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AMERICAN RAILROAD INTERESTS.

The motive for the deal was simply that the venders thought it to their advantage to sell, and the purchasers to theirs to buy. Nothing more occult than this. The advantages of the combine were truly stated by Mr. Russell Rea, M.P., who said that the origin of the movement was in the business necessities of the great American railroads deriving their revenue mainly from carrying American produce across the continent to be shipped to Europe.

"The old system, under which each railroad company made its own arrangements with the various steamship companies, is said to have produced intolerable confusion and embarrassment in the handling of cargo. When, some time ago, certain of the trunk lines pooled their interests and became one association with one mind and one policy, the organization of sea traffic, on lines. corresponding with the organization of the land traffic, became a business necessity. It was a vital matter for them-the associated railroads'to be able to direct the movements of freight steamers, to allot their ports, and fix the dates of their sailing.'"

THE FIRST STEP IN TRUST REGULATION.

RESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S utterances on

PRESI

the trust question have been approved by many conservative journals which have offered scant encouragement to the ordinary anti-trust propaganda. Thus, the Bankers' Magazine for September, which has no sympathy with those who seek to "make a political issue of an evolu. tion in economic science," strongly endorses the policy of publicity advocated by the President as a first step in the regulation of the trusts. The inventors and promoters of the trust system, it declares, are themselves largely responsible for the darkness covering their operations. It is undeniable that the trust managers gained temporary advantages, in many cases, by keeping secret many details of organization.

Public hostility was excited, according to the Bankers' Magazine writer, more by the prospect of great profits under the trust system than by any real or supposed faults in the system itself. This brought about the interference of the state for purposes of taxation. It was a spirit of greed that dictated much of the anti-trust legis lation now on the statute books, and the trusts have resisted the attack in a similar spirit. They have often appeared to defy the law.

The narrow motive of securing information, for the state or for individuals, as to the moneymaking capacity of particular trusts is no part of the President's purpose in advocating publicity.

"It is to show the effect on the industries of the country and the general welfare of the people of a system of business which seeks to do away with competition. The public ought to take very little interest as a whole in the individuals or cliques of speculators who happen to be in control or to be quarreling over some money-making proposition. The real question is of the general or universal effect of a business system on the prosperity of the whole people. It is a waste of time to call attention to exceptional financial success on the part of individuals when it is the underlying system that should be examined.

of the law.

WHY PUBLICITY IS DEMANDED.

"Those who manage trusts have, no doubt, in a great measure, pursued a policy of concealment. They have been excusable on account of the manner in which they have been attacked. Public prosecutors, often excited by demagogical motives, with the desire of popularity, have attacked corporations and trusts without preliminary investigation of the ground or knowledge Most of these suits by public prosecutors have resulted in ridiculous failure. But in consequence it has been given out as an excuse for failure, which was in most cases anticipated, that trusts have a mysterious capacity of resistance impervious to the weapons of the law. Like the medieval dragon, they are armed at all points. But all this is nonsensical. It is no doubt true that as new conditions arise in any branch of human activity old laws become inad. equate, but there never has yet been a time when legislators have failed to adapt the law to new conditions when these conditions were understood. The first step is to understand them.

PUBLICITY IN THE CASE OF BANKS.

"To discover the real nature and purpose and meaning of such an economical activity as a trust, it would appear to be better to study it in its ordinary normal existence, and not when stirred up to an unusual kind of life by hostile attacks. The publicity which the President refers to is the publicity of the general operations of a trust, similar to that now required by law as to the general operations of a national bank. The legitimate business of a bank is not hampered by the publicity, nor is any secrecy necessary to the inception of business or as to private dealings necessarily revealed. Publicity of this kind is the trail which shows that business, secret enough while doing, after it is finished, was done accord. ing to law. This trail is so complete in the case of a bank that if it indicates violations of law, it becomes impossible to deny or evade the consequences of them. But it was many years before

a code of laws suitable for the guidance of the banking business was formulated. The perfection of this code is the result of continual amendment. In regard to so recent a development of industrial method as trusts and combined corporations, it cannot be expected that suitable laws will be enacted in a moment. Time and trial will be necessary. But, as the President says, the people must learn what these so-called monsters really are, and not suffer themselves to be misled by the scare utterances of the enemies of the trust, or of those who seek to use them as a political issue.

The utterances of the President are far in advance of the usual party platform which, lacking real knowledge, joins in the scare outcry as the easiest and safest political course."

WHAT ORGANIZED LABOR HAS LEARNED.

UNDER this title Mr. Ralph M. Easley, secre

tary of the National Civic Federation, sketches in the October McClure's the progress of trades-unionism in the United States, and sums up the most important lessons that have come to the organizers of labor through hard experience. The first system of regular annual conferences and joint agreements was arranged in the year 1865 by the United Sons of Vulcan, employed in boiling pig iron. The present rapid advance of organized labor is shown by a doubling in membership within the past three years. Mr. Easley sees, too, a marked improvement in the character of the unions, their broadening policies, the conservatism of their leaders, and the resulting joint conferences and agreements with employers based on mutual concessions. He gives many recent evidences of this improvement in the situation, such as the recent joint agreement between the American Newspaper Publishers' Association, and the International Typographical Union, and the Printing Pressmen's Union, for five years. He shows how the president of the International Longshoremen's Union, Mr. Daniel J. Keefe, actually hired non-union men to replace strikers who had broken a union contract. Mr. Easley says that non-union prejudice is dying out. In the Iron Moulders' Union, for instance, only twenty-five of the thirteen hundred agreements to-day restrict employment to union men. characteristics of the walking delegates are improving, the best labor leaders are resolutely opposing any breaking of labor contracts, and they are, too, denouncing the sympathetic strike.

A LABOR CREED.

The

Mr. Easley gives what he calls "the revised creed of organized labor," constructed from the lessons of practical experience.

"1. Strikes are bad, and should be a last resort.

2. Scales of wages should be determined by mutual concessions in conferences with employ. ers rather than by a demand submitted by the union as an ultimatum.

3. When thus determined, this scale becomes a contract, which is not only as sacred as any business contract, but the violation of which by the union is also the most disastrous blow that can be struck at the principle of unionism.

4. Sympathetic strikes are unwise, because they violate contracts, bring injury to friendly employers and the friendly public, and arouse public opinion against the organization.

5. It is not essential to a contract that nonunion men should be excluded from employment along with union men, provided they receive the same pay.

6. The union should attract the non-unionist by persuasion, not force, into membership. "Violence in conducting a strike alienates the public, brings the courts and the militia to the support of employers, and reacts disastrously upon the union.

8. Unionists should welcome new machinery. 9. Unions should abandon arbitrary restrictions on output, and direct their attention to questions of hours of labor and rates of pay.

THE RELIEF SYSTEM OF THE MINE
WORKERS.

MANY contradictory statements have ap
MA

peared in the newspapers relating to the distribution of the relief fund among the striking anthracite mine workers. Very few attempts have been made, however, to ascertain just what system of accounting is employed in this distribution. The clearest statement of the matter that has come to our notice is contributed by Dr. Walter E. Weyl to Charities for September 6.

As Dr. Weyl points out, the relief system of the miners differs from that of charitable organizations in that its central idea is "militant rather than charitable." That is to say, the object in view is the winning of the strike, rather than the prevention of suffering. The principle of absolute equality in the distribution of the fund has been discarded for the principle of distribu tion in accordance with the needs of the appli

cants.

The funds received by the national organiza. tion were divided among the three districts of the anthracite regions in proportion to the num. ber of mine workers in each, but each of these districts redistributed its quota according to the

requirements of the various locals composing it. Even here a rough approximation seems to have been made to the number of mine workers in the various locals, although some of the locals demanded less than their share, while others, it is claimed, have hitherto refused all aid whatsoever. In the distribution of relief no discrimination has been made against non-union miners, who receive the same amount of aid as the union miners.

PAYMENT IN GROCERY ORDERS.

A

"The system of accounting appears to be both simple and effective. The district officers have printed order books in the shape of check books, with detachable orders and stubs. local makes a requisition for one or more of these books, and when relief is granted the name of the recipient and the amount granted are written upon the order and upon the remaining stub. The order which the miner receives is not convertible into cash, but is accepted by the local grocer in payment for flour, potatoes, meat, canned goods, etc. The grocer fills out the amounts and prices of the goods received upon the obverse of the order, and both grocer and miner sign this statement, thus minimizing the danger of allowing the grocer and miner in collusion to convert the order into cash and subsequently into whiskey. The grocer or other small local merchant surrenders the filled-out order and receives his payment in the form of a check. The local union thus retains the original stub, the order accepted by the miner, the miner's receipt for the groceries purchased, and the stub of the check paid to the grocer. local auditing committee reviews the workings of the system, and the district officials have equally the right to inquire into the distribution of the funds.

FOOD THE CHIEF ITEM.

The

"The reduction of the expense of relief is carried to a fine point, and relief is granted in a manner faintly suggesting Becky Sharp's famous plan of living on nothing a year. There are many men in the district who will not accept relief, and many others to whom it is not granted. The great army of those who have left do not, of course, receive relief, and men who have obtained work in the region also go without assistance. A corresponding reduction is made for miners or other mine workers who receive aid from relatives or friends, or whose daughters are employed as servants, mill hands, or otherwise."

After making such deductions, the amount granted bears an approximate proportion to the food requirements of the striking population. A

certain sum is allowed each single man, an additional sum for a wife, and still another sum for each child or other dependent, varying according to the age and requirements of each. Relief rarely takes the form of rent or clothing, and nothing is paid on account of fuel, since coal for that purpose may be picked from the culm heap.

E

EGYPT FOR THE EGYPTIANS. NGLAND'S administration of Egypt has been so frequently cited as an object lesson of what colonial government should be, that the observations of an American traveler just now have a peculiar interest to all American citizens who are concerned, as we all should be, in the successful administration of our newly acquired American dependencies. There is, therefore, a special timeliness in the article on "The Egypt of To-day" contributed by Prof. J. W. Jenks, of Cornell University, to the first number of the International Quarterly, the successor of the International Monthly. Professor Jenks briefly relates the disasters of the political and financial history of Egypt as a Turkish province, and describes the ingenious system under which, since 1882, the country, while nominally under the authority of the Khedive, has been virtually a British protectorate, if not actually a British dependency. The Khedive. pays to his master, the Sultan of Turkey, an annual tribute of about $3,375,000. An advisory cabinet of six ministers, each in charge of a de partment, is nominally, in the name of the Khe dive, the law-making body. There is also the legislative council, to which proposed laws are submitted for advice. There is a general assembly meeting every two years, but the only power possessed by this body is that of making suggestions relating to the welfare of the country.

The most important official of all, however, is an English financial adviser, who, without a vote, sits with the cabinet, must be given full information, and must be allowed to give advice. In each department there is also either an English adviser or an English permanent secretary, who must be given full knowledge of the working of the government, and must be permitted to make suggestions. These all act under the leadership of Lord Cromer, England's diplomatic agent and consul-general. There is an English army of occupation of some five thousand troops holding the citadel whose guns command the Khedive's capital, and this, it may well be believed, lends effective support to the advice of the English officials. Furthermore, the Egyptian army itself is trained and com

manded by English officers, and the Egyptian government has more than once been given to understand that when England, on important matters, gives advice to the Egyptian government, that advice must be acted upon.

REFORMS IN TAXATION.

Before proceeding with an account of the handling of the Egyptian debt, Professor Jenks devotes some space to showing the essential importance of irrigation to the country's welfare, and the great prosperity that has been secured solely through the wise development of engineering schemes either originated or com. pleted by the British officials. The direct economic effect of these works on the country's financial condition can hardly be believed by one not familiar with the facts of the situation as set forth by Professor Jenks. Take, for instance, the saving from the improved drainage of the irrigation canals alone. Owing to the deposit of silt in these canals after the flood, it was once necessary to clear them out in the summer season by forced labor. Formerly the labor required in the Delta alone amounted to more than $3,000,000 a year. Now, with a much more extensive system and additional drains, and owing to the better organization and more careful distribution of the water, the annual cost is only $1,000,000. In one special case, by certain minor changes introduced to lessen the amount of silt deposited, with an expenditure of less than $10,000, an economy was made of between 700,000 and 800,000 days of work per year, or, in terms of money, an annual saving resulted of at least $80,000. Thus the annual increase in the wealth of the country, subject to taxation, directly due to these engineering improvements, can hardly be estimated. In the days before the English administration landOwners were not only compelled to mortgage their crops to pay the annual taxes, but in 1870 were compelled to pay six years' land tax in advance, though they were promised thereafter, as compensation, that their taxes should be reduced by 50 per cent. Lord Cromer himself has summed up the financial history of the country under English rule in three distinct phases.

From 1883 to 1887, the efforts of the government had to be directed toward the maintenance of financial equilibrium. It was impossible to effect either fiscal relief or to incur additional expenditure. The second period, from 1887 to 1894, might have been considered that of fiscal relief. There was an opportunity of relieving the country in part from the burden of the taxes. Since 1894 the tax burdens have become so reasonable, on the whole, that the period of expen

diture directly for the improvement of the people has arrived. A few figures may be cited to show the reduction of the tax burden: Between 1881 and 1897, the average land tax per acre was reduced from $5.50 to $4.56. Since 1895, the total annual tax on land has been reduced by over half a million pounds; other direct taxes have been reduced by about a quarter of a million pounds, and indirect taxes amounting to £186,000 have been abolished. Between 1881 and 1897, the tax per head of population was reduced some 20 per cent., although there had

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been over two hundred miles of new railway opened; the expenditure on public instruction had been increased by over 37 per cent., large sums had been spent on irrigation and on agricultural roads, and the men called out on "Corvee," that is, for unpaid labor,-had been reduced from 281,000 to 11,000 men per year.

In 1881, the market price of the 5 per cent. privileged debt was 964. In 1897, the same debt, converted into 3 per cent., was 102. The 4 per cent. unified debt in 1881 stood at 71. The amount of debt per head of population in 1881 was £14 8s. 9d.; in 1897, it was £10 0s. 2d. While the per capita of the burden of the debt has been enormously reduced, the ability to

carry the burden, through the various works. mentioned, as well as through various other helpful measures, educative and otherwise, has also been very greatly strengthened. The principal of the debt has been comparatively little lessened, but there have been greatly added expenditures in works of public improvement, while the strength to carry it has been doubled.

SOCIAL BETTERMENT.

The improved financial situation, however, was not the only phase of the Egyptian question that interested Professor Jenks. Since 1894 the surplus revenues have enabled the government to take measures of social reform which, in his opinion, may in future be dwelt upon by writers with even more emphasis than questions of finance. Lord Cromer and Lord Milner have both insisted that their government of Egypt is for the benefit of the Egyptians, and that their intention is to teach the Egyptians as rapidly as possible how to govern themselves. Professor Jenks is convinced that this training in selfgovernment is actually being effected, and apparently as rapidly as possible.

Take, for instance, the training in the schools. Before the English occupation great masses of Egyptians remained ignorant. Over 91 per cent. of the males and almost 99 per cent. of the females could neither read nor write. Until within the last five years public primary education for the poorer classes, aside from the mere learning of the Koran, was almost unknown. At the present time public schools are being established everywhere, and grants in aid of these schools are paid in proportion to the attendance and the records made by the pupils. Likewise, certain positions in the civil service can be filled only by those who hold certificates from schools of certain grades. As a consequence there has been a great awakening of interest. Most of the teachers of these public schools are Mohammedan, and the schools are non-Christian in their instruction. The Koran is still used as a textbook for many purposes, but the education is practical in its general nature. The children are taught, besides reading and writing, the elements of the sciences, and they choose either French or English as the foreign language which they will learn, and that in which they will receive instruction in the more advanced studies where Arabic text-books cannot readily be provided. It is a noteworthy fact that while, in the earlier days, French was the language more fre quently chosen, nearly all the pupils are now selecting English. There are also provisions for training in law, medicine, agriculture, engineering, etc.

The law school is the most popular,

while the agricultural college,-although the basis of Egyptian wealth and prosperity is and must always be agriculture,-suffers from lack of pupils. Female education has not been neglected, and Professor Jenks says that we may expect in the near future that instead of 99 per cent. of the women being unable to write, a very large per cent. of the mothers of the country will be able to give their children the rudiments of education at home, and with the added intelligence and wider outlook on the world's affairs that will come from their own reading, they will be able to start their children in the direction of the higher civilization.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

The relations of the official class to the peasantry have greatly improved in the score of years that have elapsed under English occupation. Professor Jenks alludes to the former practice of collecting taxes from the villagers before the crops were ready for harvest and compelling them to borrow the money from a lender who went about with the tax collector expressly for the purpose, the coming crops being assigned to this Shylock. Furthermore, when the cultivator had paid his tax, he was never certain that there might not be further assessments during the year. As a rule he had no tax receipt, which was a quit-claim for any specified time, and with his ignorance and lack of support from the government officials, he simply paid what he could when the tax-gatherer appeared, and paid again when the proper official made a second demand. this has been changed. The taxes, while being. reduced, have been fixed; the amount is absolutely determined from year to year, and the time of payment is known. When the peasant has paid the tax, he is given a receipt which secures him from further demands until the next regular period.

All

Similar results, he says, are found in connection with the courts. In former times the judges had their private rooms, where they received suitors bearing gifts before the case was tried. The larger present usually decided the case in the giver's favor. Some of the more conscientious judges received equal amounts from both sides, and then paid back the bribe to the suitor losing the case, thus insuring impartiality, as they thought. this qualified system of bribing was rare; ordinarily the larger purse won. While among the native judges and the lower courts there are still traces of this system, Professor Jenks finds that, on the whole, corruption is dying out, and, to a considerable extent, has already vanished. He said there is never any accusation brought against the fair dealing of the European judges in the

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