by Senator Lodge. The charges of cruelty, greed, and scandalous administrative abuses in the Congo State (including the maintenance of a paid lobby for influencing legislators all over the world) have been made so often during the past few years that we need only refer to them here. At the same time, they have been so vehemently denied (no less eminent a personage than Cardinal Gibbons, in an address at Baltimore on Deçember 15, before the Congo Reform Association, declared that Leopold's rule in that state was humanitarian and that stories of his cruelties have been greatly exaggerated, the Cardinal attributing the attacks on his administration to religious jealousy and commercial rivalry) that it would seem to be difficult to get at the truth in the matter. The Belgian Government and people appear to support their King, Parliament having, late in November, ratified King Leopold's commercial concession referred to above and expressed its opinion that the state should be formally annexed to Belgium in the near future. The Belgian King himself denies the atrocities charged against him, claiming that self-interest would forbid the commission of such outrages if humanity did not. THE CONGO FREE STATE AS ESTABLISHED IN 1885 BY THE CONGRESS PERLIN. RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS. (From November 19 to December 18, 1906.) PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. December 3.-The short session of the Fiftyninth Congress begins....In the Senate, Mr. Penrose (Rep., Pa.) and Mr. Foraker (Rep., Ohio) offer resolutions calling for information on the case of the discharged negro troops. December 4-The President's annual message is read in both branches.... In the Senate, Mr. December 7.-The House passes a bill repealing that part of the Interstate Commerce law relating to convict-made goods. December 10.-The Senate debates an AntiChild-Labor bill applying to the District of Columbia....The House considers the Legislative Appropriation bill. December 11.-In the Senate, Mr. Burrows (Rep., Mich.) advocates the adoption of a resolution holding that Senator Smoot (Rep., Utah) is not entitled to a seat. December 12.-The Senate, in executive session, confirms the nominations of William H. Moody to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and of Charles J. Bonaparte to be Attorney-General, Victor H. Metcalf to be Secretary of the Navy, and Oscar S. Straus to be Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and ratifies the Algeciras treaty....The House, by a vote of 142 to 25, adopts an amendment to the Legislative Appropriation bill prohibiting simplified spelling in Congressional documents. December 13.-In the Senate, Mr. Dubois (Dem., Idaho) speaks on the case of Senator THE LATE PRESIDENT SAMUEL SPENCER, OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY. (Killed by a collision on his own road, Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1906.) Rayner (Dem., Md.) introduces resolutions declaring the belief of the Senate that the federal Government has no right to interfere with the exclusion of Japanese from the San Francisco schools. December 5.-In the Senate, a resolution presented by Mr. Flint (Rep., Cal.) calling for information in connection with the investigation of the Japanese schools controversy, is adopted without debate....The House passes the bill authorizing national banks to make loans on real estate security. December 6.-In the Senate, the Penrose and Foraker resolutions, calling for information on the discharge of members of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, are adopted....In the House, the Pilotage bill introduced by Mr. Littlefield (Rep., Copyright by Clinedinst. W. W. FINLEY, THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY. Smoot, of Utah....The House unanimously votes to return to the old standard of spelling. December 14.-The House passes the Legis bill, with an amendment raising the salaries of the Vice-President, the Speaker of the House, and members of the cabinet to $12,000 a year; the proposition to increase the pay of members of Congress is defeated. December 15.-The House passes 350 private pension bills in less than an hour. December 17.-Messages from the President on the Panama Canal, the naval personnel, and the public land law are read in both branches The Senate passes resolutions directing an investigation of the International Harvester Company and asking information as to the power of Congress to regulate interstate trade in articles made by child labor....The House discusses the Indian Appropriation bill. .... POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT-AMERICAN. November 19.-It is announced that President Roosevelt has abolished the office of governor of the Panama Canal Zone and placed Chairman Shonts in full control of work on the Isthmus. November 22.-The New York Central Railroad is fined $18,000 for giving rebates to the Sugar Trust.. November 23.-President Joseph F. Smith, of the Mormon church, pleads guilty to a charge of unlawful cohabitation and pays a fine of $300 ....Judges to compose the new Supreme and Superior courts of the State of Vermont are elected by the Legislature.. November 22.-Herr von Arnim-Criewen is appointed Prussian Minister of Agriculture. November 23.-The French minister's pro December 18.-The President's message trans mitting Secretary Metcalf's report on the Japa-gramme of naval construction is approved by the Chamber of Deputies. . November 24.-The Austro-Hungarian delegates assemble at Budapest. nese in San Francisco is read in both branches.... The Senate passes the Urgency Deficiency Appropriation bill and a bill requiring a child-labor investigation by the Department of Commerce and Labor....The House passes the Indian Appropriation bill. tice, and Mr. Moody is sworn in as an Associate December 17.-Oscar S. Straus of New York becomes Secretary of Commerce and Labor; Secretary Metcalf goes to the Navy Department, Secretary Bonaparte to the Department of Jus November 26.-The Minister of Finance in Ecuador resigns as a result of rumors of a large defalcation in his department. November 27.-The general committee of the National Liberal Federation of England denounces the House of Lords for its action on the Education bill....M. Kauffman, the Russian Minister of Education, submits a plan for the reform of the primary school system. November 28.-The Spanish cabinet resigns November 29.-The new Moret cabinet in December 1.-Wilhelm Voigt, who robbed the treasury of Koepenick, is sentenced at Berlin to four years' imprisonment. December 3.-The Spanish cabinet resigns. December 4-The Italian Government asks for $182,000,000 to improve the railroads.... The Manitoba cabinet decides to investigate. charges that grain dealers have combined to keep down the prices paid to the farmers.... King Alfonso approves the formation of a new Liberal cabinet in Spain, headed by Marquis de la Vega; General Weyler takes the portfolio of war. December 5.-The debate in the Belgian Chamber of Deputies on the Congo Free State is postponed indefinitely. December 6.-The Education bill passes the third reading in the British House of Lords. December 7.-The French Chamber of Deputies, by a vote of 364 to 187, passes the bill providing for the purchase of the Western Railway by the state. December 9.-It is announced that the Vatican has rejected the French Government's offer under which Catholic services may be held in France. December 10.-Mr. Birrell announces in the British House of Commons that the government has decided to reject all the amendments made by the House of Lords to the Education bill. 1 December 11.-The French Government arrests and sends to the Italian frontier Mgr. Montagnini, who has been acting as the Vatican's representative at Paris....The British House of Commons, by a vote of 317 to 89, adopts a motion introduced by the Premier that the amendments to the Education bill made by the Lords be voted on as a whole. December 12.-The British House of Commons, by a vote of 416 to 107, rejects all the amendments of the House of Lords to the Education bill....Letters patent are issued in London granting a constitution to the Transvaal. December 13.-M. Edouard Muller is elected President of the Swiss Confederation....The German Reichstag is dissolved, after the government's defeat on the supplementary budget to maintain the garrison in German Southwest Africa....Masses are held in France in defiance. of the law and the government begins prosecutions. December 14. The Belgian Chamber of Deputies votes for the annexation of the Congo Free State. December 16.-The French Chamber of Deputies meets in extraordinary session and passes budget. December 17.-The British House of Lords adjourns debate in order to give the leaders of the opposing parties an opportunity to reach an agreement on the Education bill. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. DR. CLIFFORD H. IRION. November 20.-French officials give a prelim- (President of the Louisiana State Board of Health inary decision barring out American pork. November 23.-Canada informs the United States that the postal convention between the two countries will be abrogated on May 7, 1907. PROFESSOR HERSCHEL C. PARKER. and president-elect of the International Congress on Tuberculosis.) and Spain, providing for the landing of 3000 November 25.-An agreement between France troops in Morocco if necessary, is made public in Paris. December 6.-The Algeciras convention is ratified unanimously by the French Chamber of Deputies. December 8.-The correspondence between the United States and the British Foreign Office and Newfoundland and the Colonial Office, regarding the fisheries modus vivendi, is made public in London. December 10.-The German Reichstag ratifies the Algeciras convention. December 13.-Conventions between Great Britain, France, and Italy, regarding Abyssinia and the suppression of the traffic in contraband of war on the Somaliland coast, are signed. December 14-The appointment of Enrique C. Creel as Mexican Ambassador to the United States is officially announced. December 18-Signor Tittoni, the Italian Foreign Minister, in a speech before the Chamber. of Deputies, expresses the government's intention to hold firmly to the Triple Alliance. OTHER OCCURRENCES OF THE MONTH. November 19.-A severe earthquake shock is felt along the coast of Western Australia.... An American company receives a Congo concession of about 2,500,000 acres for 60 years.... Forty-two persons are drowned in a collision be |