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what would be expected between two weighings on the particular kinds of scales used by the Government and the city weighers.

The evidence which I have described was the basis of the Government's case the discovery of the spring and the seventeen holes, five of them worn and enlarged by constant use; the reweighing of three drafts of sugar in the presence of the Government agent, two showing significant increase and one an equally significant absence of increase; the figures taken from the Company's own records, showing that in six years the Company paid for seventy-five million pounds of sugar on which it paid no duty.

The main contention of the Sugar Company, brought forward at the trial and still strongly insisted upon, is that, if there was fraud, no director or responsible officer of the Company was concerned in it or had any It was intimation of it. asserted the Combehalf that the pany's behalf

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1002 Aug. 91 155,781 13,007,849, 13,629.700 621,851 20 158,705 9,306,400 0,787,04 200,563 28 160,311 10,252,507 10,720,174 473,667 Sept. 6 165,530 9,830,220 10,185,451 215,231 11 169,0 13,091,529) 14,208,078|| 577,650 15 171,256 11,535,114 11,808,076) 333 842 17178,160 12,569,084 18,150,188 798,904 23 175,000 0,394,001 0,03,514 541,518 92 175,00 13,563,687 12,001,064 429,077 22 170,770 12.664,085 13,050,128 5,163 Oct. 1 183,592 10,767,874 11,187,579 370,198 1 183,593 14,952,253 15,672,709 720,616 e 189,032 8.160,507 8,518,844 352.937 10 190,820 11,420,490 11,975.748 555,258 18 191.8 11,636,099 12,670,680 485,481 18 198,520 2,981,807 3,011,650 79,818 20 197,540 9,999,739 10.565,908 766,220 22 200.157 11.000,302 12,854,803 448,501 23 201,043 10,790,427 11,262,820 471,891 28 204,5 12,839,999 13,480,875, 640,878 31 200.00 11,102,162 11,670,584) 577,499 Nov. 7 212,475 8,083,187 9,457,725, 474,601 816,106 14 218,336 13,080,453, 13,639,024, 558,571 | 29,179 18 220,658,108,410 0.8653,053 546,648 20 222,788 12,071,683 12.545,507 478,624 98,011 11,308,893 11.835,480 526,398 Dec. 81 254 179 10,200,774 10,746,646 485,672 1003

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PAGE FROM THE TABLES SHOWING DUTY WEIGHTS COMPARED WITH PURCHASE WEIGHTS

In reproducing this page from the tables prepared by the Government attorneys it is not intended that it should be read. It is reproduced merely to show the persistent blank from the beginning of the table down to November 20 in the columns where the excess of the duty weight over the purchase weight would appear if there were any. The break in the tables close to the bottom indicates the moment when the frauds were discovered. The first entry below that break is the cargo of the Strathyre, the ship which was being unloaded when the frauds were discovered. It should be noted also how the blank jumps abruptly from the "Government columns to the Company columns" at the moment of the discovery.

Sept. 110,530 13,403,032 14.110.011 714,570 988.940 19 225,296 12,924,587) 13,456,059 12.472 278,590 96 333,423 10,15,4 11,407,222, 611,3 Oct4 242,015 11,281,750 11,073,76 592,018. 252,643 215,102 11,217,191| 11,490,825|| 470,634 233,842 16 244,600 14,620,599) 15,231;456|| 610,207 109.807 to 207,172 11,930,500) 12.432,125 501,245 1,534 Nov. 16 1,725 14,787,940 16,454,507 U90,767 $211,466 24200,241 15,255,011 16,724,001 468,000 340,144 Dec. 14 310,007 11,927,065 19,032,035 125,800 269,641 1007 Bept 13 940,710 15,208,052 15.725,249 457.168

10 249,60 15,894,446, 10,396,3601, D 27 905,174 11,514,75 11,880,112) 871,737 250,94% 10,953,081) 11,384,61 881,481 7203,080 13,649,274 14,077,232 427,459) 257,185 18 275,790 15,565,2 18,127,440) + 563 201315,131 23 278, 16,010,2 14,399,584 680,363 818,00 Nov. 238,877 14,789,563 15.370,008 AND,64 298,187, 19,841,650 19.079,232 887,570

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fraudulent practices were carried on by the men on the docks for some reason which has not yet been discovered. Against this contention there is little direct evidence to place. But one thing at least is certain. It was the Sugar Company which profited by the frauds. Nearly a million and a quarter of dollars went into the Company's treasury in six years. which, if the seventeen holes and the little steel spring (or their equivalent) had not been in use, would have gone into the National Treasury. That sum was sufficient to pay a dividend of almost six per cent on the capital stock of the American Sugar Refining Company of New York (the corporation owning the Havemeyer & Elder refineries) annually during those six years.

The Government also introduced other testimony bearing on this point. It showed that while there were twelve Company checkers on the docks, only six of them were uniformly assigned to the task of checking the Government weigher in the scale-house, where the hole and the spring were. These six received higher pay than the other checkers; and, according to the testimony of a man who was for twenty years in the cashier's office of the Company, they were paid the higher wages secretly. Each employee's pay envelope had the amount of his pay marked on the outside. But in the case of these six the envelope contained more money than the figures on the outside called for. This testimony as to the secret method of paying the higher wages was contradicted by the men who, it was charged, were so paid; but no other evidence was produced from any officer of the Company or from any one in the Company's office to impeach it.

The same witness, who is now a reputable farmer in Connecticut, testified that he had seen Custom-House officers come up into the Company's office and receive money from the Company's cashier. His evidence on this point was absolutely uncontradicted. Another witness who has been for years in the customs service testified that when he came on to the docks about ten years ago as head Government weigher, the Company's dock superintendent, Oliver Spitzer, asked him to go

every month to the Company's office and get an envelope from the cashier. This statement was denied by Spitzer, but the Government weigher was unshaken in his assertions.

The American Sugar Refining Company (the parent company) is a ninetymillion-dollar corporation organized in New Jersey. It is popularly known as the Sugar Trust. It produces, according to the best estimates, about one-half of the refined sugar used in the United States. Its relation to the American Sugar Refining Company of New York is that the New York company holds the title to the property in that State, but the stock of the latter is owned and its business is done by the New Jersey company, all payments are made from the general treasury of the New Jersey company, and the interests of the two are identical. So, while in fact it is the New York company which was nominally the defendant in this case, it is not beside the mark to say that the Sugar Trust itself was the real defendant.

The Case of the Seventeen Holes revealed that the Sugar Company had been for at least the greater part of a decade engaged in smuggling sugar by the daily use of a fraudulent device. In the six years from 1901 to 1907 seventy-five million pounds of sugar were smuggled, on which the unpaid duties amounted to nearly a million and a quarter of dollars. Since the trial the Government attorneys have notified the Sugar Company that the Government also claims that it was defrauded of duties on shipments of sugar reaching as far back as 1897, and both at the Brooklyn refineries and at the refineries in Jersey City.

This petty larceny from the Government by a great corporation was an exhibition of the low ethical standards which had come to be prevalent in the conduct of great businesses a few years ago. Its prosecution and conviction is only one of many instances of the application of the new spirit which is coming to rule in the relations of great industries to the people and to the Government. It is to be hoped that the new management of the Sugar Trust will carry on its affairs in the new spirit rather than in the old.

I

BY SIR ANDREW H. L. FRASER, K.C.S.I., LL.D.

LATE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF BENGAL

T is not a light matter to propose to discuss an Indian question. The first thing to occur to one's mind is this: That India is not one country, and there is no such entity as India or "the Indian people." There are many large provinces in India; and it is certainly not saying too much to state that each one of these provinces, at least, is a country different from the other provinces and containing a different people. The languages of the Punjab, of the United Provinces of Bengal, and of Bombay, differ from each other as much as the languages of the Latin nations-Spain, France, and Italy-among themselves; and the languages of Madras and of many of the Dravidian peoples differ as much from those of a number of the other peoples of India as German differs from French. These differences of language are associated with differences in traditions and in history which separate the peoples from one another.

This is much lost sight of owing to the fact that the Government of India holds these different provinces together, and that the educated classes are able to communicate with one another, through the whole of India, through the medium of English. However, it is a matter that must not be forgotten in dealing with Indian questions. One has many opportunities of seeing the strength of the differences that exist between the different peoples, and their jealousies, so as to convince him that there is now, and will be for a long time, no Indian nation, and that a man should only speak of that part of India which he knows.

In considering the political situation in India one realizes that there are certain elements of unrest abroad; but it is most important to judge accurately of the limitations of the unrest. In the first place, it must be borne in mind that India is mainly a country of rural villages and of an agricultural community. The large towns contain a very small proportion indeed of the inhabitants; and the industrial classes, apart from the technical workmen who in

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each village are connected with the village life, are a very small portion of the community. Then, again, it is to be borne in mind that the educated classes, though by no means inconsiderable and not to be ignored, are still a very small section of the population of India. According to the census figures of 1901, the "literates ". and "literate means possessing simply the smallest capacity for reading and writing-of Bengal, which is probably the most advanced province in India, were 11.06 per cent of the adult population for males, .57 for females, or 5.77 per cent for both classes. To state these figures is to show how very small the educated classes The vast population of India, therefore, may be taken to be agricultural; and a large proportion of that to be uneducated.

are.

The unrest is to be found mainly in the following classes. Those who have fixed incomes have, in certain parts of the country, suffered very greatly from the sudden rise in prices of grain and the necessities of life. It is thirty-seven years since I went to India. There were certain places where it was possible at that time to get one hundred and fifty seers of grain for one rupee, where now you can hardly get fifteen. That is because of the sudden spreading of railways all over the country, and the bringing of these remote districts into direct communication with the markets of the world. Economic changes, the introduction of the manufacture of piece goods, and the establishment of factories in India, have very considerably affected certain industrial classes. All this has been favorable to India as a whole; but. it has operated on certain classes in a very trying way, as the history of Western nations enables us easily to understand. A third section of the community in which there is some considerable unrest are the educated classes. These feel that through their education they have obtained certain powers which they desire to exercise in the service of the country, or more self

ishly perhaps in their own advantage. They are pressing into executive office in the country, or into the legislative councils, which are representative bodies combining with the head of each Province, or with the Government of India, in the administration of the country. It is clear that all these sections of the country which are affected by unrest are comparatively small. The causes which have affected them unfavorably have been, in many cases, only favorable to the agricultural community; and it is beyond dispute that the agricultural community throughout the country is loyal. There is no doubt that in India, as among all ignorant and superstitious peoples, there are many easily excited by any false story or rumor that may be circulated among them; but, on the whole, the agricultural community throughout the whole of India is loyal, • and it is loyal because it thoroughly trusts the righteousness and beneficence of the British Government.

One has deep sympathy with those who are affected by economic changes, and not only the Government of India but local governments throughout India are giving sympathetic attention to the means which may be adopted to remedy the pressure upon those with fixed incomes and upon the industrial classes. The unrest among the educated classes also demands the sympathy of the British Government; for that Government has given the education which has led to this awakening and to this unrest; and the education has been given with the very purpose of raising the people and qualifying them to take part in the government and administration of their own country. Queen Victoria, when she took over the government of the country fifty years ago, declared that no person who was otherwise qualified for employment under the Crown should be held to be disqualified on account of race or creed.

That this promise has not been forgotten will be manifest from the fact that when I went out to India in 1871 there were only three Indian gentlemen in Bengal holding as high executive office as to draw 400 rupees of salary a month. These were the highest executive offices held by Indians. There are now twentythree gentlemen holding offices reserved for the Indian Civil Service, and drawing

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salaries up to 2,250 rupees a month. Not only so, but during my tenure of office as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal the next executive office to my own was held by an Indian gentleman, as senior member of the Board of Revenue. I speak of Bengal, where my latest years of service were spent. This shows that, where men have been found qualified for executive office, they have been appointed to it without any disqualification on account of their race or creed.

As to the councils, there has been a steady improvement in representation for many years, and now Lord Morley has made proposals which will largely increase the Indian element in the councils, bring in more fully the representatives of bodies and of persons with a stake in the country who ought to be represented, and make these councils much more effective in their work and more weighty in their advising of the Government. All this has been done in pursuance of a policy which has been gradually carried out and in accordance with the views of the Government of India and of local governments.

There is one very important distinction that manifestly arises in this discussion, namely, that when it is proposed to put members into legislative councils, what we want to get most of all is a man who represents a certain section of the community which ought to be represented. If he represents that section keenly and effectively, and is fit to fight for its interests, he is the kind of man that is required. It is altogether different with a candidate for the highest executive appointment. He ought not to be the representative of a class. He ought to be able to hold the scales equally between different classes. He ought to be tried as an administrator and proved to be righteous, impartial, and capable. If a man is found qualified in this way, he ought to be appointed whether he is an Indian or not, but the qualities in question are necessary and ought to be insisted upon. It is right to say that where a qualified Indian can be found for high executive office he ought to be appointed; but it is not right to say that a certain high executive office is always to be filled by a Hindu or by a Mohammedan, because a nation is badly governed that is governed by the repre

sentatives of the interests of any section whatsoever. As Her Majesty Queen Victoria said, no man should be disquali fied for appointment on account of race or creed; but it is surely at least equally true that no man should be appointed to executive office merely on account of his race or creed.

In the above remarks I have endeavored to show the sections of the community to which unrest is mainly confined, and I should like to say briefly that the unrest is very limited in area; the classes which might be affected are not wholly affected, but only portions of them. Even among

the educated there are many who are in no way affected by the general unrest of the educated classes in the direction I have indicated. Unrest is to be found more among that section of the educated classes which has no stake in the country than among those that have. Not only is unrest limited in extent, but those who would have recourse to anarchy or to violence, or who really aim at anything like the setting aside of the British Government in India, are an infinitesimal portion of those whose minds have awakened and who may be described as sharing to some extent in the unrest. On the other hand, the vast majority is loyal; and recent incidents have shown that some of them are prepared to go any length, even to give their own lives, in defense of the Government they honor and the friends whom they love. There are a few, but very, very few, who are prepared to go any length in violence; and against these it is necessary to be always watchful, and adopt any measures, however drastic, for putting down the crimes at which they aim; for their object is to set up a barrier between

the officers of the Government and the people, and render it impossible for the former frankly and constantly to mingle with the people. When touch with the people ceases on the part of the officers. of the Government, when they are unable to extend to the people their confidence and sympathy, it will be time for the British Government in India to cease; for that which has made it possible for that Government to do what has been done in the past to raise and elevate the people has been the mutual good feeling between them, and the intimate acquaintance with the people which the officers of the Government have, as a body, always maintained. In my opinion, the situation in India is far from alarming, and I believe it has greatly improved and will continue to improve, owing to the manner in which crimes of violence have led so many of the people to a true view of the relations which ought to exist between the Government and themselves.

There have been serious and regrettable incidents of late. But it would be foolish to take a pessimistic view of the situation in India. People are mistaken who think that the murders and crimes of violence which have occurred indicate general disloyalty or any general detestation of British authority. They represent that hatred of a ruling power which is common to anarchists all over the world; and they demand the same severe repression. But, by the happy combination of measures of repression with measures of reform, the Government of India has shown to the people its determination to combine justice with courage, and firmness with sympathy; and in this combination will lie, in the future as in the past, the strength of British rule in India.

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