Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-20
OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.

Australia has gone farther than any other
country in her restriction OF immigration.
The Immigration Restriction Act which
went into effect toward the end Of last year
was passed at the behest OF the labor party
and was aimed primarily at yellow labor
meaning Kanakss, Japanese, Chinese and
East Indians. In reality, however, It can
keep out Of Australia anybody. white or
black. should IL so be desired. The princi-
pal clause in the act provides that no per-
son shall be allowed to land in Australia
who when asked to do so by an officer 1.-THE
word officer being defined as an officer espe-
cially appointed, or any customs %oficer) fails
to write out at dictation and sign in the
presence Of the officer, a passage of fifty
words in length in an European language
directed by the officer. There are additional
clauses providing for the rejection OF I'M
desirables, but the first is widely embrace
ing enough for all purposes. The broad
character OF this clause was purposely de-
signed so that any class Of laborers, even
Englishmen, might be kept out of the coun-
try IL II seemed likely that they would work
for less than the native. Some Of the inn
portant industries, especially sugar grow
ing, have already been materially affected
and great discomfort has resulted. This is
only one of several differences between the
various states, which have not yet been able
to get the national standpoint and look for
the greater good of the whole country
rather than that Of one section.
zee
All the while that Great Britain was busy
with the work of war in South Africa, the
work of peace in North Africa never slack
ened. The dam OF Assuan is now completed
the newest engineering wonder of the
world in the land which holds the earliest
Of such wonders that still stand. This pen
ming of Nile 400 miles above the Pyramids
has been a work OF a generation, abandoned
as impossible by the Egyptians and the
French but pushed to success by British
skill and perseverance. When the easier
task of Assiut is finished, as IL soon will
be, Egypt will have a reservoir of a billion
cubic yards of water every year; crops will
be dependent no longer upon the risings OF
the Nile and the fairness OF the land will
exceed that of the days Of Joseph, father
Of all grain cornerers and first OF trust mag
mates. The cost of the two dams will be
S25, 900, 000, but their value in the future
when the Cape to Cairo" dream is real
lied will be incalcuable.
1t is but a few years since the Japanese
assumed the mastry in Korea, but the evil
dences of Japanese progress and advance
ment in commercial pursuits are already
marked. In Seoul, the capital OF the coun-
try, there are now published two daily
papers, representing two views of public
opinion, and one tri-weekly. The daily pa
pers have a combined sale of 5000 copies,
while the circulation Of the tri-weekly is
900. The papers are especially increasing
in favor in the provinces, for they give the
only means for the ventilation of popular
grievances against the official classes, who
up to the present time have been supreme
in their tactics of oppression and have kept
the people in ignorance of what was going
on except when it came the time to collect
the taxes, which have been extraordinarily
heavy. TIL ofice-holdiDg classes are bit
terly opposed to the publication Of the pa
pers, for with the letting in of light upon
their doings their chances for peculation ma
turally grow smaller. TIL transformation Of
Seoul into the semblance of a western capt.
tai also goes on apace. The electric railway
now embraces a large portion Of the city
and suburbs. The principal thoroughfares
are lit with electric light, which Is installed
also in the palace and many private houses.
A handsome new Japanese postofice has
recently been erected in the foreign quar-
ter, and a scheme Of waterworks is
talked Of.
A difficult point Of etiquette has arisen
over the rumors Of a possible exchange of
visits between the king Of Italy and Presi-
dent Loubet. Although these visits would
be most heartily received by the people
Of each country, 1t is hard to see how
President Loubet could pay his respects at
the Quirinal without hazarding a COM
plete rupture of diplomatic relations be-
tween the Quai d'Orsay and the vatican,
and a consequent rending Of the Con-
cordat. 1t may be taken as significant,
however, that the section of the Paris
press which most enthusiastically advo-
Gates such an exchange of amenities is
run by the Combes government. 1t is not
seriously believed that President Loubet,
with an anti-clerical campaign in full swing
on his hands, would have the courage to
present himself to the pope while the guest
Of Victor Emmanuel III, whose stringent
views of the rights Of the Quirinal are well
known. But that is what M. Loubet, the
chief executive OF a nominally Catholic
state, would be obliged to do II he
visited Rome.
Stockholm, the capital OF Sweden, prides
itself on being the best served city, so far
as telephones are concerned, in the world.
A correspondent writes that while London
has forty-seven telephones per 10000 inhabi-
tants, Paris seventy-one. New Yorksl50, and
San Francisco 706, Stockholm reaches the
figure Of $50. In every bedroom in every
hotel there is a telephone; every tradesman,
warehouse, shop and private dwelling is
connected, and even the ordinary washer
woman is on the exchange. In the streets
nearly every corner is public kiosk, where
on payment OF a small coin one can speak
not only to any local subscriber, but even
to one in any other town throughout the
length and breadth Of Sweden.