AN ARBITRATION TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.

1894. Nearly 900,000,000 pounds more were sold in 1895 than in the preceding year, and netted $3,400,000 less. The distribution of this increased quantity may be taken as a fair indication of the industrial countries which have felt the approach of better demand for the manufactured goods. England, naturally, stands first, taking 700,000,000 pounds more in 1895 than in 1894; Germany, France and Italy will use 450,000,000 pounds in excess of last year, and even greater needs are indicated by the increased exports to Mexico and Canada. One other country, the youngest among nations and the youngest industrial power, will repay careful study if her demand for American cotton may be taken as an indication of growing competence. In the year 1894 less than 5,000,000 pounds were exported to Japan; in the year 1895 the export was more than 11,000,000 pounds. This is the more remarkable as Japan has British India and China as sources of supply, and is known to draw heavily from them. This need for our cotton points to posi tive development on the best lines of manufacture. It is only five years ago that the United States sent cotton cloth to Japan. Now Japan asks for raw cotton, defeats British Indian competition in yarns, and threatens English cloth with exclusion from the continent of Asia.

IRON AND STEEL.

"The movement in iron and steel also is looked upon as a fair measure of the industrial situation at home, and the same measure may be applied to the import and export trade. In 1882 the heaviest imports of iron and steel and manufactures were made, $70,551,497. Since that year the value has declined, and in 1894 was only $20,559,368-the lowest record since the end of the depression of 1873-79. In 1882 the exports of iron and steel and manufactures were valued at $20,748,206-an amount only exceeded in the single year 1871. In 1894 the exports were $30,106,482—a figure never touched before-and in 1895 this aggregate is surpassed by more than a million. Through the long list of articles included in this class of manufactures only a few show diminished exports; the losses on pig iron, band iron, cutlery, stationary engines and boilers, plate iron, printing presses, railroad bars and sewing machines, are more than compensated by the additions on wire, stoves, firearms and bar iron. Brazil is equipping her railroads with

House of Commons to the United States Congress in relation to the settlement of national disputes by arbitration forms the subject of an article by Professor George H. Emmott in the Arena. The memorial is in these words:

"In response to the resolution adopted by Congress on April 4, 1890, the British House of Commons, supported in its decision by Mr. Gladstone, on June 16, 1893, unanimously affirmed its willingness to cooperate with the Government of the United States in settling disputes between the two countries by means of arbitration. The undersigned members of the British Parliament, while cordially thanking Congress for having by its resolution given such an impetus to the movement and called forth such a response from our Government, earnestly hope that Congress will follow up its resolution and crown its desire by inviting our Government to join in framing a treaty which shall bind the two nations to refer to arbitration disputes which diplomacy fails to adjust. Should such a proposal be made, our heartiest efforts would be used in its support, and we shall rejoice that the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland have resolved to set such a splendid example to the other nations of the world."

66

Referring to this document, Professor Emmott says: The significance of this movement on the part of three hundred and fifty-four members of the British House of Commons can hardly be overestimated. A careful perusal of the names shows that, amongst the signers were men of every shade of political belief. There are, as one would expect to be the case, a large number of Liberals, including the Right Honorable Sir John Lubbock, the Right Honorable C. P. Villiers, the lifelong friend and associate of Cobden and Bright, and many others; but the list also contains the names of Sir Richard Webster, the late Conservative Attorney-General, widely known and universally respected as one of the leading members of the English common-law bar, and a large number of the leading Liberal Unionists.

since learned to do, next only to my own, I have no hesitation in saying that this memorial expresses the heartfelt sentiment of a large part not only of the House of Commons, but also of the British electorate.

"This memorial was in no sense a suggestion of the British Govermnent as such. I do not see attached to it-I hardly should expect to see attached to it-the names of any of the more prominent members of the British Cabinet. I am inclined to believe that this is a movement on the part of the great masses of the British people, who realize very fully that their interests are one with those of the people of the United States."

Professor Emmott, who holds the chair of Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence in Johns Hopkins University, is himself an Englishman and has spent the greater part of his life in close contact with the English laboring classes. His opinion, therefore, as to the sentiments governing the British people on this question is entitled to unusual consideration.

D

PALESTINE THE SOLUTION OF WAR.

URING the last two or three years many plans for abolishing war have been discussed in the magazines. The strangest, at least, of them all is that which Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes now brings forth in the North American Review. His solution is the restoration of the Jews to their old home, the erection of their nation by the great powers into a neutral state and the establishment there of a world's court of arbitration, to which all international disputes should be submitted. Arbitration is the only becoming solution of the problem of how to abolish war, but it would be ineffective without some established arbitrative power to which disputing nations can appeal. This power must be above suspicion, must be removed from any chance of being biased by any base political considerations, must have a moral and, if need be, a physical force behind it to enforce its decision. The only arbitrative power which could fulfill all these requirements would, says Dr. Mendes, be Palestine restored to the Hebrew nation.

IF THE JEWS HAD THEIR OLD HOME.

This would mean : "(a) The solution of the vexed Eastern question, the political rivalries and jealousies in the East. These affect all the powers, for England cannot afford to have another power on the highway between her and her Indian and Australian empires. France chafes already at England in Egypt; Austria and Italy have Mediterranean interests which may not be overshadowed, and Russia considers she is bound by political and religious motives to have Palestine herself.

"(b) The solution of religious rivalries and jealousies which affect the three great religious worlds of Catholic, Protestant and Greek Church. None

can afford to have the other supreme in the land whose very dust is so sacred to all.

"(c) The erection of the Hebrew nation by the powers into a neutral state, its boundaries prescribed by the Bible limitation (Gen. xv. 18-21; Deut. xi. 24), so that it could not possibly have any territorial ambition beyond them, nor could it ever be exposed to political intrigue for its own aggrandizement.

EFFECT ON COMMERCE.

(d) The opening up of a vast commerce, for which the Hebrews are peculiarly qualified by commercial genius, and for which they are prepared by their commercial establishments in all countries, which would be maintained and continued. (See Isa. lxi. 9.) In this commerce all nations would advantageously participate, for Palestine, geographically, is the natural converging point of the trade routes between two continents, Europe and Africa on one side, and two continents, Asia and Australia, on the other. Tyre, Sidon, Elath, EzionGeber, Beyrout, Haifa and Acre among her ports would speedily become the London, Marseilles, New York or Hamburg of the East. And while to them the ships of the world would 'fly as a cloud and as doves to their windows' (Isa. lx. 8), the hum of industry's pauseless fingers would be the psalm of life of myriads in a land once a granary of the world, the successors of the myriads of whose existence the countless ruins of to-day are the dumb but heartmoving witnesses.

"(e) It would mean the solution of the so-called Jewish question, whether it is Russian, Pan-Slav policy or Franco-German anti-Semitism which propounds it. And the Hebrew nation of to-day, by its eminence in finance, letters, science and trade, deserves attention for reasons which need not here be noted.

This

THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS. "And it would mean the fulfillment of two Bible ideals of vital importance to humanity. The one is 'a house of prayer for all nations' (Isa. lvi. 7). would be erected in the same broad spirit which made King Solomon pray when he dedicated his temple : ‘And also the stranger who is not of Thy people, Israel, and cometh from a far-off land, because of Thy Name, when they hear of Thy great Name and Thy strong hand and Thine outstretched arm, and he come and pray to this temple, O do Thou hear in Heaven the place of Thy dwelling and do all that the stranger crieth to Thee for.' (I. Kings viii. 41 seq.) This would mean the quickening of the idea of the Brotherhood of Man, recognizing the father of all of us.

"And the other ideal would be the institution of a world's court of arbitration, when out of Zion shall go forth law, and He will judge between the nations and reprove many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.' (Isa. ii. 3-4; Micah iv. 2 and 3.) "

THE CUBAN REVOLUTION.

N the course of an interesting article in the Sep

this to say of the prospects of the revolutionists in Cuba:

"Of course the revolutionists have not been unfailingly successful. Neither were our Old Continentals. But the spirit is there and the languors of the tropical climate and the soon-tiring impetuosity of the Cubans are matched, after all, against tyrants oppressed with the same weaknesses. If this revolution fails and the next and the next, yet revolution will not die and it is only a question of time when Cuba will join civilization and throw off the mediævalism of Spain. Yet there is no reason to doubt the complete success of the present movement, for in the few months of its activity more battles have been fought than in the whole Ten Years' Revolution; the number of men is immensely larger and volunteers are refused by the hundred for the mere lack of arms and ammunition, and even these are slipped into the island by stealth almost every day. It is estimated that Spain has a force of nearly seventy thousand men in the field, with more coming constantly, yet the present state of the Cuban cause shows that, besides the aid of yellow fever as a destroyer of the unacclimated conscripts, the revolution is inspired by the holy zeal of desperate and determined patriotism."

"Founded by Velasquez in 1514, twenty-two years after the discovery of the New World—the scene of wars; leveled by earthquakes and burned by fires, only to be rebuilt-it remains to-day with perhaps a single exception, the oldest city of the hemisphere, besides which our boasted St. Augustine is a young lad in knickerbockers. Here Spain raised her ensigns for the conquest of the two Americas. Hence, in 1518, started Juan de Grifalve to conquer Yucatan; and, later, in 1527, to take Nicaragua. Hence set out Cortez to conquer the Aztecs of ancient Mexico. Hence departed Narvaez, in 1527, for the conquest of the Okechobee Valley in Florida, then known to Spaniards as the land of the Casima and of the Tallahassee Indian. Sunk in the bay, near shore, lies the Soberano, of the Spanish navy, hero of Trafalgar, and which, in 1829, left Cuba with an expedition, under command of Barradas and Laborde, to complete the conquest of Vera Cruz and Tampico."

T

THE ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA.

HERE is a horrible and heartrending article by Dr. E. J. Dillon in the Contemporary Review. Dr. Dillon has been acting as correspondent in those regions for the London Daily Telegraph, and he now presents to the world in the pages of the Contemporary Review as ghastly and as horrible an indictment of the Turkish Government as has ever been put on paper. It is, alas, not merely an indictment of the Turkish Government; it is quite as much an impeachment of English policy in the East. The Turk but acts according to his instincts. The fact that he has power to outrage Armenia without check or restraint is due primarily to England and to Lord Salisbury more than to any living man. Dr. Dillon, who cannot be accused of being a friend of Russia by his bitterest foes, expresses the verdict which humanity must pass upon the great national crime which England perpetrated when peace with honor was brought from Berlin to London, leaving peace with massacre and dishonor for the unfortunate Armenians.

WHAT IS GOING ON NOW.

Dr. Dillon says: "English people have not even a remote notion of the extent to which young married women and girls are outraged all over Armenia by Turkish soldiers, imperial Zaptiehs, Koordish officers and brigands—and outraged with such accompaniments of nameless brutality that their agonies often culminate in a horrible death. Girls of eleven and twelve-nay, of nine-are torn from their families and outraged in this way by a band of 'men' whose names are known and whose deeds are approved by the representatives of law and order. Indeed, these representatives are themselves the monsters, the bestial poison of whose loathsome passion is destroying the subtle, pure and innocent spirit of life.'

"Rape, violation, outrages that have no name and whose authors should have no mercy, are become the commonplaces of daily life in Armenia. And the Turkish gentleman' smiles approval. I have myself collected over three hundred of these cases and I have heard of countless others.

"The massacre of Sassoun sends a shudder to the hearts of the most callous. But that butchery was a divine mercy compared with the hellish deeds that are being done every week and every day of the year. The piteous moans of famishing children; the groans of old men who have lived to see what can never be embodied in words; the piercing cries of violated maidenhood, nay, of tender childhood; the shrieks of mothers made childless by crimes compared with which murder would be a blessing; the screams, scarcely human, of women writhing under the lash; and all the vain voices of blood and agony that die away in that dreary desert without having found a responsive echo on earth or in heaven, combine to throw Sassoun and all its horrors into the shade.

AN OFFICIAL POLICY OF EXTERMINATION.

"This plain policy of extermination has been faithfully carried out and considerably extended from that day to this, and, unless speedily arrested, will undoubtedly lead to a final solution of the Armenian problem-but a solution which will disgrace Christianity and laugh civilization to scorn. The authorities not only expected them, but aided and abetted, incited and rewarded, those who actually committed them; and whenever an Armenian dared to complain, not only was he not listened to by the officials whom he paid to protect him, but he was thrown into a fetid prison and tortured and outraged in strange and horrible ways for his presumption and insolence.

"The massacre of Sassoun itself is now proved to have been the deliberate deed of the representatives of the Sublime Porte, carefully planned and unflinchingly executed, in spite of the squeamishness of Koordish brigands and the fitful gleams of human nature that occasionally made themselves felt in the hearts even of Turkish soldiers."

ENGLISH IMPOTENCE.

While he has no doubt as to the facts of the outrages and massacres, while he is quite certain as to the complicity of the Turks in the outrages perpetrated by the soldiery, he is equally positive as to the impotence of England. He says: "Under the eyes of the Russian, English and French delegates at Moush, the witnesses who had the courage to speak the truth to the representatives of the Powers were thrown into prison and not a hand was raised to protect them; and at the present moment, within a stone's throw of the foreign consuls and missionaries, loyal Armenians are being hung up by the heels, the hair of their heads and beards plucked out one by one, their bodies branded with red-hot irons and defiled in beastly ways that can neither be described nor hinted at in England, their wives dishonored in their presence and their daughters raped before their eyes. And all that the philanthropic English nation has to offer these, its protégés, is eloquent indignation and barren sympathy."

ENGLAND THE AUTHOR OF THE EVIL. What makes it all the more horrible is that but for English action in 1878-for which the London Daily Telegraph, by the way, was largely responsible-there would have been an effective guarantee against this hideous oppression: "The net result of our interference with Russia in 1878, if considered from a purely philanthropic point of view, was to perpetuate a system of horrors in the five Armenian provinces, compared with which those of negro slavery in the Southern States were literally light blemishes. We solemnly abolished purgatory and deliberately connived at the inauguration of hell. We undertook to see that the abuses engendered by misgovernment in the Armenian cantons of Turkey should be speedily and definitely swept away; and

not merely have we neglected to fulfill this selfimposed duty-with which we refused to intrust Russia-but we have allowed a loose system of misrule gradually to develop into a diabolical policy of utter extermination, without venturing to make our power felt or daring to recognize our impotence.”

THE CONDUCT OF RUSSIA.

Those persons who assert that the whole affair is due to Russian intrigue find no countenance for their folly in Mr. Dillon's paper. He says: "Russia's attitude is absolutely correct; it is more, it is highly benevolent, for she has given hospitality to nearly twenty thousand Armenian refugees, whereas we, who are morally responsible for the weltering chaos that prevails on her borders, have turned away the sufferers with naught but gaseous sympathy and frothy promises. I have seen and conversed with the official representatives of that Power in various parts of Turkey. I have watched their work, observed their methods and have had exceptionally trustworthy data for forming an opinion as to the attitude they assume on this question of the Sassoun massacre the only issue as yet before the Powersand I have not the slightest hesitation in affirming that, whatever obstacles our Government may have encountered in the work of assisting Armenia, none of them took their origin in Muscovite intrigues. Russia acceded to our request to inquire into the Sassoun massacre and accomplished exactly and conscientiously everything she promised. No efforts were spared by her representatives to clear up the question; no personal prejudices or political interests were allowed to stand in the way of thorough investigation."

In the current number of the Quarterly Review a writer, apparently Mr. Malcolm MacColl, has an elaborate paper upon Islâm, which is written presumably for the purpose of leading up to the conclusion that if anything is to be done in Armenia the Sultan can no longer be allowed to exercise sovereign executive powers in those provinces: "British Consuls, with practical unanimity, declare that if the Capitulations were abolished, life, property and honor would become so insecure for Christians in Turkey that all foreign Christians' would quit the country to a man;' and the Twenty Years' Resident in Egypt' declares that even with the Capitulations, no consideration would induce him to sojourn in Egypt without European troops to preserve order.' The Capitulations, it may be as well to explain, are conditions which the Christian Powers have for centuries imposed upon the Porte for the protection of their subjects. All the Christian Powers have their own consular courts in Turkey and their own post offices, because they will not trust the meanest of their beggars to the tender mercies of Mussulman justice or the value of a penny post card to the honesty of Turkish officials. And this,

6

although the Government of Turkey knows that it would be at its peril that it touched the life, the honor or the property of a subject of any of the European Powers. Yet a number of intelligent people in England imagine that the Christian subjects of the Sultan in Armenia, unarmed and outside the protection of Turkish law, can live in tolerable security? In truth, the Powers are attempting an impossible task when they seek to combine reforms for the Christians with the independence of the Sultan. The two things are incompatible.”

IN

THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF CHICAGO.

N the first number of the American Journal of Sociology, Professor Albion W. Small tells how the Civic Federation of Chicago came to be organized and of the work in the interest of good government it has so far accomplished.

As to the origin of the Federation, Professor Small says that long before the Stead meeting prominent American citizens had given much attention to plans for municipal organization to do work that the city government was notoriously unlikely to perform. And previous to this agitation of the subject by a few prominent citizens there had been for years much argument and appeal in Chicago for more intelligent municipal action. There had also been concentrated effort on a small scale, confined to narrow circles. Thus a preparatory process had been going forward which fitted many individuals to become organs of a more sensitive municipal consciousness.

Then came Mr. Stead with his "civic centre' idea, which he had presented some two or three years before at Newcastle (England), and had since seen applied with success in a number of English cities—a plan to organize the best forces of the community into one grand federation. This plan he proposed at the meeting which he had called for that purpose on November 12, 1893. At this meeting a committee of five was chosen to select a committee of twenty-one to organize a "Civic Confederation of Chicago. The committee of five accepted the responsibility asssigned, selecting, however, a committee numbering over forty and notified them of their appointment in a letter which contained the following paragraph:

The object of this organization, briefly and in general terms, is the concentration in one potential, non-political, non-sectarian centre of all the forces that are now laboring to advance our municipal, philanthropical, industrial and moral interests, and to accomplish all that is possible toward energizing and giving effect to the public conscience of Chicago. It is not expected to accomplish all this in one day, but all great movements must have a beginning, and consultation with leading citizens of all classes who desire to see Chicago the best-governed, the healthiest and the cleanest city in this country leads us to believe that now is the time to begin; and especially do we believe it pertinent that such a movement should begin while our peo

ple are yet filled with the new ideas, new ambitions and inspirations drawn from the great Exposition and its valuable adjunct, the World's Congress.

This was the beginning of the Civic Federation of Chicago, which led the reform movement, resulting in the election of Mayor Swift.

The plan of organization of the Federation was fully outlined in the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, April, 1895. We give Professor Small's account of the political committee's action in connection with election frauds as a sample of the work that the Federation is carrying on: "It offered $200 reward for evidence leading to the conviction of fraudulent voters at the election of November, 1894. At the same time other rewards were offered by other organizations. A committee of six Democrats and six Republicans was appointed by the president of the Federation to take charge of the work. The committee raised $50,000 by popular subscription, employed able attorneys and with a strong corps of detectives secured evidence on which the Grand Jury indicted sixty-seven men. One of the most important cases has been tried and the principal conspirator, after a most stubborn defence, sent to the Penitentiary for eighteen months. Other important cases resulted in a plea of guilty and the imposition of a fine. At this writing a number of cases have not been heard."

FA

THE PUBLIC HALL APOSTOLATE.

ATHER J. M. Cleary, of Minneapolis, furnishes the Catholic World with an account of his work in that city in what is termed a "Public Hall Apostolate." By this is meant a series of free Sunday evening lectures on topics related to the doctrine and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. These lectures are intended to be heard by many who would not customarily attend regular church services. Father Cleary acknowledges the failure of the polemical method in the past. He was led to the adoption of the public platform as an agency for proclaiming his views of the truths of religion by the belief that many false impressions of Catholicism are spread among non-Catholics who do not have an opportunity to listen to the Catholic side of controverted questions, and hence cannot form honest or intelligent conclusions. As a result of his extended experience, Father Cleary expresses his conviction that " the public hall is the best and most attractive place in which to convey a knowledge of divine truth in our time and country to our separated brethren. By this means 'other sheep not of the fold' will best hear his voice, and there may be one fold and one shepherd.'

'No one will, I trust, misunderstand me and imagine that I could for one moment favor the abandonment of our churches dedicated to divine worship, and the resorting to public halls for the ordinary work of the church. The church edifice is for our own Catholic people; there the members of