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PRESIDENT MITCHELL (X), HIS SECRETARY (XX) AND THE DISTRICT PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS.

From "The Literary Digest."

against a sympathetic strike of the soft coal miners in the western fields, all or most of whom work under specific contracts. However, a strike for better wages occurred in the West Virginia coal fields, adding from 28,000 to 30,000 to the number of men voluntarily quitting their employment in the hope of improving their condition. The policy of keeping open during parts of the year mines that are closed at other times, thus retaining in the coal fields more labor than is needed to supply the demand for coal, tends to make labor cheap and entirely dependent upon the whim of the half dozen men who control absolutely the anthracite coal industry. Statistics as to the cost of the coal strike in lost wages are absurdly misleading, since the miners are never employed throughout the year and if they refuse to work at one time in all probability they are merely postponing the work and wages, both of which will come to them later. The public's sense of justice has led it to condemn without stint the attitude of the coal road presidents, who decline to submit the quarrel with the mine workers to arbitration.

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pealed which formerly authorized the president to take action opening the way for the settlement of strike difficulties, Mr. Roosevelt made it known that he was ready to do what he could unofficially to assist in securing industrial peace in the anthracite region. He instructed the United States commissioner of labor, Carroll D. Wright, to investigate thoroughly the causes leading to the strike and to embody them in an official report. This Mr. Wright proceeded to do. Through his efforts the correspondence that passed between President Mitchell of the United Mine Workers and the presidents of the coal roads previous to the strike was made public. It shows that the latter declined to enter into negotiations having to do with wages and conditions of labor generally in the anthracite field. The charge is made by the railway presidents that the influence of the union among the men has tended to arouse a spirit of unrest and to decrease materially the efficiency of the labor furnished to the mines. The continuance for another year of the advance of 10 per cent in wages granted to the men as a result of the strike of 1900 is pointed to as a concession of value. What action, if any, President Roosevelt would take in the light of the report of the commissioner of labor lay in the realm of conjecture at the time of the completion of the latter official's labors, near the middle of

June. Whether or not the coal roads in their dealings with one another and with. the public violate the United States antitrust law is a subject for dispute among well informed persons. Apparently the department of justice of the national government does not regard the combine's operations as violations of the law. Still, the combine's methods of dealing with consumers, independent mine owners and mine workers are most exasperating and seemingly most unjust. If the president had sent the attorney general instead of the commissioner of labor to investigate the affairs of the coal roads the results might have been especially beneficial to the public.

is constantly rising. In 1898 the number
of immigrants was 229,299; in 1899 it was
311,715; in 1900 it was 448,572; in 1901
it was 487,918. The opening months of the
present year show such a heavy increase
over the immigration during the corres-
ponding period of last year that the figures
for the entire twelve months are likely to
be startlingly large. The growth is mainly
in immigration from Italy and the Slavonic
countries of southeastern Europe. Thou-
sands of the newcomers are densely ignor-
ant and entirely illiterate. Germany, Great
Britain, Sweden, Norway and the other en-
lightened nations which in the past have
contributed so much by immigration to the

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worthy citizenship of the United States, show only small increases. Ireland, in fact, discloses a marked reduction. It was asserted by Mr. Shattuc, chairman of the house committee on immigration, during the consideration of the immigration bill, that Canadian steamship agencies in Europe are advertising that they will carry to the United States those classes of immigrants, such as paupers, that are not permitted to land at American ports. In view of all the facts the desirability of restricting immigration by a reasonable education test is clear. Degraded and ignorant classes of aliens, with low standards of living and without the remotest knowledge of or sympathy for American ideals of citizenship, when they enter this country by hundreds of thousands annually, are a menace to the nation's institutions and a peril to the welfare of the American workingman, with whom they compete unfairly in the labor market.

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THE BRITISH EMBASSY AT WASHINGTON, WHERE LORD PAUNCEFOTE
DIED, MAY 24, 1902.

(From a photograph taken for THE WORLD TO-DAY by Miss Frances B.

Restricting Immigration.

Johnston.)

The National House of Representatives has passed a bill providing an education test for immigrants and excluding aliens who cannot read or write in any language. That such legislation is desirable appears from a study of the immigration statistics of recent years and particularly of the past few months. Less than ten years ago, when the financial panic in this country was at its height, large numbers of foreigners who had been in the United States for a shorter or longer time crowded the steerage of ships bound for Europe, while immigration fell off enormously. The return of prosperity has brought with it a vast flood of immigrants and that flood

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THE LATE LORD PAUNCEFOTE IN THE LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY AT WASHINGTON. (SEE PAGE 1573.) (From a photograph taken for THE WORLD TO-DAY by Miss Frances B. Johnston.)

ment is fixed as the punishment for inflicting injuries that cause death, while wounds that do not prove fatal bring to the criminal a term of imprisonment of five years or less. Any person aiding or inciting another to assassinate any one of the persons named is held to be equally guilty with the perpetrator of the crime. Advocating the assassination of an officer of this government, or an officer of any civilized nation, because of his official character, renders one liable to a fine of not more than $5.000 or imprisonment of not more than twenty years or both. Immigrants opposed to organized government are not to be permitted to enter the United States. Any one knowingly assisting an anarchist to enter the country may receive a term of imprisonment or be fined heavily or both. Naturalization is denied to any one who believes in anarchistic doctrines. The house bill has more severe restrictions on the subject of anarchy than has a measure to protect the president which has passed the senate. The

latter provides, however, a bodyguard for the president, while no such provision appears in the house bill. In earlier discussions of the problem of safeguarding the nation's chief executive from the fate of McKinley it was deemed desirable by many to interpret any murderous attack upon a president as treason, to be punished by death, no matter whether bodily harm was actually inflicted or not. While there are serious objections to such a law, at least it would have the possible advantage of notifying any person contemplating a president's assassination that if the attempt were made his own life would be forfeit even though his intended victim escaped injury. However, this whole subject lies rather in the domain of psychology than in that of justice. There is little or nothing to be gained by taking the worthless life of a wretched assassin. Whatever gain could come from the projected law would be due mainly to its effect in preventing the spread of anarchistic ideas.

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WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Where the Coronation Exercises were held.

Thronged London, with its King brilliant decorations and stately Edward's Coronation, ceremonies, has held the attention of the world during the last days of June. King Edward's coronation in Westminster Abbey June 26 and the great procession through six or seven miles of streets June 27 marked the climax of the nation's festival. The latter display in the popular mind ranked with the solemn ceremonial of the preceding day, since few indeed, except foreign visitors of rank and peers of the kingdom, had an opportunity to witness the rites within the historic abbey. Perhaps two million spectators viewed the procession, which was a most impressive exhibition of the splendor and the resources of the British empire. All quarters of the earth contributed to this show of loyalty to the British monarch and patriotic devotion to the nation of which he is the constitutional ruler. That the effect on Britons, British colonists and the world at large, of the dazzling assemblage of colonial statesmen, subsidiary princes and armed men of every variety of uniform, language and complexion, must add stability to the throne which called it together, one can readily believe. Seeing is believing. Now the Briton knows by the testimony

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THE CORONATION CHAIRS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

The chair on the left was used by King Edward VII. at his Coronation. It has been used at the Coronation of the Sovereigns of England for 600 years. Under the chair is seen the famous stone upon which Monarchs of Scotland were crowned. It was brought to England by Edward I. in 1296. The other chair, on which the Queen was crowned, was made for Queen Mary in 1689, and was last used by Queen Adelaide in 1831.

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of his own eyes that the British empire is immensely powerful and has its strong outposts on every continent. One of the interesting preliminaries to the coronation festivities was the action of King Edward and Queen Alexandra in becoming the guests at a dinner given by Ambassador Choate. This was the first time an English ruler had ever been the guest of the diplomatic representative of a foreign nation. If the coronation ceremonies and fetes are a triumph for King Edward and if the joy of the occasion is the British citizen's, whose eyes have feasted on marvels, doubtless the great and lasting results for the empire are being secured by the capable secretary of state for the colonies, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, in his consultations with the colonial premiers who are now in London. Since the establishment of a national zollverein which shall bind together by close ties of commercial interest the colonies and the mother country is a dear ambition of Mr. Chamberlain's, it is to be supposed that the plan either will go forward or will receive a setback now

QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND PRINCE HENRY OF CORNWALL AND YORK. (From a late photograph.)

that all parts of Greater Britain are represented by their leading statesmen around the council board. If out of these consultations shall come preferential duties on imports, of which the new bread tax may be the germ, those who have kept watch of British latter day statesmanship will not be greatly surprised.

In the midst of the coronation festivities and the rejoicings

Stirrings. Over peace in South Africa, the leaders of the sadly divided Liberal party are pulling themselves together and preparing for aggressive work. While the attention of the ministry is fixed, rather more closely than may be good for affairs at its center, on conditions prevailing at the circumference of the empire, the opposition leaders think they see light ahead for their cause. The I'estminster Gazette thus sums up the situation from the Liberal point of view: "We have a government which came to power eighteen months ago

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