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, SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS. Now for a Trip Around the World. A short time ago the directors of the great railway corpora- tions of continental Europe met in Paris for the purpose of making up a through train service that would leave at stated periods for a run all the way from Paris to Pekin. At present, the trip is made by way of the Suez Canal, and requires from thirty-two to thirty- three days. The railroad officers propose that the journey shall be made in eighteen or nineteen days. It was also decided to enter into arrangements with American railroads, and Pacific and At- lantic steamers, to issue round trip tickets from New York to Pekin, permitting people to go by way of the Pacific ocean, and return by the Trans-Siberian railroad and Atlantic steamships, or vice versa. Circumnavigating the globe will soon be a common- place affair. No doubt, we shall soon be running cheap excursions around the world. Necessity the Mother of Invention. The recent coal strike, and the great coal famine throughout the East, have given rise to the preparation of coal briquettes whish are in very common use in different parts of Germany and France. These briquettes have not been used in the United States for the reason, no doubt, that coal was so cheap that men did not think it worth while to prepare them. In the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania there are mountains of coal dust heretofore considered valueless. When the coal famine was on, men began at once to experiment upon a means of

382 IMPROVEMENT ERA. using these great quantities of coal dust, especially as the fact was recalled that the coal dust of Germany is used in the preparation of small coal bricks. With this dust, certain quantities of oil, and distilled products of coal, have been mixed, and the mixture sub- jected to high pressure. It is now discovered that these bricks have a great heating power, that they give off little or no smoke, and that there is but little waste in the ashes. The heat is said to equal that of the best anthracite coal, and the cost of manufacturing is but one dollar per ton. This invention will save millions out of what has been considered a waste product of coal, and thus bring some good out of what has been considered one of our greatest calamities from the standpoint of human suffering. The Negro Question in the South. The negro question in the Southern states is again agitating the country, by reason of the appointment of Dr. Crum as collector of revenues for the port of Charleston, and the closing of the post- office by order of the President of the United States at Indianola, Mississippi. Mrs. Cox had held the office of postmaster for some time. Recently, she was waited upon by a number of citizens and urged to resign. This she did as a consequence of being so annoyed and persecuted that it became impossible for her to discharge the du- ties of her federal office. Thereupon the Postmaster-general, with the approval of the President, declined to accept her resignation, and ordered the office closed. The people of that small town are now shut off from postal communication with the rest of the world. Strong protests are made against Dr. Crum as the collector of revenues, and every effort has been made to prevent his confirma- tion by the United States Senate. Dr. Crum, it is said, is seven- eight white, and a man eminently qualified to fill the office to which ha has been appointed. It is said that there are actually fewer colored federal office holders in the South now than there were under President McKin- ley's administration. The objections and protests against the attitude of President Roosevelt are doubtless due to the fact that,' in the beginning of his administration, every promise of concilia-

CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 383 tibn and harmonious understanding was held out to the South. President Roosevelt appeared to them as the fore-runner of the complete ascendency of the white man in the South, and the strong protests of the Southerners are doubtless due, in some measure, to the disappointment they feel in what they consider his change of attitude. Canada and Wheat. Western Canada has almost come to be synonymous with wheat. There is a belt four hundred miles north and south, and nine hundred miles east and west, that is peculiarly suitable for the growing of wheat. Into this enormous grain belt, within the. last few years, something like one hundred thousand people have migrated, principally from the United States, from Kansas, Ne- braska, and the Dakotas. The Latter-day Saints have contributed five thousand of this number. The first half of last year, twenty- five-thousand people went from the United States into Western Canada. A few years ago, this vast country was termed a wilderness, for the reason, first, that it was little known; and in the next place, because it was the policy of the Hudson Bay fur traders to keep the world in darkness respecting one of the most fertile countries in the world. This great wilderness produced, in 1902, seventy-five million bushels of grain, and it will only be a few years, if the present emigration goes on, before Western Canada will produce more than two hundred and fifty million bushels. In Manitoba and the North-West Territory, there are two hundred and sixty million acres of land awaiting the touch of the plow. If a line were run north through Winnipeg more arable land could be located west of it than can be found today west of the Mississippi river, in the United States. It seems remarkable that some of the best of this wheat-land is located three and four hundred miles north of our colonies in Alberta. We had almost come to look upon those northern lands as within the Arctic circle, and wholly unfit for agricultural purposes. But northern lands have long summer days, and the solar light, rather than the heat, seems to be necessary for growing grain. We had always supposed that it was the sun's heat that

384 IMPROVEMENT ERA, caused the"wheat to^'grow. Experimenters deny this, and say it is the light more than the heat. The railroads in that country, for the past two years, have not been able to handle the output. As soon as the wheat can'^be harvested, especially in Manitoba, it is sent at once to the Atlantic coast and shipped to Great Britain. Last fall, when I was traveling through the country, I was interested, and somewhat amused, by the announcement that our train might be held >up any moment by the farmers who were tak- ing matters into their own hands, and shipping grain on their own account, when the railroad failed to furnish the necessary cars. In one of the towns of Manitoba, a freight train had been stopped and the engineer compelled to place the cars in a position where they could be loaded with wheat, and the agent was forced to fur- nish bills of lading. The farmers then ordered the engineer to pull out for the Atlantic seacoast. The matter was taken in good part, and their demand, in this instance at least, complied with. It is only a question of a few years when Canada will be the gran- ary of the British,empire. The Panama Canal Treaty. After considerable delay in the negotiations between this country and Colombia, and the French company who had begun the construction of the Panama canal, a treaty has been entered into between the executive departments of Colombia and the United States. It is believed that the treaty, as it now stands, will be adopted by both countries, and its terms, therefore, are of general interest to the people of the United States. The treaty is a compromise, as treaties generally are. Colom- bia wanted a rental of $650,000 a year for the franchise of a water-way, and a zone of country six and a half miles wide through which the canal would run. The amount finally agreed upon is $250,000 a year. This payment is to begin at the end of nine years, as it is believed that the canal will be in operation by that time, although fourteen years is the time given for its construc- tion. Besides this yearly rental, this country is to pay Colombia ten million dollars, as soon as the treaties are ratified. These sums of money will certainly be a great financial aid to this small South American republic. The treaty guards carefully the terri-

CURRENT SIGRY OF THE WORLD. 385 torial interests of Colombia, and disavows altogether any intention on the part of this country to annex any of its territory. The treaty cannot be finally ratified until perhaps the latter part of March, or the first of April. Colombia has to elect a new congress which does not open till the commencement of March. The fact that there is a faction in the United States that prefers the Nicaragua route, will discourage any effort on the part of a Colombian congress to hold this country up for a large amount of money. A decision by this country to construct a canal by the Panama route will practically shut out all possibilities of any other isth- mian canal. If the Nicaragua route had been selected, there would always have been more or less agitation on the part of European countries in favor of a Panama canal, especially if the canal constructed at Nicaragua proved to be a paying enterprise. The Venezuelan Troubles. After the acquiescence, on the part of President Castro, to yield to the demands of England, Germany, and Italy, and after these countries had accepted the friendly suggestion of our country to arbitrate the question of Venezuela's indebtedness, preparations began for the adjustment of European claims. The blockade, however, that these countries had established continued until the thirteenth of February, when Britain and Germany ordered it raised, and it has given rise to some agitation, and to no little criticism especially respecting the action of Germany. In the latter part of January, the country was very much agitated over the announcement that a German warship had bom- barded the small Venezuelan fort, San Carlos, at the entrance of Lake Maracaibo. The circumstances that led up to this bombard- ment are not fully agreed upon. The facts generally accepted are that the Panther, a small German warship, undertook to enter the port either to get a small uncaptured Venezuelan gunboat, or to tighten the blockade. The Germans contend that the first shot was fired by the Venezuelans from fort San Carlos, and the Venezuelans declare that the Panther fired first upon the fort. At any rate, the Panther was compelled to retreat, but was afterwards joined by two large ships, the Vineta and the Falke. These ships pro-

386 IMPROVEMENl ERA. ceeded at once to destroy the fort, and also a small fishing village. It is said that the blockade was so vigorously enforced that twelve fishermen, on a little island near the fort, starved to death. What ever the actual facts may be, the general sentiment throughout the country was against Germany. In England, Germany's action was thought to be unnecessarily severe, and some of the English papers proceeded at once to give this country assurances that Germany's conduct was not approved by England. The St. James Gazette said: "The Americans will understand that the German proceedings are as little approved by the British nation as by theipselves." About the time of this bombardment of San Carlos, United States Consul Bowen arrived in this country, bringing with him credentials or authority to act as Venezuela's representative in the settlement of the obligations of that country with European nations. His proposition was to give all the creditors of Venezuela thirty per cent of the customs received at the two principal ports Puerto Cabello and La Guayra. The offer was declined by Great Britain and Germany, on the ground that it included the stipula- tion that other creditor nations were to share alike in the payment. England and Germany had been at some expense, and at some hazard, to compel the Venezuelans to yield, and considered them- selves entitled to preferential treatment. France was strong in her objection to this demand, contending that it encouraged war- like methotis, rather than peaceful ones. The other creditors were France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States. Consul Bowen's reply that he would call the other creditor nations together, with a view of securing a protest against the demands of England and Germany for preferential treatment, was somewhat shocking to English diplomacy, and for a while it looked as though England and Germany would have nothing what- ever to do with Bowen, in further efforts to adjust their claims. There were two reasons why Consul Bowen was not so easily thrown over-board. One was that while he represented exclusively Venezuela, and not the United States, yet the fact that he was a United States Consul turned the sentiment of this country in his favor, and that sentiment would resent vigorously what it might

CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 387 consider imperious treatment of one of its citizens by England and Germany. The other reason why it was not desirable to cut off further negotiations with Mr. Bowen was the fact that an alternative would arise, and that alternative would carry the case before The Hague tribunal. This tribunal is a sort of an international court composed of representatives from all the leading nations, and it was not likely that England, Germany, and Italy would get any preference at its hands. Besides, Venezuela would put in counter-claims, and the demands of the nation creditors would be exposed in details to the civilized world. Some of these demands are said to be of the most extravagant character. If so, they would undoubtedly be cut down. It would, therefore, be a wiser policy to confine the question of how the claims were to be paid than to admit into the controversy what the claims are. From present appearances, a compromise will be reached by which England, Germany, and France will receive all the customs from these ports for a short time, and then the other nations will be permitted to come in and share alike. In the interest of a friendly sentiment between this country and Germany, especially, it was very desirable that the blockade should be lifted as soon as it was. The severity of the blockade was felt most by Europeans, and especially by those at Caracas. The Europeans there do not take so kindly to an exclusively native diet with which they must content themselves, while foreign products are shut out of their markets. An incident illustrating the feelings of German residents at Caracas is given in their refusal to accept the invitation of the captain of the warship Gazelle to take dinner with him on board the ship, in honor of the Emperor's birthday. The American people, however, have shown considerable neutrality and conservatism by their impartial and deliberate attitude, in the midst of a controversy that naturally enlists their sympathy because of the Monroe Doctrine, and because there is a tiny power on one side, and two of the greatest nations of Europe on the other.