318 



JEWS. 



Formosa. Despite petty insurrections of sav- 

 ages and bandits, the population numbering, Dec. 

 31, 1898, 2,729,503, not including resident Japanese 

 or the inaccessible red aborigines in the mountains 

 is being rapidly brought into order and pros- 

 perity. Hopeful experiments have been made in 

 organizing the native Formosans in military serv- 

 ice. Government schools have been opened. In 

 the six years of Japanese possession 140,000,000 

 ven of public money have been invested, which 

 now yields a revenue of 16,250,000 yen. The esti- 

 mate* of expenditures for the next year is 22,- 

 000,000. The island, with its 300 miles of coast 

 line and its 14,000 miles of territory, derives its 

 revenue from the opium, tobacco, and land tax, 

 and the camphor monopoly. In 1898 the opium 

 trade for the benefit of the Chinese and Formosans 

 was placed in the hands of Japanese officers. The 

 sales in 1899 amounted to 470,520 pounds, valued 

 at 4,219,604 yen, on which the profit was 1,120,000 

 yen. In February, 1900, there were 140,139 opium 

 smokers and 3,372 opium dealers, the known per- 

 centage of smokers showing increase of the habit. 

 Of the world's product of 8,000,000 pounds of cam- 

 phor, Formosa supplies 6,600,000 pounds. At the 

 present rate of consumption, Formosa has an ample 

 supply for the next eighty years, and with judi- 

 cious 'planting, even though the camphor tree re- 

 quires fifty years to reach maturity, the supply 

 may be perennial. The revenues for the current 

 year are 14,601,577 yen, and the budget for 1901 

 or the next year 16,298,598 yen, the camphor 

 yielding 4,592,310 yen, opium 4,287,888 yen, and 

 salt 723,708 yen. The expenditure on railways is 

 to be increased from 2,500,000 to 4,500,000 yen, 

 and the land surveys from 600,000 to 700,000 yen. 

 The railway from Takao to Tainan, 40 miles, was 

 finished in October, 1900. 



The staples of export are sugar, camphor, and 

 tea, and all values have an upward tendency. 

 The enterprises of mining, forestry, and reclama- 

 tion of land show steady improvement. The Bank 

 of Formosa, now but a year old, has done an 

 encouraging business. Its deposits amount to 

 40,000,000 yen. In 1898 there were cleared, from 

 the 12 ports open to commerce, 14 steamers and 

 2,019 Japanese sailing vessels, with a total capaci- 

 ty of 70,000 tons, besides 151 foreign steamers 

 and 1,806 sailing vessels, having a total of 168,000 

 tons. Of vessels entering, there were 17 Japanese 

 steamers and 2,067 sailing ships, with a total of 

 68.000 tons, besides 169 foreign steamers and 1,887 

 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 186,000. In 1898 

 3.K5U emigrants, half of them women from old 

 Japan, landed in Formosa, in which, with the 

 Pescadores, 2,202 Japanese families, including 

 !).:{'Jti persons, are now permanently settled. 



JEWS. The interest that for some years past 

 was felt in organizing agricultural settlements in 

 Palestine, which met with varying success, re- 

 ceived a marked impetus early in the year by 

 the announcement that Baron Edmond de Roths- 

 child had ceded his colonies to the Jewish Col- 

 onization Association. For some time the baron 

 had aided several small colonies, but as they were 

 not self-supporting, and never likely to be so long 

 as they could depend on his aid, the step was 

 taken which secured the efficient co-operation of 

 a society that was Baron de Hirsch's chief heir 

 at law. 



The visit of the delegates of the American Coun- 

 cil of Jewish Women to London resulted in the 

 organization of a Jewish Study Society, for lec- 

 tures and research in Jewish history and literature, 

 which will co-operate in some deirree with the 

 Jewish Chautnuqua that Rev. Dr. Berkowitz 

 founded in Philadelphia. 



The blood accusation was revived both in Bo- 

 hemia and in West Prussia, and riots against the 

 Jews followed. There was a trial and an indict- 

 ment, a quashing of the verdict and a retrial, 

 and the incident is not yet closed. It has been 

 marked by great excitement among the peasantry 

 and excesses against the Jewish inhabitants. The 

 courage of Prof. Masaryk, who is not an Israelite, 

 in writing against the blood accusation, was a 

 happy feature of the situation; and the Semitic 

 section of the Congress of Orientalists at Home 

 passed unanimously a resolution to the same ef- 

 fect. In Austria there has been no pause in the 

 anti-Semitic movement, which has been combined 

 with clericalism. It has acquired a virulence, how- 

 ever, which can not endure if the better class of 

 electors assert themselves. 



In Roumania an emigration en masse began, 

 owing to harsh anti-Jewish laws, but it was 

 checked in time to prevent thfe departure of more 

 than a comparatively few thousands, most of whom 

 came to the United States and were distributed 

 to interior towns by the co-operation of Jewish 

 societies. 



The fourth International Congress of Zionists, 

 held in London, shed no new light on the move- 

 ment, but showed the continued enthusiasm of 

 its adherents, without as yet any tangible and 

 practical fruit of their labors. It would seem that 

 there is a disposition to lay stress on the political 

 side of Zionism, so far as a Jewish state is con- 

 cerned, but more emphasis is directed to the need 

 of colonization in Palestine, to which a further 

 impetus was given by a meeting in March, in 

 Frankfort, of societies that are interested in that 

 line of work. Anti-Jewish riots that broke out 

 in Odessa (July 29) were promptly checked, and 

 a large number of the rioters were arrested by the 

 police and the troops. 



In France, perhaps owing to the sense of solidar- 

 ity strengthened by the Dreyfus trial, a new soci- 

 ety was formed, L'Union Liberate Israelite, to de- 

 velop a love for Judaism, with special efforts to 

 interest the young. In Paris, Sunday- lectures on 

 Judaism and its history were given for some 

 months. The literary activity of the French Jews 

 was attested not only by the continued success 

 of the Revue of the Societe des Etudes Juives, 

 but by the first volume of a new French transla- 

 tion of the Old Testament, with a special edition 

 for the young, and by M. Schwab's List of Articles 

 relating to Jewish History and Literature which 

 were published in Periodicals from 1783 to 1798. 



In Germany there was no cessation in the ap- 

 pearance of works on Judaica and Hebraica, show- 

 ing the continued interest in such studies, a com- 

 plete list of which for the greater part of the year 

 is given, from the pen of Israel Abrahams, in the 

 Jewish Yearbook (1900), issued by the American 

 Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia, 



At home the educational impetus of the past 

 few years was remarkably well sustained. The 

 second triennial convention of the Council of Jew- 

 ish Women, at Cleveland (March 4-9), indicated 

 the great progress of that society, with nearly 

 5.000 members, and its special sections devoted to 

 Jewish studies, philanthropy, and educational 

 work. A junior organization was to be effected. 

 The Jewish Chautauqua was authorized at the 

 quinquennial convention of the I. O. B. B., to co- 

 operate in the formation of a lecture bureau, which 

 shall secure lectures for the lodges so as to im- 

 prove the intellectual standing of the order. The 

 growth of agricultural work was shown by a 

 further development of the National Farm School, 

 at Doylestown, Pa., the organization of a special 

 society in Chicago for that purpose, and increased 



