their majesties, appeared officially as the head of the
foreign board. The heads of the various governmental
departments were present, with the members of the imperial
clan, and, in addition, several thousand minor officials, all
in white, had assembled at imperial command. At the conclusion
of the functions, in honor of the dead, the diplomats paid
homage to Prince Chun, the regent."
On the 2d of December the strict mourning observed at Peking
was suspended briefly, to permit the ceremonies attending the
ascension of the dragon throne by the child-Emperor, Pu-Yi,
who, as Emperor, took the name of Hsuan-Tung. The ceremonies,
described to the Associated Press, lasted but half an hour.
"The function began by the princes of the imperial family and
the high officials of the empire kowtowing to the memorial
tablets of their late majesties. After this they all kowtowed
in turn to Pu-Yi: Pu-Yi then offered a sacrifice before the
tablets of the Emperor and the Dowager Empress. After this he
was relieved of his dress of mourning and clad with much care
in a diminutive imperial garment, embroidered with the
imperial dragon. His nurses performed this duty with great
attention and care. Thus arrayed, the toddling Emperor
ascended the throne amid a fanfare of drums, bells and
firecrackers. He made his way alone and showed no need of the
assistance which willing hands would have given him had his
little feet faltered. From the throne Pu-Yi kowtowed to his
stepmother, the Dowager Empress Yiahonala. He then received
the kowtows, while still on the throne, of all the princes and
officials present. This over, he descended from the throne and
was again clad in his little dress of mourning.
"The ceremony took place in the throne hall of the Forbidden
City. The officials present were selected with great care and
were the highest men in the empire. According to an old
established custom, a number of humble coolies, men from the
lowest walks of life, were brought into the sacred precincts
of the Forbidden City to act as witnesses. The soldiery played
but an inconspicuous part in the proceedings."
Following the ceremony, an imperial edict proclaiming the
ascension was issued. This edict grants amnesty for certain
specified offences; rewards all the imperial princes,
princesses, and dukes; promotes all officials by one degree
and bestows honors on their parents; erases the demerits
entered against minor officials; advances the degree of
scholars; dismisses all pending petty criminal cases; excuses
certain liabilities, and grants bounties to the soldiers in
the service of the empire.
CHINA: A. D. 1908 (December).
Decree reaffirming the Constitutional Programme of the late
Empress Dowager.
An imperial edict reaffirming the determination of the new
government of China to carry out in its entirety the
Constitutional programme laid down by the late Empress Dowager
of China in August, 1908, was promulgated on the 4th of
December. A literal translation was made public at Washington
in January as follows:
"On the first day of the 8th moon (August 27, 1908), the late
Emperor reverently received the excellent decree of the late
great Empress Dowager strictly ordering the officials and
people of Peking and of the provinces to carry out completely
by the ninth year all the preparatory work, so that at the
appointed time the Constitution may be proclaimed. Also
proclamations for the members of Parliament to assemble, and
other decrees brightly manifested the sacred instructions, and
all between the seas applauded.
{100}
From ourselves down to the officials and people high and low
all must sincerely obey the excellent decree previously
issued. The eighth year of Hsuan T’ung [whose first year dates
from January 22, 1909] is the limit of time. Let there be no
‘reabsorption of sweat’ in this matter. Our hope is that this
will certainly be carried out. Let the officials of Peking and
the provinces on no account look idly on, and procrastinate,
delaying the opportune time. Let patriotism be shone forth.
Exert yourselves that constitutional government may be
established. And court and ‘wilds’ (people) may have peace;
and so we may comfort the spirits of the late great Empress
Dowager and the late Emperor in heaven, and make firm the
foundations of countless years of peaceful government."
CHINA: A. D. 1909.
Progress in the opium reform.
See (in this Volume)
OPIUM PROBLEM.
CHINA: A. D. 1909.
Progress in technical education.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: CHINA: A. D. 1909.
CHINA: A. D. 1909.
Existing treaties with United States and existing laws in the
latter country relative to the admission of Chinamen.
The question of their consistency with each other.
Present status of the question.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: IN THE UNITED STATES.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (January).
Abrupt dismissal of Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai from his offices.
Much disturbance of feeling and apprehension of a troublesome
reaction in Chinese policy was excited among the foreign
representatives in China, on the 2d of January, 1909, by the
sudden dismissal of the able and powerful Viceroy of Chi-li,
Yuan Shih-kai, from all his offices. He had been looked upon
as the great leader of progress in China,—the statesman to be
counted on for the most and best influence in the government
of the Empire for some years to come. He had the confidence of
foreign powers, and was supposed to have acquired a sure
footing in the councils at Peking. Latterly, however, it is
said to have become known in Peking that "a powerful Manchu
cabal was working for his downfall, led by Tieh-liang, the
Minister of War, and supported by the aged doctrinaire and
Chinese ex-Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung," and the stroke which
overthrew him at the beginning of the new year was ascribed to
that source. "The cabal has been successful," was the wired
message of the Peking correspondent of the London _Times_
to his paper; and he summarized the merits of the fallen
statesman thus: "No man in China deserved better of his
country. He has been in the forefront of progress, and is the
best administrator China has produced in this generation. When
Governor of Shantung in 1900 his action in resisting the Boxer
insurrection and in safeguarding foreigners really saved the
Empire from disruption. He created China’s modern army and was
the leader of the modern educational movement in China, and
his famous memorial of September 2, 1905, urging the summary
abolition of the antiquated system of literary examination was
epoch-making. Under his Viceroyalty the Metropolitan province
became the most advanced in the Empire. With Tang Shao-yi he
led the anti-opium movement. Since he entered the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs China has attained a measure of respect among
the Powers which was unknown before."
Some weeks after the blow had fallen, and when the peculiarly
Oriental manner of its infliction had been learned, a letter
from Peking to the New York _Evening Post_ told of it as
follows:
"At 11 a. m. on Saturday, January 2, the grand councillors
were summoned by the regent. Prince Ching had evidently heard
a whisper of what was to come, and he pleaded illness. The
other grand councillors answered the summons promptly, but
when Yuan reached the door of the council chamber he was told
that he was not wanted. Three grand councillors therefore went
in and found the regent awaiting them with the edict
dismissing Yuan Shih-kai already drawn up. ‘I want no
discussion. Sign this edict!’ said the regent. Chang Chih-tung
turned to reply. The regent repeated his words impressively,
and the edict was signed without further demur.
"Within the next hour, while Yuan Shih-kai was hastily making
plans for his personal safety, the news flew around Peking and
the city throbbed with excitement. Every one but his immediate
councillors was astounded at Prince Chun’s temerity. Never in
the history of China had such a man as Yuan been thrown out of
office at such short notice. To the Western mind, however,
there was nothing very harsh in the edict; it said simply:
"‘Yuan Shih-kai, a member of the Grand Council and president
of the Waiwupu, formerly received repeated offices and
advancement under the late Emperor. After our enthronement we
gave him great honors, because we considered that his talent
certainly was one that could be made use of, if he exerted
himself in the public service. Unexpectedly Yuan Shih-kai has
now contracted rheumatism in the foot, which makes it hard for
him to walk and difficult for him to attend to the duties of
his offices. Yuan Shih-kai, therefore, is ordered to vacate
his posts and return to his native place to nurse his
disorder. Thus is our great mercy to him manifested.’"
Yuan Shih-kai left Peking in haste, evidently in fear of his
life, and it was expected that his whole following of friends
and supporters would be swept out of their offices and
employments. But no such result followed, and credit began to
be given to the assurances of the Imperial Government that the
dismissal of Yuan meant no reversal of policy or reaction
whatever. He was distrusted, it was intimated, because he had
been disloyal to the late Emperor in 1898, when the latter
attempted great reforms.
See, in Volume VI. of this work,
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER), and after.
Yuan Shih-kai was then the chief agent and instrument of the
Dowager-Empress in overcoming the well-meaning but weak
sovereign and annulling his reformative work. Hence, it was
claimed, the present Government’s distrust of him.
The Ministers of Great Britain and the United States had
ventured some questions as to the significance of the act, but
their colleagues did not join them, and no further discussion
of the matter diplomatically took place.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (February).
Meeting of the International Opium Commission at Shanghai.
See (in this Volume)
OPIUM PROBLEM.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (May).
New Russo-Chinese Agreement concerning the
Chinese Eastern Railway.
Municipalities on the Line.
The Kharbin question.
The Chinese Eastern Railway, so named, is the line which
Russia, by Convention with China in August, 1896, obtained
permission to construct, from a point on her Trans-Siberian
Railway, through Northern Manchuria, to Vladivostok.
{101}
Under that agreement the Russian authorities claimed a right
to institute certain organizations of municipal administration
at Kharbin and other towns of rising importance on the line.
This right was challenged in 1908 by the American Consul at
Kharbin (sometimes written Harbin), Mr. Fisher, who refused to
recognize some ordinances of the Russian administration, on
the ground that he was accredited to China, only, and could
know no other sovereignty in Manchuria than the Chinese. This
led to a new Russo-Chinese Agreement, signed at Peking on the
10th of May, 1909, distinctly authorizing the "organization of
municipalities on the lands" of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
The "sovereign rights of China" are "not to be prejudiced in
any way," says the new Agreement; but "municipal bodies are to
be established in the commercial centres of a certain
importance situated on the lands of the railway. The
inhabitants of these commercial centres, according to the
importance of the localities and the number of the residents,
shall elect delegates by vote, who shall choose an Executive
Committee; or else the residents themselves shall take part in
the business of the municipality and a representative shall be
elected from amongst them who will take upon himself to carry
out the resolutions decided upon by meeting of all the
residents.
"No difference shall be made on the lands of the railway
between the Chinese population and that of other
nationalities; all residents shall enjoy the same rights and
be subject to the same obligations.
"The right to vote shall belong to every member of the
community who owns real estate of a fixed value or who pays a
fixed annual rental and taxes."
Reading no farther in the Agreement than this, imperial Russia
and China would seem to have jointly planted a seed of
democratic municipalities in Manchuria; but that impression is
destroyed by qualifying provisions, such as this:
"The President of the Chiao-She-Chu [a Mixed Russo-Chinese
Court, formerly created] and the director of the railway,
occupying a position superior to the Presidents of the
assemblies of delegates and of committees, have a right of
control and personal revision, which they may exercise
whenever they think fit. … in the event of decisions by the
assembly of delegates not being approved by the President of
the Chiao-She-Chu or the director of the railway, these
decisions shall be returned to the assembly for further
consideration. If the original decision is adopted by a
majority of three-quarters of the members present, it becomes
binding."
The effect of the whole agreement would undoubtedly be to give
the Russian railway officials supreme authority in the
so-called municipalities. Remonstrances against it by the
Government of the United States have been supported by Great
Britain, Germany, and Austria. The question remains open and
troublesome. Dr. Morrison, of _The Times_, wrote of the
situation in November as follows:
"The situation in Manchuria is receiving close attention from
the Legations because of the increasing difficulty of the
problems created by Russian and Japanese claims to territorial
and administrative jurisdiction in connexion with their
respective railways, claims which conflict with China’s
unimpaired sovereignty and with the treaty rights of other
nations. A tentative proposal was recently submitted to the
consideration of the Diplomatic Body, with the approval of the
Wai-wu-pu and M. Korostovetz, to create an international
settlement at Kharbin on a separate site adjoining the railway
settlement. The proposal was unacceptable to the Powers
interested because it implied a fundamental discrimination in
favour of the railway company, leaving it to exercise, in an
important trade centre, powers which are incompatible with
treaties and which are not conferred by its charter. …
"The Chinese Government entirely fails to avail itself of its
opportunities at this juncture. The local authorities are
unable, and the Peking Government is unwilling, to take any
initiative. The Wai-wu-pu adheres to its policy of shifting
opportunism, as shown by its proposal to the Russian Minister
to cancel, in deference to the protests of the Powers, the
agreement with regard to the Kharbin municipal regulations
concluded on May 10, a proposal unaccompanied by any practical
alternative whereby political requirements might be reconciled
with the undeniable vested interests of the railway. In this
connexion it is interesting to note that, whereas England,
America, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary refused
an unqualified assent to the Kharbin agreement, yet no
exception has been taken to the regulations of the Japanese
railway settlements, although, without any reference to China,
they confer the widest powers on the Japanese authorities,
including the right of arbitrary taxation and forcible
expulsion."
The Russian side of the question was presented in a
semi-official statement, made public in October, 1909, as
follows:
"The representatives of certain Powers which have trade
interests in China have, both in Peking and St. Petersburg,
expressed doubts as to the rights of authority exercised by
the Kharbin municipality. These representatives have
endeavoured, in notes presented to the Chinese and Russian
Governments on the matter, and in verbal communications, to
prove that certain paragraphs of the treaty which was signed
at Peking on May 10, 1909, violated the extra-territorial
rights granted to their nationals by treaty with China, and
further that some of the measures taken by the Kharbin
authorities were opposed to the regulations of the
international concession which, in their opinion, has been
recently established at Kharbin.
"It is easy to demonstrate that such a point of view is based
on a misunderstanding. Extra-territorial rights, so far as
they are secured by treaty, comprise exclusively the right of
every foreigner to be judged by his own Consul. They do not,
however, in any way exempt him from the obligation to pay town
and other taxes, or to submit to established regulations. The
difference between the pure Chinese open ports where there are
no foreign concessions and places which lie in the territorial
zone of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and are open to foreign
trade, consists solely in the fact that in the former the
Chinese authorities have the power to make administration
rules at their own discretion, while in places in the
territorial zone of the Eastern Railway the Chinese Government
has, by the concession agreement signed on August 28, 1896,
and the convention of May 10, 1909, transferred the rights of
administration to the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, as a
private concession, so that the company acts as the agent of
the Chinese Government in supervising the administration of
Kharbin and other places.
{102}
"Another misunderstanding has evidently given rise to the
statement that Kharbin has recently been converted into an
international concession. The contracting parties never had
any such intentions. By reason of legal acts, as well as of
traditions and conditions of a local character, under which
Kharbin originated, it is clear that this is a special kind of
concession, which is distinguished from other concessions by
its exceptionally liberal and exceedingly hospitable
regulations in regard to foreigners."
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October).
Naval plans.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: NAVAL: CHINESE.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October).
Opening of the Peking-Kalgan Line of Railway.
A purely Chinese undertaking.
See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS: CHINA.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October).
Death of Chang Chih-Tung.
Chang Chih-Tung, Grand Councillor of the Empire of China, died
on the 4th of October, 1909, and Tai Hung-tze, President of
the Board of Justice, was appointed his successor in office.
CHINA: A. D. 1909 (October-November).
Election and opening of Provincial Assemblies.
Beginnings of the institution of Constitutional and
Representative Government.
The following, from the Peking reports to _The Times_,
London, narrates the actual beginning of the series of
proceedings planned and promised for the gradual institution
of representative constitutional government. The first is of
the date of October 14, 1909:
"To-day marks an era in the establishment of constitutional
government in China. In obedience to the Imperial decrees of
October 19, 1907, and of July 22, 1908, ordering the
establishment, within one year of the latter date, in each of
the 22 provinces of China proper and in Manchuria and the New
Dominion of provincial deliberative assemblies, elections have
been in progress for some time past, and the assemblies meet
in accordance with the regulations for the first time to-day,
the first day of the ninth moon. …
"The elections have taken place according to the regulations,
and halls have been erected for the assemblies to sit wherever
a Viceroy or a Governor has his seat. The number of members
varies from 140 in Chih-li, 114 in Che-kiang, to 30 each in
Kirin, Lchlun-chiang, and Hsin-kiang. The incomplete returns
which have been published show nearly 1,000 voters for each
representative.
"For weeks past reports have been coming in from provincial
authorities asking for instructions and information concerning
this new departure. An edict issued last night renews the
Imperial admonitions to members of the assemblies as to their
deliberations, and to Viceroys and Governors as to their
supervision of the deliberations, and exhorts all to display a
loyal patriotism so that the country may attain strength and
prosperity. The event may be one of great historical
importance."
The next was sent from Peking on the 6th of the following
November:
"Already, in the opening debates of these Provincial
Assemblies, one apprehends the coming chaos, one hears the
first whispering of the approaching storm. Peking, panoplied
in ignorance and petrified in medieval statecraft, trifles
with Demos at its doors, evidently hoping that the Assemblies
will consume their own smoke, and that the Mandarin may be
preserved by the time-honoured device of holding the balance
between contending classes. But the spirits which the
Vermilion Pencil has called from the Celestial deep, though
elected with all possible precautions of ‘silkcoated’
franchise, and under the close direction of Viceroys and
Governors, show signs of scant respect for the Central
Government and of little sympathy for its difficulties.
Already, within a fortnight of their birth, many of the
Assemblies have passed resolutions denouncing several of the
Government’s pet proposals—e. g., the opium monopoly, the
stamp tax, and the foreign loan for the Hankau-Canton and
Hankau-Szechuan Railways. In the case of the stamp tax, 15
provinces have expressed the opinion, and have induced the
local officials in many cases to endorse it, that the proposed
levy is impracticable, so that, in the words of the native
Press, 'its imposition is deferred and the Ministry of Finance
is at its wits’ end.’ Concerning the vexed question of the
railway loan, the Hupei Assembly is reported to have endorsed,
without a dissentient, their chairman’s declaration that the
Government’s scheme should be resisted ‘to the death.’
"The spirit which animates these Assemblies is evidently very
similar to that which speaks through the vernacular Press;
iconoclastic, patriotic—in the sense that it denounces
everything foreign—but lacking, so far, in intelligent
leadership and constructive policy. Their attitude towards the
Central Government is generally one of scarcely veiled
contempt. I cannot illustrate better its general tendency than
in the words of a native journalist who, in a recent criticism
of the Grand Council, congratulated these rulers of China on
their remarkable longevity, but observed that ‘there is little
hope of longevity for an Empire that is governed by such
incompetent survivals.’"
A few weeks later, after the forty days’ session of the new
Provincial Assemblies had ended, this writer had changed his
view. Writing on the 22d of December, he said: "A study of the
reports of the proceedings so far available of the first
session of the Provincial Assemblies supports the contention
that the Throne has been justified in granting the subjects of
the Empire a limited right of speech through their chosen
representatives. The programmes of debate have been strictly
in accordance with the Imperial edict, and the proceedings
have been marked with dignity and decorum. The net result
justifies the declaration made by a high authority, who has
been given special opportunity of forming a judgment, that the
‘members have fulfilled their appointed task of working in
harmony with the executive authorities in the interests of
their respective provinces.’"
CHINA: A. D. 1909-1910.
Proposal of the United States for the neutralization of
Manchurian Railways.
Proposed Chinchow-Aigun Railway.
Late in December, 1909, the United States Government submitted
to that of China, and to the interested Powers, a proposition
which contemplated the neutralization of the railways in
Manchuria, now partly under Russian and partly under Japanese
control, and which looked, also, to an international
undertaking of the construction of a Chinchow-Aigun line, to
tap the Russian Trans-Siberian road at Tsitshar.
{103}
In a published statement subsequently, the American Secretary
of State, Mr. Knox, explained that his Government, during the
recent railway loan negotiations, had pointed out to the
interested Powers that the greatest danger to the policy of
the open door in China and the development of her foreign
trade arose from disagreements among the great Western
nations, and had expressed the opinion that nothing would
afford so impressive an object-lesson to China and the world
as the spectacle of the four great capitalist nations—Great
Britain, Germany, France, and the United States—standing
together for equality of commercial opportunity. The American
Government believed that one of the most effective steps to
this end in order to secure for China the enjoyment of all
political rights in Manchuria and to promote the normal
development of the Eastern provinces was to take the
Manchurian railroads out of Eastern politics and to place them
under an economic and impartial administration by vesting in
China herself the ownership of the railways. Such a policy
would require the cooperation, not only of China, but of
Russia and Japan, both of whom it would enable to shift their
onerous responsibilities in connexion with those railways on
to the shoulders of the combined Powers, including themselves,
and would effect a complete commercial neutralization of
Manchuria.
The proposal of a neutralization of the existing Manchurian
railways was not received with favor in either Japan or
Russia, and the other Powers concerned have manifested a
disposition to defer to the view taken by those two
Governments, which are most immediately touched by it. The
position of the Japanese Government on the question was stated
publicly in an address to the Diet on the 27th of January by
Baron Komura, Minister for Foreign Affairs, who said:
"The United States government recently proposed a plan
regarding the neutralization of Manchurian railways. The
Imperial government, in view of the important Japanese
interests involved, and considering that the proposal came
from a friendly Power with which the empire was on terms of
close intimacy, submitted the question to the most careful
examination. While determined to adhere scrupulously to the
policy of the open door and equal opportunity, it should be
recognized that the realization of the proposed plan would
involve radical changes in the condition of affairs in
Manchuria which were established by the treaties of Portsmouth
and Peking. The change must be attended by serious
consequences. In the region affected by the South Manchurian
Railway numerous undertakings have been promoted in the belief
that the railway would remain in our possession. As a
consequence, the Imperial government, with regret, was obliged
to announce its inability to consent to the proposal. I trust
that the United States will appreciate our position and that
the other Powers will equally recognize the justice of Japan’s
attitude."
The Russian Government is understood to have taken
substantially the same ground, on the general question of a
neutralization of Manchurian railways. There and elsewhere,
however, there is said to be a readiness to consider the
incidental proposition of an internationally financed
Chinchow-Aigun road.
----------CHINA: End--------
CHINA EMERGENCY APPEAL COMMITTEE.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: CHINA: A. D. 1909.
CHINCHOW-AIGUN RAILWAY, Proposed.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1909-1910.
CHINESE HIGHBINDER ASSOCIATIONS:
Their dangerous character.
See (in this Volume)
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1902.
CHINESE IMMIGRATION:
The Resistance to it in America, Australia, and South Africa.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS.
CH’ING, Prince of.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901-1908.
CHOATE, Joseph H.:
Commissioner Plenipotentiary to the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
CHRISTENSEN, Jens Christian.
See (in this Volume)
DENMARK: A. D. 1901, and 1905-1909.
CHRISTIAN IX., King of Denmark:
Death.
See (in this Volume)
DENMARK: A. D. 1906.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
See (in this Volume)
MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN.
CHUN, Prince:
Regent of China.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1908 (NOVEMBER).
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND:
Act of Parliament authorizing change of the Formula of
Subscription required from its ministers.
See (in this Volume and Volume 4.)
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1904-1905.
CHURCH, Roman Catholic.
See (in this Volume and Volume 4.)
PAPACY.
CHURCH AND STATE:
The French Separation Law and its execution.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906, 1906, and 1907;
also, PAPACY.
CHURCH AND STATE:
Russia: Emancipation of the Church urged by M. Witte.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (APRIL-AUGUST).
CHURCH SCHOOL CONTROVERSIES.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1903;
ENGLAND: A. D. 1902, and 1906;
CANADA: A. D. 1905.
CHURCHILL, Winston L.:
Under Secretary for the Colonies.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.
CHURCHILL, Winston L.:
President of the Board of Trade.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1908 (April).
CHURCHILL, Winston L.:
To the British Suffragettes.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
CHURCHILL, Winston L.:
On the Budget of 1909 and the House of Lords.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1909 (APRIL-DECEMBER).
CITIZENSHIP, American:
Principles of Naturalization defined.
The New Law.
See (in this Volume)
NATURALIZATION.
CITY GOVERNMENT.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
CITY PLANNING.
See (in this Volume)
SOCIAL BETTERMENT;
also, CHICAGO: A. D. 1909.
CIVIC FEDERATION, The National.
See (in this Volume)
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES;
also, NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION.
{104}
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: CANADA: A. D. 1908.
Introduction of Competitive Examinations and the Merit
System of appointment and promotion.
An "Act to Amend the Civil Service Act," which came into force
September 1, 1908, divides the Civil Service of the Dominion
into the Inside Service and the Outside Service, the former
embracing "that part of the public service in or under the
several departments of the Executive Government of Canada and
in the offices of the Auditor General, the Clerk of the Privy
Council, and the Governor-General’s Secretary, employed at the
City of Ottawa, or at the Experimental Farm Station or the
Dominion Astronomical Observatory near Ottawa." The employés
of this Inside Service are required to be classified according
to their salaries, in three divisions, and all appointments to
positions in it are (except as otherwise provided in the Act)
to "be by competitive examination, which shall be of such a
nature as will determine the qualifications of candidates for
the particular positions to which they are to be appointed,
and shall be held by the Commission from time to time in
accordance with the regulations made by it and approved by the
Governor in Council."
For the administration of the Act a Civil Service Commission
is created, consisting of two members appointed by the
Governor in Council, who are to have no other office or
employment, and who may employ necessary assistance for the
examinations they conduct. The following are provisions of the
Act:
"No person shall be admitted to such an examination unless he
is a natural-born or naturalized British subject, and has been
a resident of Canada for at least three years, and is, at the
time of the examination, of the full age of eighteen years and
not more than thirty-five years, and presents the required
certificates as to health, character and habits.
"Before holding any such examination the Commission shall
require each head of a department to furnish it with the
number of additional permanent officers or clerks likely to be
required in his department within the next six months.
"On this basis, and having regard also to the requirement of
the several departments for temporary services, a computation
shall be made by the Commission of the number of competitors
to be selected at the next ensuing examination.
"If there remain from a previous examination successful
competitors who have not received appointments, their number
shall be deducted in making the computation, and their names,
in the order of merit, shall be placed at [the top of the
list] to be prepared in accordance with section 17 of this
Act.
"Thereupon due notice of the examination shall be given by the
Commission, stating the character and number of the positions
to be competed for.
"Immediately after the examination the Commission shall make
out a list of the successful competitors thereat for each
position, in the order of merit, up to the number computed in
accordance with Section 15.
"From the said list the Commission, on the application of the
deputy head, with the approval of the head, of any department,
shall supply the required clerks, whether for permanent or
temporary duty. …
"The selections shall be, so far as practicable, in the order
of the names on the list, but the Commission may select any
person who in his examination shows special qualifications for
any particular subject. …
"The cause of the rejection shall be reported by the deputy
head to the Commission, who shall thereupon select another
person to take the place of the one rejected, and decide
whether the latter shall be struck off the list or allowed a
trial in another department.
"After a person so selected has served a probationary term of
six months, [he shall be deemed] to be permanently accepted
for the service. …
"The head of the department, on the report in writing of the
deputy head, may, at any time after two months from the date
of assignment, and before the expiration of six months, reject
any person assigned to his department. …
"Promotion, other than from the third to the second division,
shall be made for merit by the Governor in Council upon the
recommendation of the head of the department, based on the
report in writing of the deputy head and accompanied by a
certificate of qualification by the Commission to be given
with or without examination, as is determined by the
regulations of the Commission.
"Except as herein otherwise provided, vacancies in the first
division shall be filled by promotions from the second
division."
Regulations prepared by the Civil Service Commission appointed
under the Act require fees, ranging from $2 to $10 to be paid
by the candidates for examination.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: United States: A. D. 1901-1909.
Progress of reform under President Roosevelt.
At the close of the administration of President Roosevelt, the
journal published by the National Civil Service Reform League,
entitled _Good Government_, bore the following testimony
to the fidelity with which the principles of the reform had
been upheld and promoted by the retiring executive:
"One of the first acts of President Roosevelt was the
reorganization of the civil service commission, which, under
the administration of President McKinley, had become lax and
ineffective. Since then the enforcement of the law and rules
by the commission has been sincere, vigorous and impartial.
Particularly strict has been the enforcement of the
prohibition against political assessments. Twice in the midst
of political campaigns has the President ordered the removal
of prominent officials for levying assessments on their
subordinates.
"During his administration President Roosevelt has extended
the scope of competition to many new and important offices.
Notable among these extensions have been the restoration of
the field service of the War Department (withdrawn by
President McKinley) and the classification of the rural free
delivery service (now numbering some 40,000), the forestry
service, deputy collectors of internal revenue, deputy
collectors of customs, deputy naval officers, and cashiers and
finance clerks in post offices. Prevented by the civil service
law from ‘classifying’ unskilled laborers, President
Roosevelt, under general executive authority, has prescribed a
system of examination for laborers in Washington and the
principal cities. By executive order of June 27, 1906, he
provided a system of examination and promotion for the
consular service which has done away with the more flagrant
evils of that service. His latest and most striking extension
has been the classification of over 15,000 fourth-class
postmasters, thereby taking them out of politics.
{105}
"He has prohibited the participation of competitive officials
in politics further than to vote as they please and to express
privately their opinions, and has made this prohibition
effective by incorporating it in the civil service rules, thus
giving to the commission the power to investigate. He has by
vetoing the Crumpacker census bill defeated the attempt by
Congress to obtain as spoils some 4,000 clerkships for the
next census.
"This is a brief record of President Roosevelt’s service to
civil service reform during his administration. In considering
the criticisms of his course which have been made from time to
time by the League and the press, this service should be kept
in mind and carefully weighed. For instance, against this
record of constant advancement, the suspension of the rules in
individual cases—in all about 370—although in our opinion
arbitrary and dangerous as precedents, are of comparatively
minor importance. A few have been made for political reasons;
the far greater number, however, were acts of charity or
personal impulse, and President Roosevelt himself realized the
danger in this practice and took steps to curtail it.
"In passing on the justice of the other criticisms of
President Roosevelt’s course regarding the civil service one
should keep in mind the distinction which he has so sharply
drawn between the classified and the unclassified service.
This is clearly set forth in a reply to a letter from the
civil service commission calling his attention to the omission
from the postal regulations of President Cleveland’s
‘pernicious activity’ order, and quoting a passage from the
11th report of the commission. President Roosevelt said:
‘I personally drew the paragraph which you quote. The
paragraph was drawn with a view to making a sharp line between
the activity allowed to public servants within the classified
service and those without the classified service—the latter
under our system are as a rule chosen largely with reference
to political considerations, and as a rule are, and expect to
be, changed with the change of parties. … It seemed to me at
the time, and I still think, that the line thus drawn was wise
and proper.’
"In considering such appointments to positions in the
unclassified service as that of James C. Clarkson as surveyor
of the Port of New York for instance, a just analysis must
take into account these frankly expressed views. President
Roosevelt drew a line between the classified and unclassified
service, and as to the latter recognized and availed himself
to some extent of existing conditions. He believed that so
long as positions remained in the unclassified service it was
impractical to eliminate political considerations and that any
attempt to do so led to hypocrisy. His remedy was to place the
positions in the classified service, wherever practicable. And
he has extended the line of the classified service higher than
ever before. The League does not believe this theory is ideal,
but in carrying it out the President has certainly not set the
reform back. Criticism based only on the fact that one who has
rendered great service to a cause has not accomplished all
that its ardent supporters wish to accomplish can be properly
set down as captious.
"In performing its duty to the public, the League has at
various times during his administration frankly criticised
certain acts of President Roosevelt, which in its opinion were
not in line with the best interests of the service. But this
does not prevent us from recognizing that during his entire
administration President Roosevelt has been loyal to the
reform with which he has been so prominently identified. We do
not believe that any act of his was intended to injure the
reform. Wherever he has thought it practicable to extend the
reform he has done so. A President less devoted to the reform
would not have been criticised for what President Roosevelt
has failed to do."
_Good Government,
March, 1909._
The following exhibit of the whole progress in civil service
reform, from its beginning to the end of 1908, was made in the
annual report of the Council of the National Civil Service
Reform League, presented at the meeting of the League, on the
17th of December in that year:
"The whole United States civil service, in 1883, consisted of
110,000 persons, and of these 14,000 were put under the civil
service law. Now the federal civil service has grown to
352,000 positions, and, including the last extension, those
under the competitive system have increased from 14,000 to
about 222,000. Not only in numbers but in proportion to the
total has the competitive service increased from 12.7% in 1883
to 63% now."
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1902-1903.
Extension of classification to the Rural Free Delivery Service.
Order concerning unclassified laborers.
"During the year ended June 30 [1903], 25,566 persons were
appointed through competitive examinations under the
civil-service rules. This was 12,672 more than during the
preceding year, and 40 per cent of those who passed the
examinations. This abnormal growth was largely occasioned by
the extension of classification to the rural free-delivery
service and the appointment last year of over 9,000 rural
carriers. A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on
April 15 last, which has greatly improved their operation. …
Executive orders of July 3, 1902; March 26, 1903, and July 8,
1903, require that appointments of all unclassified laborers,
both in the Departments at Washington and in the field
service, shall be made with the assistance of the United
States Civil Service Commission, under a system of
registration to test the relative fitness of applicants for
appointment or employment. This system is competitive, and is
open to all citizens of the United States qualified in respect
to age, physical ability, moral character, industry, and
adaptability for manual labor: except that in case of veterans
of the civil war the element of age is omitted. This system of
appointment is distinct from the classified service and does
not classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service
act and rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in
operation in several of the Departments and are being
gradually extended in other parts of the service. The results
have been very satisfactory, as extravagance has been checked
by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and by
increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining."
_President’s Message,
December 7, 1903._
{106}
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1906.
Excellent legislation in Pennsylvania.
See (in this Volume)
PENNSYLVANIA.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1906-1909.
The Reform of the Consular Service.
A great and greatly needed reformation of the consular service
of the United States was begun in 1906, by the passage of an
Act of Congress, approved April 5, which provided for the
reorganization of the service, primarily by the classifying
and grading of the consuls-general and the consuls, and the
fixing of salaries in each class. Consuls-general were placed
by the Act in seven classes, with salaries as follows:
Class one, twelve thousand dollars.
London, Paris.
Class two, eight thousand dollars.
Berlin, Habana, Hongkong, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai.
Class three, six thousand dollars.
Calcutta, Cape Town, Constantinople, Mexico City,
Montreal, Ottawa, Vienna, Yokohama.
Class four, five thousand five hundred dollars.
Antwerp, Barcelona, Brussels, Canton, Frankfort, Marseilles,
Melbourne, Panama, Saint Petersburg, Seoul, Tientsin.
Class five, four thousand five hundred dollars.
Auckland, Beirut, Buenos Ayres, Callao, Chefoo, Coburg,
Dresden, Guayaquil, Halifax, Hankau, Mukden, Munich,
Niuchwang, Rome, Rotterdam, Saint Gall, Singapore.
Class six, three thousand five hundred dollars.
Adis Ababa, Bogota, Budapest, Guatemala, Lisbon, Monterey,
San Salvador, Stockholm, Tangier.
Class seven, three thousand dollars.
Athens, Christiania, Copenhagen.
Consuls were divided among nine classes, receiving salaries
that range from $8000 in the first class and $6000 in the
second, down to $2000 in the ninth. The first and second
classes hold but one incumbent each, at Liverpool and
Manchester, respectively. There are eight places in the third
class, twelve in the fourth, and then the numbers mount
rapidly, up to the sixty-nine included in the ninth class.
All fees allowed to be collected for services rendered in
connection with the duties of the consular office (which the
President may prescribe) are directed by the Act to be
accounted for thereafter and paid into the Treasury of the
United States. All consular officers whose salaries exceed
$1000 are forbidden to be interested in or to transact any
business as a merchant, factor, broker, or other trader, or a
clerk or other agent of one, or to practice as a lawyer for
compensation, or to be interested in the fees or compensation
of any lawyer. The whole service is placed under inspection by
five inspectors, to be appointed from the members of the
consular service; and each consular office must be inspected
at least once in every two years.
In June following this important enactment, the Secretary of
State, Mr. Root, submitted to President Roosevelt the draft of
a recommended executive order, which prescribed new rules to
be followed in filling the consular offices, as classified by
the recent Act. In doing so, the Secretary made this
explanation: "The main features of the order were embodied in
the early forms of the Consular Reorganization Bill passed at
this session of Congress, but they were dropped out, largely
for the reason that their enactment by Congress would appear
to be an infringement upon the President’s constitutional
power to appoint consuls. Your adoption of these rules by
executive order will be free from that objection, and judging
from the very positive commendation which many members of both
Houses have expressed for the proposed change in the method of
appointing consuls, I do not doubt that the new system will
receive the hearty approval of the Senate and of Congress
whenever occasion may arise for an expression upon the
subject."
The recommended order was approved and issued by the
President. "Subject to the advice and consent of the Senate,"
it declared in substance as follows:
(1) Vacancies in the office of Consul-General and in the
office of Consul above class 8 (salary, $2500) shall be filled
by promotion from the lower grades of the service, based upon
"ability and efficiency, as shown in the service";
(2) vacancies in the office of Consul of these two remaining
classes, 8 and 9, are to be filled
(a) by promotion, "on the basis of ability and efficiency, as
shown in the service," of consular clerks, vice-consuls, and
consular agents, and
(b) by new appointments from candidates who have passed an
examination;
(3) officials in the service of the Department of State, with
salaries of $2000 or upward, shall be eligible for promotion,
always on the basis of ability and efficiency, as shown in the
service, to any grade of the consular service above the eighth
class;
(4) the board of examiners for admission to the service shall
consist of the Secretary of State (or such other officer of
the department as the President shall designate), the chief of
the Consular Bureau, and the chief examiner of the Civil
Service Commission (or such other officer, as this commission
shall designate);
(5) this board of examiners shall formulate the rules for
examinations;
(6) among the compulsory subjects shall be at least one modern
language other than English, the natural industrial and
commercial resources and commerce of the United States,
political economy, and the elements of international,
commercial, and maritime law;
(7) 80 per cent. shall be necessary for eligibility;
(8) candidates must be over twenty-one and under fifty years
of age, citizens of the United States, and of good character
and physique. They must also have been specially designated by
the President for examination.
Other significant provisions of the order are to the effect
that no promotion shall be made except for efficiency and
conduct, that "neither in the designation for examination or
certification or appointment will the political affiliations
of the candidate be considered"; and that "due regard should
be had to the rule that, as between candidates of equal merit,
appointments should be made so as to secure in the service
proportional representation of all the States and
Territories."
The first examination of candidates for appointment under this
order was held on the 14th and 15th of March, 1907, since
which time no one has entered the consular service of the
United States without satisfying that test.
In June, 1908, Secretary Root announced the promotion or
transfer of nearly sixty consular offices, setting in motion
the desirable advancement of these officials from post to
post, to make the best use of their proved capacity and
acquired experience. About a year later, Mr. Root’s successor,
Secretary Knox, made public the promotion of twenty-seven
incumbents of consular office, and the appointment of
twenty-three new recruits to the service from his eligible
list. So the long striven-for reform of the American consular
service may safely be said to have arrived.
{107}
A bill introduced in the Senate, providing for a permanent
consular service, based on competitive examinations, was
decided by the Committee on Foreign Relations to be
unconstitutional, for the reason that the Constitution itself
confers the power of appointment of consular officers upon the
President, and that Congress has no right to limit this power
in any way. President Taft, by an executive order, has
practically put the scope of the proposed bill into effect,
thereby, in part, limiting the power conferred upon himself.
This, in the opinion of the Senators, is all that can be done
legally.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1908.
Extension of the Merit System to nearly one-third of the
Fourth Class Postmasters of the country.
In the Annual Report of the Council of the National Civil
Service Reform League, presented at the annual meeting of the
League in December, 1908, it was said:
"The great event of the year, which so aptly commemorates the
25th anniversary of the passage of the Pendleton bill, is the
extension of the competitive system to all fourth class
postmasters in the part of the country north of the Ohio and
east of the Mississippi, that is, in the New England States,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Wisconsin, and Michigan. This is an extension covering more
positions than suggested by the civil service commission. It
is an extension large enough to be of present advantage, is
made in the more thickly settled portions of the country,
where it is easiest to carry it out, and yet it is not on so
large a scale as to invite mistakes or perhaps partial
failure. This extension covers about 15,000 positions. The
order of President Cleveland of May 26, 1896, covered about
31,000 places; and yet, from the point of political
significance, this present extension is the most important, we
believe, in the history of civil service reform since January
16, 1883, and when its purpose is fully carried out it will
include some 53,000 places."
_See, in Volume VI. of this work,
Civil Service Reform: United States._
The report then reviewed the efforts that had been in progress
since 1889, with the support of Presidents Cleveland and
Roosevelt, to bring about the inclusion of this class of
postmasters, at the least, under the rule of appointment
subject to competitive examination. President Roosevelt, in
his annual Message of 1907, had said:
"The fourth-class postmasters’ convention has passed a very
strong resolution in favor of placing the fourth-class
postmasters under the civil-service law. The Administration
has already put into effect the policy of refusing to remove
any fourth-class postmasters save for reasons connected with
the good of the service; and it is endeavoring so far as
possible to remove them from the domain of partisan politics.
It would be a most desirable thing to put the fourth-class
postmasters in the classified service. It is possible that
this might be done without Congressional action, but, as the
matter is debatable, I earnestly recommend that the Congress
enact a law providing that they be included under the
civil-service law and put in the classified service."
Congress refused the desired legislation. The law committee of
the League was unanimous in the opinion that the President
held authority already to make the change by Executive Order,
and Mr. Roosevelt gave a hearing on the subject to Messrs.
McIlhenny and Greene, of the National Civil Service
Commission, and the Honorable Richard Henry Dana, Chairman of
the Council of the League. Evidently he became persuaded that
his authority was sufficient, and was prepared to act
accordingly. About the middle of November, 1908, the National
League of Postmasters of the United States, which had been
organized in 1905, sent a Committee, with its President, Mr.
A. K. Hoag, of Orchard Park, New York, to present to the
authorities at Washington their claim to a footing of
non-political appointment under civil service rules. By good
fortune they met at Washington Mr. Dana and Mr. Goodrich, of
the National C. S. R. League, who were visiting the Capital on
the same errand, and the doubled appeal had quick success. In
an interview with President Roosevelt, the Committee of the
Postmasters’ League received assurances that he would issue an
order on the subject, provided that the President-elect, Mr.
Taft, would approve his taking that step. The Committee went
at once to the Hot Springs in Virginia, where the
President-elect was then sojourning, received his ready
endorsement of the plan, and conveyed it to the President in
power. A fortnight later, on the 1st day of December, the
memorable order was proclaimed. On the 1st of the following
February a plan of filling vacancies was put into effect.
It was wise, no doubt, to apply the extension of the reform in
post-office appointments to one large and important section of
the country, and obtain a showing of practical results, before
attempting to overturn the old system as a whole. That more
will follow in due time is reasonably sure. Mr. Hoag, the
President of the National League of Postmasters, in a private
note, remarks:
"It is already evident that the change is to redound to a
better service. Scores of new buildings, new quarters and new
equipments are being installed by the emancipated postmasters;
which shows that postmasters of this class dare, for the first
time, to invest their money in better equipment, feeling that
they are likely to remain postmasters long enough to make the
investment a paying one, now that their tenure of office does
not depend upon their relations to a political faction or
boss."
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1909.
The Census Bill.
Inveteracy of Spoils-seeking in Congress.
Veto of the bill in its first form by the President.
The Amended Bill which became law.
The greatness of the advance of civil service reform in the
United States, within the quarter century since its beginning,
is one of the most hopefully inspiring facts in recent
American history. But, by the side of it stands the warning
and shaming fact, that it has been achieved, from first to
last, by forces outside of Congress, and outside of all other
legislative bodies which supposedly represent the political
will of the people. Every measure of legislation that has
promoted it has been wrung from unwilling majorities in those
bodies,—yielded only when they feared to refuse. That
Congress, in both Houses, would wreck with eagerness, to-day,
if it dared, the bettered public service of the nation, to
recover for its members and their party henchmen the old
"spoils" of office and place, was shown unmistakably, within
the last year of this record, by its action on the bill to
provide for the taking of the Census of 1910.
{108}
The President, and every responsible official connected with
the Census Bureau, had borne testimony to the inefficiency and
wasteful costliness of previous census-taking under the old
system of appointment, and had besought Congress to provide in
the bill for an effective test of qualification for the
employment by competitive examination. Considerable majorities
in both House and Senate turned an equally deaf ear to all
considerations of public interest in the matter, and passed a
bill which enabled Senators and Representatives to parcel out
between themselves the large number of appointments to be
made.
President Roosevelt did not hesitate to veto the bill, and
gave it a thorough dissection in the Message which explained
his disapproval. In part, his comments on the Act offered to
him were as follows:
"Section 7 of the act provides in effect that appointments to
the census shall be under the spoils system, for this is the
real meaning of the provision that they shall be subject only
to non-competitive examination. The proviso is added that they
shall be selected without regard to political party
affiliations. But there is only one way to guarantee that they
shall be selected without regard to politics and on merit, and
that is by choosing them after competitive examination from
the lists of eligibles provided by the Civil Service
Commission. The present Director of the Census in his last
report states the exact fact about these non-competitive
examinations when he says:
‘A non-competitive examination means that every one of the
many thousands who will pass the examinations will have an
equal right to appointment, and that personal and political
pressure must in the end, as always before, become the
determining factor with regard to the great body of these
temporary employments. I cannot too earnestly urge that the
Director of the Census be relieved from this unfortunate
situation.’
"To provide that the clerks and other employés shall be
appointed after non-competitive examination, and yet to
provide that they shall be selected without regard to
political party affiliations, means merely that the
appointments shall be treated as the perquisites of the
politicians of both parties, instead of as the perquisites of
the politicians of one party. I do not believe in the doctrine
that to the victor belongs the spoils; but I think even less
of the doctrine that the spoils shall be divided without a
fight by the professional politicians on both sides; and this
would be the result of permitting the bill in its present
shape to become a law. Both of the last censuses, the eleventh
and the twelfth, were taken under a provision of law excluding
competition; that is, necessitating the appointments being
made under the spoils system. Every man competent to speak
with authority because of his knowledge of and familiarity
with the work of those censuses has stated that the result was
to produce extravagance and demoralization."
The veto went to Congress on the 5th of February, 1909, one
month before the expiration of President Roosevelt’s term of
office. His successor-to-be was well known to be in sympathy
with his views of the public service, and no attempt was made
either to pass the bill over the veto, or to proffer its
spoils-seeking provisions to the new occupant of the
Presidency when he came in. Congress was compelled, in this
case, as in many before, to surrender its cherished spoils of
salaried public employment to civil service reform, simply
because public interests and public sentiment are better
represented, as a rule, in the White House than in the
Capitol, which is not a pleasing fact.
During the extra session that was called by President Taft, in
March, an amended bill was passed which came near to
satisfying the demands of reform. It kept a little opening for
political favoritism, in a proviso, that the director of the
Census may, "when the exigencies of the service require," make
his selections from the list of eligibles, not by the
candidates’ rating, but on the ground of "immediate
availability" or previous experience in census work; but this
was so small a loophole that the President’s signing of the
bill was generally approved. "The act empowers the director of
the census to appoint special agents to whom will be assigned
principally the work of obtaining statistics from
manufacturing establishments, mines and quarries. While no
qualifying test is required by law for the appointment of
these agents, Director Durand has nevertheless provided for
their selection subject to a carefully worked out scheme of
_competitive_ examinations, to be conducted by the United
States civil service commission. In rating the candidates the
experience declaration and practical test are to be given
equal credit. All candidates who receive a combined rating of
70 will be placed on an eligible list, from which selection
will be made as the needs of the service require. Eligibility,
according to the instructions, ‘is not of itself a guarantee
of appointment, but selection will be made solely with
reference to equipment and availability for appointment.’"
_Good Government,
October, 1909._
CIVIL VETO, in Papal Elections.
See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1904.
CIVILISTAS, The.
See (in this Volume).
PERU.
CLANRICARDE ESTATE, Evicted tenants of the.
See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1907.
CLARION FELLOWSHIP.
See (in this Volume)
SOCIALISM: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
CLARK, Edgar E.:
On the Anthracite Coal Strike Arbitration Commission.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1903.
CLEMENCEAU, Eugene:
In the Sarrien-Clemenceau Ministry, and as Prime Minister.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1906, and after.
CLEMENCEAU, Eugene:
Disclaims for France the desire to revenge the German
conquest of Alsace.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907-1908.
CLEMENCEAU, Eugene:
Triumph in the senatorial elections of 1909.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY).
CLEMENCEAU, Eugene:
His downfall from Premiership produced by an
intemperate speech.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE. A. D. 1909 (JULY).
CLERICAL PARTY.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1903;
BELGIUM: A. D. 1904;
GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.
CLEVELAND, Grover:
Trustee of stock controlling the
Equitable Life Assurance Society.
See (in this Volume)
INSURANCE, LIFE.
{109}
CLEVELAND, Ohio: A. D. 1901-1908.
The Farm Colony Experiment.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY, PROBLEMS OF.
COAL, Wasteful mining and use of.
See (in this Volume)
Conservation of Natural Resources.
COAL AND COKE CARTELS.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL (IN GERMANY).
COAL COMBINATION, Alleged Anthracite:
Proceedings of Government against it.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1907-1909,
AND RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1906-1909.
COAL MINES EIGHT HOURS ACT.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR PROTECTION: HOURS OF LABOR: ENGLAND.
COAL MINING STRIKES.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION.
COBALT SILVER MINES.
See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1903, and 1906-1907.
COLLECTIVISM.
See (in this Volume)
SOCIALISM.
COLLEGES.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION.
COLOGNE:
Insurance against unemployment.
See (in this Volume)
POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF: UNEMPLOYMENT.
COLOMBIA: A. D. 1898-1902.
Castro, of Venezuela, and the Liberals (Yellows) of Colombia.
How they helped one another.
The following passages are from an article in the _American
Review of Reviews_ on "South American War Issues," by Edwin
Emerson, Jr., who spent some time with the Colombian
insurgents in 1902 and acquired a good knowledge of the
troubled political conditions in that republic and its near
neighbors. It adds something to what is told in Volume VI. of
this work concerning the revolt started in 1899 by Rafael
Uribe-Uribe, and about its relation to the beginnings of the
career of Cipriano Castro, in Venezuela
See, in Volume VI,
COLOMBIA, and VENEZUELA).
"At the time when Spain was losing Cuba, the last Congress of
Colombia sat in Bogota. The Liberal party had but one
spokesman in the Congress—to wit, Rafael Uribe-Uribe. The
government majority championed the cause of Spain. Many of the
more ardent Liberals were fighting in the field for ‘Cuba
Libre.’ Uribe-Uribe was the only man in the Congress who spoke
for America as against Spain. He was hissed down. Next, the
Panama Canal question came up. The French concession was to be
extended for ten years. Again Uribe-Uribe spoke for America as
against France. The project was voted down. The Congress was
dissolved. President San Clemente, on his own motion, extended
the French concession. For this he is said to have received one
million dollars, cash. Then the revolution broke out, and
Uribe-Uribe took the field, in Santander, the richest
coffee-growing state of Colombia. He fell upon the town of
Cúcuta and took it, only to be driven out again after a
disastrous rout at Palo Negro. To make things worse for the
rebels, the Bishop of Santander ordered the excommunication of
those who would not renounce liberalism or all connection with
Liberals. It was a crushing blow, aimed at the wives and
daughters of the fighting insurgents.
"While affairs were thus disturbed in Santander, Cipriano
Castro, a Venezuelan exile living in Cúcuta, profited by the
occasion to lead a small band of Colombian Liberals into
Venezuela. They dashed across the border by night, and fell
into Castro’s native town, Capachio Viejo. Castro’s father and
five brothers, with other townsfolk, joined his standard and
helped him win his first battle over a small detachment of
Venezuelan government troops. Now the number of his adherents
grew, especially as he won battle after battle or bought over
his rival leaders. After a crushing defeat at Valencia,
President Andrade fled the country, and Castro entered Caracas
in triumph. His early Colombian adherents got Venezuelan
government jobs.
"All went well for a while, especially after the prompt
suppression of a counter-revolution, until Castro’s sympathies
with the Colombian Liberals in the field began to tell on his
foreign policy. Uribe-Uribe had been badly beaten in Colombia.
He was made welcome by Castro in Venezuela, and was intrusted
with the command of a division on the Colombian frontier. The
command was recruited from Colombians across the border. At
the same time, Castro arbitrarily stopped all navigation on
the Zulia and Catacumbo rivers, running from Colombian
Cordillera to the Lake of Maracaibo, in Venezuela. This was a
death-blow to the coffee industry of the Colombian state of
Santander, which has no other outlet to the sea. Cúcuta was
ruined. A German house failed for half a million dollars, an
American hacienda lost $200,000, and other foreign merchants
suffered in proportion. All commerce in Cúcuta and Maracaibo
coffee almost came to a standstill. Then it was that the
government forces in Santander, to bring relief to the
stricken district, tried to open the closed rivers by a sudden
armed invasion into that region. For the sake of appearances,
they were led by Ranjel Garbiras, a Venezuelan revolutionist.
They made for the prosperous town of San Cristobal, but
Uribe-Uribe had managed to gather his corps of insurgents, and
beat off the attack in a three days’ battle. Some two thousand
men fell on both sides. Uribe-Uribe promptly prepared a
counter invasion. He was aided in this by Castro, who
practically put all Venezuelan forces in the Cordillera at his
disposal.
"President Castro, who was furious at so overt an act of war
on the part of his old enemies, the Colombian Clericals,
furthermore sent another expedition across the Goajira desert
to aid his Colombian insurgent friends in that peninsula to
take the Colombian port of Rio Hacha. Venezuelan gunboats
appeared before Rio Hacha to do their part in the capture.
Unfortunately for the Liberal cause, the Venezuelan army in
the Goajira was taken unawares while on the march, and was all
but annihilated. The gunboats chose to retire without firing a
shot. Castro never recovered from this reverse. The expenses
of his various armed expeditions ate up all his ready
finances. When he could no longer maintain Uribe-Uribe’s
troops, Uribe cut loose and recrossed the border, to join
forces with other insurgent leaders in the interior of
Colombia. Uribe’s cousin proceeded to Panama, and the civil
war there broke out with fresh vigor. By their recent
brilliant stroke in the harbor of Panama, the Colombian
Liberals have won the command of the sea on the Pacific side.
To assist them in doing the same on the Atlantic side, Castro
has now supplied them with a torpedo-boat and a small
gunboat."
{110}
These last mentioned successes of Uribe-Uribe had no permanent
effectiveness, for his surrender, with 1300 men and 10 pieces
of artillery, was announced presently as having occurred on
the 25th of October, 1902. It seemed unfortunate that he did
not succeed in overthrowing the Conservatives, or "Blues," who
held the government, since most accounts of their rule
represented it as hopelessly bad; but a change for the better
came without revolution after no long time.
The state of civil war was closed by a treaty of peace, signed
on board the United States battleship Wisconsin, November 21.
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1901-1906.
Participation in Second and Third International Conferences
of American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1903.
Rejection of Treaty with the United States for the
building of the Panama Canal.
Revolt and independence of Panama.
See (in this Volume )
PANAMA CANAL.
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1903-1906.
Feeling toward the United States.
Of the feeling in Colombia toward the United States,
consequent on what occurred in Panama, Mr. Barrett, American
Minister at Bogota, reported in 1906 as follows:
"The question is continually asked me: What is the attitude of
the Colombian Government and people toward Americans and
American interests on account of the Panama affair? Without
entering upon any political discussion, I wish, in answering
this pertinent inquiry, to take advantage of the opportunity
to pay a just and frank tribute to Colombia. Speaking in the
first place for myself as minister, I can truthfully say that,
ever since my arrival here seven months ago, I have been
treated with a generous kindness and sincere hospitality that
have made a deep impression on me and increased my respect for
Colombians in particular and Latin Americans in general. The
United States minister has been extended invitations official
and personal, and the United States legation in turn has been
continually frequented by leading men of all parties, as if
nothing had ever happened to mar the _entente cordiale_
of the two countries.
"In the granting of concessions and in the hearing of claims
the Government has treated Americans with as much
consideration as Europeans. During my stay here, and up to
this writing, there has not been one complaint lodged by
Americans in this legation of unkind treatment by Colombians
due to any political anti-American feeling. In my own travels
in various parts of the country, officials and peons alike
have everywhere accorded me polite and even gracious
attention. To let it be known that I was United States
minister has always led to extra courtesies rather than to any
lack of them.
"I could not, however, have it understood abroad that there is
not still strong feeling against the United States. It does
exist, but the passing of years, and generous, fair treatment
of Colombia and Colombians by the United States and its
citizens, in international relations and friendly social and
commercial intercourse, can effect its gradual disappearance.
Such feeling does not take the attitude of personal enmity
toward Americans. The Colombians, high and low, are too polite
and sensible for that. It is a feeling in the minds and
hearts, based on high political and patriotic grounds, which,
however, with commendable philosophy, recognizes the
inevitable and now turns to the future to bring blessings that
will counterbalance the losses and sorrows of the past. The
very courage and nobility of this attitude of Colombia is one
of the chief reasons why I predict for her a magnificent
future. Already this policy—if I may call it a policy—is
bearing fruit in the development of a greater and more
friendly and sympathetic interest throughout the United States
in Colombia, which is destined to lead to a mutually favorable
understanding and settlement of all differences in the near
future."
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1904.
Arbitration of boundary dispute with Equador.
A treaty for the arbitration of boundary questions with
Equador was concluded November 4, 1904 .
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1905.
Arbitration Treaties with Peru.
See (in this Volume)
PERU: A. D. 1905.
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1905-1906.
A New Era, under President Reyes.
"The New Era in Colombia" is the title of an article in the
_American Review of Reviews_, May, 1906, by Francis P.
Savinien, writing from the country in question.
"By judicious, if not generous, action," says the writer,
"President Rafael Reyes [who became President in the previous
year] has succeeded in harmonizing nearly all elements of the
population. His administration is neither Liberal nor
Conservative. It is Nationalist. Placed in power by
Conservatives and sustained by Liberals, his favors to the
former preserve order in the center of the country, and his
implicit trust in the latter insures peace on the frontiers.
He has made General Uribe-Uribe minister to Chile, Argentina,
and Brazil, and General Herrera commander along the Venezuelan
border, thus bestowing the highest diplomatic and military
honors on Liberals. From Conservatives he chose all his
ministers (except Dr. Modesto Garees, of the Department of
Public Works), the governor of the capital district, and other
high officials for the center of government. His government is
like that of Panama, the secession of which made a policy of
reconciliation predominant in both countries. … The Colombian
army has become a body of laborers. Troops are converted into
sappers and employed in building or improving ways of
communication. Idleness, as well as agitation, is beginning to
receive general condemnation. It is true that there is little
liberty. There is, however, less persecution than formerly.
Journals are abject and individuals mute. There is no free
speech or press. But there are few persons in prison or exile
for political reasons. The policy of the government has become
that of abstention rather than restraint."
General Reyes had represented Colombia at the Pan-American
Conference in the City of Mexico, in 1902, and had made a most
favorable impression on the delegates from the United States.
Referring to the occasion long afterwards, Mr. Sylvester
Baxter said of him: "It is notable that in that Conference
Colombia was represented by General Rafael Reyes, a high type
of man—gentleman by birth and education, of scientific
attainments, a natural leader, one of the strong characters of
Spanish America; a man whose existence makes things seem
hopeful when else they might look hopeless; a
soldier-statesman in whom many see the potentialities of a
second Diaz."
{111}
A similar expression of admiration appears in an interesting
special report, entitled "Colombia, a Land of Great
Possibilities," made in June, 1906, by the Honorable John
Barrett, then American Minister to Colombia, more recently the
Director of the International Bureau of American Republics.
"Great credit," wrote Mr. Barrett, "is due to General Rafael
Reyes, President of this Republic, for his untiring efforts to
restore the prosperity of his country to the position it
occupied before the last civil war and the loss of Panama. If
he succeeds, he will deserve a place in history like that of
President Diaz in Mexico. He has so far effectually stopped
revolutions, and, if his life and health are spared, Colombia
would seem to be assured of peace at least during his
administration."
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1905-1909.
Troubles with Venezuela over the navigation of rivers flowing
through both countries.
The arbitrary action begun by the ill-tempered and arrogant
Castro, of Venezuela, in 1902, when he stopped navigation on
the rivers which flow from Colombia to Lake Maracaibo, in
Venezuela, and thus open communication to the sea (see above),
was continued or resumed in subsequent years, and was a
distressing trouble to his Colombian neighbors.
In July, 1905, the Colombian Government appealed to that of
the United States for its good offices in maintaining the
principle of free navigation on rivers that are common to
neighboring countries. "From the time of the award which
decided the boundary dispute between the two countries," said
the Colombian Minister to the United States, in a
communication to the American Secretary of State, "the policy
of Venezuela in matters relating to the transit trade of
Colombia and the navigation of the common rivers, has been
marked by a conspicuous spirit of hostility. … Neither logical
arguments nor historic precedents, such as those submitted by
the Colombian chancellery to the Government of Venezuela for
the recognition by the latter of the principle of free trade
over the natural waterways placed by God at the disposal of
all nations, have availed."
The writer then reviewed at considerable length the arguments
with which the Government of the United States had contended
in the past with Spain and Great Britain for the free
navigation of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and said
in conclusion: "It would be desirable, and I would ask that it
be done if this note were favorably received by the Government
of the United States, that the American minister at Caracas be
appropriately instructed in the sense of declaring on behalf
of the commercial interests of the citizens of the United
States his desire that the Government of Venezuela make the
navigation of the Zulia and Orinoco rivers free, and urging,
by persuasion, that the principle be solemnly consecrated in
its public treaties. My Government will join in such an
action, which comes within its traditional policy in the
matter, and will interpose no obstacle or delay to the meeting
of an international mixed commission for the framing of
regulations concerning the use of the above-named rivers
without detriment to the legitimate interests of the countries
through which they flow."
To this request the then Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Adee,
made a favorable reply, August 5, saying:
"The principle of the free navigation of rivers has been
advocated by the United States and maintained in its relations
with its neighbors for many years. This government is ready,
therefore, to use its good offices in the sense requested, and
Mr. Russell has been instructed upon arriving at his new post
in Venezuela to take advantage of fitting occasion to express
to the minister for foreign affairs the great satisfaction
with which the United States would view the adoption and
proclamation by Venezuela of the general principle of the free
navigation of rivers and fluvial arteries of communication
common to neighboring countries.
"It is of course to be understood that in touching upon this
matter this government does not seek to intervene or mediate
in any way in the relations between Colombia and Venezuela,
but is merely interested in the universal recognition of a
policy beneficial to the commerce of the world."
In the following December, the endeavor seemed promising; for
the American Minister to Colombia was able to report the
signing, at Bogota, of a protocol, preparatory to a new treaty
of amity, commerce, and navigation, to be concluded at
Caracas. Four months later, on the 27th of April, 1906,
Minister Russell, at Caracas, announced the arrival there of
the Colombian plenipotentiary, General Benjamin Herrera,
appointed for the negotiation of the treaty agreed upon, but
reported further that the Venezuelan Government had refused to
receive him, demanding that somebody else be sent. No
settlement of the matter could be obtained while Castro
controlled Venezuela. Since his elimination it has been
reported that President Gomez, his successor, has annulled his
decrees of hostility to Colombian commerce.
COLUMBIA: A. D. 1906-1909.
Efficient but arbitrary Government produces discontent.
Opposition to treaty with Panama and the United States.
Vacation of President Reyes which ends in resignation.
Revolt.
Elections.
While the Government organized under President Reyes was
undoubtedly efficient and effective in restoring order and
prosperity to the country, it was not satisfactory to the
people; and perhaps it speaks well for them that they showed
discontent. It was not a representative government, the
existing Congress not being an elective body, but a
provisional legislature made up by appointment. As admitted in
the quotation above from a friendly Colombian writer, the
citizens under it were tongue-tied subjects, having no free
speech or Press. The political situation and the differing
states of feeling produced by it were discussed in April,
1909, by a special correspondent of the New York Evening Post,
who wrote from Bogotá:
"It seems to be confessed by the great majority of the people
here that the country has not entered on that stage of
political development in which the people can govern
themselves by parliamentary methods. The history of their
nearly one hundred years of independent national life has been
that of almost continual civil strife, and of frequent civil
wars, which have interrupted and almost destroyed all efforts
at self-government; so that the present system of government
by executive decrees, to be ratified by an appointed
‘Constitutional and Legislative Assembly,’ is about the only
one that can preserve the peace and direct the country into
the line of prosperity and progress.
{112}
"Under this system of government the country has enjoyed
almost perfect internal peace during the year. This is the
political theory that is most widely accepted at the present
time in Colombia. Of course, there are those who do not agree
with this theory, which they consider as the natural action of
men who are more anxious to preserve order than they are to
establish truth and justice, and there are not lacking those
who say that in the long run it will be found to be a foolish
system.
"It is pointed out that the idea that grievances can be done
away with by forbidding men to complain, or that the
criticisms can be met by excommunicating the critics, or that
changes can be prevented by putting the troublers to silence,
is contradicted by the experience of the rest of the world.
The kind of effort that is being made in Colombia to prevent
the liberty of the press, of public speech, and of personal
opinion, is like the effort to prevent the escape of steam by
the safety valve, and is very likely to result in an
explosion."
The state of public feeling in Colombia became further
complicated, no doubt, when, early in January, 1909, a
tripartite treaty was negotiated, with Panama and the United
States, for the settlement of questions connected with the
secession of Panama in 1903. Panama, in this treaty, agreed to
pay Colombia the sum of $3,500,000, as her share of the
Colombian public debt, receiving recognition of her
independence in return. The treaty was submitted to the
Colombian Congress by President Reyes on the 24th of February,
with a special message of recommendation; but public feeling
was said to be bitterly against it, for the reasons that no
wrongfulness in the transaction was recognized and the
indemnity was insufficient. Disturbances which broke out at
Bogota and in the provinces about the middle of March were
attributed mostly to this cause of discontent. For some reason
of discouragement or disgust, the President was reported to
have resigned his office on the 13th, but was persuaded to
resume it next day.
It was now decided to suspend consideration of the tripartite
treaty, until it could be submitted to an elected National
Congress, the election for which would be held on the 20th of
the coming July. In June, a few weeks before the appointed
election, President Reyes made a sudden departure for Europe.
Rumors that he had gone because tired of political strife and
would not return were contradicted by the Colombian Consul at
New York, in a published note which said: "His departure, the
causes of which are well known throughout Colombia, was due to
the fact that after five years’ strenuous labor he desired a
rest, and last March to the National Assembly expressed his
desire to retire temporarily from the Presidency, but, owing
to the opposition of public sentiment and the strong desire of
the people to have him remain, he determined not to leave the
Presidency until elections to the coming Congress had been
made. To this Congress, about to be convened, and in which all
parties are represented, President Reyes confides many of the
cares of government, left by law under his jurisdiction until
Congress should assemble, and withdraws, temporarily only,
from the discharge of his Presidential duties, leaving in his
stead General Jorge Holguin, his most intimate friend and
former minister of war, who will continue to pursue in all
matters the same policy as that adopted by his predecessor.
General Reyes during his stay in Europe, whence he has gone,
will perfect plans for developing railroad and other
industries in Colombia. There is absolute peace and
tranquillity in all parts of the country."
But the "absolute peace and tranquillity" of the country was
shaken in the first week of July by a revolutionary outbreak
at Barranquilla, soon suppressed, and the resignation of
President Reyes was received soon thereafter, from abroad. The
election of his successor now devolved on the new National
Congress, elected by the people on the 20th of July. It gave
the office, for the remainder of the unfinished term (which
expires August 7, 1910) to Señor Gonzales Valencia, who had
been proclaimed by the Barranquilla revolutionists the month
before, though he disavowed their movement.
COLONIAL CONFERENCES, British.
See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE.
COLONIAL DOMINION, The passing of the age of.
See (in this Volume)
WORLD MOVEMENTS.
COLONIZATION: The colonizable regions of Africa.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.
COLORADOS.
See (in this Volume)
PARAGUAY: A. D. 1902.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY:
Interchange of Professors with German and Scandinavian
universities.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: INTERNATIONAL INTERCHANGES.
COMBES, Justin Louis Émile:
Head of French Ministry.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1902 (April-October;
also 1903, and 1905-1906.
COMBES, Justin Louis Émile:
Vindication under scandalous charges.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1904 (JUNE-JULY).
--------COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL: Start------
COMBINATIONS: AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909.
Decision of the Federal High Court on the Anti-Trust Law.
Prosecutions by the Government.
"The first case brought under the Federal Anti-Trust Law ended
in June last in a decision of the High Court to the effect
that two important sections of the Act were ultra vires, as
the Constitution only empowered the Commonwealth to regulate
foreign and inter-State trade and gave it no authority to
interfere with trade within a State. The Federal Government is
now instituting proceedings against 27 firms which are alleged
to belong to a coal combine trading with other countries and
among the States of the Commonwealth. Each firm has been
called upon to answer certain questions under the Act in
question."
_Reuter Telegram,
Melbourne, September 27, 1909._
{113}
COMBINATIONS: Canada: A. D. 1909.
Merger of Dominion Iron, Steel, and Coal Companies.
Cement Combination.
The following is a Press despatch from Halifax, Nova Scotia,
November 13, 1909:
"The formation of the Canada Steel Corporation, the proposed
$70,000,000 merger of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and
the Dominion Coal Company, was made possible by the agreement
of James Ross of Montreal, president of the Dominion Coal
Company, to transfer to a syndicate of Toronto capitalists a
portion of his holdings of the coal company stock. Final
arrangements regarding the stock transfer will be made here
to-day. President Ross owns coal company stock of a par value
of $5,000,000, and, although he does not dispose of all this,
he is to transfer enough to give control of the coal company
to the Toronto capitalists, who have already acquired a
controlling interest in the steel company. The plants of the
Dominion Iron and Steel Company and the Dominion Coal Company
are in Cape Breton, where they give employment to thousands of
men, and where they have caused little fishing villages to
spring up into flourishing cities."
Announcement of the completion of the merger was made in
December.
COMBINATIONS: CANADA: A. D. 1910.
Anti-Trust Bill in the Dominion Parliament.
A strongly constructed measure for controlling and regulating
commercial and industrial combinations, to check restraints of
trade and undue enhancement of prices, was brought into the
Dominion House of Commons on the 18th of January, 1910, by the
Minister of Labor, Mr. Mackenzie King, and its passage was
said to be assured. Mr King’s explanation of the Bill, as
summarized for the Associated Press, was as follows:
"The Bill, Mr. King stated, was not designed to interfere with
trade, but to protect the public from the operation of
monopolies. The bill provides that if six or more persons show
prima facie evidence to a superior court judge that a combine
exists, which has unduly enhanced the price of a manufactured
article, unduly limited the production of any commodity, or
unduly restricted trade in any way, the judge shall order the
minister of labor to have an investigation made. This shall be
done by a board of three, one member to be appointed by those
who complain, one by those complained against, and a chairman
by the first two, and if they fail to select the judge who has
heard the complaint shall act.
"This board has the full powers of a court to compel the
attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence. The
board must report to the minister and he must give the report
the fullest publicity.
"Two remedies are provided where a combination is reported to
exist. The government may withdraw the tariff protection from
the articles produced by the combine and bring the
manufacturers into competition with the world.
"The other remedy is a provision that if the combine persists
in its course after ten days there shall be a fine of $1,000 a
day imposed until the abuse is remedied. There is also
provision that when a patentee makes use of the protection of
the patent act to restrict trade or unduly enhance prices his
patent may be revoked.
"The act provides for its expeditious and thorough
enforcement, and all expenses of investigation are to be borne
by the government.
"Where question is raised as to the scope of the
investigation, the board shall make it as thorough and
complete as public interest requires. Boards are to conduct
their investigations in public and the decision of two members
shall be the decision of the board. Whenever the minister of
labor believes that counsel should aid the investigation, the
board may retain the services of a lawyer upon the consent of
the minister of justice. Witnesses are to be allowed the same
fees and traveling expenses allowed at the present in civil
suits. With the consent of the minister of labor a board may
employ experts to examine books and to report upon technical
questions."
COMBINATIONS: GERMANY:
Corporation Reform as the Germans have handled it.
"Thirty years ago the German people went through corporation
experiences much like our own. There, as here, the
corporation, as originally designed, was a mere shell. There,
as here, under the shelter of that shell, the property of the
country was being transferred from the German people at large,
even the little they had, to the few. There, thirty years ago,
as here now, great corporate scandals were exposed. And there,
as here, the human nature that is everywhere behind
civilization eventually began to recoil. It began there before
it began here, only because conditions reached a climax there
earlier than here, and because we as a people were too
prosperous and too busy to look even a little way beneath the
surface of things.
"But when the work of reform did come there, it was a genuine
reform. It did not content itself with indiscriminate
denunciation, or with mere lawsuits. Nor did it die out,
leaving the door still open to every character of corporation
the cunning of men might conceive. Before a corporation can be
organized in that country, it must prove, as in a court
proceeding, its rightful title to a corporate existence. In
the same way it must establish the amount and the character of
the capitalization it is allowed to put out. When property is
turned in, its value must be judicially ascertained. Upon
officers and directors is not conferred supreme power; in the
German corporation the shareholders’ meeting is the
counterpart of our New England town meetings—a genuine
assembly intended to do something more than pass resolutions
of approval. And every violation of trust, not merely to the
public, but to the shareholder as well, is quickly punished
with punishment that smarts. There is in the German
corporation no room for one to do, with impunity, in his
capacity as a corporation officer or promoter, what if done
individually would land him in the penitentiary."
_Judge Peter S. Grosscup,
The Corporation and the People
(The Outlook, January 12, 1907)._
COMBINATIONS: The Cartels.
Industrial combinations, quite as effective as the Trusts of
the United States, have been created in Germany on a wholly
different plan. The constituent organizations in them, of
capital and industry, are simply knitted or tied together by
hard and fast agreements, instead of being fused into huge
corporations, as the Trusts are. For the kind of covenant
which unites them a military term has been borrowed, and they
are called Cartels. The difference between the Cartel and
the Trust is described by a Scottish writer, D. H. Macgregor,
in his work on Industrial Combinations, as follows:
{114}
"The Cartel is an agreement for a time, the Trust is a
permanent structure; the former is therefore a factor in
industry full of speculative possibilities, both as regards
its actual operation, and because the 'residual' competition
of parties who break away at the end of the period is
considerably to be feared. … The principle of the pure Cartel
is compensatory action. It is an organization in which certain
producers deal with themselves, and exist for that purpose in
a double relation; they are producers of goods, and purchasers
of their own produce. What they stand to lose in one aspect
they stand to gain in the other. …
"The operation is broadly as follows. The members of the
Cartel, meeting as producers in general assembly, determine a
price for their product which covers cost of production, being
in fact practically a competitive price. This is the base or
normal price (_Richtpreis_). Thus they assure themselves, in
this capacity, of adequate remuneration. They then sell to the
Syndicate, that is to themselves as members of the Syndicate,
for what is called the ‘taking over’ or ‘accounting’ price
(_Verrechnungspreis_) which is usually on the average higher
than the base price, so that they have now created for
themselves as producers a ‘Cartel advantage.’ The Syndicate
then resells to the consumer, for a price which will be as
high as it can get, but which varies with the competition to
be met in different parts of the market; this price
(_Verkaufspreis_) may not in some cases be so high as the
taking-over price, or may not exceed it by more than the
margin necessary to cover the Syndicate’s expenses of
management. … It is the Syndicate which figures in the public
eye; and while it itself offers no sign of monopoly profit it
shelters the companies which gain by its handling of their
goods. It conceals monopoly dividends."
_D. H. Macgregor,
Industrial Combination
(G. Bell & Sons, London, 1906)._
COMBINATIONS: The Coal and Coke Cartels.
Their influence.
An elaborate history and description of the "Monopolistic
Combinations in the German Coal Industry," by Francis Walker,
was published for the American Economic Association in 1904.
These are treated as representative, because, says Mr. Walker,
"the most important and fundamental of all German castellated
industries" are those in mining and metallurgy. He traces
their development from a beginning in 1858, when an
association of the mining interests of the mining district of
Dormund was founded. In part, his conclusions as to the effect
of the coal cartels are as follows:
"The German coal cartels have not had an injurious influence,
in general, on the production of coal. More particularly they
cannot be accused, justly, of unduly limiting production among
themselves. Nor have they attempted to accomplish the same end
by crushing outside competition, by unfair methods. It would
be preposterous to say that they have hindered technical
progress. The cost of production, on the other hand, probably
has been somewhat increased by the preservation of weak and
costly mines through participation in the cartels. In regard
to prices, the policy of the coal cartels, on the whole, has
been moderate, taking circumstances into consideration, while
the policy of the coke cartel may be fairly pronounced
extortionate. The prices of coal have been more stable than
they would have been under free competition; during the
_hausse_ they were not screwed up so high as they might
easily have been, but, on the other hand, they have not
declined so quickly with the _baisse_. The like may be said of
the coke prices, but, at the same time, they were exorbitant
considered from the point of view of costs and profits. … The
_déroute_ of the iron industry was not due to the coal or
coke cartels in any important degree, i. e., even with low
prices, disaster to the iron industry would have been
inevitable. No other industry was affected so much as iron,
and it is at least very questionable whether the cartels in
general (excluding the coal cartels in particular) are to be
blamed for the crisis. … That they are to be blamed for the
ill-judged over-development of certain industries, which was
apparently the real cause of the crisis, does not seem to be a
just conclusion. On the other hand, the cartels may be
accused, with more probability of truth, of retarding the
convalescence of German industry by not reducing prices, and
if this is true, the coal and coke cartels are specially to
blame."
F. Walker,
Monopolistic Combinations in the German Coal Industry
(American Economic Association), 1904.
COMBINATIONS: Growing magnitude of companies.
Industrial concentration.
"The tendency to industrial concentration is shown by the
returns of public companies, which point to the growing
domination of large undertakings. Of 4,749 registered public
companies in 1895, 13.6 per cent. had a share capital not
exceeding £5,000, but in 1906, of 5,000 such companies, only
9.6 per cent. had a capital of that amount; the companies with
a capital of from £5,000 to £12,500 decreased from 14.0 to
10.4 per cent., and those with a capital of from £12,500 to
£25,000 decreased from 16.9 to 14.2 per cent. On the other
hand the companies with a capital of from £25,000 to £50,000
increased from 20.7 to 21.3 percent.; those with a capital of
from £50,000 to £250,000 increased from 28.5 to 35.0 per
cent.; those with a capital of from £250,000 to £500,000
increased from 3.4 to 5.4 per cent., and those with a capital
exceeding £500,000 increased from 2.9 to 4.1 per cent. In 1896
there were only two companies with a capital exceeding five
millions; in 1906 there were nine such companies, and their
combined capital was over seventy millions, having been more
than doubled since 1896. In spite of this tendency towards the
concentration of capital and the multiplication of large
undertakings, however, Germany is still an interesting
illustration of an industrial country which has not yet
entirely gone over to the factory system of production. The
handicrafts, the characteristic feature of which is the small,
independent master-workman, surrounded by his handful of
journeymen and apprentices, contend tenaciously, yet
unfortunately with only partial success, against the on-coming
tide of ‘great capitalism’ (private joint stock, and
cooperative), and the house industries continue to afford
employment to a multitude of workers of both sexes, estimated
at half a million."
_William H. Dawson,
The Evolution of Modern Germany,
pages 59-60 (Unwin, London; Scribner's, New York, 1909)._
{115}
"Among the home interests of the country nothing loomed up so
large last year [1904] as the subject of industrial
combinations. The process of consolidating industries and
banks into powerful organizations again made gigantic strides;
and the public mind, dazed and disquieted, is wondering what
will be its final outcome. All the largest steel manufacturers
have united in an association that shall have complete control
of the steel and iron products of the country; and it is
already effecting agreements with manufacturers of other
countries for parceling out the world’s markets. At the same
time the Coal Syndicate was reorganized to include all the
independent producers of the West; and in connection with it,
a great shipping and selling company was formed for the
purpose of controlling the retail trade and eliminating
recalcitrant dealers. These steel and coal combinations are
working in complete harmony, and no independent manufacturer
can exist against their will.
"In that great industrial region many large iron companies had
come into possession of coal mines. In order to induce these
to put their mines into the Syndicate, they were given the
right to produce, over and above their allotments, all the
coal that they might need for their own furnaces. A new
impetus was thus given to the process of consolidation. Strong
coal companies hastened to absorb iron establishments, in
order to earn larger profits by consuming their own coal in
indefinite quantities. Furthermore, as the allotments were
fixed absolutely for a long period, the strongest companies
proceeded to buy weaker, less economically worked collieries,
in order to shut them down and produce their allotments
elsewhere at lower cost. This movement assumed large
proportions. Miners by the thousand had to betake themselves
to other parts of the country, and entire communities were
threatened with depopulation. Industrial towns held
indignation meetings, to protest, and to demand the
nationalization of the mines; and excited operatives are still
holding conferences to discuss a general strike. The
Government has sent a commission to inquire into the movement;
and the Minister of Commerce has urged the coal magnates to
proceed as mildly as possible.
"This powerful concentric movement of industries has taken a
strong hold upon the thoughts of people and Government alike.
The public is deeply concerned at the growth of private
monopolies, and many persons who had hitherto favored letting
economic development take its own course now call for drastic
measures of prevention and repression. Country squires of the
most conservative type advocate the nationalization of all
coal deposits; and it is already asserted that a majority of
the Prussian Diet would vote for such a measure. This
convergence of the views of extreme Conservatism and radical
Socialism is certainly one of the oddest results of the
movement under discussion,—and one of the most instructive.
The natural trend of events is unquestionably in the direction
of some form of socialism. The Social Democracy clearly
perceives this, and so hails every industrial consolidation as
but another milestone on the way to state collectivism."
_W. C. Dreher,
Recent Events in Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1905)._
COMBINATIONS: International:
Of Transatlantic Shipping Companies.
Agreements with the British Government.
Announcement was made in October, 1902, of the incorporation
on the 1st of that month, under a New Jersey charter, of the
International Mercantile Marine Company, with a capital of
$120,000,000, and an issue of 4½ per cent. bonds to the amount
of $75,000,000. The combination included the American, the Red
Star, the White, the Atlantic Transport, the Leyland and the
Dominion lines. Both American and British capitalists were
represented in the board of directors, the former in the
majority. Several partners in the firm of J. Pierpont Morgan &
Company were included, and Mr. Morgan was understood to be the
architect of the combination; but he did not appear personally
in its organization.
The first step towards such a shipping combination had been
taken sixteen years before, when the British Inman steamship
line was taken over by the International Navigation Company,
made up of Americans, at the head of whom was Mr. Clement A.
Griscom, of Philadelphia. "The British Government promptly
withdrew the liberal subsidy which it had been paying to the
Inman liners; but Mr. Griscom and his comrades brought the
_New York_ and _Paris_ beneath the Stars and
Stripes, built the St. Louis and _St. Paul_, secured a
subsidy from the United States and gave the first-class
British lines a most formidable competitor. Indeed, commercial
rivalry in high grade ships on the North Atlantic soon became
too keen to permit of reasonable dividends and Mr. Griscom
found British ship-owners in a responsive mood when he
broached anew the great idea of an international combination.
"This union was made all the easier by the fact that meanwhile
another important British steamship concern, the Leyland line,
had been acquired by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in the spring of
1901. This line, itself the fruit of several consolidations,
controlled the largest British tonnage in the North Atlantic
trade. It owned no fast mail ships, no greyhounds. But it did
possess forty or fifty good, useful steamships of moderate
speed, many of them of large tonnage, and fit for passengers
as well as freight. The main Leyland service lay between
Boston or New York on this side, and Liverpool or London on
the other, and the business of the company had been so
profitable for a long term of years that its shares were
quoted at a handsome premium. Mr. Morgan paid a generous price
for his maritime investment. It is said that he gave £14 10s.
for each £10 share, or a bonus of 45 per cent. But amazement
at Mr. Morgan’s ‘liberality’ ceased when the next stage in the
great, far-sighted negotiation was unfolded.
"This was the dramatic uniting of the Leyland line with the
American and Red Star lines of the International Navigation
Company, and the Atlantic Transport line, another British
steam fleet owned by American capital. Later still it
transpired that the famous White Star line of fast mail,
passenger, and freight ships and the smaller but excellent
Dominion line were embraced in the huge consolidation. The
White Star was one of the two lines—the Cunard was the
other—which performed the British mail service between
Queenstown and New York. Its fleet included the great liners
_Oceanic_ and _Celtic_, the swift _Teutonic_
and _Majestic_, and the favorite _Britannic_ and
_Germanic_ which had held ocean records in their day,
together with a considerable number of large and efficient
freighters. The American purchase of the White Star line was
long disputed, and when it was finally confirmed, something
like consternation seized the British press and people, for
the White Star fleet had been regarded as distinctively a
British institution as the Bank of England. Its fast ships
received not only the mail pay of the post-office, but the
subventions of the Admiralty, and were enrolled on the
‘merchant cruiser’ list."
Winthrop L. Marvin,
The Great Ship "Combine"
(American Review of Reviews, December, 1902).
{116}
The anxieties with which the combination was regarded at first
in Great Britain were allayed materially by Mr. G. Balfour,
President of the Board of Trade, who made public, in a speech
at Sheffield, the terms of an arrangement that had been made
by the Government with the Cunard Company, on one hand, and
the Combination on the other. The Cunard Company, he said,
"pledged themselves to remain in every respect a British
company, managed by British directors—the shares not to be
transferred to any but British subjects. Their ships were to
be officered by British officers. They also engaged to
construct two vessels of twenty-four to twenty-five knots
which, as well as the entire Cunard fleet, the Admiralty would
have the right to charter or purchase at any time on terms
fixed in the agreement. The money for the construction of the
fast steamers would be advanced to the company at the rate of
2¾ per cent. interest, while in lieu of the present Admiralty
subvention—£28,000 a year for the contingent use of three
ships—the company would receive £150,000 a year. With Mr.
Pierpont Morgan, the head of the Shipping Combination, who had
shown the utmost readiness to meet the wishes of His Majesty’s
Government, it had been agreed that the British companies in
the Combination should remain British, not merely in name but
in reality. The majority of their directors were to be British
subjects. All their ships now flying the British flag were to
continue to fly it, and at least one-half of those hereafter
to be built for the Combination would likewise fly British
colours, be commanded by British officers, and manned in
reasonable proportion by British sailors. On the other hand,
the combined companies would continue to be treated, as
heretofore, on a footing of equality with other British
companies in respect of any services, whether postal, or
military, or naval, which His Majesty’s Government might
require from the British mercantile marine. It had been
further stipulated that in the event of the Combination
pursuing a policy hostile to our mercantile marine or to
British trade, the King’s Government should have the right to
terminate the agreement."
COMBINATIONS: United States: A. D. 1900.
Definition of the term Industrial Combination formulated
at the Census Bureau.
Statistics as collected in 1900.
"The officials of the Census Office, in order to prevent
misconceptions and insure consistency in the plan and system
of tabulation, formulated the following definition of the term
‘industrial combination’:
"‘For the purpose of the Census, the rule has been adopted to
consider no aggregation of mills an industrial combination,
unless it consists of a number of formerly independent mills
which have been brought together into one company under a
charter obtained for that purpose. We therefore exclude from
this category many large establishments comprising a number of
mills, which have grown up, not by combination with other
mills, but by the erection of new plants or the purchase of
old ones.’ …
"So far as can be ascertained from the data in the Census
Office, the number of these industrial consolidations is 183.
They control 2203 separate plants, scattered throughout the
United States, 2029 being active and 174 idle during the
census year. For 56 of the idle plants no returns could be
obtained, making the total number of reporting plants 2147.
The 183 combinations extend to almost all lines of industry,
producing articles of luxury, materials essential to the
upbuilding and growth of the country, and even the very
necessities of life. Fully 50 per cent. of these combinations
were chartered just prior to or during the census year; and it
is noteworthy that the epidemic of industrial consolidation,
as far as the so-called monopolies are concerned, has been
practically confined to the past four years. It is evident,
therefore, that the disease—if it be regarded as such—has
spread very rapidly.
"Naturally enough, iron and steel, with 69 combinations, heads
the list. The number of reporting plants engaged in this
industry is 469, and the capital invested, consisting of land,
buildings, machinery, tools and implements, and cash and
sundries, is valued at $348,000,000."
_W. R. Merriam,
"Trusts" in the Light of Census Returns
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1902)._
COMBINATIONS: A. D. 1901-1903.
The question of Federal Control and Regulation.
Urgency of President Roosevelt for effective legislation.
In his first Message to Congress, three months after his
succession to the Presidency, President Roosevelt expressed
his mind frankly and clearly on the then increasing demand in
the country for more stringent measures of government, to
control and regulate the exercise of the power which great
aggregations of incorporated capital have created in recent
times. In part, he then said: