It seems most important, among other things, that we should be free to make the best terms for ourselves in the matter of the Nicaragua Canal, and that we ought to be entirely free to settle all questions with our Central and South American neighbors.

From what we hear, these alterations are not pleasing to the English people.

The Times, the most important London newspaper, says that it is a pity that the treaty has been so much changed that it is really of no value at all.  The paper goes on to say that if the treaty should not be ratified by the Senate, the good work done on it will not have been wasted, for it will have given a great lesson to the people of both countries, and indeed to the whole world.  The first step has been taken toward the beginning of universal peace.

Meanwhile, the treaty is in the hands of the Senate, and may soon be discussed.

* * * * *

News comes from Hamburg that the strike of the dock laborers is over.

The strikers have been beaten because of their lack of money.

In no. 7 of the great round world you will find an account of the strike, and if you will also refer to no. 10, you will see that it was thought that the strikers could not hold out very much longer.

The money the strikers expected to receive from other labor unions to help them was so slow in coming that the men and their families were in want, and no man is likely to stand out for the benefit of others when his own children are suffering from cold and hunger.

The men have gone back to their old employers and asked for work.  The pity of it all is, however, that during the strike others have been taken on in their places, and the employers have now no work to give them.

After holding out since the end of October, and refusing the masters’ offer to give them $1.10 a day, and let all future troubles be settled by arbitration, the strikers have had to give in without gaining a single point.  It is very sad.

* * * * *

The plague in India is still raging fiercely, and every one is feeling very grave about it.

Europe is so afraid that it will spread, that the greatest care is being taken to quarantine all people who have come from India.

All letters and merchandise are carefully fumigated, and they say that in Italy the authorities are so frightened that they fumigate the people, as well as their clothes and baggage.

So serious is the situation, that the Sultan of Turkey has issued an order forbidding the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.

The European Ambassadors in Russia and Persia are begging the rulers of those countries to forbid pilgrims to pass through their lands, or to embark from their ports.

You will understand what a very serious order this is, when you realize that the pilgrimage to Mecca is a part of the religion of every Moslem, and that about seventy thousand pilgrims go every year.