The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-26
A Lesson In Expansion.

dicating the advancement of inferior
races under the tutelage of the SUI
perior. These reports have told one
story for years--a story of hscal bet.
terment and social improvement; of in
creased revenues under less burden
some taxation; of industrial prosperity
and individual happiness and safety.
They are of special interest to Ameri-
cans on account of the light cast upon
questions growing out Of the policy Of
expansion that has been forced upon
our nation.
India is the largest example Of Brit
ish imperial administration but
India, as the New York Com
mercial Advertiser notes, is an
awful bulk, i'm which improve
ment is slow, and it is remote from all
vision but that of science and romance.
Egypt lies at the threshold of Europe,
is not too large to be graspcd with
firm administrative hand, and is more
plastic to industrial manipulation than
the immovabe east. The aifa Is OF
Egypt are as free from party politics as
those of a great corporation, and Lord
Cromcr formerly Sir Evelyn Barring,
has had more or less control of it's
fiscal affairs since he went there as
| commissioner of the English debt in
1877. He took his part in the ridiculous
| dual control, returned as consul gem
eral when it broke down, warned
| against but could not avert the shame
full tragedy of Gordon, safe guarded
| British interests in the financial crisis,
engineered the revolution and the sup.
| preston of the counter-revolution, and
| financed the Khartoum expedition. No
man could we'll have had such a long
and continuous career of service or SC
| free hand in a British colony.
We are learning already that It is
easier to administer Cuba, where we
| have no political responsibility, than
Porto Rico and the Philippines, which
are American territory.
| The salient feature of this years re-
| port is a revenue of over eli 900, 600
| and a surplus of over G40O,0O0. This is
In country which was bankrupt less
| than a quarter century ago, and IN
| sion and reduction of taxation through
| all that period. This does not seem the
| marvel it would have seemed a few
years ago to Americans, who see what
works of sanitary reform and public
| Improvement Wood and Davis are car
| rying on in Cuba and Porto Rico with
| half the burden of taxation Spain lev
led to support a decaying church and
| useless army. The surplus would be
| about a million more but for the sink
| Ing fund requirement imposed by
| the international control. This now
| amounts to about G7,JOOOOO which the
international commission will not per-
NIT to be touched for any other pur-
| pose, though Egypt, under English con-
| troll, is as solvent as any country in
Europe
Outstanding of the revenues is only
part Of the service the English control
| has done Egypt. Every year secs an
expansion of it's administrative acuv-
| ity into new channels. The country is
| being gridironed with railroads. for
! light and heavy traffic, the telegraph
| is almost Omnipresent, and both state
| railways and the postal service, which
| includes telegraph, show a revenue
| surplus. This year was the lowest
| Nile on record, but there was no scrr-
Gus distress, and the great project Tor a
! dam at AssOuan promises control and
| equahlc distribution of the river flow
in the near future. Lord Cromcr's
latest scheme is government loans of
| 10 per cent. to the fcllahecn, who are
| feeced of 40 per cent by the usurers
His justification for this paternaIism.
| which is only experimental so far, is
| what the government does not do i'm
! Egypt is not done at ALL" and the op-
preston of the fellahecn by the money
lenders is as old as Pharaoh. This
| maxim seems To be the root Of all the
strange and beneliccnt activities of
Lord Cromer's government in Egypt.
The good showing made in reports
of affairs in Egypt is "A cheering evil
dence of the beneficial results of the
march of civilization. and ought
to be gratifying to those in
control of the government of
the United States, since it supplies the
stimulus of a good example.
The fact that the oleomargarine dis
cussion has at last reached congress
and is liable to result disastrously to