--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 8 number: 10 published: 1905-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Topics of the Moment," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 10 (August 1905): 764–769.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse 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: improvementera0810unse start_page: 764 end_page: 769 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse publication_year: 1905 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 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Topics of the Moment TOPICS OF MOMENT. Maximo Gomez, the Liberator. It was mentioned in the last number that the Natioral party of Cuba had hopes of nominating General Gom.ez for president, upon the expiration of the term of President Palma, next December. That hope is dead, for General Maximo Gomez, who won for himself the name of "Cuban Napoleon," passed away at Havana on June 17, He was the leader of the Cuban army during the war for liberty with Spain; and was of Spanish descent, born in Santo Domingo, 1823. In his youth, he served in the Spanish army, but became disgusted with the Spanish regime, and quarreled with his superiors over the cruel treatment of the Cuban refugees. In 1868, when the ten-year war brgan, he joined the Cuban insurrectionists and speedily distinguished himself by his courage and ability. Towards the end of this war, when General Agramonte died, he became commander-in-chief of the patriot forces. Again, when a second revolution broke out, in 1895, he was called from his home in Santo Domingo, where he lived quietly on a farm, to take the lead of the Cuban army. His conduct of that war, considering the lack of food supplies and munitions, was admirable; for years he out-generaled the Spaniards, crossing their dreaded trochas at will, and maintained the war with success. After the liberation of Cuba, he could have become president of the R 'pab'ic, but declined in favor of Palma, saying he was a soldier and not a statesman. After the war of liberation, undertaken by the United States, General Gomez became of great service to our country in restraining the rasher Cubans who were disinclined to accept the American terms, and he aided greatly in relieving the turbulent conditions. Whatever may ba said of Lis peculiar TOPICS OF MOMENT. 765 career, or his talents and character as a man, this is certain, to him Cibii libarfcy o.vis p3rhap^ its a:r3at3st debt; and oneauthority regards him as possessing the "wonderful equipoise which has marlied the supremely great men of the world." He is the popular hero of Cuba. When he was on his deathbed, the national gratitude found expression in the vote of the Cuban Congress, granting him $100,000. Ha had steadily declined a pension. His memory will live long in the hearts of a brave people, who have struggled long and hard for liberty, and who, one day, may occupy an important place in the roll of nations. John Hay, Statesman. In the death of John Hay, Secretary of State, early on the morning of July I our country suffers the loss of one of the fore- , most figures in the world's diplomacy. He died at his summer home, The Fells, on Lake Sunapee,New Hampshire, at a time when there was every reason to believe he would recover completely from his late illness which took him to Europe only a short time before his death. John Hay v/as born in Salem, Indiana, October 8, 1838, and was of Scotch and English descent. His grandfather settled in Virginia, but his father, whowas opposed to slavery, went to Salem, where he practiced medicine. Hay was graduated from the common schools, and, in 1858, from the Brown university. He then studied law with his uncle Malcolm, in Springfield, Ills., and through his uncle was introduced to Abraham Lincoln, who was so favorably impressed with him that Lincoln asked Hay, then only a young man, to enter his ofiice. Here Mr. Hay laid the foundations of his political achievements, his teacher the master statesman, Lincoln. He was admitted to the bar, and when Mr. Lincoln went to Washington, Mr. Hay accompanied him as assistant secretary. He later acted for the President at the front, as assistant adjutant general ; and later in the field he served under General Hunter and General Gilmore. He was later breveted lieutenant-colonel. He was twenty- six years old at the time of the assassination, and after that, was sent by the government to Paris as secretary of legation. He went to Vienna in 1868, and then to Spain, returning in 1870. For a time his diplomatic services closed, and he became a v/riter on the New York Tribune, under Horace Greeley, who was struck with his abilities, and had offered him the post while still in Madrid. He was on the Tribune for five years, and it was at this time his famous poems, "Jim Bludso" and ''Little Breeches," were published, also a book of poems, Pike County Ballads. He married Clara L. Stone, of Cleveland, in 1874; was two years in Washington as assistant secretary of state under President Hayes, and then devoted his whole time to literature. Abraham Lincoln: A History, appeared in 1881; to this work Mr. Hay devoted fifteen years, with his friend, Secretary Nicolay. All these years he studied, and contributed constantly to the periodicals of the day. It was President McKinley who, in 1897, again called him to public life, when, in his sixtieth year, he was sent as ambassador to England. It was while on his mission that through Great Britain he defeated efforts of certain European powers to make representations on behalf of Spain. About a year and a half thereafter, on the retirement of Secretary Day, he found his true vocation at the head of our State Department. Here, for seven years he applied his ripened intellect, and proved that, besides being an accomplished man of letters, he was a consummate man of affairs. He negotiated more than fifty treaties, and some of them of the gravest consequence and importance, not only to this country, but to the world. The Hay-Pauncefote treaty is considered a diplomatic masterpiece, but the greatest work done by Mr. Hay was his success in insisting on the integrity of China, after the Boxer troubles. "It is no exaggeration," says one writer, "to say that he rescued the Middle Kingdom from the very brink of dissolution." He declined to countenance the preposterous claims demanded by Russia, Germany, and France, and further expressed the conviction that China should not, like Africa, be made the victim of partition at the hands of European nations. And his appeal was by no means fruitless, so far as the British, German, Italian, French, and other governments were concerned. Russia promised also to evacuate Manchuria by October 8, 1903, as a result of his note of protest. But was only a promise, and the it warning was not heeded. The present war with Japan is what Russia is paying for the lie, and John Hay lived to see the day TOPICS OF MOMENT. 767 when the Mikado could be trusted to discipline the Czar for his recalcitrance. John Hay stands high among the great men who have served our country as secretaries of state: Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, William H. Seward, John Hay. The funeral services were held in Cleveland on July 5, and President Roosevelt attended, with all of Mr. Hay's former associates in the cabinet, except Secretary Taf t, who was on his way to the Philippines. President Roosevelt said: "The American people never had a greater secretary of state, and his loss is a national calamit y." JusliceEiewer lad said of him, that he was "tactful without untruthfulness, firm without meance, and direct without brutality." Elihu Root, Secretary of State. President Roosevelt was very fortunate in securing the services of former Secretary of War Elihu Root, as successor to John Hay. Mr. Root has high ability, and is especially qualified to take up the fallen lines of the affairs of state and control the steeds with steadiness, certainty and satisfaction. When he was in the cabinet before, his advice was often sought by President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay, in perplexing problems. That he is giving up a job netting him an income of $300,000 a year to take one for his country at $8,000is a practical form of patriotism, and a sacrifice commendable in the extreme — quite contrary to Engineer John F. Wallace, who resigned as chief engineer of the Panama Canal, which brought him $25,000 per annum — a work that would have linked his name and fame with his country forever — to accept a private job for lucre, which gave him $65,000 per annum. Elihu Root was born February 15, 1845, at Clinton, New York. He graduated from Hamilton college in 1864, and three years later from the University Law School of the College of the City of New York. He was U. S. Attorney for the southern district of New York from March, 1883, to July, 1885; a delegate at large to the state constitutional convention, 1894, and chairman of the judiciary committee. August, 1899, he entered PresiIn dent McKinley's cabinet as Secretary of War, and was again en- trusted with the war portfolio when Mr. McKinley was re-elected in 1900, President Roosevelc retained him until he resigned in August, 1903. The Democratic papers consider that his action in accepting the present office, is a bid for the presidency, in 1908. He was sworn in July 19th. Why there is no Armistice. The Japanese government has refused an armistice. As a reason, it has come to light that recently there was a heavy Japanese naval demonstration on the island of Sakhalin, north of Japan and near Kamtschatka. The Japs met with small resistance, landed, and captured whatever ports they pleased, on that inhospitable coast. In this way the Japanese have fixed themselves on Russian territory which they will doubtless hold, and which they will be justified in keeping when the terms of peace come to be settled. Advices from Tokio, July 16, describe a land victory by the Japs over the Russians which insures complete occupation of South Sakhalin by the Japanese. The island contains about 29,000 square miles of mostly mountainous country, and was forced from Japan in 1875. It is valuable for its great fisheries, which amount annually to about two million dollars; it has also rich mineral de_ posits, and 25,000 tons of coal are annually mined by convicts. The island has been used as a penal colony ever since it came into the hands of Russia; and one-tenth of the convicts are women. Great suffering has lately been experienced by the convicts, since the collapse of the Russian navy, and the famine has been so severe that during the last winter the people ate their dogs. The Japs have also sent a strong division up through Corea toward Vladivostok and the prospects are that, any day, they may cut the railroad connecting Vladivostok with Harbin, thus giving Japan a claim to hold the former, when peace conditions are considered. It is difficult to stop when such important results are about to be achieved, and hence no armistic, pending peace negotiations. New Engineer for the Panama Canal. A new engineer for the Panama project was appointed on the 30th of June, the same day that Secretary of War Taf t left for TOPICS OF MOMENT. 769 the Philippines, on public duty, accompanied by Miss Alice Roosevelt and several members of both houses of Congress. The abrupt way in which the former chief engineer John P. Wallace severed his connections with the enterprise caused deep resentment with the administration, and Secretary Taft, in a long published statement, so castigated the engineer as to make it very plain that he was disgusted: "I am inexpressibly disappointed," he said to Mr. Wallace, "not only because you have taken this step, but because you seem so utterly insensible of the significance of your conduct. * * You have thought of yourself and yourself alone. * * * Great fame attached to your office, but also equal responsibility, and now you desert them in an hour." Then the secretary required him to resign, and President Roosevelt took pains to have it go on record that his "resignation was tendered in accordance with the request of Secretary Taft." The excuse, as understood by Secretary Taft, for the resignation was that Mr. Wallace had been offered $65,000 per annum by prominent New York business men, whereas, the Government was only paying $25,000. But the friends of Mr. Wallace say that the real cause of resignation was '*the multiplicity of coils of red tape which he had to uncoil in order to get at things which he desired put in motion." It appears to be the general impression that Mr. Wallace made a mistake in his action; though, of course, he was free to take the step he did. The new engineer, Mr. John F. man of long exStevens, is a railroad perience and recognized ability, who was to have accompanied Secretary Taft to the Philippines as Government expert in the new railroad to be constructed there. Chairman Shonts of the Panama commission describes him as "a man who will stay put." The Peace Enyoys. Early in July it was announced that the Russian and Japanese peace envoys had been appointed, and that the peace congress would be held in the United States in the early part of August. The Russian plenipotentiaries, as first announced, were Ambassador N. V. Muravieff, now at Rome, and Baron Roman Romanovitch Rosen, who was recently appointed to succeed Count Cassini as Ambassador of Russia to the United States. Later the Czar announced that through the illness of Muravieff, he was unable to act, and M.