by Chancellor von Buelow, with reference to the recent court scandal. Prince Eulenburg requested the state's attorney to bring action for slander against Maximilian Harden. The attor ney decided to do so. Austria-Hungary Amnesty.- November 25.- In recognition of the commencement of the sixtieth year of his reign, Emperor Francis Joseph issued a decree of military amnesty, granting free pardon and the resumption of civil rights to all deserters, fugitives and evaders of military service at home and abroad. Religious Conflict.- December 4.- Forty persons killed and 100 wounded in a conflict between Catholics and Mohammedans at Djakovo, Croatia. Sweden Cabinet.- December 4.- Dissensions resulted in three ministers resigning their portfolios: Tingsten, of war; Juhlin, of the interior, and Dyrssen, of marine. Count Hugo Hamilton sworn in as minister of the interior, and Count Ehrensvaerd as minister of marine. Premier Lindman took temporary charge of the war office. King's Death.- December 8.- Oscar II., aged seventy-eight. The Crown Prince Oscar Gustav Adolphe succeeded to the throne under title of Gustav V. Nobel Prizes.- December 10.- The prize for chemistry awarded to Sir William Crookes, of London, discoverer of thallium and inventor of the radiometer. The literary award goes to Rudyard Kipling. Professor Albert A. Michelson, head of the department of physics in the University of Chicago, awarded the prize for physics, on account of his work in measuring the velocity of light. The medical award went to Dr. Charles L. A. Laveran, of Paris, and the chemistry prize to Professor Edouard Büchner, of the University of Berlin. The peace prize is equally divided between Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, of Italy, and Louis Renault, of France. November 26.- Five tribes joined the Benis Nassen tribesmen in fighting the French troops. November 28.- Part of the Moroccan army invaded Algeria and fierce fighting with the garrison at Bab-el-Rassa resulted. The French force was inadequate to cope with the enemy until aided by reserves from Oudja and Nemours. The French lost eleven killed and fifteen wounded. The Moors left eighty dead on the field. - November 29.- Benis Nassen tribesmen numbering 2,500 attacked the French outposts at Adjerondkiss, but eventually retreated before heavy artillery fire. December 6.- General Liautey, commanding the French flying column in Algeria, reported he had destroyed the camp of Marabout Bouthick, one of the leaders of the Benis Nassen revolt, who proclaimed a holy war on the frontier. Mulai Hafid, the "southern sultan," has taken Mazagan and is moving on Casablanca. December 10.- The French and Spanish missions to the Moroccan Government concluded negotiations. [See Events.] The World Go-Day VOLUME XIV FEBRUARY, 1908 In Days of Hesitation NUMBER 2 I T is now several months since Wall Street undertook to cure a case of financial Grip with remedies that all but produced heart-failure. Since then the country has been promising itself a speedy recovery of normal conditions. Convalescence has indeed begun, but it is not as rapid as some of the optimists expected. Banks have been retiring their clearing-house certificates, mills and factories have reopened, country banks have begun to release the cash they drew from city banks; but the great currents of trade have not yet acquired the momentum of the past. In so far as this relates merely to the transactions of the Stock Exchange, there is little complaint to be heard. But we may as well face the fact that our troubles are not merely those of currency, and, however much they may be alleviated, are not to be cured by increasing the volume of currency. Financial difficulties were the acute symptom of a worldwide economic reorganization. Prosperity always begets a new debtor class, just as it makes new recruits for the lending class. A few years ago, for instance, there was small opportunity for placing farm loans. Now many farmers have sold their farms and have gone to live in the small towns, while the new owners are borrowing both to pay for the farms and to purchase machinery (Copyright, 1908, by THE WORLD TO-DAY COMPANY.) 118 We can hardly expect that the business world will return to normal conditions until there is a readjustment throughout its entire extent. For the man who was forced to expand against his will, this period of readjustment is not likely to bring serious results. His very objection to exploiting prosperity will have proved a blessing. But it will take time for the reckless expansionists to readjust themThere will be more or less distress on the part of those who have been as if the feverish prosperity of the last few years was excessive The penalties of extravagance must be met by the world at large, whether that extravagance took the form of rebuilding factories that did not need rebuilding, mortgaging one's house to buy an autoor buying unneeded furniture on installments. selves. living health. mobile, facts there remains another duty-confident hope. In those sections of But after a man has thus adjusted himself to these unattractive the country where the raw material of wealth is produced, there is, and I will be no serious distress. We can see to-day as never before true have been those prophets who have declared that to the farmers there how the country is to look for financial stability. Fifteen years ago a situation such as we see to-day would have given rise to a new populist movement. dence of radicalism. before us Roosevelt So far as can be seen there is no eviWe face a presidential year with no great issue except that of whether we shall maintain the policy of President a policy that meets with the approval of practically every man in the country except those who have overexploited their borrowing power. It is a moment of hesitation, but not a moment of despondency. It is a moment that suggests reaction, but only to those who are the manipulators rather than the actual purchasers of wealth, whether they be farmers or manufacturers. Reasonable consideration, caution that does not border on timidity, sensible rather than extravagant expenditures, a decrease in our financial self-consciousness, will inevitably bring about the reëstablishment of normal conditions. In a word, "Sit tight and trust the horse!" |