Cuba. THE Convention to frame and adopt a Constitution for Cuba, delegates to which were elected by the people of the island in September, 1900, met at Havana, November 5, 1900, and continued in session until late in 1901, THE CONSTITUTION. The text of the proposed Constitution was submitted by the central committee of the convention, January 22, 1901. It consisted of 25 sections and provided for a republican form of government, requirements for citizenship and duties of citizens, constitutional rights, rights of foreigners, the legislative power (Senate and House of Representatives, conjointly known as Congress), the executive power (a President and a Vice-President, each to serve four years), the judicial power, the revolutionary indebtedness, and amendments to the Constitution. DECLARATION OF RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. On February 27, 1901, the convention adopted a series of five declarations defining the relations of Cuba with the United States. These were as follows: First-The Government of Cuba will not make a treaty or agreement with any foreign power which may compromise or limit the independence of Cuba, or which may permit or authorize any power to obtain by means of colonization or for military or naval purposes, or in any other manner, any foothold or authority or right over any portion of Cuba. Second-The Government will not permit its territory to be used as a base of operations for war against the United States or against any foreign nation. Third-The Government of Cuba accepts in its entirety the Treaty of Paris, in which are affirmed the rights of Cuba to the extent of the obligations which are explicitly indicated, and especially those which the international law imposes for the protection of life and property, substituting itself for the United States in the pledge, which they assumed in that sense according to Articles 12 and 162 of the Treaty of Paris. Fourth-Cuba recognizes as legally valid all acts of the Military Government during the period of occupation, also the rights arising out of them in conformity with the joint resolution and the Foraker amendment and the existing laws of the country. Firth-The Governments of the United States and Cuba ought to regulate their commercial relations by means of a treaty based on reciprocity, and with tendencies toward free trade in natural and manufactured products, mutually assuring ample special advantages in their respective markets. THE PLATT AMENDMENT. The above declarations were not acceptable to the United States, and Congress, on March 2, adopted an amendment to the Army Appropriation bill, offered by Senator Platt, of Connecticut, reciting that, in fulfilment of the declaration contained in the joint resolution, approved April 20, 1898, entitled For the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect,' the President is hereby authorized 'to leave the government and control of the Island of Cuba to its people,' so soon as a government shall have been established in said island under a Constitution which, either as a part thereof, or in an ordinance appended thereto, shall define the future relations of the United States with Cuba, substantially as follows: First That the Government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty or other compact with any foreign power or powers which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any manner authorize or permit any power or powers to obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes or otherwise lodgment in or control over any portion of said island. Second-That said Government shall not assume or contract any public debt, to pay the interest upon which and to make reasonable sinking fund provision for the ultimate discharge of which the ordinary revenues of the island, after defraying the current expenses of government, shall be inadequate. Third-That the Government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the Government of Cuba. Fourth-That all acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupation thereof are ratified and validated, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and protected. Fifth-That the Government of Cuba will execute, and, so far as necessary, extend the plans already devised, or other plans to be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of the island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to the commerce of the southern ports of the United States and the people residing therein. Sixth-That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto left to future adjustment by treaty. Seventh-That to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defence, the Government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States. Eighth-That by way of further assurance, the Government of Cuba will embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the United States. On May 28 the Cuban Constitutional Convention voted, 15 to 14, to accept the Platt amendment in a revised and modified form, to be attached as an appendix to the Cuban Constitution. These modifications purported to give the meaning of the amendment as "explained" by Secretary Root to the members of a special commission of convention delegates which visited Washington in April and conferred with the Secretary of War there. On May 31, at a Cabinet meeting in Washington, it was decided that the action of the convention was not a substantial" compliance with the terms of the amendment, and the convention was informed that the United States insisted on the adoption of the amendment without qualification. On June 12 the convention accepted the Platt amendment by a vote of 16 to 11, four members being absent. The following is a record of the vote: In favor of acceptance, Señors Capote, Villuendas, José M. Gomez, Tamayo, Monteaguedo, Delgado, Betancourt, Giberga, Llorente, Quesada, Sanguily, Nunez, Rodriguez, Berriel, Quilez, Ferrer; opposed to acceptance, Señors Zayas, Aleman, Eudaldo Tamayo, Juan G. Gomez, Cisneros, Silva, Fortun, Lacret, Portuondo, Castro, Manduley. THE ELECTORAL LAW. The convention then proceeded to draw up an electoral law. It provided for general elections to be held December 31, 1901, presidential and senatorial "electors," representatives in the lower house of Congress, and provincial governors and councillors to be chosen by the direct vote of the people, and the President, Vice-President, and Senators to be chosen by the "electors' on February 24, 1902. When a full report of these elections are made by the election officers to the United States Governor-General, he will then announce the day for the assembling of the Congress, the inauguration of the President and Vice-President, and the transfer of actual authority from the United States to the new Cuban Government. The Governor-General of Cuba during the year 1901 was Major-General Leonard Wood, U.S. A. The American Indian. THE annual reports of the agents of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1900 showed that the Indian population was 270,544, distributed in the several States as follows: The total Indian population of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, but including 32,567 counted in the general census, being the taxed or taxable indians, numbered in 1890 249,273. The following table gives the division of the Indians in detail at the time of that census. The expenditures of the United States on account of the Indians in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1901, was $10,887,449. The expenditures from 1789 to 1901 inclusive have been $379,232,776. Indians on reservations or at school, under control of the Indian office (not taxed or taxable). 133,382 Indians incidentally under the Indian office, and self-supporting: Total Indians, The five civilized tribes, Indians and colored-Cherokees, 29,599; Chickasaws, 7,182; Pueblos of New Mexico...... Six Nations, Saint Regis, and other Indians of New York. Indians taxed or taxable, and self-sustaining citizens, counted in the general census (98 per cent not on reservations)...... 32,567 384 184 249,273 Indians under control of the War Dep't, prisoners of war (Apaches at Mt. Vernon Barracks)..... Total Progress of the United States in Xts Material Endustries. (Prepared by the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department.) Life Insurance Statistics. CONDITION OF RECULAR LEVEL PREMIUM COMPANIES JANUARY 1, 1901, AND BUSINESS THE PRECEDING YEAR.* 124 Total Assets. Assessments Collected. Income. renders, etc.) Payments to Total Ex- MEMBERSHIP Admitted During the Year. 643,205 INSURANCE IN FORCE. $36,244,393 $57,734,169 $60,057,168 $41,061,444 $47,552,575 Including industrial policies. These figures are from the Illinois Life Insurance Report for 1901, and represent the combined business of the assessment companies and fraternal orders. The assessment business having declined since 1896, these aggregates are nearly half those of that year. The returns of life insurance in the first and third tables are from "The Insurance Year-Book," published by The Spectator Company. INCOME AND DISBURSEMENTS FOR TWENTY YEARS. The following table shows the receipts and disbursements of the old-line'' life insurance companies reporting to the New York Insurance Department for twenty years: ASSETS OF AND AMOUNT INSURED BY THE PRINCIPAL AMERICAN COM 20,917,143 155,786,799 86,622,697 243,154,558 *Includes industrial business. + Assessment companies. From most recent reports. ($4,274,322,132 insurance in force,, on which no part of the future premium is collected in advance. Including assessment business $1,202,156,665 $262,196,512 Provident Life & Trust, Pa.. $134,201,324 $43,009,633 120,510,716 30,972,033 109,019,851 24,943,647 923,892,206 62,158,084 Provident Sav. Life, N. Y... 102,886,128 3,891,456 99,471,839 19,900,890 529,647,290 139.558,966 Fidelity Mutual, Pa.. 82,119,185 3,379,337 74,315,090 Germania, N. Y. 81,434,409 27,378,533 80,889,097 17,793,629 63,802,139 13,283,008 61,083,689 16.144,433 60,261,151 16,169,823 Fire Insurance Statistics. CONDITION AND TRANSACTIONS OF COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 1, 1901. NUMBER OF COMPANIES. 321 Stock.. 189 Mutual. NUMBER OF COMPANIES. 321 Stock 189 Mutual.... Approximation. These statistics of fire insurance business in the United States are, with the exception of the estimate of risks written during the year, compiled from "The Insurance YearBook," published by The Spectator Company. They do not include the returns of a few stock companies and some 600 mutuals and town and county mutuals, whose transactions are purely local and individually of small volume. CONDITION OF THE PRINCIPAL JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES DOING BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 1, 1901.* COMPANIES. Home, New York. N. British & Mercantile. Niagara Fire, N. Y. COMPANIES. Gross 400,000 1,094,286 American Fire, N. Y. Annual statements of the fire insurance companies are rendered to the insurance departments during the month of January; therefore the statistics of condition in 1902 were not ready when this publication went to press. + The New York law requires a deposit of $200,000 from foreign companies with the insurance department. This is treated by the department as deposit capital," and the surplus stated in the next column is "surplus beyond deposit capital" and other liabilities. ANNUAL PROPERTY LOSSES IN THE UNITED STATES BY FIRES-1875-1901. Aggregate Property Aggregate Insur YEARS. YEARS. Loss. ance Loss. Estimated. $3,047,714,021 The figures in the last table, from 1875 to 1900, inclusive, are taken from the Chronicle Fire Tables. Total 27 years... $1,786,785,893 The United States Census. THE Twelfth Census of the United States was taken under the act of Congress approved March 3, 1899. The statistics gathered are now in course of preparation for publication by the Census Office at Washington. Partial reports upon population, manufactures, agriculture, and mortality have already been made public, and summaries of their contents will be found on other pages of THE WORLD ALMANAC. The subjects covered by the Twelfth Census are not as numerous as those undertaken by the Eleventh Census. The census proper is limited to four general subjects, namely, population, agriculture, mortality, and manufactures. The act provided that the reports of these subjects shall be designated as and constitute the Census Reports," and requires that such reports shall be published not later than the 1st of July, 1902. A number of subjects of investigation in the Tenth and Eleventh Censuses are omitted, but only those upon which statistics are collected and published by other branches of the Government, such as railroad transportation, information in regard to fisheries, water power, etc After the work on the four general subjects above referred to is completed the Director of the Census was authorized to collect statistics relating to special classes, including the insane, feebleminded, deaf, dumb, and blind; to crime, pauperism, and benevolence, including prisoners, paupers, juvenile delinquents, and inmates of benevolent and reformatory institutions; to deaths and births in registration areas; to social statistics of cities; to public indebtedness, valuation, taxation, and expenditures; to religious bodies; to electric light and power, telephone, and telegraph business; to transportation by water, express business, and street railways; to mines, mining, and minerals. The reports relating to mines, mining, and minerals must be published on or before July 1, 1903. The reports on these subjects shall be designated as Special Reports of the Census Office." On all subjects of inquiry the subjects are simplified as much as possible, and much matter which has heretofore been included, but which never reached any practical statistical results, has been dropped, and the work concentrated upon lines which will produce statistics of recognized value. The following general officers superintend the taking of the census: William R. Merriam, of St. Paul, Minn., Director; Dr. F. H. Wines, of Illinois, Assistant Director; W. C. Hunt, of the District of Columbia, Chief Statistician in charge of the Population Division; L. G. Powell, of Minnesota, Chief Statistician in charge of the Agricultural Division; S. N. D. North, of Massachusetts, Chief Statistician in charge of Manufactures; W. A. King, of the District of Columbia, Chief Statistician in charge of Vital Statistics; Prof. W. A. Wilcox. of Cornell University, Chief Statistician in charge of Methods and Results; Edward McCauley, District of Columbia. Disbursing Clerk; A. F. Childs, District of Columbia, Chief Clerk, and Henry Gannett, District of Columbia, Geographer. The United States and Canada. TEXT OF THE AGREEMENT FOR THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENT OF THE ALASKA BOUNDARY LINE. THE following is the text of the modus vivendi negotiated between the State Department of the United States and the British Foreign Office, the Anglo-American Joint High Commission to adjust all outstanding questions between the United States and the Dominion of Canada having been unable to reach a conclusion at the time of the adoption of this agreement, October 20, 1899: It is hereby agreed between the Governments of the United States and of Great Britain that the boundary line between Canada and the Territory of Alaska, in the region about the head of Lynn Canal, shall be provisionally fixed without prejudice to the claims of either party in the permanent adjustment of the international boundary, as follows: In the region of the Dalton Trail, a line beginning at the peak west of Porcupine Creek, marked on the Map No. 10 of the United States Commission, December 31, 1895, and on Sheet No. 18 of the British Commission, December 31, 1895, with the number 6,500; thence running to the Klehini (or Klaheela) River, in the direction of the peak north of the river, marked No. 5,020 on the aforesaid United States map and No. 5,025 on the aforesaid British map; thence following the high or right bank of the said Kiehini River to the junction thereof with the Chilkat River, a mile and a half, more or less, north of Klukwan, provided that persons proceeding to or from Porcupine Creek shall be freely permitted to follow the trail between the said creek and the said junction of the rivers into and across the territory on the Canadian side of the temporary line wherever the trail crosses to such side, and subject to such reasonable regulations for the protection of the revenue as the Canadian Government may prescribe, to carry with them over such part or parts of the trail between the said points as may lie on the Canadian side of the temporary line such goods and articles as they desire, without being required to pay any customs duties on such goods and articles, and from said junction to the summit of the peak east of the Chilkat River, marked on the aforesaid Map No. 10 of the United States Commission with the number 5,410, and on the Map No. 17 of the aforesaid British Commission with the number 5, 490. On the Dyea and Skagway trails, the summits of the Chilkoot and White passes. It is understood, as formerly set forth in communications of the Department of State of the United States, that the citizens or subjects of either power found by this arrangement within the temporary jurisdiction of the other shall suffer no diminution of the rights and privileges which they now enjoy. The Government of the United States will at once appoint an officer or officers, in conjunction with the officer or officers to be named by the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, to mark the temporary line agreed upon by the erection of posts, stakes, or other appropriate temporary marks. White House Rules. THE Cabinet will meet Tuesdays and Fridays from 11 A. M. until 1 P. M. Senators and Representatives will be received from 10 A. M. to 12 M., excepting on Cabinet days. Visitors having business with the President will be admitted from 12 to 1 o'clock daily, excepting Cabinet days, so far as public business will permit. The East Room will be open daily, Sundays excepted, for the inspection of visitors, between the hours of 10 A. M. and 2 P. M. By direction of the President. George B. Cortelyou, Secretary. |