work, and the expiration of the two years found the firm completing a fine factory. It was only newly opened when I passed through, and I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Morton himself—an employer of artistic labor with all the instincts of an artist. What struck him most was, it seemed to me, the inborn artistic sense of the Irish peasants, their manifest pleasure in watching the pattern grow on the loom; and, next to that, the fact that the hills about the district were exactly fit to feed the right class of sheep and produce the right wool."

THE BEAUTIES OF A FACTORY.

A week later, he saw the factory in operation : "A prettier sight it would be hard to find. There was a great room, perhaps 200 feet by 150, lit like a studio, clear, clean, with pineboarded walls. At the farther end were the looms, nine of them-with seven or eight girls sitting in a row before each; and beyond the looms were piled the great masses of rich-colored wool-reds, greens, blues, and browns; and on every loom rose the rich glow of the costly carpet. . . But the beauty of the place lay in the human factor-the rows of young girls set there, bareheaded, against this gorgeous backing."

THE LIMITS OF MUNICIPAL TRADING IN

THE

ENGLAND.

HE birth of 28 London boroughs in a single day November 1-ought to give a powerful impetus to every form of municipal interest, and to make the question of municipal trading, which has occupied a select committee of both houses of Parliament, and which the current number of the Edinburgh Review discusses at length, one of special public concern. The reviewer tries to find if a line can be drawn between those matters which can best be intrusted to municipalities and those which may safely be left to private enterprise. He considers that water and light are essentials which may be therefore municipalized, but that locomotion is not an essential. He touches on the question whether municipalized concerns should be run for cheapness or for profits applicable to the reduction of the rates. He quotes the view of the lord-provost of Glasgow that the second alternative is dangerous; the corporation of Glasgow applying the profits of each undertaking to that undertaking. The writer gravely doubts whether municipal dwellings do not work more harm than good.

He ac

cepts the definition of the lord-provost of Glasgow, that the functions of the municipality are rather functions of service than functions of trade.

A PENNY TELEPHONE.

In respect of the telephone, the writer seems inclined to nationalize and municipalize the system at the same time. He says:

"After repeated application, Glasgow has obtained a license from the postmaster-general, and is in a position to work an exchange over an area equal to that worked in Glasgow by the National Company. Only from the spread of this system and the subsequent introduction of the principle of competition can we look for such a perfection of telephonic facilities as will enable all classes of the public to communicate with each other as freely and as cheaply as they do by post. Already in Glasgow it is proposed to establish numerous call-offices, where for a penny any one will be able to communicate with the entire area. The extension of such a system to the United Kingdom is a task immeasurably less difficult than the establishment of the penny post, and if properly worked there is every prospect that it would be a source of actual profit to those who undertake it. But the position requires to be boldly handled; the interests of a body of monopolists cannot be allowed to override the advantage and convenience of the public at large; and the efforts of the central government should be supplemented by the energy and enterprise of local associations."

MUNICIPALIZATION STRIDING ON.

But the writer calls attention to "a far-reaching attempt by municipalities to invade the province of individual enterprise," and quotes the following instances:

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By an act of last year, power was given to a Midland corporation to provide Turkish baths. In a bill of the recent session power was sought, among other things, to provide apparatus for games and athletics, to be used presumably, but not necessarily, on recreation-grounds established by the authority. In another, power was sought to provide refrigerators and cold-ice stores for the preservation of marketable articles, and to sell ice. In another, it was proposed to provide bathing-tents. In another, tailoring was templated; saddlery in another. In several,. power was asked for to construct and manage refreshment-rooms in parks. By many corporations the power of manufacturing as well as supplying electrical fittings was demanded, and in three cases efforts were made to acquire the privilege of providing entertainments and charging for admission."

con

The House of Lords, on Lord Morley's advice, has refused assent to bills authorizing the manufacture as well as the supply of electric and water fittings.

THE LORD PROVOST OF GLASGOW'S RULE.

Among the dangers attending so wide an extension of municipal enterprise, the writer points out the difficulty of finding unpaid municipal councilors with time and ability equal to the new demands, and the peril of stunting individual enterprise. This is the position to which the writer leans:

"We believe, then, that it behooves Parlia ment to impose some carefully framed limit on

But he would not allow the general user to decide what came under this definition. The reviewer raises the question whether municipal employees should be allowed to retain their municipal franchise. He presses for the imposition by Parliament of "wise and temperate conditions" for the regulation of the whole matter.

WHAT COMPETITION COSTS US.

areas administered by them. It may be that Lord Crewe's committee may find some sounder basis for fixing that limit than was suggested to them by the lord-provost of Glasgow. But there is much wisdom in the definition he laid down, and he supported it with good sense fortified by long experience. He said that the municipalities might safely be intrusted with, but confined to, the supply of things which were in their nature suitable to a monopoly-which were articles of necessity, and which required control of the streets or portions of the public property of the municipality."

GOING BEYOND BOUNDS.

Where the municipality extends its enterprise outside its own boundaries, -as where it supplies water or light or locomotion to its neighbors, -a new difficulty arises. May it make a profit out of its neighbors' necessities? In the case of tramways, the question is becoming grave:

"Glasgow is already working 13 miles outside the city boundary, and expects soon to be working 34. Huddersfield obtained powers this year to establish spurs of its own system, extending in many directions into many areas. And unless some proper check can be established, we may expect ere long to see a large number of town councils in the position of a board of directors owning and controlling a network of tramways over a wide district, and comparable in difficulty and importance with many minor systems of railways. . . . Some check-such as insistence on joint management and a sharing of responsibility by all the authorities affected-will have to be devised, and the higher the authority devising it the better."

SIR HENRY FOWLER'S DICTUM.

The reviewer cites another outline of suggested limitation :

"Sir Henry Fowler, a friend of municipal administration if ever there was one . . . would limit it to such undertakings as are clearly for the common good and the general use of the whole community, and which it is for the public advantage to place under public control."

series appears in the November number of that magazine, under the title, "What Communities Lose by the Competitive System." Mr. Jack London, the author, assumes that man became the foremost animal because of his gregarious instinct and his consciousness of it; and he argues that the various forms of combination or coöperation, which are the evolution of this gregarious instinct, must go on. Mr. London cites a hundred instances of the gigantic losses to the human community through the competitive system. Ten thousand acres of land under one executive utilizing the most improved methods of plowing, sowing, and harvesting will produce, he says, far greater returns at less expense than can an equal number of acres divided into a hundred plots, and worked individually by a hundred men. The latter prevailing system causes the whole community to suffer a distinct pecuniary loss.

For instance, Mr. London computes the cost of fences in the State of Indiana at $200,000,000. "If placed in single file at the equator, they would encircle the globe fourteen times. Under an ideal system of coöperative farming these fences would be done away with, and the community would gain the amount of their cost and the land which they render untillable.

IS THE DRUMMER NEEDED?

Mr. London considers the success of the great. department stores a striking proof of his theory. He carries his enmity to competition to the logical end, and deplores the loss of human effort by the work-unnecessary, as he thinks-of "drummers" and the expense of advertising. He estimates that there are 50,000 drummers, and places a conservative figure of $5 per day per man to cover their expenses and earnings. Since the producer must sell his wares at a profit or else go out of business, the consumer must pay the actual cost of the article-whether it be the legitimate cost or not-plus the per cent. increment neces sary for the continued existence of the producer's. capital. Therefore, the community, being the consumer, must support these 50,000 $5-a-day drummers; this aggregated forms a daily loss to the community of $250,000, or an annual loss of

upwards of $100,000,000. Mr. London holds that these drummers are not in any sense legitimate creators of wealth, and that the cost they add to the articles they sell is an unnecessary one. He goes on to point out analogous losses in household economics in the larger affairs of trade and commerce, causing the trade and commercial crises, and even in the esthetic side of human life. At present, he says, the artist exerts himself before a pitiably small audience. The general public has not time, in the fierce rush of competition, to pay attention to esthetic matters; and, so long as society flourishes by the antagonism of its communities, Mr. London thinks that art in its full, broad scope will have neither place nor significance. "The artist will not receive justice for his travail, nor the people compensation for their labor in the common drudgery of life.

THE GERM OF AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

We may, however, select two instances, with which he concludes, of its contribution to general progress. He says:

66

A year ago, at the Dover and Boulogne meetings of the British and French associations, the long talked of International Association for the Advancement of Science . . . began to take form in large general committees, which soon became definitely constituted in London and Paris, and thence extended to America, Belgium, Switzerland, and later to Russia and Germany— in all countries with encouragingly large university and public support. Hospitably received by the exposition authorities, and headed by the leaders of French education, this first assembly of the association has continued throughout the summer, in its four languages, the work of

interpretation and guidance to the exposition in many of its departments. Even in these days of university extension it was something that the venerable rector of the Sorbonne should take his turn among younger teachers. Here, then, has been in actual operation in the exposition, throughout the greater part of its duration, a living germ, at least, of an international university— university in the antique sense, open to all who gladly learn and teach. Besides this interpretative function, beginnings have been made towards the record and the diffusion of some of the best features of the exposition, and the bringing of its manifold results, and its perhaps even richer suggestiveness, to bear upon the many points where these may be of use, here in education, there in science or art. As the links which are thus becoming established among the members of so many congresses and professions, of so many universities in all parts of the world, of so many regional scientific societies, develop into a network, new possibilities become apparent; and these, like the exposition itself, both as regards special advance and general culture. At the coming international exposition of Glasgow, which will open with next summer, the interpretative and critical functions will be easier, and the constructive ones more possible ;- -as regards future exhibitions, of course, increasingly so.

A MILLIONFOLD WITNESS TO INTERNATIONAL AMITY.

Most important of all,—

the essential matter," in short, Mr. Geddes takes to be the general tone and temper of the exposition." He says: "That this, by far the vastest and the most representative gathering of men and of things, of all kindreds, kingdoms, nations, and languages, in the entire course of history, should have come and gone almost without accident, without disorder, without any evil fairy at the feast, is much; that it should have brought together some representation of well-nigh all the forces of material, intellectual, and even moral progress, is more; that it should have so multiplied personal relations, so strengthened general good-feeling and international amity, is most of all. That France and Germany, for central instance, should have had more amicable relations of every kind during the past six months than in the whole previous generation, is itself no small. result itself, in the opinion of many best qualified to judge on both sides of the Vosges and Rhine, worth all the trouble and cost of making the exposition. . . . It is much that there should be henceforth in our generation these million fold witnesses to the essential and organic unity, the true internationalism, of civilization and progress."

IN

THE BUILDING OF OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL. N the December World's Work is described "The Building of a Great Capital," in honor of the celebration, in December, of the Centennial of Washington City.

THE SITE SELECTED BY WASHINGTON.

"The site of the present city, covering the lower portion of the district, was selected by Washington in January, 1791; but it had been admired by him many years before. When a boy, he saw it while riding the country on horseback, and he spoke of it when as a young man he camped with Braddock on the hill where the Naval Observatory now stands.

Washington, always more of a merchant and engineer than artist, had thoughts of a great commercial city there, with the navigable Potomac reaching to the sea to help it in the race for supremacy; and it was with more than his usual zeal and hopefulness that, in the early spring of 1791, Washington set about planning the future seat of government. The private owners of the land proved a source of vexation and of some delay. Many of these were the descendants of a little band of Scotch and Irish who had settled on the land a hundred years before, and had inherited from their fathers ability to drive a hard bargain.

OLD DAVID BURNS AND HIS FARM.

"Aged David Burns, a justice of the peace and a tobacco planter in a small way, proved the most stubborn and greedy of all. Even Washington was at first unable to do anything with "obstinate Mr. Burns," who did not want a capital at his front door, and did not care whether or not the seat of government came to the banks of the Potomac. Washington argued with him for several days, explaining to him the advantages he was resisting; to all which, so the tradition runs, Burns made reply:

"I suppose you think people here are going to take every grist that comes from you as pure grain; but what would you have been if you had not married the widow Custis?'

"Burns at last capitulated, and transferred his 600 acres, which he did not wish to see spoiled for a good farm to make a poor capital, on the same terms that had been made with the other owners of the site-the government to have one lot and the original owner one lot alternately, the latter being also paid $125 per acre for such part of his land as might be taken for public use. Burns stipulated that the modest house in which the lived should not be interfered with in the lay ing out of the city; and since this condition was agreed to by Washington, Burns' cottage stood

THE DESIGNER OF THE CITY.

Washington chose Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant to lay out the plan. This skillful French military engineer, who had come to America in 1777, had the foresight to design a city on lines which would not be inadequate for the capital of an immense nation. The rather provincial taste of the American public men forced L'Enfant to lay the city out in squares, even Jefferson insisting on this unpleasantly rectangular scheme. But the engineer put in so many avenues running at acute angles that the monotonous effect was happily destroyed, and "the opportunity presented of making the capital the magnificent city it has since become."

THE DESIGNS FOR THE CAPITOL.

"For the Capitol, sixteen designs were submitted by as many architects; but all, after careful examination, were counted unworthy of serious consideration. Soon, however, Stephen L. Hallett, a French architect residing in New York, sent to the commissioners a sketch of a design which met with favor, and he was invited to perfect it. Hallett had not completed his labors when Dr. William Thornton, an Englishman who had lately taken up his residence in America, submitted a design to Washington and Jefferson which so pleased them that the President requested its adoption; suggesting that, as Thornton had no practical knowledge of architecture, the execution of his design be intrusted to Hallett. Thornton's design thereupon was accepted by the commissioners, and Hallett was appointed supervising architect, with a salary of $400 per year. The corner-stone of what was to be the north wing of the Capitol was laid on September 18, 1792, when Washington delivered an oration and the Grand Master of the Maryland Free Masons an appropriate address. After the ceremony,' to quote a contemporary account of the affair, the assemblage retired to an extensive booth, where they enjoyed a barbecue feast.'

6

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL IN 1799.

"When Washington last beheld the city which bears his name, shortly before his death, in 1799, it was a straggling settlement in the woods, almost wholly devoid of streets, with thirty or forty residences,-most of these small and uncomfortable, and an unfinished capitol and President's house. Indeed, Washington long remained a sparsely built, unsightly city and a comfortless place of residence. For more than a generation its growth in population was

Our winding path led through a forest of oaks, over mossy, parklike verdure, and presently by rippling waters and over humming runlets underground. Soon rills became rivulets, and rivulets rushing torrents, spanned by bridges, broken by cascades, overhung by blooming oleanders and tall poplars, skirted by ruins, ancient and modern-the huts of the present and the palaces and castles of former generations suggesting a Sy rian Tivoli.' This was Banias, the easternmost source of the Jordan Riv. er. It is just beyond the limits of Holy Ground, being about an hour from Tell-el-Kadi. For beauty of situation it is not equaled in Palestine, and for a tangled web of associations it is scarcely equaled in history, having been in turn sacred alike to Baalite, Jew, Greek, Roman, and Moslem."

THE ROCKS AT BANIAS.

"The head of all is a limestone cliff, 80 feet in height, discolored by the iron water which seeps through it. In the face of the cliff is a deep cavern, to the right of which are

carved niches, the remnants of a rock-cut temple, which, though now empty, speak of images and idol worship. Over one is the inscription, PANI TE KAI NUMPHAS," dedicating the sanctuary to Pan and the nymphs. One recess is adorned with an arched and fluted roof, while several tablets with mutilated inscriptions appear in another. To the left (the right in the illustration) of the cavern and on the summit of the cliff is a Mohammedan shrine to the mysterious saint Sheikh Khudr, or St. George, which stands, it is claimed, over the substructure of the whitemarbled temple which Herod the Great erected to the memory of Augustus.

"At the base of the cliff is a huge mass of débris, formed by masses of fallen rock, and doubtless also of portions of these temples, which excavation will alone reveal. The cave is still there, and was well filled with water. The stream may once have flowed directly from the cavern, but now it percolates through the débris a copious flood of sparkling water, and gathers in a reservoir below, reminding one of the river Rhone flowing out from under the glacier by that name." In the vicinity are to be found many traces of former grandeur-fragments of sculpture, broken columns, and even native huts in part constructed out of the masonry of antiquity. As Dr. Leeper says, this spot has been a quarry for sixty generations.