The Steel Trust and the Chinese Question
The way in which the latest giant aggregation of capital, known as the steel trust, is regarded in England is well shown in the following cablegram from London to the New York Tribune of March 3: “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 an 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.” The settlement of the Chinese question drags on laboriously. Two more of the condemned Chinese officials have been decapitated; but the court has not returned to Peking, nor has the allied expedition gone in search of the Chinese rulers. Russia is proceeding in a positive way along independent lines. She demands of China the signing of a treaty which will Russianize Manchuria and the rest of North China. Some of the other powers are protesting to China against the signing of the treaty, and China has appealed to the representatives of the powers to assist her in resisting Russia’s demands. This matter is now the subject of diplomatic correspondence between the powers, and it is thought that possibly Russia may be induced to modify or withdraw her demands. All the American troops in China, with the exception of two companies, are soon to start for the Philippines. All fears of an extra session of Congress were abated on March 1, when the House concurred in the Senate amendments to the Army Bill, giving almost unlimited power to the President in the Philippines, and declaring to the Cubans what they must do before America would withdraw from the island. The passing of this bill and its signing by the President sets this country upon a course out of all harmony with the spirit of its Constitution and the traditions of its history, and utterly antagonistic to the noble aims of those whom we have delighted to honor as its founders. Swift, and seemingly uncontrollable, has been the tide which has turned the nation from its course and changed her character in the eyes of the other nations of the world. During the last half of the year 1900, while a policy of “restriction” was in vogue in the Philippines, the exports of malt liquors from the United States to those islands was at the rate of $883,452 worth a year, as against $563,950 during the preceding year, when the licensed American saloons were more numerous. A similar increase is noted in the amount of the exports in all other liquors except brandy. Thus the policy of so-called “restriction” is really a nourisher rather than a restricter of the liquor business in the islands. There has been a considerable reduction in the number of licensed saloons, but it is self-evident that the business of liquor-vending has been in no way interfered with. The Boers under command of General De Wet have again escaped from the forces which were trying to surround them. They have been driven out of Cape Colony, but the date of their capture seems to be still distant. A considerable number of stragglers, some camp equipage, horses, oxen, and guns have been picked up in the chase, and the Boers have captured 80 of General Kitchener’s scouts. Notwithstanding the persistent rumors of the surrender of both De Wet and Botha, these men are still in the field with their commandos, and the end of the war is not yet in sight. The final conference on the war revenue reduction bill was passed by both House and Senate on February 28. It reduces the war tax on some articles and repeals it on many others. There is much agitation in Germany just now over the matter of tariff between Germany and Russia, and the tariff question seems destined to lead to still greater complications. Germany fears the threat which Russia is holding out, that unless concessions are granted, Russia will retaliate both economically and politically. Even the conservative press sees trouble ahead, and deplores the present complications, which “are likely to split the whole entente of the powers.” A new explosive is being secretly tested at the Sandy Hook proving grounds, for which peculiarly destructive properties are claimed. Shells loaded with this composition do not explode until they have practically passed thru the steel plate against which they are fired. The principal force of the explosion would thus take place inside the ship against which the shell was directed, thus greatly increasing the death-dealing powers of the ordinary shell. The sultan of Turkey has ordered the mobilization of 50,000 troops on the Bulgarian frontier. This move is made in view of the activity of the revolutionary Bulgarian Committee in Macedonia, and is significant when considered in connection with the growing friendliness between Russia and Bulgaria. Many arrests of Bulgarians in Macedonia have already been made, and these are charged with abetting the revolutionary movement. The queen regent of Spain is experiencing much difficulty in securing another cabinet to take the place of the cabinet which recently resigned. The second person appointed by the queen regent to construct a cabinet has reported that he is unable to do so, and must decline to pursue the endeavor further. The government of Spain is at the present time in a precarious condition. Our loss of soldiers in the Philippines has now passed the 6,000 mark. Of the total number 721 have been killed, 452 have died of wounds and accidents, 2,230 have died of disease, and 2,599 have been incapacitated by wounds. It is probably not too much to say that 10,000 more have been permanently invalided. And for what?—New York World. A recent despatch from Bulgaria indicates that Russia has won over the Bulgarian cabinet, and that the closest relations are to be sustained between these two governments, which is but another indication of the all-prevailing diplomacy of Russia in accomplishing her aims. A procession consisting of 5,000 Cubans paraded the streets of Havana on the evening of March 2, and called upon Governor-General Wood. The paraders presented a monster petition directed to President McKinley, urging absolute independence for Cuba. George T. Rice, the Manila editor who made public accusations against the captain of the port of Manila, and refused to retract, and was in consequence ordered deported from the islands, arrived in San Francisco on the transport Pennsylvania, on March 2. On February 28 the crown claims of the Canadian Government in the Klondike were thrown open, to be staked and recorded by the people. A grand stampede was expected on that date for the claims hitherto held by the government. A despatch from Cape Town, South Africa, states that the bubonic plague is spreading there. The authorities are striving to check its advance by isolating all suspected cases or persons who have been exposed. The bill to prohibit the sale of intoxicants, firearms, and opium in certain islands of the Pacific Ocean was called up in the House on March 2, but failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote, and was lost. The Russian minister of public instruction was shot and probably fatally wounded at St. Petersburg, on March 1, by a Nihilist student who had been selected by lot to kill the minister. Victor Ruthven, a reformed monk, who was lecturing against Catholicism at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, on March 4, was viciously attacked by a mob and compelled to flee for his life. Another testimony to the horrors of war is being presented in the reports of the terrible cruelties practised upon each other by the warring factions of Colombia, South America. There was a wild scene in the Austrian Reichsrath on February 27, and the session broke up in a disgraceful fight between the Szech and the pan-German parties. The transport Indiana arrived at San Francisco on February 27 with 463 sick and disabled soldiers, 7 insane, and the bodies of 8 men who had died on the voyage. Another great oil region has been tapped in Texas. The new oil field is situated near Beaumont, in the southeastern part of the State. Korea’s attempt to secure a loan of 5,000,000 yen by mortgaging her customs receipts has been effectually blocked by Russia. Thirty-six miners lost their lives in the burning of the Diamondville coal mine near Kemmerer, Wyoming, on February 26. Delegates from eighteen States met at Chicago on February 28 for the purpose of inaugurating a national anti-cigaret league.