Items of Interest September 21, 1899 Issue

Items of Interest

Representative men from all parts of the country met in Central Music Hall, Chicago, September 13, to discuss the question of the great industrial combinations which have arisen in this country within the last fifteen years, and have increased so rapidly the past year. It was generally admitted by the speakers that under certain conditions the effect of the trusts was a great evil; but some of the speakers maintained that the trusts were essential to best business interests. One speaker said he believed that the magnitude of commercial operations at the present time demands the institution known as the trust. When he was a boy, he said, there was as big a hue and cry against the corporations as there is now against the trusts.

President McKinley has instructed the Philippine Commission to return as soon as possible. The commission will re-assemble in this country and formulate its report, which will reach the President in time for use in the preparation of his message to Congress. President Schurman says the Philippines should have some form of home rule. He says there is no Philippine nation. There are more than sixty languages spoken in the archipelago. These languages are so distinct from each other that the speech of any one tribe is unintelligible to its neighbor. Most of the tribes are small, but there are at least six having two hundred and fifty thousand members.

President McKinley has received many suggestions that he proffer mediation in the South African trouble, but it is reported at Washington that he has no intention of offering to do so. Unless the Boer republic and Great Britain should request the United States to mediate, nothing will be done beyond the instructions already given to the American consul at Pretoria to give all necessary protection to Americans and their interests.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The Unchurched Classes