Your ShelfYour Projects

Imperialism

3%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 7, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 32.

Read the full edition

Imperialism

By Editor

A recent decision of the Postoffice Department regarding certain classes of second-class mail-matter is a manifestation of imperialism and usurpation of authority which ought to be rebuked. For three several times the matter has been before Congress, and the representatives of the people have refused to exclude the matter which the department has autocratically excluded. The matter of expense in postal service, it has been shown, could be clearly reduced in other directions,—such as the enormous sums paid to railways for carrying the mails. But if the expense were three times as great as it is, the proper authority to act upon the matter is not an executive officer, but Congress; and Congress has acted. But the postal department overrides the will of the people with impunity.
It does not impress us with an admiration for war, nor of the army as a school of the manly virtues, to read such items as the following: “At Winslow yesterday, before the soldier train reached that town, the citizens armed themselves with shot-guns and rifles; and when the train stopped at the depot would not allow the soldiers to leave the cars, and ordered the railroad officials to pull out with the train forthwith. All the discharged soldiers carry arms, and they are accused of committing many depredations along the route.” The soldiers on this train had been doing some promiscuous shooting at previous stations; and one man, a colored soldier, had been killed, and several persons injured. And the item is not an isolated one, unfortunately.
Besides the suffering and death caused by the prolonged hot weather in the East, serious damage has been done to crops, especially in Kansas and Missouri, where it is said the loss will be millions of dollars. Europe also has had an experience of intense heat and violent thunder-storms. Deaths from sunstroke and lightning are reported, with great loss of property. As the season advances, the heat increases. All previous records have been broken. In Indianapolis and Louisville the thermometer has registered 105°, in Omaha 106°, in St. Louis 107°, and in Decatur, Ill., 109°. The heat is said to be “like the blast from a furnace.”
The Cleveland Leader of July 2 states that before the 1st of September of the present year, all the great coal corporations in the United States will be under the control of one combination, similar to the United States Steel Corporation, and under the direction of the same man, J. Pierpont Morgan. Along with this organization will go the coal docks and fast-loading plants that are now owned by the various coal companies. The aim of all this, the Leader says, is the complete monopoly of the bituminous coal production of the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac.
One of the subjects of conference at Rome recently was the attitude of the Catholic clergy in Cuba and the Philippines toward the United States. It was recognized that the clergy leaned strongly toward Spain. To counteract this, it was advised that the clergy in the islands be replaced to a certain extent by Dutch, Belgian, French, and American priests. This suggestion, it is reported, came from the United States Government. If so, and Rome has yielded to American wishes in this respect, she is doubtless expecting greater favors from the government in return.
There has been discovered in Indianapolis, Indiana, what seems to be an “insanity trust,” through the operation of which lunacy proceedings are brought against sane persons, or in other cases are operated so as to deny to the victim the rights guaranteed by law. The proceedings in many cases are taken in secret, and many of the persons who have been committed to the hospitals did not know that their sanity was questioned until they were taken in custody and hustled off to the asylum—and all for the fees which the county paid.
An agent of the Ameer of Afghanistan has gone to Germany to purchase six batteries of guns for Cabul, and the Ameer is organizing an army of 100,000 which is to be equipped with modern weapons. It is feared that this war preparation is aimed at India, or that it is at least a plan of Russia’s to stir up trouble for England.
The company of which Mr. J. P. Morgan is head has just purchased two steamer lines,—the North Pacific and the Alaska. These lines have been operating more than twenty steamers, plying between Tacoma, Wash., and Yokohama, Shanghai, and Hongkong; between Tacoma and London via the Suez canal; and between Tacoma and south Alaskan ports. This gives Morgan and company a complete transportation system around the world, with headquarters in New York.
Russia is making herself generally obnoxious in China. The postoffice at Port Arthur is watched, and anything which the government considers contraband is unhesitatingly seized. An American was recently a victim to these strict regulations. A home-bound letter contained information about forts and troops at Port Arthur, and not only was it confiscated, but the writer was kept in jail three weeks.
A party of about twenty Epworth Leaguers, on their way to the San Francisco convention, were robbed of their money, their railroad tickets, and some of them of their trunks, by a body of pick-pockets operating at Colorado Springs, Col. They were left so destitute that, without aid, they were unable to return home.
The Epworth Leaguers—between 15,000 and 20,000 of them—invaded San Francisco, and of course they brought trunks. To handle these successfully it was necessary to ask union draymen to work for a non-union firm. They would not do it, and about a thousand drivers were discharged.
A report from Washington states that Postmaster-general Smith has decided to debar from second-class mail privileges a large class of publications that depend largely on gift enterprises, guessing contests, and nominal subscription rates for circulation.
S. R. Dawson, who was serving a life-sentence for murder in the Iowa State-prison, claims to have solved the problem of making Damascus steel. The governor has just pardoned the aged inventor, in the interest of science.
Three persons, scarcely more than boys, unsuccessfully attempted to rob the Chicago Metropolitan Elevated Railroad, July 17. Shots were exchanged, wounding the agent and one of the robbers.
It has been arranged that China shall pay her indemnity to the powers in instalments of 23,000,000 taels ($32,200,000). The indemnity demanded is 450,000,000 taels, with interest at 4 per cent.
The Russians are rapidly completing the Manchuria railway, and expect to employ an army of 50,000 men in its defense. Chinese troops are to be withdrawn “to prevent collisions.”
The Chinese are removing as far as possible the evidences of the havoc wrought by war in their capital city, that on the emperor’s return his peace of mind may not be disturbed by them.
Eleven persons were killed and almost a thousand injured in connection with the Fourth of July celebrations. A sad comment on the popular idea of expressing patriotism.
A very successful test of wireless telegraphy has been made off the coast of Newfoundland, a message being received at Cape Ray from a vessel 300 miles out at sea.
It was the czar that projected the Peace Congress; but just lately he has issued an order that 308,000 men shall this year be recruited for the Russian army and navy.
The Anarchists have been “assisting” in local disturbances at Buenos Ayres; and as a consequence, the city has been proclaimed in a state of siege.
John Fiske, an eminent scholar and writer, died on July 4. Professor Fiske was considered the ablest living historical writer in America.
Some very good pictures of the sun’s corona were obtained during the late total eclipse by scientists who visited Sumatra for that purpose.
The Boers have suffered another severe defeat at the hands of the British. It is hoped that the end of the long struggle is at hand.
Missionaries in China say that war preparations are in progress, and they fear another rising. Other information confirms this view.
On July 16 two stages between Ukiah and Blue Lake, Cal., were held up by masked men, and the passengers robbed of $400.
Three masked robbers plundered the express car of a train at Wagner, Montana, and secured $50,000 booty.
China has filed a claim for $500,000, for “outrageous treatment” received by Chinese at Butte, Montana.
A $1,000,000 fire in Williams, Arizona, resulted from carelessness with a kerosene lamp.
The new bank trust under the auspices of J. Pierpont Morgan, has a capital of $30,000,000.
On July 20, Mrs. Kruger, wife of the Boer president, died of pneumonia.
Nome, that city of the far north, is to have electric lights.