JEWS. 



349 



yen is noticed. The growth of the tea trade has 

 been very steady, from 8,595,450 caddies to 36,674,- 

 548 caddies in 1896 ; and 206,402 families are en- 

 gaged in this industry. 



Politics and Events. The " Nara Maru " was 

 wrecked with the loss of sixty lives. Prince Shi- 

 madzu of Satsuma died. A new Cabinet was formed 

 by Premier Ito, and general elections were ordered 

 for March 15. The Government issued $10,807,350 

 worth of loan bonds bearing interest at 5 per cent. 

 Rev. Guido F. Verbeck, D. D., the most influential 

 of all the foreigners that ever came to Japan, long 

 the adviser of the Government, died in Tokio, March 

 10, after forty years of life among the Japanese. 

 The Red Cross Society's report shows 455,638 mem- 

 bers who subscribed 1,262,171 yen. New treaties 

 with France and Austria were ratified. On April 

 30 the Emperor issued a proclamation of neutrality 

 in the Spanish-American war. Three war ships 

 had been sent to Manila to watch operations. The 

 promoters of the Formosa Railway scheme secured 

 a loan of $15,000,000 in England. The Diet was 

 formally opened by the Emperor May 19, but nei- 

 ther the Government nor the Opposition had a ma- 

 jority, and, as the lower house refused to pass the 

 bill for increase of the land tax, it was dissolved 

 (for the fifth time in twelve sessions) on June 10, 

 after passing the new civil code which comes (with 

 the new treaties) into operation July 1, 1899. Oh 

 June 25 the Cabinet was dissolved. Half-yearly 

 reports show that Kobe, opened in 1869, exceeds 

 Yokohama in total volume of exports and imports. 

 Early in July a new coalition Cabinet, in which were 

 Okuma as Premier and Itagaki as head of the Home 

 Department, with a majority of untried men, yet 

 the first real " party " (instead of a " clan ") Cabinet, 

 was formed. Prince Cyril Vladimir, from Russia, 

 arrived July 7, and had audience of the Emperor. 

 The general elections showed a large majority for 

 the Government. A great discussion on prison re- 

 form occupied the press for several months. The 

 first " party Cabinet," owing to the unfortunate al- 

 lusion in a speech by the Minister of Education to 

 Japan's possibly becoming a republic centuries 

 hence, was dissolved, and Marshal Yamagata, with 

 other of " the elders," was called to form another 

 Cabinet. An alliance with the Liberals was made, 

 the latter promising to support the land-tax bill 

 and the former agreeing to the newer principle of 

 a cabinet governed by a party. The Diet was 

 opened Dec. 3. A superb bronze statue of Saigo 

 Takamori (military leader of the revolution of 1868 

 and also of the great Satsuma insurrection of 1877) 

 was unveiled in Uyeno Park in Tokio, Dec. 28. 

 Thus closed the year of greatest commercial and 

 manufacturing expansion known to Japan. 



JEWS. The Dreyfus case formed the leading 

 subject of discussion during the year, and the shift- 

 ing scenes that led to the movement for revision 

 were watched with feverish interest. With M. Zo- 

 la's advocacy and the personal participation of so 

 many Protestant leaders in France, it ceased to be 

 a Jewish question and became inextricably involved 

 with French progress or reaction. The new stages 

 of the movement for a fresh trial indicate the 

 spread of a more favorable sentiment. It is felt 

 that only revision will satisfy both France and the 

 civilized world that justice is maintained. While 

 in the early part of the year slight excesses against 

 the Jews were the order of the day in Paris, in con- 

 nection with the trial of M. Zola, greater calm pre- 

 vailed toward the close, and the new year's record 

 is awaited with more hope. The success of Mine. 

 Dreyfus in securing a hearing for her petition for 

 revision is the climax of her efforts for her hus- 

 band's release. It is significant of the general weak- 

 ness of anti-Semitism that the wave of agitation due 



to the Dreyfus case has spent itself in Europe. The 

 riots in Algiers have been followed by social pro- 

 scription of the Jews; but the anti-Semitic leader 

 was displaced, and the Government is showing a 

 firmer hand. In Germany the anti-Jewish crusade 

 appears to have lost its virulence the retirement 

 one by one of its parliamentary or journalistic ad- 

 vocates into the solitude of the convict's cell or the 

 gloom of the bankruptcy court indicates the charac- 

 ter of its most notorious followers. Local ordinances 

 in Berlin, however, and occasional diatribes in the 

 press, prove that the agitators are still at work, even 

 if they have failed to influence the great body of the 

 nation, as was proved by the June elections. In 

 Austria-Hungary riots in Galicia were the order of 

 the day, chiefly in the remote villages where the 

 peasantry are still dominated by medievalism, and 

 where the elections were made a pretext for pillage 

 of Jewish shops and homes. The disorder was 

 quelled by the Government, who were more success- 

 ful in checking the socialistic excesses in Galician 

 towns than in restoring sanity to Burgermeister 

 Lueger and his friends in Vienna. The Jews of 

 the empire participated actively in the Emperor's 

 jubilee. 



In Russia, the tide of justice and toleration seems 

 to be rising; the young Czar's appeal for disarma- 

 ment, due largely to a pamphlet on the expenses of 

 war, written by a Jewish banker, is perhaps only 

 the first step in a movement to assume a more mod- 

 ern attitude toward dissenters. The absence of any 

 riots or fresh restrictions, and the fact that slight 

 concessions are made from time to time, with less 

 harsh rulings by the courts, are hopeful signs. The 

 Government, to a certain degree, is hampered by the 

 Russian people, who can not be expected to counte- 

 nance rapid reforms, while a large majority of the 

 Russian Jews are still indisposed to meet the mod- 

 ern current and adapt their education and habits to 

 the approaching twentieth century. That Turkey 

 should receive the Hon. Oscar S. Straus, of Xew 

 York, as United States minister, shows that the 

 Sultan is more civilized than some other contempo- 

 rary rulers. 



The second Zionist Congress was held in Basel, 

 and was more largely attended than its predecessor. 

 It resolved, as the goal of its efforts, to secure " a le- 

 gally assured home " for Jews who suffer from per- 

 secution, and to establish a bank to raise funds for 

 buying land and concessions in Palestine. The pro- 

 ject of establishing a Jewish state, while not directly 

 asserted at the Basel congress, has been so tena- 

 ciously affirmed by Drs. Herzl, Nordau, and other 

 leaders, that the whole scheme has failed to receive 

 any wide support among the great body of Jews in 

 England, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria, Rus- 

 sia and Roumania furnishing the chief contingent. 

 One result of the agitation is to close Palestine, by 

 order of the Sultan, to Jewish immigration, and to 

 check the further growth of existing colonies about 

 twenty in number many of which are supported by 

 Baron Edmund de Rothschild. There were signs 

 toward the end of the year that the movement was 

 to be changed to an effort to organize agricultural 

 and industrial colonies in Palestine on the plan of 

 existing settlements, and that concessions might be 

 secured from the Sultan. It is possible that more 

 practical sympathy will be thus secured. During 

 the German Emperor's visit to Jerusalem he re- 

 ceived a Jewish deputation, and he is said to have 

 expressed himself favorably toward the Jewish colo- 

 nies. Meanwhile, numerous Zionistic societies have 

 been founded in Russia, Galicia, Roumania, and 

 elsewhere, which are principally composed of the 

 Russian element, with here and there a sprinkling 

 of the native born. In England large meetings of 

 Zionists have been held. It is significant that the 



