Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-03-14
News From Foreign Lands

present shortage in the food crop and
induce constant prosperity.
The financiers interested in the plan
to make a great port Of St Thomas
in the Danish West Indies are much
elated over the submission of the
scheme to parliament by the minister
Of finance. The syndicate, which will
be given the rights TO the port for SO
years, plans the expenditure of many
millions in an effort to make st.
Thomas a universal port by the time
OF the opening Of the Panama canal.
The prime mover Of the plan is H.
y. Andersen, general manager of the
East Asiatic company. The rise Of
this magnate has been almost Ameri-
can In character. He began to make
his own way at the age OF IL as q
ships boy, and at 20 he left his ship
in Bangkok and went into business
He was so successful that he became
an intimate friend and advisor of the
late King Chulalongkorn, who gave
him and Admiral de Richelieu of Den
mark vast concessions In the forests
OF Siam and also granted concessions
for power stations and street car lines.
In 1897 Andersen returned to Denmark
and founded the Danish East Asiatic
company, which is now the most i'm
portant navigation and trading COM
pany OF the country. Andersen be-
came a close friend Of Prince Wade
mar and his late wife, the Princess
Marie, who was noted for her business
acumen. Encouraged by such inhuen-
tial backing, he established enormous
business concerns in all parts of Eu-
rope and the Orient, from mining COM
panies to banks.
London-For an act that passed
through parliament without division,
that Is without any member register
ing a vote against 1t, the national in
surance scheme against sickness and
disablement has set up a record for
the extent of the controversy that has
ragged around it.
The friendly societies, which have
insurance benefits of their own for
members, started the trouble. They
feared that the bill, by forcing their
members to contribute to the govern
ment scheme, would induce them to
leave the societies. This was settled
by approved societies being allowed to
administer the act so far as it dealt
with their members.
Then came the opposition Of mis-
tresses and servants, who, besides OBJ
jecting to contributing their 6 cents
weekly each for the insurance of the
servant, raised a cry against the neces-
sity of sticking the necessary stamps
in a book.
Opposition also came from large en-
ployers of labor, chiefly in the cotton
districts of Lancashire, who held that
the extra tax would deprive them OF
their profits.
Other classes have taken up the cry
against the bill, the socialists among
them, as they wanted a system to
which the workmen would not have
to contribute, the state and employer
paying the whole Of the amount re.
quired.
The most serious and sustained op-
position to the bill, however, has been
that Of the medical men, $1,000 OF
whom have signed a declaration that
they will not accept service under the
act. The chief objection of the doc
tors is that no adequate remuneration
=. for the medical men could be obtained
J under the act, that it would in fact
, amount to about 81 yearly for each
J patient This is only calculation
, as the act states that the remunera
: ton Of doctors who place their name:
on the lists of those agreeing to at
: tend patients under the act shall BIZ
a matter of arrangement between tn,
local insurance committees and tn,
doctor. The medical men, however
= point out that the committees cOnsis
! of perhaps so members, only three Of