GUNTON'S MAGAZINE Optimistic Conditions REVIEW OF THE MONTH A number of notable wage increases have taken place in the industrial world recently, the more important being: An increase of one cent per hour to motormen and conductors, nearly 5,000 in number, on the Union Traction trolley lines in Philadelphia. This is practically a 10% raise. An increase of 10% to cotton mill operatives in southern New England, affecting more than fifty thousand. An increase of 25% and an eight-hour day for two thousand structural iron and bridge workers in and about Pittsburg. An increase of from 5 to 10% to the one thousand employees of the Barbour Flax Spinning Company, of Paterson, N. J. An increase of 10% to the four thousand employees of the John A. Roebling's Sons Company, of Trenton, N. J. An increase, amounting to $125,000 a year, to about two thousand signalmen, dispatchers, telegraphers and towermen on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. An increase of 10% to some fifteen thousand employees of the United States Steel Corporation in mills and furnaces in and about Pittsburg. This was granted without preliminary notice, the amount being enclosed in the pay envelopes of June 26th. A substantial increase in varying amounts to about fifty thousand iron workers in the rolling mills throughout the country. This increase takes place under the sliding scale arranged with the iron workers' union, and follows the advance in the price of bar iron. Right in this connection, it is a gratifying circumstance that the tin-plate wage scale for the coming year has been adjusted satisfactorily by mutual conference, the result of which is described by President Shaffer, of the amalgamated iron and steel workers, as follows: "The wage scale agreed on last April stands and will rule until April, 1903. We settled nearly all the 'footnotes,' as the general conditions are called. The rest have been referred to the local lodges. Our conferences have been friendly and satisfactory, and there has been no friction. The 'footnotes,' most of which have been settled, do not affect the general situation. There is not, will not be and cannot be any trouble until the wage scale expires." Cuba's Early in the month of August, the Cuban senate passed a bill which caused no little discussion in this country. The bill calls for a loan of $4,000,000, at a maximum rate of interest of 5 per cent., the bonds to run thirty years. The bill also provides for another loan within six months of $35,000,000, drawing the same interest and subject to the same conditions as the loan of $4,000,000. The first claim to be made upon the larger loan is to provide for the payment of the smaller. It is then provided that a sum not exceeding $23,000,000 shall be devoted to the following purposes: Paying the obligations legimately contracted by the corps commander of the liberating army after February 24th, and prior to September 19th, of the year 1895; to the payment of the indebtedness and obligations of the revolutionary government itself, or debts legitimately contracted by its representatives in foreign countries; and to the payment of the wages of the soldiers of the liberating army. To provide for carrying this loan, the bill raises the import duties from ten to one hundred per cent. on a stipulated list of articles. It is held in this country that the contemplated Cuban loan would be a violation of the provisions of the Platt amendment to the Cuban constitution, which was adopted by our congress, and which the Cubans were obliged to ratify before we would let them try their hands at self-government. The particular provision which it is thought applies to his case is to the effect "that Cuba must never contract any public debt beyond the capacity of the island's revenues to sustain." As it is supposed that the United States has the sole right to determine when Cuba is misbehaving herself regarding any provision of the Platt amendment, it is presumed that we shall promptly decide when the little republic is likely to extend her business beyond her ability to manage, and will interfere to stop that sort of indiscretion whenever we may deem it necessary. On the other hand, it is argued that the Platt amendment is of no binding effect on Cuba for various reasons. The claim is made that the Cuban constitutional convention exceeded its delegated power when it accepted the Platt amendment, which really amounted to determining the republic's international and treaty relations, a matter for the legislative and executive branches of the government to settle. It is also claimed that the amendment referred to was ratified under what was a sort of combined bribe or threat. This country practically said to the Cubans that if they did not accede to our demands we would not let them try the experiment of self-government. Then we told them that if they were obedient to our behests we would grant them valuable special commercial privileges. Consequently some of the wise ones tell us that a bargain thus coerced is not binding. This may or may not be sound doctrine. Whether the bill providing for this contemplated Cuban loan does or does not become a law, it is very plain that this government laid in a large stock of trouble when it became the guardian of the youngest infant in the family of nations, and went pell-mell into the colonial business. Progress in Iron and Steel The report of the American Iron and Steel Association for 1901, prepared by General Manager James M. Swank, unquestionably the best authority on the subject in the United States, was |