committee; the senate concurred in the house amendment to the general deficiency bill, thus passing the last of the appropriation measures. The house, after a debate of four hours, concurred in the senate amendment to the general deficiency bill, authorizing the secretary of the interior, the attorney-general, and the secretary of the treasury to settle, with the approval of the president, the indebtedness of the Central and Western Pacific roads to the government.

July 7.-In the senate a bill conferring upon Adjutant-General Corbin the rank of major-general was passed; an amendment to an appropriation bill was adopted placing $200,000 at the disposal of the secretary of war to enable him in his discretion to transport to their homes the remains of officers and soldiers who are killed or die outside of the United States. In the house the day was given to consideration of measures by unanimous consent; Mr. Payne (Rep. N. Y.) was elected speaker pro tempore.

July 8.-The senate and house adjourned without day.

Various Topics

The action of the senate in providing for the expenses of the commissioners to settle differences with Canada has removed all obstacles in the way of the appointment of those to represent this country.

Detroit Free Press: Mr. Dingley's confident prediction that his tariff law would enable the treasury to show a surplus at the end of the fiscal year, has failed dismally of realization. Taking from the revenue account the money received from the Union and Kansas Pacific debt settlement and from the sale of the war bonds prior to July 1, and deducting from the expense account the extraordinary war payments in the last three or four months of the year, the fiscal operations of the government show a deficit of $43,166,162.

Minneapolis Tribune: Undoubtedly the best direction which the disposition to do something for the soldiers can take is the relief of the destitute families of men at the front or in camp. Families in need of help should be promptly aided, without stopping to inquire the reason for their distress-whether it is the improvidence of the bread-winner in enlisting against advice, or the delay of the government in paying the troops. The fact is, that any family dependent entirely upon a soldier's pay will necessarily need help, for the pay of a soldier is insufficient for the support of even one person.

Philadelphia Press: Over against Gibraltar, on the African coast, Spain has in Ceuta a port able to take in any man-of-war, a hill easily defended, and a peninsular bit of territory which would make a perfect coaling station in the Mediterranean. Its fortifications are antiquated, its defenses are poor, it is open on all sides to attack from the sea. It could be taken before or after breakfast or with breakfast between, a la Dewey, by Commodore Watson. Why not take it? England would be on one side of the straits at Gibraltar, America on the other side at Ceuta. Each flag would keep the other company. Why not Ceuta ?

Baltimore Herald: Sunday as a day for fighting is wonderfully popular. Not only is past history full of instances of battles, fought upon the day of rest, but the United States and Spain are making history now in which the two most important engagements have taken place on Sunday. It seems strange, indeed, that the very day made sacred to the Prince of Peace should so often be that on which war in all its awful power awakes, and, amid the thunder of cannon, hurls thousands of human beings to destruction. Montejo was defeated in Manila bay on Sunday, and two months later Cervera's fleet was blown to pieces off Santiago on the same day of the week.

New York Times: A bargain in which both parties lose money is a pretty bad one. That is just what is happening in the attempt to sell bonds of the United States on the "popular loan plan. The government loses from five to seven millions on the issue of $200,000,000, since these three per cent bonds would have commanded a premium of from 21⁄2 to 31⁄2 per cent if they had been offered in the usual manner to the highest bidder. The small investors, those who subscribe for one five-hundred-dollar bond, lose money because they get only three per cent interest on their investment, while they could get four per cent by depositing their money in a savings bank.

Vice-president Garret A. Hobart in the Cosmopolitan: No member of congress, or government official of any grade, to whom is intrusted the consideration of any question, directly or indirectly, or in any way influenced, or likely to be influenced, for his personal profit or gain through the buying or selling of stocks, can, in my opinion, engage in such speculation without a sacrifice of his personal integrity and a serious impairment of his value and efficiency as a public servant. Such an official is unworthy to hold public office, nor is he fit to be in public life.

H. W. WILSON, in the June Fortnightly Review, London (New York: L. Scott Pub. Co.). Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION

In view of the serious difficulties which face British diplomacy in almost every direction, and the possibility that these difficulties may have to be solved by an appeal to arms, the exact position which our navy holds at the present time, or will hold in the near future, becomes a consideration of great importance. Were Germany the real ally of France and Russia against England, the neutrality of Holland and Belgium would not stand for one week. The channel and the mouth of the Thames would be rendered unsafe for British trade, unless we could enforce a strict blockade. Politically a coali-. tion of Russia, France, and Germany would be immensely strong. The allics would run little or no risk while they would impose the gravest risks upon us. They could threaten us in India, the far east, in the Niger country, Sierra Leone, in South Africa, and probably on the upper Nile.

Nor should we stand favorably from a naval point of view. Pairing off our ships against antagonists of approximately equal value, French, Russian, and German, in the battleship class, we should have no modern vessels to send against the sixteen large and small armorclads of which Germany can dispose. If we ventured to put our obsolete ironclads against the four Brandenburgs, the four reconstructed Badens, and the eight small Siegfrieds, which to-day represent the German battleship fleet, the result could only be a most signal defeat for us, and probably the damage inflicted on the German vessels would be small. They would have the advantage in speed, armament, protection, and age. The opinion of the best-instructed naval officers would not countenance the belief that in battleships we are equal to the three powers. And this leaving quite out of sight the fact that we must be ready to fight them on their own coasts, at the hour which is most convenient for them and least convenient for us. This consideration is too often overlooked. The peculiar position of the empire and our absolute dependence upon commerce force us to assume the offensive. This we can not well do if our ships are only equal in number to the force they are blockading. Suppose-as I have supposed-the following British ships on the one hand, watching the following French and Russian on the other, at Brest:

As they stand the British fleet has an advantage in quality and uniformity, and would almost certainly win-especially against allies. But the coal of the British ships can not last for ever. Vessels must be detached to fill their bunkers every fortnight or three weeks at the very outside. Of the British eleven two would probably be absent at any given moment. "I have no means of maintaining a constant blockade but by thus detaching to keep our water up," wrote St. Vincent in 1798. For water we may now read coal, and with two ships detached from our fleet there are very distinct possibilities of defeat.

So far as is known the discipline is good in the Russian navy; its officers are able and scientific, though, since the recent great expansion of the fleet, there have been complaints in the Russian press that men of very inferior education are being admitted; its bluejackets, largely recruited from the Finnish population, are good seamen, and find no difficulty, when not serving in the Russian navy, in obtaining berths in our merchant service; its ships are, on paper, well designed and heavily armed; its artillery is exceptionally powerful and up to date, now that the old slow-firers are being replaced with quick-firers. Its maneuvering power is a point on which there is no information attainable. Instances of gross cor

ruption and peculation have recently been detected at Sebastopol, and that all is not so good as appears on the surface, may be conjectured.

The French navy of our own day is admirably officered and admirably manned. No real fault can be found with its officers, except that they are generally too old. They are scientific, well-educated, and practical. We are too disposed to regard them as mere theorists, but this view is hardly tenable in the face of facts. In the performance of evolutions, it is a commonplace that the French Mediterranean fleet can not be surpassed-even by a British fleet. In the future war, our fleet and not the French or Russian, will be the ill-officered one, and this, not because the British naval officer is bad or indifferent, but because there is not enough of him. In the two most important grades of lieutenant and sub-lieutenant we are still hopelessly behindhand.

It is impossible to resist the conclusion that our mobilized fleet-as distinguished from the standing or peace-service fleet -will be officered in a very scratch manner, and will take weeks or months to become thoroughly efficient. Furthermore, to commission our whole fighting force will exhaust all our reserves of trained officers, whereas France, Russia, and Germany will not need to draw upon their reserve list of officers for mobilization. This is largely because, while adding steadily to the numbers of long-service men and boys, we have not correspondingly increased the lieutenants' list. Nor do we stand altogether well in the number of trained seamen available, when reserves are taken into consideration, though of late years our position has immensely improved.

There is no reason to suppose that France will have to face any difficulties arising from want of men, whether in the hour of mobilization or under the strain of prolonged war. Far otherwise is it with us. Our naval reserve, we have been told by Mr. Goschen, can only produce 12,000 men in a fortnight. We are not told how these men are to be employed in our mobilization scheme. Are we, for instance, going to wait for their appearance before sending our reserve ships to sea? Then our mobilization can not be completed in a fortnight. Or, are we going first of all to man a certain number of ships with our long-service bluejackets and pensioners; and then, after these ships have perhaps gone to sea, do we intend to recall them, and redistribute their crews, assigning to each ship a quota of reserve men while withdrawing from each ship a quota of long-service men? The perplexities and confusions of such a course are obvious. Or, are we finally going to send the ships last on the mobilization list out with crews composed entirely of reserve men? In that case there will be infinite possibility of disaster. The conclusion appears to be irresistible that our reserve is deficient in three respects-numbers, training, and readiness.

When comparing British and foreign material, deductions should be made in our case for the large number of ships still equipped with muzzle-loading guns. It used to be said that they would have to meet vessels with armaments as indifferent as their own, but such are ceasing to exist in foreign navies. France has recently rearmed, or now intends to rearm, the battleships Courbet, Redoubtable, and Devastation, and the coast-defense ships Caiman, Requin, Indomptable, Terrible, and Furieux. She has reconstructed and greatly improved the Formidable and Baudin. On our part we rearmed the Bellerophor many years ago, and more recently the Devastation, Thunderer, and Rupert. We have also to some extent rearmed the Alexandra. No one disputes the fact that, at moderate cost the Devastation and Thunderer have been made into very serviceable ships. Yet a similar vessel, the Dreadnought, is being reboilered without being rearmed just as the Monarch and Sultan were pulled to pieces, given new engines and boilers, but left with their old guns, after hundreds of thousands had been spent upon them. A policy of half-measures is rarely wise. To keep the old ships as they are and spend the money upon new construction is defensible; to lavish large sums on them, and leave them, in the great essential of armament, just as they were in 1880 or 1875, seems absolutely inexcusable, with the lesson of Manila before us.

One of the most important points in any navy is the battle training, the education in strategy and tactics, given. It is practically certain that our fleets will have to face constant night attacks by hostile torpedo boats at the outset of war. Yet we do not practice these things in our maneuvers-rarely even in our standing squadrons-though week after week the

French Mediterranean and Northern fleets rehearse such exercises. Confidence in ourselves is good and wholesome, but it should not lead us to forget the fact that science has a way of taking a terrible revenge upon those who despise her.

The considerations which I have given render it impossible to believe that we could at the present time confront with success an alliance of the three powers. In the future we shall be less able to fight them, since they are increasing their navies faster than we are increasing ours.* As against an alliance of France and Russia we could probably hope for. victory in pitched battles-though here our margin of safety is perilously small and is not increasing. But we have yet to see whether we could protect our commerce and at the same time watch the enemy's battle-fleets.

Material Germany London Spectator

There is no doubt that the German character has been not a little modified during the last generation. The outward and visible signs of the new life of trade and industry are so manifest everywhere as to astound the observer with the gigantic strides that have been made. We put on one side the economic changes, however, and ask how what has taken place has affected the higher life of the nation. The emperor notes in his recent speech to the actors of the royal theater], as none can fail to note, a marked decline of the old German idealism, the spirit we associate with the German reformation, with Lessing, Goethe, Kant, and Schiller, with the best and most profound German literature and philosophy. We suppose that when the emperor referred to the "un-German ways" into which so many German theaters have deviated, he was thinking of the pessimism of Ibsen and the materialistic spirit of so many French plays popular in the German cities. In philosophy a succession of remarkable men arose who, whatever we may think of their attempts at solving the great riddle of existence, were all animated by a noble faith in man and in the world, who believed with all their hearts in righteousness and reason, and who held fast to what Carlyle scornfully derided as the doctrine of the "perfectibility of the species." It was an era of faith and hope which no mere political events could depress. At first the new hopes for mankind were politically expressed in the sympathy with the French revolution which men like Kant felt so deeply. Afterward the idealist patriotism of Fichte lifted up a nation from the dust to confront the universal tyranny of Napoleon. At a still later time, in the middle of our century, the generous wine of German liberalism overflowed in the "brief but bright awakening." as Mr. Bryce calls it, of 1848. But, whatever the particular objective point, during all this era the mental and spiritual attitude of Germany was one of heroic idealism, of faith in unseen things, of moral simplicity. The better minds of the nation "lived in the spirit," and the rest of the world repaired to Germany to drink of its fountains of inspiration, as the ancient world repaired to the shrine of Greece. The break-up of this era of idealism was signalized by Bismarck's famous eisen und blut speech, which foreshadowed the Austrian and French wars, the growth of German militarism, the mailed fist," and many other signs and portents of the generation which began with Sadowa. Why do these sudden changes sweep over nations? Who knows or who can know? The fact is there, but it is clouded in mystery. There was always a certain unsatisfactory element in German idealism, to which we shall refer presently, which perhaps rendered it too thin to sustain the life of Germany. At any rate, a new era arose, in which the things of the mind were laid aside to make room for the things of sense. As Italy has turned from art to economics and engineering, so Germany turned from philosophy to imports and exports, from poetry to heavy guns, from idealist Liberalism to materialist Socialism.

One of the most interesting German idealists has told us that "philosophy can bake no bread, but she can give us God, The battleships and cruisers laid down by the four powers, or now projected, are for the years since and including 1895-98 :Battleships

England France

Russia

Germany

12

5

5

Cruisers 30

Up to and including 1898 the figures for England in battleships are 32, and in cruisers, 83; for the dual alliance, battleships and coast defense ships, 35 (8 small, 5 moderate-sized), and cruisers, 48. The loss of the Victoria may be set against the loss of Gangut.

freedom, and immortality."

But the German mind turned aside from these transcendent objects of human faith to serve tables"; and the building up of German trade has since the war been the foremost object of German effort. The inherent difficulty of the problem, owing to the geographical position of Germany, has involved a greater concentration of purpose than has perhaps ever been known, and thus the German mind has been entirely overwhelmed in material phenomena. In addition to this, the activity of three generations of the most eager intellectual analysis of the deepest problems that has been known since Aristotle appeared to have led to bewilderment, scepticism, and pessimism. Positive philosophic ideas in Germany are almost extinct; mere criticism reigns; and where two generations ago Germany was inspired by Schelling she is now chilled by Schopenhauer. The universities have lost their profound impulses, and the real-schule has taken a higher place in the public thought than the philosophic lecture room. The rebuilding of German cities on Parisian models, the new and splendid railway stations, bridges, electric cars, handsome shops, and big factories, the pushing of commerce, the large financial operations,- all these manifestations of the new life of the country seem to have crowded out the old, simple, almost bare life of the red-tiled, gabled town or country village in which God was reverenced and the moral law obeyed. Germany is apparently, amid all her outer successes, swamped with the spirit of materialism.

Native Views on the "Bleeding of India "
London Home News

A conference of Indians resident in the United Kingdom was held on June 20, in St. Martin's town hall, under the auspices of the London Indian society, to discuss resolutions dealing with the Indian currency question, the new sedition law, the proposal to deprive Calcutta of municipal self-government, and the "unjust" decision of the imperial government to charge the whole cost of the late frontier war to the finances of India. Mr. Dadabbai Naoroji (who presided over a large gathering of ladies and gentlemen) moved the first resolution, which condemned the closing of the mints, and the contemplated introduction of the gold standard, and affirmed that the real cause of India's poverty was what Lord Salisbury called the "bleeding of that country," which was further increased by the fall in exchange or rise in gold, and that until this "bleeding" was stopped there was little chance of saving India and the empire from serious disasters. He said the superstructure upon which the policy of the government was based was fallacious. Instead of saving the people eleven or twelve crores of rupees, the closing of the mints took that amount three times over out of their pockets while hiding it from the world, with the result that the misery of the people was beyond conception. The whole difficulty arose out of the political condition of India and its subjection to the British empire. As long as every year a certain amount of produce had to leave the country to pay what was practically tribute, no chicanery, no juggling with the currency, would remedy the evil.

The resolution condemning the new sedition law was moved by Mr. Romesh Chunder Dutt, late of the Indian civil service, who said the law contained provisions so antagonistic to British ideas of liberty that the most powerful government seen for many years hesitated to bring it before the British Parliament. While in charge of a large district in India he always felt that his own security and the peace of his district rested on the confidence of the people in the justice of the British government; but he could hardly remember the time when the confidence of the people in the justice and fair play of the British government had been so shaken as in the last two years. The other resolutions, regretting the proposal to abolish the Calcutta municipal council and the decision to charge India with the cost of the recent frontier war, were proposed by Mr. Boze (retired IC.S.) and Mr. H. S. Khalil respectively. All the resolutions were carried unanimously, and it was decided to send copies to the members of the government and also to the opposition leaders.

The Hungarian Press on the Language Dispute
New York Evening Post

As was expected, the Panslavist demonstration at the recent Palacky festival at Prague has called forth a storm of indignation in the Hungarian press. One of the prominent govern

ment organs says that while the festivities were confined to an historic commemoration, the matter was one of purely domestic concern. If the Czechs, however, in their quality of Slavs, desire under the protection of Russia to impose their policy upon the dual monarchy, the Hungarians must emphatically protest. The very foundation of the dual system begins to be shaken at the moment when Austrian official policy fails to pay due regard to its fundamental condition or proves unable to enforce proper respect for it. It complains that the Prague celebration was exploited for political ends with a view not only to bring about a complete reversal of domestic relations in Austria, but also to lower the prestige of Hungary, damage the dual system and the international position of the monarchy, and compromise the triple alliance. Either the dual system and the dreibund are still in force, it argues, or they have ceased to exist. If the former be the case the Austrian government must not merely observe the letter of the constitution, but its spirit. If it be decided to govern Austria on Slav lines, the present is a good opportunity for the attempt. If not, immediate steps must be taken to restore the unity of the empire. If things continue as they are, Hungary must throw the whole weight of her influence against a policy which threatens destruction not only to Austria, but the entire monarchy.

Various Topics

The Transvaal volksraad has passed the aliens' expulsion law amendment bill, which provides that offenders can only appeal to the executive council.

Lord George Hamilton, secretary of state for India, speaking last week at Chiswick, referred favorably to the Anglo-American friendship. He said: "The moment the United States goes outside of North America and becomes in any way associated with colonial dominions it will find her interests almost identical with the interest of Great Britain."

In the French chamber of deputies, July 7, replying to an inquiry of Monsieur Castellin on the subject of Alfred Dreyfus, the prisoner of Devil's Island, the minister for war, M. Cavaignac, made an exhaustive statement, adducing what he claimed to be the strongest evidence of the guilt of Dreyfus, some of it in the form of official documents, which he read. The chamber, by a vote of 572 to 2, approved the minister's statement and ordered it to be printed and placarded throughout France.

A dispatch from Hong Kong, July 8, says that the British gunboat Tweed has started for Woo-Chow, on the West river, about one hundred and eighty miles above Canton, from which city the news of the rebellion in the Province of Kuang-Si was recently received. The rebellion is spreading. The towns of YunghSien and Pei-Liuh have fallen, Swa-Chou and Woo-Onou are threatened, and disturbances are reported to have broken out at Chin-Kiang-Fu, on the Yang-tse. The Chinese are impeding navigation.

A Reuter's telegram, dated Amsterdam, June 16, says the Dutch East Indian loan of 55,000,000 florins was agreed to by the first and second chambers of the states general. In accordance with the decision of the minister of finance, the loan will be floated by a group of bankers, including Messrs. Texeira de Mattos Brothers, of Amsterdam; Messrs. Speyer Brothers, of London; the Twentsche bank, Vereeniging; and Messrs. Wertheim and Gompertz, of Amsterdam.

The Earl of Rosebery, presiding at a lecture given at the colonial institute, London, July 7, on The English-Speaking Brotherhood,' warmly advocated an Anglo-American understanding, which would be fraught, he said, with the best destinies for mankind. "We must be prepared to hold our own, though not necessarily by war, in the great struggle for the division of the world which seems pending. Naturally we look upon the United States as seeking interests and having sympathies that coincide with our own, but it is unnecessary to draw a formal bond of alliance."

London Correspondent New York Post, July 9: There is yet a startling tale to be told of the Jameson raid, if the little group of men who know of it ever receive sufficient inducement to tell. This week another little corner of the veil has been drawn aside by a report of the house of commons committee on public accounts. The report conveys the surprising information that the British officers taking part in the raid, though struck off the army list, have been awarded substantial allowances, namely, $1,500 annually of retired pay to Colonel Rhodes, and gratuities of $6,000 to Captain White. $8,000 to Captain Raleigh Grey. $8,750 to Major White, and $5,565 to Major Willoughby. These items provoked a heated battle between the commons committee and the ministry, which believers in colonial office complicity in the raid will find most suggestive.

FLEMING

SOCIOLOGICAL

LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE POOR

A Study of New York Slums

Dr. A. S. DANIEL, in Municipal Affairs, New York. Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION

My studies have been made almost entirely on the east side, between Fourteenth and Bayard streets, Elizabeth street and the East river. This section of the city, notorious for its overcrowded condition, contains representatives from all over the world. Indeed, in this region, in half an hour's walk, one will find signs in the Hebrew, Greek, German, Russian, Hungarian, and Italian languages more frequently than in the English, and in some parts of this district one may spend a day and not hear one word of English; a section containing very ignorant and very poor people, many sweatshops, many beer saloons, many Raines law hotels." Each nationality is as distinct as in its own native home over the sea. quires to be studied entirely apart from the others. The greatest problem which presents itself is how to make this most interesting mass of humanity good American citizens, with a strong civic patriotism. That they can become good Americans, I have not the shadow of a doubt.

Each re

How do these people exist, and under what circumstances? What is their daily life? The most important item in their life is work, skilled or unskilled, regular or irregular. As to the expenses of an ordinary family (among the families treated at their homes for a variety of diseases in 1891), we found that the average income was $5.99 per week (this never steady); the average rent $8.62 per month, and the average family to be supported to consist of four. In 1897 I found the average income (still irregular) to be $5.23 per week and the average rent $9.75 per month. The rent, therefore, is the largest single expenditure.

Food comes next. The amount expended is very uncertain and an estimate is very difficult to secure. The people do not keep any accounts and can not tell themselves. I can not state with any degree of precision the amount of money expended for food. It has been variously stated at from 9 to II cents per day, but it is almost impossible accurately to estimate this. I have known families who for weeks have existed on an expenditure of 5 cents per day for food. The amount and character of the food varies with the nationality and the amount of total income. Women (among the Hebrews) tell me that they can give a morning and evening meal, the latter consisting of soup, bread, coffee, and a vegetable, for $3 per month per person, and make money.

Clothing is an item of much less importance in the cost of living than is food. A woman can buy an entire new suit of clothing, from hat to shoes, for $5. Many never wear a new pair of shoes, but buy second-hand shoes, which, for a woman, not infrequently will last three or four months. As with food, it is almost impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the amount of money expended for clothing. It has been estimated at about $10 per annum for each adult. But I think that it frequently fails far short of this amount. Another item of expense, especially among the Germans and Irish, is the insurance money. Every person in the family over one year is insured against death. Five cents per week is paid for the children and ten cents for the adults. Thus from fifty to sixty cents per week is expended for this purpose. Among the Jews there are societies which insure not only against death, but against sickness. They usually include only the men in the family, rarely the wife and never the children. The dues range from $1 a month upward. The other nationalities turn to the city for help to bury their dead.

While for 1897 I found the actual income to be $5.23 if all working members (not including women and children) were steadily at work, the possible income would be $13.42 per week. The average number of persons to be supported in each family was 5.6; the average in each family under fourteen years, 2.7. It will plainly be seen that if these families had steady work, the problem of the poor would not be as great. For the past five years I have taken statistics of 12,519 wage

earners connected with families who have applied to the New York infirmary for women and children for free medical treatment at their homes. Of the 12,519 persons, 2,830 worked regularly throughout the year, or with only an occasional idle week. Of these, 1,564 were skilled workers. The normal condition of this class is very good. The position of the unskilled laborer is most serious. It is he who is most frequently idle, and often through no fault of his own. Each laborer believes that fifty men are ready to take his place if he falls out. The first and perhaps greatest evil which directly follows, is that this uncertainty of keeping "a steady job" forces the women and children to work. If there are children old enough to work, they begin before the women do. For the past five years I have found, by our statistics, that in three-fourths of the families visited the women assist in the support of the family (by working for money). This number does not include those who take boarders. Sewing in some form is the principal occupation. We have found that one-sixth of the families had incomes increased by the work of children under fourteen years of age, while, in a little less than one-third of the families, persons between fourteen and eighteen years were working. The children work in stores, run errands, sell newspapers, peddle, and, wherever a woman is working at home, the child helps at that work. Among the Italians, all the buttons are sewed on the trousers by children. Both boys and girls of five and six years can do this work as well as their elders. If this meant only an hour or two after school, no harm would be done, but when the time is extended, at times indefinitely, and the children not allowed to attend school or play in the open air, even of the streets, their health suffers, and they are denied their right to an education.

Overcrowding is a direct result of the small or irregular earnings of the man. When the rent for one month exceeds the average weekly earnings, the family is forced to other measures to pay the rent. Thus, one of two things is donecither they take lodgers or boarders, or two or more families Occupy an apartment intended for one family. But even when neither lodgers, boarders, or two families are found the overcrowding is a serious question. Among 726 families, 505 lived in two rooms only, 41 families in one room, and 144 families had three rooms. One can hardly realize what this means for a family unless a night visit is made. Last year I found 3.472 persons occupying 1,892 rooms; in 1896, 5,072 in 2,703 rooms. This week, in a similar apartment, where men, women, and children were finishing trousers, we found three familiescne lived in the bedroom, one in the kitchen, and the other in the front room. A fourth family came to join the family in the front room on the last day of my visits to the child sick with diphtheria. Such cases are more numerous than the average citizen would think possible.

What can be done? I know of no way to increase the man's wages when all that he can sell his labor for is $1.25 to $2 per day. Some think that if the women and children would not work, the wages would go up. Very likely, but what man would sit two hours and finish a pair of trousers for 2 cents? If there is a demand for only a certain number of men to work, only that number can be employed. Women and children do not compete with the day laborer; they do compete with them in the sweatshop, but there they are much more apt to receive equal pay for equal work. The strict enforcement of the factory law, compulsory education for children under fourteen years, the extension of the mercantile law to all children who work for money, and its strict enforcement to the letter, would obliterate tenement-house work and child labor, and would force those women who must add to the support of the family (and there are many) into factories, where their hours could be more easily regulated. It is obvious that a woman can not work from 2 or 3 a.m. until II p.m. without injury to her health. Neither can she attend properly to her household duties.

What can be done by the municipality toward providing better living accommodations is well shown by the magnificent results secured by foreign cities. Glasgow was the first to begin the movement, and has erected seven large lodginghouses, with accommodations for 2,000 persons, separate houses being provided for men and women. Other cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland have adopted similar methods with most beneficial results, and have enacted more stringent bylaws and regulations regarding the construction of houses, the number of windows in the dwelling, and the amount of air

space for each inhabitant. Inspectors have been provided to visit the dwellings and see that these regulations are enforced. The result is partially seen in the death rate for England, which fell from 22.5 per 1,000 persons in the decade from 1861 to 1870, to about 19 in the period from 1891 to 1895. Not only has the death rate decreased, but there has been a tremendous decrease in the amount of sickness and a marked increase in the duration of life and physical strength and energy of the people. If New York authorities could be induced to build a block of tenements, for instance, on Elizabeth street between Houston and Prince streets, they would be immediately filled by a mass of people who, at the present moment, are a constant menace to the health of the city. The death rate of New York city even now is entirely too high. In 1897, the number of deaths of children under one year was 10,016. The number of deaths in tenements in 1897 was 23,460; in institutions, 10,568; in private families, 4,829; and a large number of the deaths in institutions are of people whose homes are in tenement houses. There is no reason why New York city would not make as good a landlord as the model city of Glasgow.

Tenement-house Agitation in Boston

Boston Transcript. Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION Our most conservative public opinion need not be alarmed at the slum-destroying proceedings of the Boston board of health while its spirit is that of the remark of its chairman, Dr. Durgin, at the hearing on Monday last. The law permitting the board of health to tear down buildings has been in force since April 1, 1897, on which day it was approved by the governor. In the fifteen months up to the present time the board of health has, according to Mr. Jordan, the chief inspector, "torn down," or more accurately and in the words of the law, ordered to be removed," sixteen buildings. New York is the only other city in this country where the board of health has this power. There-even if the law went into effect immediately after its passage on August 9, 1895-within the first fifteen months the board of health condemned and ordered removed seventy-two buildings. Our health board refrained from using this important new power during nine months of last year. Hence in six months our board ordered sixteen buildings removed. But it is to be remembered that in one-half that time, in the three months between June 2 and September 1, 1896, the New York board ordered eighty houses removed.

The sixteen houses which our board of health has condemned housed, according to a statement recently published, more than one hundred families." It appears that four of them had not been occupied by any families for many months, and probably for several years; in all the other twelve there were at the most fifty-six families, probably only forty-five. In the eighty houses which the New York board of health condemned in three months, there lived 2,796 persons, or fully five hundred and fifty families. During the last six weeks all, or nearly all, of our newspapers and very many prominent citizens have declared that the time has come when Boston should take more radical measures than ever before to destroy all houses which are unfit for men and women to live in, unfit for our children to grow up in. Mr. Birtwell well said at the hearing that there is more danger of going too slow than of going too fast in the destruction of these houses. Many persons have said that the descriptions of wretched and disgusting conditions given in the pamphlet of the Twentieth Century club are a convincing proof of the need of going faster to get rid of our slums. Let any of our readers who wish for further proof of this remember what Dr. Durgin said, after carefully investigating the houses here described, and after listening attentively for nearly three hours to the various arguments of twenty-five or more speakers why these houses should be ordered vacated and removed: "With all the investigations that have been made by the committee of the club, they have not yet found the worst places in Boston, which the board of health knows about."

The Cost of "Municipal Socialism"

G. FIAMINGO, in the Political Science Quarterly, Chicago. Excerpt The term socialism, even in its formation, is essentially vague. But socialistic systems, while they are vague and inconclusive in regard to particulars, offer to-day in their general outlines a relative agreement. Socialism is now understood

to mean a theory of society in which economic production is socialized or collectivized, that is, in which the means of production are held in common. In spite of the fact that the definition of Marx, of Malon, and of Bakounin differed some hat from this, the word socialism has no longer the uncertainty which it once had. Coupled with adjectives, the signification of the word socialism, of course, varies. What then is to be understood by the expression "municipal socialism?" While to-day we hear a great deal about municipal socialism, no one seems to know exactly what it is. I have tried in vain to find a satisfactory definition. Finally I have attempted to construct a theory by means of the facts.

At the recent international congress of socialists in London, the municipalities of Saint Denis and Saint Owen were recognized as socialistic. In a recent volume issued from the statistical office of the department of the Seine for the most important municipalities of this department, outside of Paris, I find for 1895 the following eloquent data:

Max Albert, who gives these statistics concerning the municipal financial operations of the socialists of Roubaix, adds: "Such, rapidly sketched, is the work of the socialistic Communal Council of Roubaix in the two years since it was elected. Behold what the working men of Roubaix have accomplished in two years!" And in manifest complacency he continues, "It was not upon the laboring class that this new impost fell." He concludes by saying that he leaves it "to all well disposed men to judge the work of the socialistic municipality of Roubaix." Truly I do not know what judgment well disposed men would form of the socialistic municipality of Roubaix, but the fact remains that while the socialists denounce all cases of taxes unjustly levied, Albert still boasts of what the socialists have done at Roubaix. It would be easy to cite many other cases of municipal socialism, especially in Belgium and in England. In England municipal socialism has advanced more rapidly than in other countries, and in that country the expenses of local public bodies, which were about fifty millions a few years ago, were in 1895 seventy millions, and the public debt of these local public bodies has increased from 2.300 million pounds in 1875 to 5,500 million pounds in 1895. That is, the public debt of English local bodies was almost trebled in twenty years, while in the same time the national debt decreased from nineteen billions to sixteen billions. Knowing these facts, I follow the advice of August Comte and deduce from them the simplest hypothesis. Now the most obvious and clearest deduction in our case is the following: municipal socialism signifies a prodigious increase of the expenses of local public bodies. When the laissez faire economists were still alive, they affirmed that the tax collector is equally odious to the taxpayer whether he comes in the name of the state or in the name of the local authorities. But at present laissez faire economists seem to be exiled to the planet Neptune. If they were still on earth they would without much difficulty demonstrate that public services performed by the municipality cost more and are not so well executed as they are when left to individual activity and free competition. In England, as municipal socialism prevails quite generally, all the more important cities have monopolized the tramways and the omnibuses. In his "Voyages and Discoveries" of Signor Faubert, lately published, Yves Guyot makes a very interesting comparison. He shows that in none of the principal cities of England are the means of transporting the people so well arranged, so convenient, and so swift, as in London. An exception among the more important cities of England, the metropolis leaves this public service to free competition. For three or four pence one may ride across London, a distance of fully thirty miles. And yet, even in