Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-03-03
OTHER LANDS THAN ours.

/ the dBllullon prevailing III emma, ihkeS
much the same view OF the situation in
that country as ex-Minister WI Ting Fang
did the other day. He says that the most
| disturbing element consists of the Chi
nese students returned from Harvard or
Toxic with their democratic ideas. They
] advocate measures utterly impra cticable IN
| the absence OF systematic education ANA
| radically improved administration. They
demand he says q constitution. to be pro-
mulgated at q months notice; a judicial
| code, hot from the press. and Herewith
| the abolition of foreigners extra terrific
| rial rights; they would nave China build
| her own railways open her own mines,
and exclude all foreign influences; and
| their views are so clamorous, their effect
! on the ignorant ruling class so marked,
| that they undoubtedly dominate the exist
| nE situation in no small degree Their
| opinions are to be met on all sides re-
| hected in the press, in imperial edicts, and
| in the attitude of provincial officials Pc
| king regards tho doings of Young China
with complacency, it did those of The
| Boxers; it accepts such results the
American boycott and the evolution Of the
patriotic orator with something more than
tolerance, and, excepting Yuan-shih -ksl,
he adds. there is probably no statesman
| lu lHt N'uuNlN WIN NOuldbt dllu NlSuu'fl
sufficient TO oppose the prevailing tenden-
cies. simultaneously the more intelligent
Chinese officials are inclined TO believe
that. whatever it's results, tho policy vi
young China may be encouraged with inn
punity, as the Apglo-Japanese alliance
guarantees China against partition. In
conclusion, he remarks that immediate out
look is unpromislng, but that the present
mood is likely to subslde also as quickly
as it has risen.
The Congo Free State has only one white
citizen. More than $500 other white men
are living in the state, but they are only
sejourners in the land. They cannot vote
at the elections, and have no reason to
complain If the millions of natives who are
citizens by birth regard them merely as
aliens. One white man, however, who
thinks that the Congo State is good enough
for him and whose physical system is proof
against insidous tropical diseases has taken
out his naturalization papers in due course
and is now a full-hedged citizen, entitled
to regard himself forming a distinct
element of the body polite. Not few
white men have desired to become citizens
of the republic of Liberia, but under the
beneficent constitution OF that country a
white skin debars its possessor from the
high privilege Of citizenship. on the other
hand, the Congo Free State opens it's gates
wide to the white race, but up to the pres
ent time this single individual constitutes
the entire push in the direction OF the nat
uralization office. Thus does citizenship in
tropical Africa illustrate some of the oddi-
ties of life.
yrt,,a Of nv.
vote that was almost unanimous. has Just
passed a bill which provides for the pay
ment of old age pensions to workingmen.
Only a general outline of the measure has
as yet been transmitted and for its details
II will be necessary to await the mail as-
vices, but the information has been fur
nished that IN its main features it closely
follows the system already established in
Germany and some sther countries of con-
tinental Europe. The pensions are to begin
at the age of IS and they are to be derived
from fund to which the workingman. the
employer and the state are to contribute
in equal proportions There is a difference
of opinion as to the amount which under
this arrangement must be derived from
the tax fund During the debate one
speaker, an economist of eminence and au-
thorty. declared that it would exceed $780,
100000 yearly, but the ministerial view is
that it will not be less than 1863, 100000, erin-
ions which. if carefully examined, are less
irreconcilable than they appear upon the
surface. All are agreed, however, that it
will mean an increase of taxation. and as
the French people, with their immense
fsbt-the largest in the world-and their
| steadily increasing army of government
| employees are already taxed up to the
| limits Of endurance, practical men confess
| their inability to see where the money is 20
| come from.
Spain is about to connect itself with the
! rest of Europe by railroad gauge that
will obviate the necessity of transferring
! passengers and freight from one train to
| another on the frontier Neither the nor
NAL nor the narrow gauge system OF Spain
has up to this time conformed in width
with the standards of other European coun-
| tries All international railroad traffic has
accordingly been subjected to great incsn-
yenience II is one OF the many signs Of
progress in Spain that the direct double
track railroad from Madrid. now building.
will not only shorten the distance between
that capital and the French frontier on the
BAY of Biscay by ninety miles. but will
also permit through fast trains between
! Madrid and Paris. Slow trains and high
| freight rates have also been a severe tax
upon the commerce of Spain. Few of the
passenger trains travel faster than fifteen
! or twenty miles an hour, and freight rates
are "a high that II costs more to send the
! cotton cloths of the Barcelona mills zoo
! miles into the interior than 10 ship similar
| goods from England. A reduction of the
present high freight rates in the interior
will benefit the spaniards as much as in
creased facilities for through land conn
munica ton with other countries.
1t is evident that the approaching mar
rage between the king of Spain and King
| Edwards niece, the Princess Ena of Bat
tenburg. is exciting a good deal of dissatis-
faction in Protestant England Against the
alliance itself little or nothing is said but
! the suspicion that the conversion OF the
princess to Roman Catholicism is mere
matter of political eXpedence, and that the
king has sanctioned 1t, is provoking un-
favorable comment. From many quarters
has come the question why the church au-
thorities have made no protest in the mat
I HpT writ IN