ページの画像
PDF
ePub

potamia, but less headway was made by the Americans in securing oil concessions in Turkey. During much of the year there was a controversy in the States between the Standard Oil companies and certain "independent" companies over Turkish concessions, but the year closed without the dispute reaching any adjustment. In Protestant Church circles there was much disturbance over Turkish atrocities in the TurcoGreek war which forced the Government to agree (June 3) to join with other interested Governments in an investigation of alleged Turkish atrocities in Anatolia. Considerable sums were collected in America for the relief of the refugees, but Congress declined to vote any money, having appropriated and expended, through the energetic efforts of Mr. Secretary Hoover, 20,000,000 dollars for the relief of the Russian famine victims.

America's freedom from the jealousies and animosities of the Old World gave her a sense of moral superiority, but in the New World she found herself in no such enviable position. For the first time in her national history the United States caught a clear glimpse of the anti-American feeling that is rampant in South America. In some candid contributions which appeared in the Journal of International Relations for January and April, and the Political Science Quarterly for September, Mr. J. Fred Rippey told the country of the spread of "Yankeephobia" in the South and Central American Republics where, to quote the Colombian writer, José Maria Vargas Vila, the famous Monroe doctrine is regarded as "the jawbone of an ass brandished in the hands of Cain." According to Mr. Rippey, the anti-Americanism current in SpanishAmerican literature in the '50's has again revived, more strongly than ever. It is based partly on Latin dislike of what is called "Yankee materialism," and partly on a dread of what the South and Central Americans are pleased to call "American imperialism." He cited as typical of this sentiment the letter addressed to President Wilson in 1912 by the leading Argentine writer, Manuel Ugarte, in which, after giving a number of concrete criticisms of American policy in South America, the writer says: "In short, we desire that the United States abstain from officiously intervening in the domestic policies of our countries, and that they discontinue the acquisition of ports and bays on the continent; . . . we ask, in short, that the star-spangled banner cease to be a symbol of oppression in the New World." According to Rippey, the Pan-American movement with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., provokes only derision South of the Rio Grande.

These articles caused surprise and considerable comment, and may, perhaps, have been that which inspired the Christian Science Monitor of Boston to make an investigation into the Caribbean and the Central American situation for a series of articles on "American Imperialism." Throughout the year the issue, a novel one to Americans who have not heard it discussed

T

much since the acquisition of the Philippines after the SpanishAmerican war, was continually being injected into public consciousness. First came a protest from the inhabitants of the territory of Porto Rico against the American GovernorGeneral, E. Mont Reily; then a protest from Haiti against the alleged "iron rule" of the American marines; off and on the Santo Domingans protested against American intervention and the very considerable loan which they were pressed by Mr. Hughes to float; while from time to time, too, the Filipinos demanded the evacuation of their islands. Mr. Harding's reply to a Filipino delegation which visited Washington (August 18) was that the time was not yet ripe for independence. To the more or less academic question as to when the time would be ripe, Mr. Harding was unable to give a definite answer. If it develops, as newspaper reports suggest, that the oil belt of the Dutch East Indies has been found to extend under the Philippines, it is quite unlikely that the American Republic will do anything precipitate in the matter of "turning the Philippines adrift." But the issue the control of other countries by a democracy is unquestionably looming larger in American domestic politics. Relations with Mexico continued strained through the year. The Republicans took precisely the same stand as the Democrats under Mr. Wilson and refused to "recognise" the Government of Mexico so long as the latter insisted upon legislation taxing American oil concessions already in existence 75 centavos a barrel.

On

Two domestic difficulties occupied the country throughout the greater part of the year. One was industrial, the other social. On April 1 the soft-coal miners struck and completely tied up the production of soft coal for twenty weeks. May 28 the United States Railway Labour Board ordered a 13 per cent. cut in the wages of 400,000 maintenance-of-way men in an effort to reduce railway costs and eventually freight rates. This caused considerable disturbance among the railway brotherhoods, who attempted unsuccessfully to argue that the railway properties had been prosperous enough-as evidenced by their dividends-to be able to reduce freight rates out of their earnings instead of out of labour costs. Something of a "boom" in iron and steel was under way, and business became very nervous over the prospects of trouble, which arrived, however, through another door. On July 1 about 90 per cent. of the 400,000 railway shopmen struck and severely crippled the railroads from coast to coast. Much bad feeling was aroused on both sides, so much so that President Harding in a message to Congress (August 18) protested against the lawlessness displayed by both sides. But the Supreme Court poured oil on the flames in a decision (delivered June 5 and heatedly discussed throughout the year) to the effect that a union, although not incorporated, could be sued for damages by an employer who had suffered "unlawful injury" at the hands of the union, and,

further, that a union might be held liable as a "conspiracy in restraint of trade" and in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. This decision seems certain to become an issue between organised labour and American industry. The rail strike ended in September with the complete defeat of the men.

But even more discouraging-to judge from the comments of newspapers and public men-was the continued and unexpected rise to unpleasant eminence of the Ku Klux Klan with its fantastic ritual, its technique of violence, and its avowed hostility to Roman Catholics, Jews, negroes, pacifists, and "Bolshevists." During 1921 the newspapers, especially in the North, had conducted such a campaign of ridicule and exposure against it, showing the huge profits of its promoters and the " 'un-American character" of its methods that every one assumed the organisation was dead. It was far from dead, however. The notoriety served to advertise it, and the Klan rose rapidly in membership. In many of the Southern states -and in at least one Northern state, that of Oregon-the Klan went into politics with considerable success. It elected, for example, the United States Senator from Texas. In Oregon it was instrumental in securing the passage of a law forbidding children to attend religious or private schools after 1926; this was aimed at the Roman Catholic parochial schools. Its unsavoury record of tar-and-feather parties, of murders and tortures and other forms of mob violence continued. Nevertheless, the public criticism and disgust seemed gradually to tell on the spirits of the promoters, for in the spring they issued an "edict" forbidding the Klansmen to wear their masks and robes except within the lodge halls, and in December they withdrew the "ban" against Roman Catholics in what appeared to be a belated attempt to consolidate their position as an anti-negro and anti-Semitic movement. Kansas began legal proceedings to drive the Klan out of the state, but this was widely criticised as merely an imitation of the sort of coercion for which the Ku Klux Klan itself was condemned. Individual Protestant churches here and there displayed some friendliness toward, or at least curiosity about, the "ideals" of the Klan but the organised church bodies everywhere condemned it. For the year 1922 one authority declared that fifty-seven persons were lynched in the United States-fifty-one negroes and six whites. Thirteen of the victims were taken from jails and seventeen from officers of the law outside jails. On the other hand, there were fifty-eight instances in which officers of the law prevented lynching. Fourteen of these were in Northern States and fortyfour in Southern States.

A hard year, made harder by the President's apparent inability to give his party or the country a firm lead on any issue except the tariff and the ship subsidy, ended with a political landslide at the November elections. Having, two years before, repudiated Mr. Wilson with an emphasis never previously

[ocr errors]

The

achieved in a presidential election, the country found itself saddled with a huge Republican majority, representative, for the most part, of business interests worried over competition from bankrupt Europe, and determined to increase the so-called emergency tariff" so as to ensure protection. Both Houses were cheerfully busy with this task and seemingly indifferent to the other economic problems confronting the country. result was that the country, irritated, gave the Administration and the Republican Party an overwhelming rebuke. So many Republican congressmen were defeated on November 8 that the party's majority in the lower House was cut from 150 to 15! Of the Republicans elected many belong to the so-called "Radical bloc" and follow the lead, not of Mr. Harding but of Senator La Follette, an anti-war senator, who was triumphantly re-elected in Wisconsin. In the Senate the Administration's former majority of twenty-two was cut to ten-again with several defections to the "Radical bloc." For the next two years, the remainder of his administration, the President will have a highly critical Congress to deal with.

CANADA.

With the opening of the year 1922 a new phase began in the political history of Canada.

The Conservative Party had sustained an overwhelming defeat at the General Election of December, 1921 (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1921, p. 319), and as the main features of the Progressive (Farmers') programme were alike in principle to the policies of the Liberal Party, it was generally expected that the new Liberal Leader, Mr. Mackenzie King, when called upon to form a Cabinet, would welcome some form of rapprochement with the Progressives. The Prime Minister did, in fact, invite Mr. T. A. Crerar, the Farmers' Leader, to join his Cabinet, not, however, on the basis of a coalition, as was supposed in some quarters, but, although the Progressives were largely in support of the new Government, this invitation was not accepted.

It was therefore with a majority of only one in the House of Commons that the re-formed Government began its first session. Lord Byng, for the first time since his arrival as Governor-General, opened Parliament (this being the Fourteenth) at Ottawa on March 8.

The Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, a prominent French-Canadian, was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, and it was soon apparent that a strenuous session faced the new legislators. Of the varied issues adumbrated by the Speech from the Throne, those outstanding were Tariff revision, Trade extension, Immigration, Co-ordination of transportation, Wheat marketing, Re-establishment of returned soldiers; Control of natural resources of the three Western Provinces, and National Defence.

In the interval since the last Parliament the International Conference on Disarmament had been held at Washington, on which occasion Canada was represented by her ex-Premier, Sir Robert Borden, and ratification of the treaties signed on behalf of the Dominion was also the subject of debate in the new Assembly.

Early in the Session the Government had encountered obstruction on its Estimates, but on the introduction of the Budget in June, by the Hon. W. S. Fielding, the veteran Canadian Parliamentarian, something of a crisis occurred. The Minister himself frankly admitted that the year's finances presented many difficulties. The main estimates called for an expenditure of 466,000,000 dollars, and if the revenue were maintained on the same basis as the preceding year the country was faced with a deficit of 95,000,000 dollars, taking no account of the likelihood of a continued decline in the returns from income and other taxation. But it was on Tariff revision, the standing bête noire of Canadian statesmen, that the more serious obstacles occurred. It was claimed that the Government had given definite pledges of drastic tariff reduction, and the Opposition and Progressive Parties asserted that the actual proposals of the Minister of Finance came far too short of these promises. Debate followed debate. The Progressives endeavoured to move an amendment which described the Budget proposals as wholly inadequate, and sought a declaration that the principle of protection as a basis of fiscal policy was unsound and not in the best national interests. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, claimed that the tendencies of the Budget were in the direction of Free Trade, while Sir Lomer Gouin (Minister of Justice and Attorney-General) contributed an argument in favour of a policy of modified protection. At one time it was feared that the Bill would not go through at all. At length certain modifications were made in the taxation proposals and the Budget was put to the vote. To the relief of the Government the result was a majority of 18 for the measure, 9 Progressives voting in its favour.

The main provisions of this Budget as amended and adopted

were:

New stamp taxes on cheques, receipts, stocks, bonds, and other
business documents;

Increase of 50 per cent. in the Sales Tax as instituted in 1921;
Increased preference on British goods of certain classes; and
New valuation for tariff purposes of goods from Germany and
other countries with depreciated currency, i.e., valuation to be
based on the cost of production of similar goods in England
or a neighbouring country.

Small luxury taxes were also to be levied on confectionery,
tobacco, etc.

Of these the increased Sales Tax was regarded as the chief revenue producer, while the revised basis of valuation in connexion with depreciated currency was considered an important concession to the Protectionists.

« 前へ次へ »