discussion of our South African difficulties is the tendency
to concentrate attention too exclusively upon the Boers. Say
what we will, the controversy always seems to relapse into the
old ruts—it is the British Government on the one hand, and the
Boers on the other. The question how a particular policy will
affect, not merely our enemies, but our now equally numerous
friends, seems seldom to be adequately considered. And yet it
would seem that justice and policy alike should lead us to be
as eager to consider the feelings and interests, and to retain
the loyalty, of those who are fighting on our side, as to
disarm the present enmity and win the future confidence of
those who are fighting against us. And this principle would
seem an the easier to adhere to because there is really
nothing which the great body of the South African loyalists
desire which it is not for the honour and advantage of the
Mother Country to insist upon. Of vindictiveness, or desire to
oppress the Afrikanders, there is, except in hasty utterances,
inevitable in the heat of the conflict, which have no
permanent significance, or in tirades which are wholly devoid
of influence, no sign whatever. The attitude of almost all
leading and representative men, and the general trend of
public feeling among the loyalists, even in the intensity of
the struggle, is dead against anything like racial
exclusiveness or domination. If this were not so, it would be
impossible for a section of pure bred Afrikanders, small no
doubt in numbers but weighty in character and position, to
take the strong line which they do in opposition to the views
of the majority of their own people, based as these are, and
as they know them to be, upon a misconception of our policy
and intentions. These men are among the most devoted adherents
to the Imperial cause, and would regard with more disfavour
and alarm than anyone the failure of the British nation to
carry out its avowed policy in the most complete manner. They
are absolutely convinced that the unquestioned establishment
of the British supremacy, and the creation of one political
system from Cape Town to the Zambesi, is, after all that has
happened, the only salvation for men of their own race, as
well as for others. Of the terms already offered, a great
majority, I believe, of the South Africans at present in arms
on our side entirely approve. There is, no doubt, an extreme
section who would advocate a sterner attitude on our part, but
they are not numerous, and their feelings are not lasting. The
terms offered by Lord Kitchener, which are, in substance,
identical with repeated declarations of policy on the part of
His Majesty's Government, are generally regarded as a generous
and statesmanlike offer, as one which, if firmly adhered to,
will ultimately be accepted, but as an offer which we cannot
afford to enlarge. On the other hand, there is a very general
desire that no effort should be spared to make the generous
character of our intentions widely known, and to encourage any
disposition on the part of the enemy to parley, with the object
of making them better acquainted with the terms on which we
are prepared to accept their submission.
"If I might sum up the predominant, indeed, the almost
unanimous feeling of those South Africans who sympathise with
the Imperial Government, I should describe it as follows:—They
are sick to death of the war, which has brought ruin to many of
them, and imposed considerable sacrifices on almost all. But
they would rather see the war continue for an indefinite time
than run the risk of any compromise which would leave even the
remotest chance of the recurrence of so terrible a scourge in
the future. They are prepared to fight and suffer on, in order
to make South Africa, indisputably and for ever, one country
under one flag, with one system of government, and that system
the British, which they believe to ensure the highest possible
degree of justice and freedom to men of all races.
{517}
But, with that object accomplished, they are willing, and,
indeed, ready, to bury racial animosities. They have fought
against the principle of race oligarchy in one form, and they
do not wish to re-establish it in another. For the attainment
of that object, they would rely for the present on the
vigorous prosecution of the war in which they are prepared
themselves to take the most active part, coupled with every
inducement to the enemy to come in on the terms already
offered, and for the future, as soon as public security is
assured and the circumstances permit, on the extension to the
newly acquired territories of a system of Colonial
self-government. For my own part, I have no doubt that this
attitude is a wise one, and that it only requires persistence
in it, in spite of the discouraging circumstances of the
moment, to lead us to ultimate success."
_Great Britain, Papers by Command, Cd. 547._
The same Blue Book made known the fact that, on the 3d of
April, Sir Alfred Milner applied for and obtained leave of
absence for three months from his duties in South Africa.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (April).
The situation.
Early in April it was announced that the seat of government of
the South African Republic had been transferred from
Pietersburg to Leydsdorp in the Zoutpansberg by the
Vice-President, General Schalk-Burger, which seems to indicate
the beginning of another stage of the South African war. The
Boers are said to have been for some time past collecting
great quantities of cattle and sheep in the fastnesses of the
Zoutpansberg, where also they have ample supplies of
ammunition, and intend making it a point of ultimate
resistance as well as a base of present operations.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (April).
The cost of the war to Great Britain as stated
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In his speech (April 18), on introducing the budget for 1901,
in the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, made the following statements of the cost
of the war to Great Britain: "I would remind the Committee
that so far we have borrowed towards the cost of the war
£67,000,000—£13,000,000 Treasury bills, £10,000,000 Exchequer
Bonds maturing rather less than three years hence, £14,000,000
Exchequer Bonds maturing about five years hence, and
£30,000,000 War Loan maturing in 1910. Now, Sir, in what mode
may we fairly borrow such a large sum as we now require? This
can no longer be considered a small war. In cost it is a great
war. Let me just make a statement to the Committee as to what,
so far, the estimated cost of this war has been. In 1899-1900 the
Estimates were £23,217,000. Last year they were £68,620,000,
and this year's Estimates amount to £60,230,000, including in
each case the interest on the sums borrowed. That amounts to
over £152,000,000. I must ask the Committee to remember that
in those figures I include the cost of both the South African
and Chinese wars. Then I have to add a million and a quarter
for this year's borrowing, making in all over £153,000,000.
That is double the cost of the Crimean War, and when I look
back at the Peninsular War I find the two most expensive years
were 1813 and 1814. The forces engaged, of course, were very
much smaller than those engaged now; but in those two years
the total cost of our Army and Navy amounted to £144,581,000.
This amount is less than the charges of the South African and
Chinese wars. Therefore, I think I am justified in saying that
in cost this has been a great war. I think, then, it is clear
we can no longer, in borrowing towards the cost of it, rely
upon temporary borrowing. We have already £67,000,000 of
unfunded debt borrowed for this purpose and maturing within
the next ten years. We have also some £36,000,000 of 2¾ and 2½
per cent., redeemable in 1905. Therefore, whatever may be the
prosperity of the country, whatever may be the condition of
our finances, it is perfectly obvious to my mind that the
stanchest advocate of the redemption of the debt will have
ample scope for his energies in the years that are now before
us. For this reason I propose to ask the Committee to extend
the powers of borrowing which they gave me in previous Acts,
to Consols."
----------SOUTH AFRICA: End--------
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL);
also,
CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.
The Dispensary Law.
In 1892 the Legislature of South Carolina passed an Act,
commonly called the Dispensary Law, which caused turbulent
agitations in the State, and excited much interest in the
country at large. It was based upon the principle of what is
known as the Gothenburg system of regulation for the sale of
intoxicating liquors, making the traffic a State monopoly,
carried on by officials, under rigorous restrictions, with
profit to the public treasury, and none else. It provided for
the creation of a State Board of Control, under the direction
of which a Commissioner, appointed by the Governor, should
purchase all intoxicating liquors allowed to be sold in the
State, and should furnish the same to such agents (called
"dispensers") in the several counties as might be appointed by
county boards to sell them, in accordance with the regulations
prescribed. It required all liquors purchased by the
Commissioner to be tested by an official chemist and declared
to be pure and unadulterated. It allowed nobody but the
official "dispensers" to deal in any manner with any kinds of
intoxicating liquors after the 1st of July, 1893. It forbade
the selling of such drinks by the authorized salesmen to
minors and drunkards, and it required all who bought to sign
and date a printed or written request, stating their residence
and age.
The law was fiercely resisted in many parts of the State by
mobs, and powerfully assailed in the courts; but Governor
(afterwards Senator) Tillman, who then occupied the executive
chair, gave it resolute enforcement and support. The attack in
the courts had momentary success in 1894, the Supreme Court of
the State rendering a decision adverse to the
constitutionality of the law; but, meantime, the Legislature,
in 1893, had made changes in the Act, and its new enactment
was held to be untouched by the judgment of the court.
{518}
Before a new case could be brought to issue, the retirement of
one of the justices of the Supreme Court brought about a
change of opinion in that tribunal, and the law in its new
form was sustained. Disorderly resistance to the enforcement
of the law was long kept up; but in the end such resistance
seems to have been mostly overcome.
In January, 1897, however, one provision of the Act, which
forbade all importation of liquors into the State by private
persons, even for their own use, was declared by the Supreme
Court of the United States to be an interference with
inter-state commerce, and therefore unconstitutional. This
breaks down the Dispensary Law, so far as concerns citizens
who are able to import liquors for themselves. Otherwise the
law seems to be now stoutly entrenched, and other States are
being sufficiently satisfied with its success in South
Carolina to adopt it. The following testimony as to its
success is from the pen of a North Carolinian, who became
instrumental in carrying the system into his own State.
"The familiar features of the dispensary were its closing
promptly at sundown; no drinking on the premises; the sale of
liquor to those only who were of age, who were not in the
habit of drinking to excess, who were sober at the time of the
sale, and who signed an application for what they bought on a
public book; and the fact that the dispenser was a salaried
officer, and thus free from pecuniary interest in stimulating
sales. To this was added in South Carolina a force of
constables whose special business it was to arrest those who
sold liquor contrary to law.
"The fact that the dispensary law was a substitute for
Prohibition made the law odious at first to those who had
fought most ardently for the Prohibition cause. And the
political faction over which Mr. Tillman had triumphed,
containing a good proportion of the best blood and brains of
the State, opposed the dispensary on personal grounds. The spy
system, as it was called, and the resistance to the
constables, sometimes resulting in bloodshed, set many of the
more peaceable and conservative citizens against the law.
Added to this, the constitutionality of the law as a whole and
of important provisions separately was strenuously contested
in the United States Courts, with varying success until the
Supreme Court settled the matter forever in favor of the law.
These difficulties are mentioned to show what the system has
had to face in South Carolina, and for the purpose of
remarking that the system has triumphed over all opposition.
The amended Constitution of the State decrees against the
re-establishment of the saloon. The Dispensary candidate for
Governor in the last election defeated the Prohibition
candidate. And the testimony of sober, conservative citizens
of every rank and profession is now practically unanimous to
the effect that drunkenness and the crimes resulting therefrom
have decreased beyond expectation."
_A. J. McKelway,
The Dispensary in North Carolina
(Outlook, April 8, 1899)._
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896.
New constitution.
Introduction of a qualified suffrage.
Practical disfranchisement pf the greater part of the negroes.
On the 1st of January, 1896, a new constitution, promulgated
by a constitutional convention the previous month, without
submission to popular vote, came into effect. It was framed
especially to accomplish a practical disfranchisement of the
larger part of the negro population, which it did by the
operation of an educational qualification with peculiar
conditions attached. Until the first of January, 1898, it
permitted the enrollment of voters who could read, or who
could explain to the satisfaction of the registering officer a
section of the constitution read to them; and all citizens
registered before that date were to be qualified voters
thereafter. But subsequent to the date specified, none could
be registered except those able to read and write any required
part of the constitution, or else to prove themselves owners
of property and taxpayers on not less than $300. Registration
to be conducted by county boards appointed by the governor.
See, also (in this volume)
MISSISSIPPI.
Speaking in the United States Senate in justification of this
measure, Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, said: "We took
the government away. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We
are not ashamed of it. The Senator from Wisconsin would have
done the same thing. I see it in his eye right now. He would
have done it. With that system—force, tissue ballots, etc.—we
got tired ourselves. So we called a constitutional convention,
and we eliminated, as I said, all of the colored people whom
we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. … I
want to call your attention to the remarkable change that has
come over the spirit of the dream of the Republicans; to
remind you gentlemen from the North that your slogans of the
past—brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God—have gone
glimmering down the ages. The brotherhood of man exists no
longer, because you shoot negroes in Illinois, when they come
in competition with your labor, as we shoot them in South
Carolina when they come in competition with us in the matter
of elections. You do not love them any better than we do. You
used to pretend that you did, but you no longer pretend it
except to get their votes. … You deal with the Filipinos just
as we deal with the negroes, only you treat them a heap
worse."
_Congressional Record,
56th Congress, 1st Session, pages 2347, 2349._
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.
Constitutional amendment introducing the
Initiative and the Referendum.
A constitutional amendment, adopted by popular vote at the
November election, introduces the principle of the Swiss
Initiative and Referendum, providing that the Legislature must
render obedience to petitions signed by 5 per cent. of the
voters of the State, which call for the enactment and
submission to popular vote of any stipulated law, or which
require the submission to a popular vote of any Act which the
Legislature may have passed.
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899.
Adoption of the Dispensary System.
A constitutional amendment, providing for a dispensary system
of regulation for the liquor traffic was adopted in 1899 by a
majority of 1,613 votes.
See, (in this volume),
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.
The newly adopted clause reads as follows: "The manufacture
and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be under exclusive
State control, and shall be conducted by duly authorized
agents of the State, who shall be paid by salary and not by
commission."
{519}
SOUTHWEST AFRICA, German:
Trade, etc.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
SPAIN: A. D. 1868-1885.
Affairs in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
Conflict between army and Press.
Change of Ministry.
Renewed insurrection in Cuba.
A violent conflict between the military authorities and the
newspaper Press arose in consequence of an attack made by
officers of the army on a Republican editor who had sharply
criticised certain details of army administration. They not
only assaulted him in person, but broke up his presses and
type. This military mob outrage was resented and denounced by
the whole Press, of every party; whereupon the military
authorities began prosecutions in the military courts, and
making arrests of publishers and editors, with a contempt for
law which seemed to be ominous of some revolutionary intent.
The Liberal Ministry, under Señor Sagasta, not able,
apparently, to control these proceedings, resigned office, and
a Conservative Cabinet was formed by Señor Canovas del
Castillo. The new Ministry had many difficulties to face, the
fresh outbreak of revolt in Cuba being the most serious.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1895.
But student rioting at Barcelona, caused by the dismissal of
11 professor whose writings were condemned at Rome, became
grave enough to require the sending of the redoubtable General
Weyler to the scene; and popular excitements in Madrid,
growing out of exposures of corruption in the municipal
council, drove two of the colleagues of Canovas from their
posts. In January, 1896, Weyler was sent to Cuba, to pursue in
that unhappy island a policy which produced conditions that
horrified the world.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897, and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
Elections held in April, 1896, gave the government of Canovas
an overwhelming majority in the Cortes.
SPAIN: A. D. 1896-1897,
Administration of General Weyler in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
SPAIN: A. D. 1896-1898.
Insurrection in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (August-October).
Assassination of the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo.
Return of Sagasta to power.
Condition of the country.
On the 8th of August, the Spanish Prime Minister, Señor
Canovas del Castillo, was shot by an Italian anarchist, a
Neapolitan, named Angiolillo, while sojourning for a few days,
with his wife, at the baths of Santa Aguada. He lived but two
hours after receiving his wounds. General Azcarraga, Minister
of War, was called by the Queen to take temporary charge of
the government; but before the end of September he and his
cabinet were forced to resign, and the Liberals, under the
lead of Señor Sagasta, returned to power. "Canovas was the
strong man of Spain. He was not the educator of the people, or
the worker of the popular inclination. His vigorous
understanding was their muscular master. The police were on
his side; a useful portion of the press, hired judiciously for
the purpose; the army; and the brains to set them all in
motion; and, so equipped, Antonio Canovas del Castillo
confronted the Spanish people and said, 'Come on.' It was a
resolute and daring attitude, and kept the crowd triumphantly
at bay for thirty years. But of late a change had taken place.
A good deal of the old fire had burned out. Fifteen years of
colonial revolt, again, impress even the thickest-headed
Spanish peasant into conceiving that the trouble has no
business to last so long, and that his rulers, if hard and
exigent towards himself, are weak, extravagant, and
undexterous elsewhere. And this suspicion ripens into
certainty when he sees his sons torn from his side and packed
over sea, and when his taxes swell and swell, and the price of
bread goes up and up, and still no alteration for the better.
This cumulative truth is what the Spanish plebs have learned
at last, within a year ago, and if Canovas had had the
foresight of the true statesman, instead of the blind egoism
of the autocrat, he would have thrown up his losing cards
while there was time and said, 'The Cuban War is a mistake.
Forgive me.' But his unflagging obstinacy held him to his
desperate and aimless course. Although his complicity with his
emissary, Weyler, in sending and publishing one lying telegram
after another, was manifest as day, he smiled and rubbed his
hands, and vowed the war was all but over; and behind that
smile he half despised and half defied the victims he invited
to believe him. He made no claim to be a patriot. He knew he
was unpopular. He knew that for every cottage whence a son had
been torn away to that disastrous strife in Cuba the Conservative
Government of the nation may count upon one bitter foe—the
Republicans or the Duke of Madrid upon one sure ally. What
would have happened in Spain, had he lived longer, is quite
beyond the average power to say. The prospect was too horrible
for words. However, he died, and his ministry, after feebly
mimicking the stubborn temper of their chief, succumbed also,
leaving to the Liberal Party a legacy which may be likened to
a bomb with time-fuse well alight and sputtering into the
explosive. In plainer words what faces Señor Sagasta is the
following: Spain is a beggar. Her credit is gone. Her army,
always of late years behindhand in discipline, instruction,
commissariat, and the thousand and one minutiæ other nations
are solicitous to attend to, is decimated by disease,
dispirited, and utterly incompetent to engage in war with any
civilised power. Her navy is rotten. Her people are
discontented and divided into various creeds. Some are for the
existing regime, some for Don Carlos, and some for the
Republic."
_L. Williams,
Can Sagasta save Spain?
(Fortnightly Review, December, 1897)._
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (November).
Autonomous Constitution granted to Cuba and Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);
and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898.
War with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH), to 1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (February-March).
Destruction of the United States
battle-ship Maine in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Discussion of Cuban affairs with the Government of the
United States.
Message of the President to Congress,
asking for authority to intervene in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).
{520}
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (April).
Demand of the United States Government that the authority and
Government of Spain be withdrawn from Cuba, and its result
in a state of war.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
Suspension of hostilities and negotiations of Treaty of
Peace with the United States.
Relinquishment of sovereignty over Cuba, and cession of Porto
Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (August 21).
Letter from Spanish soldiers, on their departure from
Santiago de Cuba, to the soldiers of the American army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).
SPAIN: A. D. 1899.
Abolition of the Ministry of the Colonies.
Resignation of the Sagasta Cabinet.
Ratification of the Treaty of Peace.
The new conditions in Spanish government resulting from the
loss of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines were promptly
acknowledged, in January, by the abolition of the Ministry of
Colonies, for which no sufficient duties remained. On the 20th
of February the Cortes was summoned, and on the same day the
"state of siege," declared during the war, which had
practically suspended constitutional rights, was removed by
proclamation. The Treaty of Peace with the United States was
laid before the Cortes; but the military party, led by General
Weyler, opposed the approval of the Treaty, evidently for the
purpose of embarrassing and weakening the government. They
were so far successful that Señor Sagasta and his cabinet were
forced to resign, on the 28th of February, and a Conservative
Ministry, under Señor Silvela, was formed. But the Cortes,
which declined to support the government in accepting the
Treaty of Peace, was dismissed a few days later by the
Queen-Regent, who signed the Treaty on her own responsibility,
March 11. The Silvela Ministry proved inharmonious, made so
especially by the Minister of War, General Polavieja, and in
September it was reconstructed, with Polavieja dropped out.
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (January).
Relinquishment of sovereignty in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (February).
Sale of the Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (October-November).
Weyler appointed Captain-General of Madrid.
Resignation of the Silvela Ministry.
The army in control.
The army won control of the government in October, when
General Linares, Minister of War, without consulting his
colleagues of the cabinet—if report be true—appointed General
Weyler to be Captain-General of Madrid. Several members of the
cabinet resigned in protest, and the Premier, Señor Silvela,
found it necessary to place the resignation of the Ministry as
a whole in the hands of the Queen-Regent (October 21). A new
cabinet was formed, with General Azcarraga for its chief,
General Linares retaining the portfolio of the War Office, and
Weyler holding the military command in Madrid. The military
party appears to be fully in power, and a token of the spirit
it has carried into the government was given within ten days
after the formation of the new Ministry, by the promulgation
of a decree suspending the guarantees of the constitution and
establishing martial law throughout the kingdom. Some
movements of Carlist agitation and insurrection furnished a
pretext for this measure, but they appear to have had no
serious character.
It is probable that the military reaction at Madrid will
stimulate a revival of the old independent aspirations of the
Catalonians, which have been showing of late many signs of new
life. The desire for separation from Spain has never died out in
Catalonia, and a resolute new effort to accomplish it may
easily appear among the incidents of the near future.
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (November).
Spanish-American Congress.
At the instance of the "Sociedad Union Ibero-Americana," an
unofficial organization which has been in existence for more
than 15 years, a congress was held in Madrid in November,
1900, with the object of strengthening the relations between
Spain and those American peoples who are of Spanish origin.
The proposal of the "Union Ibero-Americana" met with the
approval of the Spanish Government, and on April 16 a Royal
decree was issued appointing Señor Silvela, the Prime
Minister, to be president of a congress to be held in Madrid.
The Government of Spain then issued invitations to the
Spanish-American Republics, asking them to send
representatives, which invitations were accepted by the
governments of Mexico, the Argentine Republic, Chile, Uruguay,
Peru, and other States. The list of subjects for discussion
included proposals of treaties of commerce, international
arbitration, the harmonizing of the civil, penal, and
administrative legal codes of the various countries
represented, emigration, the international validity of
professional diplomas, the establishment of Ibero-American
banks, and others. The most important result of the Congress
was the voting of a plan of compulsory arbitration by the
South American republics. The motion was introduced by Peru,
which has the most to gain by arbitration. Chile's was the
sole dissenting voice. "This," remarks "The Nation," of New
York, "recalls the fact that Chile consented to take part in
the Pan-American Congress at the City of Mexico, only on
condition that any arbitration there provided for should not
concern her own disputed boundaries."
SPAIN: A. D. 1901.
Anti-clerical agitation, directed
especially against the Jesuits.
Marriage of the Princess of the Asturias.
A case arising in Madrid in February produced excitements of
feeling against the Jesuits which spread to all parts of the
country, and were the cause of serious political
demonstrations and rioting in many cities. A wealthy young
lady, Señorita Ubao, had been persuaded by her confessor, a
priest of the Jesuit order, to enter a convent, against the
wish of her family. The family applied to the High Court for a
mandate to secure her release. The prominence of the parties
drew universal attention to the case, and it was discussed
with passion throughout Spain, stirring up, as appears to be
evident, a latent anti-clerical feeling which only waited to
be moved.
{521}
It seems, moreover, to have served as an occasion for
demonstrations of the republicanism that continues to be
strong in Spain. Students of the universities were active
promoters of the excitement, and set examples of disorder
which were followed by rougher mobs. In Madrid, Zaragoza,
Valencia, Valladolid, Santandar, Granada, Malaga, Barcelona,
and other towns the excitement ran high, and was not quieted
by a decision of the High Court on the 19th of February,
restoring Señorita Ubao to her friends. At Barcelona, on the
last day of March, a meeting of 9,000 citizens, held in the
bull-ring, is reported to have passed resolutions in favor of
the separation of Church and State, advocating the prohibition
of religious orders, and expressing a desire that their
property should be taken possession of by the State. The
meeting voted messages congratulating France and Portugal on
their Anti-Clerical attitude. The meeting was followed by a
riotous attack on the Jesuit convent, and by a conflict of the
mob with the civil guard, in which blood was shed. From
various parts of the country, demands for the expulsion of the
religious orders were reported, in April, to be reaching the
government.
A royal wedding which occurred in the early days of this
anti-clerical agitation added something to the disturbance of
the public mind. Dona Maria de las Mercedes, eldest of the
children of the late King Alphonso XII. and his second wife,
was married on the 14th of February to Prince Charles, of the
Neapolitan Bourbon family, son of the Count of Caserta. The
Princess was Queen of Spain, in her infancy, for a few months
after her father's death, until the posthumous birth of her
brother, in 1886, and presumptively she may again inherit the
crown. In itself, the marriage does not seem to have been
unpopular; but, for some reason, the Count of Caserta was
odious to the public of Madrid, and became the object of
unpleasant attentions from the mob, while the bride and
bridegroom, and other members of the family of the latter,
were treated with respect.
SPANISH-AMERICAN CONGRESS, The.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH), to 1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPANISH SOLDIERS: Letter to American soldiers.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).
SPION KOP, The storming of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPITZBERGEN: Claimed by Russia.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1898.
SPITZBERGEN: Recent Exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1900-.
SPOILS SYSTEM, The:
As maintained in the service of the
United States House of Representatives.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.
SPOONER AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
STAMBOULOFF, M. Stephen, assassination of.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: BULGARIA.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
STATEN ISLAND: Incorporation in Greater New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
STATISTICS: Of the British-Boer war.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER);
and SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR:
A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY), and (APRIL).
STATISTICS: Of Christian Missions.
See (in this volume)
MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN.
STATISTICS: Of finances and exports of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (JUNE), and (DECEMBER).
STATISTICS: Of the navies of the Sea Powers.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
STATISTICS: Of the shipping of the world.
See (in this volume)
SHIPPING OF THE WORLD.
STATISTICS: Of the Spanish-American war.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899, STATISTICS;
and 1900 (JUNE);
also, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (MAY), and (OCTOBER).
STATISTICS: Of war-making expenditure by the leading Powers.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
STEAM TURBINES, The invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MECHANICS.
STEEL: The Age of.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE AGE OF STEEL.
STEEL PRODUCTION, Combinations in.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
STEVENSON, Adlai E.:
Bi-metallic mission to Europe.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
STOCKHOLM, Exposition at.
A Scandinavian industrial exposition, which proved exceedingly
attractive, was held with much success at Stockholm, the
Swedish capital, in the summer and autumn of 1897.
STONEHENGE:
Fall of two stones.
"The last night of the nineteenth century was marked, as a
correspondent pointed out in our issue of yesterday, by a
serious injury to what remains of the majestic monument of
Stonehenge. One of the great uprights of the outer circle of
stones, as well as the cross-piece mortised to it on the top,
fell to the ground, thus destroying still further the most
striking effect of this gigantic temple or sepulchre. The fall
was probably caused by the torrents of rain and the violent winds
that closed the troubled record of the year 1900. One of the
uprights was brought to the ground, where it lies like so many
other of the stones that formed this vast megalithic structure,
and the capstone has been broken in pieces. The continuous
exterior circle of which these formed a part was originally
about one hundred feet in diameter, and though the masses were
less imposing individually than those of the great tritithons
around the centre, the effect of the mighty round of uprights,
sixteen feet high, with huge capstones resting on them, must
have been wonderful in its noble simplicity …
{522}
"The solicitude of the present age has placed Stonehenge, like
other great national monuments, under the permissive
protection of the law, but the law itself cannot prevent the
ravages of weather and the gradual subsidence of the
foundations on which these masses stand. Little, we fear, can
be done to keep the remaining uprights standing. They will
fall when their time comes and will lie where they fall like
those that have already succumbed to their fate. It is better,
perhaps, for the dignity of this venerable monument that it is in
no serious danger of that restoration which is at work on so
many later structures, more splendid as triumphs of art, but
less stubborn in their strength."
_London Times,
January 4, 1901._
STORMBERG, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
STRATHCONA'S HORSE.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.
STRIKES.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
SUDAN, The Egyptian: A. D. 1885-1898.
Abandonment to the Dervishes.
Death of the Mahdi.
Reign of the Khalifa.
Anglo-Egyptian re-conquest.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
SUDAN, The Egyptian: A. D. 1899.
Anglo-Egyptian condominium established.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1895.
Under a Governor-General of French West Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1897.
Definition of Tongoland boundary.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (DAHOMEY AND TONGOLAND).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1898-1899.
Agreement with Great Britain as to the limits.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SUDANESE TROOPS: Mutiny in Uganda.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
SUFFRAGE:
Qualifications in the several States of the American Union.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY);
also, DELAWARE; LOUISIANA;
MARYLAND; MISSISSIPPI; NORTH CAROLINA; and SOUTH CAROLINA.
SUFFRAGE, Woman.
See (in this volume)
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
An extremely complicated and irrational state of things,
connected with the production and consumption of sugar
throughout the world, has been experienced for many years, as
a consequence of the system of bounties on exportation, by
which a number of European countries have stimulated the
production of beet-sugar, in competition with the sugar
produced from cane. The system was carried to its extreme
development in 1896-1897, in consequence of action taken in
Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY).
The legislation in other countries which followed the German
measure of 1896 was set forth briefly in a memorial from the
Belgian beet-root sugar makers, in February, 1897, to the
Belgian Chamber of Representatives, a translation of which was
transmitted at the time to the State Department at Washington
by the United States Consul at Ghent. Said that memorial:
"The fiscal system applied to sugar factories in force
[previously] in the various countries mentioned [was] chiefly
established by the following laws: Germany, law of May 31,
1891; Austria, law of May 20, 1888; France, law of July 29,
1884; Russia, law of July 13, 1891; Belgium, law of April 16,
1887; Holland, law of April 15, 1891, and preceding
legislation. Since the dates above mentioned, the basis
established in these various countries had undergone only
secondary modifications, rather local than international, and,
generally, of a nature to diminish the fiscal favors instead
of increasing them. From the point of view of competition
among the countries of Europe, a sort of peaceful stability
was thus acquired, resulting in a corresponding equilibrium in
the interior relations of each country between the rural and
industrial systems, as well as between the cultivator and
owner. This situation, slowly established, has, during the
last year, suffered the most serious disturbances. Important
modifications have been adopted by all our competitors, Russia
excepted; the latter, enjoying a special system, suffices
almost entirely for itself without having much to export, it
is, therefore, not necessary to give it special consideration.
"The modifications to which we allude are the following: In
Germany, the law of May 27, 1896, increased the export
bounties in the following proportions: (1) For raw sugar, from
30 cents to 60 cents per 220 pounds; (2) for white sugar, from
41 cents to 72 cents; (3) for refined sugar, from 48 cents to
89 cents. This is not meant to interfere with other measures,
notably the imposition of supplementary taxes, and the
provision by which a factory, under the penalty of having its
proportion of export bounties reduced, is, so to speak,
obliged to increase its output or at least to maintain it at
the same level, even under the most unfavorable circumstances.
Immediately afterwards, Austria, by the law of July 7, 1896,
took corresponding protective and defensive measures,
especially increasing from about $2,000,000 to $3,600,000 the
amount of public funds destined for export bounties. In
France, the Chamber of Deputies has just voted export bounties
even more important than those of other countries, amounting
to—(1) raw sugar, 68 cents per 220 pounds; (2) white sugar,
77 cents; (3) refined sugar, 87 cents. All these export
bounties are independent of the interior advantages accorded
in Germany and Austria, in various forms less tangible,
although not less real, and in France in the form of bonuses
upon the manufacture, which, in the official French
statistics, appear for sums varying from $1.16 to $l.54½ per
220 pounds, and which may be normally fixed at $1.35 per 220
pounds. Holland, in turn, has just revised its system, giving
from the beginning to its producers a bounty of $1.06½ per 220
pounds on raw sugars. It is an economic war to the finish
between rival nations, each desiring the ruin of the others,
which these measures unchain on the sugar interests of Europe."
_United States Consular Reports,
June, 1897, page 304._
{523}
The effect of bounty-payments is to enable the sugars-makers
of the country which pays them to sell sugar to foreign buyers
at a lower price than to buyers at home. Consumers in such a
country as England, where no sugar is produced, and where no
duties on imported sugar are levied, reap an enormous gain
from them, at the expense of the sugar consumers of the
bounty-paying countries. At the same time, the cane-sugar
growing colonies of England, especially those in the West
Indies, suffer from the competition which is made unnatural by
this method of governmental support. England, therefore, has
conflicting interests in the matter. The mass of her home
population, who are great consumers of "sweets," delight in
the continental bounties, which give them cheap sugar; while
her West India colonists, and the English sugar refiners, are
groaning under the hard competition they maintain.
In the bounty-paying countries the same conflict of interest
exists between beet-growers and sugar consumers, and
governmental attitudes on the question of adhering to the
bounties seem to depend on the relative strength, or political
weight, of the two bodies. Repeated attempts have been made to
come to an international agreement for their abolition or
modification. A general conference on the subject was held
without result in London, 1887; and another was undertaken in
June, 1898, at Brussels, on the invitation of the Belgian
government. The latter made manifest a strong desire to be rid
of the bounty-paying system, on the part of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands. France was
willing to withdraw her direct bounties on the exportation of
sugar, but insisted on maintaining an internal system of taxes
which was said to have the real effect of a bounty. Russia,
likewise, would adhere to a domestic system of regulations
which had that effect. Great Britain declined to engage
herself to impose a duty on what was called "bounty-fed"
sugar, for the purpose of neutralizing the bounty, and so
placing that commodity on a footing of equality with its
rivals in her markets. Hence no agreement of common action
could be reached, and the Conference adjourned without result.
Continental consumers of sugar continue to pay a high price
for the prosperity of their beet-growers and sugar-makers; but
Englishmen, who have reveled in cheap "jams" at foreign
expense, are probably to lose that privilege, since the
exigencies of their Boer war expenditure have forced the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, at last, to introduce a duty of
4s. 2d. per cwt. on refined sugar in his budget for 1901. But
in his speech on introducing the budget, in the House of
Commons (April 18, 1901), the Chancellor expressed hopefulness
that the foreign sugar bounty might save England from a rise
in price for sugar, notwithstanding the tax. His remarks were
as follows:
"What is likely to be the effect on the price of sugar of the
imposition of a duty? In my opinion that is a very doubtful
question, because the price of sugar is not governed solely by
the ordinary conditions, but it is governed largely by the
bounty system. The great bulk of our imports of sugar come
from bounty-giving countries; and what is that system? Why,
Sir, it amounts to this, that the country giving the bounty
encourages the production of sugar within its borders, and at
the same time does its best to restrict the consumption of
sugar by its own people by every possible means, so that the
result is that there is an enormous surplus of sugar produced
which must find a foreign market, and which under present
circumstances can only find a market here. Therefore, it is
quite conceivable, unless, of course, a bounty-giving country
either reduced the area of their sugar production or lowered
their own excise duties on sugar for the benefit of their own
population—both of which would mean the abolition of the
bounty system—it is quite conceivable that the result of the
imposition of a tax on sugar here might be that, though at
first the price might go up and the consumption of sugar might
be consequently decreased, there would be such an influx into
this country of bounty-paid sugar that could not go anywhere
else that the price might be brought down. I merely put the
hypothesis to the Committee, because I think it is one that
ought to be considered by anyone who looks into this
question."
_London Times, April 19, 1901._
"The geographical poles of the sugar trade are now Great
Britain and the United States, and the two great areas of
production are the beet-sugar countries of the continent of
Europe and the cane-growing countries of the American and the
Asiatic tropics. These two areas of production have been in
active rivalry for the past thirty years, and out of this
rivalry have come some striking results. The first is, that
beet sugar controls the world's sugar market; for of the
8,000,000 tons that constitute the commercial supply of sugar,
about 5,000,000 are produced from the beet, and the price of
this portion of the supply practically determines the price of
the 3,000,000 tons of cane sugar also. Still more significant
results are the removal of Great Britain from her once
dominant position in tropical sugar production and the
elimination of France and Spain from the struggle for
leadership in the same line of enterprise, as economic
conditions have centered the cane-sugar trade and industry in
America. To-day the continental beet-sugar countries supply
the United Kingdom with seventy-five per cent. of its annual
sugar imports (2,500,000 tons), leaving only one-quarter to
come from the tropics. The United States, on the other hand,
has become the chief market for tropical sugar. …
"India and the United States exclude bounty fed beet sugar;
and the reciprocity treaties with the United States, by
favoring tropical sugar with a minimum duty, put a narrower
limit to beet-sugar development, now prospering under a
protective tariff and state bounties. The general effect of
these positive aids to trade, as well as of the negative
restraints, has been to encourage tropical enterprise in which
sugar plays a leading role. …
"As things stand now, Germany continues to control the world's
sugar situation—not because of any superiority over the
tropics in machinery, nor because of the advantages of fiscal
bounties over tropical resources of the soil, but because all
the natural advantages under the prevailing slipshod methods
of tropical cane cultivation are more than counterbalanced by
the scientific methods of European agriculture applied to beet
farming. When the tropics apply to the cultivation of canes
(which covers half of the cost of producing sugar) the same
degree of scientific attention that has been given to the
methods of manufacturing the canes into sugar, then—and not
until then—need the beet-sugar interests of Europe look to
their laurels, under the present conditions of the trade."
_J. F. Crowell, The Sugar Situation in the Tropics
(Political Science Quarterly. December, 1899)._
{524}
In the United States, the Dingley Tariff law of 1897 required
the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a special countervailing
duty on all bounty-fed sugar equal to the benefit derived by
the manufacturers of it from the bounty systems under which it
was produced. German and French sugars have had to bear such
countervailing duty, and it was exacted on Russian sugar for a
time after the passage of the Dingley Act; but the Russian
government succeeded in bringing about a suspension of it,
pending negotiations for a commercial treaty, which came to
nothing. It was the Russian contention, that the system
operating in that country for the benefit of the sugar
producers, by means of internal taxes which are not collected
on exported sugar, and by paternal regulations which control
prices in the domestic market, is not a bounty system, within
the meaning of the American law. (The full text of the Russian
law on the subject may be found translated in the
"Congressional Record," February 26, 1901, page 3335.) By
these arguments and by protracted negotiations the Russians
succeeded in keeping the door of the American market open to
their sugar, with no extra levy of duties, until February,
1901, when the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States
arrived at the decision that he is required by the law to levy
and collect a countervailing duty or tax of 32 cents on each
pood (about 36 pounds) of Russian sugar imported into the
United States. The order to that effect, issued on the 12th of
February, gave great satisfaction to the American sugar-trust,
and more than equal dissatisfaction to other important
interests in the country, which are threatened by the danger
of retaliatory tariffs on the Russian side. The situation
produced is thus described in a Washington letter to the
"Tribune" of New York: "The iron and steel manufacturers have
been clamoring for the continued suspension of the
countervailing duty on Russian sugars. They have begun, they
say, to build up a market in Russia for American steel
products, and that market will be lost to them if Russia in
retaliation imposes maximum instead of minimum duties on steel
and iron manufactures. The steel industry all over the world
is threatened with a glut in production, and the American
manufacturers especially are keenly looking about for every
possible opportunity to dispose of an increasing surplus. They
deplore, therefore, the reimposition of the sugar duty, and
will help to fight for a reversal of Secretary Gage's action
by the Board of General Appraisers or by the courts. The
Secretary contends that the Russian scheme of encouraging the
sugar interest should be submitted for judgment to some legal
tribunal, and that in such an evident case of doubt it is his
duty to favor the Government to the extent of reimposing the
disputed duty. The case will go to the Board of General
Appraisers in New York, and then to the Federal courts, and a
final decision is, perhaps, two years off. Meanwhile the
German, French and other Continental governments have been
somewhat appeased, and the Sugar Trust has won a substantial
victory at the expense of the iron and steel consolidation.
Russia is disposed to resort to retaliatory decrees, and the
whole horizon is more or less clouded with threats of
commercial warfare."
The immediate consequence of the order of the United States
Treasury Department was a retaliatory order by M. De Witte,
the Russian Minister of Finance, issued four days later
(February 16), directing the collection of an additional
tariff of 30 per cent net upon American hardware, iron, steel,
boilers, pipes, forgings, castings, tools, gas and water
meters, dynamos, sewing machines, when such articles are of
American manufacture. This includes motors and machinery of
all kinds.
SUGAR TRUST, The.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES;
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY);
and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
SULU ARCHIPELAGO:
Acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the United States.
The Sultan's Government.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
SUMER.
See (in volume 1)
BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;
(in volume 4)
SEMITES;
and (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1895.
Decision against the constitutionality of the Income Tax.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (APRIL-MAY).
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900-1901.
Hearing of cases involving questions concerning the status of
the new possessions of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900-1901.
SURGERY, Recent advances in.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL,
and CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS (X RAYS).
SUSA, Recent exploration of the ruins of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: PERSIA.
SUWAROFF ISLAND:
Proposed annexation to New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
SUZERAINTY:
The question between Great Britain and
the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-189-1;
1897 (MAY-OCTOBER); and 1898-1899.
SWAT VALLEY:
British India and the tribes of the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER);
1897-1898; and 1901 (FEBRUARY).
SWAZILAND:
Administration assumed by the Transvaal Government.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (THE TRANSVAAL).
{525}
SWEDEN AND NORWAY:
Norwegian discontent with the union.
"The question of representation in foreign countries has now
convulsed Scandinavia for some years. A race of democratic
tendencies usually thinks more of its Consular than of its
Diplomatic Service, and Norway, in demanding immediate
permission to appoint her own Consuls, announces that she is
willing to leave for future consideration the subject of
separate Ambassadors for the two countries. Professor Harald
Hjärne crystallizes the reply of Sweden in the words: 'By
granting such a request we run the risk of our foreign policy,
and with it also our satisfactory relations with foreign
Powers, in fact, the whole external safety of our country,
becoming a mere ball for the Norwegian parties during their
contests for power.' However, the King, who is ever ready to
grant privileges to his Norwegian subjects, even when acting
against his better judgment, declared himself willing to
accede to the petition as to the Consuls, and to allow the
sister country to have the direct voice in the regulation of
foreign affairs which she has so long demanded, but only on
condition that she would contribute to the defence of the two
Kingdoms in proportion to her population. … Many leading
Norwegians declare that those who shout so loudly for a
revision of the Constitution are, after all, in the minority.
They argue that claims on Sweden are, for the most part,
merely advanced as a party cry, and that if a general appeal
were made to the country, the majority would pronounce,
without hesitation, in favor of a continuation of the Union to
the State which has given Norway, for the first time in her
history, a period of nearly a century of peace and
uninterrupted prosperity. …
"The Left support their plea for separate Consuls by pointing
out that the mercantile navy of Norway is far larger than that
of Sweden; they claim for it, in fact, that it is the third
largest in the world. A reply to this is that a large
proportion of this navy consists of old wooden sailing-boats,
unfit for any purpose but that of carrying timber, that Norway
has increased her mercantile navy at the expense of her
warships, and that in time of war she would have to depend
exclusively on the splendid modern battleships of Sweden for
the defence both of her harbours and her shipping, since she
is not now herself the owner of one single modern ironclad. It
may be mentioned, in connection with this matter, that the
exports and imports of Sweden are nearly treble those of
Norway, the timber trade of the former country alone being the
largest in Europe, and that it is in consequence of Sweden
leaving so much of her carrying trade in the hands of the
sister country, thereby contributing no little to her
prosperity, that she has been encouraged and enabled to
increase her merchant navy to such an extent. Sweden has
throughout the century made enormous sacrifices for her navy,
and especially has this been the case since King Oscar came to
the throne. She is, therefore, so far as can be foreseen, in a
position to defend both her own ports and her merchant
vessels. She does not, however, profess to be equal to the
task of protecting the long coast-line of Norway and that vast
fleet of merchant vessels, of which the land last named is
justly proud, without any aid whatever from the sister
country, and statistics prove that, however willing in an
emergency Norway might be, she would be unable to offer for
this purpose help that would be of any practical use. …
"In March, 1895, during the Consular crisis, King Oscar went
over to Christiania and did his utmost to effect a compromise.
Demands were made on him by the Extreme Left, to which he
could not consent, and he referred the Storthing to the Act of
Union proving that should he agree to the claim, he would
himself be guilty of a violation of the Constitution. Some
painful scenes ensued, and the King left Norway almost at
once. On his arrival in Stockholm he received an ovation such
as few Swedish monarchs can ever have had before. Every
distinguished man in the country seemed to have assembled at
the railway-station to greet him; each public body was
represented by its leading member, the whole of the Swedish
Parliament was present, and the fervour and enthusiasm with
which he was saluted is beyond description. The Press, without
a single exception, took the King's side, praising His
Majesty's action in most lavish terms; this produced more
effect than anything in Norway, where the Left had counted on
the support of the Radical Press in Sweden, not realising
that, when once there was a question of attacks on the Union
and the Constitution, all parties were equally prepared to
rally round the King. …
"In view of the strained relations between Sweden and Norway,
it may be said that Russia's encroachment on the liberties of
Finland is extremely ill-timed if, as is probable, she
contemplates offering her protection to Norway as she did to
the neighbouring country at the beginning of the century.
Even if no such extreme step on the part of Russia be in view,
should those among Norway's two million inhabitants who demand
separation, have their way, the country would be able to offer
the Imperial Government a splendid bribe as the price of its
non-intervention, for to the north of the territory of
Norrland lies the Varanger Fjord, an inlet including several
fine harbours, which is practically free from ice throughout
the year. This bay, so much coveted by the greater power, is
only separated from the Czar's dominions by a narrow strip of
Norwegian soil, which has already been crossed by a railway
constructed by Russia with the permission of Norway. The value
of this fjord to the Empire in time of war would be
incalculable, and to have this magnificent gift at its
disposal is a perpetual temptation to Norway to win the
suffrages of the only European Power she has reason to fear
should she ever hoist the flag of revolt she has so long held
half-unfurled in her hand."
_Constance Sutcliffe,
Scandinavia and her King
(Fortnightly Review, October, 1897)._
In 1899, an Act directing the removal of the emblem of union
from the flag of Norway was passed by the Norwegian Storthing
for the third time over the veto of the King, and became law,
under the provisions of the Constitution.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
The Initiative and the Referendum in practice.
Three times during the year 1894, with a conservative result
in each instance, important questions of legislation were
submitted to the vote of the Swiss people. In one instance
they were asked to demand that a portion of the federal
customs dues should be assigned to the cantons for cantonal
use, the avowed aim of the proposition being to weaken the
Confederation. They rejected the scheme by a vote of 347,491
against 145,270.
{526}
A still heavier majority was given against Socialist proposals
for a constitutional article guaranteeing the right of every
Swiss citizen to remunerated work. This was supported by only
75,880 votes, against 308,289. For another Socialist proposal,
of gratuitous medical attendance, the necessary petition (with
50,000 signatures) in order to bring it to a popular vote, could
not be obtained. A third, for extending factory regulations to
all shops in which manual work is done, and for establishing
obligatory trade syndicates, to fix salaries, prices, number
of apprentices, was lost by a vote of 135,713 against 158,492.
Again, in 1895, the result of appeals made to the Referendum
seemed to show that the disposition of the people was more
conservative than that of the government. An Army Reform Bill,
which enlarged the federal control of military administration,
was rejected by 270,000 votes, against 195,000. Two or three
other proposals of less moment were voted down by considerable
majorities, and it appeared unmistakably that changes dependent
on the popular will were not to be easily made.
In 1896 a proposal from the Federal Council to make the head
of the War Office commander-in-chief of the army in time of
peace was voted down, on a referendum, by 310,992 against
77,169. During that year there was much agitation of a project
for the establishment of a State Bank, which the Chambers had
sanctioned; but, on being submitted to the people, early in
1897, it was defeated by a majority of about 60,000.
Another measure, supported by the Federal Council and adopted
in the Chambers, for the purchase of the five principal
railways of the republic, was submitted to the decision of the
Referendum in February, 1898, and carried by 384,272 votes
against 176,002. Accordingly, the five railways known as the
Swiss Central, the Union, the Northeastern, the St. Gothard,
and the Jura Simplon, about 1,650 miles in total length,
became the property of the state. The general plan of the
government was to purchase the railways at twenty-five times
the average net annual earnings for the past ten years,
providing this was not less than the actual cost. The
companies to have the privilege of deducting surplus capital,
but to turn over the roads in first-class condition.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1897.
Constitutional amendments.
Consul Germain wrote from Zurich, July, 1897:
"Constitutional amendments were voted on and adopted by the
Swiss people on Sunday last, July 11. The first amendment
relates to forestry and gives the Federal Government control
over and power to enact uniform laws to regulate Swiss
forests. The second amendment puts the manufacture, sale, and
importation of food products under federal control. These two
amendments will relieve the cantons from vexatious
legislation, heretofore differing in each of the twenty
cantons and four half cantons, and give the whole of
Switzerland uniform laws on forestry and the manufacture,
sale, and importation of food products."
_United States Consular Reports,
October, 1897, page 296._
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1900.
Rejection of new electoral proposals.
On the 4th of November the Swiss nation gave its decision
regarding two important proposals which under the name of the
"double initiative" had been causing great excitement among
the population of the Confederation. One of these proposals
had for its object the election of members of the National
Council on the system of proportional representation, the
other the election of the Federal Council by the people. Both
proposals were rejected, the first by 242,004 popular votes to
163,548, and by 11½ cantonal votes to 10½, and the second by
264,087 popular votes to 134,167 and by 14 cantonal votes to
8.
SYRIA:
Exploration of ruined cities of the Roman province.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: SYRIA.
SZECHUAN.
See (in this volume)
CHUNG-KING.
T.
TA TAO HUI, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
TACNA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
TAGALOS,
TAGALOGS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
TAGALOS:
Revolt against the sovereignty of the United States
in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER), and after.
TAKU FORTS, Allied capture of the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE 10-26).
TALANA HILL, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1895.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1898.
Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1899.
Declared a free port.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).
TAMMANY HALL.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895;
and 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
TARIFF, Chinese.
See (in this volume)
LIKIN.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Australia: A. D. 1894-1895.
Defeat of Protection in New South Wales.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES): A. D. 1894-1895.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Australia: A. D. 1901.
Promised protective policy for the new Commonwealth.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (MAY).
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Canada: A. D. 1897.
Revision of tariff, with discriminating duties in favor of
Great Britain, and provisions for reciprocity.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1896-1897.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Europe and America: A. D. 1896-1901.
The question of sugar bounties and countervailing duties.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES; and GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY).
{527}
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Germany: A. D. 1891-1899.
Recent commercial treaties.
Preparations for forthcoming treaties.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1891-1899.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Germany: A. D. 1895-1898.
Demands of the German Agrarian Protectionists.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Germany: A. D. 1901.
Promised increase of protective duties.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Japan: A. D. 1897.
New tariff law.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1897.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Philippines: A. D. 1901.
New tariff for the Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (MARCH).
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Porto Rico. A. D. 1900
Tariff between Porto Rico and the United States.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1897.
The Dingley Tariff.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY);
and 1899-1901.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1899-1901.
Reciprocity treaties.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1899-1901.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1900.
Relations of the tariff to steel and tin plate industries.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
TASMANIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
TELEGRAPH, Cape to Cairo.
For the projected line of telegraph from the southern to the
northern extremity of Africa, Mr. Cecil Rhodes has undertaken
to find most of the needed money. He began construction from
the northern terminus of the Cape telegraphic service. In 1899
it was reported: "He has pushed the line northward through
Rhodesia to Umtali, in Mashonaland, which is 1,800 miles from
the Cape, and is pushing it on through Nyassaland to the
southern end of Lake Tanganyika, another 700 miles farther
north. The total distance to be covered is 6,600 miles. At the
same time the Egyptian government, under British auspices, was
pushing its telegraph system southward from Wady Halfa. Its
advance was intermittent, the erection of the telegraph poles
being necessarily dependent upon the pushing back of the
outposts of the Dervishes. Last autumn, however, the
destruction of the power of the Khalifa at Omdurman enabled
the Anglo-Egyptian authorities to reopen the long-closed
telegraph office at Khartoum. Khartoum being 1,300 miles from
Cairo, this reduces the distance to be spanned by the
telegraph wire to 3,500 miles; or, if we reckon Abercorn, on
Lake Tanganyika, as its northern terminus, only 2,800 miles.
It is being rapidly eaten into at both ends, more rapidly in
the south than in the north. Still nearly one-half of the
continent, and that the most difficult part, remains to be
crossed."
_W. T. Stead
(in McClure's Magazine, August, 1899)._
Soon after this was written, the South African War stopped the
progress of the work.
TELEGRAPHS, Submarine.
"The submarine telegraphs of the world number 1,500. Their
aggregate length is 170,000 miles; their total cost is
estimated at $250,000,000, and the number of messages annually
transmitted over them 6,000,000: All the grand divisions of
the earth are now connected by their wires, and from country
to country and island to island the thoughts and words of
mankind are instantaneously transmitted. … Adding to the
submarine lines the land-telegraph systems by which they are
connected and through which they bring interior points of the
various continents into instantaneous communication, the total
length of telegraph lines of the world is 835,000 miles, the
length of their single wires or conductors 3,500,000 miles,
and the total number of messages annually sent over them
365,000,000, or an average of 1,000,000 messages each day. In
the short half century since the practicability of submarine
telegraphy was demonstrated, the electric wires have invaded
every ocean except the Pacific. Nearly a score of wires have
been laid across the Atlantic, of which no less than thirteen
now successfully operate between the United States and Europe,
while three others span the comparatively short distance
between South America and the African and south European coast
lines. Throughout the Indian Ocean, lines connect the far East
with Europe and America by way of the Red Sea, the
Mediterranean, the western coast of Europe, and the great
trans-Atlantic lines. The Mediterranean is crossed and
recrossed in its entire length and breadth by numerous cable
lines, and the Mediterranean of America,' the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean Sea, is traversed in all directions by lines
which bring its islands and colonies into speaking relations
with each other and with South America, Central America, the
United States, and thence with Europe, Africa, Asia—the whole
world. Along the eastern coast of Asia, cable lines loop from
port to port and island to island, receiving messages overland
from eastern Europe by way of the Russia-Siberian land lines
and forwarding them to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand,
the Straits Settlements, Hongkong, and the Philippines, and
receiving others in return. South America is skirted with
cable lines along its entire border save the extreme south,
where they are brought into inter-communication by land lines.
Along the entire coast of Africa, cables loop from place to place
and from colony to colony, stretching along the entire
circumference and penetrating the interior by land lines at
various points. Every body of water lying between the
inhabited portions of the earth, with the single exception of
the Pacific Ocean, has been crossed and recrossed by submarine
telegraph lines. Even that vast expanse of water has been
invaded along its margin, submarine wires stretching along its
western border from Siberia to Australia, while its eastern
borders are skirted with lines which stretch along the western
coasts of the two Americas. Several adventurous pioneers in
Pacific telegraphy have ventured to considerable distances and
depths in that great ocean, one cable line running from
Australia to New Zealand, a distance of over 1,000 miles, and
another extending from Australia to the French colony of New
Caledonia, 800 miles seaward."
_United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, January, 1899._
TELEGRAPHY, Wireless.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
TELEPHONE SYSTEM, Recent development of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
{528}
TELEPHONY, Dr. Pupin's improvement in long-distance.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
TEMPERANCE.
See (in this volume)
references under LIQUOR SELLING.
TEMPLE LIBRARY, of ancient Nippur, The.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
TENNESSEE: A. D. 1897.
Centennial Exposition.
The centennial anniversary of the admission of Tennessee to
the American Union was celebrated by the holding of a very
successful exposition at Nashville, opening May 1, 1897.
TERESA URREA.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1896-1899.
TESLA, Nikola: Electrical inventions and discoveries.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
THREE AMERICAS RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.
THUTMOSIS I., The tomb of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: NEW DISCOVERIES.
TIENTSIN.
"Tientsin is the most important city of northern China, being
located at the head of the Gulf of Pechili and but 80 miles
from the capital, Pekin, with which it is connected by water
and by a railway line. Another completed railway line runs
northeastwardly to Shanhai-kwan, and an elaborate railway
system is projected southward from this point through the
populous provinces of Shantung and Kiangsu to connect Tientsin
with Shanghai. In addition to these, the Grand Canal, the most
important of the great artificial waterways of China, has for
centuries connected Tientsin with the Yangtze-Kiang and
Shanghai. Its population is in round numbers 1,000,000."
_United States, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary,
March, 1899, page 2194._
"Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Huei River
(sometimes called the Grand Canal) with the Peiho River, in
latitude 39° 3' 55" north and longitude 117° 3' 55" east. It
is distant from Pekin by road about 80 miles. Formerly, it was
a military station only, but towards the end of the
seventeenth century became a city of great importance. To-day,
it is the home of 1,000,000 people, with an annual import and
export trade aggregating 65,000,000 taels * ($42,250,000).
[* Consul Ragsdale values the haikwan tael at 65 cents;
the estimate of the United States Director of the Mint,
July 1, 1898, is 68.8 cents.]
… The growth of Tientsin within the past few years is most
astonishing. The mud holes and swamps of a few years ago have
been filled in; one, two, three, and even four story brick
buildings erected; streets macadamized, trees planted, gas
works constructed, and now pipes (from New York) for a very
elaborate and perfect water system are being laid—all due to
foreign enterprise. On the other hand, the Chinese authorities
have been seized with the spirit of progress, and to them is
due the building and furnishing of the Imperial Military
College, the Imperial University, arsenals for the manufacture
of guns and ammunition, a mint for the coinage of silver, and,
last but not least, 320 miles of a splendid railway. …
"The Imperial University was established in 1895 by its
president, Mr. C. D. Tenney (former United States vice-consul
at Tientsin), at the request of His Excellency Sheng Hsuan,
with the advice and approval of the Emperor. His Excellency Wu
Ting-fang, present Chinese minister at Washington, and Mr.
Ts-ai Shao-chin, member of Viceroy Wang's staff, were the
first directors. The university is divided into three
departments, viz, collegiate, preparatory, and railway. The
preparatory course covers four years, after which the students
enter the collegiate department, where they remain another
four years. At the end of the first year in the collegiate
department, the students are drafted into special
classes—civil, mining, and mechanical engineering, and law.
Each special branch is in charge of foreign professors,
assisted by Chinese professors. The railway department was
organized for the purpose of providing men for subordinate
positions in the railway service—draftsmen, engineers, station
masters, etc. The students are admitted to the various
departments by competitive examinations. The government of the
university is solely in the hands of the president and
directors, the former being responsible for the educational
work of the institution. Thirty students in each class are
supported by the Government and are bound to Government
service after their graduation. The present number of students
is 250, and the annual expenses are 60,000 taels ($39,000),
entirely borne by the Government. The president and four of
the five professors are citizens of the United States.
"The Imperial Military College was established by His
Excellency Li Hung-Chang, the viceroy of Chihli, in the year
1884. At the beginning, it was simply intended to give
employment to the German officers under contract with the
Government, but the necessity of training men in the arts of
war led the viceroy to memorialize the Throne in behalf of a
permanent military college. A suitable building was erected,
at a cost of 50,000 taels ($32,500), and the annual expense of
maintenance is about the same amount. The students are drafted
from the different military camps, and they are supported by
the generals under whom they were serving. After a two years'
course, they return to their respective commands as
instructors. The school is under the directorship of Taotai
Yint Chang, a Manchu, who received his military education in
Germany, and held a commission of lieutenancy in the Austrian
army. All the principal instructors are Germans, most of them
being noncommissioned officers."
_United States Consular Reports,
December, 1898, pages 550-552._
TIENTSIN: A. D. 1897.
Extension of British settlement.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
TIENTSIN: A. D. 1900.
Capture by allied forces.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
TIGRIS, Valley of the:
Recent archæological exploration.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
TIN PLATE INDUSTRY, in the United States.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
{529}
TOCHI VALLEY, British-Indian war with the tribes.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
TOGOLAND: A. D. 1899.
State of German colony.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
TOGOLAND: A. D. 1900.
Demarcation of the Hinterland.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1900.
TOLEDO, OHIO: A. D. 1899-1901.
The election of Mayor Jones.
Importance was given to the municipal election of April, 1899,
in Toledo, Ohio, by the character of the chosen Mayor, Samuel
M. Jones. He had first made himself known as a manufacturer in
the city, by his dealings with his employees. The Golden Rule
was posted in his shops, as the law by which he expected his
own conduct and that of the men who served him to be governed,
and it was found that he consistently obeyed the rule. In
1897, the Republican party, needing a candidate for Mayor, put
him forward and elected him. In office, he served the people
so well and the politicians and the monopoly interests so
little to their satisfaction, that his party, obedient to the
latter, cast him aside and nominated to the Mayor's office a
more "practical" man. Mr. Jones, thereupon, was induced to
present himself as an independent candidate, on a platform
denounced as "socialistic," and was elected by more than
double the total vote cast against him, for the regular
candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties. In the
following November, Mr. Jones was put forward as an
independent candidate for Governor of Ohio, and was not
elected, but received something over 106,000 votes.
On the 1st of April, 1901, Mr. Jones was reelected Mayor of
Toledo for a third term, again as an Independent, and as a
champion of municipal ownership for all public utilities.
TONGA ISLANDS, The:
Renunciation of German rights to Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
TORAL, General:
The Spanish defense of Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
Surrender of Spanish forces in eastern Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
TOSKI, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
TOWER BRIDGE.
See (in this volume)
LONDON: A. D. 1894.
TRANS-MISSISSIPPI EXPOSITION.
See (in this volume)
OMAHA: A. D. 1898.
TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895;
and RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION, English royal declaration against.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
TRANSVAAL, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL).
TRANSVAAL NATIONAL UNION, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
TRIADS, Rebellion of the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION, The Permanent.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE, The.
The treaty of the Triple Alliance, or Dreibund, of Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy, formed in 1882 and renewed in 1887,
for common defense against France and Russia, expires in 1903.
See, in volume 5,
TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
Rumors of an intention on the part of Italy to withdraw from
the Alliance arose in the spring of 1901, and received some
color from a marked exchange of friendly courtesies between
Italy and France in April, when an Italian squadron was
entertained at Toulon, on the occasion of a visit from the
President of the French Republic to that city. But there seems
to be little reason to believe that any such action has been
determined by the Italian government.
TROCHAS.
A Spanish term applied to military entrenchments or fortified
lines.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897; and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
TROY: Later researches on the site.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: TROY.
TRUST, The Sugar, and the Dingley Tariff.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY); and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
----------TRUSTS: Start--------
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in the United States.
An "Industrial Commission," was created by Act of Congress in
June, 1898.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
It submitted a preliminary report on the 1st of March, 1900,
on the subject of "Trusts and Industrial Combinations," from
which the following historical information is taken:
"The form of organization that has given them [industrial
combinations] their name 'trusts' was the one started by the
Standard Oil Trust in 1882, afterwords followed by the Whisky
combination—the Distillers and Cattle Feeders' Trust—and by
the Sugar Trust—the American Sugar Refineries Company. The
plan of that organization was as follows: The stockholders of
the different corporations entering the combination assigned
their stock in trust to a board of trustees without the power
of revocation. That board of trustees then held the voting
power of the stocks of the different companies, and was thus
enabled, through the election of directors, to control them
absolutely. In place of the stock thus received the trustees
issued trust certificates upon which the former holders of the
stock drew their dividends, these being paid upon the
certificates regardless of what disposition was made of the
plants of the different corporations. Owing largely to hostile
legislation and to the bitter feeling against the trusts above
named, these trusts, after some adverse decisions of the
courts, went out of existence, reorganizing as single
corporations in most cases, and none at the present time
remain.
{530}
A somewhat similar form of organization, however—the voting
trust—is found at times. In this form of trust the holders of
at least a majority of stock of a single corporation put their
stock into the hands of trustees for the purpose of voting it,
retaining for themselves all the privileges of drawing
dividends and making transfers. Such a voting trust has been
formed, it is claimed, in the case of the Pure Oil Company—an
organization of the independent oil interests—for the sake of
protecting a majority of the stock against purchase by the
Standard Oil Company. … As a form of corporate combination for
the sake of securing monopolistic control, the voting trust
does not seem to be now in vogue.
"The form of organization that seems most common at the
present time is that of the single large corporation, which
owns outright the different plants. A combination of this kind
is formed by the purchase of all of the plants of the
different corporations or individuals who enter into it, the
corporations then dissolving as separate corporations. Often
payments for the plants are made largely in stock of the new
corporation, so that many of the former owners maintain their
interest in the business. The affairs are then managed
entirely by the stockholders of the one corporation through
their board of directors, elected in the ordinary way. It is
usual for these larger corporations to choose a very liberal
form of charter.
"A third form of organization, which is in many particulars
quite like the original trust form, is that which has been
taken by the Federal Steel Company, by the Distilling Company
of America, and others. In this form the central company,
instead of purchasing the plants of the different corporations
which it is proposed to unite, simply buys a majority of the
stock, or possibly the entire stock of each one of the
corporations. The separate corporations keep in separate
corporate existence, but a majority of the stock being held by
the one larger corporation, its officers, of course, elect the
boards of directors of all of the separate corporations, and
in this way hold ultimately complete control. It is usually
true that the separate corporations manage their own affairs
practically independently, although they are furnished
information regarding the workings of the other establishments
in the combination through the central officers, and are
doubtless largely directed in their policy in this way.
"In the case of the Standard Oil Company, when the original
trust was dissolved, there were issued to the holders of trust
certificates proportional amounts of stocks of each of the
constituent companies, and since the trustees themselves had
held a majority of the certificates, they retained as
individuals a majority of the stock in each one of the
companies that had formerly been in the trust. The separate
corporations were named as separate corporations, but the
majority of the stock of all being held in the same hands, the
directors of the different companies were largely the same men,
and their affairs were managed in unison in substantially the
same way as had been the case before. The new Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey has recently been formed with the
intention of transferring the stocks of the different
corporations into the stock of the new company, so that when
the transfer has been finally made, one single corporation,
the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, will own outright the
property now owned by the separate companies which are
commonly known and mentioned together under the name of the
Standard Oil Company. This combination at present has no
formal unity. It has a practical unity as great as it will
have probably after the complete change into the New Jersey
company is effected.
"As most of the larger corporations have, within the last few
years, been organized in New Jersey, it will be worth while to
note the special advantages given by the corporation laws of
that State. The advantages that seem to be brought out most
clearly are:
First, taxation. The organization tax is considerably lower
than that of most of the States, while the annual tax is fixed
upon the amount of capital paid in, so that it is an
absolutely certain quantity and can be determined by anyone,
thus leaving no opportunity for corruption on the part of
either the corporation itself or of State officials. The rate
of the tax is moderate, and decreases as the amount of capital
increases.
Second. Perhaps a greater advantage is to be found in the
liberal form of the New Jersey charter. The amount of capital
is unlimited, the period of organization is unlimited, the
amount of indebtedness is not limited, the powers that are
granted to corporations are also practically unlimited, with
the exception that an ordinary business corporation is
forbidden to engage in banking. The Federal Steel Company
would have found it impossible to organize for the purpose of
engaging in the various enterprises which it has undertaken
had it incorporated in the State of Illinois or of
Pennsylvania. The same thing holds also with reference to the
American Steel and Wire Company.
Third. There is less liability on the part of the stockholders
than in several other States.
Fourth. The directors have also less liability. In case of
issuance of stock for property the judgment of the directors
is conclusive as to the value of the property taken, unless
there is evidence of fraud. Stock issued thus for property is
considered fully paid up, and the stockholders can not be held
further liable in case the property proves to have been taken at
less than its cash value. The directors are not personally
liable for the debts of the corporation if they fail to file
reports or to conform with certain other requirements. …
"During the past few years the total capitalization of the new
industrial combinations has reached an enormous sum, well into
the billions, and in many cases at least the nominal
capitalization of the corporations far exceeds the cash value
of their property. … Regarding most of the combinations
concerning which testimony has been taken the facts appear
quite clear. None of the witnesses believe that the Standard
Oil Company is on the whole over-capitalized, as compared with
the present value of the plants. Its opponents believe that
its profits are enormous on the capitalization. The witnesses
representing the Standard Oil Company itself, while admitting
very large profits and presenting no very definite facts
regarding the capitalization, still give the same impression
from their testimony. The American Sugar Refining Company
seems to be, beyond question, capitalized at a sum twice as
large at least as the cost of reconstruction of the plants
themselves. The capitalization was shown to be several times
the original capitalization of its constituent members. …
{531}
"Perhaps the clearest testimony on this subject of
capitalization came from the witnesses connected with some of
the iron and steel companies. The witnesses regarding the
tin-plate combination were in substantial agreement in stating
that the owners of most of the plants gave an option on their
plants at what they considered was the fair cash value,
although, owing to the good times and to the fact that, in
many cases, the industries were quite prosperous, the prices
were high. They were then given, by the promoter, the option
of taking this valuation of their property in cash, or of
taking instead the same amount in preferred stock with a like
amount of common stock added as bonus. … One of the witnesses,
at least, conceded that the total amount of stock thus paid
for the plants, since the cash option was taken in prosperous
times and included not merely the value of the plant but also
the good will of the running business, probably amounted in
some instances to three or four or even five times the cash
cost of the plants at that time. … Exactly the same system
seems to have been followed in the capitalization of the
National Biscuit Company, the National Steel Company, and the
American Steel Hoop Company. In all these cases there was a
clear understanding that the common stock represented simply
bonus or anticipated profits. …
"In the case of the American Tin Plate Company there was also
added ten millions of common stock, which was issued to the
promoter for his services and for the cost of organization. It
is presumed, of course, that not a little of this ten millions
had to be paid out in commissions etc. to those who aided in
securing the required amount of capital, including cash
furnished for working capital. The amount of extra common
stock issued for purposes of promotion in the American Steel
Hoop Company and in the National Steel Company was $5,000,000
in each case."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1). pages 10-15._
TRUSTS: Standard Oil Company.
As the rise of the Standard Oil Company seems to have marked
the beginning of the movement towards combination in
productive industries, on the great scale of recent times, the
following passages from testimony concerning the history of
the Company and of the oil business is especially interesting.
The first is from the examination of Mr. John D. Rockefeller:
"Q. 'What was the first combination in which you were
interested of different establishments in the oil industry?
A. The first combination of different establishments in the
oil industry in which I was interested was the union of
William Rockefeller & Co., Rockefeller & Andrews, Rockefeller
& Co., S. V. Harkness, and H. M. Flagler, about the year 1867.
"Q. What were the causes leading to its formation?
A. The cause leading to its formation was the desire to unite
our skill and capital in order to carry on a business of some
magnitude and importance in place of the small business that
each separately had theretofore carried on. As time elapsed
and the possibilities of the business became apparent, we
found further capital to be necessary, obtained the required
persons and capital, and organized the Standard Oil Company
with a capital of $1,000,000. Later we found more capital
could be utilized and found persons with capital to interest
themselves with us, and increased our capital to $3,500,000.
As the business grew, and markets were obtained at home and
abroad, more persons and capital were added to the business,
and new corporate agencies were obtained or organized, the
object being always the same, to extend our business by
furnishing the best and cheapest products.
"Q. Did the Standard Oil Company or other affiliated interests
at any time before 1887 receive from the railroads rebates on
freight shipped, or other special advantages?
A. The Standard Oil Company of Ohio; of which I was president,
did receive rebates from the railroads prior to 1880, but
received no special advantages for which it did not give full
compensation. The reason for rebates was that such was the
railroads' method of business. A public rate was made and
collected by the railway companies, but, so far as my
knowledge extends, was never really retained in full, a
portion of it was repaid to the shippers as a rebate. … The
Standard Oil Company of Ohio, being situated at Cleveland, had
the advantage of different carrying lines, as well as of water
transportation in the summer, and taking advantage of those
facilities made the best bargains possible for its freights.
All other companies did the same, their success depending
largely upon whether they had the choice of more than one
route. The Standard sought also to offer advantages to the
railways for the purpose of lessening rates of freight. It
offered freights in large quantity, car-loads and train loads.
It furnished loading facilities and discharging facilities. It
exempted railways from liability for fire. For these services
it obtained contracts for special allowances on freights.
These never exceeded, to the best of my present recollections,
10 per cent. But in almost every instance it was discovered
subsequently that our competitors had been obtaining as good,
and, in some instances, better rates of freight than
ourselves. …
"Q. About what percentage of the profits of the Standard Oil
Company came from special advantages given by the railroads
when these were greatest?
A. No percentage of the profits of the Standard Oil Company
came from advantages given by railroads at any time. Whatever
advantage it received in its constant efforts to reduce rates
of freight was deducted from the price of oil. The advantages
to the Standard from low freight rates consisted solely in the
increased volume of its business arising from the low price of
its products. …
"Q. To what advantages, or favors, or methods of management do
you ascribe chiefly the success of the Standard Oil Company?
A. I ascribe the success of the Standard to its consistent
policy to make the volume of its business large through the
merits and cheapness of its products. It has spared no expense
in finding, securing, and utilizing the best and cheapest
methods of manufacture. It has sought for the best
superintendents and workmen and paid the best wages. It has
not hesitated to sacrifice old machinery and old plants for
new and better ones.
{532}
It has placed its manufactories at the points where they could
supply markets at the least expense. It has not only sought
markets for its principal products, but for all possible
by-products, sparing no expense in introducing them to the
public. It has not hesitated to invest millions of dollars in
methods for cheapening the gathering and distribution of oils
by pipe lines, special cars, tank steamers, and tank wagons.
It has erected tank stations at every important railroad
station to cheapen the storage and delivery of its products.
It has spared no expense in forcing its products into the
markets of the world among people civilized and uncivilized.
It has had faith in American oil, and has brought together
millions of money for the purpose of making it what it is, and
holding its markets against the competition of Russia and all
the many countries which are producers of oil and competitors
against American oil."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 2). page 794._
Against the testimony of Mr. Rockefeller that the Standard Oil
Company obtained no exclusive advantages from railway
companies, other witnesses contended that such advantages were
given to it. On this point, the Commission say in their report:
"It was charged by most of the leading opponents of the
Standard Oil Company that the chief reason for the rapid
growth of the Standard, and its apparent great success in
underselling rivals and winning markets, was the special
advantages that it had received from the railroads. It was
claimed that the company not merely received discriminating
rates on its own shipments, but that it was frequently paid
rebates on the shipments of its competitors. It was conceded
by representatives of the Standard Oil Company that before the
passage of the interstate-commerce act special freight rates
and rebates were frequently received. It was asserted,
however, that this was the usual custom on the part of all
railroads with all large shippers, and that competitors of the
Standard had received similar favors. …
"Much greater differences of opinion exist with reference to
the condition of affairs since the passage of the
interstate-commerce act. It has been charged as a matter of
general belief on the part of almost all of the opponents of
the Standard Oil Company that these discriminations in various
forms have been continually received even up to date. On the
other hand, these charges have been denied in toto and most
emphatically by every representative of the Standard Oil
Company with reference to all cases excepting one, which they
claim was a mistake, the amount of freight due being promptly
paid on discovery of the error. … Certain opponents of the
company claimed that the Standard Oil Company received
commissions for shipping freight over railroads, which
commissions amounted to rebates. This charge is emphatically
denied by the Standard Oil Company and no positive proof on
the subject has been offered."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1). pages 25._
Of testimony on the subject of pipe-line consolidations in the
oil business, the report says:
"Mr. Boyle [publisher of the 'Oil City Derrick'] gives a
somewhat detailed history of the development of pipe-line
transportation in the oil business. The first successful pipe
lines were established in 1864 from Pithole to the Miller
farm. Others were soon constructed in the same district. These
were usually short, scarcely over 5 miles in length, and at
first did not even connect directly with the wells themselves,
although this practice was soon established. Numerous lines
soon grew up in different parts of the oil region, but the
first more extended systems date from 1869, when the Mutual
Pipe Line was laid more or less throughout Clarion County.
Vandergrift and Forman later established a system through
Butler County which became the nucleus of what is now known as
the United Pipe Line System. The original pipe lines were only
transporters of oil, but the nature of their work soon led them
to purchase oil, although at first it was not in the name of
the company itself. …
"Mr. Emery [of Bradford] also makes a brief statement of the
early history of pipe lines. He states that the first attempt
to combine separate pipe lines into a more complex system was
made by William H. Abbott and Henry Harley, beginning about
1866. By 1869 they had a capital of nearly $2,000,000, and 500
miles of pipe centering in the Miller farm. The concern was
then known as the Pennsylvania Transportation Company.
"Several witnesses describe the process by which the Standard
Oil Company gradually secured control of the various pipe
lines throughout the oil regions. The opponents of the trust
attribute the success of the Standard Oil Company in this
movement to the railway discriminations upon oil received from
pipe lines controlled by that company. It appears that for a
considerable period a rebate of 22 cents per barrel was
allowed on oil from pipe lines maintaining the agreed rates of
pipage. … Other opponents of the combination ascribe its
success in driving out competing pipe lines largely to the
practice of paying premiums upon oil in the territory of such
competing lines.
"Mr. Boyle gives the fullest statement of the growth of the
pipe-line consolidation during the seventies and attributes it
to the natural advantages arising from large capital and from
skill in organizing. He testifies that during the early part
of that decade very numerous pipe lines had been established.
These were at first constructed on a small scale by separate
oil producers, but, having entered the business, many
producers were inclined to extend their lines and form a
system. There thus arose an excessive number of competing
lines, and the solvency and integrity of some of them became a
matter of doubt. This excessive competition was the cause of
driving the pipe lines into a more complete organization. As
early as 1873 or 1874 a pooling arrangement was made by some
of the pipe lines, and rebates were paid by railways on oil
received from such lines. The United Pipe Line Company was
established in 1877, with a capital at first of $3,000,000,
and acquired by purchase a large number of lines. The new
company included many producers and stockholders of the
smaller companies, but it is estimated that the persons
controlling the Standard Oil Company had somewhat more than a
one-half interest in the United Pipe Lines. The National
Transit Company is the present owner of the United Pipe Lines
System, and the Standard Oil Company controls the National
Transit Company. …
{533}
"It was pointed out by several witnesses that the almost
complete control of the pipe-line system by the Standard Oil
Company gives it great power in fixing the prices of crude
oil, since producers can dispose of their product only through
the pipe lines, especially in view of the further fact, which
is alleged, that railway rates on crude oil are by agreement
kept at least as high as, if not higher than, the pipe-line
charges. The pipe-line system also gives the combination great
advantage over other refiners, who must pay the rates of
pipage fixed by the Standard, which are claimed to be
excessively high, or the high rates of freight."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 100._
TRUSTS:
Sugar Trust.
The following is from the testimony of Mr. Henry O. Havemeyer:
"Q. The history and organization of the Sugar Refining Company
has been gone over so many times in testimony before that it
is not worth while to dwell on it at length, but in order that
we may have the record somewhat complete, will you give a
brief sketch of its development, going back to the conditions
of the old sugar trust? [1887]
A. There were about twenty-five different firms or
corporations in the sugar business. I think the evidence
before some one of the Congressional committees was that for a
period of 5 or 6 years before the formation of the trust, 18
of those failed or went out of business.
"Q. Eighteen out of 25?
A. Not out of 25; 18 out of about 40. It occurred to some one
to consolidate the others, and 18 out of 21, I believe, went
into the trust, leaving 3 or 4 outside, who represented, I
think, 30 per cent. Then Spreckles built a refinery in
Philadelphia, and, 2 or 3 years after the formation of the
trust, the trust or its successor bought the Philadelphia
refineries.
"Q. Will you explain in a word or two the difference between
the trust and its successor and the reason for its going into
this other form?
A. The trust was attacked, and the courts decided it was
illegal, and a company was organized in New Jersey which
bought outright and paid for the different companies, which
were the constituent companies of the trust. They then
represented, I think, over 90 per cent of the output; then
other refineries began to be constructed, until now I think
they would represent 50 per cent of the consumption. …
"Q. The condition before the formation of the trust was about
this: When these 18 different companies failed, business was
in such a condition, as a whole, that it was considered
unprofitable?
A. Very unprofitable—ruinous.
"Q. Now, can you tell what special advantages—if you can give
this in some detail I shall be glad—come from this
organization, and in what way you make your savings?
A. The greatest advantage is in working the refinery full and
uninterruptedly. Of course, if you have a capacity of
140,000,000 and can only melt 100,000,000 somebody has got to
cut down materially. The moment you cut down you increase the
cost; by buying up all the refineries … and concentrating the
meltings in four refineries and working them full, you work at
a minimum cost. That enables us to pay a dividend on the
common stock.
"Q. SO the chief advantage in the combination was in
concentrating the production and destroying the poor
refineries?
A. Precisely."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 2). pages 109._
See, also (in this volume),
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY).
TRUSTS:
The earlier combinations in steel production.
Mr. Reis, president of the National Steel Company, states that
that company was organized in February, 1899, under the laws
of New Jersey, with a capital of $59,000,000, $27,000,000 of 7
per cent cumulative preferred stock and $32,000,000 of common
stock. The company includes six steel plants, located at New
Castle, Youngstown, Sharon, Mingo Junction, Bellaire, and
Columbus. These plants are engaged in producing steel billets
and slabs, which are the raw materials for making tin plates
and various other products. The plants include 15 blast
furnaces. The company also owns iron mines in northern
Michigan at Iron Mountain and Ishpeming. These are expected to
produce from 1,250,000 to 1,400,000 tons of ore annually, the
total amount required for the use of the steel plants in the
combination being about 3,000,000 tons. The National Steel
Company also owns nine lake boats for transporting ore,
capable of carrying about 1,000,000 tons annually. … Mr. Reis
testifies that the National Steel Company is not a 'trust' in
the ordinary sense, since it makes no attempt to secure
control of a large proportion of the output of steel. Its
economies are sought in the combination of steel plants with
sources of raw materials. The National Steel Company produces
only about 18 per cent of the Bessemer steel made in this
country. The other chief concerns engaged in steel production
are the Carnegie Steel Company; Federal Steel Company; the
Maryland; Jones & Laughlin Steel Company; Wheeling Steel and
Iron Company, and the Lorain Steel Company. …
"Mr. Reis states that the tariff, so far as it is placed upon
steel billets, bars, and sheets, is no longer necessary for
the protection of the industry. No steel is imported, and
during the past 8 or 10 years the tariff has cut no figure.
But if the tariff should be removed from tin plate or from
certain other branches of the iron and steel industry there
would be an indirect effect upon the making of steel. …
"Mr. Gary states that the Federal Steel Company owns all the
capital of the Minnesota Iron Company, the Illinois Steel
Company, the Lorain Steel Company, and the Elgin, Joliet and
Eastern Railroad Company. The Minnesota Iron Company is the
owner of 150,000 acres of iron ore property on the Vermilion
and Mesaba ranges. It owns the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad
Company, connecting its mines with Lake Superior at Two
Harbors and Duluth. It owns large ore docks and also 22 steel
lake vessels capable of carrying 2,000,000 tons per annum. The
product of the Minnesota Iron Company will probably be
3,500,000 tons in 1900. The Lorain Steel Company manufactures
chiefly steel rails for street railways, and to some extent
steel billets. It produces about 500,000 tons of pig iron per
year. The Illinois Steel Company has plants at North Chicago,
West Chicago, South Chicago, Milwaukee, and Joliet. It
produces about 1,500,000 tons of pig iron per year, and also
manufactures steel rails, billets, plates, etc. It owns the
Chicago, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, which connects its
plants in the neighborhood of Chicago. It also owns large
tracts of coal property in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and
makes there about 1,500,000 tons of coke per year. This
company also owns iron mines in Wisconsin and Michigan. …
{534}
"Mr. Stetson, a lawyer, who drafted the charter and conducted
the legal arrangements in the organization of the Federal
Steel Company, testified that it was organized in September,
1898, with an authorized capital of $100,000,000 6 per cent
noncumulative preferred stock and $100,000,000 common stock.
Of this, $98,000,000 in all was originally issued. … Mr. Gary
states that the Federal Steel Company is not a trust in any
sense. It has not sought to restrict competition and has not
brought together companies which were competing with one
another, as is the case with most so-called trusts. The
company has bought the stocks of companies doing different
lines of business, just as an individual might do. …
"The American Steel and Wire Company operates iron mines in
the Lake Superior region. It controls, perhaps, one-sixth or
one-seventh of the output of that region. It owns and operates
coal mines and burns coke. It operates 8 or 9 blast furnaces, 17
open-hearth furnaces, from 22 to 25 rod rolling mills, and
from 20 to 30 wire mills. Its finished product is plain wire,
barbed wire, wire fencing, rope, etc., wire nails, and all
kindred articles. … Mr. Gates, chairman of the American Steel
and Wire Company of New Jersey, testified concerning the
formation of that company. It was organized on January 12,
1899. A gradual process of consolidating wire plants had been
going on previously. As early as 1890 companies in which Mr.
Gates was interested practically controlled the manufacture of
barbed wire in this country. In December, 1897, and January,
1898, J. P. Morgan & Co. investigated the value of the various
wire plants throughout the country with a view to further
consolidation. The American Steel and Wire Company of
Illinois, formed in March, 1898, seems to have resulted from
this effort. … The combination into the American Steel and
Wire Company was not rendered necessary by excessive
competition and consequent losses among the wire companies.
The Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, for example, made
between 27 and 28 per cent during the last three years of its
existence. It was believed, however, that more profit would be
made through better management under consolidation.
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 190._
TRUSTS:
Tin Plate Industry.
"The American Tin Plate Company was incorporated under the
laws of New Jersey on January 6, 1899. Its authorized capital
is $20,000,000 of 7 per cent cumulative preferred stock and
$30,000,000 of common stock. Of this, $18,000,000 of preferred
and $28,000,000 of common stock has been issued. … It is made
clear by the evidence of all the witnesses that the tin-plate
industry in the United States has been built up practically
since the McKinley tariff of 1890, which raised the duty on
tin plates from 1 to 2.2 cents per pound. Without the
protection, all the witnesses agree, the industry could not
have been profitably established. Having once been
established, it was able to submit to the reduction of the
duty to 1.2 cents by the Wilson tariff of 1894, and is now
sufficiently protected by the duty of 1.5 cents under the
Dingley tariff of 1897."
_United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 174 and 187._
TRUSTS:
The climax of consolidation in steel industries.
Formation of the United States Steel Corporation.
In February, 1901, the climax was reached in movements of
industrial combination, so far as concerns the production and
greater uses of iron and steel, by the formation of one
gigantic corporation, to embrace not only the companies named
above, but to purchase the enormous interests of the Carnegie
Company outright, and to take in several organizations of more
than considerable magnitude besides. The combination was
effected by the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., New York, as
"syndicate managers," and an official statement of its
essential terms was published in a circular from that firm, on
the 2d of March, addressed to the stockholders of the Federal
Steel Company, National Steel Company, National Tube Company,
American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey, American Tin
Plate Company, American Steel Hoop Company, American Sheet
Steel Company, to whom the following announcement was made:
"The United States Steel Corporation has been organized under
the laws of the State of New Jersey, with power, among other
things, to acquire the outstanding preferred stocks and common
stocks of the companies above named, and the outstanding bonds
and stock of the Carnegie Company. A syndicate, comprising
leading financial interests throughout the United States and
Europe, of which the undersigned are managers, has been formed
by subscribers to the amount of $200,000,000, (including among
such subscribers the undersigned and many large stockholders
of the several companies,) to carry out the arrangement
hereinafter stated, and to provide the sum in cash and the
financial support required for that purpose. Such syndicate,
through the undersigned, has made a contract with the United
States Steel Corporation, under which the latter is to issue
and deliver its preferred stock and its common stock and its
five per cent. gold bonds, in consideration for stocks of the
above named companies and bonds and stock of the Carnegie
Company and the sum of $25,000,000 in cash.
"The syndicate has already arranged for the acquisition of
substantially all the bonds and stock of the Carnegie Company,
including Mr. Carnegie's holdings. The bonds of the United
States Steel Corporation are to be used only to acquire bonds
and 60 per cent. of the stock of the Carnegie Company. The
undersigned, in behalf of the syndicate, and on the terms and
conditions hereinafter stated, offer, in exchange for the
preferred stocks and common stocks of the companies above
named, respectively, certificates for preferred stock and
common stock of the United States Steel Corporation, upon the
basis stated."
Details relating to the terms and the procedure of exchange
are then given, and several statements of public interest are
made, among them these: "The authorized issue of capital stock
of the United States Steel Corporation presently provided for
in said contract is $850,000,000, of which one-half is to be
seven per cent. cumulative preferred stock and one-half is to
be common stock. The company will also issue its five per
cent. gold bonds to an aggregate amount not exceeding
$304,000,000. In case less than all of the bonds and stock of
the Carnegie Company or less than all of the stocks of the
other companies above referred to shall be acquired, the
amounts of bonds and stocks to be issued will be reduced as
provided in said contract. The forms of the new bonds and of
the indenture securing the same, and of the certificates for
the new preferred and common shares, and the entire plan of
organization and management of the United States Steel
Corporation, shall be determined by J. P. Morgan & Co.
{535}
Every depositor shall accept in full payment and exchange for
his deposited stock the shares of the capital stock of the
United States Steel Corporation, to be delivered at the rates
above specified, in respect of the stock by him so deposited;
and no depositor or holder of any receipt issued hereunder
shall have any interest in the disposition of any other of the
shares of stock, or of the bonds of the United States Steel
Corporation, by it to be issued and delivered to or for
account of the syndicate or of any proceeds thereof. All
shares of the United States Steel Corporation deliverable to
or for account of the syndicate, which shall not be required
for the acquisition of the stock of the Carnegie Company or
for delivery to depositors under the terms of this circular,
are to be retained by and belong to the syndicate. … It is
proper to state that J. P. Morgan & Co. are to receive no
compensation for their services as syndicate managers beyond a
share in any sum which ultimately may be realized by the
syndicate."
Subsequently the American Bridge Company and the Lake Superior
Consolidated Iron Mines were taken into the consolidation,
and, on the 1st of April, 1901, the United States Steel
Corporation filed with the Secretary of State at Trenton, New
Jersey, amended articles of incorporation increasing its
authorized capital stock to $1,100,000,000. The stock is
equally divided into 7 per cent. cumulative preferred stock
and common stock. The total is greater by $250,000,000 than
the amount stated in the circular issued by J. P. Morgan &
Co., on March 2, as "presently provided for," and with the 5
per cent. gold bonds, not exceeding $304,000,000, brings the
security issues of the great steel combination up to
$1,404,000,000.
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in European countries.
"Trusts of the magnitude and influence of those now so
numerous in the United States are as yet rare in the Old
World. … It is in Germany, … of all European countries, that
trusts have spread most extensively and have been most
successful. … The German technical journals for 1897 enumerate
about 180 trusts, of which, it is true, only a few would
correspond to American ideas, but all of which demonstrate a
capacity for wider combination and fuller development. … As
regards great industrial combinations, the most striking
advance has been made in the German coal industry; the most
prominent organization in this department being the
Rheinisch-Westfälische Kohlensyndikat, which is distinguished
by the characteristics of a genuine trust, exercising within
its sphere of activity almost unlimited power. Like the
American Standard Oil Company, it directly controls the sales,
leaving the matter of production entirely to the separate
companies. Under the innocent title of 'eines Vereins zum
Ankauf und Verkauf von Kohlen' (a society for the buying and
selling of coal), this trust has, for the past five years,
completely controlled the West German coal industry, and
dictated prices. …
"In Austria and Hungary trusts have not yet extended so
rapidly. Nevertheless, on various occasions several of them
have given rise to such unfavorable comment that the sentiment
in favor of a legislative restriction of the movement is
to-day much more pronounced in the Austrian than in the German
Parliament. …
"As far as England is concerned, it must be admitted that,
notwithstanding her great industrial activity and a
competitive warfare not less pronounced than that of other
states, the Trust system has as yet found but tardy acceptance
in that country. This is doubtless due in some degree to the
thorough application of the principle of Free Trade; for it is
well known that the largest trusts are powerless unless their
interests are secured by a protective tariff excluding from
the home market the products of foreign countries.
Furthermore, we should remember that in England the principle
of individual freedom is regarded as inviolable. There, it
still obtains more widely than in most other countries; and
the majority of British merchants consider the principle
involved in the formation of trusts as a serious menace to the
freedom of the individual. …
"France is a country in which the Trust system has long
flourished and assumed extensive proportions. In the iron
trade, great trust companies—local in their character, it is
true—have existed for the last twenty years; and the most
powerful of these, like those of Germany, limit their activity
to the establishment of sales-depots. The chemical industry of
France, like that of Germany, is now controlled almost
exclusively by combinations. … Several international trusts,
such as the Zinc Trust, also have their headquarters at Paris.
Belgium, like France, is interested in most of the
international trusts; and there, as in France, the Trust
system has been successful largely in those enterprises which,
in other industrial countries, have hitherto maintained a
stubborn resistance to the inroads of the Trust. …
"In respect to the economic value of trusts in Europe, it may
be said that the influence exerted by them, both for good and
for evil, is, in its essential features, similar to that
exerted by the trusts of America."
_W. Berdrow,
Trusts in Europe
(Forum, May. 1899)._
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in England.
"England no longer enjoys that immunity from monopoly which
was the boast of its own economists and the object-lesson of
American free-traders. While the position of trusts has not
greatly changed in the United States during the past ten
years, except to develop on the same lines, a commercial
revolution is taking place in England. The country is becoming
honey-combed with combinations and trusts; and, what is more
and perhaps worse, there is no agitation against the system.
No effort is made to check trusts or control them. … There are
a large number of informal combines in England which give some
advantages of monopoly without unity of control or financial
association. Thus, the railroad corporations have long ceased
to compete as regards rates. It is perfectly well understood,
and has been admitted over and over again by railroad men
before Parliamentary committees, that the railroad companies
combine. They agree in their rates, but compete in facilities,
speed, etc. If it were not that the railroad companies are
strictly regulated by the Board of Trade, this system of
concerted action would be a very serious factor. As it is, the
railroads represent the most powerful interest in Parliament. …
Similarly, the leading shipping companies have fixed rates for
freight, to stop under-cutting, competing only in speed and
facilities. … There are various understandings and agreements
in the coal-trade. …
{536}
"Until a few years ago, England was not ripe for trusts. The
early efforts failed either through the overcapitalization of
the concerns, opposition from outsiders, or defective
management. … The monopoly that has been most prejudicial to
public interests—the National Telephone Company—is now being
undermined. … The agitation against this monopoly on the part
of municipalities became so strong that in 1898 the House of
Commons appointed a committee to investigate the question. The
result was that last year an act was passed giving
municipalities the right to establish telephones, and
authorizing the post-office to spend $10,000,000 in creating a
competitive system in London. …
"During the last three years, there has been a prolific crop
of amalgamations—half-way houses to trusts. … There is one
kind of amalgamation taking place that deserves special note.
Great mining, iron, engineering, and shipbuilding firms have
come together. Instead of having between the raw material and
the completed ship or engineering work the intermediary
profits of the iron-ore miner, the coal-miner, the
iron-master, the steel-maker, the iron-founder, the forger,
the marine-engine builder, and so forth,—all these middlemen
are got rid of, and the whole business placed, as it were,
under one roof. …
"Consumers in England have not so much to fear from combines
regulated by the Companies' Act, and held in check by free
trade, as consumers in the United States."
_R. Donald,
Trusts in England
(Review of Reviews, November, 1900)._
TRUSTS:
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
----------TRUSTS: End--------
TSUNG-LI-AMEN, The Chinese.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH).
TUBUAI ISLANDS.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRAL ISLANDS.
TUGELA RIVER, Military operations on the.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
During the French Protectorate.
In 1881, under pretexts which were much condemned at the time,
the government of France compelled the Bey of Tunis to sign a
treaty by which he submitted himself and country to the
Protectorate of France.
See, in volume 2,
FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.
This action gave bitter offense to the Italians, who had been
intending to lay their own hands on Tunis, and it is to be
counted among the causes of the entrance of Italy into the
Dreibund or Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary
in 1882. But time had so far worn away the grievance that the
Tunisian protectorate was practically recognized by the
Italian government in a treaty with France, signed in
September, 1896. In 1898, the general results produced in
Tunis by seventeen years of French control were described in
an elaborate report to the British government by its
representative in the Protectorate, or Regency, Sir H.
Johnston. The following is quoted from that report:
"The protectorate of Tunis is nominally an Arab Kingdom, ruled
by a prince of Turkish descent under the guidance and control
of a French Minister Resident-General and a staff of French
officials. The present Bey of Tunis, Sidi Ali Pasha-Bey, is, I
believe, the most aged ruler living, having been born in the
year 1817. He was Heir Apparent at the time of the French
treaty of protection, concluded with his elder brother, Sidi
Sadok Bey. Sidi Ali at his accession to the throne in 1882
accepted the inevitable with a good grace, and has from the
very first lent himself unreservedly to the French efforts for
the regeneration of his country. Two of his ministers are
Arabs (the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Pen), the
remainder of the Council are French officials. M. René Millet,
the Resident-General of France, is at the same time Minister
for the Foreign Affairs of the Tunisian Government and
President of the Council. … The personal staff of the
Resident-General consists of about nine members. In addition,
the French Government is more or less directly represented
throughout the Regency by officials corresponding almost
exactly to our vice-consuls, collectors and
assistant-collectors in our African Protectorates, with this
difference, that the collectors are called 'contrôleurs.' …
"The whole of Tunisia is now under civil administration,
except the Saham district to the south of Gabes, which still
remains under military control. … In the districts which I
visited, the natives, talking to me freely, said that they
would sooner be under the rule of any Frenchman than under
that of their own kaids. The French are face to face here with
the same problem that we find so difficult in other oriental
countries—that of creating amongst the natives a body of
public officials who will keep their hands from picking and
stealing, and their tongues from evil speaking, lying and
slandering. No tyrant is so cruel to an Arab as an Arab; no
one is harder on Muhammadans than their co-religionists.
Justice is administered to Europeans, and to the protected
subjects of European powers, by French tribunals, which
equally deal with cases arising between Europeans and
Tunisians. … Justice is administered to natives, in cases
where natives alone are concerned, by Arab courts depending
directly on the Tunisian Government, but with a Frenchman at
the head of each principal department. At all the centres of
population there are Arab courts of justice. The Court of
Appeal for the French courts in Tunis is the Supreme Court of
Algiers; the appeal from the Arab courts is to the Bey. …
Public works are entirely under French control, though
Tunisians are employed in minor posts. …
"Public education is under French and Arab direction. The
schools and colleges more or less directly supported by the
Government in the city of Tunis are the following:—
The Lycée Carnot,
the College Sadiki,
the secondary school for girls,
the Alawi College,
two lay schools for boys,
a school for Jewish children of the Israelite Alliance,
a Jewish agricultural school,
two schools for Jewish girls,
three schools for boys under the direction of friars, and a
primary school for little girls.
{537}
There is a Muhammadan university at the Great Mosque in Tunis,
and there are 113 primary Muhammadan schools in the same town.
In the interior there are about 98 primary schools for boys
and girls, supported by the Government, and mainly under
French direction. There are also about 500 Muhammadan schools
in the interior, either private or assisted by Government
funds. In addition to Government-supported schools, a large
number of private establishments have sprung up at Tunis and
at Sfax, wherein surprisingly good teaching is given, even in
such subjects as music. … The progress of education is having
very marked results on the indigenous population of the coming
generation—good results in the dissipation of Muhammadan
fanaticism and prejudice, results less pleasing, however, when
the recipient of this education is turned out a creature with
no particular religion, with no principles, and a contempt for
manly labour. …
"In 1880 life and property were thoroughly insecure. The
property of Europeans, perhaps, was safe, provided they were
the subjects of a Power able to coerce the Government of
Tunis, and their lives were not in any great danger in the
principal towns; but it would have been impossible for any
European to have travelled about many parts of the Regency
without a considerable escort; impossible, indeed, to
penetrate some parts of the Regency at all unless at the head
of an army. … It was as difficult, and dangerous, and
expensive to travel about the Regency 18 years ago as it is
now to visit the far interior of Morocco. I spent eight months
in Tunisia at that time, but never succeeded in visiting
Kairwan, the Holy City. … Now, I can go from Tunis to Kairwan
in a few hours by railway, see all the sights unhindered,
enter the mosques without offence, dine and sleep at an
excellent hotel, and be back again at my work in Tunis the
next day. I may further add that I have just traversed much of
the Tunisian Sahara and a good deal of the Jerid country with
no other escort than my servant, and a native cavalryman to
act as guide. I should have been equally safe had I been
alone. The whole Regency of Tunis is now as safe for tourists
as France."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, 1898, C. 8649-18, pages 10-15, and 2-3).
TUNNELS, New York Rapid Transit and East River.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).
TURBINES, Steam, The invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MECHANICS.
----------TURKEY: Start--------
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
Revolt and massacres in Armenia.
Atrocities on both sides.
A horrible condition of things in Armenia was beginning to
cause excitement throughout the world. On one hand, the
Armenians were in revolt against the foul Turkish government,
and avenging themselves savagely upon their oppressors
whenever they found the opportunity; on the other hand the
Turks were making the revolt an excuse for the atrocities that
are habitual to them in every such case. A special
correspondent sent in January by Reuter's news agency to
investigate the situation reported his conviction "that both
Turk and Armenian are in the wrong, and that, as very often
happens, it is the innocent who have suffered for the
wrong-doings of the guilty. When it is asserted on behalf of
the Turks that they are engaged in suppressing a revolutionary
movement in Armenia, the statement is fully justified by the
facts of the case. There does exist in Armenia an extremely
vigorous revolutionary movement, and it is equally beyond
question that the methods of some of the leaders of this
movement are no less shocking than the barbarity of the Turk
in suppressing it. At every step," he added, "I became more
and more convinced that the inhuman ferocity displayed in this
terrible struggle for the mastery has not been in the least
exaggerated in the reports of the massacres already published
in England. At Bitlis I heard the story of a Turkish soldier
who boasted, as one who had achieved a glorious feat, that he
had taken part in the disembowelling of thirty pregnant
women. 'Two lives in one,' was the rallying cry of the armed
men who perpetrated this butchery. Another soldier, who had
taken part in a massacre in a church, described, gloating upon
every ghastly detail, how he had slipped and slid along the
blood-washed floor while the inhuman work proceeded.
Unfortunately, something very like a counterpart of these
atrocities is presented by the methods of some of the leaders
of the Armenian revolutionary movement. I believe there is no
doubt of the fact that certain of these Armenian conspirators
arranged to murder the Reverend Dr. Edward Riggs and two other
American missionaries at Marsovan, and fasten the blame upon
the Turks, in order that, as they imagined, the United States
might inflict summary punishment upon the Turkish Government,
thereby rendering Armenian independence possible. The
missionaries only escaped through a timely warning which they
received from an Armenian friend. Dr. Riggs has devoted his
life to the education of the Armenian youth in the missionary
schools, but the conspirators, in their blind fanaticism, gave
this fact little heed."
There could be no denial however, that the treatment of
Armenia and the Armenians by their Turkish political masters
was horribly bad. In May, the governments of Great Britain,
France and Russia united in proposing certain reforms for
Armenia, over which there were evasive and dilatory
negotiations carried on by the Porte for several months.
Meantime, the Armenians became more aggressive and
threatening, and a secret society called the "Hintchak," which
had been in existence among them since 1887, assumed great
activity. Connected with the Hintchak there was said to be an
organization of spies and "executioners," the latter of whom
carried out decrees of assassination, arson, and
bomb-explosion which the society had pronounced. Finally, on
the 17th of October, an imperial irade (edict, or decree) was
issued, approving and adopting the project of reform which the
British, French and Russian ambassadors had submitted to the
Porte.
{538}
But the appearance of the sultan's ineffectual irade was
speedily followed by fresh reports of frightful massacres of
Armenians, at Trebizond, Erzeroum, Bitlis, Zeitoun, and
elsewhere, with outraging of women and destruction of
property, which increased rather than diminished as time went
on. There was no sign that anything had been done towards
carrying out the promised reforms; though the sultan wrote
personally to Lord Salisbury to remonstrate against an
expression of skepticism concerning them, which the latter had
let fall in a speech, and to say to the British Premier: "I will
execute the reforms. … This is my earnest determination, as to
which I give my word of honour." But nothing came of it all,
and the Powers which had received the Sultan's promises could
agree on no steps further, except to demand and obtain
permission to bring, each, an additional gunboat into the
Bosphorus.
_Annual Register, 1895,
pages 284-294 and 190-193._
In response to a resolution of the Senate of the United States
asking for information relative to the treatment of the
Armenian subjects of the Turkish government, the Secretary of
State, Mr. Olney, on the 19th of December, 1895, communicated
the following, among other statements of fact: Of the
massacres at Sassoun, which occurred in August, 1894, "the
Department of State has little trustworthy information. …
Since that time appalling outbreaks against the Armenians have
occurred in many other parts of Asia Minor, where these
unfortunate people form but a small minority of the
population. At first they were scarcely more than local riots,
as at Tokat, in the vilayet of Sivas, in March last, where one
Armenian was killed outright and more than 30 wounded by the
Turkish soldiery. In June last an attempted rising of
Armenians in the province of Aleppo in the mountains of
Kozar-Dagh and Zeitoun was thwarted without bloodshed by the
arrest of the alleged conspirators. … In July a band of armed
Armenians crossing into the vilayet of Erzerum from Russia was
dispersed, several being killed or captured. By August the
Moslem feeling against Armenians had become so far aroused
that rumors of intended massacres came from several
independent quarters, Harpoot, Marsovan, and Bitlis among
them, which led to urgent demands by the United States
minister for adequate measures looking to the due protection
of American citizens in those places.