Current Events 
U. S. A. 
IJ Elections for governors and senators in a number of states the com¬ 
ing fall have made domestic politics of chief consideration. In the 
same connection agitation continues against the Fordney-McCumber 
Tariff Bill, the New York World asserting that, if this bill should 
pass, the most sweeping powers proposed by tariff legislation in the 
history of the country would be conferred upon the President. 
If “Automatically,” says the World , “it would transfer the rate-fixing 
authority from Congress and make the President practically a tariff 
dictator, empowering him to boost the already exorbitant duties pre¬ 
scribed by 50 per cent., to create embargoes against commercially hos¬ 
tile countries, and even to resurrect and put into operation the generally 
condemned American valuation plan.” ^ There is considerable specu¬ 
lation as to how the Government will reconcile the Dry Law of the 
country with the established fact that liquor is being sold on ships 
flying the United States flag outside the three-mile limit. As a polit¬ 
ical issue, the party in power finds itself on the defensive, in spite of 
what is being said that no American merchant marine can be operated 
successfully against competing countries whose vessels are not sub¬ 
ject to prohibition regulations. CJWith the big coal strike continu¬ 
ing without either operators or workers showing any inclination to come 
to terms, the Illinois mine riots, resulting in the death of a number 
of men, aggravated a situation already very acute. Washington 
ordered an inquiry into the causes leading to this conflict between 
union and non-union miners, but the conditions in the Herrin district 
were such as to make investigation extremely difficult. C| After months 
of inquiry into the workings of the American administration in Haiti 
and Santo Domingo, the special Senate committee recommended to 
Congress indefinite continuance of military occupation of Haiti, but 
with a reduction of the Marine Corps there. Chile and Peru having 
failed to come to an agreement over Tacna-Arica during the meeting 
of the special committee of the two countries in Washington, Charles 
E. Hughes, Secretary of State, has informally presented a compro¬ 
mise plan which offers a middle ground between the contentions so 
far held. Arbitration is likely to be the method employed, with the 
United States called upon to make the decision. t| A fellowship in 
painting was awarded by the American Academy in Rome to Alfred 
Flogel of New York City. The subject in the final competition which 
extended from May 8 to June 3 in the School of the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design in New York was 
“Music.” The fellowship is of the value of $1,000 a year for three 
years, with residence in the Academy and opportunity for travel. 
