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Vol. 69

The Outlook

The Steel Strike

Published Weekly

September 7, 1901

Last week there were Arbitration Rejected signs that the Steel Trust was making slow but steady progress in resuming work. At least its claims of gains were not, until Saturday, offset by counter claims on the part of the strikers. Public interest centered largely in the efforts to secure arbitration, and the readiness of the strikers to accept this mode of settlement was generally taken as a confession of physical weakness quite as much as a profession of moral strength. The Civic Federation Committee's work to bring about arbitration came to an end without the Committee's enlightening the public as to where the responsibility for the conflict should be laid. The effort of President Burns, of Tutors Association.to

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incorporate, so as to be liable to suits for damages in case it did not fulfill its contracts. Respecting this suggestion President Shaffer stated that he had no objection to the incorporation of his union, though such a step would require authorization by a National convention. Apparently the fear of litigation-in which labor so rarely wins victories has made the great body of trades-unions prefer to remain unincorporated. The Knights of Labor is reported to be one of the few exceptions to this rule. President Burns, of the Window-Glass Workers—who is now the General Master Workman of the Knights of Labor-does not yet despair of the final acceptance of arbitration. It looks, however, as if the only argument that would bring the Trust to accept this

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the third, who should nave Luc vote in case of a division. The only stipulation in the proposal to which objection could have been made-if the Trust was willing to accept the judgment of an impartial committee-was that both sides should submit to the board all books and papers demanded. The proposal, how ever, was rejected without any official statement of the Trust's reason for reject ing it. Certain papers favorable to the Trust reported that it would not arbitrate unless the Amalgamated Association would

nent would be some new wer on the part of the would demonstrate that d be, to the Trust as men and the public, the od of ending the strike. the week one of the labor urg published a violent 'resident Shaffer for mishe affairs of the union, ; arraignment will influes is not yet clear. Its ce may be thought to : Shaffer for treating it On Saturday the union. made the one demonstration of its power, and it was perhaps the most remarkable of the entire strike. At Duquesne, where for years no man has been allowed to join a union, a committee of employees in the open-hearth department notified the foreman Friday evening not to recharge the furnaces, as the men were going on strike at the end of the turn. After hurried consultations, the officials of the mill decided to make wholesale discharges of the men suspected of unionism, and over thirty

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converted it from an advocate into an opponent of direct primaries. The moneyed interest back of the opposition is recognized to be the interest of the railroad corporations in escaping their share of taxation. Says the Madison "Journal:" The opposition is not spontaneous, acute, significant. It is factitious-manufactured. A few men have vast interests to save from just taxation, and they are spending their money freely and using their newspapers without pretense to secure a Legislature that will prove amenable. If Pfisterism is approved by this State, good-by tax reform, good-by increased taxation of corporations; all hail franchise favors-all hail to every form of encroachment on the people desired by railroad, telegraph, telephone, and street railway interests. This is what an era of reorganization of the party from Mr. Pfister's offices means, and everybody knows it. The men. who are lending honored names to this movement are pawns in the hands of masters. Governor La Follette has shortcomings, but they do not threaten the best interests of the average taxpayer and citizen as would the enthronement of Mr. Pfister and his associ

ates.

Governor Pingree, of Michigan, met with the opposition of the same interests, and the votes directly controlled by these interests were cast against him. But in the election in which these votes were thus cast, Governor Pingree's majority exceeded by ten thousand the enormous total given to President McKinley. Republican party in Wisconsin has nothing to fear from the threatened rebellion.

The word "progress" does Progress in Cuba not apply very aptly to the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, which still seems as far as ever from reaching the conclusion of its labors. The last distinct progress made by the Commission appointed by the Convention to settle the electoral law has been the apportionment of Presidential electors by provinces as follows: Havana, 21; Santa Clara, 13; Santiago, 18; Matanzas, 12; Piña del Rio, 11; Puerto Principe, 8. Minority representation is recognized by a provision which allows each citizen to vote only for a smaller number of electors than the province is entitled to. Thus, in Havana the voter can put only fourteen names on his ballot, although, as above stated, Havana elects twenty-one delegates. Nothing else of moment has been done by the Constitutional Convention. An

attempt to adopt resolutions which should break the force of the Platt amendment has failed. Outside of constitutional questions, however, it may truly be said that great progress has lately been reported from Cuba. In educational, sanitary, and municipal respects the advance has been notable. notable. Thus, Major Gorgas, the chief sanitary officer of Havana, presents evidence to sustain his surprising claim that Havana is now a healthier city than New York, Washington, or Pittsburg, pointing out as causes the present cleanliness of the city, the absence of yellow fever (only four cases and one death were reported from Havana in July, while in July, 1897, there were 168 deaths from yellow fever), and the fact that Havana is free from such excessive heat as raised the death-rate during July in New York and other American cities. In educational matters, the army officer who has charge of the schools as Commissioner, in his annual report states that, while at the beginning of the American occupancy there were not, so far as he knows, any public schools in Cuba, there are now over 3,500 schools, an equal number of teachers, and an enrollment of 172,273 scholars. Commissioner Hanna

incidentally calls attention to the fact that in every Cuban school-room may be found Cuban flags, portraits of the heroes of the Cuban war against Spain, while "Cuba Libre" is always written in large letters on the blackboard.

Conditions in the Philippines

The War Department has lately received the annual report made by Superintendent Atkinson, of Manila, in regard to the public schools, from which it appears that already 781 teachers from the United States have been appointed out of the thousand authorized by the school law. As evidence of the eagerness to fill these positions, Mr. Atkinson states that over eight thousand applications were filed, including 487 from soldiers. The entire Philippine archipelago has been divided into eighteen sections, and a division superintendent placed over each. The greatest need at present, Mr. Atkinson says, is for adequate and suitable school buildings; makeshifts of military barracks and empty buildings are entirely unsatisfactory. The eagerness of pupils to learn is

shown by the fact that sometimes a single teacher has as many as two hundred pupils. It is intended to begin very soon the plan of using English only in the schools, at least in Manila, and to extend the system as rapidly as possible. The military situation in the islands has not recently changed materially. An action is reported from Batanzas Province, in Luzon, in which a considerable body of insurgents was driven back with some loss; in the island of Samar the insurgent general Lucan was lately surprised and driven back; but military operations in the island have now ceased on account of the wet season. The hostile feeling between the common people and the friars increases in acuteness. In several places friars have been mobbed by the people when they attempted to conduct church services, and in at least one case they were driven from the church and stoned, after which the people, the report states, gath ered in front of the priest's house and waved the American flag, while the band played The Star-Spangled Banner." In Cebu a petition was presented to the Governor asking for the removal of the religious corporations from the island. The Governor explained to the people that they were quite at liberty to ignore the friars entirely and choose their own priests, and promised to forward the petition to Governor Taft. The Federal party has issued a proclamation affirming that the friar question is purely political. The Nationalist party has sent to Governor Taft its platform, which advocates the most ample autonomy at the earliest moment, and, when the time is opportune, the independence of the Philippines, under an American protectorate. It proposes the encouragement of higher education and industrial and commercial expansion, and advocates the expulsion from the Philippines of elements obnoxious to the welfare of the people-meaning, of course, the friars.

The report that the disFrance and Turkey pute between the Sultan and France had been settled, as mentioned in these columns last week, appears to have been somewhat premature. A break of some kind seems to have arisen in the negotiations; and the French Ambassador,

M. Constans, under instructions from the French Foreign Minister, M. Delcassé, left Constantinople early in the week for Paris. The Turkish Ambassador to Paris, who is now in Switzerland, has been requested, it is understood, not to return to Paris, so that official relations between the two nations have ceased for

the present. It seems that, in addition to the failure of the Sultan to keep his promise with regard to the quays built by the French company, there had also been demands for the payment of long-standing indemnities to Frenchmen, amounting to about $2,400,000. France requires a satisfactory adjustment of these claims before resuming diplomatic relations. It is not believed that war is at all likely to ensue, and it is quite probable that Turkey will yield soon, as the Porte is anxious to maintain supervision over the members of the Young Turks party who make Paris their headquarters, which is impossible when no representative of the Porte is in Paris. A further development of the dispute is found in the statement that the Sultan had notified the French Ambassador that he intended taxing the French religious orders in Turkey.

The time is drawing near when the threat made by Lord Kitchener in the proclamation recently outlined in The Outlook will go into effect. Meanwhile defiant replies have been made by President Steyn, General De Wet, and General Botha. They all announce their determination to continue the war as vigorously as is in their power despite the threat that, if captured, they will be permanently exiled from South Africa. Some English papers consider the making of the threat in itself a mistake, as the Boer leaders would in no event expect favors if captured, unless after negotiations for surrender. Lord Kitchener, in his despatch about this matter, merely reports the fact of the refusal of the Boer leaders to surrender, without giving their reasons or a summary of the letters received from them. Another threat by proclamation has been authorized by the London War Office. It has telegraphed to Lord Kitchener to issue a proclamation stating that, in view of the killing of British

The Boer Leaders Defiant

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