volume 1, pages 89-90

(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons)._

MEXICO: A. D. 1896. Amendments to the Constitution.

See (in this volume) CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO.

MEXICO: A. D. 1896. Re-election of President Diaz.

By a popular election held on the 28th of June, 1896, followed by a vote of "electors" cast July 13, Porfirio Diaz was chosen President of the Republic of Mexico for a fifth term of four years, to begin December 1, 1896.

MEXICO: A. D. 1896 (July). Abolition of inter-state taxes.

The following announcement was reported in May, 1896, by the United States Consul-General at the City of Mexico: "'All the States and Territories having approved the amendment to the constitution prohibiting any interstate tax on commerce (alcabalas), Congress has passed the bill, the President has signed it, the Diario Official has published it, and it will soon be promulgated by "bando." as the Vice-Presidency was the other day. The law takes effect July 1.' This tax has been in existence for many years in Mexico, and has been a source of much embarrassment to internal and external trade. Its repeal meets with general approval, although some of the States will be compelled to seek other modes of taxation to replace the money heretofore obtained by this interstate tax."

_United States Consular Reports, June, 1806, page 354._

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MEXICO: A. D. 1896-1899. Revolts of the Yaquis.

The Yaquis, one of the native tribes of northwestern Mexico, taking their name from the river, in Sonora, on which they dwell, have been in frequent revolt. In 1896, and again in 1899, some of the tribe were fiercely in arms, excited, it was said, by a religious enthusiast, Teresa Urrea, who claimed a divine mission and obtained boundless influence over her tribe, as a saint. She was expelled from the country by the Mexican government, but stayed on the border, in United States territory, and continued to stir up hostilities. Though repeatedly beaten by the government troops, with heavy loss, their late rising was obstinately persisted in for many months; but early in 1900 their chief, Tetabiate, was slain, and a few sharp engagements after that time seems to have brought the revolt, practically, to an end. A writer in the California magazine, entitled "The Land of Sunshine" (July, 1899), says of the Yaquis that they are "the backbone of the population of Sonora. They are the best workmen in the republic, commanding from 10 to 20 per cent. higher wages in many localities than Mexican or other Indian labor. There is not a lazy bone in the Yaqui body. They are a peaceable, law-abiding people when justly treated. From time immemorial they have been hunters, miners, and tillers of the soil. They have the nomad instinct in less degree than almost any other Indian tribe."

Another writer makes this statement: "There are about three hundred wild and rebellious Yaqui Indians hidden in the fastnesses of the Bacatete Mountains, and some thirty thousand peaceful Yaquis working all over Sonora—among the best workers, the most successful farmers, and the quietest citizens in the whole state. … There are few things in the history of the native races of North America of such absorbing interest as the career of the Yaqui Indians. The Spanish conquistadores found them living in this country three hundred and fifty years ago. They were a strong and stalwart race. Put a Yaqui by the side of an Iroquois and you can hardly tell them apart. Put a Yaqui and an Iroquois by the side of any other Indians in North America, and their physical superiority is seen at once. Compare them physically with all the other races of the earth and you will find that they have few, if any, superiors. The Yaquis were not, however, like their prototypes, the Iroquois, dependent upon the chase for their food. From the beginning they were not woodsmen, but farmers. Cabeza de Vaca, after his long, romantic and perilous journey across the continent, found great fields of Indian corn waving on the Yaqui River as far back as 1636. When the early Spanish missions were established in the Californias they obtained their supplies from the agricultural Indians in the Yaqui Valley, and many are the Spanish armies that have been saved from starvation in times past by the Yaqui corn fields."

_W. S. Logan, Yaqui, the Land of Sunshine and Health, pages 15, 17._

MEXICO: A. D. 1898. Completion of the great drainage tunnel and canal of the City of Mexico.

"Mexico is finishing a great work, the drainage of the valley where the capital city is located, which has required for its completion nearly three hundred years and many millions of dollars, and has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men. … The Valley of Mexico is an immense basin, of approximately circular shape, with one extreme diameter of about 60 miles, completely bounded by high mountains, and having only two or three quite high passes out of it. No water drains out of the basin. The surface of this valley has a mean altitude above the sea of 7,413 feet and an area of about 2,220 square miles. Mountain ranges rise on every side, making a great corral of rock containing dozens of villages and hamlets, with the ancient capital in the centre. … Evaporation is so excessive at certain periods of the year that malaria, consequent on drouth, was far more dreaded by the inhabitants than the periodical floods, and thousands perished annually, so that proper drainage was an absolute necessity for the preservation of health. Nearly fifty years before the discovery of America, which took place in 1492, Netzahualcoyotl saw the necessity for a drainage canal, and commenced the work in 1450." The Spaniards, throughout their rule, labored at projects to the same end, and sacrificed the lives of vast numbers of the natives in the work, without much result.

"Frequent floodings of the old Aztec city and of the Spanish capital, situated almost at the lowest point of the valley, were sure to come in times of unusually heavy rains. In early days, when the Aztecs lived in the middle of Lake Mexico, when their temples and wigwams were built on piles and the streets were often only canals, the periodical overflows from the upper lakes were a matter of small concern, though even then the Nahua engineers were called upon to protect the city by dykes. But when by evaporation, by filling in at the site of the city, by lessened waters, due to the fissures caused by earthquakes, Lake Mexico had disappeared, and the city had come to be built on the spongy soil, above all, when the short-sighted choice of Cortez had been confirmed and the capital of New Spain had come to stand on the ruins of the Aztec town, increasing rapidly in population and wealth,—it became a serious matter that on an average of once in twenty-five years the streets should be from two to six feet under water for an indefinite time. …

"In 1866 the works now [1895] nearing completion were commenced. A project proposed by Señor Don Francisco de Garay, a well-known engineer of the city of Mexico, was pronounced the most feasible. But the revolutionary struggle succeeded, and for many years the work was relegated to the background. … The present gigantic work cannot have been considered to have been seriously undertaken, with a view of completion at any cost, until the year 1885, when the City Council of Mexico submitted a project to the Government to which they offered to contribute largely in the event of its being adopted. A special commission, with ample authority to deal with the funds set aside for the work, was appointed by President Porfirio Diaz. …

"The drainage works, when carried out, will receive the surplus waters and sewage of the City of Mexico and carry them outside of the valley, and will also control the entire waters of the valley, affording an outlet, whenever found necessary, to those which might otherwise overflow fields and towns, rendering the soil stagnant and marshy. The work consists of three parts—1st, the tunnel; 2d, a canal starting from the gates of San Lazaro, and having a length of 47½ kilometres, or 43 miles; … and 3d, the sewage of the City of Mexico. … {307} As this paper goes to press, the drainage works of the Valley of Mexico are practically finished, as the waters of the valley have been for several years passing through the canal and the tunnel to their outlet in the river which takes them to the Gulf of Mexico, and the company with whom the canal was contracted is now giving the finishing touches to the sides and bottom of the canal and will deliver it to the Government Board of the Drainage Directors in January, 1898. …

"The canal and six-mile tunnel through the mountain range have a total length approaching 37 miles. The present works will take rank with the great achievements of modern times, just as the immense 'cut' of Nochistongo, their unsuccessful predecessor, was the leader among ancient earthworks in all the world. The completed system will have cost $20,000,000."

_M. Romero, Mexico and the United States, pages 266-280 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons)._

MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900. The results of twenty years of the presidency of Porfirio Diaz. The wonderful advance of the Republic.

In his interesting book on Mexico, entitled "The Awakening of a Nation," written in 1898, Mr. Charles F. Lummis expresses the opinion that, under the Presidency of Porfirio Diaz, that country "has graduated to be the most compact and unified nation in the New World"; that "she has acquired not only a government which governs, but one which knows how to govern— and contemporaneously a people which has learned how to be ruled"; and he characterizes its government as "logical paternalism—a scheme frightfully dangerous under a bad father, incalculably beneficial under a good one." Two years later, in a contribution to an elaborate "Review of the Nineteenth Century," by many writers, which was published by the "New York Evening Post," January 12, 1901, Mr. Lummis wrote: "Before Diaz, the rich and ancient capital had spent two and a half centuries and ten millions in vain attempts to relieve its recurrent Hoods. Sewerage was unknown. Today the valley is drained and sewered by a system nowhere surpassed. Electric lighting, transit, and power-transmission are in vogue. Law and order are of a proportion we may well envy. Public education and individual scholarship have no call to blush in any fair comparison with any land. Business is prosperous, almost without individual exceptions. Factories of all sorts— and some of the costliest and finest factories in the world—have sprung up by the thousand. The comminuted bones of a national spirit have knit as they never were before. Nowadays, it is not Mexico, but we, who are 'fooled' when we omit her from the category of the nations that count. She does count; she will count far more. She has mastered anarchy, she has triumphed even over free silver. She is busily engaged in practising one of the first gospels and mottoes of the American colonies—'Mind Your Own Business'—and is making a magnificent success at it. It is a curious problem in the philosophies of history, what shall be the outcome of a nation which instead of being born rugged and growing old and easy, was born old and in the last quarter-century has come into the heritage of sturdy youth. For it is as a young nation, with muscles still growing, that we must think of new Old Mexico."

Honorable John W. Foster, writing to the "New York Tribune," on the 9th of January, 1901, from the City of Mexico, where he formerly resided for some years as United States Minister, has borne similar testimony to the astonishing progress of the country. "Since the advent of General Porfirio Diaz to power in 1876," writes Mr. Foster, "there has been no foreign war and no serious disturbance of an internal character, the only exception being the outbreak of certain semi-independent Indian tribes. In the previous fifty years of the existence of the republic there had been as many presidents, the majority of whom owed their existence to revolutionary movements. The wretched story of Mexican history of that period is too familiar to be repeated here. … In his inaugural address to Congress last month, on being again installed as President, he [president Diaz] referred to the achievements of Mexico in the last twenty-five years, and modestly said that in it there were no brilliant deeds to chronicle. From that notable address I make this extract: 'If it were true that a peaceful and laborious people have no history, the administration period I am about to review would almost be devoid of history. But, on the contrary, those nations that deserve to be called happy in the only intelligible sense of the word, far from being without a history, have a very glorious and interesting one, if, besides being peaceful and laborious, they are also progressive. That history is the history of their progress, their achievements, their growing prosperity, of the improvements of every kind which they have introduced—a history which, in this modern age and the present constitution of civilized societies, is as interesting as that of their past and just as deserving of attention.'"

A report for 1900 by the British Consul at Vera Cruz is to the same effect. The result of the recent elections he describes as an assurance of prosperity and a guarantee of the foreign capital invested in the country. Few countries, the Consul observes, can boast of such rapid and beneficial reforms as Mexico; these have, in a short time, prepared the way for the development of her extensive resources, which are themselves a sufficient assurance of the future. The finances have of recent years been brought to a high state of excellence, and commerce throughout the Republic has flourished. Foreign capital has flowed in steadily, railway construction has progressed, and other modes of communication have improved, the telegraph and postal service have been reformed. The improvement of inter-oceanic communication across the Tehuantepec isthmus, with the harbors now being constructed on both coasts, will revolutionize the foreign trade of Mexico. It will take more than three years to complete the reconstruction of the railway and to put the ports in a condition to enable freight to be taken from the ship's side at one port and placed alongside the ship at the other within 24 hours. The Consul thinks the route is destined to become one of the principal thoroughfares of the world, competing with all other routes between Europe and the Far East.

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Of what has been done for public education in Mexico under the Diaz government the following account is given in one of the publications (1900) of the Bureau of the American Republics: "Education in Mexico has been for many years the subject of serious consideration on the part of the Government, on account of the difficulty experienced in combating the conservative ideas prevailing in the Republic. The main obstacles have, however, been overcome, and the country to-day enjoys the benefit of a liberal system of education, which is administered under three branches—gratuitous, lay, and obligatory. … The law making education compulsory was promulgated March 23, 1888, but its enforcement was not decreed at that time, and the first Congress of Public Education was convened for the purpose of adopting such measures as should tend to establish an efficient and uniform system of education. This congress met on December 1, 1889, and closed its sessions on March 31, 1890. … A second congress was convened on December 1, 1890, which solved certain problems on compulsory elemental education, fixed the methods to be followed in the schools of superior primary education, and settled matters pertaining to normal schools, preparatory education, and special schools. As the result of this congress, the law of March 21, 1891, was enacted, regulating compulsory education in the Federal District and the Territories of Tepic and Lower California, which law became effective on January 17, 1892. …

"On May 19, 1896, the law of public education was promulgated, its salient points being as follows:

Official primary elemental education in the Federal Districts and Federal Territories was placed under the exclusive control of the Executive; primary superior education was organized as an intermediate educational system between elementary and preparatory instruction. A general board of primary education was created, charged to develop and maintain the same under a scientific and administrative plan. Preparatory education was decreed to be uniform for all professions, its extent being limited to the study of such matters as are necessary to the development of the physical and intellectual faculties and the morals of youth, it being further directed that professional education be reorganized, limiting it to technical matters which pertain to the profession or professions to which each particular school is devoted.

"By virtue of this law public education ceased to be in charge of the Board of Aldermen (ayuntamientos) of the above-mentioned sections. At the time of its promulgation the municipality of Mexico contained 113 schools, supported by the Board of Aldermen, 14,246 students being entered on the rolls, with an average attendance of 9,798. Each State defrays the expenses of public education, either with funds specially appropriated for that purpose or with the municipal funds.

"According to statistical data, in 1876, there were throughout the country 8,165 primary schools, with 368,754 students of both sexes. In 1895 Government schools reached the number of 4,056, of which 2,189 were for males, 1,119 for females, and 748 for both sexes; municipal schools numbered 3,394—for males, 1,754; females, 932; both sexes, 708. These comprised 7,380 primary, 32 secondary, and 35 professional schools, the number of students enrolled being 310,496 males and 181,484 females (a total of 491,980), and the mean attendance 338,066. The total cost to the Government and the municipalities for the maintenance of these institutions was $3,973,738. In the same year private schools to the number of 1,816 were being conducted, 659 for males, 460 for females, and the remainder under a coeducational system. In addition, 276 were supported by the clergy and 146 by associations, the total number of students enrolled being 68,879, of which 40,135 were males and 38,744 females. The total number of private schools was accordingly 2,238, of which 2,193 were devoted to primary education, 34 to secondary instruction, and 11 to professions.

"The statistics for 1897, which are the latest available, give the following figures:

SCHOOLS. 1896. 1897.

Federal and State Governments. 5,852 6,141 Municipal. 3,218 1,953 Private institutions. 1,953 1,797 Supported by the clergy. 303 285 Supported by associations. 186 122

"Using the figures given in 1896 for Vera Cruz and the Federal District as identical for 1897, it may be safely assumed that on December 31, 1897, the public schools in Mexico (Federal, State, and municipal) stood as follows:

Number of schools. 9,065 Students enrolled. 666,787 Average monthly attendance. 458,035 Private institutions. 2,361 Number of students. 92,387 Average attendance. 75,857

"The total expenditures for the support of Federal, State, and municipal schools amounted in 1897 to $6,291,000. In addition to the normal and primary schools, the Government also supports the following institutions: School of jurisprudence, school of medicine, school of agriculture and veterinary instruction, school of engineers, school of fine arts, school of arts and trades for men, and a similar institution for women, school of commerce and administration. National conservatory of music, preparatory school, schools for the blind, for deaf-mutes; reform schools, etc.,

also 9 museums, and 17 libraries containing from 400 to 159,000 volumes. Beside the Government institutions above mentioned, there are throughout the country 26 museums, 83 libraries, 32 scientific and literary associations, and 457 periodical publications."

_Bureau of American Republics, Mexico: a Geographical Sketch, page 313._

MEXICO: A. D. 1899 (May-July). Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.

MEXICO: A. D. 1900 (January). Re-election of President Diaz.

President Porfirio Diaz was reelected on January 1, for a sixth term of four years.

MEXICO: A. D. 1900 (October). Census of the Republic. Gains shown in five years.

Announcement was made from Washington, on the 24th of February, 1901, that "complete official returns of the census taken on October 28, 1900, received by the Bureau of American Republics, shows that the population of Mexico is 13,570,545, against a population of 12,632,427 [given by M. Romero as 12,570,195—see above] in 1895. The gain in five years was 938,118, or 7.43 per cent. due in part to the greater accuracy of the latest enumeration. The Federal District, in which is located the City of Mexico, is the most densely populated portion of the republic, and contains 530,723 people. {309} The City of Mexico increased about 20,000 in five years, and now has nearly 357,000 inhabitants. The population of seven States, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Puebla. Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Michoacan and Mexico, is 6,995,880, or a little more than one-half of the entire population of the country. The population of the States of Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Tabasco, Aguas Calientes, Campeche, Colima, and the territories of Tepic and Lower California, the total area of which is more than one-fourth the entire country, is slightly in excess of 1,380,000, or a density of only about 2.7 inhabitants to the square kilometre. The central and southern portions of the republic are the most thickly populated, the Western and Northern States being the most sparsely settled, and the Gulf region, or eastern coast, contains a larger number of inhabitants than the Pacific Coast region. … The greatest percentage of increase is noted in the northern States. These States, in addition to being good agricultural districts, are enormously rich in mineral wealth, and the large increase in population in this part of the country is chiefly due to the rapid development of the mines of the republic, the erection of smelters and manufacturing plants, and to the general stimulus given to trade and commerce by the construction of railroads and the heavy investments of foreign capital in the republic."

----------MEXICO: End--------

MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD POPULISTS, The.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-November); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

MILAN, Ex-King: His later years and death.

See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (SERVIA).

MILAN: A. D. 1898. Revolutionary outbreak.

See (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).

MILES, General Nelson A.: Operations against Santiago de Cuba.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

MILES, General Nelson A.: Commanding expedition against Porto Rico.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

MILES, General Nelson A.: Charges against the Commissary Department, U. S. Army.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.

MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS: Armies of Europe and America and their cost.

See (in this volume) WAR BUDGETS.

MILLENNIUM, The Hungarian.

See (in this volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.

MILNER, Sir Alfred: Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa.

See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY), and after.

MILNER, Sir Alfred: Governor of the Transvaal and British High Commissioner.

See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH COLONIES): A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

MINDANAO.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

MINERS, Strikes among.

See (in this volume) INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896. Constitutional amendments. Use of the Referendum.

Several constitutional amendments were submitted to the voters of the State and adopted; among them one requiring citizenship of the United States for three months and residence in the State for six months before permitting a new-comer to vote; another vesting the pardoning power in a Board of Pardons; another empowering cities to frame their own charters, subject to the State laws. At the same time, the Referendum was brought into practical use, by the submission of several legislative acts to the popular vote. One of the acts thus submitted, providing for the holding of a constitutional convention, was rejected.

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1898. Outbreak of Pillager Indians.

See (in this volume) INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.

MINOS, The Palace of: Its supposed discovery.

See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.

MISSIONARIES, Christian: The outbreak against in China.

See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST); 1898 (MAY); 1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY); 1899; 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH), (MAY-JUNE); and 1901 (MARCH).

MISSIONARIES, Christian: Outbreak against in Madagascar.

See (in this volume) MADAGASCAR.

MISSIONS, Christian: The Ecumenical Conference of 1900 in New York. Statistics of the Protestant foreign missionary work of the world.

The third Ecumenical Conference on Protestant foreign missions (the second having been held in London in 1888) was assembled at New York on the 21st of April, 1900, under circumstances related as follows in volume I. of the official report: "The immediate origin of the Ecumenical Conference of 1900 was the discussion of a question put in the 'question box' at the Annual Conference of Foreign Missions Boards of the United States and Canada, which met in New York in January, 1896, as to whether it would be advisable to invite the secretaries or representatives of societies from the other side of the Atlantic to meet with the Annual Conference of the American societies as it was then held, consisting chiefly of the officers of the Boards. The Reverend F. F. Ellinwood. D. D., speaking to the question, said: 'I have had a hope that in the year 1898, ten years from the great London Conference, we might invite our brethren from all lands to a great Ecumenical Conference on Missions.'

"Following this suggestion, a committee of five, consisting of the Reverend Drs. Judson Smith, F. F. Ellinwood, A. B. Leonard, S. W. Duncan, and William S. Langford was appointed 'to consider the advisability of calling an Ecumenical Missionary Conference, to meet in this country within the next four years, to make preliminary preparation therefor, if deemed advisable, and to report at the Conference of the following year.' This committee corresponded with missionary societies throughout the world, and at the next Annual Conference recommended that such a Conference be held in New York City in April of the year 1900; that this recommendation be communicated to the societies, and a final date agreed upon. In January, 1898, after further correspondence, the place and date were finally decided." Measures were taken to raise a guarantee fund of $30,000 for expenses, and other preparations were made. Then "under date of June 1, 1899, a general invitation was sent to every missionary whose name and address could be secured, to attend the Conference and participate in the discussions."

{310}

The Conference was opened in Carnegie Hall, New York, on the 21st of April, 1900, and continued its sessions, there and in neighboring churches, until the 1st of May. "The personnel of the Conference was broadly representative. It consisted (1) of delegates appointed by organizations conducting foreign missions outside of Europe and America; (2) the missionaries of such organizations, and (3) members elected by the Executive Committee.

The British and Continental and other foreign societies were invited to send as many delegates as possible. The American and Canadian societies were limited in the number of their delegates; the total from both countries, being fixed at 1,666, was apportioned among the societies on the basis of their expenditures in foreign missions. All foreign missionaries in active service or retired were received as full members. Some of the honorary members and vice-presidents who were unable to attend desired to have their names connected with so historic a gathering. Members of committees and speakers, who were not already delegates, were by a general act of the Executive Committee, constituted 'special members.' In addition to the members of the Conference a large number of persons came from far and near to attend the meetings. Over fifty thousand tickets to the Carnegie Hall and alternate meetings were distributed among this class of visitors. Many thousands more attended the sectional and overflow meetings where no tickets were required. The Honorable Benjamin Harrison, for four years President of the United States of America, occupied the chair, and made an opening speech."

The magnitude of the organizations of missionary work, all the interests, needs and fruits of which were discussed in the Conference, is most succinctly represented in the subjoined tables, prepared by Dr. James S. Dennis, which are given in the appendix to the official report (pages 424-426, volume 2). The classification appearing in the tables is explained as follows:

"The Bible Societies, the Tract and Literature Societies, the United Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth Leagues, and similar organizations, philanthropic specialties like that of the Pundita Ramabai in India, with a considerable number of organizations, foreign missionary in title and purpose, but simply rendering financial or other aid to existing societies—demand recognition, and yet should they be counted as strictly and technically foreign missionary societies? It was chosen for the present purpose, to differentiate and classify, naming three classes of societies as follows;

Class I. Societies directly engaged in conducting foreign missions.

Class II. Societies indirectly co-operating or aiding in foreign missions.

Class III. Societies or Institutions independently engaged in specialized effort in various departments of foreign missions."

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1890-1892. New State Constitution. Qualification of the suffrage.

A new State Constitution, framed and put in force in 1890 by a constitutional convention, without submission to the people, established a qualification of the suffrage which heavily diminished the negro vote by its effect. It imposed a pool tax of two dollars per head, to which any county might add a further tax not exceeding one dollar per head, which poll tax for the year every voter must have paid before his ballot would be received at any election. A further clause of the Constitution on the subject was as follows: "On and after the first day of January, A. D. 1892, the following qualifications are added to the foregoing: Every qualified elector shall be able to read any section of the Constitution of this State, or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or to give a reasonable interpretation thereof. A new registration shall be made before the next ensuing election after these qualifications are established. Electors in municipal elections shall possess all the qualifications herein prescribed, and such additional qualifications as may be prescribed by law." In 1892 the Supreme Court of the State affirmed the validity of the Constitution, which had been challenged on two grounds, namely: that it had not been submitted to the vote of the people, and that it was in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

So far, the disfranchisement of the mass of blacks seems to have had an unlooked for evil effect. "The Negro eliminated, only one political party remains, and political stagnation has followed. In Mississippi, the requirement that a poll tax be paid long before the election deprives many white men also of their votes. But it does not bar them out of nominating conventions. Many communities are ruled by a mere handful of whites who cannot even cast a ballot. For instance, there are 320,000 males of voting age in Mississippi, but the whole vote cast in the State in November was only 59,000. This is 11,000 votes less than were cast four years ago under the same restrictions of suffrage. In other words, the whole State of Mississippi cast practically 110 more ballots to elect seven members of Congress than were cast in a single congressional district in New York. (The fourteenth New York district cast 58,000 votes.) In the town of Eudora, where a mayor, a marshal, a treasurer, and four aldermen were elected, only eight votes were cast, and of the eight voters seven are said to have been candidates for office.

"'The same men,' says a trustworthy despatch from New Orleans, 'were voters, candidates for office, and judges of election to pass as judges on their own votes as voters for themselves; and in spite of all their efforts they could get only one outsider to come to the polls and cast his ballot.' This is an extreme case; but in every State that has disfranchised the Negro (making a discrimination between him and the ignorant white man, in the white man's favor) political activity has constantly disappeared, the vote has shrunk, public spirit in politics has died. In Louisiana the total vote in November fell from 99,000 in 1896 to 61,000; of Mississippi, from 69,000 to 59,000; of South Carolina, from 68,000 to 50,000—the shrinkage in four years in these three States being nearly 68,000 votes, in spite of the increase of population."

_The World's Work, February, 1901._

MODDER RIVER, Military operations on.

See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

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[Image: Mission, Christian]

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[Image: Mission, Christian]

{313}

[Image: Mission, Christian]

{314}

MODUS VIVENDI, Alaskan Boundary.

See (in this volume) ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.

MODUS VIVENDI, The Newfoundland.

See (in this volume) NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.

MOMBASA-VICTORIA RAILWAY, The.

See (in this volume) UGANDA RAILWAY.

----------MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: Start--------

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1895. The situation of the Treasury of the United States. Contract for replenishing its gold reserve.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1895-1896. The gold reserve in the U. S. Treasury again imperilled. Refusal of relief by the Senate.

See (in this volume) MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1896-1900. The Silver Question in the United States Presidential elections.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1896-1898. Movements for monetary reforms in the United States.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897. Renewal of the privileges of the Bank of France.

The privileges of the Bank of France, as the fiscal agent of the French Government, expired with the close of the year 1897, and renewal of them was opposed by the Radicals and Socialists, who demanded the creation of a State Bank. The government succeeded, however (June, 1897), in carrying the measure necessary for continuing the existing system, on terms somewhat more favorable to the state than before.

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (March). Adoption of the gold standard in Japan.

By a law of the Japanese Parliament, passed in March, 1897, to come into force October 1, a gold monetary standard was adopted, at the ratio of 32½ to 1, the silver dollar to be legal tender until six months after notice given of its withdrawal.

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (April-October). Negotiation by American Commissioners in Europe for an international bi-metallic agreement.

In fulfilment of the pledge given by the Republican party, at its national convention, in 1896, that it would use efforts to bring about an international agreement for free coinage of gold and silver at some common ratio, the following Act was passed by the two Houses of Congress in January and February, 1897: "That whenever after March 4, 1897, the president of the United States shall determine that the United States should be represented at any international conference called by the United States or any other country with a view to securing by international agreement a fixity of relative value between gold and silver as money by means of a common ratio between these metals, with free mintage at such ratio, he is hereby authorized to appoint five or more commissioners to such international conference; and for compensation of said commissioners, and for all reasonable expenses connected therewith, to be approved by the secretary of state, including the proportion to be paid by the United States of the joint expenses of any such conference, the sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated. That the president of the United States is hereby authorized, in the name of the government of the United States, to call, in his discretion, such international conference, to assemble at such point as may be agreed upon. And he is further authorized, if in his judgment the purpose specified in the first section hereof can thus be better attained, to appoint one or more special commissioners or envoys to such of the nations of Europe as he may designate, to seek by diplomatic negotiations an international agreement for the purpose specified in the first section hereof. And in case of such appointment so much of the appropriation herein made as shall be necessary shall be available for the proper expenses and compensation of such commissioners or envoys." Pursuant to this Act, President McKinley, on the 12th of April, appointed Senator Edward O. Wolcott; of Colorado, ex-Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, and General Charles J. Paine, of Massachusetts, to be commissioners for the purpose which the bill describes. The commissioners first visited Paris, and there obtained assurances from the French government of cordial cooperation and support. They then proceeded to London, for negotiation with the British authorities, on whose attitude towards the movement for international action in the matter its success was well known to depend. Some members of the British government, conspicuously Mr. Balfour, were outspoken advocates of bi-metallism, and much was hoped from the discussion to be opened with them. The American commissioners were cordially received, and they were invited to a formal meeting, on the 12th of July, with Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India. The American Ambassador, Mr. Hay, accompanied them to the conference, which was held at the Foreign Office. A memorandum of the conversation at this meeting, and at a second one held on the 15th, together with a correspondence which followed, were published later in a parliamentary "blue book," from which the following account is drawn. Mr. Wolcott explained the wish of the American envoys to obtain the views of several governments, preliminary to the inviting of an international bi-metallic conference. He added that they expected to have, in England, the full cooperation of the Ambassador of the French Republic, who happened, for the moment, to be absent from the country, but who had requested them to proceed with the meeting in his absence. "Mr. Wolcott then presented some reasons which, in the opinion of the Special Envoys, rendered it desirable that some international agreement for the restoration of bimetallism should be reached, and explained why, in their opinion, the success of this effort depended upon the attitude which England would take regarding the question. He then stated that the Special Envoys requested that England should agree to open English mints as its contribution to an attempt to restore bimetallism by international agreement, and dwelt upon the importance of the fact that France and the United States were together engaged in an attempt to bring about such an agreement, and were cooperating together to that end. Lord Salisbury desired to know if the French Government would co-operate upon the basis of opening their mints to the free and unlimited coinage of silver. {315} Mr. Wolcott answered in the affirmative. Lord Salisbury then asked at what ratio, and was informed by Mr. Wolcott that the French Government preferred the ratio of 15½ to 1, and that the United States were inclined to yield this point and accept this as a proper ratio. Considerable discussion on the question of the ratio and the method by which it should be settled then took place. … It was then suggested that further proceedings should be deferred until the French Ambassador might be also present. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in further conversation, said that if the suggestion of opening the English mints was to be made, he thought an answer in the negative would undoubtedly be given. The First Lord of the Treasury asked whether, assuming this request for opening English mints to be refused, it was desired that the subject be discussed upon the basis of something different and less than the opening of English mints. Upon a mutual understanding that in the absence of the French Ambassador, anything said should be considered as said informally, a discussion then took place as to the concessions that England might make towards an international solution of the question, if it should refuse to open English mints. Mr. Wolcott, for the Special Envoys, presented the following as a list of contributions which, among others, England might make towards bimetallism if an international agreement could be effected:

1. Opening of the Indian mints. Repeal of the order making the sovereign legal tender in India.

2. Placing one-fifth of the bullion in the Issue Department of the Bank of England in silver.

3. (a.) Raising the legal tender limit of silver to, say, £10. (b.) Issuing the 20s. notes based on silver, which shall be legal tender. (c.) Retirement, gradual or otherwise, of the 10s. gold pieces, and substitution of paper based on silver.

4. Agreement to coin annually £ … of silver [present silver coinage average for five years about £1,000,000, less annual withdrawal of worn and defaced coin for recoinage, £350,000].

5. Opening of English mints to coinage of rupees, and for coinage of British dollar, which shall be full tender in Straits Settlements and other silver standard Colonies, and tender in the United Kingdom to the limit of silver legal tender.

6. Colonial action, and coinage of silver in Egypt.

7. Something having the general scope of the Huskisson plan.

Some general conversation followed in regard to the preceding suggestions, and the interview terminated, to be resumed on the 15th July, 1897, when it was understood that the French Ambassador would also be present."

At the second meeting, July 15, Baron de Courcol, Ambassador of the French Republic, and M. L. Geoffray, French Minister Plenipotentiary, were present, and the former spoke at length, stating the position of the French government on the question of the free coinage of silver. He said: "'Our population, notably the agricultural population, finds that it has not at its disposition sufficient resources in currency, in metallic money. On the other hand, if the Government in the actual state of affairs reopens the mints to the free coinage of silver, we would be flooded by the abundance of this metal coming from all other countries of the world, and we could not resist the even greater evil of the inevitable depreciation of one of our precious metals, that is to say, of the effective destruction of the legal ratio upon which our monetary system is based. … In other words, we think that the production of silver, more active in certain quarters of the globe in the last quarter of a century, is not of itself considerable enough to change in an enduring manner the normal ratio between gold and silver after these two metals will have been scattered over the entire surface of the world among all nations who are called upon to absorb them. There is, then, in our eyes, a need which is perhaps transitory, but which is actually common to all the commercial nations, of taking measures adequate for assuring, by a common understanding, the re-establishment of the normal ratio of 15½ between silver and gold. If measures of this kind should be adopted by all the commercial nations, we would be able to reopen our mints to the free coinage of silver without fear of being submerged by an excessive influx of this metal. The reopening of the mints of all the commercial countries to the free coinage of silver in the ratio of 15½ with gold would be the most natural and the most efficacious means of arriving at the result sought for. This is the desideratum which I am instructed to bring forward here, and which I am particularly to urge upon the English Government as a primordial condition of the success of the common understanding. If the Government of the Queen, even in consenting to reopen the mints in India, should refuse to adopt the same measure for England, at least would they not be able to take certain measures which would be, up to a certain point, equivalent, in order to maintain the full value of silver, and to prevent India from being the victim of a depreciation of this metal in consequence of an unlimited coinage? … By way of suggestion, I would indicate, as one of the measures which the English Government might usefully adopt, the annual purchase of a certain quantity of silver metal, which might afterwards be disposed of as seemed best-either it might be preserved in ingots, or it might be used for regular consumption, or it might be sent to India. This quantity might be fixed approximately, at least, for a number of years, at a sum of £10,000,000 in nominal value. This is, perhaps, only a palliative; it is, in any event, only one of the expedients which would be deemed necessary. But I am to urge strongly that the English Government determine to take measures of this kind, or other equivalent measures, if, as I believe, it recognizes with us the necessity of improving the monetary situation in a great part of its Empire—I may say, in a great part of the entire world.' Lord Salisbury then asked whether the French Government would decline to open its mints unless England would also open her mints. The French Ambassador replied that he preferred to discuss the subject upon the basis that France would go to open mints if England would consent to open her mints, but that he would not exclude from his view the question of contributions by England towards maintaining the value of silver, short of open mints. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in response to this, stated definitely that the English Government would not agree to open English mints to the unlimited coinage of silver, and that, whatever views he and his colleagues might separately hold on the question of bimetallism, he thought he could say they were united upon this point. … {316} The suggestions made by the Special Envoys at the interview on the 12th July were again read, and the Special Envoys accepted also as important and desirable the proposal that the English Government should purchase annually, say, £10,000,000 of silver, with proper safeguards and provisions as to the place and manner of its use. The French Ambassador expressed his approval generally of the suggestions of the Special Envoys, as being serviceable in the consideration of the question. It was then understood that the proposals submitted by the French Ambassador and by the Special Envoys of the United States should be considered, and due notice given when a reply could be made."

The proposal for the reopening of the Indian mints to silver was submitted at once by the home authorities of the India Office, at London, to the government of India, and the reply of the latter was not received until the following October. When the reply came, it extinguished hopes of the arrangement which the American and French governments desired. In a long despatch, the Indian government explained with clearness the monetary situation in that country, and discussed the effect which a return to the unrestricted mintage of silver would have upon it, under the circumstances and prospects of the time. "The currency system of India," said the despatch, "is in a transition state; the Government of India in 1893 decided to establish a gold standard, and the first step towards that object was the closing of the mints to silver by Act VIII of 1893. The silver rupee is still the sole legal tender coin, though the Government has by Executive orders undertaken to receive gold and sovereigns under certain restrictions, … the rate of exchange adopted being 16d. the rupee or 15 rupees=£1. The measures to be taken when the transition period has passed have not been laid down, but it is probable that the Indian mints will be opened to gold, and gold coins will be made legal tender to an unlimited amount; silver rupees would also continue to be legal tender to an unlimited amount, and the ratio between the rupee and the gold coins as legal tender would at the same time be finally settled. The system towards which India is moving is thus a gold standard of the same kind as that which now exists in France and the United States, but with a different ratio for legal tender; but for the present the mints are closed both to gold and silver. The transition period has lasted for more than four years, but there is ground for hope that it is now drawing to a close. The changes which are involved in the arrangements proposed to Her Majesty's Government are the following. France and the United States are to open their mints to the free coinage of silver, continuing the free coinage of gold and the unlimited legal tender of coins of both metals, the ratio remaining unchanged in France and being altered to the French ratio of 15½ to 1 in the United States. India is to open her mints to silver, to keep them closed to gold, and to undertake not to make gold legal tender. France and the United States would thus be bimetallic: India would be monometallic (silver); while most of the other important countries of the world would be monometallic (gold). The object which the proposers have in view is the establishment of a stable relation between the values of gold and of silver. This would include the establishment of a stable exchange between the rupee and sterling currency, which was the object of the Government of India in the proposals made in our financial despatch of the 21st June, 1892, which proposals ultimately resulted in the adoption, in view to the attainment of that object, of the policy of a gold standard, and in the closing of the mints to the free coinage of silver. If, then, it were certain that the suggested measures would result in the establishment of a stable ratio, the Government of India might well consider whether their adoption would not be preferable to the policy to which they committed themselves in 1893 in the hope of attaining the same result by isolated action on the part of India alone. The principal questions therefore for us to consider are whether the measures are more likely to succeed than the policy of 1893, and what consequences to India may be apprehended if the measures should fail of success after being brought into operation. … The first result of the suggested measures, if they even temporarily succeed in their object, would be an intense disturbance of Indian trade and industry by the sudden rise in the rate of exchange, which, if the ratio adopted were 15½ to 1, would be a rise from about 16d. to about 23d. the rupee. Such a rise is enough to kill our export trade, for the time at least. If the public were not convinced that the arrangement would have the effect intended, or believed that it would not be permanent, the paralysis of trade and industry would be prolonged and accompanied by acute individual suffering, none of the advantages expected would be attained, and the country would pass through a critical period which would retard its progress for years. How long the crisis would last before normal or stable conditions were restored it is not possible to conjecture. It would be long even if the mercantile and banking community saw that silver was being steadily maintained at the prescribed ratio, while any indication of unsteadiness would greatly prolong the period by giving foundation for doubt. If the doubt should happen to be justified by the results, the position would be disastrous alike to the State, to individuals, and to trade generally. … We cannot help seeing that if the policy of 1893 is now abandoned, and if the triple union now proposed as a substitute should fail in its operation or should terminate, and in its failure subject Indian trade to the violent shocks we have described, the Government of India could not, as a responsible Government, call upon the commercial public to face another prolonged period of doubt, suspense, agitation, and difficulties. For it must be clearly and fully recognized that if India joins in the proposed measures, we shall be left dependent, as the sole means of attaining stability in exchange, on the success of those measures, and that if they should fail, India must be content to remain permanently under the silver standard with all its admitted disadvantages. … We have given very careful consideration to the question whether France and the United States are likely, with the help of India, to be able to maintain the relative value of gold and silver permanently at the ratio they intend to adopt, and have come to the conclusion that while we admit a possibility of the arrangements proposed resulting in the permanent maintenance of the value of gold and silver at the ratio of 15½ to 1, the probability is that they will fail to secure that result, and that it is quite impossible to hold that there is anything approaching a practical certainty of their doing so. {317} One reason for this conclusion is, that the arrangement would rest on too narrow a basis. A union consisting of two countries, with a third lending assistance, is a very different thing from the general international union of all or most of the important countries of the world, which was advocated by the Government of India in the despatches of March and June 1892 and of February and September 1886. To afford a hope that a monetary union will succeed in establishing stability in the relative value of gold and silver, it is essential that the nations adhering to it should be of such number and importance that the metallic currency of the whole body shall be of sufficient extent to allow of the exercise of adequate influence on the value of the two metals. We doubt whether any two, or even three, nations in the world, unless, indeed, one of them was Great Britain, could comply with this condition, and we have no hesitation in saying that France and the United States and India certainly could not. … We have no hesitation in recommending your Lordship to refuse to give the undertaking desired by the Governments of France and the United States. We are quite clearly of opinion that the interests of India demand that her mints shall not be opened as part of an arrangement to which two or three countries only are parties, and which does not include Great Britain." Immediately on receiving this reply, Lord Salisbury informed Ambassador Hay that "Her Majesty's Government feel it their duty to state that the first proposal of the United States Representatives is one which they are unable to accept," and expressing a wish to know "how far the views of the American and French Governments are modified by the decision now arrived at, and whether they desire to proceed further with the negotiations at the present moment."

Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command: Commercial, Number 8, 1897).

In the view of the American envoys, it seemed useless to proceed, with no hope of cooperation from Great Britain, and they returned to America with a discouraging report.

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (December). Adoption of the gold standard in Russia.

An imperial ukase declared the adoption of the gold standard in Russia, authorizing the issue of a new five-rouble gold piece.

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1900. Settlement of the monetary system in the United States.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER).

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1900 (November). Withdrawal of legal tender silver coins in Germany.

See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).

----------MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: End--------

MONGOLIA.

See (in this volume) MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.

MONOPOLIES.

See (in this volume) TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.

MONROE DOCTRINE, The: As emphasized in the Treaty of International Arbitration.

See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.

MONROE DOCTRINE, The: Its discussion as involved in the Venezuela Boundary Question.

See (in this volume) VENEZUELA; A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).

MONTAUK POINT, Removal of troops from Santiago de Cuba to.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).

MONTENEGRO.

See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

MOROS, The.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS; THE NATIVE INHABITANTS; and A. D. 1899 (MAY-AuGUST).

MORTMAIN, Proposed restrictions on, in France.

See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS: Conflicts in Armenia.

See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1895.

MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS: Conflicts in Crete.

See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

MOSQUITO, The, as a carrier of disease.

See (in this volume) SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL, AND SURGICAL.

MUKDEN.

See (in this volume) MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA; also, RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.

MUNICIPAL EVENTS, Notable.

See (in this volume) BOSTON, CHICAGO, NEW YORK, TOLEDO, LONDON.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS: Institution in Cuba.

See (in this volume) CUBA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS: Institution in the Philippines.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).

MUSIC: In the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume) NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE MUSICAL CENTURY.

N.

NABONIDOS, Discovery of an inscription of.

See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: DISCOVERY OF AN INSCRIPTION.

NANSEN'S EXPEDITION, Return of.

See (in this volume) POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896.

NASHVILLE EXPOSITION.

See (in this volume) TENNESSEE: A. D. 1897.

NATAL.

See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA.

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF 1896.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER.)

NATIONAL PARTY, The.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

NATIONAL SILVER PARTY.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

{318}

NATIONAL STEEL COMPANY, The.

See (in this volume) TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.

NATIONALISTS, FRENCH, Revolutionary conspiracy of.

See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

NAVAL POLICY, German.

See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).

NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS: A. D. 1900.

The following tables are compiled from a return issued by the British Admiralty in the spring of 1900, showing the state of the fleets of Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Japan, including vessels then built and in progress of construction.

Of battle-ships, there were built and building in the several navies:

Count with a displacement of Great Britain. 70 821,605 France. 35 339,599 Russia. 24 262,912 Germany. 25 191,259 Italy. 19 193,001 United States. 16 184,144 Japan. 7 92,420

Of armored and protected cruisers, there were built and building:

Count with a displacement of Great Britain. 147 827,430 France. 60 297,486 Russia. 23 144,673 Germany. 22 107,844 Italy. 25 93,673 United States. 26 140,274 Japan. 23 114,479

Of unprotected cruisers, armored coast-defence vessels, and special vessels there were built and building:

Count with a displacement of Great Britain. 31 104,250 France. 29 93,385 Russia. 26 66,886 Germany. 35 59,617 Italy. 3 13,821 United States. 30 77,150 Japan. 13 24,065

Of torpedo vessels and torpedo-boat destroyers the number built and building was:

Count with a displacement of Great Britain. 238 70,311 France. 305 34,002 Russia. 233 37,735 Germany. 130 20,094 Italy. 180 24,863 United States. 50 12,121 Japan. 71 9,537

A consolidation of the above figures shows a total of ships in the principal navies as follows:

Great Britain, 486; France, 429; Russia, 306; Germany, 212; Italy, 227; United States, 122; Japan, 114.

A writer in the "Fortnightly Review," discussing the above returns, points out the imperfectness of the representation which such gross figures give of the actual naval strength of the several Powers, and he has undertaken to correct them by a calculation of what he calls the "fighting weight" of the ships, based on the age of each and its displacement in tons. He says: "The scale of depreciation for age that I have used is as follows: Ships, built and now building, that were launched, or which will be launched, during 1895-1899 (and later), are reckoned at their full value of fighting weight; i. e., at 100 per cent. Ships launched during 1890 1894 are reckoned as now worth only 80 per cent. of their fighting weight. The other depreciations being: Ships launched 1885-1889 are valued at 60 per cent. of their nominal fighting weight; 1880-1884, at 40 per cent.; before 1880, at 20 per cent."

By this mode of reckoning, the table of battleships is converted to the following exhibit of estimated "naval strength":

Count adjusted fighting weight Great Britain. 70 604,141 France. 35 220,635 Russia. 24 221,988 Germany. 25 152,929 Italy. 19 112,899 United States. 16 176,708 Japan. 7 88,088

This method of depreciating the tonnage on the basis of the age of a ship causes the respective proportions of Great Britain, France and Italy, in battle-ships, to become smaller, while the respective proportions of Russia, Germany, United States and Japan become larger. The United States lose but 4 per cent. of the nominal value of their battle-ships; Japan, 5 per cent.; Russia, 16; Germany, 20; Great Britain, 26; France, 35; Italy, 42.

Applying the same arithmetic to the returns of armored and protected cruisers, the writer shows that Japan suffers a loss of 10 per cent. of their nominal fighting weight, France 14, United States 14, Italy 18, Great Britain 21, Russia 23, Germany 24.

Reducing in like manner all the remaining returns, he arrives at the following summary of "the seven navies arranged in the order of their strength"—taking the navy of Japan as the unit:

Degree of strength. Great Britain, 6.38 France, 2.57 Russia, 1.88 United States, 1.65 Germany, 1.34 Italy, 1.03 Japan, 1.00.

Stated in "tons of fighting weight," his comparison stands:

Great Britain, 1,347,000 France, 543,000 Russia, 397,000 United States, 349,000 Germany, 282,000 Italy, 218,000 Japan, 211,000.

Turning next to the consideration of armaments, the writer has compiled the following table, which shows "for each class of gun separately, and for all classes of guns combined, the number of these guns that are possessed by the seven naval powers":

POWER Breech Quick Muzzle Torpedo All Classes Loading Firing Loading Tubes of Guns Guns Guns Guns

Great Britain. 912 7,454 340 1,534 10,240 France. 471 3,653 - 928 5,052 Russia. 393 2,589 - 625 3,607 Germany. 258 1,995 - 611 2,864 Italy. 140 1,791 4 573 2,508 United States. 303 1,791 - 230 2,324 Japan. 110 1,168 - 314 1,592 ---------- All the Powers combined. 2,587 20,441 344 4,815 28,187

In this comparison the United States drops from the fourth rank to the sixth. For a comparison of the naval expenditure of the Powers,

See (in this volume) WAR BUDGETS.

NEBUCHADREZZAR, Exploration of the ruins of the palace of.

See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA; GERMAN EXPLORATION.

NEELY EXTRADITION CASE, The.

See (in this volume) CUBA: A. D. 1900-1901.

{319}

NEGRITOS.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

NEGRO, Disfranchisement of the.

See (in this volume) MARYLAND, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900; SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896; LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898; and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

NEGROS, The island of: American occupation.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).

Acceptance of American sovereignty. Establishment of provisional government.

See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-JULY).

NEMI, Lake: Sunken Roman vessels found in.

See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1894. War in Lombok.

See (in this volume) DUTCH EAST INDIES: A. D. 1894.

-------NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): Start------

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1896. Electoral Reform Act.

A notable extension of the franchise was accomplished by an Act passed this year by the States General, to have effect in the elections of 1897. It made voters of all Dutch citizens not under 25 years of age who present "certain outward and positive signs of capacity and well-being. The chief sign is the fact of payment of one or more direct State taxes (for the land tax an amount of 1 florin is sufficient). Besides these, the Reform Act admits as electors all those who can prove that they are householders, and have paid rent of houses or lodgings during a fixed term, or that they are owners or tenants of boats of not less than 24 tons capacity, or that they have been during a fixed term in employment with an annual wage or salary of at least £22 18s. 4d., or possess a certificate of State interest of at least 100 florins, or a State savings bank deposit of at least 50 florins, or the legal qualifications for any profession or employment."

_Statesman's Year-Book, 1899, page 807._

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1897. First election under the new Franchise Law.

The first election in Holland under the new franchise law, held June 15-25, 1897, returned to the Chamber 47 Liberals, 22 Catholics, 22 Protestant anti-Revolutionists, 4 Radicals, and one deputy who is styled an Historic Christian.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland):A. D. 1898. Enthronement of Queen Wilhelmina.

Queen Wilhelmina, who succeeded to the crown on the death of her father, William III., in 1890, reached the age of 18 on the 31st of August, 1898, and received the reins of government from her mother, Queen Emma, who had acted as Regent until that time. The young Queen was enthroned September 6 in the New Church at Amsterdam, where she delivered, with a simplicity and fervor which impressed those present, her address to the States-General and took her oath of allegiance to the Constitution. "I am happy and thankful," the Queen said, "to rule over the people of the Netherlands, who, although small in numbers, are great in virtue and strong by nature and character. I esteem it a great privilege that it is my life's task and duty to dedicate all my powers to the prosperity and interests of my dear fatherland; and I adopt the words of my beloved father,—'Yes, Orange can never do enough for the Netherlands.'" After the Queen and the Queen-Mother, the most striking figures at the ceremony were the Princes from the Dutch Indies.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1898 (June). The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume) SUGAR BOUNTIES.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (April). Invitation to the Peace Conference to be held at The Hague.

See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (May-July). Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See,(in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (May-August). Advice to President Kruger of the South African Republic.

See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-AuGUST).

NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland):A. D. 1901. Marriage of Queen Wilhelmina.

Queen Wilhelmina was married, on the 7th of February, to Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who received the title of Prince of the Netherlands by proclamation on the same day. Both civil and religious ceremonies of marriage were performed.

--------NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): End------

NEW BRUNSWICK.

See (in this volume) CANADA.

NEWEL, Stanford: American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1895. Union with Canada refused.

Terms proposed for the union of Newfoundland with the Dominion of Canada were rejected, and negotiations abandoned.

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897. Conference of colonial premiers with the British Colonial Secretary.

See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897-1900. The Reid contract. The question in politics.

In the fall of 1897 a line of narrow-gauge railway, with branches over six hundred miles in total length, was completed and opened to traffic. The main line of rail extends from the capital, St. Johns, to Port aux Basques, at the southwestern extremity of the island, and is expected to produce an important development of resources from the forests and mines, as well as from agricultural lands. The railway was constructed by a contractor, Mr. Reid, who agreed to operate it for seven years at his own expense, receiving therefor a land grant of 5000 acres per mile. In 1898 a new contract was made with Mr. Reid, which placed most of the resources of the island under his control. For an additional land-grant of 2500 acres per mile of road he undertook to operate the road for fifty years. By a present cash payment of $1,000,000 to the colony treasury, he purchased the reversion of its right to the possession of the road at the end of that period. At the same time he secured the right to purchase from the government its telegraph lines and the dry-dock at St. Johns, for half a million of dollars, and was given a monopoly for 30 years of the coast mail steam service, with an annual subsidy of $150,000, he undertaking to maintain in it eight steamers, well equipped. This remarkable contract was bitterly denounced by a large party in the island, and the Imperial government was strongly petitioned to nullify the whole transaction: but the British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, while he characterized the contract as representing "the most unparalleled abrogation of its functions by a responsible government," decided that he could not properly interfere. {320} The "Reid Deal," as it was known, then became a burning issue in Newfoundland politics, and the Ministry responsible for it, led by Sir James Winter, was ousted from the government in February, 1900. Mr. Reid was then arranging to transfer his Newfoundland contract and franchises to a company, which required the sanction of the colonial government. The new (Liberal) Ministry, of which Mr. Robert Bond was Premier, refused consent to the transfer unless Mr. Reid would amend his bargain with the colony in several very important particulars. He offered some concessions, but not to the extent demanded; and so the question between him and the Bond Ministry went into the canvass of 1900, for the election of a new Assembly, and the Conservatives, heavily backed by Mr. Reid, were defeated overwhelmingly, winning but 4 seats out of 36 in the Lower House of the Legislature. On this result of the elections the "London Times" of November 26, 1900, comments as follows: "The course which the victorious Bond Ministry will now take must be awaited with interest. … A policy of compromise would certainly appear to be the wisest and the safest for all parties. Mr. Reid, it seems to be acknowledged, has carried out his part of the bargain of 1898 fully and even generously, and the colony, it is stated, has profited largely in consequence. In the absence of actual fraud or corruption it would be difficult in these circumstances to justify the rescission or even the material modification of the agreement, on the faith of which he has spent his money, without his assent. A repeal of the Act of 1898 against his will would savour of repudiation. It would assuredly damage the credit of the colony very seriously."

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901. The French Shore Question. The Modus Vivendi.

"At the period of the negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, by which the rights of the French fishermen were regulated [see, in volume 4, NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713], thousands of French fishing vessels availed themselves of the inshore fisheries about the island; and that they might be not altogether without facilities for the drying and curing of their fish, they were granted under the Treaty the 'right to use a strip of the coast seven hundred miles long and half a mile wide.' Accompanying the Treaty, but, be it noted, not a part of it, was a declaration of King George, that British subjects on the island were not to interfere with these French coast rights by erecting permanent structures upon it, calculated to obstruct the operations of the French fishermen. This Royal declaration was harmless and unimportant when the population of the island was very small, and the French fishermen resorted to the inshore fisheries of Newfoundland. But to-day, a different condition exists. The French fishermen no longer use the inshore fisheries of the island, but prosecute, instead, their fishing operations on the Grand Banks, several hundred miles distant, drying their product either at the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which are more adjacent to the Banks, or transporting the fish direct to France. … The need for which the French shore right was granted has practically ceased to exist; and inasmuch as the prohibition to the people of the island from erecting permanent structures on the island was merely a mandate emanating from the King, and not an integral part of the Treaty itself; and because the reason for the observance of the mandate has thus ceased to exist, it is imperative that, in the interests of the prosperity of the island, this Royal concession should be revoked. … But what, it may be asked, on a perusal of the whole case, has caused the Newfoundland question to suddenly become paramount? Why is its urgency greater in 1899 than it was in 1889? Is there not some concentrated force, some propelling power, at work behind the scenes? There is—and that power is a millionaire. The name of this millionaire is Robert Gillespie Reid, who, having voluntarily assumed, by means of the measure known as the Reid contract, the responsibility of developing the island's resources, finds himself, at the outset, confronted by a situation which precludes all present enterprise. This gentleman has acquired, in fee simple, some three or four million acres of land in Newfoundland; and where the islanders were content to wait patiently for justice, he, as a business-man, eager to exploit his mines and timber, can hardly be expected to pin his faith to assurances so frail, and of fulfilment so remote."

_B. Wilson, Newfoundland's Opportunity (Fortnightly Review, February, 1899)._

A royal commission which lately investigated the situation of affairs on the Treaty Coast of Newfoundland found that the coast "is 800 miles in extent, with a permanent population of 13,300, all but 76 of whom are native-born, while the total of French frequenting the territory during the fishing season does not exceed 600 men. The French, last year, according to the official reports furnished to the Admiralty, occupied only eight cod and nine lobster stations, with a personnel as above, while their catch of cod was but 18,000 qtls., worth about 36,000 dollars, and their pack of lobsters about 7,000 cases, of about equal value. And is it not monstrous that, in order to satisfy vexatious French claims and perpetuate obsolete treaty claims, the people of the Treaty Coast should he coerced and victimised, and the development of the whole colony retarded, as has been the case? The Commissioners found that, despite the liberal bounties given by France for fishing on the Treaty Coast, the allowance of 50 francs per head by the St. Pierre municipality for the same purpose, and the special appropriation the past two seasons in the French colonial grant 'for extending operations on the Newfoundland coast, 4,000 francs,' the number of men frequenting there and the number of stations operated are steadily declining every year, and in ten years' time it is doubtful if there would be a Frenchman on the coast. Still, so powerful is the French fetish that the shore is tabooed as far as industrial development is concerned, and the hinterland likewise. No grant of land can be given there except with the stipulation that it is subject to French rights. No permanent building can be erected within half a mile of high-water mark, because the French claim the strand for drying their fish. No wharves can be built by which to load minerals, because they will interfere with the French fishery. (Only last year they stopped the erection of one which was twenty-two miles from their nearest station, and Mr. Reid, the railway contractor, when he wanted to build a wharf at Bay St. George to land construction materials, had to seize the opportunity of the French warship in the Bay leaving to coal and renew stores, and put an army of men to work, who built it in seventeen days, so that it was completed when the Frenchmen returned.) {321} No mineral developments are permitted because they may hamper the French. Competition on near-by fishing grounds is prohibited for the same reason. Illicit (?) lobster packers are hunted like malefactors for disregarding a 'modus vivendi' as unjust as it is ridiculous. Bait-selling is only possible by permission of the French and on their terms. The railway was deflected 120 miles out of its proper course because of French objection to a terminus on the shore. In fact, fishing is only pursued with the greatest difficulty, while the land is closed to agricultural settlement and mining enterprise. And that, too, in the face of the fact that the French 'army of occupation' consists of about one vessel, one station, and about sixty fishermen on every 100 miles of coast, whose annual catch is worth about 10,000 dollars."

_P. T. McGrath, France in Newfoundland (Nineteenth Century, January, 1899)._

In 1890, a temporary agreement ("modus vivendi") concerning the lobster packing and other questions, was arranged between the British and French governments, which has been extended from time to time, very much to the dissatisfaction of the Province. The last extension expired at the end of the year 1900, and the Newfoundlanders showed a strong disposition to resist any renewal of it. A letter from St. Johns, in December, 1900, stated the feeling of the colony as follows: "Last year the term of the 'modus vivendi' was allowed to run out, and a deadlock, such as now seems inevitable, would doubtless have been created; but when the end of December came the reverses in South Africa appealed to our patriotism as the oldest British colony, and the Legislature unanimously passed at one sitting a Bill renewing the arrangement for another year. The colony was unable to afford any more substantial aid at the time, as her naval reserve had not then been inaugurated, but this course on her part testified to her sympathy with the Imperial mother, and her readiness to relieve her from other difficulties. This year Newfoundland is taking the bit between her teeth, and the result must be a complication which, however unwelcome to the Imperial Cabinet, cannot but have been regarded as inevitable sooner or later. If our case is as strong as we are led to believe that the Royal Commission represents it to be, there is certainly good ground for our insisting upon remedial measures. It must not be forgotten that the French now keep up less than 15 cod and lobster stations altogether on the treaty coast, and that about 550 men is the number they had there last season. As against this the resident population is nearly 14,000, and the objections which they urged against the 'modus vivendi' in its early days apply with equal strength now. These people are shamefully treated, the colony as a whole is humiliated, and the recognition of such conditions by England without making an attempt to get rid of them is a cause of reproach which she should remove without delay."

Much newspaper discussion of the subject has been going on in both England and France, with an apparent showing of readiness on the part of the latter country to bargain with the British for cessions in West Africa or elsewhere. How much of a price Great Britain is willing to pay for release from the treaty of Utrecht is a question the answer to which cannot be forever postponed.

Despite its reluctance, the Newfoundland Legislature was prevailed upon, in February, 1901, to pass an Act renewing the "modus vivendi" for another year. Several members who supported the measure declared that they did so for the last time, and only because of an unwillingness to embarrass the British government during the continuance of the South African war.

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1901. Change of Government.

Early in the year, Sir Henry McCallum was transferred from the governorship of Newfoundland to that of Natal, and Sir Cavendish Boyle was appointed to succeed him.

NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1897. Constitutional Amendments.

On the 28th of September, several proposals of constitutional amendment were voted on in New Jersey. One prohibitory of gambling was adopted by a small majority. Another, that would give the suffrage in school elections to women, was rejected by about 10,000 majority.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

See (in this volume) AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895. The Lexow Investigation of Tammany government. Election of Mayor Strong.

"On the second Sunday in February 1892 the minister of a wealthy Presbyterian church, Dr. Charles Parkhurst, startled his congregation by preaching an outspoken political sermon, in which he attacked the Tammany administration in most unmeasured language. 'The mayor and those associated with him are polluted harpies [he declared]. Under the pretence of governing this city they are feeding day and night on its quivering vitals. They are a lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and libidinous lot. … Every effort to make men respectable, honest, temperate, and sexually clean is a direct blow between the eyes of the mayor and his whole gang of lecherous subordinates, in the sense that while we fight iniquity they shield and patronise it; while we try to convert criminals they manufacture them, and they have a hundred dollars invested in the manufacturing business to every one invested in converting machinery. … Police and criminals all stand in with each other. It is simply one solid gang of criminals, one half in office and the other half out.' This sermon was the starting point of the new anti-Tammany movement. Dr. Parkhurst was called before the grand jury to prove his words, but he was obliged to admit that all he knew was the repeated accusations that appeared in almost every local newspaper. Thereupon the grand jury publicly rebuked him, and sent a formal presentment to the Recorder declaring their 'disapproval and condemnation' of the sermon. Everyone at once concluded that no more would be heard of Parkhurst in politics, but they did not know the man. The clergyman called a couple of detectives to his aid, and personally visited the lowest resorts, to obtain the necessary evidences of corruption. A month later he preached a second political sermon, and this time he took into the pulpit with him a bundle of affidavits. He repeated and emphasised his former accusations, and again he was summoned before the grand jury. This time the result was different. 'The police are either incompetent or corrupt,' the jury declared, and citizens generally agreed. …

{322}

"In 1894, the State Senate … appointed a committee, this time under Senator Lexow, to inquire into New York municipal affairs. Soon after the committee was appointed Mr. Croker found it convenient to hastily resign the leadership of Tammany and go to Europe. The worst accusations of the bitterest enemies of Crokerism were almost all more than substantiated by the evidence given before the committee. It was found that the police were utterly corrupt, that they extorted blackmail from gambling house keepers, women of ill fame, saloon keepers, and others, and in return gave them their protection. Even thieves, in some instances, were found to be regularly paying their police dues in return for immunity from arrest. One police justice had to admit that he received a hundred dollars from a keeper of a disorderly house. Everywhere that the Lexow Committee probed, or that other competent critics examined, the same thing was found. For several years New York had been living under a system of universal blackmail. Saloon keepers had to pay Tammany to be allowed to evade the Sunday closing law, merchants to be granted the simplest conveniences for getting their goods into their premises. But in the case of Mr. Croker no dishonesty could be proved. It was known that he had in a few years risen from a poor man to a millionaire, but in no instance could it be shown that he had acquired this wealth by corruption. His friends said he had made his money by horse-racing and real estate speculation, but unfortunately Mr. Croker did not go before the witness stand to finally clear up the matter. While the committee was sitting he remained in Europe.

"The usual storm of indignation followed the 'Lexow' exposure, and most reputable citizens united once more to overthrow Tammany. Colonel Strong, a well-known banker, was chosen reform candidate for mayor, and secured a majority of fifty thousand. In 1895 he began his administration, and initiated a vigorous reform movement. The police force was entirely reorganised; municipal offices were given for merit rather than political reward; the streets, for the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, were really kept clean, and the whole local government was taken out of politics. Mayor Strong's time of office has not been without its faults, but among those faults dishonesty has not been one. Rather the mistake has been to enforce all laws too rigidly, and make too few allowances for the weaknesses of human nature in a cosmopolitan resort. Police President Roosevelt's strict enforcement of the Sunday closing and social purity laws was only his duty, but yet it cost the reformers many votes. Although the report of the 'Lexow' Committee did Tammany much temporary harm, it recovered quickly. After the mayoral defeat of 1894 it pulled its forces together again, and rallied around it all the ambitions men who were disappointed in Mayor Strong's bestowal of his patronage. In the autumn of 1895 it was able to score a minor victory at the polls, and it carefully nursed its strength for the election of November 1897. Mr. Croker, notwithstanding his repeated declarations that he was 'out of politics,' came back to New York, and at once took over command of his party."

_F. A. McKenzie, Tammany (Nineteenth Century, December, 1897)._

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1895. Consolidation of the Astor, Lenox and Tilden foundations to form the New York Public Library.

See (in this volume) LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897. Consolidation of New York, Brooklyn, and neighboring towns, in the Greater New York.

"The project of uniting the cities of New York, Brooklyn, and the cities, towns and villages contiguous to the same, into one great municipality, although long mooted before 1890, first took definite form in that year, by the passage on May 8th, by the Legislature, of Laws 1890, Chapter 11, entitled 'An Act to create a commission to inquire into the expediency of consolidating the various municipalities in the State of New York, occupying the several islands in the harbor of New York.' …

Pursuant to the provisions of this act, a commission consisting of the following members was appointed, viz.: Andrew H. Green, Frederick W. Devoe, John L. Hamilton, J. Seaver Page of New York; J. S. T. Stranahan, Edward F. Linton, William D. Veeder of Brooklyn; John H. Brinkerhoff of Queen's county; George G. Greenfield of Richmond county; Charles P. McClelland of Westchester county; and Campbell W. Adams, State Engineer and Surveyor, ex officio, and Albert E. Henschel acting as secretary. In 1893, the commission presented to the Legislature a bill providing for the submission of the question of consolidation to a vote of the residents of the various municipalities proposed to be united into one city. The following year the Legislature provided for the referendum suggested by the commission. … The following vote was cast upon the question of consolidation in the ensuing election on November 6, 1894:

for consolidation; against; New York, 96,938; 59,959; Kings, 64,744; 64,467; Queens, 7,712; 4,741; Richmond, 5,531; 1,505; Mount Vernon, 873; 1,603; Eastchester, 374; 260; Westchester, 620; 621; Pelham, 261; 153.

At the opening of the Legislature in 1895, the Commission of Municipal Consolidation Inquiry presented a report with a proposed bill declaring the entire district before mentioned (with the exception of the city of Mount Vernon) consolidated with the city of New York. The bill, however, failed of passage because of the addition of an amendment of referendum in the last hours of the session of 1895, too late for further action. The Legislature, as a result no doubt of this vote on consolidation, did annex to New York city the towns of Westchester, Eastchester, Pelham and other parts of Westchester county.

"Early in January, 1896, the Legislature appointed a joint sub-committee of the Cities Committees of both Houses to inquire into the subject of the proposed consolidation and report March 1, 1806. The committee made a report and submitted a bill favoring consolidation. The bill as reported was passed by the Legislature and was submitted to the Mayors of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and to the Mayor and Common Council of Long Island City pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution. {323} The bill was returned to the Legislature without the acceptance of the cities of New York and Brooklyn. The Legislature repassed the bill over the vetoes of the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn, and it became a law May 11, 1896, with the approval of the Governor. This act (L. 1896, ch. 488) is entitled, 'An Act consolidating the local governments of the territory within the city and county of New York, the counties of Kings and Richmond and Long Island City and the towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica and part of the town of Hempstead, in the county of Queens, and providing for the preparation of bills for enactment into laws for the government thereof.' … Pursuant to the act of consolidation, the Governor (Levi P. Morton) appointed on June 9, 1896, the following members of the commission to draft the proposed charter, viz.: Seth Low, Benjamin F. Tracy, John F. Dillon, Ashbel P. Fitch, Stewart L. Woodford, Silas B. Dutcher, William. C. De Witt, George M. Pinney, Jr., Harrison S. Moore. Mr. Fitch having resigned from the commission, the Governor appointed Thomas F. Gilroy in his place. By virtue of the act, the following gentlemen were members of the commission: Andrew H. Green, president of the commission appointed by L. 1890, ch. 311; Campbell W. Adams, State Engineer; Theodore E. Hancock, Attorney-General; William L. Strong, Mayor of New York; Frederick W. Wurster, Mayor of Brooklyn; and Patrick Jerome Gleason, Mayor of Long Island City. The commission organized on June 25, 1896, appointed Benjamin F. Tracy as president and George M. Pinney, Jr., as secretary, and named William C. De Witt, John F. Dillon, Thomas F. Gilroy, Seth Low, Andrew H. Green, Benjamin F. Tracy, and George M. Pinney, Jr., as a committee on draft of proposed charter."

_M. Ash, The Greater New York Charter, introduction._

The committee submitted a draft charter to the commission on the 24th of December, with a report in which a fundamental feature of its plan is thus set forth: "It is clear that the work of administering all of the Departments over so large a space of territory, situated on three islands and partly on the main land, must be subdivided in order to be successfully done. The draft, therefore, proposes to divide the city into the five Boroughs which nature and history have already formed; that is to say:

(1.) Manhattan, which consists of the island of Manhattan and the outlying islands naturally related to it.

(2.) The Bronx; that is to say, all that part of the present City of New York lying north of the Harlem, a territory which comprises two-thirds of the area of the present City of New York.

(3.) Brooklyn.

(4.) Queens, consisting of that portion of Queens County to be incorporated into the Greater New York.

(5.) Richmond, that is, Staten Island.

Power is given to the Municipal Assembly to subdivide these Boroughs still further, in case of need. The Greater New York will start with these five Boroughs for administrative purposes. Your Committee have reconstructed the Borough system, as submitted in the tentative draft, upon lines which we are of one accord in believing to be a better and more appropriate development of the plan for the Greater New York. These lines give to each Borough various boards through which the prosecution of local improvements may be facilitated within the limits of small districts, but reserve to the Municipal Assembly the right to incur indebtedness and to authorize the making of contracts."

The draft thus prepared was subjected to criticism in the commission and in public hearings, and, after amendment and revision, was reported to the Legislature in February, 1897, as the charter recommended by the Commission for the consolidated city called "The Greater New York." It received some amendment and was passed. On submission, as required by the State constitution, to the mayors of New York and Brooklyn and the mayor and Common Council of Long Island City, it was approved in Brooklyn and Long Island City, but returned without approval by the mayor of New York. The Legislature then re-enacted the bill, and it was made law, by the governor's signature, on the 4th of May, 1897.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (September-November). Election of the first Mayor of Greater New York.

The first municipal election in Greater New York excited a passion of interest that was natural in the city itself, but extraordinary in the degree and the extent to which it spread, not only throughout the United States, but widely in the foreign world. The election was looked upon as the test of a vastly important experiment in the democratic government of an enormous city. The charter of the great consolidated municipality had lodged tremendous, unprecedented power and responsibility in the office of its mayor. The people were given an opportunity to determine by a single act of suffrage— by their choice of a single man—the character of their government. Would they choose that man, at the beginning of the new system, in the interest of the corrupting organization in party politics which had misruled the old city of New York for years, or would they rise to the grand opportunity afforded them, and set a strong, free, independently honest man at the head of their local government. Democracy in municipal affairs, at least, had never been put on trial so sharply before. To a great number of the citizens of New York the duty of the hour was plain, and they promptly set their hands to it. Many months before the election they began the organization of a Citizens' Union, in which men of all political parties, sinking every other difference, should join for the defeat of Tammany and "Boss" Croker, and for the election to the mayor's office of the best mayor to be found. With remarkable unanimity, their thought of the man turned to Seth Low, President of Columbia University, but one time mayor of Brooklyn, where his vigor, his firmness and his independence had been conspicuously proved. An extensive canvass of the city showed so widely spread a feeling in favor of Mr. Low that he was named at the beginning of September as the candidate of the non-partisan Citizens' Union. It was hoped that the whole opposition to Tammany Hall could be united in support of Mr. Low, representing as he did no partisan hostility to any organization in national or state politics. It was especially hoped and believed that the Republican party organization would endorse the choice of the Citizens' Union and make Mr. Low (himself a strong Republican) its own candidate. By nothing less than a general combination could the compact forces of Tammany Hall be overcome, and that fact was well understood. {324} It was a fact so plain, indeed, that when the head of the Republican organization in New York persisted in setting a party candidate in the field, to divide the opposing voters of the city, there seemed to be small doubt of the intention with which it was done. The master politicians of the party were evidently more willing that the vast powers of the mayoralty, in the organization of the government of Greater New York, should be wielded by their prototypes of Tammany than that they should be given to independent hands. The party was obedient to them, and General Benjamin F. Tracy was put forward, by a Republican convention held September 28, in opposition to Mr. Low. The night previous, another candidate had appeared, in the person of Mr. Henry George, author of the economic doctrine of the "single tax," supported ardently by a large following, especially in the Democratic party. A section of that party, organized under the name of the United Democracy, had nominated Mr. George, and his nomination was endorsed a week later by a great assembly which claimed to represent the Jeffersonian Democracy of New York. On the 30th of September the nomination of the Tammany Democracy was given to Judge Robert A. Van Wyck. Between these four principal candidates, the result of the election was only put in doubt by some question as to the strength of the Democratic vote which Mr. George would draw away from Judge Van Wyck. It was a question extinguished sadly, three days before the election, by the sudden death of Mr. George. He had not been in good health, and the strain of the exciting canvass broke him down. His followers made a hasty nomination of his son, Henry George, Jr., in his place; but the personal prestige which might have carried a large vote with them was lost. Of the triumph of Tammany there was no longer any doubt, and no surprise was felt (though abundant grief and anger found expression) when the returns of the voting on November 2d were announced. Judge Van Wyck was elected by the ballots of 233,997 citizens, against 151,540 cast for Mr. Low, 102,873 for General Tracy, 21,693 for the younger Mr. George. Tammany would have been beaten if the Republican vote had gone to Mr. Low. Besides the four principal candidates here named, there were four other nominees who received small numbers of votes. Lucien Sanial, put forward by the Social Democrats, received 14,467; William T. Wardwell, named by the Prohibitionists, received 1,359; Patrick J. Gleason and Alfred B. Cruikshank, running with little more than some personal support, received a few hundreds of votes each.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899 (April-December). The Mazet Investigation.

An investigation of charges against the city government, by a committee of the Legislature, Mr. Robert Mazet, chairman, was opened in April, 1899, the examination of witnesses being conducted by Mr. Frank Moss. The investigation followed lines much the Same as those pursued by the Lexow committee, in 1894, and revealed much the same foul state of things, especially in the department of police. But there was evidently less earnestness in the committee; the probing of iniquities was fill less thorough, and the whole proceeding was stopped with suspicious suddenness as soon as it drew near to prominent members of the party by which it was controlled. It called fresh attention to the rottenness in municipal politics, and it led to the creation of a new commission for the revision of the Greater New York charter; but otherwise it was most unsatisfactory.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899-1900. The Ramapo Water Contract.

In August, 1899, Bird S. Coler, Controller of the City, exposed a gigantic scheme of plunder involved in a contract with the Ramapo Water Company, which Tammany officials, assisted, it was said, by some interested Republicans, were attempting to crowd through the Board of Public Improvements. The contract would have bound the city for forty years to pay to the Ramapo Company $70 per million gallons for 200,000,000 gallons of water daily. In his Message to the State Legislature, January 2, 1901, Governor Odell thus referred to the matter: "Under chapter 985 of the laws of 1895, as amended, the Ramapo Water Company was given the power of condemnation for the purpose of securing to it the water and lands necessary for its purposes. During the year 1899 an attempt was made to enter into a contract with this company by the municipal board empowered to make such contracts. This proposition, when presented to the citizens of New York, was severely criticised by them, and the question of continued municipal ownership of their water supply was thus brought to their attention. The Legislature of 1900 enacted a law which made the consummation of such a contract impossible without the unanimous consent of those empowered to make such contract. The ownership of water rights sufficient to provide the city of New York with an ample supply of pure and wholesome water should be entirely under the control and direction of the municipality." Action on the subject was taken by the Legislature, which, in March, repealed the Act of 1895, thus stripping the Ramapo Company of its extraordinary powers.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (January-September). The Rapid Transit Tunnel Contract. Projected Tunnel to Brooklyn.

"The great project of underground rapid transit is now an assured thing. A few months ago the prospect seemed very dark. It is true that the rapid transit commissioners, a very able and upright body of men, with the invaluable aid of a distinguished engineer, Mr. Parsons, had a good while ago decided on the route and the plans; but the way seemed blocked by a series of semi-political and semi-legal difficulties. … Suddenly these difficulties began to disappear. … The financial plan adopted was that the city should provide the money which a contractor would expend in building the road, the contractor following the plans furnished by the city, submitting to municipal inspection, and agreeing upon his part to pay the interest on the bonds sold by the city to obtain the money, and also to pay enough into a sinking fund to provide for the ultimate redemption of the bonds. Bids were called for on November 15, to be opened on January 15. … It turned out that two well-known contractors were the only bidders, and the award was given to Mr. John B. McDonald. His bid was $35,000,000. The theory of this contract is that the road is to be the property of the city, leased for fifty years to the contractor, who is to pay a rental that will be large enough so that the taxpayers will not have expended a penny. … {325} The main trunk line will start at the post-office (City Hall Square) on the south and proceed northward along the spine of Manhattan Island, following the general direction of Broadway to Kingsbridge, a distance from the point of beginning of twelve or thirteen miles. Near the upper end of Central Park, at a distance of six or seven miles from the point of beginning, a branch of the tunnel road will take a northeasterly direction, terminating at Bronx Park, which is about the same distance north as Kingsbridge, but several miles further east. The road will have four tracks for six miles of main line, two of which will be used for local trains and two for express trains."

_American Review of Reviews, February, 1900._

Work on the great undertaking was begun promptly, and had made great progress within the first twelve months.

In September, 1900, preliminary steps were taken toward the construction of a connecting tunnel, under the East River, to Brooklyn, and through the congested districts of the latter borough. "At least three years will be necessary for the preliminary work and actual construction before trains are running. … Tentative estimates have been made, and these are said to be from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. … The route as contemplated … starts in connection with the Manhattan proposed tunnel at a point at or near the intersection of Broadway and Park Row; thence under Broadway and Bowling Green to Whitehall Street; under Whitehall Street to South Street; thence under South Street to the East River, and under the river, striking the Brooklyn shore at a point in Joralemon Street between the East River and Furman Street, under Joralemon Street to Fulton Street, to the Borough Hall, out Fulton Street to Flatbush Avenue, and under this thoroughfare to the railroad station. On the New York side the route includes a loop to be built whose debouching point shall lie between Bowling Green and Exchange Place in Broadway, running under Broadway to Bowling Green, and thence under Bowling Green to State Street, to and under Battery Park to Whitehall Street, thence returning under Whitehall Street and Battery Park to State Street and to Broadway. The construction calls for two tracks, and avoids all grade crossings, each track to have a separate tubular tunnel."

_New York Times, September 28, 1900._

On the 25th of January, 1901, announcement was published that the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners had adopted a resolution definitely providing for the extension of the Rapid Transit Railroad to Brooklyn. The original plan of route in Brooklyn had been chosen. The only change made was in Manhattan. The trains would be run through State St. instead of Whitehall, as formerly planned, with a loop at the Battery for Manhattan trains.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (April-May). Ecumenical Conference on Missions.

See (in this volume) MISSIONS.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (June). Great fire at the Hoboken piers.

See (in this volume) HOBOKEN.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900-1901. Revision of the charter.

Carefully as the Greater New York charter had been drawn, it proved unsatisfactory in the working, in various respects, and a commission to revise it was appointed in 1900. The report of the commission was submitted to the Governor on the 1st of December, and transmitted, with his approval, to the Legislature in the following month. In the hands of the Legislature, the bill embodying the revised charter underwent considerable amendment, very much, it would seem, to its detriment. It was passed by the Senate on the 3d of April and by the Assembly on the 4th, and went to the Mayor of New York for the submission to his judgment which the State Constitution of New York requires. Some of the more important changes in the charter made by the revision, as passed, are the shortening of the mayor's term of office from four years (which the revision commission had advised retaining) to two years, with eligibility for re-election (which the commission had advised against); an increase of the administrative powers of the presidents of boroughs; abolition of the municipal Council and creation of a Board of Aldermen of 73 members; reorganization of various departments of the municipal administration.

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1901 (March). Offered gift of $5,200,000 to the Public Library by Andrew Carnegie.

See (in this volume) LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1894. The revised Constitution.

See (in this volume) CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897. Passage of the Raines Liquor Law.

An Act for the regulation of the liquor traffic, which was and is the subject of much controversy, was passed in March, 1896, by the Legislature of the State of New York. From its author, Senator John Raines, it has borne the name of the Raines Law. It heavily increased the tax on the selling of liquor, raising it to $800 on common "saloons" in the city of New York; to $650 in Brooklyn; to $500 in other cities having more than 50,000 and not more than 500,000 inhabitants; and to rates in lesser cities and towns which ranged from 8100 to $350. It forbade the licensing of any liquor shop within 200 feet of a schoolhouse or a church, and also forbade the opening of any new shop of that character in a residence district without consent of two-thirds of the property owners. It prohibited the sale of liquor on Sundays, except in hotels and clubs; but this provision furnished a means of evasion which was speedily brought into use. "Raines hotels" and "Raines Clubs," as they were called, sprang into existence everywhere, sufficiently answering the requirements of the law to escape its penalties. These and other defects were considerably remedied by amendments of the Act in April, 1897. It survived a powerful attack in the Legislature at that time, the whole strength of the leading cities in the State being brought against the law. The country districts were generally united in supporting it, partly on principle, and partly because of the extent to which it lightened the burdens of taxation. By apportioning two-thirds of the enormous revenue raised under the Act to the towns, counties and cities in which it is collected, and one-third to the state treasury, the Raines Law fortified itself strongly in more than the moral sentiment of the people. Under the Raines Law all local excise boards are abolished, and the whole licensing and regulating of the liquor traffic is placed under the supervision of a State commissioner.

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1897. The Black Civil Service Law.

See (in this volume) CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1897-1899.

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NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1898. Primary Election Law.

An Act which aims to make the political party caucus for nominating candidates, and for choosing delegates to nominating conventions, a "primary election," conducted under strict regulations of law and guarded by registration, was passed by the New York State Legislature and signed by the Governor March 23, 1898.

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899. New Civil Service Enactment.

See (in this volume) CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1897-1899.

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899 (May). Taxation of public franchises.

A measure of great importance, introducing a new and eminently just principle in taxation, was carried through the Legislature of New York in May, by the energetic influence of Governor Roosevelt. Recommended by the Governor in a special message on the 27th of March and passed in an unsatisfactory form, a bill to provide for the taxing of public franchises which did not promise successful working was being left on his hands when the Legislature adjourned. He promptly called a special session and renewed to it his urgent recommendations. "I recommend," he said, "the enactment of a law which shall tax all these franchises as realty, which shall provide for the assessment of the tax by the Board of State Tax Commissioners, and which shall further provide that from the tax thus levied for the benefit of each locality, there shall be deducted the tax as now paid by the corporation in question. Furthermore, as the time for assessing the largest and wealthiest corporations, those of New York and Buffalo, has passed for this year, and as it will be preferable not to have the small country corporations taxed before the larger corporations of the city are taxed, I suggest that the operations of the law be deferred until October 1, of this year."

Within a few days, the desired bill was passed by both Houses of the Legislature, signed by the Governor and became a law. The public franchises to which it relates are defined in its first section, as follows:

"The terms 'land,' 'real estate,' and 'real property,' as used in this chapter, include the land itself above and under water, all buildings and other articles and structures, substructures, and superstructures, erected upon, under or above, or affixed to the same; all wharves and piers, including the value of the right to collect wharfage, cranage, or dockage thereon; all bridges, all telegraph lines, wires, poles, and appurtenances; all supports and inclosures for electrical conductors and other appurtenances upon, above, and underground; all surface, underground, or elevated railroads, including the value of all franchises, rights, or permission to construct, maintain, or operate the same in, under, above, on, or through streets, highways, or public places; all railroad structures, substructures, and superstructures, tracks, and the iron thereon, branches, switches, and other fixtures permitted or authorized to be made, laid, or placed on, upon, above, or under any public or private road, street, or grounds; all mains, pipes, and tanks laid or placed in, upon, above, or under any public or private street or place for conducting steam, heat, water, oil, electricity, or any property, substance or product capable of transportation or conveyance therein, or that is protected thereby, including the value of all franchises, rights, authority, or permission to construct, maintain, or operate in, under, above, upon, or through any streets, highways, or public places, any mains, pipes, tanks, conduits, or wires, with their appurtenances, for conducting water, steam, heat, light, power, gas, oil, or other substance, or electricity for telegraphic, telephonic, or other purposes; all trees and underwood growing upon land, and all mines, minerals, quarries, and fossils in and under the same, except mines belonging to the state. A franchise, right, authority, or permission, specified in this subdivision, shall, for the purpose of taxation, be known as a special franchise. A special franchise shall be deemed to include the value of the tangible property of a person, co-partnership, association, or corporation, situated in, upon, under, or above any street, highway, public place, or public waters in connection with the special franchise. The tangible property so included shall be taxed as a part of the special franchise."

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: The Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

See (in this volume) HALL OF FAME.

----------NEW ZEALAND: Start--------

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900. Democratic experiments. Labor laws and the land system. Compulsory industrial arbitration and its working.

"I have been a studious observer of every phase of social life and legislative change that has taken place in this colony during the past seven years," wrote U. S. Consul Connolly, at Auckland, in July, 1896. "I arrived at the very beginning of the experimental era—and it is no misnomer to call much of the legislation of the past few years experimental in the truest sense [see, also (in this volume), AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY]. But while it is so, there is a most gratifying feature which compensates for the violence done to the feelings of those whose motto has been 'let us permit matters to remain as they are, they suit us well enough.' That the legislative innovations of the immediate past have shocked the sensibilities of a large number of prominent and well-to-do colonists is unquestionably true, but, at the same time, as against any inconvenience they may have experienced on this account, there is the fact of increased prosperity in nearly every branch of trade and industrial life throughout the country, farm products are fetching satisfactory prices, manufacturing industries are running full time and paying good wages and fair interest on the capital invested, labor is remuneratively employed, interest on money has fallen from 6 and 7 per cent to 4 and 5 per cent (this of itself, is sufficient to prove that money is abundant). Millions of English capital are flowing in for the development of the gold fields of the colony, and the credit of the country at no period of its history stood so high on the English market as it does to-day. {327} I may also mention that, through the genuine encouragement given by the Government to the small-farmer class, the waste lands of the country are being rapidly taken up wherever land is found suitable for farming or grazing purposes. Notwithstanding the admitted prosperity of the colony and the fact that the Government have had a substantial surplus over expenditure now for a number of years, the national debt continues to increase. But the increased indebtedness is not of the usual character, for the reason that the country has security for nearly all the money borrowed in recent years. Money had to be borrowed under Government guaranty to save the Bank of New Zealand from closing its doors. This was done to avert financial disaster. …

"Money has been borrowed to purchase large estates for the purposes of settlement. Those who take up land under this system, as already stated, pay an annual rental sufficient to cover the interest on the purchase money and the cost of administration. The land is always vested in the Government and this must be regarded as a good asset. One million and a Half sterling was borrowed last year in England at 3 per cent per annum. This £1,500,000 loan is called the ' advances to settlers loan.' This money is lent out to farmers at 4 per cent per annum. … I need scarcely add that the large landholders, the mortgage companies, and the money lenders generally did not favor this kind of legislation, particularly the cheap advances to settlers, but their opposition was utterly futile. With the advent of the one-man-one-vote and the extension of the franchise to women, the power of corporate wealth in this country appears to have been irrevocably destroyed. Whether this be for good or evil, I am not, of course, in a position to say. I can say, however, that no ill effects of the change are apparent up to the present; on the contrary, the country is more prosperous and at least as honestly and as economically administered as it was under the old régime.

"To say that this country is, in my opinion, more truly democratic than any country in the world would be merely stating a simple truth; and to say that the present Government is a workingman's Government is equally true. A great deal of the legislation of recent years, however, is in advance of the requirements and ideas of the people, with the result that some of it has proved to be annoying and irksome to many. This is especially true of some of the labor laws. The Government are honestly endeavoring to place the masses in possession of their legitimate rights with as little friction as possible, and at the same time with due regard to vested interests and the propriety of things generally. But while struggling thus with the duties and responsibilities of their official positions, the members of the Ministry are torn asunder by the clamorous and impracticable demands of the unreasonable and irresponsible. The sympathies of the Government are unmistakably with the people, but the honor, the dignity, and the welfare of the country will not permit them to depart from a course too inconsistent with the sense of obligation, fair dealing, integrity, and responsibility which are the admitted characteristics and duty of all civilized governments. The great danger at the present moment is too much legislation in one direction. This is the one thing wherein the Government find it really hard to resist the demands of organized labor. There is, however, a very gratifying disposition manifesting itself among the more reasonable members of the labor societies to let well enough alone for the present—a disposition it is much to be hoped may extend throughout the whole body of the workers. If not, I have no hesitation in predicting a serious revulsion of public sentiment and sympathy within the next few years."

_United States Consular Reports, January, 1897, page 35._

"Australian experience seems in many ways to prove the value of our system of written constitutions, to be construed and enforced by the courts. The effect on the minds of ill-informed legislators of the knowledge that they can do anything for which they can get a majority, is naturally to beget extravagance and an overweening sense of power, and lead to excessive experimentation. … It is in devices for the protection of labor that most of this experimentation occurs. New Zealand affords the best example of it. It provides elaborate legal protection for the eight-hour day. A workman cannot consent to work overtime without extra pay. The state sees that he gets the extra pay. It looks closely after the condition of women and children in the factories. It sees that servant girls are not overcharged by the registry offices for getting them places. It prescribes one half-holiday a week for all persons employed in stores and offices, and sees that they take it. It will not allow even a shopkeeper who has no employees to dispense with his half-holiday; because if he does not take it, his competition will injure those who do. The 'labor department' of the government has an army of inspectors, who keep a close watch on stores and factories, and prosecute violations of the law which they themselves discover. They do not wait for complaints; they ferret out infractions, so that the laborer may not have to prejudice himself by making charges. The department publishes a 'journal' once a month, which gives detailed reports of the condition of the labor market in all parts of the colony, and of the prosecutions which have taken place anywhere of employers who have violated the law. It provides insurance for old age and early death, and guarantees every policy. It gives larger policies for lower premiums than any of the private offices, and depreciates the private offices in its documents. It distributes the profits of its business as bonuses among the policy-holders, and keeps a separate account for teetotalers, so that they may get special advantages from their abstinence. The 'journal' is, in fact, in a certain sense a labor manual, in which everything pertaining to the comfort of labor is freely discussed. The poor accommodation provided for servants in hotels and restaurants is deplored, and so is the difficulty which middle-aged men have in finding employment. More attention to the morals and manners of nursemaids is recommended. All the little dodges of employers are exposed and punished. If they keep the factory door fastened, they are fined. If housekeepers pretend that their servants are lodgers, and therefore not liable to a compulsory half-holiday, they are fined. If manufacturers are caught allowing girls to take their meals in a workshop, they are fined.

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"As far as I can make out, too, without visiting the country, there is as yet no sign of reaction against this minute paternal care of the laborer. The tendency to use the powers of the government chiefly for the promotion of the comfort of the working classes, whether in the matter of land settlement, education, or employment, seems to undergo no diminution. The only thing which has ceased, or slackened, is the borrowing of money for improvements. The results of this borrowing have been so disastrous that the present generation, at least, will hardly try that experiment again."

_E. L. Godkin, The Australian Democracy (Atlantic Monthly, March, 1898)._

NEW ZEALAND: Labor Laws. Compulsory industrial arbitration.

"There is not in any other country in the world a more valuable or more enlightened body of Labour laws than those now upon the statute book of this progressive colony. They cover almost every risk to life, limb, health, and interest of the industrial classes. They send the law, as it were, everywhere a worker is employed for daily wages to fling the shield of the state over him or her in the labour of livelihood. The bare enumeration of these laws will indicate the far-reaching ground they cover:—The Coal Mines Act, the Master and Apprentices Act, the Conspiracy Law Amendment Act, the Trade Union Act, the Servant's Registry Offices Act (for the protection of servant girls against the risks of dishonest offices of that kind), Contractors and Workmen's Lien Act, three amended Employer's Liability Acts, three amended Shipping and Seamen's Acts, two Shops and Shop-assistants Acts, the Factories Act, and the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894. … The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, passed in 1894 … has attracted much attention outside New Zealand. An Act with a similar purpose, but permissive in its operations, was passed … in the New South Wales Legislature in 1892. It was limited in duration to four years, and was not a success. The New Zealand bill was more skilfully drawn, and, possessing the element of a gentle compulsion, has so far achieved its aim. The Act begins by inviting all parties to join 'in lawful association for the purpose of protecting or furthering the interests of employers or workmen in, or in connection with, any industry in the colony.' Such parties as accept the legal invitation are allowed to register themselves as 'an industrial union,' and this step once taken they are enticed on through a network of solicitations, provisions, and safeguards, until they find themselves, almost without knowing it, agreeing to everything that follows. Trades Unions, or any other labour organization, or any combination of employers, can register as individual bodies without a mixed association of workers and employers. Once registered, they are in the network of arbitration:—'The effect of registration shall be to render the industrial union, and all persons who may be members of any society or trade union, so registered as an industrial union at the time of registration, or who after such registration may become members of any society or trade union so registered, subject to the jurisdiction by this Act given to a Board and the Court respectively, and liable to all the provisions of this Act, and all such persons shall be bound by the rules of the industrial union during the continuance of the membership.' … 'Every industrial agreement duly made and executed shall be binding on the parties thereto, and on every person who at any time during the term of such agreement is a member of any industrial union, trade union, or association party thereto, and on every employer who shall in the prescribed manner signify to the Registrar of the Supreme Court where such agreement is filed concurrence therein, and every such employer shall be entitled to the benefit thereof, and be deemed to be a party thereto.' … 'In and for every district there shall be established a Board of Conciliation, to have jurisdiction for the settlement of industrial disputes occurring in such district, which may be referred to it by one or more of the parties to an industrial dispute, or by industrial agreement.' … 'Every Board shall consist of such equal number of persons as the Governor may determine, being not more than six nor less than four persons, who shall be chosen by the industrial unions of employers and of workmen in the industrial district respectively, such unions voting separately, and electing an equal number of such members.' … Should this body itself be unable to come to a satisfactory decision it may refer the matter in question to a small committee of its members fairly representing each side. If a settlement or reconciliation be unattainable in this way, either party to the dispute can appeal to the Court of Arbitration, which is constituted as follows:—'There shall be one Court of Arbitration for the whole colony for the settlement of industrial disputes pursuant to this Act. … The Court shall consist of three members to be appointed by the Governor, one to be so appointed on the recommendation of the councils or a majority of the councils of the industrial associations of workmen in the colony, and one to be so appointed on the recommendation of the councils or a majority of the councils of the industrial associations of employers of the colony.' … 'No recommendation shall be made as to the third member, who shall be a Judge of the Supreme Court, and shall be appointed from time to time by the Governor, and shall be President of the Court.'"

_M. Davitt, Life and Progress in Australasia,