GERMANY: A. D. 1905-1906.
BOBRIKOFF, Governor-General of Finland:
His assassination.
See (in this Volume)
FINLAND: A. D. 1904.
BOER-BRITISH WAR, Last year of the.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
BOERS, The:
Repatriation and resettlement.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1903.
BOERS, The:
Active in movement for South African Union.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1908-1909.
BOGOLIEPOFF, M.,
Assassination of.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.
BOLIVIA: A. D. 1901-1906.
Participation in Second and Third International Conferences
of American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro.
See (in this Volume)
American Republics.
BOLIVIA: A. D. 1901.
Broad Treaty of Arbitration with Peru.
See (in this Volume)
ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL: A. D. 1902 (NOVEMBER).
BOLIVIA: A. D. 1903-1909.
Boundary disputes in the Acre region with Brazil and Peru.
See (in this Volume)
ACRE DISPUTES.
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, The Bubonic Plague in.
See (in this Volume)
Public Health: Bubonic Plague.
BONAPARTE, Charles J.:
Secretary of the Navy and Attorney-General.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1909.
BOND, Sir Robert: Premier of Newfoundland.
Negotiation of the Hay-Bond Reciprocity Treaty.
See (in this Volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1902-1905.
BOND, Sir Robert:
At the Imperial Conference of 1907.
See (in this Volume)
British Empire: A. D. 1907.
BOND, Sir Robert:
Resignation and defeat at election.
See (in this Volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1908-1909.
BONHAM, Captain W. F.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1903.
BONILLA, General Manuel:
Revolutionary President of Honduras.
See (in this Volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1903, and 1907.
BONUS SYSTEM, The.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION: THE BONUS SYSTEM.
"BOODLERS," so called, in municipal government.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
BORSTAL SYSTEM, The.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PREVENTIVE DETENTION.
BOSHIN CLUB.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1909.
BOSNIA.
See (in this Volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
BOSTON: A. D. 1904.
International Peace Congress.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1904.
BOSTON: A. D. 1909.
New plan of city government chosen by popular vote.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
{49}
BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
In the closing year of the Boer-British War.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
Premier of the Transvaal.
At the Imperial Conference of 1907.
See BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
BOTHA, GENERAL LOUIS:
Leader in movement for South African Union.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1908-1909.
BOURGEOIS, Leon:
President of the French Chamber of Deputies.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1902. (APRIL-OCTOBER).
BOURGEOIS, Leon:
President of Chamber of Deputies.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1903.
BOURGEOIS, Leon:
Minister of Foreign Affairs.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
BOURSE LAW, German:
Revision of it.
See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1908.
BOURSES DU TRAVAIL.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: France: A. D.1884-1909.
BOXER OUTBREAK, The:
Penalty paid by China for it.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901-1908.
BOXER OUTBREAK, The:
Recurrence of.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1902.
BOYCOTTING: In China:
The boycotting of the United States in 1905.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.
BOYCOTTING: In India.
See INDIA: A. D. 1905-1906.
BOYCOTTING: In Ireland:
The recent practice.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1902-1908.
BOYCOTTING: In Turkey, of Austrian commodities.
See EUROPE: A. D. 1908-1909 (OCTOBER-MARCH).
BOYCOTTING: In the United States:
By Trade Unions.
Decisions of courts.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.
BRADDON SECTION, The.
See (in this Volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1910.
BRANCO, Baron do Rio.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.
BRAUN, Ferdinand.
See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1901-1902.
Participation in Second International Conference of
American Republics.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1902.
Inauguration of President Alves.
Dr. Rodriguez Alves was inducted in office as President of the
United States of Brazil on the 15th of November, 1902,
succeeding Dr. Campos Salles.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1903.
Settlement of boundary dispute with Bolivia.
See (in this Volume)
ACRE DISPUTES.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1904.
An impromptu Revolt that became a comedy of errors.
"To the American who is under the impression that all South
America is continually in the throes of one or another
revolution it will come as a surprise to learn that this vast
district, comprising one half the territory and almost two
thirds the population of the whole continent, has known no
revolution since the founding of the Republic. The revolts of
1893, 1897, and 1904, menacing in varying degree, were
outbursts fostered by a centralization of national vitality
which inspired the belief in each insurrectionist that it was
but necessary to strike the head,—the body would lie dormant.
The justification of this belief lay in the historical fact
that the vast majority of successful revolts throughout South
America have consisted merely in _coups d'état_. The
masses _have_ lain dormant, and the fighting, if any, has
generally come after the somersault.
"The revolt of November of last year in Brazil was so typical
of South American revolutions, and so elementary, that it
affords a lucid illustration. Owing to the prompt and
efficient measures taken by the government to suppress true
reports of the disturbance, and owing, too, to its signal
failure, this revolt was scarcely mentioned by the American
press. Nevertheless, it missed by little causing international
commotion. …
"A great epidemic of smallpox led the government to require of
Congress a law making vaccination compulsory. Long and heated
debate on the constitutionality of the measure went on, while
the epidemic assumed alarming proportions. The Executive’s
patience being worn out, arbitrary pressure was brought to
bear, and the law passed. This intervention brought down the
general censure of the press, and the opposition seized the
handle with disproportionate avidity. On the eleventh of
November a mass meeting was held in one of the central squares
of Rio Janeiro. … The mounted police broke up the meeting with
the flat of the sword: no lives were lost. On the following
day the scene was duplicated, several people injured, and a
life lost. By night riots had broken out in various parts of
the city.
"Up to the fourteenth of November, revolution was not even
rumored. … Toward evening city and government were genuinely
surprised by the news that General Travassos, who was to have
commanded a battalion in the review, immediately upon the
announcement of its postponement had proceeded to the Military
Academy on the outskirts of the city, and, before the student
body, had demanded of the officer in charge transfer of his
command. Frightened by the attitude of the cadets, the
commanding officer made a puerile protest, and surrendered. He
and his staff were allowed to withdraw, and carried the news
of the revolt to the city. It was soon confirmed: the cadets
were advancing on the President’s palace, under the leadership
of General Travassos. …
"The shortest line of march was along the bay front, and to
repulse the attack were sent by land a battalion of the line
reinforced by police, and by sea two gunboats under the play
of searchlights from an armored cruiser. The cadets marched
under the assurance that no soldier of the line would fire on
them, as the army was back of the movement. … They were met by
an armed force, indistinguishable owing to the destruction of
all the lamps by rioters. The force was the advancing
battalion, and it is generally believed that it fired on the
cadets, mistaking them for the returning body of police which
had followed the water front. Brisk fighting ensued, when
suddenly the cry arose among the cadets that they had been
betrayed, and were attacked by soldiers of the line. They
broke and made a disorderly retreat to the Academy. Almost
simultaneously the soldiers learned their mistake, and that
they had opposed a commanding officer; and they turned in
precipitous flight. General Travassos was mortally wounded in
the engagement. …
{50}
"Meanwhile the detachment of police dispatched from the city
had advanced along the bay front to the stone quarry, where
they awaited the rebels. Drawn up at this spot under close
formation, they were mistaken by the gunboats for the cadets,
and were made the target of a disastrous hail of bullets from
quick-firing guns. Their retreat also was precipitous.
"Such was the comedy of errors which will be known as the
Revolt of 1904. Its net results were a rude but salutary
recall of the government to watchfulness; added prestige
abroad for the government, vouched by a rise in its bonds;
and, most significant of all, spontaneous and immediate
support of the Chief Executive from neighboring states. And
yet the credit was not due to the government, which avowedly
had been caught napping, but to the Goddess of Chance, the
arbiter of every _coup d'état._"
_G. A. Chamberlain,
The Cause of South American Revolutions
(Atlantic Monthly, June, 1905)._
BRAZIL: A. D. 1904.
Settlement of boundary between Brazil and British Guiana.
By the decision of the King of Italy, to whom the boundary
question in dispute between Brazil and British Guiana had been
referred, the line separating the territories of the two
states was defined, as drawn by Nature, along the watershed,
starting from Mount Yakontipu and running easterly to the
source of the river Mahu, thence down that river to the Tacuta
and up the latter to its source, where it touches the boundary
already determined. Both countries to have free navigation of
the rivers in question.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
Presidential Election.
The quadrennial presidential election occurring in Brazil in
the spring of 1906 raised Dr. Alfonso Moreira Penna from the
Vice-Presidency to the Presidency of the Republic, with no
disturbance of its quiet.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
German Colonies.
"Already 500,000 Germans, emigrants and their offspring, are
resident in Brazil. The great majority of them, it is true,
have embraced Brazilian citizenship, but their ideals and ties
are essentially and inviolably German. In the south, where
they are thickest, they have become the ruling element. German
factories, warehouses, shops, farms, schools and churches dot
the country everywhere. German has superseded Portuguese, the
official language of Brazil, in scores of communities. Twenty
million pounds of vested interests—banking, street railroads,
electric works, mines, coffee-plantations, and a great variety
of business undertakings—claim the protection of the Kaiser’s
flag. A cross-country railway and a still more extensive
projected system are in the hands of German capitalists. The
country’s vast ocean traffic, the Amazon river shipping, and
much of the coasting trade are dominated by Germans.
"Over and above this purely commercial conquest, however,
looms a factor of more vital importance to North American
susceptibilities—namely, the creation of a nation of Germans
in Brazil. That is the avowed purpose of three German
colonising concerns, which have become lords and masters over
8,000 square miles of Brazilian territory, an area
considerably larger than the kingdom of Saxony, and capable of
dwarfing half-a-dozen German Grand Duchies. It is the object
of these territorial syndicates to people their lands with
immigrants willing to be ‘kept German’—a race of transplanted
men and women who will find themselves amid conditions
deliberately designed to perpetuate ‘Deutschthum,’ which means
the German language, German customs, and unyielding loyalty to
German economic hopes."
_F. W. Wile,
German Colonisation in Brazil
(Fortnightly Review, January, 1906)._
"The talk about German exploitation of Brazil for colonization
purposes is pure buncombe. The writer has visited the southern
Brazilian provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, and
Parana, where most of the Germans reside, and he has seen no
more reason for Brazil to fear ulterior purposes on the part
of Germany than has the United States because Germans form a
large percentage of the population of New York, Chicago, and
Milwaukee. The Germans make excellent Brazilian citizens,
while loving the Fatherland from association and respecting
the Emperor for his great personality."
_John Barrett,
The United States and Latin America
(North American Review, September 21, 1906)._
See (in this Volume), also,
GERMANY: A. D. 1904.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1906.
Third International Conference of American Republics
at Rio de Janeiro.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1907.
Adoption of obligatory military service.
By a law enacted in 1907 military service was made obligatory.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1908.
Dreadnought building.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1908-1909.
Increasing immigration.
See (in this Volume)
IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1909.
Frontier agreements and demarcations.
The Message of President Penna to Congress, May 3, 1909,
contained the following announcements:
"On September 15 last, a treaty between Brazil and Holland was
finally approved at The Hague, to determine the limits of our
frontier with the Colony of Surinam or Dutch Guiana. The
demarcation of the new frontier line between Brazil and
Bolivia in Matto Grosso is now completed, and awaits only the
approval of the two Governments interested. The same mixed
commission to which was intrusted this survey will now proceed
to reconnoitre the head-waters of the Rio Verde. The
Government of the French Republic proposes the appointment of
a mixed commission for the demarcation of the common boundary
established on December 1, 1900, by arbitration of the Swiss
Federal Council. An agreement will shortly be arrived at with
Great Britain to determine the frontier of Brazil with British
Guiana."
BRAZIL: A. D. 1909.
Death of President Penna.
Accession of the Vice-President.
Dr. Alfonso Penna, President of Brazil, died suddenly on the
14th of June, 1909, and was succeeded in the office by the
Vice-President, Señor Nilo Pecanha, who will fill out the
presidential term, ending November 15, 1910. Meantime an
active canvass of candidates for the succeeding term has been
in progress, the names most discussed being those of General
Hermes de Fonseca, Baron Rio Branco, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and Señor Ruy Barbosa, a prominent advocate.
----------BRAZIL: End--------
BRENNAN MONO-RAIL SYSTEM.
See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION: RAILWAYS.
BRIAND, Aristide:
in the Ministry of France as Minister of Public
Instruction and Public Worship.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
{51}
BRIAND, Aristide:
Prime Minister of France.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (JULY).
BRIAND, Aristide:
On the French secular or neutral schools and the clerical
attack on them.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1909.
BRENT, Bishop:
Service on International Opium Commission and on
Philippine Committee.
See (in this Volume)
Opium Problem.
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA:
Its parts suitable for European Settlement.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: A. D. 1901-1902.
Census.
Increased representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA:
Its habitability by whites.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.
----------THE BRITISH EMPIRE: Start--------
THE BRITISH EMPIRE:
A Census of the Empire.
In March, 1906, a "Census of the British Empire"—the first
ever undertaken—was published as a Parliamentary Blue Book.
Its preparation had been proposed by Mr. Chamberlain, who
suggested, while Colonial Secretary, that the figures of the
census of the United Kingdom in 1901 should be collated with
those of other portions of the empire, to be analyzed,
tabulated, and published as a whole. A full realization of the
plan of collation had been found impracticable, owing to the
wide differences of circumstance and of the forms of
census-taking in different parts of the Empire; but many
summings up of highly interesting and important facts were
obtained.
The territory covered by the British Empire was shown to be
11,908,378 square miles, being an increase of 40 per cent.
since 1861, and embracing more than a fifth of the land
surface of the globe. This exceeds the area of the Russian
Empire (European and Asiatic) by more than three millions of
square miles. It is nearly three times the area of the Chinese
Empire, and more than three times that of the United States
and their exterior possessions. An exact count of population
in all regions of the Empire was impossible, but the estimated
total is 400,000,000, of which 300,000,000 is assigned to Asia
and 43,000,000 to Africa. The United Kingdom contains
41,500,000, British America 7,500,000, Australasia, 5,000,000,
the Mediterranean possessions 500,000, and there are 150,000
in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Classified by
religion, there 208,000,000 Hindus, 94,000,000 Mohammedans,
58,000,000 Christians, 12,000,000 Buddhists, and 23,000,000 of
other religions—Parsees, Confucians, Jews, Sikhs, and Jains,
over whom Edward VII. of England reigns as Emperor or King.
His Asiatic subjects alone are three-fourths as many as the
Emperor of China is supposed to rule, and considerable more
than twice the number that live within the whole sweep of the
scepter of the Tsar.
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1902.
Conference at London with the Prime Ministers
of the self-governing Colonies.
Address of the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain.
Results of the Conference.
Taking advantage of the presence in London of the Prime
Ministers of the various self-governing colonies of Britain,
on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII., a
Conference with them, touching questions of general interest,
was arranged by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr.
Chamberlain, in meetings which extended from June to August,
1902. The proceedings were confidential, and no report of
discussions made public; but the resulting resolutions,
together with the opening address of the Colonial Secretary,
and certain statements on subjects considered, are printed in
a Parliamentary paper (Cd. 1299) from which the following
account of the Conference is derived:
Mr. Chamberlain in his address argued strongly and with
feeling for a political federation of the Empire. He said: "I
may be considered, perhaps, to be a dreamer, or too
enthusiastic, but I do not hesitate to say that, in my
opinion, the political federation of the Empire is within the
limits of possibility. I recognize as fully as any one can do
the difficulties which would attend such a great change in
our constitutional system. I recognise the variety of
interests that are concerned: the immense disproportion in
wealth and the population of the different members of the
Empire, and above all, the distances which still separate
them, and the lack of sufficient communication. These are
difficulties which at one time appeared to be, and indeed
were, insurmountable. But now I cannot but recollect that
similar difficulties almost, if not quite as great, have been
surmounted in the case of the United States of America. And
difficulties, perhaps not quite so great, but still very
considerable, have been surmounted in the federation of the
Dominion of Canada. … We have no right to put by our action
any limit to the Imperial patriotism of the future; and it is
my opinion that, as time goes on, there will be a continually
growing sense of the common interests which unite us, and
also, perhaps, which is equally important, of the common
dangers which threaten us. At the same time I would be the
last to suggest that we should do anything which could by any
possibility be considered premature. We have had, within the
last few years, a most splendid evidence of the results of a
voluntary union without any formal obligations, in the great
crisis of the war through which we have now happily passed.
The action of the self-governing Colonies in the time of
danger of the motherland has produced here a deep and a
lasting impression. … I feel, therefore, in view of this it
would be a fatal mistake to transform the spontaneous
enthusiasm which has been so readily shown throughout the
Empire into anything in the nature of an obligation which
might be at this time unwillingly assumed or only formally
accepted. The link which unites us, almost invisible as it is
sentimental in its character, is one which we would gladly
strengthen, but at the same time it has proved itself to be so
strong that certainly we would not wish to substitute for it a
chain which might be galling in its incidence. And, therefore,
upon this point of the political relations between the
Colonies and ourselves. His Majesty’s Government, while they
would welcome any approach which might be made to a more
definite and a closer union, feel that it is not for them to
press this upon you. The demand, if it comes, and when it
comes, must come from the Colonies. If it comes it will be
enthusiastically received in this country.
{52}
"And in this connection I would venture to refer to an
expression in an eloquent speech of my right honorable friend,
the Premier of the Dominion of Canada—an expression which has
called forth much appreciation in this country, although I
believe that Sir Wilfrid Laurier has himself in subsequent
speeches explained that it was not quite correctly understood.
But the expression was, ‘If you want our aid call us to your
councils.’ Gentlemen, we do want your aid. We do require your
assistance in the administration of the vast Empire, which is
yours as well as ours. The weary Titan staggers under the too
vast orb of its fate. We have borne the burden for many years.
We think it is time our children should assist us to support
it, and whenever you make the request to us, be very sure that
we shall hasten gladly to call you to our councils. If you are
prepared at any time to take any share, any proportionate
share, in the burdens of the Empire, we are prepared to meet
you with any proposal for giving to you a corresponding voice
in the policy of the Empire. And the object, if I may point
out to you, may be achieved in various ways. Suggestions have
been made that representation should be given to the Colonies
in either, or in both, Houses of Parliament. There is no
objection in principle to any such proposal. If it comes to
us, it is a proposal which His Majesty’s Government would
certainly feel justified in favourably considering, but I have
always felt myself that the most practical form in which we
could achieve our object would be the establishment or the
creation of a real council of the Empire, to which all
questions of Imperial interest might be referred, and if it
were desired to proceed gradually, as probably would be our
course—we are all accustomed to the slow ways in which our
Constitutions have been worked out—if it be desired to
proceed gradually, the Council might in the first instance be
merely an advisory council. But, although that would be a
preliminary step, it is clear that the object would not be
completely secured until there had been conferred upon such a
Council executive functions, and perhaps also legislative
powers, and it is for you to say, gentlemen, whether you think
the time has come when any progress whatever can be made in
this direction."
Turning naturally from this to the subject of imperial
defence, Mr. Chamberlain gave the substance of a paper which
would be submitted to the Conference, exhibiting comparatively
the naval and military expenditure of the United Kingdom and
of the different self-governing colonies. The cost of the
armaments of the United Kingdom had increased enormously since
1897, and "that increase," he said, "is not entirely due to
our initiative, but it is forced upon us by the action of
other Powers who have made great advances, especially in
connection with the Navy, which we have found it to be our
duty and necessity to equal. But the net result is
extraordinary. At the present moment the estimates for the
present year for naval and military expenditure in the United
Kingdom—not including the extraordinary war expenses, but the
normal estimates—involve an expenditure per head of the
population of the United Kingdom of 29s. 3d. per annum. In
Canada the same items involve an expenditure of only 2s. per
head of the population, about one-fifteenth of that incurred
by the United Kingdom. In New South Wales—I have not the
figures for the Commonwealth as a whole, but I am giving those
as illustrations—and I find that in New South Wales the
expenditure is 3s. 5d.; in Victoria, 3s. 3d.; in New Zealand,
3s. 4d.; and in the Cape and Natal, I think it is between 2s.
and 3s. Now, no one, I think, will pretend that that is a fair
distribution of the burdens of Empire. No one will believe
that the United Kingdom can, for all time, make this
inordinate sacrifice. … I think, therefore, you will agree
with me that it is not unreasonable for us to call your
serious attention to a state of things which cannot be
permanent. We hope that we are not likely to make upon you any
demand that would seem to you to be excessive. We know
perfectly well your difficulties, as you probably are
acquainted with ours."
The speaker passed next to the question of commercial
relations between the mother land and its colonies. "Two
salient facts" he set with emphasis before his colonial
audience. "The first is this. That if we chose—that is to say,
if those whom we represent chose—the Empire might be
self-sustaining. It is so wide; its products are so various;
its climates so different, that there is absolutely nothing
which is necessary to our existence, hardly anything which is
desirable as a luxury, which can not be produced within the
borders of the Empire itself. And the second salient fact is
that the Empire at the present time, and especially the United
Kingdom—which is the great market of the world—derives the
greater part of its necessaries from foreign countries, and
that it exports the largest part of its available produce
—surplus produce—also to foreign countries. This trade might
be the trade, the inter-imperial trade, of the Empire. It is
at the present time, as I say, a trade largely between the
Empire and foreign countries. Now, I confess, that to my mind
that is not a satisfactory state of things, and I hope that
you will agree with me that everything which can possibly tend
to increase the interchange of products between the different
parts of the Empire is deserving of our cordial encouragement.
What we desire, what His Majesty’s Government has publicly
stated to be the object for which they would most gladly
strive, is a free interchange. If you are unable to accept
that as a principle, then I ask you how far can you approach
to it? If a free interchange between the different parts of
the Empire could be secured it would then be a matter for
separate consideration altogether what should be the attitude
of the Empire as a whole or of its several parts towards
foreign nations? …
"Three proposals have been made for the consideration of the
present Conference, on the initiative of New Zealand. The
first and the most important one is that a preferential tariff
should be arranged in favour of British goods which are now
taxable in the respective Colonies and in the United Kingdom.
And although no proposal comes to us from Canada, I am, of
course, aware that similar questions have been recently
specially discussed very actively and very intelligently in
the Dominion, and that a strong opinion prevails there that
the time is ripe for something of this kind."
{53}
Thereupon Mr. Chamberlain examined the results of the Canadian
preferential tariff, showing that England derived very little
commercial benefit from it, and continued: "I think the very
valuable experience, somewhat disappointing and discouraging
as I have already pointed out, but the very valuable
experience which we have derived from the history of the
Canadian tariff, shows that while we may most readily and most
gratefully accept from you any preference which you may be
willing voluntarily to accord to us, we cannot bargain with
you for it; we cannot pay for it unless you go much further
and enable us to enter your home market on terms of greater
equality."
On the subject of imperial defence, the result of the
Conference was an agreement from Australia and New Zealand to
increase their contribution towards an improved Australasian
squadron and the establishment of a branch of the Royal Naval
Reserve to £200,000 a year for the former and £40,000 for the
latter; an agreement from Cape Colony and Natal to contribute
£50,000 and £35,000 per annum respectively toward the general
maintenance of the Navy, and a pledge from Newfoundland of
£3000 per annum toward a branch of the Royal Naval Reserve.
From Canada no agreement was reported. In a "Memorandum by the
First Lord of the Admiralty" of interviews held with the
several Premiers it is said: "Sir Wilfrid Laurier informed me
that His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada are
contemplating the establishment of a local Naval force in the
waters of Canada, but that they were not able to make any
offer of assistance analogous to those enumerated above."
Concerning preferential trade, the following resolutions were
adopted:
"1. That this Conference recognises that the principle of
preferential trade between the United Kingdom and His
Majesty’s Dominions beyond the seas would stimulate and
facilitate mutual commercial intercourse, and would, by
promoting the development of the resources and industries of
the several parts, strengthen the Empire.
"2. That this Conference recognises that, in the present
circumstances of the Colonies, it is not practicable to adopt
a general system of Free Trade as between the Mother Country
and the British Dominions beyond the seas.
"3. That with a view, however, to promoting the increase of
trade within the Empire, it is desirable that those Colonies
which have not already adopted such a policy should, as far as
their circumstances permit, give substantial preferential
treatment to the products and manufactures of the United
Kingdom.
"4. That the Prime Ministers of the Colonies respectfully urge
on His Majesty’s Government the expediency of granting in the
United Kingdom preferential treatment to the products and
manufactures of the Colonies either by exemption from or
reduction of duties now or hereafter imposed.
"5. That the Prime Ministers present at the Conference
undertake to submit to their respective Governments at the
earliest opportunity the principle of the resolution and to
request them to take such measures as may be necessary to give
effect to it."
The Prime Ministers of the Colonies also stated the extent to
which they were prepared to recommend to their several
Parliaments a preferential treatment of British goods: The
Premier of Canada would propose to continue the existing
preference of 33 1/3 per cent., and an additional preference
on lists of selected articles—
(a) by further reducing the duties in favor of the United
Kingdom;
(b) by raising the duties against foreign imports;
(c) by imposing duties on certain foreign imports now on the
free list.
In New Zealand the recommendation would be of a general
preference by 10 per cent., or an equivalent in respect of
lists of selected articles on the lines proposed by Canada. At
the Cape and Natal a preference of 25 per cent. would be
advised, or its equivalent given by increasing duties on
foreign imports. The recommendation in Australia would be of a
preferential treatment not yet defined.
A resolution was adopted favoring future Conferences at
intervals not exceeding four years. Other resolutions
recommended that a preference be given to products of the
Empire in all Government contracts, Imperial or Colonial; that
the privileges of coastwise trade within the Empire be refused
to countries in which the corresponding trade is confined to
ships of their own nationality; that a mutual protection of
patents within the Empire be devised; that the principle of
cheap postage between the different parts of the Empire on all
newspapers and periodicals published therein be adopted; that
the metric system of weights and measures be adopted
throughout the Empire. These were the mainly important
conclusions derived from the Conference, and it was difficult
to regard them as quite satisfactory.
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1903.
Mr. Chamberlain’s declaration for preferential trade
with the Colonies.
Its political effects in Great Britain.
His resignation from the Cabinet.
Disclosures of the correspondence.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1903 (MAY-SEPTEMBER).
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
Conference of Imperial and Colonial Ministers at London.
Formulation of the Constitution of the Conference, to be
known as the Imperial Conference.
Discussion of preferential trade, imperial defence,
and other subjects.
Resolutions adopted.
According to the resolution adopted by the Colonial Conference
of 1902, the next Conference should have been held in 1906,
but by agreement of all parties it was deferred until the
following year. In the interval, a protracted correspondence
occurred between the Colonial Office and the Governments of
the several States federated in the Commonwealth of Australia,
each of which claimed representation in the Conference by its
own Ministers, and protested against the sufficiency of the
representation that would be given to it by the General
Government of the Commonwealth. The "State Rights" doctrine
received no encouragement, however, and only the Premier of
the Commonwealth, Mr. Deakin, and one of the members of his
Cabinet, took part in the Conference, which held its first
meeting in London on the 15th of April and its final one on
the 14th of May.
{54}
At the first meeting there were present, as representatives of
the Imperial Government, the Prime Minister, Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
the Earl of Elgin, in the Chair, and several other Members of
the Cabinet and officials of the Administration. The Premiers
of the self-governing colonies, excepting Sir Robert Bond, of
Newfoundland, who arrived a few days later, were all in
attendance,—namely, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, of Canada, the
Honorable Alfred Deakin, of Australia, the Honorable Sir J. G.
Ward, of New Zealand, Dr. L. S. Jameson, of Cape Colony, the
Honorable F. R. Moor, of Natal, and General Louis Botha, of
the Transvaal. The Conference was first addressed by the Prime
Minister, and responses to his remarks were made by the
several colonial premiers. It was then agreed that the
constitution of the Conference and the question of military
defence should be the subjects first considered. Before ending
this preliminary sitting it was decided, as one ruling on the
constitution of the Conference, that any Ministers
accompanying their Prime Ministers, should be at liberty to
attend its meetings.
At the second session of the Conference resolutions brought
forward by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand,
proposing to give the character of an Imperial Council to the
Conference, and a resolution from the Government of Cape
Colony on the subject of Imperial Defence, together with a
draft resolution concerning the constitution of the Conference
which the Chairman, Lord Elgin, submitted, were discussed,
without action taken. The discussion was continued at the
third and fourth meetings, and the resolution proposed by the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, being amended in some
particulars, was adopted at the end, as follows:
"That it will be to the advantage of the Empire if a
Conference to be called the Imperial Conference is held every
four years at which questions of common interest may be
discussed and considered as between His Majesty’s Government
and his Governments of the self-governing Dominions beyond the
seas. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will be _ex
officio_ President, and the Prime Ministers of the
self-governing Dominions _ex officio_ members of the
Conference. The Secretary of State for the Colonies will be an
_ex officio_ member of the Conference and will take the
chair in the absence of the President. He will arrange for
such Imperial Conferences after communication with the Prime
Ministers of the respective Dominions.
"Such other Ministers as the respective Governments may
appoint will also be members of the Conference—it being
understood that, except by special permission of the
Conference, each discussion will be conducted by not more than
two representatives from each Government, and that each
Government will have only one vote.
"That it is desirable to establish a system by which the
several Governments represented shall be kept informed during
the periods between the Conferences in regard to matters which
have been or may be subjects for discussion, by means of a
permanent secretarial staff charged under the direction of the
Secretary of State for the Colonies with the duty of obtaining
information for the use of the Conference, of attending to its
resolutions, and of conducting correspondence on matters
relating to its affairs.
"That upon matters of importance requiring consultation
between two or more Governments which cannot conveniently be
postponed until the next Conference, or involving subjects of
a minor character or such as call for detailed consideration,
subsidiary conferences should be held between representatives
of the Governments concerned specially chosen for the
purpose."
On the subject of Imperial Defence, which was then taken up,
and in the discussion of which the Secretary of State for War
took part, the following resolutions were approved:
"That the Colonies be authorized to refer to the Committee of
Imperial Defence through the Secretary of State for advice any
local questions in regard to which expert assistance is deemed
desirable.
"That whenever so desired, a representative of the colony
which may wish for advice should be summoned to attend as a
member of the Committee during the discussion of the questions
raised.
"That this Conference welcomes and cordially approves the
exposition of general principles embodied in the statement of
the Secretary of State for War, and, without wishing to commit
any of the Governments represented, recognizes and affirms the
need of developing for the service of the Empire a General
Staff, selected from the forces of the Empire as a whole,
which shall study military science in all its branches, shall
collect and disseminate to the various Governments military
information and intelligence, shall undertake the preparation
of schemes of defence on a common principle, and without in
the least interfering in questions connected with command and
administration, shall at the request of the respective
Governments advise as to the training, education, and war
organization of the military forces of the Crown in every part
of the Empire."
At subsequent meetings the following resolutions were adopted
or accepted:
On the subject of Emigration: "That it is desirable to
encourage British emigrants to proceed to British colonies
rather than foreign countries. That the Imperial Government be
requested to cooperate with any colonies desiring immigrants
in assisting suitable persons to emigrate."
On the subject of Judicial Appeals: The Conference "agreed to
the following finding: The resolution of the Commonwealth of
Australia, ‘That it is desirable to establish an Imperial
Court of Appeal,’ was submitted and fully discussed.
"The resolution submitted by the Government of Cape Colony was
accepted, amended as follows:
‘This Conference, recognizing the importance to all parts of
the Empire of the appellate jurisdiction of His Majesty the
King in Council, desires to place upon record its opinion—
"‘(1) That in the interests of His Majesty’s subjects beyond
the seas it is expedient that the practice and procedure of
the Right Honourable the Lords of the Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council be definitely laid down in the form of a
code of rules and regulations.
"‘(2) That in the codification of the rules regard should be
had to the necessity for the removal of anachronisms and
anomalies, the possibility of the curtailment of expense, and
the desirability of the establishment of courses of procedure
which would minimize delays.
{55}
"‘(3) That, with a view to the extension of uniform rights of
appeal to all colonial subjects of His Majesty, the various
Orders in Council, instructions to Governors, charters of
justice, ordinances and proclamations upon the subject of the
appellate jurisdiction of the Sovereign should be taken into
consideration for the purpose of determining the desirability
of equalizing the conditions which gave right of appeal to His
Majesty.
"‘(4) That much uncertainty, expense, and delay would be
avoided if some portion of His Majesty’s prerogative to grant
special leave to appeal in cases where there exists no right
of appeal were exercised under definite rules and
restrictions.’
"The following resolutions, presented to the Conference by
General Botha and supported by the representatives of Cape
Colony and Natal, were accepted:
"‘(1) That when a Court of Appeal has been established for any
group of colonies geographically connected, whether federated
or not, to which appeals lie from the decisions of the Supreme
Courts of such colonies, it shall be competent for the
Legislature of each such colony to abolish any existing right
of appeal from its Supreme Court to the Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council.
"‘(2) That the decisions of such Court of Appeal shall be
final, but leave to appeal from such decisions may be granted
by the said Court in certain cases prescribed by the statute
under which it is established.
"‘(3) That the right of any person to apply to the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council for leave to appeal to it from
the decision of such Appeal Court shall not be curtailed.’"
And now, at last, on the 30th of April, the Conference came to
the discussion of the question which had been dominant in all
minds from the first,—the question of preferential trade.
Essentially it was a settled question already,—settled, that
is, by the voters of the United Kingdom a year and a half
before, when they took the administration of their Government
away from the party which had approved the fiscal proposals of
Mr. Chamberlain. The commercial negotiation of the colonies
now was with a Ministry that stood pledged against the
preferential tariff arrangements they desired. On their side
they had committed their fortunes to the stimulant working of
protective tariffs, against which the judgment and experience
of England was still firm. The preferential tariffs which
preferential trade involved were in the line of their policy,
but directly antagonistic to hers. How impossible this made an
arrangement of reciprocity on that line was intimated gently
by the Prime Minister when he spoke to the Conference at its
first sitting, but set forth later in plain words by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Asquith, and by the President
of the Board of Trade, Mr. David Lloyd-George. "If the
Colonies," said Mr. Asquith, "thought it their duty to foster
industries by protective tariffs their action would not evoke
remonstrance or even criticism from him. He noted that various
self-governing Colonies gave preference to the Mother Country,
but it was a fact that these preferential tariffs did not
admit the manufactures of the Mother Country to compete on
equal terms with the local product. Doubtless the Colonies
held this to be vital to their interests, and in the same way
His Majesty’s Government held that free trade was vital in the
interests of the United Kingdom. Reference had been made to
the fact that Cobden advocated free trade here as a part of a
universal system of free trade, but the official author of the
policy, Sir Robert Peel, defended it on the ground of its
necessity to this country alone. His Majesty’s Government held
that it was more necessary now than it was in his day. He
pointed out the position now existing. We had a population of
44,000,000 bearing the whole weight of an enormous debt
largely contracted in building up the Empire, and of the cost
of Imperial diplomacy and Imperial defence. That population
was dependent for food and raw materials on external sources
of supply. This is the essential point for consideration. He
asked how the supremacy of Great Britain was maintained. He
thought it must be attributed to our special productive
activity, to the profits which we obtain from keeping the
biggest open market in the world, and to the enormous earnings
of our shipping. All these were based in the long run on
keeping our food and our raw materials on the same basis and
as nearly as possible at the same price. Free trade was no
shibboleth, but a principle maintained because it was a matter
of vital national interest. He drew attention to the tariff
reform campaign, and observed that, after the fullest
examination and discussion, the people of England had declared
in favour of free trade by a majority of unexampled size. As
spokesman for the people, His Majesty’s Government could not
accept any infringement of that policy, even by way of such an
experiment as Dr. Jameson had suggested. It was necessary to
state that fact fully and frankly at the outset. …
"For these reasons His Majesty’s Government, speaking for the
people of this country, could not accept the principle of
preferential trade by way of tariff preference. He thought,
however, that the discussion had thrown light on other methods
by which inter-imperial trade relations might be improved.
Reference had been made to the improvement of means of
communication, especially steamer services, to the increase in
the number of commercial agents in the Colonies, to the
desirability of removing or reducing the Suez Canal dues, and
of establishing mail communication with the Australasian
Colonies via Canada. All these were matters on which His
Majesty’s Government would be fully ready to consider and
cooperate with any practical proposals, and he said this the
more earnestly as he felt that in the performance of his duty
it had been necessary for him to enunciate a general policy
which was not in accord with the views of the Colonial
representatives."
Mr. Lloyd-George was equally plain spoken. "He had hoped," he
said, "it might have been possible for those present,
acknowledging the limitations imposed on them by the
convictions they respectively held on fiscal issues, to see
whether it might not be possible to find other means of
attaining the object in view. The Colonies regard a tax on our
foods as necessary both for raising revenue and also for the
protection of their own industries. Mr. Deakin acknowledged
that the late election in Australia was fought on the issue of
protection and preference. It was open for the representatives
of the Imperial Government to have ignored the mandate given to
Mr. Deakin and to have endeavoured to commit their colleagues
here to a policy of free trade within the Empire, to which
those colleagues would not assent without being false to the
trust reposed in them by their own people. Sir William Lyne
the other day had urged the commercial union of the whole
Empire, quoting the consolidation of the United Kingdom, the
United States, and the Federation of South Africa and
Australia. In these cases all tolls and tariffs were removed.
{56}
"Had a free-trade resolution been pressed by His Majesty’s
Government and refused, it might have been said by the Press
that the Colonies had refused to listen to the appeal of the
Mother Country to be put on equal terms with her children, and
later that the door had been slammed in the old mother’s face
by her ungrateful progeny. His Majesty’s Government had not
taken this course, recognizing the unfairness of ignoring
local conditions and exigencies. They were not here to attempt
to manoeuvre each other into false positions, but to discharge
the practical business of the Empire. They were in perfect
accord as to the objects they could strive to promote. His
Majesty’s Government were in favour of any scheme for the
development of inter-imperial trade which did not inflict
sacrifices on any individual community so as to create a sense
of grievance deep enough to introduce the elements of
discontent and discord, and thus impair the true unity of the
Empire. …
"He agreed that this federation of free commonwealths is worth
making some sacrifice for. He differed only on ways and means.
He was convinced that to tax the food of our people is to cast
an undue share of sacrifice on the poorest part of the
population, and that a tax on raw material would fetter us in
the severe struggle with our foreign competitors. This,
therefore, was a sacrifice which would weaken our power to
make further sacrifices, and we ought not to be called upon to
make it. In Mr. Deakin’s resolution the Government were asked
to do what no protectionist country in the world would
do—viz., to tax necessaries of either life or livelihood which
we cannot produce ourselves, and of which the Colonies cannot
supply us with a sufficiency for many years.
"He wished to acknowledge the considerable advantage conferred
upon the British manufacturer by the preference recently given
to him in colonial markets. The Canadian tariff had produced a
satisfactory effect on our export trade, and apparently had
also benefited Canada, for our purchases from Canada had also
increased. The South African and New Zealand tariffs had not
yet been put to, the test by much actual experience, but would
no doubt have a similarly happy result. The same applied to
Australia, and Great Britain felt grateful, not merely for the
actual concessions, but for the spirit of comradeship and
affection which inspired the policy. But it was said, ‘What
are you prepared to do in return?’ His first answer was that
Great Britain was the best customer the Colonies have got for
their products. To illustrate this he gave the following
figures: In 1905, the last year for which the information was
available, the exports from the self-governing Colonies to all
foreign countries only amounted to 40½ millions, while the
exports to the United Kingdom amounted to 65¾ millions,
exclusive of bullion and specie (21¾ millions)."
The outcome of the discussion was a simple reaffirmation of
the five resolutions on the subject that were adopted at the
Conference of 1902, and which will be found in the report of
that Conference, preceding this. Before putting those
resolutions to vote Lord Elgin stated that His Majesty’s
Government could not assent to them so far as they implied
that it is necessary or expedient to alter the fiscal system
of the United Kingdom. They were agreed to, subject to that
reservation. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who moved their readoption,
said in doing so: "Free trade within the Empire had been
suggested, just as there was free trade within the boundaries
of the United States, Germany, and France. For the British
Empire this was impossible for two reasons—the United Kingdom
was not prepared to limit free trade to the Empire, and the
Colonies were not prepared to accept free trade even within
its boundaries. In Canada the policy of free trade within the
Empire was impracticable, as it was necessary for her to have
Customs duties as a main source of revenue. Canada had given
the British preference deliberately, and had no cause to
regret it; she had from time to time increased it, and in the
last tariff had maintained it generally at the increased
amount of 33 1/3 per cent. Canadian opinion had been almost
unanimous in favour of preference, for Canada felt that she
would as a result of the preference sell more to Great Britain
and buy more from her. Mr. Asquith had not given Canada all
the credit to which he thought she was entitled in making a
comparison which showed no great advantage to British goods.
He dwelt on the effect of the proximity of a nation like the
United States, of their own stock, enormous in numbers, and
most enterprising in trade; it was not a matter for surprise
that their trade with that country had increased. But, so far
as they could, they had done everything to keep trade within
the Empire. They had built canals and railways from east to
west of Canada, and they had taken care to assist the
principle of mutual trade so far as legislation could do it. …
He explained that in the recent revision of the Canadian
tariff they had adopted a new principle in providing an
intermediate tariff for negotiation. They were prepared to
negotiate with nations like France or Italy on the basis of
that tariff, but their lower preference tariff remained
reserved for the British Empire."
Other resolutions adopted or accepted during the last two
sessions of the Conference were as follows:
"That it is desirable that the attention of the Governments of
the Colonies and the United Kingdom should be called to the
present state of the navigation laws in the Empire, and in
other countries, and to the advisability of refusing the
privileges of coastwise trade, including trade between the
Mother Country and its Colonies and possessions, and between
one colony or possession and another, to countries in which
the corresponding trade is confined to ships of their own
nationality, and also to the laws affecting shipping, with a
view of seeing whether any other steps should be taken to
promote Imperial trade in British vessels." (This was voted by
the representatives of the Colonies only, "His Majesty’s
Government dissenting.")
{57}
"That it is desirable that His Majesty’s Government, after
full consultation with the Colonies, should endeavour to
provide for such uniformity as may be practicable in the
granting and protection of trade marks and patents."
"That it is desirable, so far as circumstances permit, to
secure greater uniformity in the trade statistics of the
Empire, and that the Note prepared on this subject by the
Imperial Government be commended to the consideration of the
various Governments represented at this Conference."
"That it is desirable, so far as circumstances permit, to
secure greater uniformity in Company Laws of the Empire, and
that the memorandum and analysis prepared on this subject by
the Imperial Government be commended to the consideration of
the various Governments represented at this Conference."
"That, in view of the social and political advantages and the
material commercial advantages to accrue from a system of
international penny postage, this Conference recommends to His
Majesty’s Government the advisability, if and when a suitable
opportunity occurs, of approaching the Governments of other
States, members of the Universal Postal Union, in order to
obtain further reductions of postage rates, with a view to a
more general and if possible a universal adoption of the penny
rate."
"That, with a view to attain uniformity so far as practicable,
an inquiry should be held to consider further the question of
naturalization, and in particular to consider how far, and
under what conditions, naturalization in one part of His
Majesty’s dominions should be effective in other parts of
those dominions, a subsidiary conference to be held, if
necessary, under the terms of the resolution adopted by this
Conference on April 20 last."
"That in the opinion of this Conference the interests of the
Empire demand that in so far as practicable its different
portions should be connected by the best possible means of
mail communication, travel, and transportation; That to this
end it is advisable that Great Britain should be connected
with Canada, and through Canada with Australia and New Zealand
by the best service available within reasonable cost; That for
the purpose of carrying the above project into effect such
financial support as may be necessary should be contributed by
Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in equitable
proportions."
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909.
The total of its prospective Military Strength when present
Imperial plans are carried out.
In a speech made in March, 1909, Mr. Haldane, Minister for
War, summed up the total of defensive military strength which
the Empire might count on when recent plans for Imperial
defence are carried out. He said: "With the divisions between
the Cape and Malta and those which Lord Kitchener had in
India, the Regular Army had for overseas work 16 divisions,
equivalent to eight army corps, which was larger than any
other nation had for overseas work, the reason being that we,
unlike others, were responsible for 12 million square miles
and 400 millions of human beings. The second line, what one
might call the local line of home defence, consisted of the 14
divisions of the Territorial Army. Supposing Canada, the
population of which was very rapidly increasing, were to build
on the foundations laid at the Conference, by the new
proposals which Canada had accepted she might easily add five
or six Territorial divisions of her own. Those would be for
her own defence, but they knew that in 1899, when a supreme
emergency arose, she did not scruple to send forth her
strength to help the Mother Country. In Australia there was a
remarkable movement for the organization of the forces of the
Crown, which might easily produce five Australian Territorial
divisions. New Zealand might produce another division, and
South Africa could rapidly produce four or five. … If they
could add to the 14 second line divisions at home 16 for the
second line Army of the Empire there would be 30 divisions
altogether, and these, added to the 16 Regular first line
divisions for use overseas, would give us an army for war
conceivably and practicably of 46 divisions, equivalent to 23
army corps. The army of Germany had 23 army corps, and no
other army in the world had an organization so great. He was
speaking of possibilities."
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (June).
The Imperial Press Conference in England.
Among the many endeavors of late years in England to draw the
distant peoples of the great British Empire into closer
relations with its sovereign Mother Country, and into the
feeling of stronger ties of unity among themselves and with
her, none seems to have been wiser or more surely of effect
than that which brought about the Imperial Press Conference of
June, 1909. It assembled sixty representatives of the
Newspaper Press of every part of the Empire and of every shade
of political opinion. It entertained them delightfully and
impressively for three weeks. It made all England and its
colonies and dependencies listen to their discussion of many
questions, all bearing on the fundamental desire to make the
most and best that can be made of the great political organism
which extends its law to every continent and its influence to
all the world. It brought before them its most distinguished
and eloquent men to address them at meetings and feasts. It
assembled at Spithead its stupendous central fleet of
battleships, to pass it in review before them. It filled their
minds with an undoubtedly new realization of what the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland—the sovereign, the seat,
the center of greatness in their Empire—is to it; and they
went back to Canada, to Australia, to South Africa, to New
Zealand, even to India, to propagate that realization in other
minds.
A Western Australian editor, speaking at one of the banquets
of the Conference, referred to this result, saying: "The
influence that had been brought to bear upon the overseas
delegates could not fail to have very great effects upon their
writings in the future. Coming as they did from isolated parts
of the Empire, it was an agreeable surprise to them to find
that they had all been thinking Imperially, and thinking in
much the same way. While the spirit of nationalism was growing
up very strongly, they felt that the spirit of nationalism was
in no way out of harmony with the true spirit of Imperialism;
and it had been a revelation to the delegates to find the
unanimity that existed, not only among the English-speaking
people of the Empire, but among those who came from different
races. They had been helped to strengthen that feeling of
Imperial unity in the certain hope that eventually the highest
ideals of the best form of Imperialism would be realized. That
form of Imperialism was not associated with a policy of
aggrandisement, but was associated with the policy that would
tend to promote the peace of the world, and the prosperity and
the betterment of humanity generally."
{58}
A writer in _The Times_, reviewing the Conference after
it closed, quoted the above and added: "The speaker just
quoted travelled for seven days across Australia before he
reached the capital of the State where he joined his
fellow-delegates from the Commonwealth. The Australian party,
when once it had left Sydney, was three weeks on the ocean
before it reached the Pacific coast of Canada. A Canadian
delegate, speaking at a banquet in Glasgow, declared that when
at home he was as remote from one of his Canadian colleagues
as Egypt is from London, and as remote from another, in the
opposite direction, as London is from Russia. It might have
been supposed that distances like those just indicated would
have had the effect of causing some estrangement between men
so widely separated; but the contrary proved to be the case.
The Australians, following the All-Red route, which was
defined as the official route, were greeted on their arrival
on Canadian soil with an enthusiasm which both surprised and
touched them. Wherever they went they found themselves among
friends, anxious and eager to exchange views and ideas on all
sorts of subjects affecting the common interests of the two
peoples. They were banqueted by many representative men, from
the Governor-General downwards, and, having been welcomed with
the utmost heartiness at Victoria on the Pacific coast, were
given a not less hearty ‘God-speed’ from Quebec on the St.
Lawrence.
"Among the indirect results of the Conference must be
mentioned the knowledge gained from such experiences. When in
Canada the Australians were able to see how far their own
trade interests were identical with those of the people among
whom they had come, how the Canadians are facing the same
problems both of politics and material development, of
commerce and agriculture. And when, the feastings over, they
found themselves on board the steamer with their Canadian
fellow-delegates, a community of interests was at once
established, and lasting friendships were formed.
"Similarly, when the delegates had all assembled in England
there arose a spirit of comradeship which subsisted without a
jarring note from the beginning of the Conference to the end.
Nor must it be forgotten that the men who formed part of this
company of editors and writers of the overseas Press were not
wholly of British race. From Canada came representatives of
the French-Canadians, from South Africa some of Boer and Dutch
extraction, from India one delegate at least of Indian blood.
The welding together of all these men in a spirit of loyalty
to the Empire in which they as well as we have a share has
been one of the most significant features of the Conference."
The practical object for which the Press Conference strove
most earnestly was a cheapening of telegraphic communication,
by cable or wireless, between the distant parts of the Empire,
to the end that there may be an ampler publication of news
from each division of it in every other. It received strong
assurances of coöperation from the Imperial Government in its
efforts to accomplish this end. To a deputation which waited
on him, the Premier, Mr. Asquith, said: "Your Conference, if I
may venture to say so, has very wisely appointed a standing
committee to deal with that matter. The Post Office and other
Government departments concerned will be anxious to assist and
to keep themselves in touch with this committee by information
and intercommunication and in all other ways that may be
practicable. I think it will be the solid and substantial
result of your deliberations on this very great Imperial
necessity that in regard to the development of electric
communication between different parts of the Empire we shall
now have on the side of the Press a body formally organized
and constantly existing with which we can enter into necessary
communication, and by mutual discussion and reference, having
regard to the various considerations to which I have already
adverted, we may accelerate the developments of what we all
agree to be one of the first requisites of an Empire such as
ours—a cheap, a certain, a constant, a convenient, and a
universally accessible system of electric communication."
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (July-August).
Imperial Defence Conference.
See (in this Volume)
War, The Preparations for: Military and Naval.
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (September).
Congress of Empire Chambers of Commerce.
A Congress of Chambers of Commerce, representing all parts of
the Empire, which was assembled at Sydney, New South Wales, on
the 14th of September, 1909, gave much of its discussion to
the proposition that the several parts of the Empire should
afford preferential treatment to each other in their several
markets, on a basis of reciprocity, and adopted resolutions to
the effect that the Congress "urges upon the Governments of
the Empire that they should treat this matter as of present
practical importance, and that the organizations represented
at this Congress pledge themselves to press their respective
Governments to take such action at the next Imperial
Conference as will give effect to the principle advocated in
this resolution." This was carried on individual voting, by 81
votes to 31. On voting by chambers, the resolution was passed
with 60 for, 8 against, and 11 neutral.
Among the other resolutions of the Congress were the
following: "That this Congress urges upon his Majesty’s
Government and upon the Governments of the Colonies the
appointment of an Advisory Imperial Council to consider
questions of Imperial interest, especially those tending to
promote trade between the various parts of the Empire."
"That the settlement in adequate Volume of the Anglo-Saxon
race in the British Dominions is deserving of the constant
solicitude of the Home and Colonial Governments, who are
hereby urged to consider what further or better steps than
those at present existing should be taken to elaborate a
general State-aided scheme at reduced rates to encourage
emigration of suitable settlers under well-considered
conditions."
"This Congress is of opinion that it is desirable to complete
the Imperial route between the Motherland, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand by State-owned electric communication across
Canada to Great Britain and that the postal departments of the
various Governments of the Empire should be requested to frame
a combined scheme of substantial reductions in telegraphic
rates."
{59}
BRITISH GUIANA: A. D. 1904.
Settlement of Brazilian boundary dispute.
See (in this Volume)
Brazil: A. D. 1904.
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA.
See SOUTH AFRICA
BROWNSVILLE AFFAIR, The.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1906 (August).
BRYAN, William Jennings:
Suggestion at the Peace Congress in New York.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
BRYAN, William Jennings:
Nominated for President of the United States.
See UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908(April-November).
BROTHERHOODS OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN AND OF RAILWAY TRAINMEN.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES.
BRUSSELS: A. D. 1902-1907.
Sugar Bounty Conference and Convention, 1902,
and Additional Act, 1907.
See (in this Volume)
SUGAR BOUNTY CONFERENCE.
BRYCE, James:
Chief Secretary for Ireland.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
BUBONIC PLAGUE.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.
BUCHANAN, William I.:
Delegate to Second and Third International Conferences
of American Republics.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
BUCHANAN, William I.:
Diplomatic Service in Venezuela.
See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1907-1909.
BUCHANAN, William I.:
Commissioner Plenipotentiary to the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
BUCHANAN, William I.:
Death, October 16, 1909.
BUCHNER, Eduard.
See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.
BUCKS STOVE COMPANY CASE.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.
BUDGET OF 1909, The British.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1909 (April-December).
BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.
The Pan-American Exposition.
Assassination of President McKinley.
Vice-President Roosevelt becomes President of the United States.
In Volume VI. of this work, which went to press in the spring
of 1901, an account was given of the plan and preparations
made for the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, then just at
the point of being opened, on the 1st of May. The following
characterization of the Exposition by a visitor is sufficient
to add what was then said of it:
"They have staged electricity at Buffalo this summer, and they
call it the Pan-American Exposition. It took a rectangle of
350 acres for the stage, and over $10,000,000 for the
settings. The result, baldly stated, is the most glorious
night scene the world has ever had the fortune to witness. The
staging of Niagara is the one unforgettable thing about the
affair. The Pan-American is, however, much more than this. …
"It may be well to say that the original generic scheme for
the Exposition, that of joining the three Americas in a
unified attempt to show one another their trade resources,
seems to be in results far less prominent than was hoped at
first. For one reason or another,—I have heard European
influences in South America given as a chief cause,—the Latin
Americas did not cooperate as was expected. The great trade
idea upon which the Pan-American was originally based
gradually faded, and gave place to the idea of an electrical
beatification—for which the spectator will perhaps be
thankful. There are exhibits, to be sure, from most of the
South American countries, but the United States occupies
industrially foreground, background, and middle distance. The
other countries fill in the odd corners. The ardent patriot
will see no lack of proportion in this; and as there is a hint
of Mexico and the Argentine, and very creditable exhibits by
Chile and Honduras, we have enough of the sister continent to
justify the name. Most of the southern republics are
represented in one way or another. It is hard, however, to
explain the insufficiency of Canada’s exhibit. It is upon much
too small a scale to do credit to her great resources. It is
worthy of note that when the other countries realized the
importance and beauty of the Pan-American, they set about
vigorously to retrieve themselves.
"So the staging of electricity was undertaken. There was
Buffalo to start with, and Buffalo is backed in the great race
of American cities by the power of Niagara and the commerce of
the Lakes. It is delightfully accessible and pleasing. Here
was the psychological place. It was also the psychological
moment,—a period of general prosperity, a time when America
had set about her great task of making commercial vassals of
the Old World countries. The psychological idea came with
electricity, and under this happy triad of influences
conspiring for success the work was begun.
"The managers took a big rectangle of unused land to the north
of a beautiful park, and welded with it the most attractive
portion of that park for their groundwork. Then they charted
an effect. They put millions into an attempt to please, and
did more, for they have both pleased and startled,—an effect
peculiarly delightful to Americans."
_E. R. White,
Aspects of the Pan-American Exposition
(Atlantic Monthly, July, 1901)._
The Pan-American Exposition may be said to have been paralyzed
in the first week of its fifth month by the awful tragedy of
the wanton murder of President McKinley, while it entertained
him as its guest. Mr. McKinley, with Mrs. McKinley, had
arrived in Buffalo on the 4th of September, for a long planned
visit to the Exposition, and had accepted the hospitality of
its President, Mr. John G. Milburn. On the afternoon of the
6th he held a public reception in the Temple of Music, on the
Exposition grounds, and it was there that the brutal assassin
found his opportunity for the deed. The following graphic
narrative of the tragedy is from the pen of Mr. Walter Wellman
in the American Review of Reviews:
"Usually a secret-service agent is stationed by the
President’s side when he receives the public, but on this
occasion President Milburn stood at the President’s left.
Secretary Cortelyou was at his right, and a little to the
rear. Opposite the President was Secret-Service Officer
Ireland.
{60}
Eight or ten feet away was Officer Foster. When all was ready,
the line of people was permitted to move, each one pausing to
shake the hand of the President. He beamed upon them all in
his courtly way. When one stranger timidly permitted himself
to be pushed along without a greeting, the President called
out, smilingly, ‘Hold on, there; give me your hand.’ Mr.
McKinley would never permit any one to go past him without a
handshake. He was particularly gracious to the children and to
timid women. Here, as we have often seen him in Washington and
elsewhere, he patted little girls or boys on the head or cheek
and smiled at them in his sweet way. A woman and a little girl
had just passed, and were looking back at the President, proud
of the gracious manner in which he had greeted them. Next came
a tall, powerful negro—Parker. After Parker, a slight, boyish
figure, a face bearing marks of foreign descent, a smooth,
youthful face, with nothing sinister to be detected in it. No
one had suspected this innocent-looking boy of a murderous
purpose. He had his right hand bound up in a handkerchief, and
this had been noticed by both of the secret-service men as
well as by others. But the appearance in a reception line of
men with wounded and bandaged hands is not uncommon. In fact,
one had already passed along the line. Many men carried
handkerchiefs in their hands, for the day was warm.
"So this youth approached. He was met with a smile. The
President held out his hand; but it was not grasped.
Supporting his bandaged right hand with his left, the assassin
fired two bullets at the President. The first passed through
the stomach and lodged in the back. The second, it is
believed, struck a button on the President’s waistcoat and
glanced therefrom, making an abrasion upon the sternum. The
interval between the two shots was so short as to be scarcely
measurable. As the second shot rang out, Detective Foster
sprang forward and intercepted the hand of the assassin, who
was endeavoring to fire a third bullet into his victim. The
President did not fall. He was at once supported by Mr.
Milburn, by Detective Geary, and by Secretary Cortelyou.
Before turning, he raised himself on tiptoe and cast upon the
miserable wretch before him, who was at that moment in the
clutches of a number of men, a look which none who saw it can
ever forget. It appeared to say, ‘You miserable, why should
you shoot me? What have I done to you?’ It was the indignation
of a gentleman, of a great soul, when attacked by a ruffian. A
few drops of blood spurted out and fell on the President’s
waistcoat. At once the wounded man was led to a chair, into
which he sank. His collar was removed and his shirt opened at
the front. Those about him fanned him with their hats.
Secretary Cortelyou bent over his chief, and Mr. McKinley
whispered, ‘Cortelyou, be careful. Tell Mrs. McKinley gently.’
"A struggle ensued immediately between the assassin and those
about him. Detective Foster not only intercepted the arm of
the murderer, and prevented the firing of a third shot from
the revolver concealed in the handkerchief, but he planted a
blow square upon the assassin’s face. Even after he fell,
Czolgosz endeavored to twist about and fire again at the
President. Mr. Foster threw himself upon the wretch. Parker,
the colored man, struck him almost at the same instant that
Foster did. Indeed, a half-dozen men were trying to beat and
strike the murderer, and they were so thick about him that
they struck one another in their excitement. A private of the
artillery corps at one moment had a bayonet-sword at the neck
of Czolgosz, and would have driven it home had not Detective
Ireland held his arm and begged him not to shed blood there
before the President. Just then the President raised his eyes,
saw what was going on, and with a slight motion of his right
hand toward his assailant, exclaimed: ‘Let no one hurt him.’"
As soon as possible, the wounded President was removed to the
Exposition Hospital, and surgeons were quickly in attendance.
The medical director of the Exposition, Dr. Roswell Park,
President of the American Society of Surgeons, chanced to be
absent, at Niagara Falls, where he was performing an operation
at the time. The necessary operation upon the President was
performed by Dr. Matthew D. Mann, assisted by Dr. Herman
Mynter, Dr. Eugene Wasdin, of the Marine Hospital service, and
others. The one fatal bullet of the two that were fired was
found to have passed through both walls of the stomach, and
its further progress was not traced. Dr. Park arrived on the
scene before the operation was finished and took part in the
subsequent consultations.
From the hospital Mr. McKinley was removed to Mr. Milburn’s
house, where Mrs. McKinley, being an invalid, had remained
that day. There he received all possible care during the eight
days in which the nation hoped against hope that he might be
saved. Dr. Charles McBurney was called from New York to join
the attending physicians and surgeons, and approved all that
had been done. For a week there seemed good ground for
believing that the sound constitution of the President would
defeat the assassin’s attempt; but on Friday the 13th the
signs underwent a rapid change, and at fifteen minutes past
two o’clock of the morning of Saturday he breathed his last.
Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, who was then at a camp in
the Adirondacks, was summoned at once, and arrived in the city
that afternoon. At the house of Mr. Ansley Wilcox (whose guest
he became), in the presence of the members of the late
President’s cabinet and of a few friends and newspaper
correspondents, he took the oath of office as President,
administered by Judge Hazel, of the United States District
Court. Before taking the oath he said: "I wish to say that it
shall be my aim to continue, absolutely unbroken, the policies
of President McKinley for the peace, the prosperity, and the
honor of our beloved country."
The assassin, who called himself Nieman at first, was
identified as Leon Czolgosz, a Pole, having reputable parents
at Cleveland, Ohio. He had come under anarchist influences and
been taught to believe that all heads of government were
enemies of the people and ought to be slain. There was no
other motive discoverable for his crime. He was arraigned in
the County Court, before Justice Emory, on the 17th of
September, three days after his victim’s death, and, having no
counsel, two former Justices of the Supreme Court of the
State, Loran L. Lewis and Robert C. Titus, consented to be
assigned for his defence.
{61}
On the 23d he was tried in the Supreme Court, Justice Truman
C. White presiding, the only defence possible being that on
the question of sanity, and his guilt was pronounced by the
verdict of the jury. On the 26th he was sentenced to be
executed, in the State Prison at Auburn, within the week
beginning October 28.
See, also, (in this Volume) under
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901 (SEPTEMBER).
BU HAMARA, the Mahdi.
See (in this Volume)
MOROCCO: A. D. 1903-1904, and 1909.
BULGARIA.
See (in this Volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
BÜLOW, Bernhard, Count von: Chancellor of the German Empire:
Action on the Morocco question.
See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.
BÜLOW, Bernhard, Count von:
On German Navy-building.
See WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: NAVAL.
BÜLOW, Bernhard, Count von:
Defeat in the Reichstag on attempted financial reform.
His resignation.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1908-1909.
BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS, INTERNATIONAL.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: NEW YORK CITY.
BURGER, SCHALK W.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
BURLEY TOBACCO SOCIETY.
See (in this Volume)
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1905-1909.
BURNS, John:
President of the Local Government Board.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906, 1905-1909, and 1909.
BURNS, William J.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: SAN FRANCISCO.
BURTON, Joseph R.:
United States Senator.
Convicted of having received $2500 from a fraudulent concern,
which had been debarred from using the United States mails, in
return for his efforts to have embargo removed; sentenced to a
fine of $2500 and nine months imprisonment, May, 1909.
BUTLER, Charles Henry:
Technical delegate to the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
BUTLER, Edward:
Political "Boss" of St. Louis, as seen in the confessions of
Charles F. Kelly.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
BUTLER, Nicholas Murray:
President of Columbia University.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1909.
BUTLER, Nicholas Murray:
Arrangement of professorial interchanges
with German universities.
See EDUCATION: INTERNATIONAL INTERCHANGES.
BUXTON, Sidney C.:
Postmaster-General (British).
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
C.
CACERES, Ramon.
See (in this Volume)
SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1904-1907.
CADETS, Russian.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
CAJAL, Ramon y.
See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.
CALABRIA:
Destructive earthquake in 1905.
See (in this Volume)
EARTHQUAKES.
CALAMITIES, Recent extraordinary.
See (in this Volume)
EARTHQUAKES, FAMINES, FIRE, FLOODS, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS.
CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1900-1909.
Growth.
Industries.
Products.
Railway facilities, etc.
"Within the past decade numerous events have tended to direct
the attention of the United States and of the world to the
importance of the Pacific ocean and the lands bordering upon
it, as the field of great activities in the near future. The
Spanish-American war, and particularly the voyage of the
battleship Oregon around South America hastened the movement
for an inter-oceanic canal. The development of the Alaskan
gold fields gave a great impetus to shipping and trade in
staple supplies in Pacific coast cities. The war between
Russia and Japan revealed the maritime enterprise and
established the naval prestige of Japan.
"Since the earliest days of American occupation California has
been steadily filling up with people. These later movements in
Pacific coast history, together with the steady development of
natural resources, have greatly accelerated the advance in
population, especially in cities as the centers of industrial
and commercial activity. The census of 1900 showed a total
population of 1,485,053. At the beginning of 1909 the number
is estimated by the State Board of Trade at 2,564,363. The
growth of cities in the same period is shown by the following
instances,—the first figure being the population by the
census of 1900, the second the State Board of Trade estimate
for 1909.
1900. 1909.
Alameda 16,464 25,000
Berkeley 13,214 40,000
Fresno 12,470 32,000
Los Angeles 102,479 305,000
Oakland 66,960 200,000
Sacramento 29,282 55,000
San Francisco 342,782 500,000
San Jose 21,500 45,000
Stockton 17,506 25,000
"Two features characterize the recent development of
California agriculture,—the increased value of the products,
and a greater variety of crops. Originally wheat was the
staple crop, but now sugar beets, hops, beans, alfalfa, and
garden seeds must be added to the common cereals to make the
list of staples. In 1908 the wheat crop was valued at
$18,894,961, and the barley at $26,841,394.
"Orchards and vineyards furnish one of the best records of
advancing wealth. Shipments out of the state by rail and by
sea are given by the State Board of Trade as follows:
1898. 1908.
Tons. Tons.
Green Deciduous Fruits 69,732 161,224
Citrus Fruits 180,658 399,094
Dried Fruits 76,662 133,846
Raisins 47,796 29,601
Nuts 5,815 10,887
Canned Fruits 52,219 85,135
{62}
"About ninety per cent of all the citrus fruits go from the
southern part of the State (south of Tehachapi mountains) and
substantially all the fresh deciduous fruits go from the
northern and central portions, Sacramento being one of the
largest shipping points. Nearly all the dried fruits, raisins,
canned fruits, wine and brandy, go from the northern and
central portions. Most of the walnuts are grown in the south,
and most of the almonds in the northern and central parts of
the state. Olives are grown in about equal quantities, north
and south. General farming, including stock raising, is much
more widely pursued north of Tehachapi than south, and the
same is true of the mining industry. The principal forests of
the state are in the Sierra region and in the Coast Range
Mountains north of Sonoma county.
"Formerly wool was an important product of California. The
industry reached its maximum about thirty years ago,—the wool
clip of 1876 amounting to 56,550,973 pounds. Since that date
the wool product steadily declined till 1906, when the total
amount was 24,000,000 pounds. Since 1906 the decline has been
swift, as shown by the total of 15,000,000 pounds for 1908.
"In the production of the precious metals the record of
California is very steady in recent years,—the gold output for
1900 being valued at $15,863,355, and for 1907 at $16,727,928.
On the other hand the oil industry shows a marvelous advance.
The output of petroleum from California oil wells was
4,000,000 barrels in 1900, and 48,300,758 barrels in 1908.
Since 1906 the oil product of California has amounted to over
twenty-five per cent of the total production of the United
States. California petroleum now exceeds in value the output
of her gold mines.
"For a long time the high cost of fuel retarded the growth of
manufactures in California. Recently, however, the production
of fuel oil and the introduction of electrical power developed
from the water power in the streams of the Sierras have given
a great impetus to manufacturing industries. The use of
electricity is certain to be greatly increased in the near
future and for this reason the people of California are
tremendously interested in the policy of the federal government
in the preservation of the mountain streams and in the
disposition of water-power sites. The value of the products of
manufacturing enterprises in the state for 1908 is estimated
at about $500,000,000, of which the sum of $175,000,000 is
credited to San Francisco, $62,000,000 to Los Angeles,
$52,000,000, to Oakland, with Sacramento, San Jose, Stockton
and Fresno following in the order of naming.
"California is a state of magnificent dimensions and it is
quite in keeping with the size of the state to find that in
1907, with but two per cent, of the total population of the
United States she had three per cent. of the total railway
mileage of the country. New construction was almost entirely
suspended in 1908, but has been resumed in 1909. The most
important new road is the Western Pacific which enters the
state by the Beckwith Pass to the north of the line of the
Central Pacific route, from Sacramento to Ogden, and with the
advantage of crossing the Sierras at 2000 feet less elevation.
It reaches the Sacramento Valley by the canyon of the Feather
River and opens up a large area of rich country to railway
communication. It will be completed through to San Francisco
in 1910, and will be the fifth trans continental line
terminating on San Francisco Bay.
"Another great work of railway construction in progress in
1909 is the rebuilding upon an improved grade of the Central
Pacific road through the Sierras. The extreme elevation of the
present road at the summit of the range (7000 feet) is to be
diminished by a lengthy tunnel. Other work of construction
soon to be brought to completion is the extension of the
Northwestern Pacific, a coast road north from San Francisco
Bay to Eureka on Humboldt Bay, and the extension of the Ocean
Shore Railway south along the coast to Santa Cruz.
"The records of the State Railroad Commission show in 1909 a
total mileage in the state of 6744.54 miles.
"The lines operated by the principal companies measure up as
follows:
MILES.
Southern Pacific System. 3,582
Santa Fé System. 978
Northwestern Pacific. 404
San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake. 341
Western Pacific. 237
Yosemite Valley Railroad. 79
"Suburban electric railways have reached a high stage of
development and utility in Southern California, in the Santa
Clara Valley, connecting numerous cities and towns in the
vicinity of San Francisco Bay, and in the Sacramento Valley.
The increase of electric power by the further utilization of
the water power of the Sierra Nevada streams will certainly
bring about in the near future a great extension of electrical
transportation for freighting as well as in passenger
traffic."
_Frederick H. Clark,
Head of History Department,
Lowell High School, San Francisco._
CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1900-1909.
Constitutional changes.
"Amendments to the state constitution originate with the
legislature, and are placed before the voters of the state at
the biennial state elections. Dissatisfaction with parts of
the state constitution is manifested by an increasing number
of proposed amendments. So long as property interests are not
antagonized, the voters show a willingness to make changes by
ratifying a large majority of the amendments proposed. Among
the important subjects upon which amendments have been adopted
within the past ten years are the following:
authorization of legislation for the control of
primary elections;
providing for the use of voting machines;
the establishment of a system of state highways;
increasing the salaries of judges and of state
executive officers;
changing the pay of members of the legislature from
$8.00 per diem for a period not to exceed 60 days to
the sum of $1000 for the regular session;
authorizing the legislature to provide a state tax for the
support of high schools;
permitting exemption from taxation of various forms of
property, such as buildings used exclusively for religious
purposes and the endowments of the Leland Stanford Junior
University, the California School of Mechanical Arts,
and the Cogswell Polytechnical College,
—also personal property at the will of the owner
to the amount of $100;
eight hours made a legal day’s work on all public work
throughout the state;
authorization for the depositing of public funds in banks.
{63}
An important change in the state judiciary was made in 1904 by
the creation of district courts of appeal for the relief of
the congested condition of the business of the State Supreme
Court. The state was divided into three judicial districts, in
each of which was established a court of appeal consisting of
three judges elected from within the district for a term of
twelve years.
"A plan for the reorganization of the revenue system of the
state was placed before the voters in 1908, but failed of
adoption. The proposed amendment was the outcome of a movement
that began in 1905 with the appointment of a special
commission on taxation. This commission employed expert
assistance and made a thorough study of the subject of public
revenues. Its work was placed before the next meeting of the
legislature from which came the proposed amendment. Its
central object was to discover new sources of revenue for the
state treasury, leaving the direct property tax for the
maintenance of local government alone."
_Frederick H. Clark, Head of History Department,
Lowell, High School, San Francisco._
CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1904-1909.
Anti-Japanese agitation.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.
CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1906.
The earthquake of April 18.
Destruction at San Francisco by fire following the shock.
Cause of the occurrence.
See (in this Volume)
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1906.
CALIPHATE, The Mohammedan:
The Turkish Sultan’s title disputed.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1903-1905.
CAMPBELL, H. W.
See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION: AGRICULTURE.
CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, SIR HENRY:
Prime Minister of the British Government.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, SIR HENRY:
Address at Colonial Conference.
See BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.
CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, SIR HENRY:
DEATH, April 22, 1908.
----------CANADA: Start--------
CANADA: A. D. 1896-1909.
The interchange of people between Canada and the United States.
The "American Invasion."
Rapid settlement of the Canadian Northwest.
Immigration in the last decade.
"Nature is healing the schism of the race by her own slow but
efficacious methods. Hundreds of families of the United Empire
stock have gone back to the United States, in some instances
to the very place of their origin. Upwards of a million native
Canadians are now living in the States, the great majority as
naturalised Americans; whilst American farmers, attracted by
cheap land and good laws, are entering the Canadian North-West
at the rate of 50,000 a year. The exodus, as migration across
the line is called, is a heavy drain on Canada; like an
ancient conqueror, it sweeps away the flower of both sexes,
leaving the unfittest to survive. During the last 30 years we
have spent $10,000,000 on immigration work in Europe, yet our
population has not held its natural increase, has not, that
is, grown as fast as the population of an old and over-crowded
country like England. The Canadian lad thinks no more of
transferring himself to Buffalo or Chicago than a Scotch youth
of going up to London, perhaps not so much. On the other hand,
American tourists, ‘drummers,’ lecturers, sportsmen and
investors come and go in Canada precisely as if this were a
State of the Union. When we produce a champion athlete, a
clever journalist or eloquent divine, they annex him and
advertise him next day as a Yankee. Marrying and giving in
marriage is going on without the slightest regard for the
doctrines of the Loyalists. There are said to be 200 college
professors of Canadian birth in the United States. I am
acquainted with some of them, and in their opinion, whatever
it may be worth, Canada can best serve herself by becoming
politically independent, and could best serve England by
joining the American Union, where her presence and vote would
offset the Anglophobia latent or active in other elements.
"The influence of the Canadian-Americans, to say nothing of
that of the Americans proper, is visible on every side in
English Canada; they are constantly visiting the old home, in
many cases paying the interest of the mortgage on it. The
French Canadians in New England have taught those in Quebec
that the priest has no business to interfere unduly in
elections, or to make war on Liberalism; that the Press ought
to be free, and the State, not the Church, supreme within the
sphere she defines as her own. Every day the French Canadian
papers publish columns of correspondence from the French
settlements in the factory towns across the line, but of
British affairs editors and readers know little, and,
apparently, care less. I mention this not to sneer at the
French Canadian Press, but to show those Englishmen who urge
us to cultivate the Imperialist spirit how difficult it would
be for Mrs. Partington to keep out the Atlantic.
"In English Canada, our newspapers supply us with British news
filtered through American channels; we read American books,
are interested in American politics, frequent their
watering-places and race tracks, imitate their tariffs, play
baseball and poker, live under local institutions fashioned
after theirs, think like them, speak like them, eat like them,
dress like them; when we visit England, we find ourselves
taken for them and treated well in consequence, better than if
we confessed ourselves Colonials."
_E. Farrer,
Canada and the new Imperialism
(Contemporary Review, December, 1903)._
"Some ten years since there began to trickle into the vast
wastes of the West the tiny rivulet of immigration which has
now become a great stream. Many influences have gone toward
widening this current of immigration, but the initial impulse
which set it in motion came from the courage of one man. In
1896 Clifford Sifton, a young man, thirty-five years of age,
who had already played a considerable _rôle_ in the
politics of Manitoba, became Minister of the Interior in the
Dominion Government. He was equipped with a genius for
organization, an almost unequaled capacity for persistent hard
work, and, above all, a faith in the West which knew neither
wavering nor questioning.
{64}
He threw himself with immense energy into the task of
advertising the Canadian West to the world and inducing
immigration. His conception of the problem and its solution
was Napoleonic; for he saw what others could not see and even
scouted as absurd, that the people who could be induced most
easily to lead the procession into the vacant prairies lived
in the adjoining States of the American Union. A new
generation had grown up in these States on the farms secured
as free grants by their fathers in the ’70's, and he saw that
when they looked for lands for themselves there would be none
available at all comparable with those of Western Canada.
Therefore, he argued, to acquaint them with the opportunities
and possibilities of the new land to the north would be to
insure such a migration as he desired, and if the stream once
began flowing it would widen by its own velocity. This was the
great idea which, given effect to by an organization called
into being by first-class executive talent, operating with
limitless resources, broke forever the great silence of the
prairies and made them the Mecca of the world’s landless folk.
"There had been for years Canadian immigration agencies at
various places in the United States, but they had been
administered in a spirit of perfunctory hopelessness. These
offices were reorganized; new ones opened; tens of thousands
of dollars were expended in advertising and in the
distribution of printed literature; enterprising drummers were
sent abroad throughout the Western States to preach up the
opportunities of Western Canada; representative farmers were
induced to take trips through the Canadian West, all expenses
paid by the government,—in fact, everything that trained
business talent could suggest was done.
"The result? In the first year of the new order of things 2412
Americans came to Canada, and thereafter the number mounted
yearly. By 1899 the figures had reached 11,945; 1901, 17,987;
1902, 26,388; 1903, 49,473; 1904, 45,171; 1905, 43,652; 1906,
57,919. During the ten years ending June 30, 1906, no less
than 272,609 persons left the United States to become
residents of Western Canada. These people came from all parts
of the United States. The government homestead records for
1906 show applications from persons coming from every State
and Territory of the United States, including the District of
Columbia and Alaska. North Dakota led in the applications,
with Minnesota a close second; then came Iowa, Michigan,
Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, tapering to two from Alabama
and one from Georgia. …
"It has given Canada over a quarter of a million of settlers
with the highest average of efficiency. They, almost without
exception, have sufficient capital to make a good start, a
most important consideration in a new country where money is
scarce and dear. Akin to the Canadians in race, language,
political and social customs, they become a part of the
community just as naturally as one stream flows into another
at the same level. These settlers have also brought with them
fifty years’ experience in prairie farming, and by their
example have enormously affected agricultural methods. …
"More important, however, was the advertisement which the
‘American invasion’ gave Western Canada. It was precisely what
the country needed—indeed there could have been no substitute
for it in effectiveness. The Eastern Canadian was rather out
of conceit with his own West; and if a migratory instinct
drove him onward he went to the United States. In Great
Britain Western Canada could get no hearing at all,—her
emigrants went to Australia, the United States, New Zealand,
or even to alien lands in preference to Canada. It is doubtful
whether any possible exertions by the Government could have
turned the attention of these people to Canada had not the
influx of Americans to the prairies, loudly announced by all
controllable agencies of publicity, challenged their attention
and pricked their national pride. Once the fact was driven
into their consciousness they began to hold that if Western
Canada was good enough for ‘Yankees’ it was good enough for
them. British newspapers in particular showed a belated but
very real interest.
"The result has been a heavily increasing immigration from the
British Isles, until it now exceeds by many thousands every
year the arrivals from the United States. For the ten-year
period specified above there were 311,747 immigrants from
Great Britain, compared with 272,609 from the United States;
with 248,250 from ‘other countries,’ chiefly continental
Europe. The Scandinavian, Teutonic, and Slavic peoples are all
strongly represented in Western Canada. The most numerous
non-British people are the Ruthenians, or little Russians. In
addition there is a large yearly influx of Canadian settlers
from the older provinces, of whom there is no record excepting
in the homestead applications. These figures showed that out
of 41,869 applications for homesteads last year 27 per cent.
were Canadians, 29 per cent. Americans, 20 per cent. from the
British Isles, while the remaining 24 per cent. comprised
persons of eighteen different nationalities. These statistics
show that Western Canada is overwhelmingly English-speaking."
_John W. Dafoe,
Western Canada: Its Resources and Possibilities
(American Review of Reviews, June, 1907)._
Writing from Toronto, June 24, 1909, the regular Correspondent
of the London _Times_ took the subject of Canadian
immigration, especially that from the United States, for
extended treatment. Part of his remarks were as follows:
"So long as the American States had free, fertile lands, it
was natural that population should flow into the Republic.
America, in the mind of Europe, was the land of promise and
the home of freedom, and the United States was America. Canada
was but a fringe of inhospitable British territory, where the
spring came late and summer was brief, and winter was long and
stern. The first great impulse to settlement came with the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but an even more
material factor in Canadian development was the comparative
exhaustion of the free land of the Western States and the
increasing reputation of the Canadian West as a wheat-growing
country. If the 20th century belongs to Canada, as Sir Wilfrid
Laurier has said, it is primarily because the American
Republic has become a far less formidable competitor for
British and European immigration, and because thousands of
American farmers have discovered that they can sell their
improved farms at good prices and secure lands of equal value
in Canada for themselves and their sons with a very small
investment of capital.
{65}
"The total immigration since 1901 is estimated at 1,200,000.
In that year it was 49,149. It rose in 1902 to 67,379. Thence
there was a steady increase until 1907, when the figures were
262,469. In 1908 the total immigration was between 140, 000
and 142,000, and for this year the estimate is 200,000.
British immigrants began to come in considerable Volume in
1901, when there were 17,269 arrivals. The best year was 1907,
when the number reported was 120,182, as compared with 83,975
from the Continent of Europe and 58,312 from the United
States. The decline in 1908 was chiefly in British and
European immigration. Between 50,000 and 55,000 came from
across the border, which was a greater number than came from
either Britain or Europe. This year it is estimated that
70,000 Americans will come into the country. They will take up
between 20,000 and 25,000 homesteads, and as it is considered
that they bring property to the average value of $1,000 each
this would give a total new capital of $70,000,000. In 1907,
the year in which we had our greatest Volume of immigration,
there were 178,500 British and Americans as compared with
84,000 from the Continent of Europe. For the last year there
were 100,000 British and Americans and not a third as many
from Europe.
"It is apparent that, even with the best business management
the Empire can apply to the direction of its population, the
American immigration to Canada will continue to exceed that
from Great Britain. One of the most careful and soberminded of
our public men with whom I talked a few days ago, a man who
knows the West and for years has had intimate official
knowledge of the movements of population on both sides of the
border, believes that in the next ten or twelve years five
millions of Americans will come into Canada. Upon this I
pronounce no opinion, save to agree that the overflow from the
United States is bound to increase in Volume. Naturally there
are those amongst us who regard ‘the American invasion’ with
uneasiness, and fear the ultimate effect upon our institutions
and upon the relation of Canada to the Empire. In this
connexion I can only say that for some years I have been at
pains to consult men from all parts of the West who should
know the mind of these American settlers and their general
disposition towards the social and political institutions of
the country, and as yet I have not found a single Western
Canadian to express apprehension. They all agree that, while
the Americans have a natural affection for ‘Old Glory’ and as
yet may confuse the Fourth with the First of July, they pay
ready allegiance to the flag under which they have come to
live, and very generally agree that the impartial and
inflexible administration of justice in Canada is in itself
sufficient reason for the permanence of the British allegiance
and an honest loyalty to Canadian institutions. What may be
hidden in the womb of the future, when many of these Americans
sit in the Legislatures and in the Federal Parliament, and
become powerful in moulding public policy, we cannot know, but
at least it is seldom that the seeds of revolution thrive
amongst a prosperous agricultural population.
"But it is to one particular phase of the movement of
population that I desire chiefly to call attention. The
migration to the West has had a marked effect on the older
Canadian provinces. Many farms in the long settled districts
have been almost deserted. The old remain; the young have
gone. The only compensation is that the sons prosper in the
West."