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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 31, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 31.

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Items of Interest

Combinations

The great tin-can trust is capitalized at $88,000,000.
The Federal Salt Company, a trust, has absorbed the entire product of the Carmen Salt Works, in Lower California, and already has within its grasp about ninety-five per cent. of all the salt works of the United States.
It was reported recently that American capital had secured control of the facilities of passenger traffic in the city of Paris. The following week an American capitalist announced that he had secured control of the London underground passenger traffic.
Eight men recently put through an enterprise which brings under one management seven great railway and steamship systems, operating continuously from Europe across the Atlantic, the United States, and the Pacific, to the shores of Asia.
The American Smelting and Refining Company, which is a trust, is seeking to gain control of all the silver-lead producing mines in the country. The course of procedure by which the trust intends to gain its ends is to charge such exorbitant rates for smelting and refining the ores that the small mine-owners will have to sell out or go out of the business.
The capital of the great steel trust recently formed now stands at $1,404,000,000, and is rapidly absorbing other great steel interests. At its present rate of growth, and absorption of other interests, this mammoth organization will soon be in absolute control of the steel industry of this continent, and in partial control of many other industries connected with the production of steel.
The mercantile community has been appalled by the magnitude of the American steel combination, headed by J. P. Morgan. The enormous mass of capital under single control has created the impression in the iron trade and general business circles that American competition is far more serious than German rivalry. The truth is perceived that immense masses of capital can not be concentrated in Germany as in the United States, for cheapening all processes of production and distribution. The United States steel corporation is frankly described by financial journals like the Statist as the biggest industrial monopoly ever known, and as capable of making, at smallest cost, as much steel as all the steel manufacturers of Great Britain put together.—London cablegram to N.Y. Tribune, March 3.

Money

Within the past one hundred years the national debts of the chief nations of the world have increased from $3,500,000,000 to $31,000,000,000, which is the aggregate of the national debts of the world at the present time.
Last year the Standard Oil Company paid in dividends the enormous sum of $48,000,000. The dividends paid in 1899 amounted to $33,000,000, and in 1898 they amounted to $30,000,000. The company has paid to its stockholders since 1895 more than twice the amount of the par value of the capital stock.
A report from New York City states that the sum annually paid by gamblers and the promoters of other kinds of vice for protection from police raids in that city is $5,600,000; and this vast sum of money goes into the hands of men who are paid by the city for the very purpose of protecting its inhabitants against law-breaking, and every kind of vice.
The following extract from an article in the Neuste Wiener Tageblatt, an influential Austrian journal, will show something of the way sentiment is being formed in European nations against the influence and power of the United States: “America is the common enemy of all; an enemy so formidable that each European country must succumb, unless leagued with the rest of Europe. Even united Europe will have a hard fight.” The writer of the article from which this is taken was advocating the formation of a European customs league against the United States. This matter is becoming a live question among Europeans, and is a direct outgrowth of the grasping spirit of American capitalists.
It is reported that J. P. Morgan is now engaged in arranging for the establishment of a great Anglo-American bank, with a capital of one billion dollars. It is proposed to abolish all the principal financial agencies now transacting bank business between America and Europe, and make this new money trust the principal agency for carrying on such business. It is said that this financier has had in mind for a long time the creation of a single great institution, which would dominate not only the banking business passing to and fro between America and Europe, but would practically dictate the financial operations of the world. Thus is trust piling upon trust, and thus are the finances of the world being more securely gathered under the control of a few men
The yearly coinage statement of the director of the mint shows that the total coinage of the mints of the United States during the year was $137,599,401, of which $99,277,942 was in gold, and the rest silver and minor coins.
The largest gold fund in the world, $550,000,000, is owned by the United States. France comes next with $442,000,000; Russia third, with $345,000,000; Austria-Hungary fourth, with $184,000,000; England fifth, with $162,000,000, and Germany sixth, with $120,000,000.

Labor

The street-car system of Scranton, Pa., was recently tied up by a strike of all its motormen and conductors.
A report from Russia states that 40 men were shot to death and 150 others wounded in a conflict between soldiers and strikers at Alexandrovsky, on May 20.
Seven thousand iron-workers went on strike recently in San Francisco, owing to the refusal of their employers to yield to the demand for a nine-hour day with increased rate of pay. The iron-workers are adding their strength to that of the machinists who are on strike.
The St. Petersburg strike has been practically crushed through the stern measures taken by the military. Many have been injured in the rioting incident to the suppression of the strike. Of the employes of one institution alone, 250 men have been placed under arrest.
More than 3,000 troops were on duty during the street-railway strike at Albany N. Y.; but even these were powerless at times to protect from injury, the company's property, or the men who were operating it, and many persons were injured by sticks, stones, clubs, and firearms.
Serious disturbances are reported from Southern Italy and the Island of Sicily. The peasants in several provinces are in open revolt, and conflicts with the police are of daily occurrence. In some sections gardens and fields are lying waste. The municipality of Pioulles has suspended payment, strikes are extending throughout Southern Italy, and general misery prevails.
A movement is said to be now on foot for the consolidation of all the labor unions in this country. If this plan is carried out as proposed, it will mean the placing of all labor unions in one great organization, which will be able to bring the entire force of union labor against any proposition that may arise. The power and danger of such a consolidation it is not hard to realize.
A great strike of machinists is now in progress throughout the United States. In many places the employers have acceded to the machinists’ demands, and in such shops strikes have not occurred. A great many shops, however, have refused to yield to the demands of the machinists, and about 50,000 were out on strike on May 21. Some of these have now returned to work, but others still have joined the ranks of the strikers.
A great many and serious strikes have occurred in France since the close of the great exposition. The strike at Calais caused considerable loss of life, and the loss of a vast amount of money to local industry and to the laborers themselves. The strike at Marseilles cost the city in the neighborhood of $8,000,000 a week. The coal miners of the great Northumberland district, England, have had to submit to a reduction in their wages amounting to 21 per cent., and one of England’s great iron companies has reduced the pay of its employees 13 per cent., while the number of the unemployed is increasing.

War

The force of rebels now in the field in Colombia is said to number about 14,000.
It is reported that Chile has opened a pass into Argentina at every strategical point in the Andes. Argentina is much worried over this apparent hostile move on the part of Chile.
A London despatch states that the English Government has decided to lay upon the mines of the Transvaal $250,000,000 of the cost of the war, or practically one-half the burden.
England is preparing to outdo all her rivals in navy building. Next year she will build three 18,000-ton battle-ships, which will be 3,000 tons larger than any war-ships now afloat.
The Russian Government has issued an order for a loan of $84,800,000 to meet the expenditures for the current year. This great loan is made necessary by the heavy expenses of the Russian War preparations.
Sweden is proposing greatly to increase her army and navy expenditures. The proposals of the Riksdag Committee are to the effect that the army expenditures shall be increased to $10,500,000, and the navy expenditures to $3,270,000. This means a tax of nearly $3 for each man, woman, and child in the little kingdom for these expenses alone; or comparing it with the United States on a basis of population, it would be equivalent to an appropriation by the latter country of about $225,000,000 solely for war preparation. It can be seen from this that the spirit of preparation for war is permeating the smaller countries as well as the larger.
The new five-inch naval guns for the cruisers of the Denver class were given a trial at the Indian Head proving-grounds on April 5. These guns developed a muzzle velocity 65 per cent. greater than guns of this size have made heretofore.
The present naval strength of Russia amounts to 23 battle-ships of the first class and 23 cruisers of the first class, 16 coast-defense ships, together with a large number of second and third class cruisers, gunboats, torpedo-boats, destroyers, and transports.
The Ordnance Board of the War Department has adopted a new magazine pistol for the army. This weapon is capable of discharging 116 shots per minute, as against 40 by the best Colt revolver, which has heretofore been the standard pistol in the army.
A Swedish army officer has patented a new contrivance of the nature of an aerial torpedo, which is propelled through the air by the escape of a gas generated within the torpedo. The Swedish Government has granted the inventor a subsidy for conducting experiments with this instrument.
Fearing the encroachments of Russia, Sweden and Norway have decided upon an elaborate reorganization of the army, and the erection of a line of fortifications in the northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. These two countries are said to be able to put 500,000 men into the field if necessary.
The British Government has been compelled to borrow another 60,000,000 pounds ($292,200,000) on account of the great expenses incident to the South African war and the military operations in China. These expenses have entailed a large deficit, which has caused the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask for an appropriation of $913,621,740 for the present year.
The new Naval Appropriation bill calls for an expenditure of $77,016,635, the largest amount ever reported to the House by the committee on naval affairs. The bill authorizes the building of two first-class battle-ships and two first-class armored cruisers, each of which is to have a displacement of 14,000 tons, with the most powerful armor and armament.
It is proposed, according to the new British naval estimates, to have 154,575 men available to man the fleet, of whom 118,625 should be on the active list, and 35,950 on the reserve list. The government will ask for $43,830,000 to be appropriated for the building of new war-ships. It is proposed to have the entire fleet renovated, and a new type of boiler substituted for the old.
Statesmen of Europe are again agitated over the possibility of an outbreak among the Balkan States. Speakers in the Italian Senate declare that the trouble in Macedonia may precipitate a surprise at any moment. They believe that Austria is fomenting discord in that quarter, and these senators are throwing out broad hints to Austria that Italy must be reckoned with in any difficulty which may occur there. These utterances, taken in connection with the recent speech of Count Goluchowski, of Austria, show that trouble is believed to be imminent in Southwestern Europe.
The War Department is now having constructed at the Watervliet, New York, arsenal what will be the largest gun in the world. The gun will weigh 130 tons, and will throw a projectile weighing 2,370 pounds a distance of 21 miles. The bore of this great weapon will measure 18 inches in diameter, while the entire length of the gun will be 49 feet. Each shot will consume a charge of 576 pounds of smokeless powder. If this gun proves a success, 40 will be built, of which number it is said 8 will be placed in New York harbor, 10 at San Francisco, 8 at Boston, and 4 at Hampton Roads.
Mr. Hudson Maxim has sold to the United States Government the secret of the explosive invented by him, known as Maximite. The explosive has gone through a series of successful experiments at the Sandy Hook proving-grounds, and the reports of the test indicate that it is a more powerful explosive than lyddite. A shell loaded with this explosive can be fired through a twelve-inch harveyized nickel-steel armor plate; and having passed through it, will explode upon the other side with sufficient power to destroy everything within a wide range. These tests are regarded as demonstrating that there is no war-ship of any navy capable of withstanding its destructive effects. It is but another step in the preparations for the battle of the nations, which is soon to be.
A recent report at the State Department at Washington tells a dreadful story of the wholesale suicide of women in China. When a Chinese matron is abused by a white man, she notifies her own family and that of her husband that on a certain date she will take her own life. No remonstrance is made, and invariably the woman carries out her plan. If she did not commit suicide, she would be ostracized by her people, and be compelled to change her mode of life completely. The fate of an unmarried woman is the same, only that instead of her committing suicide, her relatives are permitted to put her to death. So extensive have been the crimes of white soldiers that in many villages and small towns the women have practically disappeared. What a terrible record so-called civilization is leaving of its doings in the land of the heathen.