Politics in

The strike of the employees of the the St. Louis street-car lines in St. Louis began Strikes. on May 8, and on June 22 there was no promise of an early termination of the violence which the boycotting methods of the strikers had precipitated. St. Louis had assumed the appearance of a beleaguered town. A dozen people had been killed and many more wounded by the strikers or by the police and deputies. Cars and track had been blown up by dynamite ; and, worst of all, in their determination to wreak vengeance on any citizens daring to ride in the boycotted cars, the strikers had maltreated women in a manner scarcely conceivable in a civilized community. Two thousand of the well-todo citizens of St. Louis had been made deputysheriffs, and were constantly patroling the tracks. President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, made an earnest effort to put an end to the violence which was so discrediting the cause of union labor, and had almost effected a settlement between the workmen and their employers. But a question arose as to the rapidity with which old employees were to be reinstated, the negotiations fell through, and it now looks as if the strikers would lose their cause. An ugly aspect has been given to the management of the affair by the open accusations on all sides of po litical motives. The governor of Missouri is, as always, a Democrat; the mayor of St. Louis is a Republican; four of the five police commis. sioners are Democrats appointed by the gover

nor, and the fifth member is the mayor, who is of course powerless to control the police in case of a division of interests on political lines. Notwithstanding the shameful outrages which the less responsible strikers have been guilty of, Governor Stephens has refused to call out the militia-first, on the ground that the deputysheriffs appointed by the mayor could control the disturbances; and, second, on the ground that these disturbances were not serious enough to justify him in spending the State's money at the rate of two thousand dollars per day for the maintenance of a military force. The Repub

licans assert that the Democratic members of the police board, as well as the governor, are really restrained from dealing with the lawlessness in an effective manner by a fear of alienating the labor vote at this critical point in the course of the political campaign.

Cuban Teachers

The hearty coöperation of Secretary in the of War Root, Governor-General Wood United States. of Cuba, President Eliot, and the au thorities of Harvard University, and the general public promise to make the pilgrimage to this country this summer of 1,450 Cuban teachers, led by Mr. Alexis E. Frye, Superintendent of Education in Cuba, a marked success. It has been criticized by some of the Cuban journals as a shrewd move on the part of the officials of the United States to "Americanize" the teachers, and thus Cuba; and some of the Harvard stu. dents at first were not eager to give up their rooms in the dormitories to unknown Cubans. But, barring these incidents, the scheme has met with enthusiastic support. Five Government transports, sailing from different Cuban ports, will bring the teachers to Boston, where they will arrive about July 1. The teachers will represent urban and rural Cuba, and be selected by Cuban school officials on the basis of merit. Five army

physicians and a number of Cuban women of distinction will accompany the party, the latter to serve as chaperones. Mrs. Alice Gordon Gulick, head of the noted American Board mission school for girls, has been secured to act as dean of the women's department. For six and a half weeks the teachers will be the guests of Harvard University, which will furnish not only instruction, but board and lodging-the expense of which has been assumed by the University, relying on the hospitality and generosity of the people of New England to make good the expense incurred, which it is estimated will be $70,000. Systematic instruction in English, physical geography, history (American and Spanish-American), botany, and kindergarten methods will be given, chiefly in Spanish, by the regular

teaching staff of Harvard, supplemented by thirty or forty extra teachers who use Spanish freely. Excursions to points of historic interest and to manufacturing establishments will contribute to the enlightenment of the visitors. After the teach

MR. ALEXIS E. FRYE.

(Superintendent of Education in Cuba.)

ers leave Cambridge, they are to visit Niagara Falls, Chicago, Washington, and New York, from which city they will sail home on the Gov ernment transports. Nothing that Harvard has done in her long career has been more creditable to her than the work she plans to do this summer for the men and women on whom the future of Cuba so much depends. The scheme originated with two Harvard alumni in Cuba, Messrs. Conant and Frye. It met with the hearty approval of another Harvard alumnus, Governor Wood; and when it came to President Eliot, its audacity and romantic aspects, as much as its serious worth, instantly won his assent and coöperation. With Frye at work in Cuba laying the foundations of a school system, and another Harvard graduate, F. W. Atkinson, until recently head of the Springfield High School, en route to the Philippines charged with responsibility for the same serious task, Harvard may well feel that she is doing her full share in shaping the history of the Larger America. As most of these teachers will be Roman Catholics, the Catholics of Boston and Cambridge are planning to make the visitors welcome at various social functions.

On June 16, the Cubans held their Election Times elections for municipal offices-the

in Cuba

first that the island has seen since the

end of Spanish domination. The voting was done by the Australian system, and perfect order was maintained throughout the day, not a drunken man being seen on the streets of Havana. There are three political parties in Cuba: the Nationalists, composed of the soldiers of the late wars and their followers; the Republicans, who are the radicals most bitterly opposed to American influence, and the Democratic-Unionists, who muster a handful of conservatives born of the old Autonomist party, and upholding the interests of the wealthy. It has been arranged by General Wood, with the apparent consent of the Cubans, that the suffrage qualification shall be the ability to read and write, or the possession of property to the value of $250, or a record of service in the Cuban Army. About 140,000 Cubans can vote under these restrictions, and there would be about 30,000 added to this number if all the Spaniards residing in Cuba elected to be Cuban citizens. With 60-, 000 men in Havana possessing the right to vote, only 24,000 registered, and less than 20,000 voted. The Nationalist candidate for mayor, Gen. Alejandro Rodriguez, was elected over his Republican opponent, Señor Estrada Mora, by a majority of two to one, showing that the influence of General Gomez and his ambitions for the final independence of Cuba have continued their strong

ful impression of the quiet conduct of the campaign. Here scarcely 20 per cent. of the legal

electors cast a vote.

Philippines.

any

Congress adjourned without providing Progress in the scheme of civil government for the Philippines. The commissioners arrived at Manila early in June, and announced that no attempt would be made at present to supersede the military executive. General MacArthur will continue to perform the duties of governor until the country is ready to receive a system of civil administration. That Luzon, at least, is not yet prepared for such a change is made clear by the daily reresistance to

PROF. FRED. W. ATKINSON.

As we

ports of brigandage and armed authority in many parts of the island. stated last month, however, organized insurrection is no longer a fact. The archives of Aguinaldo's government were discovered and seized by General Funston in May. Last month a far more important capture was made in the person of Gen. Pio del Pilar, long regarded as the ablest military leader the Filipinos had. The work of our army in Luzon has been tersely described by General Schwan, who was General Otis' chief of staff, in a letter recently made public by the War Department. The garrisons of both the interior and the coast towns of Luzon are generally commanded, says General Schwan, by comparatively young and remarkably energetic majors, holding lesser rank in the regulars, who are leaving nothing undone to perform with thoroughness the specified task set them." That task includes, of course, the suppression of the guerrilla bands, but it does not end there. It is also the duty of these young majors to open schools and establish municipal government; and these things are in course of accomplishment. As General Schwan points out in his letter, the greatest obstacle in the way of pacification lies in the lack of confidence between the soldiers and the inhabitants; but his belief is that this distrust is certain to pass away when each class be

comes acquainted with the customs, the aims, and the standards of the other." The Philippine Commission has chosen Prof. Fred. W. Atkinson, principal of the Springfield (Mass.) High School, as superintendent of instruction in the islands. There are 5,000 children in the city schools of Manila, under the superintendency of Prof. George P. Anderson, a Yale graduate. Of the teachers in these schools 85 are natives, 40 Spanish, and 22 Americans. The widow of Rizal, the Fili pino patriot, is one of the teachers.

The Chinese Crisis.

For several months past, there have been occasional reports from the Orient of the turbulence of the Chinese Boxers and their violent persecution of native Christians. Toward the middle of May the extent and intensity of the rioting rapidly increased, and on the 19th the Christian village of Lai-Shun, seventy miles from Peking, was destroyed. Seventy-three native converts were massacred. A joint note was addressed by the great European powers to the Tsun-li-Yamen, the foreign office of the Chinese Government, and the reports of our own minister, Mr. Conger, of the operations of the Boxers within a few miles of Peking led the State Department at Washington to send Rear Admiral Kempff with his flagship Newark to the harbor of Taku, where within a few days gathered the available warships of Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, and Italy. Taku is at the mouth of the Peiho

HON. EDWIN H. CONGER.

(U. S. Minister to China.)

River, and is the harbor for Peking, being connected with the metropolis by a railroad running by way of the treaty port of Tientsin. The Newark landed 100 men under

try immediately about Peking, on the last day of the month a small international force, including 7 officers and 56 men of the American detachment, went by a special train from Tientsin to

SHA

MAOCHAU (german)

OYENCHAU

THE SCENE OF THE BOXER RIOTS IN EASTERN CHINA.

Peking for the purpose of protecting the foreign legations in the capital, and the 400 or more Caucasians living there in commercial and missionary occupations. These marine guards were admitted, and seem to have effected temporary quiet; but on June 2 an English missionary, Mr. Norinan, was murdered by the Boxers at Yung Ching, a few miles northwest of Peking, and the rioting broke out with renewed violence. The imperial decrees against the Boxers seemed to be half-hearted; and though the Chinese troops reported determined measures and heavy engagements with the Boxers, it is reasonably clear that a large number of the imperial troops are in sympathy with the rioters, or openly fighting with them. Nearly 50 miles of the Luhan Railway was destroyed by the anti-foreign mob, together with great quantities of the railroad supplies for the lines projected under the new concessions. Chapels were burned everywhere in the provinces of Shantung and Pechili, and hundreds of native Christians were massacred. Finally, the railroad from Peking to Tientsin was cut. The foreign powers immediately lodged large claims for the damage

Courtesy of Ainslee's Magazine.

June 22, noth. ing authentic has been heard of Admiral Seymour, and only wild rumors of the fate of the diplomatic servants and other Europeans in Peking. The isolation of Tientsin and of Taku followed rapidly. On June 17 the Chinese forts at Taku opened fire on the allied squadron. The warships of Germany, Russia, Great Britain. France, and Japan promptly bom

REAR-ADMIRAL KEMPFF, U. S. N.

barded the fortifications, which were finally captured at the point of the bayonet by soldiers landed from the fleets at a point enabling them to assault in the rear. It is reported that over 100 Europeans were killed and wounded, and that the Chinese lost 700 men. The United States ordered from the Philippines to the mouth of the Peiho the battleship Oregon, the gunboats Yorktown, Nashville. and Monocacy, and Colonel Liscum with the Ninth Regiment, mustering 1,400 men, and held other forces in readiness.

The Course of the Powers.

In the battle between the allied fleet and the Taku forts, the guns of the fortifications were fought by the trained artillerists of the Chinese regular armya fact which would seem to mean, maugre any interpretations from Pekin, that the Chinese Empire is in a state of war with the European powers. The world is asking itself if the longtalked-of dismemberment of China is at hand. Russia has at this writing landed 4,000 troops, Japan 3,000, and Great Britain, France, and Germany still other thousands; while Great Britain has, in addition, drafted several Indian regiments for service in China. The Chinese army contains nominally nearly 1,000,000 men, one-third of them in the " Eight Banners" of the Manchus, and two-thirds in the national army. The actual available force is said to be scarcely 300,000 men, and their equipment is largely obsolete. For a war emergency, doubt

THE WOMAN IN THE CASE.

This Box (h)er movement is all right, if it is carried far enough. From the Journal (Minneapolis).

less, more than 1,000,000 men could be mustere are who might make a stiff defensive fight againste invading hosts, though useless in offensive operations. If the safety of Europeans and their property can be guaranteed without a war of invasion, by stripping the Dowager Empress of the last vestige of power, it will be undoubtedly the wel

come course to the three great powers most interested in subsequent events in the Orient. Eng. land would find it a bad time to insist on achieving her ambition to own the Yangtse Kiang Valley. Russia, even

with her 100,000 Cossacks in Manchuria, would scarcely wish to bring upon her Eastern interests the fleets of England and Japan while there are still gaps in the great Trans-Siberian Railway. Yet, in a partition, Russia would expect at least the whole of North China right down to the gates of Peking. Japan would never give up the idea of owning Korea as an outlet for her teeming millions, but the very flower of her new fleet will be unfinished before 1901. Thus, in spite of the numberless rumors of Russia's secret machinations in fomenting the Boxer troubles, and in spite of her enormous preponderance of land forces (she has over 100,000 troops at Port Arthur, with 90,000 coolies working on the fortifications), and in spite of Japanese indignation at the recent acquisition by Russia of the Korean harbor of Masampho, it seems likely that the powers will confine themselves to the task of setting things to order.

KANG-YU-WEI, THE REFORMER.

The Role of the

The State Department at Washington has shown itself prompt and firm in United States. instructing its officers in the East to do their part in the police duty of protecting for eign residents in China. The increased seriousness of the situation has led this country into a more concerted action with the European powers than was at first thought to be necessary. All the influence of the United States will, of course, go to limiting the operations of the European forces in China to the rescue of the 12,000 Caucasians in the empire, the assurance of indemnities for the destruction of life and property, and the exaction