Hungarian regiments, the use of the Hungarian language in Hungarian military colleges, though not the use of the language in words. of command and of service in the Hungarian army. In addition it reduced the period of service in the army from three years to two. The passing of this Compromise bill, while made the occasion for general rejoicing, did not have the desired effect of putting an end to obstruction. The Diet debates descended to the level of a street wrangle. The new Premier, himself, took a hand, taunting the Opposition with being "unable to make as much noise as fifty hired fishwives," while one of his opponents retorted that "the Tiszas are like chimney-sweeps, the higher they climb the blacker they get." Count Tisza held his ground in the face of obstruction and opprobrium, and on December 5 arrived at an agreement with M. Kossuth, by which the Independents abandoned obstruction on condition that double sittings should be abrogated, that immediate steps be taken for a plan for electoral reform, and that the Diet proclaim by resolution that "in Hungary the source of every right and in the army the source of rights pertaining to the language of service and command, is the will of the nation expressed through its legislature."

Sweden's Concessions to Norway

A measure to insure political concord between Norway and Sweden aroused the public interest of both countries. 'King Oscar, in opening the Riksdag on January 17 announced that the joint Swedish and Norwegian Committee which had been appointed to consider the question of establishing separate consuls for the two countries had completed its work and that their report was in the hands of the Swedish and Norwegian advisers of the King: M. Boström, Prime Minister, M. Lagerheim, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and M. Husberg, Councillor of State, acting for Sweden; and M. Qvan, Minister of State, and M. Knudsen and Dr. Sigurd Ibsen, Councillors of State, on behalf of Norway. On March 24 it was announced that an agreement had been reached which seemed to satisfy Norway's demands and not to imperil the interests of Sweden. The plan called for (1) separate consular services to be established for Sweden and Norway, the consuls in each country belonging to that department decided upon by the respective governments; (2) the position of the separate consuls as regards the

foreign minister and the legations to be regulated by equal laws, which could not be changed without the mutual consent of the two countries.

This proposal was ultimately passed by both chambers of the Swedish legislature and on December 21 King Oscar, in a Council of State, formally accepted the severance of the consular system, a step viewed with alarm by the old Conservatives, who saw in it the entering wedge of the dissolution of the Union. At a previous Council of State held on December 11, the Foreign Minister had stated that the solution of the consular question demanded laws of the same character for both countries, in which it would be advisable to include various other proposals. He asked the King on this ground, and accepting the agreement of March 24, to request the Swedish and Norwegian Councillors of State to continue negotiations and to frame definite proposals. The Councillors having given consent, and the Norwegian Government having accepted both the agreement and the proposition of the Foreign Minister, the King then announced the most important political step in the joint history of Norway and Sweden for many years.

II

Proposals providing for the extension of the political suffrage of Sweden were extensively discussed both by the Riksdag and the public. The central question, concerning the suffrage proper, was still in the committee stage at the end of the year, though the commission on proportional representation submitted its report on November 3. It recommended distributing the 230 seats of the Second Chamber among thirty-three districts according to population, entirely doing away with the right of towns to a more numerous representation. It offered two different methods of election, one direct and one indirect. The program was not enthusiastically received. It was flatly repudiated by the Social Democrats in a manifesto demanding "honest universal suffrage." Of important measures passed, one established an institution for arbitration of disputes between employers and employed, the Government appointing a suitable man for each of a stated number of districts, who should attempt to reconcile the disputants whenever occasion should arise. This was the first labor legislation since the great strike of the previous year. Another new law required everybody cutting down a forest to plant a new forest in its place, thus protecting the diminishing forests of Sweden.

LABOR LEGISLATION

Denmark's New Laws

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Denmark made a record in legislation in 1903. Altogether eightyseven bills were introduced in the course of the two sessions of the Rigsdag, of which sixty-seven were passed. Of most general interest were the Church Laws and the Taxation Laws. The provisions of the four church bills, looking toward abler administration of the State Church, are reserved for full discussion in the chapter devoted exclusively to religious affairs. The measures were carried by large majorities. The three Taxation Bills dealt respectively with State taxes on income and capital, taxation of property, and municipal taxation. The income tax was graded on a sliding scale, from 1.3 to 2.5 per cent, with certain deductions for children. The taxation on capital was applied to all values except furniture, books, and the like. The new law on property abolished the old taxes on real estate, and substituted a property tax of 1.1 per thousand of the commercial value of the property. The income tax was expected to yield $2,500,000 a year; the new property tax, about $1,000,000, or less than one-third the amount collected under the old law. The abolition of tithes entailed a further loss to the Exchequer of about $400,000. The State grant to municipalities was fixed at $375,000 a year.

Among other important measures passed were bills providing for increasing the remuneration of the members of the Rigsdag, for building a large new national hospital, a national theater, for establishing higher national schools, and for rebuilding the royal palace of Christiansborg, destroyed by fire twenty years before. During the year Iceland obtained a new constitution, which granted her contention for her own separate minister to reside at Reykjavik, who would lay before the King of Denmark, in the Council of State, acts passed by the Icelandic Parliament, the Althing.

Labor Legislation

Belgium's greatest parliamentary work was the passing of a law granting workmen the right of compensation for damages resulting from accidents. The bill provided for all risks except illness; it allowed a partial indemnity, not amounting to full wages; it was not obligatory insurance. The new Minister of Industry, M. Francotte, in introducing the bill, stated that in a free country like Belgium the payment of

indemnity to the victim of an accident could be obtained without compulsion. The Socialist and the majority of the Liberal Deputies demanded compulsory insurance and extending the benefits of the measure to agricultural laborers. The bill as passed repudiated the first demand, though it favored a special law granting the second.

Germany's new law for the restriction of child labor prohibited employing children under thirteen years of age in building operations, brick kilns, quarries and mines; children under twelve years of age in theaters, workshops, or restaurants; children under ten in distributing goods. In certain cases parents were allowed to employ their own children while still under the age limit. The Social Democrats urged a provision against employing children in agriculture and domestic service, on the ground that children were frequently made to remedy the dearth of farm laborers, and the measure was passed with this addition. Supplementary legislation to the Workingmen's Insurance Acts of 1883 and 1889 extended the obligatory care for the sick from 13 to 26 weeks, thereby assuring provision for protracted or chronic diseases. France also revised a law in July providing for the health and security of workmen, enlarging the scope of the Act of 1893, which was limited. to employees of factories, shops, workyards and workrooms, to include those of kitchens, laboratories, cellars. offices, theaters, circuses, and other places of amusement.

On April 11 the Queen of Holland sanctioned three anti-strike bills, which had passed both chambers and which immediately went into force. The measures called for (1) modifications of the penal code assigning severer penalties to those attacking the freedom of labor and punishing as misdemeanors strikes by railway employees or other persons in public service; (2) an increase of the war budget in order to enable a railway military brigade to be organized on a basis that would insure service on the great lines in case of strike; (3) the establishment of a commission of inquiry to examine the demands of railway employees. A similar law was passed in Victoria, imposing fines and penalties on public servants who engage in strikes.

Canada enacted a Railway Labor Disputes law establishing a system of compulsory investigation into all disputes between labor and capital affecting the transportation industry, and providing for settling the same by conciliation or arbitration.

CHAPTER VIII

POLITICAL CHANGES

Politically the year 1903 was what is known as an off year" in the United States, a year in which there is neither a presidential nor a general election. It was, nevertheless, a decisive year for both parties; the Republicans took their stand upon Rooseveltism, the Democrats repudiated Bryanism. The rising tide of the President's popularity could not be stemmed by criticism of certain phases of his administration, noted in a previous chapter. The man had risen above party lines, party prejudices, party issues. His tour of the country had been well timed to show the political "bosses" that the average Republican voter was with him. President Butler, of Columbia University, who traveled with the Presidential party through some of the western states, had this to say of President Roosevelt's standing: "The west is solid for Roosevelt. The business men, large and small, the wage workers and agriculturists, all seem to have implicit confidence. in him. They look to him and his administration to keep public matters on an even keel, both at home and abroad. Any one who tries to get up agitation on the lines of anti-imperialism, or of indiscriminate tariff smashing, or of attacking the army, will have his trouble for his pains."

The endorsement of the President and his administration by the State Republican Convention of Ohio was a decisive victory. Senator Hanna, while declaring himself not a candidate for Presidential nomination, gave out the statement that it would not be "entirely proper for the convention to assume the prerogative of naming the one to be chosen in 1904." President Roosevelt promptly made a definite request of Senator Hanna not to oppose any desire of the convention to commit itself to the renomination of the President, upon which the senator withdrew from his former position. The Ohio Convention having committed itself to President Roosevelt, a sufficient number of other