--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - J. M. Tanner collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 2 published: 1900-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. M. Tanner, "Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 2 (December 1900): 123–130.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0402unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0402unse start_page: 123 end_page: 130 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1900-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0402unse publication_year: 1900 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1900, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. BY DR. J. M. TANNER. Situation in China. Ever since the relief of Pekin, and the escape of the royal family, including the emperor and the empress dowager, the difficulties of the great powers have been of two kinds. The first, and perhaps the most serious one, has been the lack of harmony among the powers themselves to agree upon any definite line of policy to be pursued. The second, has been the unsatisfactory negotiations and relations between the great powers and the imperial government of China. The early expressed desires of Russia and the United States to withdraw the allied armies, as soon as possible, from Pekin, found no response among the Germans who insisted that Germany had a real grievance in the assassination of its former minister, and before German troops could be withdrawn from the capital, it was incumbent upon the Chinese to render an account to Germany, not only by indemnity, but also by punishment of the ringleaders whose guilty acts led to the assassination of her embassador. It is not unlikely that behind these demands of Germany there were couched certain concessions and certain assurances that China would do otherwise in the future. In the position which Germany took as against the attitude of the United States and Russia, England was most in harmony, and for once during a period of thirty years, Germany and Great Britain have found themselves united 124 IMPROVEMENT ERA. upon a common understanding. They have entered into an agreement by which they indicated their desire that China should not be dismembered and that the open-door should be maintained in all its provinces. As to what these nations would do in case any other powers undertook to annex any part of China, the agreement is not quite clear, but it is sufficiently definite to give the world to understand that whatever policy they will pursue in such an event, they would be united upon it. This practically means that the latest division of the powers in their Chinese policy is as follows: Germany, England, United States and Japan on one side, and Russia and perhaps France on the other. News has reached the United States that Russia has made annexations of certain parts, if not of the whole, of Manchuria. It is hardly likely that Russia has made a formal annexation of that part of the empire, but it is quite likely that she has taken upon herself the task of restoring order. The restoration of order in Manchuria, means what it means elsewhere when the Russians have had to deal with Asiatic peoples not within the domain of her empire; that is, practical annexation. The reports of the severity and cruelty of the Russians towards the Chinese, in different parts of Manchuria, are of the most horrifying kind. Along one of the rivers, it is said, the waters are practically clogged by thousands of mutilated and dead Chinese that have been thrown into the river. They have been so thick as to impede the progress of the Russian steamboats. It is, however, to be doubted whether the great powers will consent to the formal annexation of Manchuria to Russia. The interests of the United States would be greatly involved, as perhaps seven-eighths of all our trade go to that part of the country. The administration of this country is now free from all campaign questions, and will undoubtedly deal with the situation independently of any advantage that may be taken for campaign purposes, and we may reasonably expect that the attitude of our administration in China will be firmer than it has been heretofore. One of the most notable observations made in connection with the Chinese question is the conflicting reports that come from partisans who either represent the Christian powers, on the one hand, or the rights and liberties of the Chinese, on the other. CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 125 There can be no doubt, however, that the Chinese question has two sides, and that there has been some cause for the popular uprising in that empire. A vast amount of popular literature is now circulated throughout this country, and no doubt throughout the world, and whatever relates to China is eagerly sought after and read by those who are interested in foreign questions, and who are endeavoring to keep abreast of the times. China has a right to the highest and best thought of the diplomatic and political world. There is no greater question today awaiting the solution of civilization and the future, than that of the revolution in China. Progress of the Boer War* In South Africa, the contention between the Boers and Great Britain has reduced itself to guerrilla warfare. In the mountainous region to the east of Pretoria, small bands of marauding Boers have taken the defensive position, at the same time keeping up intermitting attacks on detached bodies of English soldiers. It would be difficult to dislodge these detached Boer forces without severe loss to the British, and it is likely that the struggle will continue for some time. Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal Republic, left the country, and recently set sail from Lourenco Marques on a Netherland steamer called the Gelderland, and on November 14, the dispatches stated that he had arrived at the Suez Canal. Whether President Kruger has resigned, or whether he has gone to Europe for diplomatic purposes, he has not made clear to the world. England, however, has issued a proclamation annexing the Republic of the Transvaal to Great Britain, which hereafter will be known as the Vaal River Colony. General Buller recently returned to Great Britain. While some demonstration awaited him on his return, it was certainly not of such a character as to give encouragement to the belief that the English appreciate very highly his military efforts in South Africa. Large numbers of the Boers have begun emigration, and, within little more than a week, something like two thousand of the leading families set sail for Lourenco Marques, and it is said their ultimate destination is the United States. It is believed by many that a general migration will take place, and that the British Colo- 126 IMPROVEMENT ERA. nies in South Africa will suffer the loss of an industrial class of people who, if they could be induced to remain in that country, would be a material aid in developing its resources. The Hall of Fame. Thirty names out of fifty have now been chosen for the memorial panels of the Hall of Fame. The count was completed on the twelfth of October. One hundred judges were chosen who were to vote for the names to be selected. Ninetyseven of them voted and the following selection of thirty, names, with the vote cast for each, was the result. All students of American history will agree that the names chosen are clearly and justly entitled to the honor, and all the school boys, above the primary grade, and especially all members of the Y. M. M. I. A., should be able off-hand to identify each and tell its title to fame: George Washington . 97 George Peabody . 72 Abraham Lincoln 96 Nathaniel Hawthorne 72 Daniel Webster . 96 Robert E. Lee 69 Benjamin Franklin 94 Peter Cooper . 68 Ulysses S. Grant . . 92 Horace Mann 69 John Marshall 91 Eli Whitney . 66 Thomas Jefferson . . 90 Henry Ward Beecher . 66 Ralph Waldo Emerson 86 James Kent 65 Henry W. Longfellow . 84 Joseph Story 64 Robert Fulton . 84 John Adams 61 Washington Irving . . 82 William Ellery Channing 58 Jonathan Edwards 82 John James Audubon 57 Samuel F. B. Morse . 79 Elias Howe . 53 David G. Farragut 79 Gilbert Stuart . 52 Henry Clay . . 74 Asa Gray 51 The Hall of Fame stands upon the western verge of a plateau at Morris Hights, upon which have been erected the buildings of the New York University. It is built in a semi-circle and has two stories, the lower consisting of a hall along which may be ranged memorials to the dead, the second story being open and constructed with a colonnade. "In the pavement at intervals," says Public Opinion, "will be bronze tablets, each inscribed with a great name. Between the columns will stand statues. A second Hall of Fame CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 127 is to be built for those who have become Americans by adoption. The new structure is to be harmonious in architecture, and will contain one-fifth of the space of the present hall. The plan has been formally ratified by the university senate." Three Noted Citizens of the "World. With the close of October, three noted citizens of the world passed away — Charles Dudley Warner, the American editor and essayist, who died at Hartford, Connecticut, October 20; John Sherman, the great statesman and politician, who died in his Washington home, on the 22nd; and Friederich Maximilian Muller, the German-English Sanskrit scholar and first professor of comparative philology in Oxford, who died in London on the 28th. Charles Dudley Warner was born at Plainfield, Massachusetts, September 12, 1829, and graduated at Hamilton College, 1851. For four years, he practiced law in Chicago, but in 1861 became editor of the Hartford Press, and later of the Courant, and, in 1884, associate-editor of Harper's Magazine, where he held the "Easy Chair," contributing to that department a series of delightful, short essays. He wrote many books — one with Mark Twain, "The Gilded Age" — and was the editor-in-chief of Warner's "Library of the World's Best Literature." He was a man of high literary ability, who wrote in charming style, and with a genuineness of delicate good humor that could not fail to be enjoyed and appreciated by the cultivated reader. John Sherman was born at Lancaster, Ohio, May 10, 1823, and was a brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. He was admitted to the bar in 1844. Since 1855, when he became a member of Congress from Ohio, until 1898, when, about the time of the Spanish war, he resigned as secretary of state in President McKinley's cabinet, he saw forty-three years of service at the nation's capital. He was one of the recognized leaders of his party, for the greater portion of that period — a statesman, known not only in this country, but in every part of the civilized world. In his various callings, he will always be best known through his connection with the national finances, having much to do with legislation and executive 128 IMPROVEMENT ERA. management that were associated with the development of financial conditions. He was the guiding hand in the legislation and management which accompanied so-called resumption of specie payment after the civil war. He was a man of great force of character, of unbounded energy, extraordinary power of analysis, cold and severe in manner, but full of integrity and generous impulses, who will be accorded a place in the front ranks of the nationmakers of the world. Max Muller was born at Dessau, Germany, December 6, 1823. He was educated at Leipsic, Berlin, and Paris. He went to England in 1850, where he was held in high esteem, and where he became professor at Oxford in 1854, first of modern languages and literature, and since 1868 of comparative philology. He has written many books on oriental languages and on religion. . He edited a series of translations of the sacred books of the east, of which the first was printed in 1870, since which time forty-nine other volumes have been published. His latest work, "Auld Lang Syne," a volume of reminiscences, was published in 1898. "Chips from a German Workshop" in four volumes, contains many of his leading essays. Though not always considered sound in his deductions and comparisons, being led away in some instances by his poetic nature, it must be conceded that to him more than to any other man, "is due the opening of the wisdom of India to the English-speaking world." His theory that the cradle of the Aryan language must be sought for in Central Asia, is not now regarded as correct. The Australasian Federation, With the beginning of the twentieth century, on January 1, 1901, the Australasian Commonwealth will be duly proclaimed, and a new federation in the south seas will have been born. On the 4th of October last, the Governor-General, Earl Hopetoun, sailed from England, the mother country, to act as the first ruler of this southern nation. Every preliminary has been arranged for the new government, and the election machinery will soon be set in motion to chose the local officers. The Commonwealth Act provides for the following colonies to become states: New Zealand, New South Wales, Tasmania, Queens- CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 129 land, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia — in fact the whole of Australasia — all of which colonies, except New Zealand, have given their consent to the federation. The colonies named in the act have an area of 3,077,374 square miles which is about fifty thousand square miles more territory than is under the domain of the Stars and Stripes, if we leave out Alaska and the Philippines. When the United States declared themselves a nation, we had a population of about three million five hundred thousand, but Australia alone of this new federation, has now a population of 4,750,000 whites. Its agricultural and mining industries have greatly developed; it has one hundred million sheep and twelve million cattle, its mines yield one hundred million!dollars per annum, while there are nearly fifteen thousand miles of railway; and yet only the fringe of the continent of Australia has been settled, and that only sparsely. The possibilities of growth for the future can scarcely be conjectured. In fifty or a hundred years, these new United [States of Asia may rival those of America, in number, wealth and greatness. The constitution under which the Australasian federation is to be governed is modeled closely after that of the United States. The commonwealth remains a part of the empire of Great Britain, but the kingly power is a mere name, for the people will practically govern themselves. Their parliament in its limited legislative sphere is practically supreme, for while the governor-general who is appointed *by the queen of England, has the vetoing power, the circumstances surrounding it make that power seldom used. It is a rare thing, indeed for the imperial government to interfere with the decisions of a colonial parliament. There is the best of feeling existing between the mother country and the people of the new government, as witness the part taken by citizens of Australia in the South African War. The crowning of the young queen of the south is beautifully described in a poem by Rudyard Kipling. He speaks of the new federation coming to the old queen to be crowned : Her hand still on her sword-hilt — the spur was still on her heel — She had not cast her harness of gray war-dinted steel: High on her red-splashed charger, beautiful bold and browned, Bright-eyed out of the battle, the young Queen rode to be crowned. 130 IMPROVEMENT ERA. England, the old queen, answers: "How can I crown thee further, 0 queen of the Sovereign South?" To which the young queen gives reply: "It shall be crown of our crowning to hold our crown for a gift. In the days when our folk were feeble thy sword made sure our lands — Wherefore we come in power to beg our crown at thy hands." Then the old queen kisses the young one who kneels and asks for a mother's blessing "on the excellent years to be." To this the old queen asks, "What good thing shall I wish thee that 1 have not wished before?" and concludes with this gift: "Shall I give thee my sleepless wisdom or the gift all wisdom above? Ah, we be women together — I give thee thy people's love; "Tempered, august, abiding, reluctant of prayers or vows, Eager in face of peril as thine for thy mother's house, — God requite thee, my daughter, through the strenuous years to be, And make thy people to love thee as thou hast loved me!" It is worth while watching the progress of events that promises to create in the south seas, one of the mightiest nations of earth.