Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-04-11

What was said to be one Of the greatest
ratepayers' demonstrations seen in Lon
don in many years occurred recently when
several thousands marched through the
streets to Trafalgar square, where a mass
meeting was held to protest against fur
Their municipal ownership experiments on
the part of the London county council.
The procession. which was more than
mile in length, included many unique fea-
lures intended to cast discredit upon the
municipal Industries, among these being
fifty Ia gramophones which emitted
bitter comments upon "wastrels.'' The
meeting adopted a resolution stating that
This mass meeting of London ratepayers
Indignantly protests against the increas-
ing burden of rates. caused by the pro-
gressive socialist party. and pledges itself
to exert every effort to turn the wastrels
out on March ,, and place in power the
party of municipal reform"
Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell
Bannerman contributes to the Nation,
the liberal weekly, an article on The
Hague conference. in which he refutes
the objections to raising the question of
limitation of ornaments. contending that
nothing has occurred since 1898 to render
inopportune or mischievous the reduction
of ornaments which was then recognized
as desirable. On the contrary he saws,
the passage of years has only served to
strengthen the impression OF 1873 that
the endless multiplication of engines of
war is futile and self-defeating and that
what was then a suspicion, that no limit
could be set to the struggle for sea pow
er save by the process of economic ex-
haustion. has now become something like
a certainty. He asserts that Great Brit
ain has already given an earnest of her
sincerity by reducing her naval and mill
tary expenditures, and by undertaking to
go further if a similar disposition is
shown elsewhere.
Paris had the news Tuesday that a
French column under Gen. Liautey had
occupied the nerve center of Morocco,
Oudja. a walled city near the frontier
where caravans arrive from the desert.
Foreign Minister Pichon. in explaining
the move to the French chamber. said that
the Moors had become more and more in
solent, until something had to be done.
Claims for damages had been long neglect
ed. and the Sultan had to be taught a
lesson. 1t was a matter for France
alone, and Germany appeared to be giving
her free hand. This was to be only the
first of a series of punitive acts by France.
Under the leadership of Lady Harber-
ton. body of women suffrage advocates
marched to the entrance of the House of
Commons the other day to deliver a res
olution which had Been passed at pre-
vious meeting denouncing the government.
The authorities had been forewarned and
over 700 policemen were on hand to pro-
tect the British lawmakers. The result
was the arrest of seventy-ive women and
the refusal to allow the leader to inter-
view the premier.
The government of Japan has organ
lied twenty-four new infantry regiments,
to be concentrated mainly in the northern
islands
An anti-Jewish outbreak in Roumania
had assumed serious proportioa early in
the week. and Jews were fleeing over the
frontier into Austria, where they were
cared for by the Hebrew alliance of vi
emma. The riots centered about the Rou-
manian town of Muldavia.
Advices from Teheran told of Indian
mounted troops entering Persia to pro-
tect British consulates in the south, and
it was rumored that the Afghans had
moved toward the frontier. Russian
forces were on the way to preserve, order
in northern Persia.
The present population CT Great Brit