Putting aside sentiment and politics, it is plain that this Southern banker has touched the vital point of the whole Southern problem. If the people of the North are wise they will leave the race question to settle itself. Time and the changing economie and commercial conditions will bring about a change in the status of the negro.

THE NICARAGUA CANAL BILLS.

Portland Oregonian (Rep.).

SENATOR MORGAN's bill for the Nicaragua Canal is faulty in that it proposes a sort of partnership between the Government and private individuals in the construction of the canal. The Government, indeed, is to have the preponderating interest, but the "Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua," now existing, is to be continued, with the United States as the leading stockholder. The capital stock is fixed at $100,000,000. Of this amount $70,000,000 are to go to the United States as paid-up stock. To the government of Nicaragua, $6,000,000 of the stock must be given for the concessions, and $1,500,000 to the government of Costa Rica. To extinguish all issues of stock or bonds heretofore made by the Maritime Capal Company, new stock is to be issued to the company to an amount not exceeding $7,000,000; and as the new stock shall be issued the old stock of the company is to be canceled. The seventy millions of stock to the United States are to be issued in consideration for its guaranty of the bonds of the company. Ten of the fifteen directors of the company are to be appointed by the United States, through nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate. It seems the proper thing to pay the States of Nicaragua and Costa Rica for their concessions, by issues of stock, to the amount of $7,500,000. The canal will lie in their territories, and it is best for them to have a continuing financial interest in it. But it would seem best to buy out the old company at once, and be rid of it.

To obtain money for construction of the canal, the company is to be authorized to issue its 3 per cent bonds to an amount not exceeding $70,000,000. These bonds are to be guaranteed by the United States and secured by first mortgage upon the canal and all property of the company. It is believed that the proceeds of these bonds, including premiums upon their sale, will be adequate for construction of the canal. The directors are to receive $5,000 a year each, except the president, who is to receive $6,000, and each director must visit the canal and make personal inspection of the work at least once a year. We have the utmost assurance that if the present Congress does not take the neces sary action, the next Congress will. Our people of the Pacific States have reason to congratulate their fortunes on the prospect that this work will soon be undertaken in earnest.

The objection made by Senator Peffer, of Kansas, that the Government of the United States has no constitutional power to execute this work is the objection of a frivolous mind. It was answered, in anticipation, by Senator Morgan in his speech of December 11. He said: "I am a Demoerat of so strict a sect as to all that relates to the powers that Congress may exert over the States or against the people, that I sometimes feel that I may be dropped from the Democratic procession as it moves in an aggressive course against our reserved rights. But I have always supposed that this vital doctrine of the Democratic creed was intended for the protection of the rights of the States and their citizens within the Union, and were not limitations upon the power of the United States to protect and defend the people and to promote their general welfare in our dealings and relations with foreign peoples and governments. As to these matters, I repeat I would very much regret to be compelled to admit that the United States does not possess powers equal to those of any nation in the world." These are the words of a statesman.

Philadelphia Record (Dem.): The suggestion of Senator Turpie that a commission of three civil engineers of scientific knowledge and experience be sent to Nicaragua to make a report upon the feasibility and probable cost of the canal is entirely in the interest of the country. There is no oceasion for precipitancy in regard to a measure involving an enormous cost to the public Treasury, as well as international considerations of great moment. Neither England nor Germany, nor any foreign power, has the least disposition to undertake the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. France has had quite enough of the Panama speculation. Private capital, both at home and abroad, shrinks from investment in such an undertaking. So nothing can be lost, but much may be gained, by postponing the Nicaragua Canal bill until the Ameri. can people can obtain more authentic information on the subject. But reasonable delay does not suit the speculative interests that are behind this Nicaragua scheme. A board of competent engineers would probably

report, as Senator Turpie intimates, that the cost of a harbor at the Greytown mouth of the canal would alone amount to one-fourth of the sum named in the bill. By the next session of Congress the American people might learn so much from a board of civil engineers in regard to this project that its adoption by the Government would be out of the question.

San Francisco Call (Rep.): Senator Perkins has given the opponents of the Morgan Nicaragua bill some conclusive reasons why the Government should build the canal. If the canal should be built by private companies there would be a repetition of the practices by which so many American railroads are capitalized at twice or three times their cost. And then if the canal is in private hands there will always be danger of a pooling arrangement with the transcontinental railroad companies. The suggestion of the New York Evening Post that no nation ought to seek to exercise exclusive control over the canal is in keeping with the best English opinion on the subject. The best American opinion was expressed by Mr. Blaine when, in his capacity of Secretary of State, he instructed the American Minister to England to inform the English Foreign Minister that foreign participation in the great work would be energetically resisted by the United States Government.

Indianapolis Sentinel (Dem.): Senator Turpie left very little of the Nicaragua Canal steal when he got through with it, and what is left is in a fair way to be removed by others. One of the most remarkable attacks on the bills now before Congress is by Mr. M. H. Moore, who is one of the executive committee appointed at the New Orleans convention to promote the construction of the canal. Of course, Mr. Moore believes that the construction of the canal is feasible, but at the same time he evidently realizes that there is a big steal in the bill under consideration, for he says, in a published letter: "The project is perfectly feasible and simple, though one of great magnitude. The promoter and speculator can make millions, if allowed to manipulate it under this act. The bills before Congress contain excellent provisions if contracted and simplified. This Congress will deserve the greatest praise if it so aids this canal project as to secure its construction, and at the same time prevents any of the Panama Canal corruption."

Houston Post (Dem.): A Pennsylvania paper, the York Gazette, regard ing the canal measure as "the most important that has arisen since the acquisition of Louisiana by the Jefferson Administration," appeals to the Democratic majority to make political capital by enacting Senator Morgan's bill while it has the power. The argument is that if the Democrats neglect their opportunity the next Congress will certainly provide for the opening of this great waterway and the Republicans will thereby secure the electoral votes of some of the Southern and all of the Pacific Coast States. The benefits of the canal, this paper declares, will accrue first to the Southern States, and the Republicans "will seize the chance to make those States Republican." The idea of making it a party ques tion seems to belong exclusively to the York paper. The Southern States would be great gainers by the completion of the canal, but they are not so eager for such a result as to purchase it by their electoral vote.

Baltimore American (Rep.): Senator Turpie is to be commended for his vigorous attack on the Nicaraguan Canal scheme, which its supporters are now attempting to force through Congress. The attempt to stampede the Senate by the cry that Europe is desperately anxious to float the defunct company's bonds and build the canal is a most dismal failure. Nothing would please Europe more, especially Great Britain, than to see the United States inextricably involved in the toils of a colossal bubble like the Nicaragua scheme.

San Francisco Examiner (Dem.): We in California are not disturbing ourselves much about questions of high foreign politics. As patriotic Americans we should be glad to see our flag wave over the canal, but we are more immediately concerned in having somebody take the Southern Pacific off our backs and give us a chance to make a living. The Nicaragua Canal can do that if built as an independent Government enterprise, and not otherwise.

Memphis Commercial Appeal (Dem.): The chief thing to be done is to build the canal. If we cannot do it, we should give others a chance. Civilization demands the waterway and it will be built somehow and by somebody within the next twenty-five years. The question of expense should not be allowed to affect the main proposition. It is true the Govern ment lost money on the Pacific railroads, but there was a real dividend in the addition of about fifteen States to the Union within the short period of a quarter of a century. And we believe the United States Govern. ment can be trusted to administer the canal's affairs satisfactorily. It is on our side of the water anyhow, and we should naturally be jealous of sharing its control.

Railroad Gazette, New York: What we have opposed is the project for plunging the United States into this responsibility in ignorance of what it will lead to, and this opposition is not an unpatriotic but a patriotic act. It is so simple a matter to stop where we are, and to have the project investigated by competent and disinterested engineers, and that step would so effectively disarm the great body of critics of the present action of the friends of the canal, that we are amazed that the canal company itself does not urge this course. The obvious conclusion to which we are driven is that that company thinks it would be easier to unload its assets and liabilities on the United States Government now than after such a fair expert report was made.

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FOR NATIONAL ARBITRATION OF STRIKES.

Philadelphia Press (Rep.).

LABOR COMMISSIONER WRIGHT has framed a bill to be submitted to Congress providing for the National arbitration of labor strikes. It is modeled somewhat after the Interstate Commerce act, and provides for the appointment by the President and Senate of five persons to be known as the United States Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. Only three of the five commissioners can be of one political party, and the commission is specially authorized to intervene in all labor strikes which affect the great transportation or business interests of the country. One feature of the bill proposed by Commissioner Wright provides that during the pendency of arbitration no employer shall discharge an employe, nor shall an employe quit employment or aid or abet strikes without thirty days' notice; and the violation of this provision is made a misdemeanor. This is simply an absurdity. The right of a workingman to cease employment at any time he may deem it to his interest to do so cannot be disputed, unless he shall have executed a contract fixing determined periods for his employment, and no employer can be hindered by law from discharging an employe, unless a special contract between the parties forbids it. This feature of the law is, therefore, not only absurd, but it is a mockery of the rights of both labor and capital. There are many good provisions in the measure proposed by Commissioner Wright, and if accepted in good faith by employers and the labor organizations they could not fail to produce the most beneficent results, but it is simply midsummer madness for any act of Congress or any legislature to assume to control the absolute rights of both workingmen and employers. Conciliation and arbitration are the true methods for the solution of all labor disputes, and to whatever extent Commissioner Wright's proposed bill would promote the peaceful solution of labor disputes it is worthy of the highest commendation; but it can accomplish nothing if it attempts too much by assuming that the Government shall become paternal to the extent of deciding when a workingman shall work or when an employer shall employ.

Milwaukee Journal (Dem.).

THE chief idea of the bill appears to be conciliation rather than compulsory arbitration, and that is the line which will have to be followed if the National Government is to have any influence in settling labor troubles. The idea of compulsory arbitration is offensive both to labor and capital and it would be lacking in power to carry out its requirements in a country of liberty and equality before the law. But experience shows that conciliation properly directed may sweep away all difficulties. The State of Massachusetts has proceeded on this line and its official board has been very fortunate in all its endeavors to settle differences between labor and capital. This is because the members of the board are competent to deal with the problems presented and have the confidence of all the people. It is simply a matter of getting at all the facts in a controversy and presenting them in such a way that they can be understood by the public. When that is done no employer will dare to outrage public opinion by oppression of labor and no labor organization will do the same by insisting upon concessions which are not proper and justifiable. Public opinion is the greatest power in this country and it will settle all such controversies if it is put in possession of the facts. Mr. Wright appears to have started in the right direction and the rest is simply a question of details. But the personnel of the commission must be above reproach.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Rep.).

THE bill that is to be introduced, with the indorsement of the Administration, for the arbitration of all disputes between common carriers and their employes is to be classed with those measures which are the delight of demagogues, and which do not promise any advantage to the country. It is possible at present for the parties to any controversy to call in arbitrators for its adjustment. All that is necessary is for them to mutually

agree upon such a method of settlement, and select the men to act as arbitrators. It is one of the simplest proceedings in the world. Why, then, should the Government go to an expense of $100,000 a year to maintain a commission for that purpose? Such a body could have no more authority than a common board of arbitrators. It could not compel an employer to pay higher wages than he thought he could afford, and it could not compel an employe to accept lower wages than he thought he ought to receive. At the most, it could only act in an advisory capacity and by persuasion. It could not force men to submit their disputes to its judgment. Therefore, it would not answer any purpose that cannot just as well be served without it; and this is a sufficient reason why the bill in question should not be passed, or even seriously considered.

Dallas-Galveston News (Dem.).

THE Compulsory arbitration demanded by some of the short-sighted labor leaders would apply only in disagreements between corporations and chartered labor organizations. The independent workman who refuses to join any such organization would be left free to make his own contract and to stand by it according to the law as applied by the courts. Of course corporations and others would be left free to employ either union or non-union labor. Compulsory arbitration is of course foolishness. There can be no such arbitration. "Compulsory arbitration" is self-contradictory, or if there can be any such thing it is simply a lawsuit, like suits for which ample provision has been made already. But taking it that organizations and corporations may be forced to arbitrate, this does not alter in the least their right to rid themselves of the necessity for doing so. In doing this they will disband on the one hand or refuse on the other to employ laborers who have an extra lever with which to impose objectionable and oppressive conditions. There is something in Commissioner Wright's plan that is especially dangerous to labor unions. Many of them are likely not to believe this until they find it necessary to disband in self-defense.

Philadelphia Inquirer (Rep.).

THE cordial indorsement given by such labor leaders as Chiefs Arthur and Clark, of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors, to the principle of Federal arbitration in all railway disputes, is only another step in the direction of Federal absorption of the railroads themselves. If the Government has the power to intervene when the employes are only exercising their right to make a peaceable protest against an objectionable rate of payment or an obnoxious order, it must logically have the right to intervene when the railway officials have a grievance and ask to have such grievance corrected. And this is only a step or two from actual Federal supervision, to which Federal arbitration will ultimately lead.

Chicago Record (Ind.): Whatever defects there may be in the bill, it at least provides one means by which the decision of labor cases would practically rest with the court of last resort-public opinion. It is for that reason more than another that the members of Congress should give it careful study and consideration.

POLITICAL FUNCTION AND POWER OF THE PRESS. REFERRING to newspaper comment* upon the late municipal election in San Francisco, and especially to the statement that the press of that city apparently had no material influence in determining the result, the San Francisco Examiner says:

"The question why the candidates favored by the press in the late San Francisco election fared so poorly is something like the question why the weight of a bowl of water is not increased by dropping a live fish into it. Ingenious explanations of both problems can be offered, but they are all rendered superfluous by the simple fact that the thing is not true. Mr. Sutro [Populist] had no personal opposition from the reputable daily press, and while the papers did not advise their readers to vote for him in preference to an incumbent who had earned re election, they gave his work against the Southern Pacific a hearty aud generous recognition, without which his success would have been impossible. In all, the Non-Partisans elected their candidates for thirteen executive and judicial positions, outside of the various boards, while the Republicans elected theirs without Non-Partisan aid to eight and the Democrats to five. Considering that the regular parties had all the inertia of vast masses of voters and all the power of efficient political machines to help them, while the Non-Partisans had no help from the habits of the voters, practically no organization, hardly any money, and no means of impressing their views upon the public except through the newspapers, the independent press of San Francisco may feel very well satisfied with its work."

*See PUBLIC OPINION, November 29, page 836,

FREE SILVER COINAGE THE PLATFORM FOR 1896.

Omaha World-Herald (Dem.).

THE Democratic Free Silver League of Nebraska adopted the following silver plank at its June meeting:

We favor the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the present ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth.

Since then Nebraska, Arkansas, South Carolina, Ohio, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Utah, California and Idaho Democratic State Conventions have declared for 16 to 1. Since then all the labor organizations have sent a petition to Congress asking for free silver at 16 to 1. Since then the trans-Mississippi Congress, representing all the States west of the Mississippi River, has adopted the Nebraska platform, only changing "favor" to "demand" to make it more forcible. The Federation of Labor convention has just adjourned after adopting a plank identical with the Nebraska platform in meaning and almost identical in language. Here it is:

Be it resolved, That it is the deliberate judgment of the American Federation of Labor, in delegate convention assembled, that Congress should re-enact the law of 1837, which provided for the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, thus restoring the American law of coinage as it was until 1873, when silver was demonetized without debate and without the knowledge of the American people, and that this should be done at once, without waiting for the co-operation of any other nation in the world.

The Nebraska Democratic Free Silver League was a pathfinder. Its platform will be the platform of 1896, because it covers the ground and speaks without equivocation. The silver Democrats of Nebraska are to be congratulated on leading the way.

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COMMENT ON CURRENCY REFORM.

New York Times (Dem.): If Mr. Carlisle is not a competent financial adviser, and is no longer a skillful and successful Congressional manager, it would not be improper or imprudent for the President to consider in what way the Secretary is of value to the Administration, and, further, whether it would not be feasible with advantage to replace him with some one who has at least the first, and possibly both, of these desirable qualifications.

Bradstreet's: The hearings before the House Committee on Banking and Currency have brought into the foreground one fact, at any rate, namely, that the demand for the retirement of the legal tender notes is pressed by advocates of almost every plan suggested for the reform of the currency, and that it is the most strongly supported of all the currency proposals before the House. Some legislation looking to this end at least should and might be had at the present session. As to the best means of bringing about the elimination of this disturbing element in the currency, opinions are not agreed. Some favor the cancellation of a limited amount at fixed periods, while others suggest the funding of the notes in 3 per cent bonds, the funding to be accomplished gradually, and the resulting bonds to be deposited as a security for circulation.

Petersburg (Va.) Index-Appeal (Dem.): The Washington correspondent of the Baltimore Sun quotes one of the most prominent members of the Banking and Currency Committee of the House-presumably a Democrat-as saying: "The silver men will force the sound money men of both parties to unite in favor of some good financial measure in order to guard against the danger of free coinage, which the silver men themselves keep always before the country." If such a combination could be formed it would be for the best interests of the country.

New York World (Dem.): Congressman Bryan's speech in the House on the currency question is significant as the signal for a separation between those economists who believe that the Government should quit the banking business altogether and those who believe that it should monopolize the issue of currency. It is quite safe to assert that there is no possibility of effecting a reconciliation between these two antagonistic schools in the brief interval before the close of the session.

Senator Aldrich (Rep.): In my opinion we will have no legislation on the currency question this session. Neither Mr. Carlisle's bill, nor any other yet suggested, is a remedy for the existing evils. We cannot undertake experimental legislation. So far as I can see, the present system is good enough for any country. It has given the United States financial status all over the world, and answered every practical need of the country better than any plan ever tried or yet suggested. The majority of the Senate, I am sure, is against any remedial legislation that is not positive and absolute, and for that reason I hazard the opinion that should any bill other than a most positive one reach the Senate it would be defeated.

Pittsburg Dispatch (Ind.): The accounts of the condition of things in St. John's, Newfoundland, since the disaster to the Commercial Bank, are calculated to give an intelligent nation pause in the process of decreasing the security of its circulating medium. "Hundreds of the possessors of the Commercial Bank's notes," it is stated, "cannot use them to purchase food or fuel." After thirty years of experience with money which can always be used the American people do not want to go backward to a system of circulating notes of uncertain value, and liable always to turn into waste paper.

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THE EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO. My creed is that at the moment the negro is intellectually, morally and industrially inferior to the Western Aryan, and that a system of education to be of service to him must honestly, practically and philosophically recognize the difference in the present development of the two races, and that the highest intellectual development and social orgauism are correlative with the widest and longest culture. I maintain that the two races now occupy, and in obedience to an unwritten but inflexible law must follow, two distinct planes of development, a higher and a lower, and that as an obvious corollary the negro, to derive the greatest practical benefit from his enforced tutelage, must not suddenly be thrust upon the higher plane, but be properly instructed upon the line of his own development, within the confines of his own mental, moral and industrial capacities, or, in simpler phrase, that the educating means employed must be adapted to his racial development and character and to the end to be attained. It is not my purpose to deal with exceptions, but with the unadulterated, uneducated negro, who forms the great majority of his class in our Southern communities, where the white populations are frequently in the minority.

We have given him a religion that he cannot fully comprehend, and without proper consideration of his capacity, heredity or environment, offered him an education that he cannot assimilate or adapt to his conditions. In our haste to improve his social rank we have failed to apply the wisdom of Solon, who said of his code of laws that they were not the best he could devise, but the best his people could receive and assimilate. Our system of public instruction as applied to the negro has resulted in giving him false ideas of life and labor. "The Southern common school," says Rev. A. D. Mayo, "especially for the negro, has been a failure, at best sending forth its graduates unfit for the life they must lead, and with no fitness for that to which they blindly aspire." It has been said that "the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is to remark in what degree its functions of preparing us for complete living are discharged." If we have failed in imparting useful practical knowledge of life and its industries to the children of our own race, which we fear to be the case, the mistake is sufficiently serious-to the negro it is disastrous. We have thoughtlessly tried to make a white man of him, and the result is as much of an anomaly in education as the mulatto is in race. We have made a liberal, if an insufficient, and unfortunately misdirected, effort to educate him. We have, in fact, when he has been able and willing to take what we have offered him, educated him superficially and out of touch with his environment. It has been well said by one of the most intelligent and cultivated of his race in reference to this education, that " the effort is worthless which fits a man for conditions which may never fall to his lot and unfits him for conditions in which he is compelled to earn his livelihood and unfold his possibilities."

A few years since the accomplished editor of a well-known Northern journal, after a tour in the South, wrote: "I think the education of the negro along the lines now pursued an impossibility. They should be taught in manual training and industrial schools, and should be made to understand that no man can live without work." The truth and wisdom of this remark has now become painfully apparent in the strong light of wasted opportunity. The negro must be taught to help himself and his self-respect created or aroused; that his economic condition (which, in comparison with his fellow laborer of the North, is not as bad as he thinks and is encouraged to believe by those who know little of it) is due rather to his extravagance and heedlessness in individual expenditure than to a low wage rate. He must be taught and be given the opportunity to learn that the best help for him is self-help, and that misdirected charity in its ultimate result is not only humiliating but pauperizing.-G. R. Stetson, in Liberia (American Colonization Society), Washington, D. C.

MORE than one-fifth of the non-commissioned officers and more than one-fourth of the privates of the United States Army are of foreign birth.

"RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION" IN SABBATH LEGISLATION. American Hebrew, New York: The International Religious Liberty Association has published a little pamphlet of fifty-odd pages, entitled "Religious Persecution," which we would like to see in the hands of every citizen of the United States. It is a bit of political and religious history that should bring a blush of shame to the cheek of every intelligent, patriotic American. Hard as it may seem to conscientious Christians, there is no other term than persecution which adequately describes those cases of the efforts of various State Governments to coerce the conscience of those citizens who, honestly observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, are prosecuted for laboring on the first day of the week. No argument could be so convincing of the unrighteousness and injustice of these persecutions as this record of recent cases.

VARIOUS TOPICS.

Philadelphia Ledger: The Lexow Committee has at last adjourned, after demonstrating beyond doubt that the Police Department of New York is rotten to the core. Superintendent Byrnes made an apparently frank statement before the committee, but it is significant that he acknowledged possession of a fortune of $350,000. He explained that this was derived from lucky investments made in his behalf by Mr. Jay Gould and his son George, Commodore Vanderbilt having given him his first start. It is held that there was nothing in the nature of a bribe in these transactions, that Superintendent Byrnes really invested his own money and that made large profits because he was so well guided by the Goulds. At the same time, those who have hoped to see Superintendent Byrnes come out of the examination with an unblemished character can hardly regard the explanation as satisfactory. If occasion had arisen for proceedings by Superintendent Byrnes against Jay Gould, it is natural to suppose that ordinary gratitude to the man who had made his fortune would have led him to show quite as much consideration for Mr. Gould as the police captains showed to the policy dealers whose places were to be raided. It is quite evident that the police department of New York needs to be completely reorganized and given an entirely new set of traditions.

New York Morning Journal: Mr. Carnegie's reasoning in his endeavor to regain possession of that $140,000 paid to the Government as a fine is that if the plates were bad it was the Government's business to find that out by inspection, and it then had a right under the contract to reject the plates. But if the plates were good enough to take they were good enough to be paid for. And if they were good enough to take and to pay for, and to keep on the ships, there is no case for any penalty, and a fine is a penalty. Mr. Herbert says that Mr. Carnegie paid the fine as a condition of being allowed to go on with the contract. Mr. Carnegie may therefore reasonably allege that the fine was extorted from him. It is also said that he agreed never to sue for it. But it is a man's right to sue for what he believes is his own, and he cannot by any contract made under duress divest himself of his legal rights.

Boston Post: Mr. Carnegie, indeed, was understood to consider himself fortunate in escaping as he did from more serious punishment; and the intimation that he now proposes to demand repayment of the fine is astonishing. Congress has yet to deal finally with the armor plate frauds. The Senate has not yet passed upon the matter. It should deal with them vigorously.

Providence Journal (Ind.): Secretary Morton of the Agricultural Department at Washington believes that the free distribution of seeds by the Government should be stopped, but as the custom is to continue during the coming season he thinks that such seeds as are sent out gratis should be given to those farmers in the Western States who have recently suffered from drought. This may not be a pleasing arrangement to the Eastern Congressmen who have been able to maintain a cheap popularity among the agriculturists of their home districts by a judicious distribution of seed packages in the past, but it will certainly commend itself to the general public.

THE Cincinnati Enquirer asks if the day of political oratory is on the decline; if the occupation of the spellbinders is gone? No, by no means. The man with brains, something to say and having the art of saying it as it should be is still a power and will always have an audience, a hearing and an influence. But the day of the chatterer on the stump has passed by. The press and the mere parrot-talker are so far apart that the first can be depended upon to keep the latter on his due level. But genius and brilliancy, grounded on knowledge and truth, still equip the true orator, who is statesmanlike and broad-minded, and not even the press can disturb his influence.

Philadelphia Press: A new and very stringent compulsory educational law will go into effect in New York State on the 1st of January, and there is much interest felt as to whether it can be enforced. It provides that all healthful and intelligent minors between the ages of 8 and 16 years must attend some school for a specified part of each year, and parents or guardians who do not comply with the law, and persons or corporations who employ such children in violation of the terms of the statute, are liable to a fine or imprisonment, or both. The school authorities in cities and districts are empowered to appoint officers to see that the law is enforced, under the supervision of the city and district school superintendents. The object it is intended to achieve is a commendable

one.

THE Secretary of State has decided that the United States is under obligation to continue the Bureau of American Republics for at least ten years from 1890, if a majority of the nations desire it. As more than a majority have so expressed themselves, Congress will be asked to make an increased appropriation.

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DOMESTIC NEWS SUMMARY.

[From Tuesday, December 25, to Monday, December 31.] TUESDAY.-The tariff question is causing some strained relations between the United States and Spain, and it may be necessary for this country to resort to a retaliatory policy---The commander-in-chief of the Sons of Veterans has refused charters to camps composed of negroes in the South---There were fatal collisions on the Pennsylvania and Big Four roads; a train was wrecked by a broken rail on the Atlantic and Pacific Thirty-five hundred jack-rabbits shot at a recent hunt were distributed among the poor of Denver, Colo.

WEDNESDAY.-Secretary Carlisle has written a letter saying that under no circumstances can he be a candidate for United States Senator or Governor in Kentucky ---The American Historical Association and the American Jewish Historical Society held their annual meetings at Washington, D. C.---The 7th annual meeting of the American Economic Association began at Columbia College, in New York City---Ex-Police Captain Stevenson, of New York, was sentenced to Sing Sing prison for three years and nine months, and to pay a fine of $1,000, for accepting a bribe---The St. Louis grand jury returned 54 indictments for election crimes---Ex-Congressman W. C. P. Breckinridge is lecturing.

THURSDAY.-Ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull, of Chicago, has written a declaration of principles for the People's party-..The Venezuelan Claims Commission held its first meeting at Washington---The annual meetings of the Geological Society of America, the American Society of Naturalists, the American Morphological Society and the American Physiological Society began at the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore---The annual Congress of the American Psychological Association was opened at Princeton, N. J.---The first philological congress ever held in the United States was opened in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia---The American Folk-Lore Society began its annual meeting at Washington---A cold wave and snowstorm prevailed generally throughout the country ---The college presidents of Indiana will not hereafter allow intercollegiate football-At New Orleans "Kid" Lavigne and party were discharged on the finding of the coroner's jury that Bowen, the prize fighter, had met his death by concussion of the brain, produced by striking the unpadded floor of the ring.

FRIDAY.-The President has approved an act to establish a National Military Park at the battlefield of Shiloh---A two days' conference of the leaders of the Populist party began at St. Louis---The 7th annual meeting of the Association of American Anatomists was begun at New York. The 13th annual session of the American Forestry Association began at Washington---The American Society of Church History met at Washington.

SATURDAY.-The Lexow Committee held its last session for the present; Superintendent Byrnes told where his fortune of $350,000 came from; he has offered to resign at the pleasure of Mayor-elect Strong and to help in reorganizing the police department-- Ex-Secretary John W. Foster left Washington on his way to Japan---Ex-Senator James G. Fair died at San Francisco, aged 63 years; his estate is estimated at $40,000,000. SUNDAY.-Dispatches from Florida indicate that the cold wave has been very destructive to the orange and vegetable crops; it is estimated that there were 2,500,000 boxes of oranges on the trees, and that 2,000,000 of them are a total loss; young orange groves are reported to be ruined. ---The Dayton and Michigan elevator at Toledo, Ohio, burned, with 625,000 bushels of grain; loss $525,000.

MONDAY.-It is stated at the Agricultural Department that the Agrarians in Germany are responsible for the boycott of American cattle--Ex-Governor Northen, of Georgia, has managed a movement to send a shipment of corn from Georgia to the starving people of Nebraska--Judge Buchwalter, of Cincinnati, refused to return A. H. Hampton, colored, to the Kentucky authorities until given assurances by the Governor and the sheriff that the man would not be lynched---It is believed that sixteen persons lost their lives at the burning of the Delavan House at Albany, N. Y.

CIVICS.

This space will be devoted each week to the promotion of the object of the American Institute of Civics, "Good Government Through Good Citizenship."

***A twenty-page pamphlet, giving details for the organization of current topic clubs, and valuable suggestions as to methods of work will be seat for ten cents. Address, Extension Department, A. I. C., Box 348, Washington, D. C. For further particulars concerning the work of the clubs see page ii.

THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT FOR GOOD CITY GOVERNMENT.

BY HON. SETH LOW.

Written for the Extension Department.

I have watched with great interest the development of the Institute's plan for enlisting the interest of large bodies of people in the question of city government in the United States. It is admitted on all sides that in eities our form'of government has been less successful than anywhere else. It is also clear, owing to the marked tendency of population to concentrate itself more and more each decade in cities, that the effort to obtain good city government is one of the most important matters that can attract the attention of Americans. The fundamental difficulty in securing good city government thus far has arisen from the fact that by the habits of our people every city is simply a pawn in the game of National politics. The history of New York City affords a notable illustration of this faet. In the early part of the present century, the mayor of New York was appointed by the New York State Council of Appointment. This Council consisted of the Governor of the State and of four State Senators elected by the lower house of the State Legislature. In 1814, this Council of Appointment removed so considerable a man as De Witt Clinton, who later obtained a worldwide fame as the builder of the Erie Canal, from the office of mayor of New York, and replaced him by appointing the then head of the Tammany Society, under an agreement that this gentleman should hold the mayor's office for a few months, when he would be appointed by the President of the United States, Surveyor of the Port of New York, after which still another man should be appointed mayor of the city. This agreement was carried out in all particulars. It appears, therefore, that so far back as 1814, the mayor's office of the eity of New York was used as a pawn in the game of National politics. It is important to notice that this was done at a time when the office was not even elective. There is no question in it therefore of universal suffrage nor of the foreign vote. It simply reflects what I stated at the beginning, that the habits of our people, even in that early day, led them to subordinate the interests of the city to success in National politics.

Now mark what followed. This incident, and others like it, led people to say that if the city of New York could choose its own mayor, such unfortunate results would be avoided. Accordingly, when the State Constitution of New York was revised in 1821, the power of electing the But even the mayor was given to the Common Council of the city. Common Council continued to act in the same spirit, so that after a few years reformers began to say, "If the people can elect their mayor, then the interests of the city will be paramount." Accordingly, in 1835, the mayor of New York was elected for the first time by popular vote; but the people of the city have continued to do precisely the same thing. They have subordinated the interests of New York to success in National politics from that day to this. It is, therefore, a fact of far-reaching importance, not simply that Tammany was defeated in the recent election in New York City, but that this election furnished the first evidence in the history of the city that the inhabitants of New York were prepared to place the welfare of the city above success in party politics. In the early days of the war, George Opdyke, a Republican, was elected mayor of the city by a small plurality, but that was because the Democratic vote was divided between two candidates. The election of last November is the very first in which a Republican has been elected mayor of New York when the Democracy was represented by only a single ticket. In other words, a large proportion of the Democrats of New York, in the recent election, subordinated their preferences in National politics to the welfare of the city.

This growth of non-partisanship in city affairs is one of the most encouraging signs of the times to those who long to see the government of American cities a source of pride, rather than a word of reproach. It is absolutely fundamental; for, if the people vote on National lines in city matters, the officers whom they elect will place National politics first and the welfare of the city second. It seems to me an axiom that the best city government can be had only when the officers of the city place the city first in their thoughts and in their service. The officers of

the city will do this just as soon as the citizens do. As long as the citizens make the welfare of their city subordinate to other things, they must expect the officers whom they elect to do the same thing.

Assuming, then, that this spirit on the part of the people at large must underlie every effort to improve the city government, the next thing to be said is, that our cities, for the most part, in framing their charters have used the wrong model. They have assumed that a city is a little State, instead of assuming that, in most of its aspects, it is a business corporation. Americans look to the Constitution of the United States and of their own State to preserve to them their civil rights. They look to the State and to the United States to protect them in life and property. The locality may, indeed, manage the police force, but it does so as the agent of the State. In other words, a city has none of the attributes of sovereignty which are the peculiar marks of a State. The State may, indeed, use a city as its agent wherever it may be convenient to do so, but the control of the State over the city is so absolute that a city's charter can be revoked by the Legislature at will in most of the cities of the Union. A few years ago, the charter of the city of Memphis was so revoked, and Memphis was governed, and I think still is, by a Commission appointed by the Legislature to have charge of the Memphis Taxing District. On the other hand, the parallel between a city and a business corporation is much more close. The city, like a corporation, has such powers and only such powers as are granted to it by its charter. It must exercise its powers in accordance with the terms of its charter, or its actions are void. Even ordinances of the city government are frequently set aside because in conflict with State laws. In the meantime, the duty of the city to provide good streets, a good water supply, a good sewerage system, a good school system, a good park system, a good health board, a good fire department and the like, is a duty calling for honest and efficient business management.

Now, what is the principle by which great business enterprises obtain efficiency? It is by giving adequate power to the person charged with any duty, and by holding him to a strict responsibility for the exercise of that power and the discharge of that duty. City charters, following, as I said, the idea that cities were little States, have made their charters, for the most part, in violation of this fundamental business principle. Because our forefathers discovered that political safety called for the division of power in States having the attributes of sovereignty, the American people have organized their cities on this line. The usual city charters divide power until no officer has power enough to do very much good, with a further result that the sense of responsibility is wholly lost by individuals, because action depends upon the co-operation of so many different officials. In the great majority of the charters of American cities, the mayor is hardly more than a figurehead, while the administrative work of the city is done by the committees of the Common Council or by commissions practically responsible to nobody. The smaller cities of the country would do well, I think, to observe the tendency which is so marked in all the larger cities to make the mayor responsible through the appointment by the mayor of administrative officials without confirmation by the Common Council. These officials being appointed by the mayor, he must be responsible for them. They ought to be appointed for terms coterminous with his own. In that case, every new mayor has a chance to make a city government at one with itself. Such a system is safe, because, while it gives great power, it lodges a corresponding responsibility upon the mayor where it cannot be avoided.

It is a good rule in cities, as in other departments of life, to let well enough alone, and I should not suggest to any city that enjoys effective city gov ernment a change in its charter for the sake of a theory; but wherever a city is conscious of suffering from a lack of efficiency in its public work, I commend to such a city the idea that I have been enlarging upon. Effi. ciency is not to be had under a charter which violates all the conditions upon which efficiency can be had in a business corporation. The same arrangements which make for efficiency make for honesty. Where bad work or dishonest work can be clearly traced home, if it occurs to a single man, the community has the best possible security for the man's integrity.

It would be easy, of course, to enlarge upon this theme indefinitely. This paper will have accomplished its purpose, however, if it does something to make those who read it feel that the fundamental requirement for good government in cities is a willingness on the part of the people in the city to make the welfare of the city paramount in their own minds when they vote upon election day, and that an important factor in securing efficiency is to have a charter which gives adequate power, and that with the power devolves upon the officials who have it a clear and direct responsibility for its exercise.