--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Tanner, J. M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 9 published: 1901-07 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. 9 (July 1901): 699–705.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0409unse 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: improvementera0409unse start_page: 699 end_page: 705 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0409unse publication_year: 1901 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 1901, 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. A Political Wedge The Republican party for the last few years, aided by the course of events, has been at work constructing a political wedge with which it is hoped the solid south may be split asunder. A little thoughtful study will clearly indicate the manner in which the work has been going on. One of the effects of that policy was recently seen in the resignation of the senators from South Carolina. Senators Mc- Laurin and Tillman of that Democratic state, have been pursuing diametrically opposite policies. Recently Senator McLaurin made a speech to a large audience of his constituent?. In the course of his remarks, he averred that the silver issue had been buried, he announced himself in favor of expansion, subsidies and protection, and openly declared his support of President McKinley. We are told that these declarations were loudly and enthusiastically ap- plauded. This announced policy of McLaurin has been very strongly opposed by Senator Tillman, who recently accepted an appoint- ment to speak in Gaffney on the 'same evening that Senator Mc- Laurin was to speak in the same place. By agreement, a debate between them was arranged for the occasion, and separate meet- ings were dispensed with. During the course of his remarks at the debate, Senator Tillman began taunting Senator McLaurin about the latter's disregard of the wishes of the people of South Carolina. 700 IMP RO YEMENI ERA. Tillman asserted that McLaurin did not have the support of the people, and demanded that McLaurin resign his senatorship and submit his case to the vote of the people. On the other hand, McLaurin was equally firm in the conviction that his course was approved by his constituents, and offered to resign the senatorship and submit the question of his course to the people of the state provided Tillman would do the same. The challenge was accepted, and the resignations of both handed to the governor. At once, both parties began arranging for a state campaign on the issues announced by Senator McLaurin — issues that would divide the state on Republican and Democratic lines. The campaign would soon have been launched, and undoubtedly in some measure will be taken up, although the governor has persuaded McLaurin to with- draw his resignation. This means the withdrawal of Tillman's resignation; but as Tillman is the senior senator, the question of his re-election will serve for the coming contest between the two great national parties in that state. Those who have noticed the trend of affairs in the south will have observed the manner in which the Republican party is work- ing to disrupt the solid south. In the first place, throughout the north there has been little said, and comparatively no opposition to the work on the part of the Southern States by constitutional amendment to disfranchise the negro. The colored man has virtu- ally received notice that the negro question in the south, so far as the Republican party is concerned, is to be regarded strictly as a local issue. Again, the Republican party has favored, as far as possible, the protective interests in the south. In the Southern StateSjlarge cotton mills in recent years have been built,and the south has taken on new life by reason of these manufacturing industries. Again, the sugar planters of Louisiana, and other southern states, have sought and received protection against the sugar industries of foreign countries. The tariff on Porto Rican sugar was largely although the Democratic party in Con- in the interest of the south, gress for the most part opposed the measure; the opposition was traditional rather than substantial, so far as the Southern States were concerned. As a further assurance of the wish to see the south divided, President McKinley has very generally given the^ people of the south to understand that appointments, especially CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 701 of postmasters, would be made only among those who were ac- ceptable to the white people. This declaration is virtually an ac- knowledgement, on the part of the chief executive, of the aban- donment of the policy of the Republican party, which heretofore has maintained the solid south. Lastly, if we are permitted to suppose that political influences would actuate a member of the supreme court of the United States, the course taken by Justice White, the only southern judge on the supreme bench, in joining the four Republicans who held with the administration on the Porto Rican tariff question, would clearly indicate the influences that are operating in the south as well as in the Republican party of the north. Whether all these political influences have constituted a wedge sufficiently thick and dense to split the solid south, is a question which time alone can solve. The wedge has entered, and those interested in the political questions of the day will follow with intense interest its course. Wall Street. The stock exchange on Wall Street in the city of New York is one of the great and peculiar institutions of this country. The place itself, either in its external or internal aspect, would give the reader but very little idea of the great part it plays in the commerce of our country. No one would ever suspect that it is the center of the greatest commercial power in the world. In the early part of May, Wall Street presented a very attractive scene by reason of the enormous speculations carried on there in the exchange of stocks, especially railroad stocks. The process may seem a very simple one; namely, the buying and selling of railroad and other corporation stocks, but the speculation in these stocks often represents a sort of commercial warfare in which men gam- ble on the results. The recent speculation there on the Northern Pacific railroad stock furnishes a peculiar example. Five years ago that railroad was foreclosed on a mortgage. Of course its stock then was away below par. Two years ago it paid two per cent dividend, and last year it paid four per cent. Notwithstand- ing the small earning powers of the road and its collapse five years ago, the stock was run up by speculators to one hundred and eighty per cent, in other words, it nearly doubled in value, that 702 IMPROVEMENT ERA. is, I should not say in value, but doubled on the stock ex- change. A somewhat curious custom exists on this exchange where men buy and sell stocks. They often sell stock which they do not own, and must then rustle about to purchase it in order to fulfill their contract. Sometimes they buy great quantities of stock for amounts of money which they do not have,and to raise which they are dependent upon the banks. Such speculations as those which were carried on in Wall Street the early part of May, would have created a panic and numerous bankruptcies in this country a few years ago. Now we are told that out of the eleven hundred exchange mem- bers, not one became bankrupt during the recent speculations. This indicates how much Wail Street is losing its control over the substantial commercial operations of the country. Germany and the Monroe Doctrine. For many years Germany has been unable to support the great demands of the new empire. The population has increased much more rapidly than the country's resources; and emigration has consequently been carried on more extensively from that country than from any other of the great European powers. A vast pro- portion, indeed the greater part, has come to the United States, but the Old Iron Chancellor soon discovered that the migration of the surplus population to the United States was not in the interests of Germany. Here they were becoming absorbed in our national life, and were identified with interests that might be wholly un- favorable to the commercial welfare of the empire. Inducements were consequently held out to the emigrants to open new fields in other parts of the world. Transportation companies were organ- ized, under the patronage of the government by means of subsidies, to carry as many homeseekers to South America as possible. Many were induced to go to Asia Minor. Some effort was made to colon- ize in Africa, but the most fertile field for German colonization was Brazil. There are perhaps today in that country something like four hundred thousand Germans. In the province of Rio Grande, they are thirty per cent of the population; in Santa Catharina, twenty-one per cent. In these two provinces, there are already CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 703 some German settlements which have from fourteen to twenty- five thousand inhabitants. In some of these settlements, as many as ninety-five percent are Germans. A considerable number of Ger- mans have already emigrated to Chili. In that country, the prov- ince of Llanguihue has six per cent German population, and Val- davia, eight per cent. These Germans trade, of course, almost ex- clusively with the fatherland with which they keep in close touch, and between which and them there is a strong commercial bond. They use their own language and maintain largely their own cus- toms. The result of this commercial condition in Brazil is that the United States gets but very little of the trade from that re- public, whereas, it purchases more, chiefly cotton, coffee and rub- ber, from Brazil than all the European countries combined. Besides Brazil, South America generally offers the greatest in- ducements of any country in the world for colonial schemes. South America must be the greatest field for colonial exploration of any country on the earth. We can hardly estimate its re- sources, much less designate them. From an agricultural point of view, it is the richest country on the globe, and its great water- ways furnish unparalleled opportunities for commerce. The Ama- zon can be traversed a distance of six thousand miles, the La Plata, four hundred, the Orinoco, one thousand, and the Magdalena river, six hundred miles. The entire population of South America is estimated, though no definite figures can be given, at something like fifty million, and the country has six and a half million square miles, while Java, with only sixty thousand square miles supports a population of twenty-four million. It is estimated that the basin of the Amazon alone could easily support a population of five hun- dred million. At present, scarcely one million subsist in that enor- mous region. European countries heretofore have very generally neglected South America, for two reasons. These republics have been in constant warfare, and until within the last seven years there was not a single settled or undisputed frontier. In the second place, the United States has announced the Monroe doctrine by which European countries are forbidden to interfere with the govern- ments of any South American republic. This doctrine, on the part of the United States, is looked upon by European countries very 704 ' IMPROVEMENl ERA. much as a dog-in-the-manger affair. We do not undertake our- selves to keep these turbulent republics in order, nor are we will- ing that other countries should, even though the demands of com- merce—demands in which the United States is secondary to foreign countries— require stability and commercial integrity among them. The frequent revolutions of these republics offer numerous and ample excuses for the interference of such powers as Germany, and it goes without saying that Germany would be very glad to feel herself free to disregard wholly the Monroe doctrine. Lately, the German Post, a semi-official organ, has been predicting a seces- sion by some of the five states which now constitute the republic of Brazil. That means, of course, that Germany would like to see the provinces or states of Rio Grande and Santa Catharina become independent. These states would then enjoy a greater stability under German domination, and would contribute more extensively to German commerce. Ever since the United States acquired dominion over the Philippines, German newspapers have kept up a constant complaint against the Monroe doctrine, and have been urging that it now ceases to have any effect whatever, and that Germany may assume a free hand in dealing with the South American republics as it sees fit. On the other hand, it is rather doubtful that the United States has any intention whatever of receding from the Monroe doctrine, even though she has acquired world interests elsewhere, and has taken part in the "concert" of the great powers. The some discord, and will in the situation, then, in Brazil is creating future create greater between Germany and the United States. A knowledge of the facts set forth will aid the reader in compre- hending more perfectly the recent and general discussion of the Monroe doctrine in the German press. The Political Checker Board* That which by common consent we have come to call the "con- cert" of the great powers reminds one somewhat of a game in which the great movers are playing for advantage. Sometimes a great power will throw out hints of an alliance with another; but very generally, the movements among the powers indicating feel- CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. ZF'' 705 ings of sympathy in the favor of one are manifestations of disfavor against another. There are two recent events that very strongly indicate the feelings existing between the English and the French. The soldiers of these two nations, left at the seaport town of Tien Tsin, on the Pei Ho river, recently came very nearly complicating the diflttculties between their respective countries. Some French soldiers were found plundering Chinese houses, whereupon the English fusileers, on guard, undertook to drive the plunderers away. This led to some skirmishes, shots, between the French and English soldiers, being exchanged. In the midst of the angry contest, the Germans took a hand by rushing to the aid of the French. This is a curious combination, for it has generally been supposed that there was, between France and Germany, a hatred not found between any other countries on the earth. It is true, France has felt compelled to keep up her cry of revenge, but that is dying out, and Germany is doing all she can to reconcile her neighbor. Germany would gladly reduce her enormous land forces, and could do so if France would be pacified; Germany then would be free to increase correspondingly the great naval power which it is her in- tention to build up. Germany is now in the great struggle for foreign commercial recognition and supremacy, and she has two commercial foes to encounter, England and the United States. The second instance showing the strained relations between France and England was the great reception given to Labori, the celebrated French advocate. He recently paid a visit to England where the judiciary and bar of that country tendered him a mag- nificent reception. Those who read the Dreyfus affair in France will remember the conspicuous part that Labori took in the de- fense of the Jew. And Labori's efforts in behalf of Dreyfus con- stitute a terrible arraignment of the existing regime in France, especially the official life of Paris. This special honor to Labori, at this time, will not be received very kindly by a large number of French ofiicials. They will see in England's reception to the cele- brated French lawyer a veiled attack and an offensive demonstra- tion against the French army, or, at any rate, its leaders. It looks very much as if England were wholly alienated from all European sympathies, notwithstanding her recent efforts to enter into friendly relations with Germany.