ful "leftist" groups - Republicans, Radi- deck-Rousseau cabinet. They were eminently cals, Radical-Socialists (that is, Socialists successful and strong, and the reactionaries who reject collectivism in its comprehensive hate them almost as intensely as they do sense), and Socialists. These number three Waldeck-Rousseau. It may be doubted hundred and fifty deputies in a chamber of whether this ministry will be as long-lived as nearly six hundred. was its predecessor, whose career was the At present they most remarkable in the history of the present are united and deter- French Republic, but whatever ministerial mined to control the "crises" the future may bring, the comlegislative policy of plexion of the chamber is an effective guarthe nation. They anty against serious political disturbances. have elected Léon The royalists and monarchists have disBourgeois, ex-pre- appeared as factors to be reckoned with mier and Radical, by the supporters of republican governpresident of the ment. It is regarded as probable that after chamber, defeating a certain period Waldeck-Rousseau will be Deschanel, opportu- induced to return to public life and to the nist politician and position he has voluntarily relinquished. secret ally of the LUIS ESTEVES Y ROMERO, Nationalists. They Vice-president of Cuba. are resolved to enforce the associations law and punish the clericals who have conspired against the republic. They advocate tax reform in the direction of equal distribution of burdens, which in the concrete may mean a progressive income tax. Economy and reduction of the term of military service are among the other items of their program. The new ministry is pledged to this program. It is composed of Republicans, Radicals, and Radical-Socialists. It contains neither a Socialist representative (the Socialist party having voted against further identification of its leaders with a "capitalistic" cabinet), nor a moderate Republican of the group led by Méline. The cabinet is as follows: The Cuban Republic, Limited. International law may find it rather perplexing to define the exact status of "The Republic of Cuba," but to the average lay mind Cuba is at present a free and independent nation. She has her own flag, her own constitution, her own complete form of government, consisting of a congress, an executive, and an independent judiciary. She will accredit and receive ministers plenipotentiary, and will have direct dealings with Yet the so-called Platt other nations. amendment undoubtedly spells American suzerainty over Cuba. We have reserved the right to intervene at any time for the maintenance of stability and order, and the preservation of Cuban independence, and we have forbidden Cuba to conclude any treaty with a foreign power tending to impair her Premier -Minister of the Interior and Minister of territorial or moral integrity, or to incur any Public Worship-Senator Combes. Minister of Justice-Senator Vallé. Minister of Foreign Affairs-M. Delcassé. Minister of Marine - M. Pelletan. Minister of Public Instruction - Senator Chaumie. Minister of Colonies - M. Doumergue. Of these ministers only two, Delcassé and debt which cannot be met out of ordinary revenue. We have, further, required her to continue our sanitation plans and to ratify or validate all the acts of the army of occupation during our control of her affairs. The real scope and practical effect of these limitations will be determined by the course of events; theoretically, it is manifest, they are incompatible with nationality and independence, and Cuba therefore is in a sense under the control and overlordship of the United States. Yet she is not a colony or "possession" of this republic, and the Teller pledge is generally regarded as having been fulfilled in spirit, if not to the letter. Cuba was turned over to President Palma and her first congress in a normal, healthy and sound condition. Order and peace prevail throughout the island, and all parties seem to be anxious to demonstrate the fitness of the population for self-government. President Palma's cabinet is not a partisan one; it is representative and non-partisan. Party spirit will doubtless reassert itself in time, but it is hoped that the political contests in which the Cuban may engage will not assume a character necessitating American intervention. What the island needs above all things is economic rehabilitation. Progress in agriculture, education, economy, and security for capital are the necessary conditions of that rehabilitation. The protection of the United States dispenses Cuba from the necessity of maintaining a regular army and building a large navy, hence the government will not need heavy taxation. Reciprocity with the United States, involving a material reduction of the Dingley tariff rates in Cuba's favor, will give her greater access to American markets and promote her principal industries. There are Americans who predict failure for the Cuban "experiment" and consequent intervention by our government, with annexation as the outcome. The number of these is smaller than formerly, and there is no reason why Cuba should not enjoy her measure of independence for a considerable period. The Great Miners' Strike. Two years ago the organized miners of the anthracite region struck for higher wages and other concessions. The majority of the laborers, mostly foreigners, were not members of the union, but they recognized that their interests were identical with those of the organized miners and joined the strike. This HERBERT G. SQUIERS, United States Minister to Cuba. fact, unexpected by the operators, coupled with the peculiar political conditions then existing, brought about a compromise, the strikers obtaining a ten per cent advance of wages. The union was not formally recognized, but its president, Mr. Mitchell, secured a promise of recognition in the future, conditioned upon the maintenance of peace in the region. Last year, in the spring, there was some agitation for further improvements, but it was not permitted to develop into a serious difference with the operators. The ten per cent advance was continued. This year the miners are stronger and better organized than ever, and the demand for better conditions, shorter hours, and higher wages has been renewed. Owing to the intervention of the conciliation committee of the National Civic Federation, the leading mine-owners (the corporations controlling the coal-carrying railroads) conferred with the officials of the anthracite miners' union and thus indirectly recognized that organization. the conferences resulted in no agreement or understanding or compromise, and the whole body of miners, numbering over one hundred and forty thousand men, was ordered to suspend work. This great strike was declared not by the leaders, but by a convention of delegates representing the various local the time come for a change in our treatment units. A minority opposed the strike, and it is understood that some of the leaders urged peace and predicted failure in the event of a general strike. According to some writers, the union is really divided against itself, the "laborers" being dissatisfied with the pay fixed not by the operators, but by the "boss miners," who work under contract and are in a sense employers on a small scale. "When the laborers strike for high wages,'' says an of industrial conflicts? These questions naturally suggest compulsory arbitration and similar remedies, and the discussion of these has been renewed with vigor and earnestness. Child Labor and Women. The condition of child labor in the United States, especially in the South, has of late engaged the anxious attention of many thoughtful men and women. It is stated that in the cotton mills of the South there are twenty thousand children under fourteen years of age at work. Many of these are between the ages of six and twelve. Some effort has been made to secure legislation regulating such labor and raising the minimum age where some sort of regulation exists already. But these well-intended appeals to apparently impartial the legislatures have fallen on deaf ears. MRS. DIMIES T. S. DENISON, investigator, they The mill-owners have almost invariably pre Of New York. New President National Federation of Women's Clubs. A are really striking against brothers in their own union." However this may be, the miners and laborers have so far stood together. The operators have rejected repeated offers to submit the dispute to impartial arbitration, and the strikers have considerable public sympathy on this account. There is a possibility of a sympathetic strike in the bituminous fields, and at this writing the prospects are clouded and depressing. suspension of work by all the miners of the United States would affect half a million men directly and three or four times that number indirectly. It would threaten industrial paralysis, and might prove the beginning of a long period of business and trade stagnation. Once more the press and many thoughtful men are asking: Has the public, "the third party," no rights which employers and employed are bound to respect? Must it submit to hardship, risk, injury without complaint, or is it entitled to insist upon recognition of its interests? There is the right to strike, and the right to resist a strike. There is the right to unite, and the right to fight unionism. Has the public no voice in these disastrous controversies, and if not, has not vented the enactment of the desired laws. It appears that a good deal of New England capital is invested in the southern textile industries, and that the representatives of this element have been quite active in resisting anti-child labor legislation of the kind or degree obtaining in the New England states. Men known at home as philanthropic and public spirited citizens have been charged with direct responsibility for defeat of reasonable measures against child slavery in the South. In the East the situation is not so bad, but it is scarcely satisfactory. Where the age minimum is fourteen or sixteen years the law is constantly violated, parents giving false affidavits and employers carelessly or knowingly encouraging such deception. New Jersey permits the employment of children at the age of twelve, but a recent strike has disclosed in glass factories the presence of hundreds of children of six and seven years of age. The labor laws have been systematically violated, and the factory inspection bureau has done nothing to ameliorate this situation. In other states similar negligence is alleged to have nullified the by no means drastic legislation against child labor. It is therefore gratifying to know that the General Federation of Women's Clubs at its annual convention resolved to devote its energies to the mitigation of the child labor evil. It will seek to secure more radical laws where a beginning has already been made, initiate legislation in backward states, and compel the strict enforcement of existing acts where the officials are lax and remiss. The Federation could hardly have found a better field for its humanitarian activity. The influence of the club women is not a negligible quantity anywhere, and the work determined upon will have a large measure of success. Rochambeau and Frederick the Great. The United States has discharged an historic obligation in erecting a monument to Count de Rochambeau, the general whom Louis XVI. sent, at the head of six thousand soldiers, to coöperate with the American colonists under Washington in the War of Independence. The "debt of honor" we owed to France, rather than to her agent. who was not, like Lafayette, an admirer of Republicanism and an ardent advocate of the rights of man. The ceremonies at the unveiling of the monument, a product of French art, were imposing, France having sent a distinguished delegation to participate in them. American historians agree that the military, naval, and financial aid of France largely determined the success of the American struggle. On the part of the king the intervention was not wholly disinterested, as he indeed was frank to acknowledge, but the educated classes of France had much sympathy for the colonial cause, and today, when there are signs of reaction against democracy in more than one quarter, the two great republics of the world might fittingly make a special demonstration of their moral solidarity and community of sentiment and aspiration. By a curious coincidence, the Rochambeau. commemoration found the American people engaged in a discussion of another international act of courtesy and good will. The German emperor had, a few days before, offered as a gift to the United States a statue of Frederick the Great, whose friendship (purely platonic, by the way) for the American colonists during their revolutionary war had been the subject of repeated comment at the banquets to Prince Henry. President Roosevelt had promptly accepted the proffered mark of amity and gratitude, though according to some newspapers and congressmen the consent of congress should have been solicited and obtained. There were episodes in Frederick's career which Americans cannot admire, but his statue in our national capital will represent only the liberal, enlightened, and progressive side of his nature. Emperor William might have. offered us a statue of Baron Steuben, but in his own eyes that would have been an inadequate recognition of American cordiality and hospitality. Frederick the Great in bronze on American soil will not symbolize monarchy or government by divine right, but royal tribute to republican government. FIGURE FROM STATUE OF ROCHAMBEAU AT WASHINGTON. This would seem to answer the objections of those who regard the acceptance of the gift Church. The second part of the report is a as an offense against American traditions brief statement of the reformed faith. It and principles. But the question has been asked in all seriousness: If we are to accept the statue of a king who rendered no material aid to the colonists, and who did not even recognize the independence of the victorious republic, does not justice demand that we erect a statue of King Louis XVI., the only monarch who did help and coöperate THE LATE JOHN HENRY BARROWS, is about one thousand words in length, and is regarded as very orthodox. There is in it no trace of the higher criticism, so-called, but instead, what members of other religious bodies are warmly approving, saying Presbyterians are now closer to other Christian bodies. This statement is not a part of the confession, and does not go to the presbyteries for approval. It is simply a statement from the General Assembly, and it is optional with churches and pastors what they will do with it. The feeling seems to be that Presbyterian prospects were never brighter than with the American now, and Presbyterians themselves announce revolutionists, who their intention of undertaking evangelistic furnished money, work in a spirit and with a support heretoships, ammunition, fore impossible. and men? This question has remained President of Oberlin College. unanswered. Presbyterian Creed Revision. Presbyterians North had a historic scene in their General Assembly this year. It occurred when the creed revision committee reported. Preparation was made for prolonged debate, but instead all elements came together, adopted the report with but two dissenting voices, and concluded the session by singing the Doxology, and listening to their moderator read the Psalm wherein is the verse about brethren who dwell together in unity. The first part of the report consists of eleven overtures which go now to the presbyteries. They explain that all who die in infancy are elect, none are lost, and repel any insinuation that Presbyterians ever claimed any were lost; bow the Pope of Rome out by not mentioning him at all; say it is not a sin to take an oath; and that unregenerate men may perform works acceptable to God, getting credit for as much as they do. There are added two chapters, one on the Holy Spirit, the other on missions. If two-thirds of all the presbyteries adopt them, these overtures become, upon proclamation of such fact by the General Assembly next year, the law of the Presbyterian United Presbyterians have had under discussion this spring not the Westminster Confession, but their supplemental covenant. Action was defeated, and the committee continued for a year. Close communion, opposition to secret societies, and the singing of hymns are the three tenets that have been attacked. United Presbyterians number 115,000 communicants, and their chief strength is in western Pennsylvania. Southern Presbyterians suggested the rather strange plan of uniting with the Reformed Church in America - that northern body of English-speaking Christians who used to be known as Dutch Reformed. The plan in question showed some strength but was not adopted. Decrease in Theological Graduates. The number of theological students to be graduated this spring was seven hundred below the normal, and predictions are made that the number to graduate next year will be even farther below it. Fewer students from the colleges are entering the seminaries. The number of graduates this spring was 3,352, all sorts save Roman Catholic. The ability of large religious bodies, such as Methodist and Presbyterian, to absorb new men is much less than is generally supposed. And the number becomes proportionately |
