Bequests. "Government of the People." ance Taxing for taxing large inheritances heavily, as is done in New York State, favored election of Senators by popular vote, and the referendum by which acts of legislation can be referred back to the people—all significant of growing tendencies. A commission of fifty men appointed by The Century magazine, including Temper- millionaires and college presidents, to make thorough investiInvesti- gation of the temperance question, spending thirty thousand gations. dollars in physiological experiments alone. National Divorce Reform League reported that up to close of this year nineteen States had appointed commissioners to unify the varied divorce laws of the United States, and eleven legislatures, including South Dakota, this year had improved such laws. Anti-Cigarette League formed in New York City schools by Commissioner Hubbell of the Board of Education. The British Opium Commission, investigating that curse in India, very much prejudiced and hampered by the revenue feature, which prevented impartial study of the physical and moral evils involved. Mysore Government in India forbade infant marriages of boys under fourteen and girls under eight. Dr. Kate Bushnell and Mrs. Elizabeth Andrew of the W. C. T. U. exposed authorized prostitution in the British army of India. Correctness of their horrible story admitted by the commander. Five thousand dollars raised in England to suppress this licensed curse of the army. Cigarettes. Opium. Social Gambling. Judge Burgess of the Missouri Supreme Court (following like decisions of other courts) decided that betting on grain, or option dealing on boards of trade, is gambling. The Lottery. Louisiana Lottery, as such, died with this year, but its promoters arranged to reappear at once in the new rôle of "The Honduras National Lottery," having bought permission for their drawings in Honduras, in the expectation of using foreign mails protected by treaty, if necessary, for continuing by indirection their forbidden robberies. That they expected to intercept their mail and also to use express companies largely was suggested by the erection of a great office at Tampa, Fla., the port of departure for Honduras. It should be noted here that lotteries, discontinued almost wholly for a dozen years in Protestant church fairs, had at this date begun to be condemned and disused in Catholic fairs also, with good promise of being left entirely to professional gamblers by the end of the century. 1894. The Citizen of Jacksonville exposed the new schemes of the Lottery. Louisiana Lottery under its new mask, and Senator Hoar intro duced a bill in Congress forbidding importation of, or interstate commerce in lottery goods. U. S. population, June 30, Statistics. 1894, at rate of increase shown by last decade, 68,500,000, an average of only I to each 160 acres of land. Internal Revenue Commissioner reports 243,609 liquor dealers, I to each 257 people, I to each 50 voters. Revenue from liquors, $127,240,362, a mere trifle beside the direct and indirect cost of liquor. The number of saloons in proportion to the population was less than in 1873, although the relative consumption had greatly increased; showing that reducing the number of saloons is of little benefit. Tribune Almanac of this year reported college students (U. S.), 133,682. Public-school enrolment, 13,234,103. Add to the 747,000,000 under Christian governments in 1880 the 24,000,000 taken under such governments up to this year in the Congo Free State, and millions more in that continent, with the growth of the Americas and Europe and the acquisitions of France in Siam, and the result is more than half of the world's population were under Christian governments in 1894, though most of it far from Christianized in character. Swiftest ocean passage to date, that of the Campania, five days, twelve hours, seven minutes. On February 6 a pneumatic tube system introduced in Chicago, by which packages could be sent to any connected point of the city in one minute. The year began with a plebiscite or informal vote in Ontario, which gave a hundred thousand majority for prohibition (Manitoba and Prince Edward Island had previously given a like verdict)). Unexpectedly, the large cities, including Toronto, gave majorities for prohibition, except those bordering on the United States. The Students' Volunteer Missionary movement, at its convention of this year, reported 3200 thus far enrolled since the beginning in 1887, of whom 686 have already sailed. One thousand of those remaining attended the convention. March 20, Neal Dow's ninetieth birthday. April 22, Centennial of Pennsylvania Sabbath law. June 1-6, about five thousand associations celebrated the jubilee of the beginning of Y. M. C. A. November 27, 28, Fiftieth Anniversary of First National Sabbath Convention. Manitoba's refusal to divide its publicschool funds with the parochial schools sustained by the highest judicial authority of the British Empire. Senator E. D. White made Justice of U. S. Supreme Court, the first Roman Catholic appointed since Taney. The passionate Prohibition. Sabbath Y. M. School Liberia. Check Amend ment. appeals of Bishop Turner (colored) in favor of the emigration of his people to Liberia began to produce visible results in March of this year, when thirty-eight negroes sailed from New York as the advance guard of a much larger number they declared would follow. On April 5 Judge Caldwell of the United States court at Omaha rendered a decision that organized labor is organized "capital" as surely as organized money, and has as much right as the last named to use the power of united action in affecting the price of labor. The Procurator of the Holy Synod of Russia confessed the persecution of the Stundists ineffective for preventing their rapid increase. In this year Russia changed its attitude of toleration toward Bible societies to one of repression. Movement to do away with the cruel check-rein reported to be gaining in England. Even chameleons protected against the cruel ladies who attempted to wear them as living ornaments. On JanuChristian ary 25 Hon. E. A. Morse, M. C., at the suggestion of Rev. H. H. George, D. D., and the writer, and others, introduced the following constitutional amendment in Congress (House Resolution, 120): "We, the people of the United States, devoutly acknowledging the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations, grateful to Him for our civil and religious liberty; and encouraged by the assurances of His Word to invoke His guidance, as a Christian nation, according to His appointed way, through Jesus Christ, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America." Remarkable strike in Chicago in the summer of this year and remarkable report by an official commission later upon it. See "Strike" in Alphabetical Index. Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst exposed the alliance between police and law-breakers in New York, which led to a legislative investigation by which his charges were more than verified, and that led to such political action in the annual election as took the control of the city from Tammany Hall. The decision of Judge Jenkins that the employees of the Northern Pacific Road, which was in his custody as a United States judge, must not strike, caused great commotion in labor organizations and led to Congressional investigation. Industry began this Strike bidden. Niagara. year to harness the vast water power of Niagara to the largest turbine wheels ever built, promising vast commercial results. Lords. The opposition of the House of Lords not only to the Home Rule Bill, but also to the Employers' Liability Bill and the Parish Councils' Bill, renewed proposals for abolishing or limiting its powers. Suggested that its veto be not valid over Inaugu rated. Newspapers. National two affirmations of the Commons. A convention in PhilaMunicipal Reform delphia of persons interested in municipal reform appointed Movement a committee, Mr. James C. Carter, New York, chairman, to form a National Municipal League. In a nasty breach of promise case at Washington, the daily press not only published the nastiness in full, but twice committed contempt of court by publishing what was not in evidence, all emphasizing the need of newspaper reform, as the prize-fight reports of an earlier time in the year had done. Arrangements made for the admission of missionaries into Tibet for the first time. Tibet. 1895. SOCIAL PROGRESS IN 1895. Review and Outlook, September 14. BALLOT REFORM.-The only backward step this year in ballot reform is that of Michigan's legislature forbidding the placing of the same name on two tickets to prevent union of two parties on one candidate. New York has improved its law, but has made a dangerous provision that the ignorant voter may have a guide (and so a bribe), though party symbols provide sufficiently for all save the blind. A ballot reform revival is this year stirring the South, in which are the only States that have not adopted the Australian ballot, namely (according to the Tribune Almanac for 1895), Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. (See Alphabetical Index for additional matter on each topic.) ANTI-BRUTALITY CRUSADE.-Although Florida by statute and Louisiana by decision have this year warned off prizefighters, the newspapers and theaters are doing their utmost to mend their impaired halos of heroism, and real prize-fights have occurred during the year in Brooklyn and elsewhere by permission of perjured city authorities. Another anti-brutality crusade is the agitation against the Mexican bull-fight announced for the Atlanta Exposition. At this writing it is not clear whether Texas also will join the "New South" by preventing the illegal prize-fight announced for October in that State. THE NEW CHARITY.-Charity Organization Society reports show a large decrease in applications for relief as compared to 1893 and 1894, and the Pingree plan of truck farming on city lots, generally approved, found few who needed its aid to employment this spring. The Loan Bureau of the New York Charity Organization Society has compelled East Side pawnbrokers to come down to its just rate of interest, one per cent. per month. |