--- 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: 7 number: 10 published: 1904-08 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* 7, no. 10 (August 1904): 786–795.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0710unse 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: improvementera0710unse start_page: 786 end_page: 795 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0710unse publication_year: 1904 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 1904, 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, SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS. Railroad From Damascus To Mecca. What is a remarkable circumstance, and what is certainly one of the signs of the times, is the construction of a railroad from Damascus to Mecca, a distance of one thousand and fifty-four miles. The first section of this road from Damascus to Amman, one hundred and forty miles, was completed last September. The second section, from Amman to El Hassan, a distance of one hun- dred and two miles is now nearly finished. The first section passes through fruit and grain lands, and will find commercial support; the second passes over a dry and bleak stretch of country to the south of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that about one-third of the road will be completed and be ready for operation at the close of the present year; the other two-thirds of the road passes over the Arabian desert, and no doubt many difficulties will be encountered in its construction. The Bedouins will likely offer some resistance, because to them it will be an invasion of their traditions, which some of them may feel strongly inclined to resent. The remarkable thing about the construction of this road is that it is to be built by Mohammedans and chiefly for religious purposes. When the first railroad entered Turkey, it was looked upon as a Christian menace to the Mohammedan faith, and in some places the tracks were torn up and people threw stones at the cars as they passed by. The needs of the road are certainly very great. It is called Hedjaz, or Pilgrims' railroad. Every year thousands of Mohammedans from different parts CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 787 of Turkey, Persia, and India gather at Damascus in order to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Mohammed, at Mecca. The journey has always been accompanied with great suffering and many dan- gers. The larger part of it is over a desert region where water is extremely scarce; and hundreds have lain down exhausted and famished on the desert sands of Arabia, without the privilege of beholding the Prophet's tomb. At first, to allay prejudices, no doubt, it was announced that the road was to be built entirely by the material and labor of the Moslems. The decision, however, was never carried out, as it was necessary at the outset to purchase foreign steel, foreign engines, and other equipments. In time it became necessary to import Italian and Australian laborers who were experienced in railroad building. Turkey had no competent engineers for the work, and it is, there- fore, under the supervision of foreigners. At first it was proposed to make it standard, or wide gage; that determination, however, has been given up, and it is, therefore, simply a narrow gage road. It is calculated that the road will be completed somewhere about the year 1910. Pilgrims can then make with comparative ease the journey in about two or three days that has required five or six months of arduous travel to accomplish. Whether the railroad under the construction and supervision of foreigners will have a liberalizing effect upon the Mohammedan mind awaits to be seen. Heretofore, no unbeliever has been admitted to the sacred pre- cincts of the Holy City. Mecca is a sealed book to the outside world. Under the disguise of language and dress, a few foreign- ers have gained admittance, and have given us some account of the pilgrimages and the worship at the sacred shrines. Railroads in Asia not only mean greater facilities in the trans- portation of merchandise, but greater facilities in the transporta- tion of the thought and influences of modern civilization. The re- awakening of Asia is full of interest wherever one goes; from Japan in the east, to Turkey on the west, there are abundant evi- dences of a revolution in the Asiatic mind. Commerce, the ad- vance guard of civilization, has made remarkable progress within the last quarter of a century. Europe is coming on to the scene of Asiatic life, and is injecting a new spirit into an old world and its threadbare civilization. Read these words from the followers of the Mohammedan prophet, in the Beirut Tamarat, and you will read what would have been rank heresy half a generation ago: "What joy has spread over the whole Mohammedan world at the thought that our master, the chief of all believers (God save him!) is building this railroad from Damascus to the Holy City of the pilgrimage —a railroad that will join the Arabian provinces, the heart of Islam, with the centres of the highest Khalifate, and will unite all under the glorious Ottoman flag." The War in Manchuria. Now that the month of July has been ushered in, Japan and Russia must stack their arms and wait for the passing of the rainy season. The geographers of Manchuria tell us that the country of Manchuria, along which the Chinese railroad runs from Harbin to Port Arthur, is so wet and marshy that it would be impossible to conduct, during the months of July and August, any campaign whatever. The friends of Russia have all along hoped that General Kuropatkin would be able to hold back Japanese advances until the rainy season began. They felt sure that during the months of suspended hostilities, Russia would be able to send over the Siber- ian railroad reinforcements large enough to drive the Japs out of Manchuria when the time for renewed operations would begin, dur- ing the month of September. It is now the middle of July, and the war is going merrily on. The Japanese have a military line of some two hundred and fifty miles. Along this line Russia is constantly on the guard to defend herself against a surprise. The whole world, Russia in- cluded, keeps trying to guess what Japan will do next. Along the northeastern portion of this military line, the Japs have a mountainous country over which they are rapidly climbing. They are pushing the Russians back by degrees, and, at the same time, they are shutting up the Russians tighter and tighter within Port Arthur. Siege guns are on their way up from Dalny to the mountainous country about five miles north of the port. It looks very much as though the rains were not likely to drive the Japs to their tents; at any rate, the rainy season will not hinder the siege of Port Arthur, whose garrison may surrender at any time. CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 789 The further question arises: Can Russia, during July and August, in case the rainy season hinders^present operations, get in soldiers enough from Russia to retrieve Russian losses in Man- churia? The Japs figured on that problem at the outset, and esti- mated that Russia cannot put into Manchuria more than two hun- dred and fifty thousand soldiers for field work.The Japs figure with that number of soldiers in the field the Siberian railroad would be taxed to its utmost limit to provide the army with the munitions of war, and that a larger army than two hundred and fifty thousand could not be used. On the other hand, Japan could get into the country five hundred thousand soldiers, and could get them there more quickly than Russia could two hundred and fifty thou- sand, and could support the larger army with greater facility. How Von Moltke would open his eyes, if he now could behold the splendid calculations of the Japanese, which are even more accur- ate and complex than those by which Germany overwhelmed France in 1870 and 1871! From a Japanese Point of View. f|The war now going on between Japan and Russia is not like its predecessors of modern times. The newspaper reporter has played a very inconspicuous part. In the first place, the military authorities of the Mikado's empire have not taken the newspaper men into their confidence, and they have kept them well in the rear of the army. When dispatches have been sent out, they have been very carefully censored. This condition of affairs has not been altogether satisfactory to those who have been most anxious to know just what is going on in the great battlefields of south- ern Manchuria. There is also another phase that, from a Japanese point of view, must be taken into consideration. The Japanese are a very industrious and economical race; the chief resource of the island empire is labor, the chief occupation is farming, in a country where the farms do not average more than four acres to a family. Japan, therefore, has little margin left for loss that might accrue through excitement, and through the tension which naturally grows out of the war. It is, therefore, in the interest of Japan that the peo- ple be free from excitement, even the excitement that comes from the great victory of the battlefield.The Japanese themselves do not receive anything like the news from the seat of war that is carried out to other countries; the results are, that business is go- ing on in Japan very much as though everything were in a normal condition. The trade between Japan and the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, will exceed seventy million dol- lars. This is larger than during the preceding year. We are not only sending more goods to Japan, but are receiving more from that country. Indeed, our imports from Japan will be something like three million more, this year, then they were last. dollars Certainly no war of modern times has created so slight a ripple upon the industrial life of a nation that was engaged in it, as has this of Japan. The Japanese triumph, therefore, in peace, in the time of war, is no less wonderful than her achievement at arms. Russia has Achieved at Least One Victory. The people of Finland make the 24th day of June one of great festivity in the land of the midnight sun. This year, however, Russia has suspended this national holiday, and forced the people, at least in a formal way, to be sober-minded on that day, because of the assassination, by a Finn, of General Bobrikoff, the Russian tyrant-governor of the province of Finland. The cable brings us the message that on that day the Russians captured a servant girl because she was overjoyful when it was her duty to Russia to be sad. Russia is bound to achieve a victory and gain some glory in the west, even if she is humiliated in the east. The Jewish Clergy Limited. Complaint now comes that there are not enough Rabbis to fill the demands in the various Jewish churches throughout the coun- try. This is true, it is said, notwithstanding the fact that Jewish preachers are paid higher salaries than those of any other denom- ination. The Jewish theological seminaries can scarcely supply one Rabbi in response to the demand for five or six. The reason for this condition is said to be due to the fact that the commercial pursuits of the Jewish people in this country offer CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 791 greater inducements than the pulpit. The case, therefore, with the Jews as with the Christian world, would seem to be commerce versus religion, a case in which commerce is gaining ground while religion loses it. The question is now with them, "does religion pay?" A Vice-president for Mexico. Great interest attaches to the election of Ramon Corral as vice-president of Mexico, especially as there is some tacit belief or understanding that he will succeed President Diaz as the president of the Mexican republic. Diaz is still a man of great vital powers, and apparently very active, notwithstanding that he is seventy-four years old. It has been understood, however, for sometime that he was desirous of shifting the responsibilities of chief executive to some other and younger man. Diaz has been so strong and so unique a character in Mexican history that people have long won- dered what that republic would do when his iron grasp fell from the reins of government. Mexico has experienced something of the revolutions common to the republics of Central and South America. It would be, in- deed, disastrous to American interests, should there be any return to revolutions and civil contests. There is today more than five millions of American money invested in the Mexican republic; and the people here are very anxious that our vested interests there be not disturbed. The inducements offered there in that republic for American capital are still very great. Of course, the development of Mexico's resources depends so much upon the stability of her government that people on this side of the line have hoped that Diaz would live to a good old age, so that all dangers and contentions might be avoided as long as possible. There are several thousand Americans who are now res- idents of Mexico, and their interests there are of such vital import- ance as to make the selection of a wise and strong executive quite necessary to their welfare. For sometime,it was thought that either Limantour, Secretary of the Treasury, or General Reyes, would succeed President Diaz. It has been known of late that there was considerable rivalry be- tween these two, and some apprehension was felt about the elec- tion of either to the chief executive office. Of course, it is still possible that either might be elected, despite the understanding that may now prevail about the succession of the vice-president to the chief executive office. Vice-president Corral was not so generally known outside of his own country. He is now fifty years old. He has been gov- ernor of Sonora, and was governor of the District of Mexico. . At the time of his election, Corral was Secretary of the Interior. He is represented as a man of high honor, who has been clean and up- right in official life. It is believed that he possesses the necessary qualities to carry out the policies of Diaz, should he be elected to the office of President of the Republic. Still, people will wonder what is likely to happen to Mexico when Diaz goes! Venezuela's Fifteenth Constitution. Some of the South American republics have had a great deal of experience in making constitutions. Venezuela has just com- pleted her fifteenth. However, it does not matter so much what their constitution contains, as it is never lived up to. Down there, a constitution is something like a political platform; it shows what the people are thinking about when it is made. President Castro recently had some lively altercations with Great Britain and Ger- many about the necessity of a country paying its debts; and it would be quite natural for him to order something put in on that subject. That is precisely what he did. The constitution now pro- vides that private parties shall not have the power to assign con- tracts with the government, to any foreign nation, and that any differences that may arise over the payment of a debt must be settled in the courts of Venezuela. The president is given power to keep foreigners out of the country, or to expel them after they have entered. The President does not appear to be on good terms with Protestant ministers who hereafter may be excluded, if he sees fit. Venezuela has had a strong propensity for borrowing. Then foreigners and their various enterprises which brought money into the country were welcome. Just now Venezuela is sweating un- der an arrangement by which a considerable portion of the coun- try's taxes goes to the payment of debt. President Castro is, CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 793 therefore, undergoing an economical regime. It will be some time before he can put on airs and revel in a full exchequer. When present debts are paid, there will undoubtedly be a change of policy. The money of the foreigner will be as much in demand as ever. It may be necessary then to make another con- stitution. Arguments in Favor of Race Suicide. Editors,newspaper correspondents, and contributors to month- ly periodicals are constantly giving their reasons, or the justifica- tion, for the absence of children in the home, or for the presence of one or two at most. There are three arguments, which would bet- ter be styled excuses, why married people may not have an old- fashioned family of children. It is well known that a very consid- erable proportion of the people of this country live in large cities and therefore must rent the houses in which they live. Nearly all of the most desirable homes are let on the stipulation that those moving into them have no children, or one or two at most. The very fact that landlords can put such stipulations into their leases indicates that there are plenty of renters of the small families. The question then is at once put: What can a man do? If his family is large, he cannot rent a desirable home, and circumstances compel him to abandon all desire for a large family, however will- ing he might otherwise be. A recent canvass in New York demonstrated the fact that there were resident districts in which hundreds of families lived, and where there were not more than fifty children to four hundred families. It is further shown that the restriction upon the size of the family is making its way among the poorer tenants who have hitherto been the chief conservators of the human race. A second excuse is put forth by those who can afford servant and who, therefore, must have them, that girls will not ac- girls, cept situations in homes where there are children, especially where there are several. They are willing to wash and comb lap dogs every morning, but they will not be "troubled" by children. Women will say they are not strong enough to rear their own chil- dren where there are several, or that they are unwilling to be tied to the drudgery of a home where there are several children; and as hired girls cannot be had for a numerous family, they are com- pelled to abandon all thought of bearing children. Here the hired girl, like the landlord, is responsible for the race suicide going on. The breadwinner for the home has his objection to a large family in the merciless competition female employees are waging against him. They have, as a rule, only themselves to care for, and can do the same work he is doing for smaller wages. In his case, the woman wage earner is responsible for the race suicide of his home. All these are excuses which cannot be lightly dismissed. The conditions which give rise to them show the perverse and down- ward tendency of society. Families are carried by hundreds of thousands in the stream of receding humanity, whether they will it so or not. It is important to remember that race suicide is as much today the result of social conditions as of any disinclination of men or women to escape paternity or maternity. It means the destruction of society, even against the will of a large number of separate members that compose it. The only safety is outside the worldly influences that are today destroying the home. Children constitute the chief reason for the existence of the home. Prevent them, and the home will disappear. With the abandonment of the home comes the abandonment of the marriage relation. Along with the disinclination to bear children comes equally strong the disinclination to marry. People in the midst of such social life have not the power to reform it. Its headlong and irrisistible course is toward self-destruction, race suicide. A Fair Record. The pension bureau at Washington has given to the public the record of one of its pensioners, Peter West, of Iowa, soldier, saddler, lawyer, and farmer, who fought in the seventh Iowa cavalry. Mr. West, in his application, admitted that he has been married ten times and divorced eight times. In the records of the pension bureau are the names of many old comrades who were married four, five, and six times, but Mr. West seems to have been considerably above the average. The average length of time be- tween the divorces and marriages of Mr. West was five months; in one case the interval between divorce and marriage was cut down CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD 795 to twelve days. Notwithstanding all these wives, it does not ap- pear that he has given to his country a very large posterity, as he is the father of but four children. So far as learned, the ministers and women of the country are pouring in no petitions against Mr. West's application. Why should they? He is quite in fashion. Some of his divorced wives might sign it, but they are not numerous enough to cut much of a figure. Besides, Mr. West has lived up to the requirements of the modern civilized family life. He has not offended human nature and good society by bringing into the world a large number of children. Under ordinary circumstances the number four might be considered rather a large family by one wife; but as Mr. West had ten, it cannot be said that he was guilty of criminal neglect in permitting an offensive number of children into the world. The Rubber Business. It is forty years ago since this country began on a somewhat extensive scale the importation of rubber. Then the amount brought here annually amounted to about a thousand tons; today we import 25,000 tons which has a value of $30,000,000.00, and in its manufac- tured state represents $100,000,000.00. More than half the rubber used by us comes from Brazil. England's colonies provide us with about one-fifth, and those of Belgium one-tenth. We also purchase from the British East Indies about six thousand tons of guttajule- tong. This substance is used with the rubber to cheapen some of our rubber products. We also import ten thousand tons of scrap rubber which is worked over into rubber shoes and other foot-gear. The people of this country have invested millions in foreign rubber plantations. A large proportion of this foreign investment has no other value than that represented by the paper upon which the stock certificates are engraved. Doubtless some of these rub- ber plantations will prove valuable, as the demand for rubber is rapidly increasing in many of the manufacturing establishments of this country.