part 1, pages 7-20.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901-1902. Report of Governor Taft. Civil Government established in all Christian Filipino Territory. The Moros. Destruction of the Carabao. Cholera. Ladrones. The Native Constabulary.

"When our last report was submitted there was insurrection in the province of Batangas, where the insurgent forces were commanded by General Malvar, and in the adjacent provinces of Tayabas and Laguna; in the province of Samar, where the insurgent forces were commanded by General Lukban; in Cebu, where the insurgent forces were under the insurgent leaders Climaco and Maxilom; in Bohol, where the insurgent forces were commanded by the insurgent leader Samson; and in the island of Mindoro. Vigorous campaigns were begun in November and December by General Bell, in Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas, and Mindoro, by General Smith in Samar, and by General Hughes in Cebu and Bohol. In November and December the insurgents in Cebu and Bohol surrendered, and conditions of peace were so completely established that the Commission soon after received the province of Cebu from the military authorities, and by act numbered 322, passed December 20, 1901, restored the civil government in that province to take effect January 1, 1902; in Bohol the province was delivered over to the Commission early in 1902, and the commission, by act of March 3, 1902, restored civil government there to take effect April 1, 1902. General Lukban, in Samar, was captured in February, 1902, and the entire force of insurgents in that island under General Guevara surrendered in April following.

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"By an act passed June 17, 1902, Number 419, the Commission organized the province of Samar, and established civil government there. In April of 1902, General Malvar surrendered with all his forces in Batangas, and by act passed June 23, 1902, the Commission restored civil government to that province to take effect July 4, 1902. By act Number 424, enacted July 1, 1902, the province of Laguna was organized into a civil government. This completed the organization of all the provinces in which insurrection had been rife during the latter part of 1901, except Mindoro. There were, in addition, certain tracts of territory occupied by Christian Filipinos that had not received civil government, either because of the remoteness of the territory or the scarcity of population." The report then details the measures by which civil government was given to these tracts of territory, and proceeds:

"The question what shall be done with respect to Mindanao is one which has not been definitely decided, first, because so much has had to be done with respect to the northern and Filipino provinces, and, second, because at present there is an unsettled condition in the Lake Lanao country. The hostility to the Americans does not reach beyond the Lake Lanao Moros. The Moros of the Jolo group, of Zamboanga, and of the Rio Grande de Mindanao Valley are all quiet, and all entirely willing to submit to American supervision. It is very possible that an arrangement can be brought about by which the Sultan of Jolo can be induced to part with such rights as he claims to have in the Jolo Archipelago, and in this way questions which now present very perplexing difficulties with respect to ownership of privileges, rights, and lands may be obviated. … I think it wiser on the part of the Commission to postpone the consideration of the Moro question until we have passed legislation to meet needs that are more pressing throughout the northern part of these possessions of the United States. For a great many years to come there will be no question of popular government in the Moro country; the Moros do not understand popular government, do not desire it, and are entirely content with the control by their dattos. Possibly far in the future the control by dattos will cease. There is room for material and industrial development among the Moros, and with their material improvement may come a change in their political views. For the present, however, it is necessary only to provide a paternal, strong, but sympathetic government for these followers of Mohammed.

"The civil government has assumed responsibility for the preservation of order and the maintenance of law throughout the Christian Filipino territory of this archipelago at a time when the material conditions are most discouraging and present every conceivable obstacle to the successful administration of the affairs of 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 people. The war of six years since 1896 has greatly interfered with the regular pursuit of agriculture, which is almost the only source of wealth in the islands. Many years ago there was sufficient rice raised in the islands not only to feed the people but to export it to other countries. For a number of years before the American occupancy rice had been imported. The area of cultivation of the rice has been much lessened during the war and many fields which were formerly tilled are grown now with the cogon grass because of neglect.

"The greatest blow to agriculture has been the loss of the carabao or water buffalo, upon which the cultivation of rice, according to the mode pursued in these islands, is wholly dependent. The war in some degree, and the rinderpest in a much larger degree, have destroyed about 90 per cent of the carabaos; and the natives—never very active in helping themselves—have simply neglected the rice culture, so that now the islands are compelled to spend about $15,000,000 gold to buy food upon which to live. The carabao is not so necessary in the cultivation of the sugar crop or in the cultivation of hemp. …

"The cholera has swept over these islands with fatal effect, so that the total loss will probably reach 100,000 deaths. Whole villages have been depopulated and the necessary sanitary restrictions to avoid its spread have interfered with agriculture, with intercommunication, and with all business. The ravages of war have left many destitute, and a guerrilla life has taken away from many all habits of industry. With no means of carrying on agriculture, which is the only occupation of these islands, the temptation to the less responsible of the former insurgents after surrender to prey upon their neighbors and live by robbery and rapine has been very great. The bane of Philippine civilization in the past was ladronism, and the present conditions are most favorable for its growth and maintenance. … Many who were proscribed for political offences in the Spanish times had no refuge but the mountains, and being in the mountains conducted a free robber life, and about them gathered legions not unlike those of the Robin Hood days of England, so that they attracted frequently the sympathy of the common people. In the Spanish days it was common for the large estate owners, including the friars, to pay tribute to neighboring ladrones. Every Tagalog province had its band of ladrones, and frequently each town had its recognized ladrone whom it protected and through whom it negotiated for immunity. …

"The insurrection is over. It is true that the ladrones, though they live on nothing but cattle and rice stealing, and never attack American soldiers, and prey only upon their own people, do masquerade as insurrectos; but they recognize no authority and have no characteristics other than those of banditti. They have stirred up in some of the provinces the organization of so-called secret societies for the purpose of securing agencies with which successfully to conduct their robbery and to sell the fruits of it. … The picture that I have given of the depressed condition of agriculture, and the tendency to ladronize in the Tagalog provinces and in some of the Visayan provinces, does not apply to those provinces in which hemp is the chief product. They are wealthy and prosperous."

_Report of Governor W. H. Taft (Report of the Philippine Commission, 1902, part 1)._

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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902. Padre Aglipay’s Secession from the Roman Catholic Church. Organization of the Independent Filipino Catholic Church.

"Gregorio Aglipay is an Ilocano, and was an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church in these islands before the insurrection. During the insurrection he continued his priestly functions at Mabolos and took such action as to bring him into conflict with the hierarchy of the Church. What the merits of this controversy were I do not know. Subsequently he assumed the leadership of the insurrecto forces in Ilocos Norte and carried on a very active campaign in the mountains of that province. He was one of the last of the leaders to surrender with his forces in North Luzon. Since his surrender he has been quite active in spreading propaganda among the native priests against the so-called Friar domination of the church in these islands. The definite refusal of the Vatican to withdraw the Spanish friars from the islands was made the occasion for the formation of the Independent Filipino Catholic Church. Actively engaged with Aglipay in this movement was Isabelo de los Reyes, the former editor of an insurrecto paper, published in Madrid, called Filipinas ante Europa, and an agitator of irresponsible and irrepressible character. … Padre Aglipay has secured the active and open cooperation of a number of native priests, 15 of whom he has appointed bishops, himself having the title of archbishop. He has held mass in many different places in and about Manila; his services have attracted large gatherings of people. …

"In order to prevent constant recurrence of disturbances of the peace I have had to take a firm stand with the leaders of the movement by impressing upon them that forcible dispossession of a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, for years in peaceable possession of the church and the rector’s house, is contrary to law, and would be prevented by the whole police power. The leaders of the movement assure me that they have no desire to violate the law and wish to keep within it, but that their followers at times are hard to control. I have said to them that if they claim title to the churches they may assert it through the courts, and if successful will secure not only the confirmation of their title but actual possession. …

"I have taken occasion to say, whenever an opportunity occurred, that the insular government desired to take no part whatever in the religious controversies thus arising; that it would protect Father Aglipay and his followers in worshiping God as they chose just as it would protect the Roman Catholic Church and its ministers and followers in the same rights. But that, if the law was violated by either party, it would become the duty of the government to step in and restrain such lawlessness."

_Governor Wm. H. Taft, Report, 1902, pages 39-40._

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902-1903. Governmental Purchase of the Friars’ Lands.

"As early as 1898, the Peace Commission, which negotiated the treaty of Paris, became convinced that one of the most important steps in tranquilizing the islands and in reconciling the Filipinos to the American Government would be the governmental purchase of the so-called friars’ agricultural lands in the Philippines, and the sale of these lands to the tenants upon long, easy payments. … The Secretary of War and the President concurred in the recommendations of the Commission. Accordingly in May, 1902, the writer, as civil governor of the Philippine Islands, was directed by the Secretary of War to visit Rome and to confer with the Pope or such agents as he might designate in respect to the question of buying the friars’ agricultural lands and other questions of a similar character which were pending between the Roman Catholic Church and the Government. The negotiations which were had on this subject in Rome were set forth in the correspondence published by the Secretary of War in his report to Congress for last year. In a word, the Pope approved the purchase of the agricultural lands of the three great religious orders that owned agricultural lands in the islands and appointed an apostolic delegate with as full powers as he could be invested with to bring about this result. …

"In order to determine the value of the estates, the representatives of the various companies and other interests were invited to attend a hearing, when various witnesses were called to testify. The apostolic delegate was also present. …

"In accordance with the agreement reached in Rome, I sent to the apostolic delegate a request for a statement of the exact interests retained by the religious orders in the Philippines in the lands which were the subject of negotiation. No formal answer to this letter was ever received, but informally it was stated to me by the delegate that the authorities in the Philippines had informed him that they had so disposed of their interests that they were unable to make a statement of what their interests were, if any. The value of the lands, as estimated according to the statements of the agents of the companies, aggregated a sum between thirteen and fourteen millions of dollars gold. The estimate of Villegas, the surveyor employed by the Commission, showed the valuation of the lands to be $6,043,000 gold, if his value in Mexican should be reduced to gold at the rate of two to one, which was the gold rate about the time of his survey and classification, though the Mexican dollar fell considerably after that. Considering the bad conditions which prevailed in agriculture, the loss of cattle, the dispute concerning title, and the agrarian question that must always remain in the management of these estates and embarrass the owner, I considered—and I believe the Commission generally agreed with me—that $6,043,000 gold was a full price for the lands. The sum, however, was scouted by the persons representing the owners, and there appeared to be very little prospect of reaching an agreement. …

"Not discouraged, however, by circumstances that seemed most discouraging, the apostolic delegate bent his energies to bringing the parties to a settlement. After some negotiation the delegate first stated that he thought he could arrange a sale for $10,500,000 gold. I told him there was no hope of bringing about a purchase at that figure. … Then followed a long and protracted discussion between the parties who were to be the venders as to how this sum should be divided, and there was much difficulty in arriving at a solution—so great a difficulty, indeed, that I was informed that unless $7,770,000 was paid there was no hope of reaching an agreement. With the approval of the Secretary of War and the Commission, I replied that $7,543,000 was our ultimatum, and that we would not give more than that, and this was ultimately the basis upon which the price was fixed."

_Report of the Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, William H. Taft (Fourth Report of the Philippine Commission)._

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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1905. Report of Committee on Methods of Dealing with the Sale and Use of Opium.

See (in this Volume) OPIUM PROBLEM.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1906-1907. Resignation of Governor Ide. Appointment and Inauguration of Governor Smith. Complete Tranquility in the Islands. Change in the Constitution of Provincial Boards.

"On September 20, 1906, the resignation of the Honorable Henry Clay Ide as governor-general became effective, and on that date the Honorable James F. Smith was inaugurated as governor-general of the Philippine Islands. … Since April of this year complete tranquility has prevailed in every part of the archipelago, inclusive of the Moro province. In 21 of the provinces peace has reigned supreme during the entire year. In Bataan and Batangas there was some disturbance of the public order, caused in the case of the first-named province by the escape of some provincial prisoners, and in the second by the operations of six or seven brigands near the boundary line of the provinces of La Laguna and Tayabas. All of the escaped prisoners and all of the bandits with the exception of two in each party have been captured. …

"The convention of provincial governors held in Manila in October, 1906, recommended that the then existing law providing that provincial boards shall be composed of a provincial governor elected by the municipal councilors and vice-presidents of the various municipalities of the province and a provincial treasurer and a third member appointed by the executive be so amended as to permit of the election of the provincial governor and third member by direct vote of the people. This recommendation was submitted to the Secretary of War, and on receiving his approval thereof the provincial government act was amended accordingly. This innovation in the constitution and selection of provincial boards has been an advantage both to the insular and to the local government. On the one hand it has removed all cause for friction between the provincial governor elected by the people and the two members of the board named by the executive. On the other it has imposed upon the provincial governor and the third member the responsibility for the well-being of the province and has removed from the insular government much of the responsibility for conditions purely of local concern."

_Report of the Philippine Commission, December 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, pages 799-807)._

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907. The Philippine Election Law. Election of a Popular Assembly. Political Parties participating in it. The first meeting of the Assembly. Presence of Secretary Taft. His account of the Assembly and of the Parties represented in it.

"In January, 1907, the Philippine Commission passed the Philippine election law. In framing this law the election codes of Massachusetts, New York, the District of Columbia, and California were consulted and features adopted from each, modified in such a way as to meet insular conditions and to avoid the mistakes and abuses that have arisen in some provincial and municipal elections in the islands. The aim has been to provide a law sufficiently explicit and not too complicated for easy comprehension. Every effort has been made to afford the necessary safeguards and machinery to insure purity, secrecy, certainty, and expedition, without causing too great a drain upon the resources of municipal and provincial governments. The prominent features of this law as amended are the division of those provinces not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes into 78 assembly districts, each province to constitute at least one district and the more populous being divided into more districts, in the ratio of 1 to every 90,000 of population and major fraction thereof remaining. In accordance with this apportionment there will be 80 delegates, two of whom will represent the city of Manila, which is considered as a province, within the meaning of the act of Congress, and divided into two districts."

_Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, October 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, page 781)._

"On the 28th of March, 1907, the Commission by resolution, unanimously adopted, certified to the President that for two years following the publication of the census of the islands a condition of general and complete peace had prevailed and then existed in the territory of the islands not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes. … By virtue of this certificate and in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress of July 1, 1902, the President on March 28, issued a proclamation directing the Philippine Commission to call a general election for the choice of delegates to a popular assembly. Accordingly on the 30th of March, 1907, the Commission passed a resolution ordering that an election be held for delegates on July 30 and directing the governor-general to issue a proclamation announcing the election for that date. The proclamation was issued on April 1. By a strange coincidence the day of the month fixed for holding the election was the same as that on which the first legislative body in America, the house of burgesses, met in the year 1619. Under the general election law the delegates to the assembly elected at the elections held on July 30th, 1907, and seated by the Philippine assembly, will serve until January 1, 1910. Subsequent elections for delegates will be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1909, and on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in each odd-numbered year thereafter, delegates to take office on the 1st day of January next following their election and to hold office for two years, or until their successors are elected and qualified.

"The basis of representation in the Philippine assembly is one delegate for every 90,000 of population and one additional delegate for a major fraction thereof: Provided, however, that each Christian province shall be entitled to at least one delegate and that the total number of delegates shall at no time exceed 100. Provinces entitled to more than one delegate are divided into districts. The law declares Manila to be a province within the meaning of the act of Congress authorizing the assembly, and, it is allowed the same representation as other provinces. Thirty-four provinces are represented in the Philippine assembly, which is composed of 80 members.

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"The act of Congress requires that delegates to the assembly shall be qualified electors of the election district in which they may be chosen, 25 years of age, and owing allegiance to the United States. The act of Congress prescribes that the qualifications of electors shall be the same as those prescribed for electors in municipal elections under laws in force at the time of the passage of the Congressional enactment. As the municipal election laws in force at the time of the passage of the act of Congress have undergone some change in regard to the qualifications of electors, the strange anomaly is presented of having certain qualifications exacted from municipal and provincial officials which are not required for delegates to the assembly. One of the results is that felons, victims of the opium habit, and persons convicted in the court of first instance for crimes involving moral turpitude, but whose cases are pending on appeal, are not eligible for election to any provincial or municipal office, but may become delegates to the assembly.

"As announced by provincial governors the elections for assemblymen held on the 30th of July, 1907, resulted in the election of 32 Nacionalistas, 4 Independistas, 7 Inmediatistas, 16 Progresistas, 20 Independents, and 1 Centro Catolico. The total number of voters registered for the assembly elections was 104,966. The number of voters registered for the provincial and municipal elections will be very much larger than that for the assembly elections. The difference in registration and votes cast at the two elections seems to show with considerable certainty that there was far more interest in the elections for provincial and municipal officials than there was in the election for assemblymen. …

"The delegates to the Philippine assembly, in accordance with the call of the governor-general as prescribed by the act of Congress, met at the Grand Opera House in the city of Manila on the 16th day of October at 9 o’clock A. M."

_Report of the Philippine Commission, December 31, 1907 (Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, pages 810-811)._

The Honorable William H. Taft, United States Secretary of War, former Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, made the long journey to the Islands on this occasion for the purpose of opening the meeting of the Assembly and personally inspecting the state of affairs. After returning, in the following December, he made an extended report to the President, in which he discussed the character of the Assembly and of the parties represented in it at considerable length. Recurring to the formation of the first political party that arose in the Islands after they came under the control of the United States, he said of it:

"It is a mistake to suppose that the war by the Filipinos against the Americans had the sympathy of all the Filipinos. On the contrary, there were many intelligent and conservative men who favored American control and who did not believe in the capacity of their people immediately to organize a government which would be stable and satisfactory, but in the face of a possible independence of the Islands, they were still. Upon Mr. McKinley’s second election many of these persons reached the conclusion that it was time for them to act. Accordingly, they formed the Federal Party, the chief platform of which was peace under American sovereignty and the acceptance of the American promises to govern the Islands for the benefit of the Filipinos and gradually to extend popular self-government to the people. The Federal Party received accessions by thousands in all parts of the Islands and in every province, so that the Commission was enabled during the year 1901, and under the auspices, and with the aid of, the Federal Party, to organize civil government in some 32 or 33 provinces, or in substantially all of them. … The main purpose and principle of the party was peace under the sovereignty of the United States. In drafting a platform its leaders had formulated a plank favoring the organization of the Islands into a Territory of the United States, with a view to its possibly becoming a State. From this plank it took its name. In the first two or three years after its successful effort to bring on peace, many prominent Filipinos having political ambition became members, and in the gubernatorial elections the great majority of governors elected were Federals. And so substantially all who filled prominent offices in the government by appointment, including the judges, were of that party. Then dissension arose among prominent leaders and some withdrew from the party. The natural opposition to a government party led to the organization of other parties, especially among those known as Intransigentes [Irreconcilables]. The Federal Party had founded an organ, the Democracia, early in its existence. The opponents of the government looking to immediate independence founded a paper called the Renacimiento. The latter was edited with especial ability and with a partisan spirit against the American Government.

"For two years before the election of the Assembly the Filipinos who sympathized with the _Renacimiento_ were perfecting their organization to secure a majority in the assembly. Many groups were formed, but they all were known as the Partido Nacionalista. There was some difference as to whether to this title should be added the word ‘inmediatista,’ but the great majority favored it. The party is generally known as the Nacionalista Party. During much of these same two years, the Federal Party was dormant. …

"Some six months before the elections, there sprung from the ashes of the Federal Party a party which, rejecting the statehood idea, declared itself in favor of making the Philippines an independent nation by gradual and progressive acquisition of governmental control until the people should become fitted by education and practice under American sovereignty to enjoy and maintain their complete independence. It was called the Partido Nacionalista Progresista. It is generally known as the Progresista Party. …

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"The campaign in the last two or three months was carried on with great vigor. The Nacionalistas had the advantage of being understood to be against the government. This, with a people like the Filipino people, who had been taught to regard the government as an entity separate from the people, taxing them and prosecuting them, was in itself a strong reason for popular sympathy and support. The Progresistas were denounced as a party of office-holders. The government was denounced as extravagant and burdensome to the people. In many districts the Nacionalista candidates promised that if they were returned immediate independence would follow. There were quite a number of candidates in country and remote districts where the controversy was not heated who did not declare themselves on the main question, and maintained an independence of any party. They were known as Independientes. Then, there were other Independientes who declared themselves independent of party, but in favor of immediate independence.

"The total vote registered and cast did not exceed 104,000, although in previous gubernatorial elections the total vote had reached nearly 150,000. The high vote at the latter elections may be partly explained by the fact that at the same elections town officers were elected, and the personal interest of many candidates drew out a larger number of electors. But the falling off was also in part due, doubtless, to the timidity of conservative voters, who, because of the heat of the campaign, preferred to avoid taking sides. This is not a permanent condition, however, and I doubt not that the meeting of the assembly and the evident importance of its functions when actually performed will develop a much greater popular interest in it, and the total vote will be largely increased at the next election.

"I opened the assembly in your name. The roll of the members returned on the face of the record was called. An appropriate oath was administered to all the members and the assembly organized by selecting Señor Sergio Osmeña as its speaker or presiding officer. Señor Osmeña has been one of the most efficient fiscals, or prosecuting attorneys, in the Islands, having conducted the government prosecutions in the largest province of the Islands, the province and Island of Cebu. He was subsequently elected governor, and by his own activity in going into every part of the island, he succeeded in enlisting the assistance of all the people in suppressing ladronism, which had been rife in the mountains of Cebu for thirty or forty years, so that to-day there is absolute peace and tranquillity throughout the island. He is a young man, not 30, but of great ability, shrewdness, high ideals, and yet very practical in his methods of dealing with men and things. The assembly could have done nothing which indicated its good sense so strongly as the selection of Senor Osmeña as its presiding officer. …

"As a shibboleth—as a party cry—immediate independence has much force, because it excites the natural pride of the people; but few of their number have ever worked out its consequences, and when they have done so they have been willing to postpone that question until some of the immediate needs of the people have been met. I may be wrong, but my judgment is that the transfer of real power, by giving to the people part of the legislative control of the Christian provinces, sobers their leaders with the sense of responsibility and teaches them some of the practical difficulties of government I do not for a moment guarantee that there will not at times be radical action by the Assembly, which cannot meet the approval of those who understand the legislative needs of the Islands, but all I wish to say is that the organization and beginning of the life of the Assembly have disappointed its would-be critics and have given great encouragement to those who were responsible for its extension of political power."

_Special Report of William H. Taft, Secretary of War, to the President on the Philippines, January 23, 1908 (60th Cong. 1st Session, Senate Doc. No. 200)._

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909. Change in the Governor-General’s Office.

General James F. Smith was succeeded as Governor-General by the Vice-Governor-General, Mr. W. Cameron Forbes, in November, 1909.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909. Philippine Tariff Act.

A special Message, transmitting a Philippine Tariff Bill recommended by the Secretary of War, was sent to Congress, April 14, by President Taft. "This measure," wrote the President, "revises the present Philippine tariff, simplifies it and makes it conform as nearly as possible to the regulations of the customs laws of the United States, especially with respect to packing and packages. The present Philippine regulations have been cumbersome and difficult for American merchants and exporters to comply with. Its purpose is to meet the new conditions that will arise under the section of the pending United States tariff bill which provides, with certain limitations, for free trade between the United States and the islands. It is drawn with a view to preserving to the islands as much customs revenue as possible and to protect in a reasonable measure those industries which now exist in the islands.

"The bill now transmitted has been drawn by a board of tariff experts, of which the insular collector of customs, Colonel George R. Colton, was the president. The board held a great many open meetings in Manila, and conferred fully with representatives of all business interests in the Philippine Islands. It is of great importance to the welfare of the islands that the bill should be passed at the same time with the pending Payne bill, with special reference to the provisions of which it was prepared."

The Bill was passed, but certain tobacco interests secured an important amendment in their favor.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1909 (November). Success of the Nationalists in the Election.

"Practically complete returns from the recent election indicate that the Assembly will be composed of sixty Nationalists, fifteen Progressists, and five Independents. The Nationalists also gained four provincial Governors over the number elected by that party at the last election. Similar gains in other offices have been made by the Nationalists. Some of the returns are still missing, but they are not likely to make any material change in the figures given."

_Press Report from Manila, November 5, 1909._

----------PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: End--------

PICKETING: The Labor Strikers’ Right. Its limit.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1906 (MARCH).

PICQUART, GENERAL.

See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1906.

PIEROLA, NICOLAS.

See (in this Volume) PERU.

PINCHOT, GIFFORD: Chief of the United States Forest Service.

See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

PINCHOT, GIFFORD: On Threatened Water Power Trust.

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.

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PIOUS FUND QUESTION. Its Decision by the Hague Tribunal.

See (in this Volume) MEXICO: A. D. 1902 (MAY).

PITTSBURG: A. D. 1906-1908. Under a Reforming Mayor.

See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

PITTSBURG: A. D. 1907. Enlargement and Rededication of the Carnegie Institute.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1907.

PITTSBURG: A. D. 1907-1908. The Pittsburg Survey. A remarkable Investigation of Living Conditions.

See (in this Volume) SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES.

PIUS X., POPE.

See (in this Volume) PAPACY.

PLAGUE, Bubonic.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.

"PLAN OF CAMPAIGN," THE.

See (in this Volume) IRELAND: A. D. 1907.

PLATT AMENDMENT.

See (in this Volume) CUBA: A. D. 1901-1902.

PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT, THE.

The first convention of the Playground Association of America, held at Chicago in June, 1907, was a very notable gathering, in the character of the men and women assembled,—in the quality of the discussion they gave to the subject of child-development by wholesome play,—in the spirit imparted to it by the wonderful exhibit that Chicago could make of achievement in this new civic undertaking, and in the great impetus it gave to the playground movement throughout the country. The proceedings and incidents of the convention were reported very fully in the August number of Charities and Corrections that year.

"From one article, ‘How They Played at Chicago,’ by Mr. Graham Romeyn Taylor, we learn that in connection with the convention there was held a festival of sport and play, in which from first to last ‘the play spirit was ascendant.’ More than 5000 persons participated, and among them were President Gulick, of the national association, and Dr. Sargent, of Harvard. The play spirit, says he, captivated every one. ‘Play, according to students of it, means not only a good time, but from the child’s point of view it is serious business: moreover, it has vital significance in educational development.’ This meeting, he claims, marks the transition of playground activity from a more or less sporadic and disconnected series of efforts in our larger cities to a firmly established and well organized national movement. A better understanding of the playground issue means better citizenship and community-life.

"President Roosevelt, honorary president, had requested that delegations be sent to this convention from many cities, ‘to gain inspiration from this meeting, and to see the magnificent system that Chicago has erected in its South Park section,—one of the most notable civic achievements of any American city.’ They came, and returned to their home cities with photographs of the playgrounds and recreation centers in Chicago. On these the city of Chicago has expended during the last four years $6,500,000, and has recently appropriated $3,000,000 additional. Moreover, it has authorized $1,500,000 for similar facilities for children on the north and west sides as well. Each center costs about $30,000 annually. These centers recognize that human needs transcend all other things, and tend to develop a social spirit that one day must permeate our commingled races."

_American Review of Reviews, September, 1907._

"According to the new Year Book [for 1910] of the Playground Association of America, 336 municipalities in the United States are maintaining supervised playgrounds. The actual number of playgrounds operated in 267 of these cities last year was 1,535. About 56 per cent. are in the area of greatest density of population, in the North Atlantic States. The number of cities in those States maintaining playgrounds is 149, and the number of playgrounds established in 123 of them is 873. Massachusetts has led in the movement.

"In about 49 per cent. of the cities operating public playgrounds, the managing authority, wholly or in part, is the city itself, which is working through its board of education, its park department, or other municipal bureau—or by combining the activities of two or more departments. In fifteen cities the Mayors have appointed special commissions, organized, as city departments for the administration of playgrounds, which are no longer left to the philanthropist.

"In fifty-five of the larger cities, local playground associations have been established, and many of the smaller towns have organized committees that will be converted into permanent organizations. Churches, women’s clubs, Young Men’s Christian Associations, Associated Charities, and public-spirited men and women have contributed their help.

"An index of the interest in the movement is afforded by a survey of figures representing the yearly expenditures for sites, equipment, and the maintenance of playgrounds. In many cases specific information on this point is not available, but 184 cities have sent reports stating definitely what it costs them to operate their grounds. The total amount expended in the year by these 184 cities is $1,353,114. In 18 per cent, of the cities the amount of money set apart for playgrounds was appropriated entirely by the municipality, while in 23 per cent. the cities combined with private organizations."

_New York Evening Post, January 5, 1910._

In England, or in London, at least, the movement has been set on foot by an "Evening Play Centres Committee," of which Mrs. Humphry Ward is Chairman. The object of the Committee, as stated by Mrs. Ward, is "to open the school buildings in winter for play, exercise, and handwork, as an alternative to the streets, to children after school hours; and in summer to organize the playgrounds, as is now so largely done in America and Canada"; but thus far its success appears to have been mostly in the opening of indoor play centres for evening entertainment.

PLAZA, GENERAL LEONIDAS: President of Ecuador.

See (in this Volume) ECUADOR.

PLEHVE, M. V. de: Defence of Russian Measures in Finland.

See (in this Volume) FINLAND: A. D. 1901.

PLEHVE, M. V. de: Russian Minister of the Interior. His atrocious administration. His assassination.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.

PLURAL VOTING, BELGIAN.

See (in this Volume) BELGIUM: A. D. 1902 and 1904.

See in Volume VI., BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

See in Volume I., CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM.

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POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: On Russian Discontent.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1902.

POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: Resignation.

See (in this Volume) Russia: A. D. 1904-1905.

POBIEDONOSTZEFF, CONSTANTINE: Death, March 23, 1907.

POGROMS: Massacres.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1906.

POLAR EXPLORATION: Arctic: A. D. 1901-1910. Three Expeditions of Commander Peary. His Final Triumph. The astounding Imposture of Dr. Cook, Pretender to an attainment of the Pole a Year in Advance of Peary. Other Arctic Explorations of the Decade.

When the record of Polar Exploration was closed in Volume VI. of this work, on its going to press in the spring of 1901, Commander Robert E. Peary had been working within the Arctic Circle for three years, with no respite, and the Peary Arctic Club was sending a vessel, the _Erik_, to make inquiries about him. He was found to have proved that Greenland is surrounded by water at the north, and to have further undertakings in hand. He remained another year, in the course of which he made the nearest approach to the Pole that had yet been accomplished, going directly north from Cape Hecla and reaching latitude 84° 17'. Returning to the coast, he was met and brought home, after an absence of four years. In July, 1905, he sailed northward again, equipped with a vessel, the _Roosevelt_, built expressly for his use. After wintering on the north coast of Grant Land, he started once more with sledges and dogs toward the Pole, and this time pressed his way to 87° 6' of latitude, or within a little more than 200 miles of the Arctic hub. Then he was forced to turn back, with scant supplies, killing his dogs for food. Once more, in July, 1908, Commander Peary set his face Arcticward, on the staunch _Roosevelt_, with two scientific companions, and equipped himself at Etah with Eskimos and dogs for another journey across the ice-fields, from some point on the Grant Land coast.

Two expeditions were fitted out in 1901 and 1903, by Mr. Ziegler, of New York, the former under Evelyn B. Baldwin, the latter under Anthony Fiala. The latter reached latitude 82° 13', remaining in the Arctic regions until the summer of 1905. In June, 1903, Captain Roald Amundsen, of Norway, sailed from Christiania in the small sloop Gjoa, beginning a voyage which carried him entirely through the Northwest Passage from Baffin Bay to Bering Strait and which occupied three years. Much of that time, however, was devoted to studies and searches of great value in determining the location of the Magnetic Pole. In 1905 the ranks of the Arctic explorers were joined by the Duke of Orleans, who sailed from Christiania in May, in the Belgica, commanded by Lieutenant de Gerlache. In 1907, Mr. John R. Bradley, of New York, supplied Dr. Frederick A. Cook with equipments for an attempt to reach the North Pole, and accompanied him in a schooner yacht to Annatok, a little north of Etah, in North Greenland, where the Doctor, with one white man, Rudolph Francke, were landed, with their supplies, to begin the undertaking. Several attempts were made in successive years by Mr. Walter Wellman to make the journey to the Pole from Spitzbergen by a dirigible airship. Each of them, down to 1909, was frustrated by misfortunes of circumstance or weather. A tragically ended survey of the northeast coast of Greenland was accomplished in 1906-1907 by Dr. Mylius Erichsen and Lieutenant Hagen-Hagen, who perished while groping their way southward in the growing darkness of the approaching winter. These fill out the important items of the record of Arctic exploration, since April, 1901, down to the 1st of September, 1909.

On that day the whole world was startled and excited by a message, flashed first to Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, from a passing Danish steamer, the Hans Egede, and thence to all corners of the earth, saying:

"We have on board the American traveller, Dr. Cook, who reached the North Pole April 21, 1908. Dr. Cook arrived at Upernivik (the northernmost Danish settlement in Greenland, on an island off the west coast) in May of 1909 from Cape York (in the northwest part of Greenland, on Baffin Bay). The Eskimos of Cape York confirm Dr. Cook’s story of his journey."

The next day brought a cabled announcement from Dr. Cook himself, to the New York _Herald_, briefly telling of his triumph, "after a prolonged fight against famine and frost," and describing the emotions with which he had found himself at the goal which so many had striven vainly to attain. "What a cheerless spot," he moralized, "to have aroused the ambition of man for so many ages! An endless field of purple snows. No life. No land. No spot to relieve the monotony of frost. We were the only pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice."

Two days later the hero was landed at Copenhagen, and all the excited world devoured graphic descriptions of his reception by the enthusiastic Danes: by the Crown Prince, who hastened to welcome him before he had stepped from the ship; by the crowds who cheered him; by the King, who dined him; by the University of Copenhagen which awarded him an honorary degree, and whose faculty he made happy and proud by the promise that it should be the first to examine the record of his observations and the proofs in general that he had reached the Pole.

Two more days passed, and then the climax of this world-spread excitement and astonishment was marked by another radio-electric flash of news out of the Arctic North,—this time from the American North,—proclaiming another conquest of the icy fortress of the Pole. It spoke "to the Associated Press, New York," from "Indian Harbor, via Cape Ray, Nova Scotia," saying: "Stars and Stripes nailed to North Pole. Peary." It reached New York a little after noon of September 6th, and before night, everywhere, people in all languages were asking each other: "Is it possible that two men have suddenly done what none have been able to do before?"

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Other messages from Commander Peary which soon followed the first one fixed the date of his attainment of the Pole as having been April 6, 1909,—being fifteen days less than a year after Dr. Cook claimed to have planted the American flag at the same spot. They brought angry denunciations, too, of Cook’s pretension, which Peary had learned of from the Esquimaux in the North. "Cook’s story," he said in one despatch, "should not be taken too seriously. The two Esquimaux who accompanied him say he went no distance north and not outside of land. Other members of the tribe confirm their story." In another he declared: "Cook has sold the public a gold brick." Dr. Cook, meantime, gave out expressions as to Peary’s achievement very different in temper and tone. He had no doubt that Commander Peary had reached the Pole; but he, Cook, had been fortunately the first to enjoy the favorable conditions which gave success to them both. His magnanimity, his coolness, his easy self-confidence, in contrast with Peary’s words and bearing, won public admiration and sympathy, and the majority in most communities inclined strongly, for a time, to the judgment that both explorers had done what they said they did, but that Cook, in character, was the more estimable man. When he arrived in New York, on the 21st of September, that city gave him almost as wild a hero worship as Copenhagen had done. Commander Peary was then just landing at Sydney, Nova Scotia, and it was some weeks before he would proceed to New York, or put himself at all in the way of receiving any public demonstrations of honor.

But grounds of skepticism as to Dr. Cook were acquiring a rapid multiplication. When he published his story in detail, or told it in lectures, it started questions which people having critical knowledge insisted that he must answer if he could; but he made no attempt. He was in no haste to produce the records which he had insisted would prove his claims beyond a doubt. He required weeks of time to prepare them for examination, and they must go to the University of Copenhagen before any other tribunal of science could see them. Meanwhile, he was harvesting large gains from lectures and newspaper publications, and seemed more interested in that pursuit than in the vindication of his questioned honor. Hence, suspicion of him grew, until it made itself heard and felt at last with a force which drove the Doctor to put his professed proofs in shape and send them by the hand of his secretary, Mr. Lonsdale, to Copenhagen. Before they reached their destination he, himself, disappeared mysteriously from public view, nervously shattered, it was said, and seeking some hidden place of refuge abroad. Reports of him from various places in both Europe and South America have not been verified, and his whereabouts are still (March, 1910) a mystery.

On the 21st of December the report of the scientific committee of Copenhagen University, to which the records forwarded by Dr. Cook were submitted, was made public by the University Council. "The report, which was sent in by the committee on December 18, states that the following papers were submitted to it for investigation:—

"1. A type-written report by Mr. Lonsdale on Dr. Cook’s Arctic voyage, consisting of 61 folios.

"2. A type written copy of 16 folios, made by Mr. Lonsdale, comprising the note-books brought back by Dr. Cook from his journey and covering the period from March 18 to June 13, 1908, stated to have been written on the way from Svartevaag to the Pole and back until a place west of Heibergsland was reached. …

"The committee points out as a result of its investigations that the aforementioned report of the journey is essentially identical with that published some time ago in the _New York Herald_, and that the copy of the note-books did not contain astronomical records, but only results. In fact, the committee remarks that there are no elucidatory statements which might have rendered it probable that astronomical observations were really taken. Neither is the practical side —namely, the sledge journey—illuminated by details in such a way as to enable the committee to form an opinion. The committee therefore considers that from the material submitted no proof can be adduced that Dr. Cook reached the North Pole.

"The council of the University accordingly declares as a result of the committee’s report that the documents submitted to Copenhagen University contain no observations or explanations to prove that Dr. Cook on his last Polar journey reached the North Pole."

That Commander Peary had accomplished at last the object of his indomitable striving was never in doubt. His own testimony to the fact had sufficed from the beginning, and the decision rendered on the 3d of November by a committee of the National Geographic Society, which examined the records of his march to the Pole, added nothing to the public belief. But his laurels had been lamentably blighted by the atmosphere of scandal, wrangle, and disgust with which Cook’s monstrous imposture had vulgarized the whole feeling that attended the exploit.

The incidents of the final Peary expedition, from start to finish, were summarized by the Commander in a message from Battle Harbor to the London _Times_, September 8, as follows:

"The _Roosevelt_ left New York on July 6, 1908. She left Sydney on July 17th; arrived at Cape York, Greenland, on August 1st; left Etah, Greenland, on August 8th; arrived at Cape Sheridan, Grant Land, on September 1st, and wintered at Cape Sheridan. The sledge expedition left the _Roosevelt_ on February 15th, 1909, and started north of Cape Columbia on March 1st. It passed the British record on March 2d; was delayed by open water on March 2d and 3d; was held up by open water from March 4th to March 11th; crossed the 84th parallel on March 11th and encountered an open lead on March 15th; crossed the 85th parallel on March 18th; crossed the 86th parallel on March 22d and encountered an open lead on March 33d [23d?]; passed the Norwegian record on March 23d; passed the Italian record on March 24th and encountered an open lead on March 26th; crossed the 87th parallel on March 27th; passed the American record on March 28th and encountered a lead on March 28th; held up by open water on March 29th; crossed the 88th parallel on April 2d; crossed the 89th parallel on April 4th, and reached the North Pole on April 6th.

"On returning we left the pole on April 7th; reached Camp Columbia on April 23d, arriving on board the _Roosevelt_ on April 27th. The _Roosevelt_ left Cape Sheridan on July 18th, passed Cape Sabine on August 8th, left Cape York on August 26th and arrived at Indian Harbor.

"All the members of the expedition are returning in good health except Professor Ross G. Martin, who unfortunately drowned on April 10th, 45 miles north of Cape Columbia, while returning from 86 degrees north latitude in command of a supporting party."

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POLAR EXPLORATION: Antarctic: English, German, Swedish, and Scottish Expeditions. The Successes of Lieutenant Shackleton.

When the account of Polar Exploration in Volume VI. of this work was closed, in April, 1901, several expeditions to the Antarctic region were reported as being under preparation, in England, Germany, and Sweden. The English expedition, for which the ship _Discovery_ was being fitted out, sailed on the 6th of August, 1901, under the command of Captain Robert F. Scott, with Lieutenant Ernest H. Shackleton of the British Navy as second in command. Its object was a further exploration of the great mountainous region named Victoria Land, which Captain James Ross had discovered half a century before. This coast the _Discovery_ reached in January, 1902, and followed it southward, to and beyond the Erebus volcano, skirting the Great Ice Barrier which stretches far eastward, seeming to forbid a penetration of the frozen territory it hems in. In this survey the British explorers reached an unvisited section, which they named King Edward Land. They wintered that year near Mount Erebus, pushing sledge expeditions southward over the snow fields, finding a more upheaved and broken surface of land, less ice-capped, than is the common feature of the Arctic polar zone. In the longest of these sledge-trips the latitude of 82° 17' S. was attained,—far beyond any previous approach to the southern pole, but still more than 500 miles from that goal. Through a second winter the _Discovery_ was held fast in the ice, with considerable sickness among officers and men, notwithstanding which important additions to their survey of the region were made. In January, 1904, they were reached by two relief ships, and escaped from the ice in the following month, arriving at New Zealand not long after.

The German expedition commanded by Dr. Drygalski, left Kiel August 11, 1901, borne by the steamer _Gauss_, built specially for battling with ice. In January, 1902, it took on stores at Kerguelen Island, and proceeded thence to a point in the Antarctic Circle far eastward of that chosen by the British explorers, being within the region of the discoveries made by Captain Wilkes, about sixty years before, and indefinitely named Wilkes Land. It was the purpose of Dr. Drygalski to establish a station on the section of this unexplored territory known as Termination Land and from thence make thorough surveys. He failed, however, to find the supposed land in its expected place, and was unfortunately frozen in for a year, with sledge expeditions baffled by the violence of winter storms. In geographical exploration the _Gauss_ party seem to have accomplished little, but they made rich collections of scientific data. As soon as they were freed from the ice they received orders from Berlin to return home.

The Swedish expedition, under Dr. Otto Nordenskjöld, left Europe in October, 1901, in the ship _Antarctic_, destined for Graham Land, south of the South American continent. There, on the east coast of that land, in Admiralty Inlet, Dr. Nordenskjöld established winter quarters in February, 1902, and the _Antarctic_ was sent to South America, to return thence some months later.

A Scottish expedition, under Dr. W. S. Bruce, in the steamer _Scotia_, was sent out in October, 1903, for special oceanographic investigations in Weddell Sea,—south of the Atlantic Ocean.

All previous Antarctic explorations were eclipsed, in 1908-1909, by that of Lieutenant Shackleton, commanding the barkentine Nimrod, a converted whaling vessel, much smaller than the _Discovery_, on which Lieutenant Shackleton had accompanied Captain Scott to the same region some years before. The Nimrod sailed from England in July, 1907, and from New Zealand on New Year Day, 1908, going to the same section of the Arctic Circle that the _Discovery_ had sought. Winter quarters were established at a point about twenty miles north of the spot where Scott and Shackleton had wintered in 1902-1903. One of the first achievements of the party was the ascent of Mount Erebus by six of the scientists of the expedition, who began their difficult climb on the 5th of March. Caught in a blizzard on the second day of their undertaking, they had to lie in their sleeping bags for thirty hours; but they made their way to the summit and looked down into the live fire of the crater. The party making this ascent were Lieutenant Adams, R. N. R. (geologist). Sir Philip Brocklehurst (surveyor and map maker), Professor David, of Sydney University, Mr. A. Forbes Mackay, assistant surgeon, Mr. Eric Marshall, surgeon and cartographer, and Mr. Marson a scientist of Adelaide. Early in the spring the sledging journeys were begun.

Speaking at a reception given to him by the Royal Geographical Society, on his return to England in June, 1909, Lieutenant Shackleton gave a brief account of the most important of these journeys, led by himself, with Lieutenant Adams, geologist, Surgeon Eric Marshall, and a third companion named Wild. The march of the party was directly toward the Pole:

"On December 3 they climbed a mountain 4,000 feet high, and from its summit saw what they believed to be a royal road to the Pole—an enormous glacier stretching southwards. There was only one pony left at this time, and, taking this animal with them, they started the ascent of the glacier, which proved to be seamed with crevasses. Progress became very slow, for disaster threatened at every step. On December 7 the remaining pony was lost down a crevasse, very nearly taking Wild and a sledge with it. Finally the party gained the inland plateau, at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, and started across the great white snow plain towards the Pole.

"They were short of food, and had cut down their rations to an absolute _minimum_; the temperature at the high altitude was extremely low, and all their spare clothing had been deposited lower down the glacier in order to save weight. On January 6, [1909], they reached latitude 88' 8" south [88° 8'?], after having taken the risk of leaving a depot of stores on the plateau, out of sight of all land. Then a blizzard swept down upon them, and for two days they were unable to leave their tent, while, owing to their weakened condition and the intense cold, they suffered from frostbite even in their sleeping bags. When the blizzard moderated on January 9 they felt that they had reached their limit of endurance, for their strength was greatly reduced and the food was almost done. They therefore left the camp standing, and pushing on for five hours, planted Queen Alexandra’s flag in 88' 23" south [88° 23'?], took possession of the plateau for the King, and turned their faces north again.

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"Mr. Shackleton described the difficulties of the journey back to the coast, when the men were desperately short of food and nearly worn out, and attacks of dysentery added to their troubles. … One day on the Barrier they were unable to march at all, being prostrated with dysentery, and they reached each depot with their food finished. On February 23, however, they reached a depot prepared for them by a party from the ship, and on March 1 Mr. Shackleton and Wild reached the _Nimrod_. Mr. Shackleton at once led a relief party back to get Adams and Marshall, the latter having been unable to continue the march owing to dysentery, and on March 4 all the men were safe on board."

"Lieutenant Shackleton has essentially solved the problem of the position of the South Pole," said the London _Times_ in comments on the expedition; "he may be said, indeed, to have been actually within sight of it on a dreary plateau some 10,000 ft. above sea level. He has been as successful in solving the problem of the South Pole as Nansen was in solving that of the character of the ocean which surrounds the North Pole."

An expedition to complete what Lieutenant Shackleton came so near to accomplishing is being prepared in Great Britain, with intention to sail in July, 1910. It will be commanded by Captain Scott, of the expedition of 1901. The British Government contributes $100,000 to the cost. American and German expeditions are also being prepared.

POLES, THE: Germany: A. D. 1902-1908. Measures for Germanizing the Polish Provinces of Prussia.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1902 (MARCH-MAY), 1906-1907, and 1908.

POLES, THE: Russia: A. D. 1904-1905. Revolutionary Disturbances in.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.

POLES, THE: A. D. 1906. Their Present Condition.

"The Polish question … resolves itself into a struggle between the local Russian Government, the Patriot, and the Socialists. The local Government though harassed and worried by the Socialists, is secure from any great disaster until the latter have won over all the troops, or the Russian soldier forgets his hatred for the Pole. The Socialists, well organised and energetic, are carrying out their programme with a tenacity which would be astonishing were it not for the fact that the Jewish element predominates in their ranks.

"The Polish Patriot seems to be in the worst case of all; for his hopes are centred on the programme of a party which is without efficient leaders and without the slightest chance of obtaining its demands from the existing Russian Government. The one ray of light on his political horizon is the fact that liberal Russia has expressed sympathy for his wrongs, and promised to redress them as soon as circumstances will allow, but even the most sanguine Patriot admits that his new ally has many battles to win before this promise can be fulfilled. Meanwhile, he is engaged in an unequal struggle with the Socialists and their allies, the anarchists."

_B. C. Baskerville, The Present Condition of Poland (Fortnightly Review, October, 1906)._

POLK, Van Leer: Delegate to Third International Conference of American Republics.

See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

POLLARD PLAN, OF JUDICIAL DEALING WITH DRUNKARDS.

See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.

POLTAVA PROVINCE, Peasant Doings in.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904, and 1902.

POOLING, OF RAILWAY RATES.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1890-1902.

POOR LAWS, WORKING OF THE ENGLISH.

See (in this Volume) POVERTY.

POPES.

See (in this Volume and Volume IV.) PAPACY.

PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1904-1905. Siege and Capture in the Russo-Japanese War.

See(in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (February-July) and (February-August); also A. D. 1904-1905 (May-January).

PORTER, HORACE: Commissioner Plenipotentiary to the Second Peace Conference.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.

PORTER, HORACE: Search for and Recovery, at Paris, of the Remains of John Paul Jones.

See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).

PORTLAND, OREGON: A. D. 1905. The Lewis and Clark Exposition.

"The Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair" (to give its full of fecial title), conducted at Portland from the beginning of June until the middle of October, 1905, in commemoration of the first exploration of the American Continent from the Mississippi to the Pacific, was one of the most interesting and attractive of the undertakings of its kind in the last decade. Specially as an exhibit of the wonderful natural resources of the great Northwest, and of the more wonderful rapidity of their exploitation, it seemed wholly satisfying to all who visited it. The reclamation work of the United States Government, shown elaborately by models and otherwise in the Irrigation Building of the extensive national exhibit, afforded a feature of uncommon attractiveness. The associated Forestry Building, with its walls of mighty logs and its grand pillars of firs and cedars, six and seven feet in diameter, was a piece of unique architecture that drew all eyes. "The Oregon Cathedral," it came to be called. In metals, minerals, fruits and grains, the wealth of the Northwest was astonishingly displayed; and the Japanese from the farther side of the Pacific made the most of the opportunity to spread their artistic wares before American buyers.

The scenic setting of the Exposition grounds, on the border of a lake and with a background of hill rising from Willamette River, was a theme of praise in all reports of it.

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PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901-1905. Change of Qualifications for the Elective Franchise.

The fundamental provisions of the Act of Congress, approved April 12, 1900, under which the government of Porto Rico as a dependency of the United States was organized, will be found in Volume VI of this work.

See PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).

The Act has received amendment since, making one important organic change. The Executive Council which it created was authorized to fix the qualifications of voters for the first election of a Legislative Assembly. The suffrage in that election, held in 1900, was conferred by the Council on every male citizen of twenty-one years, resident in the island for one year and for six months in his municipal district, "who is able to read and write, or who, on September 1, 1900, owned real estate in his own right and name, or who on said date was a member of a firm or corporation or partnership, or who on September 1, 1900, owned personal property in his own right or name not less in value than twenty-five dollars." The results of the election held under that rule, and a brief summary of the doings of the Legislative Assembly at its first session, which opened on the 3d of December, 1900, and closed on the 31st of January, 1901, are given in Volume VI.

"At its second session, in 1902, the Legislative Assembly availed itself of the power given to it by the organic act and passed a law for the government of future elections. This act followed closely the provisions of the orders that had been issued by the executive council. The system created is similar to that in the American States which have adopted the Australian ballot. As regards the franchise, the only change made was that the provision which gave the right to vote to persons owning personal property to the value of twenty-five dollars was dropped and in its place was substituted the provision conferring the franchise upon those persons meeting the conditions as regards age and residence who on the day of registration are able to produce to the board of registry tax receipts showing the payment of any kind of taxes for the last six months of the year in which the election is held. The law also provided that all persons who were registered during the year 1900 would not be required to register anew or have to meet the new requirements of the law. This was the law under which the second election in 1902 was held. In 1904 the law underwent a very important alteration as regards the qualifications for the enjoyment of the electoral franchise. By this new law the three conditions—ability to read and write, ownership of real estate, or payment of taxes—any one of which qualified a male citizen of Porto Rico who had resided in the island one year and in the district in which he offered to register for six months immediately preceding, to vote, were until July 1, 1906, wiped out, leaving only the conditions regarding sex, age and residence to be met in order to qualify a voter. After that date the additional qualification of being able to read and write must be met. The result of this amendment to the law is to provide for universal manhood suffrage until July 1, 1906, after which no new name can be added to the registration list unless its owner is able to read and write. Those persons, however, who are properly registered before that date are not required to offer themselves for registration, but continue to enjoy the full rights of the franchise."

_W. F. Willoughby, Territories and Dependencies of the United States. page 95 (Century Company, New York, 1905)._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1905. Extension of Local Government asked for.

A convention of municipal delegates, chosen by the elective municipal councils of the island, assembled at San Juan in July, 1905, formulated a request to the Government of the United States for a broadening of the fundamental law of 1900, which "would largely transfer the control of the local government to their own people. The Governor would remain a Presidential appointee, but the appointments by the Governor would be subject in many cases to revision by a locally elected Senate, except the courts, which would remain as now, for the most part, under our direct control. In other words, the legislative, and largely the administrative functions, subject to the limitations of the Organic Act, would be exercised by the Porto Ricans. The courts, of our own choosing, would construe limitations on these powers, and the Governor, with his police and militia, would be solely responsible for order and the lawful execution of lawful mandates."

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1906. Visited by President Roosevelt. His account of it.

"On November twenty-first I visited the island of Porto Rico, landing at Ponce, crossing by the old Spanish road by Cayey to San Juan, and returning next morning over the new American road from Arecibo to Ponce; the scenery was wonderfully beautiful, especially among the mountains of the interior, which constitute a veritable tropic Switzerland. I could not embark at San Juan because the harbor has not been dredged out and cannot receive an American battle ship. I do not think this fact creditable to us as a nation, and I earnestly hope that immediate provision will be made for dredging San Juan Harbor.

"I doubt whether our people as a whole realize the beauty and fertility of Porto Rico and the progress that has been made under its admirable government. …

"I stopped at a dozen towns all told, and one of the notable features in every town was the gathering of the school children. The work that has been done in Porto Rico for education has been noteworthy. The main emphasis, as is eminently wise and proper, has been put upon primary education; but in addition to this there is a normal school, an agricultural school, three industrial and three high schools. Every effort is being made to secure not only the benefits of elementary education to all the Porto Ricans of the next generation, but also as far as means will permit to train them so that the industrial, agricultural and commercial opportunities of the island can be utilized to the best possible advantage. It was evident, at a glance, that the teachers, both Americans and native Porto Ricans, were devoted to their work, took the greatest pride in it, and were endeavoring to train their pupils not only in mind, but in what counts for far more than mind in citizenship—that is, in character.

"I was very much struck by the excellent character both of the insular police and of the Porto Rican regiment. They are both of them bodies that reflect credit upon the American administration of the island. The insular police are under the local Porto Rican government. The Porto Rican regiment of troops must be appropriated for by the Congress. I earnestly hope that this body will be kept permanent. There should certainly be troops in the island, and it is wise that these troops should be themselves native Porto Ricans. It would be from every standpoint a mistake not to perpetuate this regiment. …

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"There is a matter to which I wish to call your special attention, and that is the desirability of conferring full American citizenship upon the people of Porto Rico. I most earnestly hope that this will be done. I cannot see how any harm can possibly result from it, and it seems to me a matter of right and justice to the people of Porto Rico. They are loyal, they are glad to be under our flag, they are making rapid progress along the path of orderly liberty. Surely we should now show our appreciation of them, our pride in what they have done, and our pleasure in extending recognition for what has thus been done by granting them full American citizenship. …

"The Porto Ricans have complete and absolute autonomy in all their municipal governments, the only power over them possessed by the insular government being that of removing corrupt or incompetent municipal officials. This power has never been exercised save on the clearest proof of corruption or of incompetence such as to jeopardize the interests of the people of the island; and under such circumstances it has been fearlessly used to the immense benefit of the people. It is not a power with which it would be safe, for the sake of the island itself, to dispense at present. The lower house is absolutely elective, while the upper house is appointive. This scheme is working well; no injustice of any kind results from it, and great benefit to the island, and it should certainly not be changed at this time. The machinery of the elections is administered entirely by the Porto Rican people themselves, the governor and council keeping only such supervision as is necessary in order to secure an orderly election. Any protest as to electoral frauds is settled in the courts."

_Theodore Roosevelt, Message to Congress (Congressional Record, December 11, 1906)._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1908. Ten Years of Progress.

"Ten years ago exports from Porto Rico to the United States were valued at $2,414,356, while in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, they were $25,891,261. The new figures show a probable further increase for 1909. In 1898, less than $3,000,000 worth of sugar was exported, and to-day shipments are more than $14,000,000. In coffee, once the leading staple, increase is also marked, although sugar now holds first place.

"Four hundred and thirty-five miles of macadamized roads, in good repair, now make communication easy between San Juan and Ponce and cities on the west coast. Two-thirds of the roads have been built since the occupation. The railroad around the island, projected by the Spanish, but delayed year by year, is now built, and harbor improvements have been made in San Juan and Ponce. More than a thousand public schools are educating the Porto Rican children—and sometimes their parents. The net public debt is now less than $3,000,000 or less than 21 per cent. of the assessed valuation, and the bulk of this money has been spent in public improvements."

_Porto Rico Correspondent New York Evening Post, March 27, 1909._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1909. Modification of the Fundamental Act.

In a special Message to Congress, May 10, 1909, President Taft called attention to the failure of the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico to pass the usual appropriation bills, leaving the government of the island without support after the 30th of the next June. In his opinion, the situation indicated that the United States had proceeded too fast in extending political power to the Porto Ricans, and that the full control of appropriations should be withdrawn from those "who have shown themselves too irresponsible to enjoy it." He suggested, therefore, an amendment of the fundamental act, known as the Foraker Act, to provide that when the legislative assembly shall adjourn without making the appropriation necessary to carry on the government, sums equal to the appropriations made in the previous year for the respective purposes shall be available from the current revenues, and shall be drawn by the warrant of the auditor on the treasurer and countersigned by the Governor. Such a provision applies to the Legislatures of the Philippines and Hawaii and "it has prevented in those two countries any misuse of the power of appropriation." An amendatory Act was passed in accordance with the President’s suggestion.

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1909. Change in the Governorship.

In September, 1909, Governor Regis H. Post resigned his office, and was succeeded by Mr. George R. Colton, who had had previous experience, both civil and military, in the Philippines and in Santo Domingo. The Secretary of the island underwent a change, also, Mr. Willoughby being called to Washington to take the duties of Assistant Director of the Census, and his place in Porto Rico being filled by Mr. George Cabot Ward.

PORTSMOUTH, Peace Treaty of: Circumstances and Text.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1905 (JUNE-OCTOBER).

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906. At the Algeciras Conference on the Morocco question.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909. A "rotative" system of Party Government and its results. King Carlos assumes dictatorial authority. His Minister, Senhor Franco. Murder of the King and Crown Prince. Succession of King Manuel. Recent Ministries.

For many years prior to 1906 Portugal had been governed by two political parties, calling themselves the Regeneradors and the Progressistas, who, it has been said, "relieved one another in office, and in the spoils of office, at decent intervals, by a tacit arrangement between their leaders." This regular ministerial rotation led to the popular nickname of Rotativos, applied to both parties, and significant of the contempt in which they were held. The rotative system of party government, "while ensuring a comfortable livelihood to a class of professional politicians, was of no conspicuous benefit to the country, and it was with a view to ending it that King Carlos summoned Senhor João Franco, in May, 1906, to form a ministry. Senhor Franco, who belonged to neither of the recognized parties, set his hand zealously to the work of reform, but his attempts to purge the Administration soon brought him into conflict with powerful vested interests; and in May, 1907, the politicians whose livelihoods he was reforming away united against him in a policy of obstruction which made Parliamentary government impossible. {506} He then dissolved the Cortes, and with the approval of the King assumed the position of dictator. His work of reform thenceforth proceeded apace. Drastic decrees, each aimed at some abuse, followed one another with amazing rapidity. Strong in the support of the King and of the best elements in the country, execrated by the politicians whom he had spoiled, and by the Press which he had done nothing to conciliate, he continued on his headlong course, and at the end of January, 1908, he signed a decree practically amounting to a suspension of civil liberties."

_Lisbon Correspondence, London Times._

A tragedy followed quickly. On the 1st day of February, 1908, the King, Dom Carlos, and the Crown Prince, Luiz Felipe, as they rode through the streets of Lisbon, with the Queen and a younger son in the same carriage, and attended by an escort, were attacked by a throng of assassins and killed. The younger prince was wounded; the Queen escaped by a miracle, one of the assassins having been shot at the instant his pistol was aimed at her. The two princes fought bravely, and the Queen threw herself in front of her husband, attempting vainly to shield him.

Prince Manuel, whose wound was not serious, succeeded to the throne; but "the shots that killed Dom Carlos and Dom Luiz on February 1 swept away the dictatorship of Senhor Franco and the whole fabric which he had built up at so much cost during 18 months. Within a few hours of the murder Senhor Franco resigned, under pressure, it is said, and left the country, declaring that he had done with politics for ever. From being the saviour of his country, the admiration of all enlightened men, both at home and abroad, he became a pariah. His supporters became mute and his system vanished. From that day to this his followers have had no more than three or four seats in the Chamber, where they have remained voiceless and without influence on the course of events.

"That a seemingly vulgar crime should have so disproportionate an effect was strange, and no less strange was the attitude of the country. Whether owing to the widely entertained suspicion that the murderers of the King were the tools of more important personages whom it would not be safe to discover, or to the fear of a Republican rising felt by the moderate and respectable members of the community, is still a matter of opinion; the fact remains that society lost its nerve. No burst of indignation, no adequate expression of sympathy for the Royal Family was heard; no steps were taken to trace the authors of the crime. … The disappearance of Senhor Franco left the two old ‘rotativist’ parties in presence, the Progressistas under Senhor Luciano de Castro, and the Regeneradores under Senhor Vilhena, the recently elected successor of the veteran Hintze Ribeiro. Compared to these, neither the Republicans, whose strength was supposed to be considerable in the country, nor the ‘dissident’ Progressistas, under Senhor Alpoim, were of any account as Parliamentary factors. A coalition Government was formed on March 4, under Admiral Ferreira do Amaral, consisting of two Regeneradores, two Progressistas, and two so-called Independents, personal adherents of the Premier, who resembled him in having no marked political ideals or convictions. The elections, which took place in April, returned 62 Regeneradores and 59 Progressistas, thus starting the Government on its career with the handsome following of 121 in a House of 155. The matters with which the Government had to deal were mainly three—namely, the revision of the decrees issued by Senhor Franco as Dictator, the question of the Civil List and of the advances made by the nation to the Royal Family, and electoral reform. The Civil List was successfully settled, but little progress had been made with the remainder of the programme when the first serious defection occurred. During the recess the Government announced that the municipal elections, which had been suspended by Senhor Franco in favour of nominated councils, would be held again in November, a decision bitterly attacked by Senhor Vilhena, who announced that the Regeneradores could no longer support the Government. The elections were duly held, and, owing to the deliberate abstention of the Monarchist parties, the Republicans captured unopposed every seat on the Lisbon council. The unpopularity incurred by the Government on account of this unnecessary gift to the common enemy brought about a Government crisis. Admiral Amaral referred the matter to the Council of State, who, to his great surprise and annoyance, advised the resignation of the Government. The Premier and his two independents accordingly retired, and the Cabinet was reconstituted under Senhor Campos Henriques, who together with Senhor Wenceslao de Lima, Minister of Foreign Affairs, continued to represent the Regenerador party. The late Premier’s ‘Independents’ made way for the Progressistas, who thus held five seats in the Cabinet to two held by the Regeneradores. Senhor Vilhena, who had brought about the fall of the late Government, was not offered a seat in the new one, and he immediately resumed his opposition; but on this occasion he only carried two-thirds of his party with him, 22 members deciding to support the Government. This defection of the Regeneradores under Senhor Vilhena, the first serious indication of a return to the old system of ‘rotativism,’ was shortly followed by that of the late Premier and his ‘Independents,’ so that when the Cortes met on March 1, [1909], the imposing Government majority of a year before had dwindled to 10 or 15."

Then followed daily scenes of disorder and obstruction in Parliament until Senhor Campos Henriques surrendered, at the end of March. As _The Times_ correspondent expressed it, "as soon as the Opposition in the Lower House expressed its impatience by a banging of desks, while its leader in the House of Peers solemnly affirmed the ‘incompatibility’ of his party with the Government, Ministers determined to avoid all further unpleasantness by resigning." The resignation was accepted by the King, and three party leaders in succession made attempts in the next month to conduct the Government, without success. Senhor Sebastiäo Telles held the reins for three weeks, and then passed them to Senhor Wenceslao de Lima, who framed up a nominally non-party Ministry on the 13th of May. Senhor De Lima conducted the Government until the following December, when, on the 19th, he resigned, and a "Progressist Ministry" was formed, under Senhor Beirao.

_London Times Correspondence of various Dates._

{507}

Writing from Lisbon on the 5th of January, 1910, the _Times_ correspondent said:

"It is the Republicans who alone seem to be making progress. Their activities are unceasing, their newspapers the best informed and most ably conducted, their meetings, held all over the land, the most largely attended and most enthusiastic. At the same hour as that of the Royal reception on New Year’s Day the Republican municipality of Lisbon held a like function, not only largely and most influentially attended, but to the distinct diminution of the attendance in the Royal Palace."

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909. Demonstration against the Religious Orders.

The following despatch to the Press was sent from Lisbon August 3, 1909:

"Freethinkers from all political parties in Portugal, represented by a Liberal committee, to-day presented to the Cortes a petition for the suppression of the religious orders in Portugal and the abrogation of the existing laws against freedom of conscience. This step was an outcome of the meeting held in this city yesterday.

"The committee was accompanied to the Houses of Parliament by an immense crowd, and some wild scenes ensued. Among other things the petitioners asked for the abrogation of the recent law permitting religious associations to acquire landed property, a procedure which up to the present time has been illegal. Senhor Camacho moved the consideration of the subject, and when the motion was voted down the galleries broke out in protestation. There was considerable violence on the floor of the House. The Deputies engaged in a struggle in which desks and chairs were overturned, and the Chamber had to be cleared twice. The tumult was continued in the streets, but without serious results."

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909. Offer of Dom Miguel to renounce his Claim to the Throne.

Dom Miguel, son of the Dom Miguel who, from 1828 to 1833 held the throne of Portugal in defiance of the rights of Maria da Gloria, his elder brother’s daughter (see, in Volume IV., PORTUGAL: A. D. 1824-1889), had kept up his father’s pretensions to the crown until the spring of 1909, when he offered to renounce it, if permitted to live in Portugal as a citizen. The permission was refused, for the reason that his return, with that of a number of nobles of his party, "would be regarded as a challenge to the rising tide of Liberalism."

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909 (April). Earthquake in and around Lisbon.

See (in this Volume) EARTHQUAKES: PORTUGAL.

PORTUGUESE AFRICA.

See (in this Volume) AFRICA: PORTUGUESE.

POSTAGE, BEGINNING OF INTERNATIONAL PENNY.

The postal treaty establishing two-cent or penny postage on letters between Great Britain and the United States went into effect October 1, 1909.

POSTAL SERVICE, IN CHINA.

See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1908.

POSTAL SERVICE STRIKE, IN FRANCE.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (MARCH-MAY).

POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC STRIKE, IN RUSSIA.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.

----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: THEIR PROBLEMS: Start---

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Old Age Homes, in Vienna.

"In most towns there is a tendency, in this our day, to deal more generously with destitute children than with destitute men and women. In Berlin and New York, for instance, both money and thought are lavished on the young whom the community supports; while as for the aged, what is given to them is given only of necessity. In Vienna it is otherwise; there the arrangements for the relief of the old people are better—both more carefully considered and more liberal—than those for the relief of children, a fact that says more, perhaps, for the hearts than for the heads of the authorities.

"If a man—or a woman—above 60 is without money wherewith to provide for himself, or the strength to earn the money, he applies to the Guardian of his ward for help. Then, if he has a home to live in, and someone to take care of him, or is able to take care of himself, he is granted out relief, a money allowance if he can be trusted to spend it wisely, otherwise relief in kind. Supposing, however, he is homeless, feeble and ‘alone-standing,’ he is sent to a Versorgungshaus, or old-age home, if there is a vacant place there; and, if not, to a small poor-house until there is.

"Versorgungshäuser are the distinctive feature of the Austrian Poor Relief system so far as the aged are concerned. Already in the days of Joseph II. Vienna had two if not more of these homes, and at the present time it has six. One of them is reserved exclusively for Citizens; another, that at Mauerbach, is reserved for persons who, owing to their perverted notions as to what is seemly, cannot be accorded the full liberty the old people in the other homes enjoy. In all the six together there is space for more than 6,000 inmates. As the Versorgungshäuser are looked upon by classes and masses alike as the homes of the aged poor, the place where they have a right to be, no disgrace is attached to going there. …

"Although in Vienna much is done for the poor, the burden entailed by Poor Relief is by no means overwhelming. In 1903 the full cost of indoor relief, outdoor relief and sick relief, together with the cost of administration, was only £942,870, and of this £250,672 was obtained from private sources. At that time the town was providing 31,000 adults—old men and women for the most part—with allowances ranging in amount from 30 kronen to 6 kronen a month; it was maintaining 6,790 more in old-age homes and other institutions; and was defraying the cost of the Asyl and workhouse. It was supporting, or contributing to the support of, 10,260 children who were either with their own relatives or were boarded out; and was maintaining 3,246 in orphanages, etc. It defrayed the cost of the 27,000 babies who passed through the Foundling Hospital, and of the 19,085 children who were temporarily in institutions. It also provided 77,000 boys and girls with school books, and contributed generously to many private philanthropic societies. Roughly speaking, the cost to the town of Poor Relief in Vienna per head of the population is 8s. 4d."

_Edith Sellers, Poor Relief in Vienna (Contemporary Review, December, 1900)._

{508}

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Pensions, &c.: Denmark: A. D. 1907. Old Age Pensions.

Some interesting details of the working of the Danish old-age pensions system are contained in a British Consular report issued in May, 1909. The latest available statistics show that on March 31, 1907, 70,445 persons over 60 years of age were in receipt of pensions, which amounted in the aggregate to £451,000 [$2,255,000] for the financial year 1906-1907. The number of pensioners on March 31, 1906, was 68,800, and the amount distributed in the financial year 1905-1906, £420,444. Both the number of pensioners and the average amount of the pensions are increasing. The ages of the "principal" pensioners (_i. e._, of the actual recipients of pensions apart from wives and children dependent on them) were, on March 31st, 1906, as follows: 60 to 65 years of age—3,173 men, 4,239 women; 65 to 70 years—5,831 men, 6,756 women; 70 years and over—13,974 men and 17,037 women.

About a quarter of the population over 60 years of age is in receipt of pensions, the women especially availing themselves of their benefits. The average amount distributed to each "principal" recipient was £6 5s. in 1905-1906 and £6 11s. in 1906-1907.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1908. Old Age Pensions Act. The Working of the Law. Its Pitiful and Appalling Disclosures.

The Act of the British Parliament, "to Provide for Old Age Pensions" (August 1, 1908), declares in its first section that "the receipt of an old age pension under this Act shall not deprive the pensioner of any franchise, right, or privilege, or subject him to any disability." The second section defines the "statutory conditions for the receipt of an old age pension by any person" to be: the person must have attained the age of seventy; must satisfy the pension authorities that he has been a British subject and resident in the United Kingdom for at least twenty years; that his yearly means, as calculated under the stipulations of the Act, do not exceed thirty-one pounds ten shillings. But, notwithstanding the fulfilment of these statutory conditions, a person is disqualified while he is in receipt of any poor relief, other than medical or surgical assistance on the recommendation of a medical officer, or relief rendered by means of the maintenance of a dependent in an asylum, infirmary, or hospital, or any relief that by law is expressly declared not to be a disqualification for any franchise, right, or privilege. Furthermore, any person is disqualified for the receipt of an old age pension "if, before he becomes entitled to a pension, he has habitually failed to work according to his ability, opportunity, and need, for the maintenance or benefit of himself and those legally dependent upon him: Provided that a person shall not be disqualified under this paragraph if he has continuously for ten years up to attaining the age of sixty, by means of payments to friendly, provident, or other societies, or trade unions, or other approved steps, made such provision against old age, sickness, infirmity, or want or loss of employment as may be recognized as proper provision for the purpose by regulations under this Act, and any such provision, when made by the husband in the case of a married couple living together, shall, as respects any right of the wife to a pension, be treated as provision made by the wife as well as by the husband."

Disqualification exists, also, during detention in a lunatic asylum; and not only during any penal imprisonment that has been ordered "without the option fine," but for ten years thereafter.

Specific rules are given in the Act for "calculating the means of a person" who seeks the pension; and the rate of weekly pension to be paid is proportioned inversely to such ascertained means, as follows: "Where the yearly means of the pensioner as calculated under this Act: Do not exceed £21.,—5s. 0d.; exceed £21, but do not exceed £23, 12s. 6d.,—4s. 0d.; exceed £23 12s. 6d., but do not exceed £26 5s.,—3s. 0d.; exceed £26 5s., but do not exceed £28 17s. 6d.,—2s. 0c2.; exceed £28 17s. 6d., but do not exceed £31 10s.,—1s. 0d.; exceed £31 10s., no pension."

The Act became operative on the 1st of January, 1909. At that time the persons recommended for pensions, throughout the Kingdom, numbered 490,028, with somewhat over 148,000 pending claims. The original estimate, on the discussion of the measure, had been that the eligible pensioners would not exceed 500,000, and that the cost of the undertaking, to begin with, would be about £6,000,000. It was evident, therefore, before pension payments began, that these estimates were much too low.

From Ireland it was reported by the Press on the opening day of pension payments that "more than 4,000 persons will to-day receive old-age pensions in the city of Dublin. Claims continue to be received in large numbers, and the pension authorities estimate that, inasmuch as the last census of the city showed that there were 6,800 persons over 70 years of age then alive, at least 1,200 eligible persons have not yet made application. Yesterday afternoon it was stated that in all 5,600 claims had been lodged.

"Of the 209,000 claims lodged altogether in Ireland, it is estimated that 50,000 will be disallowed, and that £30,000 weekly will be required to satisfy those which have been held to be good. So far as Dublin is concerned, less than 90 per cent, of the inhabitants who are over 70 years of age have claimed pensions, so that the rural districts are responsible for the larger percentage of claimants in Ireland as compared with England and Scotland."

From Scotland it was reported that "in Glasgow, the number of persons of 70 years and over is 13,160, and fully half of those made claims. A rough estimate places the number of full pensions granted at about 5,550. In addition, a number of allowances of the smaller amounts, ranging from 4s. to 1s., have been made."

In London, on the 1st of January, 1908, there had been 39,043 claims considered, of which 36,108 were allowed. Of these, 31,327 were for 5s., 1,701 for 4s., 1,827 for 3s., 797 for 2s., and 456 for 1s.

{509}

Speaking in Parliament on the 1st of March, with deep feeling, of the working of the Pension Act and of the revelation of poverty it had made, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, said: "The pension officers, especially in Ireland, had been appalled at the amount of undisclosed poverty, and that was why he was not disposed to criticize too harshly the administration of the Act in that country, even if it had resulted in addition of a considerable sum to the estimate of the Government. The details of poverty in Ireland were perfectly horrifying. It was a disgrace to any civilized country that reasonable human beings should be allowed to live under such conditions. But the same condition of things was found in Great Britain also in many cases. He made a special point of investigating the matter, and pension committees and pension officers all told the same story of people facing poverty and privation for years with resignation, fortitude, and uncomplaining patience, and all asked the same question and asked it in vain—How on earth could those poor people have managed to keep body and soul together on such slender resources? They had not understated their resources; on the contrary, there were cases in which they had overstated them from a feeling of pride.

"What struck one in such cases was how the people had fought against the horror of the Poor Law. There were 270,000 people over 70 years of age in receipt of Poor Law relief. The Old-Age Pensions Act had disclosed the presence in the community of over 600,000 people the vast majority of whom were living in circumstances of great poverty, and yet disdained the charity of the Poor Law."

In the report of the Local Government Board for 1908, the inspector of poor-law administration in the eastern counties of England reported a substantial decrease in pauperism during the year, and attributed this mainly to the passing of the Old-Age Pensions Act. Persons verging on the age of 70 were doing everything possible to preserve their qualifications for pensions, and their sons and daughters, in the hope that the old folk will be able to stand alone, are maintaining them till the pensions are due in order that they may not be forfeited by parish relief.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: France: A. D. 1909. State Railway Servants Pensions.

In July, 1909, the Chamber of Deputies adopted a Bill for pensioning the railway employees of the State which had already passed the Senate. It applies to some 308,000 persons, who will be pensioned in several classes at ages ranging from 50 to 60 years, and the estimated annual cost will exceed $5,000,000. The Minister of Public Works, M. Barthou, described the measure as an acknowledgment on the part of the country of a debt which it owed to a deserving body of public servants, who for the last 11 years had waited patiently for the fulfilment of a promise and upon various trying occasions during that period had not abused the confidence which had been reposed in their good sense and public spirit.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: France: A. D. 1910. General Old-Age Pension Law.

A general measure for the pensioning of workmen in old age, which had been pending in the French Parliament for nearly three years, became law in April, 1910. Passed in the first instance by the Chamber of Deputies in 1907, it was held in the Senate, undergoing an extensive remodeling, until the 12th of February, 1910, when that body gave it an unanimous vote. In the Chamber of Deputies its exaction of compulsory contributions from the wages of workmen to the pension fund was opposed by a section of the Socialists, but supported by the Socialist leader Jaures, as well as by the Briand Ministry, and carried by a decisive vote on April 1st. "Workingmen, domestic servants, clerks, and farm laborers to the number of nearly 12,000,000, whose annual earnings are below 3,000 francs, are placed under a system of compulsory insurance. For the farmer and small proprietor whose income ranges between 3,000 and 5,000 francs, an optional form of insurance is provided. Of this class there are nearly six million men and women in the country." In all, about 18,000,000 of the population of France are beneficiaries of the Act.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: The German System of State-aided Pensions, compared with other systems.

The following is from the report of a lecture on State-aided Pensions for the Poor, given in London, on the 3d of February, 1909, by the Honourable W. P. Reeves, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. It is an admirable summary of facts that exhibit the working, down to the present time, of the German system of working men’s insurance adopted between 1883-1889.

See (in Volume IV. of this work) SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1883-1889.

See (in Volume VI. of this work) GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900, in Volume VI.):

"The subject, said the lecturer, fell into three groups—contributory pensions, free State universal pensions, and free State limited pensions. Germany, France, and Belgium afforded examples of the contributory pensions, and Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom of the limited free pensions. The universal free pensions were likely to remain an ideal. The Belgian superannuation for the poor, provided by voluntary contributions on the part of the insurer and by State bonuses, had encouraged thrift, but it yielded an average pension of only £3 a year. It could not, therefore, be pronounced to be a success, and the State had recognized its failure by inaugurating a system of free old-age pensions for the utterly destitute. A similar superannuation scheme in France, also maintained principally by voluntary contributions, had only attracted 8 per cent. of the class for which it was intended, and there, too, it had been found necessary to introduce free old-age pensions. There was also a voluntary system in Germany, but that was a kind of side show to the great national system of insurance by compulsory contributions. This latter system was a gigantic experiment, and it really did deserve the name of national. Professor Ashley had shown that of the 10,700,000 men who were insurable under this scheme 8,857,000 actually were insured; and of the 5,800,000 women who were qualified to provide for pensions 4,524,000 were actually paying their contributions. The system had been in operation for 26 years, and the amount paid out in that time must have exceeded £300,000,000, while 70 or 80 million persons had been benefited by it from first to last. The number of persons affected yearly by the system was 25,000,000; and in 1907 nearly £30,000,000 was spent in the three divisions of the triple system—old age, sickness, and accidents. He had only to deal with one division—old age and infirmity. The accumulated funds in this division amounted to about £70,000,000; and the amount paid out to the insurers in 1906 was nearly £8,300,000, and in 1907 £8,400,000. The population liable to insure was about 14¼ millions, and the number of pensions in force at the end of 1907 was 979,000.

{510}

"Under this German scheme the class compulsorily insured consisted of men and single women earning less than £100 a year. The funds were provided in equal contributions by employers and employed—the principle underlying the system being that of deferred wages. It was a question whether it was encouraging thrift to withhold from such wage-earners 2 per cent. of their wages. The State bore the cost of management, and added to every pension a bonus of £2 10s. a year. For the working of the system the wage-earners were divided into five grades:

(1) Those who earn up to £17 10s. a year; (2) those who earn any sum between £17 10s. and £27 10s.; (3) those who earn any sum between £27 10s. and £42 10s.; (4) those who earn any sum between £42 10s. and £57; and (5) those who earn any sum between £57 and £100.

The lowest wage-earners paid seven-eighths of a penny per week for their old-age pension, and the highest wage-earners about 2¼d. No special consideration was shown for a married man. The five grades of pensions were:

(1) £5 10s. a year; (2) £7; (3) £8 10s.; (4) £10; and (5) £11 10s.

If the labourer died after subscribing for 200 weeks his wife and children were entitled to receive what he had subscribed, but nothing more.

"The lot of the widows and orphans was one of the black features of the system. A married woman could not qualify for an old-age pension. The amount of the weekly contribution was fixed for ten years. In 1906 the receipts exceeded the expenditure by £6,000,000; the cost of administration was only £850,000. But that was only the minor part of the provision made for elderly people in Germany. The main provision was made under the head of infirmity or invalidity occurring before the pension age—70. If the insurers, after having subscribed for not less than four years, broke down and were unable to earn wages, they were entitled to more generous treatment. If curable they were cured in State sanatoriums and received temporary sickness pensions. If incurable they received a pension which was regulated by the number of years they had subscribed, and varied from a _minimum_ of £5 16s. in the lowest grade for four years’ subscriptions to £22 10s. in the highest grade for 50 years’ subscriptions. The insurer began to pay his contributions at the age of 17, and for an old-age pension he had to subscribe 50 weeks a year for 24 years—1,200 weeks in all. Though the system had not checked Socialism or militant trade unionism, it had attained its real purpose, for it had conferred an enormous boon upon the poor."

At the time when the remark quoted above, touching the defective provision of the German law for widows and orphans, was made, the Imperial Government was preparing to amend it. The London _Times_ of April 17, 1909, gave, in its correspondence from Berlin, the account of a draft Bill, just made public, which the Imperial Ministry of the Interior had prepared for presentation to the Federal Council, the object being to combine and coordinate "the seven compulsory insurance laws of 1883 to 1899," together with certain amendments and additions. "It is understood," wrote the correspondent, "that the Bill will not reach the Reichstag before the autumn of this year. Whereas many authorities … have favored a thorough unification of the three systems of invalidity and old age, accident, and sick insurance, the immediate proposals of the Government would leave the three systems separate and distinct, while codifying the law and the regulations which are common to all branches of compulsory insurance, and establishing a joint and threefold system of higher administration." The main purpose of the bill was to rectify that lack of proper provision for widows and orphans which was noted above. "The need of solving this problem," said the correspondent, "is really the immediate occasion of reform, and the proposed solution is the most important feature of the reform scheme. An essential feature of the tariff law of 1902 was the ear-marking—by the so-called Lex Trimborn—for widows and orphans’ insurance of the surplus revenue from the increased Customs duties on corn and cattle. The Lex Trimborn takes effect on January 1, 1910, but the surplus revenue is lacking. For the financial year 1906 there was no surplus. For 1907 there was a surplus of about £2,000,000. For the financial year 1908 there will be no surplus, although £2,650,000 was estimated for. In these circumstances the Government—while apparently still cherishing the hope that, upon the average of a long period of years, the revised tariff will do what was expected of it—proposes to provide for widows and orphans insurance by a simple all-round extension of the system of invalidity and old-age insurance. That is to say, the ‘contributions’ of employers and employed are to be raised, and an Imperial subsidy, of fixed amount, without regard to the annual revenue from Customs, is to be added to the contributions.

"It is at present proposed that the weekly 'contributions' to invalidity and old-age insurance shall, in order to provide funds for widows and orphans’ pensions, be increased—upon the mean average of the contributions of the five classes of wage-earners—by one-fourth, and that the Empire shall add a subsidy of £2 10s. a year to each widow’s pension and a subsidy of £1 5s. a year to each orphan’s pension."

In February, 1909, a Parliamentary Committee of the British Trades Union Congress, composed of men representing the Labor Party in Parliament, reported the results of a visit to Germany which the Committee had made in the previous November, to examine conditions in that country, especially with reference to the operation of the state system of insurance. In their report they said: "The State assistance has acted as an incentive and encouragement to workmen to make additional provision for themselves and families through their trade unions and private sick clubs. This is especially the case in invalidity and old age. It has always been the workman’s complaint, as well as that of the organizations, that the assistance obtainable under the workman’s insurance system is quite out of proportion to the subscriptions paid, and quite insufficient for the maintenance of the pensioner. {511} In this connexion, it is interesting to note that in 1907 the 'Free' or Socialist unions, with a membership of 1,866,000, granted £174,000 in sick pay and £19,000 in invalidity pay; the State subsidies to invalidity and old-age pensions amounting in 1906 to £2,437,000. The insurance pensions are continually increasing; and it is stated that the invalidity pensions will eventually reach a _maximum_ in the lowest wages class of £9 5s., and in the highest one of £22 10s. The funds accumulated in the hands of the Invalidity Pension Offices amounted at the end of 1907 to about 70 million pounds, and the workmen maintain that the time has now arrived when either the pensions paid should be increased, or the contributions levied decreased, as provided for by law."

"The members of the deputation were struck by the absence of slums in the manufacturing quarters of the towns visited. Nowhere did they see any quarter that could be classified under the heading ‘slum.’ The cleanliness prevailing throughout all the towns visited was also remarkable. No beggars, feeble or emaciated men in tatters and rags were encountered in the streets. Hundreds upon hundreds of unemployed were seen by the deputation, but they seemed to lack that dejection and absolute misery that is so frequently met with in the streets of English towns.

"Workmen throughout Germany do not complain of any compulsory deductions made by their employers from their wages for the purpose of workmen’s insurances. Many of the largest employers are favourably disposed towards these laws, and pay willingly. On the other hand, probably the majority do complain of the cost, although not opposed to the laws in principle."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Poor Laws: England: A. D. 1896-1906. Report of Royal Commission. Increasing Pauperism.

In December, 1905, a Royal Commission, composed of nineteen men and women of distinguished ability and of special qualifications for the service, was appointed in Great Britain, "to inquire—(1) Into the working of the laws relating to the relief of poor persons in the United Kingdom; (2) into the various means which have been adopted outside of the Poor Laws for meeting distress arising from want of employment, particularly during periods of severe industrial depression; and to consider and report whether any, and, if so, what modification of the Poor Laws or changes in their administration or fresh legislation for dealing with distress are advisable."

After three years of laborious investigation, making "more than 800 personal visits to unions, meetings of boards of guardians, and institutions in England, Scotland, and Ireland," as well as examining over 1300 witnesses, the Commission submitted an elaborate report in February, 1909. Its findings as to the present working of the poor-laws and the relief-systems of the United Kingdom, and its recommendations for reform, cannot be summarized with any clearness in such space as can be given to the subject here; but there is a startling significance in what it shows of the increase of pauperism and of the public cost of poor relief in late years.

It appears from the returns of the Local Government Board that the mean number of paupers in 1906, 1907 and 1908, was at a higher level than it had been for 31 previous years. Excluding, however, these three especially bad years, it is found that throughout the period 1896-1906 there were 24,000 more paupers than in the period 1888-1896, and 7000 more than in the period 1880-1888. In discussing the report the London _Times_ remarks: "Further examination even diminishes the meagre consolation these figures afford as to the results of a generation of effort at reducing pauperism. Comparing the period 1896-1906 with 1871-1880, there has been a decrease of 3.9 per cent. in the total number of paupers, but this decrease has been accompanied by a large increase of male pauperism and is due entirely to the large decrease in the number of children, whose numbers have decreased by 18 per cent., and a small reduction in the number of women, whose numbers have increased by 2 per cent. The decrease in these two classes so affects the total as entirely to conceal an absolute increase of 18 per cent, in the number of male paupers. Even in regard to the children, at any rate during the last 15 years, the decrease has been almost wholly in rural unions, and in the children of widows, and there has been a general increase in the number of children of able-bodied men.

"Further, so far as figures are available, they show a greater proportionate increase in the number of paupers during the working years of life than in the very young or the very old. Taking only the able-bodied in health, we find that in the period 1896-1906 in metropolitan unions the indoor paupers have increased by 38 per cent. and the outdoor by 137 per cent.; in urban unions the indoor by 24 per cent. and the outdoor by 133 per cent.; and in the whole of England and Wales the indoor by 21 per cent. and the outdoor by 49 per cent. In London alone 15,800 more paupers are being maintained than in the eighties, and the rate per 1,000 of the population, which used to be below that for England and Wales, has risen above it."

As for expenditure, it was some £8,000,000 in the year 1871-1872, and £14,000,000 in the year 1905-1906. Summing up the general situation with regard to this expenditure, the Commission says: "We find that, whilst the expenditure per inhabitant has increased from 7s. ¼d. to 8s. 2£d. since 1871-1872, and is only 7£d. less than it was in 1834, the expenditure per pauper has increased from £7 12s. 1d. to £15 12s. 6d. in the same period. The country is maintaining a multitude of paupers not far short of the numbers maintained in 1871-1902, and is spending more than double the amount upon each individual. The increased expenditure has done little towards diminishing the extent of pauperism. Such advance as the nation has made has been accomplished at an enormous cost, and absorbs an annual amount which is now equivalent to nearly one-half of the present expenditure upon the Army. It may be urged that the rate of pauperism has diminished from 31.2 per 1,000 in 1871-1879 to 22.2 per 1,000 in 1896-1905, and this is certainly a matter for congratulation, but it has been the result of the large increase in the population rather than of any considerable reduction in the number of paupers."

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This discouraging result has occurred notwithstanding the fact that the nation is spending £20,000,000 more in education than in 1831, and £13,000,000 more in sanitation and the prevention of disease than in 1841; notwithstanding the fact "that money wages in the nineties were 10 per cent. above those of the eighties, and 30 per cent, above those of the sixties," and notwithstanding the fact that "there has been a considerable flow of the working classes from the lower paid occupations to the higher paid industries."

The recommendations of the Commission include a scheme for a permanent system of public assistance for the able-bodied, which contemplates the establishment in every district of four coöperating organizations:

(a) An organization for insurance against unemployment, to develop and secure (with contributions from public funds) the greatest possible benefits to the workmen from coöperative insurance against unemployment;

(b) a labor exchange established and maintained by the Board of Trade to provide efficient machinery for putting those requiring work and those requiring workers into prompt communication;

(c) a voluntary aid committee to give advice and aid out of voluntary funds especially to the better class of workmen reduced to want through unemployment;

(d) a public assistance authority representing the county or county borough and acting locally through a public assistance committee to assist necessitous workmen under specified conditions at the public expense. The report adds that it must be a fundamental principle of the system of public assistance that the responsibility for the due and effective assistance of all necessitous persons at the public expense shall be in the hands of one, and only one, authority in each county and county borough—viz., the public assistance authority.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Small Holdings Act of Great Britain.

See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Starvation Poverty in India.

See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1905-1908.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Underfed School Children: Provision for Meals to them. How it is done in Various Cities.

In March, 1905, the British Foreign Office undertook, at the request of the Board of Education, to obtain information regarding the methods adopted in the great Continental and American cities for dealing with ill-fed school children. The facts collected were tabulated and published subsequently in a Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 2926-1906) from which the following statements are derived:

Generally, in the larger cities of Western Europe, some system was found to be in operation for feeding ill-fed children in the schools. Commonly this is conducted unofficially, by private charitable organizations, but sometimes in indirect connection with the municipality, and frequently with help from municipal funds. In Berlin, however, the municipality takes on itself the responsibility of not only feeding but clothing properly the necessitous children attending its elementary schools. This made one of the functions of a municipal department, the Städtisrhe Schuldeputation, which is assisted by a "Society for Feeding Poor Children" in the supplying of meals at the elementary school buildings of the city. The committee which conducts the work of that auxiliary society is appointed by the Government. As a rule, breakfasts only are given in Berlin, and only during the winter months; but four meals are supplied to such children as are thought by the head-masters of the schools to require them. No steps are taken to collect from parents any part of the cost of meals furnished in the schools.

In Paris the organization which installs and conducts cantines scolaires in schools belonging to the city, called the _Caisse des Écoles,_ is privately constituted, but presided over by the mayor. This connects it with the municipality, and in 1905 it had been receiving a municipal subvention of 1,000,000 francs yearly for three years, but this was not to be depended on as a permanent grant. It was necessary for the _Caisse des Écoles_ to seek voluntary contributions. The City, however, undertakes to supply the necessary accommodations and all utensils for the school canteens, which are in operation throughout the year, every day of the week, but generally for a noon meal only; though soup is distributed in some arrondissements at the opening and closing of school. All children are entitled to feed at the canteen, but the meals are supplied gratis only to the children of poor families. The others pay a small sum which does not exceed 15 centimes (about 2 cents). In 1904 the total cost of meals furnished at the school canteens was 1,461,305 francs, of which 359,093 francs was paid by parents, who buy tickets for the purpose. All meals are supplied on the presentation of tickets, and nothing shows whether the tickets have been bought or received as gifts.

In Vienna meals for poor school children are provided by a central Association, indirectly connected with the municipality, the Burgomaster being its president, and financial assistance being given to it from both imperial and municipal funds. Dinners only are provided, on every week day from November 16 to March 31, partly in the school buildings, partly in certain restaurants and kitchens. As in Paris, parents can buy tickets for these meals, but it is said to be rarely done. The total cost is about $23,000 per year. Once a year, in the autumn, the Association makes an appeal for funds, and all classes of people respond, the Emperor giving 4,000 crowns and the Town Council voting 8,000.

Information on the subject was obtained by the British Foreign Office from thirty-eight cities, in all, of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Some systematic provision, more or less adequate, for securing proper food to the children of the schools by private or public organization, was reported from more than thirty. The reports from New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, in the United States, showed less undertakings in this direction than in any other cities of considerable size.

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POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: In England: Provision of Meals Act.

An order from the English Local Government Board on the subject of providing food for underfed school children was published on the 29th of April, 1905. It applied only to children under sixteen who were neither blind, deaf or dumb, and who were living with a father not in receipt of relief. Application in each case must be made by school managers, or by a teacher empowered by the managers, or by an officer empowered by the education authorities. The relief might be granted in the ordinary way or as a loan, the father being allowed the opportunity of making the needful provision himself. If he failed to do so, the poor-law guardians were empowered to make it and to recover the cost, as if it were a loan. In no case could the relief be given in money, or continued on a single application for more than a month. Where possible, arrangements should be made with local charitable organizations for the issue of tickets for meals.

The above mentioned tentative order was followed, in the next year, by the passage of an Act which authorizes any "local education authority" in England and Wales to "take such steps as they think fit for the provision of meals for children" at any public elementary school, and for that purpose to "associate with themselves any committee on which the authority are represented, who will undertake to provide food for those children." Such education authority may aid the committee by furnishing necessary land, buildings, furniture and apparatus, and necessary officers and servants; but, "save as hereinafter provided, the authority shall not incur any expense in respect of the purchase of food to be supplied at such meals."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Unemployment: Belgium: A. D. 1900-1904. Municipal Organizations of Insurance against Unemployment. The Ghent System.

The following is abridged from a report on "Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries," made to the British Board of Trade, in 1904, by Mr. David F. Schloss:

During the last few years the Public Authorities of certain Belgian towns and Provinces have organised a system, to which the name of Insurance against Unemployment is given, and under which the efforts of workmen to secure for themselves the means of tiding over periods of unemployment are assisted by the grant of subsidies provided out of public moneys, which form a supplement to the sums derived from the contributions of these work-people. This system is now in force at Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Liege, Malines, and Louvain, and in the Provinces of Liege and Antwerp. In details it has been varied somewhat in different places, but the general scheme is the same, and it will be sufficient to give some account of it as organized in Ghent, where it was first worked out.

The Unemployed Fund at Ghent was initiated as the result of the recommendations made by a Special Commission on the question of unemployment, which on April 10, 1900, presented a Report, advising the creation of a Municipal Unemployed Fund under the conditions specified in a set of rules, which they submitted for consideration. The annual subvention to the Fund by the City was fixed, for three years, at $4000. Expenses of the administration of the Fund to be borne by the City. Administration of the Fund to be entrusted to a committee of ten citizens named by the municipal authority, but one half of whom must be members of those organizations of workmen which affiliate themselves with the Fund. The Fund may be augmented by subscriptions, donations, moneys collected by fêtes, etc. "The intervention of the Special Fund shall consist either

(_a_.) in providing a supplement to sums paid to their members as unemployed benefit by workmen’s organisations, or

(_b_.) in supplementing any provision made by individual thrift for the specific case of unemployment. The Special Fund will supplement the unemployed benefits paid by workmen's organisations by the payment of a subsidy, which may be equal to, but shall not be greater than, the amount of such benefits."

"Strikes and lock-outs, or the results attendant upon such disputes, sickness and physical incapacity for labour shall in no case give rise to the payment of an indemnity out of the monies of the Unemployed Fund."

"All workmen’s organisations desiring that their members shall participate in the subsidies provided by the Fund will be required to send in each month a return showing the number and amount of all payments on account of benefits made by them, and to furnish every year their balance-sheet, also their rules and regulations."

"Workmen not being members of any Trade Union which enjoys participation in the Fund, are at liberty to join a Thrift Fund specifically constituted to meet the case of unemployment." By this rule, it will be seen, the scheme provides, under distinct branches, for Trade Unionists and non-Unionists.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1905-1909. Unemployed Workmen Act, and its operation.

In the summer of 1905 a Bill brought into Parliament by the President of the Local Government Board, to provide for an organization to assist unemployed workmen, was carried through both houses with little opposition. It sought to bring about a careful discrimination between workmen who were accustomed to regular employment in ordinary circumstances, but temporarily unemployed through circumstances beyond their control, and the needy, on the other hand, who were proper objects of ordinary Poor Law relief. Its provisions were for the former entirely, and their purpose was to establish both local and central bodies, which should organize and maintain labor exchanges and employment bureaus, assist migration and emigration, and acquire, equip, and maintain farm colonies; the latter to operate continuously, for the training of persons to agricultural pursuits, preparing them for emigration or for permanent transfer from city to country life. The local bodies contemplated were not empowered to provide work at public expense. That power was entrusted discretionally to the central bodies, which could draw on the rates for the purpose to a limited extent. Voluntary contributions were to be looked to in part for the necessary funds. The measure was decidedly conservative and tentative.

A report on the applications for relief and the relief given in England and Wales under this Act during the year ending March 81, 1909, compared with the previous year, shows as follows: The total number of applications received was 196,757, of which 49,239 were made to 29 committees in London, and 147,518 to 95 committees in other parts of the country.

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The applicants belonging to the general or casual labour class (64,773) formed as in previous years by far the largest section—47.4 per cent.—of the whole number. The building trade ranked second with 23,047, or 16.9 per cent. of the total. The engineering, shipbuilding, and metal trades accounted for 17,028, or 12.5 per cent., as compared with only 8.6 per cent, in the previous year.

A Bill known as the "Right to Work" Bill came before the House of Commons in April, 1909, with the endorsement of the trade unions and the Labor Party. It was opposed by John Burns, the former labor leader, but now speaking as President of the Local Government Board and member of the Cabinet, who said: "For three and a half years he had had intimate experience of relief works, and he could not exaggerate the degradation of the workmen, the demoralization of the honest labourer, the extent to which money had been wasted and character impaired by the relief works which he had had in the name of Parliament to administer. Any member had only to take up the report of any one of the distress committees to see that what the minority report said had happened would increasingly happen so long as these means of meeting unemployment were resorted to. The amount of work would be disproportionate to the wages paid, the wrong men would get the right work, and the best men would be excluded, because modesty was a characteristic of good workmanship and craftsmanship, and the worst men were always in the front line when relief works were set on foot."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A. D. 1909. Report of a Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission on the working of the English Poor Laws, whose general report is referred to above, issued, in September, 1909, a supplementary report on Unemployment. The main ultimate conclusions of the Commission are the following:

"When we consider the remedies proposed for unemployment we are convinced that they do not lie on the lines proposed by the Unemployed Workmen’s Act, which has done nothing but systematize Relief Works. These, whether national or municipal, appear to us merely to intensify the evil as far as the ordinary workmen are concerned. The great thing necessary, we believe, is to obtain a general agreement as to the need of regularizing labour. In this the Government and municipalities ought to set a good example.

"It might be better, if any rate or State funds are to be spent on the unemployed, that such aid should take the form of supplementing trade union funds and give thereby a bonus on thrift. Any such supplementation of trade union funds would involve a Local Government Board audit, the control of the expenses of management, and a separation of the war and benefit funds. It is very doubtful whether it would be wise for trade unions to accept State aid if it involved loss of independence and an interference with their efforts to improve wages. There is little doubt, however, that grants of this kind would enormously increase their membership.

"In order to prevent the spread of the unemployed as a class it is probable that drastic measures ought to be taken, such as those recommended to check vagrancy. For the idle and worthless who now form the noisy section of the unemployed it might be necessary to establish semi-penal colonies. …

"The solution lies in a better organization of the workers and more consideration from the employers. Better organization of industry might at once relieve the workers and render trade crises less acute by steadying the supply of labour.

"Differentiation of the unemployable from the willing workers and better classification of paupers would enable us to understand the extent of the problem and how far reorganization of labour must be carried. Raising the condition of the whole working class by better housing and better wages will help to keep decent but unskilled workmen from sinking.

"Every effort must be made to cut off the supply of unskilled and unintelligent labour by training boys to enter regular and permanent work."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909. The Labor Exchanges Act.

One of the most important of the recent enactments of the British Parliament is the Labor Exchanges Act, which encountered no serious opposition in either House. On introducing the Bill in the House of Commons, May 19, 1909, and in subsequent debate, Mr. Winston Churchill, President of the Board of Trade, gave explanations of which the following is a summary: It would divide the country into ten districts, which would have among them between 30 and 40 first-class labour exchanges, 45 second-class, and about 150 third-class for the smaller centres. The central control would be exercised by the Board of Trade, but it is intended that, following the German example, there shall be in each principal centre a local advisory committee composed of representatives of workmen and of employers in equal numbers, with a permanent official as chairman. It is hoped that, when permanent buildings are secured, and the whole scheme is in working order, the labour exchanges will become centres of industrial life, in which employers and employed will learn to know one another better, and to discuss in common questions now too much regarded from different standpoints. These exchanges cannot make work, they can only distribute what work is to be had. They can hardly be expected to make head against the large fluctuations of trade, which must be met by some insurance scheme, which Mr. Churchill announced as being under contemplation. But there are many irregularities of distribution which labour exchanges can correct, and many seasonal fluctuations producing much distress which they can deal with to the great advantage alike of employers and employed.

It was not contemplated that fees should be charged to men applying to the labour bureaux, which were to be national institutions. They would strive to find men for jobs and jobs for men, and attention would be paid to the interests of the men who had been waiting longest for work. For the present domestic servants would not be brought within the operation of the Bill. No compulsion would be exercised to induce applicants to give evidence as to character, but of course a man would have a greater chance of obtaining work if he could give references and testimonials. In a strike the exchanges would be absolutely neutral as between capital and labour, and it would be clearly notified to all working men that there was a dispute and they would be left to act as they thought fit.

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The Bill became law in September. A highly favorable report of its operation was made six months later by the Consul-General of the United States at London, who stated that "on the opening day nearly eighty exchanges were in operation and thousands of applications for work were received. The applicants mainly represented the better class of labor. On the first day of the opening in Nottingham 557 workers and 120 employing firms registered. These were followed on the second day by 580 workers and 87 firms. One of the employers alone applied for sixty skilled hands, and though most of the skilled hands were placed, the registered firms were not able to fill all their vacancies."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Germany: A. D. 1909. Experiments of Insurance.

Representatives from the municipal authorities of fifteen German cities held a joint conference at Cologne in September, 1909, to discuss the best methods of combating unemployment. One or two speakers advocated compulsory insurance against unemployment; but the divergencies of opinion were so wide that no conclusion was reached. Annual conferences on the subject are to be held. A Press correspondent who reported the meeting remarked that it confirms "the German official view that the problem of insurance against unemployment is not ripe for systematic solution. Upon the strength of the experience, for example, of Strassburg and of Frankfurt, where the Ghent system of subsidies is in operation, demands are frequently made for the inauguration of an Imperial system of insurance. Apart, however, from the fact that other problems—especially widows and orphans insurance—have precedence, the Government maintains that Imperial legislation is impossible because no satisfactory scheme has been discovered."

Some account of the Ghent system, here referred to, will be found above, under the subheading Belgium. Besides the German cities mentioned as having introduced that measure of insurance against unemployment, Cologne and Leipsic have been operating an organization of similar insurance for some years. As described in a report made in 1904 to the British Board of Trade by Mr. David F. Schloss, on "Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries," the organization in Cologne is as follows:

"The ‘City of Cologne Office for Insurance against Unemployment in Winter’ was established in 1896. The object of the Office is to provide, with the assistance of the Cologne Labour Registry, an insurance against Unemployment during the winter (December to March) for the benefit of male workpeople in the Cologne district. In order to insure with the Office, a man must be at least 18 years of age, must have lived for at least a year in Cologne, and must not suffer from permanent incapacity to work. He is required to pay a weekly premium, payment of which must commence as from April 1, and must continue for 34 weeks. The amount of the premium was originally 3d. per week for both skilled and unskilled workmen; in 1901 the rate of premium was fixed at 3d. for unskilled and 4½d. for skilled men; in 1903 the rate was raised to 3½d. per week for unskilled and 4¾d. per week for skilled workmen. …

"In return for these payments the insured workman, if and when out of work in the period named above, receives, for not more than eight weeks in all, a daily amount, which is 2s. for each of the first 20 days (nothing being paid for Sundays), and then 1s. on each subsequent day. These payments begin on the third weekday after the date on which the man has reported himself as out of work. …

"No money is paid in respect of unemployment caused by illness or infirmity, or by the man’s own fault, or by a trade dispute."

At Leipsic the institution of insurance against unemployment is on much the same lines, but differing in some details of its rules. "The Leipsic Insurance Office was founded in April, 1903, with a guarantee fund of about £5000, provided by benevolent persons, in addition to which it proposed to receive annual subscriptions from members of the public. The town authorities granted accommodation for the Office rent free for three years. The system adopted was as follows: The right to insure with this Office is confined to men of 16 but not over 60 years of age, who have lived at Leipsic for at least two years; the general meeting may, however, allow residents in the suburbs of Leipsic to insure."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Employers’ Labor Exchanges.

The Collieries Union, of colliery owners, in the Rhenish Westphalian coal district, was reported, in October, 1909, to have "decided to institute for the benefit of its members a system of centralized labour exchanges modelled upon the system which has existed for many years in the Hamburg iron industry. The principal objects in view are to secure a steady supply of permanent labour, to equalize a possible surplus of labour in certain districts and a corresponding deficit in others, and to prevent the habit on the part of miners of applying for employment at several collieries simultaneously. On the other hand, it is hoped that miners will be spared the frequently fruitless search for work."

----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: End--------

PRAIRIE OIL AND GAS COMPANY.

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &C.: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.

PREFERENTIAL TRADE: Discussed at the Imperial Conferences of 1902 and 1907 in London.

See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1902 and 1907.

PRESS, The: Revived Censorship in Russia.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1909.

PRESS CONFERENCE, The British Imperial.

See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (JUNE).

PRETORIA: Peace Negotiations.

See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.

PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT.

See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PREVENTION OF CRIMES ACT, BRITISH.

See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PRIMARY, DIRECT.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Reduced Representation in Parliament.

See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.

PRITCHETT, Henry S.: President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.

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PRIZE COURT, CONTEMPLATED INTERNATIONAL.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907 (appended to account of Second Peace Conference at The Hague).

PROBATION SYSTEM, THE.

See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PROBATION.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Crime.

See (in this Volume) CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of the Intoxicants.

See (in this Volume)

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Labor and Capital.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION, LABOR PROTECTION, AND LABOR REMUNERATION.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Municipal Government.

See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Poverty and Unemployment.

See (in this Volume) POVERTY.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Race.

See (in this Volume) RACE PROBLEMS.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Railway Regulation.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of the Trusts (so-called).

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of War and Peace.

See (in this Volume) WAR: PREPARATIONS FOR, AND REVOLT AGAINST.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME: Of Wealth.

See (in this Volume) WEALTH.

PROFIT-SHARING.

See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION.

PROGRESISTAS.

See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907; also PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.

PROGRESSIVES.

See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1904.

PROHIBITION.

See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

PROTECTION, THE NEW.

See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION: THE NEW PROTECTION.

PROTECTORATES, SOUTH AFRICAN.

See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1909.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1902. Measures for Germanizing the Polish Provinces.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1902 (March-May), and 1908 (January).

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904. Denominational Education restored.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1905. Creation of a Government Bureau of Charities.

See (in this Volume) SOCIAL BETTERMENT: PRUSSIA.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906. Defiance of Popular Demands for Suffrage Reform.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906. A Comedy of Election Reform.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1907. Statistics of Population. Birth Rate and Death Rate.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1907.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908. Disappointing Statement by Prince Bülow about Suffrage Reform. Socialist Successes. A surprising word from the King.

In January, Prince Bülow, as Minister-President of Prussia, made a statement about suffrage reform which deeply disappointed all friends of that movement. It was therefore expected, when the Diet elections approached in June, that the Prussian people would be awakened by a violent agitation in favor of more liberal election laws, but nothing of the kind happened. The Socialists, indeed, made this their chief issue, and they carried a half-dozen districts, thus securing for the first time a foothold in the Diet; and the Radicals, too, gave out manhood suffrage as their watchword, but pressed it so feebly as to awaken the suspicion that their demand was not seriously meant.

"Nevertheless, the King’s speech from the throne in October surprised the country by announcing that a reform of the election laws was a fundamental necessity and would be undertaken during the present session. This announcement affected the country-squire element like tapping on a hornet’s nest. The Conservative party immediately gave it to be plainly understood that it would brook no tampering with the election laws, the stronghold of its power."

_W. C. Dreher, The Year in Germany (Atlantic Monthly, January, 1909)_.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908 (January). More vigorous Germanizing of the Polish Provinces.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1908.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1909-1910. Rejection of proposed Reforms of the Elective Franchise. The Offensive Bill of the following year.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: PRUSSIA.

----------PUBLIC HEALTH: Start--------

PUBLIC HEALTH: AMERICA: A. D. 1901-1902. Proposals of the Second International Conference of American Republics.

See (in this Volume) AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Army Sanitation: By the Japanese.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905—at the end.

PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE: In India.

The bubonic plague, which began to terrorize the eastern world, especially India, in the late years of the last century (see PLAGUE, in Volume VI.), showed signs of abating in India in 1900, but regained virulence in the following years, the mortality from it in all India rising to about 560,000 in 1902, exceeding 842,000 in 1903, going beyond a million in 1904, and rising to 1,125,652 in the year from October 1, 1904, to September 30, 1905. Its worst ravages were in the Presidency of Bombay and in the Punjab. In the Bombay Presidency the victims of 1903 numbered 343,904; in the Punjab they counted 210,493.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: INDIA.

PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE: In the Philippines: How it was stamped out.

Full accounts of the successful campaign against bubonic plague in the Philippines, in 1900-1902, are given in the annual reports of the Philippine Commission. From that source the main facts were summarized in the May number of the National Geographic Magazine, 1903, as follows:

Bubonic plague was discovered at Manila on December 26, 1899, and slowly but steadily increased in its ravages up to December, 1901. "The deaths in 1900 numbered 199, and in 1901 reached a total of 432. The disease was at its worst each year during the hot, dry months of March, April, and May, nearly or quite disappearing during September, October, November, and December. …

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"On account of the important part which house rats are known to play in the distribution of bubonic plague, a systematic campaign was inaugurated against these rodents in Manila. Policemen, sanitary inspectors, and specially appointed rat-catchers were furnished with traps and poison, and both traps and poison were distributed to private individuals under proper restrictions. A bounty was paid for all rats turned over to the health authorities, and stations were established at convenient points throughout the city where they could be received. Each rat was tagged with the street and number of the building or lot from which it came, was dropped into a strong antiseptic solution, and eventually sent to the Biological Laboratory, where it was subjected to a bacteriological examination for plague. During the first two weeks, 1.8 per cent. of the rats examined were found to be infected. This proportion steadily increased, reaching the alarming maximum of 2.3 per cent. in October. At this time numerous rats were found dead of plague in the infected districts, and, in view of the fact that epidemics of plague among the rats of a city in the past have been uniformly followed by epidemics among human beings, the gravest apprehension was felt, the rapid spread of the disease among the rats after the weather had become comparatively dry being a particularly unfavorable symptom.

"It was deemed necessary to prepare to deal with a severe epidemic, and a permanent detention camp, capable of accommodating fifteen hundred persons, was accordingly established on the grounds of the San Lazaro Hospital. Hoping against hope, the board of health redoubled its efforts to combat the disease. The force of sanitary inspectors was greatly increased, and under the able supervision of Dr. Meacham their work was brought to a high degree of efficiency. Frequent house-to-house inspections were made in all parts of the city where the disease was known to exist. The sick were removed to the hospital if practicable; otherwise they were cared for where found and the spread of infection guarded against.

"Plague houses were thoroughly disinfected, and their owners were compelled, under the direction of the assistant sanitary engineer, to make necessary alterations. Cement ground-floors were laid; double walls and double ceilings, affording a refuge for rats, were removed; defects in plumbing were remedied; whitewash was liberally used, and, in general, nothing was left undone that could render buildings where plague had occurred safe for human occupancy. Buildings incapable of thorough disinfection and renovation were destroyed. Buildings in which plague rats were taken were treated exactly as were those where the disease attacked the human occupants. The bacteriological examination of rats enabled the board of health to follow the pest into its most secret haunts and fight it there, and was the most important factor in the winning of the great success which was ultimately achieved.

"With very few exceptions, there was no recurrence of plague in buildings which had been disinfected and renovated. As center after center of infection was found and destroyed, the percentage of diseased rats began to decrease, and in January, 1902, when, judging from the history of previous years, plague should have again begun to spread among human beings, there was not a single case. In February, one case occurred. In March, there were two cases, as against 63 in March of the preceding year, and before April the disease had completely disappeared. This result, brought about at a time when the epidemic would, if unchecked, have reached its height for the year, marked the end of a fight begun by the board of health on the day of its organization and prosecuted unremittingly under adverse conditions for seven months, with a degree of success which has not been equaled under similar conditions in the history of bubonic plague.

"During 1901, plague appeared at several points in the provinces near Manila. Agents of the board of health were promptly dispatched to the infected municipalities, and radical remedial measures were adopted, including, in several instances, the burning of infected buildings, the result being the complete disappearance of plague in the provinces as well as in Manila."

PUBLIC HEALTH: CANCER RESEARCH: Mr. Barnato’s Bequest.

"We are reminded to-day that the late Mr. Harry Barnato bequeathed a sum of money amounting to a quarter of a million sterling for the establishment of a charity in memory of his brother, Mr. Barney Barnato, and of his nephew, Mr. Woolf Joel, both of whom died before him. We are now officially informed that the trustees under Mr. Harry Barnato’s will have determined to apply the bequest to the building and endowment of an institution for the reception of cancer patients, and to place its management under the control of the authorities of the Middlesex Hospital, where special wards for cancer patients have long been in operation, and where much has been done in devising means for the alleviation of their sufferings."

_London Times, August 9, 1909._

Mr. George Crocker, of California, who died in December, 1909, bequeathed a fund amounting to about $1,500,000 to Columbia University for the prosecution of researches into the cause, prevention, and cure of cancer. Mr. Crocker, his wife, and his father, Charles Crocker of California, all died of the disease. Mr. Crocker had given $50,000 to Columbia for the same purpose before his death. Mr. Crocker provided that, should a cure for the disease be discovered, the money should be devoted to other medical investigations, "with a view to preventing and curing diseases and alleviating human suffering." He stipulated further that no part of the fund should be used for the erection of a building.

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PUBLIC HEALTH: The Committee of One Hundred. Movement for a National Department or Bureau of Health.

A convincing paper read by Professor J. P. Norton, of Yale, before the economic section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in 1906, on the economic advisability of a national regulation of public health, led to the formation in 1907 of the Committee of One Hundred, which has labored since that time to bring about the creation of a Department or a Bureau of Public Health in the Federal administration of Government. Under the presidency of Mr. Irving Fisher, and with Mr. Edward T. Devine for its secretary, the Committee, which includes many of the most eminent men and women in the country, has awakened wide interest in the proposition, enlisting a public support which seems certain to give it success. When the subject came under discussion in the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting of 1908, Professor William H. Welch, the retiring President of the Association, described the existing neglect of health as shameful, and pointed out that, if existing hygienic knowledge were fully applied, the death rate might be cut in two. As examples of what a Federal Health Bureau might do he cited the work of Pasteur and Koch, whose best work was done for the national governments of France and Germany, though the benefits have been shared by all nations. In America we lack even the statistics of disease except in a limited area.

In his Message to Congress, December 6, 1909, President Taft urged the institution of the proposed National Bureau of Health very cogently, in these words: "For a very considerable period a movement has been gathering strength, especially among the members of the medical profession, in favor of a concentration of the instruments of the national government, which have to do with the promotion of public health. In the nature of things, the Medical Department of the army and the Medical Department of the navy must be kept separate. But there seems to be no reason why all the other bureaus and offices in the general government which have to do with the public health or subjects akin thereto should not be united in a bureau to be called the ‘Bureau of Public Health.’ This would necessitate the transfer of the Marine Hospital Service to such a bureau. I am aware that there is a wide field in respect to the public health committed to the States in which the Federal government cannot exercise jurisdiction, but we have seen in the Agricultural Department the expansion into widest usefulness of a department giving attention to agriculture when that subject is plainly one over which the States properly exercise direct jurisdiction. The opportunities offered for useful research and the spread of useful information in regard to the cultivation of the soil and the breeding of stock and the solution of many of the intricate problems in progressive agriculture have demonstrated the wisdom of establishing that department. Similar reasons, of equal force, can be given for the establishment of a bureau of health that shall not only exercise the police jurisdiction of the Federal government respecting quarantine, but which shall also afford an opportunity for investigation and research by competent experts into questions of health affecting the whole country, or important sections thereof, questions which, in the absence of Federal governmental work, are not likely to be promptly solved."

PUBLIC HEALTH: The Hookworm Disease in the United States.

"In the Old World, hookworm disease was probably known to the Egyptians nearly three thousand five hundred years ago, but its cause was not understood until about the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was shown to be due to an intestinal parasite, _Agchylostoma duodenale._ Until 1893 no authentic cases of this disease were recognized as such in the United States, but between 1893 and 1902 about 35 cases were diagnosed. In 1902 it was shown that a distinct hookworm, _Ucinaria americana,_ infests man in this country, and this indicated very strongly that the disease must be present although not generally recognized. It is now established that in addition to the few cases of Old World hookworm disease imported into the United States we have in the South an endemic uncinariasis due to a distinct cause, _Uncinaria americana._ This disease has been known for years in the South and can be traced in medical writings as far back as 1808, but its nature was not understood. Some cases have been confused with malaria, others have been attributed to dirt-eating.

"The hookworms are about half an inch long. They live in the small intestine, where they suck blood, produce minute hemorrhages, and in all probability also produce a substance which acts as a poison. They lay eggs which cannot develop to maturity in the intestine. These ova escape with the feces and hatch in about twenty-four hours; the young worm sheds its skin twice and then is ready to infect man. Infection takes place through the mouth, either by the hands soiled with larvae or by infected food. Infection through the drinking water may possibly occur. Finally, the larvae may enter the body through the skin and eventually reach the small intestine.

"Patients may be divided into light cases, in which the symptoms are very obscure; medium cases, in which the anemia is more or less marked, and severe cases, represented by the dwarfed, edematous, anemic dirt-eater. Infection occurs chiefly in rural sand districts. … Economically, uncinariasis is very important. It keeps children from school, decreases capacity for both physical and mental labor, and is one of the most important factors in determining the present condition of the poorer whites of the sand and pine districts of the South.

"The disease is carried from the farms to the cotton mills by the mill hands, but does not spread much in the mills; nevertheless, it causes a considerable amount of anemia among the operatives."-

_Ch. Wardell Stiles, Ph. D., Report upon the Prevalence and Geographic Distribution of Hookworm Disease (Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the United States: Hygienic Laboratory, Bulletin No. 10)._

In the autumn of 1909 Mr. John D. Rockefeller placed a fund of $1,000,000 under the control of a Commission, to be used for the eradication of the hookworm disease in the United States. The fund is allotted in annual instalments of $200,000 each.

PUBLIC HEALTH: India: A. D. 1907-1908. Mortality Statistics and Birth Rate.

According to statistics given in the "Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during the year 1907-1908," in most provinces the birth-rates exceeded the death-rates, but in the Punjab the death-rate exceeded the birth-rate by no less than 21.3 per mille, mainly as a result of the persistence of plague and the unusual prevalence of other epidemics. The total number of deaths registered in the Dependency was 8,399,623, compared with 7,852,330 in 1906. This constituted a rise of the rate from 34.73 per mille to 37.18. The mean mortality per 1,000 for the quinquennium ending 1906 was 33.96. The rate in the Punjab was no less than 62.1.

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Throughout the country as a whole cholera was responsible for 1.81 deaths per mille, smallpox for 0.46, fevers for 19.76, dysentery and diarrhoea for 1.25, and plague for 5.16. In the previous year (1906) there was a most welcome decline in the plague death-rate, which fell from 4.17 in 1905 to 1.33. But in the year under review this malignant disease (which first appeared in Bombay in 1896) was responsible for the record number of 1,315,892 deaths. Happily in 1908 there was again a very rapid decline of mortality, and the preliminary figures for the year give a total of less than 150,000 deaths, this being lower than in any year since 1900. The report shows that plague has been curiously partial in its distribution, many parts of the Dependency having almost entirely escaped its ravages. It is shown that the civil hospitals and dispensaries in India (2,514 in number) treated 412,425 indoor and no fewer than 24,469,548 outdoor patients.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Japan: A. D. 1904-1905. Army Sanitation in the War with Russia.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905--at the end.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Malaria: A Lesson in Practical Hygiene from Italy. Slowness in using the knowledge gained.

The following is from a letter by Dr. William Osier to the London _Times_, dated at Rome, March, 3, 1909: "We owe much to the Italians for their contributions to our knowledge of the cause of malaria. Laveran’s great discovery was promptly fathered by Marchiafava and Celli and Golgi, and it was through their writings that we obtained the fullest details of the nature and structure of the malarial parasite. As an old student of the disease and deeply interested in the practical problems of its prevention, one of my first visits in Rome was to the Laboratories of Pathology and of Hygiene to find out from the Directors, Marchiafava and Celli, the progress of the battle. It was not enough to know the cause; we had to know how it worked before effective measures could be taken, and the demonstration by Ross of the transmission of the disease by the mosquito at once put malaria on the list of easily preventable infections. Just ten years ago the Italian Society for the Study of Malaria was founded, and I was able to get a full report of the work.

"In Professor Celli’s lecture-room hangs the mortality chart of Italy for the past 20 years. In 1887 malaria ranked with tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the intestinal disorders of children as one of the great infections, killing in that year 21,033 persons. The chart shows a gradual reduction in the death-rate, and in 1906 only 4,871 persons died of the disease, and in 1907 4,160. This remarkable result has been very largely due to the sanitary measures introduced by the society. It has long been known that malaria disappears ‘spontaneously.’ The Fen country is now healthy; parts of Canada, about Lakes Ontario and Erie, which were formerly hotbeds of the disease, are now free. This cannot be attributed altogether to cultivation and drainage. I know places on the shores of the lakes just mentioned in which the conditions today are identical with those which I remember as a boy. The Desjardin Canal Marsh at the extreme western end of Lake Ontario was a well-known focus of the disease. The marsh remains, the mosquitoes are there; but a case of malaria is almost as rare as in England. The disappearance is largely due to the free use of quinine. The settlers early recognized the important fact that malaria was a disease liable to recur, and it became a common practice to take Peruvian bark every spring and autumn for a year or two after an attack. This is a point in prophylaxis which the work of the Italian Society has brought into prominence. From the summary of the decennial report just issued, the following paragraphs are of interest:

"‘The society has improved the prophylaxis of malaria, and has introduced into practice the new mechanical measures based on the defence of the habitation and the individual from the bites of mosquitoes. This being a relatively expensive procedure, the society has occupied itself chiefly with the improvement of the anti-plasmodic prophylaxis—the administration of quinine. For this purpose it has promoted and defended legislation for the gratuitous distribution of quinine to the poor and to all workers in malarial localities. …

"‘The results have been that since 1902, when the law on State quinine was promulgated, while the consumption of quinine has been yearly increasing, the mortality from malaria has diminished from about 16,000 to about 4,000 yearly; and in the army, Custom House Offices, and in some communes where the new laws have been better applied, the morbidity from malaria has greatly diminished.’

"By these measures, and ‘by means of the agricultural and agrarian transformation of the land and colonization, rather than by the destruction of mosquitoes (a thing impossible to be done by us on a large scale),’ Italy may be freed from the scourge."

In a lecture at the Royal Institution, London, in May, 1909, Major Ronald Ross, one of the most notable workers in this field of sanitary science, spoke discouragingly of the progress made in applying the knowledge gained. He said:

"The immediate success hoped for ten years ago had not been attained. The battle still raged along the whole line, but it was no longer a battle against malaria but against human stupidity. Those who had taken part in it had reasoned and been ridiculed; had given the most stringent experimental proofs and had been disbelieved; had protested and been called charlatans. … The few persons who had fought the fight and failed were scarcely able to continue it, and if no stronger influences could be excited the future of malaria prevention in British dominions would certainly be as barren as the past had been."

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PUBLIC HEALTH: Panama Canal: The Sanitation of the Canal Zone. Extirpation of Malaria and Yellow Fever. Report of Secretary Taft.

In the fall of 1905 Secretary Taft made a visit of inspection to the Canal, and gave, on his return, an interesting account of the conditions he found, in an address before the St. Louis Commercial Club. On the work of Sanitation in progress, under the direction of Dr. W. C. Gorgas, U. S. A., he gave the following description: "When Judge Magoon [appointed Governor of the Canal Zone] arrived upon the Isthmus, he found Dr. Gorgas battling manfully against the yellow fever, but the cases seemed to be increasing. Judge Magoon conceived the idea that the fumigation which had been confined to two or three houses might well be extended to all the houses in Panama, and at considerable expense, and after procuring a large amount of material, every house in Panama was fumigated once every two weeks. To secure increased vigilance and popular assistance he employed all [the respectable Panamanian physicians of Panama as inspectors of the districts of that city, at annual salaries of $1,200 a year. He also offered $50 reward for the discovery of any case of yellow fever not reported. By methods of this kind the native apathy, usually so great an obstacle to successful sanitation in Spanish countries, was neutralized.

"The plan of fumigation is as follows: Strips of paper are placed across the windows, which ordinarily have no glass or any netting in them, and then by the fumes either of sulphur or pyrethrum every nook and cranny of the house is visited. These gases are fatal or paralyzing to the mosquito. After sufficient time has passed the house is opened, and then a corps of health employees are set to work cleaning the house and sweeping out the dead mosquitoes, which are found in great numbers upon the floors. The mosquitoes are burned to avoid further mischief. By these methods, for which Dr. Gorgas and Governor Magoon are both to be credited with great praise, yellow fever has been reduced to a point where during the last month only three cases were reported, not one of these among canal employees, and all originating many miles from the canal line. The efforts to subdue the fever, instead of being relaxed, are being continued. Square miles of woven-wire netting with interstices so small as to prevent the entrance of mosquitoes are spread about the piazzas of the houses of all Americans and foreigners who come to live under the auspices of the Canal Commission in the Isthmus. The windows inside are also screened, and then mosquito-bars on the beds are used as a third precaution. Whenever a case of yellow fever is discovered, the patient is at once either removed to the hospital and put under a woven-wire screen, or, if he prefers to remain at home, the woven-wire screen is put over him and an orderly placed in charge of him at his own residence. In this way he is prevented from furnishing a supply of the poison to the healthy mosquitoes, who, in turn, by stinging, would bring it back to man. In other words, the plan is to kill all the mosquitoes, well or ill, keep them as much as possible from stinging man, and isolate every man with yellow fever, not from his fellows, but from mosquitoes. … Little by little, and facing discouragement after discouragement, the two thousand employees of the sanitary department are winning in this fight against disease, upon which the whole success of the canal work depends. As Mr. Stevens said to me, when I crossed the Isthmus with him this month, ‘I take off my hat to the work which the sanitation department has done in this Canal Zone.’"

A report to the London _Times_, in June, 1909, of conditions on the Canal and in the Canal Zone, shows the effectiveness with which this work of sanitation was done. More arduous than the campaign against yellow fever, says the writer, "was the campaign against malaria, a disease from which 80 per cent. of the people were suffering to some degree. This campaign consisted in warfare against mosquitoes and in the administration of quinine, and the efforts in this respect have also been highly successful. In 1906 the proportion of canal _employés_ treated for malaria was no less than 821 in the thousand. In 1908 it had fallen to 282 in the thousand. The general effect of sanitary measures may best be judged from the death-rate among the tens of thousands of canal _employés_. In 1906 it was 41.73 to the thousand, and in 1908 it was only 13.01 to the thousand, making the canal one of the most healthy industrial establishments in the world."

PUBLIC HEALTH: PELLAGRA: Lombroso’s Discovery of its Source. Its now recognized Seriousness.

In 1872 Cesare Lombroso, the noted criminologist, "incurred a great deal of odium for a discovery which proved to be of much scientific and economic importance. He noted the fact that a large number of the inmates of asylums were suffering from _pellagra_, a curious disease, which first affected the skin and afterwards attacked the brain and nervous system. Lombroso discovered that the disorder was to be traced to a poison contained in diseased maize, which the Lombardian landowners were in the habit of doling out to the poor peasantry. At a time when toxins were unknown, Lombroso succeeded in extracting the poison from the maize and infecting animals with it—quite in the manner of modern bacteriologists. His discovery was received with much derision; but a friend of Lombroso, M. Alfred Maury, reported the facts to Berthelot, the Parisian chemist, who analysed the poison and established the fact that the maize contained an injurious substance resembling strychnine but differing from it in important particulars. The validity of Lombroso’s discovery was thus triumphantly established. He was not satisfied with this initial success, but for several years fought on the platform and in the Press for an improvement in the economic conditions of the peasantry whereby the ravages of the disease might be combated." In late years his work of agitation on the subject has been continued by many others. The disease is of recognized seriousness in Italy, France, and latterly in the United States. In November, 1909, the American Government appointed an official commission to investigate it.

PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS: International Congresses.

The first International Congress for discussion and action on the subject of Pure Food was assembled at Geneva in 1908, and attended by about 600 persons. The second was held at Paris in October, 1909, and much more largely attended.

PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS: United States: A. D. 1906. Legislation at the end of a long struggle.

Bulletin No. 104 of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, entitled "Food Legislation during the year ended June 30, 1906," introduces the text of National and State laws enacted that year with the following remarks: "Food legislation for the year ended July 1, 1906, is the most important in the history of the United States. A Federal pure-food bill in various forms has been before Congress continuously for more than twenty years, and such a bill became a law on June 30, 1906. On the same day, as part of the appropriation bill of the United States Department of Agriculture, in the sections providing for the Bureau of Animal Industry, important legislation was enacted with reference to the inspection of meat and meat food products."

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The Federal Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, enacts in its first section "That it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture within any Territory or the District of Columbia any article of food or drug which is adulterated or misbranded, within the meaning of this Act; and any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of misdemeanor, and for each offense shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed five hundred dollars or shall be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court, and for each subsequent offense and conviction thereof shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars or sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court."

The second section declares:

"That the introduction into any State or Territory or the District of Columbia from any other State or Territory or the District of Columbia, or from any foreign country, or shipment to any foreign country of any article of food or drugs which is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this Act, is hereby prohibited"; and penalties are prescribed for violations of the law, being a fine not exceeding $200 for the first offense, and for the second offense a fine not to exceed $300, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Section 3 reads as follows:

"That the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall make uniform rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of this Act, including the collection and examination of specimens of foods and drugs manufactured or offered for sale in the District of Columbia, or in any Territory of the United States, or which shall be offered for sale in unbroken packages in any State other than that in which they shall have been respectively manufactured or produced, or which shall be received from any foreign country, or intended for shipment to any foreign country, or which may be submitted for examination by the chief health, food, or drug officer of any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or at any domestic or foreign port through which such product is offered for interstate commerce, or for export or import between the United States and any foreign port or country."

Section 4 prescribes the examination of specimens of food and drugs in the Bureau of Chemistry, and section 5 relates to prosecutions for violation of the Act. Sections 6, 7, and 8 define adulteration and misbranding, as follows:

"Section 6. That the term ‘drug,’ as used in this Act, shall include all medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary for internal or external use, and any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used for the cure, mitigation, or prevention of disease of either man or other animals. The term ‘food,’ as used herein, shall include all articles used for food, drink, confectionery, or condiment by man or other animals, whether simple, mixed, or compound.

"Section 7. That for the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be adulterated:

"In case of drugs:

"First. If, when a drug is sold under or by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary, it differs from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary official at the time of investigation: _Provided_, That no drug defined in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary shall be deemed to be adulterated under this provision if the standard of strength, quality, or purity be plainly stated upon the bottle, box, or other container thereof although the standard may differ from that determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary.

"Second. If its strength or purity fall below the professed standard or quality under which it is sold.

"In the case of confectionery:

"If it contain terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow, or other mineral substance or poisonous color or flavor, or other ingredient deleterious or detrimental to health, or any vinous, malt or spirituous liquor or compound or narcotic drug.

"In the case of food:

"First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.

"Second. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article.

"Third. If any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted.

"Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.

"Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health: _Provided_, That when in the preparation of food products for shipment they are preserved by any external application applied in such manner that the preservative is necessarily removed mechanically, or by maceration in water, or otherwise, and directions for the removal of said preservative shall be printed on the covering of the package, the provisions of this Act shall be construed as applying only when said products are ready for consumption.

"Sixth. If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion of an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter.

"Section 8. That the term ‘misbranded,’ as used herein, shall apply to all drugs, or articles of food, or articles which enter into the composition of food, the package or label of which shall bear any statement, design, or device regarding such article, or the ingredients or substances contained therein which shall be false or misleading in any particular, and to any food or drug product which is falsely branded as to the State, Territory, or country in which it is manufactured or produced.

"That for the purposes of this Act an article shall also be deemed to be misbranded:

"In case of drugs:

"First. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the name of another article.

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"Second. If the contents of the package as originally put up shall have been removed, in whole or in part, and other contents shall have been placed in such package, or if the package fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any of such substances contained therein.

"In the case of food:

"First. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article.

"Second. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when not so, or if the contents of the package as originally put up shall have been removed in whole or in part and other contents shall have been placed in such package, or if it fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any of such substances contained therein.

"Third. If in package form, and the contents are stated in terms of weight or measure, they are not plainly and correctly stated on the outside of the package.

"Fourth. If the package containing it or its label shall bear any statement, design, or device regarding the ingredients or the substances contained therein, which statement, design, or device shall be false or misleading in any particular: _Provided_, That an article of food which does not contain any added poisonous or deleterious ingredients shall not be deemed to be adulterated or misbranded in the following cases:

"First. In the case of mixtures or compounds which may be now or from time to time hereafter known as articles of food, under their own distinctive names, and not an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article, if the name be accompanied on the same label or brand with a statement of the place where said article has been manufactured or produced.

"Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged so as to plainly indicate that they are compounds, imitations, or blends, and the word ‘compound,’ ‘imitation,’ or ‘blend,’ as the case may be, is plainly stated on the package in which it is offered for sale: _Provided_, That the term blend as used herein shall be construed to mean a mixture of like substances, not excluding harmless coloring or flavoring ingredients used for the purpose of coloring and flavoring only: _And provided further_, That nothing in this Act shall be construed as requiring or compelling proprietors or manufacturers of proprietary foods which contain no unwholesome added ingredient to disclose their trade formulas, except in so far as the provisions of this Act may require to secure freedom from adulteration or misbranding."

There was never a harder fight in Congress than that by which this victory was won, over knaveries that, were not ashamed to insist on their right to swindle and poison the public by adulterations and frauds. Nothing but a thoroughly roused public feeling carried the measure through. The same feeling impelled local legislation to the same end in thirty-two States, during 1906, and 1907, all of which is set forth in the Bulletin cited above and in another of the same series (No. 112), published in two parts in the following year.

Writing in January, 1908, of what the Pure Food Law had accomplished, the Chairman of the Food Committee of the National Consumers League, Alice Lakey, said: "One of the most important results of the Pure Food Law is the awakening of many consumers to their responsibilities as buyers of food products. They are studying labels and buying foods accordingly. With an intelligent consuming public to purchase goods, the Pure Food Law will in time accomplish its full purpose. Perhaps no better phrase will then be found to describe it than the recent utterance of the manager of one of the most important food firms in the country. ‘The Pure Food Law,’ he said, ‘passed by this Government, is the most important law ever passed by any government.’"

PUBLIC HEALTH: United States: A. D. 1906. The Packing-House Investigation.

One of the influences which forced the passage through Congress of the pure food legislation of 1906 came from the revelations in a report laid before the President on the 4th of June that year, by two commissioners whom he had appointed to investigate the conditions existing at the stockyards and packing-houses of Chicago. In communicating the report to Congress the President characterized its disclosures as revolting, and it is certain that the whole public was sickened by the pictures it drew of reckless filthiness prevailing in the establishments where meats were prepared for sale in the markets of the country and of the world. We shall not attempt to reproduce them here.

The most important part of the report concerned the existing methods of official inspection of meats. The commissioners found it most rigorous where it is needed least, namely, at the time of killing. It was while the meat was being handled, and especially in its preparation for canning, that it underwent the most pollution. The cans which received it finally were allowed to bear labels stating that "the contents of this package have been inspected according to the Act of Congress of March 3, 1891. Quality Guaranteed." As a matter of fact, all that had been inspected was the carcass of the animal at the time of killing.

The further legislation, respecting inspections, which supplemented the law quoted from above, was resisted with all their power by the enormously rich meat-packing companies of the country, who found strong supporters in Congress, but they had to submit to defeat.

PUBLIC HEALTH: The Sleeping Sickness in Africa.

"The most formidable enemy of both man and beast in tropical Africa is the tsetse, species _Glossina_, a genus of blood-sucking fly peculiar to that land, which carries a minute parasite, the trypanosome, from the infected to the healthy, resulting in the production of sleeping sickness, or trypanosomiasis. When it is known that in the region lying around Victoria Nyanza, Lake Tanganyika, and the Victorian Nile over 400,000 human beings have succumbed to this fatal malady since it appeared about ten years ago, its appalling nature is apparent. Vast territories of thickly populated, fertile country near the shores of these lakes, until the advent of this terrible plague the homes of a happy, contented people, are now almost depopulated, and thousands of little villages have been swept away, their inhabitants victims of this deadly pest.

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"In appearance the tsetse fly bears a remarkable resemblance to the ordinary house-fly, but is slightly larger, with longer wings, which extend beyond its body and lap each other when at rest like the blades of a pair of scissors. It is somber gray, nearly black in color, almost like the honey-bee, and has a prominent proboscis ensheathed in the palpi which project horizontally in front of its head. The abdomen is marked by four distinct yellowish bands, with a pale spot over the upper segment. It is wonderfully active, and evades every attempt at capture except in the cool of the morning or evening, when its movements are sluggish and it can be caught in the hand. …

"Sleeping sickness has been known in Sierra Leone, in the Congo, and on the west coast of Africa since the earliest history of those lands. In 1870 a fossil tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans) was discovered in Colorado, and the theory has been advanced that the absence of wild horses on the American continent was due to the ravages of the disease carried by these flies.

"The malady was described as early as 1803, and later most accurately by Livingstone, the great missionary explorer. He also advocated arsenic in its treatment. This remedy, after half a century of research and investigation, still retains its place as the best one known for prolonging life. …

"The period of the incubation of the disease after the bite of the infected fly varies from a month to several years, depending upon the resisting power of the patient. In its earlier stages the first noticeable symptoms are irregular fever. … This stage may continue a year, or even longer.

"In the following stage the symptoms are due to the trypanosomes reaching the cerebrospinal fluid, giving rise to cerebral manifestations; drowsiness, stupor, dullness of hearing, slowness in perception and of answering questions, with incapacity for mental exertion, and somnolence, the patient sometimes sleeping the entire day. This condition may continue several years, during which time epileptiform convulsions develop, with marked tremulousness of the muscles of the face and tongue, the patient becoming maniacal and the whole symptomatology resembling that of general paresis of the insane. …

"Previous to 1901 sleeping sickness was unknown in Uganda. How the present epidemic originated is not positively known. The most generally accepted theory is that the soldiers of Emin Pasha and their followers introduced it, as some ten thousand of them settled in Busoga after the Sudan campaign. …

"The duration of the sleeping sickness in man is very variable. Occasionally cases linger six or even eight years, and until the expiration of this period they are constant foci of infection.

"Recognizing the fatal nature of the disease, the various nations whose territories are most seriously affected, notably England, Germany, Portugal, France, and Belgium, appointed commissioners, with competent assistants, to ascertain methods for its control. The enormous amount of investigation and research accomplished by these self-sacrificing men, among whom may be mentioned Bruce, Koch, Hodges, Broden, Tullock, Kopke, Martin, Hardy, and Kleine, two of whom forfeited their lives in the work, entitles their names to be enrolled among the benefactors of mankind."

_Louis L. Seaman, The Sleeping Sickness (The Outlook, January 15, 1909)._

PUBLIC HEALTH: Tuberculosis: The Organized Warfare for its Eradication.

After the discovery of the all important fact that the most destroying of the diseases of the human race, tuberculosis (the dread "consumption" of the older-fashioned nomenclature of pathology), is in its nature one so propagated from victim to victim that the propagation is needless, and may absolutely be ended by right precautions universally applied, there were ardent workers soon engaged in eager efforts to bring such measures into use. The beginning of a hopefully inspired warfare against the disease dates, therefore, from the identification of the bacillus of tuberculosis by Dr. Robert Koch, in 1882; but, for nearly two decades after that inspiration it was little more than a guerrilla undertaking, by scientifically benevolent individuals and groups, here and there in the world. It was not until the latest years of the nineteenth century and the earliest of the twentieth that more public risings appeared in the movement, and it began to acquire the momentum of a crusade.

Germany appears to have been earliest in the fundamental organization of measures to instruct its people in the nature of the disease, and in the means by which it may be stamped out; as well as in the provision of special sanatoria and hospitals for the new open-air treatment of those attacked. But the Health Department of the City of New York has the credit of being the first official body to bring the disease under efficient administrative control. On this subject Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, in an address delivered, February 16, 1904, under the auspices of the Henry Phipps Institute and published in the first annual report of the Institute, said:

"Notwithstanding all that has been said and written, notwithstanding the popular education and agitation, notwithstanding the formation of antituberculosis societies and antituberculosis leagues, notwithstanding the organization of many associations for the erection of sanatoria, and the foundation of institutions for the study of tuberculosis, notwithstanding the measures adopted for the prevention of the disease in animals, still only a very small percentage of the governmental, municipal and state sanitary authorities of this country, Great Britain and the Continent have adopted provisions which can be regarded as in any way comprehensive, or effective in dealing with this disease.

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"If we seek for an adequate explanation for this attitude, it is not, after all, difficult to find. In speaking of this matter several years ago, Koch said in substance to the writer: ‘The adoption in Germany of such measures as are already in force in New York City will not be possible until the generation of medical men now in control have passed away. Not until a younger generation has appeared, which has had a different scientific training, and holds views more in harmony with the known facts regarding the etiology of tuberculosis, will it be possible in my opinion to bring about an intelligent supervision of this disease. … Notification is a necessary preliminary to any plan of supervision, and yet only five years ago a special commission of the Academy of Medicine of Paris reported against a proposition to place tuberculosis in the class of notifiable diseases. … Sir Richard Thorne, the Medical Officer to the Local Government Board of Great Britain, in the Harben lecture in 1898 on ‘The Administrative Control of Tuberculosis,’ after a careful consideration of the various problems presented under the English law relating to infectious diseases, pronounced definitely against this proposition, on the ground that the hardship to the individual, which would follow notification and the enforcement of proper regulations, would be so great as to render this measure unjustifiable. … The compulsory notification and registration of all cases is essential. The fundamental importance of this measure is so evident that its consideration seems hardly necessary. It must of course appear at once that unless there is a system of compulsory notification, and registration, the enforcement of any uniform measures for prevention is impossible. Practical experience with this procedure has made it perfectly clear that the objections which have been urged against it are without force or foundation.

"In New York City in 1893 a system of partially voluntary and partially compulsory notification was adopted. Public institutions were required to report cases coming under their supervision; private physicians were requested to do this. Under this provision the Department of Health carried on this work for three and a half years, and then adopted in 1897 regulations requiring the notification of all cases. … The mere fact of notification and registration has in itself a very powerful educational influence. During the year 1902 more than sixteen thousand cases were reported to the Department of Health in New York City, of which forty-two hundred were duplicates, and in 1903 more than seventeen thousand cases were reported.

"To facilitate the early and definite diagnosis of all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, the sanitary authorities should afford facilities for the free bacteriological examination of the sputum in all instances of suspected disease. … The Department of Health of New York City provided facilities for such examinations in 1894, early in the history of its attempt to exercise control over the disease, and this procedure has proved of very great value to the medical profession, to the sick, and to the authorities. Following the example of New York City, other sanitary authorities have adopted similar measures."

_H. M. Biggs, The Administrative Control of Tuberculosis (First Annual Report, Henry Phipps Institute, 1905)._

In 1895 a Central Committee was organized in Germany to establish special hospitals for the disease.

In 1898 the first National Congress for discussion and better organization of action relative to tuberculosis was held at Paris, with some attendance from outside of France. The second National Congress was at Berlin in the following year, with similar attendance from other countries, and the third at Naples in 1900. At the Naples Congress a "Central International Committee for the Prevention of Tuberculosis" was organized, and it held its first Conference in Berlin, under the auspices of the Central German Committee, in 1902. The succeeding meetings of the Central International Committee were at Paris, 1903, at Copenhagen, 1904, at Paris again, 1904, and there, at that time, the First International Congress on Tuberculosis was held.

In 1901 the first National Congress in Great Britain for the discussion of Tuberculosis and for organizing preventive undertakings was held at London. There were said to be then fifty sanitaria for its treatment in Germany; in France a dozen private and two public institutions for the purpose; in France and Belgium a number of public dispensaries specially provided for the disease. In that year the State of New York made its first appropriation for a Tuberculosis Hospital in the Adirondacks, and a National Sanitarium Association at Toronto, Canada, secured the site for a hospital.

In 1902, at the annual meeting of the Canada Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, held at Ottawa, Dr. A. S. Knopf, of New York, speaking of the progress of the anti-tuberculosis movement, said of the United States: "We have but a few small societies striving to do the same work you are doing. They are the Pennsylvania, the Colorado, the Ohio, the Maine, the Minnesota and the Illinois." Besides these State Associations the speaker mentioned a few cities,—Baltimore, Buffalo and Erie County, Cleveland, and St. Louis,—as having some organization for the work. No national organization had yet been formed. In this year, however, some advances of importance within the United States were begun. Henry Phipps, of New York, pledged the means for supporting a free Clinic for Tuberculosis at Philadelphia, which expanded within a year into the Henry Phipps Institute, founded on the 1st of February and incorporated September 1st, 1903, the purposes of which, as set forth in its charter, are: "The study of the cause, treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis, and the dissemination of knowledge on these subjects; the treatment and the cure of consumptives"; its benefits to be "administered without regard to race, creed or color." In this year, too, an active educational work, by weekly free lectures in the Assembly Hall of the United Charities Building, by distributing pamphlets, district nursing, etc., was opened in the City of New York and conducted by a Committee for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. Massachusetts was now appropriating money for its second sanatorium. In Great Britain, Sir Edward Cassell placed £200,000 at the disposal of the King for Tuberculosis hospitals and Sanatoria.

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The year 1903 witnessed an important meeting at Paris of the Central International Tuberculosis Committee, which was stirred by an appeal from Casimir-Perier, ex-President of France, for "a mobilization of all social forces" against the devastating disease. The Government of Sweden instituted a free distribution of pamphlets on the subject of Tuberculosis throughout the kingdom. In Great Britain a national committee, representing all important friendly societies and trade unions, was formed to promote the establishing of sanatoria for workers. In Belgium, Madame Rene Gauge started the movement for Open Air Schools. At Baltimore a Tuberculosis Exhibition which awakened wide interest was arranged by a Commission appointed by the Governor of Maryland in the previous year, in cooperation with the Maryland Public Health Association. State and City organizations for dealing with the disease and for educating the people to a right understanding of the means by which it might be stamped out were now multiplying rapidly throughout the United States.

In 1904 the United States obtained their first comprehensive organization for the work. The National Association for Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis was formed at a large meeting at Atlantic City in June, with Dr. Edward Trudeau of Saranac, founder of the Saranac cottage sanatoria and pioneer in America of the open air treatment of the disease, for its President, and Drs. William Osier, of Baltimore, and Hermann M. Biggs for Vice Presidents. In Boston, that year, no less than eighty-one free lectures on Tuberculosis were given in schools, churches, social settlements, before trade unions and clubs, under the auspices of the Boston Association, and 70,000 instructive leaflets were distributed. In France a special Society for the Protection of Children from Tuberculosis was formed. The Garment-makers Union and the Typographical Union of New York entered jointly into undertakings of educational work among their members, and the Central Federated Union was soon enlisted with them. A Directory of Institutions and Societies dealing with Tuberculosis in the United States, published in January, 1905, described 125 then existing hospitals and sanatoria in which consumptives may receive treatment, and 32 special dispensaries; recounting, also, special measures for the treatment of the disease in penal institutions and hospitals for the insane.

The most important campaign of 1905 in the crusade, within the American field, was probably that connected with the great Tuberculosis Exposition in New York City, prepared and conducted by the National Association, in cooperation with the Committee of the New York Charity Organization Society. New York City, in this year, appropriated $250,000 for a Municipal Tuberculosis Hospital, located in the Catskill Mountains.

In 1906 a duplication of the Tuberculosis Exposition of the previous December in New York was carried, as a travelling exhibit, to different parts of the city, with impressive effect; and similar exhibits were given in eleven cities of the United States. It was reported in this year that about fifty local commissions and associations were actively in operation in the United States; and that the American Federation of Labor, as well as the American Federation of Women’s Clubs, were enlisted with earnestness in the work. The Fifth International Conference was held this year at The Hague.

From this time the public awakening to recognition of the measureless importance and the inspiring hopefulness of the struggle to extinguish the deadly "white plague" spread rapidly everywhere, and each year made increasing records of gains in the work and its effects. Fourteen of the American States were reported in 1907 as having founded State hospitals for the disease, supported from public funds, while measures were in progress to that end in a number of other States.

In 1908 a most powerful impulse to the crusade in America was imparted by the meeting at Washington, that year, of the International Congress on Tuberculosis, with a large attendance of the most distinguished captains of the warfare from abroad. The local interest aroused was beyond expectation. As one writer described the meetings of the seven sections of the Congress, from September 28 to October 3, "scientists of international reputation and doctors from country villages, clubwomen, architects, social workers, manufacturers, teachers, labor men, Socialists, literary men, lawyers and lawmakers, society women, and the clergy, were all there, not only to listen, but to take part."

The subjects which received the most discussion at the Congress were the compulsory notification of pulmonary tuberculosis, the cooperation between official and non-official agencies for the prevention of the disease, the relationship between dispensaries, sanatoria, and hospitals for advanced cases, and the difference between the human and the bovine types of the bacillus. On this latter subject Dr. Koch, who was present, maintained his belief that bovine tuberculosis is not communicable to mankind, but failed to convince the majority of the scientists present. The British delegates to the Congress in their subsequent report of it, published in April, 1909, attached particular importance to the discussions on the subject of the compulsory notification of cases of tuberculosis, and pointed out that in New York the notifications were shown to be four times as numerous as the deaths, which indicated a more complete system than any yet operative in Great Britain. It appeared from their report, however, that, since the Washington meeting, the system of voluntary notification already practised in many parts of England had been extended by order of the Local Government Board, and rendered compulsory in the case of all patients suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, who came under the official care of a parochial medical officer.

Statistics quoted in the New York _Evening Post_ of May 8, 1909, from the _Imperial Gazette_, show that in recent years there has been a steady decrease in the number of deaths in Germany from tuberculosis, and especially from tuberculosis of the lungs. The figures are based upon the monthly reports of deaths in 350 of the largest centres of population in the empire, and upon annual reports as to the causes of deaths from nearly all districts, as supplied to the Imperial Board of Health. The average of deaths per 100,000 in 1905 was 226.6. In 1908 the average had fallen to 192.15. For the rural and urban population combined statistics are forthcoming for 97 per cent. of the total population, divided into two classes—persons below the age of fifteen, and persons between fifteen and sixty. {526} In the latter class the average number of deaths annually between 1898 and 1902 from tuberculosis in all forms was 268.5, and from tuberculosis of the lungs, 255.7 per 100,000. During the period 1903-1907 the annual averages decreased to 242.8 and 228.8 per 100,000, respectively. The figures, however, for tuberculosis of all kinds among children between the ages of one year and fifteen show an average annual increase in deaths per 100,000 from 77.9 during the period 1898-1902 to 81.1 during the period 1903-1907. Yet during the latter period of five years the actual number of deaths among children has gradually decreased from 16,250 in 1905 to 14,283 in 1907. For the two classes together the annual average of deaths per 100,000 was as follows: From 1898-1902—from tuberculosis in all forms, 214.1, and from tuberculosis of the lungs 195.2; from 1903-1907—from tuberculosis in all forms 197.8, and from tuberculosis of the lungs 174.2.

According to a bulletin published in October, 1909, by Cressy L. Wilbur, Chief Statistician of the division of Vital Statistics in the United States Census Bureau, the warfare against tuberculosis has begun to show general effects in the United States. The statistics given are based on the annual returns of deaths from the death-registration areas of the country, which are far from comprehending the whole. The total number of deaths from all forms of tuberculosis returned in 1908 was 78,289, exceeding those of any previous year of registration, but the death rate per 100,000 for 1908 is considerably less than that for 1907. In all registration States the death from tuberculosis showed a decline, except in Colorado, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

A Press despatch from Washington, August 9, 1909, announced that "a plan for the organization of negro anti-tuberculosis leagues in the various States, proposed recently by the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, has met with a quick response. Already five State organizations have been formed, and the movement has received the endorsement of the last conference of the State and Territorial boards of health. State leagues have been formed in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. One of the principal features of the plan is the issuance of a large certificate of membership to each supporter of the movement. Branches of the State leagues are to be established in the various negro churches."

In July, 1909, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company made application to the New York State Insurance Department for permission to purchase a tract of land, 3000 acres or more, and erect thereon a sanatorium for the treatment of its employees, and possibly of its policy-holders who suffered from tuberculosis. The company was said to have ascertained that among the holders of its 9,000,000 policies there occurred, on the average, a death every thirty-two minutes from tuberculosis, and that, regarded wholly from the economic standpoint, it would be more than justified in applying its funds to such a measure for saving or prolonging life in that body of people. The Superintendent of Insurance was unable, however, to find any warrant in law for authorizing the undertaking, and felt required to deny the application. The company appealed from his decision to the courts, and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State handed down a decision early in January, 1910, declaring the plan to purchase real estate to be used as a hospital for the care and treatment of its employees who are afflicted with tuberculosis does not violate that provision of the law which prohibits insurance companies from acquiring real estate for any purpose other than that of the transaction of their own business. "The court passes lightly over the question of the possibility of the hospital being used, in case vacancies exist in it, for the accommodation of selected cases from among the policy-holders. This possibility, it seems, had been indicated in the original petition, but ‘the briefs of counsel upon either side,’ says the court, ‘have practically eliminated that question.’ In such a use of the hospital there might be serious question of a precedent that would be open to grave objection."

Gifts to the amount of $700,000 for the establishment of a tuberculosis preventorium for children were announced from New York, through the Associated Press, November 9, 1909. The further statement was made that, "in connection with the tuberculosis preventorium a movement has been organized which purposes to take from New York tenements children who have been affected with tuberculosis and restore them to normal health before it is too late. The plan was formally organized at a meeting this afternoon in the Fifth avenue residence of Henry Phipps. A contribution to the work by Nathan Straus includes a $500,000 cottage and estate at Lakewood, New Jersey, occupied by the late Grover Cleveland just before his death. There the new institution will have its home. Miss Dorothy Whitney contributed a $100,000 endowment fund."

PUBLIC HEALTH: Yellow Fever: Eradication in Cuba, at Rio Janeiro, and in French Western Africa.

"Three signal victories have been gained over yellow fever during these later years—in Cuba, in Brazil, and in Dakar, in West Africa. The first is the most memorable of these events. It is the purification of the endemic center at Habana. This occurred in 1901, during the United States occupation. The daily press in countless articles has spread the details. We know that Brigadier General Leonard Wood, governor of Habana, decreed one fine day that the plague should be wiped out and the mosquitoes destroyed throughout the entire city of Habana and its suburbs, and we know that it was done. …

"The theory was that the mosquito is the sole disseminator of the disease. This is precisely what the United States commission, appointed the year before, had just proven. It had shown that all the other supposed cases of contagion were imaginary. …

"The yellow fever Stegomya does not breed in swamps. It has not the habits of the Anophele of the marsh, the malaria mosquito. It does not live like that one, in the open country, but dwells in houses. It is a domestic insect. It stays at home, is wary, and is sensitive to the weather. Like many other mosquitoes, it never goes more than 500 or 600 yards away from its breeding place and journeys only when its home —a vessel or a carriage—journeys. There is no need to fear that the insect may be carried far by the wind, for it dreads the wind. It does not trust itself outdoors when there is the slightest breeze. The problem is thus simplified. {527} It is no longer a question of protecting immense areas. It is enough to protect the house and its immediate environs—the city and a limited surrounding zone. Still it would be useless to capture the insect on the wing or at rest. It is permitted to complete its short life, but is not allowed to have offspring . The female is prevented from laying its eggs. This is accomplished by draining stagnant water left in so many gardens and household utensils where the mosquito seeks a breeding place. Hence the efficacy of the measures which forbade the people of Habana from keeping water in any other way than in covered receptacles or with a coat of oil or petroleum on top.

"The success of the measures taken by the American physicians, Gorgas, Finlay, and Guiteras, in Habana, was complete. Yellow fever has disappeared from there. On April 4, 1904, the President of the Republic of Cuba, in his message to the Congress, spoke thus:

"‘There has not been in Cuba since 1901 a single case of yellow fever not imported. The country should know of this excellent sanitary condition, which is due to the perfection of prophylactic measures and the vigilance of the health authorities.’

"Events happened in the same way in Brazil. Dr. Oswald Cruz, in charge of the organization of the campaign against yellow fever, with equal success repeated at Rio de Janeiro what had been done in Habana. The enforcement of the measures began April 20, 1903. The mortality which before had averaged 150 deaths a month fell to 8 in the month of April and to 4 in June. In January, 1904, there were recorded only 3 deaths.

"France decided to follow these encouraging examples. The governor-general of French Western Africa, M. Roume, adopted an administration analogous to that of Habana and Rio de Janeiro, and he knew how to profit by these examples."

_A. Dastre, The Fight against Yellow Fever (Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1904-1905, pages 348-350)._

----------PUBLIC HEALTH: End--------

PUBLIC UTILITIES, Regulation of: The New York and Wisconsin Laws.

The most comprehensive and well-prepared legislation yet directed in the United States to the control and regulation of corporations which render services to the public, of the nature described by the term "public utilities," is undoubtedly embodied in the New York and Wisconsin laws, enacted in 1907. Both States, and many others, had experimented previously with measures for establishing a certain degree of supervision and regulation over railway corporations, gas companies, and the like, dealing separately with them; but, excepting perhaps, in the case of Massachusetts, this had not been satisfactorily effective. Governor Hughes, of New York, was the real author of the Public Utilities Law enacted in that State in 1907, and his influence was the impelling force which carried it through the Legislature.

See(in this Volume) NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1906-1910).

Almost equally, ex-Governor La Follette must be credited, not immediately, but primarily, with the organization of the forces which brought out the Wisconsin Law.

The two enactments are compared by Professor John R. Commons in an article published in the _American Review of Reviews_, of August, 1907, from which the following passages are quoted:

"The Wisconsin and New York laws are alike in that both State utilities like railroads and municipal utilities like gas are brought under the regulation of the same commission. They differ from the laws of Massachusetts, which provide a separate commission for railways. These three States, however, are the only ones that regulate municipal utilities through a State commission. Many other States have railroad commissions, but they leave whatever regulation they have of local utilities to the local governments. … A significant feature of the Wisconsin legislation is its disregard of stocks and bonds and its reliance on the physical valuation of the property as the first step in regulation. The New York law and the Street-Railway law of Massachusetts attack the problem of regulation through the control of future capitalization. The New York commissions have power to prohibit the issue and transfer of stocks, bonds, and other evidence of indebtedness, and to prevent the transfer of shares to holding companies. The Wisconsin law begins at the other end of the problem and, for the purpose both of regulation and of publicity, inquires into the present structural value of the property. This does not mean that the commission shall disregard other elements of valuation,—in fact, it is required by the law to take all elements into account, as indeed the courts would require if it did not. But the physical valuation is necessary in order that the public and the courts may know exactly how much is allowed for the other elements. The commission is required to value all of the properties in the State and to publish both the actual value ascertained when all elements are taken into account and the physical value ascertained by its engineers. …

"The [Wisconsin] law as finally adopted consists really of three laws: First, an amendment to the Railway law of 1905, placing telegraph companies and street railways under the same provisions as steam railways and interurban electric lines; second, the Public-Utilities law proper, regulating heat, light, water, power, and telephone companies; third, a Street-Railway law providing for indeterminate permits similar to those of the Public-Utilities law. A fourth bill, requiring physical connection and prohibiting duplication of telephone exchanges, was defeated by a vote of the Assembly."

The New York Law created two Public Utilities Commissions of five members each, one having jurisdiction in a district comprising New York City alone, the district of the other (known as the Up-State Commission) comprehending the remainder of the State. The five-year terms of the Commissioners expire in successive years. Appointed by the Governor, they are intended to be men of the highest character and qualifications, and receive salaries of $15,000 each. The appointments by Governor Hughes for the New York City Commission were of ex-Postmaster William R. Wilcox, William McCarroll, Edward M. Bassett, Milo R. Maltbie, John E. Eustis. For the Up-State Commission he named originally Honorable Frank W. Stevens, of Jamestown, Charles H. Keep, of Buffalo, Thomas M. Osborne, of Auburn, James E. Sague and Martin S. Decker. Mr. Keep resigned subsequently to accept the presidency of an important New York City bank, and John B. Olmsted, of Buffalo, was appointed in his place.

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PUBLIC UTILITIES: New York City Gas Company.

In 1906 the New York Legislature passed a bill reducing the price of gas in New York City to 80 cents per thousand feet. The gas companies claimed that this rate was confiscatory. Pending final decision of the matter the citizens were compelled to pay the old rate of $1.00 per thousand. Ultimately the law was sustained, and the gas companies refunded over eight millions of dollars in 1909 to the consumers of the past three years.

See, also (in this Volume), RAILWAYS.

PUNJAB: The Plague.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE.

PUNJAB: Terrific Earthquake.

See(in this Volume) EARTHQUAKES: INDIA: A. D. 1905.

PURE FOOD LEGISLATION.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.

PU-YI (Hsuan-Tung): Child Emperor of China.

See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1908 (NOVEMBER).

Q.

QUEBEC, City of: A. D. 1908. Tercentenary Celebration of its Founding.

See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1908 (JULY).

QUEBEC, Province of: A. D. 1901. Census.

See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.

R.

----------RACE PROBLEMS: Start--------

RACE PROBLEMS: In Australia: Between Europeans and Asiatics.

"Australia occupies a unique position among the nations. It is an island, lying far from the populated centres of the Old World and in close proximity to Java and the teeming millions of Southern and Eastern Asia, who at any time may bear down in flood upon the scanty forces of the defenders. These pent-up myriads are at present in a state of unrest, and there are evidences of a distinct inclination on their part to break bounds and descend upon the coasts of the great southern land. On the north-eastern shores of the continent they have already broken through the thin red line of the British, and have firmly established themselves in the country beyond. Thursday Island, which stands at the northern entrance of the passage between the Great Barrier Reef and the shores of Queensland, has been styled the Gibraltar of Australia, and large sums of money have been spent by the Imperial and Australian Governments in fortifying it. Since it became open to the Eastern nations, the Japanese have discovered twenty different channels through the reef, by any one of which they could avoid the forts and gain an entrance to the sea within the barrier. A few years ago there were 2000 Europeans on Thursday Island, engaged in the pearl-shelling industry; but they were gradually elbowed out until to-day they number less than 100.

"The late Professor C. H. Pearson, at one time Minister for Education in Victoria, and one of the most intellectual statesmen who ever resided in Australia, in his _National Life and Character_, admirably summarised the dangers to which his adopted country was exposed by reason of its situation, and the motives which actuated the various colonial Governments in passing enactments designed to place some restriction on the wholesale flooding of their territories.

"‘The fear of Chinese immigration which the Australian democracy cherishes, and which Englishmen at home find it hard to understand, is, in fact, the instinct of self-preservation, quickened by experience. We know that coloured and white labour cannot exist side by side; we are well aware that China can swamp us with a single year’s surplus of population; and we know that if national existence is sacrificed to the working of a few mines and sugar plantations, it is not the Englishmen in Australia alone, but the whole civilised world that will be the losers. Transform the northern half of our continent into a Natal, with thirteen out of fourteen belonging to an inferior race, and the southern half will speedily approximate to the condition of Cape Colony, where the whites are indeed a masterful minority, but still only as one in four. We are guarding the last part of the world in which the higher races can live and increase freely for the higher civilisation. It is idle to say that if all this should come to pass our pride of place will not be humiliated. We are struggling among ourselves for supremacy in a world which we thought as destined to belong to the Aryan race and to the Christian faith, to the letters and arts and charm of social manners which we have inherited from the best times of the past. We shall wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, perhaps even thrust aside by peoples whom we looked down upon as servile and thought of as bound always to minister to our needs.’ …

"The Greater Britain that is to be may be the best security for the Mother Land in years to come, and her natural ally and friend. Australian statesmen claim that they are not only safe-guarding British interests, but also legislating for posterity and looking forward to the time—perhaps a century hence—when the population of the Commonwealth may be one hundred millions or even more.

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"At the present the Australian race is in a plastic condition, and whether it will become, as Marcus Clarke predicted, ‘a fierce and turbulent democracy, sweeping contemporary civilisation before it,’ or, as seems more probable, a practical and enlightened people, troubles it little. Leaders and followers of every political cast, Conservatives, Liberals, and Radicals, have now but one national ideal—Purity of Race. They recognise that hybrids cannot make a great nation; that an infusion of Chinese, Japanese, or Indo-Chinese blood must result in race deterioration; and that, if they are to live happily and prosperously, it must be with no strangers within their gates other than those of Caucasian descent who are able to conform to the conditions and customs of civilised communities."

_O. P. Law, W. T. Gill, A White Australia (Nineteenth Century, January, 1904)._

"The great Australian Commonwealth has indeed gone very far in many directions in its war against workers of other races than the white. Thus, no contract can be made for the carrying of Australian mails with any steamship line which allows a colored man to work on any of its ships. This is a new measure, and it has been of late the subject of a lively controversy between the Australian government and the two Chamberlains in London,—namely, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the colonial secretary, and his son, Mr. Austin Chamberlain, who is now serving as British postmaster-general.

"The fact is that mail-carrying steamship companies which have hitherto performed the service of carrying mails back and forth between Great Britain and the Australian ports have been largely manned by dark-skinned British subjects who are natives of India, and the British Government is under a special obligation not to discriminate against these Indians in view of certain clauses in what is known as the Mutiny Act in India. These same ships, it is to be remembered, will carry, also, the Indian mails, and it would be manifestly impossible for Lord Curzon’s government of India to join in mail contracts containing clauses excluding dark-skinned men from employment."

_American Review of Reviews, September, 1903._

See (in this Volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1905-1906, and 1909.

RACE PROBLEMS: In Canada: Hostility to Asiatic Labor. Restriction of Chinese Immigration. Riotous attacks on Japanese, Chinese, and Hindu Laborers in British Columbia.

The opposition of organized labor to Asiatic immigration, on the Canadian Pacific Coast, directed first against an influx of Chinese, brought about, in 1904, the imposition of a head-tax of $500 on every person of Chinese origin entering Canada thereafter, with the following exceptions:

"(a) The members of the diplomatic corps, or other government representatives, their suites and their servants, and consuls and consular agents;

"(b) The children born in Canada of parents of Chinese origin and who have left Canada for educational or other purposes, on substantiating their identity to the satisfaction of the controller at the port or place where they seek to enter on their return;

"(c) Merchants, their wives and children, the wives and children of clergymen, tourists, men of science and students, who shall substantiate their status to the satisfaction of the controller, subject to the approval of the Minister, or who are bearers of certificates of identity, or other similar documents issued by the government or by a recognized official or representative of the government whose subjects they are, specifying their occupation and their object in coming into Canada."

This was an effective restriction; but left the door open to other "coolie" laborers, so-called, from Japan and India, whence large numbers were soon coming into British Columbia, and the labor agitation was directed against them, on the Canadian as well as the United States side of the line in the farther Northwest. It came to its climax of violence in the fall of 1907, when serious riots broke out at Vancouver, British Columbia, and at Bellingham, in the State of Washington. Many hundreds of Japanese, Chinese, and Hindus had been employed in the lumber mills and canneries of the Washington and British Columbia coast towns, displacing white labor. "In each case a mob of white men raided the mills where the foreigners were employed, battered down the doors of their lodging houses, dragged the Hindus from their beds, and drove them with violence from the town. The Hindus of Bellingham fled northward to the protection of the British flag. At Vancouver the rioters also attacked Chinese and Japanese merchants and laborers, breaking into their shops and pillaging and destroying $20,000 worth of property. Two thousand Chinese and Japanese were driven from their homes. Later, a number of Japanese immigrants, just landed from a steamer, were attacked and in the riot that followed Baron Ishii, chief of the Japanese Bureau of Foreign Commerce, was severely injured. The Orientals, under the leadership of the Japanese, immediately organized for defense, and, having secured firearms and other weapons, the situation took on a very serious aspect."

The situation was made especially embarrassing to the British and Canadian Governments by the relations of alliance existing between Great Britain and Japan, and by the fact that the Hindus attacked are British subjects, having their established rights as such. But skilful and careful handling of the matter was successful in quieting the trouble, possibly in a lasting way. The Japanese Government, on its own part, has undertaken to restrict the emigration of its laboring classes to Canada as well as to the United States.

Important changes in the regulations governing the immigration of Chinese were announced in a despatch from Ottawa, July 11, 1909:

"While the poll-tax of £100 on coolies is retained, the restrictions applicable to students and the sons of Chinese merchants are considerably modified. Students who already possess a liberal education, but desire to pursue a higher course of study in any Canadian University or college, are exempt from the tax. Students who intend to pursue their studies in the Dominion but are unable to produce proof of their status on entry are required to deposit the amount of the tax, but the money will be refunded on production of a certificate that they have passed two scholastic years at some seat of learning. The present law permits all Chinese visiting China to return to Canada within a year without a second payment. This has been a hardship to Chinese who have been