Chapter XX: Preface: To the Sixth Volume (19)

_Report of the Executive Committee of the
New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1897._

"Early [in 1898] after time had been allowed for the act to
prove its capabilities in practice, steps were taken toward
commencing a suit to test its constitutionality in the courts.
… Pending the bringing of a test suit, a bill was prepared for
the Association and introduced in the Legislature on March
16th, last, one of the features of which was the repeal of the
unsatisfactory law. … The bill … was passed by the Senate on
March 29th. On the 31st, the last day of the session, it was
passed by the Assembly. … On the same date it was signed by
the Governor and became a law. This act has the effect of
exempting the cities from the operation of the act of 1897,
restoring the former competitive system in each of them."

_Report of the Executive Committee of the
New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898._

"As a result of the confusing legislation of [1897 and 1898]
at least four systems of widely differing character had come
into existence by the first of [1899]. New York city had its
charter rules, … the state departments were conducted under
two adaptations of the Black law, and in the smaller cities
the plan of the original law of 1883 was followed. In his
first annual message, Governor Roosevelt directed the
attention of the Legislature to this anomalous condition and
strongly urged the passage of an act repealing the Black law
and establishing a uniform system, for the state and cities
alike, subject to state control. Such an act was prepared with
the co-operation of a special committee of the Association. …
After some discussion it was determined to recast the measure,
adopting a form amounting to a codification of all previously
existing statutes, and less strict in certain of its general
provisions. … The bill was … passed by the Senate by a
majority of two. … In the Assembly it was passed with slight
amendments. … On the … 19th of April the act was signed by the
Governor, and went into immediate effect. … The passage of
this law will necessitate the complete recasting of the civil
service system in New York, on radically different lines."

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1899.
Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.
Severe criticism of the order by the National Civil
Service Reform League.

On the 29th of May, 1899, President McKinley was persuaded to
issue an order greatly modifying the civil service rules,
releasing many offices from their operation and permitting
numerous transfers in the service on a non-competitive
examination. This presidential order was criticised with
severity in a statement promptly issued by the Executive
Committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, which
says: "The National Civil Service Reform League, after mature
consideration, regards the order of President McKinley, of May
29, changing the Civil Service rules, as a backward step of
the most pronounced character. The order follows a long
succession of violations, of both the spirit and the literal
terms of the law and rules, in various branches of the
service, and must be considered in its relations to these. Its
immediate effects, which have been understated, may be set
forth as follows:

(1) It withdraws from the classified service not merely 3,000
or 4,000 offices and positions, but, as nearly as can be now
estimated, 10,109. It removes 3,693 from the class of
positions filled hitherto either through competitive
examination or through an orderly practice of promotion, and
it transfers 6,416 other positions in the War Department,
filled hitherto through a competitive registration system,
under the control of the Civil Service Commission, to a system
to be devised and placed in effect by the present Secretary of
War.

(2) It declares regular at least one thousand additional
appointments made temporarily, without examination—in many
cases in direct disregard of the law—in branches that are not
affected by the exceptions, but that remain nominally
competitive.

(3) It permits the permanent appointment of persons employed
without examination, for emergency purposes during the course
of war with Spain, thus furnishing a standing list of many
thousands which positions in the War Department may be filled,
without tests of fitness, for a long time to come.

(4) It alters the rules to the effect that in future any
person appointed with or without competitive examination, or
without any examination, may be placed by transfer in any
classified position without regard to the character or
similarity of the employments interchanged, and after
non-competitive examination only.

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(5) It permits the reinstatement, within the discretion of the
respective department officers, of persons separated from the
service at any previous time for any stated reason.

The effect of these changes in the body of the rules will be
of a more serious nature than that of the absolute exceptions
made. It will be practicable to fill competitive positions of
every description either through arbitrary reinstatement—or
through original appointment to a lower grade, or to an
excepted position without tests of any sort, or even by
transfer from the great emergency force of the War Department,
to be followed in any such case by a mere 'pass' examination.
As general experience has proven, the 'pass' examinations, in
the course of time, degenerate almost invariably into farce.
It will be practicable also to restore to the service at the
incoming of each new administration those dismissed for any
cause during the period of any administration preceding. That
such a practice will lead to wholesale political reprisals,
and, coupled with the other provisions referred to, to the
re-establishment on a large scale of the spoils system of
rotation and favoritism, cannot be doubted."

In his next succeeding annual Message to Congress the
President used the following language on the subject: "The
Executive order [by President Cleveland] of May 6, 1896,
extending the limits of the classified service, brought within
the operation of the civil-service law and rules nearly all of
the executive civil service not previously classified. Some of
the inclusions were found wholly illogical and unsuited to the
work of the several Departments. The application of the rules to
many of the places so included was found to result in friction
and embarrassment. After long and very careful consideration
it became evident to the heads of the Departments, responsible
for their efficiency, that in order to remove these
difficulties and promote an efficient and harmonious
administration certain amendments were necessary. These
amendments were promulgated by me in Executive order dated May
29, 1899. All of the amendments had for their main object a
more efficient and satisfactory administration of the system
of appointments established by the civil-service law. The
results attained show that under their operation the public
service has improved and that the civil-service system is
relieved of many objectionable features which heretofore
subjected it to just criticism and the administrative officers
to the charge of unbusinesslike methods in the conduct of
public affairs. It is believed that the merit system has been
greatly strengthened and its permanence assured."

_United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment), 1890-1900, volume 1._

At its next annual meeting, December 14, 1900, in New York,
the National Civil Service Reform League reiterated its
condemnation of the order of President McKinley, declaring:
"The year has shown that the step remains as unjustified in
principle as ever and that it has produced, in practical
result, just the injuries to the service that were feared, as
the reports of our committee of various branches of the
service have proved. The league, therefore, asserts without
hesitancy that the restoration of very nearly all places in
every branch of the service exempted from classification by
this deplorable order is demanded by the public interest and
that the order itself should be substantially revoked."

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900.
Civil Service Rules in the Philippine Islands.

"An Act for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient
and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands" was
adopted, on the 19th of September, by the Commission which now
administers the civil government of those islands. The bill is
founded on the principles of the American civil service in
their stricter construction, and its provisions extend to all
the executive branches of the government. The framing of rules
and regulations for the service are left to the Civil Service
Board provided for in the act. A correspondent of the "New
York Tribune," writing from Manila on the day after the
enactment, states: "W. Leon Pepperman, who has long been
connected with the civil service in the United States, and who
has made a personal study of the systems maintained by Great
Britain, France, and Holland in their Eastern colonies, will
be on this board, as will be F. W. Kiggins of the Washington
Civil Service Commission. The third member probably will be a
Filipino. President Taft had selected for this post Dr.
Joaquin Gonzalez, an able man, but that gentleman's untimely
death on the eve of his appointment has forced President Taft
to find another native capable of meeting the necessary
requirements. Mr. Kiggins probably will act as Chief Examiner,
and Mr. Pepperman as Chairman of the board:" According to the
same correspondent: " Examinations for admittance to the
service will be held in Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu, in the
Philippines, and in the United States under the auspices and
control of the Federal Civil Service Commission." At the
annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League of
the United States held in New York, December 13, 1900, the
above measure was commended highly in the report of a special
committee appointed to consider the subject of the civil
service in our new dependencies, as being one by which, "if it
be persevered in, the merit system will be established in the
islands of that archipelago, at least as thoroughly and
consistently as in any department of government, Federal,
State or municipal, in the Union. This must be, in any case,
regarded as a gratifying recognition of sound principles of
administration on the part of the commission and justifies the
hope that, within the limits of their jurisdiction at least,
no repetition of the scandals of post-bellum days will be
tolerated. The ruling of the several departments that the
provisions of the Federal offices established in the
dependencies which would be classified if within the United
States is also a matter to be noted with satisfaction by the
friends of good government."

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CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.
The "spoils system" of service in the House of Representatives.

The "spoils system" maintained by Congressmen among their own
immediate employees, in the service of the House of
Representatives, was depicted in a report, submitted February
28, 1901, by a special committee which had been appointed to
investigate the pay of the House employees. The report,
presented by Mr. Moody, of Massachusetts, makes the following
general statements, with abundance of illustrative instances,
few of which can be given here: "The four officers elected by
the House, namely, the Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper,
and Postmaster, appoint the employees of the House, except the
clerks and assistant clerks of members and committees, four
elevator men, the stenographers, and those appointed by House
resolutions. The appointments, however, are made on the
recommendation of members of the House, and very largely,
though not entirely, of members of the dominant party in the
House. If a member upon whose recommendation an appointment is
made desires the removal of his appointee and the substitution
of another person, the removal and substitution are made without
regard to the capacity of either person. In case a member upon
whose recommendation an appointment has been made ceases to be
a member of the House, an employee recommended by him
ordinarily loses his place. Thus the officers of the House,
though responsible for the character of the service rendered
by the employees, have in reality little or no voice in their
selection, and, as might reasonably be expected, the results
obtained from the system which we have described are in some
cases extremely unsatisfactory. This method of appointing
House employees has existed for many years, during which the
House has been under the control of each party alternately. We
believe that candor compels us to state at the outset that
some of the faults in administration which we have observed
are attributable to the system and to the persistence of
members of the House in urging upon the officers the
appointment of their constituents and friends to subordinate
places, and that such faults are deeply rooted, of long
standing, and likely to continue under the administration of
any political party as long as such a system is maintained."

The committee found nothing to criticise in the
administration of the offices of the House Postmaster or
Sergeant-at-Arms. With reference to the offices of the Clerk
and the Doorkeeper they say: "We have found in both
departments certain abuses, which may be grouped under three
heads, namely: Transfers of employees from the duties of the
positions to which they were appointed to other duties,
unjustifiable payments of compensation to employees while
absent from their posts of duty, and divisions of salary.

"First. Transfers of employees from the duties to which they
were appointed to other duties.—Some part of this evil is
doubtless attributable to the fact that the annual
appropriation acts have not properly provided for the
necessities of the House service. An illustration of this is
furnished by the case of Guy Underwood, who is carried on the
rolls as a laborer at $720 per annum, while in point of fact
he performs the duty of assistant in the Hall Library of the
House and his compensation is usually increased to $1,800 per
annum by an appropriation of $1,080 in the general deficiency
act. Again, a sufficient number of messengers has not been
provided for the actual necessities of the service, while more
folders have been provided than are required. As a result of
this men have been transferred from the duties of a folder to
those of a messenger, and the compensation of some has been
increased by appropriation in deficiency acts. But evils of
another class result from transfers, some examples of which we
report. They result in part, at least, from an attempt to
adjust salaries so as to satisfy the members that their
appointees obtain a just share of the whole appropriation,
instead of attempting to apportion the compensation to the
merits of the respective employees and the character of the
services which they render. …

"Second. Payments of compensation to employees while
absent.—The duty of many of the employees of the House ceases
with the end of a session, or very soon thereafter. Such is
the case with the reading clerks, messengers, enrolling
clerks, and many others who might be named. Their absence from
Washington after a session of Congress closes and their duties
are finished is as legitimate as the absence of the members
themselves. But many employees who should be at their posts
have been from time to time absent without justification, both
during sessions and between sessions. In the absence of any
record it is impossible for the committee to ascertain with
anything like accuracy the amount of absenteeism, but in our
opinion it is very considerable.

"Some of those employed in the library service have been
absent for long periods between the sessions of Congress,
although the House library is in a condition which demands
constant attention for years to come in order to bring it up
to a proper condition of efficiency. The pay roll of the
librarian, his assistants, and those detailed to the library
service, including deficiency appropriations, amounts to
$9,200 per annum. No one of the employees of the library, with
the exception of a $600 deficiency employee and Guy Underwood,
who in his freshman year at college was librarian part of one
session at the Ohio State University, has ever had any library
experience, although they all appear to be capable,
intelligent men. The House library is said to consist of
300,000 volumes, many of which are duplicates, and is
scattered from the Dome to the basement of the Capitol, in
some instances, until recently, books being piled in unused
rooms, like so much wood or coal. The present librarian
testified as follows:

'Q. It would be difficult to describe a worse condition than
existed?'

'A. It would, for the condition of books. It would be all
right for a barnyard, but for books it was terrible.' It is
just to say that under the present administration of the
library some attempt has been made at improvement, but the
effect of fifty years' neglect can not be remedied in a day.
We can not think that any absenteeism, beyond a reasonable
vacation, on the part of those employed in the library is
justifiable in view of the foregoing facts.

"The folders, taking the orders of members rather than those
of the Doorkeeper, are absent a great deal during the
vacation, and in some cases persons are employed by resolution
to do their work. The Doorkeeper testified as follows:

'I think Mr. Lyon told me where members requested they had
three months at home during this last Congress.'
'Q. Drawing their pay in the meantime?'
'A. Yes, sir; they had three months'.'
'Q. That is not in the interest of your service, is it?'
'A. No, sir.'
'Q. Have you been able to prevent it?'
'A. No, sir.'
'Q. Why?'
'A. They would go to the superintendent of the folding room
and say to him, "My man has got to go home."'
'Q. You mean the members would go?'
'A. Yes, sir. I do not like to criticise members, but that is
the situation. They go and say, "I have got to have my man
home, and he must go home; it is absolutely necessary;" and he
has been permitted to go.'

{150}

"We have been unable to inquire as much into specific
instances of absenteeism as we desired, but it may be said
generally that absenteeism on the folders' force is very
general. …

"Third, division of salaries.—According to the testimony of
Thomas H. McKee, the Journal clerk, the custom of dividing
salaries is an old one and has existed for at least twenty
years. We are satisfied that we are unable to report all the
instances of divisions of salaries which have occurred: but we
submit the following facts, which were clearly proved before
us: On the organization of the House in the Fifty-fourth
Congress it appears that more places, or places with higher
salaries, were promised than the officers of the House were
able to discover under the law. It does not appear by whom
these promises were made. There began at once a system whereby
the employees agreed to contribute greater or less portions of
the salaries they received for the purpose either of paying
persons not on the roll or of increasing the compensation of
persons who were on the roll. Of the latter class, the
increases were not proportioned to the character of the
services rendered or the merit of the employees, but to the
supposed rights of the States or Congressional districts from
which the recipients came. Some of these contributions were
made voluntarily and cheerfully; others we believe to have
been made under a species of moral duress."

_Congressional Record,
February 28, 1901, page 3597._

CLERICAL PARTY: Austria.

See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897, and after.

CLERICAL PARTY: Belgium.

See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1899-1900.

CLEVELAND, Grover:
President of the United States.

See (in volume 5 and in this volume.)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1893, to 1897.

CLEVELAND, Grover:
Extensions of Civil Service Rules.

See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1893-1896.

CLEVELAND, Grover:
Message to Congress on the Boundary Dispute between
Great Britain and Venezuela.

See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).

CLEVELAND, Grover:
On Cuban affairs.

See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.

CLEVELAND, OHIO: A. D. 1896.

The centennial anniversary of the founding of the city was
celebrated with appropriate ceremonies on the 22d of July,
1896, and made memorable by a gift to the city, by Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, of 276 acres of land for a public park.

COAL MINERS, Strikes among.

See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.

COAMO, Engagement at.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

COLENSO, Battle of.

See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

COLLEGES.

See (in this volume)
EDUCATION.

COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.
Resumption of work on the Panama Canal.
Revolutionary movements.
Prolonged Civil War.
Boundary dispute with Costa Rica.
Panama Canal concession twice extended.

In 1893 the receiver or liquidator of the affairs of the
bankrupt Panama Canal Company of De Lesseps (see, in volume 4,
PANAMA CANAL) obtained from the government of Colombia an
extension of the terms of the concession under which that
company had worked, provided that work on the canal should be
resumed before November 1, 1894. He succeeded in forming in
France a new company which actually made a beginning of work
on the canal before the limit of time expired. But this
attempted revival of the undertaking was quickly harassed,
like everything else in Colombia, by an outbreak of revolt
against the clerical control of government under President
Caro. The revolutionary movement was begun late in 1894,
receiving aid from exiles and sympathizers in Venezuela,
Ecuador and Central America. It had no substantial success,
the revolutionists being generally defeated in the pitched
battles that were fought; but after a few months they were
broken into guerilla bands and continued warfare in that
method throughout most of the year 1895. They were still
threatening in 1896, but the activity and energy of President
Caro prevented any serious outbreak. A boundary dispute
between Colombia and Costa Rica, which became considerably
embittered in 1896, was finally referred to the President of
the French Republic, whose decision was announced in
September, 1900.

Colombia began a fresh experience of civil war in the autumn
of 1899, when an obstinate movement for the overthrow of
President Saclemente (elected in 1898) was begun. General
Herrera was said, at the outset, to be in the lead, but, as
the struggle proceeded, General Rafael Uribe-Uribe seems to
have become its real chief. It went on with fierce fighting,
especially in the isthmus, and with varying fortunes, until
near the close of 1900, when the insurgents met with a defeat
which drove General Uribe-Uribe to flight. He made his escape
to Venezuela, and thence to the United States, arriving at New
York early in February, 1901. In conversation with
representatives of the Press he insisted that there was no
thought in his party or in his own mind of abandoning the
revolutionary attempt. The cause of the revolution, he said,
was due to the oppression of the government, which was in the
hands of the Conservative party. "They have not governed
according to the constitution," he said, "and while taxing the
Liberals, will not allow them to be adequately represented in
the government. For fifteen years the Liberal party has been
deprived of all its rights. I have been the only
representative of the party in Congress. We tried every
peaceable method to obtain our rights before going to war, but
could not get anything from the government. The government did
not want to change anything, because it did not want to lose
any of its power. I, as the only representative of the Liberal
party, made up my mind to fight, and will fight to the end."

By what is said to have been a forced resignation, some time
in the later part of the year 1900, President Saclemente, a
very old man, retired from the active duties of the office,
which were taken in hand by the Vice-President, Dr. Manoquin.

During the year 1900, the government signed a further
extension of the concession to the Panama Canal Company,
prolonging the period within which the canal must be completed
six years from April, 1904.

{151}

COLORADO: A. D. 1897.
Abolition of the death penalty.

By an Act of the Legislature of Colorado which became law in
March, 1897, the death penalty was abolished in that state.

COLORADOS.

See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.

COLUMBUS, Christopher:
Removal of remains from Havana to Seville.

See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).

COMBINATIONS, Industrial.

See (in this volume)
TRUSTS.

COMMANDO.
Commandeering.

See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.

COMMERCIAL CONGRESS, International.

See (in this volume)
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.

COMMERCIAL MUSEUM, Philadelphia.

See (in this volume)
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1897.

COMPULSORY INSURANCE:
The State System in Germany.

See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.

COMPULSORY VOTING.

See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

CONCERT OF EUROPE.
Concert of the Powers.

"We have heard of late so much about 'the Concert' that the
man in the street talks of it as if it were a fact of nature
like the Bosphorus or the Nile; and he assumes that he and all
his neighbours understand exactly what it means. Yet it may be
doubted whether even persons so omniscient as the politician
and the journalist could describe it with any approach to
truth or even to common sense. An energetic newspaper lately
described the Concert as 'Three Despots, two Vassals, and a
Coward.' This doubtless was a libel. An Olympian
Under-Secretary called it 'the Cabinet of Europe.' Lord
Salisbury himself, impatient of facile caricatures, insisted
that it was a 'Federation.' It has also, to Sir William
Harcourt's wrath, been spoken of as an 'Areopagus' having
'legislative' powers. All these phrases are mere nonsense; and
yet they have profoundly influenced the action of this country
and the course of recent history. The patent fact of the hour
is that six powerful States are pleased to interest themselves
in the Eastern Question—which is the question of the dissolution
of Turkey.

See, in this volume,
TURKEY: A. D. 1895, and after.

They base their claim to take exceptional steps in the matter
on the plea that there is imminent risk of a general European
war if they do not act. … What is the Concert of Europe? It is
not a treaty, still less a federation. If it is anything, it
is a tacit understanding between the 'six Powers' that they
will take common action, or abstain from 'isolated action,' in
the Eastern question. Whether it is even that, in any rational
sense of the word 'understanding,' is more than doubtful. For
there has been much and very grave 'isolated action,' even in
pending troubles."

See, in this volume,
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH); and 1897-1899]

_The Concert of Europe
(Contemporary Review, May, 1897)._

The joint action of the leading European Powers in dealing
with Turkish affairs, between 1896 and 1899, which took the
name of "The Concert of Europe," was imitated in 1900, when
the more troublesome "Far Eastern Question" was suddenly
sprung upon the world by the "Boxer" rising in China. The
United States and Japan were then associated in action with
the European nations; and the "Concert of Europe" was
succeeded by a larger "Concert of the Powers."

See, in this volume,
CHINA: A. D. 1900, JANUARY-MARCH, and after.

CONCESSIONS, The battle of, in China.

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

CONDOMINIUM, Anglo-Egyptian, in the Sudan.

See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

CONFEDERATE DISABILITIES, Removal of.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).

CONGER, Edwin H.: United States Minister to China.

See (in this volume) CHINA.

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1897.
Mutiny of troops of Baron Dhanis's expedition.

See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (CONGO FREE STATE).

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.
Results of the King of Belgium's attempt to found
an African Empire.
Contradictory representations.

"The opening in the first few days of July [1898] of the
railway through the District of the Cataracts, from Matadi to
Stanley Pool, has turned public attention to Central Africa,
where the genius and courage of the King of the Belgians have
created a Black Empire within the short space of twelve years.
It is the special pride of its founder that the vast state of
the Congo has been formed without bloodshed, except at the
cost of the cruel Arab slave-hunters, and of the not less
cruel cannibals like Msiri or the Batetelas, that a thousand
treaties have been signed without a gunshot, and that from the
commencement the highest ideals of modern civilisation have
been aimed at, and, considering the stupendous difficulties of
the task, practically attained in the administration. The
standard of humanity and progress has been firmly planted in
the midst of a population of thirty millions, the decadence of
those millions has been arrested, peace exists where there was
only slaughter and savagery, and prosperity is coming in the
train of improved communications, and of the development of
the natural resources of a most promising region. In the
history of Empires that of the Congo State is unique. …

"The Berlin Conference did nothing for the Congo State beyond
giving it a being and a name.

See, in volume 1,
CONGO FREE STATE.

On the other hand it imposed upon it some onerous conditions.
There was to be freedom of trade—an excellent principle, but
not contributory to the State exchequer—it was to employ all
its strength in the suppression of the slave trade—'a
gigantic task, undertaken with the resources of pygmies,' as
some one has said—and the navigation of the Congo was to be
free to all the world without a single toll. The sufficiently
ample dimensions marked out for the State in the Conventional
limits attached to the Berlin General Act had to be defined
and regulated by subsequent negotiation with the neighbouring
Powers.
{152}
France attenuated the northern possessions of the State at
every possible opportunity, but at length, in February, 1895,
she was induced to waive in favour of Belgium the right of
pre-emption which the Congo Association had given her in
April, 1884, over its possessions, at the moment when the
Anglo-Portuguese Convention threatened that enterprise with
extinction. … Four years after the meeting at Berlin it was
found necessary to convene another conference of the Powers,
held on this occasion at Brussels, under the presidency of
Baron Lambermont, whose share in the success of the earlier
conference had been very marked and brilliant. The chief
object set before the new Conference was to devise means for
the abolition of the Slave Trade in Central Africa. … The
Conference lasted more than seven months, and it was not until
July, 1890, that the General Act bearing the signatures of the
Powers was agreed upon. It increased the obligations resting
on the State; its decisions, to which the Independent State
was itself a party, made the task more onerous, but at the
same time it sanctioned the necessary measures to give the
State the revenue needed for the execution of its new
programme. …

"Fresh from the Brussels Conference the Congo State threw
itself into the struggle with the Arabs. … Thanks to the skill
and energy with which the campaign was conducted the triumph
of the State was complete, and the downfall of the Arabs
sounded the knell of the slave trade, of which they were the
principal, and indeed the sole, promoters. The Arab campaign
did not conclude the military perils that beset the nascent
State. The Batetela contingent of the Public Force or native
army of the Congo mutinied in January, 1897, while on the
march to occupy the Lado district of the Upper Nile, and the
episode, ushered in in characters of blood by the
assassination of many Belgian officers, seemed to shake the
recently-constructed edifice to its base. But if the ordeal
was severe, the manner in which the authorities have triumphed
over their adversaries and surmounted their difficulties,
furnishes clear evidence of the stability of their power. The
Batetela mutineers have been overthrown in several signal
encounters, a mere handful of fugitives still survive, and
each mail brings news of their further dispersal. Even at the
moment of its occurrence the blow from the Batetela mutiny was
tempered by the success of the column under Commandant Chaltin in
overthrowing the Dervishes at Redjaf and in establishing the
State's authority on the part of the Nile assigned to it by
the Anglo-Congolese Convention of 1894. The triumphs of the
Congo State have, however, been those of peace and not of war.
With the exception of the operations named and the overthrow
of the despotism of the savage Msiri, the State's record is
one of unbroken tranquillity. These wars, little in magnitude
but great in their consequences, were necessary for the
suppression of the slave trade as well as for the legitimate
assertion of the authority of the Congo Government. But their
immediate consequence was the effective carrying out of the
clauses in the Penal Code making all participation in the
capture of slaves or in cannibalism a capital offence. That
was the primary task, the initial step, in the establishment
of civilisation in Central Africa, and of the credit for this
the Congo State cannot be deprived. When this was done there
remained the still more difficult task of saving the black
races from the evils which civilisation brings in its train
among an ignorant population incapable of self-control. The
import of firearms had to be checked in order to prevent an
untamed race indulging in internecine strife, or turning their
weapons upon the mere handful of Europeans engaged in the task
of regenerating the negroes. The necessary measures inspired
by the double motives of self-preservation and the welfare of
the blacks have been taken, and the State controls in the most
complete and effectual manner the importation of all weapons
and munitions of war. Nor has the success of the
administration been less clear or decisive in its control of
the liquor traffic."

_Demetrius C. Boulger,
Twelve Years' Work on the Congo
(Fortnightly Review, October, 1898)._

To a considerable extent this favorable view of the work of
the Belgians in the Congo State is sustained by the report
which a British Consul, Mr. Pickersgill, made to his
government in 1898. He wrote admiringly of the energy with
which the Belgians had overcome enormous difficulties in their
undertaking, and then asked: "Has this splendid invasion
justified itself by benefiting the aborigines? Equatorial
Africa is not a white man's country. He can never prove his
claim to sole possession of it by surviving as the fittest;
and without the black man's co-operation it can serve no
useful purpose to anybody. Has the welfare of the African,
then, whose prosperous existence is thus indispensable, been
duly cared for in the Congo State?" By way of answer to these
questions, his report sets forth, with apparently strict
fairness, the conditions produced in the country as he
carefully observed them. He found that much good had been done
to the natives by restrictions on the liquor trade, by an
extensive suppression of inter-tribal wars, and by a
diminution of cannibalism. Then comes a rehearsal of facts
which have a different look.

"The yoke of the notorious Arab slave-traders has been broken,
and traffic in human beings amongst the natives themselves has
been diminished to a considerable degree. Eulogy here begins
with a spurt and runs out thin at the end. But there is no
better way of recording the facts concisely. To hear, amidst
the story's wild surroundings, how Dhanis and Hinde, and their
intrepid comrades, threw themselves, time after time, upon the
strongholds of the banded men-stealers, until the Zone Arabe
was won in the name of freedom, is to thrill with admiration
of a gallant crusade. … But it is disappointing to see the
outcome of this lofty enterprise sink to a mere modification
of the evil that was so righteously attacked. Like the
Portuguese in Angola, the Belgians on the Congo have adopted
the system of requiring the slave to pay for his freedom by
serving a new master during a fixed term of years for wages
merely nominal. On this principle is based the 'serviçal'
system of the first-named possession, and the 'libéré' system
of the latter; the only difference between the two being that
the Portuguese Government permits limited re-enslavement for
the benefit of private individuals, but does not purchase on
its own account; while the Government of the Independent State
retains for itself an advantage which it taboos to everybody
else.

{153}

"The State supports this system because labour is more easily
obtainable thereby than by enforcing corvee amongst the free
people, and less expensively than by paying wages. The slave
so acquired, however, is supposed to have undergone a change
of status, and is baptized officially as a free man. After
seven years' service under the new name he is entitled to his
liberty complete. In Angola the limit is five years. The
natives are being drilled into the habit of regular work. …
The first Europeans who travelled inland of Matadi had to rely
entirely on porters from the coast, and it was not until the
missionaries had gained the confidence of the people, and
discovered individuals amongst them who could be trusted as
gangers, that the employment of local carriers became
feasible. The work was paid for, of course, and it is to the
credit of the State that the remuneration continued,
undiminished, after compulsion was applied. But how, it cannot
fail to be asked, did the necessity for compulsion arise? In
the same way that it has since arisen in connection with other
forms of labour: the State wished to get on faster than
circumstances would permit. Accordingly the Government
authorities prohibited the missionaries from recruiting where
porters were most easily obtained, and under the direction of
their military chief, the late Governor-General Wahis,
initiated a rigorous system of corvee. In spite of the
remuneration this was resisted, at first by the men liable to
serve absenting themselves from home, and afterwards, when the
State Officers began to seize their women and children as
hostages, by preparations for war. Deserting their villages,
the people of the caravan route took to the bush, and efforts
were made by the chiefs to bring about a general uprising of
the entire Cataract district. Things were in so critical a
condition that Colonel Wahis had to leave unpunished the
destruction of a Government station and the murder of the
officer in charge. Mainly through the influence of the
missionaries the general conflagration was prevented, but the
original outbreak continued to smoulder for months, and
transport work of all kinds had to be discontinued until means
were devised of equalising the burden of the corvee, and of
enlisting the co-operation of the chiefs in its management.
That was in 1894. Three years later the system appeared to be
working with remarkable smoothness. … Whatever views may be
held respecting the influence of the State at the present
stage of its schoolmaster task, there can be no doubt that the
condition, a year or two hence, of those sections of the
population about to be relieved from the transport service,
will afford conclusive evidence, one way or the other, of the
Government's civilising ability. … It needs no great knowledge
of coloured humanity to foresee that such pupils will quickly
relapse into good-for-nothingness more than aboriginal, unless
their education be continued. …

"One of the most obvious duties of an European Government
standing in 'loco parentis' to savage tribes, and exercising
'dominatio parentis' with an unspared rod, is to educate the
juvenile pagan. Since 1892 the Congo State has disbursed,
according to the published returns, taking one year with
another, about 6,000l. per annum, on this department of its
enterprise. It cannot be said, therefore, to have neglected
the duty entirely. A school for boys has been established at
Boma, and another at Nouvelle Anvers; while large numbers of
children of both sexes have been placed with the Roman
Catholic missionaries, in the same and other districts. Except
in one direction, however, the movement has not been very
successful. The young Africans thus blessed with a chance of
becoming loyal with intelligence are all waifs and strays, who
have been picked up by exploring parties and military
expeditions. Their homes are at the points of the compass, and
their speech is utter bewilderment. …

"A word must be said as to the employment of what are known as
'sentries.' A 'sentry' on the Congo is a dare-devil
aboriginal, chosen, from troops impressed outside the district
in which he serves, for his loyalty and force of character.
Armed with a rifle and a pouch of cartridges, he is located in
a native village to see that the labour for which its
inhabitants are responsible is duly attended to. If they are
India rubber collectors, his duty is to send the men into the
forest and take note of those who do not return with the
proper quantity. Where food is the tax demanded, his business
is to make sure that the women prepare and deliver it; and in
every other matter connected with the Government he is the
factotum, as far as that village is concerned, of the officer
of the district, his power being limited only by the amount of
zeal the latter may show in checking oppression. When
Governor-General Wahis returned from his tour of inspection he
seemed disposed to recommend the abolition of this system,
which is open to much abuse. But steps have not yet been taken
in that direction."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: No. 459,
Miscellaneous Series, 1898, pages 7-12)._

From this account of things it would seem that Mr. Boulger, in
the view quoted above from his article on the work of King
Leopold in the Congo country, had chosen to look only at what
is best in the results. On the other hand, the writer of the
following criticism in the "Spectator" of London may have
looked at nothing but the blacker side:

"King Leopold II., who, though he inherits some of the Coburg
kingcraft, is not a really able man, deceived by confidence in
his own great wealth and by the incurable Continental idea
that anybody can make money in the tropics if he is only hard
enough, undertook an enterprise wholly beyond his resources,
and by making revenue instead of good government his end,
spoiled the whole effect of his first successes. The Congo
Free State, covering a million square miles, that is, as large
as India, and containing a population supposed to exceed
forty-two millions, was committed by Europe to his charge in
absolute sovereignty, and at first there appeared to be no
resistance. Steamers and telegraphs and stations are trifles
to a millionaire, and there were any number of Belgian
engineers and young officers and clerks eager for employment.
The weak point of the undertaking, inadequate resources, soon,
however, became patent to the world. The King had the disposal
of a few white troops, but they were only Belgians, who suffer
greatly in tropical warfare, and his agents had to form an
acclimatised army 'on the cheap.' They engaged, therefore, the
fiercest blacks they could find, most of them cannibals, paid
them by tolerating license, and then endeavoured to maintain
their own authority by savage discipline.
{154}
The result was that the men, as events have proved, and as the
King seems in his apologia to admit, were always on the verge
of mutiny, and that the native tribes, with their advantages
of position, numbers, and knowledge of the forest and the
swamps, proved at least as good fighters as most of the forces
of the Congo State. So great, however, is the intellectual
superiority of white men, so immeasurable the advantage
involved in any tincture science, that the Belgians might
still have prevailed but for the absolute necessity of
obtaining money. They could not wait for the growth of
resources under scientific taxation such as will follow Mr.
Mitchell Innes's financial reforms in Siam, but attempted to
obtain them from direct taxation and monopolies, especially
that of rubber. Resistance was punished with a savage cruelty,
which we are quite ready to believe was not the original
intention of the Belgians, but which could not be avoided when
the only mode of punishing a village was to let loose black
cannibals on it to work their will, and which gradually
hardened even the Europeans, and the consequence was universal
disloyalty. The braver tribes fought with desperation, the
black troops were at once cowed and attracted by their
opponents, the black porters and agriculturists became secret
enemies, all were kept in order by terror alone, and we all
see the result. The Belgians are beaten; their chiefs, Baron
Dhanis and Major Lothaire, are believed to be prisoners; and
the vast territories of the far interior, whence alone rubber
can now be obtained, are already lost. … The administration on
the spot is tainted by the history of its cruelties and its
failures, and there are not the means in Brussels of replacing
it by competent officials, or of supplying them with the
considerable means required for what must now be a deliberate
reconquest."

_Spectator (London),
February 4, 1899._

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1900.
Expiration of the Belgian Convention of 1890.
King Leopold's will.

Three days after the close of the year 1900, the Convention of
1890, which regulated for a period of ten years the relations
between Belgium and the Congo State, expired by lapse of time,
but was likely to be renewed. The chief provisions of the
Convention were

(1) that Belgium should advance to the Congo State a loan of
25,000,000f. (£1,000,000), free of interest, of which
one-fifth was payable at sight and the balance in ten yearly
instalments of 2,000,000f. each;

(2) Belgium acquired within six months of the final payment
the option of annexing the Congo State with all the rights and
appurtenances of sovereignty attaching thereto; or

(3) if Belgium did not avail herself of this right the loan
was only redeemable after a further period of ten years, but
became subject to interest at the rate of 3, per cent. per
annum.

The will of King Leopold, executed in 1889, runs as follows:

"We bequeath and transmit to Belgium, after our death, all our
Sovereign rights to the Congo Free State, such as they have been
recognized by the declarations, conventions, and treaties,
drawn up since 1884, on the one hand between the International
Association of the Congo, and on the other hand the Free State,
as well as all the property, rights, and advantages, accruing
from such sovereignty. Until such time as the Legislature of
Belgium shall have stated its intentions as to the acceptation
of these dispositions, the sovereignty shall be exercised
collectively by the Council of three administrators of the
Free State and by the Governor-General."

----------CONGO FREE STATE: End--------

CONGRESS: Of the United States.
Reapportionment of Representatives.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1896.
Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the Ottoman Bank,
and subsequent Turkish massacre of Armenians.

See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).

----------CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.: Start--------

The following is the "Act to constitute the Commonwealth of
Australia," as passed by the Imperial Parliament, July 9, 1900
(63 & 64 Vict. ch. 12)—see (in this volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D.
1900. The text is from the official publication of the Act:

Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South
Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the
blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one
indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the
Constitution hereby established: And whereas it is expedient
to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other
Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by
and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia
Constitution Act.

2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall
extend to Her Majesty's heirs and successors in the
sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the
Privy Council, to declare by proclamation that, on and after a
day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the
passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have
agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a
Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of
Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after the
proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.

4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution
of the Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after the day so
appointed. But the Parliaments of the several colonies may at
any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to
come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might
have made if the Constitution had taken effect at the passing
of this Act.

{155}

5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the
courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of
the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any
State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on
all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose
first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in
the Commonwealth.

6. "The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia
as established under this Act. "The States" shall mean such of
the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland,
Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia,
including the northern territory of South Australia, as for
the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such
colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established
by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the
Commonwealth shall be called "a State." "Original States"
shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its
establishment.

7. The Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, is hereby
repealed, but so as not to affect any laws passed by the
Federal Council of Australasia and in force at the
establishment of the Commonwealth. Any such law may be
repealed as to any State by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State by the
Parliament thereof.

8. After the passing of this Act the Colonial Boundaries Act,
1895, shall not apply to any colony which becomes a State of
the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be taken to be a
self-governing colony for the purposes of that Act.

9. The Constitution of the Commonwealth shall be as follows:

THE CONSTITUTION.
This Constitution is divided as follows:-

Chapter I.—The Parliament:
Part I.—General:
Part II.—The Senate:
Part III.—The House of Representatives:
Part IV.—Both Houses of the Parliament:
Part V.—Powers of the Parliament:

Chapter II.—The Executive Government:
Chapter III.—The Judicature:
Chapter IV.—Finance and Trade:
Chapter V.—The States:
Chapter VI.—New States:
Chapter VII.—Miscellaneous:
Chapter VIII.—Alteration of the Constitution.

The Schedule.

CHAPTER I. THE PARLIAMENT: