OUR LONDON LETTER by M. E. Olsen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 4, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 40.

OUR LONDON LETTER.

By M. E. Olsen

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

England and France.

WERE we asked to name the most noteworthy event in British politics for some years past, it would have to be the Entente Cordiale between England and France, which has been so effusively celebrated during the past summer, first in the reception of the English fleet at Brest, and more recently in the splendid welcome extended to the French fleet at Portsmouth, and to its officers at various banquets in London. The rapprochement is the more significant because it represents the drawing together of two people of strongly-contrasting national characters, and between whom there has usually been a great deal of mutual suspicion, if not active hatred and jealousy, even in times of peace. During the late South African War, it was not uncommon for Englishmen to be hooted at in the streets of Paris, while the leading papers on both sides were very uncomplimentary.

Now all is changed. Indeed it would be hard to do justice to the heartiness of the welcome which England has given the French admiral and his men. Not only were they fêted on a truly magnificent scale in Portsmouth, but they must needs come up to London, where the Lord Mayor entertains them in all the splendors of ancient state at the Guildhall, while Parliament gives an elaborate banquet in the historic Westminster Hall. The extreme cordiality of the speeches on both sides, the almost frantic efforts of the masses of the people to show their good-will, and the effusive tributes of the country's press, have been truly striking. The English people are usually taken to be an undemonstrative people but they have given the lie to their reputation in the last few weeks. If England and France had become the contracting parties in a formal alliance, offensive and defensive, its peoples could hardly have celebrated the fact with greater pomp or ceremony, and surely not with more heartiness, than has accompanied the ratifying of the Entente Cordiale.

Its Meaning.

What does it all mean? How will this warm affection which England has suddenly conceived for her cross-channel neighbor affect the balance of power in Europe? The Triple Alliance has been practically a dead letter for some years; now the Dual Alliance, or more properly, the Franco-Russian understanding, seems destined to a similar fate. England is emerging from her "splendid isolation." Her new treaty with Japan has not yet been made public, but there are whispers that it contains provisions for Japanese aid in the defense of India, and it is known to be on broader and more inclusive lines than the first.

The Entente Cordiale brings England into friendly relations with her old enemy, France, and necessarily breaks the force of the latter's understanding with Russia. Does it mean peace or war, this new shuffling of figures on the European chess board? The answer is not easily given at this stage. Certain it is, however, that Germany, who by reason of her colonizing projects and aspiration for power at

sea, is England's real rival, does not look on with any too friendly eyes. It is not helpful to the maintenance of peace between the two countries, either, that the press on both sides is much given to evil surmising, and quickly seizes upon, and makes capital of, every little circumstance that might seem to bear an unfriendly aspect. Thus the Kaiser's meeting with the Czar in the Baltic was regarded with much suspicion in this country, while the subsequent cruise of the British fleet in the Baltic greatly incensed a considerable section of the German press. With these things as they are, and Russia, cut off from the realizations of her ambitions in the far East, looking with longing eyes on England's Indian possessions, the facts do not warrant the prophesying of a new era of peace and good-will among the nations, even tho peace between Russia and Japan has fortunately been concluded.

Work of Parliament.

Parliament rose for its summer and autumn recess about the middle of August. The session is generally acknowledged to have been a barren one, only a fraction of the legislation foreshadowed by the king's speech having been accomplished. The Government bill for a redistribution of Parliamentary seats was not satisfactory even to its own members, and was therefore dropped. A bill to restrict the immigration of undesirable aliens was carried in the face of vigorous opposition on the part of the Liberals. The Scottish Church dilemma was disposed of by a bill giving the "Wee Frees," as the original Free Church is called, as much of the property turned over to them by the decision of the House of Lords as they can occupy, the remainder to revert to the United Free Church, which is by far the larger body.

One of the major bills brought before the House was a measure intended to provide relief work for honest, industrious workingmen in times when ordinary employment failed. This bill met with a good deal of opposition even amongst the Labor members, who believed that the carrying out of its provisions would throw a heavy burden of taxes on the labor classes as a whole, with the possible result of helping only a very few really worthy cases, and encouraging many others to habits of slackness and irresponsibility. The bill finally passed, but not till so far stripped of most of its essential features as to be hardly recognizable.

Deplorable Condition of Working-Classes.

Right here it may be said that the real conditions of the lower working classes in Great Britain is most deplorable. The misery, wretchedness, and squalor prevailing in their homes are such as one would scarcely believe could exist in a country on the whole so rich and prosperous as Great Britain is known to be. It is, of course, due in part to drink, but has also been brought on very largely by wrong industrial conditions, for which the rich are responsible. Signs are not wanting that these downtrodden members of society are beginning to awake to their wrongs. In Manchester a few weeks ago there were some serious riots of starving people, while London has been the frequent witness of pathetic demonstrations on the part of the "out-of works." Some of these phases of the labor question will have to be dealt with more fully in another letter.

A Sunday-Law Failure.

One of the minor bills which failed to pass was one, originating in the House of Lords, for the more strict observance of Sunday as a day of rest. Altho dropped for the present this question is likely to come up again, and perhaps in a modified form, to pass into law. Certain it is that a very considerable number of the shop-keepers are strongly committed to Sunday-closing, and about the only thing lacking is a united movement on the part of the clergy such as that which has given such power to the Sunday-law movement in certain parts of the United States.

National Deterioration.

A very significant meeting was held at the Mansion House a few weeks ago, at which the Lord Mayor of London presided, and addresses were given by the Lord Bishop of Ripon, the Lord Chief Justice, several prominent members of Parliament, and leading lights of the medical profession. The subject under consideration was the nation's health. It was the unanimous conviction of the distinguished speakers that the present conditions of life, in our large cities especially, are decidedly adverse to health and normal development, and that immediate measures ought to be taken to secure better industrial conditions, and more widespread enlightenment of the masses in regard to the proper care of the body.

Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D., the distinguished specialist in nervous diseases, spoke very strongly in regard to national physical deterioration. He said in part:

If any one has any doubt as to the ravages and the existence on a large scale of physical deterioration, I would recommend him or her to consult a report on the social condition of Dundee published within the last three months. That report is a very startling human document, and justifies the remark of the committee of influential citizens responsible for it, that it reveals a very serious state of things, deserving the anxious consideration of all thoughtful persons. I am not going to trouble you with the details of that report, but I should like to say that it sets forth the results of the minute examination of 1,000 children in Dundee in elementary schools, proceeding on the lines already followed at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, but carrying the investigation further, and carrying it out with minute and scrupulous care. We all expected to be told that amongst the school children decay of the teeth or caries, is all but universal; that as many as 33 per cent. of them suffer from defects of vision requiring correction by spectacles; that as many as 43 per cent. suffer from deafness, enlarged tonsils, adenoids; but it was beyond expectation to discover that of these young children attending school, as many as 19 per cent. suffer from disease of the glands, almost always of a tubercular nature, that as many as 5 per cent. suffer from disease of the bones, that as many as 9 per cent. suffer from disease of the lungs, and what is more astonishing, that 7 1/2 per cent. suffer from disease of the heart, while a much large number show a flabbiness and weakness of that organ, the effects of underfeeding or of over-exertion. Positively, after reading this report, one asks in painful astonishment, "Is the whole mass rotten, and is there one perfectly sound, healthy child left?"

It is to be hoped that facts such as these will have some weight with the easy-going optimists who have asserted, on the evolutionary hypothesis, that the race is gradually improving in physique as well as in mental endowment, and have pointed to our enormous industrial development by way of proof. Sad to say, the tendency is ever downward; and only by earnest, whole-hearted effort, and the divine help, can any individual make progress upward.