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VOL. XXIII., No. 2

Published Weekly by

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY,

30 Lafayette Place, New York.

NEW YORK, JULY 13, 1901.

44 Fleet Street, London. Entered at New York Post-Office as Second-Class Matter.

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"IF

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

IN THE WAKE OF THE HOT WAVE.

F anything could convince the urban population that the larger cities of the temperate zone are absolutely unfit to inhabit during the extreme heat," declares the Baltimore Sun, the "blasting effects" of the recent hot spell "should be conclusive." Baltimore during the heated term, it says, "resembled a city stricken with some frightful disease," and every avenue of escape was "crowded with men, women, and children fleeing incontinently from the overpowering heat waves." And Baltimore was only one city out of many. Kansas City, St. Louis, several towns in Kansas, Iowa, and surrounding States, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and several other cities in the North Atlantic States and in New England suffered from temperatures of from 100° to 103°; and while these temperatures were registered on the official thermometers, high in air, the sidewalk thermometers showed temperatures of 108° and 110° in the shade. This frightfully hot weather, continuing for a week, caused a death list of more than 1,500 persons. More than half of the 1,500 fatalities (about 800) occurred in New York City. Philadelphia followed, with nearly 200; Boston and New England were next, with 100; Pittsburg lost 100; Baltimore, 90; Newark, 75; Jersey City, 40; St. Louis, 35; Chicago, 30; Wilmington, 25; Hoboken, 25; Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Washington, 20 each; Detroit and Kansas City, 15 each; Louisville and Omaha, 10 each. In New York and vicinity the daily deaths due to heat from June 28 to July 4, inclusive, were given as 3; 17; 19; 104; 280; 317; 57. The New York papers on the days of greatest fatality contained lists of the dead and prostrated that looked like the reports of great battles; and, indeed, comparing the figures above with the death roll of our war with Spain, it appears that in New York alone during the hot spell about 800 died from the heat, while in the war with Spain but 700 were killed or died of wounds. In August, 1896 (the worst period of heat New York had known previous to this one), only 171 died of heat in the week that the killing weather lasted. The high mortality last week

WHOLE NUMBER, 586

was mostly among the dwellers in the tenements, whose brick walls absorbed the heat all day and radiated it all night, making sleep and recuperation impossible. Many thousands slept on the roofs, the fire-escapes, the sidewalks, in the parks, and on the piers. A rough census of the seven recreation piers one night showed about 40,000 men, women, and children sleeping upon them.

It is considered a remarkable fact that while the North, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, was suffering from this fatal wave of heat, the South seemed to be fairly comfortable. The Times-Democrat remarks that New Orleans "has been coolness itself in comparison with the intense heat which has prevailed in many other parts of the United States," and adds: "We may assert with safety that the weather we have had here has been mild and comfortable compared with the killing heat they have had North. The citizens of those distressed cities should come South and sojourn with us a while here in New Orleans, where life is enjoyable compared with what it is in their furnaces." And the Atlanta Constitution observes:

"On the second day of the heated term, stretching from the Mississippi across to the North Atlantic, the country to the South has been enjoying blissful breezes.

"On the heights upon which Atlanta stands there is neither malaria nor suffocation. From mountain-top to mountain-top the cool air presses down the warm waves hidden in the valleys, and every man in his own home can feel that he is at a summer reLooking over the land we find the people enjoying their Chautauquas amid most pleasant surroundings.

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"In Jackson music and eloquence and beauty is charming hundreds who have gathered for their enjoyment, presenting a pretty picture of July life in the sunny South. In Barnesville thousands have gathered free from heat and annoyance to witness a program of excellent attractions. While hundreds are suffocating in New York City for but a breath of fresh air, the thousands of people assembled in Barnesville have no suggestion of discomfort. At the foot of Kenesaw, Marietta is likewise enjoying herself. There, again, are gathered thousands of people, breathing the purest of mountain air and feeling the thrill of buoyancy and joy.

"Such scenes as these, scattered over our happy land, should make us appreciative of the conditions by which we are surrounded and should convince those abroad that the best and most enjoyable part of the Union is to be found right here."

At the same time the Boston Transcript was cheering its readers with the information that "at eleven miles up it is eighty-. eight below zero," and another paper urged its readers to think of the polar bears floating around in the Arctic ocean on cakes of ice. The New York Sun said:

"Think of the awful misery caused by the great blizzard, two years ago last February. Snow covered everything from Florida to the Canadian line. The temperature was below zero for several days. The icy gales swept over the country, leaving the most intense suffering in their wake. Everybody shivered, and many deaths resulted from the frightful cold. Overcoats advertised as 'red-hot' sold like cakes off the griddle. Street-cars were stalled, and passengers were obliged to thrash their hands and stamp their feet constantly to keep from freezing. Harbors were blocked with ice and navigation suspended. Coal bills were enormous. One man went to order coal for his family and perished in the snow on his way. Persons overcome by the cold were picked up here and there all over this city. Hospital attendants worked day and night to restore sensibility to hands and

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MURDER TRIALS IN NEW YORK.

URING recent years there have been four murder trials in New York attended by circumstances which have given them national notoriety. The first two involved Carlisle Harris and Dr. Buchanan, and resulted in establishing the guilt of each. They paid the death-penalty for their crimes, the Court of Appeals denying, in each case, the privilege of a new trial. The other two trials, those of Dr. Kennedy and Roland B. Molineux, have been carried through much less expeditiously and are still pending. Dr. Kennedy, who is charged with having murdered a woman three years ago in a New York hotel, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, but the Court of Appeals saved him from execution by ordering a new trial. At the second trial eleven jurors voted for acquittal and one for conviction. The State decided to prosecute for a third time, and the third trial ended a few days ago with a jury that is reported to have stood eight for acquittal and four for conviction. Dr. Kennedy has been released on bail, and it is improbable that he will be tried again. The trial of Molineux, accused of sending through the mails poison from which a woman's death resulted, is in an equally unsatisfactory condition. Molineux, too, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; his trial, one of the most famous in New York criminal annals, lasted fifty-seven days, and he was defended with conspicuous ability. Last week his appeal for a new trial was argued at Buffalo before the Court of Appeals by John G. Milburn and David B. Hill, and is laid over until fall.

It is estimated that these four murder cases have cost New York County nearly a million dollars, and the New York Tribune protests against "the evil consequences which the facilities for delay afforded by our courts continually invite." In New York State, remarks the Philadelphia Press, "it is practically impossible to convict a man with an intricate defense and money enough to fight every point." The New York Press looks for relief toward a system of criminal procedure similar to that adopted in England, which shall include "the abolition of the right of appeal, save for clemency, in criminal cases." This, it

A MELTING SITUATION.

-The New York Tribune.

says, would "end the abuse, which has attained monstrous dimensions, of appellate courts granting practical pardons on tortured technicalities."

AGRICULTURAL INDEPENDENCE.

ACCORDING to the Secretary of Agriculture, the United

States, which now imports $420,000,000 worth of agricultural products a year, may soon grow all that its people consume and so cease to be dependent upon other countries for food. Secretary Wilson said to the Washington correspondent of the New York Sun a few days ago:

"There is no doubt that this country, within a few months, will be in a position to ignore every other nation on the globe in the matter of food products. We will produce within our own domain everything that goes upon our table and upon our backs. We will then be, commercially and industrially, almost independent of the other nations of the world. Hence any trade combination which may be effected against us will count for nothing. Whenever we get ready we can come pretty near starving any other nation. Therefore, an effective combination against us will be an impossibility."

We are

Some who are familiar with the figures of our large wheat. corn, and cotton crops, and our large production of meats, may be surprised to learn that we are at all seriously dependent even now upon any foreign country in an agricultural way. dependent upon the foreign market, however, for most of our sugar, which has come to be a necessity of modern life. The Secretary says on this point:

"The principal product purchased is sugar, which comprises nearly one-fourth of the total of products imported. The department in the past has been making experiments to ascertain in just what sections of the country sugar can be raised to such an advantage as to obviate the necessity of going to foreign markets to complete our supply. We want to raise beets, as therein lies the principal source of the sugar product. Within the United States there will be over forty beet-sugar factories in operation by next fall. They will be situated in almost every State along the northern border from New York to California. I believe that within a few years we will produce all the sugar we require, and we will then be in position to ignore the foreign product. Our experiments have shown that the sugar produced from our quality of beet is much richer than that manufactured in foreign countries. Our product, therefore, will be much more desirable. When this result shall be attained the Sugar Trust will, in my opinion, vanish, for the reason that the trust refines imported brown sugar, while all the American factories will fin

ish the product and place it in entire readiness for sale on the markets."

Other products that we now buy abroad are tea, coffee, rice, rubber, macaroni wheats, spices, and the finer grades of cotton. All these products the Secretary hopes to see supplied soon from our own soil. "We are now succeeding admirably in the production of tea in the United States," he says, and "it is only a question of a short time when we will be able to raise all the tea demanded for use in this country." Our new possessions will aid greatly in the production of some of these tropical products. The New York Times says:

"It was the opinion of George Washington that the farmer who grew what he and his required was the happiest and most independent man on earth. It is good, too, for this nation to be independent of all sources save its own for the actual necessities of its life and activities. Its political independence is helped and assured by the possession of lands so distributed among the climates that ships may find in its own ports the various cargoes that supply its wants."

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another, on the part of some of the employees of the new billiondollar steel trust, was announced. It is estimated that about 35,000 men, employes of the American Sheet Steel Company and the American Steel Hoop Company, responded to the call of President T. J. Shaffer, of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, to quit work on July 1; but as it is customary to shut down the mills for a few weeks in summer, no serious dislocation of business has yet resulted, and it is believed that, in view of J. Pierpont Morgan's return from Europe, existing differences will be peaceably adjusted in the near future. The feature that is viewed with most apprehension is rather the potentiality of a strike which, in the language of the Brooklyn Eagle, "may develop into the greatest strike in history." Several months ago the Amalgamated Association insisted on unionizing certain mills at McKeesport, threatening a strike as an alternative, and its demands were acceded to. "It remains to be seen," remarks the Buffalo Express, "if the steel trust will give in under the present pressure." The same paper gives the following résumé of the causes of the present strike:

"It is an interesting fact that the dispute is not over an increase of wages, but simply over a continuation of last year's scale and its extension to the so-called open mills of the companies. About sixty-five per cent. of the mills in the sheet steel concern are unionized and have the wage scale prepared by the Amalgamated Association. It is the desire of the association to unionize all the mills of both companies and to make the wages uniform. By refraining from demanding an increase in wages, the association has indicated that it was satisfied with the present wages, while the willingness of the companies to agree to the same schedule for the same shops shows that there was no dissatisfaction among employers. The extension of the scale to the

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new shops would seem, so far as the public now knows of the trouble, to have been a reasonable request."

The capitalists' point of view is voiced by the New York Commercial Advertiser, which thinks that to allow union labor to fix the conditions of employment is a demand which could not be conceded "without utterly upsetting the balance of power between employer and employed." It continues:

"The undue ascendency of the labor union in Great Britain is acknowledged to be one of the main reasons why that country is fast losing its supremacy in trade. Yet the spirit of tyranny which governs all the dealings of the English labor organizations arose simply through the concession by the employing class of demands similar to those which are now being brought forward in this country. American employers have the British experience as a sharp spur urging them to maintain an unwavering attitude in the present cases. If they were to weaken and yield to the strikers on the principal issue, it would be one of the most serious blows to American industry that could possibly be conceived."

As striking evidence of the present prosperity of the steel trust comes the announcement of a full dividend at the annual rate of seven per cent. on the preferred stock and four per cent. on the common stock of this corporation. "But for the uncertainties of the labor situation," observes the New York Mail and Express. "it may be that a higher dividend would have been justified."

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that they are all callow youth or men readily convicted of a desire to look like women. Among the official bodies which have taken up the shirt-waist problem associations of letter-carriers have been prominent. The battle has been waged in the ranks of the postmen with considerable fierceness. There has certainly been a great reluctance to adopt the shirt-waist on the part of many of the carriers, and in several instances there have been efforts at compromise. In Washington, D. C., for instance, some one devised a peculiar sort of garment which is said to resemble a shirt-waist in front and a coat behind. Permission to wear this garment was secured from the postal authorities, and it was adopted by some, tho not by any means a majority, of the carriers of that city.

"The question came up before the letter-carriers of New Haven recently, and there a suggestion was made which ought to solve the whole difficulty. Everybody agrees that every man ought to keep as cool as possible during the heated term. If he does not he will be cross to his wife and children, besides suffering other lesser evils. Everybody agrees, also, that no coat was ever devised which was really cool enough for midsummer. The disagreement comes when it is proposed that men adopt the shirtwaist, by name and association a feminine garment. The feeling was well expressed by one of the New Haven carriers, who said: 'What do they want to rig us out with shirt-waists for? Do they think we are a lot of women? Some of the men who favor shirt-waists will one of these days be calling for hoopskirts for the carriers. Give us the blouse, a man's garment.'

"Now, here is the germ of a great thought. 'Give us the blouse, a man's garment. A blouse, according to the dictionary, is a loose upper garment worn by men in place of a coat. Certainly give us the blouse, or, in other words, call it a blouse, and don't, for pity's sake, call it a shirt-waist. The garment will be just the same, and the resultant coolness will be just as delightful, but the stigma of aping the women will be forever removed. Sometimes there is a good deal in a name. By all means give us the blouse."

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EFFECTS OF FREE TRADE WITH PORTO

RICO.

"WHAT A RELIEF TO GET INTO THIS NEW SHIRT WAIST!"

-1 he St. Louis Republic.

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in the season for a conclusive struggle between its friends and foes; but this year it is on the scene early. The progress of the battle is reported and commented upon as follows by the New York Tribune:

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A healthy impetus will be given to the agricultural resources of the island. The 15 per cent. that is now collected on sugar and other products which must look almost exclusively to the United States for their market is something of a drawback to the investment of capital. With the removal of this 15 per cent. unquestionably more sugar lands will be placed under cultivation. The amount of available cane lands in Porto Rico is not large enough at the extreme limit to menace the beet growers in the United States, yet the cultivation of every acre which is available for cane will be a great boon to the overcrowded inhabitants of the island.

"The shirt-waist problem, which began about a year ago in private discussion, has passed that stage and has now been taken up by official bodies in various parts of the country. In individual cases the matter has been fairly traversed in argument, and has gone forward into execution. More and more coatless men are to be seen day by day, and certainly it can not be maintained

"Tobacco also will receive some stimulus, but I never could find enough uncultivated tobacco land in Porto Rico to see wherein its extension would benefit a large number of the people. "Citrus fruits will be benefited by tariff equality with the products of the United States. While orange-growing has not yet become an extensive industry, all the reports from those who have gone into it since the American occupation are encouraging. "Coffee, of course, is not affected by the tariff, yet there are many small capitalists who are inclined to coffee-raising if they can vary it with other business, such as fruit-growing.

"Aside from the purely agricultural resources there are some minor industries which are capable of slight development and which may receive an impetus from the removal of all tariff duties. The native phosphates are yet a commercial problem, but the salt marshes which have been worked in a small way appear to be capable of greater production. Quite lately it has been re

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FOURTH OF JULY CASUALTIES.

ported that one of the big salt combinations included Porto Rico in the sphere of its future operations.

"Whatever the complete result of the meeting of the legislature on July 4, everybody in the United States will find satisfaction in the renewed good feeling which will be demonstrated toward this country. The sentiment now is akin to that which prevailed when General Miles planted the American flag there. It is in striking contrast to the feeling of a year ago, which was not entirely without reason, that the United States, for selfish purposes, was proposing to discriminate against the little island, or at least to experiment on it without regard to its own good."

Duties amounting to 15 per cent. of the Dingley tariff rates have been collected since May 1 of last year on goods entering the United States from Porto Rico, or Porto Rico from the United States. The Foraker law, which fixed this tariff, also provided, however, that when the internal revenue of the island should be sufficient to pay the expenses of administration, trade with the mainland should become free. That point has now been reached. On the Fourth of July the Porto Rican legislature passed a resolution notifying the President that the island can now pay its own way, and asking him to issue a proclamation of free trade on July 25, the anniversary of the appearance of the American flag on the island. The President made it known at the Cabinet meeting on Friday of last week that he will issue the proclamation as requested.

Says the Philadelphia Press (Rep.):

"Porto Rico has decided that it can get along now without the revenue raised from the limited application of the tariff, which consists of 15 per cent. of the Dingley rates of duty, hence the President will soon issue his proclamation abolishing the tariff. It has been of immense advantage to Porto Rico, which has had the entire benefit of the duties collected in this country as well as on the island. Despite that fact all the duties to be refunded, under the Supreme Court decision, will come out of the United States Treasury. Never were a people treated so generously as have been those of Porto Rico by the United States, and never was a law so outrageously misrepresented as was this 15-percent. tariff law by the shameless opponents of the Administration."

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N unusually small number of accidents marked the celebration of Independence Day last week, according to newspaper reports from various parts of the country. As the Philadelphia Telegraph remarked on the day after: "The accidents and incidents of the day were comparatively unexciting, and the list of killed, wounded, and missing this morning is satisfactorily brief, while the number of fires due to the careless use of explosives is correspondingly curtailed." Yet, adds the Boston Advertiser, the list of casualties "is anything but inspiring"; and

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YOUNG AMERICA: "I wonder what there is about me that makes the old Indian grin like that." -The Minneapolis Tribune.

it asks: "Is Young America always to be taught that the goddess of liberty is a grotesque Carrie Nation?" The Chicago Tribune, which collects, every year, the statistics of the killed and injured and of the fires caused by the celebration, reports:

"The number actually killed is less than last year, being 19 against 30 then, but the number of injured is considerably larger, the figures being 1,611 against 1,325.

"The real list of fatalities will, however, not be known until the number of deaths resulting from lockjaw caused by toy-pistol wounds comes in.

"Last year in Chicago there were no deaths reported on July 5 from toy pistols, but before the month was out twenty-five had died from the resulting lockjaw, and the remainder of the country sent in equally fatal records. .

"The loss by fire resulting from the careless use of fireworks or their premature explosion was less than in previous years, the fires as a rule being small ones and the damage light. In the entire country from reports received last night it amounted to but little over $60,000. "

In Chicago the health department tried to suppress the sale and use of the toy pistol, which had caused twenty-five deaths from toy-pistol lockjaw after the previous Fourth, but the effort was not very successful. The New York Tribune declares that these pistols are "deadly weapons," and says that "there is no good reason why the sale of them should not be broken up altogether." The Chicago Record-Herald says:

"For a thorough protection against the day's tragedies, however, nothing will suffice but a general change in the character of its observance. That observance has become a great national nuisance which abounds in menaces to life and limb. The toy pistol is but one of its many murderous instruments and its supreme aim is noise. Cheap noise-makers have multiplied much more rapidly than beautiful fireworks, and will continue so to multiply unless the demand for them is stopped by an attempt to make the celebration rational and worthy of the great event which it commemorates."

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