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THE PANAMA CANAL SCANDAL.

THE INQUIRY into the affairs of the Panama Canal Company has had no more startling development than the revelation of the corruption of the Parisian press. M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, editor of L'Economiste Français, has been conspicuous among French journalists for uniform opposition to the canal project. His reflections as a journalist upon the relations of newspapers to financial enterprises are therefore peculiarly interesting.

The Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry appointed by the Chamber of Deputies is the tribunal before which the investigation is conducted. As is well known, the question of the propriety of a committee investigation, and the question of the scope of the Committee's authority, have excited much controversy in France. In this connection it is interesting to read the arguments raised against a committee investigation. The article by M. de Marcère in the Nouvelle Revue presents these arguments with a good deal of force.

It is doubtful whether the extent of the corruption involved in the Panama Canal Company's transactions is generally appreciated. The following brief statement from Frank Leslie's Weekly (Jan. 5) gives a good idea of the subject: The magnitude of the canal swindle is shown by the statement issued by the liquidators. The total amount expended

by the Company was 1,300,000,000 francs (about $260,000,ooo). A little over one-fifth of this sum has been repaid to the subscribers in the shape of interim interest. There was paid for construction and material, $33,200,000; for contractors, $88,600,000; and for the purchase of the Panama Railroad, $18,600,000. For this expenditure of $51,800,000 the Company has, in the way of assets, the abandoned works and the Panama road, the whole now estimated at $14,000,000As to the remainder of the total outlay, it is a total loss."

THE PRESS AND THE PANAMA COMPANY. PAUL LEROY-BEAULIEU, MEMBER OF THE Institute. Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (2 pp.) in L'Economiste Français, Paris, December 10.

IT

T is an important question whether the corruption disclosed in the Panama matter is absolutely exceptional, or whether the State is not forever condemned to prove, within a certain measure, the formula of the English philosopher, Herbert Spencer, who says in his "Political Essays": "The official machine is slow, stupid, wasteful, corrupt."

Let us consider, first, the rights and duties of the Press in relation to financial enterprises. From an ideal point of view, it is very clear that the duty of the Press is to instruct the public seriously, to offer it an honest opinion, the outcome of reflection and sure information. This is the ideal the Press ought to pursue; and it has not been absolutely demonstrated that journals which might try to conform to this ideal, with some talent and some spirit, would not find, in the long run, material profit in such a course, albeit the public is not very clear-sighted and has little gratitude.

This ideal, it is too evident, very few journals pretend to follow. The most of them are mere organs of party, of a certain set, and of pecuniary enterprises looking to immediate returns. Although that be so, there are still some rules by which they should be bound. No one will deny that the journals have a right to be paid, and well paid, for the publicity they give, but on the condition that this publicity is clearly seen by readers to come from sources outside of the journal, and that it does not have the air of being advice given by the journal of its own motion, after an impartial examination and reflection. By confounding, as it does, editorials and publicity, it is evident that the Press is in danger of losing all authority. It will be considered as naught but a collector of information which should be distrusted.

As a help to floating financial enterprises, there are what is called guarantee syndicates. In principle these are all very well and sometimes useful. Formerly, however, these syndicates were composed of great bankers or great capitalists. If, however, you form a guarantee syndicate which guarantees nothing, that is to say, which does not take the shares for which the public has not subscribed, and is besides composed, in great part, of men known not to have any considerable personal resources, it is clear that such a syndicate is but an empty formula and a falsification. Such syndicates use the Press for their own purposes and pay journals tens of thousands of francs to proclaim the merits of enterprises with which it is intended to gull the public. Yet great financial enterprises have been undertaken, firmly founded and proved eminently successful, without this flourish of trumpets.

The public should never lose sight of the fact that the more unanimous the Press is in expressing an opinion about a financial affair, the more it should be suspected. The stronger and the more reiterated the praise bestowed on a certain enterprise, the more cautious the public should be about having anything to do with it.

Passing to the political aspect of the matter, we see that the mechanism of the modern State is quite as corruptible as that

of the governments of former times. The chances are not slight that the electors, in their ignorance or in pursuing some petty private interests of each of them, send to representative assemblies a great number of intriguers, for whom the representative function is a career from which they expect to reap indirect advantages.

In every country there is a strong chance of a Parliament being composed of elements with an average morality much inferior to the average morality of the whole nation.

It is well that this truth should never be forgotten. The public powers, especially under the modern system of government, are essentially corruptible. We have the Panama matter. The people of the United States have the scandal of 900,000,000 annual pensions voted by Congress in order to make friends for the party in power; they have the Tammany Ring of New York, an association of municipal malefactors who have gorged themselves with several tens of millions of francs at the expense of the tax-payers. The Spaniards have at this moment the scandal of the municipality of Madrid, protecting frauds on the revenue which Signor Cánovas did not dare to repress. In Germany, there are legal proceedings against those who have cheated the State in constructing railways and furnishing guns for the army, and so on. In a word, the State is corruptible and the modern State as much so as any other.

CONCERNING THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.

M. DE MARCERE.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (9 pp.) in La Nouvelle Revue, Paris, December 15.

THE Parliamentary inquest voted by the Chamber of Depu

THE

ties, with the assent of the Government, is a lively example of the vices, not of the Parliamentary form of government, but of the fashion in which that form is administered in France.

Without wearying the reader with a repetition of the theory that a separation between the powers of a government is the essential condition of liberty, we may say that every political body which constitutes itself a judge in a political cause or in its own cause, condemns itself to condemn. Political parties are more or less mixed up in the case, and the party which accuses is ruined politically if the accused party triumphs; thus the triumph of the accused is impossible. This is still more true, if the question of the form of government is involved. The French Convention of 1792, except in the matter of the trial of the King, did not desire judicial powers. It instituted a revolutionary tribunal which, alas! made itself the executor of its abominable desires concentrated in the Committee of Public Safety, which performed its horrible task in the way with which every one is familiar.

It is no argument to object that a Committee of Inquiry, and after it a Chamber, taking hold of an affair in order to inquire as to the honor and baseness of some of its members, is not a tribunal, that it does not pass sentence, and cannot execute any sentence. Is a declaration of the dishonor, the unworthiness of a man clothed with the supreme dignity of a Deputy, no punishment? What, then, is a punishment, pray? Can there be a greater one than this? Assuredly, if a member of a Parliament has forfeited his honor, if he has sold his conscience and his vote, if he has made merchandise of his office, he deserves public reprobation and something more; and our penal laws have provided for extraordinary cases of this kind. In order, however, that such a chastisement be administered to a guilty man, he should have all the guarantees of exact justice, for there is at stake something more important than .his life.

Do I say that a Committee of Inquiry, composed of honest men, will knowingly and willingly practice double-dealing? Not at all; and the contrary is certain. It is none the less

certain, however, that the tribunals alone have, as a guarantee of a fair trial for persons accused, precise rules which only those tribunals know how to, and can, apply. It makes one tremble to think of the confusion, the doubt, which may trouble the mind and conscience of the members of the Committee and, later on, of the majority of a political assembly. after a jumbled-up inquest, in which the facts have been pitched in abundantly without complete verification, when opinions and impressions take the place of an inquiry made before magistrates, under rigorous conditions which in some sort extort or screw out the truth.

When to this is added the fact of the Committee being numerous, the outcome of stormy debates, important by reason both of its object and the public opinion environing it, the Commission, like the Chamber itself, soon becomes possessed of the idea that it is omnipotent. Appointed for a certain object, as in the present case, to search for facts of corruption, can it or will it want to keep within its limits?

All the responsibilities of an affair which includes innumerable interests will seem to rest on the shoulders of the Committee. Moreover, all the facts of a colossal enterprise are more or less connected; they have a relation with each other which affects all the persons who have taken part in the enterprise. It is almost impossible to isolate the one from the other, either in the search for facts or in the judgment passed on them. In this way the same cause is tried at the same time before the Parliamentary Committee and the tribunals. The confusion is inevitable. Do you think that persons who are not members of Parliament, but who may be involved in the proceedings before the judges, have not a right to complain?

There is no need of a Committee of Inquiry in order to bring to the light of day acts of Parliamentary corruption, if any such acts there be. The arguments in the courts will expose everything in an affair much better than an investigation made in the dark in some little Committee-room in the Chambers. Whether from a criminal point of view or from that of civil responsibility and restitution to be made, everything will be made known by a hearing at the High Court, where justice is truly rendered.

THE RECOVERY OF THE SOUDAN. Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (17 pp.) in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, December. FRESH INTEREST in the Soudan question has been excited by the remarkable book of Father Ohrwalder. The English political writers are quick to take advantage of the piteous facts recited in it. The necessity of doing something for the interest of civilization and humanity in the Soudan suggests to these writers an easy remedy, which at the same time will help solve the Egyptian problem in a way satisfactory to English conscience. The proposition is to authorize the Khedive to reclaim and annex the Soudan, and sustain him in the undertaking by British money and sympathy. The idea naturally involves certain considerations that will render impracticable the idea of an early evacuation of Egypt. The National Review (London), for December, contains an article on this subject by Right Hon. Sir W. T. Marriott, Q. C., M. P., in which conclusions are arrived at similar to those presented in the Blackwood's article.

TH

HE Egyptian Soudan is a region of unhappy memories.. The reputations of some British officers are buried there, while others met heroic deaths in hopeless battle. Gordon is. the most illustrious of the slain, and his death at Khartoum was chiefly an act of revenge for his skill and success when Governor-General of the Soudan in checkmating and punishing infamous slave-hunters. No other part of Africa is richer in natural products of high commercial value, and the fertility of many districts rivals that of the favored land of which Douglas Jerrold said, "Tickle it with a hoe, and it will laugh with harvest."

What the Midi is to France the Soudan is to Africa. Its condition now is as terrible and heartrending as that of the

Midi when hordes of savage revolutionists converted it into a pandemonium. Yet, though the first French Revolution was prolific in sanguinary monsters, the most detestable of them has been outdone by the hypocritical tyrant who desecrated the title of Mahdi, or Messiah, and by his congenial successor, the Khalifa Abdullah. "A hell upon earth" is not too strong a phrase with which to characterize what the Eastern Soudan has become under their barbarous rule. That vast region, covering an area of 1,600 miles in length by 1,300 in breadth, is now darkest Africa in the most ghastly meaning of the term. The surmises as to its present state fell far below, in their most pessimistic version, the awful reality as depicted by Father Ohrwalder in the narrative of his "Ten Years' Captivity in the Maldi's Camp." The volume cannot be perused without a shudder and without a feeling of intense pity for the wretched Soudanese. It is scarcely possible, we think, for the sympathetic reader to help longing for a consolatory reply to the appeal made by Father Ohrwalder at the end of his story: How long shall Europe-and, above all, that nation which has first part in Europe and the Soudan, which stands deservedly first in civilizing savage races,-how long shall Europe and Great Britain watch unmoved the outrages of the Khalifa and the destruction of the Soudan people?" This appeal should not be in vain. A fitting response may be returned with greater ease than appears at first sight.

All readers of Father Ohrwalder's narrative would regret if the authentic information which he furnishes should fail of its main purpose, which is to hasten the day when the Soudan shall again be thrown open to the blessed influences of Christianity and the benignant spirit of civilization. Regret quite as keen would prevail were this country to interfere directly in matters which are exclusively within the sphere of the Egyptian Government. No Minister of State who is responsible for our policy is likely to sanction an expedition from this country against the Mahdi, in which more British treasure might be squandered and more valuable lives lost in vain. The truth is, that the recovery of the Soudan is perfectly feasible without any risk being run by this country, or any loss occasioned to another.

Nothing is more desired by the Ministers of his Highness the Khedive than that Egypt should have what is called in the newspaper slang of the day a free hand." At present that Government is forbidden by the Government of Great Britain to take any step towards regaining authority over the Soudan. If the Egyptians undertook the recovery of their lost provinces in the Soudan, they would be hailed as deliverers by the majority of the inhabitants. How, then, should the flag be carried into the Soudan? This question can be briefly answered in this wise: Continue on a larger scale what has been done on a small one. The frontier which has been drawn arbitrarily is not that of a few years ago. Let what has been done on a small scale without difficulty or protest be continued, and the time is not far distant when the rule of his Highness the Khedive will extend, as that of the founder of his family did, to the equator, where Mehemet Ali fixed the boundary of his country to the south.

The invaders of the territory which now groans under the yoke of the Khalifa Abdullah would be welcomed as deliverers by the inhabitants, and the disciplined Soudanese and Egyptian soldiers, under the command of English officers in the Khedive's service, would be foes such as the wild savages of the Soudan have not encountered since the Mahdi's death. Those who have taken part in the process of crossing the North American continent by rail would consider the scheme as simple as learning the alphabet. The chances of failure are less than for any scheme which has been proposed. A considerable outlay must be incurred; but nearly two millions sterling are in the Treasury of the Public Debt, and a part of this sum might be devoted to the reconstitution of Egypt.

We should not be surprised, in the event of the course which

we have chalked out being resolved upon, if some of the French in Cairo and their sympathizers in Europe raised protests and advanced objections. They might dread the accomplishment of another triumph for Great Britain in Egypt. On the other hand, the Egyptian Government would have renewed occasion for feeling and manifesting gratitude to the Power which has afforded them substantial aid and magnanimous counsel. The faint trace of friction between the two would disappear, and the friendship between Egypt and Great Britain would have a further reason for existing. It is our policy, as it is our desire, to see the people of the Nile Valley prosperous and self-dependent. The justification of our remaining in Egypt for a time is the furtherance of their welfare.

SOCIOLOGICAL.

THE TENEMENT-HOUSE PROBLEM.

REFORMS WHICH ARE POSSIBLE.

THE question of "Homes for the Poor," is intelligently and

tauquan for January. With a full realization that "no external conditions so influence the lives of the poor in great cities as do the character and surroundings of their homes," Mr. White proceeds with an examination of the housing, past, present, and possible, of this class of people. As one of the chief compulsory causes for the huddling together in tenement houses, he cites the fact that the daily car-fares of ten cents for each person, amounting to $2.60 per month, are sufficient to make a suburban residence impossible for many families, especially where there are two or three breadwinners in the family. He says the building of tenement-houses must continue "till the tide from country to city is reversed."

The one

He finds that the statutes enacted by the State of New York "for the regulation of tenement and lodging-houses in the cities of New York and Brooklyn" have resulted in a considerable improvement in this class of buildings over those first erected fifty years ago. In 1864 there were 495,592 persons residing in 15,309 tenement houses in New York City, and of these probably 12,000 houses are still in use. In 1888 there. were 32,390 such houses, with a population in them of 1,093,701. Of the great East Side tenement district Mr. White says: "In each twenty-five feet of frontage on every floor there dwell usually four families, two in front and two in the rear. exterior room of each set serves as kitchen and living-room, and back of it the bedrooms get a pittance of light and of impure air from little windows looking out upon the halls, and through doors opening from room to room. In the recently constructed houses, the law has compelled the provision of air-shafts which materially improve ventilation of the apartments, but bring the eyes and ears of different families in close and unpleasant proximity. A common staircase is carried up through the centre of each house, often so dark,even in the newer houses,as to make it necessary to feel one's way even at midday. This stairway is the first part of the house to burn, and quickly carries the flames to every floor, effectually cuttingoff escape by the stairs. Such stairways also convey any disease germs that enter, no matter how."

Mr. White says it is possible to furnish in all our cities decent and healthy houses at rentals no greater than are now paid for these improper and unhealthy apartments, and at the same time give the owner a fair return for his investment. He finds his model in the houses erected by the Improved Dwellings Company in Brooklyn, and gives an interesting description of the 'Riverside Buildings" recently put up by this Company, which description is largely taken from that published by the Brooklyn Board of Health. An arrangement of slate stairways in solid brick towers makes the entrance to every floor clear and safe, and absolutely fire-proof. To quote his language:

"It is easily possible in all our cities to furnish two or more rooms, with a scullery containing separate sink, water-closet, etc., in a new, well-aired, well-lighted, healthy edifice-a small home, so far as any apartments may be styled a home-entirely in the