Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-19

declares that a necessary preliminary to
such reform and reconstitution Is the ac-
ceptance Of the principle that possession
Of a peerage shall no longer in Itself give
the right to sit and vote IN the House Of
Lords" This means the substitution OF an
elective for an hereditary membership. The
reduction Of the total membership Is also
contemplated, so that the body so con-
stituted would be stripped OF dead ranch -
and repres snt, not one orly, but all the
best interests Of the empire. Lord Rose
berry did not clearly indicate on whom the
elective power should be conferred, but the
direction OF his proposal is inferred from
his remark that the new House OF Lords
would derive new strength, new grace and
new dignity by association with the cor
porations C~munlcipalities) and the county
councils formed into elective bodies all
over the country" Popular election is not
to be considered, the vital object being to
maintain an upper chamber which VIII be
a bulwark against hasty and ill-advtsed
popular clsmor." The bald proposition Of
Lord Rosebery amounts to this: A ma
tority OF the members are invited to vote
themselves out of power and glory. Con-
sidering the enthusiasm shown by these
members in flouting Lord Rosebery's warn
ing against rejecting the budget last No
vember, IL is hardly conceivable they will
now change front and vote themselves out
Of office. No scheme Of reform within the
lords holds the shadow of a hope Of giving
equal representation to the progressive ele-
ments OF the electorate represented by the
liberal party and it's allies. That must
come, IL at all, from without.
zee
Khartum, the Sudanese city now ~particu-
larly conspicuous on the mar is destined
to be a city of great commercial power
Major A. q. Stanton, former governor Of
the city, expressed the opinion in a recent
lecture that Khartum would become the
metropolis OF Africa, and the center of an
enormous cotton trade. The Sudan, he
says, will in fifty years provide all the
cotton that Lancashire can lake. while
wheat, sugar, rice, gum arabic, rubber,
hides and oils will be among dts exports.
The population is increasing enormously,
for the udanese are a prolific race, and
already the hundreds OF children to be
seen in every village born since the reoccu-
patton, and called by their elders children
of the government" testify to an admins
tration Of peace and prosperity. Already
Khartum boasts Of splendid government
buildings, educational establishments un-
equalled in North Africa, hotels, shops,
electric light, steam trans, water works,
broad avenues, ETC., and every creed is rep
resented by a church or mosque. But the
cathedral to the memory of Gordon is still
only a few feet high, for want Of sufficient
funds to complete It. Among the draw
backs to be reckoned with must be men
toned the prevalence of malarial diseases.
The regions south Of the city swarm with
anopheles mosquitoes. Black water fever
and the sleeping sickness occur in certain
localities, and q new disease, called ka-
la'aza, which has proved fatal to several
Europeans, is caused by the bite Of a bug
which infects native houses.
esS
Henry Studniczka, special agent OF the
Department of Commerce and Labor, who
Is now in England investigating indus
trial conditions, declared to the London
correspondent Of the New York Herald
that the laboring man in the large cities
of America SIS just about 100 per cent
better off than the working man in London
or in any OF the other large cities in Eng
land. I have been astounded at labor con-
ditions here" he said. II have visited the
homes of men who work very hard every
day to make a weekly wage Of from IS to
So. The condition OF the home and of the
children has been found pitlable In count
less cases. 1t is surprising to see how
the wives and other members Of the fam
lily dress practically in rags and economize
in order that the wage Garner may be en-
abled to have such luxuries' as may tend
to conserve his health and keep him fit to
stick to his daily task. Yes, I have OBJ
served the new labor exchanges which
have just been established by the present
government. They are all right in theory,
but in actual practice they have accom-
plished almost nothing. Men out of work
have jammed the various exchanges and
had their names registered, but there the
matter has ended. I have FOUND that very,
very few situations have been supplied the
unemployed as a result. There could be
no other outcome, for work is not TO be
had"
DR.. Karl Kumm, an African explorer,
who has recently been journeying between
the Niger and the Nile, says that the
spread Of Mohammedanism among the ma
tive tribes is likely to prove a troublesome
in the future. That 1t is spread
ing, as a result of European onquest,
there can, he says, be no doubt, Moham-
medan traders and religious emissaries,
without having any definite Mohammedan
missionary organization, behind them, are
penetrating into the southern parts of
the Sudan and extending their influence
in West Africa, East Africa and South
Africa, and this may end, he thinks, in
the whole Of Africa becoming a Moham-
medan continent, with only South Africa,
parts Of British East Africa, Uganda and
Abyssinia nominally Christian. New con-
verts 10 Islam are apt, he adds, TO be
fanatical. Both French and British gov
eminent representatives in Central Africa
are beginning, he says, to realize the prob
lem with which they are confronted
through the spread OF the Mohammedan
faith: and men who, while representing
a Christian government, hold the Moslem
faith as the most suitable for the African,
are getting few and far between. II the
pagan tribes Of the Central Sudan, among
whom the prestige Of the white man at
the present moment is enormous, could be