The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-01

is the one man of position in France
| ready to enter the lists against the
| army, the aristocracy and the rabble
of France in behalf of a Jew unjusty
| degraded and eXiled.
| The United States has produced dur
| ing the year no figure of such impress
| siNe moral grandeur as Zola. the de-
fender of Dreyfus. Perhaps there may
| be sign of that spirit of commercial
ism with which foreigners taunt us. in
that the man in civil life most talked
| of in the last twelvenlonth has been
Joseph Letter, the "cornerer' of wheat.
! Mr.. Letter, by the practice of methods
| which he som etimes described as 'mer-
chandising" and sometimes as taking
| advantage of natural conditions, ac-
| quired some millions of bushels of
wheat and undertook to fix the price
| for all the remainder by standing ready
! to buy it,, 1t was not a novel project,
! this, that made Mr.. Letter famous, for
it had been tried before by the whole
| sale gamblers of the Chicago wheat pit,
| and had usually ended in failure. Some
extraordinary features of Mr.. Letters
| merchandising however, gave his
corner special interest. His enemy,
| "Phil'' Armour, was a more famous
| man than himself al older soldier, and,
| as the event showed. a better, and the
| struggle between the two soon took
| on the proportions of battle of giants.
| Millions We're poured out like water.
| The biggest games of Monte Carlo were
| eclipsed. Commercial Chicago, for that
matter the commercial circles of the
world, stopped to see the combat. An
added element of the picturesque was
found in the fact that while Letter was
forcing up the price of bread the world
over. Italy and Spain We're racked with
bread riots. But if the contest was I'M
usual the outcome was strictly in &C
| cord with precedent. The corner col
lapsed. Mr.. Letter lost some millions
| of dollars. but retired with fame such
as few young men of 80 years enjoy-or
suffer. Mr. Letter and Lieutenant
| Richmond Pearson Hobson are, it ap-
pears, about of an age. How different
the uses men make of their lives.
While democracy was showing so abb
normal a product as Letter. despotic
Russia put forward the grandest pro-
ject for the advancement of the moral
and industrial interests of Europe that
| the last decade has seen. The c2ar,
| by his appeal to the powers for a re-
duction of armed force and ultimate
disarmament, has fairly won a place
among the four most notable men Of
the year. 1t was not from Russia, with
| her enormous armament, that we had
| looked for such a proposition to come.
Nor did the civilized world foresee that
when the first proposition for disarma-
ment should be offered England would
offer the loudest protest. Yet so it has
been. In the meantime, however the
conference on disarmament to which
| Russia invited the nations of Europe
is to be held, for the Russian foreign
office notified the world last month that
all the European governments had ac-
cepted the invitation. The project
whatever it's or however disappointing
the outcome, makes the czar distinctly
| one of the men of the year.
If Lord Kitchener's achievement in
the Soudan had not already engaged
our attention. he might properly be
given the fourth place among the men
most talked of in 1898. In his place
England furnishes a less admirable
character in the person of Ernest Terah
! Hooley. the eminent millionaire and
bankrupt. Mr. Hooley, after coaxins
|
cts of British gudgeons, finally reached
| the bankruptcy court. His operations
We're colossal, but useless, except to
| himself or to some of the shrewder
gamblers who played the game with
him. He never built a factory, gave
employment to new labor or set wheels
in motion. His art was in converting
enterprises which We're already profit
| oh int nj
zing them and unloading the stock at
an enormous profit on the public. His
temporary success was equally a criti-
cism upon the intelligence of the in
vesting public and upon that system
which we speak of with awe as business
methods. Though bribing peers week
ly to become directors Of his specula-
| tive companies this shrewd gambler
still had 50 great a reverence for the
titled classes that he bankrupted him.
! seelf in a vain endeavor to climb to
their level. In his bankruptcy proceed
| ings he has shocked British society by
revealing the price charged by noble
earl or lord for acting as a decoy for
| humble Airy, who has a few pounds
| to invest and thinks that Lord D!ddle-
| sexs name on a prospectus shows it to
be all right. Mr.. Hooley has dealt the
aristocracy a far more fatal blow than
lola has delivered upon mtlitarism in
France. He is an unwilling serYitor of
the cause of democracy.
Science, Art and Literature.
Doubtless the mind of man has been
as active in the year 1898 as during
earlier eras, but the story of intellect
| ual achievement the year has to tell
to the future is not impressive. Science
has made no startling advance Geo
graphical discovery has Jagged. Liter
AZURE has given us nothing which