February 15, 1898

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    The. Nation.

    Thehe enate ilver esolution, whlch

    was given precedence of Haw:uian an-nexatlon and all other business a week

    ago, ore he nmistakable marks ofstock speculation Stocks have been go-ing up ately In a rather apid way-perhaps too rapid for safety. a clique

    the short s ide of the market , or a cer-tain umber of speculatlng enatorswant ing o “ge t n a t a lower evel,’were concerned n hls movement, heywould naturally bring forward a resolu-t ion o care lmid people, an d he)would frame it in such a way as o se-cure a large vote for it wlthout commit-tlng anybod y to the free coinage of sll-ver. The larger the vote, the greater thescare. I t is lamentable ndeed hat he

    business of the country hould beex-posed to uch barbarian attacks, uchwanton hocks,whenever a clique ofstock speculators, or a polltical faction,thmk they can see a gain for themselvesby giving a fresh blow to public con&dence Perhaps we shall always have aparty of disorder In the commonwealthto revent he ober nd ndustnousclasses from forgetting thelr politlcal du-ties

    We hear he opinlon confidently ex-pressed by knowing observers in Wash-Ington, that if that eminent citlzen, hePresident, would put nto he busmessof currenc y reform even one-half of theenergy and enterprlse he is expendingon he annexation of Hawa ll, he wouldcarry a satisfactory inanclal measureBut how can we elleve his, eeingthat B-c elected hls emment rltizen forthe xpress urpose of reform ing hecurrency, and hat i f he had notpro-mised to eforn t , he could not hal-sbeen elec ted? “Oh, but e IS leavingthe whole matter to the wlsdom of Con-gress,” t sai d ‘Then why oes enot eave he annexatlon of Hawal l oth e wlsdom of C ongress? Why is he sobusy nd a rnest bout hat’ Hewas

    not lected for that. No mention wasmade of it in that nxious ummerof 1896 I t wasotnrderogetHawali hat ens of thousands ofhonest Democrats and of kickln g, can-tankeIous Mugwumps ell nto ine andvoted for he “Advance Agent of Pros-perity ” Most of th ese disbelieved in theposslblllty of restoring rosper~tythrough Dlngley’s ariff, but hey up-ported the Advance Agent just the same,being wllllng o et hlm have hls ariffif he cnly gave hem a stable standardof value. The conduct of the Agent, i

    rea l ly t rue tha t he is ~ c c u p i e d by

    Hawall, and cares noth lng, Seems tocare nothlng, about he currency, is 111-explicable ~n an honest man, nd weknow Mr McKinley is honest ecausehe is religious, and religion includes ho-nesty.He annot ave retended tocare bout he urrency when hedidnot If in Canton he were to betray theconfidence of his ne igh bor s In th ls way-that is, “swear to his own hurt and thenchange” (Ps xv )“there would beterrible ow.Nobody would ray forhlm when he went away. He would de-partwith hisgripsack, unwept, unho-nored, andunsung Buthow is ~tanylese disreputable to do so to great par-ty, umberlngmillions, oncerninggreat public nterest? TheAgent maydepend upon I t that when he comes ohls final account, and is asked what hedid to fulfil his vow and ref orm the cur-rency, hisexertions about Hawail wlllnot e ccepted as a set-off Nor wlllDingley be able to help him, or Dlng-

    ley hlmself will be keeplng out of t h cway, est he should be asked about hedeficit or about the proceeds of the cloth-Lng clause

    The whole subject of the stre ngth ofthe Hawaiian Republic seems o be en-veloped in bscurltyWe ave beentold, and have believed for a good while,t h a t if we did not take Hawall, it wouldbe sure o ransfer tself o Great Brl-tam; hat , or omemysterlous ea-son, this strong and wlse republic couldnot consent o exist any onger under

    American rotect ion, hat it must beannexed by some Power, but would pre-fer bemg annexed by the United StatesThls i s wha t the eminent Hatch , the Ha-waiianMinister nWashington, ays,and no one w~l l ns inua te ha t Hatchsays what he does not believe We weresettling down comfortably in this some-what odd ai th, when he President oftheRepublic, Mr. Dole, reached ourshores. Of course he is, a bet-terauthorl ty about he views currentamong he Hawailan people han heeminent Hatch After his arrival, whilestanding beslde a radiator n a Chicagohotel, he made severa l importa nt state-mentsOne was tha tHawai i wasnotat present prepared o wage war wlthanygreat Power This was made im-ply o how hat If auygreat Powermade an at tempt t conquer the Repub-lic, It could not resist without help fromthe United States He hen ook thequestion, What will happen t o the Re-public i f theUnited States efuses oannex7 The Bureau holds, and has al-ways held, hat I t will hen offer itselfto any of the Powers whlch stand wwt-Ing to see what we are going to do aboutthe matter, President Dole denles this.

    the Senate,” aid e, to

    adopt the treaty now before it. I supposethe Republic will go on as before ” Thisadmission was hard for Hatch o bear,but he bore it, merely shaklng his headin ign of dissent President Dole alsoadmitted hat he ould not ay howmany Hawaiians a r e for annexation, andhow many are opposed o it We thussee tha t as the Republic is ab le to s tandalone, and to “go on as before,” it wouldnot be well to find out what proport ionof the na t lves a re in favor of annexa-t ionWhatshe se of kno win g?What have hey got o do wlth t?

    The gravity o Chairman Hitt’s speechon the Cuban quest ion in the House onJanuary 1 9 lies as much in i ts implica-t lous as n what he expllci t ly said Heis at the head of the House committeeon oreign affalrs. He spoke after re-peated consultations with the President,’and distinctly oreshadowed he Presi-

    dent‘s ollcy. When e ffirmed thatMr. McKin ley would “not disappoint theexpectations of hls ountrymen,” ndset he galleries applaudlng his enti-ment, he made it clear that t h eAdmlnistration ontemplates nterven-tion-forcible intervention, i f need be-in Cuban ffairs.ndeed, Mr. Hitt’sspeech was largely a glorificatlon of thesteps prellmlnary to Intervention whichthePresident had lready aken. Thebctual ommunicatlo ns of our Govern-ment to tha t of Spaln have not yet beenmadepublic, but Mr. Hitt, whomusthave seen them, ave a summary ofthem ontents. M r McKmley, ee-clared, had protested wlth emphasis andenergy against Gen. Weyler ’s conduct ofthe war, and had secured his ecall ndisgrace. Furthermore and his s nowsa id fo r the first time by a uthorit y), hehad “informed he Sagasta Governmentthat he war must cease and proposalsfor settlement be made within a reason-able ime’’ This is, of course, th e bald-est ntervention , nd lainly has t h ethr ea t of force behlnd I t . In ac t ,I-litt’s whole argument agalnst action byCongress was hat t would be unwlseto hamper he President n he actionwhich hewaspreparing to takeCon-gress was to remember hat here was“a fai thful pi lot at the helm,” and wasto be “patient and ready to support himif he takes the step which the honor andinterests 1 our country may demand ”If that does not slgnify that Mr McKln-ley ontemplates orclble nterventlon,and that speedily, words have no mean-w

    The uthori t ies tWashlngton a-turally seek to minimize the Importanceof the dispatc h of a war- ship to Hav anaI t is only n rdinary outme avalasslgnment, heyay.Bat and

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    6 0manner often make anordmary hingextraordinary, and hey eem o do soin thls ase No American men-of-warhaye vislted Havana for more han woyears, and the reason has not been con-cealed We wlshed not o offend Spanlshsensiblllties We also wished not o pro-vokeAmerlcan mflammabilities If thcreason was good for two years, it oughtto be good lbnger , unless ome changehas occurred 111 the sltuatlon, which IS

    denled.Whathetepmountso,therefore, is awillingness o disregardSpanish sensibillties and o iisk t he ef -fect on American nflammabllitles Whathasmoved hePresident o ake hestep? There much guessing, but hestrong probablhty is that he was oldhe had o do somethmg o appease heRepubllcans In Congress They have he-roically onsented oathemwnwords of a year ago, and to go manfullyInto the “hole” which heir own handshad igged, ut hey ave ot at l lllked the operation, and very likely havenotifled MI- McKinley that emus t

    make hast e o fulfil M r Hltt’s prophecythat he would, In the Cuban matter, notdisappolnt the hopes of his countryme nThe open expressions of J O Y and rellefittteredyepublican ongressmenwhen hey heard of the ail ing of th e

    bear out his view But hey al-so contaln a warning o he President.He must ee hat i f he ays A to heJingoes, he must also say B, or, as oneSenator expressed it, fill Hava na harbo rwith war-ships If theSpanish areex-citable, what is our press, what are ourLegislatures, our Congress 7 A war-shlpis curiou s lnd of oil n roubledwaters,houghhe Administrationwould have believe he to beabout the most unctuously peaceful shipthat ever sailed

    Mr Dingley is t e r r ~ b l y a r c a s l l c tthe xpense of th e chatt erer s” bouthls eloved eficlt.Customs evenuesin anuary will be about double whatthey were in August , what have you gotto say o hat? Well , he obvlovs hingto say (which Mr Dlngley does not say)

    that, double revenue o r not, the deficitso far thls month IS more than 8,OOO,OOO,so far in the fiscal year more than 50,-

    000,000 Now when we earnmindthat he tariff under which hese glo-rlous results ave een btained waspassed n order o secure ncreased e-venue without elay, indrance. orpostponement,” and that the tariff whichit superseded showed a deficit in its lastyear only one-third as great as the Ding-leydeficlt In Its irst even months,there eems o be tlll z good deal ofchattering matter eft The way forDingley l o si lence the chatterers 1s. n c tto bring out a fre sh ine of prophecies,but o produce his surplus revenue

    The people who expect any great fall-

    T h e N a t i o n .m g off in mmigration if thependingrestriction bill hall become law aredestine d o be disappointed A record ofthelllterates ver ourteen ears ofage among those who arrlved durlng thelast year was kept, and the Commisslon-er-General eportshatheumberrea che d nly 44,580. This ncluded 1 -572 who could read but notnmte, andthe pooner mendment would dmitsuch The otal must also have nclud-

    ed some housandswhowould ome~ . l t h l n t h e xcepted classes th e pend-ing 1~11, s the I l l i terate wives or minolchildren, or parents or grandparents, ofimmigran t s prev lous ly adml t td T h e“hordes” who a l e to be kept out by theeducational test are thus reduced to PI et-t y smJll proportions.

    The Republlcans who are fighting heQuay machlne n Pennsylvania alk a6though hey “meant business ” A con-ference of representative business menopposed to Quay rule in all parts of t heState is to be held at Phlladelphia onthe 2d of February, and he eadersthemovement eclare hat heywlllthen nominate a first-class man for Gov-ernor, homhey illupport ndwhom Quay can upport ornotashechooses If thls rogramme hall ecarried out,Pennsylvania politics wlllbe rendered xtremely nteresting hlsyear. We observe, however, wlth omeapprehenslon, hatertaln conserva-tlve”members of the Business Men’sLeaguc oppose he selection of a candl-datewho as been “aggressively an-tagonistic t o SenatorQuay,” nheground that the lat ter would not accepthim as a compromlse andtdate, anclthat , i f a spli t In he party should en-sue, a Democrat might be elected, andthe loss of the Governor to the Republi-can arty would be blamed pon heLeague For these easons hey are nfav or of agree ing pon a candidatewhom Senator Quay would be more Iike-ly to ccept If these conservatlves’get control of the conference, he anti-Quaymovement n ennsylvania willamount o no more han he antl-Plat tmovements n hls State, whlrh ndedingreeing oakeandidateswhosuited the Boss

    The Croker Government IS a good dealalarmed by the magn itude of its firstbudget or he dmmistrat lon of t h ecity. Instead of belng rom 60,000,000to $75,000,000, as was estlmated beforeconsolidation, he prospect now 1s t h a tthe approprlat lon for the f irst year W ~be nearer 100,000,000 than 75,000,000The most portentous agent of increasedexpenditure eem s o be thenew bor-ough ystem, whichwas ooked ponduring the charter agltat lon as one ofthe chief influences whlch were to trans-

    fo rm human na ture n h i s par t o f theworld. Nearly all he department esti-

    [Vol. 6 6 No. 7

    mates which have been made hus arcal l for many hundred thousand dollars

    additloll t o he combined ums x-pended by the separate divlsions of theclty before consolidation, because of thenew nlachlnery created by the boroughsThus, the Health Department must haveabout 350.000 more than previous HealthDepartments in the ld divisions had , be-cause of the new officlals and high er sal-aries created, and he separate orgdnl-

    zations equired for the boroughs ThePark Board must have bout 250,000mole than thc separate Park Boards hadlast year , chiefly because of the expe nseof set t lng separate admlnistrativeautho rity In the Borough of the BronxThe Bronx Commlssion not only musthave a “staff of englneers” at 10,000a year n alaries, ut must aveborough building the m o meet n ,and ther ecessary ccompanimentsThis 1s the way t goes all hrough t h enew system, and the only way In whichthe Mayor seems to be a ble to meet therislng ide of approprlation IS to lose

    his emper and cold he persons whocall at tention o he charter ’s r e q u i r e -ments

    There has been a struggle between t h eMayor ndheCouncil as towhichshould be permitted to exercise one othe most momentous of the features 1the “la rger me asure f home rule” whichthe new charter bestows upon he ci ty,and he Councll haswon. TheMayor,act ing 111 accordance with the basic the-ory of his administrat lon, o wit , hateverything in the wa y f omce or “plum”belongs oMrCrolrer, nd hould be

    dlspensed n ccordance wlthhlsger-sonal wishes, caused an ordinance to beintroduced n heMuniclpal Assemblyglvlng hlm absolute control over the is-suing of all icenses or treet encum-brance s, etc. The member s of the Coun-cil took alarm when thls f irst appeared,and en t a - deputatlon o all on heMayor with an ultlmatum, whlrh was,that they would not consent to the pas-sage of the ordlnance unless the Mayorwould pledge hlmself o honor heircommenda tions n he xercise of hispower over licenses. They demanded re-cognition, In other words, or al l heir

    men in the bestowal of licenses for news-stands and other privi leges on the side-walk s of the lty TheMayor efusedthls, as he was bound to do, for it place dthewlshe s of the Counclllors bovethose of the Boss. The Councillors haveaccordingly defeated his ordinance, andthe distlibutio n of licenses will be madeon the bloadest basis of home rule.

    ~

    The sorrow and alarm which he De-mocrats of other boroughs than Manhat-tan are expressing over he conduct ofMayor Van Wyck In cuttin g off thew

    sh ar e the offices of the enlarged ci tymoving. They did their utmost

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    Jan. 27 18981

    to p u t Ta m m a n y In possession, and nowtha t heyde tec t strong evidences of apurposen ammany’s part t o r a bevery th ing for itself, they fee l hur t , ande v e nb e g l n os u s p e c t h a t h e i r n n o -cence ha3 beenplayedupon .Theyt o h earch l tec t sa n dd e f e n d e r s of t h enew char te r, and ask them i f the Mayorhas any r i g h t t o e f u s e oc a r r y h a tsacred nstrum ent nto effect in verydetail,givlng t o theo u t l y i n gb o r o u g h sal l the off ices and em olum ents wh ich aregran ted y It t o h e mT h e e n o w n e dD e W l t t of theBorough of Brooklyn,w h o is one of the fa the rs of the ch ar te r,

    in effect t hat heM a y o r is “allwrong,“ that the “provisionsof the char-t e r r em a n d a t o r y, ” h a t n om a nabove the l aw,” ha t“ t h echar te r pro-v i d e s h eb o r o u g h swi thcer ta ina d m i -n l s t ra t lve unc t ions ,”and ha t“to de-p r i v e h e m of thesewould, of course,be an a t t emp t to de fea t the a ims of thecharter ndbe vlolat ion of i tsvis ions.”Tha t is unquest ionablyrueT h e r e is n o t a particle of d o u b t that t h e

    “aims of thechar te r”prov ide a grea tflood of off?ces and ex pend itures for a l ltheboroughs That is t h e e a s o nw h yall thepoli t lc lans of all theboroughswere so hot In favor of consol idat ionFor Ta m m a n y t o say th rough i t s Mayortha t heB o r o u g h of M a n h a t t a n shallh a v e e v e r y t h i n g a n dthe other boroughsas l l t t l e as possible, is a breach of f a i t hwhichought obedenouncedbyeverym a nwho o ted to p u tTa m m a n ynpower. The dea of MayorVanWy c ksay ing ha t ew a s o t o i n g to beMayor of five citie s, bu t of one

    how tha te r m a n ya sr o m p t l yagreed,on the Bri t i sh demand , o openany Chlnese ports she gets hold of to a l lthe wor ld for t rade, one begins to won-derw h yBro therHenrywas en t out.H e n r y ’s p a r t i n g w l t h hls sac red b ro therled the wor ld t o bel ieve that h e was tohavencounterswlthomebody,ndha i rb read th escapes ; bu t it now a p p e a r st h a t hls 8ole mlssion was to open p orts ,w i t h t h e c o n s e n t of everybody concern-ed, to he peacefu l ommerce of t h eworld. In fact , it b e g i n s o o o k as ifthe whole a ffa i r wasan a t t empt to bu l lyEnglandwhichw a srompt ly nippedby Slr MichaelHicks-Beach’swarl lke

    speech I t looks, too, a l i t t l es ifit w a s the prolonged ent lenessndt imid i ty of L o r da l i sbury’so l~cyw h i c h a i s e du p so many nemles o rEngland nd reatedhermuch-talked-of “isolat ion” Sir Michaelicks-Beachn d Mr. Chamber la inavea t l a s t r e ache d comprehens ion , th roughthe bye- election s, ofthe effect this pollcyIS h a v i n g n the publ ic and o t h edisgustexcited by “the Concert of th fPowers.” ThePowers”pparen t13usedhe “Concert” sim plyo umi l l .a t eE n g l a n d n dm a k eher ee lhe lp .less , and to try to m i n e ~ 0 1 0 .nialempi reand herchanne l s

    T h e N a t i o n .t r ade , a s soon as they had go t the Turkin to a position to defy her, It is pleasan tto f ind thatmere ly howingher ee thha s sufficed t okeep the peace Pleasant-e r hanal l ,however,happ ie r o rm a nthan ny Conc ert of thePowers ,” 1stheopendeclarat ion of the first of thesea owersha t he t ands fo r openportsand or ree radeTo be sure, tIS for her own benefi t , for she holds 80

    per centof

    theChina rade ,bu tevery-body is and wil l be a t pe r fec t hber ty totake i t f rom her i f he can

    hlrCllambellaln,whomLord E’arrels tyles “one of the most pow erful i iiem-bers of theB r l t ~ s h ]o v e r n m e n t , ”havmg een ea ten n his Zollvereins c h e m e f o r h e w o r k l n g of those“neg-lected s tates ,”he olonies , as owpropounded a plan fo r he re l l e f of t h eWest Indies The f i rs t Conservat lve Ideaw a s o u t a counte rva i l lug u ty nforeign sugar- that is , the beet-sugar o F r a n c e and Germany-themanufacture

    of which is promoted by bount ies Aresolut ion recommendingthis was pass-ed Ly a conferenceof Conservat ive dele-ga tes in November as t .But this metwi th i t t l e avor,because herewas noge t t ing verh e fact that dut les nIo Ie lg n ~ o u l dncrease l iepriceof sugar to t h e Englishman. a n d h econsumpl ionof sugar by Engi l shmenenormous. Mr. Chamber la inawhis ,a n d has “gonehem ne et ter.”H eannounced l as t week tha t the Chance l lo rof the Exchequer had consen ted to makea “very l a rge g ran t in a ld ” t o t h e We s tJnd les“ toenab le he sugar ] ndus t ryand populat ion t ide overa cris is , un-til Cont inen ta lna t ions ecognized heimpolicy of the ounty ystem .”Thissystem of “grants in s evidentlytobe,under Mr Chamberlain’sdlrect-m g , h eConserva t ivemod e of get t in giound hepopula rhos t i l i ty opro tec -t ion .F l u d i n g h e r ew a sn o h a n c e ofthe reviv al ofa d u t y on corn, they madea remission of $12,500,000 t a x e s othea n d e dnte res t .h e ya v en -c reased the g ran t in a i d t o the denomi-na l iona l choo ls ,a n dw em a ybe u retha t , once he ba l l is set fair ly rol l ing,g ran t s n idwi l lmul t ip ly.T h e r e 1snothing lke he appe t i te of “ interests”f o r r a n t snl d . h e s e r a n t sr es imply ano ther mode of g iv ingthe t a r -payers’money opart icular lasses oh e l p h e m oc a r r y on businesswhichdoes not pay. Instead of al lowing hemto t ake the l r s t and at t h e p o r t s a n d gettheirmoneyout du t les , he Govern-m e n t t a k e s t h e m o n e y o u t of t h e Tr e a -s u r y a n d g i v e s I t t o t h e m as a “bonns

    T h e f a c t I S t h a t , n h e p r e s e n t s t a t tof the wor ld , a l l mdus t r l es a re expose(to he v ic i s s l tudes whlch have been n .t roduced by improvementsIn product ionby he ncreased faci l i t ies of com mun i,cat ion, nd by the ncreasedmobil i t~

    -61

    of capitalGovernmentsa reeverywhereb a n g c a l l e do ro tec th e mgains tthese icmltudes-In therwords,opreven t he opera t ion , 111 theircase, oftheord inary aws o f t r ade There is noproof that a g r a n t n ald wll lse t heWe s tn d l a ns l a n d s on the i r legs.T h e i r sugar would still h a v e o o m -pete wlth the sug ar of Ind ia, of Queen s-land , of Mauritlus, of F i ~ i nd lse-

    where , all Brlt lshpossessions If thesecount r i esindha the ran t ~n a ~ de n a b l e s h eWe s t n d l e s o a k e h e l rmarke t f rom them, they w i l l i iavea st i l lbet terclaim o a sllce of someklnd ofass l s t ance romh eBr l t i shTr e a s u r y.Nothlnghasbeenmadeclearer by re -c e n t e v e n t s h a n h a t s u g a r - g r o w i n g isnot the bes t indus t ry fo r the Wes t Ind lesto engage in Dur ing the nex t few years ,especlally i f Cub a hou ld e pacified,the roduct ion of sugar lsewhere isl ikely to be great ly increased. The workb e f o r e t h e We s t I n d i e s18 the re fore , no tto s t ay in los lng busmess ,by begging.bu t o find o u t in w h a t n d u s t r y I t is

    that heirsoi l ,c l imate ,and labor glvet h e m a clear advantage. “

    W h a t e v e rl seh ear i slo t lngproves, o r does not prove, I t proves hemlschief of secret t r ia ls . Suppose Jam e-son had been t r led in England, as Drey-f u s w a s in France, behind closed doors ,and none of the evldence, only he ver-dict , given out7 We might have seen InLondonuch ervous xcl tement , fedon wlld rumor, as Paris has been suffer-i n g f r o m for the past week The secrecyof theor ig ina lDreyfus r i a lwasbad ,and he emi-secrecy of th eEsterhazyt r la lwasworseThe ub l lcwas e r-ml t t ed to know on ly f the ev ldence tha tlookedblack orMajorEsterhazy;buttheevidence on t h estrength of whichhe was acqu i t t ed and the gu i l t of Drey-f u s practically eaffirmed, ke pt se-c re t It is clear,however, that thec a s etu rns ve ry l a rge lyon a quest ion of hand-writing and hechances o rdecep t ionin thls are o to r ious ly rea t I t m u s tb e said t h a tsom e of the nferences oft h e F r e n c h t r i b u n a l o n t h i s s u b j e c t w e r euncommonly lke he eason ing in t h efamous trial ‘Alice inWonder land . ’I t wi l l be remem bered tha t the re , too . ale t t e r,c o n t a m i n g a s e t of verses ,wasthe chief thlng

    of jurymen“No, not,”

    ” (Theb l t ,

    said (The fury brlght-ened

    your”

    and

    “If sign said the

    some or elsehonest

    a of

    the Queen

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