Gunton's magazine

GTJNTON'S
MAGAZINE

GEORGE GUNTON, EDITOR

VOLUMEXX/

NEW YORK

POLITICAL SCIENCE PUBLISHING Co.
34 UNION SQUARE

HEXRY B. BROWN
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

See pages 1-12

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•

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

The Supreme After long months of uncertainty, the
Court and supreme court of the United States has

"Expansion" given the first of its decisions on the
constitutional relations of the national government to
our new island possessions. These decisions not only
affect the status of Porto Rico but they point the way,
by implication at least, to what will be decided in
respect to our powers in the Philippines as well.

The so-called "De Lima" and "Downes" cases,
relatively unimportant in themselves, together with
others of similar character but less consequence, were
the immediate occasion of these momentous decisions.
They were simply claims for the refund of duties paid
on certain imports from Porto Rico to the United
States. In the De Lima case, the duty was paid after
the treaty of peace by which Porto Rico was ceded to
the United States (in February, 1899), t>ut before the
passage of the Foraker act imposing the 15 per cent,
duty on imports from that island. In the Downes case
the duty was paid after the passage of the Foraker act.
Of course, these claims involved the question of
whether Porto Rico at either of these periods was a
part of the United States and included within the pro-
vision of the constitution which requires that "all du-
ties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout
the United States."

In both cases the court was almost equally divided.

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2 CUSTOM'S MAGAZINE [July,

Chief Justice Fuller and Justices Harlan, Brewer and
Peckham held that by the treaty of peace Porto Rico
had become a part of the United States in the fullest
sense, entitled to the full operation of the constitution,
and that congress had no right to place a tariff duty on
products brought from the island to this country. Four
others, Justices Gray, Shiras, White and McKenna,
held that Porto Rico could only become a part of the
United States by act of congress, and that even the
treaty of Paris did no more than make the island an
external possession, leaving it technically a foreign
country so far as customs revenues are concerned. The
first group of justices, therefore, held that in both cases
the duties were unlawfully collected and must be re-
funded. The second group held exactly the reverse ;
that in both cases the duties were constitutional and
should not be refunded. The deciding vote was given
by Justice Brown, and through him the determining
opinion of the court was expressed.

Justice Brown made an important distinction be-
tween the two cases and pursued an entirely independ-
ent line of reasoning. This, stated at length as the
opinion of the court, led up to the conclusion that by
the treaty of Paris Porto Rico had become "domestic
territory;" and that while congress had the power to
determine to what extent the constitution should be
extended to such territory it had not done so up to the
time of the Foraker act, and therefore that the duties
collected in the De Lima case were unauthorized and
must be refunded. This conclusion, it will be seen,
although based on different reasoning, was in accord-
ance with that of Chief Justice Fuller and Justices Har-
lan, Brewer and Peckham, and therefore became the
majority opinion of the court.

In the Downes case, Justice Brown held that the
duties complained of had been legally collected because

1901.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH :j

congress by the Foraker act had formally exercised, in
part at least, its right of determining to what extent
the constitution should apply to the territory of Porto
Rico. This was in accordance with the conclusion of
Justices Gray, White, Shiras and McKenna, although
for quite different reasons; the latter four justices
holding that the duties were legal because Porto Rico
was still technically a "foreign" country, and Justice
Brown holding that it was not foreign but domestic
territory, but that congress possessed the right and had
exercised it of prescribing what tariff regulations should
apply to such territory.

Inasmuch as four justices agreed that
justice Brown's pOrto Rico was still "foreign," Justice

Reasonable Position n , . . ,

Brown s opinion to the contrary was
particularly unwelcome to those who favor giving the
president practically unrestricted power to govern the
Philippines without the constitution. Perhaps it is un-
fortunate that one clear, positive and more nearly
unanimous decision could not have been had on an
issue of such great importance to the future of the
republic; but, now that the doctrine of the superior
right of congress in respect to territories has been
confirmed by the court, it seems to us that Justice
Brown's interpretation of this right is more reasonable,
consistent and safe than that of his four colleagues who
leaned to the same general view but upon a quite differ-
ent and more radical theory. If Porto Rico was not
domestic territory of the United States after the treaty
of Paris, which ceded the island to this country, then it
had no legal existence whatever. Certainly it was no
longer a Spanish possession, nor had it any independ-
ent government. If it could not become domestic ter-
ritory until congress specifically annexed it to the
United States, then congress by refusing to do this

4 G UN TON'S MA GA ZINE [July,

could keep the island indefinitely in what Chief Justice
Fuller called the status of a "disembodied shade," under
no recognized law but subject only to the personal gov-
ernment of the president of the United States. But of
course the constitution gives the presidentfno power to
govern a "foreign'' country. This whole theory leads
to chaos and is utterly repugnant to the democratic
basis of our institutions and public policy. Justice
Brown quoted Chief Justice Marshall's definition of a
"foreign country," and discussed the]point, in part, as
follows :

"A foreign country was defined by Chief Justice Marshall and Jus-
tice Story to be one exclusively within the sovereignty of a foreign
nation and without the sovereignty of the United States.

"The status of Porto Rico was this: The^island had been for some
months under military occupation by the United States as a conquered
country, when by the second article of the treaty of peace between the
United States and Spain, signed Dec. 10, 1898, and ratified April n,
1899, Spain ceded to the United States the island of^Porto Rico, which
has ever since remained in our possession and has been governed and
administered by us. If the case depended solely upon these facts and
the question were broadly presented whether a country which had been
ceded to us, the cession accepted, possession delivered and the island
occupied and administered without interference by Spain or any other
power, was a foreign country or domestic territory it would seem that
there could be as little hesitation in answering this question as there
would be in determining the ownership of a house deeded in fee simple
to a purchaser who had accepted the deed, gone into possession, paid
taxes and made improvements without let or hindrance from his
vendor. . . .

"If an act of congress be necessary to convert a foreign country
into domestic territory, the question at once suggests itself, What is the
character of the legislation demanded for this purpose? Will an act ap-
propriating money for its purchase be sufficient? Apparently not. Will
an act appropriating the duties collected on imports to and from such
country for the benefit of its government be sufficient? Apparently not.
Will acts making appropriations for its postal service, for the establish-
ment of light houses, for the maintenance of quarantine stations, for
erecting public buildings, have that effect? Will an act establishing a
complete local government, but with the reservation of a right to collect
duties upon commerce, be adequate for that purpose? None of these,
nor all together, will be sufficient if the contention of the government be
sound, since acts embracing all these provisions have been passed in

igoi.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 5

connection with Porto Rico, and it is insisted that it is still a foreign
country within the meaning of the tariff laws. We are unable to acqui-
esce in this assumption that a territory may be at the same time both
foreign and domestic."

As to the power of congress to govern territories
of the United States, Justice Brown said :

" The practical impersonation put by congress upon the constitution
has been long continued and uniform to the effect that the constitution
is applicable to territories acquired by purchase or conquest only when
and so far as congress shall so direct. Notwithstanding its duty ' to
guarantee every state in the union a republican form of government, '
congress did not hesitate in the original organization of the territories of
Louisiana, Florida, the Northwest Territory and its sub-divisions of
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, and still more recently
in the case of Alaska, to establish a form of government bearing a much
greater analogy to a British crown colony than a republican state of
America, and to vest the legislative power either in a governor and
council, or a governor and judges, to be appointed by the president.

" We are also of opinion that power to acquire territory by treaty
implies not only the power to govern such territory, but to prescribe
upon what terms the United States will receive its inhabitants and what
their status shall be in what Chief Justice Marshall termed the 'American
Empire.' "

So far as precedent is concerned, the
Elastic Intcrpreta- weight of evidence and argument is on

tion Justifiable , ... - , . . . .

the side of the minority opinion prepared
by Chief Justice Fuller. With great force he quoted
Justice Marshall's famous declaration :

" Does this term (the United States) designate the whole or any por-
tion of the American empire? . . . It is the name given to our great
republic, which is composed of states and territories. The district of
Columbia, or the territory west of the Missouri, is not less within the
United States than Maryland or Pennsylvania, and it is not less neces-
sary, on the principles of our constitution, that uniformity in the impo-
sition of imposts, duties and excises should be observed in the one than
in the other."

Of course, following this opinion, Porto Rico
would be as truly a part of the United States as New
York or Massachusetts ; its people would be citizens of
the United States, and tariff duties on imports from the

6 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

island would be as illegal as if levied on interstate
commerce.

But, in the present case, the court has really fol-
lowed another and quite as powerful precedent ; that
of taking into consideration the changing conditions
which confront the nation and giving the constitution
an elastic interpretation in cases where the national
welfare seems obviously to require it. To be sure,
this is called substituting expediency for principle and
discrediting the work of the fathers ; but on the other
hand it is logically permissible, at least, to interpret
the constitution as it might reasonably be supposed the
fathers themselves would have originally framed it had
they been called upon to face the conditions of to-day.
It is a familiar fact that written instruments, which at
one period are the guarantee of liberty, at another time
and under widely different conditions may even become
a positive restriction of liberty. In such cases it is the
instruments and not the conditions that always are and
always will be modified. The famous decision of the
supreme court in the Dred Scott case in 1857 is
perhaps the most striking illustration in American
history of this irresistible tendency. The court held,
by the same line of reasoning now advanced by Chief
Justice Fuller and three concurring justices, that the
constitution extends uniformly to the territories. This,
instead of guaranteeing "freedom" according to the
original spirit of the constitution, really permitted the
extension of negro slavery into the territories, a
problem quite unforeseen by the founders. The con-
flict was between strict interpretation of the consti-
tution, on the one hand, and the exigencies of a new
and vital problem on the other. The court stood for
the strict interpretation, but the nation obeyed the
law — more powerful yet — of irrepressible progress, and
established the contrary principle by four years of
civil war.

1901.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 7

To say this is not necessarily to defend
tlie Present decisions in the Porto Rico
case, but it is say that if the largest wel-
fare of the nation required the liberal rather than the
strict interpretation the court was acting in accordance
with its highest duty and violating no honorable tradi-
tion in adopting the more liberal view. Unfortunately,
in the present case the decision can hardly be regarded
as a gain to the nation ; the most that can be said is
that it permits the choice of the lesser of two evils.
Unquestionably, even with the modified interpretation
of Justice Brown, it opens the door to a policy of col-
onial expansion in any quarter of the globe, the only
restrictions being that congress rather than the presi-
dent must decide the conditions under which this ex-
pansion shall take place. In fact, it establishes the
imperialistic principle, but under present conditions
there is less real danger to our fundamental safeguards
of liberty involved in this than would come from giving
the strict interpretation and making Porto Ricans,
Hawaiians and Filipinos citizens of the United States,
entitled to free immigration, free trade and later to a
voice in the government of the American people.

The problem before the nation was one that was
certain to have doubtful consequences, whichever de-
cision the court might give. It is a misfortune that the
only way of escaping 'the perils ot a new race prob-
lem, to follow the one which once nearly wrecked the
union and has burdened it ever since, was to establish
the nation in the quasi-monarchical colonial policy. It
is reassuring to reflect, however, in connection with the
new order of things which the court's decision opens
up, that there can be no purely arbitrary power exer-
cised by the president, and furthermore, that congress,
in whatever legislation it may adopt for our new pos-
sessions, is itself bound by certain fundamental restric-

8 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

tions guaranteeing the common rights of life, liberty,
the pursuit of happiness and protection to property.
Congress from henceforth may not be bound to extend
the constitutional forms of government to new terri-
tories, but whatever forms of government it does estab-
lish must be consistent with the broad general pro-
visions which prescribe the legislative powers of con-
gress itself.

The Pepke case, involving the status of
the P^ppine islands, has not yet been
decided, although it was the first of the
cases of this kind brought before court. Pepke was a
soldier in our army in the Philippines, and upon his
return brought with him fourteen diamond rings which
were at the time admitted free of duty. Later he was
arrested as a smuggler and the rings seized by the gov-
ernment. This was after the treaty of peace by which
the Philippines were ceded to the United States, and
the claim for return of the rings is based on the same
reasoning as in the De Lima case with reference to im-
ports from Porto Rico.

It would seem that the decision in the De Lima
case made it practically certain that Pepke would win
his contention, not because the Philippines were a
"foreign country" at the time he returned to the
United States, but because congress had not authorized
any tariff duties against Philippine products and,
being domestic territory, no duties could be collected
without such congressional authority. As a matter of
fact, congress has not yet passed any tariff law with
reference to the Philippines, and if the court follows
the reasoning in the De Lima case it will mean that all
duties collected on imports from the Philippines since
the treaty of Paris will have to be refunded. Free
trade with the islands will then continue, unless con-

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 0

gress sees fit to frame a tariff as it did in the case of
Porto Rico. It is logical to assume, as a part of this,
that unless congress otherwise orders there can be no
restriction of immigration of Filipinos into the United
States.

The administration believes, however, that the
court will hold the Philippine problem to be different
from that of Porto Rico, and give a different decision ;
indeed, that this difference is shown by the very fact
that the court withheld its decision in the Pepke case.
There may be force in this, yet the two principal
reasons, as given by Solicitor-General Richards, for ex-
pecting a different decision on the Philippine problem
do not seem at all well-founded. Mr. Richards thinks
"it was not the intention of the United States in ac-
quiring the Philippine islands to make them domestic
territory or treat them as such." This may or may not
be true, but if it was the intention of congress that the
Philippines should remain a "foreign country "then
clearly, under the recent decisions of the court, we are
not entitled to exercise any authority there whatever.
The court has declared that the treaty of peace and
possession of the islands made Porto Rico domestic ter-
ritory, and that : ' ' We are unable to acquiesce in this
assumption that a territory may be at the same time
both foreign and domestic." Of course, we are not en-
titled to exercise civil authority in or over a foreign
country, yet that is exactly what we are doing in the
Philippines, so far as we can enforce it. Therefore,
whether or not it was the intention of congress to treat
the Philippines as a foreign country after the treaty of
peace, it clearly had no constitutional right to do so.
Our acceptance of the islands and exercise of authority
in them made them domestic territory. Congress has
no power to hold them as a "disembodied shade."

10 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

The other contention made by the solici-
Cessionand tor-general is that both "cession and

Possession ,, n ,,

possession" are necessary to make the
islands domestic territory. This was Justice Brown's
language with reference to Porto Rico, where of course
there was no question about the possession being as
real as the cession ; but it is urged that the Philippines
are still on a war basis and only partly in our posses-
sion.

As an illustration of the agile gymnastics in logic
that often follow the prick of some sudden political
emergency, this is most interesting. For more than
two years we have been assured that there "is no war
in the Philippines," but only an uprising of a few scat-
tered tribes, and that not even the laws of international
warfare need be observed with reference to these ' 'ban-
dits." This was the substance of the very learned
opinion of Professor Woolsey, of Yale, published with
editorial approval in a recent number of the Outlook,
relating to the capture of Aguinaldo. Funston's meth-
ods clearly violated the international code, but, accord-
ing to Professor Woolsey, we are not bound to recognize
this code because the insurgents are not recognized bel-
ligerents but simply rebels against the lawful authority
of the United States government. Supporters of the
administration policy in the Philippines were delighted
with this opinion and felt a certain dignified expansion
over it ; it is almost strange that out of the scholastic
atmosphere of respectability that suddenly closed
around the incident Funston did not emerge with a
LL.D. Now, however, the court has declared posses-
sion necessary to make a conquered territory domestic,
and suddenly it appears that we are still at war in the
Philippines and that the islands are still ' 'foreign coun-
try." Then, of course, instead of suppressing a rebel-
lion of bandits we must be making war on the people

1901.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 11

of a foreign country ; instead of ' 'preservation of order"
it must be conquest and subjugation. It is for the ad-
ministration to decide which is the preferable horn of
the dilemma.

As a matter of technical accuracy there is indeed
no "war" in the Philippines. Technically the islands
are ours by virtue of the treaty with Spain, and the
United States government is engaged in suppressing
an insurrection. The contention we have steadily
made, that our policy there ought to follow the lines
pursued in Cuba and that we ought to observe the laws
of war in reference to the Filipinos, was not based
on the ground that the United State has no technical
right to pursue its present course. This country un-
questionably has the technical right to hold the islands
permanently if it will, and treat the Filipino army sim-
ply as rebels ; our appeal for the contrary policy has
been and is based on what we regard as the larger in-
terests of civilization and humanity.

But the point at issue in the present complication
is simply one of constitutional right, not of internal
policy. In this respect it seems to us there can be no
question that the Philippines are ours, both by cession
and " possession." So far as any outside power is con-
cerned we are fully in possession of the Philippines,
and it seems altogether the more reasonable assump-
tion that it is in this sense that Justice Brown used the
word. Certainly we cannot imagine the supreme court
taking the position that a rebellion within United
States territory makes the section affected one whit
less completely "domestic" than it was before. A
government cannot recognize any diminution of its
authority because of the fact of an insurrection, nor
admit that it is not in "possession" of the section in
rebellion, so far as holding that section as domestic
territory is concerned. If a rebellion were to arise in

12 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

Alaska, for example, would the district affected be
regarded as a foreign country which it was necessary
for us to subjugate before it could be considered
domestic again? The notion is absurd, but not more
so than to regard the Philippines as foreign simply
because we have an unsuppressed rebellion there.
Spain was technically the owner of the islands ; that
right was transferred to us, and every other nation
recognizes it and makes no attempt to interfere. That
constitutes lawful title and possession.

If the court follows this line of reasoning in the
Pepke case, we shall have free trade with the Philip-
pines until congress provides otherwise. The presi-
dent will have no power to proclaim a special tariff
against Philippine products even under the law which
at present gives him exceptional powers with refer-
ence to Philippine affairs. These special powers relate
to the internal government of the islands. They cer-
tainly convey no authority to alter the tariff regu-
lations of the federal union. It is doubtful, also,
whether the special tariff proclaimed by the president
for imports going into the Philippines will be sus-
tained by the court, since it has already declared that
tariff duties cannot be collected except by act of
congress. Many complications would result from such
a decision, but they could be endured if the result was
a wholesome check to the marked tendency of congress
to relieve itself of responsibility for national problems
by vesting extraordinary personal powers in the presi-
dent. It is infinitely more important to hold congress
and the president within the constitution than to bring
our new island possessions within the constitution. If
the supreme court secures this for the nation it will
raise another bulwark of defence around the sacredness
of our free institutions.

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 18

It was a foregone conclusion that sooner

Autonomy* or later Cuba would accept the terms de-
manded by our government as the con-
dition of withdrawing our troops from the island.
However reluctant the convention was, there could be
no escape. Even if the United States had decided to
annex Cuba outright there could of course have been
no serious resistance.

The so-called "Platt amendment" (to the army ap-
propriation bill), containing these conditions, was
adopted by the senate last February. The Cuban con-
vention, after long debate, on April i2th rejected these
terms by a vote of 18 to 10, but at the same time de-
cided to send a commission of five to the United States
to confer with the president. Dr. Capote, president of
the convention, was put at the head of this commission.
The visit was made, and extended conferences held
with President McKinley and Secretary Root. The
outcome was that four out of the five commissioners
returned to Cuba prepared to vote in favor of accepting
the amendment, and after another month of discussion
this was done. The convention on June i2th agreed
to the demands of the United States by a vote of 16 to
1 1 , and the road is now regarded clear for the setting
up of a Cuban government, probably within a year's
time.

We have purposely called this an acceptance of
" autonomy " on the part of Cuba. Genuine indepen-
dence it is not and cannot be. It may be the best pos-
sible settlement of the Cuban problem, but we only
need to apply the case to ourselves to see whether we
have really given Cuba independence, or autonomy
under a protectorate. Suppose England, during the
revolutionary war, had offered to withdraw its troops
and let us set up a government of our own, on condi-
tion that we would never make any treaty with a

14 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

foreign power regarding the ownership or control of
any part of this country, nor contract any debt beyond
our capacity to pay, but give the English the perpetual
right to intervene in our domestic affairs whenever they
might regard it necessary to protect life, liberty and
property ; surrender an important piece of territory,
and sell or lease to the British government lands neces-
sary for coaling and naval stations. Suppose, then, we
had accepted these conditions ; would it have been in-
dependence? Would we regard ourselves now as an
independent nation if any foreign power possessed any
such rights with reference to American affairs?

Perhaps, as we have said, it is better that Cuba
should be subjected to this strict control ; perhaps, on
the other hand, the result will be so to lessen among
the Cubans the sense of national pride and responsi-
bility for their own affairs that very little genuine ef-
fort will be made to carry on a clean and stable govern-
ment. Certain it is that the virtual protectorate we have
assumed does not carry out either the letter or the
spirit of the congressional resolutions of April i8th,
1898, in which we declared:

" That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or inten-
tion to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island,
except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination when
that is completed to leave the government and control of the island to
its people."

Senator Beveridge of Indiana has sug-
An "American geste(j tkat fafe newiy assumed power of

Colonial Policy n 6

suzerainty over Cuba may have an im-
portant bearing on our policy "in other situations and
in other quarters of the globe." The Platt amendment
he regards as "a potent factor in developing an
American colonial policy. This has been interpreted
by some to mean that the administration intends ulti-
mately to set up an independent government in the

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 15

Philippines under conditions similar to those imposed
upon Cuba. Wholesome as this would be, there is lit-
tle real encouragement for such an expectation. Presi-
dent McKinley, throughout his recent western trip, de-
clared with increasing emphasis the government's
intention to hold the Philippines permanently. At
Roanoke, Virginia, for example, he said :

"We are not only expanding our markets, but we are expanding
our territory. The policy of the United States has always been to keep
what it originally started with and hold all it honorably gets. We re-
fused to divide our original possessions, and we will be the last to de-
sert our new possession*. "

In spite of this seeming positiveness, it should be
remembered that no president was ever more suscep-
tible to public opinion than Mr. McKinley, and also
that there is to be no third term. If the Platt amend-
ment works well in Cuba, and conditions in the Philip-
pines do not greatly improve, a strong public senti-
ment may develop in favor of the very thing suggested
by Senator Beveridge, and, if President McKinley does
not feel its effects in time to modify our policy in that
direction, another administration may. It is to be
hoped that the Cuban plan will work successfully, how-
ever wide it may come of fulfilling our pledge made in
1898, because in this at present lies almost the only re-
maining hope of avoiding permanent annexation both
of Cuba and of the Philippine islands.

The nearer the Chinese complication ap-
Plundermg preaches solution, the more satisfactory

and creditable the part of the United
States throughout it all is seen to have been. Prompt,
uncompromising and vigorous in the early work of res-
cuing the legations and suppressing the boxer outrages,
our government has been quite as strongly on the side
of moderation, reason and humanity ever since. Our
troops have been the least guilty of any in tke matter

16 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

of looting. They have had no share in Von Waldersee's
"vengeance"' raids. We took a pronounced stand,
almost to the point of open rupture with some of the
powers, against the official stealing of valuable Chinese
relics, and we were among the first to withdraw our
soldiers from Chinese soil. All this has been so thor-
oughly recognized by the Chinese that a mass meeting
was held in Peking shortly before General Chaffee's de-
parture, as a testimonial of appreciation and good will.
In the purely diplomatic matters of indemnity and
terms of peace, our stand has been for fairness and
moderation. Our indemnity demand is a relatively
insignificant portion of the immense sum of 450,000,000
taels (more than $300,000,000) formally demanded by
the powers on May gih, and we have made the effort
repeatedly to have this vast total reduced by at least
one-half. The Chinese are now trying to get the pow-
ers to agree to accept thirty annual payments of 15,000,-
ooo taels each, to be raised from the salt tax, the likin
tax and from native customs. As this will consume
revenues now used for government support, permission
is asked to increase the duties on foreign imports by
one-third. This suggestion will hardly be adopted.
Another proposition, coming from Russian sources, is
that the powers jointly guarantee a loan to be raised
by China for paying the indemnity; but the United
States government favors instead the plan of having
each nation accept and guarantee for itself Chinese
bonds to the amount of the indemnity due it, independ-
ently of the others. These bonds would bear 4 per
cent, interest.

Taken in connection with the conduct of

It is Vengeance certain of the powers in China during the
Not Reparation * &

last few months, the demand for $300,-
000,000 indemnity is no less than a monstrous outrage.

looi.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 17

A communication from one of our officials in China,
published as a Washington dispatch in the New York
Tribune of May 6th, points out very clearly that no such
amount of money could be raised in China without rad-
ical changes in the whole Chinese system of govern-
ment, which would probably lead directly to dismem-
berment of the empire. The same communication says
that:

"If the whole horror of the murder and pillage done between Tien-
Ti<n and Peking comes to be understood in the United States and in
Europe, the sum of it is so great as compared to the number of Chris-
tians who have suffered at the hands of the Chinese that, rightly or
wrongly, the Chinese are likely to be held the injured party. Lancers-
wantonly impaling Hide children by the wayside in the streets of Peking
are some of the least of the well authenticated horrors, and to some for-
eign soldiers a dead Chinese Christian is just as satisfactory an evidence
of no quarter as a dead Boxer — they neither know nor care for such tri-
fling distinctions. Diplomatic officials, consuls, missionaries and foreign-,
employees in the Chinese service are alike at a loss to see the issue in
any definite shape, but the most reasonable conjecture to-day is that
China will temporize with a view to keeping the powers from fighting
among themselves over her dismembered body, and to gain time for the
knowledge of her miseries to overshadow her crimes.

"The allies, even if they could agree, could not set up an adminis-
tive machinery of their own for the empire. They must restore the
power to some native party, and the quicker they do it the better for
China. It is impossible to understand the attitude of some of the mis-
sionaries. Talking with several recently and speaking of the killing of
every living thing iu a certain village because of the murder of a Chris-
tian, I was met with the placid remark that it would prove a useful warn-
ing— the killing of women and children.

"In the old days the Spaniards, before they slaughtered aborigines,
used to give them a chance to kiss the cross before they died, that their
souls might be speedily in Paradise, but moderns know better and do
not try to save the murdered Chinese man or woman from a plain and
simply furnished Calvinistic hell.

"The Chinese estimate that one million of their people have lost
their lives by violent deaths or starvation about Peking and Tien-Tsin
since the allies came. Well-informed foreigners long resident here do
not regard the estimate as exaggerated."

This might be a twenty-fold exaggeration and still
leave the Chinese by far the heavier losers in the whole
situation. But if General Chaffee, in his official report

18 GUNTONS MAGAZINE [July,

now being published, is right, even these appalling
figures may not be greatly overstated. He says, for
example :

" For about three weeks following the arrival of the relief column
at Peking the condition in and about the city and along the line of com-
munication was bad. Looting of the city, uncontrolled foraging in the
surrounding country and seizure by soldiers of everything a Chinaman
might have, as vegetables, eggs, chickens, sheep, cattle, etc., whether
being brought to the city or found on the farm ; indiscriminate and gen-
erally unprovoked shooting of Chinese in city, country and along the
line of march and the river — all this did not tend, as was natural, to gain
for the troops the confidence of the masses, with whom, it is certain, we
have no quarrel, but were in need of their labor. It is safe to say that
where one real boxer has been killed since the capture of Peking fifty
harmless coolies or laborers on farms, including not a few women and
children, have been slain. The boxer element is largely mixed with the
mass of population, and by slaying a lot one or more boxers might be
taken in."

On the score of lives lost and property destroyed
or stolen, an outsider with a spark of humanity might
suppose that the powers' thirst for "vengeance" would
be considered amply satisfied already, but not so ; in
reality, much the larger part of this $300,000,000 in-
demnity is vengeance money, pure and simple. It is
inconceivable that all the losses of foreigners in China
and expenses of the expeditions last summer could
have reached anywhere near such a sum. The mission-
ary boards would be delighted if their entire holdings
of property in China, destroyed and undestroyed,
amounted to a five-hundredth part of this sum, while
the total military expenditures of all the powers to-
gether could hardly have exceeded $50,000,000. A re-
cent estimate prepared by Mr. Robert Gordon Butler,
of New York city, of the cost of the various wars of the
nineteenth century, places the total of the deadly China-
Japan war at only $300,000,000 for both sides. If the
indemnity now demanded of China is correct, the short
inarch to Peking and military occupation since last
summer must have cost the allies nearly six times as

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 10

much as the expenses of both the United States and
Mexico in the Mexican war of i846-'48; four times as
much as all the Chinese wars of the century before the
China- Japan struggle ; nearly half as much as the
British-Boer war up to date, and almost one-third as
much as the whole Spanish-American-Philippine war
during the last three years.

If the Christian nations want China to come out of
this imbroglio with the one firm conviction that Chris-
tian principles in practice mean arbitrary vengeance
and wholesale plunder of the helpless, they are taking
exactly the right course to that end. Only, if they do
persist in teaching that lesson, it will not be in order
to denounce Mr. Wu Ting Fang with holy indignation
when he makes one of his mildly cynical suggestions,
some day, that China send missionaries into Christen-
dom and Christendom keep its own at home. Even the
"heathen" Chinaman can understand, after hearing it
preached for decades, that: "By their fruits ye
shall know them."

Bo«r War

Lord Salisbury may have been right in

his speech of May I3th, at a banquet in
Not Over

London, in declaring that the Boer war

" has shown the strength of England, which was never
more conclusively shown;'' but it is equally certain
that the same struggle has shown the marvellous per-
sistency and unexpected resources of the Boers. The
latter fact is even the more remarkable. It was to be
expected that England would make a great showing in
any conflict, but it could hardly have been supposed
that after almost two years of warfare with the most
powerful empire in the world the little South African
nations would still have in the field an army estimated
by Mr. Balfour at 17,000 men, and be continually
harassing the British in a dozen quarters. It is as im-

20 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

possible not to admire this persistency as it is not to
deplore the useless dragging on of a conflict which can
have only one end, however far away that may be.

On June 2nd the Boers captured Jamestown, in
Cape Colony, and secured a large quantity of supplies.
About the same time a desperate assault was made by
General Delarey with 1200 Boers on a British column
of 1400, near Vlakfontein, forty miles from Johannes-
burg. It was unsuccessful, but the losses inflicted on
the British were very heavy, some 57 killed and 121
wounded. A still more serious encounter took place
near Welmansrust, in the territory been Pretoria and
Delagoa Bay, on June i2th. A force of Boers attacked
2 50 of the Victorian Mounted Rifles, killed 18, wounded
42, and captured all but 52 of the remainder. The
prisoners were released, but two large guns were car-
ried off. On the other hand, the British have recently
defeated several detachments of Boers, while the Boer
commandant, Van Rensberg, with 100 men, has sur-
rendered at Pietersberg. Thus the costly struggle
drags its weary length along.

Of all the Boer leaders, General Botha is the most
anxious for peace. His wife is now in London, pos-
sibly bearing peace proposals to the British govern-
ment. De Wet, however, is as irreconcilable as ever,
and apparently has secured reinforcements lately from
Dutch sympathizers in Cape Colony.

Of course it is possible that the British

England's Finan- ., , , - .

cial Straits government would decline to accept

Botha's surrender if De Wet's were
not coupled with it, but this is not probable. England
is more than anxious to end the struggle. The state-
ment made in the house of commons last April by
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, chancellor of the exchequer,
was described by Sir William Vernon Harcourt as "the

i9oi.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 21

most disastrous statement that the exchequer had ever
made," — an opposition criticism which of course should
be taken with some reservation. The statement showed
that during the last fiscal year the war had cost the
national treasury some £65,000,000, while the total
government expenditures were £53.207,000 in excess
of receipts. To meet this shortage and provide for
continued heavy expenses, the government has in-
creased the national debt by a loan of £60,000,000,
and parliament has levied tariff duties on sugar,
molasses and glucose; increased the income tax, and
placed an export duty on coal. That England should
be brought to the point of restoring important customs
tariff duties after more than half a century of free trade
shows the serious proportions of the strain the Boer war
has imposed upon British resources. It is interesting
to note that while, in recommending the sugar tariff, the
chancellor disclaimed any intention of protecting British
refiners, his argument for "fair play" for the British
refiner "as compared with his continental rivals/' was
practically a concession to protective doctrine, and
reflects the change which for several years has been
slowly coming over British public opinion in this re-
spect and is likely to lead to still more important modi-
fications of free-trade policy.

MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION

There is a certain class of free traders who seem
bent on verifying Comte's doctrine that facts can only
be seen through a theory. With them experience is
wasted and history counts for naught. All the inequal-
ities in economics and industry are ascribed to the pro-
tective tariff. National prosperity is naught as com-
pared with the luxury of a public agitation against
protection, though it disrupt the business of the nation
and substitute bankruptcy, enforced idleness, tramps
and soup-houses for business prosperity and national
welfare. It would almost seem as if from their point
of view prosperity is a misfortune that must be stopped
if the nation is to be saved from perdition.

They tried it in 1892, with a success which was
quite effective until 1896. But the wickedness of wealth
and prosperity is again forging ahead, and the call of
conscience and pressure of high ideals is again inspiring
them to action. Just what calamities would befall the
nation if it could continue its present progress for ten
years uninterrupted by a disturbing tariff agitation is
difficult to predict. Whatever others may do, they
have evidently resolved to clear their consciences of any
responsibility for the evils of national prosperity. The
group of persons and papers who hold this view are
intensely in earnest and have the courage of their
convictions. Indeed, they are so intensely earnest
that they would sacrifice the nation for their theory.
Of course they see that it is a little painful at first, but
that is a mere chastising preparation for the ideal con-
ditions that are to follow. The more painful the proc-
ess the greater the glory in surviving. It is quite
natural, therefore, that these philosophers should feel
called upon to inaugurate a business-disturbing cam-

22

MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION 33

paign about this time. Prosperity was never greater ;
progress never more rapid, and social welfare never
more universal in this country than at present.

For the last few years they have been rather quiet.
When wages were falling, work-shops closing, tramps
increasing and soup-houses busy, they had nothing to
say. But now that these things have all passed away,
they are inspired to renew their activities.

By way of opening the campaign, Mr. Edward
Atkinson has just presented to the industrial commis-
sion the case against protection. The chief points on
which he based his argument for free trade are: (i)
That liberty will solve all the economic problems ; (2)
that the highest wages always give lowest cost of pro-
duction per unit of product ; (3) that since wages are
higher the labor cost per unit of product is lower in this
country than in any other; (4) that protection has
retarded, though it could not stop, the development of
iron and steel industries ; (5) that the South is forging
to the front without protection ; (6) that the tariff is
unjust because it only affects a fraction of our indus-
tries; (7) that England is our true example. Let us
consider these in the order named.

I. Liberty is a fascinating term. It is a charmed
word to conjure with. On the lips of the sophist or the
demagogue, liberty can often be made to cover bad
reasoning, inconsistencies and even misrepresentation.
It is one of the misused and much abused words in our
language. There are two types of liberty, negative
and positive. Negative liberty is the liberty of sav-
agery; positive liberty is the liberty of civilization.
Negative liberty is the mere absence of restriction,
which is anarchy. Those who possess the most of that
kind of liberty have the least real freedom of any peo-
ple on the earth. The savage protects nobody and
nobody protects him. Everything and everybody is

24 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE \Jn\y,

his enemy ; he can neither eat, sleep, work nor travel in
safety, and all because there are no organized restric-
tions of conduct.

In civilization the case is widely different. By its
very restrictions, society protects the individual in his
freedom to go and to come, to have and to hold in peace
and security. He may travel around the world with-
out jeopardizing the safety and welfare of -his person,
property or friends, and all because society vouchsafes
him protection. Indeed, this protection is the very
bulwark of his freedom, and there is no freedom worth
having without it. When society does not protect,
nature and barbarism restrict and repress ; when society
protects, barbarism departs and nature aids civilization
and serves man in larger liberty.

The negative doctrine of liberty leads to a non-
scientific theory of public policy. It rests on the prin-
ciple of blind (so-called "natural") selection, and denies
the right of government to create or protect the oppor-
tunities for new economic and social activities. It is
represented by the negative, "let-alone" school of
statesmanship. The positive doctrine of liberty leads
to a scientific theory of public policy ; it rests on the
principle of conscious, societary selection, and affirms
the right of government to aid in the creation of new
and larger opportunities for economic and social activi-
ties. It is represented by the constructive, protective
school of statesmanship.

Mr. Atkinson represents the negative doctrine of
liberty ; consequently, the more logical his reasoning
the more laissez-faire his policy will be. His inevitable
ideal will be free trade, regardless of consequences to
existing institutions and future opportunities. From
his point of view he necessarily proceeds upon the as-
sumption that, if let entirely alone, every individual or
nation will do that which it can do best and thereby

1901.] MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION 2C

minister most efficiently to the aggregate of human
welfare. Thus, if the physical resources of a nation
make it easier for a people to be miners, foresters and
agriculturists lhan to engage in manufacture and com-
merce, they should resign themselves to digging coal,
cutting wood and raising food for the world, leaving
manufacturing to others with better "natural facilities." .
This doctrine subordinates national development to the
physical resources of the country instead of subordi-
nating the physical resources of the country to national
development.

Mr. Atkinson's doctrine fails to recognize the im-
portant fact taught by all history : namely, that the char-
acter, social life, and type of civilization of nations are
mainly determined by the character of the people's em-
ployments. As people work so they live ; as they live
so are their ideas formed and their type of character
and civilization molded. Monotonous extractive indus-
tries promote monotonous social life, with the minimum
personal and political ambition. Diversified industries,
on the other hand, lead to variety of experience and
activities, and consequently stimulate industrial, social
and political progress. To the extent, therefore, that
communities remain uniform and monotonous in their
occupations, they have been static in their social, po-
litical and religious institutions. Conversely, to the
extent that they have become diversified and specialized
in their industries, they have advanced in social char-
acter, personal freedom, civic and religious rights, and
progressive civilization. To this there is no exception
in the history of nations.

In the first half of the century, the industrial con-
ditions in this country made agriculture and mining
and extractive industries practically the only feasible
occupations. Had Mr. Atkinson's doctrines been ap-
plied, we should probably have remained an agricul-

28 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

tural nation for centuries. Under the then existing
conditions manufacture was practically impossible ; it
lay in the direction of the greatest resistance. But, by
applying the principle of scientific selection and pro-
tecting the potential economic opportunities, manufac-
ture and highly diversified industries became as profit-
able as agriculture and mining. Thus, by the adoption
of the positive instead of the negative theory of states-
manship, diversified industries became more attractive
and profitable than monotonous occupations, and prog-
ress became cheaper than static sterility. In this, as
in every other nation throughout history, the great
progress dates from the diversification of industries. It
is in this that our national development, our standing
in civilization, and our power among the nations of the
world consists. No merely agricultural nation ever
was a great leader in the world's civilization.

At bottom, then, the development of civilized free-
dom and national strength and greatness depends on
the diversification of industrial occupations. Wherever
nature or the physical resources of a nation fail to pro-
mote industrial diversification, that should be done by
society. It is the preeminent function of government
to promote the progress of the people, and, where
nature fails to furnish the opportunities and incentives
for this, scientific selection should be substituted for
natural selection and statesmanship should supply as
far as possible the opportunities which nature fails to
furnish.

II. Mr. Atkinson then lays down the proposition
that the highest wages give the lowest labor cost per
unit of product. It is true that high wages tend to
make low labor cost of production, but, like every other
principle in society, this is a law of tendency only, and
not of exact quantity. In the first place, it is not true
that high wages give low labor cost except when ac-

iqoi.] MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION 27

companied by highly improved machinery, and even
then it is true only when the machinery is developed
by the same social conditions that produce the high
wages. For the most part the improved machinery is
a consequence of the double pressure of labor's demand
for higher wages and the increased demand for goods
by the larger consumption which the high wages make
possible. But, when the improved machinery is the
product of high- wage conditions in one community or
country and is used under low- wage conditions in an-
other, the statement that high wages make lower labor
cost is not true. This is abundantly illustrated wher-
ever the best American machinery is used in connec-
tion with low-paid labor; as, for instance, in the shoe
industry in Austria. American shoe machinery used in
Austria, with the low wages of Austrian labor, furnish
a much lower labor cost per unit of product than high-
wage laborers using the same machines in England,
and the consequence is that by virtue of the lower labor
cost, due to the low wages in Austria, Austrian shoe
manufacturers can undersell English manufacturers in
the English market.

Another example of this is cotton manufacture in
our southern states. With the low wages of southern
labor and highly developed machinery of Massachusetts,
the labor cost per unit of product in a South Carolina
cotton mill is much less than with the high-wage
labor in a Massachusetts cotton mill, as all New Eng-
land manufacturers well know ; a fact that will be still
more apparent whenever dull trade forces competition
to its limit between New England and southern cotton
manufacturers.

III. From this half-truth Mr. Atkinson makes the
further mistaken assumption that, since wages are
higher in the United States than in foreign countries,
we necessarily have the lowest labor cost of production

23 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

and hence have no need of protection. On the strength
of this he makes the sweeping assertion that "nine-
tenths or more of all the articles consumed in this coun-
try are made at less cost for labor than in any other
country, whatever the rates of wages may be.''* If
this statement were true, the importation of manufac-
tured products would be impossible, but unfortunately
the facts are strikingly against it. In 1894 our imports
of dutiable manufactured articles amounted to $88, 494,-
655; in 1896, under the lower duties of the Wilson
law, these imports rose to $137,530,641, an increase of
nearly 60 per cent. If the labor cost of production in
nine-tenths of the products of this country had been
less than in any other this would have been absolutely
impossible. The mistaken policy adopted from 1893
to 1897 was born of this half-truth misrepresentation
for which we paid so dearly.

IV. As if to challenge the obvious, Mr. Atkinson
then cited the iron and steel industry as an instance
where the influence of protection "has only retarded
national development and has not stopped it." If there
is one industry or group of industries in this country
which were helplessly undersold by foreign competi-
tors, it is the iron and steel industries. The prevailing
high wages made it impossible for American capital to
enter the iron and steel industries and apply skill and
invention, until the opportunity was vouchsafed by the
protection of the American market. In 1867 it cost
$120 to make a ton of steel rails in this country, while
it only cost $65.70 in England. The foreigners had
$54 a ton the advantage. The high wages in America
did not then furnish the lowest cost of production, but
on the contrary they made competition impossible.
But, under the influence of protection, instead of being
retarded the industry was so rapidly and enormously

* "Taxation and Work," p. 252.

i90i.] MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION 20

developed, both in extent of market, application of
invention and development of superior methods, that
the cost of production has been reduced more than three
times as much in this country as in free-trade England
since 1867. These are now the very industries in which
we are leading the world's production. If this is tht
result of "retarding industries," it would be well to
have all our manufacturing industries retarded in the
same way.

V. As the next illustration of his theory, Mr. At-
kinson points to the development of manufacture in the
South, and says :

" Have not these infant iron masters and cotton
manufacturers of the South given a lead and presented
an example to the adults of the North and West?
What other protection than that of their own rapidly
developed skill and capacity have they needed?"

One would think that even Mr. Atkinson would
not be so blinded by his theory as not to see what is
obvious to the ordinary observer : namely, that it is the
machinery of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, devel-
oped under protection, that is making the wonderful
industrial revolution in the South. Mr. Atkinson could
hardly have cited a worse case for his theory than the
"infant iron masters and cotton manufacturers of the
South." They are the children of protection in the
East.

VI. Mr. Atkinson's next objection to protection
is that those employed in protected industries form but
a small proportion of the whole population. Nothing
could more clearly show how this class of reasoners

,utterly misapprehend the essential principle and social
operation of protection. They evidently think that
nobody is benefited by protection except those who are
directly subjected to foreign competition. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. The benefits that

80 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [July,

come from protection are not the exceptional profits or
exceptional wages received by those employed in the
protected industries, but the existence of the industries
themselves in this country, and through their existence
indirectly the existence of a multitude of other industries.
For instance, the existence of the various branches
of the iron industries contributes largely to the manu-
facture of factory machinery, the building of factories,
construction of railroads, and through the prosperity of
these industries the growth of towns and in the towns
the multitude of domestic industries like carpentering,
masonry, plumbing, tailoring, furniture and a hundred
and one tributary occupations which arise out of the social
growth of the community in town and city life. The
wages of bricklayers, masons and machinists, locomo-
tive engineers, architects, jewellers, painters, decora-
tors, and in hundreds of mechanical industries, have
nothing directly to do with the tariff. Like all other
wages, they are the outcome of the standard of living of
the laborers in the specific industries, and the develop-
ment of the industries and general prosperity, together
with the educational and social opportunities of the
laborers, forces up the high standard of wages. But,
since the very development of this multitude of non-
foreign competitive industries is indirectly dependent
upon the development of diversified industries due to
the tariff, the high wages and prosperity in the non-
protected industries are just as much the result of pro-
tection as are the wages in the protected industries.
And the reason wages are often higher in the non- pro-
tected than in the protected industries is because these
industries are frequently in cities and highly developed
communities, and in their very nature call for men
whose skill and intelligence is inseparably associated
with a high standard of living. This notion that the
tariff benefits only those engaged in protected indus-

i90i.] MANIA FOR TARIFF AGITATION 81

tries shows a painful misapprehension both of the doc-
trine of protection and of the true law of wages.

VII. Lastly, Mr. Atkinson points to Great Britain
as the one example in the world to be imitated. He
triumphantly asks: "How did Great Britain attain to
the paramount position which she has held during the
last half century? Was it not by removing the shackles
from commerce?" No, it was not by removing the
shackles from commerce at all. That was merely the
culminating incident. The real thing that gave Great
Britain her leading position in commerce was the cen-
turies of protection she gave to the development of her
manufacturing and commercial industries. One might
as well say that breaking the egg produces the chick.
It was under this regime of protection that the factory
system rose in England. So exclusive was English
protection that it prohibited down to 1842 the exporta-
tion of machines or patterns of machines, or the emi-
gration of mechanics who could make and set up ma-
chines. By 1846 its mechanical development had so
outstripped the rest of the world that protection to man-
ufactured commodities became unnecessary. In taking
the duty off manufactures, English statesmen had
exactly the same motive as American statesmen had in
putting the tariff on American manufactures. The ob-
ject in both cases was to promote the manufacturing
industries of the nation. England had the factories and
needed the market ; we had the market and needed the
manufactures. England removed duties to get foreign
markets ; we put on duties to protect our home market.
We protected our home market and have the result in
our present industrial development; England threw
open her market for agricultural products without hav-
ing developed superiority in agricultural methods, and
has the result in the stagnation, even retrogression, of
her agricultural classes. But the object and purpose

32 G UNTOM'S MA GAZINE

of our policy in having protection and of the English
policy in adopting free trade was substantially the same
— to increase manufactures.

The folly of assuming that the same policy will
produce the same result under all conditions is pain-
fully shown by the effect of free trade upon English
agriculture. Like Mr. Atkinson, Cobden and his friends
thought that free trade was a universal solvent, and if
beneficial for one industry it would be equally benefi-
cial to all industries under all conditions. For this
mistaken notion England has paid a terrible penalty.
We could undersell England in agriculture about as ef-
fectively as she could undersell us in manufacture.
Consequently, free trade gave the English market for
foodstuffs to foreigners and English agriculture has de-
clined ever since. Cultivated land has not merely
declined in proportion to population, but it has actually
diminished, by millions of acres going out of cultiva-
tion, and the effect upon agriculture has been simply
appalling. Agricultural laborers to-day are getting a
shilling a week less wages than were agricultural labor-
ers in 1840. There is no place in Christendom where
wages have not risen during the last sixty years except
among the agricultural laborers of England. Free trade
in foodstuffs has prevented English agricultual laborers
from getting any share in the progress of the last sixty
years except what has reached them through the cheap-
ening of the small amount of manufactured products
they can obtain on ten shillings a week.

HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS

Through Mr. Byron W. Holt, the New York Reform
Club recently appeared before the industrial commission
to show why the tariff should be abolished. Like Mr.
Bryan, Mr. Holt evidently thinks "trusts" are a great
bugaboo with which to frighten the people out of their,
political senses. If it could only be shown that the
tariff is the cause of trusts it would be much easier to
array the people against the tariff. The case was pre-
sented jointly by Mr. Atkinson* and Mr. Holt, Mr.
Atkinson presenting the theory and Mr. Holt the facts
against protection.

Since this is likely to be the policy of the tariff-
reform crusade, it may be well to consider somewhat in
detail the tariff reformer's method of using facts. Mr.
Holt begins with the declaration that the tariff ' ' ties
the hands of the American consumer while the trusts
pick his pocket." It is needless to say that if this state-
ment is proven his cause is won and both the tariff and
the trusts are doomed. By way of introduction, Mr.
Holt thinks our statistics collected under a protective
system are mere worthless cooked statistics to suit
protected interests. He says :

"Another evil which I shall merely mention, though it is in my
opinion a more important one than the watering of capital ... is the

juggling of prices and statistics The census of 1890 is grossly

defective in some particulars and probably misleading and worthless as
concerns the protected trusts. In other words, protected statistics are
often misleading or false, and purposely so. In general, I believe they
show a higher rate of wages than was actually paid. . . . To-day,
when great trusts control prices on most of our exports, it is extremely
difficult to obtain export prices. The editors of trade papers will no
longer talk on this subject and as a rule will not keep on file foreign
exchanges which quote prices of certain American goods in foreign
countries. It is only now and then that an employee of a trust or of
some export house can be found who is willing to risk betrayal and

* Mr. Atkinson's paper is discussed in another article in this number.

38

84 G UNTON'S MA GA ZINE [July,

almost certain decapitation if he talks on this subject. Nearly all the
information on this point which I have obtained during the last few
years has been strictly confidential."

Thus, according to Mr. Holt, our whole system of
statistics and economic information is a "juggled
fraud;" the officers of the government are deliberate
perverters of facts and deceivers of the public; our
business men are dishonest, and the press, at least the
trade press, is a mere subsidized instrument of misrep-
resentation in the interest of trusts and dishonest busi-
ness. Mr. Holt's knowledge of all this is confidential.
The dishonest transactions upon which he bases his
"opinion" are a secret. He is "not permitted to
mention names." If Mr. Holt's opinions and facts are
of any value, the proper way to reform our tariff is to
abolish the government altogether, burn our public
documents, and so get rid of the mass of ' ' juggled
statistics " and cleanse the public service of a horde of
dishonest officials who have polluted the public mind
by false statements. The nation might then turn to
Mr. Holt and his comrades for the guiding wisdom of
his " opinions " and information which is strictly vouch-
safed to him alone. This would doubtless simplify
matters very much and give us an easy road to an ideal
government.

But the American people have not yet lost all confi-
dence in their government. They do not believe that
the census of 1890 was a juggled mass of worthless fig-
ures, doctored in the interest of trusts and protected
industries. They do not believe that the investigations
conducted by Carroll D. Wright and the facts presented
in the senate report are juggled misrepresentations.
They do not believe that the wage statements thus col-
lected are falsified. Fortunately for public welfare and
scientific research, the people of this country and of the
civilized world have more confidence in the economic

1901.]

HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS

investigations and the integrity of our official statistics
than they are likely to have in the unsupported can-
tankerous and offensively improbable statements of Mr.
Byron W. Holt. He who imputes dishonesty to every-
body may well be distrusted.

After thus impugning the integrity of our whole
political and industrial institutions and public officials^
Mr. Holt proceeds to show how bad the tariff is and
how the trusts are robbing the public through putting
up the prices of commodities. Among others, he selects
steel rails, tin plate, window glass and wire nails.

First, steel rails. On the basis of his secret infor-
mation and statements from the newspapers, Mr. Holt
waxes exceptionally warm regarding the extortion prac-
ticed on the public in the case of steel rails. The value
of these unverified statements may best be seen by
study of the prices of steel rails in this country* and in
England during the whole tariff and trust period :

American.

Foreign.

Difference.

Tariff Duty.

1867 .

$120 12
92 9I

59 83
52 87
67 50
28 50

3i 75
29 92
30 oo

28 12

24 oo

24 33
28 oo

18 75
17 62

28 12
32 29

28 00

g
^ H- V-

.05 "London Economist." Poor.

$65 70
50 37
44 28
4i 36
35 28

23 12
24 02

20 37

19 47
17 64
17 64
23 12
23 12
21 90
22 51

34 07
29 20

29 22

$54 42
42 54
15 55
ir 51

32 22

5 38
7 73
9 55
10 53
10 48
6 36

I 21
4 88
J3 15
J4 98
t5 95
3 09
2 43

45 p. c. ad. val.

45 "
$28 oo per ton.
28 oo
28 oo
17 oo
13 44
13 44
13 44
13 44
13 44
7 84
7 84
7 84
7 84
7 84
7 84 '
7 84 •

1870

1875

1876 .

1880

1885

1800 .

1801 . . .

1802 .

1893 . . .

l8O4 .

180* .

1806

1897 ....

1808 .

1899
1900 . . • . . .

1901 (May 22) . .

* Prices for 1867, '70, '75 and 76, which was during our period of
currency depreciation, have been reduced in this table to a gold basis,
for the sake of proper comparison with English prices.

t Foreign price higher.

36 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

It will be seen from this table that before we began
to manufacture steel rails, and relied on England for
our supply, it cost Americans $120. 12 (in gold) a ton
for steel rails which were sold in London at $65.70.
The duty was then 45 per cent., or about $29.50 a ton,
showing that the price here when we bought almost
entirely from England was about $25 a ton more than
than the English price with the duty added. After
sufficient protection was afforded to warrant American
capital entering the steel-rail industry, the result of
which was the development of the great Carnegie con-
cern, the cost of production steadily lowered both here
and abroad. But the American price fell so much more
rapidly than the foreign that by 1875 the difference in
the price of steel rails at New York and London was
less than the amount of the tariff. By 1885 the differ-
ence was less than half the amount of the tariff, and by
1897 steel rails began to be sold at less here than in
London. In 1897 they were $3.15 a ton less; in 1898
$4.98 a ton less, and in 1899 $5.95 a ton less here than
in England, although the tariff was $7.84 a ton. In
the last week in April, 1901, they were $28 a ton in
this country, and, according to the London Economist
of May 1 8th, they were $29.22 in England. Thus, un-
der protection, we have transferred the industry to this
country, and, by the development of superior machinery
through large corporations, so-called "trusts," have re-
duced the price of steel rails since 1867 $92 a ton,
while in England they have only reduced the price
$36.48 a ton.

But what is worth far more to the nation than even
this reduction in price is the establishment of the in-
dustry in this country and the development of
numerous tributary industries which practically depend
upon it. Thus, instead of the tariff helping the iron
and steel manufactures to "pick the pockets" of the

i90i.] HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS B7

people, besides developing the industry it has enabled
American corporations to give the people nearly three
times as much reduction in price as they would have
had if we had continued to buy our whole supply
from England. In 1867 we had to pay English manu-
facturers $25 a ton as a mere monopoly tax for not hav-
ing protected the industry in this country. During
the first six years the American people received a re-
duction of $25 by eliminating this English extortion
through domestic competition. Since 1873, besides
giving this country the full social and industrial benefit
of the industry, we have reduced the price to American
consumers, through superior methods and skill, more
than twice as fast as under protection as England has
under free trade, although our wages have been all the
time from 50 to 80 per cent, higher.

What is true of steel rails is substantially true of
the general staple products produced under the recent
so-called trust combinations, as will be seen from the
following table of prices from January, 1900, to Febru-
ary and March, 1901. Instead of the prices having
been increased by the tariff "trusts," they have been
reduced in almost every instance :

Jan. 3, 1900. Feb. a?, 1901.

Foundry iron, No. i (ton) $25.00 $16.00

Bar iron, refined (loolbs.) 2.20 1.45

Plate, tank steel (too Ibs.) 2.25 1.55

Bessemer pig (ton) 24.90 15.25

Gray forge " 21.25 14.00

Bar iron, common (100 Ibs) 2.15 1.40

Structural beams " 2.25 1.50

Structural angles " 2.25 1.40

Wire nails " 3.20 2.30

Cut nails " 2.50 2.05

Mar. 1-7, Mar. ao-aa •
1900. 1901.

Iron bars $2-50 $1.90

Steel bars 2.30 1.50

Steel billets (ton) 36.00 29.00

Steel rails " 35.00 26.00

88 G UN TON'S MA GA ZINE f July,

Mar. 1-7, Mar. 20-23,

IQOO. igoi.

Coke (loolbs.) 3.25* 2.00

Granulated Sugar (Ib.) .05 .05

Refined petroleum (gal.) .10 .08

Copper (ton) $16.25 $17.00

Pig iron warrants 17.00 10.00

Tin (straits) (loolbs.) 32.63 25.40

Lead • • • 4.73 4.38

Spelter (zinc) 4.59 3.90

Tin plates 5.00 4.20

1888. 1898. 1899.

Railroad freight rates (per ton mile) 01 .0075 .0072

Second, tin plate. Our tin-plate industry from its
inception has indeed been a sore vexation to the oppo-
nents of protection. They declared for years that tin
plate could not be made in this country, and long after
several factories had been successfully established they
denied their existence and insisted that the tin plate
put upon the market was foreign plate marked Amer-
ican. The tin-plate industry is verily a child of pro-
tection. There was not a pound of tin plate manufac-
tured in this country until after the tariff of 1890.
During the first ten years of the tariff the industry was
fully established in this country, and now practically
our whole consumption is made here.

Mr. Holt makes two complaints against the tin-
plate industry. First, that the American consumers
have paid $104,612,946 more for their tin plate than
they would if it had been made abroad, as before the
protective tariff. Second, that the trust has scandal-
ously put up the price in addition to what the tariff in-
creased it. The first charge is presented by giving the
price of tin plate abroad and here and charging the dif-
ference to tariff extortion. This is a stock fallacy. It
assumes that if we buy all our products abroad the
American consumer will always get them at the same
price that they are sold in the foreign market plus the

*May 30, 1900.

igox.J HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS 89

cost of transportation, which is almost never true. It
is a matter of common knowledge that whenever we
were wholly dependent upon foreigners for the supply
of an article, as in the case of tin plate, the price was
made exorbitant, the difference often being several
times as much as the cost of transportation. This was
conspicuously true of tin plates, as will be seen by a
glance at the following table which gives the price of
tin plates ten years before and twelve years after the
adoption of the protective tariff. The first table is in
io8-lb. boxes and the second ico-lb. boxes.

Difference
$3 14
2 30
2 10
2 00
I 76

I 79

1 90

2 26
2 21
2 21

1880 ....

American
. . . $8 00

Foreign
$4 86

1881 ....

4 10

1882 ....

6 20

4 IO

1883 .

6 oo

4 OO

1884 ....

5 65

3 8q

1885 ....

. 5 15

1 56

1886 ....

.- . . 5 25

1 7C

1887 ....

. "5 5O

•* 24

1888 ....

. 5 45

7 24

1880 .

. 5 45

7 24

Average

2.165

Price of Tin per 100 Ibs. since the Tariff of 1900.

1890 -. ... $5 60 $3 oo $2 60

1891 5 78 3 oo 2 78

1892 5 20 2 90 2 30

1893 5 10 2 80 2 30

1894 4 90 2 60 2 30

1895 3 63 2 40 23

1896 3 52 2 30 22

1897 3 72 2 30 42

1898 3 88 2 20 68

1899 3 75 2 30 45

19°° 4 75 3 20 55

1901 (April) 4 20 3 90 30

Decrease .... 1.40 Increase . .90 Average . 1.76

It will be seen from these tables that the average
difference between the foreign and the domestic price

40 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

of tin plate during the ten years preceding 1890 was
$2.16 a box, while the average difference between the
American and foreign price since we protected the
industry and produced the tin in this country was only
$1.76 a box. In other words, the difference between
the American and foreign price was 40 cents a box less
under protection than under free trade. So that, if we
adopt Mr. Holt's reasoning and regard the $104,612,946
difference in the foreign and domestic price from 1891
to 1900 as the price paid for protection since 1890, we
find that the price paid for not having protection from
1880 to 1890, on the same basis of consumption, must
have been over $130,000,000. In other words, by
whatever name we call this difference, it was about 23
per cent, greater under free trade than it was under
protection.

Nor is this all. It will be observed that since
1890 the price of tin plates has fallen very much more
in this country than it has abroad. In 1890 the price
of tin plates in the United States was $5.60 a box
of 100 Ibs. It is now $4.20 — a decrease of $1.40 a box,
whereas the foreign price in 1890 was $3.00 a box and
on April 3oth, 1901, it was $3.90 a box — an increase of
90 cents. Thus, while the tariff has transferred the
industry to this country, paid American wages and
earned American profits, the price has been lowered
$1.40 a box, while English tin has been increased 90
cents a box. We are thus, in prices alone, really the
gainers by $2.30 a box through having protection and
manufacturing the tin ourselves.

Is this what Mr. Holt calls "tying the hands of
the American consumer while the trust picks his
pocket?" If so, we would better have more of it.

So much for the tariff. Now a word on the
" trust." Mr. Holt makes much of the rise of the price
after the trust was organized. When the trust was

I90i.] HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS 41

formed December i4th, 1898, the price of tin plate was
$3.95 a box, the average for the year being $3.88.
During the next thirteen months the price rose to $5.00
a box, which was the highest point reached. This Mr.
Holt points to as the exaction of the trust, denying that
it was justified by any legitimate change in the cost of
production. The tariff held the hands of the consumer
while the trust picked his pocket of $1.05 a box.

It is only necessary for any one desirous of form-
ing an approximately fair opinion on this subject to
look at the general price quotations during 1899, and
note the increases of wages, to see that a large part of
this increase was manifestly due to the rise in price of
raw materials and labor. By May, 1899, pig tin had
risen from 12^ to 25 cents a pound, or 96 per cent. ;
steel billets from $14.50 a ton to $25, or 72T4¥ per
cent. Wages and salaries in this industry had risen 1 1
per cent. The increase in the price of these items for
100 pounds of tin plate was as follows :

On 2-J- IDS. pig tin $. 306

Steel billets (5 per cent, waste) 55

Wages and salaries 165

Total $1.02

Thus, by May, 1899 (when the price of tin had
only risen to $4.07^2 a box, 12 ^ cents), the cost of raw
materials and labor per box of tin plate had increased
$1.02, or 89^ cents more than the price of tin had
risen and within 3 cents per 100 pounds of the highest
price tin ever touched, which was seven months later.
Since that time, wages have again risen 10 per cent.,
and yet the price of tin has fallen 80 cents a box-, which
means that during the last twelve months the laborers
have received about 1 5 cents a box in higher wages and
the consumers 80 cents in lower prices. This is surely
another instance where the tariff "ties the hands of the
consumer while the trust picks his pocket."

42 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

The next case of robbery by trust and tariff to
which Mr. Holt devoted himself was the window-glass
industry. He said :

"The window-glass trust is one of our most interesting and instruc-
tive tariff trusts The glass trusts, with their glass clubs, hold

up the American consumer and make him pay $2 for $i worth of glass.
The labor unions, with their alien contract labor laws and stringent ap-
prenticeship rules, hold up the manufacturers and succeed in getting
about 25 cents out of every extra tariff dollar wrung from consumers."

So in this instance the tariff ' ' ties the hands of the
consumer while the trust picks his pocket," and the
labor laws tie the hands of the manufacturer while the
laborer picks his pocket. With so much pocket-picking
going on the wonder is they are not all in jail. As in
the case of steel rails and tin plate, the best answer to
Mr. Holt's charge will be found in the movement of
prices here and abroad. The unit for price quotations
abroad for window glass is the pound ; in this country it
is boxes of 50 square feet. So, to make the comparison
easier, we have reduced the American product to pounds
on the basis of 52 pounds to the box, which is the
standard weight. The following table shows the aver-
age prices of domestic and foreign window glass in five
year periods from 1880 to 1890:

i88o (pounds)

American.
. $ .058

Foreign.
$ .032

1885 "

076

.028

1800 "

037

.03

i8os "

.02

IQOO "

. .044

.0328

Decrease
24 per cent.

Increase
2£ per cent.

It will be seen that during this period the price of
American glass had fallen 24 percent, while the foreign
glass had risen 2^ per cent., and during this time the
glass industry has been largely developed in this coun-
try under a high protective duty and wages been paid

HOW REFORMERS USE FACTS 43

more than double those of glass workers abroad. The
glass "trust," so-called, was formed August 2nd, 1899,
and just in the midst of a period of advances in wages
and prices of raw materials, which prevailed throughout
all industries. The price of domestic and foreign glass
from October 1899 to March 1901 was as follows:

American. Foreign.

1899 (last 3 mos.) $ .049 $ .0296

All of 1900 044 .0328

1901 (ist 3 mos.) .057 .036

Per cent, of increase, 1901 over 1899, 6 per cent. 22 per cent.

It will be seen that during this time there has been
an increase in the price of glass, and that the increase
of American glass has been 6 per cent, less than the
increase in the price of foreign glass of the same qual-
ity. Both under the tariff before the trust, and under
the tariff and the trust during the last eighteen months,
the price of glass has fallen more and risen less here
than under free trade in Europe. It is clear, therefore,
so far as glass is concerned, that foreign consumers are
"robbed" more than American consumers, notwith-
standing that we have tariff, trust and nearly double
wages.

Another instance of the tariff holding the consumer
while the trust picks his pocket, cited by Mr. Holt, is
wire nails. Language almost failed him in his descrip-
tion of the robbery of the American people by the tariff
nail "trust." Here, again, the facts speak clearer if
not louder than Mr. Holt's words. Wire nails were not
made in commercial quantities in the United States
until 1887. The following table, which gives the price
of wire nails for every year since that date, speaks for
itself :

44

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

1887 . .

$3.15

1892 . .

$1.70

1897 . .

$1-45

1888 . .

2,55

1893 . .

1.49

1898 . .

1.45

1889 . .

2-49

1894 . .

i. ii

1899 . .

2.57

1890 . .

2.51

1895 . .

1.69

1900 . .

2.76

1891 . .

2.04

1896 . .

2.50

1901 . .

2.OO

Decrease

$1.15

It will be observed that from the first the price
steadily tended downwards, except in 1895 and 1896
and again in 1899 and 1900. The rise in 1899 and 1900
was not due to the so-called "trust," for the American
Steel and Wire Company did not become a part of the
all-inclusive steel corporation until May, 1901. It was
not due to the tariff, because the tariff had been oper-
ating all the time from 1897. Indeed, in 1894 the tariff
was heavily reduced by the Wilson law, yet the price
of wire nails rose to $1.69 in 1895 and $2.50 in 1896.
The rise in 1899-1900 was due to the same extraor-
dinary causes as the rise in the price of tin plate and
steel rails and everything else that was made of iron
and steel, which nearly doubled in price during 1899,
while labor in the iron and steel industries rose about
24 per cent. But prices are again declining, being less
by about 76 cents a box for wire nails than they were
in 1900.

CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH

LEONORA BECK ELLIS

But for the strenuous resistance of the members of
our federal union to any invasion of states' rights and
any pronounced phase of paternalism, national legisla-'
tion might long ago have protected the little children
of this country from all forms of labor tending to
weaken or degrade them in body, mind or spirit. As
it is, each individual commonwealth has had to climb
by slow and difficult steps into its own salvation from
the evil, and more than half the states are still without
the necessary protective statutes.

The south Atlantic and gulf states are now in the
throes of this profoundly needed reformation, and the
end is not yet. Year after year for the last half decade
bills for the prohibition of child labor in cotton factories
and similar work places have come up before the general
assemblies of North and South Carolina, Georgia and
Alabama, and one by one such bills have died, usually
in quiet, sometimes still-born.

But it was not so during the sessions of the past
winter and spring. The bills were again uniformly
lost, it is true, but lost in each case after a struggle that
indicated the awakening of a spirit undoubtedly des-
tined to bring victory in the near future. The most hope-
ful sign was in Tennessee, which, though not strictly
within the cotton belt, is yet usually accounted of the
sisterhood, being one with them in traditions, polity and
social issues, as it is closely akin in industrial interests.
Here the act of 1893, which made it unlawful to employ
children under twelve years of age in any workshop,
mill, factory or mine, was displaced by the enactment
of a law raising the age for such employees to fourteen

45

46 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

years. To those who boasted of the Tennessee victory
in order to help on the contest in the four states pre-
viously mentioned, the opposition made answer that
Tennessee could easily afford such measures since she
had no cotton manufacturing interests to be damaged
and retarded by the decrease of available labor. But
the reply was fully adequate. Look at the new coal'
mines added from month to month to her lists ; look at
her increasing machine shops, her growing woollen
mills, those at Knoxville being the most extensive of
their kind on this side of the Atlantic. In view of such
facts, the triumph in Tennessee becomes indeed deeply
significant.

In the late autumn of 1900 the fight was again on
in Alabama. But the first bill to restrict the labor of
children was stifled in the committee room, as had been
done in five preceding sessions of the Alabama legisla-
ture. Up to this time public interest in the matter had
been small, for reasons which will become manifest
further on in the present article. But the American
federation of labor, wisely recognizing that the issue
here was of more immediate moment than even higher
wages and shorter hours, since tending ultimately to
promote both these in addition to the dearer vital prin-
ciple involved, suddenly concentrated its strongest
forces upon this point. The federation has never con-
ducted an abler or worthier contest than its anti- child
labor campaign in Alabama from December, 1900, to
May, 1901 ; and the end, though not yet achieved, can
be foretold with little uncertainty. President Gompers
was fortunate in securing at this point the cooperation
of Miss Irene Ashby, an Englishwoman of great breadth
of intelligence and sincerity of purpose, who had coped
with the social problems of the toilers in her own coun-
try and was fully cognizant of the new intricacies spring-
ing from new conditions here.

.] CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH 47

Miss Ashby was no sooner on the ground than she
recognized as chief among the difficulties of the situa-
tion the absence of reliable statistical information re-
garding the operatives in the new cotton mills of the
state (and practically all of Alabama's cotton factories
are new), and consequent upon this the absence of ar>y
general interest in their welfare outside of the immedi-
ate ranks of labor. She overcame the difficulty by de-
voting several weeks to a tour of the mills and a per-
sonal investigation of conditions among the operatives,
with special reference to the matter of child labor. In
January of the present year she returned to the capital
city, Montgomery, armed with facts and figures that
aroused public interest as it had not been aroused be-
fore.

To those acquainted with the industrial revolutions
of other countries and sections, and the evil that goes
hand in hand with good in the early stages of such rev-
olutions, Miss Ashby's data offered nothing startling ;
but the people of Alabama in general had not previously
taken cognizance of the appalling growth of this child-
labor evil in their midst, and they were not slow to be
stirred to the necessity of some action to check that
which tended to rob their commonwealth of its honor as
well as its strength. That there should be nearly
12,000 operatives engaged in textile industries which
dated back less than a dozen years was a source of pride ;
but that 6 per cent, of these operatives should be chil-
dren under twelve years of age was a matter to arouse
the gravest apprehensions. For the first time in this
state, in which the traditions of the old aristocratic re-
gime have not been wholly outgrown, public sentiment,
through such recognized exponents as the press, the
platform and the pulpit, as well as through women's
clubs and other organizations, was ready to array itself
with the body of organized labor.

48 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

But the time was short and the corporations were
mighty. The Alabama legislature reconvened January
29th, and there began immediately a stout conflict for
the passage of two bills. The first was a bill to regulate
child labor and contained the following provisions :

" Section i. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Alabama that
no child under the age of twelve (12) years shall be employed at labor in
or about any factory or manufacturing establishment or printing office
(except as carriers of newspapers) within this state unless a widowed
mother or totally disabled father is dependent upon the labor of such
child and has no other means of support. No child under the age of ten
(10) years shall be so employed under any circumstances.

" Section 2. Be it further enacted, That it shall be unlawful for any
factory or manufacturing establishment to hire or employ any child un-
less there is first provided and placed on file in the office of such em-
ployer an affidavit signed by the parent or guardian or person standing
in parental relation thereto, certifying the age and date of birth of said
child ; any person knowingly furnishing a false certificate of the age of
such child shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be
brought before a magistrate or justice of the peace for trial, and upon
conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more
than one hundred dollars or be sentenced to hard labor to a term not
exceeding three months.

"Section 3. Beit further enacted, That no child under the age of
sixteen (16) shall be employed at labor or detained in any factory or
manufacturing establishment in this state between the hours of 7 p. m.
and 6 a. m., or for more than sixty (60) hours in any one week or more
than eleven (i i) hours in any one day.

" Section 4. Be it further enacted, That no child shall be employed
at labor in or about any factory or manufacturing establishment unless
he or she can read and write his or her name and simple sentences in
the English language. Provided, that the provisions set forth in said
section 4 of this act shall not go into force and effect until the ist day
of March, 1902.

" Section 9. Be it further enacted, That no child between the ages
of twelve (12) and fourteen (14) years shall be employed at labor in or
about any factory or manufacturing establishment unless he or she at-
tends school for at least twelve weeks of each year, the year to be
counted from the twelfth birthday of the child, six weeks of said school-
ing to be consecutive ; and at the end of every such year a certificate to
that effect signed by the teacher of said school must be produced by the
parent or person standing in parental relation to said child and filed by
the manufacturer in whose employ said child may be engaged. All
such certificates shall be subject to such inspection.

" Section j. Beit further enacted, That any person who violates

i90i.] CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH 49

any of the provisions of this act, or who suffers or permits any child to
be employed in violation of its provisions, shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more
than $500."

The twin bill was to secure that which normally
accompanies the prohibition of child labor, namely,
compulsory education. Both bills were gallantly sup-
ported, and the claim seems reasonably sustained that
they were merely lobbied out of existence. That such
a storm of public disapprobation followed their over-
throw speaks volumes for the ultimate outcome of the
issue, which will undoubtedly be revived on the open-
ing of the next legislative session.

It is not feasible in a single article to follow in
such detail the course of the movement in Georgia and
in the Carolinas. The general trend has been the same,
and the variations have sprung from the degree of de-
velopment of the textile industry in each state and the
strength of the interests bound up in it, rather than
from the temper of the citizens or the character of their
legislative tendencies. In these states, respectively,
there are many more mills than in Alabama, each one
having from 35,000 to 60,000 operatives now in the
factories. The proportion of child workers among
these averages from 6 to 8 per cent. Bills similar to
those offered in Alabama came up before each of these
legislatures last winter, and, though defeated, showed
in every case an astonishing gain in strength of sup-
port since the previous season. In Georgia especially,
public sentiment was so strong in favor of the child-
labor measure that its friends felt over-secure, and in
consequence did not sufficiently estimate the political
resources controlled by the mill corporations. But a
carefully organized effort is now under way to make
ready to meet this danger next November.

It is believed that the bill would have been passed

50 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

by the North. Carolina legislature but for two things .
The first was the latest report of the labor commissioner
of the state, showing a 50 per cent, decrease in child
labor in the state's textile factories, while the labor of
men had increased 100 per cent. Such indubitable
figures argued the natural decay of the evil and seemed
to point to early elimination. But the second and more
potent weapon with which the opposition fought the
bill was a concession made by the cotton manufacturers
themselves. One hundred of the most prominent mill
men in the state petitioned the legislature not to pass
any labor laws during the current session, imputing as
a basis of their request the outworn argument of the
damage that would be done to the state's infant indus-
try in driving available labor into other sections un-
trammeled by class legislation. In consideration of the
granting of this request, they agreed, as concerned
child labor, that no children less than twelve years old
should work in the mills during the term of an avail-
able public school, excepting always the children of
widows or physically disabled parents, and adding the
further provision that no children under ten years
should be worked under any circumstances.

It was something positive gained, and many advo-
cates of the more stringent measure accepted the tem-
porary substitute. But this will scarcely stand a long
test. Numbers of manufacturers in North Carolina, as
in Georgia and South Carolina, have personally assured
the writer that they themselves feel the need, for their
mills and their machinery, of protection from the un-
skilled labor of children, and many base their sole
opposition to the prohibitive bills upon the fact that
they themselves will lose unless adjacent states shall
simultaneously pass the enactment. Such a consum-
mation now seems the promise of the near future, and

I90i.] CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH 51

interest in the outcome of next winter's assemblies is
very great.

When the earliest movement was made in New
England for the enactment of similar protective laws,
the south Atlantic and gulf states felt no closer interest
in the measure than in those preceding it in Great
Britain and Russia. Such statutory enactments were
for the protection of a class practically unknown within
the borders of the southern group of states. Conse-
quently, the excitement, the strife, the earnest argu-
ment and heated answer, in connection with a contest
which was close fought at every step, found no imme-
diate echo here. Nearer issues were engrossing a sec-
tion that was then wholly dependent upon its agricul-
tural resources and labor.

A few decades have passed, and conditions have
changed as it would have been impossible for them to
change in an older land or an earlier century. Pros-
trate from the civil war, the thousands of lives and
billions of dollars her "people lost on its battlefields and
through its issues, the South yet struggled to her feet
and endeavored to reconstruct a labor system and an
industrial scheme that would still support her sons by
her one developed resource, agriculture. The failure
of such effort was predetermined. Not even the widest
diversification of agricultural products, if unsupple-
mented by any other development, could have restored
this region to prosperity ; and such diversification
could never be attained in the course of merely one or
two generations in a section tutored by tradition into
comparative disregard of everything save its vast fields
of cotton.

Manufacturing used as an adjunct to agriculture
was to prove the saving grace in this wide and natu-
rally rich region, and most especially the manufacture
of its one great staple. Even prior to 1870, a few

53 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

widely scattered cotton mills had appeared in Georgia
and the Carolinas, and in the decade following the
number was greatly increased. The census of 1880
gave the entire cotton belt 164 mills, 12,329 looms, and
561,360 spindles. Yet even with such a showing few
were prepared for the amazing growth this industry
has exhibited in the last five years. The census of
1900 allowed 5,815,429 spindles in the South; but each
month since those figures were gathered has seen this
number substantially increased, until the claim of the
trade journals to 7,000,000 spindles operating to-day in
the cotton states is readily conceded.

A thoughtful man will review these facts and fig-
ures carefully before he feels himself prepared to com-
prehend the present status of the agitation for child-
labor laws in the South. Once grasping the full
meaning of such statistics, he will never again be of
those who disdainfully assert that this section is behind
in meeting and adjusting the matter of child labor in
factories only because she is always backward in setting
up high standards of civic virtue and protection ; that
the southern press and people are at so late a day pain-
fully threshing over the long accepted and trite argu-
ments for this movement only because they do not
keep pace with the rest of the civilized world in moral
perceptions and intelligence. He will, on the contrary,
recognize the adequacy of other causes that led to this
tardiness in arriving at a point reached much earlier by
nations driven to it by earlier evils. He will perceive
clearly that since manufacturing came so tardily to the
South, and came also bringing the first relief to long
and frightful poverty, it was only natural for the social
problems peculiar to this phase of productive activity
to be at first overlooked or ignored, and next rejected
with impatience lest their solution interfere with the
onward sweep of the heartily welcomed industry.

igoi.] CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH 58

Through the recognition of such facts one arrives
at the true explanation of that singular phenomenon
among the sociological phases of the day,— the Ameri-
can federation of labor fighting in this section almost
single handed, for five or more years at the close of an
age so advanced, its losing struggle for child-later
legislation ! Help of any sort from the outside was
scant and ineffectual. The causes operating to produce
such a state of things were complex ; but at last anal-
ysis the kernel of the trouble is found to lie, as hitherto
indicated, in the fact that the southern people them-
selves, unused to this class of labor, had not become
adjusted to their own obligations and responsibilities in
connection with such a class, and that the matter was
too delicate and complicated, too akin indeed to a purely
family question, for help from other sections, even from
the pulpit and press of neighboring states, to prove
efficacious.

But the worst is clearly over. The press and peo-
ple of the cotton belt are at last arrayed with the fed-
eration, and the strength of the movement makes itself
felt from the Carolina coast to the new mills of Texas.
Capital and powerful manufacturing interests, both
those native and those lately drawn hither in great vol-
ume by natural advantages, may prove strong enough
to delay the consummation somewhat in one or more
states ; but even such might cannot long stand against
that first instinct of humanity towards the protection of
little children.

THE RAILROADS AND THE POST-OFFICE
DEFICIT

STANLEY WASHBURN

Since the year 1885 when the postage on second-
class mail was reduced there has been a deficit in the
post-office department, which seems to be on the in-
crease. At the close of the last fiscal year congress was
asked to appropriate considerably more than ten mil-
lions of dollars on this account. That there was some
flaw in the mail scheme seemed to be the natural con-
clusion. It has been claimed by many persons that the
so-called exorbitant rate which the railroads charge for
transportation of the mails is the cause of this deficit.

The United States government pays the railroads
in two ways for its services :

First. By paying so much per mile per annum tor
every mile operated by the line. Roads handling 200
pounds daily are allowed $50 per mile. Those handling
200 to 500 pounds daily receive $75, and so on.

Second. Roads that handle such quantities of mail
matter that separate cars are required receive a bonus
or rental for those cars in addition to their mileage pay,
varying according to size of cars. Thus a 4O-foot car
rents at $25 per daily line, etc., a 45 -foot car at $30 per
daily line, etc.

Schedule of Rates for Railway Mail Transportation.

Pay per mile
per annum.

200 pounds $ 50

500 pounds 75

100

125

150

175

200

For every additional 2,000 pounds over 5,000 pounds 25
54

200

to 500 pou

500

to 1,000

1,000

to 1,500

1,500

to 2,000

2,000

to 3,500

3,500

to 5,000

RAILROADS AND POST-OFFICE DEFICIT 65

Rates Allowable per Alile, per Annum, for Use of Railway Post-
Office Cars when Authorized.

R. P. O. cars, 40 feet $25 per daily line

45 " 30 "

50 " 40 "

•' 55-60 " 50 ••

To constitute a "line" of railway post-office cars
between given points, sufficient mail cars must be pro-
vided and run to make a trip daily each way between
those points.

Now it is true that the railroads handling mail
under the mileage provisions only are making profits.
Such roads carry the mail either in a baggage or com-
bination car on their regular trains. In many cases the
conductor or brakeman looks after the safety of the few
mail bags, and hence no special employee is necessary.
Therefore what money such roads receive is practically
all profit. But a casual glance is sufficient to show that
only a comparatively small portion of the mail matter
is handled in this way. The great bulk of mail carried
is along trunk lines between great cities, and in these
cases the special mail cars are required and frequently
special mail trains.

Thecriticiser says: Here the government is paying
to the railroads five or six thousand dollars a year in
rental for cars which can be constructed for four or five
thousand dollars. The conclusion is that the railroads
are making a great profit off the government. At first
sight this seems true, but a little closer investigation
shows us that the railroads must receive a bonus above
mere mileage or else be unable to meet expenses. Few
persons are aware of the cost and inconvenience put
upon the railroad in operating fast mail trains.

In the first place, by the government provisions the
railroads are obliged to carry mail on their fastest trains
if the government so desires. Hence it is that the spe-

56 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE []u\y,

cial mail trains are usually the fastest trains on the road.
The operation of these extra fast trains involves great
cost for the following reasons :

First. The first increase in expenditure upon aug-
menting the speed is in the noticeable increase of fuel.
It is estimated that in doubling the speed (say from 30
to 60 miles per hour) the actual consumption of coal is
increased 50 per cent, per mile, due to the uneconomi-
cal rate of combustion, and increased 62 per cent, due
to increased resistance. By combining these two in-
creases we find a total increase of about 140 per cent,
in the amount of coal per mile, just on account of
doubling the speed : or, in other words, when we double
the speed we burn about 2 y2 times as much coal in the
same distance. It is frequently necessary on fast runs
to have coal specially picked for the high-speed engines.

Second. There is a higher grade of equipment,
material and service required on extra fast trains. In
extra fast service no expense one may say is spared to
prevent failure, delays or accidents. On every branch
of the railroad from the top down, special attention is
required and given to prevent any delay to the limited
or fast mail trains. The best and most expensive
engines and equipment are used. Even the waste
which is put in the oil boxes of cars and engines is of
special quality. Not only is there more expense in
quality but in quantity. It is noticeably true that two to
three times the amount of oil is used on fast trains.

Third. Increase of wear and tear on equipment and
roadbed. That this is true is perhaps needless to say.
One has but to take a glance at the performance of
some of these fast engines to realize what the wear and
tear must be. Engineer A. J. Sill of engine No. 219,
which hauls one of the Chicago and Northwestern mail
trains, says of his engine : "She makes 404 miles every
other day. ... I have made up 35 miles on this

1 90 1.] RAILROADS AND POST-OFFICE DEFICIT 67

mail run . . . which makes our time less than a
mile per minute. I have timed her several times on
the level with six heavy palace coaches. She will make
a mile in 45^6 seconds with a mail train of four cars.
Many miles are made in 30^ seconds."

In regard to wear and tear on roadbed it is difficult
to say just how much of an item this is. Mr. Delano,
superintendent of motive power of the C. B. & Q.,.
says as to the cost of maintaining the way where high-
speed trains are operated and where they are not : "We
have some divisions on our road (C. B. & Q.) where
trains do not exceed 25 or 30 miles per hour and where
a large volume of business is handled. We find the
cost of maintenance of track very noticeably less than
on other parts of the road where a few trains run at
very high speed." It is usually true that the high-speed
equipment is very heavy, and hence requires heavier
rails, bridge timbers, etc., on the road. That the strain
upon rails caused by high speed is enormous has been
proven. A series of experiments on this subject shows
that doubling the speed more than doubles the straining
effect on rails.

Fourth. Inconvenience to railroads operating fast
mail trains. The fact that the fast mail trains have
right of way over all other trains is not one of the least
sources of cost to railroads. Where a vast freight busi-
ness is being done much time and hence money is lost
by the necessity of other trains taking the siding to let
the fast mail pass. While the train is on the siding
fuel is being consumed without any return. When it
pulls out it is necessary to burn additional fuel in order
to make up for the lost time.

Fifth. Danger of accident resulting from high
speed. Of course, danger is increased by an increase
of speed. It has been said that the effect of a collision
is in proportion to the square of the velocity.

58 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

Sixth. Special equipment. The railroads also
have special equipment for their mail service which is
of no use in any other department. The cost of main-
taining this equipment falls upon the railroad. Thus
all the mail cars are filled with latest devices of all
kinds. Note for instance the mail-catching device and
other patented fittings of these cars. They are also
furnished with many lights which burn at the expense
of the railroad company.

The points shown above give the main elements
of cost to the railroads in operating fast mails. But
there are many inconveniences which are not and cannot
be measured in dollars and cents. For instance, the
government requires the mail cars to be set out on the
siding some hours before the departure of mail trains.
This means usually a whole track in a crowded depot
given up to the mail cars in the busiest time of day.

One reason why the mail is not more profitable to
the railroads is because there is so much dead space.
There are nineteen tons of car handled to one ton of mail.
The reason for this is that much of the space is allotted
to the sorting racks.

Now-a-days the mail cars are not only cars for trans-
portation of the mails but fulfil the use of a sub-post-
office as well, Much of this work, which was of old
done at the receiving post-office, is now done on these
trains: for example, the mail coming to the city of
Chicago is sorted in the mail car into 187 different
packages destined to the various divisions of the city.
Were it not for this, the same work would have to be
done in an office in the central part of the city which
would of course have to be rented by the government.
In a large city such as Chicago it is easy to see that the
additional rent which would be required to hire such
buildings would be enormous.

It is interesting to compare the railroad earnings

RAILROADS AND POST-OFFICE DEFICIT 50

accruing to a well-known railroad from its different de-
partments. On freight traffic a net earning of .21 of a
cent was shown, the expenses absorbing 58 per cent.
of amount of earnings. Passenger traffic earned .88
of a cent per ton mile. The expenses were .65 of
a cent and the net earnings .23 of a cent per ton mile.
Express showed a net of .6 of a cent per ton mile.
With the mail the earnings amounted to .63 of a cent,
the expenses were .65 of a cent and the deficit .02 of a
cent, — the expenses being 3 per cent, greater than the
earnings. The explanation is that nineteen tons of
dead weight were carried for each ton of paying weight.
If it were possible to handle mail as a commodity it
might pay. A well-known railroad man says :

"We cannot handle the mail as a commodity.
The department, for the benefit of the public, pre-
scribes the most expensive manner of handling it, and
the public is given the very best of service. With
freight we can make our own rules. We can load cars
to the limit of their capacity, and we can hold them
back a little and put them in trains where the locomo-
tives are worked up to the limit of their capacity. In-
deed, we have been studying nothing else for the past
three years but how to operate our roads with the
greatest economy, and we have succeeded, in the face
of the general fall in rates, in keeping the properties
going through economical methods of operation. Day
after day the public, and the department representing
the public, is more and more exacting, and the expense
to us of conducting that service is increasing instead of
diminishing. There is no way by which we can reduce
the cost of the service, because the facilities are con-
tinually being increased."

The facts already stated we believe are sufficient
to show that the railroads are not making any enor-
mous profit. It must also be remembered that delays

60 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

in the transmission of mails are heavily fined by the
government, thus reducing in a measure such profits as
do accrue.

It has been said that comparatively few railroads
operate solid mail trains. In refutation of these state-
ments I will mention the following with which I happen
to be familiar : — the fast mail on the New York Central,
the through mail on the Pennsylvania railroad, fast
mail on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, through
mail trains on the C. B. & Q. which run from Chicago
to the coast ; and on the North Western. These last
two trains are probably the most notable of any in the
country. The average speed I believe over the plains
is about 50 miles an hour and in many places runs up to
70 and 80 miles on schedule time.

The vast difference between the mail service and
the passenger is well illustrated by the following fact:
One of the Pacific railroads hauls a combination train,
mail and passenger, over the mountains. When the
level country is reached the mail cars are cut off and
sent on ahead. A passenger leaving the coast may
mail a letter in one of these cars on his own train, and
by the time he has reached Chicago he will find that the
letter has already gone through the Chicago post- office,
been delivered and is waiting for him at his hotel.

There are many persons who believe the real cause
of the deficit to be, very largely, the abuse observable
in the second-class mail matter. Much bulky material,
such as large volumes published under the name of
circulating libraries, fake catalogues, mammoth sample
copies and various matter of this character are crowded
into this class. However, a discussion of this subject is
not in place here. The object of this article is not to
locate the cause of the deficit but to show that it is not
due to exorbitant charges by the railroads for trans-
portation of mail.

MORTGAGED NATIONS

GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH

The breaking-up of a country through the inva-
sion of an armed host always had its picturesque and
dramatic features which inspired historians to recount
the deeds of valor and heroism of the last expiring de-
fenders ; but, in the modern disintegration of nations
through the more civilized method of pawning their
possessions piecemeal to postpone the inevitable end,
there is lacking all elements of spectacular show. The
man who gradually loses all of his property and sinks
into bankruptcy by degrees attracts far less attention
than the hero who expires on the battlefield in defence
of his home and country. The historic tragedy of
Greece yielding to the superior military power of
Rome, the death struggles around the embattled walls
of Troy, and even the invasion of Rome itself by the
hordes of barbarians of the North, appeal far more to
our imagination than the gradual disintegration of
China, the decay of the Ottoman empire, the pawning
of Persia to Great Britain and Russia, or the degenera-
tion, financially and commercially, of Portugal, Spain,
and many another nation.

Since the world began there has been going on a
redistribution of power over the surface of the earth.
From the cradle of mankind on the plains of Asia to
the islands and continents beyond the seas, the strug-
gle for supremacy has marked the tragedies of history,
and after circling the globe the final conflict seems
likely to be waged on the soil that was first watered
with the blood of ancient hosts of pagans and Chris-
tians. In method only has this struggle for power and
dominion changed through the ages of darkness and of
modern enlightenment.

61

62 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

As the world stands to-day the fall of nations is
through internal decay and disintegration rather than
from the invasion of armed enemies. The mightiest
empires of the past, whose legions once ruled a
good part of the world, are falling into bankruptcy
which must inevitably end their existence as inde-
pendent countries. Never was the power of money in
the world better illustrated than in the pawning and
selling of these nations, many of which are so deeply
indebted to others that they are virtually owned by
them. The game of international politics is played on
a chess-board, with stocks and bonds and railroad
shares and mining concessions as knights and pawns.
The weak nation is bound to lose in the end, and the
shrewd manipulators who proffer additional capital to
help it to prolong the game reap their rewards in
golden harvests.

China is the most important nation on the chess-
board to-day, and her enemies have been eager to
claim indemnity on slight occasions. Prior to 1874
China had no foreign debt, and her people were com-
paratively happy in their own way, content to live the
life that their ancestors had lived before them a
thousand years or more. Internal decay was not the
cause of her break-up so much as contact with western
civilization. No war was declared against her, but a
rivalry for possession of some of her land sprang up
in Europe. Under the guise of helping her as a
friend, France, Germany, Great Britain and Russia
proffered her loans, and China accepted the tempting
bait that was dangled so closely before her. From
1 8 74 to the beginning of the Japanese war she had
negotiated six loans, aggregating about $45,000,000,
and to pay the war indemnity to Japan of $160,000,-
ooo (and $24,000,000 for the return of Liao-Tung
peninsula) she had to raise more money among the

igoi.J MORTGAGED NATIONS 61

European nations. Russian and French capitalists
showed their ready disposition to loan her money,
taking as security whole provinces and ports. In
1897-98 China had to go into the money markets of the
world and negotiate another loan of §80,000,000. There
was a fierce rivalry between Russia, England, Germany
and France to advance the money, for each nation felt
that the successful one would have a controlling voice
in the political and commercial affairs of the country.
The loan was raised by Great Britain, and the other
European powers have ever since used this as a pretext
for grabbing more land to counterbalance British
power in the Orient.

China unfortunately has an ignorant population
who fail to realize the game that Europe has been play-
ing to absorb their country. Their hatred of foreigners
leads them into open riot, but for every mission they
destroy and every foreigner they kill a big price is
paid by the Chinese government. Germany demanded
large railroad concessions and grants of land for the
killing of German missionaries or traders. Russia se-
cured Port Arthur on a ninety-nine years' agreement,
and Great Britain got Wei-Hai-Wei and concessions at
Hong-Kong. Every little outbreak along the coast or
in the interior was a fresh cause for bleeding China,
and so the partitioning of the empire has gone on
apace. China loses more of her land through inability
to pay indemnities than she pawns for actual cash.

But there is a good deal of China. Her 4,000,000
square miles, with an approximate population of 400,-
000,000, form a world by itself, and the potentialities
of the empire are so great that the greed and cupidity
of Europe are aroused. But, immense as the country
is and magnificent as its commercial possibilities may
seem, it will not be a matter of a decade before the
greater part of the domain will be in pawn. She is

64 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

proverbially hard up for money, and the pawning of
new possessions cannot go on apace without bringing
an end to the empire. It is the civilized method of
breaking up and conquering a weaker country, and
inasmuch as it is legalized there is no protest to be
made.

The absorption of Persia by Russia and Great
Britain is another concrete illustration of the new
method of invasion of one country by a more powerful
empire. Persia is practically a bankrupt nation to-day,
and is owned part and parcel by Russia and Great
Britain. She has raised loans time and again from the
two powers, and to-day mortgages cover her railroads
and chief industries. England first obtained conces-
sions there for building railroads and telegraph lines
for nominal rents, and then when Persia was hard up
for funds money was advanced her without any security
other than the roads. From one loan to another she
drifted, and then Russia entered the market and en-
deavored to increase Persia's debt. The struggle between
England and Russia to obtain concessions from the
Persian government has time and again caused friction
that threatened trouble. Persia good naturedly ac-
cepted the situation, and borrowed largely from both,
spent the money, and soon returned for more. The
end of her resources may not yet be in sight, but she
has practically delivered over half her empire to Russia
and the other half to England. The result is that
Persia is hardly an independent country. She cannot
make a move in the game of politics without consult-
ing her owners, and if she attempted it one or the
other would block the move. Her only power is in
setting her two European owners at each other's
throats, and her experience shows that it is much bet-
ter to have two masters rather than one.

England almost owns and controls Portugal, al-

MORTGAGED NATIONS 65

though for various reasons the latter kept Great Britain
from asserting the rights it possessed in Delagoa Bay
during the South African war. During the dispute
between England and Germany a few years ago about
their South African possessions, Portugal announced
that it would preserve strict neutrality and not permit
either nation to land troops at Delagoa bay nor to
march them across Portuguese South Africa. In 1895
Portugal's debt amounted to $742,450,570, and the in-
terest on it was $18,150,000 per annum. In 1897 the
cabinet resigned because they were unable to grapple
with the economic and financial problems, and the new
cabinets have not been much more successful. Al-
though a rich and fertile country, Portugal has not
been able to support herself, and she has mortgaged
her industries to foreign governments until she is
nearly as much in pawn as Persia. England, before
the war with the Boers, had tried to negotiate for
Delagoa bay, and had she been successful in time it
would have shortened the South African campaign.
Portugal would have gladly pledged this port for money
that was much needed, but the other European pow-
ers, realizing the importance of the port, refused to
consent to the agreement. It may be that England will
get the port yet, for Portugal is chronically hard up,
and when in need of money her cabinet seems willing
to pledge almost anything to raise it. That is probably
the easiest way out of a difficulty. It is much like a
man pawning his possessions at a high rate of interest
to secure a iv>an he intends to pay off soon, but which
seems to increase so that he is never quite able to do
it. Portugal has a favorable situation for development,
and should be able to redeem herself from pawn, but
the seeds of decay seem to be planted in her and she
recedes rather than advances each year.

Turkey is the problem of Europe, and at the same

«6 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

time the most puzzling of nations in pawn. The whole
continent of Europe holds her pledges and securities,
but it is a much more difficult matter to redeem these
than in the case of China for instance. Turkey is
willing to pledge anything for money, and then the
holders of the securities find it a difficult matter to col-
lect interest or principal. She is the only nation in
pawn that has proved a Tartar. Half a dozen European
nations have regretted accepting her pledges, and yet
they stand ready to-day to increase their financial load
for fear some rival power will step in and take advan-
tage of their apathy. Turkey is always hard up, and
it will pledge anything for a loan, but it leaves it with
the powers to collect on the loan. When the country
first went bankrupt years ago it raised over $200,000,-
ooo in Europe, and pledged territory as security. This
money was soon spent, and investors who had failed to
realize anything from the land grants did not like to
advance more funds on such unsubstantial security.
Then Turkey offered to pledge her tobacco, opium, and
liquor duties, and succeeded in this way in raising
some $600,000,000. The revenues from these articles
are. about the only collectable thing in Turkey, and the
land concessions do not amount to much unless the
owners of them are willing to land an army in the
country to protect them. For the present Turkey is
not likely to break up as China may do, even though
she may be a bankrupt, for the reputation of her mili-
tary strength is sufficient to deter Europeans from
going to war with her. For the past decade Turkey
lias not been a favorite resort for money investments,
and now that she has pledged most of her revenues she
finds it a difficult task to raise further funds. The
European money lenders find a more profitable field in
the far East for putting out their capital with some as-
surances of adequate returns.

MORTGAGED NATIONS 67

In South America the work of mortgaging and
buying up nations proceeds with as much expedition as
in the Orient, and a great many of the South American
republics are owned by money lenders and capitalists.
Concessions after concessions have been granted to
corporations and foreign governments for loans ad-
vanced. Railroads, mining privileges, and revenues
from nearly all taxable goods have been pledged. The
ease with which money is squandered by the govern-
ments of the South American republics makes many of
the smaller ones chronically hard up, and no sooner
does one revolution dispose of a ministry and president
than another movement to negotiate a new loan begins.

In many cases private corporations and capitalists
have more to say in the government of the small South
American republics than the presidents or their cabi-
nets. Virtually owning everything of real value in
the country, it is only natural that they should demand
a controlling voice in the management of affairs that
concern their interests. Thus the Argentine republic
has practically been sold over to the auctioneer, and
her finances are so involved that an expert could never
straighten them out. The ministers do not attempt to
do this; they are satisfied to raise more money by
mortgaging other property and industries of the coun-
try if in need of funds for special purposes. Argentina
owes over $300,000,000, and every chance she gets it
asks for new loans. Already her mines, railroads, and
other natural resources are pledged, and it seems
doubtful if anything valuable can be found to hand
over as security for new loans. There is not much at-
tempt to pay the interest on this debt, and the country
is satisfied if the creditors content themselves with
seizing a few more square miles of territory to call the
matter even.

Bolivia owes a debt of over $150,000,000, which

68 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

she contracted in the war with Chili and which she had
to guarantee by handing over to the control of her
enemy the best part of her seaboard. Chili exacts
payment of the interest on this debt, and she stands
ready to absorb her weaker neighbor upon confession
of bankruptcy. Every few years there is a sort of
panic in Bolivia because of the government's inability
to raise the interest, and then efforts are made to ne-
gotiate a loan abroad. But no one cares to loan more
money to Bolivia, and the little republic has to levy
heavy taxes upon its people and sometimes disband its
army to save money. Altogether her position in the
council of South American nations is not reassuring or
pleasant, but her people and government do not seem
to worry unduly over the finances.

The worst part of this financial situation, in the
weak nations mentioned, is that there is little prospect
of improvement. If the loans were negotiated for in-
ternal improvements, which in time would relieve the
countries of their burdens, there would be nothing un-
usual or disagreeable about them ; but they are much
like a man without a business who is steadily mort-
gaging his property for funds to live on. When the
property has all been absorbed the ability to negotiate
further loans will cease, and it is a question of starving
to death or working as a laborer for another. When
China, Turkey, Persia, and Bolivia have mortgaged
all the land and natural resources they have, they must
in time cease to be nations except in name only. That
sad state of affairs has already been reached by some
of them. Their financial disintegration is more insidi-
ous in its growth than the forces leading to moral or
physical downfall.

EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP

In the course of a very excellent article on "Social
Sciences in Secondary Schools," Professor Edward
Emory Hill, «f the Hyde Park (Chicago) High School,
undertakes to explain why the work done thus far in
the public schools along these lines has been, relatively,
so ineffective. By special permission we are able and
glad to give here some of the results of Mr. Hill's in-
vestigations, as confirming the position we have long
maintained, in favor of a wider extension of economic
and social studies. Speaking of the extent to which
these subjects are now taught, he says :

"In the last report of the United States commis-
sioner of education is a list of the 'sixteen more impor-
tant studies of our secondary schools,' with the number
of pupils pursuing each study, and its percentage to the
total number of pupils enrolled in these schools.
Neither civil government nor political economy appear
in this list. The fact that five of these 'more important
studies' are taken, each, by less than five per cent, and
two by less than four per cent, of the pupils enrolled
in these schools, and that no mention is made anywhere
in this report on secondary schools of the subjects that
we are considering, is a silent commentary on the place
that the sociai sciences have as yet found in the secon-
dary schools of the United States that seems to have in
it more of eloquence than of encouragement.

"But the situation is not quite so discouraging as
it at first seems from an examination of this document.
If we turn to the educational reports of the different
states, we find that 2 1 5 out of the 244 high schools re-
ported by Massachusetts offer a course in civil govern-
ment and that 77 of those schools provide for some in-
struction in political economy. In New York state,

6*

70 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

which has an enrollment in its high schools and
academies of 66,342 pupils, 11,509 are reported as
having taken an examination in civics and 3,012 in
economics during the past year ; while in North Da-
kota these subjects are said to be prescribed in the
course of study for high schools by the state board.
That these are very favorable examples must be ad-
mitted, but they serve to show that social sciences have
received some recognition in our secondary schools. .

' 'According to the reports received by the commit-
tee of ten on this subject from many different sections
of the United States it appeared that political economy
was taught in about five per cent, of the secondary
schools of this country. The number of schools giving
formal and specific instruction in civil government is
without doubt considerably greater."

Prof. Hill then refers to the action of the board of
regents of the state of New York, in submitting to the
principals of high schools within the state nine courses
of study arranged for schools having four years' work :

"In all of the nine courses we find elementary
United States history and civics as one of the studies
for the first semester of the first year ; in four, civics as
a separate subject during the second semester of the
first year, and in two, economics as a study during the
last half of the fourth year. These courses were ar-
ranged after a careful study of the working programs
now in use in that state. If they may be taken as reflect-
ing present conditions, this means that nearly all of the
pupils in the secondary schools of New York receive a
little incidental instruction in civics in connection with
elementary United States history during the first twen-
ty weeks of their high school course ; that a few receive
special instruction in this subject during the second
twenty weeks of their high school course, and that dur-

EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 71

ing the last semester of their high school career a still
smaller number, those taking what are styled the law
and commercial courses, can have five hours a week to
browse in the field of industrial history and digest a
few of the leading principles of political economy."

Coming to the character of the instruction in socia"
sciences in our secondary schools, and speaking of the
reasons for so much poor work and consequent slow
development of these courses in the curriculum, Mr.
Hill hits the nail squarely on the head :

" 'Charity,' it is said, 'shall cover the multitude of
sins, ' but by no possible stretch of her mantle could she
hope to hide all the bad work that passes for instruc-
tion in civil government and political economy. This,
however, is in no way the fault of the civics and eco-
nomics teachers, for strictly speaking there are no such
teachers, or very few at most, in our secondary schools.
The teacher who attempts to give instruction in these
subjects is nearly always the teacher of something else.
The Latin teacher who may chance to have a spare
hour can 'fill it in' by hearing the class in civil govern-
ment. The mathematics teacher is supposed in some
way to have absorbed a sufficient knowledge of the
principles of political economy to be able to spend prof-
itably what might otherwise be three or four vacant
periods in the week in judiciously instructing a class in
that subject. This situation follows necessarily from
the fact that these subjects have found so small a place
in the programs of the great majority of our schools.

"But even those teachers who are specially inter-
ested in these studies, and are fortunate enough to be
able to devote the larger part of their time to them, are
as yet far from being satisfied with their success. They
feel that they are pioneers in a new field of pedagogy.
They find themselves in the midst of a great amount of
material from which they must select a little— that

72 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July

which is likely to be of most value to their pupils as
future citizens, and which at the same time is best
adapted to the needs of their present stage of develop-
ment. The difficulty of this problem can be appreciated
only by those who have attempted to solve it. Many
text-books — some of them excellent in a way — have
been written on these subjects, it is true, but their wri-
ters have shown the same confusion in their selection
of the subject-matter that has characterized the work of
the teachers. One gives so much space to national gov-
ernment that he has no time left for local institutions.
Another becomes so much absorbed in local government
that he seems to forget that he is also a citizen of a
great nation. Some have plunged into the history and
philosophy of our social organisms. Others have con-
tented themselves with a bare description of the ma-
chinery of our various governments. In the field of po-
litical economy the text-book situation has been even
worse. With one or two very poor exceptions, the only
text-books on this subject that have been on the mar-
ket for use in secondary schools were spoiled abridg-
ments of works prepared primarily for colleges. It is
only recently that a desire to produce text-books on po-
litical economy suited to the needs of the secondary
schools seems to have become epidemic among students
of economics. Within the last two or three years sev-
eral very creditable works have appeared. They are
full of encouragement to those who believe that politi-
cal economy should receive a respectful attention in our
high school programs. They are not only the sub-
stance in part of things hoped for, but also, we trust,
the evidence of things not yet seen."

Summing up the situation, it is found that "in
the United States formal teaching of the social sciences
has not as yet found a very important place in the work
of the secondary schools ; that they are taught ina com-

i90i.] EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 78

paratively small number of these schools, and that in
the schools where they are made subjects of instruction
they are usually elective studies, taken by only a small
number of pupils, and receiving little time and atten-
tion. In the second place, we have found that the
character of the instruction in these subjects is for the
most part very poor ; that not many of the teachers who
are compelled to ' hear classes' in these branches are
interested in them or know much about them, and that
the few instructors who have devoted themselves with
zeal to this line of work labor under serious disadvan-
tages."

This is not good ground for discouragement, how-
ever. ' ' The movement in this country to push the
study of the social sciences down into the secondary
and elementary schools is still in its infancy. We be-
lieve, too, that it is a healthy, growing infancy. As en-
couragement for this belief, we find that each year an
increasing number of schools are introducing them into
their programs, and that other schools are giving them
a larger place in their curriculums ; that their impor-
tance is being emphasized by frequent discussions in
teachers' conventions, in educational journals and in
the public press ; that their study is being made com-
pulsory in some of our best normal schools, and that
the colleges and universities of our country which have
formerly assumed an attitude not only of indifference
but of antagonism toward their introduction into the
public schools are now swinging into line, not only
giving them some recognition as preparatory work, but
also strengthening their own courses in these depart-
ments with a view of sending forth better equipped
teachers into this field."

Prof. Hill is by no means alone in his progressive
view of this situation. President J. M. Green, of the
National Educational Association, has written to us

74 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

recently on the matter, declaring emphatically that :
" It is the feeling of the executive committee that this
subject has been too little considered in proportion to
its importance in the great common-school system, and
that there is a teaching adapted to the common schools
and that will serve as a key to the common problems of
economic life."

A letter from Hon. Andrew D. White, ambassador
to Germany and former president of Cornell Univer-
sity, emphasizes the same view. " Recent events,"
says Dr. White, "show that the popularization of eco-
nomic science in our country is one of the main needs
of our people."

Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, one of the foremost
educators in the country, in his able work, ' ' The
Meaning of Education,'' discusses this subject at some
length. "The first question," he says, "to be asked
of any course of study is : Does it lead to a knowledge
of our contemporary civilization? If not, it is neither
efficient nor liberal.

" In society as it exists to-day the dominant note,
running through all of our struggles and problems, is
economic, — what the old Greeks might have called
political. Yet it is a constant fight to get any proper
teaching from the economic and social point of view put
before high-school and college students. They are
considered too young or too immature to study such
recondite subjects, although the nice distinctions be-
tween the Greek moods and tenses and the principles
of conic sections, with their appeal to the highly
trained mathematical imagination, are their daily food.
As a result, thousands of young men and young women
who have neither the time, the money, nor the desire
for a university career, are sent forth from the schools
either in profound ignorance of the economic basis of
modern society, or with only the most superficial and

IQOI.] EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 75

misleading knowledge of it. The indefensibleness of
this policy, even from the most practical point of view,
is apparent when we bear in mind that in this country
we are in the habit of submitting questions, primarily
economic in character, every two or four years to the
judgment and votes of what is substantially an untu-
tored mob. If practical politics only dealt with chem-
istry as well as with economics, we could, by the same
short and easy method, come to some definite and
authoritative conclusion concerning the atomic theory
and learn the real facts regarding helium. But since
the economic facts, and not the chemical or linguistic
facts, are the ones to be bound up most closely with our
public and private life, they should, on that very ac-
count, be strongly represented in every curriculum.
We can leave questions as to the undulatory theory of
light and as to Grimm's and Verner's laws to the spe-
cialists ; but we may not do the same thing with ques-
tions as to production and exchange, as to monetary
policy and taxation. The course of study is not liberal,
in this century, that does not recognize these fact and

emphasize economics as it deserves

" There is no reason why many secondary schools,
particularly public high schools, over 60 per cent, of
whose graduates do not go on to a higher educational
institution, should not give instruction in subjects such
as logic, political economy, and trigonometry, which
are contained in every college course. Unless this
policy is adopted, the vast majority of American boys
and girls will be deprived of all opportunity to come in
contact with these studies and others like them."

Evidences are accumulating on every hand that at
last we are coming to a proper appreciation of these
studies, and the importance of including them in the
public- school courses; first in the secondary schools
much more largely than at present, and later, in sim-

76 G UNTON 'S MA GA ZINE

plified form of course, in the higher grades of the
grammar schools. It is a hopeful, encouraging move-
ment, right in line with the whole modern tendency to
make education count for practical life rather than for
expertness in abstract speculation. The marvelous
progress of industry and science means that men are
coming into closer and more interdependent relations
with each other ; consequently, the practical problems
with which education must deal are becoming less and
less individual and more and more social in their char-
acter. In emphasizing this, we do not lose sight of the
tendency toward specialization, in modern life. It is
the other and indispensable side of concentration, but
interdependence develops along with both, and no sys-
tem of education which does not appreciate and embody
in itself this irresistible movement can respond to the
needs of the times, nor even retain its former balance,
consistency and authority. Our educational system, in
its further development, must include the economic
and social sciences, otherwise it will fall apart like a
string of beads when the connecting cord is worn out
and no new one put in its place.

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

THROUGH THE aid of Platt and the indirect aid of
the administration through the custom house, Tam-
many Hall is impudently confident of victory, which
its organ, the Tammany Times, fittingly announces
thus:

" When Richard Croker returns in August candidates having the
interest of the people and the city at heart will be announced."

Can the equal of this be found outside of Phila-
delphia? "When Richard Croker returns! !" What
more can New York citizens ask?

THE NEW YORK Times has a great faculty for
discovering how we are being ruined by protection.
The wonder is that we were not in bankruptcy long
ago. Its latest discovery is that Mr. J. Pierpont
Morgan paid $2,500,000 for the " Mannheim collection
of medieval works of art," with the patriotic intention
of presenting it to the Metropolitan Museum in New
York, but when he found that a duty was to be paid on
this col1 ection he became indignant and decided to give
the collection to South Kensington Museum, London.

Mr. Morgan is neither ignorant enough nor absurb
enough nor reckless enough nor free trader enough to
make any such silly exhibition of himself. What is more,
Mr. Morgan knows, if the Times does not, that there is
no duty on art products imported for public institutions.
This only shows to what lengths otherwise sensible
people will go when they are ridden by a hobby.

THE DISTRICT RAILWAY COMPANY in London has
finally accepted the proposition of Mr. Charles T.
Yerkes of Chicago to introduce underground electricity
as the motive power for surface railroads, and thus give

77

78 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

London the New York method of surface transporta-
tion. It must stagger Englishmen to see Yankee enter-
prise so outstrip English as to bring both the men and
money of America to conduct public works in England.
This is also having something of a chilling effect upon
the faith of English observers in the infallibility of
their free-trade doctrines. They have always taught
that America could never compete with England so
long as she kept protection. Their great fear of the
Yankees ' ' would only come when they adopted free
trade.'' There are a few worshippers at that shrine in
this country who have been harping on that for more
than twenty years, and even now, when the impossible
has been accomplished, they are repeating the same
simple fallacy as if nothing had occurred.

THE REPUBLiCAN-Tammany city government of
Philadelphia has recently given the street railway com-
panies of that city the right to occupy several hundred
miles of the city streets without any return whatever
to the municipality. To show how flagrant this giving
away of public franchises is, Mr. John Wanamaker
has offered the city $2,500,000 for the franchises that
have been given to the railway companies, and, as an
evidence of good faith, has deposited $250,000. Mr.
Wanamaker's letter containing the offer was handed
to the mayor during the public ceremonies dedicating
the new United States mint. To show his contempt for
the proposition, upon recognizing Mr. Wanamaker's
writing, the mayor without opening the letter tossed it
into the crowd surrounding the platform. This is
probably a little more brazen than even Mayor Van
Wyck would have been under similar circumstances.
Is this a specimen of what New York might expect if it
exchanged Croker for Platt? The republicans of Phila-
delphia can evidently give Tammany points.

I90I.J EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 79

SENATOR DEPEW is to be congratulated upon hav-
ing the courage to "stand pat'' against the flimsy,
anti-third term fetich. The talk about the unwritten
law against third terms is little short of silly. Wash-
ington declined a third term and Grant was refused
one ; that is all the tradition there is on the subject. It
is a mere cry of hungry politicians who are anxious for
rapid rotation in office. Mr. McKinley was shrewd in
announcing that he would decline a third nomination,
as it probably never would have been offered him, but
it is not only absurd but distinctly bad policy to create
a public sentiment tending to deprive the American
people of the choice of a president three times if there
is any public emergency that requires it. In the ab-
sence of such an emergency, it is quite safe to predict
that a third term will not be given, but if the emer-
gency for it should occur there should be no silly, super-
stitious barriers to prevent it. The unwritten as well
as the written law of the United States is that the peo-
ple shall elect whomsoever they choose for president,
wheth"r it is for a third or a thirteenth term.

THE NEW YORK Times is very properly indignant
about what it calls "a surrender to the spoilsmen" by
the president and Secretary Gage in removing Mr.
William J. Gibson from the office of counsel before the
board of appraisers, in order to make a place for Mr.
A. H. Washburn of Boston. It says:

" Behind this act and leading up to it there is a story of relentless
spoils hunting on the part of United States senators and of weak
yielding to their demands and of abandonment of principle aad betrayal
of public pledges on the part of the president and Secretary Gage that is
deeply discreditable and should cover them with shame."

This may all be true, yet it is not a circumstance
to the shameful surrender on the part of both the presi-
dent and Secretary Gage in the case of reappointing

80 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

Bidwell to the collectorship of the port of New York.
The worst that can be said in the Gibson case is that a
Cleveland democrat was removed to make room for an
equally competent republican. But in the Bidwell case
he was reappointed by the president and approval of the
secretary, at the demand of Platt, with the full knowl-
edge that he had used his office for corrupt political
purposes. In this case the surrender of the president
and secretary to the spoilsmen was to give office practi-
cally as a reward for political crime.

THE Brooklyn Eagle appears to think that the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company is a victim of over-
taxation by the franchise tax la-vr. It says ;

"It may not be generally known, but last year the company paid
direct and indirect taxes to the state and to the city amounting to
$1,042,000. . . . The total was nearly i o per cent, of the gross ear-
nings of the company and three times the amount of the year's profits."

These facts prove nothing to the point, Taxation
is simply a part of the expense of owning property.
The only question is, does that amount represent an
unfair assessment of the value of the property? What
matter if it is three times or ten times the year's profit?
The Eagle might as well protest against its wage bill
being larger than its profits. Whether its tax bill is
larger than its bill for raw material or larger than its
pay roll, or larger than its profits, or ten per cent., or
twenty per cent, of its gross earnings, is nothing to the
point. Is the tax an unfair assessment upon the value
of the property, is the only question that can properly
be raised, and on that the Eagle says nothing. To par-
aphrase its own characterization of Senator Ford and
Governor Roosevelt : ' ' We do not want to call the
Brooklyn Eagle a demagogue, but demagogues have
reasoned very much as it does on the franchise-tax
question."

1901.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 81

RUSSIA is ALWAYS either intriguing, bullying or re-
taliating. There has never been enough integrity and
good faith in its statesmanship for any body to trust her
round the corner. A little while ago it was retaliating
because it was treated like other people in relation to
sugar. It now threatens retaliation if it cannot have a
double advantage over everybody else on petroleum.
Our tariff law has put petroleum on the free list, but it
wisely provides that in case any other country puts a
tariff on American petroleum the secretary of the treas-
ury shall levy an equivalent duty on petroleum coming
from that country. Russia puts a duty of about 200
per cent, on petroleum going from this country, and
now, because the secretary of the treasury has applied
the law and put a duty on Russian petroleum, Russia is
pretending to be hurt and is going to retaliate by put-
ting an exceptional duty on other American goods.

This country is ready for free trade in petroleum
with eveiy country in the world. We offer free trade
in this market to petroleum of every country that will
give free trade in petroleum in its market. Certainly
nothing could be fairer. But this is not enough for
Russia. It wants free trade for her petroleum here
while imposing a prohibitory duty on our petroleum in
Russia, and threatens to retaliate on all other American
products if we do not give it. This is just about the
right time to teach Russia that it cannot bully the
United States the way it does China and the little
countries on the continent.

OUR FREE-TRADE friends who are laboring under
the impression that our protective policy prevents this
country from competing with England and other for-
eign countries might do well to enlarge their horizon
and lend an ear to what foreigners themselves say on

82 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

the subject. The London Saturday Review says, in an
extended discussion of the subject:

" It is as childish to blame or be angry with the Americans for in-
juring us in trade as it is futile to pretend that they do not. The only
sane thing to do is to acknowledge the fact, and resist them as well as
we can. At present we do neither. . . . We have not taken trade
scientifically as have the Americans, and we do not throw into it the
same energy and concentration. In a sense we do not take it seriously."

Realizing this situation, the British Iron and Steel
Institute invited Mr. Garrett, of Cleveland, Ohio, to
deliver the principal address at its last annual meeting,
and, in explaining why the " British iron masters " are
falling behind in the competition with this country,
Mr. Garrett said :

" I venture to assert that during the past ten years all the British
iron and steel manufacturers together did not spend as much money in
improvements as the Carnegies did in two years. Four of the best rod
mills in Great Britain during January did not produce as many rods as
one of the wire rod mills in the United States."

These facts, which were not questioned, gave a
pauser to the English manufacturers. The real reason
why the Carnegies spent more money in improvement in
two years than all the British manufacturers did in ten
was that the Carnegies had the greatest iron market in
the world to produce for, and this market had been
chiefly developed by a protective policy. In other
words, the superiority of the Carnegies over their Brit-
ish competitors is due to the market opportunities pro-
tection has given them in this country. And yet Mr.
Atkinson says protection retarded the development of
iron and steel industries.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GOKTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquires
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

War and Civilization

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Getting on to a plane of war morality
may do to preach about and write books on, by non-
combatants and such as deal in talk and stand away
from ba.rnTon a moral eminence. If Funston violated
any code of morals, who was the code's author? Diplo-
macy in words or acts is and always was used as a
means for deception. More falsehood has been imposed
upon the ungarded by diplomats than by any other spy
system ever in use. The turning point in Funston's diplo-
macy or spy act, in the capture of Aguinaldo, was the
treatment accorded the prisoners when under his humane
power. All the Hague conferences and Oxford codes
cannot pump ethics into war on a practical basis, for
the reason that the material necessary to make a fight-
ing man and an effective warrior is all against the the-
orists who can talk but not do, and the do man is the
material which makes the world move.

The political reformations and ethics your maga-
zine and lectures stand for and heroically advocate,
however, are invaluable, and if heeded will bear great
good results to the American people. Your criticisms of
the administration as dropping into mediocrity, or not
exercising the Cleveland role of "I am the govern-

83

84 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

ment,'' may be a little too true, because that monarch
is remembered as a great party smasher and well-nigh
a government disrupter — a role to be shunned.

L. V. P., Sutherland, Iowa.

[Our correspondent has reference to the discussion
of Funston's capture of Aguinaldo, in our May number.
It is sufficient to say in comment that not even warfare
has been or is exempt from the influence of advancing
civilization. As we said in the discussion referred to,
"warfare at best is a carnival of barbarities and immor-
alities," but there are degrees of horror even in this,
and civilization has been slowly working out some of
these worst phases, just as it has been eliminating the
worst and developing the better features of all human
institutions throughout the whole course of progress.
The international code and Red Cross society are prod-
ucts of this tendency, and both are actually recognized
"on a practical basis" by civilized nations. So far from
being incompatible with the "material necessary to
make a fighting man and an effective warrior," respect
for the code and the Red Cross is now one of the neces-
sary qualifications of the best type of military comman-
der.

The German and Russian armies in China have
dropped in the estimation of Christendom just in pro-
portion as they have transgressed these recognized
limits, while our own has risen in worldwide respect
by its humane self-control. General Chaffee was no
less of an "effective warrior" because he restrained his
soldiers from wanton murder and looting. On the con-
trary, he is the one man who comes out of the Chinese
military complication with a distinct accession of honor
and high standing, both as a soldier and a man. War
is a monstrous evil, but even war is no longer a free
field for unlimited cruelty and perfidy. Civilization has

I90I.J LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS W

hedged it in with the international code on just the same
principle that it has modified the grim horror of capital
punishment from burning at the stake to the instanta-
neous electric shock.

We regard it as a misfortune that Christendom
should have the opportunity to condemn our war policy
in the Philippines while yielding us even unwilling
praise in China ; and we see no reason to revise that
opinion.]

A Source of Wholesome Influence

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I thank you most cordially for your
very kind reference to Syracuse University in your
June magazine. It is an honor to the university and
will be helpful to us to be commended by a magazine
whicL has attained the prominence and influence of the
GUNTON.

We are thoroughly in accord with the principles
which you defend and advocate. I believe it is an
exceedingly wholesome thing for our colleges, and for
our free institutions in general, that we have a publica-
tion like this magazine, which is welcome in this uni-
versity and has a first place among the many periodicals
that come here. (Chancellor) JAMES R. DAY,

Syracuse University.

QUESTION BOX

Why President McKinley Is a Disappointment

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I was induced to take your magazine
because of the vigorous body-blows you gave W. J.
Bryan, and was sorry to read your attack upon the
president and his administration in your comment upon
the Cleveland and Toledo elections in your May issue.

You say: "Mr. McKinley is disappointing. He
seems to have no moral strength to resist these dis-
creditable and discredited corrupters. . . . This
is becoming manifest in so many ways that the people
are losing faith in the administration," etc.

Will you kindly specify who these corrupters are
and some of the ways in which Mr. McKinley shows his
want of moral strength? J. M., Johnstown, Neb.

This question is a legitimate one and entitled to a
frank reply, — the more so because many other of our
readers undoubtedly feel just as our correspondent
does.

The specific instance of the kind referred to in the
quoted passage occurred in New York city last Sep-
tember. We have heard of many others of a similar
kind, but speak only of those of which the exact facts
are in our possession. When a convention was being
held to nominate candidates for congress in the i4th
congressional district, New York city, Mr. George R.
Bidwell, collector of the port of New York, with the
assistance of Mr. Lemuel E. Quigg, the alter ego of Mr.
Platt and special representative of the party organiza-
tion, used their coercive power over office-holding
delegates to change the convention from one candidate,
who only a few days before the convention had a ma-
jority of more than thirty, to a majority for the other
candidate with whom Mr. Bidwell and his associates

86

QUESTION BOX 87

had made a deal. In one instance, at least, we were
eye-witness to this coercion, and the evidence is conclu-
sive that the same thing was done by the same parties
in at least three other districts ; enough to wipe out a
majority of over thirty and nominate the Platt-Bidwell
candidate.

All these facts were laid before President McKin-
ley on the 4th of October, at Canton, Ohio. At his re-
quest no exposure was made before the election, he
promising to deal adequately with the outrage after
election, whether reelected or not ; expressing, more-
over, implicit belief in the facts as reported, and his
indignation at such conduct by federal office-holders
whom he had appointed. On the 4th of December the
facts were again laid before the president in accordance
with his previous request, in writing. Instead of car-
rying out his ante-election promise he reappointed this
corrupting official, two months before his term had
expired, as a mark of special approval. The president
thus knowingly gave his official support to the corrupt
methods of politicians by conspicuously rewarding the
corrupters.

We cannot give space to repeat all the facts here,
but refer our correspondent to the New York Press of
February i8th, which published the entire documentary
statement as presented to the president, and also to the
Lecture Bulletin of the Institute of Social Economics, for
February isth, entitled " The Peril of Popular Govern-
ment," in which the leading facts in the case are given.
Either of these publications can be obtained post-paid
for five cents.

Wall Street Gambling

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I was very much interested in your
exposition of Wall street speculation in the June maga-

88 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July.

zine, but disappointed to find you proposing such mild
remedies. You occasionally called it what it really is —
plain gambling, but if it is gambling why should it not
be treated so in the eyes of the law ? A great time is
made about closing up the gambling "joints" in the
disreputable sections of New York, but these places
cannot do anything like the amount of damage to the
public interests at large that comes from the Wall street
kind of gambling, which is likely at any time to bring
ruin and panic after it. Selling what one does not own
and buying what one does not want is no different from
betting on the turns of a wheel, and ought to be sup-
pressed by law as equally offensive to public morals.

H. D.

Yes, the doings of Wall street are sometimes
"plain gambling." But is only gambling when the
transactions reach a special form, namely, selling what
one does not possess. Buying to sell again is not
gambling, nor is selling to buy again. Those are le-
gitimate transactions. It is only when a party sells
what he does not possess, and by so doing creates a large
amount of fictitious transactions which can only be ad-
justed by losses and perhaps ruin, that it becomes sim-
ple gambling. Gambling "joints" are nothing but
gambling ; there is no legitimate aspect to them. The
gambling feature in Wall street is an aspect only of
what is otherwise necessary business. A panic in Wall
street may produce more injury to the community in a
day than all the gambling joints in New York city
would in a year ; but that is no reason why there should
be an arbitrary suppression of Wall street business.
True reform should always seek to deal only with the
evil and leave the good. Perhaps our correspondent
would like to have a law passed making it a penal
offence to deal in stocks, but that would be a good deal
like suppressing grocery stores because some of them
put chalk in their sugar and burnt beans in their coffee

QUESTION BOX 89

It would be creating a greater evil to suppress a lesser.
If some way could be found to prevent fictitious buying
and selling and compel transactions to be bona fide, the
evil element in Wall street transactions would be largely
eliminated. The mildness of the remedy, which seems
to trouble our correspondent, is perhaps the real virtue
of the proposition. Drastic remedies should always be
avoided when possible ; they are always offensive and
usually ineffective.

Do Labor Unions "Level Down?"

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I should be disposed to agree with Mr.
Schwab rather than with you on the question of the
"levelling-down" effect of labor unions. Is it not a
fact that the unions will not let a man work only about
so hard or so long and refuse to let him earn more than
the others, so that if he ever expects to rise he must
get out of the union? R. E. C.

No, that is an unfair and almost perverted way of
stating the case. Trade unions do not "level down,"
nor is it correct to say that they level up. Their chief
struggle is to bring up the rear and lift up the bottom.
There is no one fact with which trade unions are more
familiar than that the laggard who works for low pay
tends to drag down his class. It is for that reason they
frequently refuse to work with non-union men. They
know that in the long run non-union men are likely to
work for less than union wages. There is just a grain
of truth, and a grain only, in the statement that trade
unions refuse to let their members earn more than a
certain amount. They do refuse to permit their
members to work more than a certain number of
hours without extra pay, and sometimes double
pay, and under certain circumstances they object
to their earning exceptional amounts.

90 GUNTON'b MAGAZINE

They never object to day hands getting high pay,
never. Bricklayers or carpenters, for instance, who
work by the day never object to any member of their
union getting $i or $2 or $5 a day more than the rate.
Every such rise helps to bring the others up, but when
laborers are working by the piece they do object to any
of their number making a special effort or spurt to do
much more than the usual amount. The reason for
this is that they have learned from definite experience
that the employers will often induce workmen on piece-
work to do an exceptional amount so as to "set the
pace" for all the rest. And they also know that if they
can by special efforts be made to raise the standard of
quantity produced per day, the employers will take ad-
vantage of that fact at the first opportunity to lower
the piece price, and so ultimately make it that the
laborers will get no more for a larger amount of product
than they formerly did for a smaller. The laborers
have a large amount of experience behind this policy
and they do, therefore, discourage piece-workers from
trying to produce very much more than the normal
output with average steady application.

But this is quite a different thing from saying that
they ' ' refuse to let him earn more than the others, so
that if he ever expects to rise he must get out of the
union." On the contrary, the union is constantly using
its efforts to help every member to rise. Unions do not
level down wages, but they act in the interests of their
craft rather than in the interests of any single indi-
vidual of their craft. Speaking generally, the influ-
ence and effort of trade unions is to bring up the wages
of the poorer workmen and not to press down those of
the best.

BOOK REVIEWS

DOMESTIC SERVICE. By Lucy Maynard Salmon.
Cloth, 338 pages, $2.00. The Macmillan Company,
New York.

The question of domestic service is becoming a
perplexing part of the labor problem. The difficulties
attending domestic service seem to increase directly as
the conditions of industrial and commercial service im-
prove. The development of the factory and improved
condition of the factory operative has reflected itself
into the life of the domestic servant. During the last
few years the complaints of employers regarding the
exactions and stipulations made by servant girls have
become strikingly conspicuous. One can hardly ride
in a public conveyance where two ladies are present
without hearing the servant- girl question discussed in
a depressing and pessimistic tone. They demand very
much higher wages than formerly and insist upon doing
very much less work. They want more half days
off, insist upon more appointments and appliances, and
sometimes even stipulate how much company their
employer shall have.

This is not all so bad as it seems when told by the
perplexed employer who has just been left in the lurch
when she had company. It indicates that the improved
conditions of labor in all other callings is finally reach-
ing domestic servants. With the development in
mechanical arts and manufactures, a multitude of new
employments for women have arisen, and in all except
domestic service the hours of labor are at least limited.
The work-day ends at some definite time, and in many
instances, especially stenographers, the work-day is
not more than eight hours. All this forms a source of
attraction, It furnishes the opportunity for the domes-

91

93 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [July,

tic servant to transfer herself from domestic to mechani-
cal and mercantile service and enables her effectively
to demand higher wages and better conditions.

This is discussed at great length in the present
work. The author has gone quite scientifically about
her task. She first took pains to gather a large amount
of data on the subject, from all parts of the country
and from Europe, and with the facts she evidently
frequently received opinions regarding the subject, all
of which makes rather interesting reading, considering
the vexed character of the subject. It is especially in-
teresting to note the discussion by southern employers
of some of the characteristics of the negro as a domestic
servant.

The author has given a succinct, interesting, his-
torical account of domestic service through the colonial
period, citing in many instances the laws established
for the regulation of domestic service, such as punish-
ment of runaways, responsibility of the employer,
power of the employer to punish, etc. In a chapter
devoted to domestic service in Europe these features
are also given with copious reference in foot-notes to
authors, local usages, etc. Many tables are also
furnished giving the wages of women and men servants
of different grades, from nurse to cook and footman, in
different countries and in different states in this coun-
try. One interesting table shows the number of per-
sons to each domestic employee in the fifty largest
cities of the country. Washington is at the head of the
list, and Fall Eiver, Mass., is at the foot. In Washing-
ton and Richmond, Virginia, there appears to be one
domestic servant to every thirteen people, and in Fall
River one to every seventy-three.

Although the domestic-servant question has been
much discussed, the literature on the subject is very
meager outside of some investigations by the labor

I9QI.J BOOK REVIEWS 93

bureaus. This book probably contains more informa-
tion and more intelligent discussion than has hitherto
appeared in any single work, and it is well worth read-
ing by all interested in sociological studies, of which
the servant-girl question is not the least perplexing.

ECONOMICS. By Frank W. Blackmar, Ph.D. Cloth,
526 pages, $1.00. Crane & Company, Topeka, Kansas.

As the author states in his preface, the object of
this book is to present a complete working manual for
students and instructors, and he has accomplished the
object very well. It is really a class-room hand-book,
touching almost every phase of the subject. It is en-
tirely free from anything new or novel, yet the author
in a " touch-and-go '' way has utilized the latest litera-
ture on the subject.

In doing this, however, he has sometimes passed
from the simple to the confused. This is particularly
true in his discussion of value and price. He has here
done what in his preface he says should specifically be
avoided : namely, introduced ' ' controverted points in-
volving long and perhaps tedious discussion and
analysis." The introduction of diagrams and formulas
for beginners in economics is a great disadvantage to
the study. At best the subject is apt to be dry and
unattractive, and when accompanied by abstractions
reduced to formulas it becomes repressive and repul-
sive. This may be necessary in advanced works on the
subject, in working out new or unaccepted doctrine,
but it is an unnecessary hindrance in the class-room.

TALKS ON Civics. By Henry Holt. Cloth, 493 pages,
$1.25. The Macmillan Company, New York.

If civics can be made to include everything per-
taining to economics and government, this book is
properly named. It comprises talks on every imagina-

94 G UNTON'S MA GAZINE

ble topic connected with social, industrial and political
experience. The talks are in the form of questions and
answers. The reason the author adopted this mode
was to avoid becoming tedious by lengthened continu-
ous statement. He may have escaped that defect but
he has surely added another : namely, lack of consecu-
tive statement in adopting this choppy, dialogue form.
However, it contains a few questions and answers on
almost every question of interest, from cleaning streets
to fiat money. It contains many bright things, some
sound things and not a few foolish things, but no sus-
tained reasoning on any subject. It would be difficult
to think of a class of persons to whom one would
recommend the reading of this book without feeling
that he could spend his time much better in reading
some other.

NEW MANUAL OF THE CONSTITUTION. By Israel
Ward Andrews, D.D., LL.D. Cloth, 375 pages, $1.00.
American Book Company, New York.

Dr. Andrews has given us a neat, simple and instruc-
tive account of the constitution of the United States.
It is really a hand-book on constitutional history. Al-
most every phase of political and social life that the
constitution affects is touched upon in a brief but in-
telligible way. It is not a treatise but simply a manual
of the constitution, and, as such, is a book that may
find a useful place in every citizen's library.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

Politics and the Moral Law. By Gustav Ruemelin,
late chancellor of the University of Tubingen. Trans-
lated from the German by Rudolf Tombo, Jr., Pn. D.,
Columbia University. Edited with an introduction and
notes by Frederick W. Holls, D. C. L. Cloth, 125 pp.,
75 cents. The Macmillan Company, New York.

FROM JUNE MAGAZINES

" In the early part of the nineteenth century Tam-
many was a non-catholic, non-foreign body. Not only
did the extreme prejudice against the holding of office
by catholics and foreigners cause it to nominate ex-
clusively protestants and natives, but a foreigner was
not even allowed an important post in the Tammany
society. But Tammany was remarkably adaptive, gen-
erally responding to every public influence that would
yield it success. As immigration increased year by
year, and foreigners and catholics became a more tell-
ing power politically and socially, Tammany, with
much adroitness, made timely concessions by nomi-
nating them for minor offices. And when, by the in-
troduction of manhood suffrage, the electorate was
greatly increased, Tammany became professedly the
friend of the immigrant. While the federalists and
whigs abused him and did their best to minimize his
efforts in politics, Tammany, through its organization
committees, took him in charge, made his path to
naturalization as facile a process as possible, gave him
a small or important 'job,' according to the nature of
his influence over his fellows, and altogether impressed
him with the idea that, by being a Tammany man, he
stood an excellent chance in life." — GUSTAVUS MYERS,
in " The Secrets of Tammany's Success;" The Forum.

"At present, as everybody knows, these are almost
the worst possible. Twice within the last few months
I have seen a capital where every woman was in black.
One was London, where the people were mourning
their dead Queen; the other was Helsingfors, where
people mourned their lost liberty. Every woman in
Helsingfors bore the black symbols of personal woe

95

96 GUNION'S MAGAZINE

But personal protest went much farther than this.
When General Bobrikoff, the Russian governor-general,
who was sent to carry out the new regime, took his walks
abroad, every Finn who saw him coming, crossed to
the other side of the street. When he patronized a con-
cert for some charitable purpose, the Finns bought all
the tickets, but not a single one of them attended. The
hotels refused apartments to one of the Finnish senators
who supported the Russian proposals. By the indis-
cretion of a porter he secured rooms at one of the prin-
cipal hotels and refused to leave. Therefore the hotel
was boycotted and it is temporarily ruined. The Rus-
sian authorities, intending to make the Russian language
compulsory in all government departments, invited
several young Finnish functionaries to St. Petersburg
to learn Russian under very advantageous conditions
and with every prospect of official promotion. When
the language ordinance was published and these Finns
saw why they were desired to learn Russian, they im-
mediately resigned. The Russians took charge of the
postal system of Finland and abolished the Finnish
stamps. Thereupon the Finns issued a 'mourning
stamp,' all black except the red arms of Finland and
the name of the country in Finnish and Swedish, and
stuck it beside the Russian stamps on their letters.
The Russians retorted by strictly forbidding its sale
and destroying all letters which bore it. Now it is one
of the curiosities of philately. So the wretched strug-
gle goes on, and the young Finn turns his eyes and
often his steps toward the United States and Canada."
— HENRY NORMAN, in "Russia of To-day;" Scribners.

JOHN FISKE
(Courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin &> Co.)

3ee page 161

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

The beginning of the end of the silver

Ohio Democracy . ,. , £ . -

Rejects Bryan craze, within the camp of its own devo-
tees, was reflected in the action of the
democratic state convention in Ohio, the second week
of July. It was also probably the beginning of the end
of Mr. Bryan as a personal power in American politics.
It meant definite rejection of his leadership in a highly
influential quarter, and substitution of a new group of
radicals whose supposed friendliness to the gold stand-
ard is expected to reconcile the conservative element,
but whose underlying friendliness to nearly all the
Kansas-City platform ideas except silver is expected to
hold the rank and file of the old democratic- populist
combination.

The convention conferred the somewhat forlorn
honor of a nomination for governor upon James Kil-
bourne, of Columbus, a follower of the political for-
tunes of John R. McLean. Mr. McLean is one of the
many democratic party managers who retired their
supposed gold-standard convictions for the sake of
party regularity under Bryanism. The convention put
the stamp of recognition on the rising influence of
Tom L. Johnson, in Ohio politics, by putting into the
platform three "Johnson" planks, one on franchises,
one on railroads and one on taxation. But the con-
spicuous and significant event was the overwhelming

97

98 GUNTON S MAGAZINE [August,

rejection of a motion to endorse the Kansas City plat-
form of 1900 and express confidence in the leadership
of W. J. Bryan. The vote was 944 against this motion
to 6 in favor of it.

The shock seems somewhat to have dazed Mr.
Bryan. His comment in the Commoner of July 19 is
almost lifeless. The reference to the convention's re-
jection of himself lacks all evidence of the " fighting "
qualities which have so largely aided his success as a
political leader. He says :

" General Finley was right in insisting upon a vote on his resolution
endorsing the Kansas City platform, but he made a mistake in including
in his resolution a complimentary reference to Mr. Bryan. Mr. Bryan
is not a candidateYpr any office, and a mention of him might have been
construed by some as an endorsement of him for office. The vote should
have been upon the naked proposition to endorse the platform of last
year, and then no one could have excused his abandonment of demo-
cratic principles by pleading his dislike for Mr. Bryan. The cause
ought not to be made to bear the sins of an individual. Mr. Bryan will
endure without complaint any punishment which the democracy of Ohio
may see fit to administer to him, but he does not want his name used to
the injury of a good platform."

It will be interesting to watch the extent to which
this defection is followed by other democratic conven-
tions. So far as silver is concerned, there can be little
doubt that the issue will be rapidly abandoned. Even
Charles A. Towne, the populist nominee for vice-presi-
dent last year (withdrawing in favor of Mr. Stevenson),
whose political faith was staked wholly on free coinage,
has just declared that he regards the silver issue as
"absolutely dead. It will not only not be an issue in
1904, but I do not believe it will be mentioned in the
democratic platform or campaign. ... So long as
the present condition continues or the supply of gold
increases, there can be no successful or serious demand
for the free coinage of silver."

Mr. Bryan may follow the silver issue into political
retirement, but it would be a colossal mistake to

1 9oi .] RE VIE W OF THE MONTH 99

imagine that "Bryanism" is going into political re-
tirement or even into the background. The popular
suspicion of corporations, distrust of the government,
and dread of capitalistic tendencies in general is fully
as widespread as ever, and will find expression in
new channels whenever the old are found inadequate
for the purpose. The tendency towards socialism, as a
means of destroying private wealth and getting rid of
the so-called "incurable" abuses of our industrial sys-
tem, is very strong, and every fresh labor disturbance
adds impetus to the revolutionary sentiment. To ac-
cept the Ohio convention as justifying any new sense
of security, or as lessening the necessity for a wise, just
and broad-minded attitude on the part of capitalists, or
of a permanent campaign of rational economic educa-
tion among the people, would be to open the doors
wider than ever to a flood of repressive and destructive
legislation. Silver was only the sporadic manifestation
of a widespread popular unrest and dissatisfaction.
That issue may disappear, and Bryan with it, but all
the deeper undercurrent of social distrust and antago-
nism to existing institutions, which found expression
in Bryanism, is still in motion with scarcely diminished
momentum. Indeed, the need of wise, progressive
dealing with the social problems out of which this
movement grows was never greater than it is to-day.

It is not surprising that this summer

Another Great , . - . . ,

Labor Struggle should see a gigantic struggle in the
steel industry, nor that the point at issue
should be the principle of organization itself rather
than specific demands for improved conditions. The
present strike is a fresh effort to bring the labor side of
the steel-producing industry up to an equality of eco-
nomic power with the capitalistic side, under the new
conditions which capitalistic concentration has brought

100 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

about. Earlier in the season, the manufacturers reached
almost the full limit of possible concentration, by form-
ing the largest industrial corporation in the world, and
it might have been expected that sooner or later labor
would seek to match this overshadowing power by an
expansion of the concentration principle throughout its
own ranks.

The parallel is even closer than might appear on
the surface, because the steel combination is not a sim-
ple corporation managing its own plants by its own
officials, but is purely a stockholding concern, owning
and managing the majority stocks of various distinct
companies which still retain their own officers and
management of their own plants. Thus the United
States Steel Corporation is a definite example of the
principle of collective action of distinct units through
joint representation, which is exactly the right claimed
by the laborers for their unions, and so long denied by
the employers. The privilege of organizing and treat-
ing with the employers, through chosen representa-
tives, is what is really sought at bottom in the present
struggle, and, as an abstract principle, it is something
the laborers have both the technical and moral right to
ask and to expect.

The Weak The greatest difficulties in the way of

Point in the securing recognition of this equal right
Unions' Demand of organization have been, and still are,
that organized laborers have too often sought their ends
by violent or utterly unreasonable methods, and that
they cannot with any certainty be relied upon to stand
responsible for and abide by arrangements made by
their representatives, in any such way as capitalist
stockholders stand by and support the action of their
chosen officials. These facts handicap at the outset
the laborers' side of the present struggle, and divide

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 101

the public's sympathy, while the naked principle of
the right to organize and be recognized, if nothing else
were involved, would command almost universal sup-
port.

The trouble first arose between the
'5 Amalgamated Association of Iron and

Steel Workers and the American Sheet
Steel Company, one of the concerns included in the
United States Steel Corporation. A number of the
plants of the sheet steel company are operated by union
labor and a few by non-union, but, at the time of the
signing of a new wage scale for the year, which is
usually done in July, the demand was made by Presi-
dent Shaffer of the amalgamated association that the
scale agreed upon for the union mills be extended to
cover the non-union plants also. This was refused,
and the demand interpreted to mean that the associa-
tion was trying to force the company to unionize all its
mills, by practically compelling the non-union work-
men to join the unions or be discharged.

Another cause of trouble was the report that the
Carnegie Steel Company, which has been non-union
since 1892, was about to absorb the American Steel
Hoop Company and the National Steel Company, which
have heretofore employed union labor, and convert
them into non-union concerns.

A conference was held in Pittsburg on July nth,
between President Shaffer and other officials of the
amalgamated association and various officers of the
corporations affected. Here President Shaffer ex-
plained at length the grounds upon which the associa-
tion demanded the unionizing of the non-union mills.
He charged that it was coming to be the policy of the
companies to turn the largest possible amount of work
over to the non-union plants, and let all the shut-

102 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

downs and suspensions fall upon the union mills, thus
practically making it necessary for workmen to leave
the union and go to the non-union plants to get steady
work. This he declared to be the companies' "slow-
starvation " method of breaking up the labor organiza-
tions, and that it was a matter of life and death for the
association to have the union scale extended to the
non-union plants.

The representatives of the corporations denied any
such policy or intention on their part, but no agree-
ment was reached, and on Monday morning, July i5th,
the strike began. The employees of the American Tin
Plate Company were called out in addition to those of
the sheet steel and steel hoop companies, and about
74,000 men in all obeyed the order. No signs of yield-
ing appear on either side as yet, and it is anticipated
that if the amalgamated association thinks it necessary
the employees of several other of the great concerns
included in the United States Steel Corporation will be
called out in aid of the general struggle for the aboli-
tion of non-union mills. If the strike takes on such
proportions as this it will be the most serious in our in-
dustrial history, and the outcome certain to have far-
reaching consequences.

If it is true that the corporations have
Jterf Merit"' adopted the plan of "starving out" the

unions by assigning work more and more
to the non-union plants, it is not surprising that the
men should make an effort for extension of the union
scale to all plants. If, on the other hand, the demand
of the association really is that the companies discharge
all their non-union workmen, it is wholly arbitrary
and tyrannical and ought not to succeed. President
Shaffer denies that this is the demand, and says:

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 108

" We are demanding simply that the companies sign and enforce
our scale in all their mills, and thus do away with the injustice of run-
ning the mills employing the lower priced non-union labor during dull
seasons, while our own men were idle. As to the organization of the
men in the non-union mills, we ask only that the companies do not in-
terfere with our efforts at organization and do not prohibit the men from
joining us."

If this were literally all there is of the association's
demand, it would not seem to be in itself particularly
unreasonable. Non-union men could not regard it as a
serious grievance, or restriction of their freedom, if the
wages under which they work were secured for them
by the amalgamated association and guaranteed by an
agreement between the companies and the association,
so long as the scale was as good as (and probably better
than) the men could have secured for themselves, act-
ing alone; and so long, also, as they themselves were
left free to join the union or not.

The trouble at this point lies in the probability
that when the mills were once organized the demand
would actually be made for discharge of the remaining
non-union men, if they refused to join the union. This
practice is general among labor organizations, and even
President Shaffer's definite statement gives little assur-
ance that, if conditions became such as to put the bal-
ance of power in the hands of the unions, the same ex-
clusive and coercive attitude would not be taken by the
various organizations locally which they now disclaim
as a part of their general policy.

Apart from this, however, it must be confessed
that the solicitude of the corporations about the " free-
dom " of their non-union men is a trifle overdone. No
one seriously believes that the employees in the non-
union mills are not organized because they voluntarily
prefer not to organize. They are men of exactly the
same general group, the same interests, views and
tendencies as the employees in the union mills of the

104 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

same industry. Who, for instance, recalling the ex-
perience of 1892, imagines that the employees of the
Carnegie company are non-union because they are
opposed to organization? The truth is, the absence of
unions in the various plants under dispute indicates
that the men have not dared to organize through fear
of discharge. This is further confirmed by the fact
that since the present struggle began the men in many
of the non-union mills have gone out in sympathy with
the strikers, showing the presence of union sentiment
nearly as strong as that in the organized mills. On
July 1 8th, for example, the employees of the Duncans-
ville plant of the steel hoop company telegraphed
President Shaffer, asking for an organizer to come and
form a union in order that they might join the strike.
If this plant is closed, the steel hoop company will have
practically no mills left in operation.

An interview appeared in the New York
of Settlement* Tribune of July i/th, with a financier

reported to be in close connection with
the management of the steel interests, in which the
impression was strongly given that if the non-union
men expressed a desire to form unions and join the
association the steel corporation would make no objec-
tion and the strike could be amicably settled ; that the
corporation's resistance was due to the determination
to protect its non-union workmen from being forced
into the union. Of course, this expression carried
no responsibility with it so far as the steel corporation
is concerned, but it may possibly have been a "feeler "
intended to test the case with the non-union men and
pave the way for a settlement which should seem not
to involve surrender of any principle or loss of any
prestige. Such a solution is not the most improbable
thing in the world, even though Mr. Morgan has de-

I9oi. J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 105

clared that there can be no compromise on the point at
issue between the companies and the unions.

If the amalgamated association were simply de-
manding the right to organize the non-union men if it
can, with no coercion involved, and the further right
to secure a uniform wage scale for all the mills, while
conducting its side of the conflict peaceably, it could be
hoped that a settlement on some such voluntary basis
as that just suggested might be reached. If the unions,
however, are really demanding, or paving the way for
demanding, that the companies discharge their non-
union employees, it is 'practically certain that the steel
corporation will not yield, and it will have public senti-
ment with it in the refusal. The association, if it is
wise, will avoid any such arbitrary policy, and recog-
nize the fact that while a giant concern like the United
States Steel Corporation can be induced to yield many
successive moderate demands rather than incur the
losses of strikes, stoppage of plants, etc., if the issue is
made on a point vital to its profitableness and inde-
pendence of management the struggle will necessarily
be carried to the farthest limits of endurance. When
a conflict of this latter kind takes place, it is practically
impossible for the men to win. The strength of the
unions comes when the problem in dispute is one
involving relative profit or loss to the corporation, not
when it is simply a question of endurance. This plain
fact ought to work itself thoroughly into the conscious-
ness of organized labor and become a permanent guar-
antee of reasonableness, both in the character of the
demands and methods used to enforce them.

The attitude taken by a considerable
~uss!tWbitrary portion of the press on the Russian tariff

Tariff Policy

controversy is an exaggerated case of
inconsistency, so far as the problem of integrity in pub-

106 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

lie life is concerned. The journals of the class referred
to are usually most vociferous of all in the demand for
honest government, incorruptible statesmanship and
disregard of private interests when opposed to public
welfare or public duty. They are continually sighing
for public officials with enough respect for the sacred-
ness of free institutions to enforce the law uniformly
and firmly, without any special exemptions in favor of
purely commercial interests. Their steady complaint
is that the capitalistic and " money-chasing " spirit of
the age is so strong that public officials are mostly
occupied in arguing away plain governmental princi-
ples, and twisting the meaning of statutes by ingenious
"interpretations" to fit them to the wishes of whatever
financial and industrial interests can pay the largest
price for such "accommodation." Political principle
has been forced to abdicate and political favoritism is
on the throne.

There is enough truth in this to make it serious
without adding to the indictment the few instances
where government officials do adhere to the path of
plain duty when the clamor of commercial interests is
the other way. Secretary Gage's policy towards Russia
in the pending tariff controversy is exactly a case of
this sort. Upon what is the outcry against Mr. Gage
based? Simply upon the fear that if he persists in
his course our export trade with Russia may be injured.
His enforcement of plain and unavoidable provisions of
the law is called "trumping up technicalities" which
ought not for a moment to stand in the way of our all-
important expansion of foreign trade. This is consist-
ency of political ethics with a vengeance. How long
ago was it that the secretary of the treasury was sav-
agely denounced from these same sources for what was
called "violating the plain spirit of the law" in depos-
iting government funds with certain large New York

igoi.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 107

banks? After this present experience, the solemn be-
wail ings of certain of these journals about our protec-
tive system being a legalized surrender of high princi-
ple to greedy commercialism will be more than ever
ridiculous.

What is Secretary Gage's offence? Sim-
ply that he is strictly obeying the law.
It was found after a long and careful in-
vestigation, in which representatives of both American
and Russian interests had ample hearing, that Russia
pays the equivalent of an export bounty on sugar by
practically compelling the exportation of all sugar
above a certain amount, and remitting the internal
taxes on such sugar as is exported. The Dingley
tariff law provides that when any country pays a
bounty, directly or indirectly, on an exported article of
merchandise, and that article is dutiable upon importa-
tion into this country, an additional duty shall be lev-
ied on such article equal to the amount of the bounty
paid on it by the exporting country. Accordingly,
when the decision was finally reached that Russia ac-
tually pays an indirect bounty on sugar, the secretary
had no option but to impose an additional duty, to an
equal amount, on Russian sugar coming into the United
States, thus putting Russia on the same competitive
basis with Germany, France and other countries which
have been paying the additional duty all along, to off-
set the export bounties they bestow at home.

The extra duty on Russian sugar was re-imposed,
therefore, on February I4th last. The Russian gov-
ernment pretended to regard this as an outrageous
discrimination, and M. De Witte, minister of finance,
promptly proceeded to "retaliate" by raising the du-
ties on a long list of American imports into Russia,
principally manufactures of iron and steel, tools, gas

108 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

and water meters, engines, dynamos, etc., the amount
of the increase in the tariff rates being about 30 per
cent.

The other point in controversy is the duty we re-
cently imposed on Russian petroleum. Here, too, the
secretary had no other option, under the terms of the
Dingley law. The question came up in June, 1900, at
Rochester, New York, where an importation of refined
petroleum from Russia was subjected to a duty under
the provision of the law which (while in all other cases
petroleum is on the free list) requires that :

"If there be imported into the United States crude petroleum or the
products of crude petroleum produced in any country which imposes a
duty on petroleum or its products exported from the United States,
there shall in such cases be levied, paid and collected a duty upon said
crude petroleum or its products so imported equal to the duty imposed
by such country."

Russia admittedly imposes a duty on American
petroleum, therefore the compensatory duty levied by
our customs officials was entirely proper. Nevertheless
an appeal was taken, but the decision rendered last
January sustained our government's position. The
point is of infinitesimal importance, because Russia ex-
ports practically no petroleum to this country, yet M.
De Witte took this as a fresh "discrimination" and im-
posed a retaliatory duty upon American resin, bicycles,
etc., a course which reduces the much vaunted states-
manship of the Russian minister of finance to some-
thing very near puerility. The sole and only reason
why we imposed a duty on Russian petroleum was the
fact that Russia had made that course absolutely
obligatory by putting a duty on American petroleum
going into Russia. That Russia should "retaliate'' for
a tariff duty levied solely because of Russia's own vol-
untary act is indeed what the New York Journal of
Commerce calls "one of the most preposterous acts in
the history of tariff wars."

IQOI.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 109

Another phase of the petroleum controversy, how-
ever, relates to paraffin made in England from Russian
petroleum and imported into the United States. The
secretary of the treasury, early last March, issued a
circular of instructions in response to an inquiry from
the port of New York, requiring that invoices of pe-
troleum or articles containing petroleum imported into
the United States be accompanied by a United States
consular certificate showing in what country the pe-
troleum was produced, and duties levied accordingly.
This circular was the immediate cause of M. De
Witte's reprisal duties on resin and bicycles, the ground
being taken that the Dingley law did not authorize a
duty on a product made in England from Russian pe-
troleum. The wording of the law is perfectly explicit,
however, — "crude petroleum or the products of crude
petroleum produced in any country which imposes a
duty on petroleum or its products exported from the
United States."

Even M. De Witte appears finally to have seen the
absurdity of his entire attitude on the petroleum ques-
tion. He has lately proposed to ignore this phase of
the controversy and regard all excess duties now levied
on American products as due to our sugar tariff, offer-
ing further to abolish all these extra duties if we will
remit this extra counterbalancing sugar duty. Secre-
tary Gage has replied that he has no authority to ac-
cept such a proposal, as the question of the legality of
the sugar duties is now before the United States su-
preme court.

Whether the question were before the
y cretery court Or not, there is no reason why the

Gage is Right *

secretary should accept any such proposi-
tion, and no authority by which he could do so. He is
not a voluntary agent in the matter ; he is simply obey-

110 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

ing the express commands of the law. The charge is
made, of course — (there would be cause for anxiety and
alarm if by any chance it were missing) — that Secretary
Gage's action is due to the "influence" of the sugar and
oil "trusts.'5 Just how much interest the sugar cor-
poration has in the matter, when the total Russian
importation of sugar amounts to only a few hun-
dred thousand dollars' worth a year, and the oil com-
pany, which has driven Russia out of its own market
for oil in a large number of the world markets, may be
left for newspaper sensationalism to enlarge upon. It
is safe to say that the yellow journals are much better
posted on the subject than the secretary of the treasury
himself.

If the secretary were seeking political popularity
in this matter, his direct and easy course would be to
heed the clamor of these more numerous commercial
interests, which are far more urgent about holding the
small trade this country has with Russia than either
the sugar or oil "trusts" could possibly be in keeping
Russian products out. The only influence that is being
brought to bear on the secretary is the pressure from
these other exporting interests, not from the "trusts,''
and the reason why he is not yielding is that he has
the law before him and is sworn to enforce it.

We are entering upon no general defence of the
secretary of the treasury and his policies, but in the
present instance he is properly upholding the integrity
and dignity of his office. To maintain a consistent
policy in this respect will be worth far more to this
country than all the trade with Russia for the next
quarter of a century. Even from the narrowest view-
point of pure commercialism, no permanent gain could
come from a surrender to Russian pretensions on any
of the points at issue. Yielding would be taken as a
certain sign of weakness, and even as an invitation to

I9QI.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 111

further demands for special tariff concessions as the
price of having the right of equal treatment with other
nations in Russian markets. Russia can be relied upon
to use the privilege of access to her markets as a
threatening club over our heads at all times, if once we
give the impression that we consider that market so
valuable that we will discredit our own diplomacy and
ignore our own statutes in order to hold it. Our gov-
ernment is entirely in the right of the controversy, and
Russia is in no position to invite American hostility,
commercial or otherwise. If the supreme court finally
decides that Russia does in reality pay an export bounty
on sugar, and therefore that the additional duty levied
by us is proper and obligatory, no course will be open
to the secretary of the treasury but to continue the
present policy. Russia may or may not seek a satis-
factory solution of the controversy, but in any case
there should be no backdown on our part from the
course obviously dictated by legal necessity, fairness
to other nations with whom we have trade relations,
and the upholding of our diplomatic prestige through-
out the world.

Civil government was formally estab-

Civil Rule in ,.- , . ,, _,.,. . T1

the Philippines lished in the Philippine Islands, so far
as existing conditions will permit, on the
Fourth of July, and Judge Taft appointed civil gov-
ernor. The order issued by Secretary Root read as
follows :

"On and after the 4th day of July, 1901, until it shall be otherwise
ordered, the president of the Philippine commission will exercise the
executive authority in all civil affairs in the government of the Philip-
pine Islands heretofore exercised in such affairs by the military governor
of the Philippines, and to that end the Hon. William H. Taft, president
of the said commission, is hereby appointed civil governor of the Philip-
pine Islands

"The military governor of the Philippines is hereby relieved from
the performance on and after the said 4th day of July of the civil duties

112 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

hereinbefore described, but his authority will continue to be exercised as
heretofore in those districts in which insurrection against the authority
of the United States continues to exist, or in which public order is not
sufficiently restored to enable provincial civil governments to be estab-
lished under the instructions to the commission dated April 7, 1900."

At the same time General Chaffee was placed in
chief command of the military department, succeeding
General MacArthur, who has been at the head of the
army in the Philippines since General Otis' return to
the United States. Both these changes, the formal
effort to establish civil instead of military rule and the
placing of General Chaffee in charge of whatever mili-
tary operations are still to be conducted, are gratifying
and encouraging. Until civil authority can be actually
exercised, there is no hope of getting the Philippines
started towards either autonomous self-government or
complete independence, while on the other hand, so
long as military operations are still necessary, it is re-
assuring to have a man of General Chaffee's proved
capacity and blunt common sense in active command.

Judge Taft, the new civil governor, in his inau-
gural address stated that of the 27 provinces now
organized under American rule the insurrection still
exists in 5 ; 16 other provinces are free from insurrec-
tion but not yet organized, and 4 others are not ready
for civil government. Even in the "pacified" provinces,
Governor Taft predicted that when the troops were con-
centrated into larger garrisons it would be necessary
for the people to assist the police in the preservation of
order, — a suggestion which does not seem to show any
great degree of genuine reconciliation in the submission
that has been forced upon the natives. This side of
the situation appears even more serious in the light of
what General Bates, recently in command of the south-
ern provinces of the Philippines, reports in regard to
the military situation in the islands. In an interview
given at Washington he said :

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 118

" My own view is that it would be a mistake to withdraw the Amer-
ican troops too rapidly, for up to the time I left the islands, which was
the latter part of April, it was not safe for an American to go away from
a garrison without an escort. It is hoped that the condition will improve
rapidly, but surrenders are not being made quite so rapidly as I hoped
when I left there."

As to the feeling among the natives, the general
said:

"There is a very strong desire among the Filipinos for complete
independence, even on the part of the more intelligent people, who will
admit that they are not at present capable of self-government They
wish to have the hope of independence in the future. That is, I think,
the sentiment of a large majority of the people ; they wish at least that
much. The people are anxious for schools, and all classes want them.
They want to learn English. Aguinaldo himself, I understand, is study-
ing English. The children are anxious to learn English, and their
parents wish them to do so."

A dispatch from Manila, dated July i8th, brings
the information that after three months', trial the pro-
vincial form of government, which had been set up in
the province of Batangas (Luzon) and the islands of
Cebu and Bohol, had been abandoned, as the commu-
nities are too backward for civil administration, while
in none of them is pacification yet a success. ' ' Several
towns in Cebu are still besieged by the insurgents.
The insurrection in Bohol has been renewed, and insur-
rection sentiment in Batangas is strong." Military
government will therefore be resumed in these sections.

Furthermore, no effort apparently has been made
to abolish slavery in the Sulu Islands, which came
under our authority by the treaty concluded between
General Bates and the Sultan of Sulu in 1899. Polyg-
amy and slavery were recognized in this treaty, and,
although President McKinley declared that the arrange-
ment had no official sanction, both institutions still
appear to continue under our flag, and of course in
direct violation of the constitution. That this slavery
does still exist has positive evidence in the fact that

114 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

Mandi, the Moro chief of Zamboanga, has only recently
set his slaves free, showing, of course, that he as well
as the other chiefs of the southern Philippines have
been holding slaves just the same under our rule as
under the Spanish, and apparently without interfer-
ence, as this freeing of slaves on the part of Mandi
seems to have been entirely voluntary.

To obey the constitutional mandate and abolish
slavery would probably lead to a savage warfare with
these barbarians, and the peculiar condition now
is that we are able to purchase peace only in a way
which must in a degree lower respect for the funda-
mental law of the land, in the eyes of our own citizens.
Clearly, we have an heroic task ahead, ranging all
the way from the abolition of slavery among virtual
savages, at one end of the situation, to the compelling
of intelligent and civilized natives to accept and heartily
take part in a system of civil administration under our
sovereignty, at the other. For the sake of the earliest
and best solution of all these diverse problems, in a
way looking towards the ultimate independence for
which the better element of the Filipinos continue to
hope, the work of Governor Taft and General Chaffee
ought to be supported and encouraged, for this is the
only practical road out of our responsibilities and per-
plexing complications in that quarter of the Orient.
Whatever mistakes brought us into it, there is no other
feasible or honorable way to deal with the situation now.

At the same time, the situation in the
.,c Philippines cannot but impress once

more the dangers that would come from
establishing any close and vital relationship with these
island groups of people, in the sense of incorporating
them into the union as integral parts of our constitu-
tional system. Recent experience in Hawaii further

i9oi.] REV IE W OF THE MONTH 115

confirms this feeling, and ought to make every Ameri-
can citizen thankful that the recent decision of the su-
preme court made it possible to protect ourselves against
the incalculable evils of including these islands in our
political system. It is a misfortune that we should
have had to face a situation which absolutely re-
quired adopting quasi- monarchical principles for the
government of colonies outside the union. But it is
better so than that the integrity of our democratic in-
stitutions within the union itself should be undermined
by the addition of alien races unqualified to share in or
in any way influence our policies here at home. The
Hawaiians and Cubans and Filipinos may conceivably
be quite as able to carry on independent governments
adapted to their own peculiar needs and conditions,
with restricted suffrage and certain arbitrary features
where necessary, as are many of the Central and South
American republics, but they are certainly not fitted
any more than are these latter countries to take a hand
in shaping the destinies of the United States. In
Hawaii the new experiment in territorial government
is working very badly, and, unless conditions rapidly
improve, congress ought to devise some new form of
government which shall distinctly set Hawaii outside
the limits of possible admission to statehood, at least
for a long time to come. Right here already we are
facing one of the certain dangers of an expansion policy
which does not proceed upon this basis at the start. If,
through sentimental weakness, the door is left open for
admitting these outside possessions to statehood, the
excuse for doing this very thing will be found at the
earliest possible moment, whenever expediency seems
to make it advisable. Experience is rich in illustration
of this. The only safeguard is to give these island
territories a form of government which cannot lead to
statehood except by many and gradual steps, and to

116 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

establish the policy with reference to all of them that
statehood is a prize purchasable only by reaching an
approximately equal plane of civilization to that exist-
ing in the United States, whether it takes a generation
or a century or five centuries.

For Saturday, July 20, the New York
Com arisons* Journal of Commerce shows the following

wholesale prices:

1901 1900

Flour, Minn, patent $3.8084.00 $41034.40

Wheat, No. 2 red 77 84^

Corn, No. 2 mixed 57-j- 45^

Oats, No. 3 mixed 38 28

Pork, mess 16.00 12.75

Lard, prime western 8.87 7.00

Beef hams 20.50 20.00

Coffee, Rio No 7 5f giaio

Tea, Formosa 23 24

Sugar, granulated 5.45 6.10

Butter, creamery, extra 19^3 . 19^3 .

Cheese, State, f. c. white, small, fancy . . 39^ 939^

Cotton, middling upland 8^ 10

Print cloths 2f 2|

Petroleum, refined, in bbls 7.50 7.85

Hides, native steers i2f lof

Leather, hemlock 24^ 23

Iron, No. i North, foundry i6.ooai6.so i6.ooai7.oo

Iron, No. i South, foundry .15.00315.50 19.25319.50

Tin, Straits 27.76328.50 35.003 . . .

Copper, Lake ingot 17 i6-37ia . .

Lead, domestic *4$ 34.00

*flonthly Price Facts. — Reliable current information on prices and
the tendency of prices, presented in a concise and intelligible form, is of
much importance to everyone interested in the economic conditions of
the country. Such information is not essy of sccess outside the group
of purely commerci3l interests, and we have arranged to print in this
place esch month, for the convenience of our readers, a brief statement
of current wholesale prices of the principal commodities, for the 2oth
day of the preceding month, as given by the New York Journal of
Commerce and Commercial Bulletin ; also, the latest " Index Number "
table, from Dun's Review, showing the tendency of prices of 350
selected articles, averaged according to their relative importance in the
per capits consumption of the country.

IQOI.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 117

Dun's Review shows index-number aggregate prices
per unit, of 350 commodities, averaged according to
importance in per capita consumption, for July i and
comparison with previous dates, as follows :

Breadstuffs

July i,
1901.
$140.04

Jan. i,
1901.
$144.86

July i,
1900.
$148.98

July i,

1899.
$134 83

July i,
1898.
127.83

Meats

04. 1O

84.07

89.06

79.88

76.94

Dairy and Garden . .
Other Food

IIO.3O

90 86

155.56

Q5.O4

109.01

04.82

109.74
91.57

94-37
88.26

Clothing

150.98

IOO.24

163.24

150.21

146. 63

Metals

153.44

I58.IO

148.34

156.35

118.43

Miscellaneous ....

166.17

158.81

1 60. 70

129.69

125.22

Total $915.09 $954.68 $914.15 $852 27 $777-68

Although the effects of the general rise of prices,
in connection with the extraordinary prosperity follow-
ing the Spanish war, are still plainly visible, the trend
of prices during the last six months has been steadily
downward. It is noteworthy that a part of this decline
has been in metals, a department of industry where
heavy advances were popularly regarded as certain to
come, in consequence of the steel combination. Other
declines are in dairy, garden and other foods, and
manufactured clothing, while stock raisers and pro-
ducers of the great agricultural staples are on the
advancing list. These figures clearly show that natural
economic forces are at work, and the tendency is for
the economies resulting from large reorganization to
result in lowering prices.

A CANDID VIEW OF THE STEEL STRIKE

The strike of the Amalgamated Association of
Iron and Steel Workers is in some respects the most
significant strike ever attempted in this country. The
purpose and method of the strike are unique in the his-
tory of the labor movement. There is no question of
wages, hours of labor, or other economic conditions in-
volved. The strike is inaugurated solely to unionize
the laborers in certain mills of the United States Steel
Corporation, which could not be unionized before these
mills became a part of the reorganization. The amal-
gamated association not only demands that these mills
be unionized but it insists that the corporations shall
unionize them. The boldness and novelty of this
proposition seems to have thrown the press into hys-
terics. Instead of discussing the question with reason
and dignity, many of the usually level-headed journals
have descended to the plane of sensational fanatics.
Even the New York Journal of Commerce exclaims:
« ' This is absolutism more irresponsible than that of the
czar of Russia." The New York Times denounces it as
a high-handed and despotic act of infamy, whose
* ' author should be visited with the odium and abhor-
rence that deservedly attach to public enemies," and
says that the ' ' men cannot agree to work for higher
wages than union men get in other mills." And even
the Brooklyn Eagle permits itself to say : "If there
ever was a time when these employers forbade men to
belong to trade unions, it has passed.''

This is mere sensational assertion and misrepre-
sents the case of the strikers in about the same degree
that during the last two years the press and politicians
have misrepresented large corporations. It should
hardly be necessary to say that unions have never tried

118

A CANDID VIEW OF THE STEEL STRIKE 119

to prevent men from agreeing to "work for higher
wages than union men get in other mills ; " this is one
of those misstatements of men like Schwab, which the
New York Times ought to be ashamed to repeat. The
Brooklyn Eagle, too, must have forgotten the Carnegie
persecution of the laborers who attempted to organize
at Homestead. The right to organize has not only been
denied the men, but the refusal has been brutally en-
forced by the summary discharge of every man sus
pected of trying to reorganize them. We are told that
in some of the mills the men have signed contracts not
to join a union. Does any one in his senses imagine
that workmen ever voluntarily sign a contract not to
belong to a union? No man ever voluntarily signs
away his right to do anything. Whenever we find
laborers under a contract not to join a union, we may
be absolutely certain that such contract was forced
upon them. This sort of thing only contributes to the
confusion of the public mind and bitterness of the
laborers, without bringing a single atom of enlighten-
ment, sense and sound judgment to the consideration
of the subject.

There are three significant features of the present
situation which it is of the utmost importance to the
public and to both parties to this controversy carefully
to consider. In the first place it should be remembered
that this is a struggle for the right of organization.
This principle is at stake. It is useless for any one to
deny this and pretend that the right to organize is
everywhere conceded. There has not been a year
within the last quarter of a century in which the right
of laborers to organize has not been challenged by em-
ployers— sometimes by recourse to the blacklist, some-
times by one method and sometimes by another. The
Homestead strike was deliberately inaugurated to break
up labor unions and destroy the right of laborers to

120 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

organize. The right for laborers freely to organize is
not an accomplished fact. It is a disputed privilege
which has constantly to be contended for, and wherever
the tinion sentiment is a little weakened the opposition
assumes an aggressive form.

This same thing may be said of capital. The right
of capital freely to organize is not an established fact.
It is constantly disputed and often threatened by adverse
legislation. This was one of the most conspicuous issues
in the last campaign and possibly will be in the next.
Whenever a class is struggling for a right there is
always danger of irrational and sometimes hysterical
conduct. In the name of freedom the greatest despotism
is often perpetrated. It will not be denied that organ-
ization is a social principle without which modern in-
dustry would be impossible. It cannot be abrogated
without the destruction of society, and capitalists who
deny it to laborers and laborers who deny it to capital-
ists are but arraying themselves against the essential
forces of progress.

There is one idea behind this powerful organizing
tendency in both capital and labor which is fundamen-
tally erroneous : namely, that the function of organiza-
tion is to secure exclusive control. This would be a
deadly menace to society. The object of organization
should be efficiency, not monopoly. Universal authority
is deadening to all diversifying initiative, and is a men-
ace to progress. Uniformity is the formula for stultifi-
cation ; diversity for progress. It matters not whether
the uniformity be accomplished by a single-headed des-
potism or by a collective despotism, the result is the
same. Whether in government as under the Roman
empire, in religion as in the middle ages, or in indus-
try by either labor or capital as at present, the struggle
for universal authority is sure to fail because it antago-
nizes progress. It nearly always leads to unwarranted

i goi.] A CANDID VIEW OF THE STEEL STRIKE 121

conduct, to oppression, coercion and sometimes perse-
cution on the assumption that the end justifies the
means.

The only legitimate function of organization or
group action is increased efficiency, either in produc-
tive effort or protective power. Organization may
properly be the means of superiority and great leader-
ship, but this can only be safely exercised when it is
acquired under conditions of free rivalry or competi-
tion ; that is to say, when the success is due to unaided
superiority, but whenever this is acquired or main-
tained by the use of repressive measures by the organ-
ization, over the free action of others, or legal barriers
erected by legislation, the result becomes injurious to
public welfare.

It is this false idea of exclusive control that is the
mistake of the amalgamated association in the present
strike. There have been many strikes in this country
to establish the right of laborers to organize, and, since
organization is indispensable to any effective action by
the laborers, this is a no less legitimate object of strug-
gle than is the question of wages or hours of labor.
Employers who challenge the laborers' right to organ-
ize are simply prolonging an inevitable struggle which
can ultimately have but one outcome. The right to
organize involves a principle no less essential to the
laborers' welfare than is the right of free speech or
free choice of employment.

But it is one thing to demand the right of laborers
to organize and quite another to enforce organization
upon them. And it is still more extraordinary to in-
sist that corporations shall use coercive power to com-
pel laborers to join a specific organization. Yet that is
practically what the present strike is for.

The simple facts of the case are that when the
representatives of the association and the companies in

122 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

the United States Steel Corporation met to adjust a
scale for the ensuing year, all the conditions as to
prices, hours, apprentices, etc., were agreed to and the
corporation was ready to sign the scale for all the plants
in which the workmen were members of the amalga-
mated association. But the association went a step
farther and insisted that the corporation sign the union
scale for union mills as well as the non-union mills.

On the face of it, this signing of the scale would
seem to imply that the corporations simply agreed to a
certain scale of wages and hours of labor for the en-
suing year, for union and non-union mills alike. If
this were the whole case, it would seem very much like
a magnanimous act on the part of the amalgamated as-
sociation, but signing the scale means very much more
than merely settling the wages and hours for the year.
Signing the scale means signing an agreement to ac-
cept, besides the prescribed wages and hours, the
union regulations of the shop or factory. These are
numerous and precise and sometimes very arbitrary.
In short, a union shop is run by the union with a union
foreman who, in a great many essential respects, is
responsible to the union rather than to the corporation.
Signing the scale for non-union mills, then, would at
once give the association the power to compel every
laborer in those mills, who was not a member of the
union, to become a member or be discharged.

Thus the demand is not merely that these mills
shall be unionized but that they shall be coercively
unionized by the corporations under the power of dis-
charge. This transcends all legitimate functions of
organization. This is seeking to establish exclusive
control by coercion. The union does not rely on the
moral power of organization, or on the voluntary acts
of the laborers, but it is using the coercive power of a

A CANDID VIEW OF THE STEEL STRIKE 128

strike to coerce the corporations into coercing the la-
borers to join the amalgamated association.

This is neither sound in principle nor wise in pol-
icy. It is precisely the principle against which labor
organizations have struggled for nearly a century. It
can have no defence in economics or ethics. The very
idea of such a policy is intolerable from the point of
view not merely of individual freedom but of free com-
peting groups and voluntary organization. It is a very
serious question whether the universal consolidation of
labor organization is a thing to be desired; — whether
it would be beneficial to the public, to capital or even
to laborers. While exclusive control is risky, if not
dangerous, under any circumstances, it is particularly
dangerous in the hands of inexperience and ignorance.
Labor organizations have not yet developed a sufficiently
high standard of honor and integrity to secure even the
fulfilment of written agreements between organizations
and corporations.

Several cases have occurred recently in which
laborers who, through their organization, had entered
into solemn agreements with their employers to submit
differences to arbitration, when trouble arose, not
merely the rank and file broke the agreement, but the
leaders and even the national leaders, as in the case of
the miners and machinists, encouraged and practically
ordered them to break it. Before the interests of labor
and of the community can safely be entrusted to the
authority of any single labor organization, or any syn-
dicate of labor organizations, the unions must establish
a higher standard of statesmanship, a greater degree of
integrity of contract, a more liberal view of individual
rights, and an altogether clearer conception of the
economic interests of the community and the rights of
corporations than prevails among them to-day.

With a few exceptions, the best labor leaders in

124 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

the country are narrow and almost fanatical in their
attitude towards capital, have little statesmanlike con-
ception of the social principles governing economic
affairs, but think of all wealth as created by and right-
fully belonging to the laborers. With such dwarfed
economic conceptions, and the spirit of class suspicion
and persecution which hitherto has pervaded the entire
labor ranks, it would be disastrous to labor itself for
either the amalgamated association or the federation of
labor or any other labor organization to acquire exclu-
sive control over the labor forces of the country. It
would be a distinct setback in the progress of the labor
ing classes, because it would be the inauguration of a
system of uniformity of conduct and dictatorial authority
from a low social level.

The acquisition, then, of exclusive authority by
the amalgamated association would be a calamity. It
would be a calamity even if this power were acquired
by voluntary organization, but it would be a double
calamity if it were acquired by the power of coercion as
is proposed in the present strke. It is as necessary to
wholesome progress that there be free independent
group action among the forces of labor as it is that
there should be competition among the forces of capital.
It is altogether probable that the progress will be more
wholesome if the labor movement goes on partly or-
ganized and partly unorganized, or organized in inde-
pendent groups which are not called upon to obey the
command of any single head. Let the point once be
reached when not to obey a central authority is to in-
cur ostracism and persecution, i. <?., to be put upon the
labor blacklist, and the progressive element in the
trade-union movement is dead. Nothing will keep
organized labor liberal and wholesome, and compel
unions to put their very best material to the front, but
being compelled to stand on their merits. If all the

IQOI.J A CANDID VIEW OF THE STEEL STRIKE 125*

laborers, by voluntary action or coercion, were in the
organized ranks, and the edicts of the leaders were
the law of the movement, merit, sense, fairness and
personal rights would soon disappear. To fill their
highest function and be of the greatest service to the
laborers and the community, labor organizations must
be entirely voluntary. Leadership^must depend on
character, and the growth and power of organization
must depend on the moral attractiveness of organiza-
tion policy.

If organizations can coerce laborers, either directly
or through corporations, then they will soon become
like politicians, relying on force and corruption instead
of wisdom and integrity for their influence and power.
It is the bane of American politics to-day that the so-
called leader is an organization dictator. He exercises-
his power more by the injury he can inflict and the
personal rewards he can distribute than by any political
wisdom or natural leadership he may possess. The
walking delegate, who, happily, is tending to disap-
pear, was largely of this character. The walking dele-
gate first came into existence to fill a legitimate func-
tion, but with the power to order^ strikes and settle dis-
putes he became a despot and often a?corruptionist, who
was a disgrace to labor and a scandal to the industrial
community.

There is nothing abnormal in the amalgamated as-
sociation desiring to unionize the non-union mills, but
that can be properly brought about only by voluntary
effort. They have absolutely no right to use coercion,
and much less have they any right to coerce the cor-
porations into coercing laborers to unionize.

But there is another aspect of the subject which is
scarcely less important: namely, why has the amalga-
mated association taken this irrational and untenable
position? It is not because Mr. Shaffer or his immediate

126 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

advisors are vicious; that they want to inaugurate a
system of labor despotism or a reign of terror or any-
thing of that kind, nor is it because there is a disposi-
tion on the part of even the less well-informed working-
men to exercise an oppressive and coercive authority
over their fellows. The simple truth is, this attitude
has been slowly taught them, if not forced upon them,
by the employers themselves. The principle that what-
ever succeeds establishes the methods of its own suc-
cess is as applicable to labor as it is to capital. For
many, many years the laborers have had the painful
experience of seeing this coercive policy applied to
themselves. They have been the victims of the black-
list ; they have seen corporations inaugurate lockouts
for the purpose of breaking up labor unions. They
have seen employers weed out the leaders and ostracise
them from the community in order to prevent them
from unionizing their laborers. This spirit of coercion
against organization, of which they have been the vic-
tims, they are now using in favor of organization, and
feeling if not saying to the corporations, We are only
adopting the same methods you have always employed.
In a candid view of all the facts in the case, it ap-
pears that this strike is really a reaction of the coercive
policy of the corporations upon the labor unions. The
demand of the amalgamated association is not based on
any economic claim, but is a determination to use the
power of organization to acquire exclusive authority
over the labor field by coercive methods. It is a strike
to establish a false and pernicious principle, but it is no
less clear that this mistaken position and struggle for a
false principle and perhaps a dangerous precedent is
directly traceable to a similarly false, pernicious, coer-
cive policy long practiced by the capitalists. It is
another illustration of how a wrong principle will react.
Nothing has been clearer to the student of economic

A CANDID VIEW OF THE STLEL STRIKE 127

and industrial tendencies of the last twenty years than
that capital should openly and cordially recognize the
principle and right of labor organization. By this
method they could have exercised a rational and some-
what guiding influence over the union movement. But,
instead of doing that, they have antagonized it, often
waging war upon it and always treating it with distrust
and disrespect. The result of this actual and quasi-
persecution of the trade unions by the employing class
is that they have grown up with antagonism to, rather
than respect for and cooperation with, employing cor-
porations. They have taken on the same spirit and
methods employed by the corporations, and now that
they are strong they are using these false methods to
establish a coercive despotism over the whole labor field.

Whether the strike succeeds or fails, it should
teach the corporations the lesson that there is really but
one principle that governs the movement of both capi-
tal and labor : namely, that both move in the direction
of greatest efficiency to accomplish their purpose, and
in modern society the means of greatest efficiency is
organization. This is as true of the one as of the other,
and no more so, and, if capital hopes to be free from
the ignorant, dogmatic dictation of organized labor, it
must abandon the use of coercive methods toward la-
bor. It is true that two wrongs do not make a right,
but it is nevertheless true that one wrong is pretty sure
to create another, and it is safe to say that capital will
not be permitted to have a monopoly of wrong methods.

Here, as in every other sphere of life, if we would
have freedom, we must give freedom ; if we want our
own rights respected we must respect the same rights
of others. If corporations hope to enjoy the unmo-
lested freedom of organized action in their own field,
they must as freely and unreservedly grant the same
right of organization to laborers ; not merely in quali-

128 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

fied ords but in unqualified action. Until this is done
there can be no real harmony.

The unfortunate aspects of the present strike dem-
onstrate the necessity of what ultimately must
come,— a mutual union in which both capital and labor
are equally represented. The functions of this mutual
organization should be absolutely to determine all dis-
puted questions that arise between the corporations and
laborers within the district embraced. This proposi-
tion has been frequently urged in these pages, and the
necessity for it is made more and more apparent with
every new strike. With such a third organization, in
which the other two were equally represented in good
faith, whose decisions should be final, no foolish action
of a labor union in any particular mill or arbitrary ac-
tion of a corporation manager could throw the whole
industry into a strike. Any labor union or corporation
which refused to accept the decision of this body
would lose the support of all outside parties and thus
be doomed to certain defeat. Of course this requires
the honest recognition, in good faith, of unions by the
corporations, and frank unqualified mutual organization
on equal terms, so that in the final councils which shall
decide all matters of controversy both sides shall stand
on exactly the same level and both abide by the de-
cision. It is useless to try to suppress organization on
either side. The solution of the problem, which shall
prevent performances like the present strike, must
come, not by going backwards and suppressing organi-
zation but by going forward to a higher form of organ
ization which shall include both on a democratic basis
of absolute equality. Every effort to fight each other
means destruction and disaster to both parties and to
the public, whereas to take the next natural step for-
ward towards a mutual organization would soon lead to
economic harmony and industrial peace.

THE BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS

GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH

The influence of the mechanical steed on our civil-
ization is best exemplified in the growth and improve-
ment of the country highways, which, in a country
that stretches between two oceans, and includes within
its boundary nearly all the climates and physical char-
acteristics of a mighty continent, have been slowly
evolved from the almost indistingushable trail of the
pioneer settlers into roads of high engineering skill
and achievement. American country roads have lagged
in the development of the nation's material growth and
expansion until within the past few years. With the
exception of the few old post-roads, established in
colonial days when the stage-coach was the only
vehicle for comfortable travel, there were not more
than^wo or three country highways of passable physi-
cal condition, summer and winter, a score of years
ago in the United States.

Military roads were the earliest in existence in all
countries, and the protective necessity of having differ-
ent parts of the empire joined together by highways
over which an army could be quickly moved inspired
most of the great engineering feats in road-building of
the past. This factor had little or no influence in Am-
erican industrial life. Our boundaries did not abut
those of other powerful nations with whom we might
at any time wage war. Consequently no thought of
establishing lines of fortifications, connected by mili-
tary highways, ever entered the head of our most war-
like legislators or presidents. Military roads were not
features of our national development, and though po-
rn

130 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

tent factors in the growth of many European states
they were almost nil in American history.

The modern road-building movement is attributed
to the bicycle and automobile ; but it must be said that
it was rather the conditions of the times, which were
ripe for the change, that made the popularity of these
mechanical steeds. Railroad construction had almost
reached its limit ; important trunk lines were already
paralleling each other so that they cut disastrously into
each other's profits ; and the most important parts of
the country were joined together by the ribbons of
steel. Railroad stocks were declining in value ; profits
were being reduced ; and capital was chary of invest-
ing in new enterprises of this character. What the
country needed was more feeders — country roads lead-
ing from farms, mines, and producing lands. For
months in the year the great agricultural sections were
shut off from the railroads by almost impassable coun-
try roads. Mills and manufacturing plants located on
streams of water that furnished excellent motive power
could not market their products in winter. The log-
ging camps and the mining companies were likewise
helpless in winter. Thus for a good portion of the
year the country's commerce was paralyzed, and the
producing centers were cut off from the world.

We rapidly grew into a nation of cities as a conse-
quence. There was little attraction in the country ex-
cept in the summer season. Impassable muddy roads
made rural life disagreeable in the extreme. Even the
small villages suffered and dwindled in numbers and
population. In the cities stone pavements defied the
mud and storms of winter ; and thither our population
flocked, building for themselves habitable places where
they would not be shut indoors for months at a time.

The bicycle, and later the automobile, spread a
propaganda of good road-building at a time when con-

BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS 111

ditions were ripe for a mighty change, and the fire that
smouldered for a time soon broke forth into flame.
There was need of better highways to improve trade,
to develop the country, and to add to our appreciation
of country life. With the new movement there com-
menced a counter-current in the trend of our popula-
tion cityward. The country was improved by good
roads so that people who had been shut up in the city
now longed to return to the less artificial life in small
towns and villages. Rural existence suddenly received
new charms, and with the extension of good highways
there sprung up handsome rural homes and estates.
The love for country life has suddenly developed so
that it marks a new era in our existence. It is not that
our cities are less prosperous, or that they will cease to
grow in size and wealth ; but that the country is better
appreciated as a place of residence, and that it has been
made so by the better roads.

The federal government has always advocated road
improvements in a general way ; but it has never felt
the necessity of constructing highways for military or
other national purposes. Early in the present century
when our country was beginning to extend its civilizing
influence westward, and before the railroad-construc-
tion era had started, a few statesmen undertook to en-
gineer a great national highway from the seaboard to
the West under the direction of the government. It
was believed that national highways built by the gov-
ernment would open up the resources of the country as
no private enterprise could ever hope to do, and work
was actually begun in 1806 on the national highway
that was to follow the valley of the Potomac, cross the
Alleghanies, and descend the Ohio to Wheeling, and
then go on to St. Louis. If this work had ever been
finished it would have represented an achievement in

1&2 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

road-building that would have eclipsed anything else
in the world in size and importance.

But the national highway was soon abandoned, and
though efforts were several times made to revive it little
encouragement was offered. Railroad construction soon
followed and spread to all parts of the country, and
absorbed the surplus talent and brains of the land. The
states and counties made a few feeble and ineffectual
attempts to develop and build common highways, but
for the most part they were allowed to grow according
to accident. In 1895 there were some 1,300,000 miles
of common roads in this country, and for the most part
they were all the outgrowth of accident and chance.
They developed from the old paths and trails of the first
settlers, winding in many instances in curiously sinuous
courses without apparent reason or purpose. Success-
ive improvements had been made on them, but these
were of the most primitive and unskilled kind. For
several months in each year they were impassable, and
this condition lost to the country annually about $600,-
000,000, according to the estimates of the road-inquiry
bureau organized about that time to make investigations.

It may be said that, even within five years of the
end of the nineteenth century, we had no good roads in
the United States, and that we were annually losing
through their bad condition more than the railroads of
the country were making in actual profits. With such
earning capacities, the common roads soon attracted
general attention, and it is officially estimated that
those built scientifically have since paid at least forty
per cent, on the investment. This enormous dividend
has been due to the unlocking of great inland resources,
to the attraction of capital to agricultural and mineral
lands, to the development of forestry interests, and to
the improvement of rural property as residential sites.
Innumerable minor advantages naturally accrued to

BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS 188

those who owned property along the lines of improved
highways.

The original cost of highways in this country was
unusually large, both because of inexperience and the
insufficient supply of the right material. Different sys-
tems had to be adopted in various parts of the country
on account of physical conditions that prevailed, and
the road engineer found that the problems were in
nearly every state to be solved independent of those
relating to other sections. Some of the earlier roads in
New Jersey cost as high as $8,000 per mile, and the
average was between $6,000 and $7,000. In Massachu-
setts the cost ranged all the way from $5,000 to $7,500
per mile, and in New York State the range was from
$3,000 to $5,000.

In recent years the cost of road-building has been
greatly reduced because of improved road machinery
and a better system of securing stone for the founda-
tions. The supply of stone suitable for macadam and
telford roads was one of the earliest and most import-
ant factors in the question, and to-day it determines the
cost more than the actual physical properties of the
highway designed. Roads have been constructed in
New York state through rough regions, where the stone
could be had for the cost of mining, at a cost of $400
and $600 per mile. Proper machinery for mining and
preparing the stone, and for laying and grading the
road-bed, were in these instances owned by the town-
ships, and the cost of labor was thus reduced to the
lowest minimum.

The transportation of stone for road-building has
been a subject of endless inquiry ; but most of the rail-
roads show their sympathy with the states and counties
by offering to carry stone for such purposes at unusually
low rates. The railroads benefit from improved high-
ways fully as much as any other corporations. Good

134 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

roads make good feeders for them. More freight comes
their way over good roads than over bad ; and a subur-
ban population is built up over a line that is intersected
by good country highways. The cost of moving stone
for road-building purposes amounts to about two mills
per ton per mile, or, for carrying 2,000 pounds one hun-
dred miles, just twenty cents.

Systematic efforts to reduce the cost of road-build-
ing have resulted in improvements of methods and
machinery. These have cheapened the work so that
highways which cost $5,000 and $6,000 per mile five
years ago can be duplicated for all practical purposes
to-day at an average cost of $3,000 and $4,500. This
reduction will continue to extend as methods of build-
ing and transportation are better understood. The
practical road engineer meets with problems in differ-
ent parts of the country that are just as puzzling as
any met with in mining or irrigation engineering. In
the South and Southwest there are physical conditions
unlike anything else in the country. Stones are scarce
and expensive, the soil soft and muddy, and the rainy
season long and disastrous. In the wet season water
settles over the common country roads, making them
impassable for many months. Corduroy roads have
been built in those sections, which in a primitive way
overcame the worst of the physical conditions ; but en-
gineers have steadily rejected this method as a mere
makeshift. Several thousands of miles of good roads
have been constructed in the South by building the
road-bed sufficiently high to prevent water from cover-
ing it, and then digging trenches in the middle for tile
drains or rough stone boxes. This method is carried
into the farming districts by plowing two deep furrows
where the cartwheels go, and filling them in with loose
field stones, gravel, and other hard substances. By
topping off the whole with fine stones or gravel, the

i90i.] BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS 185

roads proved passable during the whole of the year.
Thousands of square acres of rich mining and agricul-
tural land have been opened up to profitable exploita-
tion in this way in the last few years.

Forestry and good roads are closely associated to-
gether in the future development of this country. The
forestry division of the department of agriculture has
some 50,000,000 acres of forest land under its control,
and the systematic cultivation of these woods is depend-
ent for profit upon road-building. Forests that are in-
accessible have no commercial value. By running a
road through the woods so the timber can be easily
transported to market, the trees immediately assume a
value that can be measured only by the cost of trans-
portation and the fertility of the soil and method of cul-
ture. . Forest roads are the most primitive that the engi-
neer is called upon to construct, and yet they pay some
forty per cent, on the investment where proper forest
culture is pursued. With proper roads constructed
through the forest regions of the country, fully 50,000,-
ooo acres of valuable wood land would be thrown open
to the markets, and the timber cut therefrom would add
greatly to the world's supply. As the denudation of
our forests continues it is estimated that within the next
twenty-five years such forest roads will have to be con-
structed in order to avert a timber famine. Thus it is
that forestry and road- making are closely related to
each other, and the development of one will in a gen-
eral way affect the other.

Road-making machinery has been invented and
manufactured in recent years to meet the growing
needs of the science. Steam rollers, crushers, sprink-
lers and cutters are made in every conceivable size
and shape, while stone crushers for preparing the foun-
dations for the roads are unique in the history of mod-
ern machinery. There are distinct machines and tools

136 G UNTON' S MA GA ZINE [August,

manufactured for macadam and asphalt road-making,
and through the ingenuity displayed in this line the
cost of hand labor has been reduced more than one-
half. Owing to improved repairing machinery for
asphalt roads in towns and cities, the cost of keeping
these street pavements in condition has been reduced
more than fifty per cent, in the last five years.

Road-making machines and tools represent an im-
portant manufacturing industry in this country that has
a total capitalization of tens of millions of dollars.
Originally the few road-making machines were manu-
factured by the companies engaged in making agricul-
tural implements, but the industry has long since out-
grown that, and is to-day an independent one. The
manufacture of these machines gives employment to sev-
eral thousand skilled mechanics and workmen. With
the invention of improved road machines for construct-
ing better highways in this country, there has grown
up an export demand for these implements, which
promises to prove of great commercial value. Last
year half a million dollars' worth of road machines and
tools were exported, some of them going to distant
Australia and even South Africa. The needs of a
new country are very different from those of an old,
and even in road-making this is emphasized. European
countries have fewer wide stretches of territory where
rough country highways unlock regions rich in natural
resources than the United States, South America or
South Africa. The roads are already built and per-
fected there, and the road machinery needed must be of
a different character from that required to break rough
trails and wagon roads and put them in good shape.
American road machines are consequently better
adapted for new countries where scientific road-building
is just beginning than the more delicate machines made
in Europe. The exhibits of American road machines

igoi.] BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS 137

at the Pan- American Exposition show to the spectator
more clearly than anything else the remarkable interest
manifested in this new industry.

Common road-building in the United States is
clearly divided into distinct classes, which engineers
recognize according to their cost of construction. The
asphalt and macadam roads of cities and towns repre-
sent the highest extreme of perfection reached in the
art of road-building. Millions of dollars have been in-
vested in these fine streets and highways in the past
five years. The automobile and bicycle have stimulated
the construction of such thoroughfares, but probably the
love for fine stretches of pavement in the average pedes-
trian and householder has had more to do with the
growth of the work. Asphalt pavement has extended
rapidly in popularity in this country since it was first
introduced in Washington in 1876 as the result of a
congressional commission's investigation of the most
desirable pavement for the capital's streets. In that
year Pennsylvania Avenue was paved with asphalt, and
it has since become the standard pavement for residen-
tial districts in most of our leading American cities. In
1896 asphalt was used by more than 100 cities, and in
all over 1500 miles of pavement was laid with it. Since
then it has been laid at the rate of 200 miles per year,
and in the last year nearly 5,000,000 square yards, or
about 300 miles of street pavements, were laid with
asphalt. This brings the total street asphalt mileage in
this country to something like 2,300 miles.

Next to asphalt the best forms of macadam are em-
ployed the most extensively. This is the favorite in
towns and villages, and for wide highways stretching
between populous centers. The best grade of mac-
adam roads in this country cost as high as $10,000 per
mile ; but that is for very wide roads. The cost of the
highway depends upon its width and the quality of the

138 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

stone used. The grading also proves an important fac-
tor in parts of the country where the topography is
rough and uneven. The popularity of the best macadam
roads has increased so that in such states as New Jer-
sey and Massachusetts nearly all the important towns
and cities are connected by wide, commodious macadam
highways, over which vehicles can travel with ease
summer or winter. In both of these states millions of
dollars have been spent in building the finest macadam
roads found anywhere, and the trend of the population
to settle along the lines of these highways shows that
the expenditures were fully justified. Real estate val-
ues have advanced fifty per cent in many localities
simply through the building of such highways. There
is a distinct recognition of this in many suburbs where
expensive roads and highways have been built to
attract new residents.

The road engineer is a necessary factor in our rural
development to-day, which places him much in the po-
sition of the railroad surveyor and engineer of a quarter
of a century ago. Road- building has passed from the
hands of the farmer into those of the scientific road en-
gineer. As a result the construction of the new high-
ways is gradually revolutionizing conditions in the
towns and country. The roads are built for permanent
use, and with a view to ultimate economy. The main-
tenance of such roads must always be considered, and
to reduce this cost to the minimum the construction
must be varied according to the character and nature of
the country. One type of road was formerly always
built in the country, and, while in some favored locali-
ties it answered the purpose well enough, in others it
proved of little real value. Each year the cost of re-
pairing it almost equalled the initial cost of construct-
ing it. The economy was consequently not visible,
even though the original cost was low.

BUILDING OF AMERICAN HIGHWAYS 189

The saving effected through the construction of
scientific roads which can be kept in good running con-
dition at small annual expense would more than pay for
the full cost of road-building of half a century ago.
This saving is not always apparent at first, for the first
cost seems to overshadow all other considerations in the
minds of the short-sighted economists. It took two
decades of agitation to convince most of the residents of
rural districts that it was more profitable to build good
roads under the direction of road engineers than to re-
build and repair the old dirt roads after a fashion in
vogue since the beginning of things. The greatest tri
umph in the movement may be said to be the complete
education of the farmers to a proper appreciation and
understanding of the whole question of scientific road-
building.

Thus the road engineer has gradually created a new
industry in this country in the past ten years. His pro-
fession is one that offers extensive inducements in many
directions, and bright minds find employment therein
for talents that are of the highest order. Communities
all over the country are awakening to the fact that road-
building is a science just as much as railroad engineer-
ing or bridge construction, and that roads cannot be
built by those not thoroughly familiar with the ques-
tion. The mere placing of broken stones on a roadbed
and rolling them in does not produce a good road any
more than the piling up of dirt in a continuous bank
produces a good roadbed for the steam engine and cars.
There is workmanship of a highly technical character
that counts, and a scientifically trained mind must meet
new conditions and adapt the road to different needs
and circumstances.

ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS*

Human progress is measured by the degree in
which experience is converted into helpful knowl-
edge. It is the function of science to reduce this
knowledge to working principles, and of education to
present these principles in teachable form. There is
no important feature of civilization, in religion, ethics,
art, science, economics or politics that has been or
could have been accomplished by any one generation.
It is all the result of successive contributions of suc-
ceeding generations, through converting the experi-
ence of one into helpful knowledge for the next.

While this work is constantly going on in numer-
ous forms, the institution which to-day must be more
than ever relied upon to render this important service
to society is the public school. The efficiency of the
schools in rendering this service depends largely upon
the extent to which the knowledge they impart is ap-
plicable to the conduct and conditions of existing gen-
erations. As Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler aptly puts it :

"The first question to be asked in any course of study is, Does it
lead to a knowledge of our contemporary civilization? If not, it is neither
efficient nor liberal."

It is no part of my purpose to detract from the
value of any part of the public curriculum, but rather
to plead that social economics should have a place in the
public schools. It will be conceded that in our system
of public education those subjects have the greatest
claim to consideration which most directly lead to the
character-making conditions of life. Nor will it be ques-
tioned that this may change with the progress of society.
For instance, it is easy to understand that in the middle

*Address delivered by Mr. Gunton before the National Educational
Asso nation, Detroit, July n, 1901.

140

ECONOMICS JN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 141

ages, when the common people were outside the pale of
social and political recognition, no education was neces-
sary for the masses. That which was necessary, being
mostly for the clergy, might well be of a tneological
and classical character. Latin and Greek and abstruse
theological doctrines were, of course, the chief require-
ments of the only educated class. But, as society de-
veloped and industry became an important factor in
public affairs, education must needs take a broader
sweep. Hence, with the rise of manufactures and com-
merce it became necessary to extend education to the
middle class.

As social life and institutions became more com-
plex, a greater extent and variety of knowledge became
necessary if the future was to have the benefit of the
past and progress to continue. So, with the birth to
social consciousness of what Laselle called the fourth
estate, it became necessary to extend education to the
common people. Under democratic institutions, where
the very form of government and conditions of indus-
try are within the political control of the masses, edu-
cation through the common schools becomes a matter
of paramount importance to civilization itself, — of
greater importance even than education in the higher
institutions of learning, because the common school
touches nearly all the children in the land and touches
them at the most malleable period. It touches them at
a time when impressions are most easily made and often
most lasting. It touches them when they are most
ready to believe, most willing to accept as authorita-
tive whatever reaches them through the formal machin-
ery of the school.

The progress of the last quarter of a century has
radically changed the importance of economics as a
public-school study. Fifty years ago, for instance,
when we were chiefly an agricultural country, with but

142 G UNION'S MAGAZINE [August,

little domestic manufacture, the industrial problems and
social questions growing out of them were comparatively
simple, but during the last thirty years this has all
changed. We have become dominantly a manufacturing
nation ; our progress in this direction is unparalleled in
the history of mankind. During the last thirty years our
manufacturing industries, measured by the value of the
output or of the domestic/^r capita consumption, have in-
creased many times faster than the population. This
has given us exceptional advancement in material and
social welfare ; which in time has brought a tremen-
dious urbanization of our population, with new social
problems like the sweatshop, the housing of the poor,
the question of sanitation, of public charity and many
other quasi-economic and social problems growing out
of city conditions.

On the other hand this progress has brought with
it a radical change in the organization and character of
industrial enterprise. The once small individual con-
cerns have been supplanted by corporations, and cor-
porations have been superseded by syndicates, or so-
called "trusts." These two sets of circumstances have
created two new groups of social problems which are
injecting themselves into the institutions of the coun-
try. Therefore, intelligent citizenship to-day involves
a much higher standard of intelligence and broader
comprehension of public questions than fifty years ago.

Moreover, all this material and social progress,
which has carried with it the spirit of individual inde-
pendence, has made the ill-informed citizen a more
dangerous element in the community than he was half
a century ago. The growth of large industries and im-
mense individual wealth has created not only in the
mind of the laborer but of the economic laymen gen-
erally a feeling of distrust. They come to view all with
whom they are in more or less competitive relation, and

i90i.] ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 148

especially the rich employing class, as their enemies and
the enemies of public welfare. When they enter the field
of activity as citizens, whether in municipal, state or
national affairs, they are dominated by this suspicious
feeling which frequently amounts to a social prejudice.
They look with distrust upon public officials, and the
whole system of administration to them appears in the
light of an instrument in the hands of the rich to gov-
ern society in their own interest. Nor is this altogether
surprising when they see those who should be leaders
of public opinion exercising the power of political dic-
tators, buying and selling nominations for public office,
blackmailing business corporations under the pressure
of coercive legislation, and through the power thus
acquired corrupting the very sources of our political
institutions. By these means in not a few instances a
small coterie control the government of large cities and
even states, and sometimes even the president of the
United States is the victim of this unwholesome power.

In reply to a suggestion that political parties
should do more educational work between elections,
with the view of having intelligent voters, the chair-
man of a political county committee wrote me: "We
find it works very much better to secure what we want
by direct purchase than by furnishing literature." This
situation has done much to beget in the public mind the
belief that the rich are corrupting our government, dic-
tating the public policy, and tending to convert democ-
racy into an oligarchy.

On the other side of the same picture are the city
problems to which I have already referred. There
they see the poor ill-housed, huddled in unwholesome
quarters under quasi-pestilential conditions. Poverty,
vice and the accompanying social degradation follow in
their train. To this picture the revolutionist can point
as one of the consequences of the great capitalistic

144 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

movement and appeal to the masses to overthrow the
existing industrial system and adopt socialism as the
only remedy.

One of the greatest safeguards against this threatened
disruption of society is the public schools. At present,
for the great army of youths who go from the public
schools to the workshop, there is no mental preparation
for intelligently dealing with these subjects. They are
left to jostle against their fellows in the workshop, hear
and feel the causes for discontent ; they read the inflam-
matory and sensational stuff in the newspapers, listen
to the more or less acrimonious discussion of social
questions in their shop meetings and organizations, and
all without the slightest background of educational
preparation for forming rational judgments. The very
natural result is that their opinions are made up from
the feelings and prejudices created by their economic
environment. If the public school is to "lead to a
knowledge of our contemporary civilization," it must
necessarily furnish some mental training on these sub-
jects which lie at the foundation of our social life and
furnish the material out of which public opinion is
made and public policy is constructed.

This brings us to the practical aspect of the subject
and raises the question of feasibility. In pleading for
the introduction of economics into the public school, we
may expect numerous objections from the traditional
pedagogue. It will be urged, with considerable truth,
that the public-school curriculum is already overloaded ;
that instead of the student having more subjects he
should have less. It will also be urged that economics
is too difficult and complex a subject for the public-
school student. It will not be denied that there is
force in these objections, yet they might with equal
force be applied to very many of the present studies.
It may very properly be urged that education should

1901.] ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 145

be mainly directed to developing the mind rather than
loading the memory. No education, and particularly
that of the public school which stops before the age of
sixteen, can furnish the student with much literal
information. Indeed, that should not be the principal
object. It should rather be the purpose of education
to cultivate and develop the powers of observation and
reasoning. To teach the student how to see and how
intelligently to reason about what he sees is the most
that can be hoped for in public-school education, and
for that matter in college education either. It is not
so much what the student learns at school, but his
ability correctly to observe and understand what he sees
after he leaves school that is of greatest importance in
his education. Whatever there is of value in education,
it is as a preparation for seeing and understanding the
environment.

It is a knowledge of principles, not a collection of
facts, that school education should furnish. The time
and ability both of student and teacher are limited. It
is, therefore, a question of selecting subjects, the study
of which will best develop the mental powers of the
student. That the curriculum is already too full may
be admitted without in the least diminishing the claim
for giving economics a place. Teachable subjects are
numerous enough to make the curriculum many times
as large as at present. In making up the curriculum,
therefore, it is necessarily a question of selecting those
subjects which will best serve the purpose of educa-
tional training for the average citizen. If there are two
subjects of equal merit as regards mental training, and
one of them leads directly to the live interests with
which the student will have to deal as a citizen, and on
which his personal welfare and the welfare of the com-
munity depends, and the other leads only to the study
of a dead language and the details of some effete civil-

146 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

ization having only the remotest relation to the live af-
fairs of to-day, there ought to be no difficulty in decid-
ing which subject should be taken. That subject which
leads to a knowledge of the affairs of modern life has a
double claim, for besides affording an opportunity for
mental training it furnishes preparation for useful citi-
zenship. Besides affording a high degree of mental
training, economics gives life to the study and social
equipment to the student.

Economics is preeminently a logical subject. It has
to do with principles and deductions. It constantly
calls the reasoning faculties into action and it is pre-
eminently the study that inspires observation. A study
of the principles of wages or prices or rent or banking
supplies its own incentive for observing these phe-
nomena. It is both more important and more effective
as a mental training than the study of history even, and
far be it from me to belittle the study of history. But
in comparing the claims for mental training of history
and economics as a subject, the superiority of econom-
ics is obvious. Even if we avoid the method of teach-
ing history which takes note chiefly of battles, royal
coronations and court feuds, and direct the studies en-
tirely to the important industrial, social and political
events arising out of the progressive struggles of the
people for improvement, it still remains chiefly a mat-
ter of memorizing. It is indeed of some consequence
that the student know about the Norman conquest, the
magna charta, the statute of laborers, the bill of rights,
the declaration of independence, the surrender of Corn-
wallis and the civil war, but it is far more important
that the masses know what determines their wages, how
improvements in industrial conditions are brought about,
and what effect capital has upon the industrial welfare
of the community. If they know something of the
fundamental principles that govern their industrial and

1 90i.] ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 147

social welfare, they will have an intelligent apprecia-
tion of the significance of these historical events. But
if they are ignorant of economic principles, these his-
toric events are of little educational significance.

Clearly, in furnishing mental training for the youth
of the nation, and especially the youth that have but a
limited share of educational opportunity, training should
be given in the subjects which lead most directly to an
acquaintance with the affairs of real life, thus at once
affording the double purpose of mental training and
preparation for social usefulness.

If it be objected that economics is too difficult a
subject for the public-school student, we have only to
compare it with some of the other subjects already in
the curriculum. We find there astronomy, mathe-
matics, chemistry, principles of hygiene, etc. If these
are not too complex for the public-school student, and
obviously they are not so regarded, then economics
cannot be objected to on that score, for it has the ad-
vantage over all of these of being less abstract and of
dealing with more familiar objects and conditions and
matters of greater personal and social interest than any
of the others except, perchance, hygiene.

The chief difficulty in teaching economics in the
public schools thus far is in the unpreparedness of the
teachers and the clumsy methods of teaching. Usually
the teachers have had practically no preparation in the
subject. They know nothing of the essential princi-
ples of economics. They are expected to take that
subject along with mathematics and English, and per-
haps Greek and Latin. Knowing practically nothing
of the subject, they rely entirely on the text-book, and
the text-books are mostly written for just such teach-
ers and consequently contain little or nothing of the
principles of the subject, but furnish a budget of facts.
Thus the teacher adopts the hardest and least effective

148 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

way : namely, sets the student to memorizing a lot of
to him meaningless facts instead of helping him to un-
derstand a few elementary principles, and makes what
might be an attractive study a dry wearisome tax.
Besides being much harder for the student it is far
less effective in developing a flexible mentality.

This comes partly of the habit of confounding
teaching with investigation. Investigation is to dis-
cover principles; teaching is to impart them. The
methods for the two are wholly unlike. The inductive
method of investigation is to discover, verify and
classify facts, and then from a careful analysis of these
verified phenomena deduce the law or principle. In
teaching, the reverse method is the effective one:
namely, to give the principle and then confirm or
verify it by reference to facts. This gives the student
the key to observation and verification all through life.
Having learned the principle which governs the move-
ment of the planets, he can by reading and observation
understand the planetary system, but he could never
have found the principle by any observation he could
make. Hence, in the absence of the principle, he
would be subject to superstitious conclusions.

It is the function of the scientist to discover the
principle by scientific study of the facts, but it is the
function of the teacher to give the principle to the stu-
dent in the simplest intelligible form ; in other words,
give to the student what science has discovered and
verified, and illustrate and enforce it with as frequent
reference to facts as possible, always taking the facts
that are nearest to the interest and most vital to the life
of the student. It will hardly be claimed that it is
more difficult to understand the simple principle that
wages in a given market, like water in a lake, tend to a
level, which level is high or low according to the char-
acter and social life of the laborers, than it is to under-

ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 149

stand the principle of the formation of gases or the solu-
tion of problems in geometry. Yet, how wonderfully
more important to the average citizen to understand the
principle which governs the income of more than three-
fourths of the population. An intelligent conception of
a few elementary principles like this in economics would
be worth more to the citizens, and hence to the nation,
than all the knowledge of Greek, Latin, and perhaps
even history, that is taught. Not that these subjects
are not important, but as compared with the study of
economics and its relation to educational preparation
for citizenship, they are manifestly inferior. With the
mental preparation for intelligent observation and logi-
cal reasoning, growing out of the study of the principles
of economic and social phenomena, history, literature,
political geography, and even the classics, become
manyfold more significant. The history of Egypt,
Greece and Rome, the doings of pre-historic man, and
social life under tropical civilization, have but the mini-
mum interest beyond the mere noting of facts, when
studied in ignorance of the laws of economics and politi-
cal development. Indeed, in the absence of knowledge
of these laws, such studies are apt to aid superstitious
conjectures. In the light of economics these studies
furnish an important adjunct to historic knowledge as
throwing light upon the early conditions from which
the present has been a slow and wonderful evolution.
But to take this study of these ancient and not extinct
civilizations, with blank ignorance of economic and
political subjects, they furnish the very minimum of
educational stimulus and utility. From the point of
view of educational importance, both in mental training
and preparation for social usefulness, economics has an
equal claim to any and superior to most subjects now in
the public-school curriculum.

But the introduction of economics into the public

150 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

schools would call for one important improvement:
namely, the raising of the standard of teachers. But
that ought not to be regarded as an objection. There
is no work performed in this country that is more im-
portant than that done by the teachers in our public
schools. If we would make education contribute its
best to civilization, we must resolve to have the most
important subjects taught and taught in the best
possible manner by well-paid, competent teachers.
There is no expenditure too high if it is not wasted, no
talent too good, no system too well equipped or ap-
pointments too complete for the public schools of the
United States. If the people of this country were only
once impressed with this fact, the means would easily
be forthcoming. It is only for the teachers and leaders
of education to make it clear to the American people
that in the public schools lie the means of the progress
and safety of our institutions, and that the way to
make the most of the public schools is to pay the price
that will command the best teaching talent, and there
will be little difficulty in adjusting the curriculum to
the needs of the age. No excuse will be accepted for
cramming children with dead subjects instead of rising
to the level of vitalizing our educational system with
the new and live subjects that lead directly "to a
knowledge of our contemporary civilization." In the
question of education, as in everything else in life, the
demand creates the supply. Let the educators demand
a live curriculum, a higher standard of teachers with
adequate salaries, and the public school will be the
ever-broadening bulwark of progressive industry, free
institutions and democratic civilization.

A CENTURY OF AMERICAN INVENTION

LEON MEAD

The patent system of the United States was the in-
spiration of Thomas Jefferson and his pet hobby for
many years. Founded by an act of April 10, 1790, it
has been in practical operation ever since. In the de-
velopment of our material wealth it has been a greater
factor than any other belonging to our public service ;
for at least nine-tenths of our people are affected by the
interests with which the patent office directly or indirect-
ly deals. It would require a large volume in which
merely to epitomize its influence on the growth of our
national industries, to tell of its losses by two destruc-
tive fires and to give the various enactments which
have modified the system itself.

The purpose of this article is briefly to point out
the manner in which certain inventions have infinitely
multiplied the world's commerce, lessened the burdens
and increased the comfort of the human family, and,
what is often denied, increased and enlarged the opportu-
nities of labor. Within the unprecedented century just
closed the results of well-directed inventive genius
have been almost incredible. The horse- power ma-
chinery which, within the memory of living men, sup-
planted the primitive flail in separating grain, has in
turn been largely superseded by the wonderful steam-
power thresher and separator. Less than one hundred
years ago, Charles Newbold of New Jersey patented
the first iron plow. For a long time people regarded
it with distrust. Many went so far as to declare that
by using such a monstrosity, as they called it, the soil
would be poisoned. Were Charles Newbold alive to-
day, with what awe he would study the appliances

151

152 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

which increase the acreage of the farmer and triple his
harvest.

To demonstrate the material benefits of American
patents to the agriculturist, we have but to compare
the rude inventions of Obed Hussey and others of sixty-
five years ago, which however are the precursors of
the modern mower and harvester, to the cord-binder
which automatically passes a cord around each bundle
of grain, cuts the cord and discharges the bundle in
one operation ; or to the still later evolved reaper which,
as it gathers the straw binds it with its own wisps —
thus saving the cost of thousands of yards of twine,
which, on the vast areas of the West amounts to large
sums of money in the aggregate.

No realm of human activity has been ignored by
our inventors, and it may truly be said that they have
met nearly all the requirements of modern civilization.
Improved plumbing, new sanitary drainage systems,
paving, and other hygienic inventions, are shown to
have actually reduced the death rate 5.79 per thousand
people in the city of New York, thus representing a
saving of several thousand lives yearly.

Our own people have invented most of the so-
called labor-saving machinery perfected within the last
seventy-five years. That phrase, labor-saving machin-
ery, has produced many misconceptions and fallacies
among our people. In one sense it is a misnomer and
very misleading to those who do not probe under the
surface of the subject. Many persons think that this
kind of machinery drives the laborer out of employ-
ment. No more erroneous theory was ever trumped
up. For labor-saving machinery absolutely enhances
the chances of labor and this assertion may be illus-
strated by countless examples.

Nor should it be forgotten that inventions recorded
in the United States patent office are the foundation

i90i.] A CENTURY OF AMERICAN INVENTION 158

upon which are based the vast majority of our manu-
facturing industries. This statement cannot be truth-
fully controverted. Commissioner Charles H. Duell
aptly says in one of his annual reports to congress :
"The United States can only become dominant in the
markets of the world through labor-saving inventions
which will enable it to compete with the lower wages
paid to the so-called working classes in other countries.
The greatest development in American exports must
be in the direction of increase in the export of manu-
factures. I assert, without fear of contradiction, that
we mainly owe to our patent system such foothold as
we have gained during the past fifty years in foreign
lands for our manufactured products."

American inventors have contributed more to the
prosperity of this country than any other class. Their
inventions and improvements have prodigiously widened
the scope of production and furnished the primary
agencies by the employment of which our manufactur-
ing interests have reached their present magnitude.
Immeasurably more has the public profited and been
benefited by these inventions than the men whose
brains produced them. Every section and all classes
have cause to be thankful for what inventive genius
has done. It is an old fogy and mistaken notion that
inventions have decreased the wages of workingmen
and ruined manual labor. On the contrary, they have
augumented both. Lessened prices and increased con-
sumption are the two salient points most frequently lost
sight of by those who inveigh the loudest against mod-
ern methods of doing business. While the printing
press of to-day is an example of a machine which does
the work of hundreds of men, it must be remembered
that were those hundreds of men required to produce a
single modern newspaper their wages would soon sug-

154 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

gest to the proprietors of that journal the pecuniary
feasibility of " shutting up shop."

The Boston tailors who refused to give Elias Howe
their support, arguing that the use of his sewing-
machine would ruin their business, were totally misled
by selfish alarm. For during the period from 1850 —
when the sewing-machine was first introduced — to 1870
the number of tailors increased more than one hundred
per cent. ; while the population increased but sixty-five
per cent. Fifty thousand or more people were em-
ployed in the manufacture and sale of sewing-machines
during those twenty years, not to mention the thou-
sands that have been thus engaged since 1870. The
saving of drudgery in millions of homes and factories
effected by the sewing-machine is beyond computation ;
but it certainly has been enormous. The general in-
troduction of the locomotive between 1850 and 1870, in-
stead of decreasing the number of common carriage and
wagon makers, increased the latter two hundred per
cent, in those two decades.

Hon. Carroll D. Wright, conceded to be one of the
ablest statisticians in America, lends his authority to the
following concise and significant opinion : ' ' There has
been no debasement of humanity by the substitution of
machinery for human labor, and there is no danger in
such substitution. Machinery has not helped to create
new and tremendous inequalities in society or turned
thousands into tramps and vagabonds, or hardened the
natural selfishness of men in any way, as it is so often
asserted. It has been the means of reducing the work
day from twelve or fourteen hours to nine or ten hours,
and the inevitable result will be the still further reduc-
tion in the time necessary for the earning of a living.
It has not only shortened the work day ; it has also in-
creased the remuneration of labor.''

Again, he says: "Statistics show that in those

i90i.] A CENTURY OF AMERICAN INVENTION 155

countries where manufacturing industries have been
developed with the greatest success a larger proportion
of the people are employed than in those countries
where mechanical industries do not prevail. This
could not be the case if the introduction of machinery
had deprived men of labor."

Machinery always revolutionizes human conditions
for the better, by shifting the functions and elevating
the character of man labor. Science is sweeping away
the humblest classes of employment and relieving
humanity of beast-like toil. In this way she is giving
an impetus to the cause of education ; for by leaving
less and less work to be done by the uneducated laborer
she puts skill and training at a premium. The work-
ing classes themselves often curse the progress of in-
vention and look upon it as no friend to their welfare.
But if [they paused to think they would realize that
' ' society has always to travel to permanent good
through transitory ills."

Though there be some personal sacrifices, human-
ity as a whole is the gainer by the transference of
occupations, which promotes generations if not individ-
uals. For, as a scientific English writer has said,
"while science takes away with one hand it liberally
bestows with the other ; but what it takes away are the
low-class occupations, and what it gives are the high-
class ones.''

A silent bitterness of feeling and suffering among
a relatively limited class of toilers may attend the in-
troduction of a new invention ; but violence, once so
common and which amounted to machine-breaking
frenzies, is now unknown. If typesetting machines
did away with an army of compositors, there was a time
when compositors replaced an army of manuscript
copiers; and who knows but that in the not distant
future other processes of communication, now vaguely

156 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

hinted at, may render obsolete this great machine which
casts type while it is being set? Thus compensating
influences are ever at work all along the line. Look at
the callings to-day which had no existence three score
years ago, and the thousands employed in them — the
railroad and steamboat men, the draughtsmen, the
journalists, the chemists, the stenographers and type-
writers (over 500,000 women are thus employed in
the United States), and the host of skilled men de-
manded by the invention of the telephone, the electric
light and the bicycle. The ranks in these new callings
have increased a hundred fold, while the population
has barely quadrupled. One-third of the male popula-
tion in this country of the present day find their liveli-
hood in pursuits that were undreamed of a century ago.
Of course, the stevedore, thrown out of work by
the introduction of the steam crane, cannot expect to
jump into one of the newly-created callings, but he will
find that the world still has menial labor to assign to
him. Perhaps the best that he can hope for is that his
sons will choose or drift into more dignified vocations,
while he fills the lower gaps here and there. For many
a man there should be a crumb of consolation in Mr.
Wright's optimistic dictum that ' ' the rich are growing
richer, many more people than formerly are growing
rich, and the poor are growing better off.'' He should
grasp, too, the full import of Charles Barnard's remark
that ' ' work and science are for the making of the
nation. The American genius saves labor, not that he
may be idle, but that he may be free to undertake new
labors that shall benefit himself." It is out of the
question to be exact, but Gladstone once said that the
energy of the entire population of the earth had been
duplicated by machinery. Not less than three million
workmen operate the machinery in the United States,
which represents at least five million horse power. To

A CENTURY OF AMERICAN INVENTION 157

perform the labor done by these machines would re-
quire not less than twenty- five million people, which
would represent a population of one hundred and fifty
millions, or double the entire number of the inhab-
itants of the country. ,

In a recent article in the Century, Mr. E. V. Smalley
points out that ' ' the most important relation of patents
is not so much to manufactured articles as to the ma-
chinery which makes them. Here the consumer is
directly benefited. He pays less for the fabric, not
more, because the loom has been perfected by patented
appliances. Patented machinery has reduced the cost
of almost every article of daily use. The examiners in
the patent office will tell you that the class from which
inventions mainly come is that of men engaged in the
working of machinery, who are constantly thinking out
improvements." The substitution of machinery for the
hand has made possible our present vast factory sys-
tems employing thousands of workers and furnishing
necessaries and luxuries alike at prices that would have
amazed the citizen of 1800. Out of it have grown these
marvelous statistics: In 1899 there were 904,633 miles
of wire in use in this country for telegraphic purposes ;
to-day we have 772,989 miles of telephone wire in use,
connected with 465,180 stations and answering 1,231,-
000,000 calls a year ; also 170,950 miles of submarine
cables, all laid since the first cable, Cyrus Field's great
achievement, was laid, in 1857. More than one thou-
sand electric street-car lines are in operation in the
United States, with a capitalization of $1,700,000,000.
Verily this is the age of electricity and steel. In the
United States there are half a million arc lights and
about twenty million incandescent lights, the latter be-
ing equivalent in light-giving capacity to 320,000,000
candle tips such as they used in 1800. Bewildering as

158 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE * [August,

these figures are they have a romantic side which needs
the pen of a Kipling to exploit.

The following is a limited list of Americans whose
inventions have insured our industrial supremacy :

Amos Whittemore, Barton H. Jenks and Erastus
B. Bigelow as to looms ; Oliver Evans as to milling ma-
chinery ; E. I. Dupont de Nemours as to gunpowder ;
Thomas Blanchard as to lathes for turning irregular
forms; Asa Spencer as to geometrical lathes; Peter
Lorillard as to tobacco-making; Ira Ives, Eli Ferry,
Noble Jerome and Chauncey Jerome as to clocks ;
Jethro Wood as to iron plows ; Eliphalet Nott and Jor-
dan L. Mott as to stoves ; Samuel W. Collins and Elisha
K. Root as to ax-making; Matthew W. Baldwin and
Ross Winans as to locomotives ; Jesse Reed as to nail-
making; Samuel Colt, Ethal Allen, Christian Sharps,
Edmund Maynard, Christopher M. Spencer, Rollin
White, Horace Smith and Daniel P. Wesson as to fire-
arms; Richard M. Hoe, Isaac Adams, Stephen P. Rug-
gles, Andrew Campbell, Moses S. Beach and G. P.
Gordon as to printing-presses ; William Edwards as to
leather- making. John J. Howe and Chauncey Crosby as
to pin- making ; Alonzo D. Phillips as to friction matches ;
Thaddeus Fairbanks as to scales ; Henry A. Wells as to
hat-making ; Oliver Ames as to shovels ; Charles Good-
year, Nathaniel Hay ward and Horace H. Day as to
india-rubber ; William Woods worth as to wood-making ;
William P. Ketchum and Cyrus McCormick as to mow-
ers and reapers ; John Ericsson as to naval construc-
tion and hot-air engines; S. F. B. Morse, Royal E.
House, David E. Hughes and Thomas A. Edison as to
telegraphs; Elias Howe, Jr., Allen B. Wilson, Isaac M.
Singer, J. E. A. Gibbs, William O. Groves and William
E. Baker as to sewing-machines ; Jonas Chickering,
Henry Stein way and Albert Weber as to pianos ; Linus
Yale as to locks ; George Westinghouse as to air-brakes ;

A CENTURY OF AMERICAN INVENTION 159

Nathan Washburn and Asa Whitney as to car-wheels ;
Robert Bruce as to type-casting machines; John H.
Barnes as to cotton and hay-presses ; James J. Mapes as
to fertilizers; Cullen Whipple as to wood screws;
Henry P. Tatham as to lead pipe ; R. P. Parrott as to
cannon ; Richard J. Gatling as to Gatling guns ; Hiram
S. Maxim as to rapid-fire guns ; John Stephenson as to
horse cars ; Gail Borden as to condensed milk ; Henry
Disston as to saws; John A. Roebling as to cables,
chains and bridges ; Henry Burden as to horseshoe ma-
chinery ; William and Coleman Sellers as to shafting
and iron working; Nelson Stowe as to flexible shafting ;
Robert L. and Alexander Steward as to sugar refining ;
George H. Corliss as to steam engines ; Thomas A. Edi-
son as to incandescent electric lamps, etc., etc.

The possibilities of American invention are far
from being exhausted. Aerial navigation is no longer
scouted as an absurd dream of the scientific fanatic.
Some modern wizard, within the next decade, may
practically solve the problem of artificial flight, for it
has been demonstrated that suspension in the air is
comparatively simple. The chief difficulty lies in the
evolving of an effective steering apparatus for the
air-ship. When that is devised the Atlantic liners will
not be free from a unique and probably formidable com-
petitor.

In conclusion it may be observed that the patents
of American inventors, with some unfortunate excep-
tions, have been wisely protected by our patent laws.
While now comparatively free from politics in its con-
duct, the patent office is not immune from criticism.
The patent laws, in some respects, are very rigid, and
the rules of practice require a long coarse of study, in
order to be understood. Several desirable enactments
of the existing laws have been proposed, and it is hoped
that they will be enacted soon by congress. Another

160 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

thing very urgently needed is a new fire-proof building
for the exclusive use of the patent office. The present
structure, built by piecemeal and without provision for
the enormous growth of the business of the office, is
entirely inadequate. The clerical force is cramped for
room to do their work properly, and there is insufficient
space for the housing of the constantly increasing
models and archives. The government could well
afford to build an edifice which would be a companion
piece to the congressional library — something in keep-
ing with the importance and untold utility of this chief
adjunct of the department of the interior. The patent
office has long been self-supporting, and during its ex-
istence has received more than $40,000,000 in fees. By
all means let us have an appropriate and ample struc-
ture for this splendid department of our government,
which in the sixty-two years from 1837 to 1898 granted
623,535 patents. The inventive genius of our country-
men is not likely to deteriorate for at least another fifty
years, if then. On the contrary, it seems more active
to-day than it ever was. The current records of the
office prove this fact. So much then more reason is
there for meeting twentieth-century requirements by
having in Washington a patent office at once ornate,
commodious and free from hampering obstacles.

JOHN FISKE

In the death of John Fiske ( July 4th) the United
States lost one of its most brilliant historic and philo-
sophic writers. Mr. Fiske was not an original thinker ;
he can hardly be said to have been an original investi-
gator, but he had, what was no less exceptional, an ex-
traordinary capacity of seeing the interior truth in
philosophic doctrines and historic tendencies and pre-
senting this truth in attractive and intelligible form.
It was this faculty which made him preeminent as a
lecturer and always in high demand as a writer. He
has written many works on American history, none of
which are distinguished for any original research but
all of which are real contributions to the public knowl-
edge of American history. This is due to his rare fac-
ulty of combining the philosophy of history with the
narration of data, always seeing the sociological thread
running through the historical events and thus convey-
ing ideas as well as facts in all his historic writings.

Yet, it is in the realm of philosophy that Mr. Fiske
has made his best mark and for which he will be long-
est known. Although he was neither a creator of
philosophy nor an experimenter in science, he was the
great American expounder of both. His power of
analysis and generalizing the different schools of
philosophy and discoveries of science showed a quality
of mind no less remarkable than that required for
philosophic creation. His great work in this field was
"Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy." He was to the doc-
trine of evolution, including the work of Darwin and
Spencer, what Harriet Martineau was to Comte. Harriet
Martineau took Comte's six volumes and translated
them into two volumes. The work was so lucid and
luminous that Comte is said to have regarded it as a

161

162 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

better statement of his philosophy than his own works,
in proof of which he had it retranslated into French.

This is essentially true of Fiske's ' ' Outlines of
Cosmic Philosophy." It is a better statement of the
synthetic philosophy than is contained in the fifteen or
more volumes of Herbert Spencer's own writings. The
layman can read " Cosmic Philosophy" and get a com-
paratively clear conception of the doctrine of evolution,
which he might never extract from the writings of Mr.
Spencer. The difference between the two is that Mr.
Spencer's work is a laborious hammering out of the
philosophy, often accompanied by a wearisome redund-
ancy of fact and illustration, while Fiske's work is a
charmingly lucid and attractive presentation of the
philosophic generalization, omitting nothing that is
essential and giving nothing that is tedious or unneces-
sary.

In this great work, for it is a great work, having
no equal as an exposition of the synthetic philosophy,
Mr. Fiske does not pretend to originality, except per-
haps in one particular phase of the subject, namely :
the evolution "from gregariousness to sociality." This
was a link in the chain of human development which
neither Darwin, Spencer nor Wallace had supplied.
There was here a gap that could only be supplied by a
large and sweeping generalization. It was not clear
why the human species should develop the family habit
and so establish continuity of social life and affections,
any more than other animals which reproduce and raise
their young by similar means and show equal if not
more intense parental feeling and affection for their
young during the short period of parental care.

The explanation of this transition Fiske found in
the prolongation of infancy in the human race. He
pointed vitit with great clearness that the general dura-
t.i J-Q. of the feelings which insure protection of the off

JOHN FISKE 163

spring is determined by the duration of the infancy, or
helplessness, of the young. All animals are devoted
to the interests of their young until the young are able
to do for themselves, — whereupon they unceremoni-
ously desert them. In most of the lower animals this
raising of the young, and hence the duration of paren-
tal affection, exists in short concrete periods which
never overlap. That is to say, the young always be-
come sufficiently helpful to be self-sustaining before
any fresh young are born, so that there is no connec-
tion between one generation of young and the next
following. For reasons which Mr. Fiske made quite
clear, man, being a more complex and highly devel-
oped being, is less perfect at birth and acquires a great
deal more by experience with the environment after
birth than do less developed animals. Some species of
animal life are so physically perfect at birth that they
become self-sustaining in a few hours or a few days.
The higher the type of organism the longer the process
of perfecting the functions, and the less perfect are the
functions at birth.

In the case of man, which is the highest type, the
period of infancy is much the longest. The period of
physical perfection in the human being extends over
several years. During this time new members of the
family are born and the most helpless infancy reintro-
duced. Thus the family affections become continuous.
Before they are exhausted or broken off with the first
they are renewed at the maximum at the birth of a
second and third, and so on, and thus the family affec-
tion, parental responsibility and social continuity grad-
ually grow up into a permanent system. In fact, the
prolongation of infancy of the human race makes the
parental and family affection a continuous element
throughout the entire range of human life. Around
this family affection and responsibility grows the per-

164 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

manence of social relations and ultimately societary in-
stitutions. As Prof. Fiske says :

"The prolonged helplessness of the offspring must keep the parents
together for longer and longer periods in successive epochs ; and when
at last the association is so long kept up that the older children are
growing mature while the younger ones still need protection, the family
relations begin to become permanent. The parents have lived so long
in company, that to seek new companionships involves some disturbance
of engrained habits ; and meanwhile the older sons are more likely to
continue their original association with each other than to establish asso-
ciations with strangers, since they have common objects to achieve, and
common enmities, bequeathed and acquired, with neighboring families.
As the parent dies, the headship of the family thus established devolves
upon the oldest, or bravest, or most sagacious male remaining. Thus
the little group gradually becomes a clan, the members of which are
united by ties considerably stronger than those which ally them to mem-
bers of adjacent clans, with whom they may indeed combine to resist
the aggressions of yet further outlying clans, or of formidable beasts,
but towards whom their feelings are usually those of hostile rivalry,
. . . The concluding phases of this long change may be witnessed in
the course of civilization. Our parental affections now endure through
life ; and, while their fundamental instinct is perhaps no stronger than
in savages, they are, nevertheless, far more effectively powerful, owing
to our far greater power of remembering the past and anticipating the
future. "

This was Fiske's contribution to the doctrine of evo-
lution. Others, like Sir Henry Maine, clearly traced the
growth of social institutions from the primitive tribe
and clan, but it remained for Fiske to explain the mo-
tives and forces which led to the transition from merely
gregarious life to the establishment of social habits, out
of which the family and social life became continuous
and political institutions and modern civilization devel-
oped.

It usually occurs that the creator of a philosophy,
like the inventor of a new contrivance, is seldom capa-
ble of putting it in intelligible or useful form. It
remains for the clear-sighted generalizer to popularize
the new truth, and this faculty, which Mr. Fiske pos-
sessed in a preeminent degree, is scarcely less rare than
the creative genius which makes original discoveries,

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

THE WOMEN of Atlanta, Georgia, are organizing a
permanent association, with branches throughout the
state, to conduct a campaign for restricting child labor
in the factories of Georgia. No better work can be
done. The unrestricted labor of children in the fac-
tories of Georgia, and for that matter North Carolina
and other southern states, with no provision for educa-
tion, is indeed a disgrace not merely to the South but
to the United States. It would disgrace the policy of
the most despotic country in Europe. Until the em-
ployers and statesmen and journals of the southern
states rise to the level of actively dealing with this
question, their talk about civilization and freedom and
democracy is as tinkling cymbals. The true estimate
of states and communities, like that of individuals, is
not what they say but what they do. " By their fruits
ye shall know them," is after all the only real test of
character.

THE RUMOR that a large steel plant is to be erected
at tidewater near Philadelphia has started the free-
trade journals prophesying that this means the aboli-
tion of the tariff. The New York Times points out
that, with free raw materials and factories at tidewater,
iron and steel manufactures would be in an excellent
condition for foreign trade. Exactly. This would not
only be true of iron, but it would also hold with wool
and other industries. Free trade would tend to con-
centrate manufactures on the eastern seaboard and
practically prevent their development in the interior of
the country, which is exactly what ought not to occur.
What we need is the development of the greatest
amount of diversified manufactures, not merely at the

165

166 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

seaboard but throughout the entire country. To de-
stroy this means to arrest the growth of manufacturing
and make agriculture the chief industry of the interior
of the nation. That would practically mean the arrest
of the higher phases of our national development.

"THE WORLD DO MOVE." The New York Sun,
which for years has ridiculed the idea of any reform in
our banking system which should abolish the sub-
treasury and return to the principle of the old Bank of
the United States, has at last seen the error of its ways
and is now a pronounced advocate of ' ' a national bank "
and denounces the sub-treasury system as a barbarous,
wasteful, panic- creating institution. In a recent edito-
rial it says :

"Under this system the cash resources of the government and its
surplus revenues as they accumulate are locked up in the vaults of the
treasury, where they are of as little use to the business interests of the
country who have contributed them as if they were buried in the ground.
In every other civilized country of the world, even in Turkey, such a
hoarding of government funds has not been tolerated for a century. . . .
The present system is unscientific, improvident, wasteful and in every
way harmful to a degree that it is almost impossible to exaggerate. It
has caused within the last five years several business panics and, unless
history is untrue to itself, it will continue to be the seed of panic so long
as it exists."

The Sun is always a great force for whichever side
it is on. The country is to be congratulated upon the
fact that it has at last come out on the right side of the
currency question and is now an advocate of "putting
the treasury and banking system of the land on a stable
and scientific basis."

PRESIDENT SHAFFER, of the Amalgamated Associa-
tion of Iron and Steel Workers, is reported as saying :

" If the republican party is going to obtain power only to foster in
stitutions that will destroy labor organizations it cannot longer rely on
the support of labor. I have always been a republican, but if it comes

i9oi.J EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 167

to the worst and the administration stands idly by and allows the com*-
bine to crush us out of existence, in future I shall be ' all things to all
men.' "

If this be true, and we put in the "if," Mr.
Shaffer announces that he is going to become a com-
mon humbug, To be " all things to all men '' is noth-
ing but all-round deception. Nothing could exhibit
greater shallowness of leadership than this political
utterance. Whenever the leader of a great strike
movement begins to lecture the national administration
for not coming to its resue, and threatens to turn the
labor vote against it if the strike fails, he thereby pro-
claims his utter unfitness as a leader of labor. If the
labor movement is anything it is economic. If a strike
has any claims they are economic. The question be-
tween the steel corporations and the amalgamated asso-
ciation is strictly an economic question, It is not for
the federal government or for a state government, or
for the republican party or the democratic party, as
such, to interfere, and any attempt to lug in these
political forces throws discredit upon the leadership and
smacks very much of demagogy.

REPORTS FROM Europe indicate a light wheat crop
in England and a still lighter crop in the southern
provinces of Russia. This may not mean famine, but
if true is sure to mean a high price for wheat. We may,
therefore, expect to hear within the next few months
that J. P. Morgan or John D. Rockefeller has cornered
the wheat crop and is robbing the public through the
high price of foodstuffs. If the American wheat crop
is averagely good our farmers will have a very profit-
able year. Of course this will be rather bad for Mr.
Bryan and his party, because it will once more demon-
strate that the price of silver does not govern the price
of wheat and that wheat can be high with the gold

168 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

standard. But it will be equally fallacious for politicians
to pretend that this is due to the gold standard or to
the administration. It is simply another illustration
of the universal economic law that under competition
the price of a commodity in a given market is deter-
mined by the cost of supplying the dearest portion con-
tinuously demanded. Wheat has a world market, and
the price of wheat will be largely determined by the
cost of supplying wheat in the country where the crops
have been the poorest and the cost per bushel of raising
and marketing has been, in consequence, the greatest.
If the present crop reports prove true, the cost of pro-
ducing wheat in England and Russia will fix the world
price and our farmers will get the benefit.

ON THE i8TH of May, 1900, the International Asso-
ciation of Machinists and the National Metal Trades
Association of employers entered into an agreement
which provided among other things that all matters of
dispute should be submitted to arbitration before any
strike was resorted to. On the 28th of May, 1901, the
machinists broke their agreement by ordering a strike
against what is known as the "premium" system,
adopted by the manufacturers. The machinists were
undoubtedly justified on all economic grounds in re-
fusing to adopt the premium system, but they had no
justification for breaking their agreement. They should,
whatever the consequences, have lived up to their com-
pact with the employers and submitted the case to arbi-
tration. In thus breaking their contract, the engineers
have properly forfeited the confidence of the public, re-
gardless of the merits of the case.

At a recent meeting, the manufacturers returned
to the old method of insisting that all questions of
helpers and apprentices, wages and production, piece-
work and time-work and premium-work, should here-

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 109

after be determined solely by the employers. This
may be paying the laborers back in their own coin, but
it is a step backward for the manufacturers. The mis-
take of the laborers in breaking their contract cannot
be remedied by any such foolish return to old methods,
by the employers. They might as well learn first as
last that even though trade unions do sometimes act
foolishly they cannot be stamped out by any high-
handed imperious decision by manufacturers. The
great steel corporation is now paying the penalty for
the folly of this imperious attitude by Frick and
Schwab. No matter how foolish the Shaffers may be,
it does not justify the Schwabs, and in this step back-
wards the National Metal Trades Association is simply
putting a rod in pickle for its own back.

THE NEW YORK Sun seems to have been so deeply
embittered by its contest with the typographical union
that it is utterly incapable of discussing any strike
with fairness. It talks about strikes in much the same
hysterical tone that Bryan talks about banks and trusts.
In its issue of July igth, it has a long editorial in which
it frantically contends that England is suffering from
industrial decline because of the despotism of trade
unions :

1 'The inevitable outcome of such a system, where it is carried out
with a completeness now approached in Great Britain, is a reduction of
a nation's industry to a dead level of achievement, to a status of Chinese
stagnation with respect both to quality and quantity. . . There could
be no better time than the present to answer once for all the question
whether American manufacturers of iron and steel will bow their necks
to the yoke which their British competitors have long found too heavy
to be borne."

There are good reasons for criticising the conduct
of the amalgamated association. It can possibly be
shown that they are proceeding upon a mistaken idea
to establish and enforce a false and pernicious princi-

170 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

pie. But this is no justification or excuse or defence
for insanely declaring that England is being ruined by
trade unions. Such statements, instead of injuring the
strikers, tend to show that the commentators on the
subject in the Sun are too hysterical or too insane ra-
tionally to discuss the matter at all. It is nothing
short of silly, this prating about England's injury from
trade unions. England has suffered nothing from
trade unions, but has gained much. Trade unions in
England have done foolish things and so have manu-
facturers, but if the history of trade unions for the last
fifty years is summed up it stands for one of the strong-
est elements of England's industrial and social prog-
ress. It has done more for England's industrial
supremacy than acres of such editorials would do for
public intelligence.

The Suns malicious screeching on this subject
is just like the charge of certain croaking pessimists
that the progress of cotton manufacture in the South is
the result of demands for high wages and short hours
in the New England states. Anything that helps to
lift the level of material welfare and social life for any
group of people in any country never injures the con-
dition of the rest. It is only by these periodic liftings
of now one portion and now another, of the people, that
the general level of civilization is raised at all. If such
papers as the New York Sun really succeeded in their
opposing policy there would never be any progress at
all. The Sun seems to be an inveterate enemy of
every movement of laborers to improve their condition.
This opposition is so indiscriminate that its influence
ought to be nil.

IN THE JUNE North American Review, Prof. J. W.
Jenks, of Cornell University, discusses the question:
"How Trusts Affect Prices." In arguing that the

Igor] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 171

Standard Oil Company has not lowered the price of oil,
he says :

" It Is noteworthy, however, that the rate of fall in prices was very
much greater between 1871 and 1881 — from 35. 7 cents to 10.3 cents, with
an average price for the year 1880 of 6.6 cents [8.6]* — than it has been
s'nce 1882," when the trust was formed.

That is, to say the least, astonishing from Profes-
sor Jenks. Of course the reduction was much greater
from 1871 to 1 88 1 than from 1880 to the present. The
fall from 1871 to 1881, using the above figures, was
17.1 cents per gallon. If the price had fallen the same
amount since 1880 the Standard Oil Company would
now be giving the oil away and be giving also 8^ cents
with every gallon. It is not difficult for the layman,
even, to see that oil that is selling at 8.6 cents cannot
be reduced 17.1 cents. It is obvious that both the
amount and the proportion of the reduction in price
must diminish as the price falls toward zero. Economic
improvement in methods and organization may mini-
mize the cost, but they can never abolish cost altogether.
But what Professor Jenks seems not to see is that with
every decrease in the cost of production the next econ-
omy becomes more and more difficult. For instance,
it is quite conceivable that very ordinary methods
might have reduced the price of oil fifty per cent, when
it was 25 cents a gallon, but when it reached 8 cents
only the most extraordinary methods could accomplish
the merest fraction of reduction. This is well illus-
trated by the squeezing of a sponge full of water.
When the sponge is first taken from a pail of water, a
child of five can easily squeeze out more than half of
the water in the sponge, because it will ooze out with
only the slightest pressure. But to squeeze out half of
the remainder would take perhaps ten or twenty times

*This is an error, probably a misprint, as Mr. Thurber's table
(quoting Statistical Abstract), to which Professor Jenks referred, gives.
8.6. The actual average for the year, however, was 9.12 cents.

172 G UN TON' S MA GAZINE

as much pressure, and to squeeze out the last drop
might take a hydraulic press.

It is much the same with oil. At 25 cents and
above, oil was very much like the water in a full
sponge. Everything connected with it was loose and
crude, and the very slightest economic pressure would
reduce the cost. But when the price was below 8 cents,
especially below 7, the water was nearly all gone from
the sponge and only the extraordinary economies which
large capital could produce could squeeze another cent.
So that in reality, the productive economies that have
lowered the price from 8.6 (or really 9. 12) cents in 1880
to 7. 5 cents to-day, under conditions of greatly increased
cost of production during the last year, imply eco-
nomic methods much superior to any that were in
use from 1863 to 1880.

Correction

Unfortunately, three typographical errors appeared
in statistical tables in our July number. The errors
are obvious and probably misled no one, yet for the
sake of accuracy it is important to make this formal
correction.

On page 35, in the "difference" column of the
table of steel-rail prices, the differences between for-
eign and American rails in 1898 and 1901 should read
$4.89 and $1.22 respectively instead of $4.98 and $2.43.
In the 1901 case, as well as the 1898, the foreign price
is the greater.

On page 43, the percentage of increase in the price
of domestic glass in 1901 over 1899 should read "16"
instead of "6." The subsequent discussion of the
point was based on the correct figure, 16; the error
being purely typographical.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquiries-
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

The Judicial Spirit in Discussions
Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I am considerably disappointed in what
I expected of GUNTON'S as a high-class economic maga-
zine. A judicial spirit in dealing with economic ques-
tions will in the end commend itself, to even one's own
partisans. There are, as a rule, two sides to a ques-
tion, and, whether understood or not, some tenable
ground for the opposition. The high- class magazine
should merit the confidence of all and leave each to
profit by the calm judicial statement of fact as seen
from the different and various points of view.

J. N. McBRiDE, Cashin, Col.

[Our correspondent apparently regards opinions as
synonymous with prejudice, thinking it impossible to
have definite ideas without being partisan. GUNTON'S
is a magazine of definite views and does not care to be
known as anything else, but holds it possible to present
positive views without prejudice, unfairness or parti-
sanship. Its uniform practice has been and is to state
fairly the other side of every important economic prob-
lem it discusses. Its mission is not, however, to state
both sides and let it go at that. GUNTON'S MAGAZINE-
has an editorial policy, based on a general trunk line of

173

174 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

economic principles, and does not pretend or wish to
give merely colorless discussions of important questions
affecting the national welfare. Its aim, in the broadest
educational sense, is not merely to state problems, but
so far as possible to throw some light on their wise
solution.

At the same time, it cannot be correctly said of
GUNTON'S that it is unjust to the views it criticises, or
neglects to state an opponent's position fairly. The
opposite fact is, we are glad to believe from frequent
testimony, one of the magazine's well-recognized char-
acteristics. In our June number, for example, we pub-
lished a letter from Mr. Edgar L. Davis, Educational
Director of the Indianapolis Y. M. C. A., in which he
said in part : "I admire GUNTON'S MAGAZINE because
it is fair and unbiased, seeking to present the truth for
truth's sake. There is no rank fanaticism in it. I trust
it will continue to maintain the high regard for the
right presentation of public questions which so far has
characterized it from the beginning."

This is typical of the bulk of the comments that
reach us, along this line. At the same time, we mod-
estly refrain from claiming the crowning merit, as our
correspondent evidently regards it, of being innocent
of ideas and opinions. We have no expectation of
being able to satisfy that ideal of an educational maga-
zine which requires that it shall be careful never to
educate.]

The Study Course in Social Economics

DEAN, INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS,

Dear Sir: — I have about completed your course in
social economics as well as considerable other study
along the same lines, and would be pleased if you would

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 175

mail me subjects from which to choose for a thesis, as
a test for a certificate.

Your course is remarkable for its clearness, force,
boldness and impressiveness. I wish that the attention
of everybody could be arrested on the subjects of which
the course treats and the manner in which you treat
them. LUTHER SPENCER HULL,

Middletown, Conn.

A Generous Word from Dr. Butler

My dear Professor Gunton,

I have just finished reading your admirable paper
on "The Secret of America's Industrial Progress," and
write to thank you for its clear and convincing analysis,
in popular form, of the causes that have promoted our
recent extraordinary commercial expansion.

While writing, let me tell you too how much you
contributed to the value of the Detroit meeting of the
National Educational Association by your address.
The interest which was developed by the discussion of
Thursday morning in the subject of economics will not
soon pass away from the minds of those who were
present. Cordially yours,

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER,
Columbia University, New York City.

QUESTION BOX

Relief from the Spoils System

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir:— I have been watching very closely your
discussion of the Bidwell, Quigg, et al. affair, and have
been most anxious to know what stand President Mc-
Kinley would take in the matter. I do not wish to be
a pessimist, but after reading your reply to "J. M.,''
in the July number of your Magazine, I see little hope
for any betterment in our politics. It almost seems
that the greater the rascal, the greater the reward.

Do you really believe that any relief from the
blighting influence of the spoils system is to be ex-
pected? I pity our new possessions when they come
under the rule of our high-minded (?) spoils politicians.

Please permit me to thank you for the good work
you are doing. C. M. J.

The only hope of relief from this " blighting influ-
ence " in our political system must be sought in a better
education of public opinion on political affairs. Polit-
ical indifference is always a usable and sometimes a
purchasable quantity under democratic institutions.
An intelligent appreciation of public affairs naturally
tends to a critical observance of political methods and
a higher standard of political morals. Yet the highest
public opinion could not be effective against the pres-
ent spoils system without some practical means by
which to correct it. The system of political manipula-
tion now is in the private management of the primaries
and nominating conventions. When nominations are
once made, party loyalty is appealed to to support the
ticket, and it takes a great deal of courage on the part
of voters and a great deal of wrong -doing on the part
of politicians to induce the believers in the doctrines of
one party to break away and vote for the candidates of
the other. While they object to the specific evil they

176

QUESTION BOX 177

regard the election of the opposite candidate as a still
greater evil. This party loyalty, which is largely a
loyalty to political ideas and principles, is relied upon
by the spoils managers as the saving element to which
they can appeal. They blackmail corporations for
money, use the money and official patronage to control
the conventions, and when caught, on the theory of
choosing the lesser evil, appeal to the people to vote
the ticket and correct the specific evil afterwards. Thus
they outrage the rights of citizens and then appeal to
the patriotism of the public to overlook it temporarily
while they go and do some more.

It is at this point and in this way that the high-
handed buying and selling of offices and coercion of
citizens takes place. The remedy for this, in the hands
of an intelligent public, is to take this power of nomi-
nations entirely away from the politicians and place it
in the hands of the people. This can only be done by
abolishing the nominating conventions and instituting
a carefully devised system of direct nominations by
secret ballot, preserving, of course, party autonomy in
the nominations. This is a perfectly feasible and prac-
tical proposition and ought to be fully established in
every state in the union within five years. While this
would not give intelligence to citizens, it would at least
take this power of dictating nominations, by which the
bosses gain control over corporations on the one hand
and the government on the other, out of the hands of
individual bosses and place it in the hands of the peo-
ple. Whether better nominations or poorer would then
result would depend entirely upon the average intelli-
gence of the voters regarding public questions. The
nominations would be as good as the people and would
be made by the people, protected from the coercion and
corrupting influences that are degrading our political
methods to-day.

178 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

Reliance on Foreign Markets

EDITOR GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I notice you say that countries which
rely largely on foreign markets will go into a relative
industrial decline because other nations are coming to
manufacture for themselves. This will doubtless be
true in many respects, yet will not some countries al-
ways be taking the lead in the making of new and finer
products which the others will only come to produce
later on, thus making the foreign-market idea entirely
practicable as a permanent reliance so long as a nation
keeps to the van in its development of new commodities
and methods? W. A.

If it were possible for a nation constantly to create
new commodities and practically a monopoly of pro-
ducing them in sufficient quantities, a permanent re-
liance upon foreign markets might be possible, but
such a thing is scarcely to be imagined. It must be
remembered that progress in all nations is toward de-
velopment of manufactures, and the higher each nation
gets the greater its capacity for new diversifications
and inventing new appliances; so that, the higher the
world's civilization rises the less will foreign markets
become a safe exclusive reliance for any country ; that
is, foreign markets for manufactured products. A
purely agricultural country might permanently rely on
foreign markets for the sale of a portion of its products
with which to buy its manufactures, because the
tendency of progress is away from agriculture and
toward manufacturing and artistic industries. For in-
stance, England was so definitely ahead of all other
countries in manufacturing devices that she manu-
factured almost for the world, but no sooner did the
United States begin to diversify than it began to in-
vent, and with the very growth of its industrial com-
plexity came an increased power of new invention, and
now there are many times more new products, new

1901.] QUESTION BOX 179

notions as they are sometimes called, in the form of
commodities created in this country than in England.
The variety of "Yankee notions'' exceeds that of all
Europe. The same is true of France, Germany and
other countries in proportion as they make progress in
the diversification of manufacturing and artistic indus-
tries.

It is altogether more likely that the final outcome
will be that nations will ultimately specialize on cer-
tain lines of manufactured commodities and exchange
manufactures for manufactures, but the idea that one
nation can do the manufacturing for other nations, re-
lying chiefly on foreign markets for its manufactured
wares, is possible only if other nations fail to make
commensurate progress.

Free Trade with our New Islands

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Do you think there would be any par-
ticular danger to our protective system involved in
giving free trade to products from Porto Rico and the
Philippines? These countries send us only tropical
products, of which we raise very little here anyway.
They would send us almost nothing in the manufac-
tured line. R. M. S.

There is no reason why the Philippines and Porto
Rico should be treated any differently from Cuba and
Canada. There is no particular benefit in giving them
free trade, and the chief danger would be to open the
door for the breaking down of our whole protective
system. If it is important to the further industrial de-
velopment of the United States to maintain a protective
system, then it should be consistently maintained
throughout. For instance, there is no particular reason
why the products of these countries that compete with
domestic products should be admitted free any more

180 GUNTOM'S MAGAZINE [August,

than the products of Cuba or of India. There is one
aspect of it in which free trade might prove a great dis-
advantage : namely, in inducing American capital to go
to Porto Rico or the Philippines and, through the use
of cheap labor there, undersell similar products in this
country, to the. detriment of American labor and of in-
dustry here.

That is what has occurred in the agricultural dis-
tricts in England. By permitting American foodstuffs
to come in free, it has scarcely paid for English capital
to go into agriculture. It has not entirely suppressed
English agriculture, but forced it to linger along in an
unprosperous condition, with the result that the agri-
cultural laborers of England have made practically no
progress in sixty years. It would be a decided disadvan-
tage to have any agricultural industries in this country
paralyzed by the transference of capital to Porto
Rico, the Philippines or Hawaii. That would be using
these tropical countries with their tropical wages to
prevent the progress of domestic industry. Let us once
establish free trade with these islands and the clamor
will set in for free trade with Canada, and the whole
will be used as a lever to break down the protective
system. Everything which contributes to the plausi-
bility of a free- trade agitation is a blow at the present
prosperity of the country.

"Trusts" as a Political Issue

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir : — Do you suppose the trust question will
ever again be a leading issue in American politics? The
concentration movement seems to have reached and
passed its climax, and all the tendency now is toward
new competition. Business has become well adjusted
to the era of great things and it does not seem as if the
American people could really be stirred to great exer-

QUESTION BOX 181

tions over something that they are constantly finding
is only an imaginary hardship and not a real one at all.

P. M. L.

Anti-trust feeling is not dead. It is indeed true
that the evils predicted regarding large corporations
have not come to pass and that new competition is
arising, but it is also true that the people are full of
prejudice and easily inflamed against the rich. Noth-
ing is quite so easy as to make the public believe that
it is robbed. Nothing but the idea that the people are
being robbed would give any sort of success to a free-
trade agitation. In 1892, for instance, at the height of
business prosperity, when laborers had never received
so much for a day's work, they were with comparative
ease induced to vote for a new policy, — all because they
believed they were robbed, although they were actually
getting more than they had ever had before. The
trust matter is largely a question of feeling, and the
feeling is that large corporations rob somebody. Mr.
Bryan cunningly fastened upon this issue. He knew
that feeling is stronger than reason. Those who are
trying to stir up another free-trade agitation are basing
their hope of success on the idea of coupling the trust
with the tariff. Of course experience will win in the
end if we can only get enough of it, but great bodies
move slowly. The public opinion of seventy-six mil-
lions of people is not readily changed. It was full of
prejudice in 1900, it will not be free from prejudice in
1904.

Yes, there is real danger, and the most effective
way to prevent anti-trust sentiment from again focus-
ing into a political issue is for the great capitalists to
be conservative and public-spirited in their attitude to-
ward prices and labor. They can do more than any-
body else to make or prevent the trust question from
becoming a political issue.

BOOK REVIEWS

GOVERNMENT OR HUMAN EVOLUTION. By Edmond
Kelly, M.A., F.G.S. Cloth, gilt top, 608 pages. Long-
mans, Green & Co., New York.

This book is the outcome, as the author tells us,
of his experience as an active participant and for a con-
siderable time a leader in the social-reform movement
in New York city. Mr. Kelly was practically a leader
in the organization of good-government clubs, which
some years ago were a conspicuous element in the
movement for municipal reform, culminating in taking
the government of New York city from the Tammany
administration. As the result of this experience, which
was not highly gratifying, Mr. Kelly resolved to write
a book and discuss if not solve the problem of individ-
ualism and collectivism. He has tried very hard to be
fair and apparently struggled with himself not to be-
come too far an advocate of either view, but rather to
present the equilibrium between the two which should
contain the best in both.

The opening chapters of the book show that he be-
gan in good faith with this high intention. But, as we
read on, it gradually becomes perceptible that this pur-
pose consciously or unconsciously slips away and he
becomes an advocate of collectivism, — not a ranting so-
cialist, but a socialist none the less, and the more he
discusses collectivism the more he loses his capacity to
state the strength of individualism. A sample of this
is given on page 227. Discussing economic liberty, he
says:

"Extreme individualism is marked by ferocity and selfishness, and
is illustrated by the lion, the tiger, and man in the savage state. Ex-
treme socialism is marked by habits of altruism and affection, as illus-
trated by the bee, the ant, and man in the ideal Christian state."

182

BOOK RE VIE WS 188

Thus in the author's mind individualism means the
worst there is in depraved or least developed human
nature, and socialism means the highest there is in re-
fined, civilized character. This conception is born of
pure sentiment. It rests on no rational generalization
of experience. Nothing is more obvious and universal
than that ferocity and selfishness belong to the uncul-
tivated and brutalized, and that altruism and affection
belong to the refined, cultivated and socially broadened
character. This altruism and refinement has been de-
veloped and is to be found under conditions of eco-
nomic individualism very much more than under
any system of socialism, either in theory or practice.
Indeed, the highest types of altruism ever developed
thus far have been found under the individualistic re-
gime. The bees and ants do not represent high society,
they represent rather a despotic communism inZ which
there is no freedom. All are made to do exactly
alike. There can be no altruism where there is no free-
dom. When all are compelled to act and work, eat and
live alike, there is nothing altruistic in their working
in common. The author assures us (page 243) that :

"Collectivism proposes to vest in the state both land and capital, the
private ownership of which now sets man against man, and to vest it under
conditions which will put men shoulder to shoulder in cooperative pro-
duction, eliminating anxiety, diminishing toil, and permitting a leisure
and a freedom for the promotion of knowledge, culture, and art which
the world has not yet seen "

It is unquestionably true that socialism proposes
just this. All the experiments in socialism, from Brook
Farms and Hopedale communities down to the last ex-
periment in Kansas, have had this for their object, and
it was because they thought that, by vesting "in the
state both land and capital" and all the ownership and
control of the means of production, they could accom-
plish this dream of fairyland, that they failed. They
failed because they did not act along the lines of the

184 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [August,

economic tendency of society, and no organized effort
to transfer society from selfishness to altruism is ever
likely to succeed so long as it is born of or directed by
the idea that individualism is ferocity and socialism af-
fection. Neither of these ideas is true. Individualism
is not ferocity ; on the contrary, it contains the possi-
bility, as is demonstrated throughout the progress of
society, of evolving the highest type of human charac-
ter. Socialism is not affection, as every experiment to
socialize authority has demonstrated.

But, as we progress through this interesting and
sometimes ingenious volume, our author exhibits this
tendency of underrating individualism and overrating
collectivism until he almost becomes a special pleader.
The importance of the discussion of this subject in the
interest of collectivism is to show how it will work. No
system of social organization is worth considering un-
less it is feasible. Hence the feasibility of the collec-
tivist proposition is the point of importance. The
feasibility of systems of social organization does not
consist in the plausibility of the arrangement, saturated
with ideal altruism, but rather in the automatic work-
able quality with the existing human nature. The
social system will keep in order only so long as it ac-
cords with the tendency of human interests and human
action. Any attempt to make it work contrary to this
or very much above it is necessarily doomed to failure.
No despotism is strong enough and no altruism affec-
tionate enough to make institutions work except along
the lines of the character, interests, habits and ideas of
the people. One of two things is indispensable to
orderly government ; either that the social system shall
be adjusted to the existing character of the people or
the character of the people shall be adjusted to the
institutions. In harmony they must be or the system
will go to pieces.

igoi.] BOOK REVIEWS 185

It is just this lack of harmony between the eco-
nomic forces of society and the idealism of the socialist
proposition that Mr. Kelly fails to develop in any ap-
preciable degree. He does, indeed, raise the question
on almost every point, and his answer is usually what
collectivism would do and not what the people would
do under collectivism. For instance, on the matter of
the value of commodities and the payment of services,
which is one of the crucial points in any social system,
he says :

" Under a collectivist rtgime there will be two kinds of scrip: divi-
dend coupons and voluntary labour cheques. The former [which is to
be the permanent economic method and take the place of wages] will be
issued to represent that part of the nation's income to which the
holder is entitled by virtue of the compulsory labour he does with a view
to the production and distribution of necessaries . . . The essential
feature of the dividend coupon is that it represents a fraction of the
national income."

In other words, the wages are not to depend as now
upon the free operation of economic and social forces
upon the individual, but it is to be a fractional part of
the grand aggregate of the nation's income. The di-
vision of the product is to be proportionate to the num-
ber of the population. In this way every man will get
an equal portion of the nation's product. Like the old
wage-fund theory, this reduces individual income to a
mathematical division, regardless of social character or
individual effort.

On page 403 he gives an illustration of just how
this division would take place:

"It is proposed to calculate it as follows:

"At a time when the population of the United States was fifty mil-
lions. Mulhall estimated that the amount of grain annually produced in
the United States was 2,400,000,000 bushels. Of this, ten per cent, must
be deducted for seed, a ad a further deduction of about fifty per cent.
must be made for the feeding of stock. This would leave about 1,000,-
000,000 bushels available for human food. This figure divided by 50,-
000,000 would entitle every inhabitant, upon an equal division, to twenty
bushels of grain per annum. This amount of grain, therefore, would

136 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

represent the share of every member of a collectivist community in the
grain production of the state. If, at the time of the conversion of ex-
change medium from currency to dividend coupons, $1.00, or a hundred
cents, were the cash value of a bushel of grain, one hundred units might
conveniently be taken as the commercial expression in dividend coupons
of a bushel of grain ; and every inhabitant would therefore be entitled
to 20 x 100 or 2,000 units of value arising out of his right to an equal
share in state production of grain.

"The same kind of calculation could be applied tomcat; the number
of pounds of meat to which each inhabitant was entitled could be arrived
at as in the case of grain. If meat at the time of conversion was worth
twenty cents a pound, the number of pounds of meat to which every in-
habitant was entitled would be multiplied by twenty units, and this
figure, representing the share of every inhabitant arising out of meat
production, would be added to the 2,000 units representing his right to
a share in the state production of grain.

" This process would be applied to all the commodities produced by
the state through the medium of compulsory labour, and thus the total
share of each inhabitant in the total income of the state would be deter-
mined in dividend units or coupons."

The merit of this plan from Mr. Kelly's point of
view is that it would prevent anybody from becoming
rich. Under this regime he correctly says : "No great
individualist wealth could be made." Like most social-
ists, he creates a society that does not exist and then
proceeds to criticize it. He says: "Individualists
contend that individualism means to level up."

He then points to the inequalities of society as
proof that individualism has failed. As a matter of
fact, no intelligent representative of individualism
would claim that individualism means leveling up.
Leveling is just what individualism never means,
either up or down. Leveling always means an arrest
of progress, whichever way the leveling takes place.
To level up means that the top must stop or slacken
while the bottom catches up, and leveling down that
the top must be lowered until an equality is established.
Either of these processes means a practical dead level
and static society, which is the opposite of individual-
ism. There can never be leveling with progress.

I90I.J BOOK REVIEWS 187

Progress always means inequality. The human race
never can move all abreast, not even in any considera-
ble group. Progress is a procession in which some lead
and others follow, but all move. Progress lifts the
bottom but it never levels. Individualism is the very
essence of this irregular progressive motion, hence it
is an essential in real progress.

It is undoubtedly true that collectivism tends to
level. It may even tend to level up from the bottom
without leveling down very much from the top. But
this very leveling is stultifying. Its tendency is
necessarily to stop the irregular movement by prevent-
ing individual initiative, which constitutes leadership
in progress. Nothing could be more deadening to
initiating leadership in social progression than the sys-
tem of equal division of the nation's product above
described by Mr. Kelly. It is the veritable doling out
of the nation's wealth in even portions on the basis of
counting heads all of equal value. That is quite as
bad as, if not a little worse than, the military system
proposed by Bellamy. Tnere is absolutely nothing in
this to inspire either exceptional effort or application
of genius to improvement, except the very, very general
fact that the most incompetent person in the community
will get exactly as much of the results as those who by
special effort and application bring about the increase.
If the object was to stop the increase of wealth and
bring society not merely to a level but to a dead static
level, this scheme of distribution would seem perfect.

Our author further explains that these coupons or
money must not be coined because coin can be accumu-
lated and those who own it might become rich, which
is the special thing to be avoided in the new state. If
individuals own wealth they might exercise dangerous
influence on the government. He says :

4 ' It does not seem conceivable that those in con-

183 GUJVTON'S MAGAZINE [August,

trol of so powerful a machinery as that of a collectivist
state could resist the corrupting power of wealthy
magnates able by accumulation of wealth to offer
enormous rewards for political favors."

To prevent this the money must be so arranged as
not to be susceptible of accumulation, and if accumula-
ted to become worthless, and to insure that this shall
work Mr. Kelly provides that the labor cheques must
be used within a limited period or become valueless.

This can hardly be called a scientific discussion of
a social system, but rather a description of a new pro-
posed system to be inaugurated. The objection to it
is that it is arbitrary, uneconomic and not in the line of
development from any known societary institutions. It
ignores all the principles of economic compensation
and distribution; it takes no scientific account of the
principles of value, of wages, or exchange. However
plausible or satisfactory such a scheme may be to the
fairyland conceptions of a philanthropic mind, it can do
little for the practical amelioration of the conditions of
the human race, because it is not in accordance with
the interests and forces of existing society or with the
conditions of social progress.

The book may properly be regarded as a discus-
sion of individualism and collectivism, but it can
hardly justify the title of human evolution. If evolu-
tion means anything it means the growth out of one
condition into another, and not the creation of a new
system having little in common with the old. To
abolish individual wealth, destroy exchange on the
basis of economic value, and to remove the opportuni-
ties of wealth accumulation is not to improve the
present state of industrial society but to create a new
one, which involves a miracle. Mr. Kelly's descrip-
tions are interesting, his doctrines are disappointing.
It can hardly be regarded as a permanent contribution
of economic discussion or of social philosophy <

1 901 . ] BOOK RE VIE WS 189

TUSKEGEE. Its Story and its Work. By Max Ben-
nett Thrasher. With an introduction by Booker T.
Washington. Cloth, 215 pp., $1.00. Small, Maynard
& Company, Boston, Mass.

In his introduction Mr. Washington says that the
author of this book is exceptionally fitted for the work
he has done, having been for several years closely ac-
quainted with the institute and studied its work on the
ground.

The opening chapters are devoted to a sketch of
Mr. Washington's life up to the time he was asked to
organize and take charge of a school at Tuskegee. An
interesting account is given of the almost incredible
growth of this school since its opening, twenty years
ago, in an old negro church with thirty pupils in attend-
ance. The institute now owns hundreds of acres of
land, forty-six buildings, and has a yearly attendance of
more than one thousand students. Mr. Thrasher has
traveled extensively through the South for the purpose
of visiting the graduates of Tuskegee, and his account
of their work and the influence they exert in bringing
about better conditions among their own people and a
better sentiment between the races shows how the re-
sults of the work at Tuskegee extend far beyond the
comparatively few who directly secure the benefits of"
its training.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

Government or Human Evolution. Individualism and
Collectivism. By Edmond Kelly, M. A., F. G. S.,
author of "Evolution and Effort." Cloth, 608 pp.
Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

The Great War Trek. With the British Army in
the Veldt. By James Barnes, author of " Midshipman
Farragut," etc. Cloth, I2mo, $1.50. D. Appleton and
Company, New York.

190 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

Treason and Plot. Struggles for Catholic Suprem-
acy in the Last Years of Queen Elizabeth. By Martin
A. S. Hume, author of "The Spanish People," etc.
Cloth, 8vo, $4.50. D. Appleton and Company. New
York.

Scientific Side-Lights. Compiled by James C. Fer-
nald, author of " The Spaniard in History," etc. Cloth,
8vo, 700 pp., $5. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New
York.

The Nineteenth Century. A Review of Progress in
the Chief Departments of Human Activity. Among
the 37 contributors are Arthur T. Hadley and Andrew
Carnegie. Cloth, 8vo, 500 pp., $2. G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York.

My Experiences in the Boer War. By Adalbert
Count Sternberg. Translated from the German. With
preface by Lieut. -Col. G. F. R. Henderson. Cloth,
crown 8vo, 268 pp., $1.50. Longmans, Green & Co.,
New York.

Political Economy. By Charles S. Devas, M. A.,
sometime examiner in political economy at the Royal
University of Ireland. Cloth, crown 8vo, $2. Long-
mans, Green & Co., New York. Second edition, re-
written and enlarged.

Queen Victoria, 1819-1901. By Richard R. Holmes,
M. V. O., F. S. A., librarian at Windsor Castle. Cloth,
crown, 8vo, $1.50. Longmans, Green & Co., New
York. New edition, with a supplementary chapter
bringing the narrative to the end of the Queen's reign.

Annals of Politics and Culture, 1492-1899. By G. P.
Gooch, M. A., author of "English Democratic Ideas in
the Seventeenth Century." With an introductory note
by Lord Acton. Cloth, 8vo, 530 pp., $2.25. The
Macmillan Company, New York.

The Industrial Revolution. By Charles Beard. With
a preface by F. York Powell, Regius professor of
modern history in the University of Oxford. Paper,
I2mo, 105 pp., 40 cents. The Macmillan Company,
New York.

FROM JULY MAGAZINES.

" Every professor is at perfect liberty to give dig-
nified and moderate expression to whatever views on
political and social questions he may hold. ... In
doing so, however, he should never forget the dignity
and impartiality and courtesy which his position as an in-
tellectual servant of the public must always impose upon

him Membership in a political party

and frank avowal of one's views on political and social
questions are perfectly consistent with the position of a
professor. Neither president nor trustee nor donor
has the slightest right to inquire into a professor's
views for the purposes of discipline or removal, nor to
prevent the reasonable and moderate expression of such
views. On the other hand, a president and a board of
trustees have both the right and duty to suggest to a
professor that the immoderate and aggressive and vitu-
perative reiteration of views which are repugnant to a
large portion of the constituency of an institution, are
inconsistent with his largest usefulness as a professor ;
and if he persists in such utterances, to notify him to
choose between the career of an agitator and a profes-
sor. Every relationship implies both rights and duties.
A professor has duties to an institution as well as rights
in it. It is the duty of the president and trustees of an
institution to protect a professor in his reasonable
rights, and to insist on his regard for the duties and
obligations which his membership in the institution
involves."— WM. DEWiTT HYDE, in "Academic Free-
dom in America,'' The International Monthly.

"It is a great error to speak of the majority of
these people [Filipinos] as barbaric. They are culti-
vated to a degree, intelligent, and eager to adopt new

191

192 G UNION'S MAGAZINE

customs. But they belong rather to the fourteenth
century than to the present era. The wild men, who
dwell in certain mountainous sections, are not warlike,
unless molested, and are looked upon by the others as
we look upon the American Indians. The cleverness
of the average Filipino is evinced by his aptitude in
acquiring the English language. In the new schools,
it is one of the required studies, and in engaging teach-
ers preference is given to Filipinos, who quickly learn
their future tongue. Within ten years, there probably
will be only Filipino instructors on the islands.

" As 'native police,' trained by the United States'
officers, they prove themselves to be in every way capa-
ble and trustworthy, and the system of employing them
is being universally adopted." — GEN. F. D. GRANT, in
" The Philippines and Their People, " Success.

"It is well known, that as between given in-
dustries and countries, the longer working-day is in-
variably distinguished by the lower wage rate. The
facts of the movement for a shorter working-day demon-
strate that wages increase not only relatively to the
amount of work done, but also positively as the result
of the diminished competition among the workers.
This fact is the strongest possible substantiation of the
contention that the wage rate is governed wholly by
those considerations which we have in mind when we
speak of the 'standard of living.' ' More time out of
the shop ' means more time for rest and recreation ;
leading to the creation of new desires, and the conse-
quent elevation, or at least diversification, of the accus-
tomed mode of living. By a natural process these de-
sires become needs, the satisfaction of which is as im-
perative to the sense of decency as that of the purely
physical wants to the maintenance of life itself." —
WALTER MACARTHUR, in " The Movement for a Shorter
Working-Day," The Forum.

FRANK MOSS

See page 262

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

Ever since President Shaffer's declaration,

Waning of the . , . ,, , ,

Steel Strike given out on July 2 ist, that he proposed

to hold the administration and the repub-
lican party responsible for the result of the present
strike, whatever popular confidence existed in his lead-
ership has been fast ebbing away. Along with the de-
cline of confidence, public sympathy with the strikers'
cause has also rapidly approached the vanishing point.
The extreme nature of the demands made by the men
is responsible for much of this, but not for more than
the growing feeling that leaders of the kind that have
come to the front in this struggle cannot be safely en-
trusted with such power as the men have sought to ob-
tain. The dangers of putting such exclusive control
into the hands of the unions have grown more and more
obvious in proportion as the management of the strike
by its leaders has shown new phases of bad judgment,
indifference to contract obligations, and heated appeals
to prejudice and passion.

The latest developments in the conflict have con-
firmed this feeling. From the concessions which the
steel corporation has declared itself willing to make, it
is now clear that, if the original demands of the amal-
gamated association had been moderate and reasonable,
they would probably have been granted, and all this
costly and disastrous struggle been avoided. If Presi-

193

194 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

dent Shaffer and his associates had simply demanded
the signing of the scale for the plants where unions ex-
isted, and the releasing of the men in non-union mills
from their contracts not to belong to unions, leaving the
association free to organize them if it could, the obvious
reasonableness of the demand would doubtless have
brought victory at the start. By another year, then, if
the moral suasion brought to bear by the association
was really effective, most of the men in the non-union
mills would probably have been organized and ready to
demand the uniform scale for themselves. As it was,
the demands the association did make, however ex-
plained, meant in effect that the non-union mills must
be made union mills by the employers. This looked on
the face of it so much like coercion, an arbitrary effort
to force organization upon those who might or might not
want it, that the corporation at once had a moral backing
in public opinion for refusing to submit. With better
leadership, the laborers might have gained an impor-
tant vantage ground, with no interruption to the indus-
trial peace of the country, and none of the privations
and enormous losses that every day's continuance of the
struggle now entails.

The United States Steel Corporation has
tcTsettle no^ refuse<i to confer with the officers of

the Amalgamated Association nor de-
clined to submit propositions to them as representing
the body of organized workers in the steel industry. A
conference of some nature was held in New York about
the middle of July, and the terms offered to the strikers
at that time included the opening of all mills to non-union
men as an offset to permitting the association to organ-
ize the men in the mills not now organized, if it could.
President Shaffer at first agreed to this, but the men
refused to support him. Another conference was held

igoi.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 195

in New York on August 4th, at which Mr. Shaffer and
his associates met Mr. Morgan and Mr. Schwab at the
office of the steel corporation. The terms of settlement
discussed were : (i) the strikers to withdraw their de-
mand that employees in non-union mills be compelled
to join the union ; (2) the steel companies to agree not
to discharge any workers because of membership in the
union or because of efforts to organize unions in the
non-union mills ; (3) the wage scale agreed upon with
the association to be the minimum scale in all mills,
but the corporation to have the right of making special
wage contracts at non-union mills, and the union scale
not to be signed for those mills ; (4) finally, all mills of
all the companies to be open to any steel workers,
whether members of the union or not.

The labor leaders would not accept this last clause,
and the conference came to an end without result.
Two days, later, August 6th, Mr. Shaffer issued this
strike order :

"Brethren: The officials of the United States Steel Trust have
refused to recognize as union men those who are now striving for the
right to organize. The executive board has authorized me to issue a
call upon all Amalgamated and other union men in name and heart to
join in the movement to fight for labor's rights.

" We must fight or give up forever our personal liberties.

"You will be told that you have signed contracts, but you never
agreed to surrender those contracts to the United States Steel Corpora-
tion. Its officers think you were sold to them just as the mills, with
contracts and all.

" Remember, before you agreed to any contract you took an obliga-
tion to the Amalgamated Association. It now calls you to help in this
hour of need.

" Unless the trouble is settled on or before Saturday, August 10,
1901, the mills will close when the last turn is made on that day.

" Brethren, this is the call to preserve our organization. We trust
you and need you. Come and help us, and may right come to a just
cause."

The effect of this, thus far, has been chiefly a dis-
appointment to the men. About 14,000 obeyed it, on

196 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

August I2th, but it was expected that 40,000 or 50,000
would come out, mostly in the West. On August i6th,
about 3000 men in the employ of the Illinois Steel Com-
pany, at Joliet, did indeed join the strike, but on the
other hand the corporation has succeeded in resuming
work in several plants which had been closed down.
The strongest item of encouragement to the strikers,
aside from the Joliet reinforcement, is the fact that the
American Federation of Labor has come to their aid,
promising moral and probably financial aid. Mean-
while, the corporation is taking advantage of the idle-
ness to dismantle a number of important plants and
move the machinery to other points, where less trou-
ble is to be feared. This policy of further concentra-
tion, if carried out, will undoubtedly increase the
economic efficiency of the corporation when work is
resumed, and also make the task of organized labor as
difficult in these new and enlarged centers of produc-
tion as it has been in the Carnegie works at Homestead
ever since 1892. The large Dewees Wood plant at
McKeesport, Pa., is already being torn down in accord-
ance with this program, and it has been decided to
combine several mills of the American Tin Plate Com-
pany with the Monessen, Pa., plant, which is the only
tin-plate mill where the men have not gone on strike.

President Shaffer's last general strike
Canno*Vin order is in itself almost enough to doom

the men's cause to failure. Even the
workers to whom it was addressed, those most directly
interested and most strongly partisan to the union's
side, for the most part have refused to obey it, and in
some places, notably Cleveland, the strikers have re-
turned to work on the ground that the leaders had no
right to order them to break contracts made with the

IQOI.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 197

company, showing an even keener sense of honorable
obligation than the officers of the association.

Mr. Shaffer's argument that the contracts made by
non-union men with the various steel corporations are
no longer good, because the corporations have been
absorbed by the "trust," not only failed to convince the
men concerned but has strengthened everywhere the
hands of those who are glad:,to have it appear that
trade unions will notjhold ;themselves responsible and
cannot be trusted to, stand-by their agreements. Noth-
ing more unfortunate for the labor cause could have
occurred. It is purely fan argument of expediency, not
of principle. Does;anybody imagine for a moment that
if the laborers had made favorable contracts with the
various companies Mr. Shaffer would have said any-
thing about having them cancelled, because the men
were being "sold" to the corporation? Suppose, in
such a case, the corporation had undertaken to suspend
the agreements, would not Shaffer have fairly exploded
with moral indignation and called it perfidious viola-
tion of sacred obligations?

The contracts made with the non-union men may
be indefensible in themselves, but they are contracts
and should be respected until properly abrogated. To
say they were not transferred with all other contracts
when the corporations were absorbed by the steel
"trust'' is practically to admit what would be one of
the most damaging of all things to the laborers,
namely, that labor contracts have not the same binding
or legal force as other kinds of business agreements
and therefore may be violated at will. No theory of
this sort was ever presented which did not work both
ways. If a labor contract is not binding on the men it is
not binding on the corporation, and with every change
of organization on the part of the companies it would be
possible to abrogate any or all agreements with the men

198 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

as to wages, hours or other conditions. Would the
laborers quietly accept this as just and honorable con-
duct? Not for a moment. Indeed, one of the original
causes of complaint in the present strike was the fear —
not the knowledge, but only the suspicion — that the
Carnegie Steel Company was going to absorb the
American Steel Hoop Company and, by thus ending
the legal existence of these companies, terminate also
their contracts with the amalgamated association, mak-
ing them all non-union. This would have been openly
denounced as a scandalous device to break contracts
with the laborers. Yet Mr. Shaffer now proposes to
have the men in the non-union mills take advantage of
the very principle upon which the Carnegie Company
would have acted had it adopted this plan, namely, that
a change in the form of organization abrogates all pre-
viously existing labor contracts. How can the leaders
of the unions expect public respect and sympathy in
the face of such obvious inconsistency and unfairness
as this?

The Proposed As we have said, the men might have won
Settlement Not had the leaders demanded simply the
Unreasonable signing of the scale for the organized
mills and releasing of non-union men from their
contracts not to join the association. Not having
done this, there is no doubt that it would still
have been wiser, under the circumstances, to ac-
cept the corporation's offer of settlement than to
go on with the struggle. This offer would have guar-
anteed the union scale as the minimum rate in all the
mills, and opened the non-union mills to the organi-
zers of the association. To be sure, it would have
thrown open also the union mills to such non-union
laborers as might be able to obtain employment there.
But this would not necessarily have broken up the

1901.] REVIEW OJ* THE MONTH 199

union, or compelled the men to " fight or give up for-
ever [their] personal liberties.'' It would simply have
transferred to the union the whole burden of maintain-
ing itself intact. If the union organizers could not
persuade, by peaceful means, the non-union laborers
to join the organization, it would be because they had
not a sufficiently good cause to present to these men to
convince them, and more they could not expect. If,
upon experience, the unions should find that union men
were being discharged and only non-union men being
employed in their places, there would be at any such
time sufficient ground for a strike, and with a moral
justification behind it. It is highly improbable that
any such policy would be pursued by the corporation ;
the ever-threatening penalties would be heavier than
anything to be gained by it. Indeed, under such an
arrangement, the position of the union might really be
stronger than now. With an organization existing in
every mill, even if it did not include all the workers,
a general strike would call off enough men to make it
practically impossible to operate any of the plants suc-
cessfully ; whereas at present the great strength of the
corporation is that it can keep on supplying orders by
concentrating business at several of its largest con-
cerns.

With the knowledge that a general strike would
come if a systematic effort were made to supplant
union men with non-union men, in this or that particu-
lar mill, and the further knowledge that such a strike
would cripple if not stop practically every plant owned
by the corporation, the employers would have an even
stronger interest than now in seeing that occasion for
a strike was not given. The men would be practically
as safe under such an agreement as they are at present
anywhere, and it would make their success depend, not
on coercion or arbitrary exclusive rule, but on their

200 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

own ability to convince workingmen of the advantages
of labor organization, on the one hand, and on the
other their power to deal a staggering blow to the cor-
poration if efforts were made to break up the union by
stealthy methods, piecemeal.

But the men have rejected this arrangement and
now it is probably a fight to the finish. There has
been some talk of arbitration but nothing sufficiently
definite to be at all promising. It may not yet be too
late for a settlement, but it is most unlikely that any
fresh concession will be offered by the steel corpora-
tion. An agreement, if any is reached now, will prob-
ably come through the mediation of outside interests.
The misfortune of the situation, from the laborers'
standpoint, is that bad leadership has sacrificed the
opportunity of gaining a real advantage, but even now
it would be far wiser to accept the guarantee of a
minimum wage, with the privilege of free organ-
ization in all mills, than to continue a course which bids
fair to break up the organization altogether and trans-
fer this giant steel corporation into the group of non-
union industries.

Police Department The campaign for wrenching New York
Rascality Un- city from the grip of Tammany Hall
masked at Last could hardly have had a more favorable
groundwork of operations than the radical exposures
now going on of wholesale corruption in the police de-
partment. It has been public knowledge for years that
the Tammany police were systematically protecting
disorderly houses and haunts of vice, for regular money
tribute, but not until now has it been possible to get
definite evidence connecting police headquarters with
this system of organized blackmail. None of the re-
form efforts, investigations or raids have been able to
break into the extraordinary network in which the

1901. J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 201

police department has concealed its system of revenue
for vice- protection under the external appearance of
enforcing the law. Now, however, the Society for the
Prevention of Crime, through the skilful detective work
of ex- Police Commissioner Frank Moss, has obtained
evidence which ought to, and probably will, lead to the
indictment of Deputy-Chief of Police Devery, several
captains and wardmen, and possibly entail the removal
of Police Commissioner Murphy.

Some years ago a man named Edgar A.
Whitney was in the employ of the Society
for the Prevention of Crime as a special
agent, but left its service in 1896. After that he went
over to the camp of the enemy, and became one of the
intermediaries between the police department and the
poolroom clique, his particular function being to give
"tips " to poolrooms of approaching raids. Within the
last few weeks, one of the agents of the Society for the
Prevention of Crime, Dillon, pretended to sell out to
the poolroom combine, agreeing with Whitney to send
word in advance when any of Mr. Moss's agents were
planning a raid. Whitney thereupon initiated Dillon
into the secret of the method whereby these tips were
forwarded to the suspected poolrooms, and the fact was
revealed that the telephone system of police head-
quarters itself is the chief instrument of communica-
tion. The operators had orders to make any telephone
connections desired by Whitney, by authority of Deputy-
Chief Devery, and Dillon tested the system by sending
tips through the headquarters to various sub-station
houses and poolrooms, with the result that in every
case the inmates were seen promptly to disappear,
leaving the resorts closed up and deserted. On the
basis of these facts Whitney -was arrested, on August
9th, and next day made a full confession, which has

202 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

not been published, but is in the possession of District
Attorney Philbin. This, it is believed, will lead soon
to the formal indictment of several of the most con-
spicuous and long-suspected officials in the police de-
partment, including Deputy-Chief Devery, Captain
Flood of the "tenderloin" district, and Edward G.
Glennon, Flood's wardman.

Following so closely upon the trial and

conviction of Wardman Bissert, his sen-
Results

tence to five years' imprisonment, and the
subsequent indictment of Captain Diamond of the East
5th Street station, both for complicity in the protection
of a disorderly resort on Stuyvesant Street, this definite
exposure of an organized" tipping system" through po-
lice headquarters is one of the most damning revelations
that has come to light in the history of New York city
misgovernment. Those who see only the concrete re-
sults are not likely fully to appreciate the persistent and
untiring labors of men like Mr. Moss, Justice Jerome
and District Attorney Philbin to secure the conviction
of those responsible for such a disgrace to the metropo-
lis. To them will belong the credit, if the result shall
be the removal and punishment of the corrupt clique
who have degraded what should be the right arm of
the law, for the preservation of public order and morals,
into a vice-protecting machine for the gathering of
revenue in behalf of a political cabal existing only for
public plunder.

Whether indictments and convictions are secured
or not, the effect upon public opinion ought to give
enough momentum to the anti-Tammany campaign to
carry the cause of decent government up to and beyond
the line of victory, thus cleaning out this entire struc-
ture of official rottenness from top to bottom. It is
fortunate that the new system of having a single police

looi.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 203

commissioner in charge of the department makes it
possible, in case of a reform victory, to reorganize the
police service through and through, as was not possible
under Mayor Strong because of the bungling, ineffective
bi-partisan board.

The opportunity for a thorough renovation now
actually exists, and whether it shall be taken is for the
people and leaders of the various organizations, whose
cooperation is absolutely essential to success, to say.
This time, at any rate, there can be no toleration of
petty jealousies, rivalries and dissensions, which shall
split up into warring factions those who really want
decent government and so give the city again to the
enemy. The cause is too serious, the opportunity is
too great, and woe to him who does anything to fritter
it away.

The Porto Rico legislature having de-
Free Trade With . , - ' * .
Porto Rico vised a system of internal revenue, which

it is expected will be adequate for the
support of the island government, President McKinley,
under the terms of the Foraker law, issued a proclama-
tion on July 24th abolishing the tariff that has been
collected on Porto Rican products and admitting them
free to the ports of the United States.

Now that this mighty reform has been at last
accomplished, those who have been shedding salt tears
over the wretched plight of the poor Porto Ricans,
groaning under the burden of this iniquitous tariff
(about one-seventh of that collected on similar products
from any other country), will experience a great re-
freshment and revival of spirits. They will have
luxurious visions of the plenty and comfort that are,
presto, going to smile upon our little West Indian pos-
session. There is a rich field, too, for the newspaper
cartoonists who have familiarized the public ad nauseam

204 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

with pitiful figures of little Porto Rico, in rags and
misery, knocking vainly at a massive tariff wall, with a
flinty-faced likeness of Senator Foraker looking over
the top. They will change all this to an alluring pic-
ture of rich prosperity, the wall* removed, and Justice
triumphant on a pedestal.

There have been few more ridiculous things in the
history of tariff discussions than the denunciations
heaped on this Porto Rican tariff, and the efforts
to charge the hardships of the island during the last
year or two to this cause. As a matter of fact, if these
hardships were due to tariff legislation, rather than to
the hurricane which devastated the island in 1 899, it
must have been the lowering of the tariff rather than
the putting of it on that brought the calamity. The
impression seems to have existed that the Foraker act
in some way shut out Porto Rico from privileges it
had previously enjoyed ; in reality, Porto Rico always
had to pay full tariff duties, like any other country, on
everything it sent to the United States, but the Foraker
act removed 85 per cent, of this duty and required
Porto Rico to pay only 1 5 per cent, of the rates col-
lected from all others. If this is what caused the
miseries of Porto Rico during the last two years, then
the adoption of complete free trade may be expected to
complete the ruin and force us to put the whole popu-
lation into poorhouses.

In reality the Foraker act was the means of saving
the Porto Ricans an amount of internal taxation since
1899 which, added to the devastation of the hurricane,
might have completed the prostration of the island's
industry arid trade. Our government made a present
to the Porto Rican treasury of every cent collected at
our custom houses on imports from the island. The
amount of protection afforded was too small to be of
any particular consequence to producers in the United

i got.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 205

States, or serious burden to Porto Rican importers, and
the only real significance of the measure was that it
provided a means of running the Porto Rican govern-
ment without overburdening the poverty-stricken
population with taxation until they were in a position
to devise a system which they would be able to main-
tain without hardship. Such a system has now been
arranged and put into legal form in what is known as
the Hollander law, which proposes to raise the revenue
in three ways: (i) a tax on real and personal property;
(2) an excise tax; (3) the customs duties on imports
from foreign countries. None of these customs collec-
tions will come into the United States treasury, which
is an exception in favor of Porto Rico enjoyed by no
other state or territory of the union.

The tariff is now off, and with the change from 85
per cent, free trade to 100 per cent, free trade the
sugar planters and coffee raisers of the little island
spring at once from serfdom into emancipation. The
Porto Ricans need no longer groan. No more tears
need fall. And the free traders here at home, it is to
be hoped, can once more sleep o'nights.

For Tuesday, August 20, the Journal of
Comparisons Commerce shows the following wholesale

prices :

1901 1900

Flour, Minn, patent $3.7534.00 $3 75a4- 10

Wheat, No. 2 red 77f 79^

Corn, No. 2 mixed 62| 45

Oats, No. 2 mixed 39 26

Pork, mess 16.00 12.50

Lard, prime western 9.10 7.05

Beef, hams 21.50 20.00

Coffee, Rio No. 7 . . asf 8f

Tea, Formosa 23 24$

Sugar, granulated 5.25 6.10

Butter, creamery, extra . . 2o|a. . 2i^a . .

Cheese, State, f. c. white, small, fancy . . 9i&9f aioi

206 G UNTON '5 MA GAZINL

1901 1900

Cotton, middling upland ........ $ 8 1-16 $ 10

Print cloths ................ 2| 2j

Petroleum, refined, in bbls ........ 7.50 8.05

Hides, native steers .......... i2f icf

Leather, hemlock ............ 24^ 23

Iron, No. i North, foundry ........ i6.ooai6.5o i6.ooai7.oo

Iron, No. i South, foundry ........ is.ooais.so i6.ooa . .

Tin, Straits ................. a26.25 . . . a^o.go

Copper, Lake ingot ........... i6faiy i6.5oai6.62£

Lead, domestic ............. . . 34! . . .. 34.25

Duns Review shows index-number aggregate prices
per unit, of 350 commodities, averaged according to
importance in per capita consumption, for August i
and comparison with previous dates, as follows :

i, July i, Jan. i, Aug. i, Aug. i, Aug. i,

1901. 1901. 1901. 1900. 1899. 1898.

Breadstuffs. . . . $166 68 $149.04 $144.86 $138 80 124.03 $121.91

Meats ...... 91.51 94-3° 84.07 90.68 82.74 78.25

Dairy and Garden 132.61 110.30 155.56 115.32 9936 96.25

Other Food . . . 92.53 90.86 95.04 96.18 90.86 87.95

Clothing ..... 150.27 150.98 160.24 161.06 Tei. 18 146.34

Metals ...... 153-45 153-44 158.10 151.51 166.16 113.97

Miscellaneous. . 166.25 166.17 15881 161.70 143.64 125.19

Total ..... $953.30 $915.09 $956.68 $915.25 $859.97 $769.86

As might be expected, the advances at present are
nearly all in foodstuffs, owing to unfavorable weather
conditions in the West. Manufactured products remain
about stationary, though showing a considerable decline
as compared with last year. Even metals, in spite of
the strike, were lower on August ist than on January
ist, a condition which can hardly be expected to re-
main if the suspension of production is long continued.

ELEMENTS IN ECONOMIC HARMONY

Blessed are the peace-makers ; they ought to inherit
the earth. In no sphere of human interest are the func-
tions of the peace-maker and harmonizer more impor-
tant to society than in economics. The strife of trade
unions, employers' associations, political parties, armies
and navies, international controversies, and even war
and revolution, mostly arise from differing views and
policies on economic and industrial questions. These
differences of policy generally rest on differences in
economic theory. Statesmen and politicians, manufac-
turers, traders and laborers do not create theories ; they
adopt them ; they convert them into policy.

The corner-stone, as it were, of economic science
is value. It is through value (price) that all economic
movements in modern society take place. All questions
of consumption, production, buying and selling, wages
and prices, profits, rents and interest are directly or in-
directly reflected back to the question of value. So, too,
the practical questions of trusts and strikes, monopoly
and competition, tariffs and free trade, currency and
banking, immigration and sweatshops, education and
sanitation, all are contemplated from the point of view of
value, as reflected through production, consumption and
prices. Yet there is no question upon which econo-
mists have differed so widely as this foundation element
in the science upon which they should be most substan-
tially agreed. The contention, verging on chaos, which
has prevailed among economists on this subject has
lent color to almost every vagary in public policy. In-
deed, it has created an air of contempt for economics as
a science, among practical people of affairs, because on
almost no important public question is there any sub-

207

208 G UN TON'S MA GA ZINE [September,

stantial agreement among those who ought to be author-
ity on the subject.

During recent years, however, some progress has
been made in this direction. The discussion has tended
to establish two theories, which have been denominated
the English and Austrian schools. The distinctive idea
of the English school is that the value or price of com-
modities tends to equal the cost of production, and that
of the Austrian school is that value tends to equal the
marginal or final utility of the commodity.

In an article, "Social Elements in the Theory of
Value,"* Dr. Edwin R. A. Seligman has assumed the
task of harmonizing these two theories and so making
peace between the contending and seemingly antagonis-
tic forces in economic science. He has undertaken to
show, and not altogether without success, that in the
last analysis the two mean the same thing. He says
vpage 337):

"Both cost and utility measure value, because, as we have seen,
marginal social cost is always equal t« marginal social utility."

Also, (page 340) :

" Value may be estimated in terms of either social utility or social
cost, because the marginal degree of the one is equal to that of the
other."

And so in several ways Dr. Seligman reaches the
conclusion that the two are essentially the same. Now
if this be true, and he goes far toward proving his case,
the contention, which leads to so much confusion of
opinion, is very largely a matter of nomenclature. There
is no virtue whatever in any economic theory which
does not contribute to the understanding of practical
problems in society. Any economic theories which do
not throw helpful light on the practical problems of the
day are worse than useless, because they waste time
and tend to confuse. If there are two roads which

Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1901.

ELEMENTS IN ECONOMIC HARMONY 209

lead to the same place, and one is broad and obvious to
the ordinary traveler, while the other is circuitous and
beset by many by-ways through which the traveler may
easily stray into the woods, there can be but one opinion
as to which road should be recommended.

This is the case with the two theories of value
which Dr. Seligman has undertaken to harmonize. Of
course, in assuming the role of harmonizer and peace-
maker, for which by learning and temperament he is so
admirably equipped, Dr. Seligman endeavors to merge
the two, as he says, " into a higher synthesis." He be-
gins by saying :

"A brilliant writer at the last meeting of the American Economic
Association said that the cost of production theory of value has been
relegated to the limho of antiquities, and has been supplanted by the
doctrine of marginal utility. On the other hand, we have the equally
positive statement of another recent writer that the marginal utility
theory, which at one time seemed to possess the minds of the younger
American economists, has now been quietly shelved in favor of the older
classical doctrine of cost. "

The doctrine of cost may indeed have been ' ' rele-
gated to the limbo of antiquities'' by a brilliant writer
living in a world of abstractions, but not by successful
men of affairs. The business man never fails to reckon
with the cost of production as a vital element in his
business and the controlling fact in his profitable com-
petition. The manufacturer who relegates cost of pro-
duction "to the limbo of antiquities" is surely heading
for the same place. Failure is the reward for all who
refuse to reckon with cost, however much they may
dote on marginal utility. Of course, Dr. Seligman
does not declare himself in favor of the cost doctrine as
against the marginal-utility doctrine, but he very judi-
ciously leads his utility friend around the circuitous
puzzle- walks of the marginal-utility vernacular until he
reaches the goal where the two are identical and might

210 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

have been reached crosslots with half the trouble, and
less risk of getting lost.

In order to do this successfully, Dr. Seligman de-
votes nearly two-thirds of his article to reasoning in the
terms of the marginal-utility theory. It may be well,
the better to understand the reasoning in the case, and
more accurately to judge the value of Dr. Seligman's
criticisms, briefly to state here the essential point of the
two doctrines. Dr. Seligman does not give the defini-
tion himself, but he may be taken to be in full accord
with Professor Clark's statement of it in his recent work
(The Distribution of Wealth, page 42):

"As this term Is usually defined, it means the degree of usefulness
that the last of a series of similar articles possesses. Give to a man one
unit of the article A, and then another and another, till he has ten of
them. While each of the articles in the series may do him some good,
the amount of the benefit will steadily diminish ; as the number of the
articles grows larger, and the tenth one will benefit him least af all. In
order to add to his stock of A, the man will never sacrifice more than
what is, in his view, a fair offset for the benefit that he will get from the
tenth and last unit of it. ... Then what they will give for any of
them will be gauged by the specific utility of the last one."

The cost of production doctrine may be briefly
stated thus : Under free competition, the value of a
commodity in a given market will tend to equal the
cost of producing the dearest portion of the general
supply continuously demanded. It will be observed
that the marginal -utility theory is based upon the
assumption that the consumer's desires determine what
the value shall be ; that it is determined by what he
will give for the units of the product that are least
useful to him. At best this cannot represent more than
half the truth, because it takes no cognizance of the
producer's side. The consumer, it is true, furnishes
the demand, but the producer furnishes the supply, and
surely those who supply commodities have to be reck-
oned with about the price. If consumers alone could
determine it, the price would always be nil.

1901.] ELEMENTS IN ECONOMIC HARMONY 211

By way of illustration, Dr. Seligman introduces
the indispensable " Robinson Crusoe on a desert isle'"
who, he says, " would assign a value to apples as com-
pared with nuts, the value of each being in agreement
with their marginal utility to him." The plain, simple
fact in Crusoe's case would be that if apples were just
as good 'as nuts he would get whichever he could get
easiest, which means that which cost him the least
effort. If Jhe had to run more risk or do more work to
get the same satisfaction out of nuts that he would out
of apples, then he would take the apples. All nature
and all mankind does that. Just what would determine
the marginal-utility preference in Crusoe's case is not
clear, but what would determine the cost preference is
obvious — that which he could get the easiest. Now,
since they are both alike, why is it not better to say
cost instead of marginal utility?

Again, he says :

" If an^apple is worth twice as much as a nut, it is only because the
community, after comparing and averaging individual preferences, finds
that the desire unsatisfied by the lack of an apple is twice as keen as
that unsatisfied by the lack of a nut."

Here the Doctor does too much for his utility
friends. That is not the reason why an apple is ' 'worth
twice as much as a nut.'' No matter how keen the de-
sire for apples as compared with nuts, if it cost the
same to produce a nut as it did an apple, neither could
possibly be worth twice as much as the other, but their
value would be the same. For example, the total crop
of wheat for 1900 was 522,000,000 bushels and the total
crop of corn was 2, 105,000,000 bushels. The desire for
corn was more than four times " as keen " as the desire
for wheat, and yet the price of wheat was fully twice
as much as the price of corn. The reason that
corn in any normal year is only half the price of wheat
is because it only costs about half as much to raise a

212 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [September,

bushel of corn as it does to raise a bushel of wheat. If
the desire for corn were forty times instead of four
times as keen as for wheat, it would not affect the price
of corn as compared with wheat if the cost of raising
the corn per bushel were not increased. There would
simply be more corn produced, as there is.

Dr. Seligman is entirely right in emphasizing the
social element in value. It is not the individual esti-
mate, but the estimate of society as represented by the
aggregate individuals, in their action and reaction, upon
each other. That influences value. But neither the
individual nor society can fix the value of commodities
below the cost of production. Suppose, for instance, in
a given community or country the social marginal
utility of shoes were 10 cents a pair (and in some coun-
tries it might not be higher) and nobody could produce
them at less than 25 cents. That 10 cents marginal
utility would not fix the value of the shoes. It would
be fixing the barefootedness of the people. If the cost
of producing shoes is 50 cents a pair, no social marginal
utility less than 50 cents will have any effect whatever
upon the value, because it will not induce production.
By way of criticising the cost of production theory, Dr.
Seligman says:

" The value is due not to the labor of the individual who has made
it, but to the social service which it is going to render ; that is, to the
social sacrifice which it is going to save. If it does not render that
service, it will not possess that value, no matter how much individua
labor has been spent on it" —

and in a footnote adds that Professor Clark in his
"Distribution of Wealth " is the only writer to state
this point clearly.

That is really a little surprising. So far as we
know, no representative advocate of the cost theory
ever contended that it was the cost of individual product
or the product of individual producers that determined

ELEMENTS IN ECONOMIC HARMONY 218

the value. On the contrary, it is an essential part of
the theory that it is the cost of the dearest portion of
the aggregate supply to a given market continuously
demanded.*

This was always stated or implied by Ricardo, Mc-
Cullough and Walker, and even by Karl Marx, as
shown by his silver-spindle illustration. In applying
the cost principle to wages as a standard of living, care
has always been taken to explain that it was not the
cost of the single laborer's living, but of the family,
and not even of the single family but of the most ex-
pensive families in a competing group whose labor is
continuously required.!

If a manufacturer insisted on making cotton cloths
with hand looms at a cost of 50 cents a yard, while the
rest of the producers were making it by factory methods
at 5 cents a yard, it is truly absurd to assume that the
value would be 50 cents a yard. The reason that it
would not is thoroughly explained by the cost theory,
namely, that the 5o-cent product would not constitute
a necessary part of the continuous supply. The cheaper
factory methods would undersell it and render it
unnecessary. It is on this principle that machinery
which has cost large sums is sometimes suddenly re-
duced to the value of old iron by the discovery of a new
invention which renders its use unnecessary to the
social supply. This is exactly the same thing as show-
ing that the value is due ' ' to the social service which
is going to render," which is another way of saying
that value is due to the cost of production, but not

*Gunton's " Principles of Social Economics," chapter IV, section
III; pp., 118 128.

See also Walker's "Political Economy," pp. 137, 311, 312; also
Roscher's "Political Economy," volume i, section 106.

fGtmton's "Wealth and Progress," pp. 83, 89, 167, 168, 169, 170,
171 ; also " Principles of Social Economics," pp. 203-204.

214 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

merely to the cost of past production but of reproduc-
tion, as stated by Carey.

If it were true, as it sometimes is to a limited ex-
tent, that the social consumption of the commodity is
such as to take the product of three different grades of
machines, the poorest of which makes the cost of pro-
duction double that of the best, it would remain true
that the product made by the poorest machine would
fix the value of the whole. That is the way large
profits arise, and this would continue just so long as
the product of that poor machine was needed, that is,
socially necessary. But let the best machines be in-
creased so as to supply the whole social demand, and
the product of the poor one will cease to fix the value
because it will cease as a necessary part of the supply.
Value will then fall to the equivalent of the cost of pro-
ducing by the dearest or poorest remaining machine.
To say value is determined by the cost of the dearest
portion socially necessary is the same as saying value
is determined by the marginal cost of production. The
dearest portion is the marginal portion.

Of course, desire is the first fact in value creation.
When desire reaches a sufficient degree of intensity, it
furnishes a motive for production or supply. The first
fact on the supply side is cost of production. Whether
production will proceed or not depends upon whether
the "keenness of desire" or final utility is strong enough
to give a price equal to the cost. All desire or final
utility short of this is impotent. When desire rises to
that point, actual supply begins, and if for any reason
it should begin before that point is reached it results in
failure. In reality, then, the order of movement in
value creation is (i) demand, (2] cost, (3) demand at a
price that will cover cost, (4) the efforts of consumers
to give as little as possible.

Thus demand creates supply, cost of the dearest

i90i.] ELEMENTS IN ECONOMIC HARMONY 215

portion fixes the minimum value, and the effort of the
consumers to buy at the minimum (or final utility), to-
gether with the competition of producers, keeps value
down to this point of dearest cost. By the action and
reaction of these forces in society, value is fixed where
the marginal utility and marginal cost meet;
the former preventing it from rising permanently
above and the latter from falling permanently
below the cost of producing the most expensive
portion of the aggregate supply continuously
demanded. Therefore, the logical outcome, as Dr.
Seligman clearly shows, is that both the cost theory
and the marginal-utility theory lead to the same result.
This being true, the only question worth considering is,
which of the two theories has the greatest social utility.

1 ' Since all progress consists in getting more results
with less effort," says Dr. Seligman, "the prob-
lem of social cost and social surplus becomes one
of basic importance The way to in-
crease the surplus is to maximize the results and
to minimize the efforts; that is, to increase utilities
and to decrease costs." Here he gets at the real nib of
the whole subject. If it be true that progress consists
in giving society more wealth at less cost, it follows
that the emphasis of economic policy, both in the shop,
market and in politics, should be laid upon the influen-
ces and conditions which will promote the methods that
reduce the cost of production. The cost theory leads
directly to this. It shows that whatever may be the ef-
fect of utility, social marginal utility, or individual mar-
ginal utility, there can be no increase of surplus and
hence of public wealth, unless there is a reduction in
the cost of production.

In what way does the marginal- utility theory aid
this result? It furnishes no feasible basis for individual
or public policy, it neither directly nor indirectly sug-

216 G UNTON'S MA GA ZINE

gests or leads up to a suggestion of how to increase the
wealth or lessen the drudgery of society. It furnishes
no clue to any means of advancing social welfare, it is
essentially abstract, technical, involved, and far removed
from real touch with all economic and political action.
To all the practical questions of economic and political
policy it is a veritable sphinx.

The cost theory, on the other hand, leads directly
to the core of everyday experience. It recognizes the
fact that social progress involves increasing the surplus
wealth of the community by creating more utility with
less effort, and it says this can be done only by reduc-
ing the cost of production per unit. This furnishes the
fulcrum upon which to rest the economic lever to lift
society. To the inventor it says, Devise methods which
shall produce more with less expense. To the capital-
ist it says, Improved machinery is the only means for
increased profits. To the statesman it says, The way
to promote national progress is to encourage by public
policy all the opportunities and influences which will
promote invention and the use of more economic de-
vices in production. So it furnishes a direct scientific
stimilus to all the principal forces of social progress.
And to the laborer it has the same encouraging word.
It says, The way to increase wages is to increase the
cost of labor by raising the standard of living. Thus,
through improved social life, the laborer secures an in-
creasing portion of the aggregate means of social wel-
fare. This furnishes scientific stimulus to the social
movements of the laboring class, and rational public
policy protecting and encouraging the influences which
promote the social consumption of the masses. Thus
it furnishes a rational principle that directly promotes
the development of cheaper wealth and dearer men,
which are the two essential elements of advancing civili-
zation.

IS "AMERICA" A NATIVE OR IMPORTED
NAME?

VAN BURBN DENSLOW, LL.D.

The impression that the American continent has
derived its name from the Florentine "merchant and
geographer,'' whose name has been alleged by some to
have been " Amerigo Vespucci,'' and that thereby an
injustice was done to Columbus, retains a firm hold on
the popular mind and is even sustained in part by the
vis inertia of that class of scholars who do not care to
be bothered by it. Secretary of State Elaine expressed
the opinion that the continents should yet be named
"Columbia " if only to emphasize their disgust at the
charlatanry of Vespucius. The late ex-President Benja-
min Harrison concurred in the same sentiment. Both
these influential publicists ignored or attached but
slight importance to the three attempts which have been
made to prove that the name was not derived from Ves-
pucius. These were by Prof . Jules Marcou( 1875), Lam-
bert (1883) and de St. Bris (1888).

Prof. Jules Marcou opened his attack on the Vespu-
cian fable in a paper on ' ' The Original Name of Amer-
ica" in the Atlantic Monthly (March 1875) XXXV, 291,
and in " Sur 1'origine du nom d' America '' in the Bul-
letin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, June 1875 ; and
by a further paper in the New York Nation in 1884-
Marcou held that the word Americ or Amerique was
the native designation of a range of mountains in Cen-
tral America. But the name America had appeared in
a work published in Europe in 1507 within ten years
after the discovery of the mainland by Columbus and
many years before the name of mountains in Central
America could have been known there. He also held

217

218 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

that Vespucius' Christian name was Albericus or Al-
berico, and denied that any genuine autographs make
it Amerigo. Mr. Justin Winsor in his " Narrative and
Critical History of America'' (Vol. I., p. 179), says:
" Nothing was more common in those days than
variety in the fashioning of names. We find the Flor-
entine name variously written, Amerigo, Merigo, Al-
merico, Alberico, Alberigo." But in failing to state
that these names are found in signatures written by
Vespucius himself he fails to join issue with Marcou.
Hojeda, with whom Vespucius was once thought to
have sailed (Vespucius says) called him Morigo. But
outside Vespucius' own writings there is no evidence
that he ever sailed at all. No Portuguese record con-
tains his name. Spanish archives mention him only as
a merchant who sold supplies to Columbus for his third
voyage. In the best known of his writings his name
appears as Alberic. This, too, in the very narratives
which are relied upon to establish that he was an ex-
plorer. In 1502 and 1504, he wrote an account of voy-
ages under the title " Mundus Novus," or New World,
and affixed his name as Alberic.

A facsimile of the title page of this work appears
on pp. 157 and 158 of Winsor's " Critical History,"
(Vol. II.)

Nevertheless in 1507, three years later, a coterie
of geographers which edited Cosmographic Introduction at
St. Diez in Lorraine, assumed the name of Vespucius
to be Amerigo. In that work first appears the attempt
to call the continent ' ' America ' ' on the ground that to
do so would be naming it after its discoverer.

Its editors say : ' ' And the fourth part of the world
having been discovered by Americus, it may be called
Amerige, that is the land of Americus or America."
And again : ' ' Now truly as these regions are more
widely explored and another fourth is discovered, by

1 901. J fS AMERICA A NA TIVE OR JMPOR TED NAME? 219

Americus Vespucius, as may be learned from the fol-
lowing letters, I see no reason why it should not justly
be called Amerigen, that is the land of Americus, or
America, from Americus its discoverer, inasmuch as
both Europe and Asia have chosen their names from
the feminine form." Apparently these editors had
never seen the " Mundus Novus'' in which Vespucius
had three years earlier published himself as Alberic.
Had they done so, they must have named the continent
Alberica.

As late as 1555 a royal quarto was published in
Latin, and now in the Astor Library, entitled " Novis
Orbis Regionum, etc., Cosmographica.'' In this work
seven pages are devoted to the supposed voyages of
Vespucius, but the work styles him Alberice Vesputii.
This indicates that for half a century after the little
St. Diez group had christened Vespucci by the name
"Amerigo," a considerable portion of the learned
world knew him as Alberic. By an unhappy and
sinster blunder this St. Diez utterance is also the true
source of the false notion that Vespucius discovered
the continent before Columbus.

The letters date Vespucius' first voyage in 1497,
while Columbus only sailed on that third voyage, in
which he reached the mainland, in May, 1499. On
this point Mr. Justin Winsorsays ("Critical Hist.," etc.,
Vol. II., p. 142): "Assuming the letters attributed to
him to be his, he made four voyages, of each of which
he wrote a narrative. According to the dates given in
these letters, he twice sailed from Spain by order of
Ferdinand, in May, 1497, and in May, 1499 ; and twice
from Portugal in the service of King Emanuel, in May,
1501, and in May, 1503. But not a scrap of the original
manuscript of these letters is known to exist, and it is
not even positively known in what tongue his letters
were written.''

220 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

Upon the question of Vespucius havi ng made a
voyage in 1497, Mr. Winsor says: " The official records
of expenses incurred in fitting out the ships for western
expeditions, show that from the middle of April, 1497,
to the end of May, 1498, Vespucius was busily engaged
at Seville and San Lucar in the equipment of the fleet
with which Columbus sailed on his third voyage. The
alibi, therefore, is complete. Vespucius could not have
been absent from Spain from May, 1497, to October,
1498 — the period of his alleged first voyage. . . . The
positive evidence, on the other hand, is unquestioned
that Columbus sailed from San Lucar on his third voy-
age on the 3oth of May, 1498, and two months later
reached the Western Continent about the Gulf of
Paria."

A cloud of contradiction envelops Vespucius' nar-
rations at other points. Munoz was the first to dis-
cover that the pretended chart of Vespucius' voyage by
course and distance would have carried his vessel nine
hundred miles over land into the heart of South
America and far up the slopes of the Andes. This was
a very natural error if we suppose Vespucius to have
been only a ship chandler of San Lucar, who "stuck to
his desk and never went to sea," since in the early maps
of the space now occupied by South America, all but a
narrow strip of territory from the mouth of the Amazon
to the Isthmus of Darien was open sea.

Another early critic remarks that Vespucius accu-
rately observed an eclipse at a date and place where, by
computation, no eclipse occurred, and outlines his
movements in a manner which would have prevented
him from seeing the eclipse at all.

His name is never mentioned by any other voyager
as present, whether as guest, pilot or otherwise. He
held no official position in connection with any Spanish
or Portuguese expedition or vessel. His name does

1901.] 75 AMERICA A NA TIVE OR IMPOR TED NAMEf 221

not exist in the archives of Portugal, though they con-
tain more than 100,000 documents relating to voyages
of discovery. Nor is he mentioned among the many
valuable manuscripts belonging to the Library at Paris.
(Justin Winsor, "Grit. Hist.," Vol. 2, 137-8).

It was in the year 1502 to 1504 that Vespucius,
under the names of Alberic Vespucci and Albericus
Vespucius, wrote two letters to L. P. Francisco de
Medici. A printed copy of one of these is now in the
Lenox Library and of the other in that of Dresden. In
these he styles the country "Mundus Novus,'' and so
many editions of these letters exist that the name
44 Mundus Novus '' has become the common appellation
of them all.

The letters to the Medici are so widely preserved
that copies are to be found in a score of the world's
leading libraries. (See "Winsor," Vol. 2, p. 159.) They
seem to refute the imputation that Vespucius claimed
the name of Amerigo or was any party to the scheme to
credit the name America to him as the discoverer of
the continent. The publication at St. Diez of the re-
puted letters from Vespucius to King Rene of Lor-
raine, seems to have changed Vespucius' name from
Alberic, as he had published it, to Amerigo, but without
any authority in the text of Vespucius' letter, and they
also purported to name the continent after him, by a
name which he had furnished every evidence was not
his. Las Casas, Koch, and other early critics charge
Vespucius with fraud in that he inserted the name
"America" in maps accompanying his letters. Las
Casas writing in 1527, just twenty years after the pub-
lication at St. Diez says: "Amerigo is said to have
placed the name "America" on maps thus sinfully fail-
ing toward the Admiral. If he purposely gave currency
to this belief in his first setting foot on the main, it was

222 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

a great wickedness ; and if it was not done intentionally,
it looks like it."

Of course Las Casas could not have thought this if
he had seen Vespucius' two letters of 1502-4 to de Me-
dici, wherein he had both named himself Alberic instead
of Amerigo and had named the continent Nuovo Mundo
instead of America.

If any maps started the name America, they are now
lost, and Justin Winsor declares that Vespucius died
(1516) before any map naming the continent "America''
issued.— ("Grit. Hist.," Vol. II,, p. 174). But if there
were maps, prominent on them must have appeared
the name Maracat-bo the village where Columbus was so
kindly received, and where the natives proudly returned
all his presents when they found he was too conscien-
tious to accept theirs. On these maps may also have
appeared the gulf of the same name on which the vil-
lage lay and the lake Maricai-bo and the coast Amaraca-
pana along which Columbus and Hojeda had in fact
sailed to reach it. No one may then have known that
a considerable section of the Andes bore the name of
Cun-din- Amarca. The names Amaraca and Maracai-bo
were found by Columbus indelibly stamped upon the
immediate points he visited. Vespucius may have pub-
lished maps exhibiting these names ; these would be
the names which would naturally get the ear of far-
away Europe. Dropping the suffixes bo for water and
pana for land the name would be essentially "America.''
Hence the weakness of Prof. Marcou's argument con-
sisted in his finding the name America in the mountains
of Central America, which Columbus indeed saw in the
interior, but whose names were unlikely to have reach-
ed him, instead of in the spot where he landed and was
entertained.

Mr. T. H. Lambert in the "Bulletin of the Ameri-
can Geographical Society ''(Vol. I. of 1883), argued that

I90i.] fS A M ERIC A A NA TIVE OR IMPOR TED NAME! 223

the origin of the name was to be found in the names
Amaraca, Cax-Amarca, Amarca, etc., given by the Per-
uvians either to prominent portions of their country or
to their whole country, as appears in Prescott's "Con-
quest of Peru." This fact, however, could not account
for the application of the name America to the conti-
nent even by a small or obscure group of persons in
Europe in 1507. Peru and its names remained nearly
unknown until the conquest by Pizarro in 1531. Mr.
Winsor, therefore, might well say of both Marcou's and
Lambert's efforts, ' ' Neither of which theories have re-
ceived, or are likely to receive, any considerable ac-
ceptance."

At about this time a third writer, a South Ameri-
can, put forth a work which was reproduced in an
American pamphlet in English in a form not attractive
to the critical reader. He found the name America in
the form of Maracat-bo and Amaraca-pa.ua. attaching to
the coast, gulf, lake and village which Columbus was
the first European to visit. He shows that this name
extends in some form from the Maracai-bo gulf and
Amaraca-pana. coast near the Orinoco's outlet to the
mountains regions of C\m-din- Amarca around Bogota,
and thence over the heights of the Andes as far to the
south as Cax-Amaraca, And- Amaraca and Cass- Amarca
in Peru. It is not yet clear what hidden charm or
power lay in this word which caused it to be so lovingly
and widely applied. It filled the area occupied by
the present three republics of Venezuela, Columbia
and Ecuador. The native name of the River Amazon,
according to Irving and Humboldt, was Maragnon.
This name still contends with that of Amazon for
pre-eminence along both the head waters of the river
and near its exit. The claims of the South American
writer, de St. Bris, might therefore be extended so far
as to inquire whether Maragnon does not embody the

224 GUNTON'S MAGAZJNE [September,

same important root as the other cognate names Maracai-
and Amaraca.

Having thus outlined the claims of those who have
contended that the name America was of wide accept-
ance for mountains, valleys, rivers, coasts, gulfs,
lakes and towns before Columbus arrived, let us see
how the case stood prior to the birth of this theory.

The " Researches Respecting Americus Vespucius
and his Voyages ," by theViscount Santarem, ex-Premier
of Portugal and member of the Institute of France (1850),
was written to explode the claims of Vespucci as a navi-
gator and explorer. It made known that his name no-
where appears on Portuguese records ; that he could not
have been in the service of Portugal in any capacity
since those records involve upwards of 100,000 docu-
ments relating to discovery. He says, page 22, note:
" It is proved that Vespucius having got possession of
the narratives of Hojeda, brought them out as his own.
Koch in his " List of Revolutions in Europe, '' Vol.
I., p. 208, says: "A Florentine merchant, by name
Americus Vespucius, followed closely in the footsteps
of the Genoese navigator, under the guidance of a
Spanish Captain called Alonso de Hojeda. He made
a number of voyages to the new world, visited several
coasts of the South American Continent, and in the
maps of discoveries which he drew up he arrogated to
himself a glory which was not his due, by giving his
own name to a new continent, whence it happened that
this name, the name of America, has been constantly
applied to that country ever since." Here, before it
had become known that Vespucius was a charlatan in
toto, it was suspected that he was untrustworthy in
such details as had come to light. It was thought to
be Vespucius' maps that had started the name. This
belief could have arisen only after it was believed that
his name was Amerigo, and would become plausible if

.J IS AMERICA A NA TIVE OR IMPOR TED NAME? 225

his maps carried over the name " Maracai," in some of
its various forms.

Washington Irving in the appendix to his "Life
of Columbus," Vol. III., p. 343, says: "The first sug-
gestion of the name appears to have been in the Latin
work already cited, published in St. Diez in Lorraine
in 1507, in which was inserted the letter of Vespucci
to King Rene. The author (Waldseemiiller) after speak-
ing of the other three parts of the world, Asia, Africa
and Europe, recommends that the fourth shall be called
Amerigo or America after Vespucci whom he imagined
its discoverer."

But the errors, however originating, of the less
informed Waldseemiiller writing in 1507, disappear
before the obviously genuine and numerously dupli-
cated " Mundus Novus^' letter, still extant, wherein
Vespucius himself entitles the continent visited by him
the "new world" and signs his name Alberic. He
could not have published to all mankind more conspic-
uously that he did not possess the name as Amerigo and
therefore could not confer it.

Girolamo Benzoni, a Milanese, in his " Historia
del Hondo Nuovo," published at Venice in 1565, says,
concerning Hojeda whom Vespucius is supposed to
have accompanied (p. 7 of trans.) "The Governor
shortly after left Cumana with all his company, and
coasting westward, went to Amaraca-pana; this was a
town of about forty houses, and four hundred Span-
iards resided there constantly, who annually elected a
captain.'*

Humboldt in his " Relations Historiques," a nar-
rative of personal observations chiefly in South Amer-
ica from 1799 to 1840, writes, Vol. I, p. 324, that
' ' the first settlement of the Spaniards on the mainland was
at Amaraca-pana.1' The coast between the Capes Paria
and de la Vela, appears under the names of Amaraca-

226 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

pana and Maracapana in Codezzio's map of Venezuela
showing the voyages of Columbus and others and in
the maps accompanying Humboldt's vast Geographical
Treatise. From thence these names reappear in the
maps accompanying Mr. Arthur Help's " History of the
Spanish Conquests in America," and in more or less of
the popular maps of this region.

Herarra in "General History of the West Indies
or Lands of the Spaniards, in the Islands and Mainlands
on the Ocean Sea,'' gives the history of the voyage of
Ojeda (1499) whom Amerigo Vespucci accompanied as
a merchant and says: " Finally he arrived at a port,
where they saw a village on the shore, called Maracai-'bo
by the natives, which had twenty-six large houses of
bell shape, built on pillars or supports with swinging
bridges leading from one another, and as this looked
like Venice in appearance, he gave it that name, which
was subsequently adopted by the republic of Vene-
zuela.''

The Indian name of the river Amazon was Marag-
non. At the mouth of the great river all the standard
maps place the island Marajo, and a little to the north-
ward lies the island Maraca. In all these the root name
is evidently the same as in Maracaibo. Indian names
are determined by the consonant sounds, the vowels
being variable. Thus in the North American Contin-
ent the one Indian word meaning "long river," is
spelled in English by the two words " Connecticut " and
" Kentucky." The present difference of sound between
the two words is effected by a slight divergence in the
accentuation of vowels among the same consonants. If
we suppose a third vowel a after the g to have been
clipped in the name " Marag-non," we have Maraga-non
which is plainly pointed to by Humboldt's name
Marag-non, and which is essentially identical with the
name America with a suffix of subordinate meaning.

i90i.] IS AMERICA A NA TIVE OR IMPOR TED NAME? 227

Sir Walter Raleigh reached what is now called
Venezuela in 1595 and wrote of it as "The Bewtiful
valley of Amerioca pana." Sir Walter also, writing
in 1596, described one of the younger brothers of Ata-
balpa or Atahualpa, the Inca of Peru, whom the Span-
iards under Pizarro had slain, as taking thousands of
the soldiers and nobles of Peru, and with these " van-
quished all that tract and valley of America situated
between the Rivers Orinoco and Amazon.'' Sir Walter
here shows perfect knowledge of the fact that while
the name America had passed to the whole continent it
was still in use as a local native name for the very
region which Columbus certainly and Vespucius possi-
bly first visited.

Besides this the name given to the whole country
between the coast of Amaraca pana, which stretched
from the Orinoco River to Maracai-bo bay, and thence
to the Pacific was called Amarca or Amaraca, or in the
mountains mapped by Humboldt himself, Cun-din-
Amarca, while the whole country now known as Bogota
and stretching down to Peru was called Cax-Amarca.
Along the heights of the Andes in this region the name
again appears in the Capital City which was called Cax-
Amaraca, where Pizarro fought the Peruvians, in his
first and chief battle ; also in one of his nearby towns,
called Pult- Amarca, and in the three other local names
strewn to the southward along the Andes, of And-
Amarca, Cal-Amarca and Catamaraca. In the earlier
maps there lay, in the Carribean Sea, off the coast of
Amaraca-pana the large island of Tamaraque ; but in
one Portugese map this island is placed at the outlet of
the Amazon, where, as above noted, the large island still
bears nearly the same name Marijo. The name Tamara-
que with the accent on the third a is a Spanish mode of
spelling the same word. It was also a name given to
one of the gods, or one of the names given to the Great

228 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

Spirit by the natives of the country. Passing far away
to the continent of North America we find that the na-
tive name Tamarack denotes a tree remarkable for its
strength, which is found in the swampy portions of the
forests throughout North America from Baltimore to
Hudson Bay. That any word denoting strength, or
name of an object possessing strength, may easily be
applied to express Diety appears in the Egyptian ap-
plication of the name Ammon, to Jupiter, and in the
application by the Sacs and Sioux around Lake Michi-
gan of the word " Chicago '' meaning an animal of the
strongest odor, to the Great Spirit.

Probably the name America simply forced its way
on the first maps, whether made by Vespucius or by
others, because it was more prominent in the points first
visited than any other native name except Paria, and was
more pervasive than Paria, since it belonged to the
principal coast line, gulf, lake and village then known.
Here Columbus was so hospitably received with dances
and gifts by the Indians that he compared it to a recep-
tion by angels. Here Vespucci a little later, if he ac-
companied Hojeda, found a town regularly garrisoned
by four hundred Spaniards, Even if Vespucci really
possessed this name Amerigo and found one so nearly
like it attached to the chief features of the country he
could not foresee that his name would ever spread over
the continent, as nobody really knew then that there
was a continent. Columbus had ingeniously inferred
from the vastness of the current of the Orinoco that
there was a continent behind. The actual existence of
a continent was not demonstrated until the subsequent
coasting along Brazil by Pinzon and Hojeda. The two
regions were first mapped as separate islands, of which
the most northern was America and the more southern
was the Brazils with a narrow isthmus sometimes con-
necting them. Justin Winsor (Vol. II., p. 174) says:

1901. ] JS A M ERIC A A NA TI VE OR 1MPOR TED NAME? 229

" No one can dispute, however, that he was dead before
his name was applied to the new discoveries on any pub-
lished map."

The earliest maps published do not contain the
name America, but have Niew Weldt, Nuevo Mondo,
Terra Incognita and Terra Sanctce Cruets.

As early as 1541 a map was printed by Mercator
with the name Amerique divided, the first half being
on the North American Continent opposite Baccalaios
(the codfisheries) Cape Cod, and the second half as low
as Rio Janeiro in Brazil. The first globe containing the
name "America" was issued by Schoner in 1515 (Win-
sor). Hence the spread of the name over the* Brazils
and over the whole of South and North America, seems
to have resulted, without individual motive, from its
being the local name at so many of the points first
known.

A historical precedent for this spread of the name
is found in the similar extension of the names of the
other three continents. Europe was originally the name
only of a small village in Thessaly. But probably be-
cause it was immediately to the west of the' Hellespont
or Bosphorus it became the means by which those to
the east of those waters designated the whole area to the
west of it. So in like manner Asia first applied to a
very small part of the present Asia Minor, lying east of
the dividing waters. Africa meant at first a little tract
around Carthage, which came to the notice of the
Romans through their wars with Carthage. The pre-
vailing name for the continent among the Greeks seemed
likely for centuries to be Lybia, but the Greek power
paled before Roman, the Greek namej Lybia subsided
before the Roman name Africa. So Egypt ^was the
Greek name only for a small town in the Delta of the
Nile where the Greeks traded. The native name for
the whole country was an Egyptian word Kemi, signi-

230 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

fying black-land. But the Greeks being more influen-
tial in the literature of the surrounding world than the
Egyptians the foreign designation ultimately super-
seded the domestic, not only abroad but at home.

The name China originally designated only the
first little mountain tract by which travelers passing
from India to China would enter on Chinese territory.
It ultimately came to be the official name of the country.

These considerations impart new dignity to the
name America. They show that it was arrived at by
the same process of enlargement of a local native name
as that by which all the other continents have been
named. They divest the reputation of Vespucci of
much odium, though they wholly retire him from the
rank of navigator or discoverer. They connect the name
with the original designation of the mighty Amazon
and with a name expressive of Diety. They even find
the exact name recorded without variation in the prime-
val forests of North America as a native appellation of
one of the most pervasive and beautiful trees of the
North American continent. It is also matter of in-
quiry, whether the native name Mexico (pronounced
Mehico by the Spanish) is akin in meaning as well as in
sound, to the great word Marica and Mariga which fills
so large a field among the native names of the southern
continent.

Perhaps also Columbus was moved by an uncon-
scious purpose wiser than he knew, when he named the
second land to which he attempted to give a name,
Mariga-lante, a name accidentally approaching in sound
to America-land. This name was intended only as a
compliment to the vessel in which he sailed, the gallant
"Santa Maria/'just as the voyage in which she behaved
so gallantly was intended to reach the Indies. But if
a higher purpose determined that she should dash her
keel into the sands of a new world, may it not also have

1901.] SS A MEKfCA A NA TIVE OR IMPORTED NA MEf 231

determined that while naming it apparently after the
gallant ship he should also restore to the continent its
ancient name America?

The interesting question whether the name Amer-
ica is indigenous should be authoritatively settled. The
United States of America might well join with the other
American powers throughout the three continents, in
appointing a commission of historical, ethnological and
linguistic experts to determine it. Such an authority
would be recognized throughout the world and would
accomplish a result worthy in many moral and histori-
cal aspects of the labor involved. If in fact the name
America is wholly American, if it was never worn by
the questionable character with whom it has stood pil-
loried in an equivocal and odious relation for four cen-
turies, then it is due to the proper pride of this great
nation of the earth, the United States of America, in
whose name it forms the distinctive feature, that the
word should be relieved of the burden under which it
has heretofore rested. Whatever its original meaning
may have been, the gentle, hospitable, simple natives
of the southern continent described by it their deepest
gulf and a wide region filled with their highest moun-
tains. They applied it to their largest capital and one
of their most beautiful valleys. Finally, it is said to
stand for their most sacred conception of the Myster-
ious Spirit which fashioned all these by the majesty of
His power and the efficacy of His will. A name thus in-
woven with the great features of the continent before
Columbus arrived is launched into a deeper and greater
dignity when every tie that connects it with a merely
pretended discoverer is severed.

The question " whence came the name America ''
has to be taught annually now to fifty millions of youth
on the three continents. It is disgraceful to teach it
falsely now that the truth is apparent.

MORE LIGHT ON THE MACHINISTS' STRIKE

In an "Editorial Crucible" in our last issue we
criticized the International Machinists for having brok-
en their agreement with the National Metal Trades As-
sociation, and in doing so remarked that the strike was
against what is known as the "premium system."
This last was an error. The present strike of the ma-
chinists is against wages being reduced proportionately
to the reduction of hours from 57 to 54 per week, which
was to have gone into effect May 20, 1901.

The opposition to the premium system was the
cause of the machinists" strike which existed a few
months prior to the present one. We have received a
letter from Mr. James O'Connell, president of the In-
ternational Association of Machinists, calling attention
to this error and denying that the machinists have
broken their agreement with the National Metal Trades
Association. He insists that the machinists have always
been willing and ready to arbitrate any question in dis-
pute. His statement is as follows :

"The machinists' strike was the result of a failure to agree prior to
May aoth on the wage question. There was no other question in dispute
or up for consideration at that time. The National Metal Trades As-
sociation having agreed to reduce the hours to 54 per week May 18, IQOI(
the question to be settled was whether the machinists should accept a
reduction of wages with the reduction of hours, or whether they should
receive a sufficient increase in wages per hour to make up for the differ-
ence in the shortening of the work day.

"The question of wages, therefore, affected every member of the
National Metal Trades Association. The International Association of
Machinists, through its officials, desired to have the wage question ad-
justed by the administrative council of the National Metal Trades As-
sociation on a national basis, so that when a decision was rendered it
would be binding upon all firms holding membership in the National
Metal Trades Association.

" The administrative council of the National Metal Trades Associ-
tion informed the officials of the International Association of Machinists
that they were not empowered to handle the wage question for their

232

MORE LIGHT ON THE MACHINISTS' STRIKE 238

members nationally and that it must be adjusted locally. We objected
to this method of settling the question, as it would consume an unlimited
amount of time, and as the administrative council represented a national
association, we felt that they should be prepared to bind all members of
their association as we were in a position to do for the International As-
sociation of Machinists.

" The strike was ordered not against the introduction of the ' premi-
um system.' but because the National Metal Trades Asssciation would
not arbitrate the question of wages nationally and bind all its members
to conform to any d ecision that might be reached relative to the basis of
wages to be paid from May 18, 1901.

" We were always willing and ready to arbitrate any question in
dispute with the National Metal Trades Association, and tip to the very
date when the strike was ordered we were willing to arbitrate the
question on a national basis.

" Very truly yours,

" JAS. O'CONNELL."

The above statement of President O'Connell is a
clear and straightforward statement of the case, so far
as it goes, but it does not state the whole case. It will
be observed that he emphasizes the fact that the
machinists are ready to arbitrate, but insists that the
National Metal Trades Association arbitrate the wage
question for all the firms throughout the country in its
organization. This is exactly the point at issue be-
tween the two organizations. The only way clearly to
ascertain which side has broken the agreement, and
one of them certainly has, is to review the facts as set
forth in the different agreements between the two
organizations.

At a meeting of the administrative council of the
National Metal Trades Association, at the Grand Pacific
Hotel, Chicago, March 17, 1900, a joint agreement was
drawn up which was concurred in by the International
Association of Machinists, March 3ist, 1900. This
agreement pledged both organizations to submit all
questions in dispute to arbitration, the decision of the
arbitrators to be final for both sides. At a subsequent
meeting of the representatives of both associations,
held at the Murray Hill Hotel, New York city, Novem-

234 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

ber 1 6th, 1900, the details for conducting arbitration
were agreed upon, which provided that, when a dispute
arises between the employer and the employees of any
establishment in the association, reasonable efforts shall
be made to adjust the difficulty satisfactorily. That
failing, the case shall be referred to one representative
of each party. If this fails, either party shall have the
right to ask a conference between the presidents of the
two associations, and in the event of their being unable
to agree the case "shall then be referred to arbitration,
as provided in the agreement of May i8th," the findings
of this arbitration by a majority vote to be final.

This definitely provides that all cases of dispute shall
be arbitrated locally, and clearly precludes Mr. O'Con-
nell's demand that the question shall be arbitrated by
the national association for all concerns in the country.
Had this agreement remained intact, the present de-
mand of the machinists would clearly put them in the
wrong. But, at the third annual convention of the
National Metal Trades Association, held at Detroit,
April loth, 1901, it was especially resolved that dis-
putes about wages should be referred to the national
association, and that the officers of the association pro-
ceed at once to take proper steps under the agreement
with the International Association of Machinists for
such action. This clearly supersedes the New York
agreement of November i6th, 1900, and sustains Mr.
O'Connell's claim that the national association should
arbitrate the wage question for all firms in its organi-
zation, the refusal to do which caused the strike.

It may be well to note here, as a part of this situa-
tion, that the arbitration board representing the two
associations, at a meeting held at the Murray Hill
Hotel, New York city, May loth to i8th, 1900, decided
that:

i9oi.] MORE LIGHT ON THE MACHINISTS' STRIKE 235

" Fifty-seven hours shall constitute a week's work from and after
six months from the date of the final adoption of a joint agreement, and
fifty-four hours shall constitute a week's work from and after twelve
months from the date of the final adoption of a joint agreement. The
hours to be divided as will best suit the convenience of the employer.

"Note: — This is not to interfere in any way with shops where a
less number of hours per week is already in operation."

In accordance with this resolution the 54-hour
system was to go into operation on the 2Oth of May,
1901. The question naturally arose as to whether the
wages of day workers should be reduced with the
reduction of hours or should remain unchanged. The
machinists very properly wanted the same wages as
under the longer working day. In pursuance of the
original agreement between the two associations, that
all matters of wages be referred to and if needs be
arbitrated by local firms, the machinists drew up a
statement setting forth the points agreed upon in the
joint arrangement, and adding one providing that " an
increase of 12^ per cent, over the present rates is
hereby granted, to take effect May 2Oth, 1901," this
being to cover the difference created by the 54-hour
system.

In reply to this, the firms declined to pass upon
the question of wages and referred it to the national
association, as ordered by the Detroit meeting. A
copy of one such reply from a firm in Ansonia, Conn.,
under date of May ist, quoting the Detroit resolution
as the basis for its action, is before us. The manufac-
turers having thus declined to consider the question of
wages individually, and referring it back to the na-
tional association, the representatives of the machinists
very properly appealed to the national association to
decide the question at the meeting in New York, May
loth, ten days before the date set for adopting the 54-
hour system.

All the facts in the situation show that the ma-

236 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

chinists lived up to the agreement to the letter, and
that the demand that the employers' association decide
the question of wages for all the firms was based upon
the employers' own decision in the convention at
Detroit and the action of local firms in accordance with
that decision. In refusing to do that, therefore, it was
the manufacturers, not the machinists, who departed
from the agreement.

Though this conclusively shows that the laborers
did not violate their contract, it does not close the
matter. There is abundant evidence that this refusal
of the manufacturers' association to arbitrate the wage
question for all the firms in the country at once did not
result from any disposition to depart from the agree-
ment. It had been found that it was infeasible for the
national association to determine an increase of wages
for all the firms in the country. They saw that they
could not possibly enforce such a decision, and so
notified President O'Connell and the representatives of
the machinists' association. They were, therefore,
compelled to fall back upon the original agreement
which the machinists confirmed and were acting
upon when they sent out their form of agreement
to the individual firms. In proof of the good faith
of the employers in this matter, the administrative
council of the National Metal Trades Association,
at the meeting of May roth, passed the following reso-
lution :

"Resolved, that in case the employees of any shop make a demand
for higher wages and their employers fail to agree with them, and the
same is passed up to arbitration as called for in the New York agree-
ment and joint resolution of November i6th, 1900, that the findings of
such arbitration board shall date back to May 2oth, 1901, and the matter
must be arbitrated as soon as possible."

This clearly shows the willingness on the part of
the manufacturers not merely to live up to their agree-
ment to arbitrate all questions in dispute, but, as in this

.] MORE LIGHT ON THE MACHINISTS' STRIKE 287

case the wage dispute arose out of the 54-hour system
beginning May 2oth, they provided that all the find-
ings of arbitrators granting the increase of wages should
date back to May 2Oth, 1901, so that the laborers should
lose nothing by any delay in the arbitration proceed-
ings. In refusing this, which was apparently the best
the manufacturers could do as a national association, the
machinists did not break their agreement but they did
refuse a most reasonable proposition from the employ-
ers' association and thereby force a strike which mani-
festly might have been avoided and arbitration secured
for every case in dispute. Had the machinists accept-
ed what for the moment was the only feasible proposi-
tion for the metal trades association to make, they
would not merely have shown a disposition to live up
to their agreement but a disposition to consider any
proposition made in good faith to carry out the objects
of that agreement.

There is no valid objection to arbitrating the diffi-
culties locally with different firms. Indeed, the
machinists accepted that and acted upon it in sending
out their form of agreement to individual firms. Nor
had they anything to lose by adopting that when the
other was found infeasible. But in demanding that
the questions be arbitrated nationally, when that was
found impracticable, and declaring a strike on that
basis, they forced the issue and assumed the responsi-
bility of a conflict which has already resulted in break-
ing up the best agreement between organized labor and
organized capital that ever existed in any country.
Moreover, this rupture has already resulted in convert-
ing the manufacturers' association into an anti-labor
union organization. The strike at best will be a partial
failure. Out of more than one hundred and fifty firms
a very small number have granted the 54- hour system
and the increased pay ; a very large number have not

238 G UN TON S MA GA ZINE

granted even the 54 hours, to say nothing of the pay,
and it is more than probable that the bulk of the con-
cerns will ultimately end with the old 60- hour system
and the machinists' association greatly weakened.

The demand of the machinists for the same pay
under the 54 as under the 57 and 6o-hour systems was
reasonable, warranted by all the circumstances of the
case, and in all probability it would have been conceded
if the machinists had not unnecessarily forced the issue
at an impractical point. By this fatal step, a substan-
tial reduction of the hours of labor from ten to nine
hours a day, which had been accomplished in two por-
tions of half an hour a day each, six months apart, by
peaceful arrangement, in full recognition of the rights
of organization on both sides, is likely all to be lost.
Labor unions should bear in mind that it is no small
part of their duty to educate employers into the adop-
tion of trade-union methods. In doing this they should
be ready to reason, persuade and meet them more than
half way, showing an ever willingness to accept any
modifications which do not sacrifice the vital principle
involved. Not to do this will frequently mean failure
where success might easily have been assured, of which
the present strike is a painful illustration.

THE COFFEE HOUSE PLAN

ARTHUR LAWRENCE SWEETSER

As everyone knows, the trend of population is to the
city and consequertly there is a tendency to concentrate
where expansion is an impossibility. In addition to the
city problems of European countries, we have diverse
nationalities absorbed but not assimilated. Where the
tenement-house population is most thickly crowded and
poverty is greatest the saloons are most numerous. If
you glance at the map of any large city like New York,
Boston, or Chicago, you will see that for every church
and school-house there are about ten saloons — often
many more — absorbing the earnings of the families, by
which they are maintained. " He's a jolly good fellow.
It's too bad he drinks." This expression is heard on
every side. What does it mean? Men are not naturally
bad, but, like the primitive savage, they follow the lines
of least resistance. This is encountered in the saloon
which they entered, at first, merely to obtain warmth
and seek the society of friends. Seeing everyone about
laughing and drinking they are tempted to do likewise,
under the influence of the moment. It is thus that in-
temperance begins and leads to misery and ruin.

Yet a stronger motive than society is hunger.
Many men who ask you for a dime on the street are too
weak to digest food, and spend the money on beer or
whiskey. This warms the stomach and deadens the
sense of hunger for awhile. The man becomes indif-
ferent to his surroundings and everything seems to be
against him. At first the poor fellow tries to get work,
but after repeated repulses he considers the task hope-
less and surrenders himself to his " fate." Or, he may
have been arrested for some petty offence, and being un-

239

210 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

able to pay his fine is sent to jail. While there he loses
his job, and, although fed and sheltered himself, he thinks
of his family penniless and starving. When released he
is without work and unable to get it owing to the " dis-
grace'' of having been in prison. His is a hopeless
struggle and many yield without fighting, getting food
when and where they can.

There can be no doubt that the social ministry of
the saloon is great, but the objection is that it is used
as a means to lure men to the indulgence of an appetite
which, in turn, leads them to seek the gratification of
selfish desires. Owing to the fact that saloons are al-
lowed almost a monopoly of catering to certain legiti-
mate wants, they have some excuse for their existence.
Many citizens wish that there were more of them, be-
cause they bring in a large revenue, while others de-
mand their abolition in toto. It is idle to suppose that
they can be suppressed without substituting something
in their place. Not abolition, but displacement, is the
true method of reform and to take the place of the
saloon something better must be offered. As General
Booth said : " Reformers will never be free from the
saloon until they can outbid it in the subsidiary attrac-
tions which it offers to its customers." The evils of
intemperance, especially among laboring men and their
families, are so great that every means should be tried
to prevent them Some advocate the legislative remedy,
but the law is powerless unless sustained by public
opinion. Therefore the legislative remedy must be
reasonable and practical. Instead of this, these people
demand the annihilation of the liquor traffic and such
drastic measures in a large city like New York or Chi-
cago would be inoperative and therefore valueless.

Why does the workingtnan spend his wages at the
saloon? Why does he not stay at home with his wife
and family? We have bright, cheerful homes while he

1 90i.] THE COFFEE HOUSE PLAN 241

often has only a dark, cold room where he can scarcely
stretch his legs in comfort, and where all the domestic
operations must be carried on. We have pleasant so-
ciety while he has none. After a chat with his wife he
seeks the society of his " mates," for the variety of
their conversation is interesting. Where are they
found? At the saloon. Give the workingman a place
where he can meet his friends, talk, smoke and act with
all the freedom to which he is accustomed, and where
good coffee and tea with nourishment and stimulus in
them take the place of beer and gin, and you set before
him for the first time the choice between sobriety and
comfort, on the one hand, and dissipation and wretch-
edness on the other. This is afforded by the coffee,
house, and thus it has become the rival of the saloon.

From the introduction of the coffee-berry into
England the coffee house has been a prominent feature
in London life. The literature of the i8th century is
full of references to it, but at this time it was not con-
sidered as a possible rival of the saloon, being rather a
tavern where tea and coffee were served for two pence
and, on leaving, a penny was deposited for the use of
light, heat and newspapers. By 1830 the temperance
societies of Scotland had established and successfully
operated coffee houses in nearly all the principal towns
and cities. These combined every attraction of the
saloon except the bar ; also daily and weekly papers,
games and entertainments. The movement spread
rapidly, and the English cities adopted the idea, the
first being opened in Liverpool near the docks, and
served refreshments at the lowest possible prices, in
addition to the above attractions. Strong corporations
were organized to engage in the business, and all
proved that the coffee house could be made a success
without charitable assistance, and also pay large divi-
dends.

242 G UN TON 'S MA GA ZINE [September,

These coffee houses were established where the
saloons were thickest, and men and women of untidy
abodes were induced to enter and be happy while talk-
ing with friends over a cup of tea or coffee. The
knowledge of these successes in Great Britain led to
their establishment in Australia, Canada, and later in
this country. Here the progress has been slow, owing
to poor judgment as to the selection of suitable sites
and in catering to the tastes of the community. Of the
coffee houses in America we have two distinct types.
The first is philanthropic in purpose but carried on
under business principles. This is little more than a
restaurant, aiming to give "first-class food" in great
variety at low prices, with an adjoining billiard and
pool room. The food is good and well-cooked, the
prices suggesting the business motive. Thus this type
of coffee-house is like the other cheap-food restaurants
throughout our cities. Yet, although some people
think that such places are not a factor in opposition to
the saloons, they are even more so now, because they
are doing more good in the cause of temperance, in an
unconscious way, than any other movement possibly
could. They supply good wholesome food at cheap
prices, and good spring water takes the place of beer or
ale formerly used by business men with their dinner.

Another type is that represented by the coffee
houses of the Church Temperance Society. Its aim is
to make them as nearly like the saloon as possible,
without the liquor. Being purely philanthropic, they
are not meant to be self-supporting, and so rely on the
annual contributions of friends. The work of the so-
ciety is chiefly winter work, since the coffee houses are
meant to rival the saloons as places of comfort, in con-
trast to a crowded tenement or street corner. Being
rivals of the saloons, they are placed in saloon neighbor-
hoods, with the entrance on the street floor, so that it is

THE COFFEE HOUSE PLAN »43

just as easy to turn in here as into the saloon. The
rooms are plainly furnished, because experience has
taught that only substantial tables and chairs can stand
the rough wear to which they are subjected. As the
feeling of freedom of action is one of the attractions,
the rooms are made like those to which the men have
been accustomed. The chief attractions are the pool
tables and other games, also illustrated comic and
weekly papers, and at least one entertainment a week.
These consist of talks on popular subjects of the day —
history, science, art and travel, illustrated by stereop-
ticon slides. Thus the lectures have become a field for
an elevating, educational, and inspiring work. One
young fellow said: "Most of us live in miserable
lodgings, where we are not wanted during the evening.
Then several of us often sleep in one room, and this
is cold and dark. We have nowhere to go on a cold
winter's night except to the saloon, nowhere to sit and
often nowhere to take our meals. Coffee houses might
save us; model lodging houses might make better
men of us; nothing else can.''

Everyone knows that in all large cities there is a
constant influx of girls, from the country and other
places, seeking employment, and who (especially those
working in mills and factories) are without friends or
the means of spending a pleasant evening in an inno-
cent and improving way. They soon fall into the com-
panionship of the more knowing ones, who for the most
part are just as ignorant of innocent and improving pas-
times, though they can find a way of being " jolly " and
having a "good time.'' Would it not imply a self-
restraint almost beyond the average human nature, if
they did not yield to the social attractions that are near-
est to them? We know what a dreary little bed-room
in a poor lodging house is, and how hard it must be to
be obliged to share such a home with uncongenial com-

244 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

pany. The temptation to "do as others do '' is there-
fore irresistible, and to do this is the great peril even
with classes which ought to have resources of which the
class we are now speaking of know hardly anything.
To meet this great peril the woman's branch of the
Church Temperance Society established girl's coffee
houses. The attractions are similar in many respects
to those of the men's coffee houses : stereopticon lec-
tures once a week as well as other informal talks, games,
Wellesley sewing and singing classes and a good library
of suitable books.

Why do our school houses lie idle during the even-
ing? Throughout the large cities these school houses
are scattered, according to districts, and as each is pro-
vided with an exhibition hall why not let some chari-
table organization take charge of this during the even-
ing? Here old pupils could meet, hear lectures and
play games. The only expense would be for light,
heat and janitor service, for two or three hours, and
even this would be offset by selling tea or coffee. Thus,
without any expense to the community at large, a suit-
able place would be provided which could do as much
good as the coffee houses, for those who formerly came
there for instruction would prefer to return to the old
place rather than go to a charitable institution which
they despise and purposely avoid. By keeping the
alumnae together the " society " of the district would be
much better, diminishing crime, drunkenness and dis-
orderly conduct.

There is no doubt that the American coffee houses
could be run on a paying basis and still be philan-
thropic in purpose. It is done in Great Britain, why
not here? With good judgment and discretion on the
part of the manager in catering to the public taste,
the restaurant and pool room would offset the other ex-

IQOI.] THE COFFEE HOUSE PLAN 345

penses and even have a slight surplus. For this pur-
pose the coffee house should contain :

1. A restaurant, where wholesome and well-cooked
food at a cheap rate may be obtained at all hours.

2. A reading room and smoking room, supplied
with the latest magazines, newspapers, comic and illus-
trated weeklies, with sufficiently stringent rules to in-
sure moderately good behavior.

3. A room for billiards and pool, with careful su-
pervision for the prevention of gambling.

4. A large hall, which could be used for lectures or
as a meeting- room for religious services on Sunday.

5. And last, but not least, as "cleanliness is
next to godliness " hot and cold baths should be pro-
vided at the lowest possible rate.

Such establishments should be situated in the
poorest districts, because there the need is greatest.
Here it would reach the lowest stratum of city life,
which is ever ready to be amused or instructed. Ad-
mission should be free, cordial and welcome ; the rooms
should be neat and cheerful in appearance and have
good ventilation. It is preferable to have the door open
on the street level rather than up several steps, so that
one can turn into the room as easily as into a saloon.

The attendants should be bright, pleasant, friendly
and not easily provoked ; able to take chaff from rough
customers without offence. When once it becomes
known that coffee houses of this description, under
proper management, may yield a fair return on the
capital invested, funds will be forthcoming for the ex-
tension of the movement. The financial success is a
very good test of the amount of benefit conferred on the
people who have used the coffee houses. That they
pay is a sign that they are supported and this is so be-
cause they supply a want in our social system.

INFLUENCE OF CORPORATIONS ON GOVERN-
MENT

It is commonly predicted that one of the numerous
evils to be feared from the present concentration of
capital is that the large corporations will acquire a con-
trolling influence over the government as well as over
industry. Hence the phrase, Shall the corporations
own the government or the government own the corpo-
rations? has become classic in the "anti-trust" litera-
ture. Socialists look upon it as a truism and make it
the basis of their claim for the public ownership of
industry. Negative alarmists, like Mr. Bryan, who
want the government to suppress large corporations in
the interest of small ones, — or perhaps, to speak more
accurately, in the interest of political disruption, — pre-
dict the overthrow of free institutions as the result of
corporation control of the government, which is rapidly
coming.

This fear of the influence of large corporations
upon free government is slowly permeating public
opinion in all classes. It finds different forms of ex-
pression according to the circumstances, but it is grad-
ually flavoring the thought, if not the fear, of the most
conservative classes who are not conspicuously identified
with large corporation interests. Great lawyers, even
corporation lawyers and conspicuous public men
who have spent their lives in public affairs, are not
entirely free from this feeling, and with them it is only
a feeling, not an opinion. Even so conservative a
journal as the Bankers' Magazine has become visibly
affected by this sentiment. In a recent number it
editorially discourses thus :

" The recent consolidation of the iron and steel industries is an indi-
cation of the concentration of power that is possible. Every form of
business is capable of similar consolidation, and if other industries imi-

246

CORPORA TJONS AND GO VERNMENT 247

tate the example of that concerned with iron and steel, it is easy to see
that eventually the government of a country where the productive forces
are all mustered and drilled under the control of a few leaders must
become the mere tool of those forces. There are many indications. In
the control of legislatures, that such is the tendency at the present time
in the United States."

This statement of fact may not be entirely disputed.
There are indisputable evidences that large corpora-
tions are to some extent acquiring control, and often
illegitimately, of legislatures and public officials. The
important question is, however: Is this undue and
sometimes pernicious influence of corporations the nat-
ural or necessary result of large concentration of capi-
tal, or is it due to less legitimate causes? If it be true,
as the Bankers' Magazine indicates, that the growth of
large corporations means subversion of free government
and the death of democracy, then large corporations are
an evil ; because, while they may have innumerable
economic virtues and serve the world cheaper and bet-
ter, if they take away the people's freedom and substi-
tute political oligarchy for popular government, the
evil they are likely to bring more than offsets all the
good they may create. There is no amount of economic
advantage which can compensate for the overthrow of
popular rights and political freedom. Economic im-
provement, the power to make nature serve man in the
hundreds of ways in which capital can be used, contrib-
utes to the aggregate human welfare, but for such con-
tribution to be a permanent addition to civilization it
must come on the lines of personal freedom and popular
government. The power of the people over social and
political institutions is an indispensable feature of
progress towards a permanently high civilization, and
any economic development which tends to destroy this,
even if it give us cheap and abundant wealth in exchange
for it, is incompatible with the progress of a freedom-
giving civilization.

248 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

First, then, is this tendency of corporations to con-
trol government a necessary feature of large corporate
enterprise? Does it grow out of the nature of the case?
What is there in the nature or economic character of a
large corporation which necessarily creates this ten-
dency ! It will not be claimed that capitalists want to
run the government for mere public political purposes.
If they want to control the government at all, it is that
they may better control the field for their industry, —
in other words, to make more money. As a matter of
fact, this end is accomplished by the very largeness of
the corporation. Indeed, that is the object of the con-
centration. It is not claimed that they concentrate for
the purpose of controlling the government, but only
that by virtue of their concentration and control over
industry and great wealth they acquire control over the
government. In other words, that they first acquire the
object of their organization, namely, control of the in-
dustry, and then get the government. In reality, then,
they only get control of the government when such con-
trol is no longer of any service. If they had control of
the government they would not need the great corpora-
tion, but when they have acquired the maximum con-
centration they do not need the government. In other
words, when the concentration of a sufficiently large
capital will give them the control of the industrial field,
control of the government or political forces is super-
fluous.

If this be true, we may expect everywhere to find
that industrial enterprise seeks government aid, and
therefore control of politics, when it is too weak to ac-
complish its end by purely economic methods, and that,
as concerns become larger and larger and economically
stronger and stronger, they have less need of political
aid and hence less interest in controlling political forces.
Historically this is exactly what has occurred. When

CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT 249

industry was in its early stages of development, it de-
manded and secured the greatest aid from government
and consequently control over government. In the
middle ages, the merchants demanded monopolies, —
and secured them, in return for supporting the govern-
ment. This was the history of the chartered cities and
free towns for centuries. When capital became more
efficient and had less need of government aid, it cared
less for control of the government and chartered towns
gave place to open towns, and so gradually business has
1 come more and more to rely on its economic strength
and less and less on political favor in proportion as cap-
italistic methods have been developed and perfected.

Take our own experience in this country. The chief
political aid which industry needed was protection from
the competition of foreign capitalists. It needed this
the most when concerns were the smallest and corpora-
tions were in their infancy. As corporations have
grown larger, superior methods been developed and
greater economy and efficiency applied, this political
aid has become less and less. Many industries have al-
ready outgrown the need of it. The iron industry is a
striking illustration of this fact. It probably could not
have been developed in this country for generations but
for the aid of the government in protecting it from
foreign competition by a high tariff. Everybody knew
that the life of the iron industry depended upon this
government aid. At that time capitalists in this industry
were nearly as much politicians as they were business
men, because politics was about as necessary as capital
and business skill to the success of their enterprise.
They would make as much exertion to get control of
the administration as they would to secure orders against
a competitor. But with the growth of large corpora-
tions in the iron industry this dependence on government
grew less and to the largest concerns it became a matter of

250 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

comparative indifference. As an example of this it will be
remembered that at the time of the Wilson bill (1894),
Mr. Carnegie, the greatest iron producer in the country,
and in earlier days the greatest clamorer for a high pro-
tective tariff and one of the most liberal contributors to
political funds, showed an indifference to the subject
and was practically willing to have free trade. Why?
Because, through the development of superior means,
he had acquired an economic superiority which rendered
political aid unnecessary. In other words, he had be-
come independent of protection. His motive, there-
fore, for controlling the government was gone and he
could not be made to contribute as liberally nor take as
deep an interest in the success of political manage-
ment.

The iron industry has taken another stride in de-
velopment in the billion-and-a-half dollar corporation.
Indeed, it is this very step which has led the Bankers'
Magazine^ join in the alarm. Now, what has this large
concern to ask from government? What has it to gain
by controlling the administration? Nothing. If it ran
the government, it could simply legislate to prevent
competitors from infringing upon its domain. It can
do that now without the government. It has acquired
control of sufficient sources of ore, the process of manu-
facture, methods of transportation and adequate mar-
keting of products. It has acquired wealth enough to
give it, in addition to the combination of all these
interdependent economic forces, the highest skill and
the best methods yet known to the industry. These
enable it to more than compete with any rivals which
possess less economic advantages. It has thus got all
that government could give it and by economic forces.
There is no tendency in tnis to make those who govern
this enterprise depend upon the responsibility of run-
ning the government. On the contrary, about all they

I90i.] CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT 251

ask is that the government shall let them alone. This
concern has lifted the bulk of the iron industry up to
the level which the Carnegie concern occupied before,
and thus it has practically become independent of gov-
ernment. The steel corporation does not even need a
tariff on its main products, cares nothing about protec-
tion from competitors. All it asks is to be allowed a
free field in which to operate without arbitrary political
interference. Now, if what the Bankers* Magazine says
is true, and it probably is, that "every form of business
is capable of consolidation," then, in the order of
economic development, every field of industrial enter-
prise, instead of having a natural tendency to control
the government, will gladly become independent of
government, less and less interested in political aid
and hence in political control. Indeed, this is the
natural economic as well as historic order of industrial
development.

If this be true, it may be asked, how comes it that
corporations exercise so much influence over legislation
in the United States? It must be admitted that there
is some truth in the charge, but, as already pointed out,
it is not a necessary characteristic of large corporate
enterprise. If we examine the facts in this case, and
the historic development of corporation influence in
politics, we shall find that it is more of a political than
of an economic character. As already pointed out, it
is true that in a certain stage of industrial development
political aid is often necessary to industrial success, but
this is always when the industry is in a more or less
undeveloped state ; that is to say, before it has reached
the highest economic efficiency. Progress towards the
maximum efficiency, as represented in the largest con-
cerns, obviates this and thus emancipates business from
political dependence. So far, therefore, as corpora-
tions have any interest in controlling politics, it is not

252 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

the larger ones but the smaller ones for whom this
control has any advantage.

A little impartial examination of the subject will
show that the pernicious influence of corporations in
politics arises not from the interest of large corpora-
tions to control the government, but from the interest
of degenerate and corrupt politicians to control large
corporations. This is a matter of gradual development.
When the corporations needed political aid they would
have recourse to almost any available methods to pro-
cure it, conspicuous among which was lobbying in the
halls of legislatures. T«his developed a class of politi-
cians who made it a business to be the political agents
of business interests in securing advantageous legisla-
tion. There was once behind this a sound economic
principle, an industrial necessity. It was important to
the national welfare that this protective or helpful
encouragement to industry should be secured. But
this gradually degenerated from legitimate influence
for industrial legislation into professional blackmail.
Lobbying became a lucrative political profession, and,
like all profitable occupations, attracted an abundance
of laborers to that field. As large corporations became
less and less in need of political aid they became more
reluctant to buy political services, and a depression,
verging on a crisis, developed in the lobbying industry.
When legitimate business was slack, the lobbyists de-
veloped a system of creating new dangers by intro-
ducing measures to the injury of corporations, for the
purpose of creating a need for their own services, and
thus acquired liberal fees to have the injurious legisla-
tion defeated. This became a prolific source of income
to the lobbying industry until it developed into a
vicious system of blackmail of corporations, alike in
congress and state legislatures, which became so intol-

CORPORA TIONS AND GO VERNMENT 268

erable that in this industry, as in all others, a reorgan-
ization, a kind of "trust," became necessary.

The head politicians, the "machine bosses," adopted
the scheme of practically syndicating the whole lobby-
ing business. They said to the corporations: "We
will take care of your interests for a lump sum."
Bad as it was, this was an improvement on the
unlimited pressure of the lobby, and the corpora-
tions naturally dropped into it as the lesser of two
evils. So the political boss has superseded the pro-
miscuous lobbyists, competition in the lobby has been
abolished, and a virtual monopoly established. By this
process " bosses " have obtained control of both the cor-
porations and the legislatures, and they use the funds,
which the corporations are by this method compelled to
contribute, to run the primaries and get control of the
election of members of the legislature, and by this
means they can say just what the legislature shall do.
With this power in their hands, they can go to the large
corporations and extort "blood-money" in excessive
amounts. Large corporations pay this, not because
they need any legislation, not because they want to con-
trol the government — they have no use for the govern-
ment— but simply to be protected against disastrous
legislation which shall injure their business. The very
habit of paying large sums to these corruptors of our
political machinery begets in corporations the idea of
asking for illegitimate privileges. There are a few cor-
porations, such as insurance companies and corporations
exercising public franchises, that sometimes desire im-
proper legislation, and this habit, which is not due at
all to the economic character of the corporations but to
the corrupt methods in politics, enables them to get im-
proper privileges. But more than 90 per cent, of cor-
porations which are blackmailed in this way would re-

254 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE

gard it as a great blessing to be entirely freed from
politics and entangling relations with government.

The danger, therefore, of the corrupting influence
of corporations upon government does not lie in the in-
terests of the corporations or any motive that arises
from large corporations, but it is due to the corrupt
character of our political methods, which have been de-
veloped under the conditions of small corporations and
have become wholly unnecessary to large ones. The
remedy is not to lessen the size of corporations but to
purify the machinery of our politics. Take from the
boss the power to blackmail the corporation and the cor-
poration will gladly disappear from politics. Deprive
the boss of the power to deliver legislation and the cor-
poration will cease to pay him for political protection.
The safety of our government is not in eliminating the
corporation but in eliminating the boss from our poli-
tics, and the cure for this is to deprive the boss of his
control over the primaries by establishing direct nomi-
nations by the people. So long as the boss can dictate
the nominations and control political appointments and
patronage, he can blackmail corporations, and so long
as corporations are blackmailed into paying for political
immunity they will naturally tend to aspire to control
the government by the same means, because control of
the government becomes their only safety from attack.
With nominations in the hands of the people, legisla-
tures would become representative of public opinion,
the power of the boss to dictate legislation and coerce
corporations would be gone, and the interest of large
corporations to control the government would disap-
pear. In short, the interest of large corporations would
become more and more to leave politics to the people
and devote themselves to the economics of industry.

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE of Minnesota, the prom-
ising young republican statesman who became infatu-
ated with the doctrine of free silver, went over to
Bryan and received the populist nomination for vice-
president on the Bryan ticket, has seen new light. He
has concluded that the silver question is dead.

" By furnishing an increased supply of gold," says Mr. Towne,
" God in his wise providence has made the free coinage of silver at 16 to
i unnecessary."

Of course it is encouraging to note that Mr. Towne
could see a thing so obvious, but the astonishment is
that he could not see it in 1900. But then Mr. Towne
was candidate for vice president on the 16 to i ticket.
Now he is the president of a Texas oil trust. Oil-light
is so penetrating.

MR. BRYAN discourses at great length on the cor-
ruption of the "republican" politicians of Philadelphia
in the franchise case, and has much to say by insinuations
about the president not taking an active stand with John
Wanamaker against the franchise thieves. All this
would seem like high virtue if Mr. Bryan had not
backed looters of the same type in the democratic party.
If he had not come to New York and said: " Great is
Tammany and Croker is its prophet," giving the entire
influence of the presidential candidate to the worst
known specimen of political debauchery in the world,
and if he had not gone to Kentucky and personally en-
dorsed the case of Goebel in one of the most high-
handed political outrages ever perpetrated upon a state,
his denunciation of the Philadelphia ring might be re-
garded with respect ; but, in the light of these facts,
they sound wonderfully like Croker's denunciation of

255

256 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

poolrooms or Platt's and Quay's plea for honest poli-
tics. Actions are more convincing than words.

CANADIANS ARE not so utterly English as we some-
times imagine. While they are very loyal to the em-
pire, as they may well be, for they have a virtual re-
public, they do not feel called upon to take England's
economic policy of free trade. Replying to a recent
editorial in the New York Times, advocating free trade
between Canada and the United States, the Montreal
Star promptly reminds us that Canada is familiar with
the spider and the fly argument, and says :

" Canada has resolved firmly upon the policy of developing her home
industries. Whatever party is in power will be obliged to recognize this
as the wish of those who think on such subjects and influence people who
do not. We have already done too much to build up the industry and
advance the prosperity of our neighbors. We buy too much from them
and sell them too little. . . . The hope, the ambition, the dream of
patriotic Canadians is to see Canada a country filled with an industrious,
prosperous population, developing her marvelous natural resources, sell-
ing the world her finished product, and not the raw material to be used
in furnishing skilled labor with means of a livelihood in foreign countries.
This end can be attained, and is being attained, by a policy of protec-
tion of home industries. . . . The condition, which protection has
brought about, of bringing industries and investors from the United
States into Canada, is better for us than to be sending our raw material
to be worked up on the other side of the line."

To OUR REMARK that "manufacturing industries
which at this late day cannot succeed without working
women and children more than ten hours a day have
no right to exist under a protective system in the
United States,'' Mr. Samuel Gompers replies:

"Of course Mr. Gunton could not be expected to
make the correction without bringing in the protective
system, though how much that has to do with the
question is difficult to understand.''

It ought not to be difficult to understand that if
the protective system has a bearing upon the general

I90i.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 257

business prosperity of the country it must necessarily
have a special bearing upon the opportunities of the
laborers to demand shorter hours and higher wages.
But, in the particular instance in question, it has very
much "to do with the question," because the manu-
facturers in the South, as in all other states, ask for
protection against the cheap labor of foreign countries
in order that they may give better wages and condi-
tions to our own laborers. If they will not do that,
they are not entitled to protection. Mr. Gompers
ought to be able to see the bearing of such a point even
though his socialist comrades cannot.

"Our point of view has been that, while we ought to remain as
long as the conditions demand, the policy of our government should be
to direct the peoples of these islands towards independent self-govern-
ment rather than towards becoming an integral part of the United
States — Gun fan's Magazine."

Isn't that the evident purpose of the administration, and from a
candid and entirely unprejudiced point of view isn't the actual develop-
ment of the administration policy tending to that end? — Haverhill Ga-
zette.

No, THIS is NOT the evident purpose of the ad-
ministration. On the contrary, whatever purpose is
evident from the utterances of the president, the of-
ficial actions of the administration, and of the commis-
sion now in charge in the Philippines, is distinctly in
the direction of making our possession of the Philip-
pine islands perpetual. Nothing has been said or done
by the administration or any responsible representative
of it that would warrant the remote inference even that
there was any intention of giving the Filipinos "inde-
pendent self-government.'' Of course it is true that
the Filipinos will have a better and more equitable
government under the United States than they had
under Spain, but thus far there is no evidence that
they are more likely to have "independent self-govern-
ment" than is Ireland.

258 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

THE ADVOCATES of negro disfranchisement are ap-
parently willing to adopt any argument, however
specious, or any means, however discreditable, which
would accomplish their end. They invented the grand-
father-clause theory, to sneak around, because they
could not break through the i$th amendment. They
are now basing their claim on the policy of the admin-
istration in not giving a vote to the natives of Hawaii,
Porto Rico and the Philippines, yet, for a year (and
throughout the whole of the last national campaign)
they have been denouncing this policy as unconstitu-
tional. Now, as if to throw a side light on the real
motive behind the whole movement, the Mobile (Ala.)
Register is advocating that the southern members of
congress demand the repeal of the Chinese exclusion
law, so that the South can import "a. million active
Chinese." Freedom has made negro labor too dear for
them. Is it not a sacrilege for such people to talk
about freedom and the welfare of workingmen? If
this is the way the disciples of Jefferson would solve
the race question and the labor question in the South,
it is clear the matter would better be entrusted to other
hands. A slave South was bad enough but the idea of
a Chinese South is not to be tolerated for an instant.

SYMPTOMS ARE again visible of a labor disturbance
in Fall River, Mass., because of a threatened wage re-
duction, which is really due to the pressure of compe-
tition between New England and the South, in cotton
manufacture. Nothing could better illustrate the need
of a broad protective policy. In this instance, of course,
it cannot come in the form of tariffs, nor should it, but
it can and ought to come in the form of uniform hours
of labor throughout the country. The interest of civil-
ization demands that the more advanced sections of the
country shall not, by reason of their advancement, be put

igoi.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 259

to a disadvantage as compared with the less advanced.
As far as possible, without paternal interference, pub-
lic policy should insist that the competitive opportunities
shall be approximately equal. Wages and other items
of cost must be left to the free action of economic
forces, but the state can and ought to see that, so far as
the legal length of the working day is concerned, for
competing industries, it should be alike for all. It is a
matter of national importance that the social conditions
of the most advanced sections of the country shall not
be injured and the standard of life of the laborers low-
ered by unequal economic conditions which might and
ought to be made uniform throughout the country.

" It is to be hoped that the laboring men will win in the present
conflict, but if they were as unanimous on election day as they are when
a strike is ordered, they could remedy their grievances without a strike
or loss of employment." The Commoner.

How COULD they do this on election day? What
could they have voted for that would have remedied
these grievances? Would the election of Mr. Bryan
have done it? What could he have done to unionize
the non-union mills or affect any of the things in dis-
pute between the amalgamated association and the
steel corporation? Does Mr. Bryan expect anybody in
his senses to believe that free coinage of silver would
have done it? — that defeat of the Filipino policy would
have done it? — that suppression of trusts would have
done it? — that the abolition of national banks would
have done it? — or even that the adoption into legislation
of the entire Chicago and Kansas City platforms would
have done it? It would be just as sensible, and under
some conditions far more excusable, to say the laborers
" could remedy their grievances without a strike '' by
all belonging to one church as by all voting for one
political party. There is nothing more manifest to the

260 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

candid observer than that politics and politicians are
utterly incapable of solving the modern economic ques-
tions between labor and capital. To proclaim that all
grievances of workingmen can be solved at the ballot
box savors more of quackery than of statesmanship.

IN A LETTER to the London Times, Dr. Fremantle,
dean of Ripon, has caused a shock to English senti-
ment by pointing out with alarm that the number of
births in England is declining. In 1875 the children
born in the United Kingdom were 34 to each 1,000 of
the population ; in 1900 only 29. The dean goes on to
show that at that rate there will ultimately be no chil-
dren born in England at all ; the population will first
be arrested, then actually decline, and if he continue
his estimate long enough entirely disappear.

This is a great deal like the Malthusian scare, ex-
cept in the opposite direction. The diminution in the
number of births per thousand of the population does not
necessarily imply a diminution in the increase of the
population. Children may be born in great numbers and
die in squads. The real question in the population prob-
lem is not how many children are born, but how many
children are reared. They would better never be born
than born into the pestilential conditions that insure
death to a majority of them under two years of age.
The real question for the dean of Ripon to ask is not
how many children are born but what proportion of
them grow to maturity. If those that are born live,
it will be conclusive proof of improved health and
social welfare among the population, and whenever the
time comes that children which are born live there will
be no fear about the decline in population. The dean
is evidently alarmed at the wrong end of the prob-
lem.

I90i.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 281

A STRENUOUS EFFORT is now being made by a cer-
tain class of journals to show that the decline in the
supremacy of British manufactures is attributable to
the high wages and short hours exacted by the organ-
ized labor of England. Moral — if organized labor in the
United States persists in demanding increased wages
and shorter hours, it will paralyze and destroy the in-
dustrial supremacy of this country. A similar conten-
tion is being made by a certain class in New England,
that they are losing in competition with the South, be-
cause northern labor demands such high pay and short
hours, and in the South the manufacturers are opposing
an age limit for children and a ten-hour day for factory
operatives on the ground that it will handicap them in
their competition with the East. Now, what is the
logic of all this? Simply that the improvement of the
conditions of the working people is an injury to the
business prosperity of the capitalists and therefore
should be prevented. These short-sighted observers
seem not to know that this would be killing the goose
that lays the golden egg. For, if the hours of labor in
England and in this country had not been shortened
and wages increased during the last fifty years, the im-
mense progress in manufactures, trade and commerce
would have been impossible, because it is the very in-
creased consumption which this improved condition of
labor has created that is the real cause of the prosperity
which capital is now enjoying. Those who oppose this
movement of economic and social improvement among
the masses are the real enemies of national progress.

OUR RESPECTED contemporary, the Protectionist, is
shocked by our statement that the reappointment of
Collector Bidwell is a case of "the surrender of the
president and secretary to the spoilsmen ... to

862 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

give office practically as a reward for political crime."
It says :

" Surely this is a sweeping indictment and the expressions are such
as politicians, not economists, use. In what Collector Bid well's politi-
cal crime consisted we do not know."

It then proceeds to defend the removal of Mr.
William J. Gibson from the office of counsel before the
board of appraisers, and the appointment of Mr.
Washburn of Boston to that position. Upon the merits
of the Gibson and Washburn case we have expressed
no opinion, but the statement regarding the Bidwell
case is more than justified by the facts. There is no rule in
ethics or journalism why an economist as well as a poli-
tician should not call a spade a spade, if he is sure that
the spade is a spade. For the means of obtaining full
information on the Bidwell case, we refer our contem-
porary to pages 86 and 87 of the same issue of GUNTON'S
MAGAZINE that contained the remarks to which it takes
exception. This Magazine is not in the habit of in-
dulging in any mere party controversies. It has no
friends to reward nor enemies to punish, nor masters
to serve, but, when an instance of bald and bold cor-
ruption is discovered which tends to corrupt our public
service and disgrace the administration, it deems it its
duty to state the facts. Repetition of such practices
would soon destroy the influence for good of both the
administration and the party.

MR. FRANK Moss, whose picture is the frontispiece
in this issue, is the vigilant watch-dog of New York
city against the corrupt doings of Tammany. Mr.
Moss is a modest but persistent and unpurchasable
man. He served on the board of police commissioners
during Mayor Strong's administration, and emerged
without a breath of suspicion upon his character. He
is counsel for the Society for the Prevention of Crime,

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 268

and, whether in office or out, is unceasing in his efforts
to track Tammany's doings. Through his extended
experience with their methods and devices to protect
the haunts and share the profits of crime, he has learned
to scent them afar. He was counsel for the Mazet com-
mittee, appointed by Governor Roosevelt to investigate
the Tammany administration of the city of New York.
After having uncovered some odorous practices by the
testimony of Mr. Croker and other conspicuous Tam-
many officials, the Ramapo scandal was reached, and he
wanted to call Mr. Platt, when the committee and other
republican organization influences intervened. But
Mr. Moss could not be suppressed. He decided to call
Mr. Platt, fixed a time for his examination, and, as no
other way could be found of preventing Moss from
probing the Platt as well as the Croker relations to that
scheme, the committee adjourned sine die. Since then
Mr. Moss has gone noiselessly about his business, but
with his ear to the ground and his eye on the city's
enemy. Last week, he caught the entire police depart-
ment in a conspiracy to protect criminals through the
organized service of the police officers.

Mr. Moss' exposure of this is so conclusive that
public opinion is a unit on the subject. There is only
one thing that is likely to prevent the people from
cleaning out this criminal band from the city adminis-
tration. That is the deep and too well-founded impres-
sion that the republican organization, with its Platts,
Quiggs and Bidwells, is little better than Tam-
many, with its Crokers, Van Wycks and Deverys. The
only hope is for the people to rise en masse and demand
a new type of administration. Mr. Moss has performed
the task of proving that the crime exists, and spotting
the criminals ; the rest is with the people.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquiries
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

The Power of Chinese Guilds

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Having been a reader of your valuable
Magazine for more than ten years past, I take the
liberty of enclosing a court report that has in it a sub-
ject of some interest to you.

As an explanation of the courts in the foreign set-
lement of Shanghai, I will say that, under an arrange-
ment in accordance with the treaty, a Chinese magis-
trate holds his court sitting with a foreign assessor.
All cases of violation of law amongst the Chinese, or
between Chinese and foreigners, where the Chinese are
tried for the offence occurring within the settlement,
are tried before this court. The Chinese magistrate is
entitled to have the Chinese law executed upon the
Chinese accused brought before him.

The case reported herein is one in which the
Chinese law seems to come in contact with the spirit of
freedom as established in European and American law,
Dr. Barchett being the American assessor for the court.
My object in sending this to you is to call your atten-
tion to the power of the guild in Chinese civilization
and government.

There is, I think, no country in which the guild is

264

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 265

so universal in every type of industrial and social life as
in China, and nowhere does it so completely dominate
every form of commerce and industry as here. It is be-
cause of this that foreign influences are not able to
penetrate into the great commercial and industrial life
of the Chinese people. The failure of foreign cotton
mills to make a profit in China is attributed by those
who are acquainted with conditions to the manipulation
of the local cotton market by the Chinese guild. The
failure of soap and other factories, established by
foreigners, to make a profit, is chargeable to these com-
mercial guilds buying up the raw material and forcing
high prices on the factories.

The establishment of any enterprise by foreigners
in China must take into consideration the commercial
guilds that quietly but deliberately manipulate and con-
trol the market. A failure to grasp this fact and under-
stand its full import has been the cause of most losses
of foreign investments in China. Similar to this in
spirit, but of a little different type, is the squeeze put
upon foreign miners by the Chinese officials, to such an
extent in most cases as to capture all the profits of the
mines.

It is generally considered therefore that invest-
ments of foreign capital in China are valueless unless
they are sustained by the army and navy of the nation
from which the capital comes, insuring fair treatment.

The thought which I desire to emphasize in this
letter to you is the enormous political and industrial
power of the guilds in China. Every style of labor
and commercial union, from barbers' guild to the all-
powerful bankers' guild, is to be found here, and the
history of China for two thousand years is filled with
experimental and successful organizations of labor and
capital in the form of guilds. It is, in fact, almost im-
possible to comprehend either the social, industrial,

266 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

commercial or political life of China without a proper
understanding of the power of the guild. The guild in
China takes the place of many of the governmental
functions that regulate people of other nations, and in
this fact is to be found an explanation of the limited
amount of governmental interference with the people's
affairs.

When I came to China about a year ago I had hoped
to be able to make a study of the Chinese guilds ; but
I soon found the subject vast in detail, and too impor-
tant in relation. to a true knowledge of the Chinese, as
well as too extensive in matter of history, to make it
possible to make headway without a knowledge of the
language spoken and written.

Another serious difficulty in the way of this study
is the unreliable nature of information secured by con-
ference with the heads of these various organizations,
and the limited information to be gathered from foreign
publications. The Chinese are always courteous enough
to answer every question asked, even if they have to
invent a falsehood to do it. I have been able to discover
enough, however, to satisfy me that the influence of the
guilds is so powerful in the industrial, commercial and
political organization of China that we cannot compre-
hend their civilization without a better knowledge of
them, and it is with the special desire of interesting you
in this work that I have addressed you this communica-
tion.

I am convinced that a more perfect knowledge of
the guilds of China, their successes and failures, will be
of great value to the students of social economics in our
country, especially in these days of the extensive growth
of labor and capital organizations.

HENRY B. MILLER.
U. S. Consul, Newchwang, China.

I9QI.J LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 287

"LAW REPORT
"MIXED COURT
" Shanghai, 4th June.
•' Before Mr. CHANG, Magistrate, and Dr. BARCHET, Assessor,

"A MISCHIEVOUS RULING.

"The case in which four men were charged some time ago with
attempting to extort Tls. 5 from a congee seller and whom the Magis-
trate declined to convict on the ground that the money demanded was
for the purposes of the Hawkers' Guild, was reopened this morning.
At the first trial the Magistrate not only maintained that the prisoners
as officials of the Guild were within their right in demanding Tls. 5
from the complainant, but actually ordered the latter to pay the money
with the alternative of having his shop closed. No attempt was made
to prove that the complainant was a member of the Guild, which had
its headquarters in the city ; on the contrary, complainant declared that
he had declined joining the Guild. The Assessor at the time, thinking
perhaps that the Magistrate was trying to set up an imperium in im-
perio, recommended the Inspector in charge of the case to report the
matter to the Captain Superintendent, with the result that a rehearing
was obtained.

" Inspector Wilson said he was instructed to press for the case to be
thoroughly enquired into. It appeared that the complainant did not
want to join the Guild and said so at the former trial. Not being a
member of the Guild he could not see how complainant could be com-
pelled to pay any money to the Guild.

" The Magistrate was very much disinclined to alter his previous
decision and contended that every business or trade had its Guild !

" Inspector Wilson pointed out that the complainant was carrying
on his trade within the Settlement, and there were many traders here
who did not belong to nor could they be compelled to join any Guild.
The Guild in question had its quarters outside the Settlement and was
run by Chinkiang men and he maintained that they could not exercise
any kind of jurisdiction over people trading here.

"The Magistrate said that he could not destroy the Guilds of the
place. If he altered his former decision it would break up all the
Guilds.

" Inspector Wilson said that the man paid rates and taxes to the
Council and he ought to be able to conduct his business without any
hindrance.

"The Magistrate advanced the extraordinary proposition that every
tradesman here must pay Guild taxes too.

" Inspector Wilson said it was quite a voluntary matter. No one
could be compelled to pay anything to the Guilds.

268 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

"The Magistrate urged that if he reversed his former decision he
would be plagued with no end of complaints. Everybody would hence-
forth refuse to pay Guild dues.

" Inspector Wilson assured the Magistrate that the Police would
take up every complaint against the exactions of Guilds.

" After a good deal of wrangling between the Magistrate and the
parties, the situation was saved in a characteristically Chinese manner
— by a compromise. The prisoners were discharged, and the complain-
ant was relieved from any obligation of contributing to the funds of the
Guild, but he was distinctly told by the Magistrate that he would not be
allowed to sell congee at five cash per basin, as that was lower than the
scale of charges sanctioned by the Guild, which the Magistrate evi-
dently thought it was part and parcel of his duty to enforce within this
Settlement." ,

American Loom Inventors

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I notice in your August Magazine an
article by Mr. Leon Mead, in which he refers to a list
of Americans whose inventions have insured our in-
dustrial supremacy, mentioning Amos Whittemore,
Barton H. Jenks and Erastus B. Bigelow as to looms.
I would question the fact as to whether either Whitte-
more or Jenks made any contribution to this art that
would rank with those of Ira Draper, George Draper,
W. W. Dutcher and others, to say nothing of the recent
inventions used in the Northrop loom. Erastus B.
Bigelow was certainly a prolific loom inventor, being
credited with the first automatic let-off motion and
many special inventions from which a great wire-weav-
ing industry has been evolved.

I must plead entire ignorance as to the contribu-
tions of Amos Whittemore, — in fact I only find his name
mentioned in connection with a loom for weaving wire
cloth, patented in 1796, and no looms were built in this
country for many years afterward.

Barton H. Jenks was a prominent American loom
builder for many years, yet the concern which he ran
is now idle, and it is doubtful whether the surviving

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 289

competitors owe appreciably to the ideas which he in-
troduced in his own constructions.

Taking my own list, it is a matter of history that
Ira Draper invented the revolving loom temple, — a
device which enabled weavers to attend two looms in-
stead of one, as formerly, and^improvements by George
Draper and Warren W. Dutcher have continued the
control of the industry so that we supply the entire
American demand for this important loom adjunct.
Facts like these are proof enough of merit. George
Draper also developed the present standard style of au-
tomatic let-off in collaboration with other inventors,
and patented the loose frog used in nearly every Am-
erican loom made.

Other inventors, such as George Crompton and
Lucius J. Knowles, developed large and successful in-
dustries in the line of fancy looms, and the present
Crompton & Knowles Loom Works largely control
this field, including new ideas contributed by George
F. Hutchins, Horace Wyman and many others. The
most important loom inventions of the past fifty years,
however, are headed by those of James H. Northrop,
including the only successful automatic filling changer
ever introduced, to say nothing of the cooperating de-
vices devised by Gen. William F. Draper, Charles F.
Roper and a dozen other associates.

After a long experience with inventors and inven-
tions, I am quite disinclined to see prominence given to
ideas that have not definitely appealed to public de-
mand. If the Northrop invention stimulates a sale of
75,000 looms in five years, the value of the ideas in-
volved is measured by a scale that allows comparison.
I would not wish to be understood as having desired to
substitute my list for that of Mr. Mead, for I have by
no means included all the inventors who should be
mentioned in such a category. Our great carpet indus-

270 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE

try, for instance, involves ideas fully as ingenious as
those evolved by many inventors for plainer styles of
weaving. I simply wished to see that proper credit
was given to certain men in whose history I am person-
ally interested, the very prominence of your magazine
necessitating correction in statements which are liable
to be referred to as of standard authority.

GEORGE OTIS DRAPER.
Hopedale, Mass.

The Steel Strike

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I was unable to learn the reason for the
steel strike, and was waiting eagerly to get Professor
Gunton's views. After reading his calm, comprehen-
sive and able article in the August number, I feel that
I have a full understanding of the situation.

JOHN HOLLEY CLARK.
Principal High School, Flushing, L. I.

"A Safe, Instructive View"

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir :-^Yours is a magazine taking a solid, safe,
wholesome, instructive view of things, as to what our
country is and should be, on the lines of best govern-
ment and policy. I am pleased with it.

(Rev.) W. N. BACON.
Pastor Congregational Church,
Bridport, Vt.

QUESTION BOX

The Tariff and Steel Rails

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Your very interesting article on "How
Reformers Use Facts'' shows rather obviously that
" use " is in reality little else than " misuse." At the
same time, some of the statistics of prices that you give
suggest the question of why we need any tariff duties
on products like steel rails. The tariff is two or three
times the amount of the difference in the foreign and
American price. Such a tariff does no good; it can
only help American manufacturers, if they so desire,
to put the price up to the limit of the tariff without fear
of foreign competition. So long as we know by per-
sonal experience that our manufacturers do not need
this extra amount, such a course would be simply ex-
tortion. J. M. S.

It is probably true that the manufacturers of steel
rails do not now really need protection. The tariff
duty at present is very slight. But the important ques-
tion involved is, should congress undertake a revision
of the tariff in order to remove this nominal duty on
steel rails which manifestly is exercising no injurious
effect? That it is no injury to the consumer is shown
by the fact that the price of rails in this country is
practically as low as that abroad, occasionally going
lower, showing that the tariff exercises no perceptible
influence upon the price. The domestic competition,
even since the organization of the great steel company,
is quite efficient for that purpose. A revision of the
tariff to remove the duty from steel rails would open
up a protracted discussion in congress of the whole
tariff question. Free traders who are indiscriminate in
their attack on protective duties would struggle and
probably succeed in taking the duty off many articles
upon which protection is still needed.

271

272 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

• The very discussion of this subject ; indeed, the
election of a congress on that issue would probably be
a sufficiently disturbing element in our industrial con-
ditions to cause a panic. It gave us a four-years de-
pression the last time it was attempted, and the very
discussion of the subject before any attempt at legisla-
tion was made threw the country into a disastrous panic
which lasted until the party which proposed it was
turned out of power.

But there is one other point which should always
be borne in mind in proposing to remove the tariff
from a protected industry. It is not merely against the
normal production of foreign countries like England
that protection is needed, but against the dumping of
their surplus product. It is a commonplace in business
that, in order to procure extended trade or invade a
new market, all large industries will sell their goods
at cost and sometimes at less than the average cost of
the whole, — first for the sake of carrying off a part of
their product, and second for the sake of getting a foot-
hold in a new market. This has always been done by
England and other foreign countries whenever the op-
portunity presented. It is a point of severe criticism
urged by American free traders, and conspicuously Mr.
Holt, that American manufacturers are doing this in
foreign markets. They complain that some of our
manufacturers sell goods cheaper in foreign than in the
home market. Those who make this objection simply
show their unfamiliarity with practical business affairs.
Foreigners do it and Americans do it. Our manufac-
turers will do it to gain a foothold in foreign markets
just the same as Englishmen will do it to get a foot-
hold here. Even one section of the country will do it
to get a foothold in the markets of another section.
They will do it between towns, they will do it within
the same city, in short, they do it in every market.

I90I.J QUESTION BOX 273

But this is a fact that should always be reckoned with
in considering the tariff. Therefore, the fact that the
cost of producing steel rails has been reduced in this
country to the level of that in England, plus transpor-
tation, would not justify the removal of the tariff.
There should at least be protection enough to afford a
margin against the dumping of surplus products, in ad-
dition to cost of transportation.

Since the tariff manifestly does not injuriously
affect the price of steel rails, they being already as low
as in free-trade England, and since the very discussion
of the subject, to say nothing of legislation upon it,
would cause an industrial disturbance, it is clearly in
the interest of prosperity and business stability to let
the tariff remain on steel rails, although, strictly speak-
ing, it is no longer necessary to the industry.

The Secret of America's Progress

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — In your lecture on the "Secret of
America's Industrial Progress," published in the Lec-
ture Bulletin, you say our progress has not been due to
natural resources nor to free institutions, but to large
consumption of wealth by the people. How would you
account for this large consumption of wealth? You
cited France as an illustration of your point, but why
has not France had large consumption? They have had
good soil and climate, free institutions, and an adequate
system of protection, yet they are not to be compared
with us for industrial prosperity or social welfare.

D. E. B.

You might just as well ask why has not Russia or
India or China as large consumption as France. The
cause of the lack of consumption somewhat differs in
the history of each country, but the crucial fact upon
which the nation's progress turns is the existence of
the consumption. The cause of the smaller consump-

274 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

tion of France is a part of the repressive conditions out
of which the present generation of French people has
come. During the i8th century the French people
lived under the worst phase of feudal institutions.
They had the social influence of feudalism, which by
class influence repressed all incentive for social diversi-
fication and equality, and this served as a repressive
power on the development of habits of consumption.
Indeed, it was the degenerating and oppressive condi-
tions in France that led to the revolution, which,
together with the Napoleonic wars that followed, de-
stroyed a whole crop of the best people in France. It
was very much like the weeding out of from 5 to 10
per cent, of the most characterful and progressive of
the entire French population. That would be a net
setback to the civilization of any country in the world.

The outcome of this condition was the spirit of
war, class distrust and revolution, to the exclusion of
social recuperation and expansion. The peasants would
go bare-footed, live in a hovel, to support the revolu-
tionary movement. And in turn the government peri-
odically disturbed and often destroyed the resources of
the country. So, under these conditions, instead of
becoming a large consumer the French peasant is famous
as a frugal liver, walking bare -footed, carrying his
shoes under his arm until he gets to the city, and mak-
ing a sou go farther than any other person can make
it. The result is that the national habit of France is
smaller capita consumption. It is only in cities where
manufacture and commerce has carried a forced diver-
sification that French progress is at all conspicuous.

In Russia the case is different. Here autocratic
dominance, through the machinery of the church and
the state, has stifled the opportunities of social expan-
sion among Russian peasants. Consequently, by the
very force of these repressive influences, political and

i90i.] QUESTION BOX 275

religious, the people have learned habitually to bow,
thinking it something of a crime to attempt any social
innovation. Consequently the roughest clothing, mea-
gerest huts, and black-bread and cabbage-broth food
dominate the standard of living, and per capita consump-
tion in all except the coarsest foodstuffs is accordingly
remarkably small. The same causes, differently devel-
oped though no less obvious, explain the small con-
sumption and slow progress of India, China and the
Spanish Americas. Multitudes of causes may conspire
to bring about small consumption. It may come from
traditional prejudice, from political repression, from
religious teaching, and even from climatic condi-
tions. But no matter what the cause that leads to small
consumption, small consumption always gives backward
national development and crude civilization. And,
vice versa, whatever leads to large diversified consump-
tion leads to social progress and correspondingly rapid
advancing civilization.

Prosperity and the Administration

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — It is discouraging to read such evi-
dences of subserviency and corrupt influences on the
part of the president as you present, with apparent full
justification, in your July Magazine. Yet is it not a
fact that President McKinley is giving the country a
splendid administration? Prosperity was never so high
nor foreign respect for our power and purposes so
great. Is it not a fortunate thing for the country, in-
deed, that the president is willing to go with the
natural current of affairs and not stir everything up by
his personal opinions and policies? T. R. H.

In the election of a president the nation expects
two things, — one, that he shall conduct the administra-
tion along the lines of public policy which the party he
represents stands for, and second, that in his personal

276 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

executive capacity he shall stand for honesty and in-
tegrity in public office. It is true that the nation is
enjoying a greater degree of prestige and prosperity
than ever before, but that is due to the policy of the
party the president represents. It is no part of Mr.
McKinley's personality that restored business pros-
perity upon his election. It was the fact that he
represented the policy of protection and sound money.
Those two policies, to one of which he was but a very
recent convert, gave financial and business confidence,
which had been so fearfully wrecked by the policy of
the previous administration. It was the triumph of
the principle of protection and sound money and not
the election of William McKinley, which changed the
industrial aspects of the nation.

Our prestige abroad came from the extraordinary
triumph of our navy, for which President McKinley
was no more responsible than any other American
citizen. It was the superiority of the American navy
over the Spanish, which is the result of years of educa-
tion and training, in fact, of our general civilization.
Our navy was as superior to the Spanish navy as our
whole industrial development and national type is
superior to the Spanish. On the other hand, the truck-
ling to corrupt forces in politics, the breaking of
promises and shirking of respbnsibility by the presi-
dent did not belong to the party or the country but to
Mr. McKinley himself. They have nothing to do with
the policy and principles of the party which he repre-
sents, or the spirit of American energy which gives
such buoyancy and progress to our national enterprise
whenever opportunity permits.

Unfortunately, testimony of the weaknesses on the
personal side of the president is becoming cumulative.
Commenting on this subject, the Springfield Republican
of July 7th says :

QUESTION BOX 277

" If the persons who have had similar dealings with the president
could be canvassed, the number of cases in which his fair and promis-
ing words have been belied by later acts would be found to be exceed-
ingly large."

Another painful case of a broken promise defi-
nitely made to a high government official has just come
to light. As people begin to tell their experiences it
deepens the color on the canvas. The fact now comes
to light that even when assuming the personal leader-
ship of President Harrison's cause in the Indianapolis
convention in 1892, Mr. McKinley not merely counte-
nanced but personally aided in trying to get up a
stampede for his own nomination, and the dramatic
polling of the Ohio delegation, in which all voted for
McKinley while he personally voted for Harrison, was
a deliberate stage performance. This is not mere idle
rumor.

Exclusive Employment of Union Men

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I notice in your discussion of the steel
strike that the point of your criticism of the unions is
that they insist on having the non-union mills made
union mills. In other words, your idea seems to be
that, while the men have a perfect right to organize,
they have no right to insist that any other men be dis-
charged if they are not members of the union. Does
not this strike at the strongest pillar of trade-unionism,
which really holds up the whole structure ? Is it not
a fact that if non-union men were permitted in any
establishment along with union men, they would be
used as a means of breaking up the union ? Every new
man that was hired would be a non-union man until all
were of that kind. How else can the unions protect
themselves than by insisting on exclusive employment
of their own men ? E. P. R.

Union men have a perfect right to extend their
organization, but only through the use of moral

278 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

suasion. Coercion cannot be justified under any cir-
cumstances, and if unions were made universal by
coercion they would necessarily become despotic. Of
course, union men have the right to refuse to work
with non-union men, just as they have the right to re-
fuse to work with an objectionable overseer or under
any other condition they deem sufficiently objectiona-
ble. Their alternative is to strike, but this is quite
different from making the corporations sign an agree-
ment by which they will discharge non-union men or
compel them to join the union. It is important to
labor itself that this progress, which is something of a
competition between union and non-union laborers,
should be free from coercion and intimidation. If the
union observes that the corporations are trying to work
any non-union men with the view, ultimately, of
breaking the union, their defence is to strengthen their
union in all the ways they can by new enlistments and,
if needs be, strike against working with non-union
men. In that case the contest must be between the
two, but it must be free. Until the unions are strong
enough, through moral suasion and the strength of the
good they do to their class, to enlist all the laborers, it
is better for them and for society that their influence
should not be exclusive, but there should be a compe-
tition between the union and non-union men. There
is no organization in the community, either the church,
or in business or in labor, which is good enough, and
can be trusted, to acquire exclusive control by coercion.

BOOK REVIEWS

THE MIDDLE PERIOD — 1817-1858. By John W.
Burgess, Ph. D., LL. D. Cloth, 544 pages, $1.75. With
maps. Chas. Scribner & Sons, New York.

In the "American History Series'' the publishers
are aiming to give a history of the United States by peri-
ods, the history of each period being written by persons
specially qualified for that particular work. Whatever
may be said for the merits of this method of writing
history, in selecting Dr. Burgess to furnish the history
of the "middle period " the publishers have rendered
an invaluable public service. It would not be easy to
select a period in American history whose story would
be more difficult to tell without bias than the period
1816-1860, covered by this book. And probably there
is no living man so well qualified to perform the task
from the high ground of accuracy of statement and
political science as Dr. Burgess. In his preface he
admits being "keenly conscious of his own prejudices,"
which is perhaps the surest evidence that he will rise
above them. In this state of mind Dr. Burgess assures
us that he has taken pains to draw upon original sources
for his data and scrupulously avoid all facts given by
writers who have mixed in their own opinions. This
does not guarantee that the facts as presented by Dr.
Burgess will not be twisted, but, as he says, " if they
are twisted by prejudices and preconceptions, I think I
can assure my readers that they have suffered only one
twist."

From the opening to the closing chapter every
page bears the evidence of this freedom from bias in
presentation, yet there is nothing of negative neutrality
on any important subject considered. There is a bold
frankness, a strong candor and fairness of statement

279

280 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

always coupled with a vigorous, unequivocating state-
ment of affirmative principle. This is well illustrated
in his treatment of the case of the struggle over the
United States bank. The book opens with the close of
the war 1812-1815, and the first great fact to be pre-
sented is the chartering of the second bank of the
United States. This is stated with such comprehension
and conciseness, entirely free from any fiscal theory,
that it will be difficult for any reader not to understand
it. Dr. Burgess's masterly grasp of the principles of
political philosophy shows itself in his insight into the
economic and political doctrines which governed the
public action of the time. That the bank of the United
States was the expression of the national spirit, as dis-
tinguished from the local sovereignty and state rights
idea, is everywhere apparent.

On this point Dr. Burgess throws a flood of light in
discussing Jackson's attack on the bank. He does not
fail to note the partisan and even personal political
motives of Jackson in making war on the bank; — the
fact, for instance, that Senator Levi Woodbury of New
Hampshire, leader of the Jacksonian party in New
Hampshire, endeavored to get Jeremiah Mason, Web-
ster's friend, removed from the presidency of the branch
bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1829, to make
room for a Jackson partisan ; the fact that Isaac Hill,
another New Hampshire political friend of Jackson,
tried to have the United States pension agency con-
nected with the Portsmouth branch of the bank removed
to Concord and placed with the bank of which Hill was
or had been president ; the fact that the secretary of
the treasury ordered Mr. Biddle, president of the bank,
to have Mason removed, and Mr. Eaton, secretary of
war, ordered Mason to transfer the pension agency to
Hill's bank in Concord, all of which was purely parti-
san politics; and the fact that in declining to make

BOOK REVIEWS 281

these changes Mr. Biddle, the president of the bank,
gave mortal offence to Jackson. All this occurred be-
fore Jackson had made any open war upon the bank.
The evidence is quite conclusive that, so far as Jackson
is concerned, this was the prime motive for his action.

Dr. Burgess does not leave the case here, but, as
in everything that he touches, he turns on the light of
broader political principles. He shows with great
clearness that, while these facts might have governed
Jackson's personal action, there was a force behind
Jackson, and without which he probably could not have
been successful, namely, the doctrine of states' rights,
the same doctrine that Jefferson represented in opposing
the first bank, i. e., that it was founded on a national
principle and was contrary to the doctrine of state sover-
eignty. Opposition to the bank from this political theory
had existed long before 1829; in fact, had never quite
died out since the first opposition of Jefferson, but the
success of the bank was so overwhelming, it rendered
such invaluable service to the country in giving stabil-
ity and uniformity to the value of currency, bringing
all bank-notes to par with gold, that the opposition,
from the sheer success of the bank, was driven into
comparative silence. But when this personal motive
arose, Jackson fell back on the latent political doctrine
of states' rights to attack the bank, which resulted in
the overthrow of the best banking system this country
has ever had, and substituting in its place our sub-
treasury system, which comes very near being the
worst fiscal institution now existing in any civilized
country. Other great questions, many of which were
so vital to the institutions of the nation during this
middle period, are treated in the same strong, compre-
hensive and yet thoroughly impartial manner.

The Dred Scott case and the struggle for Kansas,
which are the subjects of the last two chapters of this

282 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [September,

volume, similarly illustrate the author's masterly
method of dealing with the subject. In most of the
previous statements of the Dred Scott case we have a
borrowed reflection of some other statement, a feature
of which is that the case was practically a manufactured
one for the purpose of testing the law and constitution
on the subject. Dr. Burgess, ignoring all published
literature upon the subject, proceeds to examine the
original data in the case, which he obtained from Mr.
A. C. Crane, who was law clerk in the office of a lawyer
who conducted the case for Dred Scott, and the details
are given which conclusively show that the idea that
it was in any way raised as a test case is entirely un-
founded. It was a genuine effort of a negro to get his
freedom through the courts, and the lawyers who took
the case did it without pay, purely from the humani-
tarian motive of securing a negro his rights. More-
over, the court expenses in the case were paid by Mr.
Taylor Blow, the son of the owner of Dred Scott, who
sold him to Dr. Emerson, whose widow was the plain-
tiff in the trial for Dred Scott's liberty.

This is not a book to be reviewed, but to be read ;
and really the only thing to say about it is that every
American citizen should read it.

THE WORKING CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM. By Leonard Courtney. Cloth, 383 pp.,
$2.00. The Macmillan Company, New York.

The English constitution is not a written docu-
ment, but consists of a body of parliamentary statutes
and political precedents. It is unlike the constitution
of any other country under representative government.
In reality, the English constitution is simply the tradi-
tions and precedents of government in its various
branches, together with specific legislation by parlia-
ment. Thus an unchallenged or frequently successful

I90I.J BOOK REVIEWS 288

policy of an administration, like a court decision, be-
comes a part of the unwritten constitution, and so every
act of parliament, besides being a statute law, becomes
a part of the constitution. Thus the English constitu-
tion is the most flexible of any in the world. There is
nothing absolutely arbitrary about it. It cannot, like
the written constitution of this country, render any act
of parliament unconstitutional and inoperative. There
is no court, not even the king's bench nor the house of
lords itself, which can declare an act of parliament
unconstitutional, as can the supreme court in this
country.

The English constitution is thus a gradual growth
of the judicial and political habits and parliamentary
enactments of the people as they are modified by de-
cisions and legislation year by year. Like the Irish-
man's knife, which has several times had a new handle
and a new blade, it is the same old knife. The English
constitution is always the same constitution, though
ever undergoing change. This flexibility gives the
English constitution the advantage of always being
modern ; it is always up to date. It always represents
the England of to-day. The constitution serves as a
conservative background for all public action, but it is
not cast-iron enough ever to prevent any change that
the people definitely require. In that sense it is even
more democratic than our own.

This is largely due, however, to the fact that the
political institutions of England are the outcome of a
gradual and almost continuous evolution. England is
the only country in which there has never been a revo-
lution which has overthrown the entire institutions.
There have been revolutions, but they have been
brought about by parliament and preserved the main
thread of the institutions continuous; but, wherever
democratic institutions have come through revolution

284 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [September,

which overthrew the existing form of government, as
in this country and France, a written constitution has
been necessary. It may be said that a written consti-
tution is always necessary for the construction of a
government after a complete revolution. Written con-
stitutions are usually arbitrary and harsh, and, not-
withstanding the periodic modifications, often hamper
the progress of the country. This is one of the dis-
advantages of accomplishing social reforms by revolu-
tion. There are many improvements that could be
made in our national government which the constitu-
tion makes practically impossible, and, in order to get
a change in the constitution, it is necessary to convince
a majority of the people through their legislatures in a
majority of the states. This renders a change practi-
cally impossible, except in extraordinary cases such as
the i4th and isth amendments immediately following
the civil war. From this disadvantage England is free,
and it has been a most healthful condition in her
political progress.

The object of Mr. Courtney's book is to explain
the workings of this flexible unwritten constitution,
and the work is very satisfactorily done. Although
containing less than 400 pages, it gives a succinct and
thoroughly intelligible account of the historic changes
that have taken place in the evolution of English insti-
tutions. The evolution of the house of commons, the
growth of its power over the government, its present
control over national affairs, its relation to the finances,
to the throne, to the house of lords and to the public,
is all told in an interesting and very instructive man-
ner. Also, the relation of the courts, the constitution
of the cabinet, the power of the house of commons over
elections and over itself and the ministry, are told in
such a way that the ordinary reader can get a tolerably
clear idea of the workings of the English government,

1 901 . ] BOOK RE VIE WS 285

which is something that the average American citizen
does not very well understand. The book is really
true to its title, namely : "The Working Constitution
of the United Kingdom," and it ought to be widely
read by the American people, especially in view of the
fact that we are entering upon a colonial policy which
is so new to us and so old to England.

WAGES IN COMMERCIAL COUNTRIES. Fifteenth
Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of
Labor, Washington. 2. vols.

These two volumes comprise 1642 pages, almost ex-
clusively of statistics of wages in different countries. In
some respects it is one of the most important reports
that has issued from this department since its organiza-
tion. Nothing is more difficult to obtain than reliable
data of comparative wages in the different countries, es-
pecially for the same periods. Too frequently we have
to rely for information regarding wages upon news-
paper correspondence, or partial statements by inter-
ested parties, and it is next to impossible to get wages
in the same industries for the same years in any con-
siderable number of countries, and, without this, com-
parison is practically worthless.

These volumes contain data from a larger number
of industries and communities than probably ever be-
fore appeared in a single collection. They cover prac-
tically all the states and territories in the United
States, and about 100 foreign countries, colonies and
provinces. One excellent feature of the report is a
complete table of the sources from which the statistics
in every country are drawn. These are indicated in the
table by a report number. Opposite each date and
country is a number, by reference to which in the
contents can be found the official report from which the
information was taken. In some industries the report

286 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

covers more than half a century and in many the en-
tire period of the industry's existence, especially in
this country.

The reports will be invaluable as a source of refer-
ence, and the more so because the arrangement is such
that the wages in any specific industry or country can
be found as readily as a word in the dictionary. The
utility of the work is greatly enhanced by the fact that
monies of all countries are reduced to dollars.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

A Year in China, 1899-1900. By C. Bigham,
C. M. G., late attache" to the British legation in Peking.
Cloth, 8vo, 225 pp., $3.50. The Macmillan Co., New
York. With illustrations.

American History. By Henry W. Elson, A. M.,
lecturer of the American society for the extension of
university teaching. Series II. The Civil War and
our Own Times. Cloth, 410 pp. The Macmillan Com-
pany, New York. A very excellent book.

Factory People and their Employers. How their Rela-
tions are made Pleasant and Profitable. By Edwin L.
Shuey, M. A., author of "Industrial Training Essen-
tial," etc. Cloth, 224 pp., 75 cents. Lentilhon &
Company, New York. A handbook of practical meth-
ods of improving factory conditions and the relations
of employer and employee.

In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan. By Captain H.H.P.
Deasy. Cloth, Svo, 420 pp., $5. Longmans, Green &
Co., New York. Being the record of three years' ex-
ploration. Maps and illustrations from photographs.

Britain's Title in South Africa; or, The Story of Cape
Colony to the Days of the Great Trek. By James Cappon,
M.A. Cloth, i2mo, 339 pp. $2. The Macmillan Co.,
New York.

History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-
1660. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner, M.A. Cloth,
Svo, 3 14 pp., $7. Longmans, Green & Co., New York.

FROM AUGUST MAGAZINES

* " The mass of testimony, from the time of York-
town to that of Bull Run, tells a story of anything but
a golden age for the American workman. It tells, on the
other hand, the narrative of a nation built up by hard
work, resolutely performed under the keenest priva-
tions. It tells of the growth of a gigantic national
wealth, and the heaping up of immense fortunes ; but
at the same time it reveals the earlier condition of the
common workman, the mechanic, the farm laborer,
often even the farmer, as generally one of pathetic
destitution, the maximum of comfort being found to-
ward the beginning. Not even in the worst days since
the civil war — in 1873, for instance — have conditions
been as bitter as they were in some of the earlier
periods ; and no one could write of any of the recent
years of average prosperity such a tale as Horace Gree-
ley wrote of the "good years" of 1831-32." W. J.
GHENT, in ' ' The American Workmen's ' Golden Age ; ' ''
The Forum.

AN IDEAL SUMMER RESORT

The adage that distance lends enchantment to the
view is unusually true of Americans. It is almost a
national habit with us to think that, if we are to have
any delightful summer outings, we must go abroad, as
if there were no beautiful, restful, inspiring and in-
vigorating spots in the United States. Yet this country
is full of them ; we have more beautiful scenery and
luxuriant summer resting-places than any other coun-
try. Most Americans really need an introduction to
their own country. The Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the
Great Lakes and Niagara have no equals in the world.

Take also, for instance, the Thousand Islands in the

287

288 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE

St. Lawrence. That is a veritable fairyland ; cool,
restful, with a dreamland enchanting beauty, it fur-
nishes to the full all the requirements of a summer out-
ing, and it is only one night's ride from New York
City. One can go to bed at the Grand Central Depot
and breakfast on a St. Lawrence steamer. Moreover,
there is something peculiar about the habits of Thou-
sand Island people. The free-handed, friendly hospi-
tality of the hosts in the Thousand Islands is in charming
contrast with that at the Pan-American Exposition.

As an illustration, we may cite the Thousand
Islands House, which is owned and conducted by
Colonel Staples, of Washington.

Mr. Staples owns a modernly equipped 7 5 -foot
steam yacht. Several times a week, without any for-
mality, guests who so desire are treated to an excursion
among the islands, sometimes spending several hours
fishing and picnicking, sometimes to have a moonlight
view of the St. Lawrence, — a treat never to be missed.
Of course it may be partly due to the general tempera-
ment of the man, but everything seems to be at the
disposal of the guests.

An added charm of this bit of fairyland is the elec-
trical display from the island mansions, many of which
are wired outside as well as in, and in the evening fur-
nish a veritable illumination of the bay second only to
the Pan-American. From the Thousand Islands House,
which occupies the most commanding position in Alex-
andria Bay, the river and its islands can be scanned for
miles in both directions.

Europe has no St. Lawrence, and certainly no
Thousand Islands. It is doubtful if there is a place in
the United States where nature, wealth and the true
free-handed American spirit have done so much to make
one forget the weariness of eleven months' drudgery as
in the Thousand Islands.

PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

page 315

UNGUARDED GATES

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
(Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, April, 1892)

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates,

Named of the four winds — North, South, East and

West;

Portals that lead to an enchanted land
Of cities, forests, fields of living gold,
Vast prairies, lordly summits touched with snow,
Majestic rivers sweeping proudly past
The Arab's date palm and the Norseman's pine —
A realm wherein are fruits of every zone,
Airs of all climes, for lo ! throughout the year
The red rose blossoms somewhere — a rich land,
A later Eden planted in the wilds,
With not an inch of earth within its bound
But if a slave's foot press it sets him free !
Here it is written, Toil shall have its wage,
And Honor honor, and the humblest man
Stands level with the highest in the law.
Of such a land have men in dungeons dreamed,

And with the vision brightening in their eyes
Gone smiling to the fagot and the sword.

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates,
And through them presses a wild, a motley throng-
Men from the Volga and the Tartar steppes,
Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho,
Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Kelt, and Slav,
Flying the Old World's poverty and scorn ;
These bringing with them unknown gods and rites,
Those tiger passions, here to stretch their claws.
In street and alley what strange tongues are these,
Accents of menace alien to our air.
Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew !
O, Liberty, "White Goddess ! is it well
To leave the gate unguarded? On thy breast
Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate,
Lift the down-trodden, but with the hand of steel
Stay those who to thy sacred portals come
To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care
Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn
And trampled in the dust. For so of old
The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome,
And where the temples of the Caesars stood
The lean wolf unmolested made her lair.

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

For the third time in our history a presi-
Menac dent has been murdered during his term

of office. Apart from the elements of
tragic horror, which at such a time permit little sense
of degree or idea of comparison, it is certain that the
assassination of neither Lincoln nor Garfield was so
charged with profound menace as this deliberate and
dastardly blow struck by the hand of anarchy. Lincoln
fell a victim to the spirit of revenge. At most, his
martyrdom had nothing of more dangerous significance
in it than the echoes of a conflict permanently closed.
It did not spring from any movement that was threat-
ening the future of the country ; indeed, it did not even
represent a unanimous southern sentiment. As for the
shooting of Garfield, it represented nothing more seri-
ous than local political disappointment.

But the murder of President McKinley is altogether
a different matter. It was the carefully planned act of
a determined and thoroughly organized body of pro-
fessed enemies of society. The crime was committed
in cold blood, with deliberate malice aforethought, by
men who rejoice in the act and regard it as only one
blow in a far-reaching scheme of murderous assault on
the instruments and agents of government, and through
them upon government itself, wherever its exists. The
people have realized this, and with a deepening sense
of its direful meaning, from the moment when it was

291

292 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

known that the president's assailant was an agent of
the anarchist propaganda. The consciousness of it has
intensified popular indignation and profound concern
throughout the nation, and it is well that this is the
case. The deed done at Buffalo calls for altogether
more comprehensive action than the mere trial and
execution of Czolgosz. That can neither retrieve the
past nor even satisfy the sense of justice. The murderer
is the merest pawn in the game, and in destroying his
worthless life the community takes nothing of value
and secures no additional protection. The anarchists
will not be in the least daunted by Czolgosz's fate; they
will glory in it and plan fresh assaults ; so that the one
thing of crucial importance now does not relate to the
past, it is to safeguard the future.

The president had gone from Canton to

The Crime and r> re i • •*. xi_ A

s Results Buffalo to visit the Pan- American expo-

sition, and on Friday afternoon, Septem-
ber 6th, was holding a public reception in the temple
of music, one of the large buildings on the exposition
grounds. The assassin, Leon Czolgosz, with a revolver
concealed by a handkerchief in one hand, joined the
line and, approaching the president as if to accept the
extended greeting, shot him twice in rapid succession.
One ball struck the breastbone and did little injury ;
the other entered the abdomen, passed through the
stomach, and lodged in the muscles of the back. The
secret service men standing by the president's side, and
a negro close by, sprang upon Czolgosz, throwing him
to the floor, and there is little doubt that only the
prompt action of the police in getting him away to a
station-house prevented the crowd from making an
end of the miserable assassin then and there.

The president was immediately removed to an
emergency hospital on the grounds, and in less than a

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH L"J:J

couple of hours the first bullet had been extracted and
an operation performed on the stomach by Dr. Matthew
D. Mann, of Buffalo, without which the president proba-
bly would not have survived the week. Later in the
evening he was removed "to the home of John G. Mil-
burn, president of the Pan-American exposition, and
surrounded by the best surgical and medical skill, in-
cluding such well-known men as Doctors Mann, Parke,
and McBurney, and the McKinleys* family physician,
Dr. Rixey. For the first few days it was believed, and
with increasing confidence, that Mr. McKinley would
live, but gangrene set in on an extensive scale and
death resulted at about two o'clock in the morning of
Saturday, September i4th.

The body lay in state, and was viewed by great
throngs in the Buffalo city hall Monday, September
1 6th, in the capitol at Washington on Tuesday, and at
Canton on Wednesday. The interment was at West
Lawn Cemetery, Thursday afternoon, September iQth,
the hour being marked in New York and many locali-
ties, large and small, throughout the country by prac-
tically complete stoppage of traffic and travel of every
description. In fact, the funeral service of the day, so
far from being confined to Canton, was a national affair.
In accordance with President Roosevelt's first procla-
mation, and instinctive public feeling, the day was ob-
served by cessation of business and the holding of
services, almost universally, throughout the country.
More impressive testimonials, both domestic and for-
eign, have perhaps never been given anywhere upon
similar occasion.

By the grim irony of circumstances, the

Disposal {

of Czolgosz very method of disposing of the assassin

is furnishing an object- lesson in the even-
handed justice guaranteed by the government whose

294 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

executive lie murdered with the insane idea of destroy-
ing a tyranny. Government, the hated thing whose
authority he denied, was all that stood between him
and the fury of the crowd, which would have welcomed
the chance to apply his anarchistic theory of individual
justice in his own case. Ex- Judges Lewis and Titus
were assigned to defend the prisoner, and by their ac-
ceptance of the unwelcome task have gained a secure
place in public respect ; and still more, have vindicated
our judicial system, as expressing the American sense
of justice, in a test as severe, perhaps, as any to which
it could ever be put. The trial has been conducted be-
fore the supreme court at Buffalo, the prisoner admit-
ting his guilt and declining to request any efforts in his
behalf. In spite of this, he was given the full right of
a formal defence, with opportunity to introduce proofs
of insanity or other testimony, if he so desired. This
was not done, and of course he was found guilty. The
verdict was given on September 24th, and within a few
weeks he will have paid the full penalty of the law.

Vice-President Roosevelt was in the heart
President °* t^ie Adirondacks when the president's

fatal relapse came, having gone there in
the firm belief, shared by everybody, that all danger
was past. Consequently, it was afternoon of the day
of the president's death, September i4th, before Mr.
Roosevelt reached Buffalo. The oath of office was then
promptly taken and a proclamation issued, setting apart
Thursday, the I9th, as a day of national mourning. Just
before taking the oath the new president made the fol-
lowing declaration :

" I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely un-
broken the policy of President McKinley for the (peace, prosperity and
honor of our beloved country."

Probably he could have said nothing more reassur-

igoi.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH *9Q

ing to public sentiment and business interests, for
of all things the industrial community most dreads a
sudden change. President Roosevelt further strength-
ened this confidence by requesting all the members of
the McKinley cabinet to remain to the end of their
terms, which it is understood they will do.

It will be remembered that, at the time Mr. Roose-
velt was named for the vice-presidency, fear was ex-
pressed in many quarters that he was not sufficiently
conservative or ' ' safe ' ' for an office which might at
almost any moment transfer him to the headship of the
nation. If this feeling had any real depth in the com-
munity, it must have been dispelled by this time ; the
test has now been applied and the public has responded
with every evidence of confidence. The stock market,
which of all indexes is most sensitive, responded imme-
diately with an encouraging upward trend of prices,
and there are no signs of industrial disturbance any-
where.

Mr. Roosevelt is the youngest president the nation
has ever had, and is of a temperament which stands
somewhat in need of sobering and perhaps steadying
influences. These characteristics, in a president of the
United States, might not in themselves be reassuring,
but Mr. Roosevelt is neither stubborn, self-willed, nor
over-impressed with his own infallibility. With this
combination of qualities, it is safe to predict that the
accession of great responsibility will furnish whatever
balancing and broadening influences may yet be neces-
sary to supplement the many admirable characteristics
now well known to the public. Because he proposes
no immediate changes, there need be no fear that Mr.
Roosevelt will not be an individual force in the govern-
ment. The new president does well to follow, for the
present at least, the lines of policy already laid down,
letting his own develop gradually as the need may arise

296 GUNTON'b MAGAZINE [October,

and as his own foothold becomes surer. That this is
President Roosevelt's evident intention is primary
evidence of that sound good sense so essential to wise
statesmanship. The presidency has come to him in a
way unsought and undesired, but this very fact will
probably insure the new president a more considerate
public opinion and more generous cooperation than if
he had won this high post in a bitter political struggle.
The responsibilities are heavy, but the opportunities
are great.

President McKinley's administration will

Mr. McKinley's , ^ . A , . , .

Public Work ^e Permanently associated in our history

with certain changes of momentous im-
portance in the evolution of American institutions.
This will be true, however opinions may differ as to
the wisdom of particular policies and measures. Some
things were expected at the outset, and undoubtedly
would have occurred in the same way, whoever had
happened to be the successful candidate of the republi-
can party in 1896. For example, it was expected that
Mr. McKinley's election would restore financial confi-
dence, secure the gold standard, and invite industrial
revival by restoring a definitely friendly tariff policy ;
and the expectations were realized. His administra-
tion would have been notable in our political history
for these achievements alone, coming as the direct re-
sult of the principles he was selected to represent, had
nothing else of importance occurred.

In reality, these accomplishments were
Stability more vitally important to the nation than

anything else that has occurred since
March, 1897. The Spanish war powerfully affected our
external relations with the world, but the restoration
of wholesome industrial conditions at home affected the

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 297

very life-blood of the nation and the integrity of our
free institutions. To save the nation from financial
disgrace and universal panic, and raise it from the mire
of a prolonged industrial depression, was more impor-
tant to ourselves and to civilization than all that has
come out of our new foreign policy. Without an expand-
ing life and soundness at the core, it would have been
impossible either to handle the complex problems that
have been thrust upon us from without or to seize any
of the larger opportunities placed in our path. The
outcome of the expansion policy is still problematical,
but the outcome of our domestic, industrial and finan-
cial policy is not. That is definite, and has furnished
the broad groundwork of whatever national prosperity
and success we shall enjoy in the decades just before us.

The other momentous phase of the Mc-

Resultsofthe ,,. , , . . . ,

Spanish War Kinley administration was unexpected,
and it is too early yet to prophesy what
the final results will be or to pass any adequate judg-
ment upon the policies as a whole that have been pur-
sued. The annexation of Porto Rico and Hawaii could
hardly be avoided, but it will require the most careful
statesmanship to bring these semi-barbaric communi-
ties into anything like fitness for American forms of
government. The policy towards Cuba thus far has
been crowned with success, and if we do not take ex-
cessive advantage of our rights of intervention there it
seems probable that the island will be able to manage
its own affairs without involving us in the dangers of
annexation, at least for a long time to come. We have
steadily maintained that the same policy in the Philip-
pines would have had far more satisfactory results than
the course actually pursued, but when the conflict with
the natives was once on there could be no honorable

298 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October

course but to establish American supremacy and restore
order.

To this object the administration steadfastly de-
voted its energies. A different declaration of intentions
as to the future control of the islands would probably
have saved much of this painful struggle, but it is still
for congress to determine whether the trend of our
policy shall be towards annexation or an increasing
measure of independence with certain essential rights
reserved to the United States. Mistakes have been
made, of which history will inevitably take note ; and
it would strengthen no words of eulogy, but rather de-
stroy the genuineness of whatever praise is offered, to
lavish sentimental endorsement now upon policies
which were the object of dignified criticism a few
months ago. Fortunately, however, it is possible to
say that nothing has occurred which need vitally men-
ace the nation's welfare, if only our statesmanship be
equal to the tasks before it ; and furthermore, that the
administration may be freely accorded full credit for a
patriotic desire to solve the knotty tangle of problems
growing out of the Spanish war in a way to strengthen
our standing among the nations of the world and secure
the best results to the island peoples that have come
into our hands. Still more — if the future policies tow-
ards these new possessions are guided by sound prin-
ciples of national evolution, we may confidently expect
that the net result to the republic of all that has grown
out of the Spanish war will be a mighty forward stride,
carrying us to a point of world influence and power for
good in civilization never before occupied by any
nation. That, however, will be chiefly because the
United States represents the highest type yet devel-
oped of free democratic institutions. If this supreme
product is sacrificed in the course of our external ex-
pansion, the greatness will be bought with too dear a

igoi.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 299

price, and neither ourselves nor civilization will benefit.
The opportunity for enormous good is before us, but
also the responsibility for using it wisely.

Europe realizes that we are standing on
the threshold of this opportunity, and
its eyes are upon us. In spite of trade
jealousies, there is throughout Christendom a new feeling
of respect and even admiration for the republic. Nothing
could have indicated this better than the unparalleled
flood of foreign expressions of sorrow, respect and good-
will called out by the assassination. It was Mr. Mc-
Kinley's good fortune to be president at a time when
the presidency of the United States was coming to be of
more importance and better known in the world than ever
before, and furthermore, at a time when the nation could
and did give extraordinary proofs of chivalry towards
an oppressed neighbor and magnanimity towards a
foreign foe. This course naturally associated itself in
the foreign mind with the personality of the president,
and created for him an exceptionally high regard ; the
more so, because few of the less attractive characteris-
tics of any public man can be known outside the imme-
diate range of our own political affairs. It is an opti-
mistic trait in human character that, at such a time at
least, all the emphasis is placed on the best that was in
a man. In reality, it is the good men do that lives
after them ; the evil is "oft interred with their bones."

A pronounced domestic effect of the

Spanish war ought to be noted, which

is wholly good ; that is, the rapid

abolition of sectional division among our people.

The novel experience of fighting side by side

under the same flag did more to wipe out the

remnants of bitterness between the North and South

800 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

than years of alternate scolding and preaching. The
old feeling is not wholly dispelled, but at no time
since the civil war has there been anything like so
rapid an approach to a sentiment of national unity. It
has been greatly aided by the wholesale introduction of
modern manufacturing interests in many southern
states. The late president earnestly encouraged this
sentiment of reunion, and took a deep interest in see-
ing the last traces of sectional animosity disappear.
The spirit of conciliation was one of the most marked
of Mr. McKinley's personal characteristics ; indeed, it
sometimes led to more generous concessions than the
circumstances of the case, when reduced to the con-
crete, could or would sustain ; but his attitude towards
the South and West bore wholesome fruit and has given
signs, here and there, of the beginnings of another
"era of good feeling." The almost unanimous tributes
of regard from the southern press confirm this, and are
encouraging symptoms of a wholesome trend.

No man is wholly free either from de-
1 ^ects *n personal characteristics or from

mistakes of judgment, but when a
national figure passes into history it is a wholesome
thing that the larger emphasis should be placed upon
those results of his public work which have most vitally
affected the national welfare. If they have affected it
for the worse, the truth should be frankly told ; but in
the present case it may be accurately said of Mr. Mc-
Kinley's administration, as a whole, that it restored
financial confidence and business prosperity, was a uni-
fying force within the nation, and materially advanced
the United States in world-wide influence and broad
opportunity for good. He was not personally the crea-
tor of all this,* but he gave the weight of his influence
and encouragement to the side of most of the tenden-

I9QI.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH 301

cies which brought it to pass. Whatever mistaken
steps have been taken are not irretrievable, and it is in
our power to make the results of the tylcKinley admin-
istration tell with increasing force for abundant pros-
perity at home, international peace, and the steady
growth of civilization among the barbaric and back-
ward races.

As we have said, the execution of Czol-
of Anarchy gosz will be neither adequate reparation

for the crime nor protection for the future.
The real problem, which ought now to receive deter-
mined and unremitting attention, is how to protect our
institutions from this destructive menace of anarchism
which has operated so successfully in European coun-
tries in recent years and found so firm a foothold here.
The air is full of suggestions for drastic remedies, and
calls for vengeance, but the problem is not to be solved
so readily. In protecting liberty, we must not go so far
as to destroy it. In driving out anarchism, we must not
erect into law a policy and methods which later and in
other directions can be perverted into instruments of
oppression. We are compelled by the very nature of
our institutions to draw the line between liberty and
license. We must preserve the rights of free speech
and free assemblage as necessary safeguards against
despotism, but we must also protect ourselves against
such of the results of this liberty as tend to destroy the
only adequate guarantee of liberty itself — that is, gov-
ernment and law.

The problem is more serious for us than for any
other nation. On the one hand, the United States is
becoming more and more an asylum for anarchistic
propagandists driven from Europe, and, on the other,
our constitution will not let us use the radically drastic
measures so easily available in a monarchy. Anarchy

302 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

is bred under despotic conditions utterly unlike any-
thing to be found in this country, but when the anarchist
arrives here and sees the forms of government still in
evidence, knowing nothing of the difference in its
character and operation from that he left behind, he
takes advantage of the freer environment to strike the
blows he sought to strike at home. Because of his em-
bittering experience under one type of government,
and ignorance of our own, our very freedom from
despotic restrictions places us at his mercy. There-
fore, in his case, we cannot rely on the broad general
safeguards which are ample to secure law and order
with those brought up under our own institutions and
conditions. Special measures become absolutely essen-
tial to meet the special danger.

Three Ob'ects There are several lines of policy that
of Immigration might be, ought to be, and for the safety
Restriction of free government must be, undertaken

without further delay. Some of them ought to have
been undertaken long ago, and further neglect will be
unpardonable cowardice.

A rigid and comprehensive immigration law ought
to be enacted, with a three-fold object: first, to exclude
absolutely all persons who are known as believers in
anarchistic principles or members of anarchistic socie-
ties ; second, to exclude all below a certain educational
standard of fitness for citizenship in the United States ;
third, to exclude all below a certain standard of
economic fitness to enter our industrial field as compet-
itors with American labor.

The first provision would not, of course, be infallible,
but it would serve at least as a sieve and intercept the
majority of the worst type of anarchists seeking asylum
in this country. To enforce this would require a more
extensive secret service in connection with our consular

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 808

posts in foreign countries, and a more rigid system of
examination at our immigration ports. It ought not to
be nearly so difficult to do this as to thwart spies in dis-
guise, coming from an enemy in time of war. The
anarchist's hand is against all government, and he
should be classed as a public enemy and excluded for
the same kind of reasons that the spy is watched for
and captured. Much can be done in this direction, and
must be ; it is futile to pass repressive measures against
anarchists already here, while doing nothing to stop
the constant incoming of fresh recruits.

The second object of a rigid immigration law should
be to secure, by a careful and not merely perfunctory
educational test, at least some intelligent capacity to
appreciate American institutions and act sanely as
American citizens. It is very true that this alone
probably would not keep out a single anarchist ; they
are usually men of considerable intelligence and some-
times high education ; but it would do what is almost
equally important, — tend to reduce the background of
ignorance in which envy, passion, suspicion and hatred
of authority are born, and out of which anarchistic sen-
timent most naturally springs.

The third point of an immigration law should be
an adequate economic test, — proper proof of personal
capacity to earn an American living, and the possession
of a stated sum of money, enough to insure a decent
start under American conditions. This would serve a
purpose somewhat like the educational test, in insuring
a higher general standard of immigration, but it would
also give two other results even more important: first,
it would practically stop the influx of cheap labor com-
petition, which gives rise to so much of bitterness in
American industrial life ; second, it would help dry up
the springs of the pestilential social conditions in our
great cities, where anarchistic organizations flourish,

304 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

and to which the anarchist haranguers and agents con-
stantly point as proofs of the tyranny of government.
Both the educational and economic tests in a new immi-
gration law should be designed to protect and elevate
the general social background, and thus aid in destroy-
ing anarchism by inexorably closing in on its field of
opportunity.

Sappression-to Another measure which ought to be
What Extent adopted is the prompt suppression both
Feasible of publications and meetings in which

government as such is assailed and its destruction by
violent methods or murder of its representatives advo-
cated. The classification is perfectly distinct, and
there need be no danger of tyrannical interference
with freedom of speech, as would certainly be the case
if power were given to local authorities or the courts to
suppress any publications or meetings which in their
judgment were dangerous to public welfare. So far as
the expression of views in regard to forms and methods
or the modification of government is concerned, there
should be the largest freedom, but to attack govern-
ment per se and urge the assassination of public officials
is an entirely different thing. It is of the same essen-
tial nature as a declaration of war by a foreign power,
and the nation should put itself on a tentative war basis,
as it were, with reference to the anarchist propaganda.
Because these men, as a group, are not literally bearing
arms is not a vital point ; neither are the executive
officials of a government with whom we are at war.
But that government is the director and planner of the
measures of force used by the military, and in the same
sense anarchist societies are the devisers and instiga-
tors of the murderous assaults upon public officials or
the plots laid for overthrowing governments. If we do
not go to the length of imprisoning them, we can at

1901.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 805

least deprive these voluntary outlaws of their power for
evil, so far as that power comes from tongue or pen.

This is no time for sentimental concern about
"liberty" for those who want only the liberty to de-
stroy. A measure of suppression of the sort advocated
could not be used against any propaganda which did
not attack government as such and demand its over-
throw ; therefore, there need be no alarm that it would
interfere with the free expression of any opinions which
sought to modify or change the character of our
policies or even institutions by peaceful methods.

The Responsi- But, when all this is done, the most vital
bility of Public phases of the subject will still be left un-
Opinio0 touched. We need a new type of public

opinion with reference to the nature and value of our
institutions, — governmental, industrial, and social.
There is in this country a dark background of public
suspicion and bitterness, directed towards capitalistic
interests and indirectly against government as the sup-
posed tool of these interests. This inflamed senti-
ment is continuously renewed and fostered by the
sensational press and political demagogues in every
quarter of the union. For years, capitalists have been
held up as public enemies, and government officials as-
sailed as uniformly corrupt and in disgraceful league
with organized wealth for the systematic plundering of
the poor. For example, the very papers which have
been showering the most profuse eulogies upon Mr.
McKinley, and picturing most lavishly the pathos and
horror of the tragedy at Buffalo, are the ones which
have most persistently and offensively held him up to
public ridicule and scorn, and assailed his entire conduct
of public affairs as either contemptible or despotic or
both. Note, for example, the following as illustrating

306 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

the tone of the editorials that appeared in a New York
evening paper after the assassination :

"With the closing of the tomb at Canton yesterday the career of
William McKinley took its place high in the archives of the republic. We
may be sure that the record will be bright. . . . There are two fac-
tors in statesmanship. One is the faculty of knowing what ought to be
done ; the other is the faculty of knowing how to do it. Some have one
and not the other. These are one-sided and only partially successful.
McKinley acquired both. . . . Power was like sunshine to him ; it
brought out all that was best in his mind. . . . The president will
occupy a niche of his own — not quite on a level with those occupied by
Washington, the father of his country, and Lincoln, its Savior, but high
enough to keep him forever in our minds and hearts."

This appeared in the New York Evening Journal, on
the very page where for two or three years, up to the
very time of the tragedy, has appeared a series of car-
toons representing Mr. McKinley as a contemptible ob-
ject of ridicule, fathered by the combined trusts and
nursed by a corrupt political boss. It was left for an
anarchist, the notorious John Most, to make probably
the most pointed of all comments on this sort of abomi-
tion. Most is reported as saying, in an interview :

"Look at the caricatures where your president is portrayed in a way
that would make even a bootblack ashamed. Is it a wonder that this
Czolgosz permits himself to be incited ? These pictures daily show the
president as a foolish little man. Such ridicule affects the ignorant
mind."

On the Monday before the assassination, Mr. Bryan
appeared before what are described as "two enormous
audiences'* in Kansas City, the keynote of his addresses
being the declaration that "each decade of our history
shows greater production of wealth, and the men who
produce it have less to show for it." If this were true,
and the process were destined to go on indefinitely, the
outcome of course would be universal starvation, a pros-
pect quite sufficient to incite anarchistic uprising against
all kinds of existing institutions, governmental or in-
dustrial. The Journals and Bryans, and all of similar

igoi.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 307

type who have indulged in this indiscriminate and bit-
ter railing, probably do not realize thev extent of their
share of responsibility for the activity of the anarchist
propaganda, but the responsibility is there none the
less. Once convince the masses that the hand of the
rich and of the government is immovably against them,
and that their lot is growing more and more desperate
every year, and out of this hotbed of misinformed
hatred some one is sure to emerge with a revolutionary
or murderous remedy which, to his brutal mind at least,
will alone give reparation and revenge.

The anarchist movement is not a single-handed,
unsupported thing in American life. It has a back-
ground, furnished by the literature of envy and the lan-
guage of demagogy, upon which it feeds and from
which it draws encouragement and reckless determina-
tion. Anarchism is the concentrated expression and
outcome of this inflamed public sentiment, in quite the
same way that Czolgosz in turn is the still further con-
centrated expression and outcome of the anarchist
movement. The propaganda and its tools come to us
from Europe, but the background and encouragement
for its operations have been furnished here at home, —
furnished through pandering to the lowest passions and
playing upon ignorance in the hope of gain or of polit-
ical preferment. This had become so patent a fact that
when the Buffalo tragedy occurred these sensation mon-
gers, as if by one accord, seemed to realize the extent
of public indignation that would break upon them, and
sought safety in a lightning face-about and utterly dis-
gusting pretence of profound veneration for the suffer-
ing victim, both as a statesman and a man. The con-
temptible spectacle will deceive no one ; and if the re-
sult could be such a revulsion of public feeling as would
discredit everywhere the influence of this type of polit-
ical hypocrisy and incipient anarchism in our public

308 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [October,

affairs, a long step would be taken towards checking
the revolutionary tendencies it has helped create.

A Warning ^ut responsibility goes still deeper. The

to Tyro demagogues and the sensational press

" Reformers " have not had to rely wholly on the igno-
rant masses for encouragement, nor even for moral
justification. Great numbers of men of intelligence
and standing, who ought to know better, have added
fuel to the flame and lent the weight of their influence
to a crusade against modern industry and institutions,
inspired chiefly by prejudice and feeling, and drawing
their opinions from the most superficial study of indus-
trial conditions. With an instinctive sympathy for the
poor, they have been content to accept the easiest sur-
face explanation of these hardships, charging them
all to plunder by the rich, and enthusiastically hail
every new radical propaganda as one more promising
sign of the golden era just in sight. They have as-
sumed, on this trivial basis of information, to scatter
social firebrands with no more thought of the conse-
quences than disturb a child playing with matches
around a powder magazine.

These cultivated gentlemen would be horrified at
the idea of putting a coal shoveller in charge of a pass-
enger locomotive, or sending a first-year medical stu-
dent to perform a delicate surgical operation ; yet there
is nothing in the mechanical world or the physical
world more delicate or sensitive than the complex fab-
ric of modern society. For the most part, the so-called
social reformers and "advanced thinkers," champion-
ing various revolutionary propaganda, are continuous-
ly rushing into print and speech, trying to be the en-
gineers or surgeons of organized society, upon the
meagerest acquaintance with economic principles or
even with the literal facts of industrial conditions. It

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 309

is high time for public sentiment to demand that the
entire brood of social prophets, heralds of new eras,
messengers of hope, and " white-slave " emancipators
begin to equip themselves with the rudiments of eco-
nomic science and laws of social evolution before experi-
menting any further on the nervous system of society.
At; least, the public sense of discrimination ought from
now on to recognize that anyone who proposes social
revolution as a cure for social imperfections is in the
same class with the tyro who would cut off the head to
cure earache, and treat the propositions with equal con-
tempt.

Finally, there is a profound responsibility

Education a .. • , r , . , .. ..

Vital Necessity resting upon the whole people, and if it
is not fulfilled the other measures of
safety will be of little permanent influence. That re-
sponsibility is educational. With a rigid immigration
law and suppression of murderous propaganda, we shall
have done about all the strictly protective work that is
feasible, but there is a vast area of positive preventive
work for the future. So long as demagogues and the
sensational press are left to do the educating on eco-
nomic and social problems, they will continue, in spite
of a possible temporary reaction against them now, to
determine the character of public sentiment on these
matters. We have only begun the task of rational
education of public opinion. Serious instruction in
elementary economic principles, and the facts of indus-
trial history and present conditions, has been almost
wholly wanting outside the college class-rooms, and
even there the teaching has been so theoretical and
abstract as to give little real understanding of our in-
stitutions or idea of sound statesmanship or the duties
of citizenship. To-day the field is* ripe for popular
education along these lines in a way never before

310 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

attempted, and the demand for it is coming from all
quarters. It requires systematic, organized effort, and
the instruments must not be simply the colleges.

Economic and sociological education, based on
scientific principles and verified, intelligible data, must
extend through the high schools and some time even
into the public schools, and it must further be spread
through the press, through special literature, and
through local organizations and lecture courses organ-
ized for this special purpose. The long neglect of this
field renders action on a large scale all the more im-
perative now. It may seem formidable, but there is no
quicker or easier way to guarantee safety to our insti-
tutions and no other that can have permanently reliable
results. The means of popular enlightenment are at
hand, and therefore, in the last analysis, the responsi-
bility for social security in the future lies with the com-
munity. It lies especially with the wealthy, who not
only have most at stake in the maintenance of orderly
progress, security and social peace, but are best able to
provide for a widespread educational movement of this
character. If the tragic death of the president shall
rouse the nation to the necessity of this great work, the
deplorable sacrifice will not have been wholly in vain.

Seth Low

The municipal campaign in New York
city is at last getting under way. The

for Mayor . J

lines are being sharply drawn, and there
is more and more reason for believing that this year
nearly all the anti-Tammany organizations in the city
will be found presenting a united front, instead of the
fatal division which brought disastrous defeat in 1897.
The deplorable antagonisms which threw the control
of the greater city into Tammany's hands have not
reappeared, and there is nothing to indicate that any
such split can be brought about. The most striking

IQOI.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 811

single item of evidence on this point is the fact that
Senator Platt, who was heart and soul in the movement
for General Tracy in iSQ/^now endorses, the nomination
of Seth Low as the anti-Tammany fusion candidate.

The selection of Mr. Low has been made by a
peculiar process of elimination. The general anti-
Tammany conference of 74 members, on September
pth, appointed a committee of 18, composed of repre-
sentatives from the citizens' union, the republican party,
the German- American organizations and various other
anti-Tammany bodies, to recommend candidates for
mayor and the other municipal offices. Starting with
a long list of candidates, this committee after prolonged
discussion dropped name after name until all but one
member of the committee, Mr. Herman Ridder, of the
German-American reform union, were for Mr. Low,
and his name was recommended to the conference and
adopted by a vote of 68 to 2, on Wednesday evening,
September i8th. Mr. Ridder and another representa-
tive of the German organizations were the two voting
in the negative. They preferred Controller Coler,
whose apparent willingness to take either the Tammany
or anti-Tammany nomination has made him clearly
unavailable as a leader of a genuine reform movement.

The balance of the ticket has since been selected
in the same way. Edward M. Grout, democratic pres-
ident of the Borough of Brooklyn and an active foe of
the Ratnapo steal, is the candidate selected for con-
troller; Charles Y. Fornes, a prominent democratic
merchant, for president of the board of aldermen ;
Senator Jacob A. Cantor, democrat, for president of the
Borough of Manhattan ; Justice Jerome, democrat, for
district attorney; William J. O'Brien, democrat, for
sheriff. The city conventions of the republican party
and the citizens' union were held on Tuesday evening,
September 24th, and the selections of the conference

312 . GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

for city offices unanimously endorsed. The city democ-
racy, led by former Sheriff James O'Brien, has with-
drawn from the movement because the nominee for
mayor is not a democrat, and they will undoubtedly be
found, as usual, on the Tammany side in the final
round-up.

The only other bodies whose defection is in any
way to be feared are the German- American organiza-
tions. The German-Americans in anti-Tammany con-
ferences usually find themselves between the horns of
a dilemma ; they want to be with the reform element,
provided they can insert into it the continental notions
of "personal liberty," and if this is not definitely guar-
anteed the experience is that Tammany gets a gener-
ous proportion of the German vote. It is hardly to be
imagined, however, that in a situation like the present,
where complete unity would almost certainly insure
success, the German-Americans will wantonly de-
stroy such an opportunity by breaking the ranks
and transferring to Tammany what might prove to
be just the determining balance of power. If the
German-Americans are really and thoroughly inter-
ested in getting rid of Tammany they will sacrifice a
minor point for the high purpose of municipal regen-
eration. The republicans have accepted a candidate
who of all others was most offensive to them four years
ago. Surely the German-Americans will not be less
patriotic. Morever, the platforms adopted by the con-
ference on September 2Oth and by the republican party
on September 2 5th are so liberal, along the lines of
greatest interest to the Germans, that to refuse support
would simply mean that there was no genuineness after
all in the professed desire to join hands against Tam-
many.

Mr. Low has many enemies as a result of the cam-
paign of 1897, but on the other hand he has done much

I90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 818

since then to restore friendly feeling, especially among
republicans. There are many reasons for believing that
Mr. Low recognizes that the split of 1897 could have
been avoided if better judgment had been used both by
himself and the citizens' union. He has broadened
with that experience, and if elected now will probably
make a wiser and more successful mayor by reason of
his accession of practical knowledge of men and motives.
Of his other qualifications for the office there is little
need to speak, they are so ample and of such high order.
Under his administration we might expect not only
cleanness in the machinery of government but a series
of wholesome policies dealing with the neglected social
conditions of the city, and aiming to raise the standard
of living and general level of municipal civilization.
Now that the ticket is actually in the field, there should be
a universal rallying to its support,and a powerful, united,
determined campaign of education to carry it through
to success. No friend of good government will be able
to give an adequate excuse for standing aside at this
moment of supreme opportunity.

Current Price For Friday, September 20, the follow-
Comparisons ing wholesale prices are quoted :

1901 1900

Flour, Minn, patent $3.7033.90 $4.2034.50

Wheat, No. 2 red 7&i 84

Corn, No. 2 mixed 64^ 47$

Oats, No. 2 mixed 39^ 25

Pork, mess 16.50 13.25

Lard, prime western 10.624 7-5°

Beef, hams 21.50 19.00

Coffee, Rio No. 7 5$ 8$

Tea, Formosa 23 23

Sugar, granulated 5.25 6.15

Butter, creamery, extra 2ia.. 2i|a . .

Cheese, State, f. c., white, small, fancy . . . . agj . . aii|

Cotton, middling upland 8| 104

Print cloths 3 3^

314 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

1901 1900

Petroleum, refined, in bbls 7.50 8.05

Hides, native steers i2f n£

Leather, hemlock 24^ 24

Iron, No. i North, foundry i6.ooai6.so i6.ooai6. 50

Iron, No. i South, foundry i5.ooais.5O . . ai6.oo

Tin, Straits 25.isa25.25 27.75a28.oo

Copper, Lake ingot i6£ai7 16.62^17.00

Lead, domestic 4-371 . . £4.37^

Duns Review shows index-number aggregate prices
per unit, of 350 commodities, averaged according to im-
portance in per capita consumption, for September i
and comparison with previous dates, as follows :

Breadstuff s. ...
Meats

Sept. i,
1901.
$173.69

nC.QO

Aug. i,
1901.
$166.68

QI.CI

Jan. i,
1901.
$144.86
84.07

Sept. i,
1900.
$139 n

QO. 14

Sept. i,
1899.
124.31
82 oo

Sept. i,
1898.
$117.91
78.01

Dairy and Garden
Other Food . . .
Clothing

130.09

91-53
152.34

132.61

92.53
150.27

155.56
95.04
160.24

112.51
96.50

158.43

110.05
91.65
155.02

95.48

88.79

145. T.T.

160.91

153.45

158.10

148.70

174.13

116.97

Miscellaneous . .

165.25

166.25

158 81

161.69

144-35

124.67

Total $969.11 $953.30 $95668 $907.14 $881.51 $768.08

Breadstuffs continue to show advances, while, with
the waning of summer, dairy and garden produce
slightly declines. Clothing is a very little higher.
Metals, for the first time, show some effects from the
steel strike, but the advance is considerably less than
might be expected under the circumstances. The end-
ing of the strike and resumption of production will
probably reflect itself next month in a decline, provided
new elements of disturbance do not enter the situation.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT

By the assassin's hand Mr. Roosevelt's path to the
presidency of the United States has been shortened.
Yet he was heading for the white house, impelled by
all the natural forces which induce political promotion.
It is an unspeakable misfortune to him as well as to
the whole nation that his promotion should have come
through such revolting methods, and yet it is fortunate
for the nation that under the circumstances Mr. Roose-
velt was next in line.

He is thoroughly in the nation's confidence ; he is
probably the most popular man with the American peo-
ple in the country. His promotion in political life has
been exceptionally rapid and his experience exception-
ally full. Unlike any other man who has reached the
white house in half a century, his popularity is all his
own. That is to say, it is with the people that he is
popular. It was the spontaneous demand of the citizens
throughout the country that forced his rapid political
progress. He has the two qualities which the Ameri-
can people most admire and are ever ready to stand by
— integrity and courage. It seldom occurs that a really
popular man becomes president of the United States.
The candidates for that high office are not chosen by the
popular voice, but are selected through the machinery
of party organization, and that, in the last analysis,
usually depends upon the decision of a comparatively
small number. After they are selected, they individual-
ly become party heroes by virtue of such selection.
Good men, and perhaps the best men, maybe and often
are selected that way, but Mr. Roosevelt never enjoyed
the advantage of having the aid of these forces to se-
cure his promotion. Indeed, he has more often had
them against him. His exceptional progress in public

815

316 G UNTON 'S MA GA ZINE [October,

life has always come from his personal popularity with
the unorganized and unmanageable public, and this
popularity was not due to his good looks, the suavity
of his manners or the eloquence of his speech, but to
his sterling qualities, which the people admire. He is
not a man of political theories, but preeminently a man
of action. He always does things and that is what the
people like. And, moreover, his doing is always
characterized by progressive public spirit and unques-
tionable integrity. Whether president of the civil ser-
vice commission, or president of the police commission-
ers of New York city, or colonel of the rough riders
in the war, it was all the same. He was active, ener-
getic, trustworthy and always the soul of honor. When
he became candidate for governor of New York state,
it was by the sheer force of personal popularity. The
organization was a unit against him and there were
abundant reasons why Mr. Black should have had a second
term. He had earned it ; there seemed to be no par-
ticular reasons why Roosevelt should be substituted for
Black on that occasion. Indeed, all the traditional
reasons were against it, but his popularity with the
people over-topped all ordinary calculations and his
nomination was an irrepressible stampede. He carried
his qualities into the governorship, and nothing could
have prevented his election for a second term but the
greater demands for his promotion to the vice- presi-
dency.

The demand for his nomination in this instance
was unique in the history of American politics. It came
from every state in the union. It is true that those
who would make presidents and governors their per-
sonal servants instead of public representatives in his
own state, favored his nomination to the vice- presi-
dency in the hope that it would retire him to the dust-
box of politics or at least take him out of the line of

IQOI.] THEODORE ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT 317

political promotion. But the people, who indulged in
no such short-range, unpatriotic notions, demanded his
nomination to the second highest place in the gift of
the nation, and the sad event which is now depressing
the country only too clearly shows how much wiser
were the people than the politicians.

Thus he carries with him to the presidency that
confidence and enthusiastic support of the people that
have been the lot of few presidents on their first en-
trance to the white house. In the midst of the national
mourning, which is veritable sorrow throughout the
land, there comes from every responsible avenue of life
expressions of buoyant confidence in Mr. Roosevelt as
president. The chambers of commerce, the great
business houses and financial institutions, and in fact
from every walk of life the voice has broken through
the generally depressed feeling, to express hope and
confidence in his administration.

It is a peculiar characteristic of Mr. Roosevelt that
while he is emphatic and sometimes apparently impul-
sive, he is eminently practical and truly conservative.
He is not too conceited or vain to change when he is in
error or apologize for a mistake. He has shown, more-
over, that extraordinary capacity to rise to the occasion.
He broadens with the duty and strengthens with the
responsibility. In assuming office, with that good
sense that never fails him, he promptly declares that
his ' ' aim shall be to continue absolutely unbroken the
policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity
and honor " of the country. This declaration everybody
knew was not a mere collection of words but an ex-
pressed determination. It was not an oration, but a
promise which every American took in good faith.

In assuming the presidency under these dreadfully
depressing conditions, Mr. Roosevelt has a double bur-
den. He is called to assume the duties of president

318 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

wholly unexpectedly and to some extent unpreparedly,
and he follows Mr. McKinley, who died in the very
zenith of his popularity, which is doubly intensified by
the revolting method of his death. All this will tend
to make everybody more critical and some perhaps
hypercritical of Mr. Roosevelt's doings. He is not
beloved of the politicians and may expect only the most
ordinary support from them. The people, the honest
citizens throughout the country, who are truly patriotic
and love the republic and who believe that its institu-
tions, from the smallest office to the most responsible
position in the nation, should be kept clean and above
reproach, the people who believe democratic institu-
tions should be undefiled and above suspicion, will give
President Roosevelt their unqualified support. It is
the part of patriotism now to hold up the new presi-
dent's hands, to sustain him unqualifiedly, to look not
for the defects of inexperience, but shower forth upon
him their unqualified confidence that he may know
afresh that the people believe in him, and their very
belief in him is proof that they expect much from him,
—and they will not be disappointed.

In declaring his intention to follow the policy of
his martyred predecessor, Mr. Roosevelt showed wis-
dom as well as discretion. President McKinley's
administration has been preeminently characterized by
a policy of sound finance and industrial prosperity, a
continuance of which will make any nation great. Un-
der that policy the national wealth and name and fame
have grown as never before. Wholesome and intelli-
gently applied protection to domestic industry, and a
sound, stable financial system are the two great things
to be jealous of in the future. Surrender or compro-
mise either of these and disaster may easily be brought
upon the nation. Mr. Roosevelt may be trusted im-
plicitly to adhere to this policy because it was not

i90i.] THEODORE ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT 319

peculiarly the policy of Mr. McKinley, but is preemi-
nently the policy of the party his administration repre-
sented and also of the nation. So that all the conserva-
tive and wholesome forces of the party in the country
will naturally and logically support Mr. Roosevelt in
maintaining this policy, and the people who are enjoy-
ing the benefits in unparalleled prosperity will enthu-
siastically do so.

Besides continuing unbroken the public policy of
President McKinley, Mr. Roosevelt brings a strong,
clean, wholesome personality into the official politics of
the nation. So far as he is called upon to act, the
nation may know, know without asking, that appoint-
ments will be made on capacity and honor ; that no
position will be filled as the reward for questionable
party service or by questionable persons for mere par-
tisan influence or political purpose. He has too much
good sense to introduce disrupting innovations into the
official machinery of government, but the American
people may be assured that any prostitution of office for
party purposes, or corruption of the electorate, or
coercion of office-holders to control primaries and con-
ventions, will not knowingly be permitted by President
Roosevelt. His hands are clean, his heart is honest,
his nerves are strong, and the American people may be
assured that all will unite in sustaining that purity in
official life, with no less determination and efficiency
than the continuance of the policy of President McKin-
ley for the peace, prosperity, honor and glory of the
nation.

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS*

J. S. CRAWFORD
I.

The most interesting day I ever spent was in the
French chamber of deputies, the most instructive was
in the British parliament. I want to write about these
two days. I want to describe the French chamber of
deputies, and tell how the French law-makers deport
themselves in a single session. I want to tell how the
British lords appear to a stranger in the gallery and
how the house of commons looks to an American
visitor. I shall not discuss organic law, or raise a ques-
tion about the comparative niceties of parliamentary
practice. That has been recently done by ex-Speaker
Reed in a delightful series of articles. Rather shall I
try to tell what the average man sees and hears in these
great parliaments, not what the jurist comprehends or
what the legislator might apprehend.

Knowing that the pending term would soon close,
and that some time must elapse before tickets of admis-
sion could be obtained from the American ambassador,
I walked around to the chamber of deputies the second
day I was in Paris and tried to gain admission. The
building stands on a prominent corner near the center
of the city and overlooks the river. It happened that
there was no sentry at the big arched doorway on the
Boulevard St. Germain, and I passed through, soon
finding myself in a large paved court surrounded by a
quadrangle of stone buildings, two stories high, glum
and mellow with age.

A military guard at once put in an appearance and
marched me to the soldiers' quarters, where at least a

*This article will be concluded in the November number of GUNTON'S
MAGAZINE.

320

TWO DA YS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 821

hundred men were waiting to go on duty. They
directed me to a seat and two soldiers took post at the
door. I asked if any of them could speak English.
Getting no reply I then asked if there was a German in
the squad. One of the men seemed to understand
what I said, and started off in a great hurry, soon
returning with a short- legged Alsatian infantryman
who spoke a German dialect. I managed to make him
understand what I wanted. It seemed that there was
no officer in the barracks, and the men crowded around
me apparently anxious to come in contact with an
American. I showed my passports, which all tried to
read. The large red seal of the United States govern-
ment at once attracted their attention and aroused their
curiosity. They began to show me extreme courtesy,
and as I passed out with the Alsatian guard some of
them said " Vive la Amerique /" Many times after that
I fell in with French soldiers and found them always
polite, kind and anxious to show favors to a man who
approached them with the salute and in a proper spirit.

The soldier passed out of the arched doorway and
around to the quay on the river Seine where the old
palace of the Bourbons, known as the chamber of
deputies, has another frontage.

This front commands a beautiful view. Over the
bridge and across the river you can see what is called
the most beautiful square in the most beautiful city in
the world, the Place de la Concorde. Further back is the
Madeleine Church, purely Grecian and a counterpart of
the palace of the Bourbons, both suggesting that har-
mony of which the French mind never loses sight.
Farther up is the gallery of the Louvre ; farther down
the monumental entrance to the exposition.

You can see the mansion in which lives the presi-
dent of the French republic, and the arch of triumph
which Napoleon the First built to commemorate his

322 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

own life. You can see the treasury building, the col-
umn Vendome, made of guns captured in Austria, and
Cleopatra's needle. From this point radiate great
boulevards paved with sawed blocks and shaded by the
twiggy tops of splendid chestnuts growing higher than
the roofs, and spreading along both sides of the wind-
ing curb. You can see long stretches of lawn watered
from fountains and embroidered with the blossoms of a
hundred flower-gardens. You can see into the very
heart of busy Paris with its shops and crowded avenues,
or you can look along the river Seine with its boats,
banks and bridges, to be lighted at night by the glow of
ten thousand lamps.

We passed the statues of Greek gods and the
massive pedestals in front of the chamber on which are
seated the sculptured forms of Sully and Colbert, the
greatest ministers of modern France. Then we
entered another arched doorway, passing the military
guard with a salute ; we passed another paved court,
traversed a long arcade, entered a hall and finally halted
in front of a sergeant, who examined my passports and
admitted us without question. From the sergeant we
turned into another hall and then ascended a stairway,
at the top of which was a doorkeeper, the most courtly
and princely man I ever met. His linen was spacious
and perfect. He wore knee-breeches, a silver buckle
at the garter and another at the slipper. Down the
back of his elegant evening dress-coat hung a heavy
silver chain, from which depended a silver square. He
made me sit down while he examined my passports and
talked French with the Alsatian soldier. At length we
passed on.

I noticed the infantryman was now very careful
about making a noise with his heavy hob-nailed shoes.
Presently we came upon another doorkeeper as rotund
and distinguished in appearance as the first. I was

I90i.] TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 828

shown into a little room and directed to a heavy leather
bench while the officer looked at my papers. It was
some time before he came back, this time returning my
passports and giving me a ticket of entrance. I then
looked in vain for the little "stub and twist" soldier
who had been so kind and successful in earning a
gratuity, but he was gone and I never saw him again.
An usher then opened a green leather door within three
feet of where we stood. I walked into a gallery and
took a seat not more than ten yards from the speaker's
table. The clerk had just finished reading the journal
and members were rapidly coming in. Soon nearly
every seat was taken.

In its report of this session the Paris edition of the
New York Herald, July 7, said :

"The sitting of the chamber yesterday was one of
the noisiest and most violent that has been held for
some time.

"At the beginning of the sitting M. Deschanel, the
president, stated that he had received from M. Lasies
a demand for permission to interpellate the cabinet in
regard to the pressure exercised by the government on
certain magistrates with a view to preventing certain
citizens receiving justice. M. Waldeck- Rousseau, the
premier, ascended the tribune and asked the chamber
not to modify its programme of work.

" M. Lasies then mounted the tribune to discuss the
question of the date to be fixed for his interpellation.
He indulged in a violent attack on the Cabinet and M.
Waldeck- Rousseau, whom he described as a 'Jacobin
de salon.' He was called to order, but continued his
violent language, and was again warned.

" This reminder, however, had no effect. He per-
sisted in continuing his violent speech, and after a last
and still sterner warning from M. Deschanel, to which
he paid no more attention than he had to the preceding

324 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

ones, the president consulted the chamber as to with-
drawing his right to speak. This the chamber did, and
M. Lasies was called upon to leave the tribune. He
refused to do so, and M. Deschanel put on his hat as a
sign that the sitting was suspended.

"This was the signal for a violent tumult. M.
Lasies shouted out to the extreme left ' You are a set
of traitors!' to which a voice from the left replied,
' Get out, Judas!' On this M. Lasies, pointing with his
finger to M. Waldeck- Rousseau, who was leaving the
chamber, cried, ' There's the Judas, and he is leaving
the chamber.'

' ' These words brought the tumult to its climax.
Something like a fight began near the speaker's stand,
and insults of all kinds were flying in all directions.
The 'huisseurs' tried to separate the deputies of the
right, who had gathered round M. Lasies, from those
of the extreme left, who were trying to storm the
tribune. M. Lasies, who stood with his arms crossed,
seemed determined not to leave. Then the public in
the galleries joined in, cheers, hooting and hissing
being heard on all sides. M. Deschanel gave orders
for the public galleries to be cleared. The sitting was
suspended at a quarter to three.

" At a quarter to four M. Lasies was still in posses-
sion of the tribune and persisted in refusing to leave it.
The sitting was therefore again suspended until some
decision should be taken. The discussion, however,
continued to rage violently in the lobbies, and the
words exchanged between deputies gave rise to several
challenges to duels. M. Papillaud, of the 'Libre
Parole,' on meeting M. Peignot, deputy for the Haute-
Marne, who had moved that the press tribunes be
cleared, had an altercation with him, in which he called
him a coward. A few minutes later M. Papillaud had
an altercation with M. Chapuis and M. Cadanet, in the

i9oi.] TWO DA YS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 825

midst of which blows were exchanged between deputies
and journalists in the Salle des Pas Perdus.

"Meanwhile M. Lasies was still holding the fort in
the tribune, which was guarded by the deputies of the
right. A number of deputies of the left, says the
1 Press,' made a rush at the tribune and tried to storm
it. M. Odilon Barret seized M. Lasies by the throat
and struck him several blows with his fists. M. Lasies
came down from the tribune to renew the struggle with
M. Odilon Barret, but was rescued by M. Millevoye
and Charles Bernard and returned to his place on the
tribune.

' ' The spectacle then became indescribable. Blows
and kicks reigned on every side. M. Honore Leygues
scaled the tribune and also managed to seize M. Lasies
by the throat. A little distance away M. Jourde was
exchanging blows with General Jacquey, while in a
corner M. Morinaud, half strangled, was pitching into
one of his colleagues.

"The president again requested M. Lasies to obey
the decision of the chamber. M. Lasies declared he
was ready to submit and left the tribune.

"The deputy of Gers has sent M. Millevoye and
Comte d'Aulan, his seconds, to M. Odilon Barret. M.
Papillaud of the ' Libre Parole ' has sent his seconds,
M. Millevoye and Charles Bernard, to M. Peignot.
Other duels are expected."

The hall in which the deputies meet is semi-circu-
lar. The speaker's desk is at a point midway between
the angles on the straight side. He sits on a platform
ten feet high, approached by a steep, narrow staircase
on either side. His desk is small, and always covered
with books and papers. On a post which terminates in
a goose neck is suspended a bell, whose tones are soft
and mellow, but which he uses with extreme energy to
reduce disorder. Instead of a gavel French presiding

326 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

officers use a notched stick, which they draw across the
edge of the desk ; when this fails to preserve order, the
speaker of the house of deputies uses the bell ; if the
bell fails, he puts on his hat and walks out of the hall,
returning when he thinks order may be restored.

The present speaker is M. Paul Deschanel, a young
man, tall and alert, of pleasing address. M. Deschanel
is a Parisian. His father holds a chair in one of the
Paris colleges, and the speaker is allowed to be a man
of superior education. He is a master of political art.
As he stands in the speaker's tribune attired in the full
dress of his office, controlling the parliamentary pro-
ceedings of the house, he compels admiration and ex-
cites interest in his future. M. Deschanel is an ardent
republican and a loyal supporter of President Lou-
bet's administration, despite the suspicion that he is in-
clined to trim a little.

The speaker's salary is ample, and he lives in a
splendid mansion to the west of the palace of the Bour-
bons.

Back of the speaker's desk are tables for the file,
bill and enrolling clerk. In front of the speaker's table
is the tribune proper. It is approached by a narrow
stairway from either side, and is two or three feet lower
than the speaker's tribune. It is also much narrower.
Men who address the house in a formal way are ex-
pected to ascend this tribune and make their speeches
from it. It is not unlike a pulpit with a flat top, on
which papers may be laid. This tribune is a highly
polished and decorated piece of furniture. When a
member begins to speak a serving-man brings in a
service of wine and places it on the tribune. When he
finishes the service is removed, only to appear the
moment another speaker takes the place. Near by are
the tables of the chief clerks. Around the speaker's
stand is a small court called the hemi-cycle. There are

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 327

always sentries and sergeants and clerks and pages in
opulent uniform about the hemi-cycle. Just in front of
this court are the seats of the nine cabinet ministers,
and here M. Waldeck- Rousseau sat before he ascended
the tribune to defeat the interpellation.

Next comes the circular rows of deputies' benches
rising abruptly like an amphitheatre. These benches
are heavily upholstered in drab cloth, and each seat is
provided with a desk and locker. There are seats for
six hundred members. The royalists are on the right
of the speaker, the socialists on the extreme left. Be-
tween them are the collectivists, the republicans, the
nationalists, the conservatives, and the groups adhering
to different royal families. I saw three cures, or
priests, occupying member seats. The deputies are
elected from districts called arrondissements. Each dis-
trict is entitled to one member at large, and one for
each 100,000 population. There are three hundred and
eighty -five of these arrondissements. The whole floor is
carpeted with a cheerful red. On the wall, behind and
above the speaker's table, hangs a great work of art, a
rich Gobelin tapestry, "Raphael's School at Athens,"
on one side of which is installed a magnificent marble
statue of Liberty, and on the other side a statue of Pub-
lic Order. Behind the upper row of members' seats is
a circular row of twenty columns of polished marble.
These columns support the roof, and back of them is
the gallery with two floors, each one of which will ac-
commodate three or four hundred people. These gal-
leries are well seated, and command a fine view of the
whole, house, much better than do the visitors' seats in
either the house of lords or the house of commons.

French visitors are admitted by a card from any
deputy or the secretary. Foreigners must get a card
from their minister or ambassador. Sometimes when
an exciting debate is pending, like that upon the Drey-

328 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

fus trial, it is impossible to get admission. After the
first visit I tried many times to gain admission, but
always failed unless I had the ambassador's ticket. The
great assembly hall is lighted from above, the roof
being a truss, vaulted and very elaborate. The panels
and spandrels are decorated in fresco and tracery,
worked up in heavy relief. This palace of the Bour-
bons, with its auxiliary halls, stairways and offices, was
begun in 1736, and finished in 1807. It cost $4,000,-
ooo.

The French chamber consists of 584 members.
The deputies are elected for a term of four years. The
salary is $1,800 a year. The French electorate consists
of all male citizens over 25 years of age. This cham-
ber elects the president of the republic, whose term is
seven years and whose salary is $120,000 a year, besides
an allowance for household expenses. All bills affect-
ing the public revenues or disbursements can originate
only in the chamber of deputies, but all laws must have
the concurrence of the senate. The chamber must
hold regular sessions for at least five months in each
year, beginning the second Tuesday in January. It
has a wide jurisdiction. The scope of its inquiry in-
cludes such matters as the Marseilles strike, the burn-
ing of the theatre Comedie Francaise, the riots in the
cemetry Pere Lachaise, the extradition of Sipido, who
attempted to take the life of the Prince of Wales at
Brussels, etc. Much of this legislation is considered in
bureaus, instead of committees. The chamber is
divided into thirteen bureaus.

Article 6 of the French constitution provides :
"The government ministers are jointly and sev-
erally responsible to the chamber of deputies for the
general policy of the government, and individually for
their personal acts."

This provision of the constitution and the power

i QOI.] TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 829

to elect the president, with the wide scope of its juris-
diction, conspire to make the chamber of deputies one
of the most important legislative bodies in the world.
It was under this article of the constitution that M.
Lasies desired to interpellate the premier about certain
magistrates, which he had a perfect right to do. But
in asking permission to submit his question he went on
to argue the merits of his case, and that no parliament-
ary code would permit him to do. Either his cause
was bad or he was resorting to a parliamentary trick.

Generally when a deputy desires to interpellate
the government he gets permission of the chamber;
notice is served on the minister ; a day is agreed upon ;
the member makes his argument from the tribune ; the
minister replies, and in a great majority of cases the
incident closes. If the question be one which involves
the policy of the whole cabinet a vote is ordered, and
if the cabinet is sustained nothing more is heard of the
matter ; if it is not sustained the government is said to
be overthrown, and the ministers are expected to resign
so that a new cabinet may be formed which will carry
out the interpretation of the popular demand.

All this indicates why the seats in front of the
nine ministers are called "government benches." It
also indicates why a stormy debate may be expected
when the "government benches" are occupied. In
that debate I saw a dozen men on the floor at once,
some on the extreme right, some on the extreme left,
some in front. But, as the Herald said, this was a rare
day.

There is no other people who can gesticulate with
the skill, grace, spontaneity, exuberance, and rapidity
of Frenchmen. There is no other people who can talk
so fluently and so easily as the French, and there is no
other people who can excite the passions of their
countrymen so quickly. Then, too, there is no other

330 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

people whose passions extinguish themselves with so
little provocation as this same race. Frenchmen wear
their "hearts upon their sleeve" and their thoughts
upon their face. They are direct and incapable of
duplicity. Let the American who is inclined to make
light of French statesmen recall the lofty and noble
words of Lafayette, Mirabeau, Danton, Bailie, Virg-
neaud — among the bravest of the world's patriots. Let
him recall the relation of Jefferson and Franklin to the
men who first unfolded the principles of civil liberty
and social philosophy. Let him remember that France
to-day is a republic maintaining herself in spite of
powerful monarchies upon an open frontier, and then I
think that no real American will fail to give this great
people credit for what they are.

On the right of the chamber of deputies are the
refined, highly accomplished royalists of aristocratic
dress and social distinction. On the extreme left are
the professional agitators. Between these extremes are
the men of affairs who come from the professions and
the large industrial enterprises of France. The latter
are the men who really control the chamber of deputies,
and give the nation its substantial character. They
may not rise in parliamentary debate for recognition as
men do in this country. They may not have the pro-
found eloquence of the best type of the American
orator. They may not have their committees organ-
ized on the close system of the American congress.
But you can tell as they move about in their sack coats,
with an earnest, honest look upon their ruddy faces,
that they are men of purpose and determination — they
are of the same class as Loubet and they will finally
control, beyond question, the legislation of the French
republic.

THE LESSON OF THE STEEL STRIKE

The great steel strike which began July i$th was
finally ended September i6th. In some respects this
is one of the most remarkable strikes that has occurred
in this country for many years. The Amalgamated
Association of Tin, Iron and Steel Workers began the
strike with much in its favor. It has ended with every-
thing against it, barely escaping with its organization,
and that very much demoralized and weakened. One
great advantage the union had in this contest was that
its opponent was the newly-formed "billion dollar
trust," which is the largest organization of capital in
the world. The anti-trust sentiment which prevailed
throughout the country created a strong prejudice
against the corporation and gave every presumption in
favor of the union.

It was an exceptional opportunity for organized
labor to show its strength, conservatism and rational
leadership. With an average amount of good sense
and discretion, this strike might have been a great
victory for organized labor, and the honor and influence
of the outcome would have been greater because of the
exceptional character of the corporation against which
the strike was directed. Yet, after two months' expe-
rience, the strike has ended in a complete defeat of the
union. But, what is more and worse, it has brought
discredit on the leadership of labor unions. Public
sentiment has slowly but unmistakably undergone a
radical change. The managers of the United States
Steel Corporation have risen in public esteem, and the
managers of the amalgamated association have fallen.
This is not due in the least to prejudice against labor
organizations, but it has taken place in spite of a very
strong prejudice against the steel corporation. This

331

332 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

change in public sentiment in the reverse direction of
its prejudices has not taken place without very strong
reasons. A few more such experiences on a similar
scale would put labor organizations in disrepute every-
where.

This discouraging experience contains a very im-
portant lesson for organized labor. If the lesson is
well learned, it may be worth all that it has cost ; if
not, it may have to be repeated with greater severity.
The question for every unionist now to ask is, What
was the cause of the failure of this strike ? It was one
of the most peaceful strikes that has ever occurred.
The men, the rank and file, conducted themselves bet-
ter and in a more rational and orderly manner than
have a similar number of strikers on any previous occa-
sion. In fact, so far as the men themselves are con-
cerned, they have acted in a most dignified and self-
respecting manner. Their conduct is highly creditable
in every respect. The fault, therefore, is not in the
least with the rank and file of the organization. The
men obeyed the order of their president; they quit
work to sustain his demand ; they remained out and
have exhibited not the least bad blood ; they have been
as peaceful and cheerful as if they were on a vacation
at full pay. The failure is due to poor leadership.

Mr. Shaffer began the strike with a mistake, and
he kept on making more mistakes as the strike ad-
vanced. He evidently began with the assumption that
the unpopularity of the steel corporation would enable
him to do whatever he pleased with impunity. He
thought the trust had no standing with the public, and
therefore he could bring it to its knees, however un-
reasonable his demands or offensive his manner. To
humble the greatest trust in the world was to make
Mr. Shaffer an industrial Goliath. He expected, as did
the public, that the officers of the steel corporation

igoi.J THE LESSON OF THE STEEL STRIKE 883

would be arrogant, dictatorial and high-handed in their
treatment of the union. Had the object of his propo-
sition been to produce that effect it could scarcely
have been better conceived. But in all this Mr. Shaffer
was entirely mistaken. Neither Mr. Morgan nor Mr.
Schwab displayed any of the spirit of arrogance and
persecution that was expected. They did not even
make war on the organization ; they simply acted upon
the reasonableness or unreasonableness of the proposi-
tion. They met Mr. Shaffer to adjust prices and con-
ditions for the ensuing year. They recognized to the
full the amalgamated association and were willing to
sign the union scale for all the mills where unions
existed. To this they interposed no qualification
whatever; more could not reasonably be asked. But
this was unsatisfactory to Mr. Shaffer. He demanded
that the corporations sign the union scale for the non-
union mills as well as the union. This meant that the
union rules regulating workshop conditions should be
enforced in the non-union shops. The logic of this
was to demand that the corporations compel the work-
men in the non-union mills to join the amalgamated
association under the peril of discharge, which is sim-
ply coercion. This the corporation very properly re-
fused to do. Mr. Shaffer's demand was so contrary to
all the elements and conditions of personal freedom
that everybody, all classes in the community, sustained
the corporation.

The absurdity of Mr. Shaffer's demand was too
much for the American people to endorse. Had he de-
manded simply that the same rate of wages and hours
of labor be adopted in the non-union as in the union
mills, and that all agreements which had been exacted
from workingmen not to belong to unions be abrogated
and the men be left entirely free to join the organiza-
tion if they wished, the whole country would have

334 G UN TON 'S MA GA ZINE [October,

been with him and the corporation would not have
resisted. He was thus put out of court on the first
count. Instead of recognizing his error and correct-
ing his blunder, he proceeded to try to give the strike
a political flavor. First, he tried to create a financial
disturbance by attacking the banks and appealing to
workingmen to withdraw all their deposits from finan-
cial institutions. He was novice enough to think that
this would create a panic in Wall Street which would
produce public indignation against the trusts. Failing
to create even a ripple in this direction, he issued an
ultimatum to the administration and the republican
party demanding that they compel Mr. Morgan to yield
to his demands or the workmen would become a solid
unit and turn the party out of power. This was so
clearly demagogical that instead of having the desired
effect it produced a wholesale disgust with Mr. Shaffer
throughout the country. From that time on, the strike
lost ground ; the men began to lose faith in their leader
and the public lost interest in the strike and the cause
of the strikers.

Under these circumstances, as is well known to
all experienced leaders in trade union movements, the
flow of funds dries up. Instead of a large and increas-
ing fund accumulating by liberal contributions from
unions all over the country and from sympathizing
business men, only the meagerest amount was received.
Not only was the public disgusted, but the sensible
laboring men throughout the country were pained and
depressed. The American Federation of Labor, which
embraces in its membership nearly a million organized
workmen, practically stood aloof, — not because it did
not want the strikers to win, not because of any pique
or jealousy, not from any unsympathetic feeling, but
because throughout the ranks of that organization it
was seen and feared that if the irrational and utterly

1901 ] THE LESSON OF THE STEEL S7Y?/AY. 835

indefensible policy of Mr. Shaffer was sustained it
would end in wrecking a large number of the best
unions, and give a severe blow to the cause of unionism
throughout the country. Consequently, when, as a
last resource, Mr. Shaffer issued his order to strike in
all the mills of the trust, the western organization re-
fused to obey. He appealed to them with all the
sophistry and subterfuge at his command. To their
credit, be it said, they recognized that they had made
contracts with the corporation which had not expired,
and they were in honor bound to live up to them. In
reply to this, Mr. Shaffer argued that they had no con-
tract with the United States Steel Corporation — "when
the trust bought the mills they did not buy the laborers ; ' '
thus using both sophistry and the influence of his
office to induce his men to repudiate their contracts,
which is the most damaging of all his tactics, teaching
and encouraging as it does the doctrine that organized
labor need not keep faith with the corporations.

An encouraging feature of this strike has been
the conservative and eminently sensible attitude of
the other labor leaders throughout the country. In-
stead of encouraging Mr. Shaffer in his mistaken
policy, they at first were silent, not desiring to criti-
cise a comrade, and next they quietly moved in diplo-
matic ways highly creditable to their sagacity to ex-
tricate the man from the embarrassing position in which
his folly had placed him. With them it was how to
settle the strike without sacrificing the union. They
did not once justify Mr. Shaffer's claim. In pursuance
of this policy to save the union, Mr. Gompers, presi-
dent of the American federation, Mr. White of the
New York garment workers, Mr. Sargent of the rail-
road men, Mr. Mitchell of the miners, and Mr. Gar-
land of the iron workers, with the secretary of the civic
federation, asked for a conference with the officers of

336 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

the steel corporation. Mr. Schwab granted them an
interview of half an hour, finally extended it to nearly
six hours, and to their surprise and to his credit he
exhibited not the least bitterness of feeling. He was
cordial and patient to the last degree. He frankly ex-
pressed himself as not in the least hostile to organization,
but, on the contrary, favorable to unions. Instead of
being defiant of public opinion and ignoring popular
interest in the strike, he frankly admitted that he did
not want public opinion against him. "To ignore pub-
lic opinion," he said, "is to ignore the moral element in
the strike;" the public is an important party at interest
in the situation.

All this was as gratifying as it was surprising to
the labor representatives present. He exhibited entire
willingness to recognize the union just as much as when
they first met. He did not show any disposition to
punish those who had taken part in the strike. On the
contrary, he volunteered the proposition that the cor-
poration would sign the union scale for all the mills that
were union, and the test of the union or non-union char-
acter of the mill should be this : All the mills that the
corporation could run despite Mr. Shaffer's efforts to
close he claimed as non-union, and all the mills that
Mr. Shaffer could close despite the corporation's effort
to run he conceded were union. In short, he would
recognize the union in all the mills that they could con-
trol against the corporation, and all the mills the cor-
poration could control against the union were non-union.
This was so eminently fair and frank and, under the cir
cumstances, voluntary, that no objection could be raised
to it. The representatives of labor in the conference
reported back to Mr. Shaffer a recommendation that he
accept the conditions. There was nothing humiliating
in the terms; no persecution to be coupled with or fol-
lowing the strike, and yet he rejected it with an air of

THE LESION OF THE STEEL STRIKE 387

indignation. From that time he lost ground faster than
before, and was ultimately compelled to sue for peace
on any terms the corporation would grant. And the
extraordinary fact is that, when the settlement came,
Mr. Schwab added no new or harsher conditions. He
merely renewed his original proposition that he would
sign for the union mills and would not sign for the non-
union mills. It was on these terms the strike ended,
but it ended with the amalgamated association only
about one-third or less than half as strong as when it
began.

In the conduct of this strike Mr. Schwab and Mr.
Morgan have done much to lessen general antagonism,
and command the confidence and respect not only of the
public but of organized and unorganized labor every-
where. It is almost the first time that great capital-
ists had the power to tyrannize and enforce humiliating
conditions on defeated strikers and did not do it. The
corporation has won the battle, but its managers have
shown the good sense and wise comprehension of the
public mind by not adding a straw of vantage because
they were victorious. They offered at the last exactly
what they willingly conceded at the first. Thus we
have the greatest so-called trust in the world, which it
was predicted would be the colossal oppressor of labor,
showing a greater sense of fairness and discrimination,
and evidence of good faith and willingness further to
recognize labor unions even at the close of a strike
where they were victorious, than has ever been exhib-
ited by small corporations or individual employers. In
doing this the corporations have won a respect from the
union leaders of the country and the public which will
do much to modify the public sentiment against them.
This strike has developed several important facts :
First, that the American people will not long sustain
unjust demands, whoever makes them ; that the spirit

338 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

of fairness will always command public support in this
country, and that neither laborers nor politicians can
succeed in the long run by unjust abuse of any class.
Second, it has demonstrated that in order to succeed
and command public respect, or even the confidence of
the wage- workers, organized labor must have intelligent,
honest and discriminating leaders. When fools and
braggarts are pitted against diplomatic business men,
they will lose every time, and the cause they represent,
be it ever so worthy, will pay the penalty. Third, that
the present strike was lost to the amalgamated asso-
ciation through the lack of wisdom and unfitness of
its leader. The victory has been won by the company
largely because of the fairness and intelligent, respect-
ful attitude of Mr. Schwab and the corporation repre-
sentatives. It is a defeat to the association, but it is not
a humiliation to the rank and file of the organization.
The end is entirely free from any bitter sting from the
victors, which should all the more emphasize the im-
portance of the lesson to be learned : namely, that or-
ganized labor must be as ably led, must be as honorable
in its course and as true to its contracts as are the cor-
porations with which it deals. If this lesson is learned
and the Shaffers are put to the rear, and the Arthurs,
Sargents, Gompers, Whites and Mitchells put to the
front, the defeat of the amalgamated association will
be worth to organized labor many times what it has
cost.

TYPES OF IRRIGATION IN THE WEST

GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH

Irrigation is an old art, born in India, and practiced
for centuries in Asia and Europe before it came to the
attention of the Western nations ; but from the irriga-
tion schemes on the banks of the Nile to the engineer-
ing feats for distributing the water over the great arid
regions of our West is a far cry. Nature taught the
Egyptians their first lessons in irrigation by periodi-
cally flooding the land with the waters of the Nile, and
in India somewhat similar conditions were produced by
the overflowing of small streams and rivers after each
heavy rain storm. The people of primitive times thus
learned to store the water in the rainy seasons, and to
distribute it over the land during the dry parts of the
summer.

In Europe irrigation first developed in the valley
of the Po, where the plains of Piedmont, Lombardy and
Venitia were artificially watered centuries ago. The
Romans carried the art to Southeastern France, and
there on the broad, low plains the water was artificially
distributed to make the land a beautiful garden spot.
In Spain the early Moors developed a system of irriga-
tion before their Spanish conquerors wrested the land
from them. Relics of these Moorish irrigation works
are still extant in parts of Spain near the coast where
the land is low and warm. In Germany and England
irrigation was practiced somewhat extensively in the
middle ages, and it is likely that the Roman colonists
introduced the art in these countries or at least im-
proved and developed primitive systems of the natives.

It may not be generally appreciated, but it is a fact
worth recalling that we owe to the Mormons the first

389

840 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

substantial development of irrigation in this country.
Down in the arid regions of Mexico and Peru, and even
in New Mexico and Arizona, the most progressive of
our early Indian tribes adopted primitive methods of
irrigation, which experience must have taught them
was necessary for their existence in such an unproduc-
tive land. When the Mormons settled along the valley
of the Mississippi they learned of the Mexicans and In-
dians how to irrigate land that for half the year was too
dry to produce anything, and when they migrated to
the great deserts of Great Salt Lake Valley they car-
ried this knowledge and experience with them. Within
a quarter of a century they converted a barren desert
into beautiful gardens and orchards, and productive
fields and vineyards. They began by tapping the
small streams near their source, and extending their
farms out toward the valleys where the waters would
naturally flow, and then as the years passed and their
population increased they loosened the floods of the
larger rivers and constructed hydraulic works of consid-
erable size and effectiveness. There is no better ex-
ample in history of what irrigation can do for a country
than the conversion of the Great Salt Lake Valley into
farms and homes that have no superior in the world.

Starting in Utah, irrigation spread out to adjoining
states and territories, but not always as a direct result
of the example the Mormons had set. In Colorado, for
instance, irrigation sprang into existence as an acces-
sory to the mining industry. The development of
mining towns and camps created a demand for agricul-
tural products, and while the miners toiled for their
hidden treasures farmers raised the fruits, vegetables
and grains to feed the rapidly multiplying population.
It soon became evident that in order to do this success-
fully irrigation would have to be resorted to, and so the
rivers were tapped, and the waters that had yielded so

i90i.] TYPES OF IRRIGATION IN THE WEST 841

much gold were spread out over fields to produce a
wealth even greater than that derived from the precious
metal. •

In California there was another distinct, indepen-
dent development of irrigation systems. The early In-
dians, Mexicans, and a few Spanish grandees cultivated
the soil in California by irrigation long before Fremont
visited the country, and finally brought it under the
dominion of the United States. The early ditches,
canals and reservoirs constructed by the Indians and
Mexicans are to be seen today, and they furnish inter-
esting data showing how far advanced the first settlers
in California were in the art of farming. When the
gold seekers entered California they settled in mining
camps and towns, and for the first ten years little was
done in the way of agriculture ; but the few who did
cultivate farms and gardens learned the art from the
native Indians and Mexicans. They fell naturally into
their way of cultivating and irrigating the soil. It was
pretty generally demonstrated in California that irriga-
tion was not only successful, but an actual necessity,
long before the modern engineer appeared on the
scene. Since then extensive and superior hydraulic
works have sprung up where before were only dirty
mining camps or where perhaps stood the primitive
ditch and storage reservoir of the early Mexicans, and
California, as a result, can boast of the most highly
developed agriculture in the world.

The development of irrigation engineering has
taken place in recent years through the stimulus felt in
having a grand field for operation. For a quarter of a
century the problem of redeeming such a vast empire
as the West from the grip of drought seemed too stu-
pendous for any one to contemplate except in theory or
on paper. About two- fifths of the United States was
found to be so arid that artificial irrigation was neces-

342 G UN TON 'S MA GA ZINE [October,

sary for its cultivation. Hundreds of millions of acres
of arid land lay scorched and burning in the summer's
sun, which needed only the water from the rivers and
underground springs to make it bloom in gardens
and fruit orchards or waving fields of golden grain. In
1890 it was estimated that there were 1,380,175 square
miles of land that could not be made profitable for the
lack of water, or in round numbers there were 883,312,-
ooo acres abandoned and uninhabitable. Some of this
land could probably never be made of value for farm-
ing purposes, but, making allowances for the absolutely
worthless land, there still remained 616,000,000 acres
that could produce excellent crops if supplied with
water through irrigation.

With one of the broadest fields among the engineer-
ing sciences, it is little wonder that irrigation has attracted
the attention of the highest skill in this and other
countries. To many irrigation engineering has been
most intimately allied to city water supply or general
hydraulic engineering, but in more recent years the
reclaiming of the great arid regions of the West has
enlisted the services of the most thoroughly equipped
of irrigation engineers. In order to handle the prob-
lem on a large scale the engineer has had to consider
the peculiar climatic conditions of the arid region,
estimate the approximate cost of constructing huge
reservoirs and systems of canals, and to measure the
relative effects the work would have upon the develop-
ment of agriculture. There have been great topo-
graphical difficulties to overcome, and scores of per-
plexing problems relating to rainfall, nature of the
soil, and supply of river water.

California offers the most fruitful lessons of the
value of irrigation, for no state has been made to pro-
duce more from her land under artificial irrigation than
this Pacific coast land of fruits and flowers. Probably

TYPES OF IRRIGATION IN THE WEST :;\:\

more varieties of country and conditions have been
met by the irrigator in California than elsewhere, and
more systems of irrigation have been tried. The
greater part of southern California would never have
been cultivated had not artificial irrigation turned the
waters of the rivers and underground springs on the
land. All the conditions of climate and fertility of
soil existed in that region for successful agriculture and
horticulture except the regular and sufficient supply of
water. When this was obtained the crops doubled,
tripled and quadrupled. Within fifteen years a hope-
less desert was reclaimed and converted into fruit
orchards of the most tropical and abundant nature.
The boom which irrigation gave to southern California,
added to a delightful climate, attracted thousands of
settlers to the Pacific coast, and it can be truly said that
irrigation brought an influx of settlers into the state
far greater than the discovery of gold back in the
fifties. Irrigation really ran riot for a time, and every
imaginable kind of land was irrigated and boomed.

But the most important feature of irrigation in
California has been that by means of artesian wells.
The state was not supplied with streams large enough
to furnish water wherever needed, and resort was had
to tapping the underground streams. Artesian wells
were sunk at first to irrigate small gardens and groves
of fruit trees, and the success of these proved so good
that the search for artesian water became almost a
mania. In Kern and Tulare counties artesian wells
supply from two to three million gallons of water a
day, sufficient to irrigate a large area of agricultural
land. If properly handled the water flowing from
one of these immense wells should irrigate from 800 to
1,000 acres. A remarkable belt of artesian wells sprung
up in San Bernardino county. There are several hun-
dred of them, with depths varying from 150 to 300

344 G UNION'S MAGAZINE [October,

feet, and pipes from two to six inches in diameter.
Famous Riverside owes its popularity and productivity
largely to these wells, as before the wells were sunk
the town was practically a worthless, barren region.
Now the wells irrigate thousands of acres of the rich-
est and most expensive fruit land in all California.
The waters of an adjacent river have also been di-
verted to Riverside's former arid plains, so that the
whole region is now amply irrigated, and from two to
three million dollars' worth of fruit are sold from the
land annually.

Besides the artesian well system, California irriga-
tors developed another system of securing water for
their crops. This method consisted of sinking or driv-
ing a horizontal instead of a perpendicular well. The
great hills and mountains often kept the water from
flowing in the valleys, and it was discovered that, by
tunneling in the sides of the mountain, streams could
often be tapped that would prove an inexhaustible mine
of wealth. Some of the most important sections of
the state have been supplied with water obtained by
tunneling into the bases of hills or mountains to tap the
underground flow.

The artesian well system has also been developed
to a remarkable degree in South Dakota where there
has been no other way to irrigate portions of the semi-
arid regions of the state. The artesian system has
been developed east of the Missouri in that state, and
hundreds of wells have been sunk to bring forth the
water for irrigation purposes. In the southern part of
this eastern district the wells are from one to four hun-
dred feet in depth, but in the northern part they often
run down to 1,000 and 1,200 feet. The two and three
inch wells furnish sufficient water to irrigate hundreds
of farms. The northern wells are of much greater
diameter than those in the southern part of the artesian

I90I.J TYPES OF IRRIGATION IN THE WEST 845

district, and they average from four to eight inches
across. In Brule county there are thirty-five of these
big wells which pump up millions of gallons a day.
The surplus water from the wells is conducted in
ditches that in some cases run hundreds of miles
through the country. An ordinary artesian well will
fill a five acre reservoir in a little over a week, and the
average well is capable of irrigating from one thou-
sand to twelve hundred acres.

In Colorado the canal system for irrigation repre-
sents an outlay of over $25,000,000, and several million
acres of land are supplied with water as a result. The
constitution of Colorado early in the present irrigation
movement declared every natural stream to be puplic
property and dedicated it to the use of the people.
There are consequently no riparian rights, and the
water rights of the state are framed with the view to
making them the most beneficial to the greatest number
of people. Although private enterprise has constructed
the huge irrigating plants, it has done so only with
the consent of the state authorities. The state engi-
neer having estimated the volume of flow of a stream
at a given point has general supervision over all the
canal companies engaged in irrigation, and he is
required to see that the water is distributed according
to law. Thus the State is divided into water districts,
and water commissioners are appointed to see that the
companies comply with the demands of the law. Each
company is entitled to draw a certain number of cubic
feet of water per second throughout the season, accord-
ing to rules prepared for them. In this way the
attempt is made to distribute the water equitably, and
according to the rights of irrigating companies which
may be situated near or far from the source of the
streams.

In the great arid and semi-arid plains of Texas

346 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

and New Mexico irrigation has been far more interest-
ing than in many of the mountainous sections, where
mighty rivers supplied bountifully all the water needed,
and it has been merely a matter of deflecting the course
of these streams and storing the surplus water for
future use. The great plains of Texas have not a
single stream of water flowing through them. Even
subterranean streams are entirely lacking in some vast
stretches of arid land, yet the Llano Estacado, a tract
as large as the State of New York, has been entirely
reclaimed in the last ten years through the use of
artesian wells and* thousands of windmills. Also in the
great desert plains of New Mexico innumerable wells
have been sunk, and water is pumped up to supply
cattle and pasture lands in an abundance. The climate
of New Mexico is almost ideal for farming purposes,
but the absence of sufficient water made crops uncer-
tain and unprofitable. It now costs less than $5 per
acre to get water on these lands, and irrigation has been
found to be a profitable industry.

The irrigable water in Texas is derived mostly
from the Rio Grande, the Pecos and the Canadian, and
enough water flows down these streams to irrigate the
whole valley from end to end. In the autumn the
water of the Rio Grande is somewhat exhausted from
irrigation before it reaches the Texas line, and the
farming industry below El Paso is thus threatened, but
the June floods send the water down in riotous abund-
ance so that valuable crops are often ruined by its over-
flow. The engineering question of paramount im-
portance in Texas is to control the waters of the Rio
Grande by storing the overflow of June for the
droughts of August. Attempts are already being made
to do this, but it will be a gigantic engineering feat
that will require years for completion. Large dams
are being constructed along the river where the

TYPES OF IRRIGATION IN THE WEST 847

precious water can be stored. One at El Paso will be
built which will give that farming district all the water
it needs when the river runs low in August. In the
valley of the Pecos in New Mexico there are a dozen of
these big dams constructed, and the supply of water is
regulated for this whole district so that the country is
one of the most flourishing in the United States.

Along the whole line of the Rio Grande all sorts
of systems of irrigation can be seen. It must be re-
membered that this land was irrigated long before the
white men settled in Texas. Indeed, flourishing irri-
gation settlements were established at San Antonio, El
Paso, San Saba, and Santa Fe at the time of the Texas
revolution, and irrigation was practiced long before the
Mayflower sailed or Jamestown was settled. One finds
consequently the primitive type of irrigation of the
pueblos of the Indians at one place, the crude box
system of the Mexicans at another, the early improved
ditches of the first Americans, the modern wells and
pumping machinery of later periods, and the ditches
and hydraulic machinery of to-day. All of these sys-
tems, ancient and modern, perform their work more or
less successfully, but the irrigation that is needed for
the great arid region is one that will economize water
and not waste it. Irrigation is as absolutely essential
to the success of agriculture in the greater part of Texas
as it is in New Mexico, and with a perfect water supply
the products of the state would be without rivals in
quality and quantity. Most of the population of Texas
has settled in the eastern or humid portion of the state,
but with the advance of irrigation the newer sections
are gradually being taken up and settled.

Description of irrigation schemes and systems in
the West would be inadequate without reference to the
windmills, which in recent years have sprung up in
various states in great numbers. For the most part

348 GUNTON'S MAGAZfNE

these windmills are home-made affairs, and they dot the
landscape with picturesque objects that greatly add to
the natural features of the country. Not even Holland,
with all of her old-fashioned windmills, is more thickly
planted with air engines than are some of the counties
of Nebraska. In some places one may view nearly half
a hundred of these windmills from an eminence. In
the towns and villages the windmills cluster in great
numbers, and they tower above the surrounding roof
tops to give a most quaint and picturesque effect to the
scene.

One of the most satisfactory features about the
windmills of the West is that they are largely of home-
made pattern, and they illustrate the Yankee ingenuity
and adaptability of the settlers as nothing else quite
equals. There are many manufactured and patented
windmills also, erected at great cost, and with enormous
pumping capacity, but the great majority show the at-
tempts of the farmers to adapt themselves to the soil
by constructing their own windmills out of whatever
material they have at hand.

Those who have not visited the windmill section of
Nebraska in the last few years have no adequate idea of
the changes the structures have created in the country,
and pictures of the landscape to-day will hardly suffice
for to-morrow, as the windmills are going up daily like
mushrooms in a night. There are four or five types of
windmills used. They are all designed to catch the
wind and to pump up water for household uses, for
stock, or for irrigating purposes. They cost all the
way from a few dollars to several hundred, according
to their size, the amount of material the owners had on
hand, and the skill and ingenuity of the farmers who
built them.

CAN WE STAMP OUT ANARCHY?
Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir:— Do you think it feasible for the civilized nations of the
world to join in a wholesale movement to stamp out anarchy, root and
branch ? If our constitution is considered to prevent us from suppressing
anarchist meetings and publications, is it not about time that we modi-
fied either the constitution or the interpretation of it, so as to except
those who preach against government itself ? To attack goverment
policies is < ne thing, but to attack government itself is a form of treason,
whether it be done by force of arms or indirectly by incendiary propa-
ganda which incites to violence and assassination of goverment officials.
Why should we not suppress the cause of murderous assaults upon the
government, as well as punish the criminals after the deed is done ?

D. E. R.

How to deal with anarchy is truly a question that
civilization must decide. Civilization rests on orderly
government ; anarchy is the open and sworn enemy
of both order and government. It is also true, denials
to the contrary notwithstanding, that anarchy logically
leads to and implies the use of physical force for dis-
ruption of government, and therefore it has developed
thus far in the sneaking, cowardly assassination of
public officials, regardless of their personal characteris-
tics. This is lower and viler and altogether more
reprehensible than the crime of the masked highway-
man. In fact, predatory barbarism never furnished any-
thing so treacherously villainous and cowardly brutal
as this system of anarchistic assassination. There is no
political, social, economic or moral reason why known
anarchists should be permitted at large in modern
society. The talk about theoretical anarchy as a sys-
tem of society is talk only. There is no such thing;
there can be no such thing. Anarchy and order are
incompatible. Order is possible only with the recog-
nition of rules of conduct, enforced if needs be by the
social aggregate. Whether it is feasible for civilized
nations to join in a compact to "stamp out anarchy"

84!)

350 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [October,

is a question. They can agree on almost nothing,
although they might be as nearly unanimous on this as
on anything. But this country should do something
whether others do or not.

Anarchy and socialism, which theoretically are the
antithesis of each other but practically are identical
in their attitude toward existing institutions and propa-
ganda, did not have their rise in this country. They
do not arise out of the conditions that exist in this
country. Russia and Germany have practically fur-
nished the world with anarchy and socialism. These
doctrines of social disruption have had their rise rather
naturally out of the despotic and progress-repressing
conditions in those countries. Anarchy is as natural to
Russia as pineapples are to South America, and the
theory and propaganda' of socialism are no less the
normal product of German conditions. But in this
country, where the institutions are constructed on the
basis of all the freedom that is dreamed of in either
socialism or anarchy consistent with order, safety and
progress, these doctrines could not rise, and have not.
They are imported from Russia and Germany.

But that alone is not the real cause of the boldness
of the assassin. So long as only these ignorant and
depraved advocates of anarchy and socialism merely
preached to those who would listen to them and espoused
their real object, they were limited to the back rooms
of saloons, and made no impression whatever on public
sentiment. The really dangerous element in the whole
situation is the assistance that these anarchists have
received from the unscrupulous journals and politicians
in our own country. The boldness of the assassin is
really the logical outcome of the systematic and utterly
unscrupulous and often villainous attacks upon capital
and corporations in this country, and mostly for politi-
cal and journalistic reasons. It has taken the form of

CAN WE STAMP OUT ANARCHY? 351

denouncing large corporations and rich men as robbers
who fatten on the plunder of the poor and through
their wealth control the government. And the last
phase of it is that the president and federal government
are simply the tool of large corporations and the head
of a conspiracy to rob the people of their wealth and
freedom.

This propaganda was really first given body and
respectability by Mr. Cleveland in his thoroughly dem-
agogic attack upon trusts in his last campaign, and in
his last message to congress. This same sentiment gave
rise to the populist movement, which was an organized
American phase of political anarchy directed against
every form of successful enterprise. Railroads, banks
and corporations were treated as the common enemy.
Added to this, the free silver propaganda which further
inflamed the same feeling, and the argument for 16 to
i, were based upon the same statements, treating the
banks as a conspiracy against the people and the gov-
ernment as the tool of the banks, until millions of
workmen and farmers believed that the government of
the United States was an organized conspiracy against
the people in favor of railroad, industrial and money
trusts.

Mr. Bryan received his nomination as the result of
one of the most inflammatory, anarchistic speeches that
has ever been made. He has conducted two campaigns
in which he has delivered many hundreds of addresses
to millions of people, propagating all the essential ele-
ments of anarchy, and contributing to the mere finan-
cial success of such papers as the New York World and
Journal. These papers, like Mr. Bryan, have got their
wide circulation and popularity by dealing out in popu-
lar platitudinous form venom against existing indus-
trial institutions and the government as the cat's paw
of trusts. It is this persistent advocacy of anarchy in

352 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

the wanton, interminable attacks upon our institutions
by the Hearsts and Pulitzers and Bryans, and their fol-
lowers, that has given the murderous anarchists excuse
and justification for the boldness of their action. Hear-
ing their own ideas expressed by Bryan from the rost-
rums of our large cities and applauded by thousands
and millions, and echoed by the Townes and "Coin"
Harveys and numerous populist orators, and repeated
by the New York Journal and World, and reechoed
through the populist press throughout the country,
they regard the cause of their "great revolution" as
progressing and being endorsed by American public
sentiment. They were thus emboldened to their mur-
derous effort in the belief that they are martyrs for
freedom.

These are the real causes of the anarchy in the
United States which has just murdered the most peace-
ful and kindly president that ever occupied a public
office. To stamp out anarchy in this country, there-
fore, two things must be done. One is for the Ameri-
can people absolutely to renounce all papers and public
men who direct political propaganda by appealing to
the passions of the ignorant poor against our industrial
institutions. Mr. Bryan's conduct of the last presiden-
tial campaign was that of anarchy in the name of democ-
racy. It was devoted to arousing the passions of the
people against the industries and government of the
country, solely for political purposes. If this country
is to be freed from anarchy, such campaigning and such
propaganda must be despised, and those who indulge in it
treated as demagogues. Then no politician could rise
to power and no paper prosper by dealing out this kind
of sedition.

This part of the remedy is in the hands of the
people to exercise as a moral and social influence. It
cannot be enforced by law. The second step should be

CAN WE STAMP OUT ANARCHY? 35&

legal. It should come in the form of a revision of our
immigration laws, which should prohibit for ten or
twenty years at least all immigration to this country of
peasants who did not possess the equivalent of at least
a year's American wages paid to laborers in their
own industry. And second, that no immigrants should
be permitted to land who have been in any way con-
nected with the propagation of anarchy or who have
been known to be even theoretical anarchists. Belief
in order, government and the vested rights of property
should be a condition of all immigration to this country
for a generation at least.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PERU

CHARLES E. GEORGE

Of all that extensive empire which once acknowl-
edged the authority of Spain in the new world, no por-
tion for interest and importance can be compared with
Peru; — and this equally, whether we consider its inex-
haustible stores of mineral wealth, its grand and
picturesque scenery, or the character of its inhabitants.
Land of historical era, the origin of whose name is
unknown; of the Incas and Pizarros; of royal
dynasties and altars smoking with live human offer-
ings ; of temples and magnificent edifices, Peru is to-
day starting a new educational life which ere long will
place it as a nation foremost among South American
states.

Peru is the most important maritime republic of
South America ; lying just south of the equator, with
an area of about 503,000 square miles, population of
about 3,000,000, and a coast line of 1660 miles. The
grand physical feature of Peru, and the source of all its
immense mineral wealth, is the great mountain system
of the Andes.

Disembarking at Trujillo, a seaport some five hun-
dred miles from Lima and due north, one can follow
the western slope of the eastern Cordillera of the Andes
to the headquarters of the Maranon river, known as the
seat of an ancient civilization of the highest type. Here
is Huamachuco, where stands the old church of San
Jose, one of the first buildings erected by the Spaniards
in Peru.

Eight miles west of Huamachuco, the hill of Marca-
Huamachuco rises to an elevation of nearly twelve
thousand feet above sea level, its rocky heights tower-

354

SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PERU 355

ing 2,000 feet or more above deep, warm, well-watered
valleys, which produce the fruits of a tropical climate.
The summit commands the long western slopes of the
eastern Cordillera and the broad eastern slope of the
western Cordillera of the Peruvian Highlands, which
here has a width of from fifteen to twenty leagues. It
has this uninterrupted outlook, which caused the
summit to be chosen as the home of these aboriginal
peoples. Nothing could go on within twenty leagues
without being observed by these hill dwellers, and it
would have been almost impossible for enemies to
surprise them.

The ruins of Marca-Huamachuco are now much
dilapidated. All the edifices were built of broken
stones taken from the native rock of the hill. The
broken stones are jointed with admirable skill. The
interstices between the larger stones were filled ex-
actly with smaller fragments. The size of the stones
decreases from the base toward the summit of the wall.
The higher walls were inclined a little back to reduce
the thickness at the top; clay was used as mortar.
Some very high walls have been marvellously well
preserved up to the present time.

On Marca-Huamachuco are both square buildings
and buildings rounded at the corners. This latter kind
seem characteristic of this particular province of Peru.
The dominating type at Marca-Huamachuco is round
or irregular over inclosures, which represent by them-
selves sometimes a whole fortress, sometimes a single
habitation well protected by the character of their en-
vironments against surprise by enemies. About six
such enclosures stand on the Cerro de Monjas and
about four on the Cerro Viejo, but many similar build-
ings stood formerly in the interior of the fortress called
El Castillo. All the rounded enclosures have very few
entrances. If they are single habitations there are but

356 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

one or two entrances. Where possible, they are con-
structed above steep rocks. The characteristic detail
of the inclosures is that they are all surrounded by
double walls joined like a gallery. These galleries
contain several floors connected by ladders and opening
into the inner court. Some of the rooms of the higher
floors have windows opening to the outside of the en-
closure, but they were never of such a kind as to
endanger security against enemies. The interior of the
enclosures is mostly occupied by small square buildings
of a single floor, following in their disposition no
apparent order.

Peru consists of three regions, distinguished from
each other by physical characteristics of the utmost un-
likeness. The western coast descends in a series of
plateaus and picturesque valleys to the sea. Here are
centered that higher culture and progressive activity
which give Peru the standing she maintains among the
nations of the earth. East of all this occurs an abrupt
transition from the mountains to the low lying broad
forests of the Amazonian basin. The silent solitudes
and torpor of this tropical wilderness have placed a
spell over life in all its forms. The inhabitants of this
region glide down the stream of time, unembarrassed by
any need of serious forethought. The opportunities of
all days are alike to them. Eastern Peru, since its
first colony was started two hundred and sixty- five
years ago, has been called the Montana or ' ' wooded
country." The early settlers were in an endless suc-
cession of romantic adventures. Towns were built,
only to be destroyed, and the site of those of to-day has
time and again been bathed in the blood of white and
Indian, through centuries of conflict. The inhabitants
here are noble examples of manhood, full of that
courage and determination which are needful in estab-

1901.] SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PERU 867

lishing government and commercial prosperity in a
somnolent and oftentimes treacherous population.

That Peruvians are a mixed race is shown by the
strength of the Indian element in all, though the Cau-
casian blossoms out in a clear-cut arching mouth, a
delicate face and strong chin, with a most perfect
aquiline nose. The women are marvels of beauty and
grace ; they possess the finest feminine instincts of
neatness in dress, and love of personal adornments.
Few inducements to matrimony are so powerful among
them as the hope of ultimate permanent removal to
Europe or the United States, but many a cholo wife,
attractive only in the lonely Montana, has seen this
fond dream fade away with the growing years without
suspecting the cause of that hesitancy in her spouse
which was dooming her to end her days in the land
where she was born.

Despite the privations, sorrows and blasted hopes of
the whites and cholos, they form the light relief on the
darker background of the cameo of East Peruvian life,
for fewer and feebler still are the illuminations of the
Indian's existence here. It matters little whether he
be an infidel (infiel) or a cristiano, the limitations to his
happiness are nearly the same.

The don, living in Peru in his casa de hacienda like
a lord in his castle, having a numerous vassalry at his
beck, — planting, rearing, distilling his aguardiente,
tending his flocks of cattle, — far though he be above
them, frequently betrays in his swart skin the same
blood as that which flows in the veins of those he rules.
Sometimes he may be a white, again a mestizo, or even
an Indian, with the Indian's black waveless hair and
heavy features. He would have become a chief had he
been a savage ; he is now a don, because of his estate,
which lends him dignity. He has had the genius not
to continue in poverty and helpless dependence, there-

358 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [October

fore he becomes the peer of the proudest in his native
land. It is one of the anomalies of eastern Peru that a
people so long kept in servitude have acquired no taint
of social degradation in consequence; that neither
aborigine nor cholo is anywhere spurned because of his
blood ; that, in fact, no one thinks of his racial origin,
but is content with knowing his claims upon respect as
a citizen of the commonwealth. The final distinction
between men is founded, then, upon their riches — a not
uncommon distinction in other lands ; but riches here
become too often translatable into the mere ability a
man possesses to get himself served by others, to avoid
manual labor of any sort. It is a remnant of those
landed aristocracies still in operation here, not only in
Peru, but in nearly the whole of Spanish America,
destined soon to fade into the nebula of the historic
past here as elsewhere.

The forces of civilization seem not to have stirred
deeply in these Amazonian solitudes. But first im-
pressions are often treacherous, and visible signs are
sometimes an evidence of spent forces, beyond which
there is less to be hoped for. In concrete attainment
the field here is still altogether an open one ; in intel-
lectual acquisitions, however, the best class of the East
Peruvians have emerged from the glimmerings of
dawnlight into somewhat of the clearness of the day.
It is unsafe to presume upon the ignorance of these
dons. Many a stranger who has thought to teach them
how the outer world thinks and does has ended by re-
ceiving additional information upon the same subject in
return, coupled with reasons why such principles can-
not at present be applied to latitude four degrees south
In Iquitos, a city of six thousand inhabitants, is one
private library of over two thousand volumes, and sev-
eral others numbering their tomes by the hundreds. In
Yurimaguas are other goodly collections of books. At

i9oi.] SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PERU 359

every hacienda is a treasured shelf full, — Cervantes,
Quevedo, perhaps a translation of Shakespeare, of Al-
exandre Dumas, a history of Peru, and works of travel.
No mere ornaments are these, but veritable companions
of the long, lonely spaces of time. They are not only
read, but studied — penetrated.

The monthly steamboats coming from Para bring
news and the .latest periodical literature from Spain,
Portugal, England, and France — alas ! not from the
United States, as yet. From hand to hand these
monthly accessions pass, until they become dissemi-
nated throughout the entire breadth of these five hun-
dred miles of Montana. The steamboats have done
more. Through that extension of trade which they
have induced, small though it has been, the people
have been brought in touch with the great centres of
European civilization, and have been educated to Euro-
pean methods in many matters by the friction of com-
mercial relations, until they realize their own short-
comings, lament them, hope to see them eradicated by
and by. They have not yet attempted entrance upon
the domain of the arts. They are making money now,
laying the foundations of estates. They but sparingly
introduce the picturesque into their architecture,
although the Portuguese type of structure, creeping up
the river from Brazil, has feebly asserted itself, as far
as the materials at hand will allow. The Spanish idea
appears also especially at Yurimaguas, nearer the moun-
tains. Here are the great porches, the balconies, the
open galleries letting a bit of light through the corner
of a house, just under the red-tile roof; the pretty
inner court or patio filled with tropical verdure. The
pollen of Indian influence has modified the exotic taste
at times, where the house resembles the palm- thatched
quincha, and is decorated on the interior with palm- leaf
mats fastened upon the walls, with the horizontally

360 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

fluted huicungo-palm posts at the doorways, and above
them gratings of palm slats lashed together by vines,
forming combinations of grace well worthy of imitation
in other lands.

The present constitution, proclaimed August 31,
1867, is modelled after that of the United States. The
president and vice-president are both elected by a
popular vote of the people, for a term of five years.
The Roman Catholic religion is the religion of the
state, and the public exercise of any other form, with-
out permission, is prohibited. Direct taxation does not
exist, the revenue being derived from the sale of guano
and concessions in rubber, mining and timber.

In almost every hacienda, where the don is
possessed of wealth, may be found, on mantles and in
cupboards, altars and statues of solid gold and silver ;
while many of the ordinary domestic utensils are of the
same materials. It is asserted that the ingots of gold
which were melted by the burning of the great temple
of the sun at Cuzco, called Coricancha or "Place of
Gold," the churches and temples at Caxamalca and
Xanxa by the forces of Pizarro in 1533, if they could be
gathered together, would amount to more than two
billions of dollars. This is of course highly prob-
lematical.

Yearly the triumphs of industry are becoming more
decided, the advance in architecture from the Incarial
times more marked, the spirit of the natives more
national, the system of agriculture and mining more
nearly perfect, the priesthood more liberal, the educa-
tional advantages more pronounced. The Inca of years
ago is fast reaching out for advancement in civilization.
He bears a Christian name, he bows before the cross,
but nature is a God to him, and in more than one sense
he remains an Indian still.

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

ENGLAND is going to have a slavery question and a
race question to solve in South Africa. The first entrance
of this question into politics appeared in the debate in
the house of commons on August 6th. Commenting
on the debate, the London Economist says :

"There are not two but three opinions on the 'black labor' ques-
tion. The first is that of the Boers, that the blacks were intended to
work for the white man, . . . and that if they resist they should be
whipped and shot until they obey. The second is that held by the Brit-
ish in South Africa, that the natives have no rights, especially to wages
and just treatment, but they are not at liberty to be idle . . . or to
demand wages which cannot be paid with due regard to the profits of
the industry. The third is that of the Englishmen in England, ' that
the native ought to work, but that he ought not to be made to do it by
direct punishment for not working.'"

The discussion of this subject, which is likely to
return to parliament many times before it is settled,
shows how thoroughly social rights and privileges and
even race inequalities rest on economic conditions.
The English in Africa, like the Americans in the south-
ern states, might as well recognize, first as last, that
civilization will not tolerate slavery, and that the true
solution of the race and color problem is the economic
advancement of the inferior races. If this is neglected,
they can never escape the dangers and disturbances of
a race problem. It is only another way of saying that
those who will have poverty must have the dangers
that poverty and barbarism inflict. The race problem
at bottom is the problem of poverty and barbarism.
Black poverty is only worse than white poverty because
it is of longer standing, and is nearer the predatory
stage of human existence.

IN THE North American Review for September, his
Excellency, Constantin Pobiedonostseff, procurator of

361

362 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

the holy synod of Russia, defends the educational sys-
tem of Russia against the attacks of Prince Kropotkin.
After charging Kropotkin with entire ignorance of the
educational system of Russia and charging everybody
else who criticises Russian institutions with ignorance,
malice and numerous other un-Christian characteristics,
he declares that under the reign of Alexander the Third
they, "the schools," were placed on a new footing and
grew rapidly. And with one illuminating sentence he
describes the condition of the country, thus :

" There are no roads, and the people live on the steppes, in the
woods, in the marshes ; their dwellings are sometimes separated by five
to eight hundred versts (331 to 530 miles) of uncultivated and impassable
country; and the inhabitants themselves, without culture, here and there
even barbarous, gain a scanty living far from all means of communica.
tion and the necessaries for industry and commerce. Is it possible for
human power to supply all these spots and out-of-the-way places with
regular schools and masters ?"

Nothing could more completely confirm the truth
of Prince Kropotkin's charge of utter lack of schools in
Russia. The procurator of the holy synod denies
Prince Kropotkin's statement and then proceeds to
describe the conditions which make almost any other
condition impossible. A nation with one hundred and
thirty million souls, whose statesmanship is only equal
to creating industrial conditions which leave the coun-
try with "no roads" and compels the people to "live
on the steppes, in the woods, in the marshes," with
their dwellings separated by three to five hundred miles
of uncultivated and impassable country, can be charac-
terized as nothing short of barbarous, no matter how
many churches it may have or how pious and loyal its
people.

IT is HIGHLY encouraging to observe the unpreju-
diced care that was used by the anti-Tammany conference
in the selection of candidates. There was an evident inten-

igoi.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE M

tion to select a clean, capable mayor of New York city,
who should be manifestly above and beyond the reach of
Tammany influences and methods, from either Croker or
Platt sources. There seems to have been a thoroughly
honest effort to select a democrat with these qualifica-
tions, but the democrats themselves were unable to unite
upon any man of this character. In search of such a
man, the conference ultimately united in the selection
of Seth Low, president of Columbia University.

Mr. Low is nominally a republican. We say nomi-
nally because he voted for Cleveland, and a man's re-
publicanism is near the border line who could do that,
but he is an eminently fit person for the office. One
would have to lose all faith in human nature, all faith
in experience as a test of character, in order to suspect
for a moment that Mr. Low would be subject to the im-
proper influence of either Platt or Croker methods. He
has acquitted himself creditably in the same office in
Brooklyn ; he is president of one of the largest univer-
sities in the country. He needs nothing that these
people can give. He is rich beyond the desire of in-
crease. He would have to be baser than Croker to
have any other motive than to serve the public to the
very best of his capacity. Age, personal character,
natural ability and honorable ambition, all conspire to
make Mr. Low an ideal man for mayor of New York
city. Mr. Low is not the only man who would make
an efficient mayor, but probably there are none better
qualified in all respects than he. With Mr. Low as
candidate for mayor, and men of similar character for
controller and district attorney, there is no excuse for
anybody bolting who really wants to rid ihe city of
Tammany. A bolt from such a ticket would be a mere
political strike.

THE SUGGESTION in the September issue that it

364 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

should be a part of the industrial policy of the nation
to have a uniform working day throughout the country
seems to have very much disturbed the editor of the
Baltimore Manufacturers' Record. It fairly rails at the
idea and indulges in what it admits is sectionalism.
Its argument in tone and matter is strikingly ante-
bellum. It suggests that the editor of GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE acquaint himself with the facts of southern factory
labor. Unfortunately for our contemporary, that is
exactly what he has done. He saw the tots of seven
years of age working in the mills, turning night into
day, and at this moment there is before him a bundle
of pay envelopes that tell the sad story.

All that we suggested was that the hours of labor
in the South should be reduced to the level of Christian
countries, even continental Europe, and that a limit
should be placed upon the age at which children should
be permitted to work in the mills. To object to this
is to oppose the simplest elements of progress. No-
body, and least of all GUNTON'S MAGAZINE, wants to
handicap or cripple the South. The prosperity and
progress of the South is as important to the welfare of
the nation as that of any other community, but it is
equally important to the progress of the nation that the
South should not perpetuate these degrading conditions
to the injury of the whole nation. The mere adjectives
and sputtering hysterics of the Record are of no impor-
tance. The sad thing is that every such defence of the
long-hour system injures the reputation of the South,
and ultimately will injure its social progress and eco-
nomic prosperity, No community can long have the
benefits of industrial progress without conceding com-
mensurate opportunities for social improvement. To
oppose a ten-hour work day for factory women and
children in 1901 is the full equivalent of advocating
slavery in 1861.

igoi.J EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE \',v>

FIGURES RECENTLY issued by the census bureau are
suggestive. They apply to a registration area includ-
ing several states and more than three hundred cities.
The vital statistics in this area were compared with the
figures in 1890, and the showing is that the death rate
in 1900 was 1.8 less per thousand than in 1890. It also
appears that the average age at death increased four
years during the decade from 1890 to 1900. The cen-
sus people seem inclined to give all of the credit for
the evident lengthening of life's span to "advance in
medical science and sanitation, and the preventive and
restrictive measures enforced by the health authorities."
An inquiry regarding what it was that called medical
science and sanitation into operation will determine
that the real cause behind the increase in the length of
human life lies deeper than the wisdom of the doctors.
By slow processes life has been made more worth
living, which is but another way of saying that it is
more valuable. A human life means vastly more than
it did a few centuries ago, when pestilence walked
abroad unchallenged, until it had been consumed by its
own fury and had depopulated the community. When
human life was cheap, when it was almost wholly
animal, when comfort and culture were undiscovered
attributes, where then was the medical skill to baffle
with disease, or the sanitary science, which, by cleaning
up the filth spots and sewering the pestilential cities,
operated as the ounce of prevention which in our wiser
time is better than many pounds of cure ? The fact is
that science did not come to prevent, and the skillful
physician to cure, until the standard of human living
made life socially, economically and morally too valu-
able to be perpetually at the mercy of death- dealing
microbes. As life grows purer in its purpose and
stronger in its strife ; as it becomes more human and
less brutal ; as the area of opportunity is widened, and

366 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

the disposition to get more out of it increases, the span
of earthly existence will surely lengthen. It thus
appears that real economic science, which deals prac-
tically with living decently and wisely in this world, is
a moral force, a veritable handmaid of righteousness,

IF ONE wants fairly to judge of Mr. Bryan s char-
acter and capacity as a statesman and leader of men, it
is only necessary to read The Commoner, which is verily
The Book of Bryan. It has appeared thirty-four con-
secutive weeks, and every number is made up chiefly
of pointed and pointless jabs and stabs at public men
and institutions. The tenure of everything that is not
a personal explanation is calculated to destroy the con-
fidence of the people in existing methods and institu-
tions, If its influence were equal to its animus, it
would create a revolution in less than a year, and its
method is as petty as it is persistent and vindictive.
Here is a very ordinary sample (August i6th) :

"The republican farmers and laboring men who have been con-
tributing from their scanty incomes to help the protected manufacturers
do not mingle with the beneficiaries of the tariff at the watering places.
The possessor of visible property who is overburdened by taxation does
not have a chance to take an outing with the possessor of invisible prop-
erty who escapes the taxes. The man who waters his cattle on the farm
does not get the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the magnate
who waters his railroad stocks or his trust certificates."

Of course this vulgar insinuation is intended to
appeal to the lowest element in human nature, and
make farmers and laborers regard all successful manu-
facturers, business men and financiers as robbers and
loafers, who get their fortunes by squeezing the com-
mon people, and squander them in luxuriating at the
watering places. Mr. Bryan knows that this is not
true. He knows it is a libel on the business men of
the country, but he also knows that it is the kind of
material that most effectively stimulates suspicion and

1901.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 367

distrust, stirring the passions and arousing class hatred
among the laborers. And this class hatred, however
falsely created, is the material through which he hopes
to gain political promotion. It was on this that he
tried to ride into the white house. For five years
he has been using all his arts of speech and pen to dis-
seminate social prejudice throughout the country and
destroy public confidence in the leaders of our indus-
trial and financial institutions and the officers of our
government. Every issue of The Commoner, like the
New York Journal and World, is loaded with this class
poison.

[Since the above was written the logical result has
occurred. The president of the United States has been
murdered. The persistent propagation of the gospel
of envy by Hearst, Pulitzer and Bryan has done more
to embolden the enemies of order and make this tragedy
possible than any other forces in the country. These
preachers of social disruption and precursors of anarchy
may be beyond the reach of the law, but they ought
not to be beyond the moral anathema of the American
people.*]

*See lecture on "Anarchy in the United States," Lecture Bulletin
of the Institute of S octal Economics for October ist, 1901.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquiries
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

Y. M. C. A. Educational Work

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Yourself and the readers of your valu-
able periodical are interested in all that improves the
intelligence and character of young men. The Boston
Transcript of June 8th, in an editorial, "The Y. M. C.
A. University,*' thus describes the work and gives a
brief report of the past season :

' ' Few people outside those immediately interested
realize the growth and extent of the educational work
carried on by the Young Men's Christian Association,
amounting, as a matter of fact, to the functions of a
national university of practical teaching, with its
branches in every city of the country. The system of
administration naturally differs from that of our public
schools. Standard courses, it seems, are maintained by
international examinations. Branches from grammar
school to university find legitimate place. Pupils are
of all conditions and classes of men. It follows that
the classes are composed of men already in the whirl of
life, past the schoolroom, able to devote only a little
time to study, anxious to do all they can, and unwill-
ing to spend time on much that would be unessential.
With fifty subjects taught, the courses are certainly
adapted to the special needs of the associations.

368

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 8«9

4 ' It is very significant that there are 27,000 men,
spending on an average forty-eight hours of recitation
each season, or double the number of ten years ago.
Last year, it seems, 1,520 certificates were won by men
in 115 different associations, the movement having so
developed in organization and in standard of work
done that 1 10 colleges and universities recognize these
certificates for matriculation

4 ' In addition to its concerted evening school move-
ment, the association wields a powerful educational
leverage in its libraries and reading rooms, its " con-
gresses/' " topic clubs/' and various other well-known
forms of educational social work, which are reported
in increasing numbers and quality each year. In no
way, probably, could the Young Men's Christian As-
sociation have so completely demonstrated its useful-
ness as by thus becoming a great educational institu-
tion without laying aside its religious motive. And it
is safe to say that there is no feature of its many-sided
work so efficient and so sought after as the opportuni-
ties for culture."

As your publication is found in many of our read-
ing rooms, our associations would be very glad to have
you use the above quotation or make such notice as
your space will permit. We send you a copy each of
our last annual report and a report of the jubilee ex-
hibit. In behalf of the committee,

GEO. B. HODGE.

Government in the Hands of the People

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I do not want to be without your Lec-
ture Bulletin. Allow me to congratulate you on your
plain and easy style of presenting your subjects. I am
especially pleased with your idea of doing away with

370 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE

the caucuses, and am seriously contemplating lecturing
on the subject in northern Michigan this winter, so that
any more light you may be able to give on the subject
between now and winter would be much appreciated.
I am thoroughly aroused to the fact that the govern-
ment must be more in the hands of the people. Your
views on an improvement in the election of United
States senators, it seems to me, would be very timely
for a Bulletin lecture. God-speed you in your noble
Avork.

A. W. BLISS, Harbor Springs, Mich.

The East and West Vote in 1900

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I would really like to be assured that
you were more nearly correct on other editorials than
you were on the proposition that imperialism frightened
votes from McKinley in the East and the decline of the
silver craze increased his vote in the West. Had you
been on the stump and thus in touch with the voters of
the West, you would have found that the same reason
that frightened some of the people in the East to vote
for Bryan induced a whole lot of them in the West to
vote for McKinley. I could not help but bring this up
to you, because your position on the question was such
an exception to your usual position of being right on
these questions. C. H. THOMAS.

Hastings, Mich.

QUESTION BOX

The Machinists' Strike

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I notice in your September magazine
you criticise the National Metal Trades' Association for
becoming an anti-labor union organization, because of
its experience in the recent strike. What else can
workingmen expect, when they are continuously arbi-
trary and unreasonable, than to array employers firmly
against them? How are they to rise to the level of
decent conduct except by painful object lessons in the
result of their folly? If employers are to submit
meekly to all sorts of intolerable conduct by the unions
and each time "forgive and forget," the unions will
soon think they can run the business of the country and
establish practically whatever conditions of labor and
industry they please. L. C. H.

Yes, we criticised the action of the National Metal
Trades' Association for becoming an anti-labor organi-
zation because that was a wholly unphilosophic policy.
Of course the laborers must suffer the penalty of their
unwise conduct, but they will get this through the lack
of confidence everybody has in them in proportion to
their folly. But when manufacturers who have beaten
them in a contest become persecutors of the defeated,
they create a reaction of sentiment and they are sure
ultimately to develop prejudice and perhaps malice
among the workers, which will again arise to smite
them. The employers would be much stronger both
with the laborers and with the public, and even have
a higher opinion of themselves, if having been right in
the dispute and succeeding in the contest, they would
show a willingness to be just as fair after the strike as
they were before. To turn persecutor of the defeated
is to show a small, malignant spirit. Compare the

371

372 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

difference between the National Metal Trades' Associ-
ation and the steel trust. Mr. Shaffer was many times
more unreasonable in his propositions than was Mr.
O'Connell. The steel corporation has gained a much
more complete victory over the amalgamated associ-
ation than has the metal trades' association over the
machinists, and yet Mr. Schwab and the managers of
the steel corporation have absolutely taken no advan-
tage whatever of their victory. They could have
enforced many humiliating conditions upon the amalga-
mated association, but they did not change their prop-
osition a particle, although Mr. Shaffer had been fool-
ish to an exasperating degree. With victory in their
hands, the corporation volunteered to recognize the
union wherever the union was organized sufficiently to
control the shop, and treat with the amalgamated as-
sociation exactly as it did before. This high conduct
by Mr. Schwab will not in the least injure the steel
corporation. On the contrary, it will strengthen it
everywhere.

It will strengthen it in the popular mind be-
cause it demonstrates that all the corporation wanted
was sensible conduct, and that because the laborers had
a foolish leader the corporation is not going to turn
persecutor. This will do more to take the sting out of
public opinion against trusts than almost anything that
could have occurred, and with the laborers it has al-
most made Mr. Schwab a hero. The unions in other
industries, as well as the iron and steel, are not only
feeling but expressing their appreciation of the open,
manly and even magnanimous way in which Mr.
Schwab acted when he could have been a despot. The
conduct of the National Metal Trades' Association in
becoming anti-union will contribute to the bitterness
of labor struggles in the future, while the conduct of
Mr. Schwab and Mr. Morgan and the steel corporation

QUESTION BOX S71

will tend very effectively to modify both the public and
the labor union prejudice against corporations, which
is a real gain toward industrial harmony. Whenever
the victor becomes persecutor, he deservedly loses
much of the honor of his victory. And, conversely,
whenever the conqueror is fair, not to say magnani-
mous, to the conquered, his honor is more than
doubled.

Tariff Reciprocity

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir : — It looks as if President Roosevelt would
be even more in favor of the reciprocity policy than
President McKinley was towards the last, and that is
saying a good deal. I wish you would say in your
pages just what you think about this reciprocity matter,
and to what extent the policy might be safely pursued.

M. W.

It was the part of wisdom in President Roosevelt
promptly to declare his determination to follow out
the policy of President McKinley. That fact has
given instantaneous confidence in him throughout the
country, and has probably prevented a financial and
industrial disturbance that might have cost millions.
Yet the reciprocity question is one to which President
McKinley was simply referring in his public utterances,
and too much should not be made of it. It was a ten-
tative sounding of public sentiment, not the declaration
of a fixed policy. It should be remembered that reci-
procity, so far as it goes, means free trade ; that is,
free trade by special arrangement as to articles. That
may take place with definite advantage, but it should
not be made the basis of simply increasing the free list.
There is a tendency on the part of free trade journals,
such as the New York Times, to harp on this and urge
free trade in the name of reciprocity wherever there is

374 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

a fighting chance. Reciprocity should be applied on
the principle of exchanging, free of duty, American
manufactures for such products of nature and art as are
not created in this country. For instance, a reciprocity
treaty to exchange manufactures for lumber might well
be adopted, although the lumber men would object.
But the objection of the lumber men should not control.
It is the effect upon the industries and conditions in
this country that alone should decide. There is great
danger of denuding our country of forests. Anything
which would slacken the slaughter of trees in this
country would be a wholesome check to this denuding
process. If Canada will furnish lumber as cheap or
cheaper than it is produced here, it would be a good
policy to put lumber on the free list, if Canada would
put some of our manufactures on her free list. The
importation of art products, also, may be safely encour-
aged by reciprocity. In most manufacturing industries,
the benefit accruing to the nation is the social effect
from the industry itself. In art products, and particu-
larly hand- art, this is not the case. The benefit that
comes to the community is in the use and contact with
the product. The introduction of art products so that
they may become articles of common possession will do
far m6re to cultivate the tastes and refine the habits
and manners of the people than any influence from the
mere production of them.

The extension of the free list by reciprocity on our
part should be in the direction of commodities not pro-
duced in this country, such as needed raw materials and
products the supply of which may ultimately be
exhausted to the detriment of the nation, and the
exchange should be for American manufactures.
There is room for a good deal of reciprocity in these
directions which may be advantageous to both sides,
and tend to promote the cultivation of taste and

QUESTION BOX 875

diversification of industry in the United States, as
well as increase our foreign trade.

Books for Economic Study

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — To the possessor of "Principles of
Social Economics " and " Wealth and Progress,'' who
may not desire to enroll as a student, would " Out-
lines of Political Science" and "Outlines of Social
Economics " be a necessity, or are they absolutely
different works? Can you answer in your next num-
ber and oblige, W. M. B., Macon, Ga.

No, the two latter books would not be an absolute
necessity if you have " Principles of Social Economics''
and "Wealth and Progress." " Principles of Social
Economics " contains a department of political science,
although perhaps not covering quite so many points
under this head as are discussed in ' ' Outlines of Po-
litical Science." " Principles of Social Economics" is
intended for somewhat more advanced readers than the
"Outlines." " Wealth and Progress" will be an im-
portant adjunct to your reading in either case, whether
you use " Principles " or " Outlines.''

BOOK REVIEWS

SOCIAL CONTROL. A Survey of the Foundations
of Order. By Edward Alsworth Ross, Ph. D. The
Macmillan Company, New York. 442 pp., $1.25.

In this volume Dr. Ross has undertaken the analy-
sis of the principles and forces that govern social order.
He has divided the book into two parts, the first being
devoted to the grounds of control and the second to the
means of control. It is essentially analytic. The
author has gone about his work in a thoroughly scien-
tific spirit. He says in his preface : "I am not wedded
to my hypotheses nor enamoured of my conclusions,
and the next comer who, in the true scientific spirit,
faces the problems I have faced and gives better
answers than I have been able to give will please me
no less than he pleases himself."

This spirit characterizes the entire book. Every
proposition is discussed with that same indifference, or
rather lack of pride of conclusion. It shows evidence
no less of wide reading than of unbiased thinking. In-
deed, its very unbiasedness almost amounts to a nega-
tive weakness. It deprives it of that strong construc-
tive character necessary to the formation and leader-
ship of social philosophy. Dr. Ross treats social phe-
nomena with such even balance as to be in doubt
whether the new is better than the old. He describes
with an air of lamentation the superseding of the local
neighborhood spirit by the large group integration of
modern society. With an evident air of regret he says :
" The householder has become a tenant, the working-
man a bird of passage. Loose touch-and-go acquaint-
anceships take the place of those close and lasting at-
tachments that form between neighbors that have long
lived, labored, and pleasured together. The power of

376

BOOK REVIEWS 177

money rends the community into classes incapable of
feeling keenly with one another. Even while we are
welding it, the social mass laminates. Everywhere we
see the local group — the parish, commune, neighbor-
hood, or village — decaying, or else developing beyond
the point of real community."

But his sense of equal- sidedness forbids his leaving
the picture with this coloring, and hence he continues :
" Of course this is not all the story. If the molecules
of the local group are jarred asunder, it is partly be-
cause they fall under influences which make them vi-
brate in vaster unisons. Local solidarity perishes be-
cause bonds of fellowship are woven which unite a man
to distant co-religionists, or fellow-partisans, or fellow-
craftsmen, or members of the same social class. In
this way fresh social tissue forms and replaces, per-
haps, the tissue that dies. But these communions do
not fit people to deal kindly and honestly by one another
because, instead of resting on neighborhood or economic
intimacy, they rest on preference. Like friendship,
they are founded on affinity and selective choice. Imply-
ing a preference for some persons over other persons,
they cannot embrace all those who meet, or deal, or
work with one another, and therefore ought to feel
bound to one another."

Then, for fear he should have left too optimistic a
view of the new as compared with the old, he adds:
4 ' The neighborhood or village communities that have
been eaten away by the currents of change were
probably more serviceable to social order than are the
great civic or national communities that take their
place."

This view is not merely pessimistic but it is un-
philosophic. It comes of dwelling on analysis to the
neglect of observation of the tendency of new social
formations. It is due to dwelling too much on the

378 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

process of differentiation, and too little on the tenden-
cies of integration. This is apt to be the effect of pure
analysis, because the work of the old is substantially
complete, while that of the new is at best only in the
making, and shows more of crude defects than of per-
fected improvements. That neighborhood or village
community ethics, which makes everybody everybody's
keeper, has an altruistic side, but it has also a stultify-
ing, narrowing, stereotyping influence. The very fact
that social intercourse and association are not matters
of affinity and attraction, or, as he says, preference, but
are uniform and all-inclusive, gives every one the right
offensively to become their brother's keeper. It renders
individual initiative difficult, and, if the community is
very small, practically impossible.

One cannot have a new idea on religion or dress or
ethics without being under the ban of the whole village,
while in the larger groups of the modern city this
neighborly inquisition becomes impossible, and associ-
ation takes place on the plane of personal and social
affinity. And so the community, instead of being one
homogenous group in which innovation is almost im-
possible, becomes an aggregation of heterogeneous
groups formed around new economic, social and politi-
cal ideas. This tends to establish greater individual
freedom and a development of new economic, social,
religious and political standards. It is true that the
neighborly spirit in the offensive, meddlesome form
has gone, but the neighborly spirit in the sense of
association by natural selection of common interest and
affinity has increased and intensified.

Society becomes an aggregation of special groups
whose formation rests upon specific interests, each en-
deavoring to impress its idea and standard upon the
community. Now it is art and architecture, now it is
ethics, now it is elevation of political morals, now it is

] BOOK REVIEWS 379

social rights of laborers, and so the multitude of new
(k sires are constantly being created, formulated and
enforced by the group influence into which society is
differentiated. It is really to this that social progress
is mainly due. To be sure, in the early stages of these
group formations, when the old is being superseded by
the new, there is always evidence of crudeness and
sometimes of harshness, but it is the new that contains
the germs of growth that are to give to civilization the
higher forms of ethical life, human justice and social
welfare, which were impossible in the small homogen-
ous and usually repressive village communities.

The " neighborhood village community " type, be-
ing essentially homogenous, tends to social stultifica-
tion. There may be unity and harmony, but it is the
unity and harmony of simplicity and social dwarfage.
It is the type of social groups which belong to the era
of political despotism and absolute authority in religious
opinion, and is incompatible with the spirit of personal
freedom and democratic institutions.

GOVERNMENT IN SWITZERLAND. By John Martin
Vincent, Ph. D. Cloth. 369 pages, with appendices
and index. $1.25. The Macmillan Company, New
York.

Dr. Vincent tells in this little book, and in an in-
teresting way, the story of the development of govern-
ment among the Swiss people. Starting with the sixth
century, and the Teutonic founders of the nation, the
story continues down to the present, and contains a
condensed account of those experiments in democratic
institutions which have made Switzerland a unique
nationality. American advocates and disciples of the
referendum can get valuable information from this
book. They will find that the plan, which has been
dogmatically expounded in this country, is on its

380 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [October,

native heather not a fixed and uniform scheme of
government, being optional in some cantons, partial in
others, and only obligatory in a qualified degree, while
the federal features have not had the wide and con-
stant application which many suppose. During a
period of twenty years 164 laws were passed suscepti-
ble to the referendum. A vote was demanded on but
eighteen of these, and twelve of the laws were rejected.

The book covers quite a wide range, and gives a
fair view of Swiss legislation regarding many interests,
social, industrial, fiscal and religious.

In the appendices a variety of statistical matter is
given, including the federal constitution of 1874, and
the Perpetual League of the Forest Cantons, promul-
gated in 1291. This is a quaint document, and is an
interesting sample of the gropings of a primitive peo-
ple after the delights of free government.

Dr. Vincent has produced a book which ought to
be valuable for class-room work, personal study, or as
a concise book of reference.

THE STORY OF FRANCE, from the Earliest Times
to the Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte. By Thomas
E. Watson. The Macmillan Company, New York.
Cloth, gilt top, 1050 pp., price $2.50.

To tell the story of France, Guizot took eight
volumes; to narrate the doings of the Consulate, M.
Thiers took five octavo volumes. The story of the
whole period is better told by Mr. Watson in two vol-
umes.

The story is told with comprehension and discrimi-
nation, omitting nothing essential, and in a clear, con-
cise and attractive style. The great epochs in the
history of France, many of which were milestones in
the history of the world, are described with a sufficient
fullness to give the reader an adequate idea of their sig-

igoi.] BOOK REVIEWS 881

nificance, and the part played by the conspicuous
characters is presented in a way well calculated to make
its impression on the mind of the reader. It tells the
story of France with an explicit directness, lucidity
and attractiveness that characterizes few histories. The
events of the troubled reign of Charles IX., with its
St. Bartholomew massacre, the heroic struggle of
Henry of Navarre, the revolution, and rise and fall of
Napoleon, are told with eloquence, yet with insight
and discrimination.

For a statement of the main features of the history
of France, the development of its institutions, character
of its leaders, the contributions of its people to modern
civilization, through religious as well as political in-
stitutions, it would be difficult to find many better
works than Watson's " Story of France."

A BIOGRAPHY OF MUNICIPAL PROBLEMS AND CITY
CONDITIONS. By Robert C. Brooks. Cloth, 346 pp.
Reform Club Committee on City Affairs, New York.

In this revised and enlarged second edition the
author has aimed, as in his earlier work, to include the
books, pamphlets and periodical literature on munici-
pal affairs of the United States and European countries.

The bibliography is divided into two main parts,
a subject index and an author list. The former is
further subdivided and the arrangement is alphabetical.

This edition contains about 12,000 different entries
in the subject index, and in the author list there are
some 8,000 titles referred to under the names of nearly
4, 500 authors.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

Democracy versus Socialism. A Critical Examination
of Socialism as a Remedy for Social Injustice and Ex-
position of the Single-Tax Doctrine. By Max Hirsch

382 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

(Melbourn). Cloth, 8vo, 481 pp., $3.25. The Macmil-
lan Co., New York.

The Passing and Permanent in Religion. By Minot J.
Savage, D.D. Cloth, 8vo, $1.85, by mail $1.50. G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York.

A Diary of the Siege of the Legations in Pekin during
the Summer of 1900. By Nigel Oliphant, with preface
by Andrew Lang, and map and several plans. Crown,
8vo, $i 50, by mail $1.60. Longmans, Green & Co.,
New York.

Oliver Cromwell. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner,
M.A. Crown 8vo, $1.50, by mail $1.62. Longmans,
Green & Co., New York. With photogravure frontis-
piece.

Five Years of My Life, 1 894-1 899. By Alfred Drey-
fus, ex-captain of artillery in the French army. Cloth,
8vo, 310 pp., $1.50. McClure, Phillips &.. Co., New
York.

American Diplomatic Questions. By John B. Hender-
son, Jr. Cloth, 8vo, 529 pp., $3.50. The Macmillan
Co., New York.

The Jew in London. A Study of Racial Character
and Present-Day Conditions. By C. Russell and H. S.
Lewis, with an introduction by Canon Barnett and a
preface by the Rt. Hon. James Bryce. Cloth, 12 mo,
238 pp., $1.50. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.

Monopolies Past and Present. An Introductory
Study. By James Edward Le Rossignol, Ph.D., pro-
fessor of economics in the University of Denver.
Cloth, i2tno, $1.25. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New
York.

The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism.
By Jessica P. Perxotto. Cloth, i2mo, $1.50. Thomas
Y. Crowell & Co., New York.

An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of
England. By Edward P. Cheyney, professor of Euro-
pean history in the University of Pennsylvania. Cloth,
i2mo, $1.40. The Macmillan Co., New York.

FROM RECENT MAGAZINES

"Think of three hundred and fifty thousand chil-
dren of school age and not one school-house owned by
the public on the island ! But systematic and vigorous
execution soon told, and to-day there are forty thousand
children being taught by capable instructors and thirty
modern American school-houses being constructed. In
April the ' Columbus rural school ' was dedicated at
Carolina. This was the first rural school-house ever
built in Porto Rico. It looks like a New England
school-house, capable of holding forty pupils, is painted
the common lead color, has anterooms, blackboards
and comfortable American desks and seats. The flag
flies over the top, the ' Star Spangled Banner ' is sung
by the children, English is taught, and those who at-
tend are bright, intelligent, ambitious. It is notice-
able, too, that educational interests meet with hearty
cooperation among Porto Ricans of all classes, rich and
poor, influential and humble.'' — WILLIAM H. HUNT,
in The World's Work-. (September.)

1 ' I can now well understand why the weary brain-
worker or the broken-down money-maker turns his face
toward England and the continent in his rest-seeking
moments. A few hours from London and he is amid
the kaleidoscopic scenes of Paris ; then Switzerland is
within easy reach ; Italy and Spain lie beyond ; Ger-
many and Russia, or even Turkey and Egypt, are com-
paratively near at hand. Within a distance equal to
that which separates New York and San Francisco,
there are a dozen nationalities, each with its distinctive
characteristics and each affording the delight of novelty.
But the United States is the United States from ocean
to ocean, from Canadian border to the blue waters of
the gulf of Mexico. The city which is reached to-day
is but the counterpart of the city which was left yester-
day. There is an unvarying monotony of architecture,

383

3*4 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

an absolute lack of diversity in dress and custom. The
people are actuated by the same ideas, they speak an
identical language, they sell the same goods in stores
modelled after the same pattern. Market Street in San
Francisco is but a reproduction of Market Street in
Philadelphia, even to the ferries at the lower end ; and
State Street in Chicago is but Broadway built up again
with greater width." HENRY LITCHFIELD WEST in
" The President's Tour," The Forum : (August.)

" There are good men in Philadelphia and there
are bad men in Massachusetts. But Pennsylvania has
steadily sunk to perhaps the lowest level of civic de-
gradation that any of the old commonwealths has ever
touched ; and in Massachusetts a higher level of public
morality has been maintained over a long period than
in any other commonwealth. The difference is not ac-
cidental nor without cause ; for it is the natural and in-
evitable difference between a community where public
office has for two generations been regarded as com-
mercial, and a community where public office has for
two centuries been regarded as an honorable trust.
The commercial use of politics — office ' ' for what there
is in it" — will sooner or later bring this unutterable
Pennsylvanian doom on any community. The lower type
of office-seekers everywhere so regard the public ser-
vice. The difference is in the supine public opinion
which permits this class of men to rule, and the active
public opinion that prevents them from ruling. The
Pennsylvanians permit it — for the voters are to blame ;
men in Massachusetts bestir themselves and prevent it.
It comes back to the individual citizen and his attitude
toward the public welfare. In Massachusetts the honor
of the commonwealth is the personal concern of the
mass of citizens ; in Pennsylvania, the government of
the commonwealth has been left to those who make a
business of it." The World's Work: (August.)

The photograph of President Roosevelt published in our October number
is copyrighted by Rockwood, New York City.

SETH LOW

Copyright, iqoi, by Marceau, New York.

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

As election day draws near, the prospects

For the Reclama- , 4. _/ • Vr

tion of New York of an anti-Tammany victory m New
York steadily grow brighter. Mr. Ed-
ward M. Shepard, nominated on the Tammany ticket
October 3rd, at the express command of Richard
Croker, against a powerful sentiment for Controller
Coler, is in an impossible position. The spectacle of a
traditional enemy of Tammany, a gentleman of per-
sonal characteristics the very opposite of the Tammany
type, running at the head of the Tammany ticket is so
incongruous that the candidacy cannot be taken seri-
ously. As a " reformer " Mr. Shepard is thoroughly
obnoxious to the Tammany rank and file, while as a
Tammany candidate he cannot hope to hold the sup-
port of more than a small body of the independents
who have usually followed his lead in political affairs.
Among the former his candidacy creates lukewarmness,
among the latter it arouses little enthusiasm. He has
gone into this campaign with the weakness which un-
certainty of principles always gives. His present posi-
tion before the people is illogical, confused and incon-
sistent in every sense, and offers no elements of
coherency or unifying leadership.

It is fortunate that, whoever wins in this contest,
we cannot possibly have another Van Wyck for mayor
of New York, Mr. Shepard is personally an altogether
different type of man ; yet it must be confessed that

385

386 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

by his acceptance of the Tammany nomination he has
seriously shaken public confidence in his own resistive
powers. To accept a nomination from such a source is
to create a profound doubt whether the same influences
will not control during his tenure of office, and at the
same time shows a lack of those qualities of consistency
and steadfastness of purpose so essential in high public
office. By comparison with Mr. Shepard's previous
attitude, his acceptance of this nomination and the
speeches he is now making, justifying Tammany Hall
as a necessary institution of honorable history and re-
quiring only incidental reforms, reveal a willingness to
subject principle to personal ambition which compels a
revision of the previous estimate of the man. The
political history of the country offers nothing more ab-
surd than this sudden conversion to Tammany of a
gentleman who, only four years ago, declared that
"the most burning and disgraceful blot upon the
municipal history of this country is the career of Tam-
many Hall." During the same campaign Mr. Shepard
described the Tammany ticket as " a grinding tyranny
of blackmail over the personal freedom of tens of thou-
sands of decent men in New York, who can be oppressed
or coerced by the police and other departments;" de-
nouncing at the same time ' ' the detestable deviltry
and insolence with which Mr. Croker threatens to de-
stroy democratic politics," and saying of Mr. Low that
' ' a more well equipped man for the mayoralty cannot
be found in the consolidated city. . . . He repre-
sents the very best that we have in American public
life."

Not only these previous utterances, but
"B* tncran s*" ^e Tammany candidate's present efforts

to explain his peculiar political principles
recoil upon him at every point. To the independents

I90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 887

he is declaring that, if elected, he alone will be mayor,
an individual force, controlled by no ring; but only
three years ago last month Mr. Shepard pronounced his
own emphatic condemnation upon this sort of program.
"Again and again," he declared, "independents have
elected a good man on the theory that all that is re-
quired is to have a good man in office. Again and
again they have been disappointed in the practical re-
sults. I tell you, fellow citizens, democrats and repub-
licans, that much more is necessary ; that the best of
men in any office is himself, against his will, however
powerful, in chief measure the creature of the condi-
tions or the instrument of the forces that surround
him."

He is not even consistent with himself in the pres-
ent campaign. While defending the principle of party
government as something very fundamental, and justi-
fying Tammany Hall on that basis, as against the non-
partisan opposition, he proceeds at once to denounce
Mr. Low's candidacy as partisan, and assures the public
that if he, Shepard, is elected, he will be responsible to
no partisan influences. Clearly, Mr. Low's remark that
the Tammany candidate lacks the sense of humor is en-
tirely to the point.

Since Mr. Shepard's only apparent charge against
Seth Low is that the latter represents something which
Mr. Shepard himself regards as a vital political princi-
ple, it is interesting to recall what the Tammany can-
didate thought of Mr. Low's other and more personal
qualifications four years ago. This opinion we have
already quoted. In reality, Mr. Low individually
stands for all that Mr. Shepard possibly could repre-
sent, of integrity, of experience, of high standing and
all-round availability for the office, and in addition has
the overwhelming fact in his favor that he has never
lent himself to even quasi-endorsement of "the most

388 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

burning and disgraceful blot upon the municipal history
of this country," nor jeopardized public confidence in
his statesmanship and stability by a disjointed record
of political shiftiness.

Mr. Low has no hesitancy in saying that, if elected,
he will remove Police Commissioner Murphy and his
deputy, the notorious Devery; Mr. Shepard dodges
this issue with a technical quibble not creditable to his
political sincerity. He says it is unconstitutional to
make any pre-election pledges which would influ-
ence the voting. If this absurd interpretation were
to be literally accepted, the people would have no right
to ask any candidate what he expected to do if chosen
to represent them in public office. Elections would be-
come practically a "blind pool." Mr. Shepard com-
plains that the opposition insists on making destruction
of Tammany the sole issue, to the neglect of the great
improvements and progress of municipal works so im-
portant to the city's future — a line of argument which
is even less creditable to his sincerity than the former.
Nobody can know better than he that the one vital and
essential purpose of making the fight a fight on Tam-
many per se is to remove the greatest of all obstacles
from the path of genuine, wholesome and honest exten-
sion of municipal improvements and civic regeneration —
and not in bridges and tunnels only, but in the social
conditions of the great masses, who determine in the
last analysis the quality of our municipal governments.

Ex-Mayor Abram S. Hewitt has probably

What "Was

Croket's Object? stated the true reason for the remarkable
action of Tammany Hall in nominating
a man who has made such savage warfare upon it. As
Mr. Hewitt says :

" Croker realizes that Tammany Hall will have a crushing defeat in
the coming election. He understands that this will be the end of his

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 889

career as boss. He has determined, therefore, to pay off all his political
debts in a way that will leave a lasting impression. He never forgets or
forgives what he regards a personal attack. Coler, in his ' Review '
article, gave deep offence to Croker. He therefore decided to turn him
down, after such preliminary tactics as deprived him of all chance of
the Citizens' nomination. Coler was simply a tool, and has been dis-
carded when he can be no longer of any use to Tammany. The other
man who had given unpardonable offence to Croker was Edward M.
Shepard, in 1897, when he denounced Croker and Tammany Hall in
terms of bitter condemnation which have never been exceeded. He now
proposes to get even with Shepard. If Shepard accepts the Tammany
nomination he commits political suicide.

" Respectable citizens will never forgive him for allowing his excel-
lent character and great abilities to be used as a cloak for the outrages
of Tammany Hall. Having thus, by taking the nomination, lost his
political standing, he will, when defeated, as he will be, have no political
future whatever. Croker's revenge will thus be effective, although to
accomplish it he pulls down the pillars of the temple, from which, how-
ever, he will escape in time. He will retire to England, and we shall
hear no more of his influence in American politics."

If the result shall be Tammany's defeat, the later
course of Tammany Hall and of Croker in particular
will unquestionably confirm this view. The disaster
will be charged to the influence of the "reformers"
who, it will be said, forced Shepard's nomination, and
the fact will be pointed to that whenever a genuine
Tammany man was nominated he was almost invariably
elected. Mr. Shepard's defeat will also prove that the
people have more confidence in what he said in 1898,
about the influence of a corrupt organization over a
good man, than in what he now says about the power
of one good man to reform a corrupt and thoroughly
organized ring, intrenched at a thousand points through
years of experience in turning the city government into
a grab-bag of political spoils.

Dangen of Ex-Postmaster Charles W. Dayton is an-

Tammany's other example of a political Faust seduced
Waxing Power ^y tlie Tammany Mephistopheles. Mr.
Dayton was the candidate for controller in 1897 on the

390 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

" Jeffersonian Democracy" ticket, and in the course of
that campaign made a savage onslaught upon Tam-
many. Here are some examples of his sentiments then :

"We no longer have a government 'of the people, for the people
and by the people,' but instead have a government of the people by a
despot for his own purposes, whatever they may be. . . . My friends
in Tammany Hall . . . had pointed out in their mind's eye a career
that I was to occupy, if only I would bow down and worship at the
shrine of Crokerism. That, my friends, I never did, and as I value my
citizenship and my reverence to the Almighty I never will."

The lapse of four short years seems to have im-
pressed Mr. Dayton with the attractions of the career
that had been pointed out by his Tammany friends, and
now he accepts Croker's nomination for supreme court
justice, along with Robert A. Van Wyck, whom he
denounced in 1897 as unfit to be mayor, and whose nom-
ination to the bench is an insult to the intelligence of
the people of New York and to the dignity and upright-
ness of the judiciary.

That the Tammany organization has become pow-
erful enough to induce its very enemies to become its
apologists, at a time when the infamous "wigwam" is
more brazenly corrupt, predatory and vile than ever, is
enough evidence of the growing menace it presents to
the future of the metropolis. If the great mass of the
sincere friends of good government, in a year when
fusion is complete and the candidate probably the
strongest that could have been named, are not able to
wipe out this ' ' disgraceful blot ' ' of Tammany misgov-
ernment, the outlook for the future will be pessimistic
indeed. Fortunately, however, the signs at present
point the other way.

The famous trial of Rear Admiral W. S.
Schley, before a special naval court pre-
sided over by Admiral Dewey, in Wash-
ington, is rapidly nearing its end. The proceedings

I90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 881

thus far must be discouraging to those who, for almost
inexplicable reasons, have been hoping that the out-
come would prove one of our best known naval officers to
be a liar, a caitiff and a coward. The adverse testimony
introduced thus far has not only failed to develop any-
thing of really serious weight against Schley, but the
most of it has been flatly contradicted by equally respon-
sible witnesses. At present, the testimony in support
of Schley's tactics and his personal bravery is piling up
at an impressive rate. The public has long since lost
interest in the purely personal phase of this matter, as
between Admirals Sampson and Schley, but it has a
lively interest in seeing exact justice done to all the
officers concerned in the Santiago naval campaign and
the whole matter raised above the plane of merely
spiteful newspaper controversy.

Although the charges against him have been con-
tinuous and bitter for the last three years, Admiral
Schley remained silent until the publication of the
"History of the United States Navy," by Edgar S.
Maclay of the Brooklyn navy yard. This book con-
tained a malignant attack upon the rear admiral's per-
sonal character and his skill and faithfulness as a naval
officer, denouncing him as a liar, a coward, and, by
implication at least, a traitor. Maclay being in the
government service, and the proofs of his book having
been approved by Admiral Sampson, Schley at last
appealed to the navy department for a special court to
investigate his entire conduct in the Santiago campaign.
The request was at once granted, and the trial has now
been in progress more than a month. In addition to
Admiral Dewey, the court consists of two of the best-
known retired rear admirals in the navy, Andrew E. K.
Benham and Francis M. Ramsay.

We shall summarize the charges and findings of
the court when the decision is finally rendered. Suffice

392 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

it to say now, that up to the present not one of the ten
presentments against Admiral Schley seem to have
found sufficient support to form the basis of an adverse
report, either on his personal courage or merits as a
naval officer. The only point of serious importance,
which may be regarded as really in doubt, is Schley's
decision to go to Key West for coal, on account of the
roughness of the sea preventing coaling off Santiago.
The testimony as to whether or not it was feasible to
coal at sea is very much divided, but it is certain at
least that with the moderation of the weather the trip
was abandoned and the admiral returned and did coal
on the spot, with practically no interruption of the
blockade.

Bad Judgment ^ *s Q^e probable that the court will
Possibly, Cow- find certain errors of judgment on Ad-
ardicc Never miral Schley's part, and for that matter
it would find defects in the record of any officer whose
conduct might be brought under investigation. The
overwhelming fact remains and will always remain that
Admiral Schley did maintain an effective blockade off
Santiago, and that when the Spaniards appeared the
Brooklyn was in the thick of the fight, led the chase,
and with the Oregon overhauled and captured the last
remaining vessel of the Spanish squadron, away to the
west of Santiago.

As to the famous " loop," by which the Brooklyn
swung around to the South and then to the West in
pursuit of the Colon, Captain Cook of the Brooklyn has
testified that he himself ordered that movement, and
defends it as a technical maneuver of great importance
in the final result. Whatever the merits of this ' ' loop "
per se, the effort to charge it to cowardice on the part of
Schley is obviously little more than a product of malig-
nant animosity. It is matter of evidence that the

i90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 898

Brooklyn s five-inch guns made more than one-third of
all the hits that were made on the Spanish vessels by
our entire fleet, and with the Oregon overtook the
escaping Colon, while the admiral, then commodore,
was constantly exposed to fire throughout the action,
and according to Captain Cook and all the other officers
of the Brooklyn was entirely self-possessed, cool and
courageous. Whether the loop was a tactical mistake
or not, to describe it as cowardly " running away " is
merely silly.

It is interesting to note some of the opinions of the
Spanish officers, who had a fair chance to judge, as to
the performance of the Brooklyn. Captain Moreu of the
Colon has said, in the New York Journal, in response to
an inquiry :

" All the American officers, without exception, did their duty in the
naval battle at Santiago. So did we, although it is certain that we were
vanquished by superiority of force. It is absurd and unpatriotic to
make any exception in the case of Admiral Schley. It is absurd be-
cause the Brooklyn was in the thick of the fight throughout. She was
at the mouth of the harbor when we tried to pass out, and engaged us
with a terrific fire, doing frightful damage to the end. In the pursuit of
the Cristobal Colon we surrendered to the Brooklyn forty-fire miles
west of Santiago. The Brooklyn was the first to encounter us as we
were coming out, and the first to lead in the pursuit, and she kept up
the lead, with the Oregon vastly aiding. I believe the whole crew of
the Brooklyn, including Schley, acted with great bravery under fire and
amid the storm of projectiles. Of all the American ships the Brooklyn
was the most exposed to our fire and to that of our batteries.''

Admiral Cervera says :

" Admiral Schley accomplished fully the work allotted to him, and,
therefore, it does not seem to me that there is any room for adverse
criticism— at least from the American side. I don't know Admiral
Sampson, and I have no comment to make upon him. Your ships went
straight to work, probably without much commanding. "

There is a sting in Admiral Cervera's comment,
which ought at least to appeal to the American sense
of the fitness of things, if not to our patriotism. It is
not an edifying spectacle for other nations that three

394 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

years after so great a victory as Santiago the officer in
command of our fleet during the battle should find it
necessary to request a court of inquiry to decide
whether or not he was a coward and traitor. Officers
are often court-martialed for conduct leading to a de-
feat in battle, but it is remarkable to find one pilloried
for the crime of winning a victory. Admiral Schley
may have committed various errors, and probably
will not rank with our greatest naval officers, but the
record of his flagship in the battle and the results of
the work done by our fleet while he was in command
will chiefly determine history's verdict upon his case.
Whatever the findings of the court may be, it is
much to be regretted that such a controversy should
have occurred at all. In this connection, the proposed
congressional investigation into the underlying motives
of the charges against Rear Admiral Schley will be
awaited with interest. It is to be hoped that the deci-
sion may be rendered at an early date, and the whole
matter permanently laid to rest.

Now that the unfortunate strike of the

Echoes of the t j wor^ers jg over t^e after develop-

Steel Strike

ments are showing in still clearer light

the disastrous part that bad leadership played in the
result. Having lost the opportunity in the first instance
of gaining much for the men by making reasonable and
moderate demands, and having still further frittered
away the points of vantage still remaining, by refusing
propositions of settlement which would at least have
left the amalgamated association no worse off than at
the beginning, and having finally been compelled to
settle at a time when the arrangement accepted left the
association with a greatly reduced range of influence
and control, President Shaffer is now trying to shift the
blame to other shoulders. He declares that he did not

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 395

get the support promised him, and has accused Presi-
dents John Mitchell, of the coal miners, and Samuel
Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, of fail-
ing to attend a meeting arranged with Mr. Morgan ;
and especially charges the federation with failing to
furnish any money. Messrs. Mitchell and Gompers in
reply have proposed a committee of inquiry to investi-
gate their whole attitude and offered to resign from
their respective offices if the committee finds the
charges well founded.

Mr. Gompers has published a long statement in the
last number of the Fcderationist, refuting . Shaffer's
charges and showing the degree of actual support given
by the federation to the steel workers' strike. He
shows that no application for financial aid was ever
made by Mr. Shaffer, or any representative of the steel
workers, but that this assistance would have been given
if requested. President Gompers declined to order a
sympathetic strike, because he ' ' felt confident that the
executive officers of the trade unions of America ought
not and would not violate or break their contracts or
agreements with their employers throughout the coun-
try." In this position Mr. Gompers will have the
unanimous support of public sentiment, and all the
more heartily because of the contrast with Shaffer's call
on the men, during the strike, to break their contracts
simply because the corporations with whom the con-
tracts were originally made had been absorbed by the
"trust."

Mr. Shaffer will utterly fail to impress anybody
with his complaints. Indeed, toward the end of the
strike, public sentiment was rapidly growing to the
point of sharp criticism of Samuel Gompers for the open
support he was giving to the amalgamated association.
It was felt that he went too far in his interviews and
statements bolstering up an unjustifiable cause, even

396 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

though in reality he was trying to help the men rather
than endorse the erratic and foolish course of their
leader. The American Federation of Labor will not
suffer from Shaffer's attacks, but the Amalgamated As-
sociation of Iron and Steel Workers will be long in recov-
ering from this unfortunate experience. The settle-
ment finally made leaves the unions in control of
eleven fewer mills than last year, and without the priv-
ilege of attempting to organize or issue charters in any
of the mills now claimed by the corporation as non-
union. With such a loss of power and prestige, a re-
organization of the amalgamated association may have
to come. If it does, the necessity of wiser leadership,
respect for the sacredness of contracts, and absence of
demagogy, must be the foundation stones. On nothing
else can permanent success, increasing industrial influ-
ence, and a steady accession of confidence and respect
in the relations with both employers and the public, be
founded.

The United States Steel Corporation

A Creditable .. ., ...

" Trust "Example seems to realize its precarious position at
the bar of public opinion. Apparently it
is trying to justify itself by a rational regard for popu-
lar sentiment and liberal policies of management. Its
conduct in the recent strike, and especially the attitude
of President Schwab in refraining from turning his
victory into a war of extermination on organized labor,
was a notable example of this evident desire to earn a
creditable standing in the community. As if still fur-
ther to confirm this, the company has just made public
a detailed report of earnings, expenditures, dividends
and profits during the last six months, — an almost un-
precedented step in the financial management of large
industrial corporations. Reports of this sort are regu-
ularly published by banks and railroads, under legal

igoi.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 397

compulsion, but the steel corporation has taken a step
in advance of the law by voluntarily including the pub-
lic in its confidence. The report shows net earnings
during six months of nearly $55,000,000, interest pay-
ments of $7,600,000, sinking funds and maintenance
amounting to about $7,000,000, first and second quar-
terly dividends on both common and preferred stock
amounting to a little less than $28,000,000, leaving a
balance available for new expenditures, or to hold as
surplus, amounting to $12,326,742.

Both the size of the profits and the new policy of
publicity have made a very favorable impression. It
would appear on the surface at least that little has been
lost through the strike ; in fact, it is claimed by the
corporation that the strike permitted the making of
repairs and consolidations which would have involved
shut-downs any way, during the summer, while work
was transferred from the idle mills to those in active
operation. There is no question, however, that the
strike did inflict serious losses; either the present
report shows a smaller profit than would otherwise have
been earned, or the loss will reveal itself in the next
report. Bradstree? 's for October 5th well reflects the
sentiment of the business community on the new policy
of the corporation :

" In adopting the policy of publishing such returns the United
States Steel Corporation has set a good example. It is no doubt im-
practicable to exhibit the operations of concerns of this class with the
same fullness of detail as in a railroad company's report. At the same
time industrial companies, with a few honorable exceptions, have either
made no report at all or presented their earnings in the briefest and
most unsatisfactory way. It is needless to remark that if the manage-
ment of the United States Steel Corporation adheres to the determina-
tion which it is announced has been reached in this respect, the effect
will unquestionably be to strengthen the position of its securities in the
eyes of the investing public."

It is to be hoped that no experience of the steel
corporation, either with unreasonable and arbitrary

898 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

labor leaders or with a demagogical antagonistic press,
will induce it to depart from the liberal and reasonable
tendencies of its present management. If this giant
corporation shall adhere to the policy of willingness to
be reasonable in its dealings with organized labor, and
to take the public into its confidence respecting the
earnings and policies of its business, it will go far
toward dispelling the prejudice agamst large corpora-
tions, and do as much to guarantee the security of
capitalistic enterprise in the future as the arbitrary,
exclusive and belligerent policies that have too largely
characterized corporation management in the past have
done to endanger it.

Current Price For Monday, October 2 1 , the f ollow-
Comparisons ing wholesale prices are quoted :

1901 1900

Flour, Minn, patent $3.70 $4.00

Wheat, No. 2 red 78$ 78$

Corn, No. 2 mixed 6i£ 46%

Oats, No. 2 mixed 39f 25-$-

Pork, mess 16.00 13-50

Beef, hams 21.50 18.00

Coffee, Rio No. 7 6£ 8£

Sugar, granulated 5.10 5.75

Butter, creamery, extra 22^ 22^

Cheese, State, f. c., white, small, fancy . . 10 io|

Cotton, middling upland 8| 9^

Print cloths 3 3^

Petroleum, refined, in bbls 7.65 7.45

Hides, native steers 13^

Leather, hemlock 24^

Iron, No. i North, foundry 16.00

Iron, No. i South, foundry 15.00

Tin, Straits 25.00

Copper, Lake ingot 16.85

Lead, domestic 4-37i

Tinplate, loolbs., I. C. , 14x20 4.40

Steel rails 28.00

Wire nails (Pittsburg) 2.30

] RE VIE W OF THE MONTH 899

Dun's Review shows index-number aggregate prices
per unit, of 350 commodities, averaged according to im-
portance in per capita consumption, for October i
and comparison with previous dates, as follows :

Jan. i, Oct. i, Oct. i, Oct. i, Jan. i, Sept. i, Oct. i,
1891. 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. 1901. 1901.

Breadstuffs. . . . $19.725 $11.759 $*3-3*5 $14-255 $14.486 $17.369 $17.146

Meats 7.810 7.628 8.378 9.105 8.407 9.530 9.517

Dairy and garden 16.270 9.021 11.663 12.231 15.556 13.009 13.164

Other food . . . 10.215 8.812 9.069 9.803 9.504 9.153 9.190

Clothing .... 14.135 14.350 15.865 15.980 16.024 15.234 15-279

Metals • 15.875 11.796 18.042 15.574 15.810 16091 15.760

Miscellaneous . . 14.217 12.604 14.965 15.666 15.881 16.525 16.835

Total $98.247 $75.970 $91.297 $92.614 $95. 668 $96.911 $96.891

The changes since last month are so slight as to
require practically no comment. Metals, which on
Sept. ist showed a slight advance, due to the strike
disturbance, are again on the decline, showing the
absence either of the disposition or the ability, or both,
of iron and steel producers to shift the burden of this
struggle to the producers in higher prices.

NEW YORK MAYORALTY ELECTION

The mayoralty election to take place in New York
city on the 5th of November, 1901, is an event of na-
tional significance. It involves much more than the
honest administration of the municipal affairs of New
York city ; it is really a struggle between decency and
debauchery in our political methods. The city govern-
ment of New York is typical, though perhaps the worst
specimen, of corrupt and degrading methods in Ameri-
can politics. It is in the hands of a coterie of degenerate
vulgar creatures, who are as corrupt politically as they
are depraved morally. This coterie has become so
thoroughly entrenched in the political machinery of
municipal administration that for years it has controlled
and practically owned the offices and dictated, not alone
the policy, but the disbursement of and stealing from
the public revenues, the sale of rights and suppression
of privileges, the protection to crime, the coercion of
virtue, in nearly all walks of life. It is not governed
by a political party, but by a secret organization which
allies itself with a political party, but is seldom loyal
to it except so far as serves the purpose of strengthen-
ing its hold on the control of the city government.

There are many bad features in the government of
large cities. New York is not alone in this respect;
but there is probably not an instance in the world
where, by systematic organization, persistence in crime
and corruption, defiance of decent sentiment and the
use of the criminal classes is so completely interwoven
in the municipal administration as in New York city.
Tammany rule is the acme of all that is depraved and
vicious in government. Success has made it bold, and
boldness has made its authority a reign of terror.
Every department of public administration is in the

400

THE NE W YORK MA YORA LTY ELECTION 401

hands of the obedient servants of this organization of
political crooks and moral degenerates. The police
force, which should be the guardian of the property
and virtues of the city, is converted into an organized
system of coercion, plunder and blackmail.

The financial success of this conspiracy against the
public is shown in the prosperity and even opulence of
some of the conspicuous characters who manage this
remarkable organization. The chief, who was never
known to engage in any honorable business by which
to earn a competence, a man without culture or charac-
ter, except as a " plug ugly," lives opulently and osten-
tatiously in England, where he has stables of fast horses
and parades the English turf with the fastest sporting
set. Nothing could accomplish this but unlimited
money; no ordinary fortune would serve such a pur-
pose. Family connections and personal prestige will
do much in such cases, but, where only coarse vulgarity
and tainted reputation are the personal qualities, reck-
less expenditures are indispensable. As an example
of successful political plunder and brazen absentee dic-
tatorship, there is nothing quite equal to Croker in any
other part of the world.

The election which is to take place is a contest, a
desperate struggle between the combined forces of civ-
ilization' and this organization of vice, plunder and po-
litical degeneracy. The contest is a peculiar one;
unique, even, in some respects. On the one side are
arrayed all the decent, progressive, moral and social
forces in the community. For the first time in an elec-
tion of this kind, all these forces are welded for the
time being into a harmonious whole. With great una-
nimity they have chosen as a standard bearer a man
conspicuously representing all the elements of a strong,
clean, honest, progressive municipal movement. In
fact, he may be said to be an ideal candidate for mayor.

402 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

On the ticket with Mr. Low for other offices are men of
known public spirit, honor, efficiency and integrity.
The success of th;s ticket means a regeneration of the
municipal administration of New York city, and with
that a beginning of municipal progress throughout the
country. Success in this contest really means the ele-
vation of the tone, the political plane, and practical ad-
ministration of municipal government in the United
States.

Tammany recognizes the full value of the stake
that is at issue. It knows that the success of the citi-
zens' movement means the death-knell of Crokerism
and Deveryism, and the end of opulent revenue from
trading in office and the betrayal of public trust. As if
to furnish the evidence of Tammany depravity and stir
the moral sense of the community to revolt, Devery
and the other Croker lieutenants have been unusually
careless and brazen in their repulsive and criminal con-
duct. They have not only punished policemen for do-
ing their duty, but openly rebuked them for failing
properly to aid law breakers. And that, too, at the
very time when the police department was caught in
the act of actively aiding criminals to escape discovery
and capture. In short, it became the official spy and
agent of criminals. Under these discouraging and de-
moralizing conditions, the absentee chief found on his
return that a dangerous amount of moral indignation
had been created against Tammany. He therefore did
not dare nominate for mayor a Devery or a Van Wyck
or any other natural Tammany candidate, but felt com-
pelled to assume a virtue he never possessed, and nomi-
nate a man who is known to the public chiefly for his
opposition to Tammany. Mr. Edward M. Shepard
was thus, selected as a virtuous dummy to save Tam-
many from the slowly accumulated but consuming
wrath of an outraged public.

] THE NEW YORK MA YORALTY ELECTION 403

The real question at issue is not changed in the
least by Mr. Shepard's nomination. It is not a contest
between Mr. Shepard and Mr. Low, but a struggle be-
tween Tammany and decency. Mr. Shepard's candi-
dacy does not so much as change the tint of Tammany's
blackness. If there is any change at all, it is in Mr.
Shepard. Mr. Low represents the consensus of all that
is progressive and decent in the city, and, for that mat-
ter, in the country. He represents personal integrity
and executive efficiency and education in its highest as
well as its broadest and most democratic form. He
represents a high standard of intelligent, clean politics,
as demonstrated in his own record as mayor of Brook-
lyn, and he represents war on Tammany and the re-
demption of New York city from political brigandage.

What does Mr. Shepard represent? Heretofore
Mr. Shepard has advocated ideas similar to Mr. Low's.
He has never been tested in office, but he has been
more intimate with Tammany than Mr. Low ever was.
He has belonged to the Tammany party and is there-
fore supposed to know more about Tammany in its real
inside viciousness than Mr. Low or anybody who is on
the outside, and, with this knowledge and experience,
Mr. Shepard has always warned the people against
Tammany. In 1897 he took the stump for Mr. Low,
declaring it the duty of all decent citizens, regardless
of politics, to vote for Mr. Low, to exterminate Tam-
many. He then declared that Tammany was beyond
redemption, that nobody could touch it without being
contaminated ; that no man, however good his inten-
tions or clean his character, could change the spots on
the Tammany animal ; that vice, crime and corruption
had become its essential characteristics, and that a decent
man in Tammany only helped give a modicum of
respectability to an organization and system that were
simply loathsome. In effect this is what Mr. Shepard

404 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

told us. This is what he has told us for years and years.
This is why he has always been found kicking and bolt-
ing. Now what has happened? Tammany has not
changed ; it is even worse to-day than ever before. It
is bolder and more insolently defiant in its crime and
corruption. Croker is more flaunting with his ill-gotten
wealth, with his offensive display at the gambling cen-
ters. Devery is more impudent and insolent to honest
officers and decent citizens, and as for Van Wyck, he
has displayed more vulgar boorishness than has ever
before been exhibited by a public official.

This wonderful transformation, therefore, must be
in Mr. Shepard. It is the difference between Mr.
Shepard the reformer and kicker and Mr. Shepard the
Tammany candidate. As reformer and bolter he was
at least a clean, earnest advocate for wholesome honest
administration. In becoming the Tammany candidate
for mayor he has lost that characteristic. He is pre-
tending to do what for years he has proclaimed no man
could ever do — be decent under Tammany — represent
Tammany without serving Croker. How true his pre-
vious estimate and diagnosis of Tammany was is clearly
revealed in his own attitude since his nomination. He
is not the same man at all. His letter of acceptance
was a careful, painstaking study how not to say any-
thing. His speeches are models of evading everything
that is essential in the campaign. He does not dare
tell the people what he told them in 1897 in advocating
the candidacy of Mr. Low. He does not dare tell them
what he has been saying for years regarding the con-
duct and policy of Tammany in the administration,
although there is no change except for the worse. He
does not dare even to say that he will insist on honest
and clean government, and his excuse for not daring
to say any of these things is that it is ' ' unconstitu-
tional " to make promises before election. Could there

1901.] THE NEW YORK MA YORALTY ELECTION 405

be anything more unlike the Shepard before nomina-
tion than this? Of course no candidate should make
private promises to do improper things, but no man
knows better than Mr. Shepard that it is essential to
popular government that candidates tell the people
what they intend to do ; what sort of government they
intend to establish ; what policy they intend to pursue.

How else can they expect the confidence and votes
of the citizens? Murphy andDevery and what they rep-
resent in the police department are the culmination of
official vice. They represent the concentrated nasti-
ness of political depravity, and it is their removal and
the election of an administration pledged to the clean-
ing out of them and their like that the people want.
And this Mr. Shepard does not dare to promise. He
knows that to make such a promise would defeat him,
because in that case Tammany would have no use for
him. Therefore, he does not dare to say that he will
lay hands on the official criminals in the city adminis-
tration. To pretend that a promise to the people to
clean out this vileness in the administration is " uncon-
stitutional " is silly ; it is weak and cowardly. It is a
cringing subterfuge which removes the mask from Mr.
Shepard. It goes far to establish the charge, frequent-
ly made against him by Tammany, that he was only a
reformer when he was off the slate, and that the real
cure for Mr. Shepard's virtues is an office.

This cowardly, not to say dishonest, attitude of
Mr. Shepard shows that nothing of a really vigorous,
wholesome character can be expected of him even if he
is elected. It shows that he is in training to become
obedient to the squire. If he dare not talk on the
stump, he will not dare to act if elected. The man
who is a coward before the people will be servile in the
hands of the boss. If Mr. Shepard was all that he pre-
tended to be and was believed to be when outside the

406 G UNTON'S MA GA Z1NE

breastworks, exposing Tammany and advocating Low,
there are a hundred reasons why he should not now be
elected mayor. If he were as heroic as he is cowardly,
as brave as he is cringing, he would still be handicapped
by having all the power of Tammany, which he claims
to represent, against him. Moreover, if he could actu-
ally be trusted really to reform the city government,
he would be but veneering Tammany ; he would be
giving a semblance of respectability to that which
should be exterminated, and so help more deeply to en-
trench Tammany in its hold upon the city. That he
cannot be trusted to do even this is clear from his wilt-
ing weakness from the moment of his nomination. If
Mr. Shepard had been the man he would have the
people believe, and really believed that Tammany was
essentially vicious, and the only means of getting hon-
est, clean and respectable city government was per-
manently and forever to eradicate Tammany from the
administration ; if he had been thoroughly honest in
representing this, he would have followed the example
of Mr. Hendrix and promptly declined the nomination.
But the truth is, this is about the first time Mr. Shepard
has had a good sized flesh-pot offered to him, and his
virtue collapsed at the sight of it. The man who dares
not tell the people that he will cleanse the police de-
partment and relieve the city of Murphy and Devery,
is either a coward or a Crokerized candidate. It is a
sad spectacle that Mr. Shepard should have come to
this. But he failed at the first test and therefore ought
not, and must not, and unless all signs fail will not, be
trusted. The only sure way of relieving the city from
the crime and disgrace of Tammany government is to
elect the anti-Tammany ticket from top to bottom.

CAUSES OF ANARCHY: SOME FORMER EX-
PRESSIONS

In the pages of GUNTON'S MAGAZINE and the Lecture
Bulletin of the Institute of Social Economics, ever since
their inception, the social dangers of an inflamed and
misinformed public sentiment have been constantly em-
phasized, and certain of the leading causes pointed out.
The vicious propaganda conducted by political dema-
gogues and the sensational press against capital,
against the government, against the integrity of our
social, industrial and political system in general, has
for years been feeding and stimulating a sentiment of
social disruption, of which anarchism is but a natural
and inevitable phase. Those responsible for this per-
verted and dangerous sentiment have been largely un-
conscious that they have been sowing the wind for a
harvest of whirlwind, but that does not remove the fact
nor modify the continuing menace from the same
sources.

These former expressions on the subject lend in-
terest to present discussions of the underlying sources
of anarchism, and some of them are herewith re-
printed :

Any system of propaganda, for whatever purpose,
which tries, through social prejudice, . to array the
laboring class against the forces which in a single gen-
eration have nearly doubled their power to command
the benefits of civilization, is a social crime which
should receive the anathema of all public-spirited and
patriotic citizens. Nothing has contributed so much to
this vicious policy, which is gradually undermining the
stability of our institutions, as the uneconomic and per-
verted attack upon trusts and corporate industrial

407

408 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

organizations. ' ' The Anti-Capital Crusade ; " GUNTON'S
MAGAZINE, November, 1896.

This anti-capital agitation was such a complete
confirmation of the doctrines and predictions dissem-
inated by the socialistic propaganda, and had such a
large class of respectable leaders, that it made rapid
progress among the discontented classes to which it was
directed and for the purposes for which it was inaugu-
rated: namely, the election of Mr. Cleveland and the
anti-tariff congress and administration. Although it
accomplished its object, in doing so it planted the seed
and nourished the growth of social distrust and class
enmity throughout the country. It carried grist to the
socialists' mill in such undreamed of quantities that al-
most every phase of industrial and social agitation took
on the socialistic or anti-capital form. " Meaning of
Bryanism in American Politics;" GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,
December, 1896.

One of the most dangerous elements of public sen-
timent in this country is the growing hostility to capi-
tal. The social atmosphere appears to be surcharged
with what might almost be termed economic malignity
towards every form of aggregated capital. Although it
is universally admitted that capital is necessary to indus-
trial development and national prosperity, there is a
growing presumption that the capitalist is a dangerous
person. Much of this feeling, for feeling it is, has been
created by the demagogical attitude of the press towards
trusts. So much has been said against trusts that
everybody feels at liberty to denounce them as an un-
mixed evil on general principles, regardless of any spe-
cific facts. Indeed, the impulse to treat trusts as public
evils, regardless of what they do, has become a state of
mind almost amounting to superstition. " The Anti-
Capital Crusade;" GUNTON'S MAGAZINE, November,
1896.

1 90i. ] CA USES OF A NA RCHY 409

If we insist upon poisoning the mind of every laborer
with the notion that the whole social fabric is constructed
to rob him, if we insist that the farmer shall believe that
every railroad and every large industry is constructed to
fleece him, if we are to make the common people believe
that every public official only desires to plunder the pub-
lic treasury and in some way get a fat office for nothing,
and so charge every phase of our institutions with dis-
honesty and falsehood, we cannot expect anything but
disruption. We cannot hope for improvement in the
purity of our politics, without faith ; faith in the insti-
tutions, faith in the people, faith in the integrity of the
employing and general business class of the community.
We can never deal fairly and freely and with the
best efforts and best intentions with robbers. We must
always have a bowie knife or a revolver or something
in reserve for a thief, but the people having faith in
the integrity of our employing class, of our public men,
we can appeal at once to them to deal with the ques-
tions as plain, social questions; with the wages ques-
tion as a wages question, with the tariff question as a
tariff question, with the money question as a money ques-
tion, and in the faith that in so dealing with these
questions there will be integrity and not everlasting
chicanery in the handling of them. I say, therefore,
that we need a greater faith in our common political,
social and industrial integrity, and that this is necessary
before the United States can have or be entitled to the
respect from other nations that her position in civiliza-
tion ought to command. "Why Foreigners Sneer at
Us;" Gunton Institute Bulletin, November 27th, 1897.

Within the last two years a book of five hundred
pages has been published by one of the most responsi-
ble houses in this town, and in this country, which was
made up of practically nothing but misrepresentations
and abuse of American business institutions, and I

410 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

understand it has a very wide circulation. This pre-
vails to such an extent that one comes to believe (and
very naturally) that the average American public man
is a corruptionist and an incompetent lobbyist, a shallow
fellow, with neither conscience, foresight nor intel-
lectual capacity. If he is able at all, it is shown at once
that he has turned his ability to making money. Mr.
Elaine was hounded to death by that sort of warfare,
as well as other public men whom I shall not attempt
to name now, because that is not my purpose. My pur-
pose is to call attention to what we do regarding the
subject. It is not peculiar to any one party, but to all
parties. If the other fellow is in, his opponents must
blackguard him. If the democrats are in, of course
there are no righteous among them, no, not one, and if
the republicans are in, of course they are corruptionists
and robbers of the workingman and so on. Now this
is not merely partisan, but it has become general, and
almost national, — so much so that when foreigners take
lip our newspapers and magazines, even the Forum and
North American Review, to say nothing of the Arena,
they will find ordinarily respectable names appended
to articles showing that we are generally immoral and
untrustworthy in some line or other. They get our
literature and say, ' ' From your own mouths do we
judge you ; you are constantly telling us that your bus-
iness men are dishonest, your public men corrupt, your
politicians impure, and that your democracy is a hum-
bug. You are constantly telling us this, and we can-
not find anything to the contrary." " Why Foreigners
Sneer at Us;" Gunton Institute Bulletin, November
27th, 1897.

What he [Macaulay] said in comparing English and
American institutions is very significant. It must be
remembered that Macaulay wrote this before the sec-
ond reform bill was adopted and when the government in

1901.] CAUSES OF ANARCHY 411

England rested on a very limited suffrage. He said :
With us the government rests on a limited property
class ; with you the discontented are the governors. In
reality this expresses the hopeful, optimistic and truly
glorious element in or.r institutions, viz. : that our pol
itical fabric rests upon the people — yea, the discon-
tented. But it also contains the ominous fact that if
the people, if the discontented, if the millions to whom
every political demagogue will make his lowest appeal,
are not educated, are not informed, are not prosperous,
are not grounded in confidence in the wisdom and
superiority of our institutions, taen we are exposed to
all the dangers of revolution, and the worst may
come. " Need of Political Education ;" Gunton Institute
Bulletin, September 24th, 1898.

In this country, however, we have developed a type
of journals which are not newspapers, but scandal
mongers. Instead of informing the public of occur-
rences in the community that are of legitimate public
concern, and commenting upon them editorially so as
to aid in creating an intelligent public opinion regard-
ing them, the object seems to be rather to appeal to the
lowest passions and inflame a feeling of enmity, sus-
picion and distrust, arraying every class in the community
against every other, particularly the laborers against
the well-to-do. There are more people who will give
a cent for twelve pages of scandal, abuse, caricature and
venal misrepresentation than will give two cents for
clean, wholesome news and an intelligent discussion of
public affairs. Consequently, the representative papers
of this new journalism have become little more than
scurrilous sheets rilled with slander and abuse of almost
anything reputable and useful in society. No public
man can expect measurably fair treatment at their
hands, unless perchance he is able to purchase their
good will by paid "write-ups " or a liberal expenditure

412 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

in the advertising columns. Nearly every public man
is traduced, lampooned, and directly or indirectly
charged with dishonesty and corruption, whenever the
sensational purpose of these journals can be served by
so doing.

In the discussions of economic questions this scan-
dalous feature of journalism runs riot. They appeal to
the suspicions, passions and ignorance of the laborers
by constantly practicing their art of vilification upon
rich men or conspicuously successful corporations.
With the growth of socialism, populism, and anti-
wealth sentiment, this class of journals has directed its
most venomous arrows toward a few of the most suc-
cessful corporations which they are unable to bleed
through the advertising departments. ' ' " Disreputable
Journalism;" GUNTON'S MAGAZINE, November, 1898.

In no country is the intelligent understanding of
liberty, its character and conditions, the influences
which repress and which promote it, more important
than in this country, because here everything depends
on the common knowledge. We have here no recog-
nized consensus on the subject. There is no ex cathedra
authority. Whatever progress there is must be by and
through the efforts, more or less conscious, of the mass
of the people. To mistake the meaning and character
of liberty may be fatal to our safety. If our destinies
were in the hands of a few responsible leaders, then
the task would devolve upon them and the responsibil-
ity would be theirs. But with us no such class exists.
We rest everything on the broad democratic basis. It
is the people or nothing. If the people are informed
and intelligent and wise, then our rapid progress is as-
sured. If the people are ignorant, misguided, pugna-
cious and rash, progress is in jeopardy. " Liberty and
License;" Lecture Bulletin, December 9th, 1899.

No serious American could listen to Mr. Bryan's

I90I.J CAUSES OF ANARCHY 413

Madison Square address, noting the insinuating, subtle
emphasis placed on every point that could be expected
to rouse the spirit of bitterness, watching furthermore
the quick and enthusiastic response of the audience to
these sallies, without a feeling of profound apprehen-
sion. Whether defeated or elected, the influence of
this man has had already a demoralizing influence on
the character of public opinion in this country. Re-
lying on the prestige of his oratory and great promi-
nence, and assisted by an army of cheap demagogues
of the sort who take their cue from any new popular
leader, he is, by ingenious misrepresentation of indus-
trial conditions and tendencies, rapidly stirring up an
amount and extent of suspicion, distrust and social
antagonism that probably never before has been ap-
proached in our national history. He is doing this,
recklessly unmindful of the fact that to divide an organ-
ized society into hostile classes and widen the gulf
between them is the surest road to the very ' ' imperial-
ism " Mr. Bryan pretends to denounce.

This is the universal experience and testimony of
history. To encourage and stimulate these splitting-
up tendencies is more dangerous to the cause of human
freedom and progress than would be a deliberate
attempt by the president to overthrow the consti-
tution and make himself emperor. Any such wild un-
dertaking could only momentarily disturb the surface
of affairs ; it would fail utterly and the nation go for-
ward as before. But, to rend a community into antag-
onistic groups is to strike at the very basis of govern-
ment and of orderly social progress, undermining the
whole complex structure of organized human coopera-
tion, fashioned and fitted together all down through
the centuries by the painful toil and hard experience of
nations and races of men. "Review of the Month,"
GUNTON'S MAGAZINE, November, 1900.

HUMAN WASTE OF A GREAT CITY

WALTER L. HAWLEY

In the mill, the mine, the factory — in all mechanism
for creation and construction, there is a percentage of
waste, which means loss in the general economy of the
business. One of the chief purposes of engineering skill,
scientific knowledge and inventive genius, as the three
are applied in practical affairs, is to reduce this waste,
the loss of raw material in process of manufacture, to a
minimum. In almost every case the percentage of
profit upon investment is very largely determined by
the extent of the reduction of waste.

In every great city — and cities are giant mills with
humanity for raw material, yielding product of mental
and material progress — there is a percentage of waste —
of loss that may be reduced, but whatever is marred by
defective machinery cannot be replaced. This loss is a
loss of flesh and blood, of brain and brawn, and the
vast machinery, that is a city, moves fast or slow as the
percentage of waste is low or high.

Concealed behind obscure items in municipal bud-
gets, or half revealed in the light of special reports and
investigations, there is in every great city a steady drain
into the black abyss of decay from this stream of
human waste that by the same process exhausts and
pollutes the fountain of vitality. The budget items
that mark the source and progress of the waste are
labeled "public charity." The reports — mere masses
of plausible excuses that conceal the danger and min-
imize the evil— are the records of mistaken philanthropy,
the self -praising history of well meant private charity,
often ill-advised, almost always unfortunate in results.

The saddest and most serious feature of the record

414

HUMAN WASTE OF A GREAT CITY 415

of human waste in a great city is that this waste is not
of the old, the worn or battered units in the mass of
humanity, but of the young, whose brains and hands
should in another generation be added dividends of
mental and material progress. There has grown up in
every great American city a combined system of public
and private charity which undertakes to provide food
and shelter, guardianship and some measure of mental,
moral and religious training for homeless children and
for other children who, in the judgment of some person
or power, will be better off if removed from such homes
as they have. The humane intention back of this system
is beyond question or criticism, but the system itself is
growing into a fad and a folly that is steadily swelling
the stream of human waste, crushing vitality and am-
bition out of the atoms that are to make a considerable
portion of the progress or decay of the future.

It is entirely proper for a municipality to join
hands with private charity to rescue the flotsam of in-
fant humanity in danger of total destruction by the on-
rushing forces of life, struggling always for advantage
in a great city, but the burden of that duty once assumed
should not be put aside at the doors of walled institu-
tions that are the tombs of human independence of
thought and action. The operation of the present system
is very simple and the magic in the name of charity
hides the evil of it from the public. Children of all
ages who, properly, or by trick and deception, enter
the class of paupers or public charges, are gathered by
private or public agencies and then by order of a court
or through other prescribed legal form they are placed
in some private or semi- private institution, called
usually a "home" or "asylum." There they are main-
tained for a term of years. The cost of their main-
tenance is paid in part by the municipality and in part
by private charity. The proportion of the charge paid

416 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

by the taxpayers varies in different cities. In New
York it is high, in many cases the entire cost, while in
Boston, Philadelphia and many other cities the greater
share of the expense is, borne by private individuals.
These institutions are almost invariably owned and con-
trolled by private societies or religious orders. With
the actual management of the children committed to
them, the mental, physical and religious training of the
inmates, the civil authorities have nothing to do.

This system is so simple and seems so perfect, the
moral character of such institutions, as a rule, so high,
that the state has been quite content with a casual in-
spection to see that its wards were properly fed and
clothed. It is quite satisfactory to civil pride and civil
authority in the great cities to feel that no child can
long remain hungry or homeless, and municipal states-
manship, satisfied with its philanthropy and charity,
does not turn aside from problems of politics long
enough to ask, "What is the future of those children?"
But the time is coming when that question must be
asked and answered. The drain upon the fountain of
youth and vitality, the swelling stream of human waste,
cannot be permitted to go on forever.

Neither criticism nor condemnation of the institu-
tions referred to is intended, in fact the majority of
them are worthy of praise. They are the best solution,
or rather the safest compromise with the greater prob-
lem of human reclamation, that has yet been devised,
but their success should be accepted as a guarantee that
something better can be done. The evil of the system
is, stated briefly and bluntly, that children reared in
such institutions are thereby unfitted for intelligent or
useful citizenship. There may be isolated exceptions,
of course, but the great mass of the children coming
out of these homes and asylums at the average age of
sixteen years are unfit, mentally and physically, to be-

HUMAN WASTE O* A GREAT CITY 417

come good citizens or to serve any useful purpose in
life. The great problem of the system is, "How long
can civilization go on subsidizing its own decay?"

This well-meant attempt at saving the flotsam of
youthful humanity in great cities is new, and also pe-
culiar to American municipalities. It has unquestion-
ably been a long step forward towards a correct solu-
tion of the sad and serious problem. Not so long ago
there were only two places open to the infant waif of
the street, the almshouse and potter's field. In the first
place he was an unwelcome and expensive problem ;
in the other, an atom of dust crushed under the heel of
selfish and sordid material progress, where the triumph
of the strong was called the march of civilization. The
success, so called, of the splendid institutions that have
grown up under this system, and the great work for
mental, moral and physical salvation accomplished by
the many noble men and women who have cheerfully
devoted their lives to the task, are merely convincing
witnesses that the great problem can and will be
solved.

No intelligent constructive statesmanship will
attempt to defend the proposition that a state or a
municipality could go on forever taking even a small
percentage of its child population from year to year,
rearing and educating that percentage only to turn out
in the end paupers, thieves, fallen women, physical
weaklings and parasites on progress and industry.
That is exactly what the large cities of America are
doing through the present system of crowding depend-
ent children into semi-public institutions to grow like
weeds in the shadow of dead walls, and walk drooping
and dwarfed, with halting steps from the cradle to the
grave.

It may be said by those who would defend the
present condition, rather than seek to improve it, that

418 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

there are not enough of these children ever to exercise
any appreciable influence on society at large. There
are to-day more than 20,000 of them in the institutions
of New York city alone. That is the average daily
census and the number is increasing. A stream of
human waste pouring into society at the rate of 20,000
a year, youths of both sexes who are unfit to take up
the struggle of life, may in time threaten the founda.
tions of law and order. It is no fictitious problem and
it is one that must be solved.

The sweeping charge that the mass of children
reared in these institutions are incapable of becoming
good citizens may call forth angry and violent protest
and denial. The charge is not intended to reflect upon
the good women and men who give their lives to the
work of such homes. They are doing the best they
can, and it is not their fault that the children leaving
the institutions have no ambition and are ignorant of
that practical knowledge of the world without which
they cannot hope to succeed in the fierce struggle for
existence. The fault is with the system, not with those
who administer it.

The life, the routine, the discipline in such places,
no matter how well regulated, will quickly destroy all
trace of originality in a child. The regular tramp of
marching in file or column is not the step of independ-
ence. The clang of a gong, the ringing of a bell, is
not the music that stirs the heart and quickens the
pulse beats. At best the children so crowded together
and dulled become mere human machines. They
cease to think for themselves and act only at the word
of command. Where everything is done by machinery,
and the reason for it all is never explained, the spirit
of self-reliance dies in the child from inaction. The
average of the moral tone of the inmates will quickly
sink to the level of the worst child. Knowledge of

igoi.] HUMAN WASTE OF A GREAT CITY 419

secret and dangerous vices will spread through classes
as quickly as water sinks through shifting sands.

In the city of New York physicians are finding a
rapid increase in youthful insanity, and early deaths
due to vices or habits acquired by boys and girls in
semi-public institutions. Persons and societies inter-
ested in the work of these homes and asylums provide
for the public abundant reports of special cases where
boys and girls sent to farms in the West, or provided
with homes and employment elsewhere, have grown
into respectable and probably useful men and women.
But the other side of the record has not been so well
kept. Yet it might serve a purpose, more useful in the
end, if the public and municipal officers could be pro-
vided with exact figures showing the death rate, the
percentage of criminals, drunkards, permanent paupers
and the spread of evil influences among the entire out-
put of these institutions. There is abundant evidence
that such a record would show a condition alarming, if
not appalling.

Of course it is true that the children sent to these
institutions come chiefly from the lower classes of soci-
ety. Some of them may inherit weak minds and bodies
as well as criminal instincts, but in such cases the wise
policy of reclamation would be to place them in an en-
vironment where such inherited imperfections might be
overcome, not where the very nature of the surround-
ings tend to develop such tendencies. Four walls and
a roof do not make a home, and a poor home is better
for a child than a life regulated by time bells and fed
by machinery. The family is the unit of civilization,
and the state should preserve it rather than destroy it.
Homes and families should never, except in extraordi-
nary cases of cruelty or neglect, be broken up to feed
orphan asylums and children's " homes," and through
them the stream of human waste.

420 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November ^

The remedy for the present deplorable system is
simple, but at the outset it must in some cases be ap-
plied with force and without sentiment. The first step
for the municipality is to put in motion strong and
effective machinery for keeping children out of institu-
tions instead of helping them to get in. Let some sun-
light and fresh air into the homes of the poor and the
dark tenement quarters. Take a map of the city of
New York or any other large city and dot the localities
from which come the pauper, orphaned and abandoned
children that now feed the stream of human waste, and
the sunless, unsanitary tenement quarters would quickly
be blackened over, while few spots would appear where
there is plenty of light and pure air.

Well-meaning but misguided persons who are
always willing to take children from their parents
should be restrained with a firm hand. Among the
very poor and ignorant in foreign countries there is a
widespread belief that if they can get to America they
will not have to support their children. The city of
New York has been in the past greatly imposed on by
foreign born residents who would deliberately abandon
their children to public care. The matter has been to
some extent regulated, but even now many parents who
are able to care for their offspring seek again and again
to have them placed in public or private institutions.
In some cases the managers of private or semi-private
charity have been imposed upon and apparently made
no great effort to prevent the fraud.

When the municipality is compelled to provide for
the maintenance as well as the education of children, it
should certainly have the power and ought to possess
the wisdom to make them good citizens, strong and
intelligent, independent and patriotic. There can be
no other reward, no greater return upon the invest-
ment. It is better humanity, better economic policy

i90i.] HUMAN WASTE OF A GREAT CITY 421

and better politics to pay a little more and make good
citizens and useful ones of public charges than to evade
a part of the responsibility and by so doing swell the
ranks of the criminal, the vicious, the idle, and the
mental and physical wrecks. The city cannot and
should not attempt to substitute another kind of institu-
tion, but in many cases by drastic measures, or judi-
cious aid, it could preserve homes, save parents and
children together, making both better citizens in the
end.

The exacting conditions of life in a large city make
it hard for the weak. Strong arms and active brains
are the instruments of individual success and collective
progress. The weak and the idle will be pushed aside
or trampled under foot. The strong and active
alone survive. It is the law of nature working in a
crowded court room. There will always be weaklings
and failures, the collection forming a mass of human
waste that must be carried as a burden by those who
are strong. But mistaken charity and faulty statesman-
ship should not go on forever, adding every year hun-
dreds or thousands of children and youth to that bur-
den. No great municipality can go on indefinitely,
carelessly, or negligently, tapping the fountain of youth
for human vitality to swell the wasting streams of
social decay.

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS*

J. S. CRAWFORD
II.

I was in London when the new imperial parliament
— elected last October — met the first time. It was the
first week in December and everybody at the clubs,
hotels, alehouses and other public places steadily talked
about the opening. It appears that this formality is
very attractive to an Englishman, and I soon found
that all have a keen relish for public affairs. There
had just been an exciting campaign. The South African
policy of the ministry had been attacked. The strong-
est leaders of the liberal party had been returned to
parliamentary seats, and the minority might be perilous
to the Salisbury government. In addition to this a
Canadian regiment was in London en route home from
the Transvaal. A special service for these riflemen was
rendered in Westminster Abbey and the colonial troops
were highly praised from the pulpit in St. Paul's.
Moreover, these troops were received with royal sanc-
tions and tendered public honors on every hand. The
presence of soldiers always intensifies a dramatic situa-
tion. A distant war, debatable in its origin and mys-
terious in its conduct, attracting the critical attention
of the whole world, was involved. Now, who would
be speaker of the house of commons? What would be
the tenor of the queen's speech? Who would the oppo-
sition advance to lead in the debate? How would the
government meet the issues framed by an aggressive
opposition? — questions always interesting, perhaps
never more so than at the opening of this extra session
of a new parliament.

* Concluded from the October number of GUNTON'S MAGAZINE.

422

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 428

I had no difficulty in getting a ticket of admission.
These tickets are furnished by our ambassador resident
in London, though he is reluctant about giving out
more than two for any one day.

The river Thames flows through the City of Lon-
don from west to east. After it has gone about one-
third of its general course through the city it makes a
bold sweep to the north. Abutting on the west bank
of this curve in the river is the borough of Westmin-
ster. This borough contains a population of perhaps
60,000. Its most historic building is the Abbey. St.
Paul's Cathedral is further to the east. To distinguish
these two great churches in a geographic way, one is
called Westminster and the other Eastminster. Not
far from Westminster Abbey is Buckingham Palace,
which belongs to the crown. Nearby is Marlborough
House, in which lived the Prince of Wales until he
ascended the throne as Edward VII. Close by, too, is
the mansion of the Duke of York and the homes of
other princes of the blood. Besides this crown property
there are the mansions of many English nobles in
Westminster, and among them is the house of the Duke
of Marlborough, who married Consuelo Vanderbilt.
Then there is Green Park, St. James Park, Charing
Cross, Summerset House, Wellington Barracks, Scot-
land Yard, the Whitehall banqueting house, in which
Charles the First was beheaded, and Trafalgar Square,
in which stands a noble monument to a noble man, the
one-armed Nelson. Along the tidal river is the Thames
embankment, that finest driveway of all England, and
here too may be seen another of Cleopatra's needles.
The topography of this borough is indeed beautiful.
The soil is rich and the grass grows luxuriantly, while
lawn-trees looking dark and green, perhaps a little
somber, but making a regional aspect in perfect keep-
ing with this serene and sober part of London.

424 G UNTON'S MA GAZINE [November,

Parliament meets in what is called the Palace
of Westminster. This palace is a rectangle 300
feet wide by 900 feet long. It stands on that section
of the river which flows to the north and one side
wall appears to rise out of the water. However,
it does not, for here is where members of parliament
give their celebrated teas on the terrace, and from
which they must make the run in two minutes to
their chamber when electrical bells all over the palace
announce a call to vote. The corner stone was
laid in 1840, and the structure cost $20,000,000. It
contains 1,000 apartments, 100 stairways and two miles
of hallway. At the south end is the royal entrance
surmounted by a broad square tower 340 feet high ; at
the north end is the clock tower, in which is Big Ben, a
clock which strikes the hours on a bell weighing eight
tons, and I was told that the dials are thirty feet across.
There is a tower at each corner, a central tower and a
large number of spires rising from the sidewalls. The
roof is so nearly flat that it can hardly be seen from the
ground. This building appears to be three stories high
and its general aspect is simple, massive, noble and
majestic. I was told that the stone was brought from
Yorkshire, and much to the regret of Englishmen is
decaying, so that the outer decoration is losing its sharp
and well-defined character. Westminster Abbey stands
to the west, a few hundred yards from the river. Its
elevations harmonize with that of the parliament house
though its longitudinal line runs in the opposite direc-
tion.

The entrance to either house of parliament is at
the middle of the west side. You pass Westminster
Hall to the left with its wonderful roof-plan executed
in wood. You go through St. Stephen's Hall, once
used as the house of commons, in which are now twelve
white marbles of English statesmen, the best statues I

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 425

ever saw. I lingered before Burke and Chatham, the
great parliamentary leaders of another day and won-
dered if the time would come when a pilgrim from the
Transvaal would loiter in front of a chiseled monument
to Rosebery or Labouchere, feeling in his heart the same
thoughts I felt. From St. Stephen's Hall you pass to
central hall, which is under the central tower of the great
building. This is the lobby of both houses of parlia-
ment. To the left or north is the corridor to the house
of commons, to the right is the corridor to the house of
lords, both running the long way of the building. The
house of commons meets usually at 3 145 o'clock, and
the house of lords at 5 o'clock. Both adjourn at 12
midnight.

I was early, and finding a seat in the lobby soon
became interested in watching the peers of the realm
and the members of the other house passing about
saluting their friends out of the committee rooms and
arranging for the great debate. I was impressed with
the sober earnestness and matter-of-fact way of these
British law-makers. All wore snow white linen, black
ties, long top-coats, newly ironed tile hats, thick soled
and highly polished boots. Every one carried a silk
umbrella. The only exception to all of this was Mr.
Keir Hardie, an independent member elected from a
Wales borough ; he wore a soft shirt with a flaming red
tie and a soft hat. These members of parliament are a
tall, rotund, robust lot of men, self-contained, with a
sort of reserved, pugnacious air which bespeaks a con-
sciousness of superiority. They have square jaws and
full cheeks, while surprising little tufts of whiskers are
not rare. I was surprised at the large number of young
men among them. But the young men lack the char-
acter face of British statesmen. It takes years to de-
velop that Scotch or English type of face so pro-
nounced, realistic and unforgetable. I was surprised

436 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [November,

to see how nearly the Irish peer resembles the British
nobleman. Then, too, the dialects of these men inter-
ested me. Some of them were as difficult to under-
stand as Frenchmen. The Cornishman, always in dead
earnest and always oblivious to his own humor, is irre-
sistible.

As I sat in the house of lords waiting for the open-
ing ceremonial, imagine my surprise to find that under
my very eyes it had been open ten minutes and was
awaiting the " order of the day." There sat the peers
with their hats on and there was their lord chancellor
seated on the wool- sack. All it requires to open the
house of lords is the presence of three peers and the
chancellor. A sergeant-at-arms places the mace on the
table. The mace is a rod of gold no less than four
feet in length, massive and opulent. If a bishop is
present he kneels and offers prayer. But there is no
ceremony, no journal is read, no motion is made ; there
is not even the sound of a gavel, and heads are not
uncovered.

The usher who carries orders from the peers to the
commons is called the gentleman usher of the black
rod, and never was a bandmaster more pompously uni-
formed than black rod. His bear-skin cap is at least
two feet high and he carries a long sword. The day I
was there, December 6, he summoned the commons to
appear at the bar of the house of lords and hear the
queen's speech. Presently that great body of gentle-
men appeared — it was then that I discovered that the
house of lords had been opened in ample form. In the
meantime the lord chancellor had vacated his seat on
the wool-sack and with four other lord commissioners
took his place on a bench in front of the throne. The
Duke of Marlborough was one of these commissioners.
The lord chancellor without a single introductory re-
mark then read Her Majesty's most gracious speech :

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 427

"My Lords and Gentlemen: It has become neces-
sary to make further provisions for the expense in-
curred by the operation of my armies in South Africa
and China. I have summoned you to hold a special
session in order that you may give your sanction to the
enactment required for this purpose. I will not enter
upon any other public matters requiring your attention
until the ordinary meeting of parliament in the
spring.''

The Earl of Lathom, in the full uniform of the
royal horse guards, then moved a reply thanking the
queen for her speech. A deputy lieutenant in uniform
then seconded this motion and it was before the house
without even a statement from the chair. The lord
chancellor then resumed the wool-sack, and the debate
began at once. Lord Kimberly rose on the liberal side
and in the most courteous and diplomatic language dis-
cussed the policy of the government in dissolving par-
liament, sending out commissions for a new election,
and for its severity in conducting the South African
war. The manner of the noble earl was composed and
dignified, while his voice was soft and his deli very con-
versational and serene. In the meantime the Prince of
Wales and the Duke of York came in and subscribed to
the oath. Then the Marquis of Salisbury took the floor
and began his reply. His language was as elegant as
an essay, and his delivery very mild, with now and
then a suggestion of banter. But I was surprised at
his composure and dispassionate manner. He certainly
is a man of literary accomplishment. He shrewdly ap-
propriated the ground and concessions of Lord Kimber-
ly and finally made it appear that the issue between
them had vanished.

Lord Rosebery is a different kind of man. His
style is much like the better class of American con-
gressmen. His voice rises and falls with his periods,

428 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [November

and has the inflection of a trained elocutionist. He ij
alert and quick to discover a weakness in his opponent
His language is voluble, precise and bookish. But then
is a suggestion of comedy in what he says, and a lad
of seriousness in the way he says it. You feel that he
is thinking of the gallery. You feel, too, that he hac
the ir-illery in mind when he arranged his precise dress
ami directed the barber how to cut that smart sugges-
tion of a Piccadilly whisker. I regard Earl Rosebery as
the greatest leader of the liberals in the house of lords;
he is subtle, clever, eloquent, plausible and persuasive.
He certainly comes near filling the public eye. Yet he
is no match for Salisbury, premier and head of the con-
servative government. Lord Salisbury deals with hard
facts in a plain way, masterful, earnest and reliant.
Rosebery toys with your heart. Salisbury appeals tc
your head, and in the long run the intellect must con-
trol the emotion. When the debate was all over I ad-
mired Rosebery, respected Salisbury. Both are great
men — Rosebery great in knowing how, Salisbury
greater in knowing what to do. Then the debate closed
for the day with a careful speech from the Duke of
Devonshire. It is a custom of the house of lords when
the chancellor so wills to repair to the dining-room for
a chop — of course it is a mutton chop. All this is done
with no formality or motion ; the lord chancellor
simply walks out and the house is at ease.

The debate on the queen's speech was opened in
the house of commons by Labouchere, an old member
from Northampton, and a distinguished leader on the
liberal side. He went over the whole ground of the
opposition : The time of the dissolution, the time of
the election, the conduct of the campaign, the burning
of farms in the Transvaal, and the failure of the gov-
ernment to announce a liberal policy in South Africa.

Following Labouchere, Mr. Emmott, a young lib-

I90i.] TWO DA YS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 420

eral from Oldham, moved to amend the reply to the
queen's speech by inserting a declaration of policy
toward the Boers. This was approved in an eloquent
and brilliant speech by another young liberal, Mr.
Trevelyan of York. These three speakers seemed to
exhaust the argument of the liberals. That whole side
was animated, aggressive and confident. Every seat in
the house was full. There sat the distinguished Sir
William Vernon Harcourt; on the same bench with
him were Henry Campbell-Bannerman, John Morley,
John Burns, Keir Hardie and Mr. Asquith, every one
anxious to reinforce what had been said and amplify
the argument. There too was Michael Hicks Beach,
while Arthur Balfour, one of the brightest men in the
cabinet, sat with him on the treasury bench.

It was a critical moment for the government. The
colonial secretary, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, arose to
reply. He is a small man with light hair and nearly
smooth face ; he is, in dress and demeanor, not unlike
a thrifty New England merchant. The great house
grew still. All eyes centered on the speaker. All
minds wondered how he would meet the vast accumula-
tion of facts and arguments collected, arranged and
marshalled by the opposition. He spoke low and never
smiled. He denied nothing. He evaded nothing. He
analyzed everything. As he proceeded he showed in
what the two sides agreed. As is always the case this
eliminated a major part of the controverted ground and
simplified the remainder. Next he admitted that there
was room for a difference of opinion on some of the
questions put in issue. Finally on the real essentials
of the debate so vast was the information he presented
and so varied were the arguments which he adduced
that the opposition was overwhelmed. He closed with
these words :

1 ' Our view is that there must be three stages — the

430 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

pacification, I will not say the absolute and complete
pacification, but a much greater pacification of the
country than has yet taken place; then must come
crown colony government, which really means civil as
opposed to military administration ; and only after that
has been tried can self-government be adopted.

' ' In further pursuance of this policy we lay it down
as our duty, wherever we can with safety to the states
and with proper consideration to the population, to ap-
point natives to all posts in the administration.

" We recognize, as far as the great majority of the
Boers are concerned, that they have carried on war
with great distinction, and have shown the greatest con-
sideration for the wounded and prisoners who have
fallen into their hands. (Opposition cheers.) There
have been exceptions. I do not want to dwell upon
them, but, speaking of the great mass, we do not at all
complain of the way in which they have carried on this
war. They are brave foes, and they should be treated
as brave foes ; and it is in that spirit that we should
treat with them.''

Following this speech of Mr. Chamberlain Sir
Henry Campbell- Bannerman, the most aggressive lib-
eral in the house, arose, and in the course of a power-
ful speech said: " If my honorable friends are willing
to withdraw the amendment I shall be very glad if the
house will permit them to do so."

Chamberlain had been cool. He had waited just
long enough. By his tactics the argument of the op-
position was disclosed. His rejoinder and the attack of
the opposition went to the country together in the same
newspapers. He had official information with which
to meet this attack. He did meet it. The amendment
was withdrawn — the colonial secretary stood, that
night, the master of parliament.

Proceedings in our American and state legislative

1901.] TWO DA YS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 43

bodies are recorded in such a way as to disclose to a re-
markable degree the individual record of members.
Neither the British parliament nor the French chamber
of deputies demand a call of the ayes and noes on so
many questions as the American congress. In the
British parliament when the house divides on a propo-
sition those members who form the affirmative pass into
a chamber on the right, and those who form the nega-
tive pass into a similar chamber on the left. Tellers
with printed lists check off the names of voters and re-
port the footings to the speaker. A motion in the
house of lords requires no second. When the vote is
taken viva voce the affirmative cries content, the nega-
tive, non content.

In the French chamber the question is taken by
ballot, the color of the ticket indicates the choice of the
voter. Proxies vote for absent members. These
ballots are collected in large silver vases and are can-
vassed by half a dozen clerks, who soon report to the
president. Nor do I understand that members of par-
liament or the French deputies habitually resort to
dilatory tactics and filibustering. They employ about
the same privileged questions that we do, though the
adoption of the " previous question " operates to kill a
measure and to "pass to the order of the day '' has the
effect of an " indefinite postponement. " ' ' Closure, " of
which we heard so much in connection with the recent
refusal of Irish members to retire to the voting cham-
bers, is a summary proceeding to close debate, bring
the issue to a vote and report the result of the vote
to the house as soon as the speaker resumes the chair
and the committee of the whole is dissolved. Members
of both these foreign legislative bodies enjoy about the
same personal privileges as members of congress ; that
is, freedom from arrest, immunity from question in
debate, etc. Members of parliament serve without pay,

433 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

though the speaker of the house of commons gets a
large salary. This seat is now filled by Mr. Gully of
Carlisle. I was surprised to know that before the ques-
tion was taken on a motion, he once at least answered
the direct inquiry as to what his ruling would be in a
certain contingency. I never knew that to be done in
a deliberative assembly in the United States. The lord
chancellor I think is associated with Lord Chief Justice
Alverson. Each of these presiding officers wears a
peer's robe and a full bottomed gray wig. Steel pens
and blotting-pads are not used in either house of par-
liament, but quills and drying-powders conspire to
maintain the ancient dignities.

Speakers of both houses of parliament are liberally
cheered by cries of "hear! hear! " In the chamber of
deputies applause is expressed by the words "bravo,
bravo! " French legislators are quick and demonstra-
tive. They move around a great deal. Every time
they meet they salute each other and they shake hands
frequently. They bow and make their adieux with
great dignity and inborn courtesy. English law-
makers on the other hand sit quietly on the benches
absorbed in thought, paying little attention to what is
going on around them. In both parliaments all mem-
bers have the right to introduce bills by leave, but the
calendars do not show so large a volume of attempted
legislation as comes before congress. A bill on its
passage takes a course similar to that in American
legislative bodies.

In the house of lords there are 468 members, in
the commons, 670 members. Excluding lords temporal
and lords spiritual, there are two classes of the former,
peers of the realm and lords of parliament. The first
class inherit their seats, the second class are appointed
by the crown. The house of lords still retains its judi-
cial prerogatives. The commons are elected for a term

TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 4:;a

of seven years. The electors have no property qualifi-
cation. When parliament is dissolved by order of the
crown, or when its term expires, a royal commission
directs the election of a new house of commons. To
get candidates in the field there is no party caucus or
nomination, simply a certificate signed by ten electors
and filed with the sheriff of the borough. Within lim-
its the sheriff fixes the date of the election so that it
may vary a week in the different boroughs throughout
the country. Candidates take the stump and the speak-
ing part of a campaign is similar to ours, though the
lords are not expected to participate. A candidate is
allowed to do no treating and must file a detailed
statement of his campaign expenses. The sheriff and
appointed officers oversee the election and the canvass
of the votes, and they make up the returns. The
sheriff issues the certificate of election.

The chambers in which these two great wings of
the imperial parliament meet are much alike. The
house of lords is 100 feet long, the house of commons
is a little less. Each is 45 feet wide, and I suppose the
ceilings are 50 feet from the floor. Half way up is a
narrow sectional gallery running entirely around the
chamber. Part of this gallery is for strangers, part for
prominent visitors and part for newspaper reporters.
Still higher up at one end of the house of commons is a
gallery with a wire screen in front. Etiquette will not
allow ladies to enter the chamber when the commons
are in session, but they may view proceedings through
this wire screen. The lords are not so shabby in the
treatment of women, for they admit them to the peers'
gallery and even to the floor the day on which the
queen's speech is read. I regarded myself as lucky to
be there that day, when the long gallery rapidly filled
with the royal ladies of England, clad in scarlet and
purple ; and when the wives and daughters of the

434 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

aristocrats of this great nation were ushered to seats on
the floor of the house — a privilege prized by the nobles
and gentry above all other distinctions.

In both houses the members sit on benches heavily
upholstered with leather on the seat and back. There
are no individual desks for writing. These seats are
in rows along each side and across the end opposite the
presiding officer. There are five rows of these benches
at each side. They face each other and rise like the
seats in an amphitheater. On the right the benches
are occupied by the adherents of the government. On
the left sit the opposition. At the end, or " under the
gangway," sit the independents. On the space between
the two opposing sides are the tables of the clerks.
New members are expected to take the upper seats,
and as they advance in parliamentary experience they
advance toward the front. In consequence of this cus-
tom the government ministers occupy the front row on
the right. In the commons this is called the treasury
bench. If their policy should not be sustained by the
electors they are expected to resign and a prominent
-member of the opposition will be requested by the
crown to form a new ministry. It is in this way the
electors rule the government through the house of
commons. Both chambers are dark, heavy, rich and
impressive in their appointments. They are lighted
artificially through glass ceilings. Both houses are
opulent in colored glass, heavy panels, statues and
historic frescoes. The balustrade which defines the
gallery is extremely elaborate and rich in antique de-
signs. The carpets, draperies and upholsteries in the
house of commons are dark ; in the house of lords they
are scarlet — this is to signify royalty. Indeed, the
house of lords is a throne room, and here, too, is the
celebrated wool-sack.

The throne is at the south end of the house of

I90I.J TWO DAYS IN TWO PARLIAMENTS 485

lords and is on a platform denned by three steps. The
throne is a great chair with arms and a high back fin-
ished with gothic arch and dentates. The frame work
seems to be carved oak, while the upholstery is scarlet
trimmed with gold. On either side is a chair for the
attendants of the crown. In front of the throne are
two bronze columns which support beautifu.l chande-
liers. It was from this throne that Edward VII. read
his speech to parliament. Many years had elapsed
since king, lords and commons had met in such an ex-
alted assembly. The royal crowns of England are kept
in Wakefield tower in the Tower of London. It is in-
teresting to know that among the many newspaper
articles recently published in this country concerning
the Prince of Wales there were cuts of the prince's
crown. All these cuts showed a rich embellishment of
gems and jewels. The truth is that the prince's crown
is plain and without a single gem.

Just in front of the throne is the wool-sack. I was
interested in this ancient and honorable seat of the lord
chancellors. At the time of Queen Elizabeth parlia-
ment passed an act inhibiting the exportation of wool,
an offense called "owling." This is a stage of protec-
tion which the United States never reached, and it
marks the beginning of English supremacy in the in-
dustrial arts. The wool-sack commemorates this
policy. It is a bag of wool with a flat top, about eight
feet square, covered with a red cloth, on which the lord
chancellor sits while presiding over the deliberations of
the house of lords. It has neither back nor arms, and
is so high that the feet of the distinguished officer
scarcely touch the floor.

THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF LITERATURE

LEON MEAD

The past twenty years or more have been pre-
eminently a transitional epoch, though we are still far
away from the settled standards into which ultimately
our purely national literature will be moulded. The
commercial spirit of the age has been so dominant as
to overshadow all forms of art. Genuine culture has
not been pursued for its own sake among the masses,
nor for the intrinsic pleasure of its quest, such as is
felt in an inferior physical way by the hunter who
chases his quarry to cover.

But it is not the less evident that with the spread
of education our creative literature has kept more than
an even pace ; it has kept in advance. With accurate
and shrewd discernment, Mr. Edmund Clarence Sted-
man has pointed out some of the many restrictions by
which our colonial writers were hampered. The in--
tellectual output of that period was principally confined
to political themes and topics concerning the formation
of the republic.

This distinguished critic reminds us that the earli-
est efforts in literature on this side of the Atlantic did
not emanate from a savage or barbarous people, but
rather from colonists, who left an old-world civilization,
and who were more or less familiar with the literature
of the mother country. They were too much occupied
with the struggle for existence, with the making of
homes and the development of a government, to accom-
plish anything notable in intellectual creation. They
had no national retrospect or perspective; nor could
they calmly appreciate the glamour of romance that
surrounded the North American Indian, whom circum-

436

THE PR A CTJCAL SIDE OF LITER A TURE 437

stances compelled them to fight to the death. In short,
they were engaged in making history, not in writing it.

In subsequent martial times the poetic spirit was
not assertive. It is almost a cause for surprise that any
descendants of certain of the first settlers in America
should have blossomed into celebrated poets. The
Puritan stock was averse to nearly all poetry, save the
Psalms of David and the orthodox hymns. As for the
plethoric Dutch burghers, their chief ambition was the
acquisition of riches, and whenever they displayed any
artistic genius it was not in the literary line. Holland,
perhaps, has produced fewer great poets and men of
letters than any country in the world having an equally
advanced civilization.

What a contrast to the literary conditions of to-day !
The burning questions that agitate the laboring classes,
the conflicting elements in American society, the alarm-
ing growth of municipal oligarchy, the giant corpora-
tions, these and many other vital issues challenge the
deepest attention of our men and women of letters.
The clap trap sensationalist has had his day. The
cheap blood-and-thunder story papers are doomed.
The advocates of realism who do not dip their pens in
prurience or unsightly gore are welcome. A warmer
reception still awaits the novelist who carries out a
lofty purpose in his work. He has a mission of sublime
import to achieve. Without injury to his idealism may
he cope with the social, political and moral problems
that confront him. Stories of what the Germans term
the tendenz class will be greeted with enthusiasm by
appreciative minds.

There is no doubt but that the meager monetary
rewards of literary labor, during the first half of the
nineteenth century, frightened many a mute inglorious
Milton away from the thorny path of belles-lettres.
Even in Edgar Allen Poe's day, literature, as a means

438 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [November,

of livelihood, was lamentably precarious. Charles
Lamb designated it as a very good cane, but a miser-
able crutch. It was not considered a profession by
itself, like law, medicine and theology in this country.
Writers were few who did not have some vopation
other than literature on which they depended for their
support. The idea of making authorship a trade or
business was scouted. And to this day there are people
who contend that literature should not be prostituted
to a commercial plane, and that no author should allow
money to be the incentive of his toil.

If the argument against authorship as a business
be urged on the ground that literature is thus rendered
banal or meretricious, I have no sympathy with it at all.
For it is everywhere a conspicuous fact that the well-
trained, well-paid writers of the present time are doing
work which, in point of technical excellence, speaking
generally, was never reached by their less favored pre-
decessors. Nor are the examples few where master-
pieces have been inspired by the hope or promise of
money. Dire necessity has stimulated many a stag-
nant brain to marvelous performance.

The editors of to-day are constantly on the lookout
for budding genius, and bright, strong manifestations
of it. One veteran monarch of the sanctum — and others
of his honored station entertain a kindred solicitude —
said some time ago that he never opened his morning
mail without a devout hope that he would find a lustrous
literary pearl among the usual assortment of common
pebbles. The gradual demand for a higher grade of
reading matter has quickened competition among both
magazines and their contributors.

It is not enough nowadays that articles be broadly
recondite and polished ; when the subject calls for it
they must be scientifically thorough. In consequence,
the horizon of the " free lance " is necessarily narrow-

THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF LITERATURE 489

ing as the specialists appear to foreclose, as it were,
the mental mortgages they hold on the intellectual
domain. The eclectic genius is being crowded to the
wall. The editor generally knows where to put his
finger on the right man to do a certain thing better
than it can be done by anyone else. Naturally he
reposes more confidence in the opinions of a man who
has devoted his life to a certain branch of science or of
art, and has become an authority in that line, than he
does in those of a man who, at best, possesses but a
superficial knowledge of the subject.

The wide circulation and success of technical and
so-called trade journals indicate to what extent special-
ization has become indispensable in the United States.
Yet the literary publications are scarcely affected by
this fact. Home culture is dependent in no small de-
gree on current literature, and the favorite magazine is
not stopped because the head of the house prefers what
he is pleased to term more solid reading.

I have little patience with the traditional notion
that a literary man is necessarily not a good business
man. In our own day we see men who combine both
the literary and business faculty ; but it is amusing to
observe the contempt which so many solid men of busi-
ness show toward "literary fellers" and scribblers.
These same men have aesthetic faculties which they
keep smothered. They are so fearful of being accused
of having any sentiment. Yet unconsciously they act
from sentimental motives in nine-tenths of their com-
mercial transactions. Sentiment rules the world, and
always has and always will. On the other hand, there
are thousands of men who devote themselves to art,
music, literature and the like, in whom the commercial
sense is merely an undeveloped germ. But this does
not prove that if they had been trained in commercial
life like the average clerk they might not have been

440 G UN TON 'S MA GA ZINE [November,

superior to the rank and file of business men, who have
no creative or artistic talent.

It is because artists persist in thinking that they
are not business people that others derive the same
opinion and impose on them whenever a bargain is to
be driven. Scarcely admirable are such affectations of
weakness on the part of men with brains that can pro-
duce work which moves the world. Mind you, I do
not mean to insinuate that the truly cultivated man of
business sneers at his literary brother ; he has too much
respect for brains to do that. I refer to the narrow-
gauged and mercenary man whose every opinion is
jaundiced by gold and his thoughts about it.

Somebody has said, "Everyman has his price."
I doubt if this be true of all men — at least I should
shrink from believing it. But of one class of men —
literary men who are famous — this fact is well known
among editors and publishers. These favored mortals
are able to sell all they produce at so much per word,
whether the latter be a little one like "if," or a long
one like ' ' incomprehensibility. " One cent a word is the
usual rate paid by the Harpers and other leading firms
for ordinary matter. When a fellow can command two
cents a word, he may console himself that he is getting
on swimmingly.

Some years ago it was said that such men as
Brander Matthews, Richard Harding Davis and Frank
R. Stockton could easily place their work at five cents
a word, and sometimes more. That present Nestor of
American letters, William Dean Howells, is said to
charge twenty cents a word for his work. The late
Bill Nye, by his lectures and busy pen, made in the
neighborhood of $500 a week the year around for about
a dozen years. His was a case of ' ' laugh and the world
aughs with you." Rudyard Kipling to-day receives
probably the highest prices for his work of any writer

igoi.] THE PR A CTICA L SIDE OF LITER A TURE 441

in the English language, and his annual income has been
estimated to be at least $50,000.

The reading of manuscripts is a calling by itself.
All the great publishers employ readers, who either
receive a salary or a certain amount for each manu-
script. It is customary for the readers to give an esti-
mate of the number of words in a manuscript, to fur-
nish a concise synopsis of the plot and to point out the
specific merits and demerits of construction, style, etc.
The reader has to bear in mind the special require-
ments of the firm that employs him, and the principal
question for him to decide is whether a given manu-
script is timely and possesses commercial value, etc.
When the report rendered is favorable to a manuscript,
the latter undergoes another reading by some one else,
and should the second report concur in all essential par-
ticulars with the first, the manuscript generally stands a
pretty fair show of being published, provided satisfactory
arrangements can be made with the author. But in
case the second reader renders an adverse decision, a
third reader is usually employed, and, of course, his
judgment must corroborate one or the other of his col-
leagues.

Publishers do not like to have it known who their
readers are, and they are particular to engage for this
exacting work persons who are reliable as well as thor-
oughly competent. Many readers perform their work
in the seclusion of their own homes, though some have
regular desks in the publishing houses. It requires
fully two days to read a manuscript of 100,000 words
and to prepare an intelligent report of it. Manuscripts
which are defective in minor details, but strong and
dramatic in plot, are usually recommended, for it is
comparatively easy to recast phrases and transpose ma-
terial, but a creditable and characteristic story is not
submitted every day. Very few manuscripts are there

442 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

which do not require more or less revising and editing.
Even the work of well-known writers frequently shows
errors, chiefly of haste and carelessness.

The lay reader perhaps cannot realize how many
thousands of pages of dreary gush and dry rot are being
continually sent to publishers for examination. Prob-
ably less than 1 5 per cent, of the literary matter sub-
mitted to any given firm of publishers passes muster.
In one year the present writer read over 150 MSS. for
a large New York publishing house. Of that number
only four were found which he could indorse without
reservation, and two of these, singularly enough, were
by entirely unknown authors. Some of the others were
of fair quality, but lacked in so many points as to be
unacceptable. The majority of them were the veriest
rubbish It is presumed that time and labor are ex-
pended on a story of say 150,000 words, even though it
prove to be hopelessly bad. Authors who write half
a dozen such narratives, each duly "declined with
thanks," ought to learn that writing is not their forte,
and go into some pursuit in which they can deal with
substance instead of shadow.

Of late years the newspapers, especially the Sunday
editions, and some of the magazines have invaded each
others' territory, and, so to speak, exchanged am-
munition. Certain monthlies have resorted to journal-
istic methods for the obvious purpose of booming their
circulation. They engage men of high official position
to deal with problems of the day that absorb public
attention. They furnish symposiums on topics often
of a frivolous nature, but which are supposed to be
welcome to a large clientele; and lastly, they discuss
recent happenings of importance to which belongs a
news interest. These are unmistakably journalistic
methods.

The establishment of newspaper syndicates has

IQOI.] THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF LITERATURE 443

placed within the reach of daily papers the cream of
new fiction and clever special articles, so that the mag-
azines are unable to monopolize the work of famous
authors, as in the past. The syndicate system is doubt-
less a benefit to the writer, the publisher and the pub-
lic. In the first place, the well-known author can
command a higher price for his work from a syndicate
than any individual publication is willing to pay him,
as a rule. The syndicate can afford to sell the right of
publication of a serial story to each newspaper for a
price that is merely nominal, as compared to the price
a magazine would be obliged to pay to obtain its
exclusive use.

It should be remembered that the same story is
syndicated to perhaps a hundred newspapers or more,
throughout the United States. For obvious reasons
the story is sold to but one newspaper in a given terri-
tory. Now, suppose the syndicate pays an author one
thousand dollars for a novel, and sells the right of its
publication to one hundred newspapers, each of which
pays the syndicate the modest sum of twenty dollars
for its use. According to these figures there is a three-
fold benefit accruing to the parties interested. The
syndicate makes, deducting the $1,000 paid the author
and the cost of furnishing the proofs, say $200, a profit
of $800; the author receives at least $500 more for his
story than a magazine would be likely to pay him ; be-
sides, his name appears simultaneously in one hundred
leading newspapers, thus presumably enhancing his
reputation, and certainly giving his work a conspicuous
opportunity to be read and admired. Moreover, the
author afterward may realize on the publication of the
story in book-form, if he retains the copyright.

Each of the one hundred newspapers has received
for twenty dollars a story which, if purchased direct
from the author, would have cost perhaps $500, not

444 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [November,

including, of course, the important item of type compo-
sition, which, however, it may be assumed would
involve the same expenditure for other matter. As a
business advantage the newspapers are glad of the
chance to publish, at a nominal cost, the work of the
best contemporaneous writers. Finally, the public is
also a gainer, in being afforded an early reading of
fiction of the first quality.

But it may be asked : Why may not the author just
as well make his own bargains with the newspapers
and pocket the profits that flow into the syndicate's cof-
fers ? He may, provided there be an active demand for
his productions and he possesses the requisite business
ability to transact his negotiations, which consume more
time than the busy author can spare from his exacting
occupation. The majority of recognized writers prefer
to be relieved of the cares and responsibilities attending
the routine work of the publisher.

The expediency of organizing protective associa-
tions among authors in this country is one that should
appeal to all men of letters who have at heart the best
welfare of their guild. The Society of American Au-
thors is making very creditable progress in this direc-
tion. American authors to-day are in greater need of
protection of their rights and interests than any other
class of producers. It seems to me that they should
vigorously exert themselves in promoting practical meas-
ures for their own weal and advancement. Why should
they not institute an authors' fund, governed upon
principles similar to those of the actors' fund, which
is proving a veritable godsend to the theatrical profes-
sion ? If literary men would look soberly at the business
side of their calling, they would perceive the necessity
of making it more of a pecuniary stronghold than in
reality it is. Some time ago several public-spirited
ladies of wealth and influence in New York proposed

i90i.] THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF LITERATURE 445

the establishment of a home for disabled authors. This
is one of the noblest enterprises that could be suggested
in these modern days, and it is to be hoped that such
an institution will soon be in existence.

An authors' protective union, with branches in all
the larger cities, would be a capital idea. Nor would
an authors' exchange, where publishers and writers
could meet and negotiate on equal terms, be an imprac-
tical scheme. Business of this kind is now being
transacted by syndicate bureaus, which are run by
individuals as financial enterprises. The experience
of these syndicate gentlemen affords a promise of greater
prosperity for their business in the future, unless indeed
a cooperative authors' bureau and exchange, managed
and controlled by authors themselves, should be inaug-
urated ; in which case, the private syndicates would be
likely to suffer. In connection with it a publishing
business might be established, modelled somewhat on
the plan of the flourishing Authors' Society in London.
Such an institution is sure to come into existence sooner
or later in this country, and the conditions are ripe for
its advent at the present time.

HOURS OF FACTORY LABOR IN THE SOUTH

It is a principle that none will dispute, however
much it may be ignored, that the industrial prosperity
of any community should be shared by the wage workers.
There are two ways in which wage workers can specifi-
cally share in the industrial prosperity of the country.
One is by receiving higher wages and the other by
having a shorter working day. The wages cannot be
equitably fixed by law, but must be adjusted by the action
and reaction of the economic forces in a community,
the demands of the laborers being the chief element in
their own interests. But the intelligent action of the
laborers as to wages and other economic matters largely
depends upon the opportunity the workmen have for
acquiring information and becoming intelligently
equipped to understand and properly safeguard their
own interests, and that is based upon the opportunities
for education and the amount of leisure at their dis-
posal.

With the long working day of 12 hours in the fac-
tory and high-tension machinery, there is little oppor-
tunity for operatives to mingle in society and touch the
refining and broadening influences of life, thus acquir-
ing an intelligent understanding of the economic and
social conditions under which they work and live, and
with no education for the children this opportunity be-
comes less possible. In fact, a 12 -hour working day in the
modern factory and no education for the children
means of necessity ignorant, dependent laborers, utterly
incapable rationally to participate in the social move-
ments of their time, or to effectively demand their
proper share in the distribution of the prosperity which
they have helped to create. This fact has been so obvi-
ous and universal ever since the factory system began

446

HO URS OF FA CTOR Y LA BOR IN THE SO V TH 447

that it has become a part of the public policy of all
civilized communities to limit the hours of the working
day and provide opportunity for education for factory
children by law. The selfishness of capital never vol-
untarily granted this obvious means of social improve-
ment and development of intelligent manhood among
the operatives. It is a peculiar fact that the employers,
whether individuals, firms, small corporations or large
corporations, have always ignored this obvious neces-
sity to social progress. Indeed, they have not only
failed to grant these needed opportunities for equip-
ment in modern life, but have almost universally
opposed them when a demand from the operatives or
the public has been made for reform in this direction.

The South is wonderfully like the rest of the world
in this respect. The English employers opposed every
step in this direction until it was forced upon them by
the united demands of the laborers and philanthropists
of the nation and then enacted into law. In New Eng-
land the same resistance was shown to the movement
for opportunity for factory operatives to acquire the
ordinary elements of modern life. There, too, the de-
mand of civilization had to be enforced by statute law
before the employers would acquiesce. It is also a pe-
culiar feature of this movement that no community that
once adopted the shorter working day ever went back
or seriously wanted to go back to the longer working
day. The improvement in the mental and moral, as
well as physical and social condition of the people, in
short, the evident effect on the character and progress
of the masses, was such as to establish the universal and
everlasting wisdom of this policy.

Recently manufacture, particularly cotton manu-
facture, has had a rapid growth in the South, and what
took place in England in the first decade of the century
is repeated in the factory towns of the South : namely,

448 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

an ii and 12-hour working day, no education for factory
children and the consequent squalor, ignorance and
social backwardness of the laboring class. Attention
has been called to this state of affairs in many quarters.
The facts have been pointed out in this magazine, not
from sentiment or prejudice or hearsay, but as learned
by personal observation. We have ventured to sug-
gest that on this great question of the conditions of
labor, of the opportunities of laborers to participate in
the prosperity and progress of the corporations and the
community, the southern states ought to get in line with
the rest of Christendom. England, France, Germany,
and even Russia, have recognized the importance to
the manhood of the nation of a limitation of the hours
which operatives, and especially women and children,
should be compelled to work in factories, and an im-
provement in the sanitary and other conditions under
which they live and work.

There is perhaps no one characteristic of which the
South boasts so much and so frequently as its gener-
osity, its kindliness to the weak, and its humane, sym-
pathetic interest in the poor. And yet its press, its
corporations and its politicians are refusing to recog-
nize the laborers' request for a lo-hour working day, a
1 2 -year limit for factory children, and provision for
education. These are such commonplace demands that
no state in the union north of Mason and Dixon's line
has refused acquiescence. Every Christian country has
recognized one or all of these as the common requisites
of Christian civilization.

Now in the face of all this, because we have ven-
tured to suggest that there should be a uniform work-
ing day for factory operatives throughout the country,
the southern journals have not only opposed it, but
have said all sorts of hard things about this magazine
and its editor, for suggesting the idea. It is denounced

i90i.] HOURS OF FACTORY LABOR IN THE SOUTH 449

almost as if it were a crime, the punishment for which
might come within the lynching category. The New
Orleans States, the New Orleans Picayune, the Houston
(Texas) Post, the Wilmington (N. C.) Star, the Atlanta
Constitution and the Baltimore Manufacturers'' Record,
and a number of similar southern papers have devoted
bitter editorials to this subject in general, and us in
particular. By way of appealing to the passions and
to avoid reasoning on the subject, they call it "north-
ern interference,'' and an " attempt to injure the South
in the interest of New England." The Houston (Texas)
Post, for instance, declares: " The suggestion is worthy
of the policy of paternalism that has for years bled the
South for the benefit of New England manufacturers."

The Wilmington (N. C.) Star suggests that this is
an attempt to prevent the success of southern progress
and to give eastern manufacturers "a dead sure thing."
The Atlanta Constitution, approvingly quoting the New
Orleans Picayune, says : ' ' Even with the same rate of
wages and same hours of labor in the southern as in
the northern mills, the latter will be unable to compete."

If this be true, and we accept the Atlanta Constitu-
tion as competent authority, there can be no economic
or other valid objection to adopting at least the same
hours of labor as the other states. This is a square
proposition, which cannot honorably be evaded. Is a
uniform working day objected to in the South on the
ground of the state-sovereignty doctrine? Is the South
opposed to this simply because it is opposed to national
legislation on the subject? If this is the ground of the
opposition, it can easily be removed. In the first place,
no national law can be passed regarding this matter
without a constitutional amendment empowering con-
gress to enact such legislation. This would require an
intense public demand throughout the country. Of
course, the whole nation is interested in the welfare of

450 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

the laboring classes in the South, because they repre-
sent the citizenship of the republic, and, if nothing is
done in this direction, the national sentiment is sure to
be aroused, and national legislation demanded and
finally enacted. But this can all be easily avoided by
the southern states individually doing what the north-
ern states have done individually: namely, get in line
with civilization and establish a ic-hour work day for
factory operatives, and give some opportunity for edu-
cation for factory children. If the statement of the
Atlanta Constitution is true, its objection to the shorter
working day must be based on opposition to an improve-
ment in the welfare of the laborers which such a day
and proper education would give. Can this be pos-
sible?

We desire here to put these questions directly to
the Atlanta Constitution and the other southern journals
following its lead in this matter: (i) Are you opposed
to giving the factory operatives of the South the benefit
of a lo-hour work day? (2) to fixing an age limit for
employing children in the factories? (3) to education
for factory children ? We would like a direct answer
to these questions. No dodging is in order. These
are simple, plain, intelligible propositions. If the
Atlanta Constitution and its followers among the press
and employers of the South are really opposed to
these propositions, they are opposed to the social and
moral improvement of the laboring classes, and must
be so regarded. In that case they are entitled to the
censure and distrust of the operatives of the South, and
of the public sentiment of the nation. On the other
hand, if they are in favor of these propositions, which
at heart of course they really are, then it is only a ques-
tion of how to bring about the lo-hour day and the age
limit of child labor, and education for working children.
As adherents to the dogma of state sovereignty and to

I90I.J HOURS OF FACTORY LABOR IN THE SOUTH 451

the Jeffersonian doctrine of minimum government, they
doubtless want all such reforms to be brought about,
first, within the state, and, second, without legislation,
as was indicated by the recent manifesto of the North
Carolina manufacturers. To this there is no real ob-
jection. But, if they wish to be understood as really
favoring these progressive propositions, they must ex-
press their approval of them and stop abusing every-
body who favors them.

All talk of national legislation and northern criti-
cism will disappear if these leaders of southern opinion
and guardians of southern conditions will indicate their
willingness to give the operatives in that section the 10-
hour day and the other ordinary conditions which civ-
ilization demands and everywhere else has established.
Talk about northern interference and New England
jealousy and paternal legislation is all beside the
mark, and unnecessary. The abuse of GUNTON'S
MAGAZINE is of no moment whatever. The question
is, are the leaders of opinion and public policy in the
South for or against the lo-hour work day, the age limit
and educational opportunity for factory children? If
they are for this, they will have the cooperation of the
public sentiment and press and leaders of public opinion
throughout the country in instituting these reforms in
their own way. But, if they insist upon opposing the
propositions on the ground of northern interference, the
world will believe, and very properly, that their reason
is mere subterfuge, and that they are simply appealing
to sectional prejudice to cover their real antagonism to
the normal progress and improvement in the condition
of the operatives in the southern states.

Never mind the means; are you opposed to the
foregoing propositions? We shall anxiously await an
answer.

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

A WRITER in the September number of the World's
Work advocates liberal adoption of the apprenticeship
system as a remedy for future strikes. He says :

" In case of strikes on a large scale, there will be in existence vast
reserve armies of trained men ready, if so desired, to fill at once even
the most responsible places left vacant by strikers."

What is this large army going to be doing when
there is no strike? Are they to be kept on the waiting
list? If employers could afford to pay for a waiting
list, they could afford to make liberal advances in
wages. And, if this reserve army is to be kept at work,
it will not be a " reserve force," ready to take the place
of strikers. The World's Work must try again. To
flood the shops with apprentices might lower wages,
but it would not prevent strikes. It would be much
more likely to increase them.

REPLYING TO our criticism for its opposition to a
uniform work day, which means a shorter work day for
factory operatives in the South, the Manufacturers'
Record says : " In that editorial there was no expression
of hostility to short hours."

No, it was "hostility to" those who advocated
"short hours." In all the editorials we have seen thus
far in the southern press, not one has ventured squarely
to oppose a shorter working day, but they are unani-
mous in censuring those who ask for it. Will the
Manufacturers' Record frankly answer these questions?
(i) Are you in favor of reducing the working time of
factory operatives to ten hours a day? (2) Are you in
favor of limiting to twelve years the age at which chil-
dren may be employed in factories? (3) Are you in
favor of compulsory education for children under fac-

452

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 458

tory age? Never mind about the editor of GUNTON'S
MAGAZINE, nor the motives of eastern manufacturers ;
but answer these questions, then the world will know
where you stand on the subject.

THE NEW YORK Journal is alarmed at the awaken-
ing of disgust at its vulgar teaching of anarchy and, by
way of defence, with its usual large-type method, has
turned to attacking the New York Sun for its malignant
treatment of public men. Much that it says about the
Sun is only too true, but that does not remove one jot
of the blackness from its own character. It has tried to
grow rich and influential by feeding the worst passions
of the most ignorant class in the community against our
industrial and political institutions and creating class
hatred. That it is now blackguarding the Sun is only
further evidence of this fact. The S-un is indeed an in-
defatigable persecutor of all who cross its path, but its
offensive spirit is chiefly directed against individuals,
never against the institutions of the country. But the
Journal and its like make a business of disseminating
social envy and sapping the very foundations of social
order. It is the Emma Goldman and Herr Most of
journalism ; a type of paper that public sentiment
should make impossible to prosper in this country.

THE QUESTION of direct nominations for political
office is receiving considerable attention in several
states. Experiments have been made, some of which
are defective in their details, but the necessity of some
reform in the nominating machinery of this country is
so great that the popular demand for experiment is
steadily growing. In Minnesota the experiment of
1900 was tried in the Minneapolis municipal election.
It did not work as well as expected, and the law was
amended by the legislature last winter and will be tried

454 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

again in the coming spring election. The Cleveland
Plain Dealer and several other Ohio papers are discuss-
ing the subject with the hope that Ohio politics may be
improved by better primary machinery. In New York
state, direct nominations is the specific object of a large
political organization which will make an effort to have
a measure introduced in the next legislature. It is
rapidly becoming manifest that the popular voice is
practically excluded from the choice of candidates
under our convention system with the boss method
of control. Direct nominations seems to be the only
remedy for this evil. Nothing else promises so effec-
tively to take the power of dictating nominations from
the control of a political boss who dictates nominations
and uses legislation as a threat to blackmail corpora-
tions out of large sums for " protection."

THE EXCITEMENT in the South because Mr. Booker
T. Washington dined with the president is an unfortu-
nate exhibition of ill -breeding. What right has the
South, or anybody for that matter, to dictate to the
president who he shall invite to dinner? In all that
goes to make a man Mr. Booker T. Washington is the
peer of any and the superior of most of those who have
shown the small spirit and bad manners to abuse the
president for admitting him to the white house. Nor
is this narrow fanaticism confined to loud-mouthed
politicians. The president of Hampden-Sidney College,
in Virginia, says :

" If Roosevelt, or any other kind of velt, wishes to live with niggers,
I cannot help it ; if he is built that way, he cannot help it, but he has got
no business as president to be guilty of any such criminal folly. It is an
outrage on official decency ; it is contemptible. If he prefers niggers,
nothing I could say could help him; I am a white man, you know."

Such a statement is a disgrace to any educational
institution in this country. Mr. Booker T. Washington

i90i.] EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 455

is as much whiter than the author of that as civilization
is superior to barbarism. But Mr. Roosevelt is not the
man to be coerced by such shoddy snobbery. The
South may burn negroes at the stake and take pieces of
charred remains as trophies of their brutality, but it
cannot coerce President Roosevelt from the duty of
recognizing the equal rights of all American citizens,
and every attempt to do so will react on themselves.

MR. BOURKE COCKRAN has made another flop.
This time he has flopped to Tammany. Mr. Cockran
is a great orator and usually makes some good points,
but he seems to lack intellectual stability. He once
belonged to the inner circles of Tammany; he was
then constant in his political opinions and consistent in
his action. Since he left the fold of the wigwam he
seems to have been a wayward wanderer in public
affairs. As a representative of Tammany in the demo-
cratic national convention of 1884 he made the most
flaying philippic against Mr. Cleveland that has been
uttered in a quarter of a century, but he quarrelled
with Croker and flopped to Cleveland and became his
ardent disciple. In 1896 he opposed Mr. Bryan and
stumped for Mr. McKinley. In 1900 he flopped to
Bryan, for what reason he only knows. In a recent
address before the City Club, he characterized Croker
and Tammany as the vilest and most unreformable
things in modern society. He told the club that there
was no hope for New York except in the complete
overthrow of Tammany, and now he flops back to the
Croker fold. Mr. Cockran has great natural ability.
If he had mental stability and anchorage in any politi-
cal and economic principles he might be a great power
for good. But his too frequent self-reversal has de-
stroyed his power of leadership, and in returning to
Tammany he can take little besides his own vote.

456 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

As PRESIDENT, Mr. Roosevelt is growing in public
confidence and esteem as the days go by. The Ameri-
can people admire to the full the honesty and courage
so characteristic of the man. But it must be frankly
confessed that there was, in the background, just a
little fear lest the manly, wholesome frankness of
which he is the embodiment might be a little too prompt
for the president of the United States, where such large
and subtle conflicting interests converge. But this fear
is rapidly passing away. Business men everywhere, as
if by inspiration, have acquired great confidence in the
stability and conservatism of his administration.

In this they are entirely right. Mr. Roosevelt is
not rash and erratic, but, on the contrary, intensely
rational and thoroughly conservative for the great in-
terests of national welfare. There is nothing which he
is more determined upon than to preserve from a hint
of disturbing policy the prosperous industrial condi-
tions of the country. He may be a little prompt with
some corrupt officials, but that will only inspire greater
confidence, and it will serve notice on the others that
corrupt methods will not prevail in his administration.
Nothing will be done under his administration that
will disturb fiscal conditions or business prosperity or
the harmony of foreign relations. He is clean and
firm, and hence the unclean will avoid him. This
country was never surer of a strong, judiciously con-
servative administration, and one that will stand like a
Gibraltar for industrial prosperity, than the adminis-
tration of President Roosevelt. He is entitled to the
unqualified support of organized labor, of legitimate
capital and of every friend of clean government and
personal freedom, regardless of section, race or color.

A NOTEWORTHY and far-reaching decision was re-
cently handed down by the British house of lords, re-

I90I.J EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 457

lating to the responsibility of trade unions. The suit
on which this decision is based was brought by a rail-
way company against the Amalgamated Society of
Railway Servants. The company made application for
an injunction restraining the society in question from
preventing the employment of men in place of those on
strike. In reply the labor organization asked that its
name be stricken out of the petition, on the ground
that it was not a person or a corporation liable to be
sued under the parliamentary statute. After consider-
able legal wrangling, the matter was settled by a de-
cision rendered by the lord chancellor, in which it was
held that " if the legislature had created a thing which
can own property, which can employ servants, and
which can inflict injury, it must be taken to have im-
pliedly given power to make it suable in the courts of
law for injuries purposely done by its authority and
procurance." If this opinion should cross the sea and
become a precedent for judicial decision in the United
States, it might render members of a labor organization
as amenable to the law of contracts as are employers,
whether individuals or corporations.

This would have a salutary influence on trade-
union conduct, and ultimately be of even greater ad-
vantage to the cause of unionism than to the capitalist
employers. The sobering influence of definite respon-
sibility is one of the greatest needs of trade unions in
this country today. Without it they can never gain
complete recognition as an essential and legitimate
factor in American industrial life.

A FEW MONTHS ago the mill owners of Fall River
seriously discussed the proposition of reducing wages
10 per cent. Mr. M. C. D. Borden, who, besides own-
ing one of the largest print works in the country, owns
large cotton mills in Fall River, denied the necessity of

458 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

a reduction of wages. He went so far as to suggest in
a public interview that the motive of the manufacturers
in reducing wages was to force a strike and so bring
about a curtailment of production. This was vigor-
ously denied, and may not have been the correct ex-
planation, but the reduction did not take place. Print
cloths were then selling at 2^ cents a yard. Since
that time the price has risen to 3 cents, and, consistent-
ly with his then position, Mr. Borden has voluntarily
advanced the wages of his operatives 5 per cent., and
Mr. George A. Chase, of the "Bourne mill," which is
equipped with the new Draper loom, has also given an
advance of 5 per cent. We have not yet heard that the
other manufacturers have done likewise, but just as we
go to press it is announced that Mr. Borden will make
a still further increase of 5 per cent, on November 4th ;
the second within a month.

There is no doubt but that the print cloth industry
in New England is pressed close to the margin. Bo-
nanza profits are not to be expected, unless the manu-
facturers utilize the very latest machinery available,
and they have not done it. Firms like the " Bourne
mill," which have put in the best machinery, are able
promptly to give the advance. While New England
manufacturers should not be expected to be put to a
disadvantage with their competitors in other states as
regards hours of labor, they should not expect the op-
eratives to be put to a disadvantage because of their
slowness in adopting the most modern machinery.

THE ELECTORS of the state of New York will be
asked to approve or reject an amendment to the consti-
tution at the election to be held on the fifth of Novem-
ber. All of the legal requirements for such amend-
ment have been complied with, and the matter is
submitted to the people in accordance with a concurrent

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 459

resolution passed by the senate and assembly at the
late session of the legislature.

It is proposed to amend section eighteen of article
three of the constitution. This is the section which
prohibits the legislature from passing private or local
bills in a multitude of cases, such as changing the names
of persons, regulating the rate of interest on money,
locating and changing county seats, etc. The meaning
of all this is that bills having the import mentioned
must be general, and not local or special. The con-
templated amendment simply inserts this sentence in
the body of the section mentioned : " Granting to any
person, association, firm or corporation an exemption
from taxation on real or personal property."

The amendment seems to be in entire harmony
with the other provisions and prohibitions of the sec-
tion, and simply means that in the future the legislature
shall not pass any special or local law granting tax ex-
emptions.

Inasmuch as the legislature saw fit to submit this
amendment to the people it should receive intelligent
consideration at their hands, and we believe may be
safely approved by the citizens. There is always an in-
clination, however, to ignore amendments to the funda-
mental law when submitted, especially when, as in this
case, the change seems to be of small importance.
Good citizens should exercise all of their prerogatives,
and there is every reason why voters should express
themselves regarding this amendment as well as in the
matter of the election of public officials. Responsible
citizens should see to it that this small amendment to
the state's fundamental law is not approved or rejected
by a vote so insignificant as to be ridiculous.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquiries
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

*

Education as a Remedy

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Your two publications for October are
filled with thoughts on many and searching themes,
especially the vast difference between liberty and
license.

Since the 6th day of September last, even here in a
rural community, there have been many wild expres-
sions directed against the assassin and assassins in
general, but overlooking the causes you call attention
to, which led up to the death of our president, as well
as the deplorable outlawery in many of our states.

We notice you call much attention to the New
York Evening Journals methods. This calls up anew
a suggested remedy, or at least a check against the in-
fluence of this type of papers. Let the men who are
disposed to aid the healthy public opinion you stand
for organize an association, including a thousand men
and women who are able to contribute yearly one thou-
sand dollars, more or less, each, to such publications as
GUNTON'S MAGAZINE and BULLETIN, and many dailies
and weeklies with a small subscription price and of
sound views, so as to reach all the people and direct
them into other than purely sensational and criminal

460

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 461

channels of thought. This would at least influence all
who have not passed the dead line on any of the wild
vagaries which are so dangerous to the perpetuity of
popular government. L. P. V.

Sutherland, Iowa.

The Suppression of Anarchy

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Please convey to Mr. Gunton, whom I
met at the Chicago Trust Conference, my high appre-
ciation of his recent utterances on the question of
anarchy. I had occasion to deliver an address at the
memorial exercises in this city, when I took occasion
to develop somewhat the same line of thought. The
pulpit, schools, press and rostrum must help to stamp
out one-sided hypercriticism in every phase of society.
His strokes at Bryan, populism and socialism are well
aimed, and must be repeated. Many thanks for the
beginning. JAMES R. WEAVER.

Greencastle, Ind.

Solution of the Strike Problem

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I have received two numbers of your
Lecture Bulletin and like them very much. Your solu-
tion of the strike question is the best I have seen. I
certainly think that if all questions were referred to a
board constituted as your plan contemplates work
would go on just the same and complaints be heard on
their merits. M. S.

Washington C. H., Ohio.

QUESTION BOX

Coffee-Houses in England and America

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I have read the interesting article by
Mr. Sweetser in the September GUNTON'S on the ' 'Coffee-
House Plan," and am not quite clear why these insti-
tutions should work so much better apparently in Eng-
land than in the United States. You have given so
much on English affairs in your pages from time to
time that it occurs to me you can explain this matter.
Is it because Americans care more for the "drunk"
and less for the sociability? J. S. M.

It is a common mistake to assume that because an
institution may work well in one country it is sure to
do so in another or in all others. Nothing is farther
from the truth. Whether an institution that has worked
well in one country will produce similar effects in an-
other will depend entirely upon the habits and customs
and traditions of the people in relation to that subject.
The coffee-house and the inn are European institutions.
They are the social club feature of the laboring classes.
Neither of them would be likely to succeed well in this
country, because the same necessity for them never ex-
isted here. Take, for instance, the German beer gar-
den. Numerous attempts have been made to establish
that institution here, but it is not at all the same thing
as in Germany, even though attended by Germans. In
Germany it is a social feature connected with the
family life. It is a gradual development from the very
meager privileges of the mediaeval peasant. Beer and
light wines are the family beverages. They give them
to their children, and the beer garden is a family re-
sort. The wife and children accompany the husband
and they linger around the mug of beer.

462

QUESTION BOX 468

In England the inn is a similar institution with
less of a family characteristic; but there, as in Ger-
many, the people linger around their mug of beer as
nearly their only opportunity for leisurely social inter-
course. They talk their politics and social gossip and
have their little amusement. Farther back in the
middle ages the public-house or inn was the only place
where the laborers could meet at all. These institu-
tions cannot be transferred to this country and have
the same effect, because none of the conditions leading
up to them ever existed in this country. There never
was a time when either the beer garden or the public-
house was a social necessity for American citizens to
obtain amusement and intercourse. Freedom and
almost social equality have existed in this country from
the beginning, so that the beer drinking here has taken
on an entirely different character. Never having had
associated with it the family or leisurely social quality,
but under the influence of hurry and rush that charac-
terizes everything American, the very drinking, like
the eating, is done in a hurry, and so the saloons in
this country are places to stand up and drink hurriedly
and often inordinately, from these very circumstances.

The coffee-house is a temperance substitute for the
inn in England. It furnishes, minus the intoxicating
stimulants, similar social features, but it is tacked on
to the same social habits that the inn developed. In
this country those habits were not formed by the saloon
experience, and the attempt to establish the coffee-
house as a substitute for the saloon necessarily lacks
that social incentive which exists in England. The
coffee-house here takes on the feature of the restaurant
rather than either the German beer-garden or the Eng-
lish inn. The Americans have never learned to go to
these places for their leisurely intercourse and amuse-
ments, and hence do not find it when coffee is substi-

464 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

tuted for beer. They have gone to the theatres or to
the clubs for this social outlet.

It is, therefore, not surprising to the careful stu-
dent of European and American traditions that the
coffee-house plan does not work in this country, though
it worked well in England, and it would be equally
true if we should attempt to introduce the English
banking system or English parliamentary system in
this country. Our traditions and habits regarding
those matters are so utterly different from those of
England that the public response necessary to their
success would be utterly lacking, and the Bank of Eng-
land system, which is a success there, would probably
be a flat failure here. To be successful, social and
economic as well as political institutions must largely
grow out of the habits, customs and desires of the peo-
ple. They cannot to any considerable extent be trans-
planted from one country to another.

Foreign Trade and Home Consumption

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Your lecture on the "Secret of Amer-
ica's Industrial Progress" seems to me entirely adequate
and illuminating, but there are those who quote some
of your general propositions and think them obscure.
For instance, you say that the welfare of the people de-
pends on what they consume and not on what they ex-
port. Would it not seem that you condemn commerce
by this statement, and that you believe we should only
interchange among ourselves rather than supply manu-
factures to the world ? Or do you mean that when we
have consumed all of a product that our present stand-
ard of living will absorb, what we manufacture over
and above that can be exported to the improvement of
the welfare of the nation ?

L. B. H., St. Louis, Mo.

To emphasize the importance of home consumption
and domestic production does not in the least condemn

I90I.J QUESTION BOX 4«r,

nor even slight the importance of foreign commerce.
It simply emphasizes the most important point in
national prosperity and growth. The real place where
progress must begin, and from which higher and better
attributes must emanate, is home growth. Foreign
commerce of any significance must necessarily be the
consequence of domestic expansion. There never can
be any large demand per capita for foreign commerce
unless there is a highly diversified home consumption,
and this can never arise without comparatively diversi-
fied domestic industry. Simple domestic industry al-
ways means simple social life and meager consumption.
And, vice versa, the nation that seeks foreign commerce
by neglecting home industry stultifies national prog-
ress. For instance, suppose this country could acquire
one-third more foreign trade by lowering its wage rate
to foreign conditions (and this is commonly advocated) ;
that would destroy the home consumption to that ex-
tent. Every dollar's worth of trade so obtained would
cost the nation about eight dollars. A reduction of 25
cents a day for all who work for a living in this country
would take $1,705, 174, 500 out of the national consump-
tion. The total exports for the year ending June 3oth,
1901, the largest in the history of the country, amounted
to $1,487,755,557. Thus a reduction of 25 cents a day
of all who work for a living would be a loss of $217,-
418,943 a year more than the value of the total exports
last season.

The only gain to the nation in foreign trade, of
course, is the profits. The total exports and imports
for 1901 were $2,310,428,573. Ten per cent, profit on
that amount would only be $231,042,857, or less than
one-seventh of the loss to the nation of 325 cent a day
reduction in wages. The loss to the nation of such a
step would be equal to sinking to the bottom of the sea
every dollar's worth of our exports for 1901. In-

466 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

deed, if we could increase our foreign trade 40 per cent,
by reducing all workers 5 cents a day, the loss to the
nation would be nearly twenty millions a year greater
than the gain.

This does not mean that we ought not to have for-
eign trade or seek for it. What it does mean, however,
is that foreign trade should always be the incident and
outgrowth of diversified home industry, and that the
public policy of the nation should never favor the pro-
motion of foreign trade at any sacrifice, however small,
of domestic industry ; and, above all, by any lowering
of wages and curtailment of home consumption.

Corporations and Government

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I notice you make the claim in your
pages that corporations do not desire to control govern-
ment but only want to be let alone ; that they would
gladly get out of politics if the politicians would let
them. How about the constant struggle of corporations
to "grab" municipal franchises, bribing city govern-
ments or using1 almost any means to get something for
nothing? If corporations do not care about controlling
the government, how did the street railway ring man-
age to steal the Philadelphia franchises which John
Wanamaker offered two and a half million dollars for,
and got only an insult for his public spirit?

R. S.

There are two kinds of corporations. One kind is
simply organized to conduct productive enterprise of a
competitive character. These include the bulk of the
corporations in the country. It was this class that was
referred to in the article on the "Influence of Corpora-
tions on Government" in the last issue.

The other class of corporations are those which
operate through franchises granted by state and muni-

I90i.] QUESTION BOX 467

cipal governments. These are lor the most part non-
competitive. Their franchises give them a monopoly
in their line. Such, for instance, are the street rail-
ways, gas works, etc. These corporations have a mo-
tive in controlling government, but they constitute such
a very small proportion of the whole as not to be an
element of danger to the nation. But, to the extent
that they succeed, they do constitute an element of
danger in politics. For this reason they should be sub-
jected to strict legal conditions. As has been fre-
quently pointed out in these pages, wherever the
government grants privileges that abrogate competi-
tion, it should exercise rigorous supervision. In short,
as in the cases referred to, where the government takes
the place of competition, it should do the work of com-
petition : namely, regulate the conditions of the enter-
prise and the price to the public for the service
rendered. For the very reason that corporations, which
by virtue of their franchises procure monopoly through
the government, are dangerous to pure government,
they should be made as few as possible. No exclusive
franchises should be granted where the same end can
be obtained through free competitive industry, and
where franchises are granted it should only be for a
limited time and under conditions that will insure the
maximum service to the public at the minimum cost.
But the fewer there are, the better.

City and Rural Conditions of Civilization

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — What do you consider the principal
cause for this condition, namely, that in the centers of
civilization or what are generally considered so, for in-
stance New York city, the towns of the New England
states, Chicago and other large cities in general, the
average rate of wages is the lowest, while here the

468 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

greatest amount of child labor is performed, and the
standard of living, as measured by food and clothing
and economic independence, is far below that of the
newly developed agricultural districts or the rough and
"rowdy" mining camps. I have had opportunity to
see and experience both and the contrast is painful.

H. D. N., Allegheny, Pa.

Before answering our correspondent's question it
is necessary to correct his facts. Wages are not the
lowest in large cities, in this or any other country.
We cannot speak of the average wages in large cities,
we can only properly compare wages in the same in-
dustries in different places. The average wages in
New York city, including the children in the sweat-
shops, would utterly misrepresent the city. If we
want to compare the wages in a city with those in a
country place we must take the same industries, like
carpenters, plumbers, masons, tailors, and so on, in
which case we shall find that wages in the cities are
higher than in rural communities.

In new countries and mining camps, food and
clothing are usually very dear. In Dawson City
eggs have been more than a dollar each, and a cloth
suit costs a small fortune, so that the exceptionally high
wages in such places do not indicate standard of living.
Economic independence is always at its height in such
new communities, for the obvious reason that the in-
habitants are not the product of such communities but
are composed of the daring spirits who have emigrated
from thickly settled centers.

If we want to judge the effect of agriculture and
mining on the standard of living and civilization of the
people, we must go to countries where the character of
the people has been formed under the influence of
these occupations, and then we shall find that the

QUESTION BOX 469

standard of living and personal independence are
lower than in large cities and manufacturing centers.

Take, for example, the English agricultural
laborers, French, Russian and German peasants, and
European miners in general. Agriculture and mining
in our western states furnish no correct indication of
the real influence of these occupations, because, as al-
ready remarked, the character of the population has
not been developed under agricultural and mining con-
ditions. In fact, most of the western enterprise and
freedom of which we are so proud is the product of
eastern civilization.

The Place of Agriculture in Economic Progress

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — You say in the August number (page
178): "The tendency of progress is away from agricul-
ture and toward manufacturing and artistic industries."
Do you mean exactly that ? Or, if you do, is the con-
clusion accurate? Does well-balanced and well-rounded
progress leave agriculture behind for the sake of manu-
facture ? Something that might be called progress
might do this, but, considering the immense importance
of agriculture to the continuance and maintenance of
the race, can a tendency which leads away from it be
considered as being actually progressive ? I should
think that real progress would take agriculture, as well
as manufacturing and artistic industries, along with it ;
and that something professing to be progress which did
not do this did not fully deserve the name.

New Bedford, Mass. W. L. S.

Our correspondent is right. The phrase "away
from agriculture " did not correctly express the idea
intended to be conveyed. It would be much more cor-
rect to say the tendency of progress is toward a greater
variety of manufacturing and artistic industries. Any
movement of society which tended away from agricul-

470 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

ture, in the sense of neglecting agriculture, would not
be altogether wholesome progress. Agriculture, which
includes extractive and raw-material producing indus-
tries, is indispensable to society in any stage of civiliza-
tion and not less indispensable in the highest and most
complex society. Agriculture is indispensable to the
physical foundation of society, and therefore can never
be dispensed with, but it is none the less true that high
culture and diversified civilization can never be reached
through agricultural industries alone.

The higher refinements of society always come and
must of necessity come through diversified artistic in-
dustries, for two reasons : first, because the diversifica-
tion brings the social environment for culture, and
second, civilized society cannot exist without the prod-
ucts of manufacture and art. Moreover, there cannot
be much increase in agriculture in proportion to popu-
lation, at least so far as foodstuffs are concerned, be-
cause people do not eat more with the advance of
civilization. Their increase of consumption is all on
the side of manufactures and art products ; in clothing
and furniture, conveniences, architecture and art; in
short, the increased consumption is in the direction of
the social, not the physical, wants of society, and these
are supplied by manufacturing and artistic industries.
So that, while progress is not "away from agriculture,"
it is toward a much greater proportion and variety of
manufacturing and artistic industries.

Anarchism and Crime

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — Do you mean to imply in your recent
discussions of anarchism that all anarchists advocate
violence and murder? Is there not a large group of
scientific anarchists who believe in gradually abolishing
government by peaceful methods? E. H. D.

IQOI ] Q UESTION BOX 471

We do not mean to say that all anarchists advocate
violence and murder, but all anarchists are enemies of
organized society, and the logical effect of their teach-
ing is murder and other forms of physical force to
overthrow society, because no other method will ac-
complish the end. So-called "theoretic anarchists,"
and I know a few who profess to be such, always re-
joice at the fall of a ruler, no matter how accomplished.
The theory of anarchy has no constructive basis at all.
Its only aim and ultimate goal is disintegration and de-
struction of associated interdependence. In theory,
therefore, as well as practice, anarchy means the over-
throw of organized order, and it always leads directly to
criminal methods. There is no such thing as peace-
fully abolishing government. The teacher of anarchy
is an enemy of society, no matter whether it is a Ben-
jamin Tucker or a Herr Most.

BOOK REVIEWS

THE PURITAN IN ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND.
By Ezra Hoyt Byington. Cloth, 457 pages, $2.00.
Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

The puritans, whether righting the royalist forces
tinder Cromwell, contending in parliament for a
broader interpretation of English liberty, or carving a
commonwealth out of the wilderness in the new world,
fell into friendly hands when Mr. Byington became
their historian.

Less than a hundred pages of the book before us
deal directly with the puritans in England. Enough is
said about them as they suffered and fought in the
mother country to give a glimpse of their character,
and to show the environment from which those who
came to our country escaped. Then the story of the
puritan in New England is taken up, and is told with a
wealth of detail and heartiness of sympathy which
make the book the work of an able advocate. It is ex-
ceedingly readable, and is profitable for instruction re-
garding the aims and ideals of the peculiar people who
became nation builders.

The difference between the pilgrims who settled
at Plymouth and the puritans who founded the colony
of Massachusetts Bay is clearly stated. Those who
came over in the Mayflower, and such additions as were
made to their numbers, were distinctively religious
exiles, some of them twice removed. They fled first
in search of religious freedom to the tolerant atmos-
phere of the Dutch republic, and made their second
exodus that they might find for themselves freedom of
conscience, rear their children in the faith, and educate
them in the language and in touch with the civic insti-
tutions of the fatherland. Building a political com-

472

BOOK REVIEWS 478

monwealth with them was largely an incident or acci-
dent of their new condition.

The puritans, who came a little later, and much
more numerously, were direct arrivals from the politi-
cal turmoil and religious troubles existing in the
mother country. Many of them had been men of
affairs at home, and they had a purpose other than a
mere quest for religious freedom in seeking a refuge
in the American wilderness. When they came it
looked as if a general exodus of the large puritan ele-
ment would have to be made from England, as civil as
well as religious liberty was threatened with a perilous
time under both James and Charles. For this reason
the puritans of Massachusetts Bay began the business
of statecraft as soon as they began to fell the wilder-
ness. This colony received constant additions, and in
about a quarter of a century thirty thousand puritans
had crossed the sea to the new settlement.

Mr. Byington devotes chapters of his book to " Early
Ministers in New England," "The Family and Social
Life of the Puritans," "Religious Opinions of the
Fathers of New England," "Witchcraft in New Eng-
land," etc. A whole chapter is given to "William
Pynchon, Gent.,'' that forceful colonist, the founder of
Springfield. Pynchon wrote a book, was charged with
heresy, but escaped the rigors of persecution, although
his book was ordered to be burned. He returned to
England and the bosom of the mother church. Inci-
dentally it may be remarked that not a few puritans
had a warm feeling for the established church, except
as it looked towards prelacy.

The twentieth century intellect can hardly fail to
be amazed at the exposition of that blood-curdling and
brain- taxing theology, regarding which the Hookers,
Nortons and Mathers wrote learned disquisitions and

474 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

disputations expounding imputed righteousness, origi-
nal sin, and the other speculative tenets of the time.

The two blots upon the puritan name and fame,
the persecution of the Quakers and the executions for
witchcraft, are dealt with in a discriminating way. No
defence is made of these barbarities other than that
they were in accord with the temper of the times. In
England and on the continent the witchcraft craze raged
with diabolical fury, and no less a man than Sir
Matthew Hale held to the belief in witchcraft and the
validity of trials for its punishment.

It must be remembered that the puritans consid-
ered themselves a veritably peculiar people possessed
of a divine commission. They did not want to be
troubled with Quakers or others likely to disturb the
unity of the theocracy which they had established. The
Quakers were therefore ordered to go, and not to stand
upon the order of their going. They scourged and cut
off the ears of the contumacious, and hanged four of
them, until the disciples of Fox learned better than to
attempt to sit under the puritan vine and fig tree, or
the men of the colony grew more tolerant.

In dealing with the puritan he must be considered
in connection with his environment. He did not finish
building the ideal civic and ecclesiastical polity, but
only contributed to it. Liberty and toleration have
been plants of slow growth. They have come as the
result of infinite toil and trouble, and by slow degrees.
It took the refining process of puritan persecution to
bring Roger Williams the foresight to found that
remarkable secular commonwealth, the Providence
plantations, where absolute toleration for the heretic on
the one side and the Catholic on the other was an estab-
lished fact in government.

The reading of a book like ' ' The Puritan in Eng-
land and New England" cannot fail to intensify one's

BOOK REVIEWS 475

appreciation of the great contribution of the puritans to
the building of the American commonwealth. With-
out them the country could not have been made and
perfected a nation. Wider reading will enable the
broad-minded student to see that all the contributing
factors were necessary to make the fabric of our com-
posite civilization. The Cavalier in Virginia, the Catho-
lic in Maryland, the Huguenot in Georgia, the Quaker
in Pennsylvania, and even the Dutch burgher in New
York, were all essential to the formation of our national
character.

Discounting the services of none of these types in
the task of nation building, it is probably not saying too
much to claim that to the puritan belongs a large part
of the credit for that pioneer and home-building spirit,
coupled with that genius for government, which made
possible the development of our continent between the
two seas. But that is not saying that the puritans were
saints. In the history of the world only an occasional
man has stood sun-crowned with his head above the
clouds, a prophet of better things and a leader of prog-
ress. Peoples and groups have never been able to
divorce themselves entirely from the spirit of the time
in which they lived, and the puritans were not excep-
tions to this rule.

To them in a measure is due the credit of building
wiser than they knew. They came to the American
wilderness to found a church without a bishop. Re-
maining loyal to the British crown, they set forces in
motion which enabled their sons to establish a state
without a king, and build the most luminous beacon
light of civil and religious liberty the world has ever
seen.

FALSTAFF AND EQUITY: An Interpretation. By
Charles E. Phelps, Law Professor, University of Mary-

476 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [November,

land, etc. Cloth, 201 pp., with appendices and index.
$1.50. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

The author of this book warns us at the outset
that he has taken upon himself the task of explaining
a joke, and we must confess that to the ordinary com-
prehension the joke deepens with the explanation. At
any rate one has to do more than ' ' smell the paper
knife " to appreciate the nature of the joke or the drift
of its exposition.

Readers of the first part of Shakespeare's Henry
IV. will remember that in the second scene of Act II.,
as the thieves reenter to divide their plunder, Fal-
staff, the fat jester, delivers himself in this fashion:
" An' the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards,
there's no equity stirring.''

All of the Shakespearian critics, so Mr. Phelps tells
us, have ignored this passage, laden as it is with
humor and legal lore, and this book was inflicted upon
the public simply to bring to light the hidden meaning
in the quotation from Falstaff. That the task is per-
formed to the author's satisfaction is quite evident, but
that the game is worth the powder is a matter for de-
bate. We suspect that practical people will look upon
the effort of Mr. Phelps as a fairly good illustration of
what Bassanio said of Gratiano's mental action, in the
Merchant of Venice : ' ' His reasons are as two grains
of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff."

The real grain in the chaff before us is probably
to be had, but it requires a good deal of winnowing to
get it, and when obtained here is about what it is :

During the sixteenth century there was a tremen-
dous contest between the chancery and common law
courts in England; some of the chancery findings had
an element of the iniquitous and the ludicrous in them.
Shakespeare and his father indulged in the ruling
passion for litigation which characterized the time, and

I90i.] BOOK REVIEWS 477

invoked the aid of chancery when they had reason to
believe that a common law jury would not serve their
purpose. This causes Mr. Phelps to contend that
Shakespeare put the words quoted into the mouth of
Falstaff as a sort of a "gag " or by-play to the galleries,
then as now quick to appreciate a reference to current
controversy. It is also held that the use of this word
" equity," upon which the whole mortal 201 pages of
the book hinge, proves the marvelous versatility of the
writer of Shakespeare's plays, and Mr. Phelps does not
hesitate to claim that Shylock's " pound of flesh '' was
quite as much a drive at the ridiculous and wicked
findings of chancery as it was an attempt to hold
Hebrew avarice up to public scorn. While believing
that Shakespeare was himself and not Bacon, Mr.
Phelps rather intimates that had Ignatius Donnelly
lived to see this day, and read " Falstaff and Equity,3'
he would have found the "king-pin of the wain " of
his theory, to which he might have clung.

There is a certain amount of sixteenth century lore
in this book for the law student and the Shakespearian
scholar, if he cares to dig for it, but that the "joke '' in
Falstaff is explained, or that the explanation is par-
ticularly important if made, we by no means admit.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

Rivalry and Success in Economic Life. By Professor
Richard T. Ely. White leatherette, i2mo, 35 cents.
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.

Questions of Empire. By Lord Rosebery. White
leatherette, I2mo, 35 cents. Thomas Y. Ciowell & Co.,
New York.

The Making of an American: An Autobiography.
By Jacob Riis, author of " How the Other Half Lives,"
etc. Cloth, 8vo. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Profusely illustrated.

478 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

Inductive Sociology. A Syllabus of Methods, An-
alyses and Classifications, and Provisionally Formu-
lated Laws. By Franklin H. Giddings, author of the
"Principles of Sociology," etc. Cloth, 8vo. The
Macmillan Co., New York.

The Science of Penology. The Defence of Society
against Crime. By Henry M. Boies, M.A., author of
"Prisoners and Paupers." Cloth, 8vo, $3.50, by mail
$3.70. G. P. Putman's Sons, New York.

The Literary History of the American Revolution,
1763-1783. By Moses Coit Tyler, professor of Ameri-
can history in Cornell University. Cloth, 2 vols., large
octavo (sold separately), each $3. G. P. Putman's
Sons, New York.

Five Years of My Life: 1894.-! 899. By Alfred Drey-
fus, ex-captain of artillery in the French army. Cloth,
8vo, 310 pp. $1.50. McClure, Phillips & Co., New
York.

Substitutes for the Saloon. An Investigation made
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gin R. S. Gould, Francis G. Peabody and William M.
Sloane, Sub- committee on Substitutes for the Saloon.
By Raymond Calkins. Cloth, 12 mo. $1.30. Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., New York.

The Practice of Charity. Individual, Associated and
Organized. By Edward Devine, Ph.D., general secre-
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New York. Cloth, 186 pp. 65 cents. Lentilhon &
Co., New York.

The Early Age of Greece. By William Ridgeway,
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Co., New York.

The French Revolution. A Sketch. By Shailer Mat-
hews, A.M., professor in the Uuiversity of Chicago.
Cloth, I2mo. $1.25. Longmans, Green & Co., New
York. Containing a portrait of Mirabeau.

The Great Boer War. By A. Conan Doyle. Cloth,
i2mo. $1.50. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.

FROM RECENT MAGAZINES

" The demand for labor shows no diminution. The
governor of Kansas was obliged to issue an edict that
all tramps in the state must go to work in the wheat
fields. This did not bring any more help to the farm-
ers, but it succeeded in ridding Kansas of its army of
idlers, and gave proof to the assertion that there are
men who would rather live in indolence and beg suste-
nance than improve their condition by work. As a
result the farmers have been obliged to import laborers
from New York, and the steady influx of immigrants
has found a glad welcome ; and yet, one-fifth of the
grain crop west of the Mississippi will go to waste be-
cause there are not enough men to care for it. In some
sections of Pennsylvania, farm labor is so scarce that
women, and even girls, are employed to work in the
fields. Those who scoff at the claim of prosperity are
invited to study these facts. The demand for labor is
only possible in times of real prosperity. Some occu-
pations may be overcrowded, but those willing to turn
to any honest labor seem to find no difficulty in secur-
ing it."— Success, (September.)

' ' That automatic machinery has had the effect of
diminishing the individuality and personal initiative is
wholly improbable. If the slow moulding of ages, the
heredity of generations, and the environment of art,
science and literature can produce a type of men hav-
ing little or no imagination, individuality, or personal
initiative, it would certainly seem that they are of too
resisting fibre to be affected, either for good or ill, by
a few years' contact with machinery. Such a type,
doubtless, performs valuable functions in the economy
of the race, by conserving the good of the past and
steadying the present. Nature, which has so carefully

479

480 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

preserved this type, can be relied upon to still guard
and keep it, to act as a balance weight during a few
more epochs. To one, however, who has the slightest
spark of the living fire of imagination, an automatic
machine is a liberal education and an inspiration, the
daily association with which must of necessity augment
his knowledge, cultivate his perceptive faculties, and
stimulate his intelligence. — W. H. SMYTH, in "The
Tool, The Machine, The Man," Gassier"** Magazine, (Sep-
tember.)

" Comparatively few people possess any very clear
conception of what Mr. Morgan is or does in Wall
Street. He is vaguely compared with Mr. Keene, who
is a speculator ; with Jay Gould, who was a wrecker ;
with Hill and Harriman, who are strictly railroad men ;
with the Astors, who are primarily real estate owners ;
with Mr. Carnegie, who was an iron-master. But Mr.
Morgan's business is purely that of a banker — a worker
with money. He is not a practical railroad man, nor a
steel manufacturer, nor a coal dealer, although he is
interested in all these things, because he is constantly
buying and selling railroad and steel and coal stocks.
. . . While Mr. Morgan must make use of his own
large means, it no doubt forms but a small part in his
vast deals. The essence of successful banking is con-
nections, otherwise friends. While coveting large
earnings capital is proverbially shrinking and timid,
fearing to strike out boldly for itself, and yet ever ready
to trust itself with confidence to the leader whose skill,
foresight and cautious daring have been steadily fruit-
ful of success. Such a money master is J. Pierpont
Morgan." — RAY STANNARD BAKER, in "The World's
Great Money Master;" McClures Fortnightly Gazette
October.)

CHARLES DE GARMO

See page 505

GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

The Fusion The followers of Tammany were prob-

Victory in ably not more surprised at the result of

New York t^e election of November 5th than the

victors themselves. It was expected with a good deal of
confidence that the general city ticket of the fusion
forces would win by the aid of sufficient majorities in
Brooklyn borough to offset the democratic handicap in
Manhattan ; but hardly anybody expected a victory of
such wholesale proportions. The success of Justice
Jerome and the candidates for the supreme court is
really remarkable, since none of these could count on
any support from Brooklyn. The fight had to be made
entirely within the limits of Manhattan and the Bronx,
where Tammany is thoroughly organized and intrenched
at every point. It was also feared, toward the last, that
Justice Jerome's sudden attack on Senator Platt, accus-
ing him of conspiracy with William C. Whitney to
defeat the fusion county ticket, would cause a large
number of republican organization men to knife the
ticket, especially to defeat Jerome. The result proved
that not only were these fears groundless, but that Mr.
Jerome undoutedly gained in popular support by his
thoroughly fearless and independent attitude. He had
made the fact perfectly clear that he was indifferent to
the favor or opposition of either of the organization
bosses, and if a candidate can really establish this fact

481

482 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

in the popular mind he is certain of popularity. The
attack on Senator Platt, furthermore, even though par-
tially withdrawn, made it absolutely necessary for the
republican organization to show a heavy vote for
Jerome in the republican districts, or else stand con-
victed of the charge of conspiracy against him. Mr.
Low received a majority of nearly 30,000 in the entire
city. His majority in Manhattan and Bronx was only
about 4,000, while Justice Jerome received more than
15,000.

The result of the vote for supreme court justices is
equally gratifying, involving, as it does, the defeat of
Mayor Van Wyck, who received the smallest vote cast
for any of the seven candidates. Four justices were to
be elected ; one of the candidates, Justice O'Brien, be-
ing the joint nominee of both parties. Of the three
defeated Tammany candidates, Van Wyck was about
22,000 and 23,000 behind his two colleagues, respec-
tively.

The result shows that New York is not,
A Vindication of ag ig go often compiacentiy assumed,

the Metropolis J

normally a Tammany city. Four years
ago the combined republican and citizens' union vote
was nearly 20,000 larger than that given the successful
Tammany candidate ; and this year Tammany is in
the minority by considerably more than 30,000, on the
average : the majority given to Mr. Grout for controller
being about 45,000 and to Mr. Fornes for president of
the board of aldermen more than 31,000. The reason
for Tammany's numerous successes is not that New
York prefers the Tammany type of government. It
has been due simply to Tammany's remarkable organ-
ization, based on the " cohesive power of public plun-
der," and maintained with unflagging activity in every
quarter of the city, and on the other hand the factional

IQOI.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 483

differences between the friends of good government.
Whenever it has been possible to overcome these dif-
ferences, as in 1894 and 1901, the decent elements have
won, and if this experience is only heeded in the future
there need never be another particle of proof to support
the claim that the people of New York actually prefer
Tammany to decency.

The Tammany apologists during the late campaign
worked themselves into a high state of indignation
about the way the fusion candidates were "defaming"
the good name of the city in exposing the peculiarities
of Tammany government; but facts are the potent
things after all. The result of the election, in proving
that the real majority is on the side of clean municipal
government, has done more than anything that has
occurred in a quarter of a century to clear the good
name of New York city from the reproach resting upon
it, and show that at the core it is really one of the best
cities in the the world.

The splendid results of this victory are
already becoming apparent, long before
any of the successful candidates are put
in authority. There is an altogether better civic
atmosphere, plainly noticeable on every hand. There
is less of cynical indifference and pessimism, and the
novel idea is clearly gaining ground that after all there
can be such a thing as clean, honest, high-minded
municipal government, conducted for the public inter-
ests and not for private spoils. It is coming to be seen
also that there are methods worth discussing, and worth
putting in practice, for safeguarding public morals and
doing even-handed justice, without an organized sys-
tem of blackmail based on the theory that certain evils
are bound to exist anyway, and therefore should be

484 G UNTON 'S MA GA ZINE [December,

officially ignored while privately serving as rich sources
of enormous corrupt political revenue.

The most conspicuous concrete evidence, thus far,
that this better civic spirit is a reality is the acceptance
of the position of corporation counsel by Mr. George
L. Rives. Mr. Rives was president of the commission
appointed by Governor Roosevelt to revise the New
York city charter, is also a member of the rapid transit
commission, and of the board of trustees of the New
York public library, and is one of the most prominent
members of the New York bar. That such a man
should be willing to sacrifice probably two-thirds or
three- fourths of his annual income for the patriotic
service of the municipality, is an inspiring restorer of
faith in the actual possibility of high-class municipal
administration.

There is no more perplexing problem

TPt* C A

before the new administration than that

Opening Question .

of liquor selling on Sunday, and it is
being hotly debated already. The provisions of the
Raines law which have resulted in establishing the
infamous "Raines hotels" have comparatively few
defenders left; but those who are willing to see this
arrangement abandoned are not at all agreed that there
should be any opening of the saloons on Sunday. Not
even the liquor dealers are making a fight for all-day
opening, nor even for front-door opening at any time
on Sunday. The most that is being urged with serious-
ness is that after i or 2 o'clock in the afternoon it shall
be lawful to open the side entrances and serve customers
at the bar inside.

Whatever may be the merits of the controversy
from other standpoints, it is not a valid argument
against Sunday afternoon beer selling that every other
kind of business ought then to have the same right.

REVIEW OF THE MONTH 485

Supplying the demand for food and drink, whatever its
particular nature, is essentially different from any other
kind of business. The goods have to be furnished
ready for use, and cannot be bought in advance and held
over without great inconvenience, or loss of those qual-
ities in the articles which chiefly give them whatever
utility they possess. It no more follows that to permit
Sunday afternoon beer selling is unjust to all other
trades than that permitting hotels to serve meals on
Sunday is unjust to other lines of business. The nature
of the business establishes the distinction, and it is
perfectly clear. The real point at issue is whether the
permission to sell liquors on Sunday afternoon ought
to be granted at all or not, on its own merits, having
regard to the established habits and customs of the peo-
ple and the general public welfare. As Mr. Low well
expressed it in his speech at the City Club banquet,
November i4th :

" Because the population is cosmopolitan the city government must
be cosmopolitan also. I shall feel myself ashamed if, when this govern-
ment is fully organized, it does not appear to be representative of all the
elements that make up the bone and sinew of the city. It must fairly
represent the different races and the different creeds, the different points
of view which are natural to men of different upbringing. ... It
must be catholic enough in its composition to make all of the people who
have created it feel that it is their government, and that they have had
something to do in giving it its success."

It is impossible to enforce a law that has

Law and public sentiment against it without de-

Public Morals . , . ,

velopmg means of evasion which are

often worse than the original evil itself. There is no
question that public sentiment in New York would be
against a letting down of the bars which permitted any
brawling disturbance of the orderly quiet and decency
of Sunday, or the flaunting of a noisy front-door busi-
ness of any kind in the face of the general public. But
outside these limits, it is an open question if a limited

486 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

amount of regulated liquor-selling1 is not what this
same majority public sentiment really wants. If so,
the practical results from the standpoint of public
morals and decency might conceivably be an improve-
ment over the present system, with its premium on de-
ception and evasion and encouragement of the vile
" Raines hotel " resorts.

It seems so easy to establish good morals by law,
presto change, that many well-meaning people apparently
forget that morality is an individual product, of slow
growth, and worth nothing unless it is genuine. If the
moral character is not there the man will hunt out some
way of satisfying his appetite in spite of us, and the
danger is that in heading him off in one direction we
may drive him to his object through altogether worse
and more demoralizing channels.

There can never be any final and genuine solution
of these problems of individual morality other than in
the slow development of an enlightened moral sense
throughout the community ; and efforts devoted to pro-
moting this will be far better spent than in trying to
force a series of arbitrary remedies. A considerable
number of New York clergymen are taking this view
of the matter, especially in the light of recent experi-
ence ; and it is certain that both Justice Jerome and
Mr. Low personally favor a thorough overhauling of
the present system. A change in the present law would
of course have to come through legislative action at
Albany, but it is probable that if the wishes of the peo-
ple and of the new administration in New York are put
in definite and unmistakable form the legislature will
not refuse this extent, at least, of home rule. Probably
it could not do better than refer the whole matter to
local option. Whatever is done or whatever system is
adopted, one thing is certain : there will be no more
police blackmail and no more systematic selling of the
privilege of breaking the law under official protection.

REV JEW OF THE MONTH 487

«

The Big The rush to organize "trusts" is not

Railroad nearly so great as it was two or three

Combination years ago, but when a new organization
does come along, nowadays, it is likely to be rather
a breath-taking affair. Since the organization of the
United States Steel Corporation, in February, 1900,
there has been nothing of great importance in the con-
centration line until the announcement just now made
of the formation of a $400,000,000 corporation to absorb
the stock of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific,
Union Pacific, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
railroads. Considerable opposition to this deal has
developed from the state goverment of Minnesota, but
it does not seem likely that its ultimate consummation
can be defeated. It is the culmination of the long
struggle between these rival properties, which led up
to the Wall street panic of last May, and has been in
process of negotiation and attempted settlement ever
since. The consolidation is the usual outcome of this
kind of situations ; indeed, it is the only practical way
in the long run of stopping the ruinous and useless
waste of rate wars and stock market "raids,'' with
their depressing effect, not only on the properties con-
cerned, but on the business of the community at large.
The conduct of the steel "trust," with reference
to prices of products, methods of dealing with labor,
and voluntary publication of the financial results of
management, have so falsified the hostile predictions
made at the time of its organization that this new
giant combination excites comparatively little discus-
sion. It is being pointed out, and very truly, that a
railway combination like this is in reality a protection
to the small independent concerns ; a sort of balance
wheel that will operate as a check to unfair advantages
sought by larger establishments. in the way of special
freight rates. It is well known that one of the princi-

488 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

pal evils connected with large organization of capital
has been the too frequent discriminations permitted to
large shippers as against small ones, and the consequent
impossibility of competing on a basis of actual economic
efficiency. The evil has seemed so persistent, and
almost unavoidable, that even the opponents of
"trusts" in certain quarters have come to the point of
urging that railroads be allowed to form "pools, "as
before the passage of the interstate commerce law ; the
theory being that a system of pro rata division of earn-
ings would destroy the incentive of different roads to
discriminate in favor of large shippers in order to gain
their business.

There is no doubt that to permit pooling under
certain necessary restrictions would be an improvement
on the present system, but as an economic arrange-
ment is it distinctly inferior to actual consolidation of
the properties? Pooling is merely an agreement be-
tween a number of roads, fixing a scale of prices and a
basis of division. It does not necessarily contribute
anything to the economy of operating the systems;
but, where the properties are actually combined under
one ownership and management, we not only get uni-
form rates and abolition of the incentive to discrimi-
nate, but there is an increased efficiency of management
which permits a gradual lowering of rates to the entire
community. Under such conditions it is possible to
distribute both the traffic and the expenses in such a
way as to yield the best net advantage, not to mention
the increased opportunity of improving properties and
bringing them up to a high standard of efficiency by
means of the large capital available, when under the
separate management some of the roads could do no
more than keep up with the interest on their indebted-
ness.

The test of this new consolidation, like that of all

looi.J REVIEW t>F THE MONTH 489

others, will be in the wisdom of its management. If it
does succeed in abolishing discriminations within its
sphere of influence, it will do what years of experimen-
tal legislation have as yet failed to accomplish, and the
public will share the benefit.

This railroad deal, with its manifest
The "Trust" Situa- a(jvantages if properly supervised, is not

tlon Down to Date

the only incident of recent occurrence

tending to lessen the public fear of " trust '' aggression.
Nearly every one of the big industrial combinations
is encountering a vigorous and in many cases increasing
competition from rival concerns, and no scheme of con-
centration has been or can be devised that can prevent
this movement from going on. The competition is
most active just now in sugar and tobacco, but it is not
wanting by any means even in the steel and oil indus-
tries, where we have the two most powerful of Ameri-
can industrial corporations. There is a decline since
last year in the value of so-called "trust stocks" along
almost the entire line, as pointed out recently by the
New York Journal of Commerce; for example, 40 points
in Amalgamated Copper stock, 33 points in United
States Rubber, 27 points in Diamond Match, 15 points
in American Linseed Oil, 20 points in National Salt, 34
points in American Sugar Refining, 25 points in Amer-
can Bicycle stock, and soon. Part of this may be due
to overcapitalization, but the capitalization would not
necessarily show a lower rate of earnings but for the
inroads of new competition. Industrial monopoly was
never a serious possibility in this country, and there is
nothing in sight at present to indicate that it ever will be.

Li Hung Chang The death of Li Hung Chang removes
and China's the last of the four great men General
Future Grant found in his trip around the world

a quarter of a century ago. The veteran Chinese states-

490 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

man was by long odds the ablest and most conspicuous
man in the realm, but China will probably never realize
how much his influence and sagacity did to hold the
empire intact, against internal revolutions and external
designs. Like nearly all orientals, he was unscrupu-
lous when occasion required, and probably nobody ever
had any extraordinary proofs that his word was as good
as his bond. He was the one great man in China, how-
ever, whose general attitude was friendly to western
ideas. Whatever China has of railroads and telegraphs
and foreign capital, to-day, is in large part due to his
influence, encouragement and protection. Aside from
this, his greatest services to China were in the hand-
ling of foreign diplomatic negotiations. Although re-
moved from power several times, he was too useful to
remain permanently in the background, and every fresh
crisis brought him to the front. His last great service
was in the recent negotiations with the powers, but his
advanced age (79) and illness of course limited his ability
to modify in any important degree the terms imposed
on China.

It is a curious coincidence that the death of Li
Hung Chang should come almost simultaneously with
the announcement of the text of the final agreement
between China and the powers. This differs only in
details from the terms made public some months ago.
It prohibits the importation of arms and ammunition
for two years, and as much longer as the powers may
consider necessary, and provides for revision of foreign
trade treaties ; improvement of the Pei-Ho and Whang-
Poo rivers for navigation purposes ; destruction of the
forts at Taku ; military occupation by the powers of
several points between Peking and the sea ; the death
penalty for membership in any anti-foreign society ; and
an indemnity of 450,000,000 taels (about $334,000,000)
to be paid in 39 years, with annual interest at 4 per

I90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 491

cent., etc. The revenues needed for carrying and pay-
ing off this debt are to be taken chiefly from the mari-
time customs, all of which are raised 5 per cent., except
those on rice, cereals, flour and gold and silver bul-
lion.

The penance required by Germany for the murder
of Ambassador Von Ketteler has already been per-
formed, by an official apology conveyed to Emperor
William by Prince Chun and presented at Potsdam on
September 4th. Some of the reforms promised by
China are already under way ; an order having been
issued early in September, for instance, providing for
reforms in the official examinations required for office-
holding. Hereafter such examinations must include
western sciences, history and industrial methods, while
some of the antiquated purely classical examinations
have been abolished and others reduced to minor
importance.

There is only one way for China to avoid dissolu-
tion and dismemberment, and that is by carrying out
these and other reforms as a permanent policy for the
future, and in no merely perfunctory spirit. Both in
its internal policy and foreign relations it will have to
renounce utterly the type of administration and political
principles represented by the empress dowager, and
shape its future course in accordance with a genuine
spirit of progress. The influence of Li Hung Chang,
in the main, ran along these lines, but there are none
too many of his kind left. China will now have to
stake its hope of salvation on something broader than
the personal influence of one man. What the experi-
ence of the last year and a half may have done to
enforce this fact will only appear after the full scheme
of settlement with the powers is in actual operation.

492 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

The English nation to-day is facing a
Serious Plight crisis which has a vital relation to the
whole future of the British empire. The
crisis is three-fold, — military, financial and industrial.
By including the military situation we do not mean to
imply that the Boer war is going to destroy the prestige
of the English army and encourage any hostile Euro-
pean coalition, but it is revealing an astonishing and
unsuspected laggardness and inefficiency in British mil-
itary methods and organization, which will have to be
speedily and radically reformed if the empire is to be
regarded as impregnable in the old matter-of-course
sense.

The Boer struggle continues without apparent
change, an unbroken, wearisome round of petty strokes
and counter-strokes, capture of British supplies by the
Boers and driving off of Boer raiders by the British,
with little prospect of termination. Technically, the
two former republics are under British authority, but
raiding is constant and there is not enough security
from disturbance in any quarter to warrant resumption
of peaceful industry on any important scale. The
British authorities have apparently come to believe that
only the most drastic measures can do anything towards
bringing the war to a close ; at present they are execu-
ting rebels in Cape Colony and enforcing General Kitch-
ener's proclamation that all burghers making armed re-
sistance to the British authority, who should not
surrender before September i5th, would be permanent-
ly banished from South Africa. Furthermore, the
problem of supporting the Boer prisoners, and enabling
Boer farmers to resume work on their devastated lands,
is becoming more and more serious. The whole affair
is inflicting on the British treasury and people a stead-
ily increasing burden of debt and taxation.

There is another and perhaps equally serious phase

I90I.J REVIEW OF THE MONTH -I'.iS

of England's financial problem. Although war expen-
ditures are absorbing a considerable amount of surplus
funds, British capital seems destined to face an increas-
ing difficulty of finding profitable investment. The
enormous prosperity of the United States is making
this country a lender rather than a borrower, and more
capital is being returned to England, directly or indi-
rectly, than is being brought here for investment. If
there were an adequate expansion of domestic industries
going on, this surplus capital might be absorbed at
home, but on the contrary, for the first time since the
beginning of the factory system, England is dropping
behind in the race for industrial and commercial
supremacy. The United States is taking the lead by
leaps and bounds, having now the largest foreign trade
of any country in the world. Our total exports for the
year ending June 30, 1901, amounted to $1,487, 656,544;
imports, $882,756,533; excess of exports, or "balance
of trade," $664,900,011. Almost 30 per cent, of our
exports are manufactured goods, and a considerable
part of this has been going right into markets formerly
controlled by British manufacturers. England's foreign
trade is showing an actual decline, and this is of course
reacting on domestic industries. The situation is made
even more dubious by the unfavorable returns of British
railroads recently published, showing serious losses of
income on nearly all the principal lines, and so reflect-
ing in another way the decline of domestic indus-
trial activity.

What the ^ would t>e & calamity to civilization if

Situation these tendencies should continue to such

Demands an extent as seriously to weaken Eng-

land's power and influence among the nations. No
country, with the exception of the United States, is
able to do so much for world progress, or to exert so

494 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [December,

wholesome an influence in the settlement of world
problems in the next few decades. To England and
the United States falls the task of uplifting the standard
of Anglo-Saxon civilization throughout the world, and
the relations between them should be such that each
will rejoice in the wholesome progress of the other.
What England needs, and immediately, is for its states-
men to wake up to the real situation, both in fiscal and
military matters, and for its leaders of industry
thoroughly to overhaul the traditional productive
methods, now becoming obsolete. Doctrinal theories
must give place to practical, rationally applied princi-
ples, both of economic and military science. The
army, for example, needs thorough reorganization on
strictly military rather than social and political lines.
This is vital, and fortunately the need of it is being
more and more keenly appreciated. What is required,
however, is for appreciation to grow into action, and
reform cannot come too soon.

In the industrial field, if England would save its
foreign markets it must do what many Englishmen are
already beginning to realize, however unwelcome the
fact may be — imitate American productive methods. It
must ruthlessly discard its out-of-date machines and
methods and make enormous investments to bring its
industrial system thoroughly up to modern standards
of efficiency. Here will be a field, too, for the absorption
of surplus capital returned from foreign fields. Still
further, if England wishes to hold its home market and
still pay higher wages than are paid on the continent,
there is nothing for it but to reestablish a protective
policy. Germany, with cheaper labor and machinery as
good as the English, if not better, will be able to
command larger and larger portions of the English
markets, and England's only alternatives will be to
reduce wages to the continental level or put a tariff on

1 90i.] REVIEW OF THE MONTH 495

numerous continental imports. To reduce wages would
bring on industrial strife, contraction of the home mar-
ket by the lessened purchasing power of the English
workingmen, and create a situation quite as serious as
the invasion of foreign competition itself. The tariff
solution is one to which English statesmanship, by
gradual steps, will probably be forced, along with the
modernization of English industrial methods.

Curiously, it is not at all improbable that one of
the prominent factors in bringing about some of this
reawakening of British industrial life and revision of
fiscal policy will be the present innovation there of
American influences. American capitalists in increas-
ing numbers are working their way into that field,
acquiring control of various English enterprises, and
wherever this is consummated the introduction of
American ideas and methods maybe expected promptly
to follow. From whatever source it comes, it is greatly
to be hoped that a wholesome infusion of fresh new
life, alertness and energy will make its way into Eng-
lish industry and politics before the empire literally
falls behind in the march of the nations and loses any-
thing of its vast power for good in the advancement of
worldwide civilization.

Current Price For Thursday, November 2ist, the fol-
Comparisons lowing wholesale prices are quoted:

1901 1900

Flour, Minn, patent $3- 75 $3 95

Wheat, No. 2 red 82^ ?8f

Corn, No. 2 mixed 6?| 46$

Oats, No. 2 mixed 46$ 26$

Pork, mess 16.00 12.50

Beef, hams 19.00 17. 50

Coffee, Rio No. 7 6f 7$

Sugar, granulated 4.90 5.60

Butter, creamery, extra 25 26

Cheese, State, f. c., white, small, fancy . . io| lof

496 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

1901 1900

Cotton, middling upland 8 loj

Print cloths 3 3^

Petroleum, refined, in bbls 7.65 7.40

Hides, native steers 13! izf

Leather, hemlock . 24^ 24

Iron, No. i North, foundry 16.00 15.50

Iron, No. i South, foundry 15.00 15.25

Tin, Straits 27.50 28.80

Copper, Lake ingot 17.00 16.75

Lead, domestic 4-37i 4-37i

Tinplate, 100 Ibs., I. C. , 14x20 4.40

Steel rails 28.00

Wire nails (Pittsburg) 2.30

Duns Review shows index-number aggregate prices
per unit, of 350 commodities, averaged according to im-
portance in per capita consumption, for November i
and comparison with previous dates, as follows :

Jan. i, Nov. i, Nov. i, Nov. i, Jan. i, Oct. i, Nov. i,
1891. 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. 1901. 1901.
Breadstuffs. . . .$19.725 $12.877 $13.282 $13.853 $14.486 $17.146 $17.840

Meats 7.810 7.547 8.312 8.669 8-407 9.517 8.929

Dairy and garden 16.270 10.427 11.746 12.383 15.556 13.164 13.622

Other food . . .

10.215

8.805

9.060

9.640

9 504

9.

190

9-!57

Clothing ....

I4.I35

14.161

1 6 243

16 012

16.024

IS-

279

15.342

Metals. . . . •

15.875

11.505

18.372

15.077

15 810

15.

760

15 876

Miscellaneous . .

14.217

12.577

15.158

15.663

15-881

16.

835

16.977

Total $98.247 $77.899 $92.173 $91. 297 $95. 668 $96.891 $97.743

Between October 2ist and November 2ist the rise
in agricultural food products was marked. Refined
sugar shows a decline, due to renewed competition,
while tinplate remains stationary, although the price of
pig tin used in the manufacture of plates has risen
from $25 to $27.50.

As compared with last January, the general increase
on November ist is almost entirely chargeable to
breadstuffs, which hardly indicates the kind of agricul-
tural depression we are supposed to get, according to
Bryan, under the oppressive domination of "trusts"
and the gold standard.

RECIPROCITY AGITATION

In the ordinary course of events a business dis-
turbing agitation in this country is about due. The
present tariff law was adopted in 1897, and we have had
nearly four years of industrial prosperity, two years of
which have witnessed extraordinary industrial expan-
sion. To the professional tariff reformer that is a dis-
turbing circumstance. Whenever business prosperity
threatens to become permanent he appears to feel a
religious obligation to create an anti-tariff agitation.
When business is most profitable, labor best rewarded,
is apparently the time above all others when the poor
are most "oppressed" and the public most "flagrantly
robbed." Hence this is a most opportune time for the
tariff reformer to put on his armor and insist upon call-
ing a halt to our "great wealth getting."

The last zealous outbreak of this kind "in the
interest of the oppressed" was in 1891 and 1892. The
motto then was, Down with the robber tariff. This
movement generally enlists very respectable people
because it is conducted on the plane of " high princi-
ple," and even the havoc it creates is all produced in
the interest of "justice." It may stop factories, break
banks, reduce wages and create enforced idleness, but
these are but the incidents of " a righteous cause." Of
course at the bottom and behind this movement there
is a constant nucleus which is composed of the import-
ing interests and abstract doctrinaires. The former
oppose tariff protection because they have a business
interest in substituting foreign for domestic industry.
The latter oppose protection because they are intellec-
tually wedded to the abstract dogma of free trade, and
hence believe that the tariff is a vicious system of favor-
itism and robbery. They frequently enlist the senti-

497

498 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

mental class, chiefly for the reason that they proclaim
against the "injustice" of large capital. With them
there seems to be a kind of moral virtue in denouncing
the "rich man" or the "large corporation," on the
principle that business success implies oppression of
the poor.

In the years immediately preceding 1892, this type
of reasoning was used with marvelous success. The
free- trade journals, the poets, scholars and publicists
joined in the movement with a zeal befitting a I2th
century crusader. This was promptly taken up by the
democratic party, which was starving for an issue.
Among the features of the movement was the enlisting
the aid of a certain number of New England manufac-
turers who were lured by the plea for " free raw mate-
rials.'' With this combination of forces, in the midst
of a period of the greatest prosperity the republic had
ever witnessed, the American people were induced to
overthrow the protective policy. The result is too
vivid in the memory of everyone to need discussing.
Suffice it to say that the calamity which followed and
prostrated the business and finances of the nation
promptly buried the anti-tariff movement and drove its
political sponsors from power throughout the country.

The present prosperity, which is not enjoyed by
any other country, is largely the result of returning to
the protection policy. The conditions of 1891 and
1892 are practically reproduced, but on a much larger
and more successful scale. The tariff reformers are in
the same position, inspired by the same motives, sup-
ported by the same reasoning, backed by the same po-
litical party which is suffering from the same hunger
for office that it then experienced. Its most urgent need
now as then is an issue ; it cannot use the same one it
employed in 1892. Free trade is no longer a name to
conjure with, so the watchword is now "reciprocity."

I90i.] RECIPROCITY AGITATION 499

Some remarks of ex- President McKinley on reciprocity,
in his Buffalo speech, are eagerly used as justification
for this movement. Having been a conspicuous and
popular protectionist, Mr. McKinley's words are mag-
nified into meaning that the republican party has be-
come sick of the Dingley bill and is ready to make a
radical departure towards an extensive increase of the
free list by means of reciprocity. This has been elab-
orated for the benefit of all manufacturers who would
like a foreign market. They are told that a treaty
should be made with the country whose market they
would like to enter to put some product on the free list
in order that theirs may have free entrance to the cov-
eted market.

This has already been worked with sufficient suc-
cess to induce the National Association of Manufactu-
rers of the United States to call a convention, just held
in Washington, to discuss the subject of reciprocity.
Thus far it is practically a repetition of the experiences
of 1891 and 1892, when the New England manufactu-
rers were induced to ask for "free raw materials." The
purpose of this convention, of course, is to impress
congress with the idea that the manufacturers of the
United States are in favor of a liberal regime of reci-
procity. Of course this is not asking for free trade. It
is only asking for the sacrifice of some industries to
promote the favored entrance of others into foreign
markets. The free-trade journals are now teeming
with bold and active advocacy of this reciprocity de-
parture. Every manufacturer who favors it in the hope
of getting a special advantage is quoted and egged on
as a pioneer of liberal policy. Mr. George H. Barbour,
manager of the Michigan Stove Company, one of the
committee of arrangements for the reciprocity conven-
tion, is quoted by the New York Times as pointing out
that :

500 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

" With Canadian reciprocity, our stove manufacturers could supply
the Canadian market, from which they are excluded by a 25 per cent.
Canadian duty."

In a published letter, Mr. Harbour explains that
Canada could be induced to remove this 25 per cent,
duty on stoves and let his firm have the Canadian
market by giving Canadian products free entrance into
the American market. Mr. Barbour is willing that any
American product be displaced by the free entrance of
Canadian products provided his stoves have the free
entrance to Canada. How broad and patriotic ! He is
perfectly willing that other American industries be
killed or mortally injured that his may fatten by the
bargain. Of course this does not concern the free
traders at all, because they would put them all on the
free list at one stroke ; and every one put on singly, no
matter how, is so much gain for "the cause." But
manufacturers, and people who honestly believe in a pro-
tective policy, should not be blindly lured into this
trap. It would only take a few such bargains to under-
mine the confidence in the stability of our protective
system. One serious shock to the public faith in that
policy and we have an industrial depression.

Germany is already on the verge of a business de-
pression ; England is nearing the same condition ; and,
in fact, all Europe is in an anxious state. This country
alone is enjoying permanent, buoyant prosperity. The
National Association of Manufacturers would do well
not to make itself responsible for a policy that in the
hands of politicians would precipitate another Cleve-
land regime. Reciprocity, like protection, should be
adopted only in the interest of national welfare. It is
not in the interest of national prosperity to adopt a
policy which shall merely promote the interest of one
industry by sacrificing that of another. So far as pub-
lic policy is used at all, it should be used for the de-

i90i.] RECIPROCITY AGITATION 501

velopment of all domestic industry, both manufacturing
and agricultural. Foreign trade, if it is acquired,
should be acquired by the development of perfection
and superiority in our domestic industries, so as to
overcome foreign competitors by competition, but never
by a special bargain that shall sacrifice or injure an-
other domestic industry.

Before the manufacturers of this country give
themselves over to this reciprocity movement they had
better stop and count the cost, consider the influence,
not upon the stove factories or the plow factories, but its
influence upon the domestic industries of the whole
country. They must remember that if favors are
granted to one they must be granted to another and an-
other and another. In fact, one concern has just as
much right as another to ask the government to buy its
right of free entry into some foreign market by adding
its neighbor to the free list. The only logical outcome,
in fairness to them all, would be to put them all on the
free list, which would of course accomplish the highest
ideal of those who are most ardently promoting the
reciprocity movement.

The Boston Free Trade League, in its zeal for pro-
moting reciprocity, recommends that treaties be made
extending our free list to all classes of manufactured
products any portion of which we now export, all kinds
of so-called raw materials which are used in manufac-
tures, like wool, hemp, flax, jute, hides, furs, hair,
lumber, wood pulp, salt, chemicals, paints, oils, etc.,
and all animal and agricultural products, including
sugar, and finally recommends that ' ' the import duty
on all manufactured goods be reduced 40 per cent, now
and 10 per cent, annually until the United States takes
its rightful place as the great free- trade nation."

Of course this last is somewhat indiscreet, since it
shows the real purpose of those now so zealously advo-

502 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

eating reciprocity in the interest of our domestic indus-
tries. Before the people of this country commit them-
selves to a business-disturbing agitation on this question,
in the name of reciprocity, it would be well for con-
gressmen to pay some attention to our experience in
this direction. If the subject were frankly presented
as a movement to revise our tariff and pare down our
protective policy, there would be little danger from it,
because the people would promptly relegate it to the
rear. The American people to-day would refuse to
consider any such business-threatening proposition as a
free trade or tariff for revenue experiment. The term
reciprocity, however, is a taking phrase. When it is
presented in the interest of American industries to pro-
mote our foreign trade, " by reciprocal relations bene-
ficial to both," the subject assumes a plausible seeming.
In the hands of the enemies of protection such a propa-
ganda may easily be made a cover for a dangerous in-
novation into our protective policy, and before we are
aware of it deal a mortal blow to our national pros-
perity.

We have had several experiments with reciprocity
treaties, covering the greater part of the period since
1856, and in a majority of instances the result has been
to increase our imports to a very much greater extent
than our exports. Comparing the exports in the last
year before the treaty with the last year under the
treaty, we find, for instance, that under our treaty with
Germany, 1892-1894, our annual exports to that coun-
try diminished $438,293, whereas, after the treaty was
discontinued, 1895-1898, our annual exports increased
$62,986,219, and under the treaty of 1900 to the present
time they have only increased $36,008,248. Under the
treaty with Austria- Hungary, 1892-1894, our annual
exports fell off $783,574, while during the three years
after the treaty, 1895-1898, they increased $3,572,140.

1901.] RECIPROCITY AGITATION 508

During the three years preceding our treaty with Can-
ada our annual exports to that country increased $20,-
572,442. During the three years under the treaty our
exports fell off $718,497, and our annual imports from
Canada increased $39,349,187. During the three years
after the treaty our annual exports to Canada again in-
creased $1,668,573.

If we take all the treaties together that we have
made since 1850, and compare the exports under the
treaties with the exports to the same countries for the
same period before the treaties, we find that instead of
the exports being increased by the treaties they were
less under the treaties than before the treaties were
made. The increase under the treaties was $80,823,-
553, whereas the increase of exports to the same coun-
tries during an equal period just before the treaties was
$156,771,642. In other words, our exports increased
nearly twice as fast before we had the treaties as they
did under the treaties. And this takes no account of
the normal increase of trade, which should have shown
a greater export trade during the treaty period than the
years preceding.

It is quite clear from our reciprocity experience
that the industrial progress of this country is not due to
the reciprocity bargains we have made extending the
free list to other countries, but to the preservation of
our home market for our domestic industries. And we
shall do well to ponder carefully and move slowly
towards any proposition to swap American markets for
foreign markets by such arrangements, and, above all,
to be lured into the undermining of our protective sys-
tem under the guise and in the name of reciprocity.

Just as we go to press comes the text of the resolu-
tions adopted by the reciprocity convention in Wash-
ington. They furnish encouraging evidence that, after

504 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

all, American manufacturers are beginning to realize
the danger to industrial prosperity involved in this
sudden craze for "reciprocity." What the free-traders
hoped would be the first move in a wholesale assault on
our protective system, within the camp of its friends,
has yielded only a most guarded endorsement of reci-
procity as a general policy, and put all the emphasis on
maintaining in all its integrity "the principle of pro-
tection for the home market." We quote the signifi-
cant portion of the resolutions :

"Whereas, the growth of manufactures in the United States, repre-
sented in values and in round numbers, has been as follows: 1850, $i,-
000,000,000; 1860, $2,000,000,000; 1870, $4,000,000,000; 1880, $5,500,000,-
ooo; 1890, $9,000,000,000; 1900, $15,000,000,000;

" And whereas. These figures exhibit at the same time (i) a splen-
did result for the past industrial policies of our government, and (2) a
growing need for the development of larger markets in foreign coun-
tries ;

' ' And whereas, It would seem desirable not only to maintain
policies under which such splendid results have been accomplished, but
also devise means to develop increased markets for the increased and
increasing manufactured products,

"Therefore, be it resolved:

"First — That this convention recommends to congress the main-
tenance of the principle of protection for the home market, and to open
up by reciprocity opportunities for increased foreign trade by special
modifications of the tariff, in special cases, only where it can be done
without injury to any of our home interests of manufacturing, commerce
or farming.

Second — That in order to ascertain the influence of any proposed
treaty on our home interests, this convention recommends to congress
the establishment of a reciprocity commission which shall be charged
with the duty of investigating the condition of any industry and report-
ing the same to the executive and to congress, for guidance in negoti-
ating reciprocal trade agreements."

The work of this convention, as well as the experi-
ence of the United States under former reciprocity ex-
periments, and the entire relation of reciprocity to our
protective system, are discussed in full in the Lecture
Bulletin for December 2d. The subject of the lecture
is " Our Industrial Foreign Policy."

CAN EDUCATION RESTORE WHAT CITY LIFE
HAS LOST ?

CHARLES DE GARMO, PH.D.

There is a large and often permanent loss of edu-
cative influences involved in the change from rural to
urban life. The program of education in America be-
fore the rise of large cities consisted of two parts : first,
training in muscular power and practical efficiency
through variegated labor, and, second, discipline of the
mind through drill in mastering the tools of knowledge
as represented in reading, writing, arithmetic and
grammar. To these we may add healthful and almost
unrestricted opportunities for such play as a strenuous
life permitted.

An urban community is likely to overlook the edu-
cational value of richly variegated labor. Not a little
of the versatility, the individual initiative, the aggres-
siveness and general efficiency of the urban business or
professional man has been due to the early discipline
of farm life.

When we add to all this the training that comes
from managing farm animals and tools, from overcom-
ing extraordinary difficulties in field and forest, from
dogged persistence in work, beginning before the rise
and ending only after the setting of the sun, we may
appreciate to some extent the perfect coordination of
muscle and mind effected by such labor, and under-
stand the fertility of resource and the dogged persis-
tence in the accomplishment of ends that such labor
produces. Furthermore, among thrifty farmers, where
pleasures were simple but hearty, where food was good
and abundant, the nerves of the young were steady, the
brain was clear, even if not especially active, and the

505

506 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

digestion was perfect. All life, in short, though un-
eventful, was at least wholesome and in a large meas-
ure educative in the highest sense.

What educative influences do our children lose
when we become denizens of a large city? At least
three important ones ; viz. , work, variety in work, and
opportunity to play.

The children of the poor are not allowed to work
steadily until they have passed through the elementary
school, usually not before the age of fourteen, while
the children of the well-to-do never work at all until
they have finished the high school and in many cases
even the college itself. Such children are mostly lack-
ing in the deftness of hand and the readiness of inven-
tion that characterized their fathers. Their nerves are
often unsteady, the coordination of muscle and mind is
imperfect, while their digestion has to be regulated by
tablets. Often their minds are overstimulated by ex-
citing books or theaters or other forms of intensive
life. The girls easily and early tend toward nervous
prostration ; while the boys, especially if they fall into
vice, become blase at an early age, and in general fail
to manifest the virility of their progenitors.

Even when the period of steady labor arrives, the
city boy lacks the variety that gave vitality to the
country lad. Industries are now highly differentiated,
so that one workman is usually called upon to do but a
single kind of work for long stretches of time. Com-
pare the man who made a whole watch with the man
who now tends the machines that turn the pivots. The
mental life, once stimulated by labor, must in the main
now find its stimulus outside of labor. Certain quali-
ties of endurance and persistence will always be stimu-
lated by continuous work, but under modern urban
conditions labor lacks much of the old educative value.

A modern high-school lad when told that he lacked

igoi.] EDUCATION AND CITY LIFE 607

the discipline that comes from variegated work, re-
plied, "What's the odds, so you are strong?" To a
certain extent he was right in his reply ; for, a prom-
inent member of a football eleven, and an all-round
athlete in a boyish way, he had gained a certain
efficiency not unlike that of the country boy of the
same age. But city children have for the most part
lost the opportunity to play. In the older cities in
Germany the children have forgotten how to play, that
is, have racially forgotten. Their idea of a recess is a
promenade over the cobble stones of a school yard,
while munching black bread and wurst. Our city chil-
dren are fast approaching a like condition. The most
pitiful sight in the city to one accustomed to the open
country is the pathetic effort of children to play in a
narrow, crowded street. To play a vigorous game is
to risk life, to obstruct the walks or break the windows,
while to wrestle on the pavement is to break the bones.
The thumb in a game of* marbles is about the only
organ that is afforded unchecked exercise. Were it not
for the annual summer excursions to country, mountain
and sea shore, made by wealthy families, the city boy
would be in danger of finding many of his important
organs almost as useless as the vermiform appendix.

The question this paper proposes to examine is
whether education can in whole or in part make up to
the child for the loss of wholesome educational influ-
ences that ensued when his parents or grandparents
became residents of a city. First of all we need to ex-
amine the adequacy of city schools to this end as at
present conducted.

The modern city child has much more time for
school than his predecessor in rural life had. Formerly
a boy attended school three or four months of the year,
and was employed mostly at out-of-door labor the re-
mainder of the time. The city boy is in school from

508 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [Deecmber,

nine to ten months each year. The country lad had
many chores to do night and morning, even when he
went to school, but the city boy having no physical
work to do is sent home with a lot of school tasks which
abridge his daylight recreation and infringe on his
hours for indoor amusement or sleep.

Again, when life was furnishing the major part of
education in healthful, mind- stimulating labor, the
school perhaps did well to confine its brief labors to
routine work in mastering the elementary tools of
knowledge. Then children learned to read, but they
seldom read anything; they learned to write and spell
and parse, but they made little or no use of these ac-
complishments, except in the rare cases when the lad
went to college. It might be supposed that now, when
the school commands, not a bare fraction, but practi-
cally the whole of the time of the children for years, it
would do much more than enable them to acquire the
tools of knowledge. To a certain extent it does, for
children now read during a portion of the time they
formerly used in work or play. They get a smattering,
too, of history and geography. But, on the whole, if
we ask what the school is doing for the urban child
under modern conditions, we must answer, though
with slight modification, it is merely doing more of
what it used to do, when life itself was the larger part
of education.

It is told of the late Dr. McCosh of Princeton that
his recourse, when any student questioned one of his
statements in the philosophy class, was to make the
same statement over again, only louder. So, if we
inquire what the new education of the city is, we must
answer, it is just what the old was, only there is more
of it.

A few facts will help to explain why the school has
remained practically unchanged, though outside influ-

i90i.] EDUCATION AND CITY LIFE ~m

ences have been totally altered. In the first place, we
have thought ourselves unable to pay the salaries neces-
sary to secure strong men, and have in consequence
feminized the school ; that is, when we have needed a
strong, virile influence to make good to the urban boy
and girl the loss of labor in their training, we selected
as his teacher one from the sex least able to supply such
an influence. Outside the largest cities, no men teach
in elementary schools, while even in high schools, the
number of men teachers is constantly decreasing. In
New York state only about one-third of the high
school teachers are men. The money prizes are too
small to induce men to abandon those callings and pro-
fessions that fascinate the strong man, giving him a
field for the exercise of his limitless energy and am-
bition. Not until the opportunity for men of enter-
prise becomes much less than it is shall we find Ameri-
cans devoting themselves to education at the pittance
paid to German men teachers, or now paid to our
women teachers.

The following table, compiled from Vaile's direc-
tories, shows at a glance how the higher positions,
namely, those of superintendent and principal, are
paid :

111. Ind. Wis. Mich. N.Y.

1. $3,000, upward ... 23 2 i 3 41

2. 2,000 to $2,900 . . 128 12 8 18 53

3. 1,000 to 1,900 . . 252 118 218 157 447

4. Below $1,000 .... 926 754 403 418 769

Of the twenty-three higher salaries for men in Illi-
nois all but one are paid in Chicago, while thirty-four
of the forty-one higher salaries in New York State are
paid in Greater New York.

It will be seen, moreover, that more than two-
thirds of all the male principals and superintendents of
these states are teaching for less than $1,000 a year, or

510 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

for a sum too small for the support of a family ; also
that the number of places paying $3,000 and upward is
very small. In these five states over 25,000 men are
teaching. The average monthly salary is probably
about $50. It is safe to say that no other learned pro-
fession, unless perhaps the ministry, has so few money
prizes as teaching in the public schools. Only 6^ per
cent, of the whole number receive as much as $1,000 a
year.

Again, not only do we employ women mostly as
teachers, but we hire so few of them that only those
forms of education that can be made successful by mass
teaching have any considerable chance of being made
really educational. But it is precisely the old drill in
reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic and grammar
that yields the best results in mass work. They call
for much memory, but demand little individual think-
ing. One teacher can keep many pupils busy in spell-
ing and writing words, in Solving problems and dia-
gramming sentences, but where classes number from
35 to 60, as they do, a study that demands individual
thought and guidance in the case of each pupil has
small chance of being successfully taught. Then, the
teachers being too few and the instruction merely mass
drill, each teacher is assigned to a certain drill area,
called a grade, and the superintendent and principal
are devised to set the examinations, locate the teachers,
make the outline for the drill, called by courtesy the
course of study, manage the educational politics and
draw the only decent salaries.

From the foregoing considerations it is very evi
dent that education as now conducted does not restore
what life has lost in educational influence. The city
boy or girl is probably as well educated as present con-
ditions will allow, but city conditions should change as
much in the educational field as they have changed in

EDUCATION AND CITY LIFE 511

that of business. Any city that is rich enough to build
palaces for dwelling and business purposes, to afford
pavements and streets that neither frost nor heat, rain
nor traffic can destroy, to make midnight seem as mid-
day, is able to raise its expenditures for education to a
point where it is possible to give the children a train-
ing that will enable body and brain to withstand the
abnormal strains of city life, and to keep alive those
traits of character that have made our nation in the past
strong to endure and to achieve.

The ideal city education will maintain a just bal-
ance between intellectual and practical or motor phases
of life. At present it is all intellectual or sensory, not
at all motor or practical. It was the farm that formerly
supplied the motor training ; now, when there is ten-
fold need of such training, it is forgotten. Further-
more, urban education should cultivate more effec-
tively social disposition and efficiency ; but both of
these involve a lessening of the former drill, and an in-
crease of the study and exercises that give social insight
and cultivate social efficiency. The first requisite for
such a new education as will conserve old powers is
that there be teachers enough for the individual to be
taught in a group small enough to secure his best de-
velopment of mind and muscle. No teacher should
have more than twenty pupils. This will indeed double
the number of teachers, but it will at the same time
secure for each child the indispensable requisites for his
survival and his highest efficiency in life.

The second essential requisite of such education is
that the proper appliances for motor and intellectual
training be provided in abundance. This will mean
somewhat more room and considerably more inexpen-
sive apparatus.

The third requisite is time and opportunity for
free, vigorous and spontaneous play. The English

512 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

manage to keep up a high state of virility among their
upper classes, very largely through school games.
What has proved so life-giving for character and ef-
ficiency among a class whose luxuries would naturally
tend to degeneration teaches a lesson to modern urban
communities where almost every influence, unless
counteracted, tends toward degeneration in health and
motor capacity, even if not in morals.

The school cannot, it is true, furnish the experi-
ence of farm or factory, but it can do better than either,
in that it can grade its motor exercises to their highest
educative value. The milking of cows can be educative
for a few months, or until all its phases are mastered,
but it can hardly be more educative when continued
through life. So of every phase of industrial life. It
soon passes its limit of usefulness, soon comes to a point
where it ceases to be education and becomes drudgery.

The school, happily, has control of experience,
which it can press to its highest point of usefulness, but
never suffer to lead to arrested development. It can
introduce even at the earliest moment motor exercises
that have all the stimulating power of real situations in
life, for they, too, are real. In the kindergarten grades
of Dr. Dewey's school in Chicago, for instance, children
three or four years of age have lessons in cooking, and
actually cook food that they and their friends eat as a
part of their daily subsistence. Beginning at this ten-
der age the children, in groups of ten or a dozen, are
led year after year through well- graded exercises in
cooking and sewing for the girls, shop-work for the
boys, and textile and other industries for both, all of
which are intimately related in the minds of the child-
ren to the past and present of these activities in the
community, and all likewise serving as means for the
mastery of number and language.

Outside of mere memoriter drill one may fairly say

EDUCATION AND CITY LIFE 518

that intellectual absorption is the chief thing expected
of the modern urban child. His attitude is that of a
listener ; he is a being to receive impressions ; he must
store his mind with facts deemed important by his
teachers. This practice has its genesis in the formal
instruction of primitive times, but it is fixed upon the
modern urban school by the conditions above described.
Professor James, of Harvard, very truly tells us that
education should not pre-suppose mere passivity on the
part of the child, but that there should be no impres-
sion without corresponding expression. That is, edu-
cation must be motor and active as well as sensory and
passive. Some interpret this saying as meaning that
the child should talk more; in other words that the
tongue should, aside from the forefinger, be the chief
motor organ exercised. Few will, indeed, deny the
educative value of language ; but when we come to a
city child, who is subjected to influences tending to
weaken his whole nervous system and to atrophy many
of his most important physical powers, we may safely
put a broader interpretation upon Professor James's dic-
tum. The whole being, both mental and muscular,
should be actively enlisted in his education. The school
period should be regarded quite as much a part of life
as a preparation for life subsequent to that period.
Each new day should set its new problems, which in
turn should incite thinking to solve them.

Thinking in vacua is hard work ; thinking in the
concrete is a delight. In real life there is always a
motive, an end to be reached, a problem to be solved.
Thought is generated and applied in one act. In ordi-
nary so-called school thinking, however, we cause years
to intervene between the genesis of the thought and its
application. We have the storage battery idea, where-
by the youth stores up in school mental power to use in
manhood. Such figures are delusive. The mind of

514 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

youth refuses to be a storage battery for manhood. It
is rather an organism that, like a tree, continues to
grow, each year being one of real life as well as one of
preparation for future life.

The answer, then, to the question ' ' Can education
restore what life has lost to the urban child ? " is : ' ' Yes,
it can, through a two-fold blending ; first, of vital and
formal knowledge, and, second, of intellectual and mo-
tor powers."

The school of the future will not content itself with
a formal drill upon the tools of knowledge, but will add
thereto a real knowledge of nature and man, while the
former will emerge as a requisite for the mastery of the
real. The school of the future urban community will
not content itself with pouring knowledge into the
pupil as a passive recipient, but it will arouse all his
native energy by offering him a complete and blended
expression of his active intellectual and motor powers
through a long series of occupations. These occu-
pations will embrace extended exercises in all respects
of manual training, cooking, sewing, textile industry,
drawing, music, and, later, laboratory practice in the
sciences. They will furnish a complete coordination of
motor and sensory powers, and coupled with well-
blended, concrete and formal intellectual knowledge,
will send the child forth from the school as from one
phase of life to another, healthy and vigorous in body,
clear in thought and ready in execution. Then the
whole boy will be educated, and not, as now, but half of
him. Then the denizen of the city may enjoy all its
manifold advantages with the assurance that neither he
nor his descendants will be sacrificing the best half of
the heritage that came from a rural ancestry.

THE CUBAN PROBLEM

L. V. DE ABAD*

Proudhon said that at the bottom of every political
question lies an economic question. This statement, as
a whole, seems exaggerated ; but it is not. It cannot
be denied that the economic factor always intensifies
and complicates any political problem. This is exactly
what happened in Cuba under the Spanish domination.
Spain did not afford a sufficient market to absorb the
whole production of the colony, nor could she produce,
under the proper conditions of quality and price, all that
the colony consumed. Still, she insisted in creating by
artificial means commercial advantages not shared by
other countries, and went so far as to resort to the
anomaly of taking wheat from the United States to her
own ports, turning it into flour and sending it back
again to Cuba as a Spanish product. What is more,
she bought flour by the barrel in this country, shipped
it to the nearest Spanish port, and by the same steamer
sent it to Cuba as a domestic commodity, without even
taking the trouble to scratch the western marks from
the barrels. Thus did the errors of the Madrid govern-
ment contribute in no small measure to the dissatisfac-
tion of Cuba, and helped produce the present political
situation.

Cuba's political problem has been solved by putting
the island under the influence, or, better still, the con-
trol of the United States. This is so because the pro-
digious commercial development and progress achieved
under the Spanish regime was due largely to the fact
that the island, from the day that the American nation

Commissioner to the United States representing the economic
associations of Cuba.

515

516 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

was constituted, was within the reach of the United
States and practically outside of the influence of the
Spanish nation. There may be degrees in the efficiency
of the American control ; many details may be modi-
fied, but there is no reason to believe that the island
will ever be an entirely independent country like
Colombia or Costa Rica, or that she will ever be per-
mitted to unite her destinies to those of any other
nation but the United States.

It must not be overlooked that American statesmen
ever since 1809 have considered Cuba as a geographi-
cal appendix of the southern section of the republic,
likely some time to become a part of the American
union. Upon this policy they have always acted in
the treatment of international questions relating to the
island, and at the Panama congress in 1826 the United
States acted in such a way as to make it impossible for
the island of Cuba to be an independent nation or be-
come a part of any Spanish-American state. Spain, on
several occasions, was given assurance that she might
retain possession of the island, and the principle was
proclaimed from the beginning that "whenever it
would become impossible for Cuba to remain any
longer under the Spanish flag, that day she would defi-
nitely join this republic." In 1823 Mr. Jefferson, in a
letter to President Monroe, dated June 23d, said : "The
truth is that the addition of Cuba to our union is just
what is wanted to make our power, as a nation, of the
greatest interest." This is proved in 1901 to have been
prophetic. Such was the point of view from which the
committee of foreign affairs of the house of representa-
tives of the United States considered the question in
1826, when discussing and recognizing in the congress
of Panama the paramount importance that the intended
invasion of Cuba might have for this country. ' ' The
Morro Castle can be considered as a fortress at the

THE CUBAN PROBLEM 517

mouth of the Mississippi," said the committee in an
official document.

Those who know what has been the policy pursued
by the United States in this matter during almost a
century cannot have any misapprehension as to the
true meaning of the so-called "Platt amendment,"
adopted by the last congress to settle the relations be-
tween Cuba and the United States, and approved by the
president. The island is to-day a military department
of the United States, and its government is adminis-
tered in the last resort by the president as commander-
in- chief of the army of the United States through the
war department in Washington. The rest will come
in due time. For this reason we say that the political
problem of Cuba has already been solved, and that
whatever is to be done hereafter, in this line, is unim-
portant.

But the economic problem is still to be solved, and
all the skill and attention, as well as the good will, of
the statesmen of this country, whose honor is at stake
in this matter, will be required to solve it properly and
restore prosperity to the island. The optimism of the
official reports is not sufficient to convince the people,
who know the truth and can discriminate between
things which are really de jure and those which are
really de facto.

The slight improvement brought about at the close
of the war proves nothing in favor of the methods em-
ployed by the Americans regarding economic matters
in the island of Cuba. Had the Turks instead of the
Americans succeeded the Spaniards, the simple
fact that Cuba had passed from a state of war into a
state of peace would have been sufficient to revive busi-
ness and cause the island to pick up somewhat. Every
country is bound to live, and whatever activity which
existed in it and was paralyzed by war comes back

518 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

again when peace is restored. The statement that the
present condition of Cuba does not compare favorably
with the condition which existed there under the
Spanish flag, in spite of the many deficiencies of the
politico- economic system prevailing at the time, may
wound the pride of the American people, but never-
theless it is based upon facts and figures which admit
of no discussion.

Even if the island were under American control,
what it was in former days, it could be said with reason
that, from the viewpoint of commercial prosperity, the
United States has not done all that was naturally ex-
pected. Considering the great market, the wonderful
enterprise and the spirit of progress in the great re-
public, that country was bound to do better than Spain.

In the eighteenth century, an English minister of
state defending himself in the parliament against
charges from the opposition, said: "We have done
neither worse nor better than our opponents ; " to which
one of the opposition replied: "If you did not come to
do better than we, why then did you come at all and put
us down?"

There is no doubt that the United States can do
better by Cuba than Spain ; but in that case it will be
necessary for the government at Washington to for-
mulate a liberal Cuban policy, and earnestly apply it.

It will be necessary to abolish the present tariff and
replace it by another equally favorable to the interests
of the United States and Cuba. As is shown by the
official statistics, the imports from European markets in
Cuba are increasing every day, while the American
imports decrease or remain stationary.

The value of the imports from the United States
to Cuba was :

In 1899 , $36,773.657

In 1900 32,197,019

Decrease. $ 4,576,638

I90I.J THE CUBAN PROBLEM ttfl

During the period of eight months ending in Feb-
ruary, 1901, compared with the corresponding period
of the previous year, the proportion of the American
imports to Cuba was as follows :

Eight months ending February, 1900 . . . $24,415,649

1901 . . . 19,050,457

Decrease $ 5,365. ^92

On the contrary, the value of the combined imports
from England and Germany into Cuba in the same
period was:

In 1899 $11,855,915

In 1900 13,446,104

Increase $ 1,590,189

To illustrate this point, and demonstrate how the
Spanish-American war instead of favoring the com-
merce of the United States with Cuba has helped the
commercial interest of certain European countries, it
will be enough to state that in 1895 (three years before
the war) the exports from Germany and Great Britain
into Cuba had reached only one- third of the exports of
/poo.

In regard to Cuban exports, the duties which they
have to pay in the United States are so high that the
Cuban producers derive only an insignificant profit, if
any. If the Cubans continue to do business under these
circumstances, it is simply in the hope that better
times will come. The American policy in this matter
has been a great disappointment to the Cubans. Their
dissatisfaction with Spain, so far as the sugar question
is concerned, was not because Spain refused to reduce
the import duties which she levied on Cuban sugar, but
because she refused to make arrangements with the
United States beneficial to Cuban commerce and indus-
tries. Had Spain abolished those duties no relief would

520 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

have been experienced by the Cubans, for they pro-
duced one million tons of sugar, while Spain consumed
only one hundred thousand tons.

This explains why nobody ever tried to have Cuban
products admitted free into Spain; and although the
Spanish merchandise paid no duty, or a very light one,
in Cuba, the Cuban people always claimed that the
natural market of the island was the United States.

It will be of interest to read what the Association of
Planters and Agriculturists of Havana said to the Madrid
government in 1895, just before the revolution broke out:

' ' Near the coasts of Cuba arises the great republic
of North America; its already immense and still
increasing market is almost the only one that consumes
the sugar production of this island. Within its vast
territory all the articles of commercial exchange needed
for the prosperity of Cuba are raised or produced. As
a consequence, close commercial relations must be
necessarily established between Cuba and the United
States. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the force of
that economic law springing out of the proximity of
buyer to seller and of seller to buyer, determined, as
in the present case, by nature herself, in fixing the
geographical positions and climatic conditions of the
two countries. The great interests of Cuba therefore
demand that the government must change the policy of
charging the highest rates of duties on American prod-
ucts, because a tariff war with the United States might
end in the immediate ruin of this island, from the
impossibility of exporting its products to that market.
The government must commence tariff reform at once,
charging all foreign productions alike, with reasonable
protection to the products of the mother country." —
Consular Reports, No. 172, January, 1895, "Sugar
Industry of Cuba."

The above, which was true in 1895, is still true in

1901.] THE CUBAN PROBLEM 521

1901, for although the political status of the island of
Cuba has changed, its physical and economic conditions
have not undergone any change. The growers and
agriculturists were opposed to the ' ' highest rates of
duties on American products. "*' Why? Because " a tariff
war with the United States might end in the immediate
ruin of the island, from the impossibility of exporting
its products to that market" The opposition to the re-
duction of duties on American imports did not origi-
nate, as it can be seen, in Cuba, but in Spain, for the
reason that she was unwilling to lose the large revenue
derived by her through these import duties, and be-
cause she looked with jealousy at the commercial ex-
pansion between her colony and this nation. Now,
Spain is out of the way, and the United States, which
used to complain of the high duties levied in Cuba on
its products, hastened to reduce them as soon as the
military occupation of the island began. If, when Cuba
was under Spanish rule the United States was willing,
in order to secure that reduction of duties, to grant sim-
ilar concessions to Cuban products when imported in
the United States, why not grant such reduction now?
The island needs this relief to-day just as much as she
needed it in 1895, and perhaps much more, because she
has gone through a devastating war.

Many estates have been destroyed, and those which
escaped ruin are mortgaged ; these mortgages, accord-
ing to official statistics published in March, 1900,
amount to two hundred and seven millions of dollars.
At the present low price of sugar — not likely to be
greatly advanced — and with the heavy cost of produc-
tion in the island, the planters will be enabled to re-
store their prosperity only by allowing them a large
margin of profit. To-day many estates do not meet
their expenses, and the best ones yield only a limited
profit.

522 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [December,

The revival of the sugar industry cannot be secured
under the present tariff system, which is simply
"abominable," according to the opinion of its author,
Mr. Robert P. Porter, who, in a report published by
the New York Times of February I5th, 1901, stated:

' ' Cuba can only be placed in a prosperous econom-
ical condition by a treaty or convention with the United
States that will give her planters an advantage almost
equivalent to that given Porto Rico. The existing
tariff relations — although I am in a measure personally
responsible for them — are abominable and cannot exist
long without Cuba rapidly growing away from the
United States, and the commercial interests of the
United States as rapidly becoming indifferent to Cuba.
Existing tariffs give Cuba no advantage in our market
nor the United States any advantage in the Cuban
market. While commercially our relations with Cuba
are the same as with Russia or with Spain, we are gov-
erning the island, deciding the rates of customs duty,
collecting the revenues, valuing the merchandise,
classifying the imports, and running the machine. If,
when we took possession, we had said fifty per cent, off
for all Cuban products imported into the United States,
the two countries would have been nearer together
now. Radical as this looks, the McKinley reciprocity
treaty with Cuba of 1890 established relations nearer
to free trade."

There is no substantial difference between Mr.
Porter's programme and the wishes of the Cuban grow-
ers. The latter quite agree with Mr. Porter that a spe-
cial customs agreement is needed between the United
States and Cuba. It is not necessary to resort to free
trade, as has been the case with Porto Rico, nor can the
rate of fifty per cent, be fixed as a basis for the reduc-
tion of duties both here and in the island, as Mr. Porter
suggests. It will be necessary to study the tariff

THE CUBAN PROBLEM BSI

article by article, and decide in each case what is the
duty most adequate to harmonize the interests of both
countries. There may be some cases in which fifty per
cent, will be too much, while it may be too little in
some others.

Cuba does not aspire to secure the American mar-
ket through a radical and sudden reduction of duties,
capable of disturbing the regular condition of that mar-
ket. A reasonable limit can be fixed for both increase
and reduction.

A special reduction, wisely made, in the Cuban
tariff in favor of American products would secure the
Cuban market to American exports. The merchant in
buying is not inspired by political sympathies or pla-
tonic sentimentalism. In making out his order he
simply takes into consideration the price of the goods
and the freight and duty which he has to pay. There-
fore, and for the very same reason which induced
Cuban merchants under the Spanish rule to buy from
Spain most of what they needed, they would now, if
the present Cuban tariff should be based on a principle
of reciprocity with the United States, buy in the United
States many articles which they are buying at present
from England, Germany, etc.

Cuba desires a place in the American market, not
as a favor, but in consideration of the good and sound
money which she is ready to pay for it. The more she
gets for her sugar and tobacco the more she can invest
in machinery, food, shoes and thousands of articles
that she wants and the United States produces. Super-
ficial people complain that American exports to Cuba
have not been larger since the island ceased to be
Spanish and the import duties on American products
were reduced. What kind of increase in imports could
be expected in a country which had been ruined by
war, and whose exports had dropped from 1,000,000

524 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

tons of sugar to 200,000 tons? Let Cuba sell more, and
she will have then money to buy more. For this, we
say again, she does not need free trade. Free trade
would be not less ruinous for Cuba than for the United
States, both economically and financially. Economi-
cally, because there might happen to Cuban tobacco
what has just happened to Porto Rico coffee ; and finan-
cially, because her revenues would not meet the ex-
penses of her government. She needs a custom tariff
which, while being moderate, would yield sufficient
revenue to meet her expenses.

Cuba does not expect that her sugar and tobacco
will replace the sugar and tobacco of the United States.
The latter does not produce either of these articles in
the quantity required for domestic consumption ; and
so it is that large quantities of both articles which are
produced in Cuba are needed. The United States con-
sumed in 1898, 393 million pounds of tobacco, and im-
ported from Cuba only 4,696,000 pounds, viz. : only 1.2
per cent, of Cuban tobacco enters the United States
in competition with Pennsylvania or Connecticut to-
bacco. Havana cigars, like champagne, stand on their
merits, and the consumption of champagne, no matter
how low the duty levied on it, will never compete with
Kentucky whiskey or St. Louis beer. It is to the in-
terest of the American tobacco industry to secure Cuban
leaf at a low price, in order to mix it with the domestic
leaf and improve the manufactured article.

In reference to the American sugar industry the
case can be clearly presented. The United States, after
so many years of decided protection, under which many
other industries which had a natural existence have de-
veloped in a fabulous manner, had a sugar production
in 1 899 as follows :

Cane sugar 248,000 tons.

Beet sugar 72 , 944 ' '

Maple sugar 5,000 "

igoi.J THE CUBAN PROBLEM

The consumption in the same period was 2, 100,000
tons. Both the cane and maple sugar production has
diminished. As to beet sugar, its production in 1895
was 30,000 tons.* In five years the whole increase
was represented by only 40,000 tons — the production of
two mills in Cuba. The consumption is increasing
prodigiously, still it does not reach three-quarters of
the consumption, per capita, of Great Britain. All this
proves that there is a market in this country for the
whole Cuban production, without injuring American
interests. Since the duty is to remain and will only
be reduced in favor of a territory under the jurisdiction
of the United States the market price will not suffer.

From the above stated facts it must be concluded
that the solution of the Cuban- American problem de-
pends upon a prompt commercial or custom arrangement,
by which Cuba as well as the United States shall be
equally benefited. It is plain that the initiative in this
matter must be taken by the United States.

No commercial treaty can be concluded between
two countries politically situated as are Cuba and the
United States. But an arrangement like the one sug-
gested can be reached very easily through legislation,
without resorting to diplomatic action of any kind.
The congress of the United States must do something
for Cuba ; it can do it easily, and must do it quickly.
The congress of the United States can make special
concessions to Cuba under the character of provisional
assistance, admitting its products into the United States
with a customs reduction under the basis of reciprocity.
Under a modus vivendi of this kind the reasonable aspi-
rations of the Cubans will harmonize with the material
and political interests of the United States.

*In 19001901 the beet sugar production in the United States
amounted to about 86,000 tons; the gain since 1895 being 56,000 tons, or
almost 200 per cent

NEW MUNICIPAL POLICY

The speeches , of Mayor-elect Low and his fusion
colleagues at the recent City Club banquet fully justify
the confidence the people expressed in the election of
November 5th. It has heretofore been the custom for
newly elected city officials to give their first and pro-
found attention to dividing the spoils of office among
the political workers responsible for the result. The
question of improving the public policy of the adminis-
tration and better promoting the vital interests of the
city are entirely subordinated to the idea of rewarding
the workers by a distribution of patronage. In view
of this, Mr. Low's speech at the City Club banquet is
almost a startling departure from established custom.
It announced a new policy in municipal administration ;
it changed the point of view of responsibility of public
officials by announcing that the first and last consider-
ation in every phase of administrative policy and the
appointments to office is the promotion of the public
welfare of the city.

This is something new in political policy, and
especially in New York. Even under the most favor-
able circumstances and with fairly clean motives, it is
usually regarded as legitimate to divide the emoluments
of office among the different elements which contribute
to the success in some proportion to the service they
rendered. When different organizations unite in the
success of an election, it is commonly regarded as good
political ethics to reward each organization according
to its quota of votes ; those which furnish the larger
portion of course claiming and receiving the most con-
spicuous and influential offices— offices that yield the
greatest opportunity for revenue and appointments.

This is the reaction in which fusion movements

526

NEW MUNICIPAL POLICY 527

usually go to pieces. They seldom last for more than
one campaign. However united they may be before
election, they usually disintegrate afterwards, because
they cannot agree on the division of the rewards.
This was conspicuously the case with the last re-
form administration in New York city when Mayor
Strong was elected by a fusion of forces. Every group
which joined in the election demanded the cream of the
offices. Because personally the mayor was a republican
and the republican party contributed a great majority
of the votes, the organization demanded the right prac-
tically to dictate the policy and appointments of the
administration. The mayor refused to surrender to
the dictates of the republican organization, under the
leadership of Mr. Platt and his lieutenants, hence in-
stead of cooperating with and sustaining the efforts of
the administration they became its nagging enemy,
creating distrust and disintegration, which made Tam-
many's return to power easy.

The fusion which won the victory in New York
city on November 5th was of a different kind. It was
a fusion of parties without stipulation of rewards. It
was practically making all the anti-Tammany forces of
the city into one municipal party. The result justified
the effort, and the people of the whole country, as well
as of the city of New York, are rejoicing over the wis-
dom and patriotism of this long desired action.
Whether the republican organization and the other or-
ganizations will continue to live up to this new fusion
standard in municipal action remains to be seen. If
they do, Tammany is forever banished from the con-
trol of New York city government, and the high stand-
ard set by this election will be established for all future
administrations, not only for New York city, but in
effect for the municipal governments throughout the
country.

528 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

In his speech at the banquet, Mr. Low very prop-
erly assumed that the fusion was made in good faith
and will be a permanent feature in municipal action.
He put the public seal upon the non-partisanship of the
movement and the new administration by declaring
that:

" The future of this movement is bound up for good or ill with the
success of the administration that is about to begin. I do not believe
that that administration can be made successful by any use of pat-
ronage, however skillful. If it is to be permanently useful to the city,
this administration from top to bottom and from first to last must be
wholly consecrated to the service of the city as its single servant.
That being my feeling, and that being my interpretation of the platform
upon which we have been elected, it goes without saying that no organ-
ization and no man has any claim for this position or for that. The
city's interest is the sole consideration that can be allowed to decide."

This is a new standard for municipal administra-
tion. Never before in any such clear emphatic sense,
supported by all the elected officers of the administra-
tion, was municipal policy elevated to so high a plane.
In this Mr. Low spoke not alone for himself but voiced
the sentiments of all his colleagues, as was shown by
their speeches which followed. Nor was this said in
any small, fanatical sense. It did not imply, as is
sometimes the case, that political activity is necessarily
an offence to be punished rather than a virtue to be re-
warded ; it did not imply that the new administration
will look with suspicion and distrust and regard as unfit
for office those who take a prominent part in political
work, but it meant that first and finally the test of ap-
pointment shall be fitness for office, capacity and integ-
rity. This Mr. Low made clear by saying :

" I do not mean by that statement that I propose to lean backward
and to select the enemies of this community to carry it on ; I expect to
find my assistants among the friends of the movement that has been
successful. Neither do I mean that it shall be an objection to any man,
large or small, that he has been prominently identified with the political
organization or with the successful canvass just finished. I mean sim-
ply what I say, that such men, like all others, must win their appoint-

1901.] NEW MUNICIPAL POLICY BM

ments, if they receive appointments, upoi^heir manifest fitness for the
work they have to do. But I say, with equal frankness, that when I can
find fitness combined with active participation in the successful cam-
paign in this organization, and its conduct, and its management, it will
add to my pleasure in making such an appointment."

Irl further outlining the policy of the incoming ad-
ministration, Mr. Low boldly burned his bridges behind
him and declared :

"I shall feel myself ashamed if when this government is fully or-
ganized it does not appear to be representative of all the elements that
make up the bone and sinew of the city. It must fairly represent the
different races and the different creeds, the different points of view
which are natural to men of different upbringing, because I take it that
no government can hope to be largely successful and permanently help-
ful to a city that is built upon a single party. It must be catholic
enough in its composition to make all the people who have created it feel
that it is their government and that they have had something to do in
giving it its success What Colonel Waring did in one de-
partment we shall strive to do in many. If Warings were more abun-
dant, I should say we shall strive to do it in all, but at least we shall
try to set up a standard by which future administrations must be judged,

whether they want to or not If the New York of to-morrow

is to be a place where men can live safely and a city to which men can
point with pride, the children of to-day must have good schools and
enough of them, and they must have teachers. They must have play-
grounds somewhat better than the crowded streets, and they must have
dwellings to live in that are something better than death-traps."

This is good sense as well as eminently sound doc-
trine in public administration. It is entirely free from
the finicky, unpractical elements which so often char-
acterize political reforms. It is loaded with the sense
born of practical experience. It is carrying into the
administration the same practical judgment that one
would exercise in the administration of his own affairs.
It is an admirable combination of statesmanship and
business sense. An administration conducted on that
basis is sure to succeed, and, if sustained by the politi-
cal organizations in good faith, it will establish a silent
but efficient revolution in the whole method of muni-
cipal administration.

FAILURE OF THE RUSKIN COLONY

WALTER G. DAVIS

Ruskin — what fine irony in the name ! — that collec-
tion of unpainted, weather-battered, story-and-a-half
cabins down in Georgia, near the Florida line and the
Okifenokee swamp, the homes of those who for seven
years have been trying to prove to the world that the
commtmal life was practicable and that it was better
than the each-one-for-himself existence of modern so-
ciety— on Sept. 5 was sold out by the sheriff. Rus-
kin, after an heroic and at times desperate struggle, has
gone the way of Brook Farm, Hopedale, Zoar, and
other greater and lesser similar experiments by the
followers of Owen and Fourier in this country.

Only four years ago the president of the Ruskin
Cooperative Association, which was then at the zenith
of its success in Cave Mills, Tenn., was assuring news-
paper interviewers that Ruskin had "passed the ex-
perimental stage." Yet at that very time legal proceed-
ings had been begun which ended in injunctions, and
finally in a receivership, inside of the succeeding two
years. Not exactly phoenix-like, but more as an eagle
after it has been mortally wounded struggles to reach
its aery on some mountainous cliff, the colony migrated
to Georgia. Here, one short year ago, one of the
women told the Rev. Charles M. Skinner that it was a
"heaven on earth,'3 and another of the members said:
"What seems like a providence has stretched out a sav-
ing hand every time it seemed inevitable that we should
go under.'' This remark was made by one who had
been with the colony from the first, and who had shared
in the hopelessness as well as the hope which had
marked the three principal epochs in the life of the
movement.

530

FAILURE OF THE RUSK IN COLONY 531

The history of the Ruskin colony in many respects
is like that of the other Utopian schemes which have
been tried in this country in the past 50 or 60 years, all
born of a dissatisfaction with the existing social regime,
all started in the hope of making human life more easy
to live and more worth the living, and all ending in
failure, more or less inglorious. There was the same
promise of hope at the beginning. There was the same
denial of self for the common weal on the part of the
members of the community. There was the same
struggle for life against what seems an immutable law
which predestines to certain failure these artificial and
abortive attempts to hurry along the slow progress of
social evolution. And, finally, there was the shattering
of cherished ideals in the heart-breaking failure at
the end.

In some other respects, however, the history of
the Ruskin colony is unlike its predecessors in the
field of applied socialism. Its tenacity of life was
remarkable. Twice, under conditions which would
have summarily ended ordinary efforts of this char-
acter, it survived. In the first place, an almost fatal
mistake was made in the selection of the first site for
the colony. A stage-road three miles inland from
Tennessee City led the pioneers of Ruskin to what has
been described as "the finest stretch of the hardest-
looking country that lies out of doors." What was
not a sunless ravine was impenetrable thicket. There
was no water on the land and the soil was absolutely
untillable. For over a year the Ruskinites struggled
for their very lives against these prodigious natural
odds ; and, after a period of almost killing hardships,
they decided that unless they found a more favorable
site their Utopia would die even if its founders
succeeded in keeping the breath of life in their own
bodies. Here at the very outset was an experience

532 GUNJON'S MAGAZINE [December,

calculated to cause the scales to fall from the eyes of
ordinary Utopians, but with a heroism worthy of a
better cause the undaunted Ruskinites determined to
start again.

Several more favorable sites were investigated, but
on account of the expense of moving their printin
plant (of which more later) one was selected only six
miles away, at Cave Mills, Tenn., on the banks of
Yellow Creek. The new property was located in a
fertile valley, a veritable Eden as compared with the
first site. Besides the rich soil, the pure and sparkling
drinking water, the sunshine and the pure air, the
place possessed two wonderful natural caves. The at-
mosphere in the caves was remarkably dry and pure
and the temperature was even. This led to the utiliza-
tion of them as a canning and vinegar factory and as a
storehouse for the agricultural products of the colo-
nists. Celery, of which they raised large crops, was
kept fresh and tender for months. In addition to the
food products, gladiolas, cape bulbs and other rare
plants were kept in the cool and congenial atmosphere
of the caves.

It was during this second epoch at Cave Mills that
Ruskin appeared to be a success ; and here again it was
unlike the great majority of similar experiments. At
the end of the first year the officials returned to the
secretary of state of Tennessee a sworn statement
showing resources of over $60,000. By the time the
receivership came, in about another year, the valuation
of their property was placed at something like $100,000.
The association was Discounting its bills and had a
good rating in the commercial agencies. It was at this
stage that President J. H. Dodsdon, whose signature ap-
peared on the labor-certificates which circulated as
money in the colony, just as a national bank presi-
dent's signature appears on our national currency,

FAILURE OF THE RUSK IN COLONY '^

asked that Ruskin be judged by the same standards by
which men judge any venture.

It is not the purpose of this article to detail the
petty quarrels and the bickerings which existed among
the Ruskinites from the beginning. They were due to
the fact that a lot of small people were rattling around
in a big idea. Not that the Ruskinites were illiterate,
although they were not nearly of the same intellectual
calibre as the Brook Farm transcendentalists. They
were mediocre on the average. They had read enough
to become convinced that the present social and indus-
trial regime was not working to the point of absolute
perfection, and they nurtured in their own minds the
specious notion that they were possessed of a superfine-
ness of human nature which would enable them to live
with and for their fellow-colonists according to higher
ideals than those which were realized in the sordid
conditions of life which they desired to leave behind
them forever. They were required to pass a sort of an
examination before they were admitted to membership
in Ruskin, an examination which might easily be
passed by any one who had but a superficial acquaint-
ance with the literature of socialism. This and the
payment of $500 were the only steps necessary to be-
come a full-fledged Ruskinite.

It was only when these internal dissensions re-
sulted in one of the disgruntled Utopians petitioning
the courts for the appointment of a receiver that they
attracted the attention of the outside world, and grew
to be a serious problem for those inside the little col-
ony. Application after application upon one pretext
or another was dismissed by the courts until, finally, in
1899, on the question as to whether the Ruskin Coop-
erative Association had violated its charter as a mining
and manufacturing company by building dwellings,
running schools, a lyceum and a dining hall, judgment

534 G UN TON 'S MA GA ZINE [December,

was rendered against the colony and a receiver ap-
pointed. It was in the same year, by the way, that the
supreme court of Illinois decided that the powerful
Pullman corporation could not continue to own its
workingmen's dwellings, public buildings, parks, etc.,
at Pullman ; and it is rather curious that in the same
year the courts of two states rendered similar decisions,
one operating against a powerful private corporation
and the other against its antithesis — a socialistic com-
munity.

The receivership proceedings swept the bulk of
the colonists' property from them. Here again the
tenaciousness of the Ruskinites held them together.
The burning of the uninsured phalanstery at Brook
Farm took the heart out of the idea, and it immedi-
ately succumbed to the inevitable. In the face of an
infinitely greater misfortune the Ruskinites refused to
admit failure. It was a far cry in something besides
mileage from the cool caves and fertile valleys of Ten-
nessee to the hot sands of Georgia, but the determined
faithful migrated again, this time to Duke, Ga., where
they joined forces with another communistic settlement
then on the verge of failure. Here the third start was
made by the Ruskinites, the place taking the name
" Ruskin," in honor of the newcomers. The soil and
climate of the new Ruskin were not in the least con-
ducive to the healthy development of the plan. For
the first year it made a bit of a spurt, but desertions so
weakened it in the second year that the law was again
invoked by those whose sympathy and fellowship had
been turned to bitterness and enmity by a brief trial of
the plan. The telegraphic accounts of the end, in the
northern papers, were meager, but there was enough
in them to show that the Ruskinites finally had laid
down their arms in the unequal contest against the

1 90i.] FAILURE OF THE RUSKIN COLONY :.:{.-.

natural but unseen forces of social evolution and human
progress.

Under conditions as they are to-day Ruskin prob-
ably never would have been started. It was during the
first pinches of the panic of 1893 that a paper was estab-
lished in Greensburg, Ind., by Mr. J. A. Way land.
The paper was called The Coming Nation. It was bril-
liantly edited, and the seed of its socialistic teachings
fell on fallow ground. The circulation swelled with
incredible rapidity. Its columns were closed to ad-
vertisements, to everything in fact but the doctrines of
the most extreme and at the same time the most vision-
ary socialism. Mr. Wayland, whatever his motive,
electrified his subscribers one day by announcing that
he would make his paper and its modern plant the nu-
cleus of a socialistic community. It was this plant and
the receipts from the publication which kept the Rus-
kinites going during the dark days at Tennessee City,
the first site. It was this plant and the paper which
they saved from the legal wreck at Cave Mills ; and to
get it to their last ditch in Georgia they spent their last
dollar. With the changed conditions for the better in
the South and West, which have come with the re-
covery from the panic of 1893, the paper lost its in-
fluence, and that gone it evidently no longer had the
potency in keeping the colony alive which it had ex-
erted from the first. The end of the movement indi-
cates this. It proves, too, as does the recent failure at
Zoar, that socialistic experiments do not thrive in con-
ditions of general prosperity. The moment that that
prosperity touches the edge of the colony its fate is
sealed.

One of the strangest features in the history of Rus-
kin is the utter inability of the Ruskinites to grasp the
significance of their epoch of success at Cave Mills.
The Ruskin Cooperative Association in reality was

536 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

nothing but a private corporation. The stockholders —
it sounds more capitalistic than socialistic, but it is the
truth — at $500 a share contributed a capital which varied
from $25,000 to $40,000. This capital sagaciously in-
vested in good land, including the natural monopoly of
the caves, and wisely managed, began to act precisely
as capital does when it is sagaciously invested and
wisely managed in the individualistic industrial world.
The Ruskin stockholders got their dividends in the
way of more necessaries and more luxuries of life, just
as the stockholder in any other private corporation
gets the dividends, only in the latter case they come
through the medium of checks or money. Only in cer-
tain phases of the domestic life of the stockholders was
Ruskin purely socialistic. There was not even a com-
mon dining table, in one sense of the word, because at
one time some fifty of the families in the colony ate at
their private tables. Even in their general dining-room
some would bring things in their pockets which the
others would not, or at least did not, have. Taken as
a whole, then, Ruskin, during the only one of the three
periods of its history when it could be termed success-
ful, was considerably more capitalistic than it was
socialistic.

Finally, the end came as it did to most of the
American Utopias because the communal life made the
people lazy. Ruskin, the last Ruskin, was simply a
typical town in rural Georgia. It lacked almost every
convenience of modern life. The people dressed indif-
ferently to the point of slatternliness and the children
ran almost as wild as the razor-backs. The late W. H.
Channing, in carefully selected words, gave this ten-
dency toward indolence as the reason for the failure of
Brook Farm, and he was a member of the community,
too. Mr. Noyes, founder of the Oneida community,
after a personal investigation into the causes of failure

FAILURE OF THE RUSKIN COLONY 587

of these experiments ; Mr. Macdonald, a Scotch Owen-
ite, who visited most of the American communities on
a tour of investigation and research, and Mr. Nordhoff,
who investigated some seventy odd communities, all,
according to John Rae's "Contemporary Socialism,"
agree in saying that laziness is the bete noire of applied
socialism. One who has been through it sums up Rus-
kin and all the rest, and places the day when applied
socialism will be successful only in that future time
when men, manners and morals will be different from
what they now are, when he said: "The industrious,
the skillful, and the strong saw the products of their
labor enjoyed by the indolent, and the unskilled, and
the improvident, and self-love rose against benevo-
lence."

EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS *

Trade unions are one of the features that have
come with industrial progress. Progress always brings
changes, but the new is not always all good ; many bad
things come with progress. We have many evils to deal
with at the opening of the twentieth century that were
unknown to primitive society. The first feature of
progress is innovation : new experiences, new institu-
tions, and the second is to eliminate the bad and keep
the good, if there is any. The first question to ask
regarding trade unions is : Are they essentially bad ?
Are they necessarily injurious to the community, or are
the objectionable features only incidental to the crude-
ness of labor organizations ?

The most characteristic feature of the last half cen-
tury's industrial progress is organization, not merely
labor organization, but political, religious, social and
industrial. The first step toward success in all these
lines has been organization. We seem to be constitu-
tionally afraid of the new. The inventors of the early
machines in the last quarter of the i/th and first quar-
ter of the 1 8th century were mobbed and driven from
county to county, and their machines smashed by the
populace. This spirit, though wonderfully modified
with the growing intelligence of the last century, has
not entirely disappeared. We are nearly as much
afraid of a new organization to-day as our forefathers
were of a new machine.

During the last two or three years we have almost
been thrown into a panic by the new organizations of
capital. The large concerns, called "trusts/' have so
frightened us that the whole nation has been in danger

* Abstract of address delivered by Mr. Gunton before the Manuf ac-
turers' Club of Cincinnati, October i4th.

538

EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 589

of "trust" hysterics. It was made a conspicuous issue
in the presidential election, and from the speeches and
literature given to the people in 1900 one might expect
that unless we immediately stamped out large corpora-
tions we would fall back into industrial thraldom and
political despotism ; yet, time is rapidly working won-
ders ; experience is dissipating this hobgoblin of eco-
nomic superstition, and we shall very soon realize that
we have not lost our industrial opportunities and polit-
ical rights, but are really sharing the advantages of the
new institutions of which we were so mortally afraid.

The peculiarity of this movement is that the labor-
ers who think the benefits of their organizations are so
obvious that they should be manifest to everybody are
among the most unreasoning opponents to large corpo-
rations. They are among those who shout loudest for
the suppression of the "trust" and the " monopoly of
capital." On the other hand, capitalists seem to think
that corporate organization is so natural and necessary
that the reason of its coming should be clear to every-
body. Hence opposition to large corporations seems to
them blind fanaticism. The chief difficulty in the whole
situation is that neither side understands the other. If
the employers knew more of how the laborers live and
what they feel and think, and the laborers knew more
of how the employers plan, risk and work, there would
be more reasonable and harmonious relations between
them.

Are labor organizations a necessary feature of mod-
ern industry? Employers, especially if they have just
emerged from a strike, are tempted promptly to answer,
No. They are disposed to think that as the employer
takes all the risk of his investment he has the right
absolutely to control all the conditions of his business.
From the point of view of the employer this seems quite
natural, yet it is not strictly the case, and it really

540 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

becomes less so as civilization advances. There are
three parties interested in the success and outcome of
industrial enterprises: the capitalist, who invests his
means, the laborers, who do the work, and the commu-
nity, which represents all the ethical as well as eco-
nomic interests of society. It is from the point of view
of the community, because that includes all the others,
that the interests and equities of both laborers and
capitalists must finally be determined. The community
is interested in affording capital the greatest possible
opportunity for industrial success. Civilization largely
depends upon profitable industrial enterprise. If all
the industry of the country should be so conducted that
every night the product had cost as much as it was
worth, there would be no addition to the nation's
wealth. Every day would practically eat up the pre-
vious day's product. That would promptly bring prog-
ress to a standstill. If there were no profits of industry,
there would be no increase of wealth and no progress
in civilization. So that, the public is interested in afford-
ing capital the greatest opportunity for profit-making,
and it is for this reason that the institutions of society
are careful to protect the interests, rights and security
of property and industry.

On the other hand, the community is equally inter-
ested in the material and moral development of the
laborers, because they constitute the majority of the
citizens. While granting and protecting the opportu-
nities for capital to make profit, the cream of which at
first goes to the capitalist, though ultimately it is dis-
tributed among the people, the public insists that
industry shall be so conducted as to enable the laborers
to share in the benefits ; and under democratic institu-
tions public policy insists also that profitable business
shall be so conducted as to command the respect and
confidence of the public. Indeed, this is essential to the

igoi.] EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS C41

stability and safety of the industry. Let public confi-
dence in the methods of conducting business once be
destroyed and public opinion be arrayed against the
business men and methods of the country, and indus-
trial disruption is sure to come.

The public has assumed the right to interfere to a
certain extent, in the interest of labor and the com-
munity, with the methods and conditions of conducting
business. It has established the principle of restrict-
ing the working day, and of insisting upon certain san-
itary and protective conditions which dictate the
amount of air space and the opportunities of exit in
case of fire, protection against dangerous machinery,
and so on. The community has done this in the inter-
est of public welfare, because the employers failed to
do it. So that, it is not true that employers have the
right absolutely to determine all conditions affecting
their workshops, merely because they assume the
economic responsibility of the business. They are
given the opportunity to develop the business and
afforded the benefits of government and society in so
doing, on condition that the laborers and the public
participate in the benefits. The theory that unions are
an unnecessary and injurious interference with busi-
ness because they claim the right to have something to
say about the conditions under which business shall be
conducted, and the idea that employers should make in-
dividual contracts with laborers, are equally untenable.

The development of industry with steam, electric-
ity and the factory system has destroyed the laborers'
power to make individual contracts. Suppose a dozen
of your laborers say they would like to work eight
hours a day, and some of the others would like to work
nine hours, and your machinery is running ten. What
would you say? You would decline because that would
defeat the economy of the machinery in your whole

542 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

factory. You would say : The engine starts at seven.
I cannot have part of my machinery running eight
hours, nine hours, and some more ten. In order to
make the most of this machinery I must have it count
from the minute it starts; all must work the same
number of hours ; all must start at the same time, and
quit at the same time. Why? Because it is the econ-
omy of the situation. No matter how well disposed the
employer was, his competitor would beat him if he
tried any such scheme as that. He could not do it. It
is not in the employer's power under factory conditions
to do that.

The result is he treats all alike. If there are five
hundred laborers, what one does all must do. If one
starts at seven all must start at seven. When it comes
to wages it is the same thing. If they are on piece-
work, and one laborer wants to make a contract for a price
different from the others, say two cents more a dozen,
you say : "I cannot give you two cents more than the
others ; it must be so much a dozen for that kind of
work. If I give it to you I must give it to all." So the
laborer finds he cannot make an individual contract
about his wages. He can get what the others get and
cannot get any more, and is not likely to be asked to
take any less. Laborers know from experience that
what one gets they all get. They are hired in groups,
and therefore should act in groups in making their bar-
gains. That is so obvious a fact that it needs no argu-
ment ; and organization of labor becomes a logical and
necessary fact alongside of the corporation and factory
methods of employment.

Whenever an institution continues regardless of
opposition, and grows with the progress of society, we
may not like it, but we know there is something in it.
When trade unions began, it was a penal offence for
three people to meet and talk over wages, and if they

i90i.] EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 548

did not disperse within an hour they could be shot.
One would think that would suppress any organization.
I think that would stop a corporation. But it did not
suppress trade unions. On the contrary, in 1824 the
whole conspiracy laws regarding them were repealed,
and for fifty years unions have grown despite intense
opposition. The blacklist and many other methods
have been resorted to against them, and still they grow
larger and larger. That is conclusive evidence that
unions belong to the age ; that organization is a part
of the labor side of industrial life just as surely as it is
of the capital side.

Many of you can tell stories that would almost
make one's hair stand up about the absurdity, the ir-
rational conduct, of labor unions, the dictatorial atti-
tude and the overawing coercion. Yes; and if you
would listen they can tell something about capitalists
that would at least produce a sensation. The question
is, are these irrational features an inherent part of labor
organizations? If they are, they must disappear; but
if they are not, then the question is how to remedy the
evils. Are unions growing worse? Are they really
more arbitrary, more despotic and violent than they
used to be ? I think not. It used to be the common
practice to blow the shop up, or put a keg of gun-
powder under the man's house who opposed the union.
That was early English experience, and to some ex-
tent in this country. Those things are becoming more
rare every year, as workmen become more intelligent.
They are not due to unions, but to the perverted ideas
of workmen regarding capital. The average laborer
believes that capitalists do not come honestly by their
money. They learn this, not from their unions, but
from the daily press, ministers frequently, and some-
times from professors in our colleges.

The chief difficulty is that labor and capital are too

544 G UN TON *S MA GA ZINE [December,

far apart. They treat each other as enemies when they
ought to be close friends. The laborers think the capi-
talists stand ready to fleece them at every turn, hence
the duty of the laborers is to injure capital whenever
they can. There is a very prevalent idea abroad that
an injury to capital is a gain to labor. There have
been some experiences recently that have shown the
bad effects of this false position of labor and the good
effects of a reasonable attitude of capitalists. The
steel strike was one. Mr. Shaffer could have had
nearly all he asked for if he had been sensible. He
was not content with having the unions recognized, but
demanded that the corporations become his agent and
compel all the non-union mills to be unionized. That
would have been a catastrophe if the corporations had
consented. It would have been an injury to the unions
themselves. It would have encouraged pure despot-
ism. Coercion cannot be tolerated in this country on
either side. Laborers make no better despots than
capitalists. But the wholesome fact is that the ma-
jority of the leaders of the great unions of the country,
like Gompers of the federation, Sargent of the loco-
motive engineers, Mitchell of the miners, and White
of the garment-makers, did not endorse Shaffer in this
foolish and dictatorial demand. Then Shaffer went
one step farther and appealed to the workmen to repudi-
ate their contracts, because, he said, they did not make
them directly with the "trust." There again the
strength of the great unions was thrown instantly
against him. He asked Mr. Gompers to call out the fed-
erated unions in a sympathetic strike, and Mr. Gompers
refused, because it was asking the men to violate their
contracts. He said : If you make a bad contract, live
up to it, and make a better one next time, and Mr.
Shaffer got no funds and very little sympathy.

This shows that integrity of contract is becoming

igoi.] EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 545

a strong moral principle with unions. Here the great
national unions showed that they would rather lose an
important strike than countenance a violation of agree-
ment by the workmen.

This is the more significant because the unions were
encountering the strongest corporation in the world.
They had been told during an extended national cam-
paign that the first time the labor unions encountered
the steel trust the unions would be crushed and the
men reduced to serfs. Not a few of them believed
this, but with all this at stake the great unions pre-
ferred to lose the strike rather than sustain a policy of
violating contracts. In this instance the "trust " sur-
prised the unions and everybody else by its reasonable
and almost generous attitude. When the strike was
practically lost, a deputation of representatives of sev-
eral of the largest unions in the country, headed by Mr.
Gompers of the federation, called upon Mr. Schwab,
president of the corporation, for the purpose of soften-
ing the blow. They expected to find him in a haughty,
dictatorial mood. Having won the strike they ex-
pected that his policy would be to persecute the strikers
and break up what was left of the union. But to their
surprise they were utterly mistaken. The president of
this great concern, in the hour of victory, set the ex-
traordinary example of showing no vindictiveness
whatever. He simply repeated his original proposition,
that he would recognize the unions wherever tWy were
organized, and where they were not he would deal with
the men directly. His attitude toward labor unions
and his treatment of the deputation, and his liberal
spirit toward both the union and the strikers, was so un-
expected that it converted these union leaders from an-
tagonists to admirers.

That has done more than anything that has hap-
pened in twenty years to make the labor unions see that

546 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

large corporations are not going to be such terribly bad
things after all, and that unions will have a better
chance of fair treatment with big men than they have
with little^men. That shows what can be done by em-
ployers if they act in a spirit of fairness. From my ex-
perience and investigation of this subject, I am con-
vinced that 90 per cent, of the strikes are really due to
the injudicious attitude of those conducting the con-
troversy. They meet in a spirit of belligerence rather
than as conferees, and act as if both were looking for
an opportunity to get on their dignity, and the moment
this occurs reason ceases. They both become rigid
and unyielding; in fact, when dignity enters reason
departs. I remember a case in Fall River, Massa-
chusetts, when dignity, coupled with a little bad man-
ners on the part of a mill agent, threw more than forty
mills into a strike for nine weeks, which resulted in the
ruin of several merchants and two mill corporation
treasurers going to jail for twelve years for misusing
bank funds in order to carry their indebtedness ; be-
sides reducing the operatives to one meal a day for
weeks. This was all because, when a deputation
called upon that mill agent, he refused to talk to them
because they did not work in his mill. The operatives
were holding a meeting that was just ready to compro-
mise, but when this snub was reported nothing could
have prevented a strike and resulting catastrophe to the
city.

The real remedy for these evils is to deal with the
strike long before it occurs. I notice in to-day's paper
that the Episcopal conference which is being held in
San Francisco has appointed a national board of arbi-
tration to arbitrate these difficulties. I have not much
faith in arbitration after the fact. When the trouble is
on and the strike/ is in progress the capitalist is willing
to lose many times as much in a fight as it would have

1901.] EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 647

cost to confer and agree before the strike began. He
is up on his dignity and the laborers are half insane,
the same way; so that arbitration when it comes is
usually calling in a minister or a philanthropist or
somebody who does not know anything about it. When
the strike is once begun, only the losers are willing to
arbitrate and this makes the others less willing. Hence
we hear the employer say : There is nothing to arbi-
trate. It is a fight for the right to run my own shop,
etc. Arbitration after the fact is a failure. If we are
to have arbitration at all, and that is the true spirit, it
must come before the strike, and the arbitrators must
not be outsiders who know nothing of the business and
who are governed by unpractical sentiment, but must
consist of those actually interested in and familiar with
the subject in controversy. And this should come be-
fore passion and feeling have displaced reason.

It is not the extermination of unions but the better
organization of labor that is needed. Small local unions
are usually the most unruly and unreasonable. The
larger £he organization the more effective and judicious,
because it tends to remove the board of managers away
from the heat of battle, which is necessary for cool
judgment. Wise judgment can hardly be expected
from those in the center of the fight. Shaffer, for in-
stance, lost his head, but Gompers and the representa-
tives of the other great organizations did not. I repeat,
the remedy for the defects of labor organizations is more
and better organization. If we should judge all organ-
izations by their defects, we should be opposed to every
form of association.

Take political organizations for instance. In New
York and elsewhere, judging by some of their acts, the
main purpose seems to be the corruption and de-
bauchery of our political life ; yet the hope of the re-
public is not in abolishing party organization, but in

548 G UNTON ' S MA GAZINE [December,

purifying it. The same is true of trade unions. Who-
ever advocates the policy of fighting trade unions to
extermination is advocating blind folly that can only
end in failure.

We all know that neither nature, society nor em-
ployers give anything except in response to some de-
mand. In order to succeed, the demand must be
morally and economically strong enough to make it
more difficult to refuse than to yield. The laborers
can only exercise this influence through organization.
We all know that with a few rare exceptions employers
do not voluntarily reduce the hours of labor or in-
crease wages or make other concessions to laborers.
During the last 75 years, in England and in this coun-
try, compulsory education for working children, fire
escapes, protection from exposed machinery, shorten-
ing of the hours of labor from 12 to 10 and from 10 to
9, and in some cases to 8, have all been secured. We
know that they were not voluntarily offered by em-
ployers in either country. They were all secured by
organized effort, some through legislation, some
through union demands, but all by organized effort.
Employers are not to be especially criticized for that.
Their business is to make profits, and they attend to
that diligently ; but somebody else must attend to the
other or it will be neglected.

We have an example of this now in the southern
states. The cotton factories in the South are very
prosperous, paying enormous dividends. They are
working women and children twelve hours a day. I
was down there last year and saw little tots of seven or
eight years of age working twelve hours a day and in
some cases all night. The employers do not volunteer
to adopt the ten-hour day, nor refuse to employ chil-
dren under twelve years of age, nor insist upon any
educational opportunities, although in every state out-

i9oi.j EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 649

side of the South, and in every Christian country, these
things are vouchsafed to laborers. On the contrary,
the corporations and the newspapers representing their
interests are opposing every effort to secure these con-
cessions which everywhere else are regarded as common
decencies. The only way the operatives of the South
will get what similar operatives in other states have
had for decades is to demand it by some means that the
corporations cannot refuse. This is by organization —
through unions, through legislation — both of which
require organization. To deny the right of organized
action is to prevent the operatives in the South from
ever securing either education for their children or a
ten-hour work day. Yet these employers in the South
are only doing what the employers of England did and
the employers of every state in this country did, —
opposing the concessions to workingmen until the
laborers are able to make their demands irresistible.

The true attitude, therefore, of employers toward
this subject is not to attempt the impossible and resist
the inevitable, but to recognize labor unions as a neces-
sary part of modern society. This is the first step tow-
ards friendly relations, by which the vicious elements,
like the walking delegate, the arbitrary rules of unions,
the dictatorial action of shop meetings, and the like,
can be eliminated from the trade-union movement.
You can never rationalize them by persecution. So
long as you treat them like outlaws they will regard
you as enemies with whom it is not necessary to keep
faith. I venture to say that the large unions will in
future exercise all their power to keep faith with Mr.
Schwab, because he treated them in a fair and friendly
manner. Of course, it is true that before unions can
have the full confidence of employers they must live
up to their agreements; but they should not be ex-
pected to be better than employers in this respect.

550 GUN TON'S MAGAZINE [December,

Manufacturers and railroad corporations do not always
keep their agreements, as we all know.

The next permanent step of progress in this direc-
tion should be a mutual union of organized employers
and organized laborers. This is entirely consistent with
the principle of association already developed. National
organization of manufacturers, national organization of
carpenters, and machinists, and blacksmiths, all are
illustrations of this principle. It could be accomplished
by mutual agreement of employers and organized labor-
ers to form a union in which each should be equally
represented ; not on any proportion of numbers but on
actual equality, and the basis of organization should be
that the unions on the one hand and corporations on the
other agree that no question in dispute should lead to a
stoppage of work until after it had been passed upon by
this mutual organization. In other words, this should
be the court of final appeal for both sides, and the de-
cision should be accepted.

This would prevent rash strikes and do much to
rationalize the conduct of unions. Labor unions would
be compelled to send their best men — the most respecta-
ble and intelligent men — to meet in this body. That
would have an educational effect and promote friendly
relations. Under such a relation the foolish dictation of
the walking delegate would not be tolerated. The
union representatives would not support it. The same
would be true in the case of unreasonable employers,
and there are some. The other concerns would have
no interest in sustaining an employer in acting fool-
ishly. There you would have the machinery for arbi-
trating strikes before they occur ; and not by senti-
mental outsiders but by people whose interests are at
stake. That would be a real step towards getting har-
monious relations between labor unions and employers.
There is no hope of lessening the everlasting fermenta-

i90i.] EMPLOYERS AND LABOR UNIONS 551

tion of the animosity towards capital, which is the most
dangerous thing that is going on in this country to-day,
except by the employers taking a frank, friendly at-
titude towards organized labor. Trade unionists are not
socialists, they are not anarchists, they are the real con-
servative element among the working people. It is
those who are not in the trade unions that are socialist-
and anarchists.

If the employers of Cincinnati should take a step
towards such a new organization, they would become
famous as the leaders of industrial harmony. It would
not take many years of this experience to educate the
best people in the labor ranks up to an altogether
different appreciation of capital and its relation to public
welfare. By this relation employers would come better
to understand the life, the methods and ideas of the
laborers. They would have a better understanding of
their viewpoint, and also the laborers would come to
see employers in a new light. They would learn more
of their actual difficulties and struggles and methods
and better understand their actions. Each would act
as an educational force upon the other. In this way,
through the integration of organization, the most in-
telligent laborers would heip to broaden the view of
employers, and the business sense of the more rational
employers would exercise a moral and guiding in-
fluence over the deliberations and conduct of organized
labor.

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE

MAYOR-ELECT Low has begun the work of official
appointment on the high plane on which his campaign
was conducted. His only selection thus far is the ap-
pointment of Mr. George L. Rives as corporation coun-
sel. It is conceded that in accepting this appointment
Mr. Rives will sacrifice much more than the salary of
the office. This shows what the moral influence of a
clean, dignified municipal administration can accom-
plish. Such a man could not have been induced to
accept the position under a hackneyed spoils adminis-
tration. The best people in the community will be
found willing to serve a high-class municipal adminis-
tration even at a financial loss. They willingly make
that contribution to clean, efficient, patriotic public
service.

THE APPOINTMENTS of President Roosevelt are
commanding universal approval. Even the southern
press is compelled to forget its troubles about Booker
Washington breaking bread in the white house, and
praise Mr. Roosevelt for going right on appointing able
democrats to federal offices in the South when there is
a dearth of equally able republicans. His appointment
of William Dudley Foulke of Indiana as member of the
civil service commission, his action on the Kentucky
and Texas cases, and his decision in the Bidwell case
are eliciting general approval, with the exception, of
course, of the bosses, who have had to sit down and
acquiesce. This shows that, after all, the American
people do really like their representives to show integ-
rity and courage in their official duties.

WHEN MR. CLEVELAND was president there were
some wicked enough to suggest that he did not always

552

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 558

write his own messages. To any who should venture
such a suggestion regarding his recent Founders' Day
address at Pittsburg, the following sentence from that
speech would furnish a crushing reply :

"Tlie mention of the obligations which are suggested by these sur-
roundings as growing out of the possession of wealth and the reference
which has been made to the relationship between a discharge of these
obligations and good citizenship should not for a moment obscure the
consciousness that If the American people are to preserve in their great-
est, usefulness the advantages of their free institutions every individual,
whatever may be his station or situation, owes some sort of duty and
obligation in support of good citizenship — the faithful and honest dis-
charge of which constitutes in its best sense American cooperation."

Referring to Mr. Cleveland's modest reluctance to
speak "on occasions like this," the Commercial Adver-
tiser (N. Y.), sympathetically observes: " He hates this
kind of thing and shows he hates it by the way he does
it, and there are many readers up and down the land
who have humanity enough to hate to see him do it."

A CERTAIN CLASS of journals are assuming to know
just what the president is going to say in his message
on reciprocity. Some go so far as to quote from it, and
they are quite sure that he is going to plead for more
reciprocity treaties. It is quite evident they are guess-
ing, and that the wish is the father of the guess. With-
out assuming the role of prophet, it is safe to say the
president will favor no reciprocity treaties at the ex-
pense of American industries. He believes in the
extension of international commerce, he believes in
American products having a foreign market, but he
will not be found to favor any policy which will sacri-
fice one American industry to furnish a foreign market
for another. President Roosevelt believes in the devel-
opment of domestic industries, and he believes in pro-
tecting American industry at least up to the competitive
level of maintaining American wages. With him the

554 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

promotion of foreign trade by reciprocity treaty comes
second to promoting domestic industry by wage protec-
tion.

A NEW METHOD of dealing with trusts appears to
have been invented by a judge in Cleveland, Ohio.
According to the New York Sun (November 2ist), a
man was taken to court charged with stealing a dollar's
worth of brass from a workshop belonging to the
Standard Oil Company. The company failed to prose-
cute, but the man pleaded guilty to the charge, where-
upon the judge discharged him, saying that "the trust
was stealing right along from the laborers, and it was
only retributive justice for the laborers to steal from
the trust."

We are not informed whether this judge is one of
Tom L. Johnson's creations. If so, it might be well as
an experiment to try the new doctrine upon the Hon.
Tom before applying it to the whole community.

If the courts of this country would only follow this
policy and authorize everbody to steal from corpora-
tions, we should soon have a levelling that might satisfy
the most ardent socialist. The theory that stealing is
the ethical way of distributing economic justice is an
entirely new doctrine in the United States.

THE RECIPROCITY CONVENTION just held at Wash-
ington has greatly disappointed its real promoters.
This movement was started as a new scheme to make
inroads on protection. Ex-President McKinley's last
speech at Buffalo was expected to be the ' 'word to conjure
with," to surreptitiously enlist the support of manufac-
turers for a declaration in favor of a " liberal '' reci-
procity policy, which means abolishing the tariff by
treaty, because it cannot be abolished by legislation.
But the project appears to have miscarried. The manu-

EDITORIAL CRUCIBLE 555

facturers' reciprocity convention refused to countenance
any scheme of reciprocity not consistent with the pro-
tection of domestic industries. This was made clear
and emphatic in the resolutions which were overwhelm-
ingly adopted. Perhaps the highest compliment that
can be paid to this convention is to say that.it earned
the ridicule of the New York Times, which had hoped
and predicted so much from it in aid of the free trade
cause. In its disgust, the Times complains that "no
one in the convention had the hardihood to interrupt
Mr. Clark" and explain that the industrial depression
of 1893-4-5 was " brought on by the republican silver
legislation of 1890." As if anybody were dunce enough
at this late day to take that seriously.

THE REPRESENTATIVES of Cuban industries are
making an urgent plea for special tariff consideration.
It must be admitted that Cuba occupies a different rela-
tion to the United States from European countries in
many respects. The success of free institutions in
Cuba, as everywhere else for that matter, will depend
upon the success of her industries. If we acted in good
faith in giving Cuba political freedom from Spanish
rule, it is our obvious duty to aid the promotion of
Cuba's industrial prosperity whenever that can be done
without injuring American industries. Of course, free
sugar cannot be seriously considered. Yet Cuba may
very properly be treated with special consideration.
The political and economic condition of Cuba, as well
as the ethical considerations, justify giving Cuba the
benefit of any tariff adjustment which will not militate
against American producers of the same commodities.

We publish in this number an article by Mr. L. V.
de Abad, commissioner to the United States, represent-
ing the economic associations of Cuba. Mr. Abad dis-
cusses the Cuban situation with ability and moderation

556 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

from the Cuban point of view. His representation of
the case is entitled to careful consideration by all who
would treat Cuba with economic fairness and neighborly
interest.

THE REMOVAL of Mr. Bidwell from the collector-
ship of the port of New York indicates several hopeful
tendencies. It proves that the authority over federal
office-holders in New York has been removed from 49
Broadway to the white house, Washington, D. C. It
proves that the sensational threats such as prevented
the appointment of Whitelaw Reid as minister to Eng-
land will not work with President Roosevelt. It shows
that instead of dictating to the president, as heretofore,
Senator Platt must "acquiesce," and when he sends his
little Quigg along to be impudent, he hastens instead
of preventing the calamity. All this shows a wholesome
condition of our public affairs, and will greatly
strengthen the confidence of the whole nation in Presi-
dent Roosevelt.

The position of the Evening Post in this Bidwell
affair is just a little perplexing. Of course, the Post is
in favor of clean politics. It does not believe in federal
office-holders manipulating, and much less corrupting,
party primaries. Yet, for reasons best known to the
Post, it has been Bidwell's steadfast backer, notwith-
standing the conclusive proofs of his pernicious and
corrupt political activity. Of course the Post is always
in favor of an "easy " collector, but it was hardly ex-
pected to defend a politically corrupt one. But now
that Bidwell is gone, and Quigg is shown the back door,
and Platt ordered to "sit down," the case may be re-
garded as closed, and dismissed from further notice.

THE OPEN FORUM

This department belongs to our readers, and offers them full oppor-
tunity to "talk back" to the editor, give information, discuss topics or
ask questions on subjects within the field covered by GUNTON'S MAGA-
ZINE. All communications, whether letters for publication or inquiries
for the " Question Box," must be accompanied by the full name and ad-
dress of the writer. This is not required for publication, if the writer
objects, but as evidence of good faith. Anonymous correspondents are
ignored.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS

Cheap Labor Not a Necessity

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I read this morning Professor Gunton's
lecture on restricting immigration. It has seemed to
me that our advance in prosperity and wealth has arisen
from the development of the great natural wealth of the
country in mining and soil. Labor, for which is needed
only bodily strength with the minimum of intellect, is
best performed, not by American citizens who are fitted
for something more interesting and more profitable,
but by Polanders, Hungarians, Italians and the like.
The very performance of their part increases the de-
mand for skilled labor. The acreage of strawberries in
southern New Jersey would be cut down to probably
one-third its present amount if the farmers could not
have Italian berry-pickers. American wage earners are
more profitably employed and are not available. I am
fairly familiar with stone quarries, iron mills, textile
manufacturing, etc. , and I do not know of a single posi
tion which an American man or woman is suited to and
desires that is held by a low-grade foreigner. It seems
to me that these people are performing a useful part to
the common advantage by doing the hard work they
do. and for pay commensurate with the intelligence

557

558 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

demanded. Please explain. Many of the principles
advanced in the lecture are most true.

(REV.) J. F. SHEPPARD, Conshohocken, Pa.

[It is anything but a cheerful view of social progress
which permanently assigns a great mass of human be-
ings to mere physical -force toil, of a degrading and
brutalizing nature. The reason why so many industries
are still so largely of a hand-labor character is the very
fact that cheap, ignorant labor could be had to perform
it. Let it once become necessary, by excluding cheap
immigration, for employers to bid for a higher grade
of labor, and invention will set to work to devise
machine methods to economize mere physical force and
so raise the standard of work in these occupations.
Many employments, like berry-picking, would not
necessarily repel a higher grade of working people but
for the low wages established by cheap labor from
abroad. Better that the public pay a little more in
money for the berries than the far dearer price of per-
manent social degradation for a whole group of workers
in American communities. We cannot, of course, dis-
pense with the necessity of rough labor in any one day
or generation, but the process should be to level these
industries up to the standard of decent and humane
employment rather than keep them forever on the
verge of cheap- labor barbarism.]

Anarchy and Evasion of Law

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — I received your October Bulletin and
MAGAZINE, and have read them with considerable inter-
est. I heartily endorse much that you say, but you
leave untouched one of the most important factors of
anarchism ; you seem to be looking on one side of the
question.

J LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS 559

Anarchy is a disregard of law. Contempt for the
law is no less anarchy because it is found in high places ;
we find all over our land the burden of taxation is borne
by the citizen of moderate means, while the million-
aires, the trusts and industrial combinations are not
paying a tithe of their proportion. Our courts are be-
ing prostituted and the violations of law are winked at,
and our schools suffering for want of revenue, when we
know there is property sufficient if the tax-dodger
should be compelled to bear his share of the burden.
The miserable creature who would conceal his revolver
while taking the hand of our president while he fired
the fatal shot deserves the punishment meted out to
him, but shall we be silent while the anarchist in high
places falsifies his word to evade the just burden of
taxation? He conceals the dagger while he strikes at
the heart of institutions and laws made for his protec-
tion. B. F. WORKMAN, Auburn, 111.

[Disregard of law tends to the undermining of gov-
ernment, whether the disregard is in high places or
low, but in citing tax-dodging and the evasive devices
sometimes practiced by corporations, it should not be
overlooked that the original responsibility is frequently
with the laws themselves. Unwise and inquisitorial
tax systems and fanatical, oppressive legislation, in-
spired by mere political antagonism to corporations or
the blackmailing schemes of political bosses, put a
premium on dodging and evasion and are the real
underlying causes of these admitted evils.]

For Clean Politics, Not Partisanship

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir : — I am in receipt of your Lecture Bulletin
on "Municipal Emancipation," and have gone through
the same very carefully. I am more opposed to trusts

560 G UNTON 'S MA GAZINE

than the lecturer is ; furthermore, I cannot understand
how municipal corruption can be any worse under one
party name than another, and I very much doubt
whether Tammany ever got down to the concrete cor-
ruption equal to the Philadelphia ring.

D. A. A., Hutchinson, Minn.

[Our correspondent evidently misunderstands the
position of the Institute of Social Economics. Neither
the Institute nor its publications have any connection
whatever with partisan politics. The corrupt Quay
ring in Pennsylvania comes in for its share of compli-
ments no less definitely than Tammany. We stand
simply and solely for good government, clean politics
and rational policies of statesmanship, regardless of
party or partisan influences. For an even more recent
example of this, see the lecture of November i$th on
"New Era in Municipal Government," in which the
recent victory in New York is shown to be a triumph
over both the republican and Tammany machines.]

Immigration Restriction

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir:— I congratulate you New Yorkers on the
good work you have done in crushing Crokerism and
Tammany and in supporting Roosevelt.

The last Bulletin put immigration in the right light.
Unless something is done to restrict it civilization must
decline in this country, and, if here, throughout the
world. It is no charity to bring these miserable people
here ; they are better off in their native lands. If im-
migration is now restricted as suggested, we may expect
within a year or two some improvement, and may
eventually hope to assimilate the alien elements the
country has to contend with. If it is not restricted,
we must continue to suffer, more and more, on the lines
we have suffered for the last twenty or thirty years.

D. L. W., Boston, Mass.

QUESTION BOX

Let the Public Support the President

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir:— Do you not consider it the duty of the
decent press and of public sentiment generally to rally
in enthusiastic support of President Roosevelt in the
independent course he is pursuing? Incidents like the
Booker Washington dinner, and his ejection of the con-
temptible Quigg from the white house, when tne latter
tried to threaten him into reappointing Bidwell, are
rare in high executive office in this country. A man
who exhibits the kind of spirit President Roosevelt is
doing ought to be sustained so heartily that the bosses
and rings will simply be forced to get out of the
road, and let the people rule. The president probably
knows that this course will in time earn him the hatred
of all the bosses and rings, and he is relying on the
people to sustain him. Ought we not to do our part in
most unmistakable fashion, to help him establish a new
era of honest independence in high executive office?

W. M. T.

There probably has not been a case since Lincoln
when a president was so completely entitled to the
prompt and enthusiastic support of the whole nation.
President Roosevelt has already sent an invigorating
breeze through the office-holding fraternity, that hon-
esty will be at a premium and jobbery at a discount
under his administration. Nothing has occurred for a
long time that is so wholesome for the public service as
the removal of Mr. Bidwell from the office of collector
of the port of New York. As the protege and political
ward of Mr. Quigg, Bidwell has made the collector's
office a scandal to the nation. It has been a distributing
point of political corruption as well as numerous other
vices, and as such it has had the endorsement of Mr.
Platt. When the case was brought before President

561

562 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

McKinley, and he resolved to remove Bidwell, Mr.
Platt said, " Not while I live," and used all his coercive
power over the president, and at least one New York
daily paper, to have Bidwell endorsed and retained,
and Bidwell received a temporary appointment. This,
instead of admonishing Bidwell, served as a stimulant
to his depraved impulses, and he repeated his tactics of
political coercion and tampering with the rights of
citizens in the primaries. When the attention of Presi-
dent Roosevelt was called to the subject, and upon in-
vestigation he saw the facts, Platt's pleadings and
Quigg's threats were of no avail. Bidwell's career was
promptly cut short and Mr. Platt, instead of saying,
" Not while I live," meekly acquiesced, as cowards
always do. Yes, it is the duty of every patriotic citizen
regardless of party affiliations to hold up the hands of
our new president. Two terms of such a president will
establish a new era in the methods of American
politics.

Northern Capital in Southern Mills

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir: — You have said so much about the long
hours and low wages in the South that one might
imagine the southern people to be a mediaeval com-
munity of mercenary task- masters, opposed to all
progress. Is it not a fact, however, that some of the
worst abuses of the sort you mention are in mills owned
and managed entirely by northern capital? Indeed, is
it not a fact that most of the mills in the South are
under the control of northern capitalists, and the policy
dictated from the North? E. G. P.

Yes, we have criticized the South for its long hour
and low wage conditions, but there was no implication
in our criticism that this was peculiar to southern
employers. On the contrary, .we have frequently

QUESTION BOX 568

pointed out that the English employers during the first
half of the century did exactly what the southern cor-
porations are doing, and that the New England
employers did the same thing. In short, there is noth-
ing peculiar to the South in this. It is simply the
policy of short-sighted capital. The English public
opinion and English parliament were necessary to force
the factory acts upon the English mill owners. Public
opinion and state legislatures have been necessary to
force factory legislation upon New England manufac-
turers, and it looks as if public opinion and state legis-
latures would be necessary to force similar legislation
upon southern employers. Whether the abuses of
child labor are greater in southern mills owned by
northern capital than in the mills owned by southern
capital we have no means of knowing, but that is a
matter of no great importance. Of course, if all the
mills in the South were owned by northern capital,
there is not the least doubt that they would act exactly
as the corporations in the South are doing: namely,
resist the short hour movement just as long as they
could. There is not a ten-hour law in any state in the
union, nor a law limiting the working age of the
children or furnishing protection to operatives against
dangerous machinery, or fire escapes in case of fire, nor
any beneficent feature of factory legislation, that has
not been opposed by the corporations. The northern
capitalists and English capital never acted one whit
better on this matter than the southern capitalists are
doing. If the manufacturers in the South will volun-
tarily adopt a ten-hour system and an age limit for
children, they will simply be that much more humane
toward the operatives' welfare than were the manufac-
turers of either New England or old England. Since
they do not volunteer to do this, there is but one
policy for the laborers and the public to adopt, and

564 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

that is, compel them to do it by legislation, as they
had to compel their predecessors in Lancashire and
New England.

Two Socialist Fallacies

Editor GUNTON'S MAGAZINE,

Dear Sir, — Why do socialists contend that the
" worker " gets less of what is produced by industry to-
day than ever before in industrial history? What
reply can be made to th'e statement that 93 per cent, of
business men fail and the "worker " pays by his toil
for this loss? These are questions I cannot answer
fully in my own mind. If you will help me by sug-
gestions you will do me a great favor.

E. H. K., Whitman, Mass.

It is not a fact that the working and middle classes
are getting a diminishing proportion of the total wealth
produced, but even if this were true it would not neces-
sarily indicate that the poor were growing poorer. Their
condition might be improving very rapidly, and yet at a
less proportionate rate than that of other classes. Under
savage life, where there are no capitalists, the workers
get all that is produced, and it is next to nothing. In all
modern countries the facts prove that wages have won-
derfully advanced throughout the nineteenth century,
and were never at so high a point as to-day. The ag-
gregate tendency of prices, averaged according to the
importance of commodities in consumption, has been
slightly downward, showing a net gain to the wage-
earning classes both in income and the purchasing
power of that income. The investigations conducted
either by our census officials or the special department
of labor at Washington unite in the conclusion that,
through the advance of wages and decline of prices,
the aggregate welfare of the working classes in this
country between 1860 and 1890 increased by fully 75
per cent.

I90i.] QUESTION BOX 565

Statistics showing the proportion of wealth going
to different classes are for the most part uncertain and
incomplete, but one definite indication may be found in
the census statistics of manufactures. In 1880 the total
value of manufactured products in this country was $5,-
349,191,458. The two great items in this were: raw
materials, $3,395,925,123, and wages of labor, $939,462,-
252; leaving $1,013,804,083, which was absorbed in
taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc., and in rent, interest
and profits. In 1890 the total value of products was
$9,056,764,996, of which raw materials absorbed $5,02 1,-
453>326 and wages of labor $2,171,750,183, leaving
$1,863,561,487 for taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.,
and for rent, interest and profits. The total value of
the products increased 69.31 per cent.; the portion
which includes the capitalist's share, in the shape of
rents, interest and profits, increased 83.3 per cent.,
while the amount going to wages of labor increased
131.17 per cent., which is 89 per cent, faster than the
increase in the total value of the products from which
the wages came, and 57 per cent, faster than the in-
crease in capital's share as included in the general re-
mainder.

Stated in another way, wages of labor absorbed 1 8
per cent, of the total product in 1880, and 24 per cent,
in 1890. Deducting the value of the raw materials
used, wages of labor absorbed 48 per cent, of the net
value added by the manufacturing processes in 1880,
and 54 per cent, in 1890. The remainder, including
taxes, insurance, maintenance, rent, interest, profits,
etc., amounted to 52 per cent, of the net product in
1880, and 46 per cent, in 1890.

During the same period the amount of capital in-
vested increased from $2,780,766,895 to $6,139,397,785,
or 120.78 per cent., which is 45 per cent, more than the
increase in profits derived from it. In other words, the

566 G UNTON 'S MA GA ZINE [December,

owners of capital in 1890 found it necessary to invest
about 121 per cent, more wealth in order to secure 83
per cent, more income. The census of 1900 on this
subject will probably show an equally significant
development in the last decade.

It is well known that interest rates are steadily de-
clining, while wages are advancing. Rents are advanc-
ing in some sections and decreasing in others, but the
increase is almost invariably found to correspond with
an increase in the social or economic utility of the real
estate rented. In the one case the rent is more than
offset by the increased incomes of the rent-paying
classes ; in the other, by the increased profitableness of
business conducted upon the land. Profits in many
lines are larger than before, but they do not represent
wealth taken out of labor, since wages are steadily in-
creasing. They represent additional wealth drawn
from nature by the immensely increased effectiveness
of modern productive methods. The true statement,
therefore, is as Carroll D. Wright puts it: "The rich
are growing richer ; many more people than formerly
are growing rich ; and the poor are growing better off."
As to the statement that 93 per cent, of business men
fail, it is merely wild talk, and cannot be supported by
any reliable statistics whatever. The records of busi-
ness failures, from year to year, as given in the ' ' Statis-
tical Abstract," published by the national government,
averaged, per annum, in the last 20 years almost ex-
actly i per cent, of the total number of concerns in the
country. The only way of estimating what proportion
of individual business men go through life without fail-
ing is to "guess" at the normal average length of time
that the so-called "business man" is engaged in the
ownership and management of a business enterprise.
After we have done this, it will still be the least im-
portant phase, because the actual loss to the community

QUESTION BOX 567

is in the proportion of failures to the total business con-
ducted each year, and this, as we have said, is only I
per cent, of the whole. The loss from this source,
therefore, is hardly overwhelming, nor is it necessarily
" made up'' for by the increased toil of workingmen.
The only loss to the workingman as a rule is in tem-
porary idleness, until he can get another job. If the work-
ingmen are able to obtain new employment promptly,
they do not necessarily suffer any loss at all ; the
only exception being in panic times, when the whole
community suffers through some exceptional circum-
stances. So far as " making up " for this loss is con-
cerned, it is frequently not made up for at all to the
man who fails, but in the total wealth of the commu-
nity it is restored by new production, in the course
of which labor receives its wages and capital its profits ;
the increase of wealth through both channels coming
out of nature.

The term " business man " is very uncertain. Only
a small proportion of business men are all of their
working lives in charge of a business concern. A great
many are first employees, then managers, then own-
ers, and only a portion of such a man's active life is
spent as the owner and operator of a business. Probably
it would be a very liberal estimate to say that the aver-
age length of an individual's business career in entire
charge of an enterprise would be 20 years. Very pos-
sibly it is not more than 15 or even 10, averaging-all
together. The average length of human life itself is
only 33 years, and even if we should estimate the aver-
age life of "business men " at 55 years, it should be re-
membered that few become actual owners before 35 or 40.

Now, if i per cent, of all the business concerns fail
each year, and we should assume that each year's fail-
ures are of an entirely new and different set of estab-
lishments, in the course of 20 years only 20 per cent, of

568 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

all the establishments in the country would fail. How-
ever, it is well known that a considerable number of
the failures each year are of concerns or men who have
failed before, so that it would be more correct to say
that about nine-tenths of i per cent, of separate and
distinct concerns or men fail each year. In the course
of 20 years this would only be about 18 per cent, of all
the establishments. Therefore, in the course of an
average normal business career, liberally estimated, the
chances of failure are not more than 18 per cent, in-
stead of 93 per cent. If we should estimate the aver-
age normal "business career5' of responsible owners
and managers as 15 years, the proportion of failures
would be 13^ per cent. ; if ten years, it would be only
9 per cent. It is utterly impossible to estimate accu-
rately the normal length of an independent business
career, but granting the maximum of 20 years the fail-
ures would be only 1 8 per cent. This means that about
that proportion of business men are not sufficiently
efficient as economic managers to keep up with the
march of economic improvement, a fact which will be
greatly modified by the concentration of industry into
more and more efficient hands through capitalistic or-
ganization. It should not be forgotten, however, that
this represents the loss even under competitive con-
ditions, which tend to bring out the very best business
ability. What the loss in waste and inefficiency would
be if we were to put all our industry into the hands of
committees elected by popular vote, instead of men
brought out by natural selection, may well be imagined.
Under such a condition, the whole community, as joint
owners of the industries, would have a loss to ' ' make
up" for that would really be worth talking about.

BOOK REVIEWS

SOCIAL JUSTICE. By W. W. Willoughby, Ph. D.
Cloth, gilt top, 385 pages, $3.00. The Macmillan
Company, New York.

This volume, like so many now coming from the
press, is composed of a series of lectures. In this in-
stance they were delivered at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. As the author admits in the preface, it is almost
impossible, under such circumstances, to have anything
like a consecutive treatise of any subject, and there are
sure to be numerous repetitions. The present volume,
however, is as free from such defects as any volume of the
kind is likely to be. It is a serious discussion of the
abstract theory of justice in society. The author in-
dulges in many definitions and passes in review nearly
all the schools of thought from Plato to Spencer, not
omitting the various representatives of socialism.

Under the head "Canons of Distributive Jus-
tice" he discusses the socialistic ideas of Rodbertus
and Marx, and also Proudhon. He dwells at great
length upon what he calls the "labor theory" of
Henry George and Herbert Spencer regarding the
ownership of land. He reasons well, makes excellent
criticisms, but they are all negative. He reasons al-
most everybody out of existence. He finds them all in
error and closes the book without introducing any one
who is right, or even approximately so. The whole
book is extremely analytical and shows a much greater
familiarity with the abstract philosophers than with
scientific economists. Indeed, he is so analytical and
negative, so entirely free from constructive philosophy,
hat there is an almost absence of real live or human
interest in the discussion. • The whole reasoning seems

569

570 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

to lack flesh and blood. It reduces everything to zero,
which, however cleverly done, is always disappointing.

He seems to lean quite strongly towards the ulti-
mate conclusion that, with all the progress that has
been made, crime has not been diminished ; if, indeed, it
has not increased, which leaves the impression on the
reader's mind that there has been no moral progress.
Here, and it is the concluding chapter of his book, he
rests his case on the comparative number of criminals
to population, and thinks that the criminals keep pace
with the increasing numbers in society. Granting this
to be true, it is not evidence that crime has increased as
fast as population. It is a most unphilosophic way of
reaching a conclusion on the subject. As a matter of
fact, civilization is constantly making new crimes of
old misdeeds, not making more vicious acts. By the
very refinement of the ethical standards, we add to the
criminal calendar. We call things crimes that once
were not regarded as crimes at all. That is simply be-
cause the higher moral standard is more exacting on
the conduct. It will not overlook the same kind of vio-
lation of rights that was not only tolerated but regarded as
normal in earlier periods; and the law takes cogniz-
ance of more of these crimes — that is to say, of acts
which are violations of the rules of society. This is
not because people are growing worse or that there are
more bad people, but, on the contrary, because people
are growing very much better and require a constantly
higher standard of conduct, and hence the list of social
sins is very much increased.

Again, this higher ethical standard and more altru-
istic spirit of modern society takes more minute cogniz-
ance of the disorderly elements of society. It looks
after the criminal classes more closely. More arrests
are made for lesser offences. Hence, by the very
strictness of society and minuteness of criminal institu-

IQOI.] BOOK REVIEWS 571

tions we find more criminal cases out of the same num-
ber of offences that existed than previously. In other
words, society counts the criminals, whereas before it
ignored them. It is very much like the case of the
man who said there were more paupers in Massachu-
setts than in South Carolina. Statistically that was
true, because Massachusetts looked after its paupers,
both counted them and cared for them. South Caro-
lina did neither, and therefore the record showed few
paupers. That did not mean that Massachusetts had
more neglected poor, but, on the contrary, very many
less. This counting of criminals through the statistics
of arrests and sentences for crime, as a guide to the
ethical and social progress of society, is entirely un-
philosophical and misleading. It is no gauge of ethical
progress whatever. Indeed, the increase of criminals
thus enumerated often indicates moral improvement in
the community.

THE NEW BASIS OF GEOGRAPHY. By Jacques W.
Redway. 225 pages. The Macmillan Company, New
York.

The old-fashioned teacher of geography, who was
a stickler for memorizing all the capes on the coast of
Africa and all the bays and sounds from Labrador to
Alaska, will find cold comfort in this book. Mr. Red-
way has given us what may be called a philosophy of
geography, and has filled a subject ordinarily dry with
a lively interest. Under his treatment rivers and
mountains and capes have a new meaning in connec-
tion with the development of society, the course of
commerce and the dispersion of peoples. We are
taught that mountains and watersheds have played
their part in determining immigration, from that exo-
dus which took place following the siege of Troy on
down to date.

572 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE [December,

The book seems to have in it the least bit of the
extreme specialist tinge, and one gets the impression
that the author thinks that climate and topography
have been the twin fates which alone have exercised
the controlling influence over the development of the
race. But there is much food for thought in its pages,
and much that appeals to reason and judgment.

Under the new basis geography applies " to earth-
changes reviewed in the light of systematic processes."
A river is more than a stream of water flowing through
the land. It becomes a means of transformation, carry-
ing away "its basin and building fertile, food-produc-
ing plains of the material transported.'' The water
course and the valley bordering it determine direction
of transportation, lines of commerce and centers of
trade and traffic. The mountain is still a high eleva-
tion of land, but the new geography teaches that it is a
barrier dividing peoples, and determining diversity of
race and language.

The latter part of the book is devoted to hints to
teachers, shows the value of maps and globes and pic-
tures in the class room, and pleads earnestly for more
originality as the qualification of the successful teacher.

One is not obliged to accept all of the theories ad-
vanced by Mr. Redway to appreciate the value of his
book as an agency for broadening the view and equip-
ping instructors more wisely to impart knowledge re-
garding geography.

Some of the author's theories seem to require quali-
fication. He justly refers to the complicated machin-
ery by which the necessities of life are distributed, as
commerce, and holds that the protection of persons,
property and commerce is government, and then he
adds : ' ' The two poles of energy, however, are the man
and the earth, and here is the first fundamental princi-

I90i.] BOOK REVIEWS 578

pie of political economy: the man is the consumer,
the earth the producer."

Technically, this classification is too arbitrary.
There is no such a Chinese wall of division between the
earth and the man. Men, as they exist in civilized so-
ciety, are a good deal more than consumers. In fact,
the earth would very indifferently and inadequately
bring forth her increase, and her production would
scarcely be worth the having, did not^men^add their
productive ability to the dumb forces of nature. That
is an inadequate political economy which fails to em-
phasize the fact that material and social progress has
been, is now and always will be, one constant round of
taking nature in the rough and transforming her from
an unproductive wilderness to the abode of diversi-
fied civilization. It may not have been the author's
intention to give so arbitrary a meaning to his classifi-
cation, but in economics accurate terminology and defi-
nition are all-important to clearness of thought. No
statement of principles on this fundamental point can
be adequate or satisfactory which does not recognize
man as both producer and consumer, and the factors in
production as three-fold — labor (man), capital (utiliz-
ing natural forces), and land (natural resources); the
latter being the passive material to which, in the pro-
ductive process, the two former are actively applied.

THE PROBLEM OF ASIA AND ITS EFFECT UPON IN-
TERNATIONAL POLITICS. By A. T. Mahan, D.C.L.,
LL.D., Captain, United States Navy. Cloth, 223 pages,
$2.00. Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

This book is simply a collection between two cov-
ers of Captain Mahan's review and magazine articles
published since the Spanish war. The captain deals in
a kind of literary artillery more ponderous than inter-
esting or effective. As an expounder of the doctrine of

574 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

manifest destiny, which demands that this country take
a hand in oriental politics in the interest of an expand-
ing commerce, Captain Mahan does not stand alone.
We have lots of theorizers who shut their eyes to
almost limitless trade possibilities at home, in order to
exploit a problematical foreign market, and the author
before us evidently belongs to this school.

Those who care for Captain Mahan's articles in
permanent form will buy this book, but the rest of the
world will let it become a dust collector on the shelves
of the booksellers.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST

Handbook on Sanitation. A Manual of Theoretical
and Practical Sanitation. By George M. Price, M. D.,
medical sanitary inspector, department of health, New
York city. Cloth, I2mo, 317 pp., $1.50. John Wiley
& Sons, London.

The Affirmative Intellect. By Charles Ferguson,
Cloth, i2mo, 404 pp., 90 cents. Funk & Wagnalls Co.,
New York.

Civics for New York State. By Charles DeForest
Hoxie, member of the New York bar. Cloth, 368 pp.,
$1. American Book Co., New York.

History of Intellectual Development, on the Lines of
Modern Evolution. By John Beattie Crozier, LL. D.,
author of "Civilization and Progress," etc. Vol. III.
Cloth, 8vo, 355 pp., $3.50. Longmans, Green & Co.,
New York.

Lessons in Physical Geography. By Charles R. Dryer,
M. A., F. G. S. A. Half-leather, I2mo, 430 pp., $1.20.
American Book Company, New York. Illustrated.

The Control of Trusts. An Argument in favor of
Curbing the Power of Monopoly by a Natural Method.
By John Bates Clark, author of "The Philosophy of
Wealth." Cloth, 88 pp., 60 cents. The Macmillan Co.,
New York.

FROM NOVEMBER MAGAZINES

There is no reason why England should not be as
scientific as Germany, why she should not make a
superb fight for the second place. She has allowed her-
self to be hampered by sheer negligence in the use of

her opportunities Fundamentally it is in the

character and mental attitude of the average English-
man that the causes of inferiority must be sought — in
his intense conservatism and easy-going view of busi-
ness. What the Englishman is to the Italian in energy
and speculative pluck, that the American is to the Eng-
lishman. The American will adopt a thing just be-
cause it is new ; the Englishman will cling to one just
because it is old." — SYDNEY BROOKS, in The World's
Work.

' ' It is proposed to call the Philippine archipelago
by the name of 'The McKinley Islands.' In behalf of
this proposition it is urged that the old name perpetu-
ates the memory of a foreign despot, who never did
anything for the islands but oppress them, and that it
is an unpleasant reminder of the centuries of Spanish
misrule which were terminated by Admiral Dewey's
victory. The new name, it is argued, will appropri-
ately mark the era of liberty and progress which Presi-
dent McKinley's policy is opening for the islands.
Striking as the suggestion is, and attractive as it may
perhaps seem at first thought, the reasons against the
change are too weighty to be overruled. It would be
little short of barbarity for us to do away with a name
which has the prescriptive right of four hundred years'
possession of the field. The Filipino is as patriotically
proud of his name as the American is of his own

national cognomen Surely McKinley himself

would have been the first to raise his hand against a

575

576 GUNTON'S MAGAZINE

proffered honor which would change the map of the
world and outrage the sensibilities of a long-suffering
people. Veto of the suggestion is prompted by good
taste and common sense." — The Chautauquan.

"As to our president, there can be no fear that the
higher interests of the nation will suffer in his hands.
This is true not only because the manner of his ac-
cession is so harrowing and sobering ; not only because
the tremendous power and dignity of the office must ever
impose a solemn mood upon its occupant ; not only be-
cause, as Napoleon said to himself in a great crisis of his
career, he is no longer young ; not only because of his
extraordinary training and special knowledge derived
from experience in legislation, in the national civil ser-
vice commission, in municipal administration (both as
the chairman of the Roosevelt commission of inquiry
and in the police commission of New York), derived
too from his experience in state administration, in navy
administration, and in the exigencies of an army in the
field ; not only because of his wide range of acquain-
tance with affairs of the East and of the West, but be-
cause Theodore Roosevelt, from the beginning of his
career to this present hour, through whatever mistakes
of temperament and of judgment, has ever had as his
ideal all that is noblest in American citizenship. From
the time when, an enthusiastic youth fresh from the
Harvard of Emerson and Lowell, he rushed into the
fierce battle of New York politics, to the moment when,
with a great pang at* his heart, but with unflinching
courage and determination, he took the oath of office as
chief magistrate of the United States, he has striven to
do his whole duty as a servant and, at the same time,
a leader of the people. Honesty and courage, fraternity
and justice, have been his sincere watchwords." — The
Century.

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