possible to prevent the landing of arms and supplies. The patriots are frankly avowing their reliance upon the assistance of yellow fever and other maladies to decimate the ranks of the unacclimated troops from Spain. Unless the rebellion is put down swiftly, by sheer force of numbers and by an unusually energetic campaign, there is likely to be very severe fighting a few months hence after the sugar crop has been made.

Cuba and the United States.

Meanwhile, there has been much talk in the American newspapers about the annexation of Cuba to this country. The interest in this question is naturally much keener in the South than in the North. The plan most frequently broached is one under which Cuba should buy her own liberty from Spain, by an issue of Cuban bonds which are to be made a charge upon the future revenues of the island, and which, further, are to be guaranteed by the United States government. The people of Florida and South Carolina look with more favor upon the annexation of Cuba than do the citizens of Louisiana. The sugar planters of the latter state have suffered so much already from the repeal of the bounty law and the reduction

GENERAL MARTINEZ CAMPOS.

of tariff that they could hardly be expected to desire the annexation of an island where sugar cane can be produced at so much less cost than in their own state. It is worth while to call attention to the fact that Cuba may soon be brought in closer communication with this country than heretofore by the building of a railroad to Key West. The owners of the new line, which extends from Jacksonville and St. Augustine down the east coast of Florida to Lake Worth, have under consideration an extension of their line along the shore, which will carry it by means of bridges, trestles and embankments from one key or island to another, until Key West is reached as the grand terminus. Apparently such a road would run some 50 or 60 miles into the sea. But, in

Progress in Florida.

Railroad building on the east coast is only one of many signs of activity in the Floridian peninsula. Until a few years ago, central and southern Florida were almost as little known as the heart of Africa. It was supposed that most of the peninsula below St. Augustine was a marshy waste. Exploration and official survey have indeed shown that much of the southern end of the island is an irredeemable swamp. But as for the greater part of the peninsula, it is a land of wonderful resources and possibilities. Not only are its agricultural resources almost limitless, but also it has an inexhaustible wealth of phosphates and other mineral deposits. The immense cotton belt of the south will afford a constant demand for high-priced fertilizers, like the phosphates of South Carolina and Florida. The progress of this phosphate industry would astonish those who have not as yet had their attention called to the recent facts. The destruction of the orange groves of Florida and of adjacent Southern states by the February frosts is indeed a heavy blow, but the result will be a more diversified farming and fruit-culture, and in the end Florida as a state will perhaps have gained more than she has lost.

The Florida Capital.

The Florida Legislature assembled at the opening of April for its biennial session. The peculiar shape of Florida is never so fully realized by its own people as when they undertake to make laws and do other public business at their capital in quaint old Tallahassee, which lies far on toward Mobile in the western arm of the state. To reach Tallahassee from Key West, or even from Tampa, is a very serious matter, and as population increases in the southern half of the state the agitation in favor of a removal of the capital naturally gains strength. Tallahassee is a charming old village, wide-spread and rambling, with grass-grown streets shaded by long rows of magnificent live oaks. The legislature still sits in the original little State House that was built when Florida was purchased by the United States from Spain some seventy years ago. It is probably the most modest state house in the entire country. Jacksonville has become the commercial metropolis of Florida, and would seem to have the strongest claims if the capital were removed. But Ocala, Gainesville, and perhaps other points in the heart of the state, have their well-announced ambitions. It is only a question of time. This year's legislature has no senator to elect, and its business will attract little attention beyond the confines of Florida.

South Carolina's Convention.

In South Carolina, however, the public mind is occupied with questions which merit the very widest interest and attention. The last legislature provided for the choosing of a convention to prepare and promulgate a new state constitution. South Carolina is perhaps the only southern state which has not adopted a new constitution since the reconstruction period at the close of the war. For some years past the dominant party in South Carolina has been engaged in factional controversies, and the populistic wing led by Tillman has generally prevailed. The two factions have agreed, however, that there ought to be no differences between them which would interfere with the election of the ablest and best men in South Carolina as members of the constitutional convention. It is understood that they will arrange a compromise which will give each party half of the members of the convention and which will practically exclude negro and Republican representation. It is perfectly understood that this convention has only one real question before it. That question relates to the elective franchise.

Three

fifths of the population of South Carolina is negro, two-fifths is white. The white people, in the face of superior numbers, exercise absolute dominion. The negro franchise is practically in abeyance.

The real purpose of the proposed convenThe Negro Suffrage tion is to devise a means for the legal perQuestion. petuity of a government of white men. It is intended that this convention shall be composed of the best ability in the state, and that the constitution which it devises shall go into effect without being submitted to the people. An educational qualifica

tion on the Mississippi plan is not very highly approved in South Carolina, for the simple reason that illiteracy is almost as frequent among the whites as among the blacks; while in any case the educational test would only postpone for a few years the possi bility of negro domination, which it is proposed to prevent perpetually. The plan of giving plural or multiple votes to property owners on a graduated scale, the number of votes to be based upon assessed valuation, is more favorably regarded in South Carolina than the reading and writing test. If South Carolina could disfranchise the negroes as such, and merely take the penalty of a reduced representation in Congress, she would probably do it without hesitation. But the United States constitution seems to place an effectual bar upon that course. We may merely add that the discussion of the franchise question, particularly as it relates to the negro, will make the South Carolina constitutional convention a focus of national and international attention.

Success of South Carolina's Liquor System.

cess.

Another South Carolina question deserves a word in passing. It seems to have been taken for granted throughout the north that the South Carolina State Dispensary system is a dismal failure. The people of South Carolina, outside of the old liquor interest and certain political circles, have become almost unanimous in the opinion that the system is a splendid sucGovernor Evans, when in the legislature, was the chief promoter of the dispensary law, and now that he is in the executive chair he is quite as staunch in maintaining and enforcing the system as was Governor Tillman. Railway road-masters and other men familiar with conditions throughout the state, are enthusiastic in their account of the good effects that the law has already produced. Drunkenness and disorder have decreased to a remarkable extent; and whereas the negro laborer was formerly accustomed to spend his week's earnings in carousing on Saturday night and Sunday, he is now spending more upon his family, or else saving his money to buy land. The ten or twelve state dispensaries in the city of Charleston, which have taken the place of scores or hundreds of saloons, are as openly conducted and as orderly as any drug store, and are absolutely closed at sundown. The effect upon the quiet and order of the city has been too transforming to admit of any denial. Reports from country towns throughout the state are to the effect that the closing of the old barrooms in favor of the new dispensaries has been attended with results that have converted almost every good citizen to a belief in the present system. In view of the widely circulated reports in disparagement of the South Carolina dispensaries, these facts ought to be given a wide publicity.

COMMANDER M. T. ENDICOTT, U. S. N.

noted with a special satisfaction by the press of the southern seaport towns. These engineers, Commander Mordecai T. Endicott, U. S. N., Major Wm. Ludlow, U. S. A., and Hon. Alfred Noble, have gone to Central America in a government vessel, with the fullest prestige and standing which Congress and the administration can bestow. They represent the expert engineering talent of the army and navy as well as the civilian profession. It is expected that their report will be ready for the next session of Congress. The people of the country will be disposed to accept their views as final and conclusive. Commercial bodies in the southern ports are looking forward with high hopes to an era of great prosperity which they believe will follow upon the opening of the Nicaragua Canal. Most of these ports have had to encounter great difficulties in getting their harbors opened up for ocean going vessels. Charleston has been hemmed in by a great bar, through which, at last, a steadily deepening channel has been opened. In the very early future Charleston's commodious and beautiful harbor, which is already accessible to large steamers, can receive those of the deepest draught. Mobile and Galveston have recently gained several feet of water on the bars which had obstructed their channels, and the outlook for harbor improvement at several other southern points is highly encouraging. The jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi have out-lasted the period of doubt and experiment, and the Crescent City is no longer anxious on the score of her access to the sea. Her wharves are lined with river boats unloading their freightage of cotton from the plantations, and with ocean steamers taking on great cargoes of cotton for Europe. New Orleans as a commercial centre never had so bright a prospect as that which lies before her business men.

Louisiana and Sugar.

HON. ALFRED NOBLE.

The two commercial topics now uppermost in New Orleans are the low price of sugar and the low price of cotton. Few people in the north have any idea of the magical rapidity with which the growth of sugar cane in Louisiana developed under the stimulus of the sugar bounty clause in the McKinley tariff of 1890. The repeal of the bounty by Mr. Wilson and his supporters has come as a fearful hardship to the planters of Louisiana. No other kind of agriculture is so expensive as sugar-making, for it requires, among other things, great outlays of money to purchase modern machinery. Costly sugar-houses, the larger proportion of them built since 1890, are dotted all through the cane belt of Louisiana. Many of these plantation sugar-houses cost more than a hundred thousand dollars. They were erected under the guaranty of a fifteen-year bounty, which was ruthlessly cut off in the fourth year. It is not strange that the sugar planters should feel that Congress has shown bad faith toward them. It is said that last season's crop was produced at an actual loss. What the future of Louisiana sugar-growing is to be no one can tell. Great economies will have to be introduced. Wages last year were $1 a day, and this year they are 50 cents. Great efforts are being made to introduce a more diversified farming. The sugar belt, like much of the cotton belt, has been in the habit of bringing its corn and pork from the north. There is no reason, apart from the custom of depending upon one crop, why these regions should not produce their own supplies of food.

price for cotton; but the bulk of last year's great crop has been marketed at only a little more than five cents a pound. Texas alone could produce cotton enough for the whole world; and the decline of price is attributed to the rapid increase in the acreage of new land planted in cotton. The remedy of the Cotton Growers' Association is a decrease of this year's acreage; but nobody knows how to secure the decrease. Indications, however, are to the effect that the cotton growers are attempting this year to raise more corn and other crops, and to rely less exclusively upon cotton. With northwestern wheat so cheap that farmers have found it more profitable to feed it to hogs than to market it for human food, and with southwestern cotton at five cents, it is hardly surprising that the great farming regions should be in a state of economic unrest. Nor can it be denied that the prevailing opinion of those districts finds a close relation between the low price of silver and the low price of wheat and cotton. Moreover, the silver doctrines of the farming districts are gaining ground in the commercial centres. Thus in New Orleans, as well as in the western cities, there is an evident growth among business men of a sentiment in favor of free silver coinage.

Central American Matters.

There has been sincere gratification throughout the United States over the peaceful adjustment by Mexico and Gautemala of their vexatious boundary dispute. Hostile feeling had run high in both countries, and war seemed almost inevitable. The details of the friendly compromise are far less important than the fact that war was averted. There is a renewal in Central America of the many times interrupted movement in favor of a union of the group of quarrelsome little republics. Every good reason is on the side of their forming a close confederation. The thing which has stood most in the way in the past has been the personal ambitions of petty generals and statesmen. There has been much discussion of England's peremptory demand that Nicaragua should pay $75,000 as an indemnity for the expulsion from Bluefields of Mr. Hatch, the alleged English Consul. The reason why England sets her own price and demands prompt payment without any discussion of the justice of the claim, lies simply in the fact that England is strong and Nicaragua weak. Much the cheapest and best thing for Nicaragua to do is to pay the sum demanded ; while there would seem to be nothing for the United States to do except to give close attention and make a careful memorandum of the incident.

vestigate the Venezuela claim, and could help to bring about a final solution. Such a Pan-American Conference might be of use in helping to adjust Central American difficulties, and might, furthermore, have some influence in the settlement of the Cuban question. Cuba is part and parcel of America, and the Spanish yoke under which Cuba has so long been held down against her will is also an annoyance, a scandal and a positive injury to the whole western hemisphere. It is to be wished that some concerted action might be taken by the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chili and other American republics regarding such questions as the Venezuelan boundary, the independence of Cuba and the European annoyances to which Central America is subjected.

A Successful Strike Arbitration.

The first of May, 1895, is a date of some significance in New York City. It marks the introduction of the eight-hour day among the electrical workers engaged in the building trades. This fact by itself might mean little to those not directly concerned, were it not for the accompanying conditions. The strike undertaken by the men to secure this eight-hour concession called out 10,000 builders, and at one time seriously threatened all the important building operations of the season in and about New York City. It is not the strike itself, however, to which we care to call attention (though it may be worthy of note that in a contest of this kind lasting a month not one act of violence is known to have occurred), but the manner of its ending. Late in March a conference was held at the residence of Bishop Potter, who is chairman of the Council of Conciliation and Mediation, and through the efforts of the council, represented in this instance by its chairman and by Prof. Felix Adler, a satisfactory agreement was soon reached between the master builders and contractors and the delegates of the unions. Committees of the contending parties had conferred together repeatedly without success, but it was found that the moment a mediating agency could be employed in which both sides had implicit confidence the differences were reduced to a minimum. The incident suggests the importance of the service which such boards of conciliation seem destined to render in the near future, as their merits become better known to both employers and employed. The result of the council's kindly intervention in the building trades dispute is a useful object-lesson in the advantages of the peaceful settlement of all labor difficulties. The general situation in and about New York City this spring has been greatly improved by the practical and timely efforts of Bishop Potter and his associates.

ers' Association and the bricklayers' unions. The case of the bricklayers has been clearly set forth by Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, in a letter to the Voice, of New York. The committee is composed of equal numbers of representatives of the mason builders and of the eight bricklayers' unions; it meets once a week to hear statements of grievances and to settle disputes There is between the master masons and their men.

From photograph by Rockwood, New York.

BISHOP POTTER, OF NEW YORK.

a provision that in case of non-agreement an umpire shall be chosen, but in the ten years of the committee's existence it has never been found necessary to choose an umpire. During these ten years no strike nor lockout has occurred between the members of the organizations represented on this joint committee. Each year an agreement as to wages, hours and "other matters of mutual interest" is made by the committee, and to this annual agreement the organizations scrupulously adhere. The unions of the .aborers on the one hand and the unions of the employers on the other are fully recognized; the members of the committee do not act as individuals, but as representatives of their respective organizations. The gain to the men in wages under the agreements made by the joint committee has been distinct. In

1885 they received 42 cents an hour, with a working day of nine hours; they now get 50 cents an hour, and the day is eight hours. A strike in 1884 for a nine-hour day failed to accomplish anything. It is not to be assumed for a moment that the methods adopted and used so successfully by the bricklayers and their employers can be applied in all trades and employments, at least under existing conditions; but

that there is room for a very general extension of the system most students of the labor problem are ready to agree. The best possible proof of the possibilities in this direction is the success that has attended many similar attempts to apply the principle in all parts of the country.

The

Li Hung Chang, the Chinese Armistice plenipotentiary, arrived at Siof Japan. monoseki on March 19, presented his credentials and opened his negotiations for peace. Five days later, when returning to his apartments after a conference with the Japanese plenipotentiary, a young Japanese presented a pistol at him and fired. The shot struck the aged Chinese statesman in the face. The crime is attributed to a desire of the assailant to avenge his brother, a student, who was executed by the Chinese at Tientsin shortly after the outbreak of war, However prompted, such an outrage as an attempted assassination of the plenipotentiary engaged in negotiations for peace stung the Japanese to the quick. Great demonstrations of sympathy took place, the Emperor himself leading off, and finally, in order to mark his national sense of sorrow at what had happened, the Japanese Emperor proclaimed an armistice until the 20th of April. It seems that the Japanese at the beginning of the negotiations demanded that before consenting to the suspension of hostilities, their troops should be in possession of Shanhai-kuan, Taku and Tientsin. Had these conditions been assented to, any rupture in the negotiation would have found 1 a Japanese army of 75,000 men within striking dis tance of Pekin. The attempt to assassinate Li Hung Chang led to the waiving of these conditions. On the 17th of April a treaty was signed at Simonoseki, subject, of course, to future modification before the.. final ratification by the powers. The terms upon which peace is said to have been concluded are given as follows:

1. The independence of Corea.

2. Japan to retain the places she has conquered. 3. Japan to retain the territory east of the Liao River.

4. The island of Formosa to be ceded permanently to Japan.

5. The payment of a large indemnity (just how large is not definitely known).