The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 60, December 30, 1897 | Page 3

and Bohemians.
One morning the inhabitants of the city awoke to find the town covered
with flaming red placards.
Some of them read, "No new compact between Austria and Hungary";
and others, "No language laws. German is the national language."
These placards naturally aroused a great deal of angry feeling between

the opposing parties. The police tore them down, and made every effort
to find the persons who had posted them, but without any result.
* * * * *
The Treaty of Peace between Turkey and Greece has been finally
signed by the Powers interested.
Little notice has, however, been taken of the fact; matters in Europe are
looking so threatening that the affair of Greece is almost forgotten.
It is said that war will break out in the Balkan provinces in the spring, a
war which will involve both Turkey and Austria.
The Balkan provinces are Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.
If you look at your map, you will see that they lie between Hungary
and Turkey.
The Sultan of Turkey is so convinced that such a war cannot be avoided,
that he is doing everything in his power to raise money for it.
He has given orders that the taxes must all be collected by the new year,
instead of May, in which month they are generally paid.
To accomplish this the unfortunate people, particularly the Christian
population, are being very roughly dealt with.
It is stated that the Sultan will not recall his troops from Thessaly until
the war indemnity has been paid, and that Germany is upholding him in
his determination.
* * * * *
The reports of the various officers of our Government have followed
the Message of President McKinley.
Every one is somewhat shocked to find that the tariff bill, which was to
put such a lot of money in our treasury, has fallen far short of the
expected results, and, indeed, has not produced enough revenue to pay

the expenses of the Government.
If the receipts from customs are not larger during the next few months
than they have been during the last, the country will be $65,000,000
behind at the end of the year, and Congress will have to devise some
plan for raising this sum of money.
This means that some new tax will be imposed upon us, for the
Government must have the money it needs, and the people must help to
make up what is lacking.
The friends of the Dingley Bill hope that the custom receipts will
increase, and think that the reason they have been so small is that the
merchants brought so much stuff into the country before the bill went
into effect, that they have not needed to get fresh supplies so far. In
short, they claim the Dingley Bill needs a longer trial.
The enemies of the measure point out that, as a means of providing an
income for the Government, the Dingley Bill has been a failure.
We told you about the discussion as to the exact hour at which the bill
became a law.
The question is not as yet settled.
The importers, if you remember, declared that the bill only became a
law from the exact hour it was signed; the Government insists that it
was a law from early morning of the day on which it was signed.
Seventy-three importers have protested against paying duty for all day
July 24th, because the bill was not signed until six minutes past four in
the afternoon.
It is expected that a final decision will be given shortly, which will put
an end to the disagreement.
* * * * *
Side by side with the fact that there is not enough money in the treasury

to meet the country's expenses, the armor-plate question has come into
prominence once more.
The naval officers and experts are all crying out against the folly of the
Government engaging in the manufacture of armor-plate.
The board of naval officers appointed to look into the subject stated, in
their report to the Government, that if such a factory is to be maintained,
Congress must order the building of three new battleships every year.
The reason they give for this is that specially trained workmen are
required to operate an armor-plate factory. They think it would be
necessary to provide sufficient work every year to keep the factory
going. If the factory were to be shut down and the hands discharged,
the naval officers declare that the time and money that would have to
be spent in training fresh men to undertake the work then would cost
the country more than keeping the works open right along.
The Carnegie and Bethlehem people have succeeded in getting the
Government to test one of their plates made by the new Krupp