AUSTRIA-Count Welsenheim. ITALY-Count Nigra. SWITZERLAND-M. S. Roth. NETHERLANDS-M. Van Karnebeek. SPAIN Duke De Tetuan. CHIEF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE POWERS ATTENDING THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE. embodying the opinions of the Chambers was duly presented to the Queen Regent. Although it has as yet not led to any practical result, the fact that the Assembly has been held at all is a proof of the general anxiety among a large and influential portion of the nation to take immediate steps for the improvement of trade. Increased interest is now being taken in all mining questions in Spain, as it is being recognized at last that if properly developed, the mineral wealth of the country can be turned to enormous advantage. Although retarded at present by the want of railways and the great distances of some of the important mining provinces from the coast and the consequent cost of carriage, a great development has taken place in the last two years in the mining industry, and the amount of minerals exported has greatly increased. The number of soldiers who have returned from foreign service and the reduced number of men now required for the army will insure an increased number of laborers. The anxiety to open up new enterprises for the improvement of the country will, it is hoped, cause the Spanish Government to encourage in every way the investment of foreign capital in Spain. Under these circumstances the great natural mineral wealth of Spain should be taken into serious consideration by those mining companies that have not at present interests in this country. The sole right of sale and manufacture of tobacco in Spain is held by the Bank of Spain in the form of a monopoly granted under Royal Decree of June 10, 1887, and extended for a further 25 years under law of August 30, 1896. The cultivation of tobacco in Spain is forbidden by law, although judging from the small quantities grown in many gardens it appears that it might be made an important industry. According to the regulations the cultivation of tobacce is prohibited both in Spain and the Balearic Islands. The tobacco monopoly is required to make experiments in the cultivation during three years in different parts of Spain. These experiments are being carried out, but it appears that whatever the result it is most improbable that the cultivation of tobacco will be allowed during the lease of the present monopoly. According to the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department, certain features of the home industries, however, suffered, esdecially those having close relations with the Colonial trade. The imports of raw cotton fell from 85,705,052 pesetas* in 1897 to 73,807,998 in 1898, the decrease being due to a crisis in the Spanish cotton factories which had supplied so large a share of their production to the colonies. The export of cotton goods from Spain fell more than 23,000,000 pesetas. The loss in this market for raw cotton of course fell upon the United States which supplies practically all of the cotton used by Spain. That other features of the import trade were, however, affected, is shown by the fact that the imports of iron and steel fell from 24,651,656 pesetas in 1897 to 16,850,248 in 1898; drugs and chemicals, from 60,183,616 pesetas in 1897 to 53,239,520 in 1898; silks, from 19,055,231 pesetas to to 14,469,342 in the same period; wool and woolens, from 21,142,415 pesetas to 15,124,126; lumber, from 45,342,129 pesetas to 34,045,202; books, maps, etc., from 9,080,978 to A Peseta is equal in value to 19 cents U. S. money. 7,082,525 pesetas; animals and animal products from 67,603,885 pesetas to 56,126,566; carriages, vessels, and machinery, from 49,911,624 pesetas to 39,551,263; "elementary substances," including meats, provisions, sugar, coffee, tea, wines, etc., from 148,235,985 pesetas to 98,798,401, and wheat alone from 34,015,020 pesetas to 13,926,563. The importation of sugar from Cuba was, in 1896,6,589,282 pesetas, in 1897, 2,232,742, and in 1898, 831,258; from Porto Rico, the total was 8,346,838 pesetas in 1898, 9,285,242 in 1897, and 2,322, 902 in 1898; from the Philippines, 1,628,160 pesetas in 1896, 1,293,314 in 1897 and 135,766 in 1898. The report from which the above figures were taken adds: "There has been a rapid increase in the number and capacity of sugar factories in Spain, and it is probable that the home industries will soon be able to meet the demand in the Spanish market and replace the Colonial sugar. ✶✶ Imports of coffee also show a rapid decline." Politics and Labor. The convention of representatives of labor organizations in the State of Ohio, which was held at Columbus on June 1st and 2d, resulted in the adoption of the following demands: 1. Compulsory education. The chairman of the convention was Mr. John F. McNamee, a member of the Executive Board of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. The Conductors and Trainmen and many other trades unions were represented. The purpose of the convention was to adopt a program and insist upon political parties ratifying the same in their respective platforms. An effort was made to organize a distinct party movement by a small minority, but failed. At a mass meeting, Mayor Jones, of Toledo, delivered an address which met with an ovation. He selected for his subject, Politics and Labor," the following being excerpts from same: 66 "We are approaching another period in the history of the State of Ohio, when the question of the attitude of workingmen towards the politics of the day is one of great moment. In view of the keen inter est that is always displayed by the leaders of all political parties to ascertain just what side of a political question labor is going to take, and to trim their sails accordingly, it is passing strange that the producers, the working people, have failed to see that their interests are necessarily antagonistic to the interests of those who live in idleness, and that notwithstanding the repeated object lessons that have come with each succeeding election they have pretty generally lined up 2. A legal workday of not more than eight according to the dictation of party prejudices hours. rather than according to the direction of an 3. A more rigid inspection of workshop, intelligent self-interest. mine and home. "Here is the root of all our political dis 4. Liability of employers for injury to tress, the cause of all the failure of what is health, body or life. called free government to bring relief to the 5. Equal pay for equal work for male and toiling masses. The distress and suffering female. 6. The abolition of the sweating shops. 7. The municipal ownership of all public utilities. 8. The nationalization of telegraphs, telephones, railroads and all public highways. of the workers, or what is known as the masses of people, is not necessarily due to the venality of the classes; it is not because of aristocrats or plutocrats or bosses that we are in social and industrial misery; it is because of our own ignorance. "I believe in the Brotherhood of menall men. The correct family relation is the social ideal through which we can obtain peace. 'The poor ye have always with you' is and will always remain a safe proposition as long as is kept in motion our social machinery that denies equality of opportunity and annually makes thousands of worthy and willing workers unwilling poor or paupers. I want to be careful not make a statement that is not entirely borne out and supported by facts, and with this preface I deliberately charge failure against the present social order known as competition. Until we speak of competition by its shorter name of war, we shall not be properly able to appreciate this statement. Competition has so thoroughly and fully failed as a business system today that it is not practiced to any extent except by small traders and the great army of producers known as the working people; and to this one fact that while the classes have abandoned the competitive war as a mode of gain and livelihood, the masses of workers still adhering to this antiquated system of slowly destroying each other, are made the tools of the cunning, the unscrupulous and the strong in the political world in order that they may be used to perpetuate a system that for centuries has bound them in chains. "Let me repeat; our distress all of the distress, wretchedness and poverty of the toiling masses-is due to the one great crime of ignorance; and as there is one great cause, so there is one great remedy; the never-failing antidote for ignorance is education. "I have said that our social and industrial distress could not be charged to the classes, but much can be charged to the political parties. The party machines are essentially capitalistic in their purposes and anything that is in the interest of the machines, or that is calculated to perpetuate a party machine, is of necessity against the interest of the people. Party machines are only kept alive by party privilege, and party machinery has grown and thrived under a system wherein government has been bought and sold and run for revenue. Only recently has the rule of money been complete in this country, and I am happy to say that there are indications that the climax is passed, and that we are quickly coming to a time when we shall have the golden rule of all the people instead of the rule of gold by a few of the people. "That a great convention of workingmen should have been called in the capital of a great state to formulate and give expression to the demands of labor without reference to any party or to creed indicates that this great movement towards equality is taking hold upon the hearts of the people. "One important essential to the establishment of free government under our system is the absolute destruction of party machines, and there is one way to accomplish this that is easily within the reach of workingmen of this country, and that is through entire independent political action. Principle before party' was the slogan to which the people rallied in the election at Toledo on the 3d of April last. The moral question was definitely stated and fairly put before them. Our demands there and here are equal opportunities for all and special privileges for none, public ownership of all public utilities; no grant of new or extension of old franchises, the abolition of the contract system of public work, and the substitution of the day labor plan with the eight-hour day, and the minimum rate of $1.50 per day for common labor, and organized labor to be employed on all skilled has work. These were the demands of the Toledo platform, and even these are only claimed to be steps leading toward industrial freedom. The shorter work-day is not a solution of the labor problem, but it is a step towards a recognition of social obligation between man and man. In the successive steps of civilization man passed from savagery to the present system of modified warfare known as competition, and the times are pregnant with signs of rapid transition from the present order to a still better one known as co-operation. I hail with delight these signs of promise, my fellow countrymen, and I bid you good cheer as I look into the future and behold the breaking day of promise, the glad day of equality, the happy day when we shall be a truly great people. We are not a very great people today in much of anything besides mere bigness. We may be the greatest nation on the face of the earth and we may have the best government on the face of the earth; I do not deny these propositions, but I can clearly see if that is true, that there is room for improvement. A political machine is a joint stock cor- comparisons, but every thoughtful man poration run for the benefit of the directors knows that it is no great stretch of imagior managers. Where is the business man nation to say that Nansen's policy with who would take stock and pay good money his dogs is being carried out in modern for it and have any faith in a business cor- industry today. Men and women and poration operated on such a basis? And even little children are being ground up yet all know that this is the truth. The into increased gain for the profit gathers dividends are the spoils; no spoils and no in a hundred ways by legalized and respectparty. And this is the goal that is to be ablized means. But the American people realized yet in American political history are not going to stand and wait to be killed -a self-governing people, that is a people and eaten one by one like Nansen's dogs. not governed by party bosses. There is no As George D. Herron, the prophet of a betdifference between Hannaism and Croker- ter day, has well said: The sin that is ism and Plattism-they all mean bossism. destroying American souls is that of igno 44 'When Nansen, the explorer, found himself running short of food for his dogs in the arctic regions, he killed the weakest dog and fed his flesh to the others. At first they refused to eat their fellow comrade, but starvation soon brought them to it, and once they had tasted the meat they seemed to enjoy it better than other food; with the strength they gained by feeding in this way, they pulled their sledges until the supply was exhausted, and the knife was applied to another dog. I do not want to startle you with horrible sensations and rance, apathy and indifference concerning the political and economic evils that are eating out the heart of the nation and making every man guilty of his brother's blood.' "Neither political parties nor governments have ever reformed themselves, and it is for that reason I say that the workingmen of Ohio have nothing to expect from partisan politics. The independent vote is the factor that is always feared by the selfish business man and the politician; it is through independent action in our politics that we are able to make progress. We are yet to |