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

quelling their discomfort. AS the close
of the 18th century Witnessed the strug-
gle of many European peoples for po-
| litical liberty, it may be that the end
of this century will mark the endeavor
of the overtaxed and underfed peoples
of Europe to secure a radical change
| Of the economic conditions which are
crushing them.
The French people have disappointed
their sincerest friends by the wolfish
ferocity with which they have pursued
| the little group of "Intellectuals' led
| by lola. who, becoming convinced Of
| the innocence of Captain Dreyfus, have
persistently urged a reopening Of his
| case. The confession and suicide of
| Henry, and the exposure and fight of
| that particularly contemplate charac-
ter, Esterhazy, have convinced every
| reasonable man of the utter worthless
ness of the evidence on which Dreyfus
was convicted. The unwillingness of
| the army authorities to admit the ex-
tent to which they have been deluded
| coupled with the fanatical belief of the
populace that the whole movement in
favor of Dreyfus was a Semitic con-
spiracy, long threatened to defeat the
ends of obvious Justice. For a time it
seemed as if another military coup
d'etat might overthrow the present re-
| public, but the explosion that all Eu-
| rope looked for was averted. Dreyfus
! has now been asked to prepare de-
Tense to be used in new trial, and as
these words are written it is reported
he will be brought home to plead in
person. Even now, however the grav-
est apprehension is felt lest a trial re-
sulting in an acquittal may lead to re-
volts and perhaps revolution.
The Dead of the Year.
The swift revolving wheel of fate has
carried to the heights of worldly fame
| earnest workers who have given the
best in them to the work that came to
! their hands, and has thrust remorse-
lessly into the undiscovered country a
few whose deaths will leave a void in
the world that not one year nor 20 will
wholly fill. The year that saw the
death of Gladstone and of Bismarck
will not be overlooked by the historian
| of a century hence. Gladstone the
prophet of the coming democracy, and
Bismarck, the militant defender of
| doomed absolutism, stand as the anti
thetic types of 18th century statecraft
Bismarck has served his king. Glad
stone has we'll served humanity. Ger
|
the day for Bismarcks has passed. His
| tory may be challenged to show aught
for the cause of social or Industrial
progress accomplished by the man of
blood and iron. He builded a nation
| and riveted upon it a burdensome mill
tarism. He created an emperor but
strove to destroy that greater empire
which is in the free thought and the
free action of the people.
Three women of the year will be long
remembered, two because the accidents
of birth put them on thrones. Queen
Louise of Denmark and the Empress
| Elizabeth of Austria Hungary, and
one, Frances E. Willard because long
life spent in earnest and intellirent eff
fort for the good of humanity won for
her the respect of everybody and the
| passionate devotion of her. associates
in her work. There is place here, too,
for the name of Edward Bellamy, the
author of Looking Backward" AL
most here we may stop. In the year
have vanished from amongst US others
who had bravely and we'll played their
| W. ;,,
best use of the talents Entrusted to
them. In varying degrees they will be
remembered by posterity.
Four Notable Figures.
| If the year has taken from the world
many men whom it had long loved to
honor. it has brought new figures upon
the public stage, or shown us heroic
| proportions in men in whom we had
not looked for great things. Our own
war has borne its full crop of men who
| put duty and country above home and
fortune and life itself Dewey, Samp-
| son, Schiey, Hobson, and a host of other
sailors and soldiers showed the heroic
strain still strong in the American
| blood. But for that lerosm which is
greater than any physical daring, for
the moral greatness which enables a
man to face contumely, shame, ruin,
hatred in defense OF a cause which is
widely unpopular, Emile lola has won
the laurels of the year. We Americans
have thought of lola only as writer
of novels which might be realistic, bur
were surely vile, an exponent of the
unspeakable in literature, an anatomfst
of nastiness. Suddenly comes the mo-
ment foreordained by fate. and 10! zola