Watson's Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 2, April, 1906

by Various

MAKING YOUR COMMUNITY BETTER

Don’t you think it would be better to devote a whole number later on to the subject of what women can do for their native towns or districts? They have organized in a great many places and there are several national societies devoted to civic improvement. The members either do things themselves, or use their influence to secure good local laws to bring these things about. It is surprising how much they accomplish.

The field is a large one and covers many things—beautifying public squares and streets, making front and back yards attractive, improving the schools and school-yards, securing parks for the people, making better the towns’ sanitary conditions, establishing dinner-clubs for factory girls, pushing the right kind of legislation for the community, planting trees, flowers and grass, establishing traveling or stationary libraries, starting church or public lecture courses, public baths, hospitals, suppression of smoke and other nuisances such as overhead telephone wires and ugly advertising boards—oh, there is no end to what can be done! Of course, no two communities need just the same improvements and town and country have different problems, but wherever you live you will find something that can be made better. And we women can do it! “A revolutionizing power as to all that changes the ‘order of one day’ lies in feminine hands, through the use of what is distinctly hers,” says that wise woman who, under the name of “C,” writes those splendid articles called “Home Thoughts” for the New York Post.

All this isn’t a matter of theory. These things have been done in many places. And why shouldn’t woman be able to bring about public improvements? More than half the population of the United States are women. In many places we can vote. Everywhere we wield a great influence over those that do vote. And surely we have brains enough.

To my mind, local women’s clubs organized for some such purpose as this are a good deal more worth while than women’s clubs organized merely for self-improvement. Work for the improvement of others—that is the best way to improve yourself. Be a citizen as well as an individual. Women’s literary and current events clubs are good institutions when they don’t try to do foolish things or make us neglect our home duties, but these same clubs might do the world, and the members, too, greater good if they would also turn their attention to helping the whole community to better things.

But to return to that Nebraska letter. I suggest that we keep it till our July number and devote that whole issue to the question of women and civic improvement. I hope that every one of you who has done any work of that kind, or seen it done, will write to the Department and tell us about it. Remember that the July number comes out June 25 and that the letters should reach me about three weeks before that time. Write now.

FLOWERS FOR JUNE NUMBER

June is a month of flowers, how will it do to devote the June number to them? That is a very big subject, so we’d better narrow it down a little. Suppose we consider only the ornamental flowers common to our gardens, woods and fields. Let us all contribute something as to the care and raising and nature of them.

We will not “study botany,” as they do in school and college, but, besides collecting information on planting, watering, repotting etc., we can get a very good bird’s eye view if what flowers are. Nearly all of us have probably raised flowers or seen them raised, but there are enough interesting facts about them to fill a hundred numbers of our Department. Let us try to collect as many interesting facts as possible so that we can have a broader knowledge when we see them or work with them in the future.

We will not include the plants or trees that bear our common fruits and vegetables. This is a subject by itself and perhaps we can take it up in some later number.

Though we are going to confine ourselves to our common flowers and plants let us get a general idea of where they belong in the vegetable kingdom—in regard to ferns, mosses, mushrooms, sea-weeds, lichens, etc.

For instance, which of these is the nearest relative to the asparagus—the oak, the fern, the lily, the mushroom or the rose? The question isn’t important to us in itself, but a very little effort will enable us to understand the general arrangements of the plants so that it will be an added pleasure all our lives.

What is a plant? What is it composed of? What does it eat? Drink? Breathe? What are the leaves for? The roots? The flowers? Why do plants differ so among themselves? Why does one grow from a bulb, another from fine roots? Why is the seed of a maple put in that peculiar little case you crunch under foot on the pavement?

Oh, there are lots of “whys”! The nice part of it is that it is all very simple, after all. We can find out a great deal with very little trouble. There are plenty of easy books on the subject, nowadays, and a good many people who know about plants. Many of you know all these things, and more, without asking.

The things suggested in the last paragraph are important to us if we are raising flowers. If you raise flowers you are a flower-nurse and a flower-doctor. How can a nurse or doctor do much for a patient unless she knows what the patient eats, drinks and breathes, and what the various members and organs of the patient are for?

Where did our flowers originally come from? Are they all native to America? If not, how did they get here? Were they always as they are now?

How do plants reproduce their kind? Do all plants have seeds? Do seeds always grow into plants just like the one on which they grew? If so, have all the many varieties existed from the first? If not, how can you get another plant like the parent? Do you know what Luther Burbank, the “California Wizard,” is doing? Has a seed one parent or two? Where is it, or where are they? It’s easy to ask questions, isn’t it?

Yes, and it’s surprisingly easy to answer them, if you try. An encyclopedia will help you, if you consult it. So will an unabridged dictionary, though it doesn’t say much and is often very technical. Of course a botany will and there are many “popular” books now that give you much interesting information. Don’t make a lesson out of it. You may be able to answer some or all of the above questions without help of any kind. If not, take a few minutes some time soon and browse around among some of those books and pick up anything that strikes your fancy. If there are no books handy, ask your friends. It is as good as a game of “Authors” any day! If your friends don’t know, you are very lucky. Then you can do a little observing and thinking on your own hook. That is a hundred times better than being told or taught.

There is nothing that can be made more deadly dry and tedious than “botany”: there are few things that can be made more delightful and interesting than a commonsense study of flowers!

Have flowers played a part in history? What was the “War of the Roses?” What is the fleur-de-lis, the emblem of France and used so much in decoration and jewelry? Do you remember the story of Narcissus in Greek mythology? What other flowers have figured in history? Do you remember, in our February number, what royal family had the broom flower as their badge? What is the national flower of Scotland? Of Ireland? Of our country?

Do we Americans use much taste in making bouquets? What is your idea of a really beautiful and artistic bouquet? Do you know the Japanese idea of a bouquet?

Is it healthful to have many plants around you? How do plants keep the water fresh in an aquarium?

Tell us your best remedies for insects that injure plants? What plants are best for the house in winter? In summer? Do you know how to make good window-boxes? Tell us anything you know about plants and their care.

Would your town or district be pleasanter and better to live in if more flowers and trees were growing in it? What are parks worth to a large city? But there. I am running into our subject for July!

Are you supposed to answer all those questions? Bless you, no! No one has to do anything in our Department. We get work enough in our daily lives—our Department is to afford us a change and relief from everyday work. It isn’t any the less play because we can profit by it and learn things from it. And perhaps it will teach us how to turn some of our daily work into an interesting kind of game (if we haven’t learned how to do that already) and yet do it better than we did before. The questions are merely to suggest things for our June number. Pick out a few that interest you and find out something about them or tell us what you know already. Mercy, no! You don’t have to! But you’re likely to find a little of it amusing and pleasant and to add a bit more interest to your life.

If we only know how, and try, we can make our lives so much more pleasant for ourselves and those about us! It is very easy. And it doesn’t take much time or brains or money or anything else, except “gumption” enough to try.

For May, June and July

So for May we will continue our discussion of woman’s interest in politics; in June, our common, ornamental flowers, wild and cultivated; in July, what women can do toward improving and beautifying their native town or district.

Suggest Future Subjects

I have asked the printer to put the above announcement at the beginning of our Department for the sake of convenience. I believe it will be a good plan to announce our monthly subjects three numbers ahead all the time, so that we can have plenty of time to think them over in advance, make suggestions and send in information.

Now, what shall we have for the August number? If there is something you are interested in or want to talk about or hear others talk about, send it in to the Department. Do this not only for August but for all the following numbers. I chose the subject for the first few months in order to get our plan started. Now I have had more than my share of “chooses” and all the others are for you to select. It may be that I can arrange to have a special prize offered each month for the best monthly topic suggested. I’ll try.

WHY SHOULD WOMEN BE INTERESTED IN POLITICS?

There is one answer that is sufficient in itself—Because her daily bread depends upon politics!

Is there any particular reason why she should go about her daily work like a mole and pay no attention to the things that make her life hard or make it easy? Doesn’t she suffer from unjust laws and bad conditions and profit by just laws and good conditions as much as her husband does, or her father, son, or brother?

Someone objects that politics is for the man to take care of; housework is woman’s sphere. That isn’t quite a fair statement of the case. The man’s part in the care of the family is his business: the woman’s is her housework. Politics is a third question. Why should the man alone have this to see to? A good many objections will be offered to this, too, but all these objections will boil down to just one thing—because he does! And that isn’t any reason at all. If you were asked why little children should work in factories and kill their health and youth, would you consider “Because they do!” a sufficient or sensible reason?

The men say that when women discuss anything they never get anywhere because they fail to define the terms they use, and may all be talking about different things under the same name. I think men make this mistake about as much as we do, but let’s be on the safe side this time and define just what we mean by “politics.”

Politics in our country have become so disreputable that we are likely to feel that having anything to do with them is bad taste or even degrading. It is natural to feel that way, but is it silly, nevertheless. It is bad taste, or even degrading, to have anything to do with a notorious criminal, but not if you are making him better instead of letting him make you worse! This is particularly true when it is partly your fault that he became a criminal!

Now as to the definition of politics. The Standard Dictionary gives this:

1. The branch of civics that treats of the principles of civil government and the conduct of state affairs; the administration of public affairs in the interest of the peace, prosperity, and safety of the state; statecraft; political science: in a wide sense embracing the science of government and civil polity.

2. Political affairs in a party sense; the administration of public affairs or the conduct of political matters so as to carry elections and secure public offices; party intrigues; political wire-pulling; trickery.

3. A man’s political sentiments, party preference, or connection.

The word, then, has three shades of meaning. The third one we need not bother with, since it merely means any man’s opinion on the things given under Number 1 and Number 2.

Now let’s contrast Number 1 and Number 2. There are some large words there, but if we take it a piece at a time we shall at least see that there is a tremendous difference between the two shades of meaning.

In Number 1 politics means the fair and unprejudiced study of how a nation should be governed, but in Number 2 politics means How much can you get out of it regardless of the general welfare!

In Number 1 the object is the “peace, prosperity and safety of the state,” but in Number 2 the object is to “carry elections and secure public offices”—“party intrigues; political wire-pulling; trickery.”

It is Number 1 we are considering primarily. True, if our daily bread depends on politics, we are also interested in “how much we can get out of it,” but we mean by this how much we can get justly and honestly—our equal share along with everyone else. “Equal rights to all, special privileges to none.”

No, no! I’m not advocating the People’s Party principles just because I quote one of their watchwords. That motto is not theirs alone, but that of every honest citizen, no matter to what party he belongs. It is merely an expression of the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Whatever I may believe personally, it is no part of my business to plead the cause of any political party in our Department. We have nothing to do with parties. Our object is to consider how our nation is governed and how it should be governed—national, state, county, township and city governments, under whatever names these divisions may be called in different places.

We are primarily concerned with definition Number 1. We want to know how our nation should be governed. After that we will consider Number 2, and see how it is governed.

Now, considering the awful amount of writing and talking there is about politics, the infinite number of questions there are to decide, and the unending difference of opinion on these questions, we can see at the outset that we can’t decide it all in two numbers of our Department. Nor in a hundred. We are not going to try to. All we want is an intelligent idea of the general situation and of our duty in the matter.

What is government at bottom? In the beginning there was no government or organization of any kind, not even the family organization. Each man or woman lived his or her own life separate from all others. The first organization came about when a man and woman decided to live together and raise children. They soon found that when they had a child to take care of they could not go on independently of each other as they had before. They had two things to do—to care for the baby and keep it safe every minute from wild beasts and other people, and to secure food for themselves and their child. If they both went hunting for food there was no one to watch the baby; if they both watched the baby, there was no way of getting food. They saw that they had to have some arrangement. They had to divide the labor. So the woman tended the baby and the man went hunting for all three. Each of them gave up a little of the former independence and received a new thing in return—help from another person. Thus the “family” began. It was the first step towards society and government. They gave up part of their freedom in return for help from others.

People lived by hunting animals and gathering fruits and berries at first. If a man laid by any food for his family, another man was likely to take it away while he was away hunting. He found it pretty hard to have to do anything himself and he at odds with other men. Pretty soon it dawned on him that it would pay to make some “arrangement” with those other men. He wouldn’t rob them, if they didn’t rob him. Later he arranged with a few of them to keep their families close together so that some of the men could protect them while the other men hunted for all. In some such way began the “town.” Each of them gave up a part of his freedom in return for help from others.

When many towns had sprung up these towns began to see they could to advantage make “arrangements” among themselves (just as individual men had done) for protection and other purposes. Thus the “state” or country came into existence. Each town gave up part of its “independence” in return for help from other towns.

Thus “society” was formed and grew more and more complex. Of course, I have only sketched the process in a very general way, but the idea is there. The one point we have to consider is that no one of these arrangements or institutions—the family, town and state—would be possible unless every member gave up part of his original freedom in return for help from others. A bargain has to be made. For instance, the different men and their families each made a bargain with the whole number to give up part of their freedom, time and energy to the band. In return each was to receive his share of the freedom, time and energy the others had given to the band or town. Each man made a bargain with the town. He owed the town something: the town owed him something.

That was the beginning of government, and that is the arrangement at the bottom of any government to this day. Every government (town, county, state or national) is just a bargain between the various individuals and all of them taken together. Each owes something to all: all owe something to each.

The point is, in each case, is this bargain a fair one? Does the individual give up more than he receives in return?

In olden times the average individual did give up far more than he got in return. Often he didn’t get much besides protection against some other government. Yet for this he frequently had to give up nearly all his freedom, time and energy. A few individuals gained control of the government and, though they might not contribute as much as the others, took most of what the others gave for the use of the whole number, calling themselves kings, or dukes or emperors. The mass of the people forgot that originally the “government” meant all the people. They came to consider the few who had gained control of the government as the government itself. That is, they let themselves be cheated out of their share in it.

Our Declaration of Independence was one of the things that resulted when, after centuries of misrule and suffering, the mass of the people began to wake up to the fact that they had been cheated all that time under a bargain which had originally been fair. They had been giving more than they got in return.

In an absolutely fair government every individual would receive just as much as he gave and give just as much as he received. A modern government is so vast and so complex that it would be hard to measure each man’s share exactly, but the nearer any government comes to that, the better and fairer it is. England, for example, comes nearer to that ideal than does Russia; Russia nearer than Afghanistan.

The chief trouble in Russia is that the mass of the people have to give more than they receive. A comparative few have gained possession of the government and each takes a very, very large share of what all contribute, leaving almost no share at all for the majority.

Of course it is almost impossible to trace out just what each Russian peasant gives up to the government, and what he receives in return. Without a government of some kind he could not produce or hold anything except by force against his fellows—land, goods, money, family, all would be totally insecure. As it is, he does get some security in these respects. In return he gives practically all his freedom, time and energy. On the other hand, a Grand Duke may give up to his country hardly any freedom, time and energy, and yet be rolling in wealth. Something is wrong. It is not a fair bargain. It is not a good government.

How about our government? Is it a fair bargain?

Modern civilization is very complex. No two men can really give just the same amount to the common country, since all men differ in ability. But the country asks only certain things from its individuals. To be fair the point is to ask the same from all. The country gives only certain things to its individuals: the point is to give the same to all. Our country doesn’t demand military service in time of peace, as do many other countries. And, in return, it doesn’t give us a tremendous standing army. If it did demand military service, to be fair it would have to make the demand equally of all able to bear arms. If it did give us a big standing army, to be fair it would have to use this army to protect us all equally.

If our country taxes certain goods, it must tax them everywhere—not for one man and not for the next. If there is a tax of one cent on every bale of a certain commodity, each man should pay one cent for every bale he owns. If there is a tax of one cent on every dollar, each man should pay one cent for every dollar he owns.

Is this the case in the United States?

If the Government gives certain privileges to a few men, it should give the same to all. Is this always done in our country?

Of course all may not always want a certain privilege. It is open to all, but only a few use it. Is this all that is required of the Government? Or, since the Government has nevertheless given some of the general fund to only a few, should these few make some adequate return for what they have used from the common property? Is this always done in our country?

Ask yourself similar questions about every case that comes up. What I have said doesn’t pretend to “explain politics,” but it ought to give everyone a test or basis to refer everything back to. Ask yourself whether any law or custom is a fair bargain. You can tell well enough when you deal with the grocer or the milkman whether you are getting a fair bargain. Try to in these other matters.

But to come back to why women should take an interest in politics. One reason has been suggested—that her daily bread is affected by them. Another has been hinted at—that it is partly your fault that politics as practiced in this country are corrupt (definition No. 2). Since we are to devote the next number of our Department to this same question, we will do little now in this issue except suggest reasons and ask questions. I’m not going to do all the expressing of opinion just because I happen to have the chance all to myself this month. By next month I hope there will be letters and opinions from a great many of you.

In some parts of our country women can vote and it is likely that some day they will do so everywhere. When the country or state gives her the right to vote does that put her under any obligation to do or give anything in return for this privilege?

Who gives women (or men) the right to vote—the city, state or country?

Is it fair to give it to some women and not to all? Is it fair to give it to men and not to women?

Would politics be purer if women took more interest in them? If women voted?

In those places where women cannot vote what can they do towards securing good government? Can they do anything through their husbands, brothers and fathers? Through their neighbors? Through their own children? Can they do anything through the church? The schools? Last year, when Philadelphia threw off boss-rule, what was the method that succeeded in making the corrupt politicians surrender after all other methods had failed?

Can you tell the Department of any instance where the women have brought about, or helped to bring about, reforms in town, country, state or national government even when they were not allowed to vote?

Do you remember the saying that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”? How much truth is there in it?

If you had a really intelligent idea of politics as they should be and as they are, would it bring you into closer touch with the men-folks of your family? Would it broaden your horizon? Would it interfere with household duties? Would it make you a better citizen? Could you accomplish real good by having this knowledge?

What is the best way of acquiring an intelligent idea of the subject, it you haven’t one already? Take the opinion of those around you? Read weighty and technical books and articles? Read first a very simple book on civics—on the organization of our Government? Would it be a good plan to read your boy’s school text-book on this subject?

Can some one point out a few articles in the numbers of this Magazine which make their point very clear and are easy enough for anyone to understand? Send the Department the names of a few that appealed to you, so that some more of us can venture on them. Similar articles in other magazines which the average woman can grasp without a previous extensive knowledge of politics or political economy? Books?

Can you decide a question until you have heard both sides of it?

Is it safe to believe all you read, or does it pay to consider when you read it, who wrote it, what personal or party reason he may have had for writing it?

Consider your local newspaper. Do you know the difference between the “set” matter and the “plate” matter and the “ready-print” matter in its pages? Why is this difference very important in deciding as to the value of an article in that paper? Who writes set matter? Has he “any fish to fry” when he writes? Who writes plate and ready-print matter? Has he any fish to fry? With a little care you can tell these three kinds of printed matter apart in your local paper. (Ready-print matter is used only in some country weeklies and dailies and some other small local papers. It can be “spotted” by noticing what pages of the paper always have it. Unfold the paper and lay it flat on the floor. If it is ready-print and has few pages enough to make only one sheet, all of the pages on one side will be ready-print. There won’t be any local articles or items in the print. Both ready-print and plate are in different type from set matter.) If a corrupt man or corrupt men wrote the ready-print and plate could they wield a vast influence? More than by writing the set matter? It is well worth thinking about.

Are there many magazines or papers that are not controlled by political or business interests? How much can you believe in a publication controlled in that way?

The voters of the country are divided into several political parties. Would it be better or worse if there were no regular parties and every voter voted independently?

What is a real democracy? Is the United States a real democracy now? Why?

What is meant by direct legislation—the initiative, referendum, recall and imperative mandate? Big words, but they stand for things worth knowing about and having an opinion on. And they are easy enough to understand. Would these things tend toward real democracy? Have they been tried in actual practice? If so, have they proved a success? Why? What effect would they have on the whole party system?

There, I think that is enough questions for one person to ask. Someone is likely to ask me a question in return—How do politics affect our daily bread? Well, there are several hundred answers to that. Let’s each of us suggest for the May number one or more ways that politics (according to both definition No. 1 and definition No. 2) affect our daily living.

We are not going to try to become experts in politics, but we do want to have an intelligent general idea of them. It is our duty. In our May number I hope to have many opinions from women all over the country.

THE INTEREST OF EVERYDAY THINGS.

We had a glimpse last month at some of the interesting things concerned in bread and bread-making. The house is full of things we have known so long that we scarcely think of them except as parts of the daily routine, but which, if we turn our attention to them, prove veritable mines of information, history, travel and even romance.

Sponges

A sponge is the skeleton of a very, very, tiny animal, or rather of a colony of thousands of such animals that live under water. When the little animals die they leave behind them this network of elastic fibers that they have built up. For a long time it was thought that sponges were plants, and even now scientists know really very little about these little animals. You have noticed how many kinds of sponges there are. These different varieties are caused partly by differences in temperature and chemical composition of the water and partly by the fact that there are more than one species or variety of the animal itself. There is no need to enumerate all the kinds of sponges from the fine, soft ones used in surgical operations to the big, coarse ones used for washing carriages. Nearly all the sponges inhabit salt water and the best ones come from the Mediterranean, particularly the Levant or that eastern part of the Mediterranean bounded by Syria, Asia Minor and the Holy Land and Egypt. Others are found in the waters around Florida and in those near Australia. The sponges are secured by means of native divers. In some places these men work all day long from sunrise to sunset through six months of the year, resting during the winter. The work is, of course, very hard and few of them reach old age. Often they are treated with inhuman cruelty by their employers and many are killed by sharks. Particularly in Florida there have been attempts made to raise sponges artificially, but though it is easy to secure the spawn of the tiny animals and succeed in getting them to attach their little colonies to stones, coral or other objects under water, the sponges never reach any considerable size and are commercially useless. They have also tried to propagate them by cuttings or slips, but here arises the difficulty of making the cuttings attach themselves to other objects, which is necessary to their development. And the little animals themselves, they go right on very quietly drinking in water and getting all they need from it—air, food and drink—whether they are off the coast of Europe, Asia, Africa, America or Australia or in a little glass aquarium being looked at through a microscope by a dried-up old man with spectacles and side-whiskers. And we use the sponges.

Maize

The right name of what we call corn or Indian corn is maize. The word is derived from the Spanish word maiz, which comes from the native Haitian word mahiz. Corn in Europe means what we call wheat. Maize, or corn, like all our grains, belongs to the big Grass Family and is a native of America. Most of our other grains come from Europe and Asia, just as we ourselves did. It probably came from the table-lands of Mexico and Peru and has always been the chief food of the Indians. It was introduced into Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa and spread quickly and widely for a while. However, the climate was not hot enough for it in Europe and it is not raised there very much now. The English generally consider it fit only for animals and rather turn up their noses at us for eating it ourselves. The only time I ever saw any offered to an Englishman he was very polite about it but managed to avoid eating even a single mouthful from the nice, tender ears. Other nations are horrified at seeing otherwise well-bred Americans pick up a roasting-ear and gnaw it off the cob, and it must be confessed that it does look pretty bad unless a person is careful to hold it with only one hand and bite it off daintily. Many Americans who travel in Europe miss it terribly and one woman confessed to me that her chief reason for coming home was just to get some real American corn once more. I understand, though, that the English look on our popcorn very differently. It is said that two New England spinsters introduced it over there a number of years ago and their little stand rapidly became so popular that they amassed a very considerable fortune and lived happily ever afterwards. We use sweet corn not only on the cob, for fritters, puddings and so on, as corn-meal and for stock, but extract from it whisky, starch and glucose sugar. Besides sweet corn and popcorn the common kinds are flint and dent. Sweet corn gets its name from the large quantities of sugar in it. Popcorn pops because it has a great deal of oil and this oil explodes when sufficiently hot. Corn varies in color from white to black, but most of it is yellow or white. Like wheat, Government experts and other scientists in this country, Canada and elsewhere have been experimenting with corn for years and by cross-breeding and selection (about which processes I hope the Department will receive some interesting contributions for our June number) they have vastly improved the old varieties and produced many new ones.

When I was a child I remember being much impressed on being told that you never, never could find an ear of corn with an odd number of rows in it. Maybe you can, but I never have been able to, and, as that advertisement says, “there is a reason.”

Can someone tell us for our June Department? You may have heard the story of the Southern planter before the War who offered to give freedom to any slave who could find an ear of corn with an uneven number of rows. None of them could, though it is easy to believe they hunted a good deal, until finally another white man showed one of the slaves how he could cut a row out of an ear when it was very young so as to leave no mark when he presented it and demanded his freedom. The master kept his word and the slave went free.

VARIOUS HINTS.

It was almost equally hard to award the prize for the best general suggestion or recipe sent in. After some careful deliberation, it seemed that, all things considered, the free subscription this month should go to Alicia E. Storm, of Plessis, N. Y., though we hesitated, especially between this and Mrs. Richardson. A little later I hope to be able to send a little souvenir to everyone who sends in a contribution and doesn’t get a regular prize. In case this plan carries out, as I think it will, of course all who have contributed before that time will be remembered. And always there is the gratitude of those who benefit from your suggestion, and my own sincere thanks and your consciousness of having helped other women in their daily trials and perplexities.

Home Talk.

We have no kitchen cabinet, and we keep a small table set for three in our kitchen, which is not large. The cooking stove, sink, and cupboards taking most of the room. I needed a small table to use for work and mixing table. There was a space behind the stove. I bethought me of the crate in which my sewing machine came. It is just the thing. The table is just about the right height, and the shelf below is as convenient as the top. I find that on baking day it helps very much to get everything one needs before commencing work. I use an earthen mixing bowl. After the bread and biscuits, I make pies, as the lard is then cold. Then I make my cakes and afterward doughnuts. It is a saving of time and fuel if one can bake a variety at once, as in cold weather victuals keep longer than in summer. A convenience for storing pies can be made by having several shelves sawed out large enough to hold your tins. One can use laths (four of them) for uprights, fastening them well at the four corners of the bottom shelf; then fasten the others about three inches apart. This gives more space, and keeps pies from being mussed.

Did you ever experience the difference between two neighborly calls? Mrs. A. relates the latest bit of gossip, making up in insinuations what she lacks in fact. She talks about her dressmaker, criticizes the appearance and dress of her friends, and gives you an uncomfortable feeling—thinking perhaps you will be the subject of unpleasant remarks. Mrs. B. is fresh and cheery. She asks about your plants, and tells of the growth of her own—of every new bud. She tells of the cunning things her baby has said, of the nest her canary is building, of the new book she is reading. She tells, perhaps, of some ludicrous mistake she has made in her cooking, laughing at the same. This woman may not be intellectual in the highest sense, but she is charming. Her call will have made you happy all the day. We leave the effect of our presence—sometimes for long. So should we act that no sting of uneasiness be left in the hearts of those with whom we come in contact.—Alicia E. Storm, Plessis, N. Y.

Valuable Pointers

Every work is easy and pleasant if you go at it as you go to a picnic. In house cleaning I fix one room at the time. It takes a week, but I have the most of each day and I do my work better, as I don’t have to hurry. No confusion in the regular routine of work; one thorough sweeping and dusting is enough for one day. If the tablecloth is clean enough for the home folks, it is all right for company. Don’t try to cook a variety of dishes each day. You won’t hold out so well, and one or two will do as well, and change them every day. Sheets, towels and some other things can be used all right without ironing. If you smoothed all the wrinkles out of all the rough clothes, you might have the wrinkles in your face. I read and rest some every day. Prepare two dinners on Saturday, and go to church and Sunday-school. I do have some trouble and everyone does, but I am always thankful, and my life-work is a delight to me. Let us try to do all things to the glory and honor of God. Although in the country, we have one of the best “teachers.” Our children attend, cold or hot, regularly. They are taught the Sunday-school lesson at school Friday afternoon.—Mrs. E. A. Richardson, Thomaston, Ga.

To Make Sure of Milk Churning in Cold Weather

Many persons who churn in winter have trouble because butter will not come if chilled, and are obliged to throw the milk away, or feed it to the stock. If they will steam, not boil, the milk after milking, they can allow it to freeze solid and it will churn all right if thawed and warmed properly. This recipe has been worth many dollars to me, and hope it will help other women housekeepers.—Mrs. D. L. Burrows, Gibson, Ga.

To Polish Nickel on Stoves

Use stove polish. It is the very best thing. Rub a light coating over it and polish with polishing cloth or brush. The cloth or brush is generally sufficient. Only give an occasional coat of polish.—Mrs. D. L. Burrows, Gibson, Ga.

To Clean Iron Kettles

Boil skim-milk in it and then wash with good soap-suds. Use six quarts for an eight-quart kettle, and boil and simmer for twenty-four hours. This will also prevent future trouble.—Mrs. E. R. Putney, Kansas City, Mo.

To Remove Large Stones From Fields

Make the stone very hot on one side only; pour water on it to make it crack, and help it along with a heavy hammer. Another way, in the winter, is to bore a hole pretty well into the stone, fill with water and plug it firmly shut. The force of the water as it freezes will crack the stone. Still another way is to make a hole in the direction of the veins or cleavage of the stone, put in a cleft cylinder of iron, then drive an iron wedge between the two halves of the cylinder. L. L. Deweese, Piqua, O.

Shoe-Soles

Melt together tallow and common resin, two parts of first to one of second. Apply hot—as much as the sole will absorb. Neat’s-foot oil is good also. These remedies keep the leather soft, prevent its cracking, and make it waterproof.—Mrs. N. O. Baker, Jersey City, N. J.

To Clean Wall Paper

Take off the dust with a soft cloth. With a little flour and water make a lump of stiff dough and rub the wall gently downward, taking the length of the arm each stroke, and in this way go round the whole room. As the dough becomes dirty, cut the soiled parts off. In the second round commence the stroke a little above where the last one ended, and be very careful not to cross the paper or to go up again. Ordinary papers cleaned in this way will look fresh and bright, and almost as good as new. Some papers, however, and these the most expensive ones, will not clean nicely. In order to ascertain whether a paper will clean nicely, it is best to try it in some obscure corner. Fill up any broken places in the wall with a mixture of plaster of Paris and silver sand, made into a paste with a little water, then cover the place with a piece of paper like the rest, if it can be had.—Mrs. B. C. Benton, Denver, Col.

To Clean a Chimney

Place a piece of zinc on the live coals in the stove. The vapor thus produced will carry off the soot.

For a Cut

Sift powdered resin on the wound, wrap with a soft, clean cloth, and wet occasionally with water.—Miss Anna Paisley, New Orleans.

To Cleanse Sponges

Wash in a solution of a teaspoonful of ammonia to two quarts of water, and afterwards in a solution of one part of muriatic acid to twenty-five of water. Sponges should be thoroughly rinsed, aired, and dried after every using. Unless they are kept very clean it is not well to use them. A piece of rough towel or tablecloth hemmed at the edges is much better. Another way to clean sponges is to steep them in buttermilk for some hours, then squeeze out and wash in cold water. Lemon juice is also good.

HEROISM AT HOME.

A PRIZE FOR THE BEST TRUE STORY

Every month the Department will publish a little story of heroism in the home—not any one act of heroism, but the tale of how someone lived heroically, lived self-sacrifice in everyday life. It must be true and must be about somebody you know or have known or know definitely about. It must not have over 500 words. The shorter, the better. Whoever sends in the best story each month will not only have it printed but will receive a year’s free subscription to Watson’s Magazine sent to any name you choose. Tell your story simply and plainly.

Please state whether the names and places mentioned in your story are real or fictitious. The Department does not print real names in these stories. Please do not send in stories about someone rescuing another from drowning or anything like that—we don’t want stories of single acts of heroism but of lives bravely and unselfishly lived out.

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The stories of “Heroism at Home” have begun to come in. We can not print all of them in this number, but there will be a place for the others later on. Only one told of a single heroic incident. It was a brave, unselfish act, but that isn’t what we are going to use under this head—not things done suddenly, perhaps on impulse or by instinct, but the kind of heroism that lasts day after day. This one story, too, was told in verse and though it was good I fear we had better confine ourselves to simple prose. I hope the writer will send us another good true story in prose and of heroic living.

The prize this month is awarded to “Her Career.” It was very hard to decide among several stories that told of some very beautiful and useful lives, so I got others to help me. I imagine it is never going to be easy to decide which is the very best of the stories each month. How the stories are told is not considered at all, but the heroic lives described are very hard to weigh against one another. But I will do the best I can.

HER CAREER

No, she never wrote a book, nor went as a missionary to Japan, nor won a degree in college. She never even taught school, nor belonged to a woman’s club.

But she has been the inspiration of her family and has radiated blessings on all she knew.

Thirty years ago she was a dark-haired, dark-eyed bride of eighteen. They were poor, but they had health and strength and bright dreams of the future. They built a small log house on the land they had bought on credit and began to improve it. Their days were filled with hopeful work and their nights brought rest and refreshing sleep.

But soon a shadow fell across the sunlight that streamed on her pathway. Her husband began to drink. He was soon a helpless victim of the fiery appetite and could not go where liquor was without getting drunk.

She was refined and regretted to the very depths of her soul her husband’s weakness. Sometimes she was righteously indignant, but she never upbraided him with moral lectures in which she posed as a mistreated angel, though she often talked it over with him after the “spree” was over.

Children came. The “sprees” became more frequent and things looked more gloomy, but she worked tirelessly and trusted everlastingly.

At last the county voted liquor out. This did some good; the temptation was farther away. But even then he would make several trips a year to the nearest liquor town and always with the same result. If a neighbor were going to town at the same time she would ask him to look after her husband. And when the erring man staggered home she would put him to bed and cook him something to eat—not always ham and eggs and delicacies, but the best she had. She never slipped anything in his coffee to cure him secretly.

And she has almost won. He is not proof against them yet, but the “sprees” are few and far between.

Six children call her mother—two womanly daughters well married, another a lovable and accomplished young woman, a handsome son, with his mother’s wonderfully calm eyes, who detests liquor, and two young girls at school.

A neat white house with green blinds has taken the place of the log structure. She is a model housekeeper and has always done all her work—cooking, sewing, washing, ironing, scrubbing, milking, churning, sweeping, poultry-raising and one thousand and one other things. Besides this she has tied up sore toes and cut fingers, poulticed boils, applied hot salt to all manner of aches and pains; doctored mumps, whooping-cough and la grippe; and successfully nursed measles, pneumonia and fever.

Her face has lost some of its freshness and her hair is turning gray, but she is still the blessed counselor of her family and she still finds time to visit and make herself a true, cheerful friend and neighbor.

HER SACRIFICE

Miss ⸺ lives in ⸺, Ohio. She was born on a farm where she lived with her father and mother and two brothers and one sister. The father became surety for a friend who failed, and it took the father’s farm to pay the debt. The family therefore left the farm, and moved to the county-seat, in the suburbs, and in a small house and two lots began life anew. He rode the country buying stock for other men, kept cows and peddled milk in the town, kept forty hens and sold eggs, cultivated the lots in garden produce, and kept the family together. One fortunate result of leaving the farm, the children were put into the city schools. Miss ⸺ graduated in the high school, and obtained a certificate to teach. The two brothers married and left the city. Then finally the sister married and left. Miss ⸺, at the age of 26, was left to care for her parents in their declining years.

She obtained a position as teacher in the city schools and devoted her wages to the care of the home, and looked after her parents when out of school hours. There came offers of honorable marriage, for she was strong, healthy, comely and attractive. She could not consider them. Her parents could not do without her. They were declining in strength and looked to her for the care of the household. She taught on, and with her wages kept them in comfort. Two years ago the good old mother, weary of life, departed for the better land. Two years longer the old father lived, kept the house during the day while the daughter was in the schoolroom and awaited the sound of her footsteps in the evening returning from the school. In January he lay on the bed stricken with a fatal sickness, though unknown to him or her, and while they talked together as she bent over him he ceased to breathe, and she was left alone in the world, unmarried, without a home, and the prime of her good life spent in assiduous care of her parents—at the age of forty years! All hope of a home and family of her own sacrificed to her sense of duty to her father and mother! What is to be her reward? Many another has made a like sacrifice, but how is she to recoup the loss of the fourteen years spent in their service—the loss of her own home and family and children and all the sweet consolations of the state of motherhood? Was it not a heroic life? How few would have met it! Only those who know of her self-sacrifice will know how to honor her. Her fidelity, so unobtrusive, will be little noted by the world. But how grand and noble the sacrifice she has made!

QUIET COURAGE

Elizabeth Stanton was born about sixty-five years ago in a beautiful Southern town. She was the youngest daughter of Judge James Stanton, one of the ablest jurists of the state.

Few young ladies had superior advantages to Elizabeth, and fewer still possessed her amiable disposition and strong character. Being beautiful, accomplished and wealthy, it is no wonder she married the only son of a millionaire. A few years after their marriage her husband erected the finest residence in the state. Although built forty years ago it stands proudly today without an equal in the state.

Elizabeth had everything that heart could wish save one—her husband was dissipated and grew more so as years came on. But no ear save the Master’s ever heard her complain and she was always cheerful.

A few years after the Civil War her husband died, leaving his palatial home mortgaged and his vast estate squandered. Elizabeth was left with three children and a small amount of money. She gave up her magnificent home and wealth without a murmur and returned to her old home. In a few years she married again, a man of fine personality, a scholar and typical Southern gentleman, one born to wealth and knowing little how to acquire it. His fortune was like that of most Southern people after the Civil War. They remained in their native home till their small fortune was nearly gone. Then they removed to Florida and lived on a homestead, in a tent with a dirt floor for two years. Elizabeth had never before lived without servants, never cooked a meal or laundered a handkerchief. Now she did all her own work, even to the washing, and taught a country school several months of each year. She found time to visit and elevate the poor, rough people around her, and never by word did she let them know she was not of their class. She was greatly admired and beloved by all who knew her. During these years of hardship she was just as bright and cheerful and apparently as content as when she trod the marble floors of her former mansion. She smilingly remarked to me once that she was glad they had been chastened. It had made her a better woman and was the means of her husband’s conversion. As fortune always favors the brave, she did not always live in poverty. In a few years they had a fine orange grove bearing, and her husband was elected to a high office.

I have never known a more heroic life of any woman. When clouds have hovered over me I have thought of this brave, beautiful character and it has been my inspiration.

RECIPES, OLD AND NEW.

From a collection of recipes that dates back almost to “War-Time” we shall give a few every month. Along with them will be given new recipes of the present day.

Bread Pudding

One pint bread crumbs, fine, one quart milk, three or four eggs. Season and sweeten to taste, then bake. Spread a layer of jelly or jam quite thick or white of eggs a little sweetened, and brown a little.

Ginger Snaps

Three cups of molasses, one cup of brown sugar, two small cups of lard, four tablespoons of ginger and one of cloves, and enough flour to roll them out.

Corn Batter Cakes

One and a half pints of corn-meal, the same of milk, one half teaspoon of salt, five eggs beaten together and put in with the corn-meal and milk, one and a half teaspoons of baking-powder.

Sponge Cake

Six eggs, one pint of flour, one pint of sugar, three-fourths of a cup of water, two tablespoons of baking-powder.

Pea Soup

One half peck peas. Take the shells and put on with two quarts of water. When well boiled take off and put through the colander. Take the water and pour into it the peas. Let boil until very soft and tender. Take off and put through the colander again. Take a quart of cream, or cream and milk, two even tablespoons of flour and less than one ounce of butter. Put in and let come to a boil. Pepper and salt to taste.

CHANGING THE DIRECTION

Warren, in Boston Herald

Before After

DeMar, in Philadelphia Record

“Sh— Sh— You Blamed Ass!”

Rogers, in N. Y. Herald

April, 1906

BOOKS
BY Thomas E. Watson.

Note: Reviews are by Mr. Watson unless otherwise signed.

On the Field of Glory. By Henryk Sienkiewicz. Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

After the reader has finished reading this book he disapproves of the title. He has been taken into ancient Poland, where the winter snows lie deep, where the wolves of the forest come with the night to make danger for the traveler. He has been shown how the upper class lived in the time of the Soldier-King, John Sobieski. He follows the thread of a passionate and tender and happily ended love-story. He laughs with and at the four brothers, the huge, rude, boisterous, but brave and good-hearted foresters. He feels impressed by the genius of the author during the whole time, for he knows that this strange Polish world, with its unfamiliar men and women, is a creation born of the mental processes of a great literary artist.

It is not an historical novel in the sense that “Quo Vadis” was. There is no field of glory at all. John Sobieski does not appear before us as Nero was made to do in the book just named.

The John Sobieski of this novel might be any other King. So far as we are told about his appearance, manners, dress, personal peculiarities, he might have been Rudolph of Hapsburg or Henry of Valois.

There are no battles, no sieges, no heroic advance or retreat. As the book closes, the Polish army has set out from Cracow to Vienna; and that’s as near as we approach the field of glory.

With the heroine the reader never gets in full sympathy. She drives away the man who has always loved her and whom she loves without knowing it.

She then consents to wed her hideous, lecherous, old guardian. More indignant than the bride, the spirits of the Unseen World resent this unnatural union, and they prevent it by claiming the groom while the marriage feast is being eaten.

With the hero the reader is on good terms from first to last, for his is a fine character finely drawn.

When the guardian and intended husband is dead, and the rejected lover is far away, the hero is subjected to trial and temptation, beset by dangers, marked for destruction by a lustful brute, neglected and hated by family connections. It is then that human interest of the deepest kind centres in the poor orphan girl Panna Anulka, whom we had condemned on account of her readiness to marry old Pan Gideon. We follow her fortunes then with painful attention and we rejoice when she is saved.

While “On the Field of Glory” is not, perhaps, so great a book as “Quo Vadis,” its atmosphere is purer, its store of love more tender and its portrayal of ancient manners and character apparently quite as faithful.

The Strange Story of the Quillmores. By A. L. Chatterton. Stitt Publishing Company, New York.

To write a novel which shall hold the reader with a strong and constant grip, and yet give him no love-story, is a feat not done by everyone that tries it. Mr. Chatterton tells no story of love, but I have not read many books that interested me more than “The Strange Story of the Quillmores.” Mr. Chatterton’s pictures of life are true to life: his men are the men who wear breeches—not impossible abstractions who say or do things which no human beings ever said or did. And his women are as real as his men.

Uncle I’ and his store, where the neighbors buy all sorts of things, from ham to coffins, and where a group of loafers and tattlers is generally on hand, are as well known to the reader as if he had been there. Uncle I’ must be a character taken from life. He is full of quiet humor, homely wisdom, sound common sense, manly courage and loyalty.

Old-fashioned Uncle I’, keeping his old-fashioned carry-all store, swapping stories and repartee with his old-fashioned neighbors, struggling heroically with his old-fashioned telephone, and with it all, living up to the best standards of honesty and usefulness—yes, Uncle I’ is a complete artistic success.

So is Doctor Gus. True, he reminds the reader, in a general way, of Ian Maclaren’s Scotch country doctor, but Doctor Gus is American, and he is stamped with sufficient individuality to make him a very live man to the reader.

What could be better than the old German woman, Mother Treegood? The chapter in which Mother Treegood comes to visit Uncle I’s wife, who is broken with grief on account of her dying daughter, is one that is worthy of Dickens. It has the heart-throb of human sorrow, human sympathy, human love.

I don’t know of anything more touching, in its simple unpretentious way, than the story of how Mother Treegood’s boys, the twins, ran away from home, and how one of them was drowned in the Ohio River, and was sent home for burial.

“My pretty boy was to our house brought, aber no one could him know—he was in the wasser—de water—so long—oh das Kalte, Kalte Wasser! so many, many days. I took more of the fever—und go out of my head—und so I never my Liebling seen again.”

The cry that was heard in Ramah, “Oh, that cold, cold water!”

Then, later on, there came a little box of tin-iron, “mit a hole cut in the on-top side.” But let Mother Treegood tell it in her own way:

“One day there came by the express company a little bundle. When it was opened—it was an oyster can—a box of tin-iron, mit a hole cut in the on-top side. The letter was from de other boy—und it say—that his brudder, who vas ver-drownded, did begin his business life in a hotel in Cincinnetty, as a bellboy, und he safe his money und put it in the oyster can. Und in dat oyster box was the shin-plasters, the five centses, und de ten centses—yoost as he take them in for noospapers and shoe-blacking—und it was yoost enough, ach mein lieber Gott!—yoost enough to pay for his grave at Brookfill.”

Surely this is very effective. It probably happened just that way. To know that it could, and perhaps did, is just the right impression for the author of a novel to make on the reader.

Another splendid episode is that wherein a “run on the bank” begins, as the funeral of Colonel Quillmore is in progress. The chapters which relate the tragedy, the fire in the Colonel’s laboratory, the wild ride of Father Lessing and Uncle I’; the dramatic climax where Mrs. Quillmore lashes herself into raving madness; the funeral procession whose mourners get caught up in the growing excitement of the “run on the bank,” and leave the hearse to fly to the bank for their money; the nerve and resource of Doc. Gus in saving the bank, and in saving the cashier from the would-be lynchers—are chapters which bear convincing testimony to the power and creativeness of the author.

The book is so finely conceived and written that one is tempted to scold the author for a few glaring faults which are well-nigh inexcusable.

Why paint L’Oiseau so black when he was to be white-washed at the end? There was no need to have him behave so brutally to the boy, Lanny Quillmore. It was a blunder to make him insult the boy, incur the hatred of the boy, assault the boy, and drive the boy from his own home. The lad is allowed to think and believe that L’Oiseau is on terms of criminal intimacy with Mrs. Quillmore, Lanny’s mother. There was no necessity for this. If L’Oiseau was brother-in-law to Mrs. Quillmore, and was prompted by paternal interest in paying her such suspicious attention, and in being out in the woods with her at unseasonable hours in the night, why permit the lady’s son to torture himself under a misapprehension?

What earthly reason was there for keeping from her only son a knowledge of the fact that L’Oiseau was her brother-in-law, and that her abnormal physical and mental condition required these unusual and suspicious attentions from him?

Again, L’Oiseau was rambling about at night with Mrs. Quillmore when she lost consciousness, fell by the wayside, was found by the priest, and succored by Doc. Gus.

What had become of her escort, L’Oiseau?

He had mysteriously disappeared, and Doc. Gus had a right to put the worst construction upon his conduct. Father Lessing knew the truth; why did Father Lessing allow Doc. Gus to remain in ignorance?

But the most serious blunder in the plot relates to the climax—the fire in Colonel Quillmore’s laboratory.

Doc. Gus sees the shadow of two men thrown upon the window shade. Only one of these men is accounted for, and the reader is left not only in doubt as to what happened, but in hopeless confusion. He cannot adopt any theory which will explain all the facts.

Now, that is against the rules. Let the plot be ever so complicated, the mystery ever so deep, the author must either clear it up himself, or furnish the reader with the clue. Wilkie Collins, in spite of his bewildering tangles, unravels everything before he quits. In “Edwin Drood,” the book which Dickens was writing when death interrupted the story, the author had constructed one of his most involved and difficult plots. Before he had furnished the key to the riddle, he died. Yet Edgar Allan Poe was able to tell, with unerring certainty, just how the story was meant to end. By a keen analysis of the facts which Dickens had already related, and by a course of reasoning that left no room for doubt, Poe demonstrated that Jasper, the guardian and devoted friend of Edwin Drood, had murdered him; that jealousy was the motive; that the body of the victim was hidden in the new tomb which the inflated ass, Sapsea, had recently built for the deceased Mrs. Sapsea; and that the corpse was located by old Durdles, the drunken workman whose skill with his hammer was so great that he could, by tapping, tapping, tapping on the outside or a wall, tell whether a foreign substance, such as a human body, was inclosed within.

Poe’s own matchless story, “The Gold Bug,” illustrates the rule which Mr. Chatterton broke. There are all sorts of mystifications to start with, but they are cleared up at the end.

Even in Frank Stockton’s famous “The Lady or the Tiger,” the rule is kept. The reader is left in a dilemma, but he can clear up everything by choosing one horn or the other. If he says that it is the lady who is behind the door which is about to be opened, no mystery remains. If he says that it is the tiger which is behind the door, nothing is left of the puzzle.

But in the Quillmore story there is no possible explanation which will dispose of the facts. If Colonel Quillmore died in the laboratory, and L’Oiseau did not kill him, who did? What about the two men quarreling in there at the time of the tragedy? What becomes of that other man? And how could Quillmore’s son meet him again in Paris? With the exception of L’Oiseau, no one had the motive to kill Colonel Quillmore; and the author made a point of showing that other people were afraid to go near the laboratory.

But if the Colonel did not die in the laboratory, how did his false teeth get into the mouth of the dead man when Doc. Gus dragged him out of the flames? How did the Colonel’s Masonic ring get on the dead man’s finger? How did the Colonel make his escape without being seen, and, who was it that he quarreled with and killed before he fled? Nobody appears to have been missing from the neighborhood. Usually when somebody is killed, somebody is missed.

Had Mr. Chatterton refrained from putting another man in the laboratory, had he left the Colonel dead in the flames, identified by his Masonic ring, had he left the reader to suppose that the sudden death of the Colonel and the sudden blaze which broke out in the building resulted from some dangerous chemical experiment, such as the Colonel delighted in—the story would have lost not a grain of interest and would have escaped a flagrant violation of the rules of literary construction.

The Game and the Candle. By Frances Davidge. D. Appleton & Co., New York.

Frances Davidge set herself too difficult a task when she attempted to make the characters in her novel. “The Game and the Candle,” speak in epigrams on every other page. The consequence is that the story, with its really brilliant beginning, develops into a commonplace love-story, and is only saved from absolute banality by its unforeseen and dramatic ending. In the field of literature which attempts to picture New York society the story will not find an enduring place, but it serves its purpose very well. The novelists are numberless who have sought to satirize our men and women of wealth and leisure; but few have given us any books that have lived longer than their allotted span of one brief season. The big society novel has not yet been written. Miss Davidge evidently knows a great deal of the foibles, the follies and the manners of the people of whom she writes, and her career is worth watching. At present she seems a bit immature and prolix, but there is no doubt as to her ability to write amazingly clever dialogue and to tell a story logically and well. Some of her characters are greatly overdrawn. One wishes that there were less of Gussie Regan, the hair-dresser; and Emily Blair, lovable as she is, could never have existed. Altogether, however, the story is pleasing and will find, doubtless, a large and appreciative audience.

H. C. T.

The Carlyles. By Mrs. Burton Harrison. D. Appleton & Co., New York.

In “The Carlyles” Mrs. Burton Harrison relinquishes the modern field which she has occupied for so long and with such marked success, and goes back to Civil War times for the scenes of her story. The Reconstruction period has been covered by innumerable writers. Indeed, it has been so frequently used by novelists and proven so fruitful a field, that one is apt to be overcome at the courage of an author who selects it now as the background for a tale; but Mrs. Harrison brings a certain freshness and charm to a subject that, it would seem, could inspire none. The opening chapter, which describes the impoverished condition of the Carlyles, brought on by the ravages of war, reveals the author at her best, and shows her intimate knowledge of life in Richmond in the ’60’s. The splendid fortitude of old Mr. Carlyle in the face of his calamity and financial ruin, and the pride of the aristocratic Southerner are depicted with faultless art.

The story itself is the old one of a girl who is unable to choose between two lovers, one of whom, of course, is a Yankee soldier and the other a Southerner fighting as a lieutenant-colonel under Lee. The usual complications occur. Lancelot Carlyle, a cousin and lover of Mona, the heroine, is imprisoned at Fort Delaware, and of the long period of his confinement Mrs. Harrison writes graphically, describing minutely the terrible ordeal of prison life. Fine as this portion of the novel is, however, it is in the chapters dealing with quiet domestic scenes that Mrs. Harrison writes with most force and distinction. The incident of the Christmas dinner-party, with the unheralded return of Lancelot and the sudden death of old Alexius Carlyle, is handled with consummate skill. The author has written no finer passage in any of her previous novels, nor one more certain to move her readers to tears.

H. C. T.

The House of Mirth. By Edith Wharton. Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Undoubtedly no novel during the past season has elicited more favorable criticism and more numerous letters from constant readers than “The House of Mirth.” The book had a certain artificial success from the start, because the impression went abroad that here at last was a book about Society, meaning the smallest number of the narrowest brains in any community from Kankakee to New York. On this very account there are a few millions of people in the United States who would not care to read it; but in view of the fact that some of the most serious critics have hailed “The House of Mirth” as a great American novel—only the bookseller now speaks of the American novel—a good many of the few millions, being persons of means and intelligence, would be tempted to indulge themselves in the rare luxury of such a boon. We cannot profess to treat the book as a true picture of American Society; because while we know how to wear the clothes and order the things to eat and drink, when we have the money, we have never, in our best-dressed and best-fed moments, been able to convince ourselves that we are anything but hopelessly middle class. Yet we are happy—sometimes; and we are bound to marvel at some of the things the society people in “The House of Mirth” do. For the most part they act like those people in New York who are loosely described as Fifth-avenue bohemians, which means they are people of much money, thoroughly informed about the decorative issues of life, with nothing to do but bore themselves and with a taste and intelligence that, in literature or the theatre, never craves anything more exciting than a musical show or a third-class novel, written by a man in Chicago, about lords and ladies of some corner lost and forgotten in Continental Europe. Our marvel that these society people should seem so underbred is only an exhibition of our unfamiliarity with a certain social stratum. We would have no right to make record of it, if it were not for the fact that so many people, of the better class themselves, have written letters of protest to divers publications, protesting against the impression that “The House of Mirth” is a story accurately representing New York society. We quote one letter from the New York Times Saturday Review:

“I am not a literary man, much less a literary critic, but I look forward each week to the appearance of The New York Times Book Review with renewed interest and read the various criticisms of your readers as to the merits of “The House of Mirth,” which in almost every instance meets their approval as a literary production of unusual merit. The writer, however, an octogenarian, born and bred in New York City, member of one of its oldest families and presumably familiar with its society, can but look upon “The House of Mirth” as a gross libel upon that society, and as an insult to a class as pure, as refined, and as intellectual as may be found the world over....

“That such a condition as is therein described does exist in the lower strata of New York society, which may be termed swelldom, composed largely of “newrich” who swarm from other parts of the country to exploit their newly acquired wealth in showy equipages, wondrous wardrobes, and loud manners to the disgust of refined people, cannot be denied; but why a lady who has the entrée into the best society should elect to open the sewers of its lowest strata and allow its fœtid airs to escape through the medium of her pen is beyond the ken of your contributor.”

T. R. W.

For our part, we prefer to depend upon the octogenarian who has just spoken, and who asserts his membership in one of the oldest families in New York, for an opinion upon the accuracy of “The House of Mirth” as a Society novel. As a novel pure and simple it seems to us to be radically defective in imaginative power, slow and cumbrous in construction, and wholly ineffective to impose an illusion. We say this with regret because we have read a good many of the author’s short stories from the time the first volume of them was issued; and the impression conveyed by her work in the short story field, as contrasted by the impression of this novel, makes clearer to us than ever the conviction that to write a short story a short-story writer is required, and to write a novel a novelist, and they have always been two persons from Mr. Kipling down and across. The author’s style is clear, sharp, refined, as before; but the gross defect of “The House of Mirth” is that the characters are pushed here and there by the author like so many wooden soldiers on a cardboard field of battle. They have no more volition than marionettes. In fact they are merely described names except in the instances of the three chief characters. One could have borne with the waxlike fibre of the attendant persons if the figure of Lily Bart, the heroine, would stand the gaze of the naked eye during even half the book. Lily is described by the author as possessing a fine sense of diplomacy in intercourse with the people of her set, yet her whole register of action from the first page reveals her as moving through the comedy without prudence, yet without conscience, with maneuver, yet without skill; with an under-appeal to the reader’s sympathy, yet exasperating the reader until in the moment of tragedy he feels that the heroine deserved all she got and ought to have got it sooner. But, when one gets away from the book, one feels that the fault is not the fault of the character, but of the author who has paltered by trying to make literary academics and psychology square with life itself and a good story.

The minor irritations of the book are the absolutely fictional flavor of the names of most of the characters, the use of English or Continental idiom, and the mummery of the illustrations. Among the English phrases which the author so much affects is the word charwoman for scrubwoman. It may be that Society calls a scrubwoman a charwoman, but we would like to see any society man or woman do it to the lady’s face.

It is announced that Clyde Fitch is to dramatize “The House of Mirth” for production next fall and that he will adhere to the construction of the story as much as possible. The book is worthy of Mr. Fitch’s lofty talent.

R. D.

Letters and Addresses. By Abraham Lincoln. Unit Book Publishing Company.

Even if there were a man, at this day of awakening in the United States, who could honestly say he had no interest in politics, providing he had any intelligence at all and ambition to think, he could not pass over such a book as “Lincoln’s Letters and Addresses” for the simple reason that on account of the style alone, the reading of them is a solace and a refreshment that endures. Of course, most of us are familiar with the addresses and the letters that have been so widely quoted, repeated, and learned by heart in school, that they are become as household words; but in such a book as this, containing infinite riches in little room, one secures not only the loftiest kind of pleasure but also a strangely intimate and attractive vision and understanding of the gaunt, unshapely figure whose genius towers higher as the years are added to the history of our country.

R. D.

Contrite Hearts. By Herman Bernstein. A. Wessels Company, New York.

Some books are interesting because of their content alone; some only on account of the personality of their author: some for the reason that both the author and the content of his book are humanly valuable. Of the third distinction is “Contrite Hearts,” a story of Jewish life in Russia and the United States, by a writer who on occasion before has shown that he can use an alien language with simplicity and force. He has shown before also that he can present a picture of the people of his race without bias and with a due understanding of their defects and qualities. The Jew in America as presented in melodrama is a creation almost wholly of the romance spirit of the theatre. It is not to be denied that the prevalence of the very poor Jews in the lowest ranks of traffickers among men has provided an obvious type. In sharp contrast to this is the growing dominance of the Jew in the very highest ranks of commerce. Between the two must of necessity exist the Jew of the middle class; and all these varieties of the race have expanded to their utmost in the United States rather than in any other country. From a purely artistic standpoint, therefore, there is nothing more evident than that the field of Jewish manners and customs is wide and rich ground for the novelist. The transmutation in one generation of a peasant in Russia, with no rights beyond those of a street mongrel, to a man in the most advanced as well as the most vigorous civilization of the day, is material too obvious to be overlooked by the most casual scribe.

Mr. Bernstein, while not a writer of dramatic quality has that quieter and more sincere gift native to Russians, whether Jew or Gentile, of presenting life as an actuality against the artificial background of the printed page. Many who are called novelists among ourselves, and who have never talked or written any language but English, could learn a good deal of simplicity from this foreign-born author. Of course, one runs across the traces of his birth in certain peculiarities that even constant practice cannot wear out. These blemishes, however, are never vulgar as are the strainful phases of an indigenous author who uses his language as a race-track tout spreads himself with the flashy colors and fabrics that the clothier and the haberdasher of his station provide. It is rather interesting to hear what one of the characters in “Contrite Hearts” has to say of this country.

“Here in America it is different. All are equal. Everyone is free. And all roads to success are open to the able, the enterprising, the persevering. There is no difference here between Jew and Gentile. People flock hither from all lands, and within a few years the Jew, the Frenchman, the German, the Irishman, the Italian—all are proud that they have become American. You ask me about the Jews, about Jewish affairs, about Jewish institutions—well, we have various kinds of Jews here. Orthodox Jews—these are the plain Jews like ourselves. Reform Jews—Jews who imitate the ways of the Christian. There are also Jews here who try to be both Orthodox and reform at the same time—that is, neither this nor that.”

Is this all true?

R. D.

Politics in New Zealand. By Prof. Frank Parsons. Edited by Dr. C. F. Taylor. Dr. C. F. Taylor, Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa.

This is one of the Equity Series published quarterly by Dr. Taylor, and contains the chief portions of the political parts of a book entitled, “The Story of New Zealand,” by Prof. Frank Parsons and Dr. Taylor. The latter is a large, heavy book selling at $3.00, and is doubtless the most complete history of New Zealand and exposition of present conditions there ever published. It is a beautifully illustrated volume containing 860 pages, and includes history, description, the native people (the Maoris) and their treatment by the whites, the splendid resources of the country, and, more than all, a full and interesting account of the rise and development of the remarkable institutions and government of New Zealand which are attracting the attention of all the rest of the world.

As Dr. Taylor well says in his explanatory note in “Politics in New Zealand,” the size and cost of the “Story of New Zealand” prevent it from reaching the masses of our people, and the political facts, particularly of that progressive country should reach the mind and thought of our voters. “It is,” he says, “with a view of placing these political facts within the easy reach of the masses of our people, that I have selected the most important of these facts from the large book and arranged them as you see them in this unpretentious pamphlet.” “Politics in New Zealand” is now being used in combination with subscriptions to Watson’s Magazine. (See advertising pages.)

The great value of “Politics in New Zealand” lies in the fact that it gives the workings of many Populistic ideas put into actual practice. In this country the People’s Party has been obliged to theorize and resort to an appeal to the reasoning faculties of the people. It has been unable to point out many illustrations of the actual working of its theories, except by reference to foreign countries. For example, to sustain its contention for public ownership of railroads, it has been obliged to use the lines in Germany and other monarchies as illustrations. The United States is such a vast domain as compared with countries in Continental Europe, that considerable discrimination is necessary in order to draw a fair conclusion. Besides, the European countries are so old that the habits of the people are a great factor not to be lightly dismissed. In using New Zealand, however, as our object lesson, the conditions are more, nearly parallel. It is true that country is much smaller than the United States, but in point of age and habits of the people, there is much similarity. Accordingly, New Zealand is without doubt the best object lesson in the world for proving the soundness of Populistic theories.

Those who have either bought or sold real estate in the older portions of the United States, understand the difficulties and uncertainties surrounding land titles under the system which is in vogue generally. As Prof. Parsons points out, it is often necessary to search through many big volumes of deeds and mortgages, and carefully construe the provisions of various wills and conveyances in order to follow the title to its source, and form an opinion as to its validity. And even then the opinion of the most accomplished expert may prove fallacious, and the purchaser may lose his land through some defect of title. As early as 1860 the New Zealanders passed an act to remedy this condition of things by establishing what is known as the Torrens system of title registration. The owner of land may give the registrar his deeds and the claims of all persons interested, and the registrar investigates the title once for all. He accepts it if he finds it valid, and registers the applicant as proprietor, giving him a certificate to that effect. The certificate gives an indefeasible title in fee, subject only to such incumbrances and charges as may be entered on the register. An independent purchaser has only to consult the register to learn at once who is the owner of the land, and what burdens, if any, rest upon it. He is not obliged to trace the title back to the Government Patent. This system is now in force in some places in the United States, but its adoption is generally opposed by those who profit by examining titles—that is to say, the lawyers.

There were some telegraph lines constructed under the provincial governments of New Zealand prior to 1865, but nothing was done in a national way until that year. Then the General Assembly authorized the Governor to establish electric telegraphs and appoint a commissioner to manage them. Existing lines and offices were to be purchased, new lines built, and a national system developed. The commissioner made the regulations, fixed the rates, and employed operators to transmit all messages presented. Afterward the telegraphs became a part of the postal system. This naturally led to government ownership and operation of the telephone when the latter means of transmitting intelligence was introduced. It is also a part of the postal system, and as Prof. Parsons points out, “The Government is ‘hello-girl’ as well as postmaster, telegraph operator and banker.”

Mr. Gladstone secured the establishment of postal savings banks in England in 1861. New Zealand adopted the idea in 1865, and since that time nearly every country in the civilized world, except the United States, has followed England’s example. The object of the New Zealand Post Office Savings Bank Act (1865) was stated to be: “To give additional facilities for the deposits of small savings at interest, and with the security of the Government behind it.” Practically all the money order offices in New Zealand (470 a few years ago) were open under the Postal Banking Law for the transaction of savings bank business, while there were but five private savings banks in the Islands. In New Zealand there is a place of bank deposit for each 1,800 people. In the United States there is one for each 7,650 people. The total deposits in all sorts of banks is $110 per head of population in the United States, $125 in Great Britain, and $140 in New Zealand. Comment seems to be unnecessary. The postal banks will not receive less than a shilling at a time, but printed forms are furnished on which stamps may be pasted, one or more at a time, until the total amounts to a shilling or more, when the slip can be deposited as cash to the amount of the stamps pasted on it. The great advantage of postal banking, and in fact all government banking, is its safety. No postal bank in any country has ever closed its door for liquidation, or experienced a run on its funds.

In view of our insurance scandals and the recent investigation, the chapter on Government Insurance is especially interesting at this time. In 1870 New Zealand adopted the Australian ballot and a public works policy, together with a Government Life Insurance Department. As the author points out, “The philosophy of this new departure was very simple. The purpose of insurance is the diffusion of loss. Instead of allowing a loss to fall with crushing weight on one individual, or family, it is spread out over a large number of stockholders or premium payers. If it is a good thing to distribute loss over a few thousand people who hold stock in a given company or pay premiums to it, it is still better to distribute the loss over the whole community. It is also wise to eliminate the expenses and profits of insurance so far as may be, and put the guarantee of the Government behind it, so that it may reach as many people and afford as much security as possible.”

The insurance department was popular from the very start. The latest report when this book was written (1901) showed in force 42,570 policies covering $51,000,000 of insurance, or practically half the total business of the Colony. The Government office had beaten the private companies in fair competition, for there was no attempt to exclude private insurance companies. It had, in 1901, a much larger business than any of the companies, and almost as much as all the companies put together. This refers, of course, to the ordinary life insurance business, for there were 21,000 policies in industrial societies, which were not included in the regular life insurance statement. Two of our companies mixed up in the recent scandal, the Equitable Life and the New York Life, had, in 1901, been in the Colony 15 and 13 years respectively. The Equitable had 717 policies in force and the New York Life 139, as against 42,570 Government policies.

The people of New Zealand prefer the Government insurance because of its safety—it has the guarantee of the Government behind it. It is in no danger of vanishing through insolvency, as ordinary insurance does now and then. Because of its cheapness, the rates being lower than any ordinary private companies; and because of its freedom from all oppressive conditions. The only conditions are that the premiums must be paid, and the assured must not commit suicide within six months after the insurance is taken out. As Professor Parsons says, “The policy is world-wide. The assured may go where he will, do what he likes—get himself shot in battle, smoke cigarettes, drink ice-water and eat plum pudding, or commit suicide under the ordinary forms after six months, and the money will still be paid to his relatives.” Instead of wasting valuable time and gray matter on devising schemes to prevent scoundrels from looting private insurance companies, why not devote a little thought to inaugurating a system of government insurance?

An unique institution in New Zealand is the Public Trust office, established in 1872. Its purpose is to serve as executor, administrator, trustee, agent, or attorney, in the settlement and management of the property of decedents, or others, who for any reason are unable or unwilling to care for it themselves; to insure honest administration and safe investment; to provide for a wise discretion that may avoid the difficulties and losses incident to a strict fulfilment of wills and trusts imperfectly drawn; and to give advice and draw up papers, wills, deeds, and other instruments for the people in all parts of the Colony.

“In the earlier years,” says the author, “nominations for representatives were made and seconded vocally at an assembly of the voters of the district. But since the Act of September (1890) representatives are nominated by petition in writing, signed by two or more voters of the district, transmitted with the candidates’ assent and a $50 deposit to the returning officer, who immediately publishes the names of the candidates. Each candidate must be nominated on a separate paper which must be transmitted to the returning officer at least seven days before the polling day. If the nominee doesn’t get one tenth as many votes as the lowest successful candidate, the $50 deposit is forfeited to the public treasury. This shuts out frivolous nominations. The nominations are usually made some time before the voting day, and the candidates go about the district and meet and address the electors in all parts of it. No candidate would stand any chance of election who failed to give the people he wished to represent an opportunity to get acquainted with him and ask him questions about his attitude on issues likely to come before the next Parliament. Seamen, sheep-shearers and commercial travelers are permitted to vote by mail. Such person gets a ballot paper filled up by the Postmaster with the names of the candidates in the applicant’s district, and the postal voter then marks the ballot and mails it.”

Another Populistic economic theory put in practice in New Zealand is the Land and Income Assessment Act which abolishes the personal property tax and establishes graduated taxation on land values and incomes. The avowed objects of the law are to tax “according to ability to pay,” “to free the small man,” and, “to burst up monopolies”; and its cardinal features are the exemption of improvements and of small people and the special pressure put on the big monopolies and corporations and on absentees.

All improvements are exempt. All buildings, fencings, draining, crops, etc.—all value that has been added by labor, all live stock also and personal property; only the unimproved value of the land is taxed. Mortgages are deducted also in estimating the land taxes as they are taxed to the lender. There is a small-estate exemption of $2,500, where the net value of the estate doesn’t exceed $7,500. So that if a farmer has no more than $2,500 of land value left after deducting improvements and mortgage liabilities from the value of his real property, he pays no land tax.

Besides the three exemptions mentioned, there is another conditional exemption. If an old or infirm person owns land or mortgages returning less than $1,000 a year, and can show that he is not able to supplement his income, and that the payment of the tax would be a hardship, the commissioner may remit the tax. Here the custom is quite the other way. The millionaire swears off his tax. Out of 110,000 land owners, in New Zealand, only 16,000 pay tax.

The graded tax begins when the unimproved value reaches $25,000. It rises from ¼ of a cent on the pound of $25,000 to 16⁄4ths, or 4 cents, a pound on a million dollars, or more, of unimproved value. This graduated tax is in addition to the ordinary level-rate land tax levied each year, which is 2 cents on the pound. Absentee owners of large estates have still another tax to pay. If the owner of an estate large enough to come under the graded tax has been out of the country a year, this graded tax is increased 20%.

The income tax applies to net income from employment, and net profits from business. There is an absolute exemption of $1,500, except in the case of absentees, and companies whether absentees or not, and a further additional exemption up to $250 a year for life insurance premiums, if the citizen wishes to spend his money that way. All income derived from land or from mortgages, so far as they represent realty, is outside this tax, which affects only income from employment or business. The farmer, who derives all his income from land, pays no income tax. The same may be said of a lawyer, doctor, teacher, artisan, or any other person who makes no more than $1,500 a year. The total number of income-tax payers is only about 5,600.

United States Consul Connolly, reporting to our Government in 1894 and 1897, has considerable to say regarding taxation in New Zealand. He says that country excels in the matter of taxation. That in a very short time the system of taxation had been revolutionized and the incidence almost entirely changed, not only without disturbing to any appreciable extent existing interests, but with the most beneficial results. He says the income tax was most fiercely denounced as inquisitorial, destructive of the first principles of frugality and thrift—in fact all the forms of evil lurked in the shadows of the words “income tax,” and a united effort was made to resist this “iniquitous tax,” but all to no purpose. And that in 1897, after six years of experience, the more liberal and fair-minded of those who opposed the income tax frankly admitted that it is a fair and unembarrassing tax. “In New Zealand the land and income tax is now popular; it is accepted in lieu of the property tax; it is a success.”

In the United States the Government is paternalistic toward banks, railroads and manufacturing interests. It loans its credit to the national bankers at most advantageous terms, but has persistently refused to favor other classes in a similar way. In New Zealand, however, in 1894, there was established a Government loan office which lends public funds to farmers, laborers, business men, etc. at low interest, and on easy terms. The security taken is on freehold, or leasehold, interest clear of incumbrances and free of any breach of conditions. The loans are on first mortgage of land and improvements. No loan is to be less than $125, or more than $15,000, and the sum of the advances to any one person must not exceed $15,000. There are two kinds of advances, fixed loans and installment loans. The first may be for any period not exceeding ten years, and the principal is due at the end of that term. The second is for 36½ years, and part of the principal is to be paid each half year. Interest in both cases is at 4½%, if paid within fourteen days of the time it is due (5% if payment is not prompt); and in the case of an instalment loan, 1% more is to be paid for the reduction of the principal.

Passing over the chapters devoted to the labor department, the state farm, the factory laws, the shop acts, the 8-hour day, industrial arbitration and co-operation, all of which are of intense interest, but of such a nature as to preclude brief statement, we come to the Government ownership and operation of the railways. The year 1894 Prof. Parsons calls “the glory year of land resumption. Government loans to farmers, nationalization of credit, labor legislation and judicialization of strikes and lock-outs.” It was in this year that another important move was made through a vital change in the national railway policy. In 1887 a commission system was inaugurated, under which the roads were put in the hands of commissioners appointed by the Governor, with the assent of Parliament. This did not prove satisfactory to New Zealand. The commissioners managed the roads with a view to making a good financial report. They were looking for profit. In the Parliamentary debates it was charged that rates were so high that firewood went to waste in the forest, and potatoes rotted in the fields, while the people in the cities were cold and hungry in the years of depression; that goods were frequently hauled more cheaply by wagon than by rail; that while rates were reduced somewhat now and then, it was done by reducing wages; that the pay of the men was cut while the salaries of high-priced officials were increased, and so on. This is a striking parallel to conditions in the United States today.

Prof. Parsons admits that the commissioners were honest, but they were simply railroad men, running the roads to make money for the treasury. Finally public indignation became intense. The air was full of complaints, and in 1893 the abolition of the commission was made an issue in the campaign, and the people, by an overwhelming majority, elected representatives pledged to put the roads under direct control of the Minister of Railways and the Parliament, and to bring the railroads within speaking distance of the people.

The result of this change is that the roads are no longer run primarily for profit, but for service; and the men are treated with the consideration due to partners in the business. It is announced that the definite policy of the Government shall be that all profits above the 3% needed for interest on the railway debt shall be returned to the people in lower rates and better accommodations. This is in striking contrast to the facts brought out in the letter of Engineer William D. Marks to Hon. Wharton Barker, recently printed as a public document at the instance of Senator Tillman of South Carolina, in which it is shown that the people of the United States are today paying interest on a fictitious railway capitalization of something like $7,000,000,000.

In 1899 the Minister of Railways announced a reduction of 20% on ordinary farm products and 40% on butter and cheese, etc. These concessions, Prof. Parsons declares, amount to one seventh of the receipts—equivalent to a reduction of $150,000,000 on the yearly freight rates in the United States. That alone would be a yearly saving of almost $2 a head for the people of the United States. In 1900 Mr. Ward, the new Minister of Railways, announced a general lowering of passenger fares as the first fruits of his administration. “The announcement was received with cheers by the audience—stockholders in the road.” Care is taken in New Zealand that small men shall not be put at a disadvantage. The State roads carry 400 pounds at the same rate as the ton rate, or the train-load rate, and one bale of wool goes the same rate as a thousand. No such thing is known in New Zealand as the lowering of rates to a shipper because of the great size of his shipments. All the rates are made by the management openly. There are no secret modifications of the tariff. There may be a variation on scheduled rates to equalize a long haul, or enable a distant mine or factory to reach the market in condition to compete with nearer rivals, but the total charge is never lower than the rate that is given to others for the same service.

The State roads are used to advance the cause of education. Children in the primary grades are carried free to school. Other children pay $2.50 to $5, according to age, for a three-months season ticket up to sixty miles. This gives them a possible 120 miles a day for 3 to 6 cents in round numbers, or 20 to 40 miles for a cent. A child who goes in and out six miles each day rides 12 miles for 3 cents.

It is impossible in the limits of this article to more than touch upon many of the other advances made in New Zealand. The Referendum is now used to a considerable extent in local affairs, and its use is being extended. Old age pensions are in force, being a much better method than maintaining poor houses. Immigration is carefully guarded. The State is now opening coal mines and engaging in the business of furnishing fuel to the people. Many other innovations of this character are being considered and put in operation from time to time.

Prof. Parsons summarizes his study of New Zealand in some sharp contrasts and conclusions, from which we quote in part:

“The United States is in form a Republic, but ... an aristocracy of industrial power. New Zealand is in form an Imperial Province, but in fact it is substantially a Republic. The will of the great body of the common people is in actual control of the Government.

“In America, farmers organize for agricultural needs, and the working-men organize for labor purposes, but they do not join forces to take control of the Government in their common interest, as is the case in New Zealand. Not only have our farmers and workers failed to get together, but neither group has learned to use the ballot for its interest in any systematic way. The farmers divide at the polls and organized labor divides at the polls. In New Zealand the small farmers are practically solid at the ballot box, and organized labor is solid at the ballot, and the two solids are welded together into one irresistible solid.”

C. Q. D.

BACK HOME. By Eugene Wood. S. S. McClure Co., New York.

It isn’t often that an author writes a real review of his own book. Well, maybe he does, too, but it seldom happens that he writes it as a preface to the book itself, very seldom that it is an interesting one, very, very seldom that it tells you what to expect to find in the book, and very, very, very seldom that he isn’t too much wrapped up in his own private idea of his story to write a fair one from our point of view. However, Eugene Wood, being unconventional and other pleasing things, has done all this in the preface to his “Back Home.” When you have read the preface, you are glad you did, instead of feeling sorry you wasted time on it and fearful lest a book by the same author of that preface will be something of a bore. After Mr. Wood’s preface you know Mr. Wood and about what to expect in Mr. Wood’s book. You like one, and you know you are going to like the other.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for the reviewer to sit down and write reams of “copy” on “Back Home” and the good things therein, but it is much more to the point for him who reads to listen to Mr. Wood himself. If you are human instead of petrified, you will enjoy both the preface and the book. Both reach for the heart-strings, and the terms—the term is good.

Here is the larger part of the preface:

“Gentle Reader:—Let me make you acquainted with my book, ‘Back Home.’ (Your right hand, Book, your right hand, Pity’s sake: How many times have I got to tell you that? Chest up and forward, shoulders back and down, and turn your toes out more.)

“Here’s a book. It is long? No. Is it exciting? No. Any lost diamonds in it? Nup. Mysterious murders? No. Whopping big fortune, now teetering this way, and now teetering that, tipping over on the Hero at the last and smothering him in an avalanche of fifty-dollar bills? No. Does She get Him? Isn’t even that. No ‘heart interest’ at all. What’s the use of putting out good money to make such a book; to have a cover-design for it; to get a man like A. B. Frost to draw illustrations for it, when he costs so like the mischief, when there’s nothing in the book to make a man sit up till ‘way past bedtime’? Why print it at all?

“You may search me. I suppose it’s all right, but if it was my money, I’ll bet I could make a better investment of it. If worst came to worst, I could do like the fellow in the story who went to the gambling-house and found it closed up, so he shoved the money under the door and went away. He’d done his part.

“And yet, on the other hand, I can see how some sort of a case can be made out for this book of mine. I suppose I am wrong—I generally am in regard to everything—but it seems to me that quite a large part of the population of this country must be grown-up people. If I am right in this connection, this large part of the population is being unjustly discriminated against. I believe in doing a reasonable amount for the aid and comfort of the young things that are just beginning to turn their hair up under, or who rub a stealthy forefinger over their upper lips to feel the pleasant rasp, but I don’t believe in their monopolizing everything. I don’t think it’s fair. All the books printed—except, of course, those containing valuable information; we don’t buy those books, but go to the public library for them—all the books printed are concerned with the problem of How She got Him, and He can get Her.

“Well, now. It was either yesterday morning or the day before that you looked in the glass and beheld there The First Gray Hair. You smiled a smile that was not all pure pleasure, a smile that petered out into a sigh, but nevertheless a smile, I will contend. What do you think about it? You’re still on earth, aren’t you? You’ll last the month out, anyhow, won’t you? Not at all ready to be laid on the shelf? What do you think of the relative importance of Love, Courtship, and Marriage? One or two other things in life just about as interesting, aren’t there? Take getting a living, for instance. That’s worthy of one’s attention, to a certain extent. When our young ones ask us: “Pop, what did you say to Mom when you courted her?” they feel provoked at us for taking it so lightly and so frivolously. It vexes them for us to reply: “Law, child! I don’t remember. Why, I says to her: ‘Will you have me?’ and she says: ‘Why, yes, and jump at the chance.’” What difference does it make what we said or whether we said anything at all? Why should we charge our memories with the recollections of those few foolish months of mere instinctive sex-attraction when all that really counts came after, the years wherein low passion bloomed into lofty Love, the dear companionship in joy and sorrow, and in that which is more, far more than either joy or sorrow, “the daily round, the common task?” All that is wonderful to think of in our courtship is the marvel, for which we should never cease to thank the Almighty God, that with so little judgment at our disposal we should have chosen so wisely.

“If you, Gentle Reader, found your first gray hair day before yesterday morning, if you can remember, ’way back ten or fifteen years ago—er—er—or more, come with me. Let us go ‘Back Home.’ Here’s your transportation, all made out to you, and in your hand. It is no use my reminding you that no railroad goes to the old place. It isn’t there any more, even in outward seeming. Cummins’s woods, where you had your robbers’ cave, is all cleared off and cut up into building lots. The cool and echoing covered bridge, plastered with notices of dead and forgotten Strawberry Festivals and Public Vendues, has long ago been torn down, to be replaced by a smart, red iron bridge. The Volunteer Firemen’s Engine-house, whose brick wall used to flutter with the gay rags of circus-bills, is gone as if it never were at all. Where the Union School-house was is all torn up now. They are putting up a new magnificent structure, with all the modern improvements, exposed plumbing, and spankless discipline. The quiet, leafy streets echo to the hissing snarl of trolley cars, and the power-house is right by the Old Swimming-hole above the dam. The meeting-house, where we attended Sabbath-school, and marveled at the Greek temple frescoed on the wall behind the pulpit, is now a church with a big organ, and stained-glass windows, and folding opera-chairs on a slanting floor. There isn’t any “Amen Corner,” any more, and in these calm and well-ordered times nobody ever gets “shouting happy”.

“But even when “the loved spots that our infancy knew” are physically the same, a change has come upon them more saddening than words can tell. They have shrunken and grown shabbier. They are not nearly so spacious and so splendid as once they were.

“Some one comes up to you and calls you by your name. His voice echoes in the chambers of your memory. You hold his hand in yours and try to peer through the false-face he has on, the mask of a beard or spectacles, or a changed expression of the countenance. He says he is So-and-so. Why, he used to sit with you in Miss Crutcher’s room, don’t you remember? There was a time when you and he walked together, your arms upon each other’s shoulders. But this is some other than he. The boy you knew had freckles, and could spit between his teeth, ever and ever so far.

“They don’t have the same things to eat they used to have, or, if they do, it all tastes different. Do you remember the old well, with the windlass and chain fastened to the rope just above the bucket, the chain that used to cluck-cluck when the dripping bucket came within reach to be swung upon the well-curb? How cold the water used to be, right out of the north-west corner of the well! It made the roof of your mouth ache when you drank. Everybody said it was such splendid water. It isn’t so very cold these days, and I think it has a sort of funny taste to it.

“Ah, Gentle Reader, this is not really ‘Back Home’ we gaze upon when we go there by train. It is a last year’s birds’ nest The nest is there; the birds are flown, the birds of youth, and noisy health, and ravenous appetite, and inexperience. You cannot go ‘Back Home’ by train, but here is the magic wishing-carpet, and here is your transportation in your hand all made out to you. You and I will make the journey together. Let us in heart and mind thither ascend.

“I went to the Old Red School-house with you. Don’t you remember me? I was learning to swim when you could go clear across the river without once ‘letting down.’ I saw you at the County Fair, and bought a slab of ice-cream candy just before you did, I was in the infant-class in Sabbath School when you spoke in the dialogue at the monthly concert. Look again. Don’t you remember me? I used to stub my toe so; you ought to recollect me by that. I know plenty of people that you know. I may not always get their names just right, but then it’s been a good while ago. You’ll recognize them, though; you’ll know them in a minute.”

A. S. H.

The Easter Hope
BY CORA A. MATSON DOLSON

We look across the days of March,

Of knife-keen winds, and barren hills,

To where the skies of April arch

Above the beds of daffodils.

Oh, hearts of Hope! The hours are long,

While melting drifts o’erflood the rills;

Yet do these winds blow, keen and strong,

Toward those beds of daffodils.

The Easter promise cannot fail!

The stone will move when God’s hand wills,

And we again our loved ones hail,

Who sleep, as sleep the daffodils!

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Explained

Mrs. Givem—Why are you out of work?

Weary Willy—I was a life-insurance president and made so much money I had to resign.

The Say of Other Editors

Clark Howell’s politicians and newspaper supporters over the state are sending up a unanimous wail because Tom Watson, a Populist, manifests some interest in Georgia politics. They swear he is trying to break up the Democratic party and gain control of the state. Well, what about Major J. F. Hanson, the Republican president of the Central Railway? He has been active in state politics for a long time, and wields more influence than a thousand ringsters who are “cussing” Tom Watson. If it is a high crime for Populist Watson to take a hand in Georgia politics, what kind of crime is Republican Hanson guilty of when he joins Hamp McWhorter and Sam Spencer in a prolonged struggle to dominate the public policies and politics of Georgia? Will some of the political time-servers please answer?—Newnan (Ga.) News.

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The fact that Mr. Howell has never replied to the question why he was so anxious for Watson to call and see him, leads us to believe that he was after the same thing he accuses Smith of—attempting to get what honey he could out of the Populist beegum.—Washington (Ga.) Reporter.

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The latest proposition is to put the Quay statue at Harrisburg in a niche. That would be a good plan provided they wall up the niche afterward.—Broken Bow (Neb.) Beacon.

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The railroad rate bill was passed by the House by a vote of 346 to 7, last week Thursday.

The bill is now up to the Senate. It may stay there for some time before it passes, if it is passed at all.

The corporation-ridden Senate is a disgrace to a people who are said to elect their public servants. The men who made the Senate so far from the touch of the common people either were short-sighted, or defrauded the real American citizen out of one of the most necessary needs in this age of graft and political corruption.

The Grange favors the direct nomination and election of our United States Senators, and in due course of time we, the people, shall be electors in deed and action. By direct vote of the people, making the senators responsible and answerable to the masses, alone can we inject purity into our elections and accomplish reform in public affairs.—Sandusky (Mich.) Salinac Farmer.

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Up to January 16 the Congressional Record contained 2,300 columns of speeches made so far by congressmen, but it has to record only one important bill passed.

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William Jennings Bryan’s costume in the honorable position of a “Datto” of Mindanao consists of a high hat and a black silk apron. In cold weather he is permitted to varnish his legs.—McEwen (Tenn.) New Era.

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The members of the lower house of Congress are debating the railroad rate bill this week. At the end of that time the public will know which ones are entitled to railroad passes under the new regulation of the companies that only employees are to receive them.—Matthews (I. T.) News.

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We admire patriotism but we don’t like toadyism. It makes us tired to see how quick some editors sneeze when a high official takes snuff. And when the snuff is taken purely and solely for political effect it makes it all the more disgusting.—Marshville (N. C.) Our Home.

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“This is the time,” says Senator Platt, “when little bosses will find their level.” And it is also the time when some great bosses are finding rock bottoms.—Stanberry (Mo.) Owl.

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What’s the difference between a street curb boodler and one that sells out for a promise of an appointment? Ans.—One gets his money before voting while the other gets it afterwards, if he does not get left—principle same.—Batavia (O.) Democrat.

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Why are all the candidates opposing Hoke Smith? There must be some reason for it. Everyone had faith in him, believed him far superior to a majority of other people, until he got into the race. Why this change? Why so many attacks upon him? Is it because he is advocating reforms which have already been adopted by several of the other Southern states? It must be because he stands for something, and is not ashamed or afraid to tell what it is.—Marietta (Ga.) Courier.

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With Clark Howell devoting most of his time to “cussing” out Tom Watson, Hoke Smith is sailing smoothly on to the gubernatorial chair.—Dalton (Ga.) Citizen.

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The New York Sun puts it this way: “If John Mitchell’s statement at the miners’ convention is not a bluff, there will be either an enormous increase in the coal bills of the American people or the most costly and disastrous strike the country has ever seen.” But what do the mine owners and the striking mine workers care about that, so long as the people who buy the coal are willing to bear their suffering in silence—paying without a murmur any price the coal barons put on their product; and feeling well assured that nothing will be done by the suffering people to change the laws by which these barons are enabled to inflict this suffering.—Waterbury (Conn.) Examiner.

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During the last ten years stocks and bonds amounting to $12,500,000,000 have been floated in this country. This additional capitalization of the industries and railroads of the country is about equal to the total value of all grain crops raised by the farmers during the same period. It is one-third more than the total value of the products of all mines in the country for the same period. It is equal to one-eighth of the total wealth of the United States in 1900. That is the way the “great” financiers absorb the wealth produced by the toilers of the nation. After studying the above statistics you may realize the force of Gov. Johnson’s statement that fictitious valuation and the consequent tax on the producers is the great curse of this country. Ignatius Donnelly used to tell a story about a hen that laid an egg in a nest fitted with a false bottom. The egg disappeared, and the hen laid another, continuing in her vain effort to have an egg show up in the nest until there was nothing left of her but the feathers. The fictitious capitalization is the false bottom that takes the products of the laborer, leaving him nothing to show for his efforts.—Willmar (Minn.) Tribune.

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The Hepburn rate bill now pending in Congress is nothing more nor less than the Hearst bill with a few loopholes in it for the convenience of those railroad companies that may desire to side-step its provisions.—Globe (Ariz.) Register.

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The fact that the congressmen of both old parties are almost a unit for the railroad rate bill now pending in Congress, should be enough to satisfy any reasonable man that the people can get their rights only through a new party. The bill is a miserable pretense engineered by railroad tools in Congress, and its object is to make the people believe they are going to get relief through the old parties.—Chillicothe (Mo.) World.

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Gov. Magoon testifies that men may be put to death in the Panama Canal zone without trial. It seems to be easier to put them to death than to put them to work.—Athens (Ill.) Free Press.

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The time has come when we need men that stand for something. The day is past when our forefathers stood for truth, honor, principle; and all that was right must be called into play again or this republic will be but an iridescent dream.—Marion (Ala.) Democrat.

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A writer in a recent issue of a so-called farm paper says the reason boys go to towns and cities to live is because they long for a life in which they will be independent of every one else on earth. Then why in thunder do they go to the cities to find it? A man might as well dig out gopher holes expecting to find wolves as to go to the cities to find an independent life. The place to find that is on the farm. Here we are our own boss, and if any one else does not like the way we do, we are in a position to tell him to go to—with no danger of losing our job.—Irrigon (Ore.) Irrigator.

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It now looks like Marion Butler is arranging to take charge of the Republican Party in North Carolina. We make no prediction about what will be or what will not be done. Those who know his past record will hesitate before surrendering entirely to a man who is so thoroughly repudiated by all classes in this state.—Asheboro (N. C.) Courier.

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The Chicago Tribune asks: “Granting that it will take seven years to construct the Panama canal, have the seven years begun yet?” That is rather a hard question, not knowing the personality of the timekeeper. However, there is one thing in connection with the scheme that we are all well aware of—the big salaries of the political constructors have begun, all right.—Farmington Valley Herald, Hartford, Conn.

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According to the Pantagraph, Senator Cullom should be re-elected because he stayed in Washington after the session of Congress of last winter and did work that he was drawing a salary of $5,000 a year to do. The statement that his present illness was brought on by overwork seems preposterous. Who ever heard of a United States Senator overworking, unless it was to keep himself in office? From present indications, it seems that the people of the state are willing to give Mr. Cullom a rest from his overwork.—Colfax (Ill.) Press.

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John A. McCall, late head of a giant life insurance company, is dead, and, as far as mortal knows, is at rest for the first time for months. This erstwhile gentleman and master of high finance was “weighed in the balance and found wanting.” The weighing was done by fellow citizens, which made remorse all the more keen. Rapid decline followed and McCall, broken-hearted, deserted and despised, is gone. His fate should be an example to others who are tempted to do wrong. A half dozen other luminaries of New York, who were caught dead to rights in the insurance frauds, are fast following in McCall’s wake, and are even now all but ostracized by social and business associates. The weight of the common verdict against them is bearing heavily upon their shoulders, streaking their hair and furrowing their faces. Their sins are finding them out.—Washington (Ill.) Register.

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Old political systems are being broken up by the heat of public common sense and non-partisan movements. The independent American citizen and voter is going to make himself felt, by gosh!—Mt. Vernon (Ind.) Unafraid.

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John A. McCall has departed to the great bar of all time. There is no doubt but that shame and humiliation killed this proud, self-made man.

Wrong-doing is bound to bring its death sentence to all lives, rich or poor.—Milford Centre (O.) Ohioan.

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“Some day, we pray to God, there will come a House which will hold tight the purse-strings, and, on some measure of right, say to our lords: ‘Pass the bill or get no money. We will go to the country on this issue.’ And then we will have achieved what the English House of Commons won in 1832, and our Senate will become the perfunctory body the House of Lords ever since has been.”—St. Louis Dispatch.

That sounds like it came from way up in the amen corner, and is likely to have many hearty responses.—Salem (Va.) Times-Register.

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Mr. Rogers, of the Standard Oil Trust, is the last man in the world who should show contempt for the law. The law which is brought about through class legislation has enabled him to become a millionaire by robbing the public, and it is through respect for the law that an enraged public permits him to hold his ill-gotten gains.—Rolla (Mo.) Sharp Shooter.

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Well, the railroad rate bill has passed the House, with only seven negative votes—all Republicans. But in the Senate is where the tug-of-war comes.—Malad (Ida.) People’s Advocate.

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Pure food is once more an issue in both houses of Congress, and the bill bids fair to be defeated in the Senate, which numbers among its members not a few who have interests in groceries, fisheries, packing and canning houses that will be unfavorably affected by pure food legislation. The clause most necessary to the effectiveness of the bill, the one providing that all packages shall be labeled to show exactly the contents of the package whether medicine, food or beverage, and which enables the purchaser at least to know with what and when he is poisoning himself, is the very clause that seems in greatest danger of defeat.—Adams (N. Dak.) Budget.

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And now the assertion comes forth that a large white goat in a New York town by the name of Rockefeller, while the family heads were bowed in sorrow, climbed upon the porch and devoured the wreath of flowers which hung on the door. But, pshaw! that is only characteristic of the name—swiping all in sight.—Wrens (Ga.) Reporter.

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It is probable that when the Hepburn railway rate bill gets back to the lower house of Congress that it and its author will scarcely have a bowing acquaintance.—Glenwood (Mo.) Phonograph.

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The fight in Congress over the railway rate bill seems to center on court review of the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Now the courts have the right under the Constitution to review all orders of the commission or they have not. Therefore why should the fight be over this feature of the bill unless the railroads believe that the courts have had this authority if denied in the measure, we are unable to comprehend. On the first blush we should say that the courts, if asked, would have this right, for they have claimed the right to review almost any and every thing till the Democratic Party was forced to denounce “government by injunction.” Still, the railroads occupy a peculiar position toward the people of the country.

The stockholders in a railroad corporation have not the same rights the stockholders have in nearly every other corporate body.

The railroads have been permitted to condemn our land for their use, but in so doing they incurred certain responsibilities to the public that are imposed on no other corporation.

It would therefore seem but just that if railroads can force us to part with our real estate, surely we, the people, have a right to say that these roads shall be managed just as the people through their representatives in Congress desire, and unless such regulations are confiscatory the courts shall have no say.—Tarboro (N. C.) Southern.

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Having resigned from seventy corporations, Senator Depew must be awful lonesome when the directors meet and make a noise like declaring a dividend.—Schaghticoke (N. Y.) Sun.

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Here is what we found in Sunday’s Constitution about the Governor’s race.

One article about Hoke Smith and Tom Watson brands them as assassins of Democracy. In another place is the following complimentary clipping about Estill: “The weekly papers are giving Colonel John H. Estill the squarest kind of a deal. The Savannahian is the man to watch and his following seems to be growing rapidly in all quarters of the state.”

And on the same page is another clipping from the Tifton Gazette, in which Estill, Judge Russell and Mr. Howell are spoken of as men of the most sterling integrity, distinguished ability and unflinching honor, and either of them would do Georgia credit in the gubernatorial chair.

Is it a wonder that the common people believe that Clark Howell, Estill and Judge Russell are in a combination to beat Hoke Smith?—Lawrenceville (Ga.) Gwinnett Journal.

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The old adage “competition is the life of trade” has been transformed to “combination is the life of trade” to suit the condition of the times.—Oakland (Md.) Journal.

“Wall Street Is Playing with Fire” is the startling head line in a local paper. There is no need for alarm, though. Wall Street has plenty of water to put out any fire.—Almond (N. Y.) Gleaner.

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The great copper war which for years has been waged between Heinze and the Amalgamated has been ended by what is practically a merger of the opposing interests. This fight between stock gamblers for the control of immense properties has for years divided the people of Montana into bitter factions, has disorganized politics, corrupted judges and legislatures and had a baneful effect upon all the people of the state. Now that the contending forces have made peace the public will probably be the more thoroughly fleeced.—Warren (Minn.) Sheaf.

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Precedent has been found which shows that Henry H. Rogers could have been legally made to testify. We have been of that opinion all the time, but it is only another instance where the sword of Justice and the law has proved insufficient when met by the shield and armor of gold.—Santa Anna (Tex.) News.

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Congress has decided to investigate the coal and oil trusts. A nice summer’s job is here cut out for somebody. It is hoped there will be no Garfield business about the investigation. The miserable failure Commissioner Garfield made of that Beef Trust investigation should be enough to disgust even a Roosevelt.—Seaford (Del.) News.

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According to a statement issued by the Bureau of Statistics last Saturday with reference to the number and value of farm animals in the United States, there are more cows than any other one domestic animal. But the horse, while next to the lowest in number, is more valuable. The mules rank lowest in number and the sheep lowest in value. The report shows that the total value of all the farm animals to be nearly $4,000,000,000.—Hamilton (Tex.) Herald.

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The United States Senate, by a vote of 38 to 27, has passed the shipping subsidy bill. The bill appropriates $200,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money for the American merchant marine. What a lovely gift! Voting the people’s money to boost a class of wealthy business men. What a lovely principle!—Veblen (S. Dak.) Advance.

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While a lot of fellows have been sent to jail for stealing loaves of bread, hams, shoes and such, none of the big insurance thieves have even been indicted. Justice is not only blind, but she is deaf as a post, dumb as an oyster, and she couldn’t smell a fertilizer factory at ten feet.—Pennsboro (W. Va.) News.

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To judge from the Standard Oil witnesses in the New York investigation, we shall no doubt hear a demand for the Government to be ruled for contempt in wanting to know too much.—Parco City (Okla.) Democrat.

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John A. McCall, ex-president of the New York Life Insurance Company, who confessed that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars belonging to widows and orphans and used the money as a corruption fund to help elect McKinley and Roosevelt presidents of the United States, is dead and gone,—we don’t know where, but if we were dead too, we wouldn’t hunt him up.—Granville (Ia.) Gazette.

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Members of the lower house are chuckling over the predicament one of their colleagues finds himself in. It seems the unsophisticated private secretary of this especial representative forwarded to Washington by mail three parts of a sectional bookcase, using his employer’s postal frank. The bookcases contained private books, and one of them is said to have concealed a miscellaneous collection of kitchen utensils intended for the owner’s home there. The entire collection was “unfrankable” and the local postmaster has called on the representative to pay postage on his property to the amount of $72. The name of the representative is being kept secret, but that doesn’t soothe his feelings to any great extent.—Bowlder (S. Dak.) Pioneer.

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President Roosevelt and Secretary Taft are said to favor a lock canal. If reports are true, that’s the matter with the project now. It’s locked with red tape and departmental interferences.—Clifton (Tenn.) Mirror.

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Governor Pattison of Ohio signed the Freiner two-cent fare bill which was accepted by the Senate and it is now a law. It will not go into effect, however, until thirty days have elapsed. The law provides that two cents shall be the maximum rate charged in Ohio for transporting passengers on the railroads of Ohio for all distances in excess of five miles.—Winfield (La.) Comrade.

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The Senate has passed the corrupt subsidy bill granting $20,000,000 a year to the steel trust infant industry so that our merchant marine can compete with that of other nations. Isn’t that satisfactory evidence that U. S. senators should be elected by direct vote of the people? Remove the tariff and our ship builders can “compete” without a subsidy.—Alva (Okla.) Renfrew’s Record.

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There’s one consolation to the poor man when he thinks of John D. Rockefeller being the richest man in the world; he knows that the devil won’t let him bring a cent of it to hell with him.—St Louis (Mo.) National Rip Saw.

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It is just as true today as it ever was that the safest and most honorable way for a man to secure a competence is to do it little by little, taking a lifetime for the work. The haste to be rich and make money fast is the economic curse of America today. Every man wants to draw a prize in the business lottery and it is seldom indeed that he is content with small savings and safe investments.—Headland (Ala.) Post.

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Managers of the Hepburn Rate Bill contemplate providing it with a set of puncture-proof tires when it starts its round of the Senate.—Alma (Neb.) Record.

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The United States Senate passed a “Ship Subsidy Bill” the other day in just three minutes. Anything that has “Subsidy” (the proper word is graft) to it gets through just as soon as some member makes plain the amount of graft in the measure.—Smith Crater (Kan.) Messenger.

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It is being told that a Kansas man, accompanied by his little son, visited the Senate while in Washington last week and the boy was particularly interested in Edward Everett Hale, a magnificent looking old man. His father told him that he was the chaplain. “Oh, he prays for the Senate, doesn’t he?” asked the boy. “No,” replied the father, “he gets up and takes a look at the Senate and prays for the country.”—Enid (Okla.) Echo.

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The Ohio legislature has passed a law making a uniform rate of two cents a mile on all railroads in that state. The railroads on the other hand have decided to cut off all forms of transportation except the two cent fare. This includes reduced transportation for conventions, 1,000-mile books, all charity business, round trip rates, and clergymen’s rates.—Stewartville (Minn.) Times.

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Leslie Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, says that we have the best banking system on earth. Still in the past few months failures in five national banks have footed up to almost $7,000,000. Now if these banks had had out a flood of asset currency, backed only by the assets of the banks, and no doubt they would have had, the Government would probably have lost as large a sum, and all of this would have had to come out of the people for the benefit of the speculators.—Lansing (Mich.) Capital City Democrat.

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The end of old Steve Elkins, the blocks-of-five-election buyer, he, who, with the aid of his father-in-law, Gassaway Davis, got control of most of the coal mines and railroads of West Virginia, is in sight. The extortions of the coal trust and railroad combine that Elkins organized have become so unbearable that the Republican governor of that state has appealed to Senator Tillman to secure an investigation. The Republicans of the Senate dare not deny it. When the truth comes out that will be the end of Elkins, for which all the people will give thanks unto God.—Omaha (Neb.) Investigator.

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They don’t seem to be doing much digging on that great canal, but they manage to bury a considerable amount of money there.—Cresson (Tex.) Courier.

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The Best

She (indignantly)—Stop, sir! You shall not kiss me again! How rude you are! Don’t you know any better?

He (cheerily)—I haven’t kissed every girl in town, it is true, but as far as I have gone I certainly don’t know any better.

News Record

FROM FEBRUARY 8 TO MARCH 8, 1906

Home News

February 8.—John A. McCall, former President of the New York Life Insurance Co., is seriously ill at Lakewood, N. J.

Richard A. McCurdy, former President of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., plans to leave the United States and make his home in Paris.

The New York Life Insurance Company’s “house cleaning” committee reveal that Judge Andrew Hamilton has received $1,347,382 from that company since 1892. This is $283,383 in excess of the total payments disclosed by the Armstrong Committee. The committee recommends legal action against John A. McCall for the recovery of the amount.

Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, introduces a bill in the Senate making it an offense for any Government officer, official or employee to accept a railroad pass or franking privilege over telegraph lines.

By a vote of 346 to 7 the House of Representatives passes the Hepburn railroad rate regulation bill just as it came from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, and declared by Chairman Hepburn to be exactly in accordance with recommendations of President Roosevelt on the subject.

The House of Representatives passes the General Pension bill for the year ending June 30, 1907. The bill appropriates $140,245,000. Congressman Gardner, of Michigan, declares that when the last pensioner on account of the Civil War has disappeared from the rolls, $12,000,000,000 will have been expended.

February 9.—The Illinois coal operators decide to refuse the demands of the United Mine Workers for an increase in wages.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passes a resolution directing the attorney general of that state to ascertain whether any railroad companies in Pennsylvania are engaged in the mining of coal, and if so, to proceed against them.

By reducing the rate of railroad fares to two cents a mile, it is estimated that the people of Ohio will be saved $4,000,000 a year, or a sum equal to almost all the taxes paid for the support of the state government.

The Senate Committee takes under consideration the Hepburn railroad rate bill.

The taking of testimony against Senator Reed Smoot, the Mormon, ends. Senator Smoot’s counsel will introduce testimony in his defense.

The House of Representatives passes 429 pension bills. The Judiciary Committee of the House begins an investigation to ascertain whether or not Congress has the power for Federal control of insurance.

Secretary Taft appears before the Senate Committee on the Philippines and says the United States will probably suffer no reduction in tariff income under the Philippine tariff bill passed by the House of Representatives.

Secretary Root proposes to reorganize the State Department and put it on a business basis.

Charles E. Magoon, governor of the Panama Canal Zone, appears before the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals. He declares the sanitary conditions good, the Supreme Court of Panama capable and impartial, and advises the coinage of silver money for use on the Isthmus.

The differences between President Dolan, of the United Mine Workers of the Pittsburg district, and the delegates to the convention are taken to the courts.

February 11.—Samuel Glasgow, manager of a milling company of Spokane, Washington, claims to have received Chinese papers from his representative in China, claiming that a recent speech of William J. Bryan to Chinese merchants had been used to stir up renewed antipathy to American goods.

John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers, reaches New York City to confer with the mine operators on the new scale of wages demanded by the miners.

President Baer, of the Reading Railroad, states that the Pennsylvania Legislature has not the power to interfere with the vested rights of coal-carrying railroads.

February 12.—The Senate passes the resolution introduced by Senator Tillman which directs the Interstate Commission to investigate the alleged discrimination by railroad companies in the matter of the transportation of coal and other commodities; as to whether the railroad companies own stock in coal companies or in other commodities carried by them; whether any of the railroad officers are interested in such commodities; whether there is any monopolizing combination or trust in which the railroads are interested, and whether any of the railroad companies control the output of coal or fix its price. The Commission also is directed to investigate the system of car distribution, and whether there is discrimination against shippers either in the matter of the distribution of cars or otherwise.

Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, makes a speech in the Senate favoring a revision by the courts of all rates made by the Commission. This would practically kill the effectiveness of the Hepburn bill.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives adopt a resolution that the Attorney General be instructed to inquire into the allegations that the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New York Central and the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad companies, and their leased lines, are directly or indirectly engaged in the mining of bituminous coal, and if it be found that they are engaged in this business that he proceed against them.

Leaders of the United Mine Workers reach New York to hold a conference with their President, John Mitchell.

February 13.—F. Augustus Heinze, defeated in the courts, sells his Montana copper mines to the trust, ending the great Montana copper war.

John Mitchell and the wage-scale committee of the Mine Workers are working on the schedule of demands which will be presented to the mine operators.

The committee to which Thomas W. Lawson has turned over all his proxies of the Mutual and New York Life Insurance Companies agree to employ counsel to aid them in their efforts to oust the new managements of the two companies. Five members of Lawson’s committee are governors of various states.

Attorney General Hadley, of Missouri, who is conducting the State’s case against the Standard Oil Co., goes to Iowa and gets testimony from former officers of the Standard’s subsidiary companies. He states that he has made out his case against the Standard.

George W. Beavers, of New York, former Chief of the Division of Salaries and Allowances of the Post Office Department, pleads guilty to a charge of conspiracy, and is sentenced to two years imprisonment. Machen and others have already been convicted and are serving sentences.

The Bituminous Coal Trade League, of Pennsylvania, sends Congressman Gillespie, of Texas, a petition stating that Senators Elkins, of West Virginia, and Gorman, of Maryland have caused violations of the anti-trust laws. Former Senator H. G. Davis, of West Virginia, father-in-law to Senator Elkins, cousin to Gorman, and Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic party in 1904, is also accused of being a party to these violations.

February 14.—The “housecleaning” committee of the New York Life Insurance Co. submits a report to the trustees of the company, showing that $148,702.50 has been illegally contributed to campaign funds in the last three elections. The committee recommends that suits for the recovery of the same be brought against John A. McCall and all other officers who had anything to do with making the contributions.

John G. Brady, Governor of Alaska, resigns.

The House of Representatives passes the appropriation bill for fortifications. The total amount appropriated is $4,383,993, $600,000 of this to be spent in fortifying the Philippines and Hawaii.

The Senate passes the ship subsidy bill. If the bill becomes a law it is estimated that $26,000,000, will be taken from the United States Treasury and paid out in bounties to vessel owners during the next ten years.

The resolution of Representative Sulzer, of New York, calling for an inquiry regarding the sale of the old New York Custom House to the National City Bank, of New York, passes the House by a unanimous vote.

February 15.—John Mitchell presents the demands of the miners to the mine owners. Committees are appointed to represent both sides.

Congressman Longworth procures a license to marry Miss Alice Roosevelt. The President attends Mr. Longworth’s bachelor dinner.

James W. Alexander is again stricken with paralysis and is in a sanitarium at Deerfield, Mass.

Officers of the beef packers again testify that Commissioner Garfield promised that no evidence they gave would be used against them. The testimony brought out these facts: First, Commissioner Garfield apparently took the word of Armour & Co.’s general superintendent that the Armour Car Company, which has been declared the tap root of the Beef Trust, was not owned by Armour & Co., and had nothing to do with the fresh meat industry, and made no further attempt to get information concerning the private car line monopoly. Second, Swift & Co. gave information reluctantly to the Commissioner of Corporations, and only after consulting counsel. At this conference attorneys for the other packers in the trust were present. The secretary of Swift & Co. contributed the information that he sought this advice of counsel because he “wanted it.”

February 16.—James W. Alexander, former President of the Equitable Life Insurance Co., is operated on. The physicians refuse to tell the nature of the operation, but give hopes of Alexander’s recovery.

Reports from Memphis, Tenn., state that more than fifty per cent of the Southern peach crop has been killed and the other fifty per cent is commercially worthless.

State Senator James Minton, of New Jersey, invites Thomas W. Lawson, Ida Tarbell and Attorney-General Hadley, of Missouri, to attend a public hearing on his resolution calling on Attorney-General McCarter, of New Jersey, to bring proceedings to annul the charter of the Standard Oil Company.

Stuyvesant Fish, a member of the “housecleaning” committee of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., resigns because Standard Oil interests obstruct a thorough investigation of the company’s affairs.

On account of the illness of Senator Tillman, the Senate postpones the vote on the railroad rate bill until February 23.

February 17.—Miss Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of the President, is married, in the White House, to Congressman Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati.

Justice Rufus W. Peckham, of the United States Supreme Court, advises the “housecleaning” committee of the Mutual Life Insurance Co. to bring action against Richard A. McCurdy, ex-president of the company, before he leaves this country.

Fire destroys $1,000,000 worth of wheat at Duluth, Minnesota.

President Peabody, of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., refuses to give his consent for an investigation of the company’s board of trustees by the “housecleaning” committee.

February 18.—John A. McCall, late president of the New York Life Insurance Co., dies at Lakewood, N. J. His death was hastened by the recent insurance scandals. The New York World sums up the result of the insurance investigation as follows:

John A. McCall, dead, fortune shattered; J. W. Alexander, mental and physical wreck; James H. Hyde, self-expatriated in Paris; Robert A. McCurdy, preparing to follow Hyde; Robert H. McCurdy, preparing to follow his father; Judge Andy Hamilton, on the Riviera; Thomas D. Jordan, in seclusion; Andrew Fields, in seclusion; Louis Thebaud, going to Paris; W. H. McIntyre, in seclusion; George W. Perkins, reputation smirched; Chauncey M. Depew, damaged in reputation.

John B. Stetson, the millionaire hat manufacturer of Philadelphia, dies at Gillen, Florida.

John Mitchell and his associates, representing the anthracite miners, complete their demands to the coal operators. They will be presented in a day or two.

President Roosevelt prepares to have the frauds in connection with the Indian affairs in Indian Territory investigated.

February 19.—Eight suits are begun by the Mutual Life Insurance Co. against the McCurdys, Louis A. Thebaud, son-in-law of Richard A. McCurdy, and C. H. Raymond & Co., for restitution of moneys of the company illegally spent. This includes campaign contributions, illegal salaries, rebates and illegal commissions.

President Roosevelt recommends to Congress a lock canal of eighty-five foot level across the Isthmus of Panama. The lock canal was also favored by the Canal Commission and Secretary Taft. A majority of the Board of Consulting Engineers favored a sea level canal.

The United States Supreme Court decides that it is illegal for railroads to sell commodities which they transport as common carriers. The decision of the Court bears directly on railroads that own or operate coal mines.

Congressman E. Spencer Blackburn, of North Carolina, is accused of accepting a fee for using his influence to obtain action by an executive department. The offense is similar to the one committed by Senator Burton.

The trial of the beef packers continues at Chicago. E. Dana Durand, chief assistant to Commissioner Garfield, testifies that the Department of Commerce turned over certain data obtained from the packers to the Department of Justice.

Sixteen miners are killed by an explosion at Maitland, Colorado.

A sub-committee of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce takes action on the Tillman, Gillespie and Campbell resolution to authorize the Interstate Commerce Committee to investigate the connection between railroads and coal and oil companies. All three of the resolutions will be embodied in one and sent back to the House for passage.

The Interstate Commerce Commission orders an investigation of the rates and practices of the railroad carriers engaged in transporting oil from Kansas and Indian Territory to interstate destinations.

Representative Campbell introduces a joint resolution to authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission to immediately investigate and report to Congress from time to time whether any interstate commerce carriers own or control any oil or other products which they ship as common carriers; whether the officers of such carriers charged with the distribution of cars and furnishing facilities for transportation are directly or indirectly owners of companies interested in oil products; whether a combination in restraint of trade exists between the carriers and the shippers of oil products, and whether the officers of oil companies are officers, agents or members of the directory of any common carrier.

Congressman Mann, of Illinois, introduces a bill to make insurance business interstate commerce.

Senator Tillman introduces a bill in the Senate to prohibit corporations from making money contributions in connection with political elections.

February 20.—The McCurdys prepare to fight the suits brought against them by the Mutual Life Insurance Co. for the restitution of money illegally taken from the company. The McCurdys and Raymond & Co. also charge that other officials and trustees of the Mutual received rebates on their own policies.

Opinions of prominent lawyers show that the Supreme Court’s decision against railroads owning commodities which they haul as common carriers will prevent railroads from operating if not from owning coal mines. Most of the big coal mines in the country are either owned, controlled or operated by the railroads.

Commissioner of Corporations James R. Garfield testifies in the case of the Government against the beef packers now being tried at Chicago. He denies that he promised the packers immunity from prosecution or that all information given him would be regarded as confidential.

Pittsburg, Pa., follows the example of other cities and throws off the yoke of boss rule. George W. Guthrie, a Democrat supported by the independent factions, defeats Alexander M. Jenkinson, the Republican candidate of the Frick-Mellon-Cassatt combination.

The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce recommends a favorable report to the House on the bill for an investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission of the relations between railroads and coal and oil companies. This is the resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator Tillman, with a few modifications of the Gillespie and Campbell resolutions substituted.

February 21.—President Roosevelt announces that he will not try to influence the Senate Committee’s action on the Hepburn railroad rate bill, but intimates that he will veto any bill that does not meet his approval.

John Mitchell declares there will be a coal strike in the bituminous coal fields.

The Senate passes a pure food bill by a vote of 63 to 4. The bill makes it a crime to ship from one state to another any article of food, drugs, medicines or liquors which is adulterated or misbranded, or which contains any poisonous or deleterious substances.

General Grosvenor, of Ohio, is defeated for re-nomination to Congress. Gen. Grosvenor has been in Congress twenty years.

The House of Representatives takes up the army appropriation bill. Chairman Hull, of Iowa, urges the need of preparing for an emergency, as there is fear of trouble with China.

John A. McCall is buried in New York City. McCall left no money and the suits for recovery of money illegally paid Hamilton will be dropped.

Because of his stand for an honest investigation of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., the trustees who fear exposure plan to oust Stuyvesant Fish from the presidency of the Illinois Central Railroad.

February 22.—John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers, has another conference with several mine operators on a new scale of wages to be paid after April 1.

Mrs. Minor Morris, who was forcibly ejected from the White House some time ago, issues a statement in which she denounces the President for her treatment.

Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania, introduces a railroad rate regulation bill giving the courts the right to review any order or action of the Interstate Commerce Commission. It is the intention of the railroad senators to add the court review clause of the Knox bill to the Hepburn bill.

In the report to the New York Legislature the Armstrong, or Insurance Investigating, Committee, makes the following recommendations.

Not only should stock corporations be permitted to give policy-holders the right to vote, but an opportunity should be afforded for conversion into purely mutual companies.

The law as to investments in securities should be amended so as to provide: That no investment in the stock of any corporation shall be permitted, except in public stocks of municipal corporations.

The statute should forbid all syndical participations, transactions for purchase and sale on joint account, and the making of any agreement providing that the company shall withhold from sale for any time or subject to the discretion of others any securities which it may own or acquire.

No officer or director should be pecuniarily interested in any purchase, sale or loan made by the corporation.

Contributions by insurance corporations for political purposes should be strictly forbidden.... Any officer, director or agent, making, authorizing or consenting to any such contribution should be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The company should be compelled to set forth in its annual statement to the Superintendent of Insurance all sums so disbursed (for lobbying), giving the names of the payees, the amounts paid and the specific purpose of the payment.

Limit the amount of new business; prohibit bonuses, prizes and awards; limit renewal commissions to four years and to, say, 10 per cent. of the first year’s premiums; prohibit loans and advances to agents; limit total expenses to the total “loadings” upon the premiums.

The companies should be required annually to file with the Superintendent of Insurance a gain and loss exhibit for the year in a prescribed form, showing the amount available for distribution, the amount of dividends declared and the method of calculation by which they have been determined.

Section 56 should be repealed and the matter should be left subject to the general provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to actions against corporations.

In addition to requiring approval of the Superintendent of other than certain standard forms, provision should be made for the standardization of the new types of policies.... The issue of other policies than those thus provided for should be prohibited.

The committee recommends publicity of names and addresses of policy-holders and the giving them the right to verify statements and prosecute for falsity. The committee recommends requiring statements in elaborate detail covering all transactions, and favors giving the Superintendent of Insurance power to examine under oath.

February 23.—Stuyvesant Fish resigns as a trustee from the Mutual Life Insurance Co. and will head a committee of policy-holders to fight the present management.

Insurance men plan to fight the new laws recommended by the Armstrong Committee before the New York Legislature, and, if unsuccessful there, to carry the matter before the courts.

The Hepburn railroad rate regulation bill is reported by the Senate committee without any amendments. Through trickery of Senator Aldrich, the bill will be presented to the Senate by Senator Tillman as a Democratic measure.

The House of Representatives passes a resolution ordering an investigation of the relations between coal and oil carrying railroads and coal and oil companies.

Commissioner Garfield again testifies in the trial of the beef packers at Chicago. He admits that the Department of Commerce and Labor furnished the Department of Justice with evidence.

Johann Hoch, the noted bigamist, is hanged at Chicago.

February 24.—The House Committee on Immigration unanimously agrees on a bill to amend the immigration laws. The new bill will make naturalization uniform throughout the United States, and confines the issuance of citizenship papers to United States Circuit and District Courts, and to the highest court of original jurisdiction of each state. The bill further provides that an alien must be able to read, write and speak English before he can become a citizen.

Since Senator Aldrich’s trick of having Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, report the Hepburn railroad rate bill, which makes it a Democratic measure, Washington despatches state that the long standing feud between the President and Senator Tillman will end.

February 25.—C. Augustus Seton, who is under arrest in New York City, confesses to forging $4,300,000 worth of Norfolk and Western Railroad stock certificates.

Coal mine operators give out statements saying there will be a strike, as they will refuse to grant the miners’ requests. T. L. Lewis, vice-president of the United Mine Workers, declares there will be no strike and that the operators will grant the requests of the miners.

Harry Orchard, who assassinated the late Governor Steunenberg, of Idaho, confesses to taking part in 26 murders.

Ex-Speaker David B. Henderson dies at Dubuque, Iowa. Mr. Henderson served two terms as speaker, succeeding the late Thomas B. Reed. He was elected in 1883 and served continuously until the end of the Fifty-seventh Congress.

February 26.—The Missouri Supreme Court hands down a decision which it is believed will influence the Supreme Court of New York to order H. H. Rogers to answer the questions asked him in the Standard Oil investigation. At the time Attorney-General Hadley, of Missouri, was taking depositions in the case in New York City, Rogers was put on the witness stand. He refused to answer certain questions and expressed his contempt for Missouri Courts. Mr. Hadley went before Justice Gildersleeve, of the New York Supreme Court, and asked for an order forcing Rogers to answer or be held in contempt of court. The order was refused on the grounds that the questions involved had never been passed upon by the Missouri courts. Now comes the Missouri court with a strong decision which covers every point at issue.

President Roosevelt intervenes to prevent the threatened coal strike.

In accordance with a decision handed down by the Supreme Court of Texas, the Pacific, the United States, the American and Wells-Fargo Express Companies, and fifty of the principal railroads of the state, will have to pay $5,225,000 in penalties for violating the anti-trust law. The court holds that when a railroad company enters into an agreement with an express company which excludes other companies from doing a business on its lines, it restrains trade and stifles competition, which is prohibited by the anti-trust law.

The supposed shrewd trick of Senator Aldrich in having Senator Tillman report the Hepburn railroad rate bill now has the Republican Senators embarrassed. The Senate seems to be in favor of the bill and the Republicans dare not let it pass as a Democratic measure. Realizing that something must be done, they appeal to Senator Spooner to draft a rate bill that will suit all factions of the Republicans and be put through the Senate as a party measure.

William Nelson Cromwell, the New York lawyer who unloaded the Panama Canal property on the United States, and who has since acted as counsel to the President and Secretary Taft on Panama matters, appears before the Senate committee. He denies that he was the cause of ex-Chief Engineer Wallace’s resigning. When questioned as to his dealings with Secretary Taft he refused to answer.

February 27.—Steel Trust officials and George Gould order the bituminous coal mine operators to make peace with the miners and prevent a strike.

The Insurance Commissioners of Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Nebraska ask the New York Insurance Department to co-operate with them in making an investigation of the Mutual Life Insurance Co.

William Nelson Cromwell again appears before the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals. He continues to refuse to answer questions as to his dealings with Secretary Taft and the amount of his fees. Senator Morgan, of Alabama, produced a copy of Cromwell’s contract with the French company, or Panama Canal Co., which gave Cromwell the power to organize companies, issue stock, bonds, etc., and finance any and all sorts of organizations to further the idea of selling the canal to the United States.

February 28.—It is reported from Pittsburg that the United States Steel Corporation, through President W. Ellis Corey, has demanded of the Pittsburg Coal Company, with which it has a twenty-five-year contract for coal, the minimum for each year being set at 8,000,000 tons, that there be no strike in the Pittsburg district. At the same time the Gould interests, so heavy in the West and Southwest, have ordered peace. As a result there will be no strike of the bituminous miners, who will receive a satisfactory advance.

It is reported from Springfield, Ohio, that local militia, called out to check a race riot caused by the shooting of M. M. Davis, a brakeman, by a negro, has been unable to stop the riot. An appeal has been made to the Governor to send more troops. Early this morning houses were burning in the negro quarter, and the authorities are powerless.

Yesterday the President signed the Urgent Deficiency Bill, which contains an appropriation of $118,000 for New York State to pay its claim for money to equip Government troops during the War of 1812.

Five hundred delegates of the Independence League, guests of William R. Hearst, appeared yesterday at Albany to plead before the Governor and the Legislature for the passage of measures in which the league is interested.

The Commissioners of Insurance in the states of Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Nebraska have requested the Insurance Department of New York State to co-operate with them in an investigation of the Mutual Life Insurance Company.

It is reported from Little Rock, Ark., that Thomas E. Jordan, former Controller of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, and who could not be located during the Armstrong Investigation, is stopping with his wife at Hot Springs, Ark.

The debate in the Senate on the railroad rate question opens today with a speech by Senator Foraker, of Ohio.

Yesterday, before the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals, Senator Morgan, of Alabama, in his examination of William Nelson Cromwell, produced an agreement between the Panama Canal Commission and William Nelson Cromwell, showing that for a large compensation the Panama Canal Company contracted to pay William Nelson Cromwell a large compensation to Americanize the Panama project. Mr. Cromwell said the enterprise proposed in the document was abortive and died long ago. Senator Morgan tried to learn from Mr. Cromwell how much he had received in fees from the old or new Panama Company and by persistent questioning deduced the fact that the total payments to Mr. Cromwell did not exceed $200,000, extending over a term of years, and giving to him from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. Mr. Cromwell declined to say what service he had performed for these sums, admitting only that his clients were satisfied. The inquiry will be continued.

At a dinner yesterday at Washington the Republican members of Congress from New York proposed as the next nominee of the Republican Party for Governor of New York State, Charles E. Hughes, the inquisitor of the Armstrong Investigation Committee. The platform indicated was based on general reform and municipal ownership.

The Inter-State Commerce Commission at Washington yesterday announced its decision in the cases of the Fred G. Clark Company against the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company and the Waverley Oil Works against the Pennsylvania Company and others. In these cases the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company was the principal defendant. The commission holds that the combination rates on petroleum and its product from Cleveland and Pittsburg to points reached by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad result in unreasonable and unjust rates, and that the refusal of the railroad company to consent to participate in through rates is unjust and the situation is such as to favor greatly the Standard Oil. In its final conclusion the commission holds that the act to regulate commerce does not authorize it to compel the establishment of joint rates or the conditions of interchange in case the connecting carriers fail to agree in respect thereto; and it therefore concludes that notwithstanding that the combination rates are unjust and the general shipping situation is such as to work a practical monopoly in favor of the Standard Oil Company, the Commission is without authority to grant relief in these cases and the petitions are therefore dismissed.

Yesterday at Washington the House Committee of Agriculture decided by a vote of 8 to 7 not to recommend any appropriation to buy seeds for free distribution by the Department of Agriculture.

Special counsel for the State of Missouri will make application before the New York courts to compel Henry H. Rogers to answer questions in the inquiry the State of Missouri has been making into Standard Oil methods.

In the United States Circuit Court at Chicago yesterday, Judge Landis gave a decision that the Interstate Commerce Committee has the power to compel witnesses to answer questions in the hearing of Street’s Western Stable Car Line before the commission.

At Oklahoma City, Okla., yesterday, the assistant attorney-general began to take testimony in the ouster case against the Standard and other oil companies. A wholesale oil dealer testified that he had been instructed to get samples of oil shipped if he had to steal them; and also that there had never been any competition between the Standard Oil and the Waters-Pierce Company in Oklahoma.

At Albany yesterday, Senator Saxe’s bill to impose a tax on personal property wherever found, a measure designed to wipe out tax dodging by rich New Yorkers who establish their legal residence elsewhere, was passed in the Senate and goes to the Governor.

At Aiken, S. C., yesterday, Professor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, died of paralysis.

March 1.—Senator Foraker in the Senate yesterday made a speech, lasting three hours, in which he attacked the Hepburn railroad rate bill.

For several hours last evening the city of Springfield, Ohio, was in the hands of a mob which burned two houses and partly destroyed a dozen others. All of these houses were inhabited by negroes. Hundreds of negroes have fled from the city.

The annual report of the Pennsylvania Railroad shows a net income for the year 1905 of more than $38,000,000, an increase of about $10,000,000 as compared with 1904. The operating expenses were reduced and traffic increased.

At the annual meeting of the Equitable Life Assurance Society yesterday the directors were informed that counsel of the society were definitely engaged in working out a plan of mutualization.

Richard A. McCurdy, former president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company sails for Europe today for an indefinite stay abroad.

William Nelson Cromwell reappeared yesterday before the Senate Committee of Interoceanic Canals and admitted that he drew the monetary agreement entered into between the Republic of Panama and Secretary of War Taft. This agreement caused criticism in the Senate recently because in fact it was a treaty made without consulting that body.

At Washington the Foreign Relations Committee finished its work on the Santo Domingo treaty and reported it to the Senate. The Republicans voted solidly for the report and the Democrats against it.

The Independence League of New York State has decided to perfect an organization in every assembly district in the State of New York. In William R. Hearst’s address at Albany he said: “The fundamental idea of the Independence League is independence of boss control, of corporate control and of any party subject to boss rule and corporation control.”

Yesterday the Senate in executive session ratified the treaty between the United States and Japan relating to copyrights of works of literature and art.

March 2.—It is reported from Washington that the President has been conferring with Senators, Representatives, members of the Interstate Commerce Commission and members of his Cabinet on the question of the Hepburn railroad rate bill, and he is willing to accept three or four amendments of the bill if they will strengthen it for trial before the courts.

At Springfield, Ohio, the state militia charged the mob and dispersed it. The members of the Commercial Club of that city met to take action for the enforcement of the law, and said in speeches that the present conditions were due to politicians catering to negroes and low whites, and lax police and court methods.

John F. Wallace, formerly chief engineer of the Panama Canal Commission, becomes an employee of the George Westinghouse Company at a salary of $50,000 per year. Mr. Wallace is to assist in building electric railways paralleling steam railways in many parts of the country.

It is reported from Washington that our Government takes a very serious and gloomy view of the situation at Algeciras, and would not be surprised to see the Moroccan conference end in a rupture.

The existence of a Mutual Life policy-holders’ movement of world-wide scope, at the head of which will undoubtedly be Stuyvesant Fish, became known yesterday through the exchange of telegrams between Lord Northcliffe, formerly Sir Alfred Harmsworth, and Mr. Fish. Lord Northcliffe is chairman of the British protection committee of the Mutual Life policy holders.

March 3.—John R. Walsh, president of the Chicago National Bank, which failed December 18, 1905, was arrested yesterday on a Federal warrant charging him with violation of the national banking laws in making false reports to the Controller of Currency and with conversion to his own use of bank funds amounting to $3,000,000. He was released after giving a bond of $50,000.

At Meridian, Miss., a tornado swept through the business centre of the town, destroying $5,000,000 of property and about thirteen lives.

Springfield, Ohio, is quiet after two nights of rioting and incendiary fires. The state militia is still on duty.

At Chicago, executives of all the Eastern railways in session failed to settle the differential rate controversy. On account of the attitude of the Erie Railroad it seems impossible to avert a rate war. Every line except the Erie voted for the arbitration of the question.

The Senate Committee of the Philippines voted to smother the Philippine tariff bill yesterday. It is said that efforts will be made to have the measure reconsidered or called before the Senate.

Commissioner of Public Works, J. M. Patterson, of Chicago, yesterday gave his resignation to Mayor Dunne. Mr. Patterson says he has become a convert to Socialism.

March 4.—A delegation representing practically all life insurance companies doing business in the United States will go to Albany on March 9, the day set for the hearing of the bills that the insurance investigation has presented, to state the case of the companies before the Legislature.

Ex-Governor James Stephen Hogg died yesterday at Houston, Tex. at the age of 55.

March 5.—It is reported that on the evening before his death the late Ex-Governor Hogg said: “I want no monument of stone, but let my children plant at the head of my grave a pecan tree, and at the foot a walnut tree, and when these trees shall bear, let the pecans and walnuts be given out among the plain people of Texas that they may plant them and make Texas a land of trees.”

At St. Augustine, Fla., yesterday, Lieutenant-General John M. Schofield, retired, died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 75.

March 6.—In the House of Representatives at Washington, John Sharp Williams attacked the President and the Attorney-General and introduced a resolution, which was passed by the House, inquiring whether the Department of Justice had instituted criminal prosecutions against any of the individuals or corporations adjudged by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Northern Securities case to have violated the anti-trust laws.

The Enterprise Transportation Company, carrying freight between New York and Fall River, Mass., appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission in New York City, complaining that the trunk lines out of New York refused to make through freight rate arrangements with the Enterprise Transportation Company. Lawyers representing nearly all the big railroads were present.

March 7.—Andrew Hamilton, who was legislative agent for the New York Life Insurance Company at Albany, returned yesterday to New York. On the steamship he was registered as “H. A. Milton.”

The suit of the State of Kansas against the Standard Oil Company was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Kansas on March 5th. This ends, so far as present litigation is concerned, the movement begun a year ago by Kansas against the Standard Oil Company and re-establishes that corporation in the position it held previous to the effort made to exclude it from the state.

Yesterday District-Attorney Jerome of New York City appeared before the grand jury and asked that indictments be found against the despoilers of the life insurance companies.

In the 20th annual report of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, published yesterday, it is pointed out that Boston has become re-established as the second port of the country.

March 8.—W. H. Moore, Municipal Ownership candidate for Mayor of Seattle, was elected on a platform pledged to municipal ownership of public utilities.

All over the Dominion of Canada the banks are collecting American silver money and shipping it to Montreal, whence it is shipped to Washington and changed for gold. The removal of American silver from Canada will be a good thing for the banks and profitable for the government. The banks will be paid of ⅜ of one per cent for collecting it and the government will bear all transportation charges. It is estimated that the government will clear at least one-half of a million dollars.

It is reported that Andrew Hamilton, the legislative agent for the New York Life Insurance Company, who has just returned from Paris, consulted with District-Attorney Jerome before his return to find out just what his chances were with the law.

It has been learned that the National City Bank and the Hanover Bank were the only two New York Banks who received yesterday their allotment of a special deposit of $10,000,000 of government funds which Secretary Shaw last week announced. The news has caused much talk and criticism in banking circles.

In a special message to the Senate and the House the President said that the action of both houses in passing the resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate the subject of railroad rate discriminations and monopolies in coal and oil was hasty, ill-considered and ineffective.

Foreign News

February 9.—Mutiny is said to continue in the Russian Black Sea fleet. Admiral Chouknin is wounded by a woman at Sevastopol. Siberian plague has broken out among the Russian troops in Manchuria.

Professor Cattier, a prominent Belgian, publishes a book stating that King Leopold has received $15,000,000 graft from the rubber trade of the Congo Free State.

Passengers from Venezuela say President Castro is actively preparing for war with France. The people do not agree with the President’s views and a revolution may follow.

The negro inhabitants of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, South Africa, are demanding of England all the political rights enjoyed by the whites.

The Colonial Minister of France presents to the Council of Ministers, a plan for the political, administrative and economic reorganization of the French Congo.

Because of recent disorders, King Charles dissolves the Portuguese Parliament.

Fifty-five miners are drowned in a gold mine at Johannesburg, Transvaal.

The foreign representatives unite in demanding that the Shah investigate conditions in the Province of Shiraz, Southern Persia. Reports from other parts of Persia also show strong feeling against the Shah.

February 10.—A bomb kills four gendarmes at Warsaw. Assaults on police continue throughout Russian Poland.

The English garrison at Tibet is reported surrounded by hostile tribes.

The Irish members of Parliament again elect John Redmond chairman of the Irish Parliamentary party.

An armed expedition is sent against the religious fanatics of Natal.

February 12.—The general opinion at Algeciras is that France and Germany will reach an agreement on the Moroccan question.

General fear of another uprising and massacre in China is expressed by despatches from different parts of that country.

A proclamation is issued by the Governor-General at Odessa declaring the Russian Government will put to death any one found with deadly implements.

Ex-Premier Balfour, of England, declares his policy to be one to build up British industries by maintaining a larger foreign market for manufacturers.

The Imperial Protestant Federation sends a petition to King Edward, of England, asking him to refuse consent to the marriage of Princess Ena to King Alfonso of Spain.

The new railroad over the Andes Mountains between Santiago, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, begins operations.

February 13.—Another revolution is started in Santo Domingo.

St. Petersburg police save one of the Government banks from a mob of revolutionists. Another armed revolt is frustrated at Kharkoff, Russia. Many political prisoners are being sent to Siberia.

Reforms are being agitated in Persia which may result in that country’s being given a constitution.

Despatches from Algeciras state that the United States will finally settle the dispute between France and Germany over the Moroccan question.

Venezuela offers to arbitrate her differences with France.

The British Parliament meets preliminary to the formal opening on Feb. 19.

February 14.—Balfour and Chamberlain agree on a protective policy for England. This will have no effect at this time, as a new Parliament overwhelmingly in favor of free trade has just been elected.

Despatches from Algeciras indicate that the American delegates to the Moroccan conference are gradually bringing France and Germany to a settlement of their dispute.

The secret has leaked out that America, England and Japan have had a secret agreement concerning China since the close of the Russo-Japanese war.

A monument at El Caney in honor of the Americans who lost their lives during the siege of Santiago is unveiled.

February 15.—Fearing an outbreak in China, two of Admiral Sigsbee’s cruisers are sent to reinforce the American Far Eastern fleet.

St. Petersburg reports show that the Russian Terrorists hire boys to throw bombs.

The situation at Algeciras is unchanged.

February 17.—The Czar of Russia prevents a disruption of his Cabinet by bringing about peace between Premier Witte and Interior Minister Durnovo. General Linevitch turns over his command of the Russian troops in the far East to Gen. Grodekoff. St. Petersburg police arrest a band of Terrorists and discover enough poisons to kill half the population of St. Petersburg.

It is discovered that China has placed orders with German manufacturers for 1,000,000 small arms and 100 cannon.

Venezuela completes all preparations for war. The Venezuelan Government appoints Guzman Garbiras to succeed M. Veloz-Goiticoa as Minister to the United States.

February 18.—Clement Armand Fallières, recently elected President of the French Republic, assumes his duties.

The Russian Government orders the Governor General of East Siberia to prevent Capt. Einar Mikkelson from hoisting the American flag on any island which he may discover in the Arctic Ocean north of East Siberia and between Wrangel Land and the Parry Islands.

The body of the late King Christian IX of Denmark is entombed in Roskelde’s cathedral, Copenhagen.

A despatch from Shanghai, China, states that nothing is known there of conditions requiring the sending of United States troops to that Country. The Methodist Foreign Missionary Society receives reports from its head missionaries at different Chinese cities stating that there is no danger of disturbances. The Southern Baptist Missionary Board, through its secretary, cables its missionaries to take refuge in the nearest seaports, where they can be under the protection of foreign consulates.

The King of Hungary prepares to dissolve the Diet when it assembles today.

February 19.—The Hungarian Diet is dissolved by armed troops and police.

Another anti-Jewish riot occurs at Vietka, Russia. Most of the city is burned, but no deaths are reported.

The “General Memorandum” issued by Admiral Nelson to his captains at Trafalgar is found at Merton.

The mutineers of the Russian battleships Kniaz Potemkin, who were sentenced to death, have had their sentences commuted to imprisonment.

King Edward opens the newly elected English Parliament. In his speech the King expresses a desire that the government of the country shall be carried on in a spirit regardful of the wishes of the Irish people.

February 20.—Germany rejects the final proposal of France for a settlement of the Moroccan controversy. The points in dispute will now come before the delegates of all the Powers.

A company of British mounted infantry and three officers are massacred by fanatics in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria.

A despatch from Ekaterinodar, Ciscaucasia, states that a fight is in progress between a detachment of Russian soldiers and 600 mutinous Kuban Cossacks.

Members of the Hungarian Diet decide to accept the dissolution of that body without protest.

The British House of Commons records its determination to resist any proposals which will create any system of protection.

The Russian Government is trying many prisoners for participating in a movement to overthrow the Government. The political dissatisfaction throughout the Empire seems to be as great as at the beginning of the late revolution.

February 21.—Ambassador White, head of the American delegation to the Algeciras conference, expresses the opinion that France and Germany will reach an agreement on the Moroccan question.

Attacks upon Catholic missions are made by Chinese in several of the southeastern provinces of China.

The British House of Commons pledges a system of intelligent self-government for Ireland.

February 22.—German Reichstag passes a bill to extend reciprocal tariff rates to the United States until June 30, 1907.

Fear that the Algeciras conference will end without France and Germany reaching an agreement on the Moroccan question is expressed by the French press.

People returning from China declare that the situation is very critical and a revolution is feared. The feeling against the present government is strong and the boycott of American goods is rigidly enforced.

Religious fanatics destroy a French post in Sokoto, Central Africa.

February 23.—The American Minister to China states that he sees very little reason for apprehension over China’s affairs. Wu Ting Fang, former Minister to the United States, says China is passing through a crisis. He justifies the boycott of American goods. All missionaries are advised by Assistant Secretary of State Bacon to move to places where they can be protected.

Despatches from Algeciras state that the fear of war over Germany’s rejection of France’s proposals on the Moroccan question is growing less.

Bills providing for general suffrage are introduced in the Lower House of the Austrian Parliament.

Reports from St. Petersburg state that Count Witte has not resigned.

A revolt against the Turkish Government is reported to be spreading in Yemen, Turkish Arabia.

February 24.—W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., is attacked by a mob near Pisa, Italy, after his automobile runs down and injures a boy.

Active preparations are being made at Manila for any trouble with China.

Director General Ivanoff, of the Vistula Railroad, is assassinated at Warsaw, Russia.

The Spanish Government distributes money in the famine stricken provinces to relieve the sufferings of the people and prevent disorders.

The German Foreign Office states that there is little danger of war between Germany and France over the Moroccan question. French despatches say about the same.

February 25.—More riots occur at Warsaw and Odessa, Russia. Six persons are killed and 15 wounded.

The customs war between Austria and Servia ends. Servia agrees to Austria’s demands.

Secretary Root says the United States has no right to interfere with conditions in the Congo Free State, Africa.

President Castro, of Venezuela, declares he will clear his country of all foreigners, break up the Monroe Doctrine and humble France.

Canada will appoint a commission to investigate life insurance business in Canada.

Two packages of dynamite are found at a gate of the Forbidden City, Peking, China.

February 26.—Despatches from Shanghai, China, tell of the murder of missionaries at Nan-Chang. Six Jesuits and two members of an English family are reported murdered. The remaining foreigners escaped to Kiu-Kiang in boats. Several missions at Nan-Chang and Kiang-se were destroyed, among them the American.

February 27.—The Americans who escaped the Nan-Chang, China, massacre are reported safe at Kiu-Kiang.

Cossacks knout several prisoners to death at Odessa, Russia.

Ex-Premier Balfour is elected to the British Parliament from London.

Duchess Sophie Charlotte, of Oldenburg, and Prince Eitel Frederick, second son of the Emperor of Germany, are married at Berlin. The Emperor also celebrates his silver wedding.

France asks the Czar of Russia to use his influence to get Germany to agree to France’s terms on the Moroccan question.

Premier Witte reopens negotiations to determine the extent of a proposed agreement with England.

Japanese officers assume control of the Imperial War College and the Trade and Commercial Schools at Canton, China. The United States English and French war vessels sail for different Chinese ports to protect foreigners.

February 28.—Duchess Sophia Charlotte Oldenburg, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg and Prince Eitel Frederick, the second son of the Emperor of Germany, were married yesterday in the chapel of the palace at Berlin.

President Caceres, of Santo Domingo, in a message to his Congress, recommends the revision of the Constitution, of the import and export duties, the improvement of the ports and public roads, the enactment of laws benefiting agriculture, the free administration of justice and other improvements becoming a civilized nation. He recommends to Congress also the study of the treaty now before the United States Senate and declares that it is necessary to the welfare of his republic.

The leading papers of St. Petersburg evince no satisfaction over the announcement of the date of the meeting of the Duma. It is said that the Duma will be prorogued almost immediately until autumn.

Premier Witte has become an advocate of an Anglo-Russian understanding and it is reported that negotiations are about to be opened in London to determine the extent of a proposed agreement. If they are successful the new grouping of the Powers will check Germany’s ambition.

It is reported from St. Petersburg that Russia is using all her influence at Berlin to prevent a rupture between France and Germany.

The French officials at the Moroccan Conference at Algeciras do not look favorably upon the Berlin report that Germany will make concessions if France will also yield something. The French say that they have made concessions to which Germany has not responded.

It is reported from Manila that Japanese officers have assumed control of the imperial war college and the trade and commercial schools at Canton, China.

The battleship Ohio, flagship of the American fleet at the Asiatic station, has sailed for Hong Kong, where it will dock and make repairs, so as to be ready for possible emergencies.

A telegram from Odessa states that in the village of Ivanislaw, in the Province of Kherson, 50 Cossacks and 70 gunners appeared a few days ago under orders from a police official and knouted 13 peasants. One of these peasants went mad and others are dying. A schoolmaster became insane after witnessing the scene. The sole offense chargeable against the villagers was their re-election of communal representatives which was in conformity with the ukase of Dec. 24 last.

March 1.—The reactionary policy of Interior Minister Durnovo received a setback yesterday when the action of the St. Petersburg police in closing the central bureau of the Constitutional Democracy was disowned by the Government. Permission was given for the reopening of the bureau.

A dispatch from St. Petersburg says that the financial embarrassments of Russia are increased by the necessity of paying Japan for the maintenance of Russian prisoners.

The new general tariff and conventional tariffs between Russia and Germany, France, and Austria-Hungary go into effect today.

March 2.—It is reported from Shanghai that the Chinese Government has decided to instruct its ministers abroad to assure the Powers that there is no cause for uneasiness in the present situation in China and that there are no signs of an anti-foreign movement.

March 3.—As the result of a series of special councils composed of forty high dignitaries presided over by the Czar, the main guarantees of liberty have been granted to the Russian people and a manifesto is to be coded and incorporated in the laws of the empire.

March 4.—A terrific cyclone swept over the Society and Cook’s Islands in the Pacific Ocean on February 7 and 8. It is said 10,000 persons perished. The damage to property is estimated at a million dollars.

March 5.—At Tokio a bill was introduced in the Diet providing for the nationalization of the railways, and authorizing the government to compel companies to sell out to it at a price based on the cost of building plus twenty times the average profits for the last three years.

March 6.—It is reported that the Germans have refused any concessions at the Moroccan conference at Algeciras. Russia proposed that France and Spain control the policing of Morocco. France was willing to accept the proposition, which was indorsed by Spain, Portugal and England. Herr von Radowitz, chief German delegate, opposed the proposal.

The editor of a Barcelona (Spain) daily paper was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for printing an insulting dispatch concerning King Alfonso.

March 7.—An imperial manifesto has been published setting forth the decisions of the imperial council with regard to the execution of the Czar’s manifesto of last October. The manifesto reveals the purpose of the government to keep a firm check on the Duma. The imperial veto is absolute. The Czar controls the upper house; and the ministers have power to legislate when the parliament is not sitting.

The Rouvier Ministry of France is defeated in the Chamber of Deputies by a combination against the Anti-Clericals and immediately resigns.

March 8.—Reported from Berlin, intense indignation and mortification are shown at Russia’s action in throwing off her reserve and standing by France in the proposition that the control of the police of Morocco shall be entrusted to France and Spain. It is said that no more concessions can be obtained and that Germany must now show her hand and back down; that Von Radowitz, representing Germany at Morocco, will be sacrificed. There is also talk of Von Buelow’s resignation.

Along The Firing Line
BY The Circulation Manager

January was our best month for subscriptions at the time I wrote for the March number, but I guessed that February would be better still—and I guessed correctly. Although January had 27 business days, as against 22 in February (Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays cut in on the little, short month), yet we received nearly fifty-one per cent more renewals and new subscriptions in the latter month. And if we may judge the March business by the first three days (I write this March 4), the stormy month will bring more subscriptions than January and February combined. It may possibly be a case of “coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb”—but I do not think so. Our subscribers, agents, and clubbing newspapers are showing a much greater interest than formerly—and as the list grows our field of opportunity broadens.

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One would naturally suppose that every subscription received would narrow our field—but it doesn’t. On the contrary. I can imagine a state of affairs—a list so large—that every subscriber secured would make it harder to get another, for we can’t expect every man, woman and child to take any one publication. But no magazine ever reached that dizzy height. Practically every subscriber we get is a missionary who brings in at least one convert within the year, and many of them send in dozens of new subscriptions. I need hardly use space in saying that we thoroughly appreciate these kindnesses and endeavor to show our appreciation by making Watson’s Magazine better and better each month. That’s a foregone conclusion.

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Temporarily, however, we are embarrassed by the great influx of subscriptions, and for a little while we ask the kind indulgence of our friends. Everything shall be taken care of, but for a few weeks there may be some delays. It takes time to train new subscription clerks.

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Our one weakness heretofore has been lack of proper organization to keep in touch with and look after the interests of the news-dealers. This has been remedied by placing a thoroughly competent man in charge of the news-dealer circulation. A complete roster of the news-dealers is being made and every effort will be put forth to increase news-stand sales. The tens of thousands of booksellers and news-dealers throughout the United States, supplied by the American News Company and its branches, constitute an army of distribution which has taken many years and an immense sum of money to raise and equip. We want to make use of that army to the best advantage of our patrons, the dealers and ourselves. Probably more than one-half of the reading public buys regularly of news-dealers, and a much larger percentage buys occasionally. Wherever our friends prefer to buy of the dealer, we earnestly wish them to do so; and if at any time there is any difficulty in securing Watson’s at the news stands, write us about it. We are now equipped to take care of all complaints of this character promptly.

There is, however, an immense reading public receiving mail on R. F. D. routes—yet it is only thirteen years ago that Mr. Watson, after a hard fight, secured a small appropriation in Congress to be used in experiments with rural free delivery of mail—real “rural” delivery, not the kind Mr. Wanamaker had tried in the small towns previously. But even after Mr. Watson got the appropriation, Cleveland’s Postmaster-General refused to use it. “Scandalous use of the people’s money,” he doubtless argued, “and, besides, it might develop into something which would hurt the express companies.” To Mr. Watson is due the credit for securing the first appropriation for rural free delivery. He is the father. But we must give the devil his due—the Republican Party built up the system Mr. Watson originated. Well, that party never was afraid to spend the people’s money.

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Now, these R. F. D. patrons get mail at their respective doors every weekday. They need not, and do not, go often to the nearest village or town. Hence, they cannot so well depend upon news-dealers for Watson’s. They are best served by subscribing and having Uncle Sam’s mail-carrier bring it to the door.

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The news-stand buyer pays thirty cents a year more for Watson’s than does his rural brother—but he invests a much smaller amount each time, so the two sacrifices (but it isn’t exactly correct to call buying Watson’s a “sacrifice”) are about equal. This calls to mind a suggestion, that has been made several times, to allow taxes to be paid in instalments. Cold-blooded figures say that it is exactly the same whether one pays a $24 tax in one payment, or in four of $6 each, or in 12 of $2 each; but actual experience says, No; there is a difference.

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Funny, isn’t it, how the Republican Party denounces some proposition as a Populistic vagary—and then turns ’round and does the very thing it has denounced! In 1896 we were told that the people would have none of silver—those “fifty-cent dollars”; yet between 1897 and 1903 the Republican Party coined more silver than in any other seven years of the country’s history. Not “free coinage,” of course, but that Sherman silver which was stacked up in vaults, and which no one wanted.

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Public ownership was denounced as “confiscation,” anarchy, socialism, paternalism, and so on. But Teddy and Uncle Sam went into the railroad business down in Panama, and only recently that fat boy, Taft, bought 300 acres of coal lands at Batan, Philippine Islands, for $50,000, money voted by Congress for the purpose, and it is given out flatly that “it is the intention of the Government not to relinquish title to the mines.” They will be leased to competitive bidders. The Secretary of War is drawing a bill to provide for this leasing, and says, oh, ye gods, listen: That the Government will regulate the price of coal in the Philippines!

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Didn’t we hear something about the impossibility of doing such a stunt as “regulating prices” away back in 1896 and later? Couldn’t regulate the price of silver by letting it into the mints at $1.39 plus an ounce. Oh, no! Seems to me we ought to have an “International agreement” on the price of coal. Otherwise, what’s to prevent those disreputable “furriners” from dumping their pauper-mined coal into the Philippines, and carrying away every ounce of our gold?

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Who said the People’s Party is dead? Out in Coal City, Ill., the Populists recently nominated the following village ticket:

The People’s Party met in Borella’s Hall and made the following nominations: For trustees, two years, John McNamara, Peter Bono, and Axtel Anderson. For village clerk, Edward Fulton. For police magistrate, Frank Francis. For library directors, James Leish and Walter Palmer.

Some call it the decadence of party spirit, but others believe it a recovery from partisan insanity—this independent attitude of men who formerly wore a party collar with meekness, if not with actual pride. A year or more ago Dr. Engelhard, of Rising City, Neb., expressed it in the picturesque language of the West, thus: “I am now a political maverick.” At a recent dinner of the Wisconsin Society of New York, Representative Henry C. Adams, of the Badger State, pleading for the “insurgents” who are in rebellion, not “against good government but against bad government,” graphically described the political situation of today as follows:

“Party feeling has run to the lowest ebb ever known in American politics. It is hard work to tell a Democrat from a Republican. The South is swinging toward protection. New England is flirting with free trade. Pittsburg goes Democratic. New York City barely escapes the rule of a Socialist. Missouri sends Republicans to Congress. Folk is cheered by Republicans. La Follette is voted for by Democrats. The House of Representatives votes almost unanimously for the President’s rate bill, and a Republican committee gives it in charge of a Senator from South Carolina to report to the Senate.”

In Mr. Edgerton’s excellent article on “Farmers’ Organizations” (February number) he failed to mention a very strong one in the grain belt—the American Society of Equity, with headquarters at Indianapolis. It claims a membership of over 200,000 farmers, and its president, J. A. Everitt, asserts that its members will hold their wheat for $1.00 and other cereals correspondingly—and that they expect to win. Let’s hope they may.

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But let’s think a little. That won’t cut down railroad dividends, or make kerosene and rent any cheaper; and it will make bread higher. So suppose the Farmers’ Union, down South, pushes cotton up to 15 cents; and the American Society of Equity pushes wheat up to a dollar; and the “Big 6” here wins its fight for an 8-hour day at 9 hours’ pay—won’t all these wealth-producers, after matters get readjusted, be about where they were before? I’m not throwing cold water on the efforts of any of these organizations, for I glory in their fighting proclivities—but I can’t see any permanent advantage accruing to any of them so long as the railroads and the banks are armed with letters of marque and reprisal, and legally empowered to rob every actual producer and every consumer. Each of these organizations carefully avoids politics. Is that wise? Possibly; but I can’t see it that way.

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“How shall I remit for subscriptions?” ask a number of agents. Well, most anything that will bring the money will do, but we have this preference: A United States Post Office Money Order, made out to Tom Watson’s Magazine. That will give us your name on the order, making it easy to trace errors—and our bank charges no exchange for handling. But we never refuse cheques, drafts, express orders, currency, or postage stamps, if sent us in good condition.

“But,” I hear a chorus of voices saying, “we thought you’d changed the name, and just now you said ‘Tom Watson’s Magazine.’” Just so, I did. That is the name of the corporation which publishes Watson’s Magazine. The corporation known as Tom Watson’s Magazine has not changed its name. It has five offices: President, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and cashier. These offices are held by three Populists, as follows:

President, Thomas E. Watson.

Vice-President and Treasurer, H. C. S. Stimpson.

Secretary and Cashier, C. Q. de France.

I need not introduce Mr. Watson. Mr. Stimpson is secretary of the People’s Party in New York State; and I am secretary of the National Committee.

Don’t make your remittance payable to any of the officers, but simply to the company, Tom Watson’s Magazine, and address your communications to the Magazine—not to individuals.

C. Q. de France

Of Vital Importance to Patriotic Citizens

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a collection of notable state papers chronologically arranged to form a documentary history of this country. It opens with the first Virginia Charter of 1606 and closes with the Panama Canal Act of 1904, and comprises all the important diplomatic treaties, official proclamations and legislative acts in American history.

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