History for ready reference, Volume 6
volume 1, page 53.
Notwithstanding all which high official acknowledgments and declarations of obligation and duty, on the part of the Republic of the United States to the people of the island which it had wrested from Spain, certain interests in the former that objected to competition from the latter were able to secure legislation which deferred the performance of the "plain duty" required. An Act of Congress which the President approved on the 12th of April, 1900, "temporarily to provide revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico and for other purposes," enacted as follows:
"SECTION 3. That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of internal revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under' orders heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico.
"SECTION 4. That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof, then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local treasury of Porto Rico, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico, and shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents, and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That as soon as a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in accordance with the provisions of this Act and notice thereof shall have been given to the President he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall be paid into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead of being paid into the Treasury of the United States."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (April). Act to provide temporarily for the civil government of the Island.
The fundamental provisions of the act of the Congress of the United States to provide temporarily for the civil government of Porto Rico, which the President approved April 12, 1900, are the following:
"SECTION 6. That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San Juan and the seat of government shall be maintained there.
"SECTION 7. That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the protection of the United States, except such as shall have elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.
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"SECTION 8. That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall continue in full force and effect, except as altered, amended, or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military orders and decrees in force when this Act shall take effect, and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict with the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered, amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United States: Provided, That so much of the law which was in force at the time of cession, April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken, being paragraph four, article eighty-three, chapter three, civil code, and which was continued by the order of the secretary of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, is hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages: And provided further, That paragraph one, article one hundred and five, section four, divorce, civil code, and paragraph two, section nineteen, of the order of the minister of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so amended as to read: 'Adultery on the part of either the husband or the wife.' …
"SECTION 14. That the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico as in the United States, except the internal-revenue laws, which, in view of the provisions of section three, shall not have force and effect in Porto Rico.
"SECTION 15. That the legislative authority hereinafter provided shall have power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.
"SECTION 16. That all judicial process shall run in the name of 'United States of America, ss: the President of the United States,' and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local courts shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of 'The People of Porto Rico'; and all officials authorized by this Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Porto Rico.
"SECTION 17. That the official title of the chief executive officer shall be 'The Governor of Porto Rico.' He shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat of government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted, as hereinafter provided; he shall be the commander in chief of the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of governors of the Territories of the United States that are not locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other times as he may be required, make official report of the transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the Secretary of State, to the President of the United States: Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, delegate and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may in pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.
"SECTION 18. That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four years, unless sooner removed by the President, a secretary, an attorney-general, a treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of the interior, and a commissioner of education, each of whom shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and who, together with five other persons of good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall constitute an executive council, at least five of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such officials and as such executive council. …
"SECTION 27. That all local legislative powers hereby granted shall be vested in a legislative assembly which shall consist of two houses; one the executive council, as hereinbefore constituted, and the other a house of delegates, to consist of thirty-five members elected biennially by the qualified voters as hereinafter provided; and the two houses thus constituted shall be designated 'The legislative assembly of Porto Rico.'
"SECTION 28. That for the purposes of such elections Porto Rico shall be divided by the executive council into seven districts, composed of contiguous territory and as nearly equal as may be in population, and each district shall be entitled to five members of the house of delegates.
SECTION 29. That the first election for delegates shall be held on such date and under such regulations as to ballots and voting as the executive council may prescribe. … At such elections all citizens of Porto Rico shall be allowed to vote who have been bona fide residents for one year and who possess the other qualifications of voters under the laws and military orders in force on the first day of March, 1900, subject to such modifications and additional qualifications and such regulations and restrictions as to registration as may be prescribed by the executive council. …
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"SECTION 32. That the legislative authority herein provided shall extend to all matters of a legislative character not locally inapplicable, including power to create, consolidate, and reorganize the municipalities, so far as may be necessary, and to provide and repeal laws and ordinances therefor; and also the power to alter, amend, modify, and repeal any and all laws and ordinances of every character now in force in Porto Rico, or any municipality or district thereof, not inconsistent with the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That all grants of franchises, rights, and privileges or concessions of a public or quasi-public nature shall be made by the executive council, with the approval of the governor, and all franchises granted in Porto Rico shall be reported to Congress, which hereby reserves the power to annul or modify the same.
"SECTION 33. That the judicial power shall be vested in the courts and tribunals of Porto Rico as already established and now in operation, including municipal courts. …
"SECTION 34. That Porto Rico shall constitute a judicial district to be called 'the district of Porto Rico.' The President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint a district judge, a district attorney, and a marshal for said district, each for a term of four years, unless sooner removed by the President. The district court for said district shall be called the district court of the United States for Porto Rico.
"SECTION 35. That writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of the supreme court of Porto Rico and the district court of the United States shall be allowed and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States in the same manner and under the same regulations and in the same cases as from the supreme courts of the Territories of the United States. …
"SECTION 39. That the qualified voters of Porto Rico shall, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, anno Domini nineteen hundred, and every two years thereafter, choose a resident commissioner to the United States, who shall be entitled to official recognition as such by all Departments, upon presentation to the Department of State of a certificate of election of the governor of Porto Rico, and who shall be entitled to a salary, payable monthly by the United States, at the rate of five thousand dollars per annum: Provided, That no person shall be eligible to such election who is not a bona fide citizen of Porto Rico, who is not thirty years of age, and who does not read and write the English language.
"SECTION 40. That a commission, to consist of three members, at least one of whom shall be a native citizen of Porto Rico, shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to compile and revise the laws of Porto Rico; also the various codes of procedure and systems of municipal government now in force, and to frame and report such legislation as may be necessary to make a simple, harmonious, and economical government, establish justice and secure its prompt and efficient administration, inaugurate a general system of education and public instruction, provide buildings and funds therefor, equalize and simplify taxation and all the methods of raising revenue, and make all other provisions that may be necessary to secure and extend the benefits of a republican form of government to all the inhabitants of Porto Rico."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (May). Organization of civil government. Appointment of Governor Allen.
Under the Act to establish civil government in Porto Rico, Honorable. Charles H. Allen, formerly a representative in Congress from Massachusetts, and lately Assistant-Secretary of the Navy, was appointed to the governorship of the island. Mr. J. H. Hollander, of Maryland, was appointed Treasurer, and Mr. John R. Garrison, of the District of Columbia, Auditor. Governor Allen was inducted into office with considerable ceremony, at San Juan, on the 1st of May.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (August-October). First steps in the creation of a public school system.
"The report of M. G. Brumbaugh, commissioner of education, on education in Porto Rico, dated October 15, 1900, shows what has been accomplished in the short time that elapsed after the commissioner entered upon his duties on August 4, 1900. … The people want schools … and the pupils will attend them. In 1899, 616 schools were opened in Porto Rico. In 1900 the department will maintain at least 800 schools, an increase of 30 per cent, which will provide for nearly 9,000 additional pupils.
"In 1899 there were 67 Americans in the teaching force of the island. Since October 1, 1900, the number has increased to 100. The commissioner criticises one class of teachers who are 'seekers after novelty and new experiences, who imposed upon the administration and the children, and who used the salary and position of teacher solely to see a new country for a year and then return. … The people of Porto Rico have patiently borne with these adventurers, and quietly longed for their departure.' This class of teachers is now gone and the newly selected American teachers have some knowledge of Spanish and are graduates of universities, colleges, and normal schools in the States, and are for the most part young men and women of ability and discretion. The salaries of American teachers were fixed by law at $40 per month for nine months in cities of less than 5,000 population. In cities of larger population the salary was $50 per month for nine months and both are inadequate, although at the time the salaries were fixed the War Department provided free transportation from and to the United States. This transportation may now be withdrawn at any time, and the small inducement held out by the meager salary offered to teachers is not calculated to invite the best class of them to the island.
"The new normal and industrial school at Fajardo, which was to have been established by the joint efforts of the local municipality and the American Government, was only so far advanced that the land had been purchased by the end of September, 1900. The normal department was opened October 1, in a rented building, while the industrial department cannot be opened until suitable quarters are provided. The commissioner recommends that the United States make this place the site of an agricultural experiment station for which it is pre-eminently fitted. On account of the industries of the country—coffee, sugar, tobacco, and fruit—agriculture could be well studied here, and free boarding, lodging, and tuition would be given the students, who would be for the most part poor boys and girls.
"As to the school accommodation, the commissioner states that there are no public school buildings in Porto Rico. The schools are conducted in rented houses or rooms which are often unfit for the purpose, and the hygienic conditions are bad. There is a wide field, or rather a demand, for improvement in this direction, as well as in the school equipment and material.
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In 1899, $33,000 was expended for school-books, and in 1900, $20,000 will be expended for books and supplies, which shall be free. In the United States 'free books' means usually their purchase by local boards and free use by the pupils. In Porto Rico the books and supplies will be free to the pupils without expense to the local boards. A pedagogical museum and library has been established for the benefit of teachers and others. About 300 volumes have been contributed to the library from friends in the States, and the Department will make the number up to 500 by purchase. A library of 5,000 volumes of standard Spanish and American literature was found in a building in San Juan, which has been installed in suitable rooms as a public library.
"Many of the leading institutions of the United States have responded cordially to the application of the Department of Education on behalf of young Porto Ricans who wish to prosecute their studies in colleges and universities. Some have offered free tuition, some have added free lodging, while others have offered even free living to all such students as wish to avail themselves of their instruction. Many young Porto Ricans have availed themselves of these generous offers.
"There are now 800 schools in Porto Rico, and 38,000 pupils attending them, while there are 300,000 children of school age for whom there are no accommodations. But the commissioner expresses the hope that gradually the great illiteracy in Porto Rico will be reduced, and the people prepared for the duties of citizenship in a democracy by means of the schools that shall be established. … The total expenditure for education in Porto Rico from the 1st of May to the end of September was $91,057.32."
_United States, Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report, November 28, 1900, page 116._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (November-December). The first election under U. S. law. Meeting of the Legislative Assembly.
The first election in the Island under the provisions of the Act recited above occurred on the 6th of November simultaneously with the elections in the United States. It seems to have been almost entirely a one-sided vote. "About two weeks before election day," says a despatch from San Juan, November 7, "the Federal Party, which carried the island at the election of less than a year ago by a majority of 6,500 votes, suddenly withdrew from the electoral contest. The Federal leaders sent instruction to their followers not to appear at the polls, but the Federal Election Judges were instructed to appear and watch the proceedings until the elections were concluded in order to gather evidence of any unfairness in the registration and any irregularity in the voting. The Federal Party intends to institute court proceedings after the election in the hope of nullifying it, claiming that gross irregularities in the registration and voting will be shown, and alleging that the districting was not done according to law." Only about 200 Federals voted, it is stated, while some 60,000 votes were cast for the candidates of the Republicans. Governor Allen cabled the following announcement of the election to President McKinley: "I am gratified and delighted. The outcome in Porto Rico is a guarantee of the island's future. To bring people who had long been under different rules and conditions to their first general election, to have the election pass off as quietly and orderly as in any State of the North conducted by the people without let or hindrance, and without a soldier or armed force of any sort, and to have nearly 60.000 men march to the polls to deposit their first ballot for self-government in such a manner, are good reasons for congratulation, not only to the people of the island, but to the painstaking members of the Administration, who had worked diligently and patiently to this end. This overwhelming Republican victory also means legislation for the good of the island in line with the American Administration. It means stable government and the protection of property interests, with which prospective investors in Porto Rico are deeply concerned. It means education, public works, and all the beneficent works which follow legislation wisely and conscientiously undertaken. It is an emphatic declaration of unqualified loyalty to the United States."
The newly elected Legislative Assembly met and the House of Delegates was organized December 3. A correspondent of the "New York Tribune," writing a week later, said: "Already nineteen bills have been introduced. To introduce nineteen bills in six days after organizing, as well as forming the regular committees, is not bad work when it is considered that not one of the members had the slightest idea of parliamentary procedure. During the session one of the members may be seen making frequent trips to the Executive Mansion, where he confers with Secretary Hunt in regard to some doubtful point. It is said by some that in a short time the lower house will be controlled entirely by the portfolio members of the Council. It is known that the five Porto Rican members of the Council, when considering the question of franchises, etc., often vote contrary to their own ideas in order that the Council may continue harmonious. But it is not likely that the heads of departments will be able to control the thirty-five members of the House. The House, although regularly elected, is not representative of the island; the Federals refraining from voting kept over half the natives from the polls. The Federal party, it is asserted, is made up of the richest and best element of Porto Rico. The Republicans, though in power, do not feel that they are able to run things alone, so the majority is willing to be dictated to by the Council. Nevertheless there is a certain element in the House which will not be dictated to. So soon as any really important bill comes up for debate it is predicted that the House will divide against itself. And a little later, when the House passes some pet bill and the Council rejects it, the House will probably resign in a body. It is a natural trait of the people.'
After another fortnight had passed, the same correspondent wrote very discouragingly of the disposition shown by a majority of the members of the House of Delegates, and their conduct of business, and stated: "The popular opinion among the Americans, even among some of the higher officials, is that if the House continues as it is Congress will abolish it altogether, and govern the island through a Governor and Cabinet. Such irregular procedure has been followed that it is a question here whether any business has been legally done."
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PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (January), Close of the first session of the Legislative Assembly.
The first session of the first Legislative Assembly of the island came to a close on the 31st of January, 1901, and the following remarks on its work were made in a newspaper despatch of that date from San Juan: "Over one hundred bills have been introduced in the House of Delegates, and dozens have been passed by both houses, and are awaiting the Governor's approval. … Committees have a hard day's work if they get together and agree to pass the bills on hand before midnight to-night. Ever since the House of Delegates resumed business after the new year, eight or nine members have been continually absent. There are only thirty-five members altogether, and the island is small, yet twenty-six has been the average attendance. A full attendance for even one day is not recorded. It was predicted that a number of the members would resign; they did not. They simply remained away, like truant schoolboys. A bill has been passed providing for the education of certain young Porto Rican men and women in the United States, about two hundred of them having petitioned the House of Delegates to be sent north at the island's expense. It is not known on what ground these petitions have been made. The island expends about $400,000 yearly on education, and excellent educational facilities are offered. But the people, in a way, seem to discredit the value of the opportunities at hand."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (April). Distress of the workingmen of the Island. Their appeal to the President of the United States.
The following petition, signed by 6,000 of the workingmen of Porto Rico, was brought to the United States by a delegate from the Federation of Labor in Porto Rico and presented to President McKinley on the 15th of April:
"The undersigned, workers of Porto Rico, without distinction of color, political or religious creed, have the honor to bring to your attention the following facts: Misery, with all its horrible consequences, is spreading in our homes with wonderful rapidity. It has already reached such an extreme that many workers are starving to death while others, that have not the courage to see their mothers, wives, sisters and children perish of hunger, commit suicide by drowning themselves in the rivers or hanging themselves from branches of trees. All this, honorable sir, is due to the scarcity of work, which keeps us in enforced idleness, the mother of our misery. Our beautiful estates are idle; our lands are not being cultivated; our shops remain closed; and our Chambers do absolutely nothing to prevent our misery on this once so rich an island. The Government and municipality do not undertake any public works to keep us out of idleness. The emigration of workers, unknown in this island before, increases day by day, in proportion as misery increases. Under these trying conditions we are no longer a happy and contented people. We therefore, beg of you, honorable sir, to interest yourself in our cause, leading us, as the father of our country, in the path that will bring us work, and with it the means of subsistence. We want work; nothing but work. We want to earn the means of subsistence by the sweat of our brows; and nobody better than our Chief Magistrate can help us by lending ear to our appeals. "
----------PORTO RICO: End--------
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1891-1900. Delagoa Bay Arbitration.
See (in this volume) DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1898. Alleged Treaty with Great Britain.
There is said to be knowledge in diplomatic circles of a treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, concluded in 1898, which has never been made public, but which is understood to engage the former to assist the latter financially and to protect the kingdom as against dangers both external and internal. In return it is believed that England received the right to embark and disembark troops, stores and ammunitions at any point on Portuguese territory in Africa, to keep them there, or to convey them across Portuguese territory to any point she might see fit, irrespective as to whether she was at war with any third Power. Circumstances have given some support to this rumor, but it has no positive confirmation.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899. Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899 (May-July). Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896. War with Gungunhana.
See (in this volume) AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA).
POSTAGE, British Imperial Penny.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
POWERS, Concert of the.
See (in this volume) CONCERT OF EUROPE.
POWERS, The four great.
See (in this volume) NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
PRATT, Consul: Interviews with Aguinaldo at Singapore.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).
"PREDOMINANT MEMBER," Remarks of Lord Rosebery on the.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
PREHISTORIC DISCOVERIES.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
PREMPEH, Overthrow of King.
See (in this volume) ASHANTI.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES: Union in Scotland.
See (in this volume) SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900.
PRESS, The: Relaxation of restrictions in Poland.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
PRESS, The: Prosecutions in Germany.
See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER 9).
PRETORIA: A. D. 1894. Demonstration of British residents.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
PRETORIA: A. D. 1900. Taken by the British forces.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MAY-JUNE).
PRIMARY ELECTION LAW.
See (in this volume) NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1898.
PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.
See (in this volume) CANADA.
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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Celebration of 250th anniversary. Assumption of new name.
See (in this volume) EDUCATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1896.
PRINSLOO, Commandant: Surrender.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
PROCTOR, Senator Redfield: Account of the condition of the Cuban Reconcentrados.
See (in this volume) CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
PROGRESSISTS, PROGRESSIVES.
See (in this volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897; JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898, and after; SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1898, and 1898 (MARCH-OCTOBER).
PROHIBITION PARTY, The.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PROHIBITION PLEBISCITE, Canadian.
See (in this volume) CANADA: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
PROTECTIVE TARIFFS.
See (in this volume) TARIFF LEGISLATION.
PROTOCOL, for suspension of Spanish-American War.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PRUSSIA: Census, 1895.
See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1899-1901. Canal projects.
See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (JANUARY).
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1901. Bicentenary celebration.
The bicentenary of the coronation of the first King of Prussia was celebrated with much ceremony and festivity on the 18th of January, 1901.
PULLMAN.
A decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, rendered early in 1899, deprives the Pullman Car Company of the legal right to own and conduct the affairs of the town of Pullman, Illinois. The effect is understood to be that the town will be incorporated with Chicago.
PUNJAB, Formation of a new province from districts of the.
See (in this volume) INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PUPIN, Dr. Michael I.: Improvement in long-distance telephony.
See (in this volume) SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
Q.
QUEBEC, Province.
See (in this volume) CANADA.
QUEENS COUNTY: Incorporation in Greater New York.
See (in this volume) NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
QUEENSLAND.
See (in this volume) AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
QUINCY, Josiah: Progressive measures as Mayor of Boston.
See (in this volume) BOSTON: A. D. 1895-1899.
R.
RACES, European, The expansion of.
See (in this volume) NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
RAILWAY, The Anatolian. Extension to the Persian Gulf.
See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).
RAILWAY, Cape to Cairo.
"A line now [1899] runs northward from Cape Town to Bulawayo, in Rhodesia, a distance of 1,360 miles, and is being pushed still farther northward. From Bulawayo to Lake Tanganyika is about 1,000 miles; and this Mr. Rhodes hopes to reach by 1905. Lake Tanganyika is 410 miles long; and it is likely that its waters will be utilized for a time at least for transferring northwardly the freights and passengers reaching its southern end. Meantime the railroad from Cairo is being pushed southwardly to meet the line which is coming from the Cape northwardly. It has already been constructed to Atbara, where American contractors have just finished the steel bridge in a time which British bridge-builders considered impossible; and the line is being pushed forward to Khartoum from that point. Khartoum is 1,300 miles from Cairo; so that when work on the section from Atbara to Khartoum is completed, as it will be within a few months, the two gaps to be filled in will be from Khartoum to the north end of Lake Tanganyika, a distance of 1,700 miles, and the 950 miles from the south end of Lake Tanganyika to Bulawayo; i. e., 2,700 miles in all. Thus, of the necessary land length, assuming that at least the 410 miles length of Lake Tanganyika will be at first utilized, about one-half will be finished on the completion of the section from Atbara to Khartoum, within the next few months. The remaining 2,700 miles will, it is estimated, cost $60,000,000; and Mr. Rhodes confidently predicts its completion before the year 1910."
_O. P. Austin, Africa: Present and Future (Forum, December, 1899)._
See, also (in this volume) AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Of course, the plans and calculations of Mr. Cecil Rhodes have been seriously interfered with by the South African War. He may have anticipated the war, but not the length nor the effects of it.
RAILWAY, Haifa to Damascus and Bagdad.
See (in this volume) JEWS: A. D. 1899.
RAILWAY, The Intercontinental, or "Three Americas."
"One of the important results of the International American Conference, held in Washington in 1889-90, was its recommendation that an International Commission be created to ascertain the feasibility, the cost, and the available location for a railroad connecting the countries of South and Central America with Mexico and the United States. This recommendation was cordially indorsed by Secretary Blaine in submitting the report to President Harrison, who transmitted it to Congress, asking that an appropriation be made to commence the surveys. In the same act which authorized the establishment of the Bureau of the American Republics—the Diplomatic and Consular Appropriation Act of July 14, 1890—the Intercontinental Railway Commission was created. {421} In this act it was provided that three Commissioners on the part of the United States should be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, who were to act with representatives of the other American Republics to devise plans for carrying out the objects recommended by the International American Conference. The Commission organized December 4, 1890, and at once set about the equipping of the surveying parties to make the necessary topographical examination. The United States representatives on the Commission were practical railroad men—A. J. Cassatt, Henry G. Davis, and R. C. Kerens, and eleven other Republics were represented on the Commission. The report just issued [March, 1899] is in four volumes, with four sets of maps and profiles, exhibiting the surveys and examination of the country that were made from Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, in South America. In addition to the personal observations in South America, the officers making the reports also gathered from the best obtainable sources geographical, railroad, and other information relating to Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Venezuela. The report gives the proposed distances as follows:
Central American division, from Ayutla, Guatemala, on the Mexican border, to Rio Golfito, Colombia, 1,043 miles; from Rio Golfito to Buenos Aires, Argentina, 5,446.76 miles; through the United States from New York to Laredo, Texas, 2,094 miles; and from that point, through Mexico to Ayutla, Guatemala, 1,644.3 miles; making a total of 10,228.06 miles, including the lines already in operation in the different countries. The extent of railway to be constructed is a little over one-half the total, being 5,456.13 miles. An estimate is given of the cost for grading, masonry, and bridges of that portion of the line which must be constructed to complete the connections, which amounts to $174,290,271.84."
_Bureau of American Republics, Bulletin, March, 1899._
As now surveyed, from New York City to Buenos Ayres, it will be 10,221 miles long, and to finish and equip it will cost at least $200,000,000. This length and cost will also be increased when the line is extended through Patagonia to the southern limits of South America. The complete surveys … prove that a practicable route can be found and the road built within a reasonable time. The route of this road can be traced on the map, while the following table shows the distances, the miles built, and the gaps to be filled:
Built. Proposed. Total. United States. 2,094 … 2,094 Mexico 1,183 461 1,644
Total North America. 3,277 461 3,738
---------
Guatemala. 43 126 169 San Salvador. 64 166 230 Honduras. … 71 71 Nicaragua. 103 106 209 Costa Rica. … 360 360
Total Central America. 210 829 1,039
Colombia. … 1,354 1,354 Ecuador. … 658 658 Peru. 151 1,833 1,784 Bolivia. 195 392 587 Argentina. 936 125 1,061
Total South America. 1,282 4,769 5,444
Grand total. 4,769 5,452 10,221
"The demands of trade may compel early construction of this railroad. It is doubtful if a remunerative commerce can be built up between North and South America by ship. The conformation of the eastern coast of South America compels a long detour to the east, and brings a ship almost as near to the ports of Europe as to the ports of the United States. The exports of South America, being mainly agricultural, will find a readier sale in Europe than in this country, and when they are exchanged for the cheap manufactured goods of that continent the conditions for trade are supplied. If, for these reasons, this country can not build up a commerce with South America by water, a quicker means of transit must be had, such as the Pan-American Railway would provide. The obstacles to be overcome are great. They surpass the difficulties in the way of the Siberian or the 'Cape to Cairo' road, but the results will be correspondingly greater.
"South America has greater undeveloped resources than any other continent. Its agricultural possibilities are boundless. It has the greatest rivers in the world; its soil can produce any crop grown on the earth, and its mines of gold, silver, and coal have been scarcely touched. A railroad which would traverse the coffee lands of the Central American States, pass through the mines of Peru, and penetrate the rich pampas of Brazil and Argentina, must have great possibilities before it. The products of the three great valleys of the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Paraguay rivers would find a market by means of it, and the riches of the mines of the Incas be shown to surpass those of California and South Africa."
_Bureau of American Republics, Bulletin, December, 1899._
RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.
See (in this volume) MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
RAILWAY, The Three Americas.
See, above, RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.
RAILWAY, Trans-Siberian.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
RAILWAY, The Uganda, or Mombasa-Victoria.
See (in this volume) UGANDA RAILWAY.
RAILWAYS: in Africa.
See (in this volume) AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
RAILWAYS: American Inter-State. Arbitration of industrial disputes.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
RAILWAYS: Concessions in China.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1895; 1897 (MAY-JUNE); 1897 (NOVEMBER); 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER); 1898 (MARCH); 1898 (APRIL-AuGUST); 1898 (MAY); 1899 (MARCH-APRIL).
RAILWAYS: Russian projects in Persia.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
{422}
RAILWAYS: State purchase in Switzerland.
See (in this volume) SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
RAINES LAW, The.
See (in this volume) NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897.
RAMAPO WATER CONTRACT, The.
See (in this volume) NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899-1900.
RANAVALOMANJAKA, Queen.
See (in this volume) MADAGASCAR.
RAND, Gold fields of the.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
RECIPROCITY: Treaties under the Dingley Tariff Act.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
RECONCENTRADOS.
(See in this volume) CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897; and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
RED CROSS SOCIETY, The: Relief work in Armenia and Cuba.
See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH); and CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
REFERENDUM, The: In Minnesota.
See (in this volume) MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896.
REFERENDUM, The: Introduction in South Dakota.
See (in this volume) SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.
REFERENDUM, The: Its exercise in Switzerland.
See (in this volume) SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
REID CONTRACT, The.
See (in this volume) NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897-1900; and 1899-1901.
REITFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
RELIGIOUS ORDERS, Bill to regulate, in France.
See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
REPRESENTATIVES: Reapportionment in the Congress of the United States.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
REPUBLICAN PARTY, The, in the U. S. Presidential elections, 1896 and 1900.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
RESERVOIRS, Nile.
See (in this volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
RHINE-ELBE CANAL PROJECT, The.
See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (JANUARY).
RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1900. Newport no longer a capital city.
At the election in November, 1900, a constitutional amendment was adopted which makes Providence alone the capital city of Rhode Island. Newport had been one of the capitals since the colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were united.
RHODES, Cecil John: Founder of the British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
RHODES, Cecil John: Master spirit of the British South Africa Company. His name given to its dominions.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1894-1895.
RHODES, Cecil John: Participation in Uitlander revolutionary conspiracy at Johannesburg, leading to Jameson Raid. Resignation of Cape Colony premiership.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
RHODES, Cecil John: Dealing with Matabele revolt.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
RHODES, Cecil John: Resignation from the Board of the British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1896 (JUNE).
RHODES, Cecil John: Accused by the Cape Colony Assembly of complicity in the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
RHODES, Cecil John: Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee on the Jameson Raid. The Committee's report.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
RHODES, Cecil John: In Cape Colony politics.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1898.
RHODES, Cecil John: Projection of a Cape to Cairo Railway.
See (in this volume) RAILWAY, CAPE TO CAIRO; and AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
RHODES, Cecil John: Beleaguered in Kimberley.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
RHODES, Cecil John: Projection of a Cape to Cairo Telegraph.
See (in this volume) TELEGRAPH, CAPE TO CAIRO.
RHODESIA: A. D. 1896 (March-September). Revolt of the Matabeles.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1896 (July). Parliamentary investigation of British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1897. Report on compulsory native labor.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1898. Reorganized administration.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1900. Protectorate proclaimed over Barotsiland.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).
RIO PRIETO, Engagement at the.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST; PORTO RICO).
RIZAL, Dr. José.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
ROBERTS, Field Marshal, Lord (Sir Frederick Sleigh): In the South African War.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY), and after.
ROBINSON, Sir Hercules: British High Commissioner in South Africa.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL).
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, The.
See PAPACY.
ROMAN CATHOLICS: Protest of British Peers against the Declaration required from the Sovereign.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
{423}
ROMAN CATHOLICS: Victory in Belgium.
See (in this volume) BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
ROMAN LAW: Superseded in Germany.
See (in this volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
ROME: The likeness of its early settlement shown by excavations at Antemnæ.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
RÖNTGEN, Wilhelm Konrad: Discovery of the X rays.
See (in this volume) SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
ROOSEVELT, Theodore: Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment of Rough Riders.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
ROOSEVELT, Theodore: Elected Vice President of the United States.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
ROSEBERY, Earl of: Prime minister. Remarks on the "predominant member."
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
ROSEBERY, Earl of: Tribute to Mr. Gladstone.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (MAY).
ROSEBERY, Earl of: Tribute to Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
ROUGH RIDERS, The.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
ROUGH RIDERS, The. At Santiago.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
ROUMANIA.
See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES; and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
ROYAL NIGER COMPANY, The.
See (in this volume) NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
ROYAL NIGER COMPANY, The. Transfer of territories to the British crown.
See (in this volume) NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.
RUDINI, Marquis di: Resignation of Ministry.
See (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JUNE).
RUMANIA.
See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES; and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895. Agreement with Great Britain concerning the frontier of Afghanistan and spheres of influence in the Pamir region.
See (in this volume) AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895. Alliance with France.
See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895. Treaty with China giving railway and other privileges and rights in Manchuria.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1896 (May-June). Coronation of the Tzar.
The Tzar Nicholas II., who succeeded his father, Alexander III., on the death of the latter, November 1, 1894, was not formally crowned until May 26, 1896. The splendid festivities of the occasion lasted from May 18 until June, and were attended by a brilliant assembly of princes and high officials from all parts of the world. They were saddened by a frightful calamity on the 31st of May, when an attempt was made to distribute gifts of food and drink to a vast multitude of nearly half a million people, on Khodynskoye plain. Adequate measures for controlling the pressure of the crowd had not been taken, and nearly 3,000 were suffocated or trampled to death.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897. Relaxations of oppressive laws.
Several important relaxations of oppressive laws were commanded by the Tzar in the course of the year. By one, sons of the marriage of an orthodox Russian with one of another creed were allowed to be brought up in the religion of the father and daughters in that of the mother. By another, Jews having an university education were allowed freedom of residence in any part of the empire. By others, greater freedom was given to the Polish press, formerly forbidden to discuss political questions; local assemblies of Polish nobles were organized; permission was given to restore Roman Catholic churches in Poland, and certain special Polish taxes were removed.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (February). Census of the Empire.
"For the first time in the history of the Hyperborean Empire, a general, and if I may use the expression, scientific, census has been taken of the various tongues and tribes, religions and sects, cultured races and nomadic hordes who acknowledge the sway of the Tsar. It was a Herculean labour, without precedent in history and without a formula in statistics. … On June 5, 1895, the reigning Tsar gave his sanction to a scheme which was both conformable to the exigencies of modern statistics and suitable to the various conditions peculiar to Russia. … The general plan of operations was simple, and calculated as far as possible to impose a large portion of the task upon officials of the Administration, and obviate the necessity of paying for it. Thus there was a Committee in every Government or Province of the Empire, presided over by the actual Governor; and there were sub-committees in every district under the direction of the Marshal of the Nobility. … The task undertaken by the Central Committee was in the highest degree formidable: rooted prejudices had to be overcome, inarticulate suspicions removed—the half-civilised nomads have an insuperable dislike to answer questions of the 'Tshinovniks'—the confidence of the people gained, languages mastered, routes studied, badges prepared for the officials, millions upon millions of census papers printed and distributed over the length and breadth of the Empire, &c. &c. …
"In order that the work might be finished as early as possible at the same time, the cantonal sections were split up into divisions, which had to be more or less equal. In country places the division was not usually allowed to exceed 400 households, or say, 2,600 souls; in cities 150 flats, or about 750 souls. The registrars, who were answerable for the census in these districts, were chosen from all classes of society, the only condition being that they must be persons of some education, and calculated to inspire the population with confidence—a very important consideration in Russia. Thus, there were priests, officers, school-teachers, students, merchants, landowners, and in some cases peasants. The remuneration fixed for the work, which was sometimes attended with danger and in almost every case with very disagreeable experiences, was 12 roubles, or about £1 4s. 6d., in rural districts, and 7 roubles in towns. {424} Labour is still cheap in Russia, but even there this modest sum was found insufficient to tempt the competent persons, who in out-of-the-way districts were few and far between. When this had become painfully evident, it was too late to set the clumsy machinery in motion through which alone it might have been possible to obtain a higher rate of remuneration. As the registrars were, in many places, not to be had, it seemed likely that the census would prove a lamentable failure. Then the Tsar appeared as a 'deus ex machinâ,' and instituted a special medal for all those who should agree to undertake the work gratis. Like most Continental peoples, Russians have a hankering after 'ribbons to stick in their coats,' and the moment the medal was promised for gratuitous services there was no lack of willing workmen. Thousands of volunteers presented themselves, and the authorities selected the most competent. … On January 28 [Old Style, being, N. S. February 9, 1897], … at break of day an army of 150,000 individuals left their homes to count the number of people inhabiting an empire which occupies one-sixth of the globe. …
"The first Russian census … may be considered to have proved a brilliant success. The results may be summed up very briefly as follows: The population of the Russian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland numbers 129,211,114 souls, of whom
94,188,750 inhabit the 50 Governments of European Russia 9,442,500 inhabit the 10 Governments of Poland 9,723,553 inhabit the 11 Governments of the Caucasus 5,731,732 inhabit the 9 Governments of Siberia 3,415,174 inhabit the 5 Governments of the Steppe regions 4,175,101 inhabit the Provinces of Transcaspia and of Turkestan. 6,413 inhabit Khiva and Boukhara 2,527,801 inhabit Finland ---------- 129,211,114 Total
"Compared with the figures of former years, as given by the partial official returns and in the tables of the statistician Köppen, we find that the population has increased since the year 1851 by 96.2 per cent; since 1858 by 73.2 per cent; since 1885 by 18.1 per cent. The average density of the population is 8.8 persons to the square verst [the verst equalling 1166.66 yards], but it naturally varies a good deal in the different districts and Provinces. Thus, in the 10 Governments of Poland it amounts to 84.6 to the sq. verst. In the 50 Governments of European Russia it amounts to 22.2 to the sq. verst. In the Governments of the Caucasus it amounts to 23.6 to the sq. verst. In Siberia it amounts to 0.5 to the sq. verst. In the Steppe region it amounts to 1.6 to the sq. verst.
"Even in the different Governments of European Russia the density varies considerably. …
"There are 19 cities in Russia, with a population of more than 100,000 souls each, and 35 which have from 50,000 to 100,000. In fifteen cities the number of females exceeds that of the males, whereas in all the others it is smaller. … The natural increase of the population is kept down to a relatively low figure by an abnormally large death-rate, which is mainly due to avoidable causes. Infectious diseases and insufficiency of medical help are among the most obvious. … In no country in the world are infectious diseases so frequently mortal as in Russia. Children especially suffer, and diphtheria, measles, scarlatina, smallpox, &c., literally decimate villages and country towns. It has been stated by the statistician Ekk, with the help of official figures, that about 1,900,000 persons, chiefly children, die every year who might, with a little care, be preserved to the Empire. The difference which this loss makes to the population in fifty years is enormous."
_E. J. Dillon, The First Russian Census (Contemporary Review, December, 1897). _
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (November). Treaty with the United States and Japan, to suspend pelagic sealing.
See (in this volume) BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (December). Adoption of the gold monetary standard.
See (in this volume) MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (DECEMBER).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897-1898. Contentions with Japan in Korea.
See (in this volume) KOREA: A. D. 1895-1898.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (March). Increase of naval armament.
On the 10th of March an imperial ukase ordered an addition of 90,000,000 roubles to the expenditure on war ships already provided for, the extra disbursement to be spread over seven years.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (March). Lease of Port Arthur, Talienwan and the Liaotung Peninsula from China.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1898 MARCH-JULY).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (May-December). In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1899. The Tzar's proposal to check the increase of armaments. The resulting Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1901. The question of sugar bounties. United States countervailing duties and Russian retaliation.
See (in this volume) SUGAR BOUNTIES.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1901. The Russianizing of Finland. Overthrow of the constitutional rights of the Finns.
See (in this volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1898-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899. Famine.
A fearful famine in eastern Russia, within and beyond the valley of the Volga, was caused in 1899 by an almost unprecedented failure of crops. With the famine came typhus fever, and the tale of suffering and death was one of the most heart-rending of the century.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (February-June.) Disorder among the students.
For some months, the universities and most of the higher schools of Russia were in a state of disorder, and in conflict with the police authorities. Many of the institutions were closed and a great number of the students were under arrest. The students complained of the statutes of the universities, and of the general treatment to which they were subjected, and were bitterly hostile to the police. The Tzar seems to have given personal attention to their grievances, which he appointed a commission to investigate. On the report of the commission he issued an imperial order severely censuring the administration of the universities, and also reproving the police, while, at the same time, he addressed some serious admonitions to the students.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (March-April). Agreement with Great Britain concerning railway interests in China.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-APRIL).
{425}
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (May). Steps toward the abolition of transportation to Siberia.
On the 18th of May, the Tzar issued the following order: "A commission of the officers of the ministry of justice and representatives of the respective departments under the auspices of the minister of justice shall be formed. The commission is to work out the following: To replace transportation of criminals by punishment by courts; to abolish or limit administrative transportation by peasant boards; to reorganize penal servitude and the deportation which follows; to better the condition of the convicts now in Siberia; to improve prisons where criminals are confined awaiting transportation and deportation; to establish compulsory public labor and workhouses as penal measures; to provide means for carrying out the measures necessary for the reorganization of the transportation of criminals and of penal establishments. The minister of justice is to ask direct, and not through any department, for the imperial sanction of the committee's recommendations." The British Commercial Agent in Russia, reporting to the Foreign Office in June, 1900, stated in allusion to the above order: "The State Council is reported to have just decided, by a majority of votes, to introduce at once the necessary changes, as the Central Prisons Administration has declared that the gaol accommodation is sufficient. The number of exiles to Siberia from 1823 to 1898 is given as 908,266, mostly to Eastern Siberia."
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (May-July). Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (December). Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial policy in China.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899-1901. Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.
See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900. Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume) WAR BUDGETS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900. Naval strength.
See (in this volume) NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900 (June-December). Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume) CHINA.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900 (August). Proposal to withdraw troops from Peking.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER.)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901. Student outbreaks. Serious demonstrations of discontent. Severe measures of repression. Action of the Tzar.
A fresh outbreak of revolt among the students in the Russian universities, more serious in its nature, apparently, than that of 1899 (see above; A. D. 1899, FEBRUARY-JUNE), was started at Kieff, in December, 1900, by a remonstrance on the part of the students against the retention of a professor whom they deemed incompetent. The rector of the university refused to dismiss the objectionable professor; whereupon the governor-general of the province intervened and forbade him to lecture. The rector and the council of the university could not resist the authority of the governor-general, but they are said to have revenged themselves on the students by requiring seven of the latter to choose between three days of imprisonment and three years of expulsion from the university. They chose the latter and were expelled. Then the students as a body began to be troublesome, especially after the rector had refused to meet them for a discussion of their grievances. Finally the police and the military authorities were called in; a large number of the students were arrested and brought to trial before a special court which had been created for dealing with the student troubles of the year before. According to subsequent reports, more than two hundred of them were condemned to be sent into the ranks of the army—which seems to be a punishment newly devised for such cases, and not likely to improve the loyal spirit of the army.
This hard treatment of the students at Kieff inflamed their sympathetic fellows in all the universities of the empire, and became the immediate cause of disorderly demonstrations, which began, in January or early in February, to be made at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, and elsewhere; but there cannot be a doubt that the disturbances since occurring represent an instigation deeper, more revolutionary, more serious, than the resentment of students misused by their teachers. The students persisted resolutely in attempts to hold meetings which were prohibited as seditious; to make appeals to the people; to circulate forbidden literature; while the authorities struck them, at every movement they made, with a relentless hand. As usual, the oppressive violence of government provoked desperate crime. On the 27th of February, the Minister of Public Instruction, Privy Councillor Bogoliepoff, was shot by an expelled student, who approached him, in his official apartments, under pretense of presenting a petition. He died of the wound on the 15th of March. Meantime, the conduct of students, at St. Petersburg and Moscow especially, became more and more riotous and revolutionary in spirit. There were signs, too, of an understanding between them and the discontented workingmen of the cities, which caused anxiety. A Vienna journal claims to have knowledge that, after the troubles at Kieff, a widespread movement of alliance between secret associations of students and workmen was set on foot, and that it threatened to be the most formidable revolutionary organization that the government had yet faced.
That the sympathy of literary circles in Russia is with the students appears to be proved by the following manifesto, which was published in Paris on the 22d of March, signed, it is said, by forty-five Russian men of letters:
"We, the undersigned Russian men of letters, deprived of the possibility of freely expressing our ideas on the needs of our poor Fatherland, prevented by the censorship from speaking of what happens before our eyes or indicating an outlet from the terrible situation of our country, and conscious of our duty towards the people, resort to our foreign brethren for the purpose of informing the civilized world of the atrocities now being committed among us. On March 17, in the Kazan Square at St. Petersburg, the police fell on an inoffensive and unarmed crowd of several thousand persons, men, women, and children, and without any provocation showed unexampled brutality and ferocity. Cossacks, surrounding the crowd and preventing it from dispersing, charged without warning the compact mass, which had mostly been drawn together by curiosity. {426} The police seized at random the people who fell into their hands, striking them without mercy with their fists or swords. Those of the public, even officers in uniform, who begged for a cessation of the carnage, were maltreated or even arrested. Such are the facts of which several of us have been eye-witnesses. Similar atrocities have recently been committed in other Russian towns. Full of terror and anguish at the future in store for our country, thus given up to the whips of Cossacks and the swords of the police, convinced that our indignation is shared by those of our Russian brethren whose signatures we have not had time to obtain, by all the intellectual society of Russia, and by all those from whom feelings of self-respect and humanity have not yet been eradicated, convinced also that our foreign brethren will not remain indifferent to what passes among us, we appeal to the Press of the world to give the utmost publicity to the attestation of the lamentable facts of which we have been witnesses." A despatch from St. Petersburg on the 26th reported that the Mutual Aid Association of Russian writers attached to the St. Petersburg Literary Society, from which this protest emanated, had been suppressed, as the consequence of its publication.
A more significant expression, and one from which a more definite idea of the nature and causes of the discontent among the students may be obtained, is the following petition, addressed to the Tzar by a number of Russian professors and Senators in March. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the "London Times," who sent a translation of the paper to that journal on the 18th of March, remarked that "it is very doubtful if it will have any real effect, and its contents may very possibly be regarded by the red-tape officials into whose hands it may fall, if not by the Emperor himself, as implying a request for something like a Constitution. Apart from that consideration a collective petition in Russia is illegal." The translation of the document is as follows:
"Your Imperial Majesty,—We, the undersigned loyal subjects, consider it our patriotic duty to address you, Sire, with the present humble petition on the subject of the recent agitation among the students. We desire to express in this paper the thoughts that have long been a matter of painful reflection to every Russian conscious of the life which he is living. This perturbation among the students, which has been of periodical recurrence for the last 40 years, has ruined the careers of thousands of young men and women animated by the most ardent aspirations for the good and happiness of their native country. It would undoubtedly be most unjust to lay all the blame for these disorders on the students themselves. The causes of this state of things lie much deeper. They are connected with many of the general conditions of the life of our State and society; they are to a great extent rooted in the want of organization of academical centres. This want of organization was explained by the special commission appointed by your Majesty's command two years ago. But the labours of that body failed to have the practical result which was apparently expected of it; public opinion was not permitted to take part in its deliberations, either by means of the Press or in any other way. The matter was treated according to the usual official routine, and in the Ministry of Public Instruction the magnanimous intentions of your Majesty were not only rendered colourless, but deprived of all their real significance. Instead of properly carrying out your Majesty's indications in regard to closer communion between the students and professors of the higher educational establishments, the Ministry dismissed those among the latter whose moral qualities and devotion to duty were calculated to exercise the most beneficial influence over their scholars.
"Those among the students who took part in the disturbances, and who should have been worked upon by moral persuasion, were expelled from the Universities, and the force of inspectors, otherwise the University police, was increased for the purpose of controlling those who remained. The temporary law of June 29, 1899, against further disorders threatened the agitators with the punishment of being drafted into the ranks of the army. This measure, which has now been enforced, will, of course, put down the movement at least for a time; but it is impossible to ignore its moral effect. It only represses, but does not thoroughly convince. By this means the more hot-headed among the students, inspired by the most respectable aspirations and feelings, will be weeded out of the scholastic ranks, and their parents will be suddenly deprived of all hope and consolation in their children perhaps for years; while on the rest this measure can only have the effect which is always produced by terror and fear for the future. It oppresses them, extinguishes their best impulses, and tends to bring the weaker ones beneath the influence of those petty egotistical motives which are already so powerful in our daily life. To bring up an entire generation in such conditions is to create and support an oppressive state of things in the life of the nation which must finally lead to downfall and decay.
"The oppressiveness of this environment is felt not only by the young, but also by their elders. Is it normal that in an autocratic State the voice of loyal subjects should be unable to reach their Sovereign? And yet at the present moment many persons regard the signature of this loyal petition as almost an act of the greatest civil courage. In order to loyally and honestly bring their wants and traditional desires to the notice of their Monarch (Lord), the subjects of your Majesty are obliged to act in the dark for fear that the police will seize hold on the petition and intercept it before it can reach your Majesty's hands. Many who fully agree with all that is here expressed will certainly be deterred from signing the petition because of the unpleasant consequences to themselves which they fear may follow. In such conditions life becomes intolerable. A deadening apathy spreads over everyone, all interest in public activity is lost, and in all spheres of the Government and society there is a decided feeling of the want of men. Put an end, Sire, by your magnanimous initiative to this oppressive situation! Show confidence in your faithful subjects, and, while discontinuing repression, accord us the possibility of freely expressing the voice of public opinion, which is now stifled. The agitation among the students will cease of itself, and the young men will quietly turn to their studies as soon as their youthful minds are no longer excited by the disagreeable conditions which surround them, when they see the prospect on finishing their education of being allowed to take a free and useful part in the affairs of their native land."
{427}
An attempt on the life of a Minister far more important and more obnoxious than Mr. Bogoliepoff was made on the 22d of March. This was M. Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy Synod, who has long been credited with being the master-spirit of evil influence in Russian councils,—a Torquemada of the nineteenth century, responsible for all the mediævalism in Russian policy for the past twenty years. Three shots were fired at the Procurator from the street, through the windows of his study, and he was missed by them all. The would-be assassin, named Lagofsky, was promptly seized, and it is claimed to have been found that he was chosen by lot to execute an avenging decree. On the other hand, it is reported that he was moved to the deed by the excommunication of Count Tolstoi, which the Russian Church had lately pronounced.
If reports are to be credited, the Tzar, at length, took the direction of measures relating to the disturbances into his own hands, and began by putting a stop to the forcing of condemned students into the army. He then appointed to the Ministry of Public Education General Vannovsky, who had investigated the student disorders of 1899 for him, and who seems to have recognized that the disaffection of the students was not without grounds. It is rumored that unlimited powers for two years have been given to the new Minister, so that he cannot be interfered with by the powerful reactionaries who evidently stand between the best intentions of the Tzar and their execution. The obvious difficulty of the autocrat is to learn the truth of things and to know what is being done by those who ostensibly obey his commands. Apparently he is striving to be served faithfully and intelligently in this case, and it is to be hoped that he may have success. He addressed a rescript to General Vannovsky, in which he said:
"The regular organization of popular education has always formed one of the chief cares of the Russian rulers, who have striven, surely but gradually, to perfect it in accordance with the fundamental principles of Russian life and the requirements of the times. The experiences of recent years, however, have shown the existence of defects so material in our scholastic system that I think that the time has come to undertake an immediate and thorough revision and improvement. Highly valuing your experience as a statesman and your enlightenment, I have chosen you to co-operate with me in the work of renovating and reorganizing Russian schools; and, in appointing you to the now specially important office of Minister of Public Instruction, I am firmly convinced that you will unswervingly endeavour to attain the goal indicated by me, and that you will bring into the work of educating the Russian youth your cordial sympathy and sagacity ripened by experience. May God bless our work, and may parents and families, who above all are bound to care for their children, help us in our work, and then the time will soon come when I with all my people shall see in the young generation, with pride and encouragement, the firm and sure hope of the Fatherland and its strong protection for the future."
The Russian "Official Messenger," St. Petersburg, announced on the 14th of April that "in consequence of the recent student disturbances many of the high schools were closed before the Easter holidays, and the young men were compelled either to lose a year of their studies or even to leave the college altogether. In view of the serious consequences which this measure involved for the career of the students, a special conference of the principals of the higher colleges was called to deliberate, under the presidency of the Minister of Public Instruction, upon the situation thus created. The conference decided that the following measures were indispensably necessary for the re-establishment of the regular course of study at the institutions concerned:
1. Lectures to be renewed in the higher colleges in the course of April and intermediate examinations under the direction of the scholastic authorities to be held under the usual regulations at the customary intervals.
2. The lectures and examinations to be continued during the summer vacation, should they not have been completed during the preceding term.
3. All those who without sufficient reason did not attend the examinations or failed to pass them to be liable to all the legal consequences thereof.
4. In particularly important cases autumn and supplementary examinations to be permitted in the higher schools exceptionally this year."
According to a later despatch from St. Petersburg to the Associated Press, April 23d, the students of the university at the capital were informed that day by the rector that "General Vannoffsky, the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, had refused to defer the examinations until autumn or make further concessions to the students. Although the popular professor, M. Petrozicky, pleaded against an action which would make it difficult for a liberal minister to carry through his benevolent intentions, the students decided by a vote of 684 to 649 against participating in the examinations. They resolved, however, not to create obstruction and the minority agreed to submit to the will of the majority. The electro-technical, the civil engineering, the women's medical and the women's academic institutions also will decide against taking the examinations. The sincere friends of the students regret the step in this respect, believing the students should allow the recall of the absentees to come as an act of grace from the Government and should not attempt to force concessions."
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901. Operations in Manchuria. Practical possession of the country. Refusal of Chinese government to sign a demanded treaty.
See (in this volume) MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901. Strategic importance of Korea. Ground of Japanese jealousy.
See (in this volume) KOREA: A. D. 1900.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1901 (April). Expulsion of Count Tolstoi. His reply to the decree of excommunication.
A reply by Count Tolstoi to the decree of excommunication pronounced against him by the Russian Church, some weeks before, written at Moscow on the 13th of April, was published in Paris on the 30th. As reported to the Associated Press, he states in his reply that, in consequence of the decree, he has received letters from ignorant people menacing him with death. {428} "He characterizes the decree as illegal or intentionally equivocal, arbitrary, unjustified and full of falsehoods. Moreover, he says, it constitutes an instigation to evil sentiments and deeds. Count Tolstoi denounces the practices of the church, and says he is convinced that the teaching of the church, theoretically astute, is injurious, is a lie in practice and is a compound of vulgar superstitions and sorcery, under which entirely disappears the sense of Christian doctrine."
By Press despatch from Vienna, April 23, it was reported that a decree expelling Count Tolstoi from Russia had been signed by the Tzar, and carried into execution.
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900. The Trans-Siberian Railway. Resources of Siberia and the Amur country.
The following account was reported to the British Foreign Office in June, 1900:
"For over 30 years the question of constructing this line had been a theme of interminable discussions and reports. Finally, the following unmistakeably emphatic note of its Imperial founder, the Emperor Alexander III., appended to a report on the general condition of Siberia, moved the whole project definitely forward as a thing that was to be and at once: 'How many of these reports of the Governors-General of Siberia have I perused, and with sorrow and shame must own that the Government has hitherto hardly done anything to satisfy the demands of this rich but neglected region! It is time, indeed time!' A further equally emphatic and still briefer note, added to a report of the Minister of Ways with regard to the projected Ussuri route, is to form the appropriate inscription to the monument to be erected at Vladivostock, the terminus of his great work, to his late Imperial Majesty: 'The construction of this railway must be begun forthwith.' The first stone was laid at Vladivostock on May 19, 1891, by the then Grand Duke Nicholas, now the reigning Emperor. … A Siberian railway committee was formed under the presidency of the then Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, whose duties were
(1) to construct the main and necessary feeding lines;
(2) to take measures for the general commercial and industrial development of Siberia; and
(3) to direct and control the colonisation movement.
"Taking the direction of the route, not as it was to have been, but as it is or will be, we see that with Moscow as the European centre point, and the Moscow-Samara-Cheliabinsk line as its principal feeder, the main road runs from Cheliabinsk, whence it really starts eastward, direct through mid-Siberia to Lake Baikal, and thence, viâ Chita, to Stretensk on the Shilka, a navigable tributary of the Amur. At present, the projected course of the railway viâ the Amur has been arrested, owing on the one hand to various technical difficulties, and on the other to the facilities, political and otherwise, conceded by China, and another direction, in the nature of a short cut through Manchuria, has been entered upon. The well-known agreement with China [see, in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1895] and the formation of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, rendering the original continuation of the line from Stretensk less urgent, it has been resolved, instead, to construct two direct lines to the Chinese frontiers, from Kaidalovo on the main Siberian route on the one side, and from the Ussuri or Habarovsk-Vladivostock line on the other. These two lines, traversing Manchuria from opposite directions, are to meet at Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin), thence running southwards to Dalni and Port Arthur. Thus, we see the three lines, the main Siberian road, which, except for the brief stoppage at Lake Baikal, will run in a practically straight and uninterrupted course from Cheliabinsk to Vladivostock; the Ussuri line running northward through Russian territory from Vladivostock to Habarovsk; and the branch section from Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin), on the main line, striking out southward through Eastern China to Dalni and Port Arthur.
"As far as Russia is concerned, it may be said that her portion of the work is practically ready, though much re-laying and reconstruction may at any time be necessary. The main line is open for regular traffic from Cheliabinsk to Lake Baikal, and for provisional traffic to Stretensk. According to the latest telegrams, regular traffic from Lake Baikal to Stretensk is to be commenced on July 1/14, 1900. Thus, there is now a direct run (excepting only the lake crossing of 60 versts (about 40 miles), from Moscow, viâ Samara, Cheliabinsk, Omsk, and Irkutch, to Kaidalovo (252 versts—168 miles—this side of Stretensk), whence the rail will turn off to Nagodan on the Chinese frontier. This latter stretch, a distance of 325 versts (216 miles), will complete the work as regards Russia. The Ussuri line, from Habarovsk to Vladivostock, has been open for traffic since 1897. The Circum-Baikal connecting line, round the southern bend of the lake, a distance of 292 versts (195 miles), remains to be laid, the lake being crossed at present by steam ferries or ice-breakers. A new ice-breaker, built in England, is now on its way in pieces to Lake Baikal. It is the Manchurian sections, therefore, that at present retard the consummation of the complete overland track to Vladivostock. Nor, from recent accounts, does it seem likely that the Chinese engaged in the work will bring it to a conclusion much before 1902, if then. Even now, however, goods can make their way through Siberia to Stretensk by rail, and thence down the Shilka and the Amur to Habarovsk, or further on, by the Ussuri line, to Vladivostock. As regards the railroad from Port Arthur northward, the latest news brings it to Telin, north of Mukden, trains with workmen running this distance, some 500 versts. The Chinese Eastern Railway Company promise to join Port Arthur to Vladivostock by October next, it is said, but, even on the route already temporarily in rough working order, dwellings, stations and permanent bridges have yet to be built. Thus, there is now direct communication between Moscow and Stretensk by rail, a distance of 6,471 versts (4,214 miles), and from Stretensk to Habarovsk and Nikolaieff by the Shilka and Amur rivers, a further distance to Habarovsk of about 2,000 versts (1,332 miles), and to Nikolaieff, the mouth of the Amur, of over 3,000 versts (2,000 miles). The Amur is navigable from May to September, but for shallow-draft vessels only.
"Various important European feeding lines have been constructed, and others, partaking more of the character of huge main thoroughfares are projected. Cheliabinsk, the starting-point eastwards, is connected with Moscow by the Zlatoust-Samara-Moscow Railway, which, touching the Volga at Samara, crosses it at Sisran. {429} Two northern branches, the Tiumen-Perm, and Kotlass-Viatka-Perm, meeting at Ekaterinburg, the capital of the rich Ural mineral district, run into the main Siberian line at Cheliabinsk. From this latter point, too, a new route has long been projected direct to St. Petersburg, via Viatka and Vologda. So that, while the future will connect Cheliabinsk, and with it the main Siberian railway, in a direct line with the Baltic, not as now via Moscow, the present joins it on the one side with that city, the business centre of Russia, and on the other to the new northern through route, which, via Kotlass and Archangel, is this year to bring the cereals of Siberia to London."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series No. 533, 1900, pages 5-7)._
"It may be a wild idea, but Russian engineers are actually talking of a railroad from Stryetensk to Bering Strait, over a comparatively easy route that does not enter the Arctic Circle. This imaginary line, they hope, would connect with the American line which is now being built to Dawson City, the distance from which to Stryetensk is about three thousand miles. If this road ever is completed they figure that New York will be placed in railroad connection with London, Calcutta and Cape Town."
_A. H. Ford, The Warfare of Railways in Asia (Century, March, 1900)._
"Siberia and the Amur lands are rich beyond belief. … This vast territory, long looked upon as a barren waste, is destined to be one of the world's richest and most productive sections. In northern France, wheat ripens in 137 days; in Siberia, in 107. Even heavy night frosts do not injure the young seed. Under such conditions, the possibilities of agriculture are practically unlimited. I may add that oats require, in Siberia and in the Amur country, only 96 days, and in the regions of the Yenisei only 107. The frost period lasts only 97 days in the Irkutsk country. Transbaikalia lies entirely within the agricultural regions; so, too, almost the entire territory traversed by the Amur as far north as it runs. Efforts are being made to obtain along the Amur at least 300,000 square kilometers (115,835 square miles) for the higher forms of northern agriculture. Climatically, the best of northern Asia's territory, for planting purposes, is the Usuri country, which, in spite of its vast tracts of wood and grazing lands, has 195,000 square kilometers (75,292 square miles) of arable ground. The building of the Trans-Siberian Railroad has already added to the Empire's wheat product.
"The mineral resources of western Siberia are vast. Between Tomsk and Kooznesk lie 60,000 square kilometers (23,167 square miles) of coal lands which have never been touched. The coal is said to be excellent. In eastern Siberia, with its 280,000 square kilometers (108,112 square miles) of fruitful soil, there are 400 places yielding gold. Rich mineral deposits—graphite, lapis lazuli; iron mines, particularly rich in quality (as high as 60 per cent); hard and soft coals, i. e., black and brown coals—await hands willing to work for them. To-day, thousands of colonists are hurrying to these promising lands. Russia's output in gold and silver is already very large, and is constantly increasing.
"The industries of Siberia are in their infancy; still, they are growing and are bound to grow, so rich are the rewards promised. Chemical, sugar, and paper mills have been put up in several places and are paying well. Even Manchuria, a province so vast that it might make an empire, is looking to Russia for its future development. The wealth of this province, like that of Siberia and all eastern Russia, is ripe for harvesting. The traffic in Siberia and eastern Russia is increasing faster than even the advocates of the great Trans-Siberian road anticipated. The Ob, one of the world's big rivers, emptying through the Gulf of Ob into the Arctic Ocean, has 102 steamers and 200 tugs running already. On the Yenisei, 10 steamers carry the mails regularly. The mouths of both these rivers were visited last summer by English and Russian ships. This proves the practicability of connecting eastern and western Siberia with Europe by water."
_United States Consular Reports, November, 1899, page 411._
An official publication of the year 1900 from St. Petersburg, furnished to American journals by the Russian embassy at Washington, is the source of the following statements relative to the rapid development of the vast Siberian country along the line of the great railway:
"When viewed with reference to colonization Siberia divides itself naturally into two zones, extending east and west, and differing essentially from one another. The first of these embraces the region traversed by the new Siberian railway, the more populous southern portion of Siberia, in which the conditions of climate and soil are favorable to the development of agriculture and colonization. The other zone occupies the extensive, deserted northern region, the land of tundras, or polar marshes, with a constantly frozen subsoil and a severe climate, a dreary tract of land totally unfit for agriculture. Between these two zones stretches a broad belt of forests of tall trees, partly primeval pine and fir, partly leafy trees. The wealth of these broad agricultural and timber areas is, moreover, augmented by mineral deposits of every conceivable nature, as abundant and diversified as those of America, and into this whole region immigration is pouring in volume unequalled except in the history of American colonization. Ever since the serfs were emancipated in 1861 they have formed the bulk of the emigrants from the thickly populated agricultural districts of European Russia, but the great tide of settlers in the new territory is only now assuming tremendous proportions. During the twenty years' period of 1860 to 1880 about 110,000 persons emigrated to Siberia, while for the thirteen years from 1880 to 1892 there were over 440,000, and for the succeeding years since the great railway has been building the number of immigrants of both sexes has been as follows:
1893, 65,000; 1894, 76,000; 1895, 109,000; 1896, 203,000; 1897, 87,000; 1898, 206,000; 1899, 225,000. Total, 971,000.
According to the census of 1897, the population of Siberia had risen to 8,188,368 inhabitants, of which the Russian peasantry formed over 25 per cent."
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1899 (May). Steps toward the abolition of transportation.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (MAY).
{430}
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900. Russian railway building and railway projects in Persia and Afghanistan.
By several writers who seem to have knowledge of what is doing in those parts of the eastern world, it was reported in the spring of 1900 that an active projection, planning, and building (to some extent) of railroads in Persia and Afghanistan was on foot among the Russians. From Tiflis, it was said, their plans contemplated a line of rail to Teheran; thence to be extended by one branch, southward, via Ispahan, to the Persian Gulf, and by another branch westward to Herat, in Afghanistan. From their Central Asian acquisitions they had advanced their railway to within 70 miles of Herat, and were said to be confidently expecting to push it on, through Kandahar and through Baluchistan, to the Arabian Sea. If these extensive plans could be carried out, and if Russian influence in Persia, said to be growing fast, should become actually controlling, the Muscovite Power would have made an enormous gain, by planting itself on the shores of the Indian Ocean. How far Russia can continue to press forward in this line of policy without collision with Great Britain and with Germany—which seems to have aims in the same direction, through Asiatic Turkey—is an interesting question for the future.
The following is from a despatch to the "London Times" from its correspondent at Vienna, February 24, 1901:
"According to trustworthy information from Teheran, Russia is particularly active just now in Persia and the Persian Gulf. … The road from Resht to Teheran, which has been built by a Russian company, is of no value for European trade in the absence of an agreement with Russia respecting the transit traffic through that country. European commerce is dependent upon the long and expensive caravan routes via Trebizond, Bushire, Baghdad, Mochamera,&c. These occupy from four to six months."
RUSSO-CHINESE BANK, Concessions to the.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
S.
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo: Resignation from Spanish Ministry.
See (in this volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo: Return to power.
See (in this volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo: Resignation.
See (in this volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1899.
SAGHALIEN.
See (in this volume) SAKHALIN.
SAHARA, The: French possessions.
See (in this volume) NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
ST. KITTS: Industrial condition.
See (in this volume) WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1896. Republican National Convention.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
ST. VINCENT, The British colony of.
See (in this volume) WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
SAKHALIN.
"Of late years … its increasing importance as a place of exile for Russian political and criminal offenders has invested Sakhalin with a certain interest, derived, perhaps, more from penal associations than physical resources, which latter may, when fully developed, materially affect trade and commerce in the far East. The island of Sakhalin is 584 miles in length, its breadth varying from 18 to 94 miles. The southern extremity is separated from the island of Yezo, twenty miles distant, by the Straits of La Perouse, and its western coast by the shallow Gulf of Tartary (at one point barely five miles across) from the mainland of Siberia. Although Dutch explorers are said to have landed here in 1643, the first reliable survey of the island was probably obtained in the year 1787 by La Perouse. Russian fur traders followed in the early part of the present century, but it was only in 1853 that, disturbances having occurred with the natives, a score or so of Cossacks were stationed at Dui on the west coast. In 1867 negotiations were entered into by the Russian and Japanese Governments for joint occupation of Sakhalin, but the subsequent discovery of coal, and consequent influx of Russian convicts, rendered this arrangement highly unsatisfactory. Further negotiations, therefore, ensued, with the result that, in 1875, the island was formally ceded to Russia, Japan receiving, in exchange, the entire Kurile Archipelago.
"Sakhalin is by no means easy of access. Even during the open season (from May to September) but very few vessels visit the island, and, with the exception of the monthly arrival of convict-ships from Europe, and a couple of small Russian trading steamers, there is no fixed service with Vladivostok, which, with the exception of Nikolaefsk, is the only Siberian port whence Sakhalin may, in three days, be reached. During the winter months the island is completely ice-bound and unapproachable by water. Communication with the mainland is then maintained by means of dog-sledges, and the mails for Europe are dispatched across the frozen Gulf of Tartary—a journey, under favourable circumstances, of about three months. …
"Sakhalin is, for administrative purposes, divided into three districts, viz.: Korsakovsky-Post in the south, Tymovsk in the north, and Alexandrovsky-Post on the western coast. The latter, which is situated in the centre of the coal district, is a picturesque, straggling town of about 7,000 inhabitants, consisting almost entirely of officials and convicts. This is the most important penal settlement on the island, contains the largest prison, and is, moreover, the residence of the Governor of Sakhalin, a subordinate of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia. Alexandrovsky is garrisoned by about 1,500 men, and contains large foundries and workshops for convict labour, but most of the prisoners are employed in the adjacent coal mines of Dui. … Korsakovsky-Post, on the south coast, is the next largest settlement, containing about 5,000 convicts who are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits. Although it may seem a paradox, the remaining prisons in the interior of the island, Derbynskaya, Rykovskaya, and Onor are not prisons at all, but huge wooden barracks, innocent of bolts and bars. Here, also, the work done is solely agricultural."
_Harry de Windt, The Island of Sakhalin (Fortnightly Review, May, 1897)._
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of: Third Ministry.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
{431}
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of: Correspondence with the Government of the United States on the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume) VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of: Fourth Ministry.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of: Tribute to Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
SALISBURY PLAIN: Purchase by Government.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY).
SALVADOR.
See (in this volume) CENTRAL AMERICA.
SALVATION ARMY, The: Secession of the American Volunteers. Late account of the Army's work.
Much feeling in the American branch of the Salvation Army, and among those who valued its work, was caused in January, 1896, by an order from the London headquarters of the Army recalling Mr. Ballington Booth, who had been its American Commander for nine years. Commander Booth and Mrs. Booth had been remarkably successful in their organization and direction of the Salvation Army work, and had won a high place in the esteem, not only of their own followers, but of the American public at large. A wide and strong movement of protest against their removal from the field failed to change the London order, which was said to be made in obedience to a necessary rule of the Army against long service in any one post. Miss Eva Booth, representing her father, General Booth, with Colonel Nicol, from London, and Commandant Herbert Booth, from Canada, came to New York as mediators, endeavoring to heal a threatened breach in the ranks; but their mission failed. Commander Ballington Booth resigned his office, and withdrew from the Salvation Army service, declining to return to London. After a time, he and Mrs. Booth became the heads of a new organization called the "Volunteers of America," for religious work, not in rivalry with that of the Salvation Army, but directed more towards the awakening of the interest of the working people, Mr. Ballington Booth was succeeded as Commander in America by a son-in-law of General Booth, Commissioner Frederick St. Clair Tucker. —For an account of the origin and growth of the Salvation Army see, under that heading, in the Supplement (volume 5) of the original edition of this work, or in volume 4 of the revised edition.
Of results accomplished in that part of the work of the Salvation Army known as the "Darkest England Scheme," General Booth wrote, early in 1900, an extended account in the "Sunday Strand." He stated that the public had subscribed altogether for his scheme about $1,300,000. "It is a debated point," he wrote, "with the intelligent admirers of the scheme and the careful observers of its progress whether the benefits bestowed on the wretched classes for whom it was originated have been greater within than without our borders. The copyists of our plan have been legion, both at home and abroad, in church and state. The representatives of the different governments specially charged with the responsibility for the outcast classes have been gradually coming to appreciate the principles and methods involved in the scheme, and to show willingness to cooperate in giving it a chance. They have done this in two ways:
(1) In attempting similar tasks themselves; (2) in using and subsidizing the army for doing the work for them.
Many governments make grants to our various institutions in varying amounts toward the cost of dealing with different classes of the submerged."
The following is a summary of the agencies which have been set at work by the general: "We have now 158 shelters and food depots for homeless men and women, 121 slum posts, each with its own slum sisters, 37 labor bureaus, (10 labor factories for the unemployed, 11 land colonies, 91 rescue homes for women, 11 labor homes for ex-criminals, several nursing institutions, 2 maternity hospitals for deserted women, an institution with branches in forty-five countries and colonies for finding lost and missing persons, together with a host of allied and minor agencies which I am not able here to enumerate. The total number of institutions named above is now 545, under the care of more than 2,000 trained officers and others wholly employed, all working in harmony with the principles I have laid down for helping the poorest and most unfortunate of their fellows, and all more or less experts at their work.
"Nearly 20,000 destitute men and women are in some way or other touched by the operations of the scheme every day. No less than 15,000 wretched and otherwise homeless people are housed under our roofs every night, having their needs met, at least in part, with sympathy and prayer and the opportunity for friendly counsel. More than 300 ex-criminals are to-day in our houses of reformation, having before them another chance for this life, and in many cases the first they have ever had for preparing for the life to come. More than 5,000 women taken from lives of darkness and shame are safely sheltered in our homes each year, on the way—as we have abundantly proved in the case of others, in respect of a large proportion of them—to a future of virtue, goodness, and religion. Over 1,000 men are employed on the land colonies. Many of them are working out their own deliverance, and at the same time helping to solve one of the most difficult problems of modern times, and proving that many of the helpless loafers of the great cities can be made useful producers on the soil. Over the gates of every one of these homes, elevators, labor factories, and colonies there might be written: 'No man or woman need starve, or beg, or pauperize, or steal, or commit suicide. If willing to work, apply within. Here there is hope for all.'" General Booth adds that he has always 2,000 women in the rescue homes of the army.
SAMOAN ISLANDS, The: Ending of the joint control of the Islands by Germany, England and the United States. Partition between Germany and the United States. Retirement of England.
Said President Cleveland, in his annual Message to the Congress of the United States, December 4, 1893: "Led by a desire to compose differences and contribute to the restoration of order in Samoa, which for some years previous had been the scene of conflicting foreign pretensions and native strife, the United States, departing from its policy consecrated by a century of observance, entered [in 1889] … into the, treaty of Berlin [see, in volume 4, SAMOA], thereby becoming jointly bound with England and Germany to establish and maintain Malietoa Laupepa as King of Samoa. {432} The treaty provided for a foreign court of justice; a municipal council for the district of Apia, with a foreign president thereof, authorized to advise the King; a tribunal for the settlement of native and foreign land titles, and a revenue system for the Kingdom. It entailed upon the three powers that part of the cost of the new Government not met by the revenue of the islands. Early in the life of this triple protectorate the native dissensions it was designed to quell revived. Rivals defied the authority of the new King, refusing to pay taxes and demanding the election of a ruler by native suffrage. Mataafa, an aspirant to the throne, and a large number of his native adherents were in open rebellion on one of the islands. Quite lately, at the request of the other powers and in fulfillment of its treaty obligation, this Government agreed to unite in a joint military movement of such dimensions as would probably secure the surrender of the insurgents without bloodshed. The war ship Philadelphia was accordingly put under orders for Samoa, but before she arrived the threatened conflict was precipitated by King Malietoa's attack upon the insurgent camp. Mataafa was defeated and a number of his men killed. The British and German naval vessels present subsequently secured the surrender of Mataafa and his adherents. The defeated chief and ten of his principal supporters were deported to a German island of the Marshall group, where they are held as prisoners under the joint responsibility and cost of the three powers. This incident and the events leading up to it signally illustrate the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers."
_United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment), 1893-1894._
In his next annual Message, December 3, 1894, the President thus summarized the later situation in the islands: "The suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs, as recited in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to the islands. Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a rebellion broke out in the capital island, Upolu, headed in Aana, the western district, by the younger Tamasese, and in Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders. The insurgents ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops up to the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers for help, and the combined British and German naval forces reduced the Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however, without considerable loss to the natives. A few days later Tamasese and his adherents, fearing the ships and the marines, professed submission. Reports received from our agents at Apia do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about will be of long duration. It is their conviction that the natives are at heart hostile to the present Government, that such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war ships were withdrawn. … The present Government has utterly failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very evils it was intended to prevent. It has not stimulated our commerce with the islands. Our participation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights."
_United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment, 1894-1895)._
In the Message of 1895 the subject was again pressed on the attention of Congress without result.
In August, 1898, Malietoa Laupepa died. By the Berlin Treaty of 1889 "it was provided that in case any question should arise in Samoa, respecting the rightful election of King, or of any other Chief claiming authority over the islands, or respecting the validity of the powers which the King or any Chief might claim in the exercise of his office, such question should not lead to war, but should be presented for decision to the Chief Justice of Samoa, who should decide it in writing, conformably to the provisions of the Act, and to the laws and customs of Samoa not in conflict therewith, and that the Signatory Governments would accept and abide by such decision. After the death of Malietoa an exchange of views took place between the Powers, and it was agreed that there should be no interference with the right of the Samoans to elect a King, and that the election should proceed strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Final Act. Some time elapsed before any action was taken, pending the completion of certain ceremonial usages customary in Samoa on the death of a High Chief. … As soon as the funeral ceremonies were at an end, deliberation and discussion among the Chiefs ensued. There were in the first instance several candidates for the succession. Their number was eventually reduced to two:
1. Malietoa Tanu, the son of the late King. 2. The High Chief Mataafa.
This Chief had been in rebellion against Malietoa Laupepa, but had suffered defeat, and with other Chiefs had been deported, by agreement between the three Powers, to the Marshall Islands. On the recommendation of the Consular officers at Apia, the Powers, in July 1898, consented to his return. … On the 19th September, Mataafa and the other exiled Chiefs landed in Samoa. It does not appear that he took any overt steps to claim the vacant throne, but a section of the natives pronounced in his favour and announced on the 12th November to the Consuls and to the Chief Justice that he had been duly elected King. On the 13th November the opposing faction declared that the real election of a King had not taken place, and on the following day announced that their choice had fallen upon Malietoa Tanu. Both parties appealed to Mr. Chambers, the Chief Justice, who considered himself then in a position to take cognisance of the matter, according to the provisions of the Final Act, a question having arisen 'in Samoa respecting the rightful election or appointment of King.'"
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command: Samoa, Number 1, 1899)._
The decision of the Chief Justice was in favor of Malietoa Tanu, and the adherents of Mataafa took up arms, defeating those of the favored candidate and driving many of them to take refuge on British and German ships of war. Subsequent events were related by the President of the United States in his Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, as follows: "In this emergency a joint commission of representatives of the United States, Germany, and Great Britain was sent to Samoa to investigate the situation and provide a temporary remedy. {433} By its active efforts a peaceful solution was reached for the time being, the kingship being abolished and a provisional government established. Recommendations unanimously made by the commission for a permanent adjustment of the Samoan question were taken under consideration by the three powers parties to the General Act. But the more they were examined the more evident it became that a radical change was necessary in the relations of the powers to Samoa. The inconveniences and possible perils of the tripartite scheme of supervision and control in the Samoan group by powers having little interest in common in that quarter beyond commercial rivalry had been once more emphasized by the recent events. The suggested remedy of the Joint Commission, like the scheme it aimed to replace, amounted to what has been styled a 'tridominium,' being the exercise of the functions of sovereignty by an unanimous agreement of three powers. The situation had become far more intricate and embarrassing from every point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894, summed up its perplexities and condemned the participation in it of the United States. The arrangement under which Samoa was administered had proved impracticable and unacceptable to all the powers concerned. To withdraw from the agreement and abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain would not be compatible with our interests in the archipelago. To relinquish our rights in the harbor of Pago Pago, the best anchorage in the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been leased to the United States in 1878 by the first foreign treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to be thought of either as regards the needs of our Navy or the interests of our growing commerce with the East. We could not have considered any proposition for the abrogation of the tripartite control which did not confirm us in all our rights and safeguard all our national interests in the islands. Our views commended themselves to the other powers. A satisfactory arrangement was concluded between the Governments of Germany and of England, by virtue of which England retired from Samoa in view of compensations in other directions, and both powers renounced in favor of the United States all their rights and claims over and in respect to that portion of the group lying to the east of the one hundred and seventy-first degree of west longitude, embracing the islands of Tutuila, Ofoo, Olosenga, and Manua."
_United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment), 1899-1900, volume 1._
The compensations to England "in other directions" were given by Germany, in the following provisions of a treaty signed at London, November 14, 1899:
"ARTICLE II. Germany renounces in favour of Great Britain all her rights over the Tonga Islands, including Vavau, and over Savage Island, including the right of establishing a naval station and coaling station, and the right of extra-territoriality in the said islands. … She recognizes as falling to Great Britain those of the Solomon Islands, at present belonging to Germany, which are situated to the east and southeast of the Island of Bougainville, which latter shall continue to belong to Germany, together with the Island of Buka, which forms part of it. The western portion of the neutral zone in West Africa, as defined in Article V of the present Convention, shall also fall to the share of Great Britain. …
"ARTICLE IV. The arrangement at present existing between Germany and Great Britain and concerning the right of Germany to freely engage labourers in the Solomon Islands belonging to Great Britain shall be equally extended to those of the Solomon Islands mentioned in Article II, which fall to the share of Great Britain.
"ARTICLE V. In the neutral zone the frontier between the German and English territories shall be formed by the River Daka as far as the point of its intersection with the 9th degree of north latitude, thence the frontier shall continue to the north, leaving Morozugu to Great Britain, and shall be fixed on the spot by a Mixed Commission of the two Powers, in such manner that Gambaga and all the territories of Mamprusi shall fall to Great Britain, and that Yendi and all the territories of Chakosi shall fall to Germany.
"ARTICLE VI. Germany is prepared to take into consideration, as much and as far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great Britain may express with regard to the development of the reciprocal Tariffs in the territories of Togo and of the Gold Coast.
"ARTICLE VII. Germany renounces her rights of extra-territoriality in Zanzibar, but it is at the same time understood that this renunciation shall not effectively come into force till such time as the rights of extra-territoriality enjoyed there by other nations shall be abolished."
To the treaty was appended the following "Declaration":
"It is clearly understood that by Article II of the Convention signed to-day, Germany consents that the whole group of the Howe Islands, which forms part of the Solomon Islands, shall fall to Great Britain. It is also understood that the stipulations of the Declaration between the two Governments signed at Berlin on the 10th April, 1886, respecting freedom of commerce in the Western Pacific, apply to the islands mentioned in the aforesaid Convention. It is similarly understood that the arrangement at present in force as to the engagement of labourers by Germans in the Solomon Islands permits Germans to engage those labourers on the same conditions as those which are or which shall be imposed on British subjects nonresident in those islands."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication, (Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 7, 1900)._
Article III of the general treaty between the United States, Germany and Great Britain stipulated: "It is understood and agreed that each of the three signatory Powers shall continue to enjoy, in respect to their commerce and commercial vessels, in all the islands of the Samoan group, privileges and conditions equal to those enjoyed by the sovereign Power, in all ports which may be open to the commerce of either of them."
_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document Number 157._
{434}
On the 17th of April, 1900, an "instrument of cession" was signed by the marks of twenty-two chiefs, conveying to the United States the islands of the Samoan group lying east of the 171st degree of west longitude, and the American flag was raised over the naval station at Pago-Pago. From Pago-Pago, March 27, 1901, a Press despatch announced: "The natives under the United States Government number 5,800, according to a census just taken, while the natives in the other islands under German rule number 32,000. The population has increased very slightly in the last thirty years, and the main cause of this failure to increase is the infant mortality, due to the violation of the simplest health principles in the care and diet of children. … Reports from the six islands under United States control show that the natives are improving in general conditions, and that they show a desire to keep their houses neat and to educate their children. Not a single native has been arrested for drunkenness since the Americans assumed control of Tutuila island."
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.: Commanding North Atlantic Station. Blockade of Cuban ports.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: CUBA).
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.: Operations at Santiago de Cuba. See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.: Destruction of Spanish squadron.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SAN DOMINGO.
See (in this volume) DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1898. New city charter.
A city charter of a quite new and experimental character was adopted by popular vote in May, to go into effect at the beginning of the year 1900. Its main features were described at the time by the "New York Tribune," as follows:
"The formation of this charter is an advanced example of the exercise of municipal home rule. The constitution of California gives the cities of the state the uncommon privilege of framing their own charters subject simply to the veto power of the legislature. Exercising that right, the people, acting through fifteen free-holders, elected for that purpose, have drawn up the new charter. … If the legislature approves, it will become the local constitution. The charter provides for its own amendment by the people without appeal to the legislature. So the present provisions of that instrument may be only a form to be entirely remodeled by the city at its own pleasure until it has no resemblance to the laws to which the state authorities gave approval. That is an extreme delegation of powers, such as we think has never before been made in an American state. The mayor has large powers of appointment and removal. He can suspend all elected officers except the supervisors—the city legislators—who may remove those whom he suspends, and he may remove at any time for cause all appointive officers. The elective list is large, for, though there are only eighteen supervisors, the number of places filled by election each year is thirty. This is a great departure from the charter-making practice recently prevalent, which has tended to the election of only a few administrative officers who are responsible for the selection of agents in different departments. Attempt is made to centre responsibility in the mayor, but the supervisors and the people both can pass ordinances likely to interfere with that responsibility. So the charter is as far as possible from inaugurating the one-man power, which has been much advocated as the cure for the ills which spring from a municipal administration animated by no uniform purpose or intelligence."
SAN JUAN HILL, Battle of.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SAND RIVER CONVENTION, The.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898(May-June). Blockade of Spanish squadron in the Bay.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (June-July). Attack and investment by American army.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 3). Destruction of Spanish fleet.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 4-17). Surrender of the city and Spanish forces.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (August). Sickness in the American army. Withdrawal of troops.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
SARGON OF AKKAD.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
SAYINGS OF OUR LORD, Discovery of a fragment of the.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.: In operations at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.: Destruction of Spanish squadron.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SCHOOLS.
See EDUCATION.
SCHREINER, W. P.: Resignation of the Premiership of Cape Colony.
See (in this volume) SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1900 (APRIL-JUNE).
SCHWAN, General: Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
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NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS: Acetylene Gas.
Acetylene gas has been known since 1832, when it was discovered by Edmund Davy; but it remained a mere laboratory product until 1892, when two experimenters, in America and France, stumbled accidentally on the production, in an electric furnace, of calcium carbide, which water decomposes, readily yielding the gas in question. The American discoverer was Mr. Thomas Willson, a Canadian electrician, residing at Spray, North Carolina; his French rival was Professor Henry Moisson, of Paris. The priority of Mr. Willson in the discovery, or in the announcement of it, is most generally recognized, and he secured patents in the United States and elsewhere. Electrical developments since 1892 have economized the manufacture of calcium carbide, by electric heat acting on a mixture of lime and coke, and it has become an important commercial product, at Niagara Falls and other seats of electric power, bringing acetylene gas into extensive use as an illuminant. There have been dangers and difficulties in the use, however, not easily overcome.
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS: Discovery of Argon and Helium.
"After Lord Rayleigh, in 1892, had proved that nitrogen obtained from chemical combinations was about one-half per cent lighter than that obtained from the atmosphere, a determination that was again verified in 1894, Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay separated from atmospheric nitrogen an elementary gas of great density which, by reason of its chemical indifference, they called argon. They proved that this gas formed about 0.8 or 0.9 per cent of the volume of nitrogen, from which it could be separated either by incandescent magnesium or by the continued action of the electric spark. It was established beyond doubt that Cavendish produced this gas a hundred years ago by the use of the electric spark. Argon, either alone or accompanied by helium, has also been found in natural waters as well as in minerals. Its discovery in a meteorite of Augusta County, Virginia, United States of America, may perhaps lead us to ascribe to it an extra-terrestrial origin.
"The physical properties of argon are very distinct, and its characteristic spectrum enables us to at once distinguish it with certainty from any other substance, but from a chemical point of view this gas is most extraordinarily inactive, and we have not yet succeeded in making it form combinations as the other elements do. This peculiarity, and also the impossibility of finding a place in the periodic system for a simple body having the molecular weight of argon (39.88), have given rise to all sorts of hypotheses relative to the nature of this gas. …
"Another most interesting discovery was that of helium, made by Professor Ramsay. In 1891 Hillebrand showed that uranium ore and ores of the same family when dissolved in acids or fused with alkaline carbonates, or even merely heated in a vacuum, may give off as much as 3 per cent of nitrogen. Professor Ramsay obtained this gas from cleveite and by means of spectroscopic examination demonstrated the presence of argon; and in the course of his experiments—in March, 1895—he observed beside the spectrum of argon another bright, yellow line that did not belong to that spectrum, and which Crookes recognized as identical with the line D that Lockyer had already observed in 1868 in the spectrum of the solar chromosphere, and which he had attributed to an element as yet unknown upon the earth—helium. The same line had also been distinguished in the spectra of other fixed stars, particularly in the spectrum of Orion, so that it may be admitted that helium exists in large quantities extra-terrestrially. … On our planet it appears, on the contrary, to be very rare, and may be ranked among the rarest of elements. … "Helium is the lightest of all the gases except hydrogen; Stoney deduces from this fact an explanation of the existence of these two elements in but very small quantities in a free state upon the face of the earth, while they are distributed in enormous masses throughout the universe. The comparatively small force of the earth's gravitation does not form a sufficient counterpoise to the velocity of their molecules, which therefore escape from the terrestrial atmosphere unless restrained by chemical combination. They then proceed to reunite around great centres of attraction, such as the fixed stars, in whose atmospheres these elements exist in large quantities."
_C. Winkler, The Discovery of new Elements within the last twenty-five years (Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1897, page 237, translated from Revue Scientifique, 4th series, volume 8)._
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS: Liquefaction of Oxygen, Hydrogen and Air.
"The most remarkable recent work in refrigeration is that of Professor James Dewar, of the Royal Institution in London. The feat of liquefying oxygen by a succession of approaches to its critical temperature has been thus described by him, in an interview which appeared in 'McClure's Magazine,' November, 1893: 'The process of liquefying oxygen, briefly speaking, is this: Into the outer chamber of that double compressor I introduce, through a pipe, liquid nitrous oxide gas, under a pressure of about 1,400 pounds to the square inch. I then allow it to evaporate rapidly, and thus obtain a temperature around the inner chamber of -90° C. Into this cooled inner chamber I introduce liquid ethylene, which is a gas at ordinary temperatures, under a pressure of 1,800 pounds to the square inch. When the inner chamber is full of ethylene, its rapid evaporation under exhaustion reduces the temperature to -135° C. Running through this inner chamber is a tube containing oxygen gas under a pressure of 750 pounds to the square inch. The critical point of oxygen gas—that is, the point above which no amount of pressure will reduce it to a liquid—is—115° C., but this pressure, at the temperature of -145° C., is amply sufficient to cause it to liquefy rapidly.'
{436}
"In May, 1898, Professor Dewar, by the use of liquid oxygen, succeeded in liquefying hydrogen, producing a liquid having but one-fourteenth the specific gravity of water; this exploit brought him within 21° of the absolute zero of centigrade. He afterward reduced the liquid to solid form, attaining a temperature estimated at four to five degrees lower. Faraday and other investigators of an earlier day surmised that hydrogen, when solidified, would prove to be a metal; now that the feat of solidification has been accomplished, hydrogen astonishes the physicist by displaying itself as non-metallic. …
"For some years the plan was to employ a series of chemical compounds, each with a lower boiling-point than its predecessor in the process, and all troublesome and hazardous in manipulation. A better method has been developed by keeping to simple air from first to last, as in the apparatus of Dr. Linde, of Dr. Hampson, and of Mr. Charles E. Tripler.
"As the Tripler machine does its work on a bolder scale than either of the others, let its operation be briefly outlined: Air is first compressed to 65 pounds pressure to the square inch; through a second pump this pressure is exalted to 400 pounds, and with a third pump the pressure is carried to 2,500 pounds. After each compression the air flows through jacketed pipes, where it is cooled by a stream of water. At the third condensation a valve, the secret of whose construction Mr. Tripler keeps to himself, permits part of the compressed air to flow into a pipe surrounding the tube through which the remainder is flowing. This act of expansion severely chills the imprisoned air, which at last discharges itself in liquid form—much as water does from an ordinary city faucet."
_G. Iles, Flame, Electricity and the Camera,