632 



PERSIA. 



Pittsburg_, Aug. 5, resolutions were adopted approv- 

 ing the Omaha and St. Louis platforms and the 

 action of the St. Louis convention in nominating 

 Bryan and Watson. The platform also denounced 

 the Pennsylvania State Legislature for passing 

 alleged bills against independent pipe lines and in 

 the interest of traction-line monopolies. It con- 

 demned the issuing of interest-bearing bonds and 

 the repeal of the Sherman law. It advocated fusion 

 with silver Democrats, and closed with a resolution 

 threatening repudiation of the State Democracy 

 unless it got rid of its traitors. J. T. Ailman and 

 J. P. Correll were nominated for Congressmen at 

 Large. J.' E. Leslie was unanimously elected State 

 chairman. 



The State Prohibition Convention met in Phila- 

 delphia, May 6, with 400 delegates present, of whom 

 60 were women. A. A. Barker and J. S. Kent were 

 nominated for Congressmen at Large. 



The platform favored equal suffrage; the elec- 

 tion of the President, Vice- President, and United 

 States Senators by direct vote of the people; the 

 control and, if necessary, the ownership by the 

 Government of railroads and telegraphs and tele- 

 phone lines ; opposed trusts and combinations of 

 capital and the granting of public money for sec- 

 tarian schools ; favored arbitration us a remedy for 

 the differences between capital and labor : said that 

 the tariff on imports should be limited to the dif- 

 ference in the cost of labor in this and competing 

 countries; demanded stricter immigration laws and 

 that " the currency of the nation should be issued by 

 the General Government without the intervention 

 of individuals or corporations, and should consist 

 of legal-tender Treasury notes." 



Later, J. S. Kent's place on the ticket was taken 

 by (T. Alcora. Mr. Kent was nominated by the 

 Free-silver Prohibitionists, who held a convention 

 in Ilarrisburg, Aug. 5. I. G. Pollard was their 

 other candidate for Congressman at Large. The 

 platform reaffirmed the principles adopted by the 

 national convention at Pittsburg in May. It favored 

 amendments to the State laws " governing the dis- 

 tribution of real and personal property of persons 

 dying intestate, so that the wife's interest in the 

 estate of her deceased husband shall be the same as 

 he would have in her estate were she deceased." 



The vote of the State in November stood : Mc- 

 Kinley, 728.300 : Bryan and Sewall, 427.127 ; Bryan 

 and Watson, 6,103 ;" Palmer, 10,921 ; Levering, 19,- 

 374 ; Matchett, 1,683 ; Bentley, 870. 



The Republicans elected their candidates for 

 Members of Congress at Large, and those in all the 

 districts except three. 



In the Legislature there will be on joint ballot 

 215 Republicans and 39 Democrats. 



PERSIA, an absolute monarchy in Asia. The 

 throne is hereditary in the Shiite dynasty of the 

 Kajars, a family of Turkish origin, descended from 

 Agha Mohammed, who established himself on the 

 throne in 1794 after a long civil war. The family 

 now has several thousand members. The Emperor, 

 whose title is Shah in Shah, or King of Kings, was 

 at the beginning of 1896 Nasreddin Pasha, the 

 fourth of the Kajar dynasty, who came to the 

 throne in 1848 at the age of seventeen. The Shah 

 has power to select his heir from among his sons 

 irrespective of the Mohammedan law of succes- 

 sion. Muzaffereddin, who was named Valiahd or 

 heir apparent by Nasreddin, was born March 25, 

 1853, of his Kajar wife. Nasreddin in 1893 revived 

 the office of Sadrazam or Grand Vizier, appointing 

 Mirza Ali Ashgar Khan, Amin-es-Sultan, who di- 

 rected the departments of finance, the treasury, and 

 customs. Previously the Shah had acted as his 

 own Vizier, and had disposed of the public reve- 

 nues at his pleasure. He had instituted a Cabinet 



divided into departments after the model of Euro- 

 pean governments, but exercised personal super- 

 vision and control over each of them. The revenue 

 in 1894 was 68,420,000 krans, equal to $6,842,000. 

 There is a foreign debt of 500,000, raised in Eng- 

 land in 1892 and guaranteed by the customs re- 



THE LATE SHAH. 



ceipts of the province of Fars and the ports of the 

 Persian Gulf, bearing 6 per cent, interest, and pay- 

 able in forty years. Military service has been obli- 

 gatory since 1875. but the irregular cavalry troops 

 commanded by the chiefs of tribes are the only 

 forces of any value, except the Shah's bodyguard of 

 picked men, trained and commanded by Russian 

 officers. There are 60,000 Werndl rifles in the ar- 

 senals and 74 ITchatius cannon. 



Area and Population. The country is esti- 

 mated to have an area of 628,000 square miles. 

 much of it desert. The population is estimated at 

 9,000,000, including 1,909,700 nomads. Teheran, 

 the capital, has about 210,000 inhabitants, and Ta- 

 briz 180,000. About 8,000,000 of the Persians are 

 Shiite Mohammedans, 800,000 are Sunnites. and 

 there are 45,000 Armenian Christians, 25,000 Nesto- 

 rians. 25,000 Jews, and 9.000 Guebrcs or Parsees. Of 

 the nomads 720,000 are Turks. 675,000 Kurds and 

 Leks. 260,000 Arabs, 234,000 Lurs, and 20,700 gypsies 

 and Beluchis. 



Commerce and Production. Persia produces 

 wheat, barley, rice, fruits, and gums. The chief 

 exports are dates, opium, raw cotton, silk, wool, 

 carpets, sheepskins, pearls, turquoises, gums, ce- 

 reals, rice, and tobacco. The foreign trade was for- 

 merly controlled largely by the merchants of Bom- 

 bay and London. Since the establishment of steam 

 communication between northern Persia and Mos- 

 cow and the development of Russian manufactur- 

 ing industries the trade has been diverted in a great 

 measure to Russia. The Russian Government 

 grants a bounty on exports of cotton goods to Per- 

 sia when Khorassan raw cotton is purchased with 

 the proceeds. The total value of Persian foreign 

 commerce for 1895 was estimated at 390,000,000 

 krans, the present gold value of the kran being un- 

 der 10 cents. The chief imports are cotton goods, 

 paper, iron and copper wares, sugar, kerosene, can- 

 dles, and China tea. The green teas of India are no 

 longer imported. The estimated values of the prin- 

 cipal exports in 1894 were: Opium, 578,000; 

 pearls and pearl shells, 219.000: carpets and 

 woolen fabrics. 148.000 : fruits and plants, 73,- 

 000 ; cotton fabrics, 68,000 ; cereals and legumes, 

 64.000; wool, 63.000; skins, 39.000; tobacco, 

 36.000; dates, 34.000; arms, 30.000; gum, 

 25,000 ; cotton, 21,000 ; drugs, 20,000. 



