THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR BOOK A COMPENDIUM OF THE WORLD'S PROGRESS 1902 EDITOR FRANK MOORE COLBY, M.A. CONSULTING EDITOR HARRY THURSTON PECK, Ph.D., L.H.D. ASSOCIATE EDITOR EDWARD LATHROP ENGLE, B.A. NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY PUBLISHERS PREFACE. IN the preparation of the INTERNATIONAL YEAR BOOK constant effort has been made not only to state fact accurately and reflect comment fairly, but, what is more difficult, to set forth both fact and comment in their true perspective. The present volume, covering the year 1902, shows, without sacrifice, the editors believe, a greater degree of compression than its predecessors; in concise and logical treatment an advance has been made that renders the book especially useful. Though the plan originally adopted for this series of annuals has been virtually adhered to, each succeeding volume in various particulars has shown some improvement in presentation and scope. Two such departures that may be pointed out in the volume for 1902 are the grouping of Congressional Representatives under that sub-head in the article UNITED STATES, rather than placing them with their respective States, and the itemizing of the State revenues and expenditures, by which the sources and purposes as well as the volume of State moneys are readily seen. The editors are desirous of increasing the usefulness of the work and will welcome suggestions to that end. A preface cannot be an adequate guide to the numberless topics of interest treated in a volume of this nature. There may be mentioned, however, a few of the more important events of 1902; and these, in some degree, will serve to show how conspicuous a position that year holds in contemporary history. In the UNITED STATES the subject of keenest general interest was the ANTHRACITE COAL STRIKE, provoking Presidential intervention, which in the future may be turned to as an important precedent, and drawing more general attention both to TRADE UNIONS and to TRUSTS. Further thought concerning the problems of organized labor and of organized capital was occasioned by other STRIKES of the year and by the progress of SOCIALISM and the accomplishment of the SHIPPING MERGER. The year was notably a prosperous one. The articles BANKS and FINANCIAL REVIEW show the most important financial conditions and movements, while industry is treated, aside from the articles on the States, under MANUFACTURES and such special titles as IRON AND STEEL, COTTON, SUGAR, etc. Agricultural production, as well as the progress in cultural methods, is treated under AGRICULTURE, DAIRYING, HORTICULTURE, and in the articles on the various crops. The year 1902 saw the establishment of civil government in the Philippines, and, at home, in the sphere of MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT, the disclosure of most vicious corruption. In international affairs there was a marked development of already existing tendencies. INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION was more firmly established. The AngloBoer War came to an end and British power in the TRANSVAAL and other parts of South Africa increased. There were concluded an Anglo-Chinese treaty of commerce affecting CHINA proper, and an Anglo-Japanese treaty of alliance designed to maintain generally the prestige of GREAT BRITAIN and JAPAN in CHINA and COREA, while in menace to such prestige was the attitude of RUSSIA in MANCHURIA. Russian designs against PERSIA and British interests there continued to manifest themselves, as well as those of FRANCE against SIAM. While RUSSIA and FRANCE practically reaffirmed their alliance, as an answer to the Anglo-Japanese treaty, FRANCE and ITALY and FRANCE and SPAIN noticeably furthered their cordial relations. The ill-feeling between the English and German peoples showed little abatement in 1902, although at the end of the year the British and German governments were allied in coercing VENEZUELA. The troublesome question of the TRIPLE ALLIANCE was settled by a renewal of that pact. Ominous troubles in the BALKAN PENINSULA, |