or intention of overstepping the line of strict neutrality, or even that there is any strong sympathy with Spain in her difficulties. It is very natural that the Spanish government, in its desperation, should resort to every possible subterfuge in the effort to bolster up its prestige, but it will require a more reasonable proposition than the one it advances in regard to Germany to convince anybody outside of its own subjects that it has secured friendly alliances anywhere.

Kansas City Times

It is doubtless true that in Germany there is prevalent a sentiment in favor of Spain in the present controversy. This is probably due to the commercial jealousy of Germany rather than to any especially fraternal feeling toward the Spaniards. But that the German government should make any official demonstration against the United States, even in the Philippines where her interests are most directly concerned, is wholly improbable. So far the reports of Admiral Dewey have not revealed the least violation of neutral procedure on the part of any foreign power represented at Manila, and Dewey is the kind of man who would be heard from if he had any unfriendly act to report. There are two great reasons why Americans should take with much allowance all reports of pro-Spanish proclivities on the part of other nations. We should, in justice to ourselves, be sure before we accuse any power of unfriendliness, and we should remember that nearly all such reports have their origin, if not their promulgation, through the agents of Spain.

St. Louis (Mo.) Republic

Even if the German government had not given full assurance of its neutral intentions, there would still be no reason for apprehending an aggressive movement at Manila. Of all the European powers, including England, Germany has the most important interests in the Philippine capital. It is but natural that she should have ships there to take care of her subjects and their property in the chaotic hour between the fall of Spanish authority and the setting up of temporary American military force. The government of Germany knows full well that it would be moving unwisely in courting a war with the United States for the doubtful result of obtaining a foothold in the Philippines. Germany's trade with the United States is worth more than any possible outcome in Asiatic seas. Aside from this, such a war would have results of grave consequence to Germany in other ways. She could not possibly hope to maintain the Philippines, undisputed, even if the United States should retire.

The Cubans as Allies Chicago Daily News

Whatever may be said derogatory of the number of the troops making up the forces of Gomez and Garcia, there can be no criticism of the spirit that has been shown by either the leaders of the insurgent army or by the men composing it. There was something almost pathetic in the descriptions of the Cubans as they have appeared in the vicinity of Santiago, clad in tattered garments (if such rags could be so designated), poorly fed and inefficiently armed, and yet they have won from the American officers with whom they have been brought in contact the name of heroes. In all the operations about Santiago and Baiquiri these Cuban soldiers were of great value. They understood far better than the Americans the methods of warfare adopted by the Spaniards, and thus forewarned our officers were forearmed. Garcia's men understood the Sioux Indian methods of the enemy and they rendered invaluable assistance in doing scouting duty and locating the points from which the attacks might be made. So thoroughly did Garcia understand the foe that the predictions he had made regarding where the Spaniards would stand and how they would fight were verified in every instance. Even with those who had strong sympathy for the Cubans and their cause there has been a failure in justly appreciating the real merits of the insurgents. But those of the Cuban leaders who have been brought in contact with such commanders as Sampson and Shafter have won from them both their confidence and respect. A people that can carry on a war like that which has devastated Cuba for the last three years and over, and will for the sake of liberty endure the sufferings that the Cubans have undergone, may be safely trusted with the task of preserving what they have gained.

Siboney dispatch to the New York Sun, June 29

Two thousand insurgents from General Calixto Garcia's

command were embarked on the transport Leona at Aserraderos this morning and arrived here this afternoon. They are under the command of Brigadier-General Sanchez. They landed through the heavy surf and lined up emaciated, half naked, and in some instances entirely nude. Weak as they were they stood up proudly and shouted "Cuba Libre!" They were viewed with astonishment by the military representatives of Russia, Germany, Japan, and Sweden, who were utterly at a loss to understand the enthusiasm of men in their miserable condition. The famished men, nearly all of whom have been macheteras under Maceo and Garcia during the three years' war, and some of whom are veterans of the ten years' war, were overjoyed to meet the American troops, and at the sight of food they fell to like starving men. With swollen feet and every evidence of long suffering they cheerfully got themselves in readiness to march to-night in advance of the regulars toward Santiago.

Buffalo (N. Y.) Courier

There is a persistent effort on the part of certain newspaper correspondents to belittle the Cubans. In this they probably represent the sentiments of many of the officers of our regular army, in which the caste spirit is somewhat marked. It is said that when the veteran Garcia met General Shafter he said: "You have come to fight the enemies of my country, and we will serve you without question." The stories that the Cubans lie in the shade, smoking cigarettes and eating Uncle Sam's rations, while our men build roads and go without tobacco are probably greatly exaggerated. As they have been starving, the insurgents are not to be blamed for eating heartily. But the claim that they allow the Americans to do all the work does not seem probable, in view of their heroic fighting at Guantanamo bay, nor is the story credible in view of the indomitable energy displayed by the 2,000 insurgents who were brought from Acceraderos to Siboney on one of our transports a few days ago. These men were emaciated by starvation and some of them were entirely nude. But they cheered for "Cuba Libre" as they came ashore through the surf and marched away to do their duty in front of Santiago.

Tampa Correspondent Collier's Weekly, New York There are three thousand Cubans in Tampa. Only about two hundred have enlisted, have taken up arms to fight for their own island. The remaining twenty-eight hundred watch young Americans marching toward the transports ready to give up their lives for the Cuba of those twenty-eight hundred Cubans. And the twenty-eight hundred say: "Well, you see we can't be soldiers, because we are cigar-makers. We sit all day at a table with our backs bent, and we smoke and smoke, and we drink black coffee, and we never take exercise. We can not walk one mile without losing breath, so how could we march for Gomez-eh?" I have heard some of these same twenty-eight hundred Cubans sitting in their restaurant in Tampa saying some very uncomplimentary things about the American soldier.

The Radical Press on the War
Norton's Monthly

The greenback dollar was the soldier's dollar. During the late war many and many a blue-coated husband and father has, in the camp, or on the eve of battle, folded up one of these "greenbacks stained with tears as he thought of the loved ones at home, and sent it through the mail. But who ever heard of a soldier getting a gold dollar and sending it to his wife, his children, or his needy mother? Why, the gold dollars, like most of the goldbug advocates of to-day, were skulking around home, playing the coward. Had it not been for those greenback" dollars the old soldiers might have been hammering away at the gates of Richmond till this time. Because it paid the soldiers for their services, because it supported the loved ones at home, because it saved the union, because it destroyed slavery, because it perpetuated the government, the patriotic people of America love the greenback. Three cheers for the greenback dollar! It saved the old flag once, and it is a burning shame that it is not allowed to do the same thing again!

66

Girard (Kans.) Appeal to Reason (Pop.)

What would bonds be worth if they did not bind anybody? How could there be bonds without bondage somewhere? The law and a bill of sale were the bonds that took from the chattel slave the result of his labor and gave it to his master who held the bond. The law and the parchment of the government are

the bonds that take the results of the people's labor and hand it over to the bondholder. The holders of public bonds are as much opposed to doing away with conditions by which they profit as were the masters of chattel slaves. There is no difference between the two, except in the method.

New York National Single Taxer Bondicitis is the newest word. The great national disease of which it is the name, however, is not altogether new. We wish it were altogether old-so old that it were dead and buried. No man seeks appendicitis, but many politicians think they think bondicitis better than health.

Salt Lake City Living Issues (Pop.)

If it be a good thing to send 100,000 men to war, destroy a billion dollars' worth of property and issue $500,000,000 in bonds, why would it not be still better to send all the men to war, destroy all the property, and issue $900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in bonds? Why not?

San Francisco Star

The war against privilege is more important than the war against Spain, of which the privileged are taking advantage to increase their own emoluments and other people's burdens.

The Bankruptcy Law

Indianapolis (Ind.) Sentinel (Silver Dem.) Under the compromise law, which has passed the senate, the causes for involuntary bankruptcy are: (1) Where a man disposed of his property with intent to defraud; (2) where he has disposed of his property to one or more creditors with intent to give a preference to them; (3) where he has given a preference through legal proceedings; (4) where a man has made a voluntary assignment for the benefit of his creditors generally; and (5), where a man admits in writing that he is bankrupt. It is claimed by the advocates of the bill that the last two causes are practically voluntary, but that will not be received with much credence by the ordinary man, who realizes that anybody who desires to enter bankruptcy voluntarily can do so without resorting to any indirect methods.

It is provided by this bill that a man can not be thrown into bankruptcy unless he is insolvent. But the bill itself makes a new definition of insolvency which will take the ground from under the feet of hundreds of struggling men who have staved off their debts in the hope that McKinley prosperity or some other providential agency might lift them out of their present embarrassments. Under the common law a man is insolvent when he can not pay his debts when they fall due. Under this bill he is to be regarded as insolvent only when his property under a fair valuation is insufficient to pay his debts. In other words, if a man owes more than the fair value" of his property, even though his debts are not due, he may be pushed into bankruptcy by his creditors. The most objectionable feature of this bill so far as it affects western business men is its absolute prohibition of preferences, and making preference of a creditor, even by legal proceedings, an act of bankruptcy.

66

Indianapolis (Ind.) Journal (Rep.)

The present law provides against excessive fees and delay. Fraud in conveying, transferring, or concealing property, giving preference to creditors, a general assignment of property, or an admission in writing of inability to pay debts and willingness to be adjudged a bankrupt are the main grounds for involuntary bankruptcy, while the proof of solvency is a complete defense on the part of a debtor against an attempt to have him adjudged a bankrupt. It is believed that the law will be a substantial assistance to business throughout the country, because it will increase the reliability of transactions. This is important in all communities, but more so to such as are called the debtor class," since the greater the confidence in the ability of debtors to meet their obligations the better terms those who borrow capital on stocks of goods or machinery will obtain. Any law which closes the avenues to dishonesty in business transactions will benefit the honorable debtor in the way of more favorable terms.

New York Tribune (Rep.)

Traces of the former antagonism appear in the fact that all the votes against the bill came from the south and the far west.

North Carolina was divided, the Republican for and the Populist against the bill, and Georgia was divided, one Democrat for and one against, while one Democrat from Tennessee and one from Alabama opposed it; but no other

southern and no northern vote this side of the Mississippi was cast against the bill. The two Democrats from Arkansas were against it, but Texas was divided, Mr. Mills alone opposing, with one Democrat from Missouri, one from Utah, and one from California, and three Silver men, Messrs. Teller, of Colorado; Pettigrew, of South Dakota, and Cannon, of Utah. Thus, while there are traces of the old hostility to any measure compelling payment of debts or providing for involuntary bankruptcy on any ground, it will be seen that the provisions of the compromise bill have removed that opposition to a great extent.

Houston (Tex.) Post (Silver Dem.)

For years the commercial interests of the nation have demanded such legislation, and congress has been willing to admit its necessity, but a diversity of views has prevented the desired consummation. As said recently by the Chicago Times-Herald, the old idea that a law of this kind was a sponge to wipe out indebtedness, is unworthy of consideration. The real object of a bankruptcy law is to give an honest debtor a chance to begin life over again after having given up all his property for the benefit of his creditors, and also to compel a dishonest debtor to surrender his property when it is shown that he is seeking to defraud his creditors. The present bill, as framed by the conference committee, covers both these points, and when it is thoroughly comprehended will meet with the approval of the entire business community. It is claimed also that another feature of the bill which will commend it to the business world and to the public generally is that the fees of bankruptcy proceedings are reduced to a minimum so that "there will be no such harpies' feast for government officials as there was under the last bankruptcy act."

Kansas City (Mo.) Journal (Rep.)

It is altogether probable that the results of the law will parallel the results of similar laws which have gone before. There will be a general cleaning up between unfortunate debtors and their creditors, and thousands of men will start life again unvexed by old judgments and accounts which they are unable to pay. After a time dishonest persons and swindlers will discover a way to use the law for evil ends and then there will be a reaction of public sentiment and the law will be repealed. At least this has been the history of the three bankruptcy laws which preceded it, and there are no important points of difference between the four.

New Orleans (La.) Picayune (Dem.)

The business interests have been sadly in need of such legislation; there have been as many bankruptcy laws (or practices) as there have been states, and the amount of plundering of bankrupt estates that has gone on under these manifold laws has been something terrific. The honest and legitimate creditors of a bankrupt concern have rarely realized anything worth taking out of the wreck, so many harpies having had to be paid first for alleged services. Judge Torrey's preseverance over this bankruptcy legislation has at last become, or is on the eve of becoming, a real benefaction to the country.

bills affecting the army were passed, notable being those providing for the pay of volunteers from the date of enrollment for service, and providing for increases in the ordnance, engineer, and quartermaster's departments; the permanent increase of the two former precipitated from a number of Democrats protests against any action looking to a permanent enlargement of the country's military establishment.

June 29.-In the senate the resolutions recommended by the president were adopted tendering the thanks of congress to Naval Constructor Hobson and the other heroes of the Merrimac, and to Lieutenant Frank H. Newcomb, commander of the revenue cutter Hudson, for his gallant rescue of the Winslow and her crew off Cardenas; and retiring on full pay Captain Hodgsdon of the McCulloch, for distinguished services at Manila; a historic precedent was established, as probably for the first time in the history of the senate common seamen were thanked by name; the general deficiency bill, carrying about $227,000,000, was passed; an important amendment was attached to the bill providing for the settlement of the claims of the government against the Pacific railroads; Mr. Caffery, of Louisiana, concluded his speech in opposition to the annexation of Hawaii. In the house measures were passed providing for the protection of harbor defenses and fortifications against wanton and malicious injury, and giving the secretary of war discretion to permit any church or religious sect to erect its house of worship upon the West Point military reservation.

June 30.-In the senate the last of the apropriation bills was disposed of and was a law before midnight; after a debate lasting three hours the senate finally receded from its amendments to the sundry civil and adopted the conference report on the Indian appropriation bill; an attempt to secure the passage of the bill to incorporate the international American bank met with determined opposition in the house; the house adopted the report upon the Indian appropriation bill, insisted unanimously upon its disagreements to the senate amendments to the sundry civil bill, and sent the general deficiency bill to conference.

July 1. The senate discussed the Hawaiian annexation resolutions for six hours; the first formal speech in favor of the resolutions was delivered by Mr. Pettus (Dem. Ala.); as a Democrat, he maintained that the question was in no sense a party issue, but the proposition was one which ought to command, in the circumstances, the support of men of all parties; Mr. Mallory (Dem. Fla.) presented a constitutional argument against the acquisition of territory by joint resolution of congress. In the house a few private bills were passed, and some conference reports of minor importance adopted; adjournment was taken until Tuesday.

July 2.-Mr. Pettigrew (Silver Rep. S. D.) spoke against Hawaiian annexation.

July 4-Mr. Allen (Pop. Neb.) commenced a speech against the annexation of Hawaii; a large number of pension bills were passed.

Various Topics

A call for a People's party national convention for September 5, at Cincinnati, has been issued by the national organization committee.

Medicine Lodge (Kan.) Index (Pop.): Let the corporations continue to rob the people. Nothing will advance government ownership more rapidly.

The platform adopted by the Kansas Socialists' state convention demands better pay for soldiers.

The Pennsylvania Democratic state convention at Altoona nominated George A. Jenks for governor on the first ballot by a vote of 305 to 121 for Judge Gordon. The platform is confined to state issues.

The St. Petersburg newspapers are said to be changing their tone to friendship for America, with contemptuous pity for Spain, the reason being “the growing fear of a possible AngloAmerican alliance."

Correspondent New York Sun: Our men [at Santiago] show a disposition to throw away their heavy uniforms and unnecessary accouterments with which the government has burdened them, and the line of march is strewn with heavy rolls of blankets, coats, and cumbersome camp paraphernalia. It is likely that the men will fight pretty nearly as bare as nature made them. Many of the regulars are already walking about clad only in a cartridge belt, a rifle, and a chew of tobacco.

Pittsburg Post (Dem.): The collector of the port of Pittsburg, with the approval of the administration, has set aside the civilservice rules and made ten new appointments of deputy collectors to collect the war tax. These appointments are made outside of competitive examinations. There are plenty of eligibles on the qualified list who have passed examinations. But if appointments had been made from the list merit and not ring service would have controlled.

Just before his death at Nagaski, Captain Gridley, who commanded the Olympia at Manila, said to a New York Tribune correspondent:

I feel sorry for those boys they are sending out to Manila. They are in more danger from the scourges of the country than from Spanish bullets. The heat is simply damnable, and they are sure to sicken. The fleet has been singularly free from illness, but I fear it will come. I have no desire to criticise any plan of the government or to stand against the wishes of the people, but I see nothing in those islands for us, except a coaling station. Not one in ten of our best men could survive there. However, I suppose we must have troops there for a time, but the sun, and not the Spaniards, is their enemy.

The following criticism of the Ohio Republican platform is principally notable from the fact that the Portland Oregonian, in which the paragraph appeared, is one of the stanchest Republican newspapers in the country:

The Ohio platform is a waste of words. Its indiscriminate laudation of every thing done by the administration, by congress, by the army, by the navy, by Hanna and Foraker, and by providence, is fullsome to the point of groveling. The convention is afraid to declare for the gold standard, or even to denounce the traitors in the last Ohio legislature. Yet the platform may be the ideal one for the community to which it is primarily addressed. Nowhere but in Ohio, perhaps, does polítics of this low plane pass for statesmanship.

& Fleming

FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Status of the French Socialists

JEAN JAURES (Socialist) in the Paris Petite Republic. Translated and Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION

Our antagonists no longer deny the success of the Socialist party. As in Belgium, Socialism has grown in France, and the number of our elected representatives has grown. It is, indeed, the continued advance of the proletariat. This advance of the proletariat will be energetic indeed if we only know, from now, how to organize our forces, to realize the visible, tangible unity of our party. Will our comrades of the different groups-Marxists, Blanquists, adherents of the Communist Alliance, or of the parti Ouvrier Socialiste Revolutionnaire-permit me to insist once more on this idea? Can it be that they will find the proposition premature or indiscreet? But that is for the different groups to consider and discuss; or, rather, it is for the whole proletariat to take the question up and deliberate upon it in their various organizations. It is not a question of dissolving or subordinating the different groups which represent the living traditions of French Socialism. But has the hour not come for bringing together in one general organization all the elements of our party? It seems to me that the occasion was never more favorable.

The elections which have just taken place have practically attested the cordial union of the Socialist party. Save in very rare instances, there has been no conflict between the various groups. Even where there has been a number of Socialist candidates for one seat, the greatest courtesy has been displayed toward each other in the first ballot, and the most perfect loyalty in the second. The active figthers of all schools have gone to the support the one of the other. No personal rivalries, no distinction of group, has interfered with or hindered our movements in the battle; at every threatened point all our disposable forces have concentrated themselves and have gone forward together with the same spirit, the same enthusiasm.

There now exists the Socialist fraternity, and this is not a nere passing emotion, or a paltry electoral agreement. It is on the community of principles that is founded the union of the party. The struggle which has just finished has cleared the party of all its doubtful and uncertain elements. The

sham Socialists have gone over to the Reaction; they have fallen now into the Nationalist group; and the proletariat is at last free from their retrograde and embarrassing influence. It is indeed against the whole reactionary party-capitalist, clerical, and military--that our party has fought. And its essential principles, the socialization of capitalist property and an international understanding between the exploited of all countries have been affirmed by all. These principles are not, as Clemenceau has said they are, a dogma. None of us claims to congeal the movement of the human mind, and we remain always attentive to the development of facts, to the sovereign lessons of the actual moving reality.

It is not that a kind of revelation has descended on the people from an intellectual aristocracy. It is the proletariat itself, constituted as a class oppressed by all the social mechanism, which has. little by little, disengaged, from all the systems presented to it, the dominant idea. It is the proletariat which has comprehended, little by little, that it could only emancipate itself by dragging property from the domination of the capitalist class, and in controlling this social property by the cooperation of all the producers. It is the proletariat which has recognized that across the frontiers and beneath all the powers the proletarian class extends in a vast subterranean stratum, homogeneous in misery and servitude, which the same shock of the globe will at last bring to the light.

There have been differences in the Italian Socialist party and in the Socialist party in Belgium on the question of electoral alliances. There have been differences of opinion in the German party on the agrarian question and on the question of participating in the election to the Prussian landtag. But, what then! These necessary differences have not broken the unity of the organization. They have only served to keep awake the intellectual activity of the Socialist party and the spirit of liberty. Let all the elements, let all the fractions of French Socialism, let all the organizations, which have in three hundred and five constituencies participated in the electoral struggle, on behalf of Socialism, send representatives to the general congress of the party. We shall be able to oppose to the decadent bourgeois society, to the capitalist reaction, to the anti-Semitic caricature, to the Nationalist lie, the organized force of the French proletariat. And the moral effect produced all over the country will be incomparable.

The New French Ministry

Awaiting the receipt of French comment on the new French ministry formed by M. Brisson, we quote from the New York Sun a brief outline of the ministry formed after MM. Ribot, Sarrien, and Peytral had failed to secure a cabinet:

The cabinet, the thirty-sixth that has tried to govern France since the fall of the second empire, has all the appearance of a renewal of the Bourgeois ministry, overthrown by M. Méline a little more than two years ago, four of the new ministers, M. Léon Bourgeois in the department of public instruction, M. Cavaignac in that of war, M. Lockroy of the navy, and M Viger of agriculture, being in the identical places from which they were turned out, while M. Brisson, the premier and minister of the interior, at that time had been elected presiding officer of the chamber of deputies by the same Republican majority which put M. Bourgeois into power. their colleagues, M. Delcassé, the successor of M. Hanotaux in the foreign office, was minister of the colonies in the last Dupuy ministry, and is one of the foremost advocates of colonial expansion in France. M. Peytral, minister of finance, has held the same office before, and M. Sarrien, minister of justice, has served in four previous cabinets. MM. Maruéjols and Trouillot, in charge of commerce and of the colonies, are new ministers.

Of

That M. Brisson should become prime minister was the logical consequence of M. Méline's fall. He might have consented to allow some adherent to be the nominal head of the cabinet while he himself retained the real power, and hope that such might be the solution of the crisis may account for the unusual delay in the formation of a government. Whether he has succeeded in amalgamating enough groups in the chamber to give him a working majority remains to be seen. While the Socialists and extreme Conservatives form fairly distinct parties in French politics, the Republicans, who form the very

great majority in parliament, shade off into so many shifting groups, from the rallies to the extreme Radicals, that no man can count on their united support in ordinary times, but must, to carry out his measures, reckon carefully with personal and momentary interests.

M. Méline in opposing M. Brisson's candidacy to the presidency of the chamber of deputies wished to give a distinctly Conservative tinge to his section of Republicans, and in a very full house was backed by about half of the members. M. Brisson was supported by all the Socialists who wished to overthrow the ministry, and who, while ready to accept him as their speaker, will by no means back him up as minister. He must therefore secure the adhesion of a large number of the late supporters of M. Méline if his ministry is to stand at all. His name in French eyes means a shade of radicalism somewhat more extreme than that of M. Bourgeois. The first votes his ministry calls out will throw light on the real political composition of the new chamber, about which France seems to be still in the dark.

Boston Transcript

M. Brisson, who has the courage for the occasion but has yet to prove his discretion for the crisis, is able to report to President Faure that he has formed a ministry that will take care of the interest of France. Save the premier there is no man of particular eminence in the ministry though all its members are of respectable talent. It is strongly radical, and M. Brisson is a man of the take-the-bull-by-the-horns order. The French bull, however, has an extraordinary number of horns and is peculiarly versatile in his manner of attack. Brisson is a radical of the old school, and conservative of its good tendencies. His personal and political character is excellent, but he has been criticised as too unbending for a successful administrator of the affairs of so mercurial a people as the French. The ministers of war and marine, Cavaignac and Lockroy, are radical enough to suit anybody. M. Delcasse, who holds the foreign portfolio, is of simply the ordinary degree of talent, and has given no sign of approaching equality with his predecessor, M. Hanotaux, one of the most brilliant men in France. As one French ministry usually reverses the policy of its predecessor, it will be interesting to see what the attitude of Brisson will be toward the dual alliance, in cementing which M. Hanotaux bore the most important share of the labor. A domestic question which the instinct of the ministry will lead it to bring forward is the relation of the state and the church. Behind these questions is the everlasting Dreyfus affair, which will not be settled until it is settled rightly. There is a program ahead for Brisson whether he makes it or it is made for him.

Chicago Times-Herald

After three failures President Faure has at last succeeded in obtaining a ministry, though what its staying qualities will be no man can divine. The truth is parliamentary government in France is an exotic and does not thrive well. It is unsuited both to the genius of the French people and to the lines upon which parties divide. Parliamentary government means party government; but how can there be party government when the parties themselves are divided, not on questions of domestic and foreign policy, as in Great Britain and the United States, but on the nature of the general government itself? It is more than probable that until after another dissolution of the chamber of deputies and a new election France will have a succession of weak ministries and be in a constant state of pattipan ebullition.

tooth-wash to the claims of a new religion, that may not be puffed in the Paris papers for cold cash. They all have their price, and it varies only according to the size of their circulations. You can have anything that is not actually libelous inserted in any of the papers at from ten to forty francs a line, except in the Petit Journal. This last has the largest circulation of any paper in the world, I believe, selling nearly 1,200,000 copies a day, and it is therefore more virtuous than its contemporaries. A reclame in the Petit Journal costs one hundred francs a line. By this I do not mean the ordinary display advertisement or "reading notice," which costs from one franc a line in the smaller journals to six francs in the Figaro. No; for your eight to one hundred francs a line you can get what would seem to American readers to be praises of your wares given with the sanction of editorial authority.

French readers are well aware of this, but it makes no difference to them. So long as the paper contains one or two witty or vigorous articles, they are willing to pay their price, which varies from one to four cents. So with the various departments. They accept the brilliant articles of the well-known theatrical and artistic critics because they are brilliant, not because they are just. Time and again it has been shown that a critic has ruthlessly slated a good play because its stiff-necked author refused to share the honors and profits of the work with the critic, and many a poor play has been lauded to the skies because an influential critic's name appeared on the play-bill and in the manager's books as co-author, though he may never have heard a word of the piece until he saw it at the dress rehearsal. In the art world, no man exercised a greater power through his pen than did the late Albert Wolf, the critic of the Figaro; at his death he left a very large personal estate consisting of gems of art which the modern masters had given him in recognition of his kind words about them in the public prints. The same condition prevails in the financial department. The French people are careful economists and universally investors, and the papers all find it advisable to conduct a financial department. Some of them even find it profitable outside of the increase it may bring to their circulation. It is notorious that at least one prominent paper here leases out its financial page to a syndicate of capitalists for almost enough money to print the paper without aid from any other source of income.

Not only do the proprietors and the important writers take large sums in this way, but the smallest reporters resort to the same practices on a smaller scale. There are five or six of these on every paper, in addition to a considerable number of freelances, and they follow the example of their superiors and feather their nests whenever opportunity offers. When Captain Dreyfus was first arrested, so soon as it became known that his wife was the daughter of a rich manufacturer of Mulhausen. clouds of reportèrs descended upon her and offered her the service of their pens-for a consideration. Some of the early birds got as much as one, thousand francs out of her, but her funds were soon exhausted, and she was abandoned for the next victim. It seems astonishing to an American that reporters should be able to do such things, "to deliver the goods." so to speak; but it is one of the perquisites of their position. The proprietors pay them about forty dollars a month, and cynically leave them to "make" enough to supply their cheap luxuries by well known and accepted practices.

Russian Activity in the Yang-tsze Valley
Pekin Correspondent London Times

The Russo Chinese bank is now negotiating for a railway loan on the security of the Pekin-Shan-hai-kwan railway. If it is accepted, Russia will secure control of the sole railway from the north to Pekin, a movement which is strongly supported by Li Hung Chang. China has agreed that Russia can continue the Ching-ting-Tai-yuen-fu railway southwest to the Yellow river, near Si-ngan-fu, where it would join the great highway to Chinese and Russian Central Asia. China has agreed to employ Russian military instructors exclusively in Shan-si. Since the signature of the Ching-ting-Tai-yuen-fu railway contract M. Pavloff has notified the Tsung-li-Yamên that the increased Russian interests thereby involved render obligatory the early completion of the Pekin-Hankau railway. The contract is on the eve of completion. The Belgians will build the line on the terms, modified, of the original Belgian contract. The materials are to be obtained from Belgium exclusively. The French minister will act as arbitrator. As security, the railway is to remain under

foreign control until redemption. The right obviously exists of transfer to another power and of establishing preferential rates. France and Belgium will have conjoint financial control of the southern portion between the Yang-tsze and the Yellow river, and Russia, through the Russo-Chinese bank, will have financial control of the northern portion, between Pao-ting-fu and the Yellow river, which Russians now sardonically declare is the new limit of the Russian railway advance southwards. When they are constructed, Russia will have control of all the railways along which it will be possible to move troops for the defense of the capital. The British government can not be ignorant that the Pekin-Hankau railway as now being negotiated is not a commercial line, but is controlled by hostile political considerations and is destined to thwart British action in the Yang-tsze valley.

Various Topics

Westminster Gazette: What Russia and France are doing in regions much less promising than the Yang-tsze valley we can do in our sphere. We need not grudge their enterprise, provided we are reasonably active on our side. And if British money is going to be spent let it be devoted to building up a real commercial policy.

A meeting of Liberal members was held in London, on June 14, with a view to found a Gladstone league on the same principle as the Primrose league. Its object will be to defend and promote Liberal principles, and it is believed that there is ample field for such an organization without interfering with existing associations.

The complete result of the second balloting in the election of members of the German reichstag is as follows:

Conservatives

Imperialists...
Center

Reform party.
National Liberal..
Radical Union..
Radical People's party

F FLEMING

19 | German People's party.

.10 Agrarians

.23 Socialists

5 Poles

39 Guelphs..

11 | Independents...

29

SOCIOLOGICAL

Collectivism a Law of Nature

8

3

24

R. DIDDEN, in the Westminster Review, London (New York: L. Scott Pub. Co.). Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION

The system of competition, the striving on the part of each unit to obtain the upper hand, the same desire on the part of each man to make his neighbor a stepping-stone toward his own prosperity-this process we euphemistically style "the struggle for life." The vulgar transcribe it in less elegant but more forcible and realistic language: "Every one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.' And when he has got them we shrug our shoulders with another ready-made euphemism: "Well, que voulez-vous?-it is nature's law, the survival of the fittest.'" Now, the question is, are we quite sure that it is nature's law? If we are quite sure, is it right for us to build workhouses, to take care of the cripples, the blind, the old, the helpless, the useless-in short, of all those who, from one cause or another, have been incapacitated or come to grief in this struggle for life"? If we are in any way logical, there is but one answer: "No." If they are not "fit," nature says let them die. Why are we moved to compassion by the miscry and degradation and suffering of our fellow-creatures -by a desire, ever taking a more active form, to remedy the present sad state of things, which desire is now manifesting itself in a strong movement-in which most of the finest and noblest natures are joining-to replace the present system of competition by that of coöperation, to replace the system of selfishness and hatred by that of altruism and love? On the proper solution of those questions depends to our thinking the answer to the initial query: individualism or collectivism? It is usually asserted that among plants and the lower animals the struggle for survival is very fierce, and carried on with relentless rigor. But when we descend into nature's workshop and observe her closely we find that this general statement, like most statements of its kind, contains only a half-truth and requires qualifying. In a very interesting and fascinating book, "The Sagacity and Morality of Plants," Dr.