fir *
12 T3bc Conservative *
bos resulted The only gleam of light
that nnw shines on China is that pro
pnratory schools on the western priuci-
plo hnvo been inaugurated and that a
university of the saiuo model 1ms been
established in Peking. Out the effect on
a dense mid hardened mass for many
years to come will ho like the picking
ut a huge bowlder with a geologist's
hammer
Co-operation.
The National Co-operative festival
held annually in Great Britain occurred
several weeks fiiuco at the Crystal Pal
ace , London , and the reports made on
that occasion were full of interest and
suggestion. The possibilities of cooperative
erative enterprise as a solution , at loa.st
in part , of the clashing of capital and
labor have been widely discussed and
its experiments closely scrutinized All
the facts uaturally command the atten
tion of people on both sides of the At
lantic. The system has acquired a "lo-
cue standi' ' in political economy. It has
failed in many instances. Yet it has
been markedly successful in others. In
England the success has been more dis
tinctly in the line of distributive co
operation than that of productive. In
the latter form indeed there have been
only a few notable instances in Eng
land , with rather moro on the continent
perhaps , and these have not always
lived to bo more than temporary But
as an agency of effective and econom
ical distribution co-operation shows a
striking aggregate of achievement in
Great Britain , demanding a few words
of comment. Including hoth kinds of
co-operation they have done a business
within less than a generation of § 272-
000,000. The largest part of this was
that of the distributive stores. In the
period from 1885 to 1895 the hocieties
increased in number from 1,441 to
1,960 and in membership from 850,059
to 1,430,340 , the amount of capital
from $55,785,465 to $106,656,995 , the
value of sales from $156,629,550 to
$275,501,245 , the value of profits from
§ 14,943,450 to § 26,945,855. It should
bo borne in mind that these figures have
reference to distributive as well as
productive co-operation societies. The
capital of 84 productive societies in
England , which represented the copart
nership of labor , was only about $2-
250.000
The bonus on the total of the wages
paid was 1 % per cent. The distributive
stores showed an average saving to the
membership of about 5 per cent. The
reason is not far to seek why distribu
tive has been more successful than pro
ductive co-operation in thattherois less
temptation to depart from the pure doc-
trine. This is that the co-operator must
take losses as well as accept profits. In
distribution ho is benefited as a cus
tomer , if ho fails as a shareholder. But
in case of production , should the year go
wrong , ho loses both as capitalist and
as workman. It is said that the danger
affecting hoth lorms is that the highly
successful societies begin to covet the
profits after awhile and refuse further
membership , though selling to all do-
eiring to huy on equal terms. In other
words , they tend to degenerate from the
co-operative idea and become capital
istic in their methods. It is an interest
ing fact that the English Wholesale so
cieties , which are both producers and
distributors , do not pay any bonus on
wages to the workmen employed. In
other words , they are capitalistic in
production and co-oporativoouly in dis
tribution.
Thcso institutions have been of im
mense value to the English workman ,
and , while they have not solved the
problem of capital and labor , they have
gone n considerable way in alleviating
homo of its difficulties. Mr. Henry D
Lloyd , well known in the United
btates as an able writer on these sub
jects , in a recent book calls attention
to one notable fact. On the continent
democracy has found expression in at
tempts to topple over thrones and upset
the established order of things. In Eng
land it has saved its sixpences , estab
lished methods of co-operation growing
from small to largo and striven to work
out its own Falvatiou.
The work of college athletics in fit
ting young mou for life has been a mat
ter of controversy. The excess to which
physical training is carried under the
sj.ur of competition has occasioned pro-
trst from many wise observers. Some
light is thrown on the question by the
lesson of the war. It has been found
that the trained athletes of Wefet Point
have died from the effects of wounds or
disease moro quickly than those not dis
tinguished in athletic skill. Medical
opinion asserts that the severe training
required to prepare men for athletic
contest affects their vital organs. They
are thus less fitted for the exigencies of
campaign life.
In six years more California will boa
genuine forty-niner , an argo of the ar
gonauts , for she will have achieved that
mystical number in her statehood. The
grizzled old veterans of golden adven
ture hopa to live long enough for the
golden occasion , when they will paint
Frisco yellow
The course of the last act in the Drey
fus drama has shown the greater part of
official Franco making a firm stand
against the rising tide in the middle
and lower classes favoring a revision of
the caeo Why President Fauro should
have threatened to resign the presidency
if the pulilio demand overrode opposi
tion it is not easy to analyze. One can
only understand it on the assumption
that ho , the highest official in Franco ,
was as guilty in the Dreyfus episode as
any of the officers of a court packed to
condemn Ouo can only suspect that
there are depths which have not been
sommeu yet. TUO nuaio oi this Ureyius
affair , for the truth is certain to bo yet
forced to the surface , may easily prove
a moro sensational revelation than any
thing yet known in I ho tragedy
The reports of meichants and ship
pers indicate a great growing trade to
England iu manufactured products
where England herself is our competi
tor While some of these articles are
designed for reshipmeut it is amazing
what a variety of American made goods
are absorbed in the English market. In
every town of medium size dealers in
hardware , machinery , fancy goods ,
shoes and hats offer large lines of the
American product. The weekly ship
ments of such articles , it is said , rarely
amount to less than $1,000,000 per
week. The country is proving its abili
ty to meet the world on its own terms
despite the higher price of labor. The
secret is moro effective and ingenious
machinery.
In acquiring control of Delagoa Bay ,
the only possible port for the Transvaal
republic , the "detested Englishers" have
put a permanent muzzle on that African
G. O. M. , as some of President Kruger's
admirers have dubbed him. It was the
height of the Boer statesman's highest
ambition to secure access to this outlet
But his dear friend and son , Kaiser
William , "wont back" on him. The
South African Republic is now complete
ly bottled up.
Lucchcsi ( the name of this miscreant
is spelled in several different ways ) dis-
1 layed great cunning in selecting Gene
va as the place to vent his murderous
hate There he escapes the noose or the
guillotine. It is a pity that a retroactive
law cannot bo enacted for the occasion
The story that Queen Wilhelmina
was shot at by an anarchist a few weeks
before coronation has been denied by
the Dutch papers. But the fact has been
established by other evidence. Holland
should make good its contract with the
ineptitude of Switzerland
Kansas is not to be outdone in its
productions and does not stop with corn
and wheat. In the recent cold snap she
produced a crop of five inches of snow
at one point
In the race between the English and
French to ho the first at Khartum the
English won the prize It was a bigger
prize , too , than a ruined city. It was
( ho sure control of the interests of all
of east central Africa , where the Ger
mans are willing to play second fiddle.
If one would bo sure of the qualities
lacking in an acquaintance , let him
study those which the latter boasts of
the most.
The rudest man inspired by passion
is more persuasive thuu the most olo-
aueufc man if uninspired. '