers the best informed and most ably conducted, their meetings, held all over the land, the most largely attended and most enthusiastic. At the same hour as that of the Royal reception on New Year’s Day the Republican municipality of Lisbon held a like function, not only largely and most influentially attended, but to the distinct diminution of the attendance in the Royal Palace."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909. Demonstration against the Religious Orders.
The following despatch to the Press was sent from Lisbon August 3, 1909:
"Freethinkers from all political parties in Portugal, represented by a Liberal committee, to-day presented to the Cortes a petition for the suppression of the religious orders in Portugal and the abrogation of the existing laws against freedom of conscience. This step was an outcome of the meeting held in this city yesterday.
"The committee was accompanied to the Houses of Parliament by an immense crowd, and some wild scenes ensued. Among other things the petitioners asked for the abrogation of the recent law permitting religious associations to acquire landed property, a procedure which up to the present time has been illegal. Senhor Camacho moved the consideration of the subject, and when the motion was voted down the galleries broke out in protestation. There was considerable violence on the floor of the House. The Deputies engaged in a struggle in which desks and chairs were overturned, and the Chamber had to be cleared twice. The tumult was continued in the streets, but without serious results."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909. Offer of Dom Miguel to renounce his Claim to the Throne.
Dom Miguel, son of the Dom Miguel who, from 1828 to 1833 held the throne of Portugal in defiance of the rights of Maria da Gloria, his elder brother’s daughter (see, in Volume IV., PORTUGAL: A. D. 1824-1889), had kept up his father’s pretensions to the crown until the spring of 1909, when he offered to renounce it, if permitted to live in Portugal as a citizen. The permission was refused, for the reason that his return, with that of a number of nobles of his party, "would be regarded as a challenge to the rising tide of Liberalism."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909 (April). Earthquake in and around Lisbon.
See (in this Volume) EARTHQUAKES: PORTUGAL.
PORTUGUESE AFRICA.
See (in this Volume) AFRICA: PORTUGUESE.
POSTAGE, BEGINNING OF INTERNATIONAL PENNY.
The postal treaty establishing two-cent or penny postage on letters between Great Britain and the United States went into effect October 1, 1909.
POSTAL SERVICE, IN CHINA.
See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1908.
POSTAL SERVICE STRIKE, IN FRANCE.
See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (MARCH-MAY).
POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC STRIKE, IN RUSSIA.
See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: THEIR PROBLEMS: Start---
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Old Age Homes, in Vienna.
"In most towns there is a tendency, in this our day, to deal more generously with destitute children than with destitute men and women. In Berlin and New York, for instance, both money and thought are lavished on the young whom the community supports; while as for the aged, what is given to them is given only of necessity. In Vienna it is otherwise; there the arrangements for the relief of the old people are better—both more carefully considered and more liberal—than those for the relief of children, a fact that says more, perhaps, for the hearts than for the heads of the authorities.
"If a man—or a woman—above 60 is without money wherewith to provide for himself, or the strength to earn the money, he applies to the Guardian of his ward for help. Then, if he has a home to live in, and someone to take care of him, or is able to take care of himself, he is granted out relief, a money allowance if he can be trusted to spend it wisely, otherwise relief in kind. Supposing, however, he is homeless, feeble and ‘alone-standing,’ he is sent to a Versorgungshaus, or old-age home, if there is a vacant place there; and, if not, to a small poor-house until there is.
"Versorgungshäuser are the distinctive feature of the Austrian Poor Relief system so far as the aged are concerned. Already in the days of Joseph II. Vienna had two if not more of these homes, and at the present time it has six. One of them is reserved exclusively for Citizens; another, that at Mauerbach, is reserved for persons who, owing to their perverted notions as to what is seemly, cannot be accorded the full liberty the old people in the other homes enjoy. In all the six together there is space for more than 6,000 inmates. As the Versorgungshäuser are looked upon by classes and masses alike as the homes of the aged poor, the place where they have a right to be, no disgrace is attached to going there. …
"Although in Vienna much is done for the poor, the burden entailed by Poor Relief is by no means overwhelming. In 1903 the full cost of indoor relief, outdoor relief and sick relief, together with the cost of administration, was only £942,870, and of this £250,672 was obtained from private sources. At that time the town was providing 31,000 adults—old men and women for the most part—with allowances ranging in amount from 30 kronen to 6 kronen a month; it was maintaining 6,790 more in old-age homes and other institutions; and was defraying the cost of the Asyl and workhouse. It was supporting, or contributing to the support of, 10,260 children who were either with their own relatives or were boarded out; and was maintaining 3,246 in orphanages, etc. It defrayed the cost of the 27,000 babies who passed through the Foundling Hospital, and of the 19,085 children who were temporarily in institutions. It also provided 77,000 boys and girls with school books, and contributed generously to many private philanthropic societies. Roughly speaking, the cost to the town of Poor Relief in Vienna per head of the population is 8s. 4d."
_Edith Sellers, Poor Relief in Vienna (Contemporary Review, December, 1900)._
{508}
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Pensions, &c.: Denmark: A. D. 1907. Old Age Pensions.
Some interesting details of the working of the Danish old-age pensions system are contained in a British Consular report issued in May, 1909. The latest available statistics show that on March 31, 1907, 70,445 persons over 60 years of age were in receipt of pensions, which amounted in the aggregate to £451,000 [$2,255,000] for the financial year 1906-1907. The number of pensioners on March 31, 1906, was 68,800, and the amount distributed in the financial year 1905-1906, £420,444. Both the number of pensioners and the average amount of the pensions are increasing. The ages of the "principal" pensioners (i. e., of the actual recipients of pensions apart from wives and children dependent on them) were, on March 31st, 1906, as follows: 60 to 65 years of age—3,173 men, 4,239 women; 65 to 70 years—5,831 men, 6,756 women; 70 years and over—13,974 men and 17,037 women.
About a quarter of the population over 60 years of age is in receipt of pensions, the women especially availing themselves of their benefits. The average amount distributed to each "principal" recipient was £6 5s. in 1905-1906 and £6 11s. in 1906-1907.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1908. Old Age Pensions Act. The Working of the Law. Its Pitiful and Appalling Disclosures.
The Act of the British Parliament, "to Provide for Old Age Pensions" (August 1, 1908), declares in its first section that "the receipt of an old age pension under this Act shall not deprive the pensioner of any franchise, right, or privilege, or subject him to any disability." The second section defines the "statutory conditions for the receipt of an old age pension by any person" to be: the person must have attained the age of seventy; must satisfy the pension authorities that he has been a British subject and resident in the United Kingdom for at least twenty years; that his yearly means, as calculated under the stipulations of the Act, do not exceed thirty-one pounds ten shillings. But, notwithstanding the fulfilment of these statutory conditions, a person is disqualified while he is in receipt of any poor relief, other than medical or surgical assistance on the recommendation of a medical officer, or relief rendered by means of the maintenance of a dependent in an asylum, infirmary, or hospital, or any relief that by law is expressly declared not to be a disqualification for any franchise, right, or privilege. Furthermore, any person is disqualified for the receipt of an old age pension "if, before he becomes entitled to a pension, he has habitually failed to work according to his ability, opportunity, and need, for the maintenance or benefit of himself and those legally dependent upon him: Provided that a person shall not be disqualified under this paragraph if he has continuously for ten years up to attaining the age of sixty, by means of payments to friendly, provident, or other societies, or trade unions, or other approved steps, made such provision against old age, sickness, infirmity, or want or loss of employment as may be recognized as proper provision for the purpose by regulations under this Act, and any such provision, when made by the husband in the case of a married couple living together, shall, as respects any right of the wife to a pension, be treated as provision made by the wife as well as by the husband."
Disqualification exists, also, during detention in a lunatic asylum; and not only during any penal imprisonment that has been ordered "without the option fine," but for ten years thereafter.
Specific rules are given in the Act for "calculating the means of a person" who seeks the pension; and the rate of weekly pension to be paid is proportioned inversely to such ascertained means, as follows: "Where the yearly means of the pensioner as calculated under this Act: Do not exceed £21.,—5s. 0d.; exceed £21, but do not exceed £23, 12s. 6d.,—4s. 0d.; exceed £23 12s. 6d., but do not exceed £26 5s.,—3s. 0d.; exceed £26 5s., but do not exceed £28 17s. 6d.,—2s. 0c2.; exceed £28 17s. 6d., but do not exceed £31 10s.,—1s. 0d.; exceed £31 10s., no pension."
The Act became operative on the 1st of January, 1909. At that time the persons recommended for pensions, throughout the Kingdom, numbered 490,028, with somewhat over 148,000 pending claims. The original estimate, on the discussion of the measure, had been that the eligible pensioners would not exceed 500,000, and that the cost of the undertaking, to begin with, would be about £6,000,000. It was evident, therefore, before pension payments began, that these estimates were much too low.
From Ireland it was reported by the Press on the opening day of pension payments that "more than 4,000 persons will to-day receive old-age pensions in the city of Dublin. Claims continue to be received in large numbers, and the pension authorities estimate that, inasmuch as the last census of the city showed that there were 6,800 persons over 70 years of age then alive, at least 1,200 eligible persons have not yet made application. Yesterday afternoon it was stated that in all 5,600 claims had been lodged.
"Of the 209,000 claims lodged altogether in Ireland, it is estimated that 50,000 will be disallowed, and that £30,000 weekly will be required to satisfy those which have been held to be good. So far as Dublin is concerned, less than 90 per cent, of the inhabitants who are over 70 years of age have claimed pensions, so that the rural districts are responsible for the larger percentage of claimants in Ireland as compared with England and Scotland."
From Scotland it was reported that "in Glasgow, the number of persons of 70 years and over is 13,160, and fully half of those made claims. A rough estimate places the number of full pensions granted at about 5,550. In addition, a number of allowances of the smaller amounts, ranging from 4s. to 1s., have been made."
In London, on the 1st of January, 1908, there had been 39,043 claims considered, of which 36,108 were allowed. Of these, 31,327 were for 5s., 1,701 for 4s., 1,827 for 3s., 797 for 2s., and 456 for 1s.
{509}
Speaking in Parliament on the 1st of March, with deep feeling, of the working of the Pension Act and of the revelation of poverty it had made, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, said: "The pension officers, especially in Ireland, had been appalled at the amount of undisclosed poverty, and that was why he was not disposed to criticize too harshly the administration of the Act in that country, even if it had resulted in addition of a considerable sum to the estimate of the Government. The details of poverty in Ireland were perfectly horrifying. It was a disgrace to any civilized country that reasonable human beings should be allowed to live under such conditions. But the same condition of things was found in Great Britain also in many cases. He made a special point of investigating the matter, and pension committees and pension officers all told the same story of people facing poverty and privation for years with resignation, fortitude, and uncomplaining patience, and all asked the same question and asked it in vain—How on earth could those poor people have managed to keep body and soul together on such slender resources? They had not understated their resources; on the contrary, there were cases in which they had overstated them from a feeling of pride.
"What struck one in such cases was how the people had fought against the horror of the Poor Law. There were 270,000 people over 70 years of age in receipt of Poor Law relief. The Old-Age Pensions Act had disclosed the presence in the community of over 600,000 people the vast majority of whom were living in circumstances of great poverty, and yet disdained the charity of the Poor Law."