and the Foraker leaders seemed eager to an- Mississippi and the Great Lakes, and will nounce their indorsement of his candidacy, consider all general subjects connected with irrespective of the contest for Mr. Foraker's the inland water system of the country along seat in the Senate. After a month's deadlock the broadest lines. The Administration at the Republicans of the Wisconsin Legislature Washington attaches great importance to the succeeded in nominating the Hon. Isaac work of this commission, believing that as Stephenson to succeed Senator Spooner. Mr. one result of its labors the "log-rolling" Stephenson, whose election promptly fol- schemes of river improvement that have prelowed his nomination, is a millionaire lum- vailed in the past will be superseded by an berman and banker, an ardent supporter of orderly, definite policy of improvement and Senator La Follette in his policies, and a man control. The commission owes its existence of considerable experience in public life, hav- largely to the activity of certain commercial ing been a member of the lower house of organizations of the Mississippi Valley, Congress for six years in the '80's. The which had in view the attainment of lower Rhode Island Legislature, after a long ses- freight rates through the construction of a sion spent in deadlock, was compelled to ad- deep waterway from the Lakes to the Gulf, journ without having chosen a Senator. The and this aspect of the waterways problem will election of members of the next Rhode Island doubtless receive the commission's earnest atLegislature will be fought out on the basis tention. But its investigations will cover a of votes for the various senatorial candidates. much broader field, as was indicated by the President's letter of March 14 last to ChairThe new Inland Waterways man Burton, summarized in the April numCommission, appointed by Presi- ber of this magazine. Our Inland . Waterways. dent Roosevelt to investigate the improvement of rivers and harbors, the utiliThe last Congress provided for Studying zation of streams for irrigation, and the recla- Immigration the creation of an immigration Problems. mation of swamp lands, has been organized commission, with authority to with Representative Burton, of Ohio, as chair- visit foreign countries, there to ascertain the man; Senator Newlands as vice-chairman, conditions affecting immigration. At the and Dr. W J McGee as secretary. The com- same time, the Immigration bill, passed at mission will make visits of inspection of the the last session, authorized the President to Reading from left to right: Senator A. C. Latimer, South Carolina; Mr. W. R. Wheeler, California; Senator H. C. Lodge, Massachusetts; Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University; Senator W. B. Dillingham, Vermont, chairman; Mr. Morton E. Crane, Massachusetts, secretary; Representative Wm. S. Bennet, New York; Mr. Walter W. Husband, clerk Senate Committee; Representative B. F. Howell, New Jersey; Representative J. L. Burnett, Alabama; Commissioner of Labor Charles P. Neill. An enter into agreements with foreign nations will visit Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, for the purpose of preventing immigration Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, into the United States of aliens who were and possibly England. An earnest effort will not entitled under the restrictions imposed be made by the commission to devise some by our laws to enter our ports. President method by which the history of intending Roosevelt appointed the following gentle- immigrants from foreign countries may be men as members of this important commis- ascertained, as it has always been the policy sion: Senator Dillingham, of Vermont, of our Government to exclude from this chairman; Senators Latimer, of South Caro- country all persons having criminal records lina, and Lodge, of Massachusetts; Repre- in the countries of their birth. sentatives Howell, of New Jersey; Bennet, of New York, and Burnett, of Alabama; Commissioner of Labor Neill, Prof. J. W. Jenks, of Cornell University, and W. R. Wheeler, of California. The members of the commission, with the exception of Senator Lodge, Professor Jenks, and Commissioner Neill, will spend the greater part of the summer in Europe, while Messrs. Neill and Jenks will remain in this country, devoting themselves to the collection and preparation of statistics regarding immigration, the disposition of immigrants, and so forth, which it is desired to incorporate in the final report. The mem The spring of 1907 is likely to Exceptionally be remembered for many years Cold Spring. for the severity of its weather conditions. Hardly any part of the United States was exempt from continued cold and unprecedented snowfall. March and April weather continued until mid-May. The effect of these unusual conditions on the wheat crop of the Middle West was watched with anxiety in all the centers of the world's grain trade. Alarming reports of injury to the Western grain fields were spread broadcast in the interest of speculators. Doubtless maturing of grain in what is now the winterwheat section of Kansas and Nebraska was undoubtedly much retarded by the cold; but it was believed by the Department of Agriculture, late in May, that the prospects of an average crop were still fair in most of the winter-wheat area, barring a continuance of the unexampled cold weather. Effect In the spring-wheat section, faron the Wheat ther north, the weather was a Market. more serious factor, in so far as it threatened to interfere with plowing and seeding to an extent that would inevitably reduce the yield. As reported to Washington, however, the cold did not prevent the usual farming operations of the season to any serious extent, although in many places there was a delay of a week or two in getting in the seed. In Western Canada, a wheat region of growing importance, which a Canadian writer glowingly describes in this number of the REVIEW, the cold was so intense as to delay plowing very generally. A decrease in the Canadian wheat crop for the current year may be regarded as very probable. The ravages of the "green bug," an insect heretofore slightly feared in our grain belt, were reported in May as causing serious damage to Kansas and Nebraska wheat. These reports, however, were declared by the authorities at Washington to be highly colored and unwarranted by the facts. But at any rate they affected the Chicago wheat pit to an appreciable extent, and, in conjunction with the admitted wheat shortage of every European From the National Press Assn., Washington. STATUE OF GEN. HENRY W. LAWTON. (Unveiled at Indianapolis, on Memorial Day, May 30, 1907.) country except France, an advance in speculative prices soon set in which has had no parallel in this country since the spring of 1898. During April and May there was a rise of from 20 to 21 cents. Foreign markets shared in this excitement to some extent. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DELIVERING THE OPENING SPEECH OF THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION. industrial age. phasized the importance of putting into practice the well-worn precepts regarding liberty, fraternity, and equality, as applied to the conditions of our modern American life. Some time ago it had been arranged that the PresiOur purpose is to build up rather than to tear dent should deliver the address on Memorial down. We show ourselves the truest friends of Day at the unveiling of the statue to General property when we make it evident that we will Lawton in Indianapolis. General Lawton, it not tolerate the abuses of property. We are will be recalled, had served with distinction steadily bent on preserving the institution of private property; we combat every tendency to- in the Civil War and the war with Spain, in ward reducing the people to economic servitude; 1898, and died in the line of duty in supand we care not whether the tendency is due to pressing the insurrection in the Philippines. a sinister agitation directed against all property, The President's Indianapolis speech was or whether it is due to the actions of those members of the predatory classes whose anti-social power is immeasurably increased because of the very fact that they possess wealth. A few days later, speaking at the unveiling of the statue of General George B. McClel largely devoted to a discussion of the Government's relation to railroad investments. Extended extracts from that part of the President's Indianapolis address appear on pages. 725-8 of this rumber of the REVIEW From the National Press Association, Washington. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT TO GEN. GEORGE B. M'CLELLAN. Labor Troubles. (Unveiled on May 2, 1907.) The most serious labor disturbances of the month of May were developed at points as far apart as New York and San Francisco. At New York the 'longshoremen, whose work it is to load and unload the cargoes of the great transatlantic liners, went on strike for higher wages and succeeded in causing serious delay to traffic, which could only be overcome by the employment of large numbers of "strikebreakers." For a few days there were 12,000 of these 'longshoremen idle along the docks of New York. There were naturally a few violent conflicts between the striking laborers and those who took their jobs, but on the whole the conduct of the strikers, and especially of the strike leaders, was exemplary. In San Francisco there was a general strike of street-railway employees, the iron-workers, and a few other industries. Here there was much violence, and it was even thought necessary at one stage to call out the militia. The disorder was abated before this step was actually taken, but not before a number of strikers had been shot and mortally wounded by the strike-breakers, whom they had attacked. A gift of $1,000,000 has been Another Useful Gift to South- made by Miss Anna T. Jeanes, ern Education. of Philadelphia, for a fund to be devoted entirely to rudimentary schools for Southern negroes. All who have followed the work of the graduates of Hampton and Tuskegee are aware that dotted over the Southern States there are hundreds of small village and rural schools which receive little or no aid from the State school systems, but which in many communities form the sole educational equipment for the colored race. The gift of this fund, which will be administered by Principal Frissell, of Hampton, and Principal Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, is most timely. We may be assured that every dollar of it will be made to count, and that a great uplift will be given almost immediately to the cause of negro education. A New Postal A new postal convention between Arrangement the United States and Canada with Canada. went into effect on the 7th of last month. Hereafter, according to its terms, papers and magazines sent to Canada from Great Britain will pay only one-half as much postage as those mailed to Canada from this country, whereas formerly an English publication paid eight times as much as an American. Both these rates were obviously unfair, although it is difficult to see just what is gained by attaining fairness to British publishers at the expense of justice to American. According to a Canadian public man, whose words are quoted in one of the prominent weeklies of the Dominion, Canada was, under the old arrangement, almost prohibited from developing a periodical literature of her own. The cheap New York magazine traveled as freely through our mails as through the American, as freely through Ontario as Michigan, while all the postal revenue went to Washington, and not a cent to Ottawa. All these publications Canadian. We were a sort of cheap annex to were crammed with advertising, none of it the republic,-an extra stretch of country thrown in to boot" or to make good measure in all things having to do with literature and publishing. Even if this were true, it is difficult to see how the new arrangement will be much of a consolation. British periodicals have never in the past treated Canadian topics more comprehensively or fairly than have our own. For example, we may modestly refer to the series of articles in the present number of this magazine. |