Mr. Reid and His

Mr. Reid was a Scotch boy who made money in Australia and subsequently Monopoly. turned up in Canada as one of the contractors who grew rich out of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Some seven years ago he obtained from Newfoundland a contract by which he was to construct, for the government, a railroad almost 600 miles long across the entire island from west to east. He was to receive the sum of $15,000 a mile for grading the road and laying down the rails. Before the road was completed, however, the Newfoundland government had entered upon a period of extreme financial difficulty, and the railroad was an elephant on its hands. Mr. Reid came forward with a proposition to furnish the rolling. stock and full equipment for the road, and then to operate it for a period of years, in consideration of his receiving an immense land grant, plus a yearly mail subsidy of $60,000. The gov ernment's difficulties increased, and it could not pay the cash subsidy. Thereupon Mr. Reid offered to release it from the obligation to pay the money, on condition of its giving him the railroad at the end of a term of years, and immediately adding to the extent of his already vast land grant, besides giving him a complete monopoly of the right to build and operate railroads anywhere in Newfoundland, and also the telegraph monopoly. Mr. Reid's great land grants include mineral rights, and he is presuma bly the largest landholder in the world. association with his sons, he has opened mines, operates coastwise steamships in connection with his railroad, owns and operates the trolley lines in the capital town, has established paper-pulp mills to work up the forest resources tapped by his railroad, and seems to have turned the island of Newfoundland into something like one immense private estate. There seems no oppor tunity to break down the contracts under which Mr. Reid has given so little and obtained so much. Newfoundland sold its birthright for a mness of pottage. It gave away the rights and the untold wealth of future generations to tide over a small, temporary financial stringency. British Government did an exceedingly bad piece of business when it ratified this contract. The worst of it all is that, if the British Government had not been false to the true interests of Newfoundland by vetoing the Bond-Blaine commercial treaty, the island would have had prosperity, and a revenue ample enough to have saved itself from the plight under stress of which it sold itself into perpetual servitude to the monopoly. Besides owning pretty much all the prospective wealth of the island, it appears that Mr. Reid owns the Conservative party. It is reported that, as a

In

The

general campaign object-lesson, he has closed his mills and stopped various developing enterprises, in order to teach the voters their dependence upon him for the means of earning their daily bread.

Settlement of the

The anthracite-coal strike, which began on September 17, was practically Coal Strike. ended on October 17 by the announcement of the great coal companies connected with the Philadelphia & Reading and Lehigh Valley railroads that they had decided to concede the demands of the strikers. It was morally certain that the coal operators throughout the anthracite district would follow the influential example of these two enormous factors in the situation. Public opinion was rather strongly inclined in favor of the striking miners from the very beginning, and this sentiment grew steadily throughout the strike. The miners had been ready and anxious at all times to submit the dispute to arbitration; and the reasons advanced by the mineowners and operators for refusing to arbitrate had been anything but convincing to the impartial mind. Under the disguise of coal companies, the coal-carrying railroads are the real owners and operators of a great part of the anthracite mining district; and the miners on the one side, and the public that consumes fuel on the other, have been the victims of a combination of the roads, by virtue of which several times as much per ton was paid for carrying this anthracite coal as railroads in the bituminous districts received for carrying soft coal. A general advance in wages of 10 per cent. was conceded; and it was agreed that this should hold good at least until next April, and that the sliding-scale system of wages should be abolished. The other grievances of the miners, such as the overcharge to which they had been sub jected for the powder they use in their work, and the extortions that in many of the mines, though not in all, are practised by the company stores with which the miners are compelled to trade, are left to be settled by further conference, on principles which may be expected to work out a decided improvement in conditions. It must not be supposed that we have any disposition to censure individual owners and operators of anthracite collieries, or individual railroad men prominent in the management of the coal-carrying lines. situation, from their point of view, presented many serious difficulties, for which few of them were personally responsible. The miserable conditions that prevailed for a long time in the bituminous mining districts have been wonderfully transformed by the plan of an annual representative conference of ali interests, in which wages and all questions affecting the relations of operators to miners are adjusted for the coming year.

The

The recent strike does not seem to

A Fortunate have left much bitter feeling on either

Outcome. side; and the spirit in which concessions have been made by the operators will probably add to their future influence with the miners, and make it still easier to adjust questions that may subsequently arise. The oper

ators, though not wishing to deal directly with President Mitchell, of the United Mine-Workers, had quite generally posted notices of a 10-percent. advance in wages. These notices were posted on October 5, and were conditional upon the miners' returning to work almost at once. The miners, on their part, had arranged for a representative convention to be held at Scranton, Pa., on October 12, and it was agreed that none of them would accept the 10-per-cent. advance or go back to work until the whole subject had been carefully considered at the convention. Mr. Mitchell won great praise by the excellent spirit and judicious tone of his remarks to the miners at the opening of this convention, and the delegates themselves were conservative and exemplary in their conduct. Their demand that the 10-percent. rise should be guaranteed for a definite period of at least six months was obviously reasonable; and their determination to stand shoulder to shoulder throughout the anthracite region was also the prime requisite of any success whatever. It was, indeed, their evident firmness in standing together that won the concession of the added 10 per cent. Thus the final remark to be made about the anthracite-coal strike is, that it was justified by its success. Strikes are, as a rule, a hazardous and unfortunate recourse; and millions of people in the United States gave a sigh of relief when they read, on the morning of October 18, in the newspaper headlines that the operators had yielded, that the strikers had won, and that there was no prospect of further trouble in the Pennsylvania coal regions. Incidentally, it had been felt that the prolongation of the strike would lead to a kind of military interference that would hurt the Republican party and would help the Bryanites. The termination of the strike would appear to have no political bearing one way or the other.

66

CHANCELLOR VON BÜLOW, OF GERMANY.

as ambassador at Paris, and then as governor of Alsace-Lorraine. As chancellor he has been esteemed and respected, but has not shown himself a man of iron." The Emperor himself has, in fact, been his own chancellor. It was natural and proper that Count von Bülow should be immediately named as Prince Hohenlohe's successor. Bernhard von Bülow was born in 1849, and is, therefore, fifty-one years old. When he entered the German foreign office in 1873, his own father was secretary of Gerinan foreign affairs under Chancellor Bismarck. The young Bülow was secretary of embassy at Rome, St. Petersburg, and Vienna; served in Athens at the time of the Russo-Turkish War, and was afterwards at St. Petersburg, Paris, Bucharest, and Rome. Bülow is a man of great influence and popularity in Germany, and has been a highly successful minister of foreign affairs. It is undoubtedly a part of his policy to cultivate good relations with the United States. The Emperor's Chinese policy has had the full and constant support of Bülow, although the aged Hohenlohe was said to be not in sympathy with adventures of that sort.

It was not to be expected that so Progress of the Chinese momentous a business as the settleNegotiations. ment of the Chinese trouble could be accomplished offhand. A good deal of deliber

ation and discussion was essential. The steadfast adherence of the United States to a just and reasonable policy has exercised what in the end

will be recognized as having been a determining influence. On October 20, official announcement was made of an agreement between Germany and England to maintain the territorial integrity of China and to keep open to the trade of all countries the Chinese ports on the sea-coast and principal rivers. An invitation to the other leading powers-including the United States and Japan-to accept these principles, was made a part of the agreement. England and Germany, while pledging themselves not to use the present complication to obtain any territorial advantages, reserved to themselves the right to take such steps for the protection of their own interests as they might subsequently find best in case any other power should start the game of grab. The English are now represented at Pekin by Sir Ernest Satow, who has been transferred from Japan to succeed Sir Claude Macdonald. It is enough to say that the settlement of the Chinese question seemed last month to be making some progress in the right direction. We shall, in our next number, sum up the diplomatic aspects of the situation more fully.

October opened in Japan with the Marquis Ito in Authoritu resignation of the Yamagata ministry Again. and the summoning of Japan's most famous statesman, the Marquis Ito, to form a new cabinet. The Marquis Ito has often been called the Bismarck of

Japan. He is a soldier, statesman, and diplomat, familiar with the political institutions of all countries, and an especially devoted friend of the United States. He is not, on the other hand, an admirer of Russia. It was Ito who, as High Admiral of the Jap anese Navy, crushed the Chinese warships in September, 1894, and who afterward negotiated the terms of peace with Li Hung Chang. Russia that deprived Japan of the advantages of that treaty, as Ito well remembers. He, more than any one else, was the author of the Japanese constitution. He is now prime minister for the third time. He would fight Russia, rather than permit. that country to annex Northern China and Korea.

THE MARQUIS ITO.

It was

SIR ERNEST SATOW, BRITISH AMBASSADOR AT PEKING.

Norway's

Course.

The Norwegian elections, held several Independent weeks ago, resulted in practically no change of party strength in the Storthing, or Parliament. Since the previous election of 1897, however, there had gone into effect a new suffrage law which extends the franchise to every male citizen twenty-five years old, and practically doubles the number of legal voters. The Radicals continue to hold twice as many seats in the Storthing as their Conservative opponents. They show no disposition to moderate their feeling on the subject of their relations with Sweden, and King Oscar's task is growing more and more bewildering. It is no great matter that the Norwegians have determined to use a totally distinct flag; but the law they have passed for the establishment of a separate diplomatic and consular service will involve the Crown in peculiar difficulties. Envoys in foreign coun tries are regarded as representing the sovereign rather than the legislature; and if, as reported possible, King Oscar will give his consent to this law, his dual representation at the courts of other nations must have aspects at once ludicrous and embarrassing.

It is announced that the young Queen Queen Wilhelmina's of Holland is to be married in the Engagement. early future to the man of her choice, who happens not to be of sufficient importance

THE PRINCE OF FLANDERS AND HIS BRIDE, THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH, OF BAVARIA.

among royalties and nobilities to make the engagement an affair of international politics. Her fiancé is Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Queen Wilhelmina was twenty years old on the last day of August, and it is said that the wed ding will take place next spring. MecklenburgSchwerin is a little duchy on the northeast coast of Germany, and its ducal family is of very ancient lineage. Duke Henry is a lieutenant in the Prussian Guards, and is four years older than Queen Wilhelmina. This young sovereign has evidently modeled her career upon that of Queen Victoria-which is a mark, in her, of wisdom and character. Prince Henry will come to Holland as a naturalized Dutch subject.

THE LATE GENERAL CAMPOS.

He was a member of President Cleveland's last cabinet, and before that time a distinguished member of Congress from West Vir ginia. He had been ill for many months. He was justly held in the highest esteem. The

Hon. Samuel F. Carey, of Ohio, died several weeks ago at a great age. He ran on the Greenback ticket with Peter Cooper. Gen. Martinez Campos-Spain's best-known soldier and public man-has passed away at the age of sixty-six.