bands of ladrones and marauders who are now-although making a great deal of trouble in some parts of the islands-regarded by both Americans and natives as nothing more than brigands. It seems to us that the attitude of the War Department in this respect is entirely logical and entirely commendable. A fact, we believe, not generally understood in this country is that Mabini is no longer a prisoner of any kind. He is living on the island of Guam without civil or military control, and is as free as the reader of these lines to leave Guam to-morrow, and could go to any port in the world save the port of Manila. He may even take passage on a merchant vessel and sail for Manila without a finger being raised to prevent him, but when he reaches Manila he cannot disembark without first taking the oath. If he should start for San Francisco and land there next month, and begin a tour of the United States lecturing in behalf of Philippine independence, we venture to say that the Government would neither interfere nor raise the slightest objection. There are those who protest against the exaction of an oath of allegiance on the ground that any person of sound mind and not a criminal may enter the United States at will without even a passport; but in the time of the Civil War the oath of allegiance was exacted here when it was believed to be necessary, and it must be remembered that warlike conditions exist in the Philippine Islands to-day. So far from believing that the treatment of Mabini by the United States Government is harsh and inhuman, The Outlook is of the opinion that it is peculiarly liberal even for a free and democratic government. The Panama Canal Last week Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, declined to consent to the Colombian Government's proposal to leave to the Hague Tribunal the question of annual rental, now the only stumbling-block to a canal treaty. As is well known, by the time that every other point in the protocol (covering the subjects of a proposed treaty) had been settled, the Colombians had advanced their claims for annual rental to the large sum of $600,000; the United States Government offered $100,000. The reasons for the Colombian demand were that after we have taken hold in Panama we "will see by the receipts which will accrue to the owners of the canal franchise that the Colombian claim is justified." Having discovered that the demand for $600,000 is not likely to be granted, the Colombians proposed that the treaty, so far as agreed upon, should be signed, while the question of annuity, which would not in any case arise for years, should be referred to the Hague Tribunal for a proper estimate of Colombia's remuneration. The original terms of the protocol provided that after fourteen years the United States should, in addition to the $7,000,000 paid by it as a lump sum, or bonus, pay a "fair and reasonable" annual sum; at the close of each period of one hundred years this annuity should be fixed in accordance with the existing value of the canal; but if the representatives of Colombia and the United States, on meeting, two years before the expiration of a century period, should fail to agree upon the size of annuity, then the matter should be referred to a high commission consisting of two representatives from each nation and the president of the Hague Tribunal, who should also be president of the high commission. This is as it should be. Article XVI. of the Hague treaty expressly provides for such arbitration in the "interpretation of treaties." The Hague Tribunal, however, does not concern itself with the formation of contracts. If Colombia proves obdurate, the United States may and can go elsewhere for an isthmian route. It is surmised by some, however, that Colombia may possibly have received advice in the matter by those jealous of the ascendency of the United States Government throughout the Western Hemisphere. Their attention may be called to the half-century of official pronouncements that whatever isthmian canal may be constructed shall be controlled by the United States Government and by it alone. The interest both North Negro Office-Holders and South in President Roosevelt's attitude on the race question continues unabated. It is a curious fact, however, that the President has made fewer negro appointments than either President Harrison or President McKinley. Public attention has been focused upon his action on the race question because what he has done has been in his characteristically frank and direct manner. When Booker Washington dined at the White House, it did not occur to the President that it concerned or would interest any one outside of his own private circle. His appointment of Dr. Crum to the office of Collector of the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, was made because no negro Federal office-holder had been selected under his administration for that State, and because it had been intimated to the Administration that while Charleston would vigorously protest against a negro postmaster, it would acquiesce in the appointment of a negro to such an office as that of Collector of the Port. The President recognizes the very widespread and deeply felt reluctance among Southern whites to having a negro in a public office where he comes in contact with the wives and daughters of the white residents; but he felt that this objection did not affect the Port Collectorship. The President having made the appointment of Dr. Crum on political and civic grounds that are entirely tenable in the South as well as in the North, and under the impression that he was acting with ample consideration of the feelings of Charlestonians, we do not see how he can withdraw the appointment either with justice to his appointee or with regard for his own self-respect. The South Carolina Senate has, however, passed a resolution of protest to be forwarded to the United States Senate, and it is possible—although we think hardly probable-that the appointment may not be confirmed. A Federal negro appointment has been made in Boston. William H. Lewis, a graduate of Amherst College and of the Harvard Law School, has been appointed United States Assistant District Attorney. The appointment was made by the District Attorney, but with the undoubted approval of the President. Mr. Lewis is not only a capable lawyer, but during his college and university courses was a very popular and successful athlete-famous all over the country as one of the best football players that Harvard University has ever had. In his college life no distinctions were made on account of his color. believe it is a perfectly sound contention that if the South is to have negro Federal officers the North should have them too. The Indianola Case While the desirability of having a negro Collector of the Port in Charleston may be honestly questioned by those who have the welfare of both whites and blacks in the South at heart, we do not think that any fairminded and really patriotic citizen can give anything but cordial assent to the Administration's attitude on the Indianola case. Mrs. Cox, an educated and respectable negro woman, has been post mistress at Indianola, Mississippi, for about ten years. She was appointed by President Harrison and reappointed by President McKinley. Some of the most influential and highly respectable white citizens of the town are on her bond. There has been no question raised for ten years on the part of anybody in the town concerning the satisfactory character of her administration of the post-office. During the Harrison and McKinley Adminis trations the white Democrats of Mississippi, believing in the doctrine that the spoils belong to the victor, accepted the fact that Republican Administrations would appoint Republican postmasters. There was no white Republican in Indianola. President Roosevelt, however, in pursuance of what we believe to be his very wise and non-partisan policy, began to name white Democrats for certain offices in the South. This led some of the white Democrats of Indianola to see a chance of getting the post-office for themselves. The attack on Mrs. Cox, therefore, had its origin in a political cabal. Indeed, when pressure was brought to bear to compel her to resign her office, a public meeting was held in the town, and forty of the best citizens voted for her retention, against thirty-seven votes for her expulsion. All the testimony of the most intelligent and fair-minded residents confirms the belief that Mrs. Cox has been an efficient and creditable Federal official, and, in our opinion, the Govern ment is bound to protect its officers in the faithful performance of their duties with all the power and authority at its command. The Post-Office Department has taken the very proper stand that when the local authorities of Indianola shall We assure the postmistress of proper protec tion, the office, which has been closed. will be reopened. This makes the question a very simple one; the citizens simply have to determine whether they want a post-office in their community enough to see that it is respected. It has been said that the Post-Office Department has deprived the citizens of Indianola of the facilities of the United States mail. To us it appears that the citizens are simply depriving themselves of these benefits. "Cornered " Contracts The Appellate Court Not Binding in Chicago has handed down a sweeping decision declaring that, under the laws of Illinois, dealers who have sold for future delivery goods they do not own cannot be forced to settle their trades on the basis of an artificial value created by the "cornering" of the market. In the case that called forth this decision a Chicago firm had sold oats for delivery last July. When the time for the delivery arrived, the price of oats, as the firm claimed, was forced to a fictitious figure by the action of eight Board of Trade members, who had bought up more oats than could possibly be brought to Chicago before the end of the month. The firm asked and obtained an injunction from a lower court which kept the creators of the corner from collecting the extortionate prices established through their own conspiracy, and the Appellate Court has now sustained this injunction. The decision leaves the Board of Trade. free to discipline its members who do not fulfill their contracts in accordance with its rules, and without doubt the manipulation of corners will go on, but those who manipulate them will be less confident of profiting by their wrongs, as the victimized dealers can always appeal to the courts for release from their contracts. The law and the decision making the cornered contracts invalid are thoroughly good as far as they go, but they go little further than the law and decision making gambling contracts invalid. The cornering of markets through the speculative purchase of more goods than can be brought to them can be checked completely only by legislation prohibiting sales for future delivery save by those who own or produce the goods in question. To get rid of corners and the sudden riches, sudden ruin, and demoralizing excitement which attend them, we must get rid of the speculative buying and selling of goods cept Mr. Conger, the United States representative, have now signed a formal note informing the Chinese Government that failure to fulfill its obligations by refusing to pay the war indemnity of 450,000,000 taels as a "gold debt," provided for by the peace protocol, would entail grave consequences. The Chinese tael, the basis of the calculation of indebtedness, was worth nearly 75 cents when the protocol was signed; it is now worth slightly more than 60 cents. The day before this practical ultimatum was delivered, the report was published of the revenue derived from the maritime customs of the treaty ports of China for the year 1902. Though the revenue is almost a fifth greater than that for 1901 (the year of unwonted depression due to the Boxer troubles), the report for 1902 does not show the increase legitimately expected. There are gloomy prospects for the import trade, owing to the continued likin (internal transit) exactions, but more especially to the decline in the purchasing power of silver, a decline evident not only in China, but in our own Asiatic insular possessions, where the fluctuations in the ratio between the Philippine silver coin and the gold dollar of the United States amounted in some cases to as much as thirty per cent. during 1902. This has resulted in great injury to the business interests of the islands, besides involving a loss to the insular treasury of about $1,000,000 in gold. It is thought by many representatives of the protesting countries in the matter of the Chinese indemnity that, for the future, some plan must be devised by which, both for their sakes and for the sake of the Chinese themselves, a more permanent relation between the currency in which Chinese payments are made and the current coin of civilized nations may be established. The motive of our own Government in dealing with China is different from that of the other cosignatories of the protocol. The constant aim of Secretary Hay has been to rehabilitate, not to spoliate, China; to maintain, not to destroy, commercial and territorial integrity; and he has constantly endeavored to impress upon the Foreign Ministers of other countries that such a course is also for them the wisest and best. If the Powers insist upon the strict letter of the protocol, they are undoubtedly justified in insisting upon payment at the rate prevailing at the time (September 7, 1901) when the protocol was signed; on the other hand, the tolerant attitude of this country in accepting, though with reserve, the payment made last July at the existing rate of exchange is not only the astutely liberal course, but the one which, in the long run, will tend to the greatest good of the greatest number. If the other Powers cannot see it in this light, they may remember that China, as well as her creditors, was represented at the Hague Conference. Under the resultant treaty China might be well within her right in attempting to have her apparently bankrupt condition, in view of the hard terms of the protocol, form the plea for a revision. The Irish Last week Captain ShaweLand Question Taylor, Secretary of the Committee which has prepared a new Irish land bill to be presented to Parliament next March, arrived in this country, and declares that, if the Committee's admirable plan results in the expected legislation, the Irish constabulary force will be reduced one-half, and the Land Commission abolished. Captain Shawe-Taylor adds: "We have spent two hundred million pounds to get South Africa, and I think the English Government ought to give a few millions to get peaceful Irela d." A good many millions will be required to enable the Government, under the proposed plan, to lend the purchase money at low interest to tenants, small and large, who may thus acquire by easy payments the lands upon which they are now living. It is reported that tenants all over Ireland are now optimistic as to the future and are confidently looking forward to obtaining land holdings on the exact terms laid down in the Committee's report. This is in accord with the quick and mercurial Irish nature, as opposed to the slower-moving AngloSaxon. Even if the British Treasury experts should agree to all of the Com mittee's recommendations, Irish tenants would be well advised not to expect the immediate redemption of their island, although a new land law, on the lines proposed, would be, of course, a chief means of redemption. American competition is affecting them, as it is many another European people. Irishmen must meet it, but, even if there were no American competition, they must now, in any case, augment their incomes to meet the enhanced demands of taxation. Hence, not only must agriculture itself be made more remunerative in Ireland, but old industries must be revived; above all, the Irish must do what has been successfully done in more than one American State where somewhat similar agricultural conditions have prevailed: crops must be diversified in order to use the land to the best advantage under new and complicated competition. The Swedish Famine Letters and despatches from Sweden last week confirm the first intelligence of the famine in the northern part of that country. The agricultural conditions there are analogous to those in Finland, where a similar famine exists. Nearly half a million persons are affected by the Finnish famine, but the Swedish famine has thus far affected only about a quarter of that number. But the smaller number will doubtless receive the quicker relief, not only from the immediate and generous gifts from the King and other members of the royal family and from many citizens, but also from the action of the Swedes in this country. With admirable promptness they have responded to the appeals of the principal papers published here, the New York “Nordstjernan "” and the Chicago "Svenska Tribun," which have already sent approximately twentyfive thousand dollars from the Swedes in this country to help their brothers in distress. The starving Swedes are eating pine bark, which is dried, ground to powder, mixed with stewed Iceland moss, and made into a kind of famine bread. The failure of the crops, owing to drought and flood, has been followed by an unaccountable scarcity of fish in the Gulf of Bothnia, and now the ptarmigan, usually found in great numbers in the stricken district, have almost completely disappeared. Although a quarter of a million dollars have thus far been contributed in Sweden, the United States, and other countries, it is estimated that the expenditure of twenty times as much will be necessary to save the population from decimation. Missionaries Events in Morocco last week in Morocco were of peculiar interest to Americans and Englishmen, since they involved the hasty departure of American and English missionaries from Mequinez, thirty-four miles from Fez, the capital, and also from Fez itself. For days prior to their departure, our women especially were openly cursed, the Moors shouting, "What's this filth in our streets?" When the Americans from Mequinez arrived at Fez, the Moors exclaimed, so it is reported, "O God! we thought they were sending the cursed. dogs from us, but they are coming back." It is not so many weeks since Mr. Cooper, an English missionary, was murdered at the capital itself, and this event, together with the open hostility of the natives, has caused apprehension as to the safety of the missionaries. The recrudescence of anti-foreign feeling in Morocco resembles that in China preceding the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and is the cause of the Pretender's strength. Insurrectionary fighting is in progress all the way between Fez in the mountains and Tangier on the coast. France, always sensitive as to any possible opportunity for interference which may lead to more of a foothold in Morocco, has warned the Moorish Government that a repetition of the fighting in the vicinity of a city with such a large European population as that of Tangier would justify European intervention; this follows warnings from the same interested quarter concerning frontier complications. The continuance of the insurrection will probably benefit no one but France. Great Britain would naturally prefer to see the Sultan emerge successfully from the conflict in which he is engaged, as any disturbance of the status quo would involve the British Government-still busily engaged elsewhere-in new complications. Precisely these complications, however, would be welcomed by the French Government, which would take advantage of them at least to adjust its somewhat shadowynot to say shady-frontier claims against Morocco. Dr. Delitzsch and the Kaiser Last year, as the readers of The Outlook know, Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, Professor of Assyriology of the University of Berlin, and son of the famous Hebrew scholar and conservative theologian Franz Delitzsch, late Professor at Leipzig, at the request of the German Emperor delivered before the Imperial Court a lecture on the Babylonian origin of the religious. conceptions found in the Old Testament. This lecture has since been published in an English translation under the title of "Babel and Bible." The views there expressed, though quite in line with the development of Biblical scholarship in the German universities, are by no means in harmony with the theological conceptions which obtain in the State Church; for the conservative element in the German churches seems even more decided than the radical element in the universities. The fact, therefore, that the German Emperor is the head of the State Church gave to his invitation to Dr. Delitzsch a significance it otherwise would not have had. Again this year the Emperor, having defrayed the expenses of further research on the territory of ancient Babylonia, with the officials of the Court listened to Dr. Delitzsch in another lecture on the same subject. It was therefore not a mere impulse which actuated the Kaiser, but a well-considered and evidently sincere interest in advancing Biblical knowledge and in honoring high scholarship. Beyond this no inferences can be drawn concern ing the attitude of the State Church toward the views expressed by Dr. Delitzsch. Indeed, the principal value of Dr. Delitzsch's lectures will not be in the views expressed, from which many scholars will dissent on other than dogmatic ground, but in the contributions which they make to the knowledge of historical conditions antedating earliest Hebrew literature. |