{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33646/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33646","id":"gutenberg_33646","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33646","summary":null,"tags":["American literature -- Periodicals","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Biology","Category: Sociology","The Arena"],"text":"Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text\nas faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and\nother inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious\nerror is noted at the end of this ebook.\n\nAlso, mismatched single and double quotes remain as they were in the\noriginal.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE ARENA.\n\n\nVOL. XVIII.\n\nAUGUST, 1897.\n\nNO. 93.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: David Starr Jordan (with signature)]\n\n\n\n\nEVOLUTION: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT.[1]\n\nBY DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN,\n\n_President of Leland Stanford Junior University_.\n\n      [1] Address before the Starr King Fraternity of Oakland, Cal.\n\nI. WHAT EVOLUTION IS.\n\nThis the age of evolution. The word is used by many men in many senses,\nand still oftener perhaps in no sense at all. By some it is spoken with\na haunting dread as though it were another name for the downfall of\nreligion and of social stability. Still others speak it glibly and\njoyously as though progress and freedom were secured by the mere use of\nthe name. \"The word evolution (_Entwickelung_),\" says a German writer,\n\"fills the vocal chords more perfectly than any other word.\" It explains\neverything, and \"puts the key to the universe into one's vest pocket.\"\n\nSo various has been the use of the word, so rarely is this use\nassociated with any definite idea, that one hesitates to call himself an\nevolutionist. \"Evolution\" and \"evolutionist\" are almost ready to be cast\ninto that \"limbo of spoiled phraseology\" which Matthew Arnold has found\nnecessary for so many words in which other generations have delighted,\nand which they have soiled or spoiled by careless usage.\n\nBut as the word evolution is not yet put away, as it is the bugbear of\nmany good people, and the \"religion\" of as many more equally good, it\nmay be worth while to consider what it still means, and what it does not\nmean. For if we that use the word can agree on a definition, half our\nquarrel is over.\n\nIt seems to me that the word evolution is now legitimately used in four\ndifferent senses. It is the name of a branch of science. It is a theory\nof organic existence. It is a method of investigation, and it is the\nbasis of a system of philosophy.\n\n_The Science of Organic Evolution, or Bionomics._ As a science,\nevolution is the study of changing beings acted upon by unchanging laws.\nIt is a matter of common observation that organisms change from day to\nday, and that day by day some alteration in their environment is\nproduced. It is a matter of scientific investigation that these changes\nare greater than they appear. They affect not only the individual animal\nor plant, but they affect all groups of living things, classes or races\nor species. No character is permanent, no trait of life without change.\nAnd as the living organism or group of organisms is undergoing\nalteration, so does change take place in the objects of the physical\nworld about them. \"Nothing endures,\" says Huxley, \"save the flow of\nenergy and the rational order that pervades it.\" The structures and\nobjects change their forms and relations, and to forms and relations\nonce abandoned they never return. But the methods of change are, so far\nas we can see, immutable. The laws of life, the laws of death, and the\nlaws of matter never change. If the invisible forces which rule all\nvisible things are themselves subject to modification and evolution, we\nhave not detected it. Its cosmic movements are so fine as to defy human\nobservation and computation. In the control of the universe we find no\ntrace of \"variableness nor shadow of turning.\" \"It is the law of heaven\nand earth, whose way is solid, substantial, vast, and unchanging.\"\n\nBut the things we know do not endure. Only the shortness of human life\nallows us to speak of species or even of individuals as permanent\nentities. The mountain chain is no more nearly eternal than the drift of\nsand. It endures beyond the period of human observation. It antedates\nand outlasts human history. So does the species of animal or plant\noutlast and antedate the lifetime of one man. Its changes are slight\neven in the lifetime of the race. Thus the species, through the\npersistence of its type among its changing individuals, comes to be\nregarded as something which is beyond modification, unchanging so long\nas it exists.\n\n\"I believe,\" said the rose to the lily in the parable--\"I believe that\nour gardener is immortal. I have watched him from day to day since I\nbloomed, and I see no change in him. The tulip who died yesterday told\nme the same thing.\"\n\nAs a flash of lightning in the duration of the night, so is the life of\nman in the duration of nature. When one looks out on a storm at night,\nhe sees for an instant the landscape illumined by the lightning-flash.\nAll seems at rest. The branches in the wind, the flying clouds, the\nfalling rain are all motionless in this instantaneous view. The record\non the retina takes no account of change, and to the eye the change does\nnot exist. Brief as the lightning-flash in the storm is the life of man\ncompared with the great time-record of life upon earth. To the untrained\nman who has not learned to read these records, species and types in life\nare enduring. Thus arose the theory of special creation and permanence\nof type, a theory which could not persist when the fact of change and\nthe forces causing it came to be studied in detail.\n\nBut when man came to study the facts of individual variation and to\nthink of their significance, the current of life no longer seemed at\nrest. Like the flow of a mighty river, never returning, ever sweeping\nsteadily on, is the movement of all life. The changes in human history\nare only typical of the changes that take place in all living creatures.\nIn fact, human history is only a part of one great life-current, the\nmovement of which is everywhere governed by the same laws, depends on\nthe same forces, and brings about like results.\n\nThe facts and generalizations of change constitute the subject-matter of\nevolution. And as the fact of life is a fundamental one, and in some\ndegree modifies all phenomena which it concerns, we have as the central\naxis of the science in question, the study of organic evolution. In\nfact, while inorganic evolution, or orderly change in environment,\nexists, we do not know to what degree the laws and forces of organic\nevolution can be reduced to the same terms of expression. The theory of\nthe essential and necessary unity of life and non-life, of mind and\nmatter, is still a matter of philosophical speculation only. We can\nneither prove the truth of Monism, nor understand it; nor is the\ncontrary hypothesis either comprehensible or credible. The fundamental\nunity of organic evolution and inorganic evolution is yet to be proved,\nwhile the laws which govern living matter are certainly in part peculiar\nto life. For this reason the evolution of astronomy, of dynamic geology,\nof geography, as well as the purely hypothetical evolution of chemistry,\nmust be separated from life evolution. Cosmic evolution and organic\nevolution show, or seem to show, some divergence from each other. There\nare some elements which are not held in common, or which, at least, are\nnot identical when measured in human terms. For the latter, the science\nof organic evolution, there is therefore certainly need of a distinctive\nterm. This has been lately furnished by Professor Patrick Geddes, who\nhas chosen the term bionomics. Bionomics ([Greek: bios], life; [Greek:\nnomos], law or custom) is the science which treats of the changes in\nlife-forms, and of the laws and forces on which these changes depend.\n\nEven as thus restricted organic evolution, or bionomics, is the greatest\nof the sciences, including in its subject-matter, not only all natural\nhistory, not only processes like cell-division and nutrition, not only\nthe laws of heredity, variation, natural selection, and mutual help, but\nall matters of human history, and the most complicated relations of\ncivics, economics, or ethics. In this enormous science no fact can be\nwithout a meaning, and no fact or its underlying forces can be separated\nfrom the great forces whose interaction from moment to moment writes the\ngreat story of life.\n\nAnd as the basis to the science of bionomics, as to all other science,\nmust be taken the conception that nothing is due to chance or whim.\nWhatever occurs does so as the resultant of moving forces. Could we know\nand estimate these forces, we should have, so far as our estimate is\naccurate and our logic perfect, the gift of prophecy. Knowing the law,\nand knowing the facts, we should foretell the results. To be able in\nsome degree to do this is the art of life. It is the ultimate end of\nscience, which finds its final purpose in human conduct.\n\n\"A law,\" according to Darwin, \"is the ascertained sequence of events.\"\nThe necessary sequence of events it is, in fact, but man knows nothing\nof what is necessary, only of what has been ascertained to occur.\nBecause human observation and logic can be only partial, no law of life\ncan be fully stated. Because the processes of the human mind are human,\nwith organic limitations, the study of the mind itself becomes a part\nof the science of bionomics. For it is itself an instrument or a\ncombination of instruments by which we acquire such knowledge of the\nworld outside of ourselves as may be needed in the art of living, in the\ndegree in which we are able to practise that art.\n\nThe necessary sequence of events exists, whether we are able to\ncomprehend it or not. The fall of a leaf follows fixed laws as surely as\nthe motion of a planet. It falls by chance because its short movement\ngives us no time for observation and calculation. It falls by chance\nbecause, its results being unimportant to us, we give no heed to the\ndetails of its motion. But as the hairs of our head are all numbered, so\nare numbered all the gyrations and undulations of every chance autumn\nleaf. All processes in the universe are alike natural. The creation of\nman or the growth of a state is as natural as the formation of an apple\nor the growth of a snow-bank. All are alike supernatural, for they all\nrest on the huge unseen solidity of the universe, the imperishability of\nmatter and the immanence of law.\n\nWe sometimes classify sciences as exact and inexact, in accordance with\nour ability exactly to weigh forces and results. The exact sciences deal\nwith simple data accessible and capable of measurement. The results of\ntheir interactions can be reduced to mathematics. Because of their\nessential simplicity, the mathematical sciences have been carried to\ngreat comparative perfection. It is easier to weigh an invisible planet\nthan to measure the force of heredity in a grain of corn. The sciences\nof life are inexact, because the human mind can never grasp all their\ndata. Nor has the combined effort of all men, the flower of the altruism\nof the ages, that we call science been able to make more than a\nbeginning in this study. But however incomplete our realization of the\nlaws of life, we may be sure that they are never broken. Each law is the\nexpression of the best possible way in which causes and results can be\nlinked. It is the necessary sequence of events, therefore the _best_\nsequence, if we may imagine for a moment that the human words \"good\" and\n\"bad\" are applicable to world-processes. The laws of nature are not\nexecutors of human justice. Each one has its own operation, and no\nother. Each represents its own tendency towards cosmic order. A law in\nthis sense cannot be \"broken.\" A broken law would be a discarded\nuniverse. \"If God should wink at a single act of injustice,\" says the\nArab proverb, \"the whole universe would shrivel up like a cast-off\nsnake-skin.\" If God should wink at any violated law the universe would\nvanish.\n\nNot long ago, in an examination in a theological seminary, the question\nwas asked of the candidates for the ministry, \"Is it right to pray for a\nchange of season?\" The candidates thought that it was not, for the\nrelations which produce winter and summer are fixed in the structure of\nthe solar system and cannot be altered for man's pleasure or man's need.\n\"Is it right to pray for rain?\" The candidates generally thought that it\nwas, because the conditions of rain are so unstable that a little change\nin one way or another would bring rain or fair weather, and that it was\nproper to ask for such change, as it did not concern the economy of the\nuniverse.\n\nThe third question was: \"When the signal service of the United States is\nwell established, so that weather conditions are perfectly known, will\nit then be right to pray for rain?\" And the candidates for the ministry\ncould not tell, for they began to see that even simple changes of\nweather may have the strength of the whole universe behind them. It has\nnever yet rained when by any possibility it could do otherwise. It has\nnever failed to rain when rain was possible. The Spanish padres in\nCalifornia, wise in their generation, allowed prayers for rain only in\nwinter, when the wind was in the south. The wind is only in the south\nwhen the air is affected by a cyclonic movement, and this in the\nCalifornia winter means rain.\n\nWe hear good men say sometimes that the crying need of this strong and\nsceptical age is that it may see some law of nature definitely broken,\nthat it may rain when rain is impossible, or that some burning bush may,\nunconsuming, proclaim that the force which is behind all law is also\nabove it and can break or repeal all laws at will.\n\nEmerson somewhere speaks of the purpose in life--\"To be sound and\nsolvent.\" As his life was in all ways \"sound and solvent,\" perhaps such\nrule of conduct was his own. But one may say, That is only a rule. The\nman himself should be all rules and requirements of his own\nestablishment. Let Mr. Emerson show that his life is above his\nprinciples. Let him break these rules. Let him be \"unsound and\ninsolvent\" for a time. Then only will his greatness appear.\n\nThe laws of nature are the expression of the infinite soundness and\nsolvency. They will not be broken, nor through their unsoundness and\ninsolvency will the \"heavens roll away as a scroll,\" nor \"the universe\nshrivel up as a cast-off snake-skin.\"\n\nIn the growing recognition of law has been the progress of science. From\nthe casting aside of human notions of chance and whim the \"warfare of\nscience\" has had its rise. For every event carried over into the realm\nof law some man has given his life. As the Panama railroad is said to\nhave cost the life of a man for every cross-tie, so has every step in\nthe progress of science. And such men!\n\nMany a time in the growth of humanity has it been necessary that the\nwisest, clearest, most humane, should die on the stake or the gibbet or\nthe cross, that men should come to realize the power of an idea; that\nthey should know the value of truth.\n\n_Evolution as a Theory of Organic Development, or Darwinism._ In a\ndifferent sense the word evolution is applied to the theory of the\norigin of organs and of species by divergence and development. This\ntheory teaches that all forms of life now existing or that have existed\non the earth have sprung from a common stock, which has undergone change\nin a multitude of ways and under varied conditions, the forces and\ninfluences producing such change being known as the \"factors of organic\nevolution.\" All characters and attributes of species and groups have\ndeveloped with changing conditions of life. The homologies among animals\nare the result of common descent. The differences are due to various\ninfluences, chief among these being competition in the struggle for\nexistence between individuals and between species, whereby those best\nadapted to their surroundings lived and reproduced their kind.\n\nThis theory is now the central axis of all biological investigation in\nall its branches, from ethics to histology, from anthropology to\nbacteriology. In the light of this theory every peculiarity of\nstructure, every character or quality of individual or species, has a\nmeaning and a cause. It is the work of the investigator to find this\nmeaning as well as to record the fact. \"One of the noblest lessons left\nto the world\" by Darwin is this, Mr. Frank Cramer tells us,--\"this,\nwhich to him amounted to a profound, almost religious, conviction, that\nevery fact in nature, no matter how insignificant, every stripe of\ncolor, every tint of flowers, the length of an orchid's nectary, unusual\nheight in a plant, all the infinite variety of apparently insignificant\nthings, is full of significance. For him it was an historical record,\nthe revelation of a cause, the lurking-place of a principle.\"\n\nAccording to the theory of evolution every structure of to-day finds its\nmeaning in some condition of the past. The inside of an animal tells\nwhat it really is, for it bears the record of heredity. The outside of\nan animal tells where its ancestors have been, for it bears record of\nconcessions to environment. Similarity in essential structure is known\nas _homology_. By the theory of evolution homology, wherever it is\nfound, is proof of blood-relationship.\n\nThe theory of organic evolution through natural law was first placed on\na stable footing by the observations and inductions of Darwin. It has\ntherefore been long known as Darwinism, although that term has been\nusually associated with the recognition of natural selection as the\ngreat motive power in organic change. Darwinism was at first regarded as\na \"working hypothesis.\" It is now an integral part of biological\nscience, because all opposing hypotheses have long since ceased to work.\nIt is as well attested as the theory of gravitation, and its elements\nare open to less doubt. All investigations in biology must assume it, as\nwithout it most such investigations would be impossible. Naturalists\ncould no more go back to the old notion of special creation for each\nspecies and its organs than astronomers could go back to the old notion\nof guiding angels as directors of planetary motion. Without the theory\nof organic development through natural selection, the biological science\nof to-day would be impossible.\n\n_Evolution as a Method of Study._ In a third sense the word evolution is\napplied to a method of investigation. It is the study of present\nconditions in the light of the past. The preliminary work of science is\nthe descriptive part. This involves accuracy of observation and\nprecision of statement, but makes no great demands on the powers of\nlogical analysis and synthesis. The easy work of science is largely\nalready done. Those who would continue investigation must study not only\nfacts and structures, but the laws that govern them. In the words of\nJohn Fiske, \"Whether plants or mountains or mollusks or subjunctive\nmoods or tribal confederacies be the things studied, the scholars who\nhave studied them most fruitfully were those who have studied them as\nphases of development. Their work has directed the current of thought.\"\nThe most difficult problems in life are susceptible of more or less\nperfect solution if approached by the method of evolution. They cannot\nbe even stated as problems in any other terms. In every science worthy\nof the name the history of origins and the study of developing forces\nmust take a leading part.\n\n_Evolution as a System of Cosmic Philosophy._ In a fourth sense the word\nevolution has been applied to the philosophical conceptions to which the\ntheory of evolution gives rise. Philosophy is not truth. When it is so\nit becomes science. At the best it points the way to truth. The broader\nthe inductive basis of any system of philosophy, the greater its value\nas an intellectual help. The system of Herbert Spencer, the greatest\nexponent of the philosophy of evolution, is based wholly on the results\nof scientific investigation. It consists of a series of more or less\nbroad and more or less probable deductions from the facts and laws\nalready known. Systems like these, which rest on scientific knowledge,\ndo not rise high above it. They can therefore be revised or rewritten as\nknowledge increases. They provide the means for their own correction.\nSystems resting on aphorisms or assumptions or definitions must\ndisappear as knowledge increases.\n\nPhilosophy is never wholly identical with truth. The partial truth which\nit may contain becomes wholly error with the advance of science. The\ngrowth of exact knowledge transforms the truth in philosophy into\nscience, leaving the absolute falsehood as the final residuum.\n\nFrom this necessary fact comes the ultimate decay of all creeds or\nphilosophic formulae. Throughout the ages science and philosophy have\nbeen in conflict. Science is the same to all minds capable of grasping\nits conclusions. Philosophy changes with the point of view. It is the\nevanescent perspective in which the facts and phenomena of the universe\nare seen. This can never be the same under changing times and\nconditions. With the larger knowledge of to-morrow, there will be large\nmodifications in the accepted philosophy of evolution. Each succeeding\ngeneration will give to the applications of the laws of organic life a\ndifferent philosophical expression.\n\n\nII. WHAT EVOLUTION IS NOT.\n\nIn these four senses the word evolution is used with some degree of\naccuracy. But in the current literature of the day the word has many\nother meanings, some of them very far from any just basis. Some things\nwhich evolution is not we may here notice briefly.\n\nEvolution is not a theory that \"man is a developed monkey.\" The question\nof the immediate origin of man is not the central or overshadowing\nquestion of evolution. This question offers no special difficulties in\ntheory, although the materials for exact knowledge are in many\ndirections incomplete. Homologies more perfect than those connecting man\nwith the great group of monkeys could not exist. These imply the\nblood-relationship of the human race with the great host of apes and\nmonkeys. As to this there can be no shadow of a doubt. And as similar\nhomologies connect man with all members of the group of mammals, similar\nblood-relationship must exist. And homologies, less close but equally\nunmistakable, connect all backboned animals one with another; and the\nlowest backboned types are closely joined to worm-like forms not usually\nclassed as vertebrates.\n\nIt is perfectly true that, with the higher or anthropoid apes, the\nrelations with man are extremely intimate. But man is not simply \"a\ndeveloped ape.\" Apes and men have diverged from the same primitive\nstock, apelike, manlike, but not exactly the one or the other. No apes\nor monkeys now extant could apparently have been ancestors of primitive\nman. None can ever \"develop\" into man. As man changes and diverges, race\nfrom race, so do they. The influence of effort, the influence of\nsurroundings, the influence of the sifting process of natural selection,\nacts upon them as it acts upon man.\n\nThe process of evolution is not progress, but better adaptation to\nconditions of life. As man becomes fitted for social and civic life, so\ndoes the ape become fitted for life in the tree-tops. The movement of\nmonkeys is towards \"simianity,\" not humanity. The movement of cat-life\nis towards felinity, that of the dog-races towards caninity. Each step\nin evolution upward or downward, whatever it may be, carries each\nspecies or type farther from the primitive stock. These steps are never\nretraced. For an ape to become a man he must go back to the simple\ncharacters of the simple common type from which both have sprung. These\ncharacters are shown in the ape-baby and in the human embryo in its\ncorresponding stages. For ancestral traits lost in the adult are\npreserved in the young. This comes through the operation of the great\nforce of race-memory, we call heredity.\n\nEvidence of biology points to the descent of all mammals, of all\nvertebrates, of all animals, of all organic beings, from a common stock.\nOf all the races of animals, the anthropoid apes are nearest man. Their\ndivergence from the same stock must be comparatively recent. Man is the\nnomadic, the apes the arboreal, branch of the same great family.\n\nEvolution does not teach that all or any living forms are tending\ntowards humanity. It does not teach, as in Bishop Wilberforce's\nburlesque, \"that every favorable variety of the turnip is tending to\nbecome man.\" It is not true that evolutionists expect to find, as Dr.\nSeelye has affirmed, \"the growth of the highest alga into a zooephyte, a\nphenomenon for which sharp eyes have sought, and which is not only\nnatural but inevitable on the Darwinian hypothesis, and whose discovery\nwould make the fame of any observer.\"\n\nIt is no wonder that a clear thinker should have rejected \"the Darwinian\nhypothesis,\" when stated in such terms as this. The line of junction in\nevolution is always at the bottom. It is the lowest mammals which\napproach the lowest reptiles. It is the lower types of plants which\napproach the lower types of animals. It would be the lowest alga, to use\nDr. Seelye's illustration, which would be transmutable into the lowest\nzooephyte. It is the unspecialized, undifferentiated type from which\nbranches diverge in different ways. Humanity is not the \"goal of\nevolution,\" not even that of human evolution. There will be no second\n\"creation of man,\" except from man's own loins. There will not be a\nsecond Anglo-Saxon race, unless it has the old Anglo-Saxon blood in its\nveins.\n\nAdaptation by divergence--for the most part by slow stages--is the\nmovement of evolution. While occasional leaps or sudden changes occur in\nthe process, they are by no means the rule. In most cases of \"saltatory\nevolution,\" the suddenness is in appearance only. It comes from our\ninability to trace the intermediate stages. When an epoch-making\ncharacter is acquired, as the wings of a bird or the brain of man, the\nprocess of readjustment of other characters goes on with greatly\nincreased rapidity. But this rapidity of evolution is along the same\nlines as the slower processes. Radical changes from generation to\ngeneration never occur. We do not expect to find birds arising from a\n\"flying-fish in the air, whose scales are disporting into feathers.\" A\nflying-fish is no more of the nature of a bird than any other fish is. A\ncow will never give birth to a horse, nor a horse to a cow. The slow\noperation of existing causes is the central fact of organic evolution,\nas it is of the evolution of mountains and valleys. Seasons change as\nthe relations which produce them change. But midsummer never gives way\nto midwinter in an instant. Nor does the child in an instant become a\nman, though in some periods of growth epoch-marking causes may make\ndevelopment more rapid. Life is conservative. The law of heredity is the\nexpression of its conservatism. It changes slowly, but it must\nconstantly change, and all change is by necessity divergence.\n\nThere is in nature no single \"law of progress,\" nor is progress in any\ngroup a necessity regardless of conditions. That which we call progress\nrests simply on the survival of the better adapted, their survival being\naccompanied by their reproduction. Those that live repeat themselves.\nThe \"innate tendency towards progression\" of the early evolutionists is\na philosophic myth. Progress and degeneration are alike the resultants\nof the various forces at work from generation to generation on and\nwithin a race or species. The same forces which bring progress to a\ngroup under one set of conditions will bring degradation under another.\nIn their essence the factors of evolution are no more laws of progress\nthan the attraction of gravitation is. Cosmic order comes from\ngravitation. Organic order comes from the factors of evolution.\nEvolution is simply orderly change.\n\n_Evolution is not Spontaneous Generation._ There is no necessary\nconnection between the one theory and the other. Spontaneous generation,\nor birth without parentage, on the part of small or useless creatures\nwas accepted in early times without question. As men began to observe\nthese animals more carefully, the fact of their spontaneous generation\nwas doubted. A great step was made when it was found that to screen meat\nfrom flies would protect it from maggots. A greater step came in our own\ntime when it was proved that to screen infusions from air dust is to\nprotect them from putrefaction or fermentation. Fermentation is \"life\nwithout air.\" It is the decomposition of sugar by minute creatures who\ndisintegrate it in their life processes. Putrefaction and decay are also\nthe same in nature. There is literal truth in Carlyle's statement that\nthere is still force in a fallen leaf, \"else how could it rot?\" It is\nthe force of the minute organisms hidden in the leaf, and whose life is\nthe leaf's decay. The decay and death of men from contagious diseases is\nknown to be due to life processes of minute organisms, as is the\ngangrene which follows unskilful surgery. The study of the \"fauna and\nflora\" within living organisms has now become a science of itself,\ndemanding the greatest care in observation and the most complete of\nappliances. \"_Omne vivum ex vivo_,\" \"all life from life,\" was an\naphorism of the naturalists of a century or two ago. It was to them a\nnew and broad generalization. It has not yet been set aside. The classic\nexperiments of Tyndall show that this law applies to all creatures we\nhave yet recognized or classified. As far as science can tell,\nspontaneous generation is still a myth, having no basis in observation,\nno warrant in experiment. It remains as a pure deduction from the\nphilosophical conception of Monism, incapable of proof, insusceptible of\nrefutation. The argument for it is chiefly this: Life exists on a globe\nonce lifeless. How did life begin? If not through spontaneous\ngeneration, how did it come? Must it not have been by the operation of\nthose laws and forces which through all time change lifeless into living\nmatter? Very likely, but we do not know. We know nothing whatever of\nsuch laws and forces, and we gain nothing by veiling our ignorance under\na philosophical necessity.\n\nMoreover, if spontaneous generation occurs as a resultant of any\nforces, like forces would produce it again. We have never known it to\noccur. Should it occur the organisms thus produced would have no bonds\nof blood-relationship with those already in existence. With these they\nshould show no homology, as they could have no inheritance in common.\nBut all known organisms have common homologies. The factors of organic\nevolution are essentially the same for all. The unity of life amid all\nits diversity seems to point to origin from a common stock. If not from\none stock, the lines of division between one and another are hidden from\nus. The study of embryology breaks down the time-honored branch lines of\nvertebrates, articulates, mollusks, and radiates. The groups of animals\nare more numerous, more complex, and more intertangled than Cuvier and\nAgassiz thought. The number of primary branches of animals or plants is\nuncertain, their boundaries undefined.\n\nIf spontaneous generation exists, it is a factor in evolution. If it is\na factor, our explanation of the meaning and nature of homology must be\nfundamentally changed. But it may be that it should be changed. We\ncannot show that spontaneous generation does not exist. All we know is\nthat we have no means of recognizing it. If there is now spontaneous\ngeneration of protoplasm, it cannot take the form of any creature we\nknow. An organism fresh from the mint of creation would be too small for\nus to see with any microscope. It would be too simple for us to trace by\nany instrumentality now in our possession. It could contain but a few\nmolecules, and a molecule in a drop of water is as small as an orange\nbeside the sun. Our race of creatures, spontaneously generated, without\nconcessions to environment, would grow hoary with the centuries before\nit came to our notice. Its descendants would have belonged for ages to\nthe unnumbered hosts of microbes before we should be aware of its\ncreation.\n\nEvolution is not a creed or a body of doctrine to be believed on\nauthority. There is no saving grace in being an evolutionist. There are\nmany who take this name and have no interest in finding out what it\nmeans or in making any application of its principles to the affairs of\nlife. For one who cares not to master its ideas, there is no power in\nthe word. Evolution is not a panacea or a medicine to be applied to\nsocial or personal ills. It is simply an expression of the teaching of\nenlightened common sense as to the order of changes in life. If its\nprinciples are mastered a knowledge of evolution is an aid in the\nconduct of life, as knowledge of gravitation is essential in the\nbuilding of machinery.\n\nThere is nothing \"occult\" in the science of evolution. It is not the\nproduct of philosophic meditation or of speculative philosophy. It is\nbased on hard facts, and with hard facts it must deal.\n\nIt seems to me that it is not true that \"Evolution is a new religion,\nthe religion of the future.\" There are many definitions to religion, but\nevolution does not fit any of them. It is no more a religion than\ngravitation is. One may imagine that some enthusiastic follower of\nNewton may, for the first time, have seen the majestic order of the\nsolar system, may have felt how futile was the old notion of guiding\nangels, one for each planet to hold it up in space. He may have received\nhis first clear vision of the simple relations of the planets, each\nforever falling toward the sun and toward each other, each one by the\nsame force forever preserved from collision. Such a man might have\nexclaimed, \"Great is gravitation; it is the new religion, the religion\nof the future!\" In such manner, men trained in dead traditions, once\nbrought to a clear insight of the noble simplicity and adequacy of the\ntheory of evolution, may have exclaimed, \"Great is evolution; it is the\nnew religion, the religion of the future!\"\n\nBut evolution is religion in the same sense that every truth of the\nphysical universe must be religion. That which is true is the truest\nthing in the world, and the recognition of the infinite soundness at the\nheart of the universe is an inseparable part of any worthy religion.\n\nBut, whether religion or not, the truths of evolution must be their own\nwitness. They can be neither strengthened nor controverted by any\nauthority which may speak in the name of philosophy or of theology or of\nreligion. \"_Roma locuta est; causa finita est_\" is not a dictum which\nscience can regard. Her causes are never finished. No power on earth can\ngive beforehand the answer to her questions. Her only court of appeal is\nthe experience of man.\n\n\n\n\nHAS WEALTH A LIMITATION?\n\nBY ROBERT N. REEVES.\n\n\nThere is in the government of human affairs one order that is best for\nall. What that order is and how it is to be attained should be the great\nproblem for all who have at heart the betterment of the human race.\n\nNever in the history of our country were the people confronted with\ngreater social problems than they are to-day. The strikes, boycotts, and\ngeneral discontent of late years prove conclusively that there is yet\nmuch room for improvement in our social order. What mean the great\noutcry and muttering of the masses? What means the cry from the vast\narmy of discontented which wells up from the very heart of the nation,\n_unless_ it signifies the rumbling which is often heard before the\nstorm? Gloss it over as we will, the fact stands out as prominent as\never, that there is something radically wrong with our present\neconomical system.\n\nMany remedies have been suggested, many reforms have been inaugurated\nwith the purpose of relieving the poverty and misery which press so\nheavily upon a large majority of the people. Stop immigration! Prohibit\ninvention! exclaim some. The population is increasing too fast! reply\nothers. And so the many reforms are advocated, all of which are\ndiscussed with more or less fairness. But when it is suggested that\nwealth is becoming too concentrated, that limitations should be placed\nupon it, the cry immediately goes up that he who suggests such a remedy\nis an anarchist, and one whose name should be synonymous with whatever\nis dangerous, lawless, and subversive.\n\nNevertheless, the question of wealth limitation cannot be dismissed with\nthreats, epithets, or sneers. It will not dismiss itself, and we cannot\ndismiss it. Every observant person must admit that the great\nconcentration of wealth, whether it be in corporations, trusts, or\nindividuals, has reached a point dangerous to the future prosperity of\nthe nation.\n\nMillions of people idle, wealth piled up for the few by the toil of the\nmany, paupers and millionaires on every side, and the conditions\ngrowing worse and worse,--these things are enough to make even the most\noptimistic painfully apprehensive of the future. Our government in some\nrespects is in no better condition than was the old Roman Empire just\nbefore its fall, as described by James Anthony Froude. If we are to\nbelieve that eminent historian, the Roman Empire was crushed by the same\npower of unlimited, concentrated wealth that to-day is destroying the\nlife, the liberty, and the happiness of the many in the United States.\nIn mediaeval Italy, too, popular freedom was lost through a moneyed\noligarchy and proletariat. So in every country where individual wealth\nhas transcended the bounds of justice, the people--the toilers--have\neventually been enslaved.\n\nOurs is fast becoming a moneyed nation; and a moneyed nation is\ngenerally a weak one. Superfluity of riches, like superfluity of food,\ncauses weakness and decay. Individual prosperity or the prosperity of a\ncommunity does not mean general prosperity, or the prosperity of a\nnation. Thus it has been shown that, in New York and Massachusetts and\nthose States in which the greatest wealth is concentrated, the largest\nproportion of paupers are to be found. In 1833, when Tocqueville visited\nAmerica, he was struck by the equal distribution of wealth and the\nabsence of capitalists. Half a century later, when James Bryce, author\nof \"The American Commonwealth,\" visited our country, the trusts,\nmonopolies, and concentrated wealth so amazed him that he exclaimed: \"I\nsee the shadows of a new structure of society--an aristocracy of\nriches.\"\n\nFifty years ago there were no great fortunes here, and in fact but few\nfortunes that could be called large, and in those days there was\ncomparatively little poverty. Now we have many gigantic fortunes and a\nvast number ranging from $100,000 to $10,000,000. In the past, wealth\nbeing more equally distributed, there was but little class distinction,\nbut there were a far greater number of what might be called fortunes,\nand a noticeable exemption from that pauperism which has become chronic\nof late years.\n\nThe Probate-Court records of the various States disclose the fact that\nmillionaires are becoming more numerous, while the smaller\nproperty-owners are gradually sinking into the multitude of people\npossessing nothing. In a valuable article by Eltweed Pomeroy on \"The\nConcentration of Wealth,\"[2] some interesting figures and diagrams are\ngiven, proving from probate records the exact extent to which small\nfortunes have been crowded out or merged into enormous ones. These\nrecords are valuable because they are official. But while they prove the\n_extent_ to which wealth is concentrated, they do not disclose the\nmisery which that wealth is causing. For that, we must look to the\nconditions about us. And in doing so it is not necessary to be a\nphilosopher in order to see the havoc which concentrated wealth has\nwrought in recent years. Every day, it has been declared, America is\nover four million dollars richer at night than in the morning. Who\nreceives this wealth? Surely not those who toil; else they would not\nsuffer so. They receive little of it. The national wealth, great as it\nis, slips through their fingers to be collected in the vast reservoirs\nof the moneyed aristocracy. They work, but it is the work of those who\nlabor to produce, but who receive none of that which is produced.\n\n      [2] THE ARENA, Dec., 1896, p. 82.\n\nIt is this condition that causes so many to declare that the present\ndistribution of wealth does not conform to the principles of justice.\nAnd how can it be otherwise, when all wealth passes through the hands of\nthe producers and stops only when it reaches those who possess most?\nThus wealth is becoming with us not a power for general good, but a\npower given to the few to control the many--a power of placing upon the\nmasses a yoke little better than slavery itself. The rich, becoming\nfurther and further removed from the poor, are also becoming conscious\nof being in a measure the proprietors of the poor. The poor have a\nknowledge of this fact, and the strikes, boycotts, and general\ndiscontent are but the expression of that knowledge.\n\nIn no country in the world does wealth, individual and corporate, exert\nsuch an influence as in the United States, and as a consequence, human\nlife is becoming lamentably cheap. Capital is taking the place of men,\nand is valued more than men. Property is becoming sacred, human life\nprofane. Laws are being made not for the good of humanity, but for the\nsake of property. One instance may be mentioned here: in the spring of\n1896 a bill was before Congress to remove all criminal cases from the\njurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States. It was argued by\nthose in favor of the bill that much of the time of the Supreme Court\nwas consumed listening to criminal cases (cases involving life and\nliberty), while high-priced corporation lawyers, whose cases involved\nmillions of dollars, were required to wait in Washington until the\ncriminal cases were disposed of. The bill naturally passed the Senate,\nbut was defeated in the House.\n\nThis bill was but one of many indications that, in the eye of the law,\nproperty is becoming of more value than life or liberty.\n\nIn Benjamin Franklin's time it was proposed to make the possession of a\ncertain amount of property a prerequisite for voting. The amount would\nat the time have bought one ass. Franklin characteristically argued: If\na man with an ass could vote, and did vote, but when the ass died the\nman could not vote, who was it, in fact, voted--the man or the ass?\nFranklin's argument would hold good against many of the laws advocated\nto-day--laws in which the object is the stability of property rather\nthan the freedom or happiness of man. This condition of affairs, this\nconflict between the right of liberty on the one hand, and the right of\nproperty on the other, has created a great political problem. Has the\nstate a right to limit wealth? Is there a limit to the accumulations of\nindividuals and corporations? Has the state the power to tax\nconcentrated wealth out of existence when such wealth has become\ndetrimental to the public peace and prosperity? In other words, has the\nstate the power to prevent the acquisition of wealth from becoming a\npublic curse? Government, if it stands for anything, stands for the\npublic interests, and one of the objects of government should be the\nprotection of its citizens from the encroachments of accumulated wealth.\n\nGreat individual wealth is an anti-social interest. It is the ascendency\nof individuals over the interests of the public. Individuals have, it is\ntrue, a certain amount of liberty, but it cannot be denied that society\nhas the right to modify the liberty of the individual where such liberty\nis but the slavery of the public. The right to live also implies the\nright to use the things about us which go to make life comfortable and\nenjoyable, and which have not been already appropriated by others. It is\nevident, however, that the use of anything by one must necessarily take\nfrom the personal liberty of all others who otherwise would be able to\nuse it. And it is perfectly plain that just in proportion as one's\nwealth increases, the wealth of others must decrease. This to a certain\nextent is legitimate, and cannot be prevented. But when the wealth of\none increases to such an extent as to deprive others of food, shelter,\nand even existence itself, it infringes upon the equality of personal\nliberty far more than could any law that placed a limit to individual\nwealth. When men are starving, when paupers are increasing, when to the\nmisfortune of poverty is added the curse of industrial slavery, when the\ngreat concentration of wealth affects the life and liberty of all, is\nnot a law just which takes from a few a portion of their wealth and\nindirectly restores it to the hands of the many? Does not the right to\nproperty involve and rest upon the admission of the right to live?\n\nCardinal Manning startled the world some years ago when he declared:\n\"The obligation to feed the hungry springs from the natural right of\nevery man to life and to the food necessary to the sustenance of life.\nSo strict is this natural right that it prevails over all positive laws\nof property. Necessity has no law, and a starving man has a right to his\nneighbor's bread.\"\n\nStrong words these for a cardinal. Sentimental philosophy it may be\ncalled, but it is the philosophy of justice. Enormous wealth has always\nbeen irreconcilable with equality. Its growth has caused the downfall of\nmany democracies. Will it bring about the ruin of the greatest democracy\nin history? Are we, with the awe with which we regard the institution of\nproperty, becoming a nation of millionaires and mendicants?\n\nProperty is only absolutely safe when those who hold it are far more\nnumerous than those who do not. When the middle class disappears from a\nnation and the property falls into the hands of a few over-rich men,\nthen property is unsafe. We call such a condition an aristocracy of\nmoney, and an aristocracy of money is always the child of a degenerated\nor degenerating democracy. Some people, however, regard the\nconcentration of wealth as an indication of progress. In matters\npolitical the obstacle is often taken for the cause. Monopolies,\ntrusts, and other forms of concentrated wealth are regarded by some as\nthe blessings of a prosperous nation. But examined in the light of\nhistory we find that concentrated wealth has always been a means of\nobstructing if not of destroying a nation. Our nation is not an\nexception. We cannot say that the destructive power of concentrated\nwealth is not now felt. All that is necessary is to observe the\nconditions about us. Whenever the people of a nation become subservient\nand dependent, and are oppressed and abused because they are so,\nwhenever there is little general prosperity but a great deal of\nprosperity for a few, we naturally come to the conclusion that the cause\nof the misery and lack of general prosperity is the great concentration\nof wealth in the hands of the few. It is this conclusion, arrived at by\nwhat are termed the masses, that has caused the many conflicts of recent\nyears between labor and capital. And such conflicts are natural. Man\nalways revolts when he suspects his misery is the consequence of a\nsocial order capable of reformation. Force, of late years, has often\nbeen called upon to subdue the spirit of resentment which agitates the\nbreasts of the poorer classes. The militia of the various States and\neven government troops have been called upon in order to preserve\nproperty and also maintain the supremacy of concentrated wealth.\n\nHow long this can go on before a change comes we do not know. It cannot\nbe maintained long. Unless some law is enacted that will stop the\nencroaching power of wealth, things will go on until the inequality\nbecomes so glaring, so oppressive, that the pent-up social waters,\ngathering force, will break through the wall of concentrated wealth and\nallow society once more to regain its natural level. Every statesman,\nevery thinker, should know that we cannot expect a healthy growth with\nclass arrayed against class. Every strike, every riot, is a\nretrogressive step in our nation's history. If our American civilization\nis to endure and progress we must bring about a change in the\ndistribution of wealth. If conditions are such as to be beneficial to a\nsmall number and injurious to society in general, those conditions\nshould be changed. Unless limited, the alarming development and\naggressiveness of great capitalists and powerful corporations will\neventually lead to the absolute degradation of the toiling masses.\nUnless checked, it will continue to grow until it usurps the entire\nlegislative and executive branches of our government, and, like a huge\nvampire, slowly draws the life-blood from every healthy, helpful\ncreature. This power of wealth is the greatest danger that has\nthreatened our country since the civil war, and against it we must\nconstantly be on our guard. If the power is permitted to grow it may\nbecome too late, and can then be remedied only by putting class against\nclass--by revolution, which always means the rejoicing of the poor at\nthe downfall of their oppressors.\n\nThis, then, is to be the battle of the future--concentrated wealth on\none hand, concentrated poverty on the other. The battle should not be\none of force, but one of reason and agitation until wealth shall be\nbound by proper constitutional limitations; a battle in which law shall\ntriumph; for the true remedy, the remedy most conducive to equality,\nlies in legislation. But this legislation should be immediate. If we\ndesire to prevent actual war between class and class, it is imperative\nthat a legal check at once be placed upon the growing power for evil of\naggregated wealth.\n\nThe limitation of wealth by law has received the approval of some of the\nmost gifted as well as philanthropic of minds. In our own country such\nmen as Horace Greeley, Theodore Parker, and William Ellery Channing have\nadvocated it. Still, a ready objection of some against the limitation of\nwealth is that any attempt to remedy by legislation the inequality of\nfortune at once infringes upon the right of personal liberty. Have we no\nlaws in existence now which infringe upon the right of personal liberty?\nDo not our usury laws take some rights from the individual? Does not our\ncustom-house law, which permits the trunks of every new arrival to be\nsearched, infringe somewhat upon the right of personal liberty? The\ncitizen who would object to these laws would have but a very narrow\nconception of the true purpose of government. If we examine our laws\nclosely we shall find many that encroach upon individual liberty for the\nsake of public good. Then why should any objection be made to those laws\nwhich tend to limit wealth?\n\nUndoubtedly a tax levied upon all incomes, which would be progressively\nraised and graduated according to the amount of the individual or\ncorporate wealth could be constitutionally enacted. And if a progressive\nincome tax can be enacted, the graduated inheritance tax can also be\nenacted, for the principle is practically the same. Senator David B.\nHill, of New York, has called the progressive tax a \"modern fad.\" It is\nso modern, however that it can be traced back to the Romans, Greeks, and\nEgyptians. During the palmiest days of Greece--the days of Solon and\nLycurgus--a progressive tax was a stern reality.\n\nOur own country has not been without a progressive tax. In 1797 a graded\ninheritance tax was levied by Congress. This law was repealed in 1802.\nIn 1862 a similar law was passed. But after having been decided to be\nconstitutional by the Supreme Court, it was repealed in 1872.\n\nOther governments at the present time tax the rich. In England, besides\nthe income tax, many other items of revenue are contributed entirely by\nthe rich--contributed upon the principle that those who have acquired\nriches shall bear the burden of taxation. In the United States we seem\nto place the burden of taxation upon the shoulders least fitted to bear\nit. Every effort to tax the rich, to properly tax corporations and\ntrusts, has met with failure. The lobbyist and corporation lawyer have\ndefied the tax-gatherer until they have worn out the patience of the\npeople. The time is now ripe for proper legislation. A progressive\nincome tax and a tax upon inheritances should be made a law in every\nState. The power to tax, it has been said, is the power to destroy. If a\nscale of taxation were wisely adopted it would eventually enable us to\nreach without political disturbance the almost total abolition of an\naristocracy of wealth and thus solve the great problem of the day. If we\nare to consider humanity of any importance at all, wealth must be\nlimited. The rights of all must be considered. When this is done we may\nbe able to have a truly prosperous nation--a nation in which prosperity\nwill not be confined to a favored few, but given to all.\n\n\"Prosperity,\" says Rousseau, \"is best secured when the medium-class\nincome prevails, when no citizen is so rich that he can buy others, and\nno one so poor that he might be compelled to sell himself.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE BATTLE OF THE MONEY METALS\n\nI. BIMETALLISM SIMPLIFIED.\n\nBY GEORGE H. LEPPER.\n\n\nThe \"free-silver delusion\" is not dead, nor will it die unless the\nMcKinley administration shall give it its quietus by providing the\ncountry with a sound and popular system of bimetallism. Even the most\nsanguine of the Republican leaders must admit that the prospect of\naccomplishing this task by international agreement is not so encouraging\nas to make the tentative consideration of other plans, not requiring\nconcerted action, unnecessary or useless. The purpose of this article is\nto present such a plan, and to contrast it with those which have already\nbeen tried, or have thus far been proposed.\n\nThat the financial policy we have pursued since 1878, the year of the\nBland-Allison Act, has been absurd and ruinous hardly admits of two\nopinions. Secretary Carlisle, in his letter of September 16th last, gave\nauthoritative utterance to what had long been tacitly understood. He\nsaid, \"If the time shall ever come when the parity of the present silver\ndollars and silver certificates cannot be otherwise maintained, they\nwill be received by the government in exchange for gold.\" In other\nwords, the vast stores of silver purchased by the United States under\nthe laws of 1878 and 1890 are a dead asset of the Treasury, and cannot\nbe utilized for purposes of redemption until sixteen ounces of silver\nshall again be equivalent to one of gold, or until they are re-sold in\nthe open market for gold. To render this treasure available for ultimate\nredemptions thus becomes a prime condition of our problem.\n\nThere is a growing disposition in certain influential quarters to evade\nthe difficulties in the way of international bimetallism by taking the\ngovernment out of the banking business, and relegating the matter of\ncurrency issues more and more to the banks. Whatever may be said in\nbehalf of this course, it is certainly not popular with the masses, who,\njustly or ignorantly, have come to look upon national banks as favored\nobjects of legislation, and in league with syndicates and trusts. But,\naside from this, the real core of the trouble is not removed. We but\nshift the burden of responsibility. The ultimate fund for redemption\nremains limited to the one metal as beforehand can serve the banks even\nless efficiently, for the more divided the responsibility the larger the\nproportion of gold required for reserve purposes.\n\nInternational bimetallism at the contemplated ratio of 16 to 1, and\nbimetallism by independent action at the same ratio, although opposing\nissues in the late campaign, are founded upon the same errors and\nmisconceptions. Both assume that monetization creates a commercial\ndemand for the metals, thereby enhancing their values; that the use of\ngold and silver as money substances has been one of choice with us\ninstead of necessity; and that legal-tender laws create value.\n\nIt may be going too far to say that monetization creates no demand, but\nwhatever demand it may be supposed to create is not a commercial one. In\nthe latter sense the word signifies both an actual purchase, or the\nexchange of one thing for another, and a permanent withdrawal from the\nmarket of the thing bought. The act of coinage is certainly not a\npurchase, for, directly or indirectly, it aims to restore to the offerer\nof the bullion not something else, but the _precise thing received_; nor\nis the metal retired from the market, since it is actually or virtually,\nthough in an altered form, immediately restored thereto. The whole\nprocess is merely one of bailment. It would therefore seem incumbent\nupon those affirming the efficacy of monetization to raise the price of\nthe metal to show by scientific analysis just how, why, and to what\nextent it does so. The fact that from 1792 to 1873, with free coinage at\na very close approximation to the market value, not once did the legal\nand commercial ratios coincide, and that the change of the former from\n15 to 1 to 16 to 1 in 1834 had no perceptible effect on the market,\nseems to be conclusive proof that the general belief that free coinage\nat a fixed ratio appreciates the over-valued metal is delusive.\n\nIt is important to inquire into the grounds upon which the use of silver\nand gold is founded, for if we have _chosen_ them for that purpose there\nis an implication that other substances might have served the same\nobject almost, if not quite, as well. Such is not the case. Silver and\ngold are absolutely unique in possessing the qualities indispensable for\nmoney, and not only nature, but immemorial custom and deep-rooted\nprejudice combine to compel their use in the exchanges irrespective, and\neven despite, of legislation. Monetization, therefore, cannot, for this\nfurther reason, add to, or take away from, their respective values,\nbecause the exchangeability that monetization is supposed to give them\nis a natural quality and not the creature of law. But so much more is\nthis true of gold than of silver, that the dependence of modern\ncommerce, and, through it, modern civilization, upon it is almost\nabsolute. If, therefore, free coinage at a ratio unfair to gold were\nattempted, gold would cease to be offered at the mints, but it would\nnevertheless continue in use in final settlements, especially in\ntransactions of some magnitude, thus preventing its decline in value.\n\nSuppose, then, that such a law, national or international, should go\ninto effect to-day, would anyone be so fatuous as to part with his gold\nuntil the effect of the law could be discerned? If the governments at\nthe same time should exercise the same good sense, they would retain\ntheir gold and disburse their silver, but such conduct would defeat the\nvery object of the law. If, on the other hand, they should release their\ngold, retaining their silver, they would give fresh point to the\noft-proved saying, \"The fool and his money are soon parted.\" A\n_bona-fide_ attempt on the part of one or more powers to change the\nmarket ratio of the metals could result only in transferring government\ngold to private coffers, and in a general fall to the silver basis with\nall its attendant evils. Meanwhile the gold would continue its functions\nas money in new transactions, but at its market value, never by any\nchance reaching the public treasuries except on the same basis. The\ninconvenience of transacting business with a metal some thirty times as\nheavy, value for value, as that to which they had been accustomed would,\nwithout further reason, speedily induce the governments to a restoration\nof the gold standard at any cost.\n\nAs for the legal-tender quality, it cannot be denied that governments\nhere possess a peculiar power which individuals cannot exert; but that\nfact does not make the exercise of that power morally right. The\nquality of legal tender infused into the debased dollar cannot but add\ntemporarily to its exchangeable value in a degree gradually diminishing\nwith the exhaustion of the accumulated credits. When, however, the last\ndebtor in the series is reached, and there is no longer a Peter to rob\nfor the sake of Paul, the fraudulent coin must inevitably sink to the\nvalue it had as bullion prior to the act that created it.\n\nUpon such fallacies as these it is sought to erect the elaborate\nsuperstructure of the civilized world's monetary system! Some of the\nmore advanced thinkers among the self-styled bimetallists, realizing\nthat some deference must be paid to the lessons of experience, which\noffers not a solitary instance of the concurrent use of the two metals\nunder a fixed ratio, argue that, even so, the chief blessing of\nbimetallism--a less variable standard--will have been secured in the\nautomatic oscillation from one circulation to the other. If this\noscillatory feature is the object sought, the adoption of a ratio of 16\nto 1, or thereabouts, would certainly not secure it, but one almost\nidentical with the market ratio would be imperative. Not once in the\nhistory of our country did this alternation occur, although from 1792 to\n1873 we were upon the double standard. It is true that in 1834 the\ncirculation changed from silver to gold, but that was due not to the\nautomatic effect of that system, but to an actual change of the legal\nratio from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1. But if the legal ratio is now made to\nconform to the market one, what becomes of our present silver coins?\nMust they be called in and be replaced by the new? If so the convenience\nof our subsidiary coinage will be sacrificed, for a silver dollar twice\nits present size would be intolerable.\n\nThe obstacles in the way of international bimetallism need not be\nenumerated here. The proceedings at the Brussels monetary conference in\n1892, though they accomplished little besides, certainly served to make\nthese difficulties plain. The primary object is to make silver coins and\ngold coins continuously interchangeable in trade at a ratio\napproximating as closely as possible to 16 to 1, and the discussion of\nthe means to accomplish this has apparently narrowed down to one\nproposition to be answered by a simple yes or no: Shall the free coinage\nof gold and silver at the ratio of 1 to 16 be restored? It will not do\nto insert any other ratio (except, perhaps, 1 to 15 or 1 to 15-1/2),\nbecause if a ratio closely approximating the commercial one is\ncontemplated, each nation might decide the question for itself, and an\ninternational agreement would be superfluous. All the civilized nations\nhave their own established ratios of coinage varying from 15 to 15-1/2\nor 16 of silver to 1 of gold, and whichever of these should prevail the\nresult could not but be a serious matter to those nations obliged to\nreform their coinage in accordance therewith. Neither horn of the\ndilemma presented by the plan of a fixed ratio is practicable; the\nconvenient one of 16 to 1 is impossible, and the commercial one would\nnecessitate recoinages and make the coins prohibitively cumbrous. The\nchoice of an intermediate ratio would be a virtual relinquishment of the\nprinciple itself, for how would that ratio be arrived at if not by mere\nguess? There are no data to guide us, nor is there any formulated rule\nby which the desired ratio may be determined. Besides, the intermediate\nratio would still remain open to the objections advanced against the\nhigher ratio, both in requiring recoinage and in unduly enlarging the\ncoins.\n\nThe inevitable result of free coinage at a fixed ratio is to expel the\nundervalued metal from circulation. There can be but one way to prevent\nthis, and that is by a system of sliding scale whereby scrupulous\nfidelity to the state of the market from day to day may be preserved.\nDiurnal recoinages are of course out of the question, but the thing is\nnevertheless both easy and practicable.\n\nLet us assume that gold only has hitherto been used as money, that 25.8\ngrains thereof have been taken to be one dollar, and that it is now\ndesired to supplement it with the use of silver. Our proposition will\nnecessarily take this form: If one dollar is equal to 25.8 grains of\ngold, it must be equal to as many grains of silver as 25.8 grains of\ngold will buy in the open market. Here we must remember that what is\ntrue to-day may not be true to-morrow or a year hence. So many grains of\ngold may to-day be worth 412-1/2 grains of silver, to-morrow they may be\nworth but 400, and next day, 420. By _fixing the amount_ of silver in\nthe dollar we thus utter through these coins a new falsehood each day.\n_Constant values, not constant weights, is what we are driving at; so\nin lieu of the silver coin we must substitute a promise to pay a gold\ndollar, or a gold dollar's worth of silver, whatever the state of the\nmarket._ This is what I designate _natural bimetallism_. The silver\ndollar and fractional pieces as we now have them may nevertheless\ncontinue in circulation, for the promise can be written into them by\nlegislation to redeem them, upon surrender, in the same manner as the\npaper promises. It is possible that Hamilton and his successors in\noffice prior to 1837 may have thought of this expedient, but discarded\nit as not then feasible. We must remember, however, that they had\nserious practical difficulties to contend with, which are now happily\nremoved. The advantages of the telegraph, the cable, the improved means\nof transportation, and our admirable system of market quotations, enable\nus now with certainty and ease to determine daily what any given thing\nis worth in terms of any other.\n\nIn order to make my plan as clear as possible, I shall run the risk of\nseeming elementary by following through, step by step, a typical\ntransaction under it: Let us fancy that the reader, bearing a nugget of\ngold in his left hand and another of silver in his right, and desiring\nto convert them into money, repairs to the Philadelphia mint. He applies\nthere to the proper clerk, who, for simplicity's sake, we will suppose\nperforms all the operations. The clerk weighs and assays the two pieces\nof metal, and finds the gold one to contain 25,800 grains of standard\ngold, worth precisely $1,000, which are counted out in bills. A similar\noperation reveals that the lump of silver weighs 35,500 grains, but the\nclerk is now observed to consult a table before saying, \"The market\nequivalent of a gold dollar is to-day 710 grains, consequently your\n35,500 grains are worth $50;\" and he then proceeds to count out the\nmoney in bills precisely like those given in payment for the gold. Upon\nexamining these at his leisure the reader discovers imprinted thereon a\ncontract running as follows: \"This note entitles the bearer on demand to\n[the denomination of the bill] dollars in gold or to the market\nequivalent thereof in silver.\"\n\nIn the course of time, say five years hence, these identical notes, by\nthe accidents of trade, have come into my hands, and I desire to have\nthem redeemed. Applying to the United States Treasury I find I am\ngranted the privilege of taking payment in silver, in gold, or partly in\none and the balance in the other. For the purposes of our illustration,\nhowever, we will adhere to the figures already used. In exchange for the\n$1,000, then, I receive back precisely the weight of gold originally\ngiven for them. For the $50 I receive six pieces of silver of different\nsizes, which I notice are arranged upon a decimal scale of grains. They\ncontain respectively 30,000, 5,000, 1,000, 500, 100, and 50 grains; in\nall 36,650 grains, or 1,150 grains in excess of the original quantity.\nUpon inquiry I learn that this excess is not due to any mistake by the\nclerk, but that since the first transaction silver has fallen so that\n733 grains are now commercially equal to 25.8 grains of gold, and that\nthe government has simply redeemed my notes at par. After this first\nexperience I have many subsequent transactions with the mint and with\nthe Treasury. At the former I find that I have the choice of notes, gold\ncoin, or silver coin. At first I reject the silver coins as being under\nweight, but upon its being explained that they are purposely made light\nfor the sake of convenience, and that they are by general law redeemable\nin the same manner as the notes, I no longer object to them. At the\nTreasury, on the other hand, I am sometimes, though rarely, informed\nthat the government is exercising the option reserved in its contract;\nthat it is paying exclusively in gold, or exclusively in silver, or\npartly in one and partly in the other. These occasional disappointments,\nhowever, never affect the integrity of the money I have in hand, for\nwhether redeemed in gold or silver, everyone knows that it will be\nredeemed at its _face value_, and it accordingly passes unquestioned.\n\nUpon several occasions I present bonds of the government for redemption,\nsome of them issued previous to the inauguration of the new system, and\nothers issued afterward. In either case I find that the same system of\nredemption prevails as in the example of the notes. Treasury notes,\nsilver coins, and silver certificates--one and all I discover are also\nredeemable like the new notes or convertible into them, so that I need\nnever concern myself about any matter save their genuineness.\n\nGold certificates and greenbacks must, of course, be redeemed as their\nspecial contract requires, but, once redeemed, they must reissue in the\nnew bimetallic notes which I have described. Thus a very simple method\nis provided whereby this form of currency may be transmuted into another\nwithout contracting the circulation.\n\nThe great desideratum is to make our vast stores of silver available for\nultimate redemptions, and this, natural bimetallism effectually\naccomplishes. Our gold reserve would therefore cease to be indispensable\nto the preservation of our national credit just as soon as the\ngreenbacks and gold certificates were converted into the bimetallic\nnotes or cancelled. But there need be no fear that the gold reserve\nwould ever become depleted. By removing all danger of the debasement of\nour money, by insuring the parity of every dollar of our currency with\ngold, and by permanently retiring the greenbacks, we destroy the\nincentive to hoard gold, cause its return to the reserve, relieve it of\nhalf the burden it formerly had to sustain, and reduce to a minimum the\ntendency to withdrawals. The copious supply of gold thus secured would\nenable the Treasurer to waive his option to pay in silver whenever the\ncustomer preferred gold, thereby enabling merchants to use the less\ncumbrous metal for foreign shipments. Indeed, it is entirely probable\nthat the new notes would be preferred to gold in international as well\nas in domestic exchanges.\n\nAn advantage of especial importance is that the metals can be\nconcurrently used. The oscillation from one to the other, even if it be\nadmitted that it would provide us always with the better of them under\nwhatever changes may occur, is certainly not to be preferred to the\nconstant and equal use of both. The unlimited coinage of the two metals\nupon a plan so equitable, recognizing as it does their precise market\nrelations from day to day, would enable us to view with indifference the\nfluctuations of the market, however great, and to whatever cause due.\nIncidental to this advantage, and second only to it in importance, would\nbe the establishment of a par of exchange simultaneously with the\ngold-and with the silver-using countries by allowing customs duties to\nbe paid in silver bullion at market prices, or in gold.\n\nIt may be contended that under the plan here proposed the government\nmight lose by a continued decline in silver, and that the silver it\nalready has would remain depreciated far below the price the government\npaid for it. I frankly admit this. But is it reasonable to suppose that\nsilver will continue to decline? The probabilities are that in the\nsucceeding twenty years the production of gold will increase more\nrapidly in proportion than silver; and it also seems that whereas\nprocesses for extracting and refining silver have well-nigh reached\ntheir limit of economy, the new processes for treating gold are rapidly\nimproving. Nor must it be forgotten that should such a decline occur the\nmint deposits are from day to day keeping pace with the withdrawals, the\nlosses on the latter thus being counterbalanced by concurrent gains, and\ninterest-bearing debts being constantly transmuted into non-interest\nbearing currency. It is equally clear that the utilization of a dead\nasset, as the government stock of silver now is, is a distinct gain, and\nwill permanently dispense with the future issue of bonds for the\nrepletion of the gold reserve. As for the silver purchased by the\ngovernment under the Acts of 1878 and 1890 having become depreciated,\nthe fact is there whether we choose to recognize or ignore it. There is\nno better way for palliating that loss than to make that silver\nimmediately available for the payment of the nation's debts.\n\nAllied to the question of the costliness of the system is that of its\ntendency toward, or freedom from, speculative disturbances. So long as\npayment solely in gold was compulsory, speculators had a fertile field\nfor their operations. By giving the Treasurer the option of payment in\nsilver or gold, however, raids upon either metal can be met by paying\nexclusively in the other until the proper equilibrium is restored. If a\nreal difficulty should still be found to exist in practice, a slight\nmint charge would effectually put an end to it. In any event, natural\nbimetallism is much less open to criticism on this score than the\nexisting system, or than that of the fixed ratio.\n\nThe pieces of silver with which redemptions are to be made are in no\nsense to be regarded as money. They are distinctly merchandise,\npossessing a commercial value precisely equivalent to the number of\nmoney units received or surrendered therefor, and when the notes have\nbeen redeemed, and the commercial equivalent has been given therefor,\nthe government's responsibility ends. The government assumes no\nobligation to maintain silver bullion at a given ratio to gold, but it\ndoes assume to make each unit of money the equal of 25.8 grains of gold.\nIn other words, the fluctuations in the value of silver are confined to\nit in its bullion shape, and cannot enter into its form as money. The\nidea that paper currency must be redeemed in gold, _as money_, or\nsilver, as money, is erroneous. It is redeemed in those metals because\nthey have value as _merchandise_. In domestic transactions this fact is\noften lost sight of, but it becomes manifest in international exchanges\nwhen the metallic money passes strictly on its merits as bullion, and\nwithout regard to the stamp it bears. For these reasons the Treasury\nshould not be understood as guaranteeing the weight or fineness of the\nmetal, except in its immediate transactions, although to facilitate its\nready acceptance between reputable merchants, the affixing of the\ngovernment's seal upon the pieces would be a very proper practice.\n\nNor is there any mechanical difficulty in the way of the operation of\nthe plan. The silver could be fashioned into pieces of different sizes\ngraduated upon a decimal scale of grains, with the smallest piece\ncontaining fifty grains, being somewhat larger than the current dime. By\nlimiting redemptions, then, to fifty dollars and multiples thereof, our\npieces will in every conceivable instance enable us to make the\nexchange, or redemption, to the accuracy of a single grain on each\ndollar, which is certainly sufficiently close for all practical\npurposes.\n\nIn contrast to the national banking system, the bonds could be retired\nwithout derangement to our finances, the metals forming a basis upon\nwhich our outstanding currency could directly rest--thus obviating the\nextravagant features of that system and stripping us of the impediment\nof an immense debt. And not only this: the encouragement natural\nbimetallism would hold out to owners of bullion of both kinds would\ncause our national vaults to be filled to overflowing with the sinews of\nwar, and make us the best equipped nation on the earth for a prolonged\nstruggle, should such a struggle come.\n\nBy providing a means for the remonetization of silver at the market rate\nwe are doing its friends a greater kindness than they ask. Free coinage\non seemingly more favorable terms would result in immediate\noverproduction and a glutted market, from which condition it would be\nmost difficult to escape. If there be any merit in the contention that a\n\"demand\" for the metal is what is needed, and that that demand will\nenhance its price, so much the better, for in that case not only will\nthe condition of the silver industry improve, but the government itself\nwill be benefited by the enhancement in the value of the metal it\nalready holds and may hereafter acquire. The example set by the United\nStates would be gladly imitated by other nations, and the use of silver\nas a basis for money would speedily rival that of gold.\n\nViewed as an experiment the trial of it would be inexpensive and without\nperil, while congressional debates pending its consideration would give\nno cause for apprehension or disturbance to business, since the gold\nstandard would not be jeopardized. But why should it be regarded as\nexperimental when the most elementary and most familiar business\nprinciples are followed?\n\nThe question may be raised whether the preservation of the gold standard\nis desirable, since, it is claimed, it is gradually appreciating in\nvalue. To this it may be said that the peril of the gold standard does\nnot consist in the fact that it is rising, but that it has been hitherto\naccompanied by the non-use of silver in final redemptions. That an\nappreciating dollar is necessarily an evil is, moreover, fairly\ndebatable. During the period from 1864-1872 (which our Democratic\nfriends delight to laud as the most prosperous in our history), although\nwe were nominally on a bimetallic basis, contracts were made on that of\nthe greenback, which rose during that time an average of ten per cent\nper annum, to wit: from 49.2 cents in 1864, to 89 cents in 1872. In\nother words the debtor who borrowed $492.00 in 1864 was obliged, eight\nyears later, to pay his creditor $890.00 of like purchasing power as he\nhad received, in addition to a considerably higher interest than now\ncurrent. I do not wish to be considered as standing sponsor for the\nrising dollar, but it is a pertinent question to ask those who decry the\ngold standard for this reason, why the same cause did not have the same\neffect in each instance.\n\nThe objection may be made that I would make of a silver mere commodity,\nbut the point is not well taken, inasmuch as the mint offerings are\ntransmuted into paper currency, which is virtually making silver, money;\nmoreover, the silver itself is retained in its present form of\nsubsidiary coinage. Silver is not a moral being possessed of rights and\nsensitive to insults; it is a mere thing whose function it is to serve\nus in any way we may deem most conducive to our interests. If under the\nsystem of natural bimetallism it does this best, the question as to its\nmoney or commodity character is vain. Moreover, under Gresham's law, one\nmetal under the fixed ratio is not only \"reduced to a commodity,\" but is\nabsolutely expelled from circulation and as a basis for circulation; and\nwe have also seen that in the last analysis both silver and gold are\ncommodities under any system of specie payments.\n\nUnder a republican form of government, where frequent and extreme\nchanges from one policy to another must be guarded against, that policy\nshould be adopted which most nearly conforms to justice, and which the\nsense of the largest majority commends. What proposition, then, could be\nfairer and more apt to commend itself to the general intelligence than\nthat the metals should be monetized at their commercial values from day\nto day, or what policy more likely to remain unaffected by the mutations\nof parties and politics?\n\nIn conclusion let me sum up the salient points: We have seen (1) that\nthe chief weakness of the present system is the non-availability of\nsilver for final redemptions; (2) that \"currency reform\" is inadequate\nbecause of its unpopularity and in failing to increase the primary basis\nof money by the addition of silver; and (3) that the principle of the\nfixed ratio is fallacious and impracticable. On the other hand, we have\ndiscovered Natural Bimetallism to be the application of the principles\nof everyday business to that business which underlies all\nothers,--national finance,--and that the advantages resulting therefrom\nare: It dispenses with the necessity of an international agreement with\nits attendant uncertainties, perils, and delays, and at the same time\npoints out the way to a sound and permanent home policy upon which all\nour factions could unite. It practically restores to silver its\nunlimited coinage at its just market rate, injects a healthy stimulus\ninto the languishing silver industry, preserves our admirable system of\nsubsidiary coinage, and utilizes both metals as companion pillars of our\nnational credit. It coaxes gold to the mint, keeps it there, and does\naway permanently with bond issues. It provides for the retirement of the\ngreenbacks, supplies their place with currency equally sound but less\nhazardous, and insures the absolute parity of every dollar in\ncirculation with every other, and with gold. In fine, as every true\nprinciple must, and as only a true principle can, it answers every\ncondition of the problem to which it applies, and commends itself as the\nbest, if not the only, way out of our financial embarrassments.\n\n\nII. BIMETALLISM EXTINGUISHED.\n\nBY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.\n\nThe article on \"Bimetallism Simplified\" by Mr. George H. Lepper is open\nto one serious criticism: the title should be changed to \"Bimetallism\n_Extinguished_;\" for, when the argument is translated out of its\nsophistical form, that is its precise meaning. We are obliged, in such a\nmatter as this--even at the expense of courtesy--to break through the\nthin film of plausibility, and at one stroke to lay bare what is in the\nbottom.\n\nIt is a marvellous thing that they who engage in excogitating this kind\nof double-meaning literature about bimetallism, should suppose that the\npeople can any longer be deluded with it. The agents of the money-power\nand the fuglemen of the dominant political party seem to think that a\ncertain species of casuistry and complicated makeshift of argument can\nstill be forced into currency, as it has been in the past, and that the\ngreat American democracy can be persuaded thereby to accept fallacy for\ntruth and thus to perpetuate the reigning Dynasty of Robbers. Messieurs,\nyou can perform this feat no longer.\n\nMr. Lepper admits in the outset that the McKinley administration is\ndoomed _unless_ it can provide the country with a sound and popular\nsystem of bimetallism. As a matter of fact, a sound system of\nbimetallism is simply bimetallism. A popular system of bimetallism is\nsimply bimetallism--neither more nor less. In this vital matter, the\npopularity will take care of itself, and so will the soundness.\n\nIn the next place, we observe that if the McKinley administration\ndepends upon the adoption by it of _any_ system of bimetallism, then the\nadministration is doomed, deeply and darkly doomed, already. Let the\nworld know that the McKinley administration will not provide, and has\nnever intended to provide, the country with _any_ kind of bimetallism.\nThe administration has no notion of such a thing. It was not created for\nsuch a useful and honorable destiny. It was created to prevent\nbimetallism by treacherously pretending to be in favor of it. They who\ncreated the administration, they who determine and will continue to\ndetermine its action, openly sneer at any system of money except the\ngold-based system of monometallism.\n\nMr. Lepper must be aware of this fact. Indeed it is to be hoped that\nthere is not any longer _one man_ in the United States so far gone down\nthe slopes of delusion and idiotic infatuation as to imagine that the\nhollow pretensions of this administration in the direction of\nbimetallism by international agreement, or by any other method, have\never been anything else than cunning subterfuge and treachery.\n\nThe politicians who worked out the St. Louis platform knew what they\nwere about. They knew that they were creating a hypocritical document\nwith which to deceive and ensnare the American people. They fixed their\nnet and made their haul. They succeeded to this extent--that they\nelected their ticket and gained possession of the government. Lo, the\nday of judgment has already come! Now, in the endeavor to postpone the\njudgment, they prepare arguments under captions that have a friendly\nsound but are at bottom bitterer than cassia and more mockful than the\nlaughter of Mephistopheles.\n\nThe next stage in the policy of these gentlemen is to invent something\nthat shall _seem_ to be bimetallism, but is not. This something they\nseek to palm off on the world and to distract mankind with it until the\nmoney sharks who are chuckling behind the gold-vaults of two continents\nshall be enabled, in the confusion and _melee_, to shuffle off to covert\nwith their incalculable loads of booty.\n\nMr. Lepper's paper is a document of the kind described. The general\npurport of it is this: \"People of the United States, I am a physician. I\nbelong to the silver school. I am a graduate of the Bimetallic\nInstitute. This pill which I give you is out of the silver\npharmacopoeia. It will heal all your diseases perfectly.\" But when you\nexamine the pill which he exhibits, you will find it to be a solid bolus\nof gold, filmed over with tin foil.\n\nMr. Lepper enters upon the discussion of the subject with the following\nstatement: \"The vast stores of silver purchased by the United States\nunder the laws of 1878 and 1890 are a dead asset of the Treasury, and\ncannot be utilized for purposes of redemption until sixteen ounces of\nsilver shall again be equivalent to one of gold.\" Observe what becomes\nof these propositions under a truthful analysis. In the first place, our\n\"vast stores of silver\" are _not_ vast stores. They are not nearly as\nvast as they ought to be. There are no bursting vaults of silver in the\nTreasury of the United States and never were. In the next place the\nstores of silver are _not_ a dead asset of the Treasury. They are just\nas much a living asset of the Treasury as is the accumulation of gold\ntherein--and in the same sense. These stores cannot be used for purposes\nof redemption because _they do not exist for that purpose_. A\nbimetallist who is not a bimetallist is always strong on redemption; and\nhe knows only one redeemer--gold. The redeeming business in our\nfinancial plan of salvation has been altogether overdone. In the name of\nwonder, what is it we want to redeem? Is it the greenbacks? Is it _any_\nof our legal tender? The greenback is already constitutional money. Does\nMr. Lepper know that the greenback has been declared constitutional\nmoney by the Supreme Court of the United States--this with only a single\ndissenting vote? Does he know that every national bank bill in the\nUnited States is finally redeemable in greenbacks? Does he know that in\nour scheme of redemption, the people have only a _paper_ redeemer, while\nthe banks, with the connivance of the government, have a redeemer of\n_gold_? Our \"vast stores of silver\" have only to be coined into silver\ndollars; to be used as primary money, just as gold is used; to be paid\nout just as gold is paid out in the transaction of national business,\nand in particular in the payment of the national indebtedness. If this\nis freely done, the exaggerated purchasing power of the latter metal\nwould at once be reduced to the normal standard. This reduction would\nimmediately express itself, or begin to express itself, in a general\nrise of prices, in a revival of business, and in a universal restoration\nof prosperity. Everything would again be well in the great Republic. All\nthis would happen without financial sin and without a redeemer.\n\nMr. Lepper very properly says that international bimetallism and\nindependent bimetallism \"are founded upon the same errors and\nmisconceptions.\" He should have said that they are founded upon the same\n_truths_ and _necessities_. For \"errors,\" read truths, and for\n\"misconceptions\" read necessities. The writer of \"Bimetallism\nSimplified\" next goes on to say that whatever value may be created by\nmonetization is not a commercial value. Well, then, what kind of value\nis it? Is it a social value, such as a man attributes to his child that\nis not for sale? Or is it a political value, such as a party manager\nattributes to a vote that _is_ for sale?\n\nLet us see whether monetization does, or does not, create value. We will\nnot quibble about the phrase \"commercial value,\" but come directly to\nthe issue of value in general. Take the case upon which the goldites so\ngreatly rely, that of the safe burned in a fire with a bag of gold coin\nand a bag of silver coin fused within. The triumphant gold sophist says,\n\"The ten gold dollars fused into a lump will still be worth just ten\ndollars, while the silver dollars fused into a lump will be worth only\nfive dollars.\" Of course the lump of fused gold will be worth ten\ndollars when it is coined and measured by itself! Suppose that the lump\nof fused silver be coined into dollars again; how much will that be\nworth? Everybody who has a premonitory symptom of common sense knows\nthat the lump of fused silver will--_if coinable again into dollars_--be\nworth just as much as the lump of fused gold. It is _because_ the lump\nof fused gold is coinable again into dollars that it retains its value.\nIt is _because_ the lump of fused silver is _not_ coinable again, under\nthe present order, that it is not worth ten dollars.\n\nWhat makes the difference? It is the fact of monetization for one of the\nmetals, and demonetization for the other. Does anybody suppose that ten\ndollars of silver fused into a lump would not still be worth ten dollars\nif the lump were re-coinable? Does anybody suppose that ten gold dollars\nfused into a lump would still be worth ten dollars if the lump were not\nre-coinable? The fact of monetization not only confirms the value of one\nmetal, but it insures the value of the other also--that is, it _would_\ninsure it if monetization were not denied. Incidentally, this plain\nstatement of the case utterly confutes the only seemingly valid\nargument, that is the two-bag argument, with which the goldites have\nbeen able to support their theory of \"sound\" money. Mr. Lepper's\nassertion that monetization does not confer commercial value will have\nto rise through many circles in the spiral of intelligence before it\nreaches the plane of nonsense.\n\nFurther on in his paper, Mr. Lepper says: \"The inevitable result of free\ncoinage at a fixed ratio, is to expel the undervalued metal from\ncirculation.\" Who taught him that? Perhaps Gresham taught him. If so, he\ntaught him what is not true. It is incredible that intelligent people\nshould be humbugged with such a fallacious proposition as Gresham's\nso-called \"law.\" Suppose that under free coinage, gold be undervalued,\nand suppose that, being so, it begins to vanish--where will it go to? To\nthe Bank of England? If so, what will be the effect on the price of gold\nin the Bank of England? Will not the price begin to fall at that point\nat which the stream of gold pours out? And will it not continue to fall\nas long as the outflow goes on? What, on the other hand, will be the\neffect on the money market at that point from which the outflow is\nestablished? Will there not be produced a stringency behind the outflow,\nand will not all kinds of money begin to appreciate at that point from\nwhich the flow begins? And will not this stringency become greater and\ngreater as long as the outflow continues? And will not the prices of all\nkinds of money, silver in particular, begin to rise until the outflow\nceases? This is to say that the price of gold, like the price of\nanything else whatsoever, will fall wherever it accumulates, and the\nprice of silver will rise in every place from which the gold is drained\naway, until a parity of values between the two money metals shall be\ninevitably established. This is the _real_ law of two money metals\ncirculating together; and Gresham's so-called \"law\" is only the\nhocus-pocus and ghost of a law that is true to begin with, and is not\ntrue to end with.\n\nI now come to the gist of Mr. Lepper's article, and I invite particular\nattention to the heart and core of the matter as he presents it. He says\n(all the while declaring himself to be a bimetallist): \"Let us assume\nthat gold only has hitherto been used as money, that 25.8 grains thereof\nhave been taken to be one dollar, and that it is now desired to\nsupplement it with the use of silver.\" I had not supposed that any\nperson in the world could be under the influence of a delusion to the\nextent of propounding three such hypotheses as the foregoing. Mr. Lepper\nmight with equally good reason, in discussing the constitution of\nnature, have said, \"Let us assume that the world is a circular disk of\ntin,\" or rather, \"Let us assume that the world has always been\n_regarded_ as a circular disk of tin. Let us assume that the world,\nbeing a circular disk of tin, weighs 3,820 lbs., and that it is now\ndesired to improve its constitution by adding forty pounds to its weight\nand by converting it into a square block.\" These propositions would be\njust as philosophical, just as useful in argument, and just as well\nwarranted as those which he presents! His assumption is that gold _only_\nhas been used as money. But it is not true that gold only has been used\nas money. It is not true that gold principally has been used as money.\nIt is not true that gold has been as widely used as silver. It is not\ntrue that it is as universally used to-day as silver. It is not true\nthat it was used at as early a day as was silver. It is not true that it\nhas been used as a standard unit of money and account in the United\nStates as long and as universally as silver has been used. It is\ntherefore absurd to say, \"Let us assume that gold only has been used as\nmoney.\" It is preposterous to offer such a hypothesis. If we should\ngrant the affirmative of such an assertion, we should rush into a region\nof falsehood and fanaticism identical in all particulars with that\nstation which the goldites now occupy, and from which they send forth\ntheir clamor.\n\nMr. Lepper says further: \"Let us assume that 25.8 grains hitherto have\nbeen taken to be one dollar.\" But it is not true that 25.8 grains of\ngold have hitherto in our American system been taken to be one dollar.\nIt is true that, according to our fundamental statute, and to all\nsubsequent statutes down to the year 1873, 25.8 grains of gold were\ntaken to be of _the value_ of a dollar; but they were not a dollar. Our\ngold eagles were of _the value_ of ten dollars; our half eagles were of\n_the value_ of five dollars; our double eagles were of _the value_ of\ntwenty dollars; our quarter eagles were of _the value_ of two and\none-half dollars; our one-dollar gold piece, of 1849, was _not_ one\ndollar, but was of _the value_ of a dollar! The dollar was first, last,\nand all the time, defined to be a coin composed of 371 1/4 grains of\npure _silver_. This is the very alphabet of the matter. I have myself\nset forth these facts so many times that I am ashamed to repeat them;\nfor it implies that there are still people in the United States so\nlacking in intelligence and information as to require the reiteration of\nthe bottom facts and principles in our American coinage system.\n\nTwenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold never did compose a dollar\nin the United States until after the year 1873. Why, therefore, should\nMr. Lepper say, \"Let us assume that 25.8 grains of gold have been taken\nto be one dollar\"? Then he goes on to say, \"Let us assume that it is\ndesired to supplement it [that is the gold dollar] with silver.\" Why\nshould he speak of supplementing the use of gold with silver, any more\nthan supplementing the use of silver with gold? There is not as good\nreason for the proposition to supplement gold with silver as there is to\nsupplement silver with gold. Herein lies the trouble with those\ngentlemen who are trying to fix up a plan by which not to do it. They\nbegin with a series of false hypotheses. They work along from these\nfalse assumptions until they reach some monstrous conclusion, and then\nshow how sound the conclusion is because it is logical!\n\nGenuine bimetallists do no such thing. They claim the coinage of gold\nand silver on terms of absolute equality. They do not propose to measure\nthe silver by the gold, or the gold by the silver. They propose to have\ntwo standard units, and to use the one unit or the other unit at the\noption of the debtor. They do not propose that the creditor shall decide\nin which of these money metals a debt shall be paid or a contract made\nvalid--simply for the reason that the two units co-exist, and every\ncontract and engagement made among men is made in the face of this fact,\nand with the full knowledge of it, and with the understanding of what it\nimplies. That understanding is that at the date of settlement, the\ndebtor, and _not_ the creditor, shall decide in which of the two\nstandard metal-moneys he shall discharge his obligation. The option is\nhis--exclusively _his_. The transaction is honorable, right, and just.\nWhoever challenges it is an abettor of the scheme for robbing the debtor\nby compelling him to transact his business, and in particular to pay his\ndebts, according to a standard unit differing from the dollar of the law\nand the contract.\n\nOf this outrageous fraud we will have no more. We spew it out of our\nmouths. We spit on the proposition, under whatever garb it comes, to\ncompel the debtors of this nation to discharge their obligations in a\ndollar differing from the dollar of the law and the contract. We do not\npropose to \"supplement\" gold money with silver money--meaning the\nsubordination of the silver to the gold. We do not propose to\n\"supplement\" silver money with gold money--meaning that the gold shall\nbe absolute and the silver only token. There is no \"supplement\" about\nit. It is a simple proposition to have our money _in two kinds_, and not\nin one kind. It is like laying a foundation of stone and brick. The\nstone is not more dependent on the brick than the brick is dependent on\nthe stone. They are both built into one abutment; they both contribute\nalike to its solidity and magnitude; they both enter into its\ncomposition and are part of its structure; and they both shall stay\nthere, gentlemen of the gold craft, in spite of your efforts to take one\nconstituent part of the abutment away!\n\nI now come to the next essential division of Mr. Lepper's article. I\ncall particular attention to what he proposes. He says:\n\n\"In order to make my plan as clear as possible, I shall run the risk of\nseeming elementary by running through, step by step, a typical\ntransaction under it: Let us fancy that the reader, bearing a nugget of\ngold in his left hand and another of silver in his right, and desiring\nto convert them into money, repairs to the Philadelphia mint. He applies\nthere to the proper clerk, who, for simplicity's sake, we will suppose\nperforms all the operations. The clerk weighs and assays the two pieces\nof metal, and finds the gold one to contain 25,800 grains of standard\ngold, worth precisely $1,000, which are counted out in bills. A similar\noperation reveals that the lump of silver weighs 35,500 grains, but the\nclerk is observed to consult a table before saying: 'The market\nequivalent of a gold dollar is to-day 710 grains; consequently your\n35,500 grains are worth $50;' and he then proceeds to count out the\nmoney in bills precisely like those given in payment for the gold. Upon\nexamining these at his leisure, the reader discovers imprinted thereon a\ncontract running as follows: 'This note entitles the bearer on demand to\n[the denomination of the bill] dollars in gold or to the market\nequivalent thereof in silver.'\"\n\nThis paragraph needs only to be critically examined in order to show\nforth the material of which it is builded. Mr. Lepper takes his two\nnuggets, the one of gold and the other of silver. He goes to the mint.\nThe gold nugget weighs 25,800 grains; the silver nugget weighs 35,500\ngrains. Mr. Lepper adroitly slips in the clause that the gold nugget is\n\"_worth precisely a thousand dollars!_\" In what units is the gold nugget\nworth a thousand dollars? Why, in gold units. He says that the 35,500\ngrains of silver are found to be worth $50. In what units is that amount\nof silver worth $50? Why, in gold units! That is, beginning with the\ngold standard, and ignoring the silver standard, Mr. Lepper reaches\nbimetallism! That is good. He assumes, to begin with, the thing he is\ntrying to prove! He assumes it in his major premise, implies it in his\nminor premise, and reaches it in his conclusion. I say that is very\ngood. Twenty-five thousand eight hundred grains of gold are \"worth\nprecisely $1,000,\" in gold dollars at the rate of 25.8 grains to the\ndollar. Well, I should say so. The same would be true of tin, of\nleather, or tree-molasses. Only assume that something is a standard, and\nthen measure that something by itself and you will get there. Mr. Lepper\ngets there. Then again he assumes that the market equivalent of the gold\ndollar at the date referred to, is 710 grains of silver; therefore,\n35,500 grains of silver are worth just $50 in gold. Forsooth, it\nrequires a philosopher to tell us that; though a country schoolboy might\nmake it out just as well. It is only a problem in the rule of three. We\nassume that silver is worth so much in gold; therefore, so much silver\nwill be worth so much in gold! That is, gold is the standard; but we are\na bimetallist, and we will write a paper on \"Bimetallism Simplified\"\nshowing how we can create a mono-bimetallic standard. The \"mono\" is the\nessence of Mr. Lepper's scheme; the bimetallic part of it is sophism and\ngreen cheese.\n\nIn his argument Mr. Lepper simply proposes to measure gold _by itself_;\nand to measure silver _by gold_! That is all there is in it. He seems\nnot to know that anything measured by anything other than itself is not\nprimary money, and cannot be. Gold, when coined and made legal tender,\nis primary money when measured by itself. Silver when coined and made a\nlegal tender is also primary money when measured by itself. Anything\ncoined and made a legal tender is primary money when measured by itself.\n\nIt is thus that Mr. Lepper creates a bimetallic system of money. He\nproposes to keep it up in the same manner. He simply assumes that gold\nis an unfluctuating, eternal standard, and that silver is a fluctuating,\nimpossible standard. He agrees that silver may be used as money and even\ncoined on a basis which assumes that it shall not be used as money and\nnot be coined at all, except by the measure of gold! His factitious and\nabsurd device is therefore not bimetallism, but monometallism on a basis\nof gold. He might substitute pewter for silver in his scheme, and it\nwould be just as good; he might substitute putty or plaster of paris,\nand his plan would work as well.\n\nSuch a scheme is not bimetallism at all. It is monometallism pure and\nsimple. I have, in a private way, pointed out the fact to Mr. Lepper\nthat his plan is not what it pretends to be. I have tried to show him\nthat what he proposes is simply a delusion of goldite hocus-pocus. As a\nmatter of fact, THE ARENA has not the space to be devoted to the\ndissemination of such literature as Mr. Lepper's article. I did not wish\nto subject the writer of \"Bimetallism Simplified\" to this castigation,\nbut he would have it so. It is no doubt an entertaining business with\nMr. Lepper to work his elaborate scheme for pretending to do a thing,\nand not doing it. Practically, I might urge upon his attention the fact\nthat what he proposes will satisfy nobody; certainly it will not satisfy\nthe McKinley administration. That administration does not propose to do\n_anything_. It proposes to stand still, in the midst of much bluster,\nhoping all the time that the gold standard will become more and more\nfixed on the American people, and that the \"silver delusion\" will\nsubside.\n\nMr. Lepper will have his labor for his pains. His system will be laughed\nto scorn by all the goldites proper, and it is certainly rejected as\nspurious, impossible, and absurd by all genuine bimetallists. I wish to\nremark in this case, that the term \"goldite\" applied to the\nmonometallist, is not a misnomer or an unwarranted epithet; for\nmonometallists advocate the establishment of gold money only, as the\nprimary money and money of ultimate redemption. On the other hand, the\nterm \"silverite\" is a misnomer; if accepted, it misleads, for it implies\nthat he who is characterized as a silverite is a believer in silver only\nas the primary money and money of ultimate redemption. There are no\npeople of this class of whom we have heard.\n\nBimetallists believe in the use of both moneys freely and on terms of\nperfect equality; they will be satisfied with nothing less. They know\nthat they are in the majority, and that they cannot be ultimately\ndefrauded of their purpose. They intend to restore our coinage to what\nit was before the Act of 1873. By such restoration they propose to break\nthe corner on gold and to reduce the exaggerated purchasing power of\nthat metal to the normal standard. They intend that this reduction in\nthe purchasing power of gold shall be answered--as they know it will\nbe--with a corresponding rise in the prices of all the products of\nlabor. They intend in this way to achieve prosperity; they intend to\nwrong no man--not even the bondholder; they intend that every man shall\nhave his rights according to the law and the contract; they intend to\nbreak faith with none; they intend to march right on to the achievement\nof this result; in doing so, they intend to consult themselves. They\nknow full well that the so-called \"great commercial nations\" will be\nglad enough to trade with us, and to take our money in both kinds too.\nIf not, we hold the rod! If any nation under heaven proposes to\ndiscriminate against the United States of America because of our\nbimetallic standard of money, let that nation try it! We shall see who\ncomes out best in that contest.\n\nWhen the weak-kneed, the time-serving, and the cowardly shall be\nexpelled from power; when American patriots are in the high places of\nauthority; when the people's voice shall be heard as the voice of many\nwaters,--all men shall then be assured that the great republic is able\nto do its own business in its own way, asking favor of none, menacing\nnone, and fearing none! When that good day comes with the end of the\ncentury, such literature as Mr. Lepper's \"Bimetallism Simplified,\" read\nin the retrospect and in the light of a better verdict of the people,\nwill seem to the thoughtful student of history to have been the product\nof some humorist, indulging a sarcastical disposition at the expense of\nthe very theory which he sets forth in his article.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEGREGATION AND PERMANENT ISOLATION OF CRIMINALS.\n\nBY NORMAN ROBINSON.\n\n\nWhat shall be done with confirmed and incorrigible offenders? For a good\nmany thousand years the world has been wrestling with this problem, and\nin this year of grace it is seemingly very little nearer a rational\nsolution than when the first fraternal brawl sent one brother into his\ngrave, and another into exile with the perpetual brand of a murderer\nblazing upon his terror-stricken brow.\n\nThe savage settles the matter with a tomahawk or a war club. The remedy\nis at least effectual, and society in the kraal or the tepee does not\nbother its dusky brain about the possible reform of the offender. Any\ntype of criminality that is inconvenient or unpopular is, therefore,\nsummarily buried in the nearest grave.\n\nUp to the time of the Christian era, the savage and the civilized man\nalike held substantially the same theories. The one idea that dominated\nall criminal law was punishment. The statutes of Draco and Lycurgus\nnever harbored the thought of moral improvement, much less made\nprovision for the reform of the criminal. Roman law and Greek law were\nlittle better. The one right which all offenders possessed was the right\nto be punished. Reformation was entirely a personal matter, which\ntheoretically in rare instances was possible, to which the law, save in\ncapital cases, interposed no special obstacles, and to which it gave no\nspecial encouragement.\n\nWith the advent of a new and more merciful dispensation, we find\ngradually creeping in a belief that the criminal classes have some\nrights which society is bound to respect, and that not the least\nimportant of these is the right to reform. For two thousand years these\nnot necessarily conflicting ideas of reform and punishment have\ntravelled down the centuries in a medley of incongruous and often\ncontradictory systems of criminal law. As the better classes have\ngenerally made and administered the law, it is not strange that the\nelder and more savage idea has on the whole been dominant, and that,\ntaking the world together, the reform of criminals is still rather a\nside issue than an object of far-reaching and systematic legislative\nenactment.\n\nEven the most optimistic student of penology would be compelled to admit\nthat our present methods of dealing with criminals are unsatisfactory to\nthe last degree. Our systems of punishment do not punish in any such\nsense as to be a terror to evil-doers; our systems of reformation do not\nreform. The whole thing goes on in a vicious round of self-perpetuating\ninfamy. The central idea of our modern penal system--and it is certainly\na very venerable one--is that in some way the world will be greatly\nbenefited by shutting up its law-breakers for a longer or shorter\nperiod, feeding them liberally, giving them a period of enforced steady\nhabits and steady work, and after a while taking off this straight\njacket of compulsory morality, and turning them loose again with\nimproved criminal skill and sharpened appetites to prey upon society in\nthe old way.\n\nThe actual result of this crowding of more or less confirmed vice into\none concentrated aggregation, is simply to intensify the evil it was\nintended to remedy. The convict who enters a prison cell for the first\ntime--perhaps as the result of some sudden and overpowering\ntemptation--a man who at heart is no better and no worse than his\nneighbors, and who, if by any chance he had escaped conviction, would\nhave finished his life as an average citizen, as a friend and advocate\nof the law--finds himself here in an entirely new environment.\nSelf-respect is gone. The old motive for honesty is gone. He enters the\nnew and stifling atmosphere of concentrated crime, and with it comes the\nfeeling that the world is all against him. It is his first offence, but\nit is by no means likely to be his last. Every man he sees, save the\ngrim rifle-carrying guard who growls and swears at him, is a convicted\ncriminal. Every object that his eyes fall upon intensifies the lesson\nthat he is henceforth to be counted among the enemies of his race. Every\nbreath that he breathes reeks with the malaria of crime. He is now an\nenlisted soldier in a warfare against right and law and social order.\nHe is in the devil's own training school. The seven other \"spirits more\nwicked than himself\" are all around him. Whatever prison rules may say,\nthere are certain to be clandestine meetings, secret conferences, in\nwhich the novice is initiated into the higher degrees of the freemasonry\nof crime. Schemes of profitable law-breaking swarm in the teeming brains\nof these wearers of the stripes, to be turned into actual deeds in \"the\ngood time coming,\" when these apt pupils of the high school of depravity\nshall be free again to make war upon the peace and welfare of the world.\nIs it any wonder that this first offender comes out of prison a\nconfirmed criminal, and that \"the last state of that man is worse than\nthe first\"?\n\nIf the same business sense were used in this matter which is ordinarily\ngiven to the management of great human concerns, we should soon find\nsome way of improving upon this discouraging condition of affairs. No\nmerchant in his senses would discharge a dishonest clerk for a term of\nninety days with the distinct understanding that he was to spend his\nenforced vacation in the society of thieves and cutthroats, and at the\nend of the time be taken back again into his old place as though nothing\nhad happened. The railroad president who should discharge a drunken\nengineer, and then after six months give him hold of his old throttle\nagain, although it was in evidence that he had spent his retirement in a\nwhiskey saloon, studying under competent tuition the latest methods of\nholding up trains, would be very apt to be bundled off at the next\nmeeting of the board of directors to manage railroads from the inside of\na lunatic asylum. Courts and judges and lawyers are about the only\npeople on the outside that do business in that way.\n\nIs there no help for this state of things? Must the machinery of justice\ngo on forever grinding over the same vile grist, retrying and\nreimprisoning old offenders, cultivating rather than repressing the\nlaw-breaking instinct, passing on to still lower depths of depravity the\nsoul once caught in the meshes of crime, and at last dragging the great\nmasses of offenders down to one common level of hopeless and helpless\nhostility to social order and law?\n\nIt is, of course, much easier to point out faults than to suggest\neffective remedies. I am persuaded that some happy inspiration of\ngenius will yet give us methods, probably so simple that we shall wonder\nthat they have not always been used, by which many of the gravest evils\nwhich disgrace our present system will be effectually removed. I think\nthe key to the whole problem will ultimately be found in one\nword--_segregation_. Worcester defines \"to segregate\" \"to gather in a\nflock, to set apart, to separate from others.\"\n\nIn pursuance of this idea let us suppose, save in the case of certain\ncrimes that disclose confirmed and hopelessly vicious tendencies, that\nall first offenders were counted in a class by themselves. For these\nreformatories should be built, in which a complete segregation of the\nvarious classes of law-breakers should be made, and that, too, with the\nsame idea uppermost which prevails in modern hospital practice, that\ninfectious cases should in all instances be especially isolated.\nCriminal infection is as real and morally quite as disastrous as is\nphysically that of cholera or smallpox. So with this predominating idea\nof segregation; and with a wise discrimination which might be difficult\nin the beginning, but which experience would more or less perfectly\nsupply, the various classes of first offenders should be separated into\ndistinct and non-communicating families. Hard labor should here mean\nhard labor. Rigid discipline coupled with coarse but wholesome food\nshould emphasize the fact that this was a place, not of comfortable\nleisure, but of reformatory punishment. At the same time such\neducational and moral influences as enlightened experience could supply\nshould be brought continuously to bear, to give new aims, inspire new\nmotives, and impart health, strength, and soundness to morally weak but\nnot necessarily hopelessly criminal natures.\n\nUnder enlightened management, commitment to such reformatories might be\nmade for an indefinite period, with the same limited discretion that the\nlaw now gives to courts of justice, to be dependent largely upon the\nbehavior of the criminal, and to be determined not before, but after his\nterm of imprisonment began. The superintendent and board of managers\nshould, in that case, be clothed with large discretionary powers to\ndismiss, to detain, to place in higher or lower classes, as their best\njudgments should dictate, and as the actual and tried needs and progress\nof reform in each individual case might demand. The vast, costly, and\narchitecturally imposing structures which are now denominated\n\"reformatories,\" and which in many cases might be much more\nappropriately labelled \"failures,\" if not discarded altogether, could be\nsupplemented by simple and inexpensive structures, giving abundant room\nand light and air. With such conditions and surroundings, and under such\na system intelligently administered, it is reasonable to believe that no\nsmall proportion of first offenders, who, under our present method,\ndrift into the hopelessly, and it might in many cases be added,\nhelplessly, criminal classes, would be restored to moral soundness and\nself-respecting citizenship.\n\nBut with the most efficient system of reformation which human wisdom\ncould devise, there would still be a large contingent of incorrigible\noffenders, who, from hereditary taint, bad environment, or other causes,\nhave cut themselves off from all retreat, burned the bridges behind\nthem, and enlisted in a life warfare against human society and law. Most\nsecond offenders and those whose brutal past points to an irredeemable\nfuture should properly be classed as life criminals, and with these,\nsociety, while not forgetting \"the quality of mercy,\" should deal with\nfirm hand and inexorable justice.\n\nAs our government is not so situated that penal colonies are\npracticable, walled villages might be built with all the safeguards\nwhich modern science and inventive skill can supply for the absolute and\npermanent isolation of these \"life criminals.\" In these penal villages,\nvarious grades and classes should be placed each by itself. Behind these\nnever-opening gates, and under conditions that should relieve the world\nat once and forever of their presence, these avowed and unrepentant\nenemies of social and civil order should be compelled to \"work out their\nown salvation.\"\n\nNo great and costly prisons would be needed. Simple and inexpensive\ncottages, each with its separate plot of ground, with furniture and\nhousekeeping arrangements on the most frugal scale, with absolute\nnecessaries in food and clothing, at least for a time, would be\nrequired. The greatest possible liberty should be given to each\nindividual convict. The industrious should be assured of the full\nbenefit of their toil. Those who would not work, should find here the\nsame penalties for idleness as obtain in the world they had left. Here\nmight be gathered the whole round of industry--artisans, shops,\nmanufacturers of all kinds, aided by every appliance of modern\nmachinery. Schools, libraries, and even churches would by no means be\nexcluded from this life-convict home. There is no reason why such a\ncommunity of criminals might not ultimately become largely\nself-supporting and self-governing. They could have their own courts,\ntheir own lawyers, their own judges, their own system of penal law, and\ntheir own machinery for its enforcement.\n\nTo each small company of men there should be allotted a cottage, which\nthey could call their own. As far as possible these men should be left\nto themselves. The outworking of social and economic laws under such\nconditions might sometimes be summary and savage, but it would\nultimately be salutary. Though for a while, save as it was held back by\nthe mailed hand of military power, crime might run riot, the instinct of\nself-preservation would at last assert itself. The murderer does not\nlike to be murdered; the highway robber does not like to be robbed; all\nclasses of criminals object to taking their own medicine; and so it\nwould come about that, even out of elements the most incongruous and\nunpromising, some form of social order would finally be evolved. It is\nneedless to say that the sexes should occupy separate villages. This in\nitself would cut off one very formidable source of new recruits for the\narmy of crime. Indeed, it is hardly too much to predict that, if this\nplan of permanent segregation and isolation were carried out for even a\nsingle generation, crime would sensibly diminish, our overcrowded courts\nwould be relieved, taxation be lessened, and the staggering shoulders of\nmodern civilization be to some extent unburdened from one of the\nheaviest loads they are now condemned to bear. It may seem an ungenerous\nthing to say, but it is to be feared that the opposition to any such\nplans would be likely to come from those whose familiarity with the\nvices of the present system should best fit them to labor for and most\nearnestly to desire its improvement. Enlightened physicians gladly join\nin any scheme which promises to prevent or lessen disease, in spite of\nthe fact that their living depends upon its prevalence. So, enlightened\njudges, lawyers, and court officers might be expected cordially to\napprove of any system of moral hygiene which gave promise of efficiency\nas a prophylactic against crime. It is to be feared, however, that there\nwould be a numerically large contingent who, like \"Demetrius the\nsilversmith,\" would feel that \"this our craft is in danger,\" and who\nopenly or secretly would do their best, as they have in a hundred\ninstances in the past, to prevent the lopping off of a single twig from\nthat wide-spreading tree of evil, whose fruit brings little scruple and\nno small gain to the cunning craftsmen who manage the costly and\ncomplicated machinery of the courts.\n\nIf such a system as has been rudely outlined were made absolutely\nsecure, and the power of pardoning boards removed or greatly restricted,\nit might be wise to abolish the death penalty altogether. Juries might\nthen have fewer scruples, and acquittals upon technical grounds, in\nspite of plain and abundant evidence, become less frequent. Mob law\nfeeds largely upon the belief that even the worst criminals stand in\nlittle danger of punishment, but that \"by hook or by crook\"--mostly\n\"crook\"--especially if they or their friends can command means to hire\nlawyers and invoke the dilatory machinery of the courts, they are almost\ncertain to escape. Whatever, therefore, tends to render the punishment\nof crime more speedy and certain is a direct discouragement to these\nsudden and savage outbursts of popular indignation against crime.\n\nIn the classification of offenders and their assignment to different\npenal villages, there would, no doubt, be some so atrociously and\nfiendishly criminal that it would be a cruelty to others and a mistaken\nkindness to them to permit them ever to go beyond their present prison\nwalls. By the plan suggested, the penitentiaries in most of the States,\nnow so crowded, while being relieved of a large part of their present\ntenants, could still be utilized for the confinement of these pariahs of\ncrime.\n\nOf course, in the working out of the plan suggested, there is abundant\nroom for all the skill and wisdom which past history and modern\nexperience can supply. Whether this or some better method shall finally\nprevail depends on so many uncalculated and incalculable contingencies,\nthat he would be a very venturesome prophet who should attempt to\nforecast the future. It does not, however, seem reasonable that, in all\nthe upheavals of modern thought, the questioning of old methods, and the\nsuggestions of new and better ones, which these final years of the\ncentury are bringing, the treatment of the criminal classes shall be the\none question that defies solution, or that the new aeon which is soon to\nopen shall find us still bound to a system which is confessedly a\nfailure. Is it too much to hope that we can greet the opening of the\ntwentieth century with a lustrum of prison reform, which shall bring at\nonce the noblest mercy to the criminal, combined with absolute\nprotection to society from its most avowed and most persistent foes?\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO INCREASE NATIONAL WEALTH BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF PARALYZED INDUSTRY.\n\nBY B. O. FLOWER.\n\n     It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which\n     shall be worth doing and which should be done under such conditions\n     as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious. Turn this\n     claim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I cannot find\n     that it is an exorbitant claim.--_William Morris._\n\nOn the 18th of last May, while in a small restaurant on Fifth Avenue, in\nChicago, my attention was attracted by a large number of men who had\ncongregated on both sides of the street in front of the office of the\nChicago _Daily News_. In answer to my inquiry, a gentleman at my side\nexplained that these men were waiting to see the \"Want\" column of the\n_News_, in the hope of being able to secure work. \"It is an old, old\nstory,\" he continued. \"Day after day crowds of men gather here and\nanxiously wait for the _News_ to appear, as this paper contains more\n'Want' advertisements than any other Chicago daily.\" I waited until the\nboys rushed from the office with the newly printed papers, and saw the\nmen hurriedly buy copies. I noticed how scores upon scores of eyes\nsearched the \"Help Wanted\" columns, and how, one by one, they started in\nquest of work. I noticed the countenances of the weary watchers. Among\nthem were to be seen almost all types of faces, but all, save one, were\nanxious, careworn, or stolid. I shuddered as, standing inside the\nrestaurant unobserved, I beheld this sight of appalling misery and\nnational shame. The faces of these men have haunted me ever since.\nHunger was there, hate was there, despair was hovering over more than\none countenance. There were wan, dull eyes, wolfish eyes, and eyes\neloquent with mute appeals for kindness. There was the hunted look of a\nbeast at bay, and the craven expression of a broken spirit. One only\namong the throng seemed able to be merry, though his thin face and worn\nclothes indicated his wretchedness. The tragedy of these lives remains\nwith me. I know that this awful condition is unnecessary. I know that a\nlittle more conscience, a little more love, a keener sense of justice,\nand a little honest concern for the rights of men and the enduring\nwelfare of the state, a settled determination to overcome this condition\nand place the good of the people and the cause of justice above a\nshortsighted policy of selfishness, would change the whole aspect of\nthings, now so ominous, so menacing, and so essentially unjust. This\npanorama of exiled industry, seeking vainly for employment, may be\nwitnessed from the Atlantic to the Pacific.\n\nI am not of that number who can regard these spectacles with\nindifference, nor can I feel, as do some others, that because the\npresent order is essentially unjust in its practical workings it is well\nto turn a cold shoulder to movements calculated to arrest the downward\ndrift of life and lessen the unfathomable misery of the poor in order\nthat the crisis may be hastened. For while I believe that the present\norder is as surely outgrown as was feudalism in the sixteenth century,\nand though I believe most profoundly that this order must pass away or\ncivilization perish, as have perished the civilizations of former ages,\nyet I also appreciate the fact, which to me is very important, that the\nonly way to bring about the revolution peaceably is, first, to educate\nthe brain and touch the conscience of the people; and, second, to check\nthe growing bitterness and hate in the hearts of our unfortunates by\ngiving them employment and treating them with justice and humanity. If a\ncrisis is precipitated, fed by blind hate and a bitterness born of a\nconsciousness of injustice long endured, it will assume the form of an\nuncontrollable storm, a blind, passionate outburst, in which the guiding\ninfluences of reason, judgment, and conscience will be absent. It will\nspread devastation in all directions, destroying the innocent as well as\nthe guilty. If, on the other hand, we push forward an intelligent\neducational agitation, appealing to the judgment, the conscience, and\nthe sense of right in the people, and at the same time supply means for\nmaintaining self-respecting manhood among the unemployed until this\nwaiting time is over, our civilization will move onward without the\ncrash or shock of force, the destruction of property, and the loss of\nlife incident to all struggles in which physical force and blind passion\ndominate. It is necessary to examine this problem on the side of human\ndignity and on the side of national life. The question of utility,\nthough of far less concern in its ultimate effect on conditions, has\nalso an important place in the discussion.\n\nOnly under conditions which are fundamentally unjust, and only where the\nfiner sensibilities of man have been blinded and deadened, could it be\npossible to witness the spectacle of millions of men and women begging\nfor work, and begging in vain, in a nation of fabulous wealth and almost\nboundless resources; and yet such a condition prevails in our republic\nto-day. It is, therefore, time for every patriotic citizen to lay aside\nall partisan contentions and face this great question as we would face\nany great danger which suddenly came upon the nation, not as partisans,\nbut as patriots; not as warring factions seeking victory for some\nspecial body or party, but as men and women who have the welfare of the\nrace at heart, and who appreciate the gravity of the situation. It is\nthe eternal law of recompense that when justice is long denied and the\nrights of man are systematically ignored, though the sufferers may\nSamson-like crush themselves in the ruins of the temple, yet the temple\nand its inmates also must fall. Or if by some chance the ruin comes not\nthrough the strength of the burdened ones, it will nevertheless come\nwith unerring certainty, and not unfrequently through the very excesses\nof those who have hardened their hearts against the cry of justice.\n\nSuch is the interdependence of the units in national life that a wrong\ncommitted against one injures the whole people; and when that wrong is\ninflicted upon a large number of the units, and is of long duration, its\nfatal effects become very apparent. You cannot crush a finger or a toe\nwithout causing your whole body to suffer in consequence. You may\ndisregard the hurt, you may ignore the wound until mortification sets\nin, but the result means death or the loss of one of the most valuable\nmembers of your body. It is precisely so with national life; for such is\nthe divine economy, such the inevitable law of progress, that only by\nconscious recognition of human brotherhood, and of the rights and\nobligations which it implies, can any nation or civilization move onward\nand upward without those great periods of depression and decline which\ntoo frequently end in total eclipse.\n\nShortsighted, indeed, is that policy which places gold above manhood.\nWhen lust for gain stifles the voice of conscience, and the cry of the\ndisinherited is heard throughout a land of marvellous wealth, a nation\nis confronted by a deadly peril which calls for a supreme effort on the\npart of every man and woman of conviction.\n\nIt is useless to close our eyes to the fact that the rising tide of\nbitterness is turning into hate, and that hate darkens the eye of\njudgment, obscures reason, and deadens conscience. A few years ago, when\nI wrote a brief paper on the menace of the unemployed, I was assured\nthat the deplorable condition then present was temporary, that in a few\nmonths at most it would be a thing of the past, and that therefore it\nwas not a problem calling for the intervention of the government; but\nto-day there are far more unemployed than there were then. The problem\nis assuming gigantic proportions, and the instincts of self-preservation\nsecond the demand of humanity in calling for immediate measures for the\nrelief and the maintenance of self-respecting manhood. Whenever a\nworkingman becomes a tramp or sinks into the social cellar, as tens of\nthousands are now doing, the nation suffers a real injury. Present\nconditions call for prompt action. The unemployed must receive that\nsuccor which will in no conventional sense be charity, but which will\nelevate instead of degrade. And this can be done by the state allowing\nthose armies of men who now unwillingly represent unproductive labor to\nbecome armies for increasing the wealth of the country, by extending the\nproductive area of the nation's domain, and by providing against the\nruin which constantly menaces tens of thousands of industrious people in\nsuch a way as to stimulate business in all its ramifications by placing\nin circulation the equivalents for the work performed and the wealth\nearned. The ancient Romans understood the importance of having great\nworks substantially built. The mighty highways which centred in the\nEternal City, and the great public works which contributed so much to\nthe comfort and happiness and grandeur of Rome, while not constructed\nwith a view to affording employment to the unemployed, were wise\nmeasures for the benefit of the state, and it is safe to say that no\nexpenditures were more serviceable or contributed more to the greatness\nand essential wealth of the empire, save the money spent in the\npatronage of education.\n\nThe ancient Peruvians went further. They argued that the happiness,\nwelfare, and prosperity of one was the concern of all. They banished\npoverty by giving every person productive work, and by their system\ntransformed every foot of tillable land into productive gardens,\nenabling them to support in affluence an immense population, only a\nsmall fraction of which could have subsisted under conditions such as\nprevail with us. In our country to-day we have vast areas of useless\nland, only waiting to be transformed into tillable acres second in\nrichness to no land in the country. To-day we have necessary work in the\nway of internal improvements which is imperatively demanded, and which,\nbut for the slothfulness and indifference of our government, would be\nperformed, thereby enormously increasing the wealth of the nation; while\nthe performing of the same would give productive employment to millions\nof idle hands.\n\nA striking illustration of the criminal neglect and shortsightedness of\nour government was seen this last spring in the devastation created by\nthe floods in the Mississippi Valley, rendered possible through the\ninadequate levee system. Here the losses to crops and in stock killed\nare said to have been considerably over twelve million dollars, to say\nnothing of the enormous outlay which will be required to patch up the\nlevees and make the devastated farms again habitable. This great loss\nwould have been averted had the government acted upon the suggestions\nwhich I made some years ago in a paper on \"Emergency Measures for\nMaintaining Self-respecting Manhood,\" in which it was shown that a\npermanent levee was practicable, and could be built in such a way as to\nresist the floods, reclaim many hundreds of thousands of acres of rich\nland, and protect millions of dollars' worth of property which is now\nunder a yearly menace through danger of floods.\n\nIn this enterprise, which I shall again touch upon, we have a striking\nillustration of a practicable work which would immediately increase the\nnational wealth far beyond the outlay required, while it would also\nchange an army of idle consumers into an army of wealth-producers.\n\nBut as I wish to consider this question more at length a little later,\nI now pass on to a brief notice of the vast tracts of land in the West,\nwhich have not yet fallen into the clutches of land syndicates, and\nwhich for a comparatively small outlay by proper irrigation could be\ntransformed into garden spots. Take, for example, the State of Nevada.\nHere we find immense tracts of arid land, representing millions of\nacres, which to-day are unproductive for lack of moisture, but which,\nwherever irrigation has been introduced, have been transformed into\nwonderfully productive garden land. Mr. William M. Smythe, in the April\n_Forum_, has given some very interesting facts in regard to the\nagricultural resources of Nevada, from which we summarize the following:\n\n     The most painstaking and systematic inquiry, however, ever made\n     with regard to the extent of her water supply resulted in the\n     conclusion that at least 6,000,000 acres of rich soil could be\n     irrigated. The commission of 1893 reported twenty lakes and sixteen\n     rivers of importance, which with minor streams and springs could be\n     made to irrigate upward of 5,000,000 acres; and artesian wells\n     would bring up the total to the figure above named. It should be\n     borne in mind that the splendid agricultural prosperity of Colorado\n     and Utah is based upon a cultivated area of only about 2,000,000\n     acres. It seems, then, that, so far as her agricultural\n     capabilities are concerned, Nevada might sustain at least as many\n     people as do Utah and Colorado put together, at their present stage\n     of development. The products of the irrigated lands of Nevada are\n     the fruits, the vegetables, cereals, and grasses of the temperate\n     zone, and, in the extreme southern portions, the more delicate\n     products of the semi-tropics, such as figs, olives, pomegranates,\n     almonds, Madeira walnuts, and, in sheltered places, even oranges.\n     When we add that Nevada, like all parts of the arid plateau, is\n     distinguished for pure dry air, an extraordinary amount of\n     sunshine, and consequently a very high degree of healthfulness, it\n     can be scarcely maintained that the state is destitute of\n     attractions.\n\nWhat is true in regard to the possibilities of Nevada is true of large\nareas of land in other Western States and Territories. It must be\nremembered that irrigated land can be relied upon to yield bountiful\ncrops with practical regularity, as the water-supply is ever present,\nwhile for most persons the fine pure air in these high regions is\npeculiarly healthful and invigorating. Thus the great West still offers\nmillions of acres of exceedingly productive land which can be\ntransformed into gardens and made to increase the national wealth by\nuntold millions if the government will treat these tracts as any wise or\nthrifty private owner would treat them. If the government or the various\ncommonwealths would take all the available land which can be irrigated\nand give to the unemployed work at fair wages until the great desert\ntracts become fertile areas, the national or state domain would be\nenormously increased in wealth at a relatively small cost through the\nwise employment of the now paralyzed hand of industry.\n\nReturning to the question of the Mississippi river, let our national\ngovernment build a permanent levee, which, like the great highways of\nancient Rome, should be built to endure for generations.\n\n     \"There are,\" says ex-Governor Lionel Sheldon, \"over twenty-three\n     million acres exposed to overflow from the mouth of the Ohio to the\n     Gulf of Mexico. The productive power of these lands is not excelled\n     in any part of the world, and by proper cultivation they would\n     annually add many hundreds of millions of dollars to the national\n     wealth and afford profitable employment for several hundreds of\n     thousands of people.\"\n\nEminent engineers who have examined the levees under the auspices of the\nMississippi river commissioners, agree that the problem is one which can\nbe successfully solved if a sufficient amount is appropriated for so\ngigantic an undertaking, which would require substantial uniformity in\nthe width of the channel of the river by building spurs and dikes at\npoints where the Mississippi is too wide, the proper riveting of the\nbanks wherever caving is likely to occur, together with the building of\npermanent levees of a height and strength sufficient to confine the\nwaters in the channel. It is stated that since 1865 the cost of repairs\nhas amounted to considerably over forty million dollars, yet owing to\nthe fact that this work is of a temporary character the benefits which\nwould be derived from a permanent levee are lost, and every few years\nthe floods necessitate fresh expenditures of vast sums of money. Hence\nthis patchwork policy is shortsighted and in the long run the most\nexpensive. The carrying out of a comprehensive plan for permanent\nimprovements by the erection of impregnable levees and the governing of\nthe currents by dikes and spurs, would give us a territory, now\nabsolutely useless, which would annually add hundreds of millions of\ndollars to our national wealth.\n\nThe great arid plains of the West and the levees of the Mississippi are\nmerely examples of internal improvements of a perfectly legitimate\ncharacter which could be undertaken most properly by the general\ngovernment, under Sec. VIII of the Constitution, which authorizes the\n\"raising of revenue to pay the debts and provide for the common defence\nand the _general welfare_ of the United States.\" By such internal\nimprovements as those mentioned above the nation's wealth would be\nincreased to a far greater extent than by the amount of outlay required\nfor the completion of the work, while these enterprises would at once\ngive productive employment to our millions of out-of-works, and this\narmy of employed would put into immediate circulation large sums of\nmoney which would at once stimulate business through all its\nramifications and bring about the long-hoped-for good times.\n\nBut at the very threshold of the discussion we are met with the\ndeclaration that we have no money in the Treasury with which to carry on\nthese great projects. Before answering this objection I wish to point\nout the fact that we have millions of dollars to spend for a useless\nnavy, a navy which in the hands of our senile government does not\nprotect the life or the property of American citizens, a navy which is a\nconstant and an enormous expense. While almost unlimited sums can be\nraised for the building and equipment of battleships, we have not a\ndollar to aid honest industry to maintain self-respecting manhood by\nengaging in works which would add immensely to the real wealth of the\nnation.\n\nAnd, again, before pointing out how this money could be raised, I would\ncall attention to the fact that this cry is by no means a new one. It\nwas raised, and with much more show of foundation, during the dark hours\nof the early sixties, but the great Civil War exploded the fallacy. One\nwould think that in the presence of the stupendous facts connected with\nthe conduct of our Civil War, even if the question of the value to the\nstate of an independent, contented, and prosperous manhood should be\nleft out of consideration, the shallowness of the objection would be so\napparent that it would have no weight with thoughtful persons. Let us\nnot forget that there was a time in the history of our country when the\nTreasury of our government was empty, a time of great national peril\nwhen gold had fled across the seas or into the vaults of the bankers\nand usurers, as it ever flees in time of danger, when public credit was\ngreatly impaired by the presence of war within our borders and a strong\nprobability that even if the national government escaped overthrow a\nlarge number of the States would become an independent nation. In this\ncrisis we had men in charge of the government who were statesmen, men\ngreat enough to rise to the emergency of the hour. Now, if we were able\nunder such conditions to carry to a successful termination the most\nexpensive and memorable civil war of modern times by the aid of the\ngreenback, surely there would be no risk in resorting to a similar\nmedium of exchange for the carrying on of a work which would immediately\nadd to the nation's resources and free from the bondage of involuntary\nidleness a large army of men who are now a burden to society and a\ndanger to stable government.\n\nIf, however, the fiction by which bondholders enslave the people still\nholds such power over our legislators and the public mind that the\nmenace of the growing army of unemployed, the injury to the state by the\nenforced degradation of her children, and the continued unproductivity\nof both soil and industry must go on unless a concession is made, it\nwould be wiser to make the concession than to let the crime against\nmanhood continue. I therefore suggest that bonds on the land to be\nreclaimed be issued to the amount of the national notes used for these\ngreat works in redeeming the now useless land. The bonds issued against\nthese lands could be cancelled as the lands were sold. I do not for a\nmoment hold that this is necessary. I only advance this suggestion in\ncase the prejudice fostered by selfish and interested classes might\notherwise defeat a work of such inconceivable importance.\n\nThe inevitable result which would follow such wise, statesmanlike, and\nhumane proceedings on the part of the government may be briefly\nsummarized as follows:\n\nThrough this judicious, far-sighted, and enlightened course the\ngovernment would, first, so strengthen and intrench herself in the\nhearts of the people that armories and militia would be little needed\nagainst the menace of lawlessness _within our borders_, while this wise\nsolicitude and care for the welfare of her citizens would make millions\nof persons, who to-day have little or no love for a nation which is\nindifferent to their manly cry for work, loyal defenders of the flag. By\nsuch a broad, wise, and just course the United States would do more than\nshe could in any other way to render herself impregnable in time of\ndanger. Second, by affording millions of her citizens the opportunity to\nengage in productive work she would utilize a vast amount of idle energy\nin adding to the permanent wealth of the nation, and the state would be\nfulfilling the noble function of government to promote justice, increase\nhappiness, and ennoble citizenship. She would be restoring hope and the\nspirit of independent manhood to her children, and so would prevent a\ngreat increase in beggary, in degradation, and in crime, which must\ninevitably follow unless present conditions are radically changed. From\nan economic point of view the government would be far richer through the\namount saved from what otherwise would be required to provide prisons,\npoorhouses, and court expenses. Third, it would add vastly to the\nnation's wealth in increasing by untold millions the annual product of\nreal wealth, while it would also supply homes for millions of\nhome-seekers. Fourth, it would bring prosperity to America.\n\nLet us suppose three millions of those now idle should be thus enabled\nto engage in productive work, there would then be placed in circulation\neach week from five to ten million dollars more money than there is now,\nand it would be paid out in small amounts, so that the bulk of it would\ninstantly go into general circulation. The men would not only purchase\nfor their own needs, but would send a part of their earnings to their\nloved ones, who would thus be able to do what they cannot now do--buy\ncoal, wood, groceries, and, indeed, life's various necessaries. The\nprices of the farmer's crops would naturally rise, and he in turn would\nbe able to increase his buildings and purchase more machinery. The\nincreased demand for clothing would raise the price of wool and cotton,\nwhile it would start up the factories without any resort to artificial\nmeasures, such as levying a tax on imported goods.\n\nThe difference between present hard times and low prices and good times\nand high prices would be illustrated in this way: To-day millions of our\npeople are idle, a load and an expense; they cannot buy what they need\nat any price, for they have nothing to buy with. Millions of others\nhave to curtail in every way, frequently doing without many needed\nthings, for times are such that it is impossible for them to do more\nthan barely subsist. Now, the millions who to-day buy nothing, because\nthey have nothing to buy with, under these provisions for internal\nimprovements would soon be buying regularly, because they would have the\nwherewithal to buy. They would gladly pay the farmer, manufacturer, and\nmerchant more than what they now ask because they would have something\nto buy with, while to-day they have nothing; and those other millions\nwho are curtailing expenses to the last degree would gladly pay the\nincreased amount, for all lines of productive business would receive an\nimpetus from the great addition to the circulating medium put forth as a\nresult of the productive work being carried on. Now, our tariff taxes\nmay put up prices for the favored classes, but they thereby increase the\nburdens of all save those who are enabled to gain added wealth from the\ntaxes imposed on the millions who are yet able to buy, while the small\nincrease in the demand for work, so long as millions are unable to buy\nwhat is made, would make but little impression on the vast army of\nunemployed.\n\n_A tariff tax is a burden to the millions, stimulating prices\nartificially, and benefiting chiefly the very wealthy._ But the plan for\ninternal improvements here outlined would give all ablebodied men\nproductive work which would benefit the nation far more than the amount\nof the outlay involved, and afford time for the general work of\neducation, by which justice and equitable conditions could be brought\nabout, to proceed. Those who love peace, those who would see mankind\nelevated and the wealth of the nation preserved and increased, should\nfavor this great palliative movement for maintaining self-respecting\nmanhood, for enriching the nation's resources, and for insuring\nprosperity in the quickest and most healthful manner possible.\n\n\n\n\nAN OPEN LETTER TO EASTERN CAPITALISTS.\n\nBY CHARLES C. MILLARD.\n\n\nGentlemen: Against you individually, or as a class of persons who have\naccumulated more or less wealth, and who loan it at interest to those\nwho perhaps have been less fortunate, I have not the least prejudice. I\nbelieve that yours is an honest as well as a legitimate business; that\ngreat wealth may be, and often is, won by honest means; and that it does\nnot border upon the marvellous that the capitalist is often an honest\nman, and the pauper as often a rogue. I believe that you are as honest\nas other men are, and that if you fully understood the situation in the\nWest and South, and knew that a certain line of conduct would result to\nyour own advantage financially, and also be a great benefit to the whole\ncountry, you would act as other honest people would act under similar\ncircumstances; and it is because I so believe, that I write this letter.\n\nI write neither as a partisan nor in the interests of any party, but to\ngive plain facts which can be easily verified, and to show how these\nfacts are seen and felt by those who, like myself, have been born and\nbred on the boundless prairies, and have had a varied experience with\nthe ups and downs of life on the sunset side of the Father of Waters. I\nhope by so doing to help you to realize the extent of the disasters\nwhich a continuance of the present financial policy will inevitably\nbring to _you_ as well as to us.\n\n\nTHE ACTUAL CONDITION.\n\nIn 1886, the chief clerk and trusted agent of a great loan company, who\nhas since been in the employ of Jarvis Conklin & Co., said to me: \"There\nis plenty of money to loan, but the securities are practically\nexhausted.\" Everything \"in sight\" was covered with a mortgage. The few\nwho had escaped the mania of speculation did not want any mortgage on\nfarm or city property. Loans since then have been mostly renewals, and\nfor a time one company loaned money to be paid to another; but, with a\nfew exceptions, the Eastern money borrowed since 1880 has not been paid,\nand anyone familiar with the facts does not need the gift of prophecy to\nforetell that, under the present conditions, it never can or will be\npaid.\n\nThe mortgages, bonds, and most of the coupons you still hold, and, in\nmany cases, you also have a deed to the property; but neither the one\nnor the other is of any practical present value. The mortgagor is dead,\nmoved away, bankrupt, or working at daily labor--when he can get\nwork--for his daily bread. Therefore the debt is worthless, and the\nproperty is but little better. The very best of it--costly business\nblocks in the heart of the cities--is unremunerative. No intelligent\npoor man would, or could, take a brick block as a gift and keep the\ntaxes and interest paid.\n\nAnd perhaps the larger share of the city property is unoccupied or\npaying no rental. He who rides upon a Western railroad can see the proof\nof this from the car windows. In every city, town, village, and on not a\nfew farms, can be seen the broken or boarded-up windows which are the\nfootprints, not of time, but of the Eastern mortgage. This property\nbelongs to you. No Western man pays taxes or interest, and no one\nexpects to pay the principal. No one wants the property; no one has any\nuse for it; and no want ever existed which it was calculated to fill,\nexcept in the brain of the monomaniac who built it. Whether you have\n\"foreclosed\" or not, the property is virtually yours; the mortgagor has\nno equity in it. While he had an equity, the decline in prices affected\nthat equity; now it affects only _your_ interest.\n\nYou own our business buildings, mansions, and cottages. You have an\neverlasting grip on our public buildings, Board of Trade halls, Young\nMen's Christian Association buildings, and even our churches. The Rev.\nMr. Wooley, in the pulpit of the Central Christian Church of Wichita,\nsaid recently: \"Every church building in this city, except one, is\nheavily incumbered, and most of them are practically insolvent.\" Even\nthe \"calamity howlers\" of the \"Populist\" party are afraid or ashamed to\ntell the truth, \"and the whole truth,\" about our financial condition.\n\nAnd it is not improving. A few farm mortgages are being paid, and\nscarcely any new ones are being made except renewals; but all the\nreduction so made is more than equalled by the sum of defaulted interest\npayments on mortgages outstanding. The statements in the papers, that\nthe mortgage indebtedness of Kansas--or some other State--was reduced so\nmany thousand dollars during the past year, are misleading. They are\nregularly published to restore \"confidence.\" For the benefit of my\nEastern brother, I will explain, lest he may imagine that we are each\nyear paying back more money than we borrowed during that time, and that\ntherefore, in the course of geologic time, our debts would be paid.\n\nThe \"reduction\" is a reduction of record only. I have known of the\npayment of $25 to reduce the record of $650, and $20 to make a\n\"reduction\" of $400; and for various reasons many mortgages are\ncancelled without any cash payment. These are well-known facts, and I\ncould give a long list of those which have come under my own personal\nobservation, while the mortgages which I have known to be paid in full\nmight be counted on the fingers of one hand.\n\nIn addition to this, nearly every city or incorporated town, and many of\nthe counties, have a bonded indebtedness as large as they can possibly\ncarry. In some cases bonds have been issued and sold to pay interest on\nother bonds, and in one case at least--Pratt Centre--the interest\npayments have been discontinued \"by order of the council.\"\n\n\nTHE FUTURE PROSPECT.\n\nSo far I have been dealing only with the past and the present, and have\ngiven only a plain statement of facts, the value of which must depend\nupon my capacity as an observer, my opportunities for observation, and\nmy truthfulness as a writer. If you are inclined to be sceptical,\ninquire of your neighbors who hold, or have held, Western mortgages. The\nvalue of my forecast of the immediate future must depend upon the\ncharacter of my reasoning and judgment.\n\nAs \"death and taxes\" are certain, it is safe to predict that taxes will\nbe levied to pay the interest, and afterwards the principal, of city\nbonds. Also, it may be assumed that you, who own the larger and more\nvaluable share of the property, will pay the lion's share of the taxes.\nThe Western man has \"let go\"; he is not \"in the deal\"; and when one\ncapitalist is taxed to pay another, he is not an \"interested\" party. I\nsympathize with you. You have exchanged good money for bad property; and\nwith the property you have assumed the bulk of our _burden of taxation_.\nYou must pay our bonds, pay for the repairs and improvements of public\nproperty, pay for educating our children and making our laws, and yet\nyou have no voice in determining when, how, or to what extent these\nthings shall be done; nor power to prevent the jobs and steals which\naccompany such transactions in Kansas as well as in New York.\n\nBut, notwithstanding my sympathy, and the additional fact that I must\nindirectly suffer from the effects of your suicidal policy, it is\namusing to see you trying to squeeze the remaining value out of _your\nown property_. For, I repeat, it is yours. Interest payments will cease\nin the same ratio that they have ceased, and for the same reasons. And\nthe principal cause will be that the mortgagor has _discovered_ that he\nhas no equity in the property. If property is worth only \"what it will\nbring in money,\" there are few pieces of mortgaged property in the West\nin which there still remains an equity. But many farmers are economizing\nand wearing rags in order to make interest payments, which can only\nresult in putting the evil day a little further off.\n\nThe Westerner is a practical man. When he finds that the equity is all\nsqueezed out of his property, and that it is still being squeezed at the\nsame rate, he stops paying taxes and interest, uses the property free\nwhile you are foreclosing, saves up a little money, buys a house for\nabout one-tenth of the money it cost to build it, moves it onto a\n\"clear\" lot, and is then ready to help you squeeze your property by\nvoting for taxes for various purposes. Under like circumstances the\nfarmer raises one or two crops without rent, taxes, or interest, clothes\nhis family more comfortably, replaces worn-out machinery, rents a farm,\nand is in better circumstances than he has been for years.\n\n\nTHE PROPOSED REMEDY.\n\nIt may be that there is no remedy, but that will not prevent us from\ntrying to find one. During the last ten years we have experimented. We\nhave tried Democratic rule and Republican rule; the \"McKinley bill\" and\nthe \"Wilson bill\"; \"tariff for protection\" and \"tariff for revenue\nonly\"; a Treasury \"surplus\" and a Treasury \"deficit\"; yet none of these\nthings have sensibly affected the squeezing process. We have lost our\nfaith in the tariff and in tariff-tinkering, as well as in the leaders\nwho recommend it. We have dismissed our old political leaders and chosen\nnew ones; and as your \"gold-standard\" squeezing policy is the only\nrational cause \"in sight\" for the origin and continuance of our\ncondition--to use an expressive Western phrase--we are \"going for it.\"\n\nWe are willing that you should own and control the property which was\nours, and in which your money was invested, but when you attempt to\nforce upon us your financial policy, your politics, and your religion,\nwe object. You may own and control the property, but not us; here we\ndraw the line. This is what Marsh Murdock had in his mental view when he\nsaid at the St. Louis Convention, \"You want to own the country and run\nit too.\" But the veteran editor of the _Eagle_ has changed his mind and\nconsented to being \"run.\"\n\nYou have bought the leading papers, caused our editors to \"change their\nminds,\" flooded the country with a trashy literature that is an insult\nto our intelligence, and provided funds to pay third-rate preachers for\npreaching to us a religion which we do not want. We are not rich, yet we\nare able to pay for our education and our religion--if it is a kind that\nwill be of any use to us.\n\nWe do not fear the result of our experiment. If we fail, the same old\nsqueeze will continue; if we succeed, there is a prospect of relief.\nWithout variation, there is not even a prospect of bettering our\ncondition. If we should succeed in creating that financial paradox, a\nfifty-three-cent dollar, we are such political heretics as to prefer\nthat kind of a dollar to none, or to \"confidence.\" We have unbounded\nconfidence in the dollars which jingle in our pockets, but very little\nin those which exist only in the imagination, and are represented by\nstocks, bonds, checks, drafts, clearing-house certificates, and other\ndevices, which always fail to perform the function of money in the last\nextremity, when money is most needed.\n\nDo not allow yourselves to be terrified at the ghost of a silver dollar,\nfor the ghost of it is all that will ever trouble you. In the event of\nfree coinage, the trains going East will not be loaded with silver\ndollars to pay off old mortgages. I have seen a statement in Eastern\npapers to the effect that we wanted cheap money with which to pay our\ndebts. It is a base slander; every intelligent Western man knows that,\nwhatever happens short of the miraculous, only a small share of our\nmortgage debts will be paid.\n\nAll the holdings you now have in the West, new and old taken together,\nare not worth fifty-three cents on the dollar; and you cannot now in any\nway realize that much from them; and if your present policy is\nindefinitely continued you have no prospect of ever realizing\nfifty-three per cent on your investments. If, then, you should be paid\nin silver dollars, or if a larger share of the loans should be paid\nunder the new conditions, you would be a gainer and not a loser by the\nchange. It seems to me that an increase in the volume of money and\nrising prices are the opportunity for you to realize from your holdings,\nfor without some favorable change you will hardly realize twenty-five\nper cent.\n\nYou can test the truth of these statements. Take twenty holdings, not\nselected, and try to convert them into cash. Or offer them to some\ncapitalist who has travelled extensively in the West during the last\nfive years. Time will convince you, if nothing else will; but the\nknowledge may come a little too late for practical purposes. You ought\nto be with us in this free-silver movement, and you would be if you knew\nwhat we know. We are not fools, although we may appear so to you; we\nknow what we want, and we are trying to get it.\n\nYou threaten \"to draw in your money from the West.\" If you have any\nmoney in the West which you _can_ \"draw in,\" the sooner you do it the\nbetter; it will be an heroic remedy instead of misery long drawn out. A\n\"panic\" will return like a boomerang upon yourselves, and make _your_\nproperty still less valuable. You can cause a panic, break our business\nmen, make more idle men and tramps, and, in short, concentrate three or\nfour years of squeezing into a few weeks or months; but what benefit can\n_you_ hope to derive from it?\n\nWhatever adds to _our_ prosperity will increase the actual value of\n_your_ holdings; our interests are identical, then why should _you_\ndesire the continuance of present conditions? Have the present\nconditions done anything for you, as far as Western investments are\nconcerned? Is not your increase of capital simply an increase \"on paper\"\nwhich you can never realize? We cordially invite you to join us in our\neffort to bring on an era of prosperity; forsake your political leaders,\nas we have forsaken ours, and use at least as much common sense in\npolitics as you do in business.\n\nSave this article; it will be good reading after the election is over.\nIt is not politics, it is business; it is the naked truth. The writer\ndoes not want to borrow any money; he seeks no office, is not a\npolitician, has no axe to grind, and expects no reward, except to share\nin the general prosperity, as he has shared in the general adversity, in\nthe capacity of a humble citizen.\n\nWICHITA, KANSAS.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TELEGRAPH MONOPOLY.\n\nBY PROF. FRANK PARSONS.\n\n\nXIII.\n\n10. _The Union of Telegraph and Post is needed for the Interests of the\nPost as well as for those of the Telegraph._ It will elevate the skill\nand competency of postal employees. When mails do not arrive on time, it\nwill inform the public thronging the post office, not merely that the\nmail has not arrived, but when it will arrive. It will permit the\nemployment of the telegraph in tracing a missent letter or package,\nrectifying an erroneous address, discovering the whereabouts of an\nabsentee, etc. It will permit the more rapid extension of the\nfree-delivery system by affording a larger basis for its sustenance. It\nwill multiply many fold the rapidity in transmitting letters across the\ncontinent.\n\nThe telegraph is naturally a part of the post office,[3] as much a part\nof it as the sewing machine is a part of a dressmaking establishment.\nSuppose the government were in the clothing business (as it might have\nbeen to advantage during the war), and continued to sew the garments\nentirely by hand, leaving the sewing machine to private enterprise; it\nwould be a charming situation for private enterprise, but not very\ndelightful for the government. With such advantages private enterprise\nwould be apt to deprive the government of the best part of its business\nin spite of its willingness to work for people at cost. The same thing\nhas happened to some extent with the telegraph and telephone, and will\nhappen to a far greater extent if they are allowed to continue in\nprivate control. If trunk lines for automatic transit were established\nby a private company, even at 25 cents per hundred words (a rate\nsufficient to pay a very large profit on a corporate investment, water\nand all), the post office would soon lose a considerable portion of its\nmost valuable business, the letter mail between the large cities.[4]\n\n      [3] Mr. Hubbard says: \"The telegraph and the post office are\n          two great pieces of machinery going on, both for the same\n          purpose, the transmission of intelligence\" (J. T. U. p. 17).\n          Prof. Ely calls the telegraph the \"logical completion of the\n          post office\" (ARENA, Dec. 1895, p. 49). Cyrus W. Field says:\n          \"Why should not the two branches of what is really one service\n          to the public be brought together in this country, as in other\n          countries, and placed under one management? It would certainly\n          be a great convenience to the people if every telegraph office\n          were a post office, and every post office a telegraph office\"\n          (_N. A. Review_, Mar. 1886).\n\n      [4] Postmaster-General Cave Johnson said: \"Experience teaches\n          that if individual enterprise is allowed to perform such\n          portions of the business of the Government as it may find for\n          its advantage, the Government will soon be left to perform\n          unprofitable portions of it only, and must be driven to\n          abandon it entirely or carry it on at a heavy tax upon the\n          public Treasury.... I may further add that the Department\n          created under the Constitution and designed to exercise\n          exclusive power for the transmission of intelligence, must\n          necessarily be superseded in much of its most important\n          business if the telegraph be permitted to remain under the\n          control of individuals\" (Reps. of 1845 and 1846).\n\n          Postmaster-General Cresswell said in 1872: \"If the effects of\n          rivalry between the telegraph and the mail upon the revenues\n          of the post office have not been serious, it is due alone to\n          the liberal management of the latter as compared with that of\n          the companies, a management which since the invention of the\n          telegraph has reduced the rates of postage from 25 to 3 cents,\n          and increased tenfold the correspondence of the country\" (Rep.\n          1872, pp. 22-3).\n\n          One of Hannibal Hamlin's three great reasons for a postal\n          telegraph was \"for the sake of the post-office system, which\n          may at any time be depleted by a strong telegraph in private\n          hands\" (_Cong. Globe_, 42-2, p. 3554).\n\nIn times of pestilence the telegraph will save the post office from\nembargo. A letter from Port Gibson, Miss., says:\n\n     Whenever the yellow fever breaks out at any point, all cities and\n     towns, and some counties, having communication with the infected\n     districts, at once declare a rigid quarantine. The effect of this\n     is to cut off all communication between themselves and the outside\n     world. Trains and boats are prevented from receiving or delivering\n     the mails. Business men are unable to communicate by letter with\n     their correspondents, and all are prevented from hearing from\n     relatives and friends in the quarantined places, except by\n     telegraph, whose rates prevent many from using the wires.[5]\n\n          [5] Wan. Arg. p. 138.\n\nThe infection does not travel on an electric wire, and if the post\noffice possessed the telegraph, its business would go smoothly on in\nspite of the plague, instead of being brought to a dead standstill\nthroughout the region of disaster at the very time when hearts are\nbreaking for daily news, and communication is of the utmost importance\nto alleviate the quarantine.\n\n11. _Employees will be benefited_ by passing from a regime of oppression\nto one of elevation; from low wages[6] and long hours to high wages and\nshort hours; from a service almost hopeless of promotion to a service of\nalmost limitless possibilities to the man of character, brain, and\nenergy; from an employment in which they are regarded as so much\nmachinery to be obtained at the lowest market rates and worked for all\nthe profit there is in them to an employment in which their comfort and\nadvancement are among the main objects of solicitude with the\nmanagement; from a business in which they have no share to a business in\nwhich they are equal partners with all their fellow-citizens; from\nserfdom to liberty and manhood. No more boycotting and black-listing, no\nmore denial of the rights of organization and petition.\n\n      [6] In the last Congressional investigation, dated May 26,\n          1896, the great telegraph inventor P. B. Delayner testified\n          that the pay of American operators had fallen forty per cent\n          in the last twenty years; and he said that, \"while the British\n          operator has had two increases of pay since 1891, his American\n          brother has had four reductions, and to-day the British\n          operator is better paid for the same amount of work, and by\n          his environment occupies a higher plane of comfort and\n          contentment, than the American operator. Good behavior and\n          diligence in his duties warrant him a life position, from\n          which the whim and caprice of no one can drive him. He is not\n          an itinerant wandering from place to place looking for work\n          and hired for a day or a week, to be again sent adrift, nor is\n          he permitted to work overtime to the detriment of his health\n          and the exclusion of another wage-earner from his share. His\n          increasing years of service are taken into account in various\n          beneficial ways. He has his yearly vacation. He is not cut off\n          in sickness, and, most important of all, he is not 'turned\n          down' in old age, but is retired on a pension, proportioned to\n          his years of service\" (Sen. Doc. 291, 54-1, pp. 4, 6).\n\nSome of the consequences will be the lifting of thousands to a higher\nplane of living, the annihilation of strikes by uprooting the causes of\nthem,[7] the improvement of the service as already stated under the\nseventh sub-head of this section, etc., etc.\n\n      [7] Joseph Medill, the publisher of the Chicago _Tribune_,\n          expressed the opinion to the Blair Committee that, with a\n          postal telegraph, there would be no strikes any more than\n          among the clerks in the Treasury or the officers of the army.\n          Government employees do not resign _en masse_. Their pay is\n          good as a rule, and, anyway, they could not get it raised till\n          Congress thought it right; and a strike would not be apt to\n          hasten the achievement of their purposes, but would place them\n          face to face with the limitless power of the United States.\n          Instead of occupying a position of brave revolt against\n          corporate oppression, impervious to petition, the strikers\n          would place themselves in the position of deliberately\n          departing from ready and hopeful redress by peaceful petition\n          and discussion, to the very objectionable method of\n          obstructing the public business, defying the people's\n          government, and dictating terms to the nation.\"\n\n          The telegraph system would no longer be subject to such\n          disasters as that so well described by the Hon. Wm. Roche in\n          the Ohio legislature Jan. 29th, 1885: \"A convulsion of the\n          trade and commerce of the entire country resulted, when, on\n          the 19th of July, 1883, 12,000 operators left their posts\n          after the flat refusal of the magnates to give audience to\n          their representatives to state their case.\"\n\n12. _The press will be relieved of an ever present tyranny_ likely at\nany moment to transfer itself from the potential to the real.[8] Sen.\nReport 242, 43-1, p. 5, says:\n\n      [8] We have seen in Part VI (ARENA, June, 1896) how rates were\n          raised on papers that criticised the Western Union's president\n          or advocated a postal telegraph too vigorously, how papers\n          were ordered not to criticise news reports under penalty of\n          loss of news facilities, etc. It is interesting to note that\n          even the largest and most influential papers do not always\n          escape persecution. In his speech in the House, Mar. 1, 1884,\n          the Hon. John A. Anderson, of Kansas, tells us that \"the\n          Chicago _Inter-Ocean_ had the lease of a private wire from\n          Washington to Chicago, and published Washington news every\n          day. A few weeks since, Senator Hill spoke for the postal\n          telegraph. The _Inter-Ocean_ published the speech verbatim.\n          That evening word was sent to the _Inter-Ocean_ that the lease\n          was terminated. The manager of the _Inter-Ocean_ said\n          afterwards that their relations with the Western Union were\n          still friendly, but he had to be, of course, in order to keep\n          the general despatches.\"\n\n     The operation of the postal-telegraph system would result in a\n     speedy termination of this alliance [between the telegraph and news\n     association, and groups of favored papers], and will be a very\n     important step toward the freedom of the press.\n\nSen. Rep. 577, 48-1, p. 16, says:\n\n     The bill [for a postal telegraph] will lessen the danger of a\n     concealed censorship of news whereby it may be colored and\n     distorted so as to subserve political purposes, to mislead public\n     opinion as to the merits or demerits of men and measures, to\n     pervert legislation, and to favor schemes of private gain.\n\nThe press of the nation will not be forbidden to criticise the news, nor\nwill any paper be excluded from equal participation in the benefits of\nthe telegraph service--equal rates to all, special privileges to none.\nMoreover, the rates will be greatly reduced for all press despatches,\nand papers will be able to buy the world's history every day for a\nfraction of what they pay now for imperfect and garbled reports.\n\nAs a result of National Ownership in England, \"the press rates have been\nreduced so low that every country paper can afford to print the latest\ntelegraphic despatches as it goes to press, and a telegraph or telephone\nis at every country post office.\"[9]\n\n      [9] Sen. Doc. 205, 54-1, p. 50; Report of U. S. Consul at\n          Southampton, Consular Reports, vol. xlvii, No. 175, April,\n          1895, p. 564. The press rate in England averages nine cents\n          per hundred words. In this country it is at least 40 cents per\n          hundred; the electrician P. B. Delany says it is 50 cents per\n          100 (Sen. Doc. 291, May, 1896, p. 3).\n\n          The Report last quoted contains the testimony of Mr. Bell of\n          the Typographical Union, May 20, 1896, in which he says: \"The\n          news of this country is controlled by two great press\n          associations, and in any place in which either has a footing,\n          no new journal can be established and secure telegraphic news\n          except on such terms as may be prescribed by the paper or\n          papers that already occupy the field. In England, on the\n          contrary, all papers are on an equal footing.\" The\n          Typographical Union is fully alive to the benefits of a\n          government telegraph; in fact, labor and commerce in general\n          very strongly favor the reform. Mr. Bell says: \"In this\n          movement of ours we are supported by all the organized bodies\n          of workingmen in this country. We are a unit on this question\"\n          (p. 17).\n\n13. _Discrimination will receive a serious blow._ No more telegraph\nrebates of 20 or 40 or 50 per cent to favored individuals and\ncorporations. No more telegraph blanks for legislators, politicians, and\nlobbyists. No more delaying B's despatch until the rival message of C is\nsent. No more precedence for bucket-shops and gamblers over honest\nbusiness and government despatches.\n\n14. _Gambling in government stocks will cease_, speculators in wheat,\ncorn, pork, copper, oil, and other products of industry will be unable\nto control the wires for their uses, or even secure a precedence over\nthe lines, and the Louisiana Lottery and similar frauds will no longer\nfind a refuge in the telegraph as they do at present. The post office\nhas been taken away from the gamblers; it is time the telegraph were\ntaken from them also. The telegraph in the hands of cunning men may be\nthe means of abstracting millions of money from the producers of the\ncountry, and may even become a potent factor in the causation of panic\nand depression. On page 3 of his Argument for a postal telegraph, Mr.\nWanamaker says:\n\n     The measureless body of producers, in order not to be manipulated\n     and robbed by the speculators, need to be nearer the consumers; and\n     the measureless body of consumers, in order not to be manipulated\n     and robbed by the same speculators, need to be nearer to the\n     producers.\n\nTake the telegraph away from the speculators and give it to the\nproducers and consumers, that they may come into the closest possible\nrelations.\n\n15. _Political corruption_ will lose an able contributor when the\ntelegraph ceases to belong to a private corporation (See Part VII,\nARENA, July, 1896).\n\n16. _A Postal telegraph will be a step toward a fairer distribution of\nwealth_ and away from the congestion of power and wealth in the hands of\na few unscrupulous men, which is one of the chief dangers threatening\nthe future of the country (See Part VIII, ARENA, August, 1896). On this\nground alone the establishment of a national telegraph would be\njustified, were there no other reason in the case.\n\n17. _The public safety demands a national telegraph_, not merely as a\nprecaution against corruption, speculation, and panic, congestion of\nwealth and power, strikes, and duress of the press, but also as a\nmilitary measure and a valuable addition to the police power of the\ngovernment,--a means of strength in time of war, and a conservator of\nlaw and order by aiding in the capture of criminals and in the general\nenforcement of the law. We have already quoted the opinion of Mr.\nScudamore that the postal telegraph \"will strengthen the country from\nhostility from without, and the maintaining of law and order within the\nkingdom.\" Let us call attention here to the weighty words of the New\nYork _Public_, cited in Wanamaker's Argument, pp. 206-7:\n\n     The Government itself absolutely needs a telegraphic system for its\n     own protection. This will not seem the language of exaggeration\n     when it is considered that the ordinary enforcement of laws, the\n     capture of offenders, the success of fiscal operations, the\n     protection of the country against domestic insurrection and foreign\n     invasion, have come to depend in these days upon the instant\n     transmission of intelligence with certain and absolute secrecy. It\n     may at any time come to pass that the private interests of those\n     controlling a telegraph system shall require the non-enforcement of\n     the law, the prevention or delay of a financial operation, or the\n     partial success of a domestic outbreak or foreign inroad. It is\n     nonsense to say that this cannot happen. If Mr. Gould could\n     suppress for a few hours or days, news of an outbreak on the\n     Pacific coast or of the capture of a hostile ironclad from Europe,\n     he could make millions by it. The Government has no certainty that\n     he would throw away millions. It has no certainty that its orders\n     bearing on great financial operations may not be betrayed and its\n     aims thwarted. When the Government was hunting for the Star Route\n     offenders, how many would have been caught if its despatches had\n     been secretly betrayed? An important witness happened to be a\n     Government director of the Union Pacific Railroad, and it has\n     always been a mysterious fact that the officers in search of him\n     could never catch him.\n\n18. _It will be a step toward civil-service reform._ Every increase of\npublic business brings us nearer to thorough civil-service reform,\nbecause it enhances the importance of that reform, impresses the need of\nit more strongly upon the people, and deepens their sentiment in its\nfavor. This has been the experience of European cities and states. A\ngood reason why they are ahead of us in civil-service management, is\nbecause they are ahead of us in the public ownership of railroads,\ntelegraphs, telephones, etc.\n\nIn the case of the telegraph there are special reasons to expect that\ngovernment control would carry with it an extension of the civil-service\nprinciple. In the opinion of Mr. Rosewater the postal telegraph \"would\nbe an entering wedge for the greatest possible success of the civil\nservice.\" He says:\n\n     It would bring into the postal service a large number of skilled\n     operatives whose services could not be easily dispensed with. They\n     would be divided in politics like every other class of citizens,\n     their experience and trustworthiness would be of great moment, and\n     their trustworthiness would be increased by the knowledge that they\n     could not be displaced by partisan politics. This has been the\n     experience in Great Britain, and would be the same here. Once get\n     the postal service under government control and the civil-service\n     act, and you would soon be able to place all departments of the\n     government under the same system, and a large share of the public\n     nuisance incident to office-holding would be done away with,\n     leaving the officers free to inquire into and learn their duties to\n     their office and to the public.[10]\n\n          [10] _The Voice_, Aug. 29, 1895, pp. 1, 8.\n\nProf. Ely says:\n\n     One of the strongest arguments in favor of a postal telegraph, is\n     that such a telegraph would carry with it an improvement in our\n     civil service. It would increase the number of offices in which\n     civil-service rules would be applied, even according to existing\n     law, and it would be an irresistible argument in favor of the\n     extension and elevation of the civil service. Some want to have us\n     wait until the civil service has been already improved, but the\n     purchase of the telegraph lines would inevitably carry with it the\n     improvement of the civil service.\n\nThe country would insist upon it. The acquisition of the telegraph lines\nby the nation would convert more people to civil-service reform in one\nday than all the speeches which have ever been delivered on the subject\nwould win to this good cause in a year.[11]\n\n     [11] The total number of positions that must now be filled\n          from the classified civil-service lists is 85,100, out of a\n          total of a little more than 200,000 positions in the national\n          service, aside from the army and navy.\n\nThe plan advocated in this paper includes the civil-service act as one\nof its essential terms, for without it we run the risk of having, for a\ntime at least, boss-ownership instead of public ownership of the\ntelegraph. The recent extension of the civil-service act to 30,000 new\npositions, argues well for the future of this great reform.[12] That\nsuch an order should have come from President Cleveland, who has not\nbeen noted for his absence of partisan feeling, indicates that the\nelection of a man of thorough independence would probably complete the\ntransformation of our service. Even without that, the work will be done\nby the piece, each president ordering a section into line at the end of\nhis term when the delay of justice can no longer aid his own political\npurposes, but may, on the contrary, strengthen his successor. Or he may\nact before the end of his term and from less selfish motives; the main\nthing for the nation is that he act.\n\n      [12] ARENA, Dec. 1895, pp. 51-2.\n\n19. The public ownership of the telegraph will remove one of the\nantagonisms that weaken the cohesion of society and retard the\ndevelopment of civilization.[13]\n\n      [13] See Part VIII, ARENA, August, 1896.\n\n20. It will be a step toward cooeperation and partnership, away from\nprivate monopoly, usurpations, and taxation without representation.[14]\n\n      [14] See Parts VIII and IX, ARENA, Aug. and Sept. 1896.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLet us now see what the defendants have to say; that means the Western\nUnion, for, as Mr. Bell said to the Senate Committee on Post offices and\nPost roads, May 20th, 1896:\n\n     The only persons who have ever put in an appearance in opposition\n     to this measure, have been the officers, attorneys, and agents of\n     the telegraph companies. No representative of the people has ever\n     opposed it.[15]\n\n          [15] Sen. Doc. 291, 54-1, p. 18.\n\n\n\nTHE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE CUBANS.\n\nBY THOMAS W. STEEP.\n\n\nWhen the recognition of belligerency was argued for the Cubans by the\nfriends of Cuba in Congress, it became a question of pivotal importance\nas to whether the Cubans had a government to recognize as dual to that\nof Spain; whether the government, if any, was merely nominal or\nchimerical; whether, if existing and operating, it had the potency to\nreceive recognition and thus justify such action by the United States.\n\nThe first thing that attracted my interest on arriving at the war field\nof Cuba, in the Province of Santiago, early one sunny morning in\nJanuary, was the obsequious ceremony of the government prefecto who\nreceived me and gave me my first roasted _boniato_, upon which I\nafterwards so often appeased hunger. I had come out on the field by\ncrawling beneath the barbed-wire military line around Santiago one night\nand marching by stealth in the early dawn to the mountains and over them\nto the interior. A body of Cubans escorted me. Fatigued and hungry, the\nprefecto's attention in serving coffee and boniatos seemed over-due\nkindness. I offered to pay him, but he raised his hands and said, \"No!\nNo!\" He was a government officer. From that time on my interest was\nenlisted in the study of the civil organization of the Cubans.\n\nWhen ex-President Cleveland intimated that the civil government\nprovisional of the Cuban insurgents was puerile and immature, and said\nit was, for the most part, a government on paper, he was more correct\nthan otherwise. In the first place, however, let me say that the Cubans\nhave a government, that it is not an impractical one, that the people\nare loyal to it. To this loyalty, which is so striking for its\nwidespread prevalence, and so sympathy-eliciting because of the\nsacrifices which are made for it by the Cubans, I shall refer later.\n\nThe statement made by the ex-President, while for the most part correct,\nis superficial, because it does not substantiate its assertiveness. It\nis one that any intelligent observer of the anterior conditions of Cuba\nlast December might have correctly though vaguely made.\n\nThe Cuban government is immature. To say that most of it exists on paper\nis not sinistrous to an ambitious civil organization which has been in\nexistence but two years. Schemed exactly like that of the States, the\nunfavorable condition under which it labors makes many of its functions\nof mere nominal existence. For instance, the Secretary of State just at\nthis time has no duty to perform other than, perhaps, to doff his\nfigurative robes of state and get out and fight. The Secretary of War\nhas no routine office, because the Cubans have no diplomatic corps and\nthe rebellion is conducted by aggressive generals who have the munitions\nof war in their own hands.\n\nYet the Cuban insurgents have established a civil organization in the\ninterior over which they hold sway, the strength and qualities of\nendurance and prominence of which defy the government of Spain itself.\nThe remoteness of the Cuban headquarters, and the control which Spain\nhas had over the regular news channels that lead from Cuba, have kept\nthe world largely in ignorance of the real condition of the Cuban\ninsurgents.\n\nFundamentally and upon which the plans of the government are drawn, the\nRepublic of Cuba now comprehends all the area of the island of Cuba. The\ndisposition taken by the head civil officers is that the entire island\nis under dominion of the Cuban Republic, but that because some powerful\nforeign enemy has landed on certain parts and taken possession--as, for\ninstance, Havana and its harbor, and Santiago and other cities--the\ncivil rule cannot be extended into these quarters until by strategy the\nenemy can be driven from the shores of Cuba. In the national\norganization the power of government was transferred by the popular\nassembly to a Council of Government. Then departments were formed, with\nsecretaries at the head--state, war, foreign affairs, interior, and\nfinances. At the head of the government were placed a provisional\nPresident and Vice-President. In the Council of Government is vested the\nlegislative power.\n\nPolitically the island is divided into four States, Oriente, Camaguey,\nLas Villas, and Occidente. Each State is divided into districts, and\neach district into as many prefecturas and sub-prefecturas as are deemed\nnecessary. A district has from seven to fifteen prefecturas. The State\nis presided over by a Governor, who reports to the Secretary of\nInterior. The Lieutenant-Governor is under the Governor, and has\njurisdiction over a district. His corps consists of one secretary and\none assistant clerk. The prefectura is the smallest political\nsubdivision but one--the sub-prefectura. The prefectura has a secretary\nand assistants. Then follow the sub-prefecturas, of which there are\ngenerally from four to eight in each prefectura.\n\nThe Lieutenant-Governor is the intermediary between the Governor and the\nprefectura. Besides his executive functions the prefecto has judicial\npower. He records all contracts between citizens, including marriages.\nHe has the power to form a jury and to try all cases, from the simplest\nintrigues to those of spies guilty of treason, whenever the cases cannot\nbe submitted to court-martial.\n\nEvery portion of territory possessed by the Cubans is subject to civil\norder. The minutest detail is so accurately and delicately balanced\nthat, though the thoroughness for which the civil officers are even now\nadroitly working has not yet been attained, the whole governmental\nmachinery is in harmonic operation.\n\nThe facts which I have set down relative to the geographic distribution\nof the government I have myself seen. I spent much time in the saddle on\nthe march with Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, who, as Governor of Oriente,\nconducts the affairs of state in the saddle. With him I visited the\nprefectural workshops and many well-managed prefecturas. I saw much\nrearranging and readjusting of these functions by the Governor.\n\nAlmost the first thing the Governor said to me at our first meeting at\nBaire Arriba, was: \"I have been wishing for months that I could get hold\nof an American newspaper man to show him the inside of the revolution.\nThe American people don't know how strong we are. They have no way of\nfinding out. Now I will show you our civil government as it is in\noperation.\" We visited the medical posts--\"drug-stores\" as the Cubans\ncall them--the tanneries, workshops, and the various officials,\nincluding the tax-collector.\n\nSupplementary to the regular lines of civic routine are other branches\nof organization necessitated by the war. The most important of these is\nthat of the tax-collector. The State tax-collector has as many\nsubordinate officers as the Governor. Taxes are levied on those engaged\nin commercial pursuits. This commerce is, of course, only internal. The\nlevying of taxes and the subsequent shipment of Spanish money to the\nUnited States for use by the Junta has created great scarcity of money\namong the insurgents. The schedule in effect when I was with chief\ntax-collector Tomas Pedro Grinan, in February, was as follows:\n\n  Coffee and cocoa        4 pesos per 100 pounds.\n  Timber                  8  \"    \"   1000 feet.\n  Hemp                    4  \"    \"   100 pounds.\n  Wax                     4  \"    \"   100 pounds.\n  Honey                   1 peso per 100 pounds.\n  Cattle                  3 pesos per head.\n  Cheese                  2 \"     \"   100 pounds.\n  Bananas                  .03 peso per bunch.\n  Tobacco (leaf)          5 pesos per 100 pounds.\n\nThe commerce consists of the exchange of the products of one part of the\nisland with those of another. I once saw Cespedes stop a coffee\nmerchant, and, upon his inability to produce a receipt for the tax on\nthe coffee he was transporting, take into custody him and twelve little\npack-mules. The man pleaded that there was no tax-collector in the\nvicinity when he started on his journey, paid his fine, which I think\nwas thirty pesos, and continued his march with a receipt for taxes.\n\nFour important branches of the government of the Republic of Cuba are\nthe territorial guard, the coast inspection, the postal service, and the\nworkshop system. Each prefectura has under its supervision ten armed\nterritorial guards, who serve also as police. These guards scout the\nSpanish columns when they venture from their blockhouses.\n\nEvery district with a seacoast has a civil coast inspector, who ranks as\na captain in the army. He is assisted by a sub-inspector, who acts as\nhis secretary. The inspectors have established along the coast line and\nin every bay and inlet watch posts, commanded each by a vigilant, who\nhas under him eight or ten coast-guards. In this way, when a Spanish\nman-of-war sets out from a port, the news is signalled along the coast,\nand the Cubans, if she be in sight of the land, watch every movement of\nthe ship. The coast-guards have captured many small Spanish sailing\nvessels.\n\nSaltmaking is carried on under the direction of an inspector. All the\nsalt consumed by the Cubans is made from distilled sea water. A hundred\nmen are continually boiling sea water in Santiago de Cuba province.\nThese saltmakers are ready at all times to take up arms.\n\nThe postal system is under the direct care of the Governor of each\nState. Along the rough roads at intervals of ten or fifteen miles are\nestablished the Cuban postmasters, each supplied with from four to eight\ncouriers. In this way official as well as private communications are\ncarried to any part of the island. Each post office is supplied with a\nregistering stamp, so that the time of the coming or going of every\nparcel is registered upon it. There is a dead-letter office, and the\nlists are published monthly at the presses of _El Cubano Libre_.\n\nThe workshops are under charge of foremen. These shops turn out all\nkinds of roughly made but substantial leather goods, such as shoes,\nboots, bags, saddles, straps, and belts. Gun shops, powder factories,\nand cartridge factories are said to exist on the island, but I never saw\nthem. The making of other metal articles, such as cooking utensils, is\nin its infancy.\n\nThe Cubans are struggling hard to form some sort of a school system. The\n\"little press in the woods\" was just printing a little primer, written\non the fields, to be distributed among families for the tutoring of\nchildren when I left the printing establishment last January.\n\nThe medical posts and stations are under military order, and are purely\nprovisional. The post of El Mate, in Jiguani, I found in charge of Dr.\nFarrel, a graduate of a medical institute in Spain, and Dr. Rafael de\nLorie of New York. This post is tolerably well stocked. It contains\nabout one hundred pounds of antiseptic plasters, tablets and gauzes,\n10,000 quinine pills and powders, thirty pounds of drugs, ten pounds of\nnarcotics, and fifty quarts of tonics.\n\nLike the whole military system of the Cubans, this post has an\nobjectionable management, subject only to the orders of a few\nofficials, so that it does little practical good, and many persons are\ndying for want of proper medical attention.\n\nI have told in this article what I have seen during four months of\nconstant travel among the insurgents.\n\nWhen it is remembered that the Cubans have spread the rebellion over\nmore than two-thirds of the area of the island, and have carried into\neffect, for their purposes, a provisional form of government\nsuccessfully in the time of war, it is reasonable to suppose that they\nare capable of rearranging their government and maintaining it in time\nof peace.\n\n\n\n\nA NOTED AMERICAN PREACHER.\n\nBY DUNCAN McDERMID, M. A.\n\n\nIt is interesting, while it is said that preaching is losing its ancient\npower, to find here and there a preacher whose influence is increasing\ninstead of diminishing. One of these is the Rev. Minot J. Savage, D. D.,\nof the Unitarian Church.\n\nThe writer desires to call attention to the two essential conditions of\nthis preacher's influence and popularity. This will be instructive not\nonly to the public, but to the clerical profession as well. One of these\nconditions may be found in the wide latitude of American opinion,\nespecially as it expresses itself in New England, and particularly in\nthe city of Boston where Mr. Savage spent many years as a preacher.\n\n\nI.\n\nIn the community in which one lives, no less than in himself, often lies\nthe secret of a man's strength and greatness. The individual shares the\nendowment or potency of those impersonal forces which sustain and\nenhance public life. The spirit which animates the broader ranges of\ngeneral history acts with unhindered freedom on the narrower sphere of\nthe individual mind and often becomes the creator of its better moments.\nSilent influences, hidden providences, are at work in society of which\nthe individual has no suspicion, and whose effects cannot be recorded in\nstatistics. Below the plane of conscious recognition there are\nfar-reaching movements of thought which transcend our powers of\nunderstanding, but which act with almost unbounded sway in controlling\nthe thought and life of each person. The early promise is fulfilled in\nthe ripening powers of the mind under the cumulative influences which\nnourish it from without. In the order which surrounds the individual,\nand in the movement of which he has become a part, we see, as clearly as\nin himself, the inevitable promise of his ultimate destiny.\n\nIn whatever pertains to liberal culture Boston is never weak or\nwavering. Boston impresses one as possessing innate respect and\nenthusiasm for intellectual supremacy, and reverence for the pure\nsentiments of religion as continuous forces in human life. For two and a\nhalf centuries it has been the wish and work of her most cultivated\nminds to give human thought and life the highest expression; and this\nhas been done with monumental activity. In Boston, culture and religious\npiety have never been decadent; over and above the controversies and\nschisms and sectarian quarrels which from time to time have rent the\nchurches, they have remained intact. In spite of the manifold currents\nof opposing tendencies, which now and then threaten to overwhelm\ncherished beliefs and to lift the world off its hinges, they remain\nessential elements in this city's social life. They are stern present\nnecessities, unwritten and immutable laws which she will not and cannot\ntransgress. From the founding of the city by the \"choice spirits\" of the\nseventeenth century, they have retained their vitality and have been\naffirmed without doubt or debate. With the growing demands and maturity\nof her civilization she reiterates them as her loftiest and most sacred\nprivileges, subject to no vicissitudes. With these primitive traits\neternally vital, thought is quick, and intellectual enthusiasm spreads\nrapidly. Boston is always stirring with \"new ideas\" and with the passion\nfor a broader ethical and religious development. The character and\nrepute which she acquired in former days for literary taste, clerical\ninfluence, and the administration of religion are to-day influencing\nsurrounding secularity and the hurrying concerns of daily life. They are\nanimating every institution and ordinance, every supreme and exquisite\nmedium of feeling, every revelation of truth and hope in the human mind.\nIn this exhaustless tide of thought and aspiration, which we may accept\nas Boston's native product, it is easy to interest the people and to\nunite them in any attempt for the good of mankind under the sanction of\nculture, benevolence, or religion.\n\nBut religion is felt to be Boston's greatest need and glory. In this\ncity of philosophy and poetry, art and business energy, religious faith\nand life have their proper place, and are invested with power and\ndignity. Fixed habit and traditional thought contribute, without doubt,\nto the need and sacredness of religion; yet its transcendent results are\ndue to the permanent disposition of the people. They are the appropriate\nmanifestation of a religious culture and spirit that are fitted for all\ntime, the logic of truths born of religious intuitions working out in\nthe most practical results. However universally certain religious\nbeliefs are ignored, there is no disposition to put culture or\nphilanthropy above the gospel, the school above the church, or to make\nthe schoolmaster, the literary autocrat, or the princes of wealth take\nprecedence of the preacher. The spirit of conventionalism reigns more or\nless in Boston's religious life; yet religion makes an irresistible\nappeal to the understanding, the conscience, and the heart. Everything\nis compelled to bow to its influence and to feel its inspiration.\nAlthough our churches present various theological tendencies, from the\nstiffest orthodoxy to the freest rationalism and pantheism, and with\ncreeds yet confessedly nowhere settled, reason never pronounces religion\nabsurd; to it homage is accorded. It is still the deepest and holiest\ninterest of man. We all have an elevated sense of its vast importance in\nthe destiny of mankind. Its manifestations may change, but its spirit is\never the same. While edifices of towering magnificence, grand displays\nof musical talent, time-honored ordinances, and attractions for popular\nreverence are fashionable and full of beauty and significance, and,\npossibly, prudent means to stimulate our patronage and to save to the\nranks of the churches the votaries of all that is artistic and refining\nand impressive, they are no sure sign that spiritual life is departing;\nthey have their utility, they foster the higher interests of mind and\nheart. These symbols of religious faith are not the productions of cold,\nspeculative reasoning, but the statement of truth wrought into the\nconvictions of the devout and spiritually minded.\n\nGuided by these facts we may assume that the man who distinguishes\nhimself in Boston as a preacher is one to whom considerable interest\nattaches. Upon such a man, as upon all her citizens of rare attainments\nand peculiar personal excellence, she confers distinction.\n\nThe Rev. Minot J. Savage, D. D., who recently changed his residence and\nhis ministry from Boston to New York, and whose successful work in the\nformer city may be a prophecy of enduring honors in the latter, has thus\ndistinguished himself and been rewarded.\n\nWhen Mr. Savage came from the West to Boston, he came \"as a stranger,\"\nas I myself heard him say. For years he thought and walked and worked\nalone. He was unpopular, and he felt his unpopularity. All religious\nsects, even that of his own persuasion, were critical and sceptical. As\na preacher he had fellowship nowhere. He was met as a preacher of\nunwelcome and unwholesome doctrines. But he came as one having a special\ndispensation, as the witness and repository of new truth, as the\nrepresentative of no low and paltry type of the Christian ministry, but\nas a living testimony to the reality and power and excellency of\nreligion and its institutions. He felt the difficulties with which he\nhad to contend. They were manifold, subtle, and fraught with deepest\nperil to his ministry. Prejudices, precedents, and the theology of the\nschools--whose only merit seemed to be that it was smitten with a\npassion to reduce Christian doctrine to logical form--were arrayed in\nopen hostility to him. He was met by the _regime_ of ecclesiastical\norders, by men who preached the Gospel according to established and\nvenerable routine, and whose credentials, not their wisdom, were their\nonly power. But although he felt himself to be a _persona non\ngrata_,--another unpopular person to suffer for his beliefs,--he girded\nhimself for earnest uncompromising warfare. He planted against every\nchurch his strongest batteries of criticism, satire, and sarcasm. He\npoured forth his thoughts in words that made men's ears tingle, till the\nprotestations of his adversaries fell from their lips with something of\na hollow sound. Half preacher, half assassin, as he was thought to be,\nrepudiating as offensive the doctrines of the Cross, and hating with\nevery drop of his blood the general traditions and faith of the Church,\nhe worked and awaited the day of his triumph. It came.\n\nBoston is slow to recognize new prophets; yet religious belief of every\nkind is treated with gentleness and indulgence. The preachers of the\ncity might regard Mr. Savage as a teacher of \"positive error,\" but they\ncould not object to the hospitality of Boston, a citizen and preacher of\nwhich Mr. Savage became on the footing of democratic fraternity. By the\nfree development of reason and the spread of intelligence Boston has\nbecome temperate and tolerant. She will not enslave the understanding or\ndeny anyone one vestige of religious freedom. With her, religion is a\npractical and spiritual thing rather than a theoretic and ceremonial.\nThe latter helps to stimulate the former to the fullest discharge of\nduty, but does not in itself constitute religion. The one comes by\ninternal necessity, the other belongs to the sphere of outward\noperation, of inventive and enterprising minds. Religion is a living\nmode of thought sustained by personal character, and needs not ambitious\nterminology or supervision. Boston trusts her instincts, as Emerson has\ntaught her, and asks only ample scope for the imperative working of her\nreligious sentiment and the life of the heart.\n\nUnder these favoring conditions, by which Boston, like a mother, works\nout her own character in the spirit and life of her gifted men, the Rev.\nMr. Savage was impelled onward in his daring enterprise. With stern\nfidelity Boston exercised a definite and pervasive influence on Mr.\nSavage's mind. Although his religious thinking came upon the public like\na new birth, he was only reiterating its progressive thought and the\nstout emphasis it placed on thinking out religion in intelligible terms\nand in all the breadth of its activities. Instrumental rather than\nabsolute, Boston's versatile and expansive thought furnished the new\npreacher his coveted opportunity. Her faith failed not, nor did her\ncourage falter. Silently she was assailing the old theology and\nelaborating the new, in which she has unhesitating belief, and which\nentered with enlightening and nourishing force into Mr. Savage's broad\nand free opinions. It came to him as the expression of the abiding\natmosphere in which he dwelt and with a beneficent bearing on his\nministry. Favored thus by the concurrent voices of those to whom he\nministered, and by the general freedom and grace of the entire\ncommunity, Mr. Savage made a real and salutary advance in his religious\nwork in Boston. And supported by the judgment of an ever widening\npublic, conservative thinkers about him felt his influence on current\nreligious opinion. While he indulged a liberty of speculation, he\ninstilled religious habits of thought and the spirit of worship into\nmany inquiring minds, and enabled them to identify themselves with the\nhighest development of his own religious consciousness. Boston and\nvicinity became fully appreciative of the distinctiveness of his mission\nand of his apprehensions of the truth. In recognition, therefore, of the\nunmeasured praise and enthusiastic acceptance which he received from\nthe public, he was honored, at the close of his ministry in Boston, with\nthe degree of Doctor of Divinity at Harvard University. Harvard thus\nexpressed her highest confidence in the truth and permanence of his\nministry. This famous institution of classic, scientific, philosophic,\nand sacred learning attested the sanity of the mind and doctrines of\nthis once obscure and despised but now noted preacher.\n\n\nII.\n\nAnother condition of the Rev. Minot J. Savage's influence and popularity\nas a preacher is his ethical intensity.\n\nIn the preceding section I have spoken of what has actually taken place.\nI have there shown the favoring conditions under which Mr. Savage\nlabored in the city which was to him both friend and teacher, and where\nhe has done his most efficient work as a preacher. The particular type\nof religious thought represented by him in the pulpit has not been\nbrought about by his or any man's device. For generations it has been\npouring itself forth from mind to mind in philosophy, science, poetry,\nand religious thought. He did not initiate any distinctive movement; he\nonly helped to popularize and make permanent doctrines which already had\nfound favor among the people. He emphasized these and vitalized anew\ntheir application to the Christian religion. In this section I shall\ndevote myself to a study of the ethical intensity of his ministry.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Savage's ministry of nearly a quarter of a century in\nBoston teaches some important lessons. And while he has had many\ncritics, no one has yet displayed and made current his most emphatic\nqualities as a preacher. In attempting this the writer does so not from\nthe standpoint of the theologian or the professional clergyman, but from\nthat of a liberal thinker with mind unfettered by any prepossession.\n\nThe first thing to be noted is the candor of the man, the great\nsincerity which marks whatever he says and does. His theology is simple;\nhis creed, which is neither the Apostles' nor the Nicene, nor the\nutterances of modern pontiffs, but in a measure his own, is readily\ncomprehended, and betrays a sweet reasonableness which invites the\nsubscription of anyone without fear or trembling or convulsive\nrevolution. And while some of his fundamental beliefs impinge against\ncurrent prejudices and awaken enmities, he fearlessly submits them to\nthe judgment and common sense of mankind. What he believes he preaches,\nand what he does not he rejects with all the vehemence of a man of\nconviction. Correct modes or forms of religious thought he conceives to\nbe necessary, and the more so the firmer will be one's principles of\nduty. Yet essential and sanctifying as this is, more essential in his\nopinion is an honest mind,--a mind that is faithful in the pursuit of\ntruth and true to its own convictions and inspirations. He believes that\nthe most perfect man is he who is most diligent in duty and fervent in\nspirit; who incorporates the truth into his selfhood; who toils with a\nprompt and ardent devotion to know the truth, to maintain his opinions\nfirmly, to diffuse and propagate them by every means consistent with a\nperfect character. With unselfish courage Mr. Savage resists every\nallurement to compromise. Never timid, never complaisant or patronizing,\nhe exhibits some of the rarest virtues of the human mind. Oh that there\nwere more like him in this indolent and obsequious world!\n\nCompared with Mr. Savage's strength of character, how contemptible are\nsome of the clerical and theological enigmas of our day. Waning and\nwaxing periods are not uncommon in our pulpits and our schools of\ndivinity. Now and then they diffuse a feeble as well as a strong glimmer\nof religious virtue, and too often become the presages of things with\nwhich we have no patience. It is painful to see preachers and\nprofessors, like chartered buffoons, suppressing the light of reason,\nintruding into places and folds to which they do not belong, and\nsanctioning what in their hearts they do not accept. Among our\nclergymen, where intelligence, character, and earnestness are\neverything, we witness a conspicuous lack of sovereign motives shaping\nand harmonizing life and doctrine. Nothing is more marked to-day in the\nAmerican pulpit than theological insincerity and indifference to the\nobligation to preach only what is believed. Instead of feeling the might\nof conscientious will and the higher aspirations of the age, they are\nfaint and muffled echoes of that moral force which has given efficiency\nto the Christian ministry. We still hear the boast that the ministry of\nto-day has outgrown the old Puritan austerity and the lines marked out\nin earlier and more rigorous periods. May we not admit also that the\ncourage, the righteousness, and the heroic discharge of duty, by which\nthe Puritan has attracted the attention and the admiration of the world,\nhave lost something of their former greatness and power? Like hunters,\ntoo many preachers are on the scent, not for the truth, but for\ngame,--for gain and earthly glory. To speak the truth might interfere\nwith their vocation; it might throw out of market their stock in trade.\n\nYet ought not the preacher to stick to his text? So great an advocate of\nthe truth should speak the truth and practise it. He should feel\ninspired with a strong and awful prepossession in its favor. He need not\nmake pretension to infallibility, but we expect of him the absolute\nveracity of his sacred calling and learning. His living should never\ndepend upon sustaining an error or an untruth. If it does, he does not\ndeserve the name he bears, and is not in the strictest sense a teacher\nand leader of thought. We will excuse a deficiency of knowledge, but\nnever a deficiency in character,--in the word and spirit of what he\nproclaims as the truth. Every truly devout minister of the Gospel should\nrise and erase this stigma from his profession. It is a humiliating\nreproach that any of this class of teachers lack true insight,\ntruthfulness, and faithful service; that they mask their convictions,\nthat they will not act out their opinions. This is a perversion of what\nman really is. It makes him a vanishing spirit destitute of true\nsentiment, character, and practical rectitude. Forms of worship and of\nreligion may be temporary and change, but love of truth and conviction\nshould always be an active power, uniform, eternal. Even in our\ntheological schools, where the human spirit is supposed to be exorcised\ninto worlds of graver and graver realities, we are just now learning\nsome valuable lessons in the flexibility of theological opinion.\n\nHe who stands in a conspicuous place in any community will always be\nlooked at. What he says and does will be judged by everybody. His person\nand life and character, his joys and sorrows, are things of public\ngossip and interest. And if the uniqueness of his position in society be\ndue to some sacred calling, such as a teacher of religious truth, he\nevokes the highest esteem and expectations. All truth is sacred; and\ntruth's propagator is expected to be, not only a truth-seeker, but a\nteacher of it in the interests of the public weal. The responsibility of\nthis is distributed among all men, but nowhere is it so great as with\nthe professed preacher and teacher of religious truth. He cannot absolve\nhimself from it. It is the price he pays for his exalted privilege, his\ndignified position.\n\nThe creed-test of the Andover theological school may be unwarranted at\nthe present time. Yet while there is such a test, and the old creed\ncomes up and insists upon being reaffirmed in its original meaning by\neach incumbent, we are bewildered the moment we attempt to harmonize\nwhat happened there recently with stalwart conviction and vital piety.\nWithin a few months we have seen the Andover creed, over which there has\nbeen so much wrangling, and some of whose doctrines make the human heart\nto-day sink in despair, receiving unqualified indorsement. With\nunfaltering confidence this ancient creed was reaffirmed by a professor\nof that school of divinity without modifying the conditions of\nsubscription. This surprises us. It may be that the recently inducted\nProfessor of Sacred Rhetoric did not signify explicit allegiance to this\ncreed, whose doctrines are so inflexibly maintained by our older\ntheologians, but simply gave his assent, just as the clergy of the noble\nChurch of England are giving their assent, but not their strict\nadherence, to the Thirty-nine Articles. And yet what is progressive\northodoxy, so boldly and ably enunciated, but a growing away from the\nold Andover creed?\n\nOr is it only a question of emphasis, not of dogma? Are we to infer that\nthe old dogma abides, while only the emphasis alters? It may be that\nprogressive orthodoxy is not what it professes to be, that instead of\ngiving religious thought a definite impulse and being a necessary onward\nstep in sacred learning, religious thought is only receiving a richer\nand deeper volume as it lies in its old bed. Be this as it may, the\nverbal assent and subscription of the new incumbent gave fresh force to\nevery dogma of the old faith. True, we could not expect him to be so\nrecreant as to disown this venerable creed, to break the traditional\nthread and cease to be the heir of his sires.\n\nYet we should like to see progressive orthodoxy, or the New Theology, of\nAndover mean something; represent, without the slightest misgiving, some\ndistinctive dogma, some fresh insight into religious truth. At present\nit is an unintelligible hypothesis. It does not appear to be definitely\nsettled. A master hand has sketched it, but there are none to complete\nand make it triumphant. Why not go to the root of the matter?\nProgressive orthodoxy is yet only \"in the air.\" On paper it is\ninspiring; in practice, a paradox to the discomfiture of every friend of\nthe revival of religious thought. It is subtle and disputatious, and\npredicts for itself a reforming mission, but it has not the courage of\nits convictions; it looks like a clever juggling of divinity. We may\nspeak with the tongues of men and of angels, but unless we have deep\nconvictions and feel the intensity of the principles we are attempting\nto promulgate, we are as sounding brass; we lower the dignity of truth\nand moral worth, we offend the purity of conscience. Filled with the\necstasies of an office while enacting an untruth is satanic; it is\nunworthy of any trained intelligence. Honest conviction is the\nindispensable condition of the preacher and teacher. Without it he\ncompromises the sacred character of his particular commission, of his\nappointed trust.\n\nAll this is meant to throw light upon the artless simplicity, the\noutspoken but sensitive judgment, the indefinable strength of character,\nof the Rev. Mr. Savage. Beneath all he says and does we may see the calm\nutterance of unwavering convictions and an individuality unimpaired. He\nis thoroughly possessed with the sense of duty; he has his being there.\nThere is nothing spurious in him; he disguises no hypocrisy. We see in\nhim no secret acquiescence with what he cannot conscientiously accept.\nAlways standing in the full light of the incomparable obligation and\nprivilege of his work,--which is a cheerful, happy exercise, not a\ndoleful and despondent one,--he influences the world not only as a\nteacher, but as a character. He proclaims the sanctity of his office not\nby a set of pious phrases, but by a spotless devotion to it, as the only\nway by which he most completely can subserve the public welfare. This\nperpetually invests the man and his ministry with interest and with an\nalmost magic power.\n\nThe ethical intensity of Mr. Savage's character unfolds itself in his\npreaching as a consistent result. In the sermon the convictions of the\nman are not sacrificed. He puts more than words into his sermons; he\nputs himself. He speaks the truth \"bluntly,\" as if it were not a hard\nbut an easy attainment, and an element of human nature. Without\npretension or self-exaltation, craving no man's praise and envying no\nman's distinction, he endeavors in an unwavering and high-spirited\nmanner to disclose in his sermons the great verities, the substantial\nrealities, of life.\n\nIn the broadest sense of the word Mr. Savage is not a man of scholarly\nattainments or tastes; not many are. He is nevertheless a highly\ncultivated man. Whether he addresses us through the faculties of speech\nor through his written compositions, we always feel the independence of\nhis intellect, his delicate and discriminating moral sense, and his love\nof truth. His sermons, his public utterances, and his devout invocations\nexhibit a maturity of mind and a range of culture which enable him to\nimpress other minds with whatever has possession of his own. In the\npulpit, in authorship, in every mode of religious activity, we meet the\ncultivated, sincere, and reverent man. We feel the influence of his\nsympathetic mind and singular chasteness of spirit in hearty and\nsymmetrical development. A culture like this, combined with a nature\ndeeply religious, brings one into possession more or less completely of\ntruths which make a direct appeal to the understanding. It has enabled\nMr. Savage to enjoy a certain lordship in the realm of mind and mental\nlife. He is an example of the dictum, that he who would think truly on\nspiritual things must first be spiritually minded. In both his acted and\nhis written life he seems to comprehend and to realize the truth, to\nhave reached the loftiest heights of fellowship with eternal wisdom.\nJudging from his own serene, unclouded, and practical vision of the\ntruth, one is driven to the conclusion that he is proclaiming and\nformulating the ultimate gospel of mankind.\n\nSome may sneer and scoff at his \"deadly notions\" and \"perverted\nthoughts,\" but in his demand for personal life, development of\nconscience, and attainment in righteousness, his ministry is potent; its\ninspiration is constant. He believes and preaches only those truths\nwhich are possible to rational belief. With that exquisite instinct\nwhich characterizes all his thinking, he places, as if he were in\napostolic succession, man's greatest need in coming to himself and in\nmaking religion inseparable from personal thought and character. Mr.\nSavage holds this forth as man's paramount task, to refuse which is\nalone to be faithless and hopeless and unforgiven. His idea of religion\nconsists in nothing external or formal; nothing can avail with him but\nthe culture of the soul and the quiet discharge of duty. It is his\nsuperlative merit that he enables one to feel his own capacity of\nthought as a positive and independent efficacy, and to rest upon the\nauthority of his own conscience as the hope of glory and as a\ncooerdinating power with Holy Writ. He makes a broad survey of human\nnature, and commands men to traverse the whole range of their being and\nto call themselves to rigid account until the germs of moral debility\nare cast out of the heart. Man is not to waste his energies in grasping\nthe immense and misty proportions of the beliefs of this or that\ntraditionist or minute systems to which souls are often bent in\nunwilling conformity. The object of his ministry is to summon men to\nreckon with themselves every day, and to regenerate themselves by right\nthinking and by deeds of piety. In his opinion each person is a\nspiritual agency, a marvellous display of divine power and goodness, not\nonly in the majesty of the truth which he apprehends, but in the dignity\nof the life which he may live. Temptation may open its alluring paths,\nevil may solicit us, sin may lead us astray, sorrow may drag us down;\nyet they need not. His public ministry is devoted to the infusion of\nthis better sentiment,--that man is not the mere victim of\ncircumstances, the necessary prey of temptation, or the helpless subject\nof wrong; that he need not contemplate life in indolent despair, but may\ncheck the dominion of sin and impurity, rise above not only intemperate\nindulgence, but every intemperate desire and impulse, and form\ndispositions of peculiar excellence, of original strength and beauty.\n\nMr. Savage's ministry, then, is full of truth and power. It is strongly\npersonal and ethical. There is no abler advocate of this important truth\nand master-word of the Gospel and of religion. It is a divine truth ever\nworking in him, breaking into utterances, and giving to his beliefs and\nhis life the highest dignity. With him it is a persistent and\noverwhelming duty to give to his ministry this practical content, this\nethical intensity. In this he is evangelical.\n\nThe Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments assert or imply that\nwithout our personal agency, and without the truth in the substance and\ntexture of our characters, there can be no spiritual elevation or final\nperfection. In the terms of the Scriptures the divine resources are\ninfinite; but instead of overwhelming our personal agency or\nresponsibility they make a stupendous demand upon us. The truth must be\nreceived with unhesitating acceptance and assimilated to our individual\nbeing.\n\nTo teach such consummate truths the Rev. Minot J. Savage, D. D., strong\nin every fibre of intellectual and religious faith, has devoted his\ntalents, his strength, and his life, and for that reason he stands\nbefore the American people as one of their most noted preachers.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CIVIC OUTLOOK.\n\nBY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.\n\n\nI. FRATERNAL GOVERNMENT.\n\nThe disposition to give due attention to the spirit of American\ninstitutions is one which needs cultivation. Government, looked upon\nonly as machinery, may easily become a means for the accomplishment of\nends very different from those intended by its designers. In this\nconnection some recent utterances by Dr. Lyman Abbott are worthy of\nserious thought:\n\n     It is sometimes said that the majority rules in America, and it\n     would be unfortunate if it were true. The French Revolution shows\n     that no despotism of the individual is so cruel as the despotism of\n     the majority. When the decisions of the majority or minority are\n     supported by the whole people that is Americanism. Our democracy is\n     not founded on the idea that our people make mistakes, but that the\n     decision of all the people is better than that of one class, and\n     that all the men are better judges than priests and kings and their\n     instruments. Fraternal government is what we are trying to\n     establish, and whoever strikes against the spirit of fraternalism\n     strikes against the foundation of our government. We can get along\n     with anything bad in our laws and correct it in our progress, but\n     we can never live and prosper with the East arrayed against the\n     West, the North against the South, rich against the poor, and labor\n     against capital.\n\n\nII. TRUE AMERICANISM.\n\nWhatever other meaning may attach to the word Americanism, Dr. Abbott\npoints to its best definition. But what he has in mind cannot be\nexpected in the absence of a spirit which is made manifest in real\nfraternalism conjoined with faithful devotion to intelligent convictions\nof duty. This spirit will take patriotism out of the realm of mere\nsentiment into that of noble passion. It will give to citizenship so\nhigh a meaning that failures in civic duty will take on--as they clearly\nought to do--the character of sins against one's own manhood and against\nthe brotherhood of which the citizen is a member. If this spirit be\nunderneath our laws and manifest in their administration, we need have\nlittle anxiety as to their statutory form. Political as well as\nscriptural wisdom expresses itself in the statement that the \"letter\" of\nthe law kills, the \"spirit\" alone gives life.\n\n\nIII. THE RIGHT SPIRIT IN CITIZENSHIP.\n\nHow the spirit of genuine citizenship is to be made ascendant is a\nquestion of increasing concern. It may nevertheless be doubted whether\norganized forces for its suppression do not, in the matter of\npainstaking and persistent energy and adroit management, excel the\norganized elements specially devoted to its cultivation. Citizenship\nactivities, politically considered, for the most part are merged in the\nmachinery of parties; and this machinery, instead of representing in its\ntenets the will of great bodies of independent and well-intentioned\nsuffragists, is too often so manipulated by a few skilful and\nunprincipled political machinists as to represent their will instead. It\nis obvious that in so far as these clever machinists are able to run our\npolitics to suit themselves, the very machinery through which the right\nspirit in citizenship must come to power, if at all, is turned into a\nmeans for its own suppression. It thus comes to pass that we have the\npitiable spectacle of great party organizations through which masses of\nhonest and patriotic citizens farcically--nay, tragically--cooeperate for\nthe accomplishment of results, which, while secured through their votes\nand in their name, are in reality results of the clandestine and\nsinister work of a few men.\n\n\nIV. REFORM IN PRIMARY ELECTIONS.\n\nPlainly, if the right spirit in citizenship is to be ascendant, it must\nfind some means of doing away with the boss system in politics. This\nsystem is made possible only by the ease with which primary elections\nare controlled by coteries of designing men. Here is a battlefield where\nthe best and worst elements in our politics need to be brought into\nimmediate and conclusive conflict. A system which foists upon the people\nas its candidates for office those whom they have had no real voice in\nchoosing, and who are not worthy, represents an actual subversion of\npopular government, and calls for such a manifestation of the spirit of\ntrue Americanism as shall overthrow it once for all. This question is an\novershadowing one. Pollution at the fountain means pollution everywhere.\nMen elected to office through shameful methods may sometimes be better\nthan the methods by which they have profited, but they are not to be\ntrusted. Their responsibility is to the \"bosses,\" not to the citizens\nwhose machine-directed votes elected them. The only sentiment to which\nthey bow is that expressed by the leader whose favor bestowed, and whose\nhostility will deprive them of, official position and emoluments. The\nimmediate outlook is not, however, without hope. Independent movements\nin several States are in progress looking to the complete uprooting of\nthe boss system. In parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and\nCalifornia, and in some of the Southern States \"the Crawford County\nmethod,\" which takes the choice of candidates out of the hands of the\nfew and places it in the hands of the majority of voters, is already\nbeing tried. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota similar methods have\nbeen the subject of legislative action, and satisfactory results are\nanticipated. This is a reform which should not be left to the advocacy\nof a few individuals, or to the members of a few organizations like the\nAmerican Institute of Civics and local civic reform bodies. Members of\nthese bodies have done much and will do more to promote it, but its\nfinal success depends upon the manifestation everywhere of an aroused\npublic spirit whose demands cannot be denied.\n\n\nV. CIVICS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.\n\nMuch progress has recently been made in educational provisions for the\ninstruction necessary to qualify American youth for the intelligent and\nefficient discharge of civic obligations. The Patria Club of New York\nCity, a strong body organized under the auspices of the American\nInstitute of Civics and devoted to the objects which it represents, has\noffered prizes to the pupils in the schools in the vicinity of New York\nfor the purpose of stimulating their interest in matters of government\nand citizenship, and has undertaken a similar work in connection with\nthe charity industrial schools of that city. Of great importance is the\naction of the New York Board of Education looking to specific\ninstruction in civics in all the city schools, and its later action in\ngiving to this subject an important place in the curriculum of the high\nschools which are to be established the coming year. Another\norganization which contributes to the same results, the American Guards,\nis represented by battalions in several New York schools. This\nmovement, which has already extended into many schools in different\nStates, is under the fostering care of Col. H. H. Adams, an officer of\nthe Institute of Civics. The guards are composed of boys who voluntarily\ndevote a certain amount of time, out of school hours, to exercises\npromotive of a virile and intelligent patriotism. These exercises\ninclude military drill, and the youthful guards, in their becoming\nuniforms, develop a marked degree of manliness and self-respect. Two of\nthe battalions are under the leadership of public-school principals, E.\nH. Boyer and D. E. Gaddes, councillors of the Institute of Civics. The\nguards participated in the ceremonies at the dedication of the Grant\nmonument, and no organization in line attracted more favorable\nattention.\n\n\nVI. RURAL INFLUENCES ON URBAN AFFAIRS.\n\nIt cannot be denied that the hitherto controlling power of voters in\nrural districts has frequently been used to the prejudice of city\ninterests. Representatives from country regions have lent their aid in\neffecting vicious as well as wholesome changes in legislation affecting\nmunicipalities, and this aid has sometimes been secured by corrupt\nmethods. It is nevertheless true that the average country voter and the\naverage legislator who represents him sincerely desire to promote only\nsuch legislation as will be of highest advantage to urban communities.\nIf their votes fail to secure this result it is more often because of\ninsufficient knowledge of urban conditions and needs, than of\nindifference or corrupt influences.\n\nIt is, therefore, a matter of the very highest importance that citizens\nremote from our great cities be made sufficiently familiar with\nmunicipal needs to enable them to reach wiser conclusions as to the\ndesirability or undesirability of special measures affecting their\npolitical, social, and industrial interests. Opinions based, as now,\nchiefly upon the statements of a partisan press, too often represent the\ninterests of a party regardless of those of the municipalities directly\nconcerned.\n\nWith the steady growth of our great cities in population and political\npower, the question of wholesome State legislation in matters affecting\ntheir civic and moral wellbeing, is one of no less importance to rural\ncommunities than to the cities themselves. Controlling power is already\ndrifting cityward in many States, and rural voters who have not\ncontributed to the creation of right civic conditions in our great\nmunicipalities may soon find this power used to their own serious\ninjury. In this connection the New York _Christian Advocate_, referring\nto the possibilities of good and evil in the Greater New York, justly\nsays:\n\n     The only balancing force in preventing the evil from triumphing\n     over the good, will be the influence of the remainder of the Empire\n     State. The morale of cities differs from that of rural regions in\n     that the evil-minded can consort and conceal their deeds, can\n     obtain great political power; and large cities are prone to\n     legalize vice and admit of organized political corruption. Whereas\n     elsewhere the laws are generally in harmony with morality, and the\n     difficulty of concealment impedes the growth and the increase of\n     the arrogance of vice.\n\n     The force of Greater New York in legislation and the administration\n     of law, is something appalling to contemplate. Permanent antagonism\n     between the Metropolis and the rest of the State will in itself be\n     a demoralizing element. Yet unless the State watches this immense\n     aggregation of heterogeneous peoples and cities, Greater New York\n     may become a pervading source of corruption. If there be one\n     tendency confirmed by history, it is that smaller cities imitate\n     the greater, that towns imitate the smaller cities, and villages,\n     the towns. Thus for good or ill the most populous centres become\n     the controlling force.\n\n\nVII. WOMAN'S WORK IN CIVICS.\n\nThe growth of organizations which are directed by women, wholly or\nchiefly devoted to reforms in civic conditions, has been paralleled by\nhardly any popular movement of recent years. The Women's Christian\nTemperance Union, although hardly more than a juvenile among other great\norganizations, is second to few of them in its potentiality for good.\nWomen's clubs are found everywhere, and, wherever found, for the most\npart represent a serious purpose to find and apply right remedies to\nexisting civic and social evils. The Federation of Women's Clubs brings\nall of these local movements into harmonious efforts for the upbuilding\nof unselfish patriotism in the community and the highest virtue in the\nhome. The National Health Protective Association, whose second annual\nmeeting was recently held in Philadelphia, has already made a record for\nitself, through its branches in many cities, which evidences not only a\nreason for its existence, but the capacity and success which women have\nbrought to the solution of some of the most important problems of city\nlife, such as protection from contagious diseases, the supply of pure\nwater and pure milk, the prevention of food adulterations, improvements\nin tenement conditions, provisions affecting the health of working\npeople, attention to the sick children of the very poor, and a score of\nequally important matters. The chairman of this organization is Mrs.\nEtta Osgood of Portland, Maine, and its leading members include Dr.\nLozier of New York, Mrs. A. J. Perry of Brooklyn, Mrs. Theo. F. Seward\nof Orange, N. J., Mrs. Henry Birkenbine of Wayne, Pa., Mrs. L. E. Harvey\nof Dayton, O., Miss Florence Parsons of Yonkers, N. Y., Mrs. J. E Weiks\nof Buffalo, and Mrs. John H. Scribner of Philadelphia.\n\nIn the same city was also held, shortly after the meeting of the Health\nProtective Association, the Triennial Convention of Working Women's\nSocieties. This gathering of earnest women was notable for the keenness\nwhich its members brought to the discussion of questions affecting the\ninterests of working women, and the equal sincerity of their desire to\nreach only just conclusions. Here is an opportunity for the bright women\nwho are at the head of the Federation of Women's Clubs to establish\nreciprocal relations which will be fruitful in great good.\n\n\nVIII. MUNICIPAL REFORM ORGANIZATIONS.\n\nThe third year of the National Reform League has been completed with\nresults full of encouragement to the members of the various social\norganizations of which it is composed. Its annual meeting at Louisville,\nKy., was attended by one hundred and fifty delegates. Much of the\nsuccess of the widely extended work represented by this national\norganization is due to the persistent and unselfish activities of its\nable secretary, Mr. Clinton Rogers Woodruff, of the Philadelphia bar,\nwho closed his address before the convention with these encouraging\nwords:\n\n     In every direction the outlook is bright and promising, not of the\n     immediate fulfilment of all the hopes and desires of those who are\n     most deeply interested perhaps, but of substantial progress and\n     steady growth. The sentiment for better government is gaining day\n     by day. It is not a movement for a particular form of local\n     government or of specific panaceas for municipal evils, but rather\n     one to bring the citizens, those who are primarily responsible, to\n     a fuller appreciation and a more general discharge of the duties of\n     citizenship--in short, a movement for citizenship reform. The\n     indifference and apathy of the average voter have been a matter of\n     general comment. To overcome this, and to replace it with that\n     interest and that action without which no permanent reform can be\n     accomplished, the realization that good government depends for its\n     very existence upon good men, is the fundamental basis of municipal\n     reform. Charter revision, civil-service rules and regulations, fair\n     elections, and an honest count and return are all important; but\n     they depend for their success upon sound public opinion, and that\n     depends upon good citizenship. Good laws are important; good\n     citizenship is essential.\n\nThe Good Citizenship League of Minneapolis adds to the means of its\nincreasingly useful work by the publication of a carefully edited little\nperiodical under the title of _Facts_, in which information that might\nnot otherwise reach them in proper form is placed before all citizens.\nE. F. Waite is President, and Alfred Sherlock, Secretary, with offices\nat 254 Hennepin Avenue.\n\n\nIX. CITY TAXPAYERS.\n\nMr. Charles Richardson, vice-president of the National Municipal League,\nin seeking the causes for the non-participation of large taxpayers in\nefforts to secure good government in cities, finds the following among\nother reasons:\n\n     1st. Because they fear that their opposition to influential\n     politicians may be punished by an increase in their assessments for\n     taxation, or by a loss of custom or employment, or by some other\n     action injurious to their personal or business interests.\n\n     2nd. Because as investors, employees, or otherwise, they have or\n     hope to have some pecuniary interests in corporations, contracts,\n     or offices, which would be much less profitable under a government\n     too pure to be corrupted, and too intelligent to be outwitted.\n\n     3rd. Because they believe that it pays better in dollars and cents\n     to submit to existing abuses than to expend the time and money\n     required for a long and difficult series of political contests.\n\n     4th. Because they consider that national legislation affects their\n     personal interests far more than any probable action of their local\n     government, and that their national party must therefore be\n     supported in its efforts to strengthen itself by securing complete\n     control of local affairs.\n\n     5th. Because they believe the local machine of the opposition party\n     is still worse than their own, and that to promote its success by\n     wasting their votes on a third ticket would only be jumping out of\n     the frying pan into the fire.\n\n     6th. Because they have no faith in the possibility of subjecting\n     politics to the principles of common honesty, or public affairs to\n     the methods of intelligent business.\n\n     This list is not complete, but it is sufficiently formidable to\n     show that the progress of reform principles among the taxpayers\n     must continue to be slow and difficult, unless city government can\n     be made to appear much more important and interesting than it has\n     hitherto seemed to be.\n\n\nX. CIVICS IN STATE UNIVERSITIES.\n\nA writer in _Christian Work_, urging the importance of action such as\nthe American Institute of Civics is devoted to, says:\n\n     With the new way of looking at Government, and with new tasks\n     imposed upon it, must come preparation for the grave\n     responsibilities of the present and future. Old ideas linger after\n     they have subserved their purposes. We are living in an industrial\n     age. Especially is it true in a country like the United States that\n     the ordinary pursuits of peace outweigh a hundredfold the interests\n     of war. Nevertheless, we have our well-equipped academy at West\n     Point to prepare young men for the army, and our excellent academy\n     at Annapolis to prepare young men for the navy; but we have no\n     civil academy to give men careful preparation for the civil\n     service, which is of inestimably more importance to us than either\n     the army or navy so far as ordinary, everyday life is concerned.\n     Even in his day, Washington saw the importance of a national\n     university which should fulfil many of the purposes of such an\n     academy. As a part of the remedy for trusts and combinations, and\n     an important part, the writer would mention institutions designed\n     to give the most careful training in preparation for every branch\n     of the civil service. This should go hand in hand with the\n     enlargement of this service. The progress which has already been\n     made in the reformation of our civil service is gratifying, but\n     something far more than has yet been advocated by any\n     civil-service-reform association is needed. As part of the general\n     programme of the solution of the problem of monopoly, the\n     development of the State universities of the country along the line\n     of civics may be mentioned. Each State university should, in\n     addition to other things, be a civil academy.\n\n\nXI. A BETRAYAL OF REFORM.\n\nThese are the words applied to an act of the Republican Governor of New\nYork by one of the ablest and stanchest Republican journals of that\nState, the _Mail and Express_ of New York City. It goes on to say:\n\n     Gov. Black's approval of the bill to place the civil service of\n     this State at the mercy of machine politics is a perversion of\n     Republican principle and a betrayal of reform. There is not one\n     legitimate public interest that this measure will benefit; not a\n     single purpose of honest administration that it will strengthen,\n     nor an object of sound party policy that it will help to\n     accomplish.\n\n     The Governor's bill is a step backward from the advanced position\n     of the party on the civil-service issue. It is a trick to nullify\n     the merit principle in appointments to public office, and it opens\n     the way for a full restoration of the spoils system. There is not a\n     boss nor a machine politician in the State who does not indorse it.\n     There is not an intelligent supporter of honest civil service who\n     will not denounce it.\n\n     The rank and file of the Republican party repudiate the Governor's\n     bill and disclaim all responsibility for it. Party sentiment has\n     spoken against it in unmistakable terms. The Governor's reflections\n     upon those who opposed the bill are neither well grounded nor in\n     good taste. They mean nothing save that he is sensitive to the\n     criticism which his ill-advised measure has provoked--criticism\n     which, it may truthfully be said, is abundantly warranted by the\n     character of the bill itself as well as by his own amazing advocacy\n     of the spoils system in the public service.\n\n\nXII. STATE AID TO INDUSTRIES.\n\nMassachusetts has undertaken an interesting experiment in the way of\npromoting home industries. With the aim of producing in that State the\nfiner grade of goods now produced only in foreign markets, the\nlegislature two years ago appropriated $25,000 for the establishment of\na textile school in any town which might make a like appropriation for\nthe same object. This offer has now been accepted by the citizens of\nLowell, and the first school of the character proposed is being\nestablished. It is hoped that this experiment may lead to results which\nwill in some degree compensate for the industrial losses sustained by\nNew England through the competition of the multiplying cotton mills in\nthe South.\n\n\nXIII. READING MATTER FOR PRISONERS.\n\nSome time ago, in response to a need brought to its attention by one of\nthe local officers in Texas, the American Institute of Civics offered to\nsuperintend the distribution among the prisons of the United States of\nliterature suitable for the use of prisoners. Citizens were asked to\ncooeperate, and much good literature has thus been placed in the hands of\nthose who have found it not only a source of entertainment, but, through\nits refining and elevating influences, a means of great benefit. This\nbeneficent work can be indefinitely extended with a little cost if\ncitizens who appreciate its importance will give to it their aid by\ncontributions of literature, such as wholesome works of fiction, popular\nworks of history, treatises on the useful arts and industries, popular\nperiodicals, etc., etc.; or by assisting in the payment of the cost of\ncollection and distribution. One of the Institute's councillors in the\nState of Washington, President Penrose of Whitman College, has recently\nmade an appeal for such literature for the use of convicts in the\nWashington penitentiary. Inquiries as to methods of cooeperation, or\ngifts for the prison literature expense fund, may be sent to the\nAmerican Institute of Civics, 203 Broadway, New York.\n\n\n\n\n\"THE TEMPEST\" THE SEQUEL TO \"HAMLET.\"\n\nBY EMILY DICKEY BEERY.\n\n\n\"The Tempest\" is a little enchanted world where play all the forces that\nare manifested in the larger creation from the lowest animalism to the\nhighest manhood, harmonious with his invisible environment. This world\nin miniature--true to the laws of the macrocosm--begins in chaos, storm,\nand stress, but finds completion in supernal air and divine peace. We\nshall find by consecutive study of the dramas that the poet, in his\ncreative work, has ever risen from lower manifestations to higher as his\nown soul soared on higher and higher wing. Prospero was his last,\ngreatest, and divinest thought of man in his unfolding godward.\n\nNature in her evolution takes no vast strides, and her supreme poet\nfollows her divine current of growth from the animal man to the grand\nmanifestation of his ideal. He understood that in man's unfolding not a\nround could be missed of the \"Jacob's Ladder\" resting upon the earth,\nbut reaching into the heavens.\n\nIn this ideal world of \"The Tempest,\" Caliban stands upon the earth\ngroping to attain the first step, while Prospero stands upon the summit\nwith his face heavenward. This typical man comes upon the stage on a\nhigh plane of development. Long previously he had left the rank and file\nof humanity to tread the ever lonely path to higher achievement,\ntherefore we must look below him to find, among the creations of the\npoet, the incarnation which was the chrysalis for this last ideal. Here\nour intuitive perception immediately descries Hamlet, that wonderful\nhuman mystery who was the first of Shakspere's sons to enter the\nprecincts of the inner life and catch a glimpse of the godlike\npotentialities of the human soul.\n\nIn Hamlet was the struggle of birth; in Prospero, the glory of\nachievement, the fulfilment to some extent of the poet's ideal man, and\nthe first to realize that the power of thought is the supreme force in\nthe universe. Hamlet caught the first glimpse of this truth when he\nsaid, \"There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.\" He is the\nhero of spiritual birth and growth in man from the dawning of the\nsoul-life, through its fierce struggles to dominate the lower self and\nrise into realms of clearer light and truth. The \"godlike reason which\nwas not left in him to rust unused,\" in its aspiration became\nilluminated by intuition and revealed to his awe-inspired gaze new\nworlds not dreamed of by the Horatios of his time.\n\nHamlet was lost in wonder at himself. The lower forces of his nature\nalong the old inherited lines of thought, coming in contact with the\nhigher thought-currents, newly created, caused the blended stream to\n\"turn awry and lose the name of action,\" termed by the unseeing world\nlack of courage and will-power. Even he could not understand but that in\nsome inexplicable way he _must_ be a coward, because he could not\nperceive the _why_ of his delaying vengeance. Yet he knew he was brave\nto the core of his being. When his military friends, \"distilled almost\nto jelly with the act of fear,\" would have restrained him from following\nthe spirit of his father, he cries out:\n\n     Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee;\n     and for my soul, what can it do to that, being a thing immortal as\n     itself? ... My fate cries out, and makes each petty artery in this\n     body as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.\n\nHe was strong of will and resolute of purpose, but had reached the plane\nof development where his higher nature would not permit him to commit\nmurder. Yet the strong current of popular opinion, as well as all\nhereditary and sub-conscious influences in himself, were ever impelling\nhim to do the deed. In his soul-growth, Hamlet had passed the plane of\nrevenge as a passion, but had not reached the divine heights of\nforgiveness. To avenge the murder of his father was to him a sacred\ncommand and duty coming in conflict with another equally sacred duty\nvoiced by his higher self, and the mighty meeting of these two\nsoul-forces always resulted in inaction. This moral battleground is the\npivotal point of the drama, indirectly putting in motion all the forces\nwhich terminate in the final catastrophe.\n\nIn his thoughtful moods his disposition was ever shaken with \"thoughts\nbeyond the reaches of our souls,\" saying, \"Why is this? wherefore? what\nshould we do?\" It was the unlaid ghost of his higher self that\npropounded these queries to the apparition. The birth-throes of thought\nwere giving him entrance into a new world where he began to see \"What a\npiece of work is man! how _infinite_ in faculty! in action how like an\nangel! in apprehension how like a God!\"\n\nThe thoughts that Hamlet voices had passed through Shakspere's brain,\nand the wonderful powers manifested by Prospero had been apprehended by\nhis own prophetic vision. Hamlet might have moved along on the lower\nplane successfully, but the law of spiritual growth, the divine force\nupheaving and uplifting his soul against the barriers of his\nsub-conscious mentality and his environment, finally ended in the sad\ntragedy. Yet in the defeat was a victory, for it was merely the turn of\nthe spiral downward for a higher rise in evolution.\n\nProspero is first revealed to us at about the age of Hamlet when the\ncurtain falls and hides him from our tear-dimmed eyes. Shakspere loved\nHamlet. He was dearest to his heart of all his children, and he felt\nthat he must not die, but must come into the full fruition of the\nimmortals. The soul so nobly struggling from its swaddling clothes\n_must_ become a freed spirit of godlike power. Therefore he presents to\nus an ideal world where Hamlet sits upon the throne as Prospero,\n\"transported and rapt in secret studies,\" \"neglecting worldly ends, all\ndedicated to closeness and the bettering of his mind with that which\no'erprized all popular rate.\" Prospero was born a higher type, therefore\nthe divine in him had freer action. His soul opened to the over-soul\nlike a flower to the sunlight.\n\nThe divine force in man is his will--his true will--and this force in\nits perfect exercise has no human limitation. It is only the _seeming_\nwill that is limited. This power, _manifested in thought_, is\nrepresented by Ariel.\n\nThe statement of Prospero that his studies bettered his mind to such\nhigh degree is proof that they were those not of the magician, but of\nthe philosopher and true psychologist, for the study of magic darkens\nthe soul and degrades the intellect. Prospero's power was not magical,\nand Shakspere used the word magician only to bring the drama within\ntouch of his audience, knowing full well that the wise would understand,\nfor \"wisdom is justified of her children.\"\n\nIn the manifestation of soul-power we first perceive the true greatness\nof Prospero and the heights to which Shakspere's own soul had risen, for\n\"the stream cannot rise higher than its source.\" The greatness of Julius\nCaesar is \"weighed in the balance and found wanting,\" for every truly\ngreat nature must be the rounded out and harmonious development of the\nintellectual, moral, and spiritual. This is the measure of Prospero, and\nin his unfolding, unseen realms and previously unknown powers had\nopened, according to eternal law, to his demanding soul.\n\n\"The Tempest\" is philosophical, psychological, and occult--philosophical\nbecause thought is the motor power. Le Conte says: \"That deepest of all\nquestions--the nature and origin of natural forces--is a question for\nphilosophy and not for science.\" Thought is a natural force; yes, a\ndynamic force of the most intense power. It may be a search-light of the\nuniverse, a thunderbolt of destruction, or a messenger of light and love\nwith healing in its wings. The mantle of Prospero is simply an emblem of\npower, and the word is so understood among the Orientals. In Scripture,\nwhen Elijah ascended in his fiery chariot, his mantle fell upon Elisha,\nwho immediately caused the waters to retreat from its stroke and\ncontinued clothed with his master's power. So Prospero, robing himself\nin his mantle or laying it aside, means his exercise or non-exercise of\nwhat are termed supernatural powers.\n\nVictor Hugo says that Shakspere \"did not question the invisible world,\nhe rehabilitated it. He did not deny man's supernatural power, he\nconsecrated it.\" There is no reason why man in his higher estate should\nnot have free intercourse with a world invisible to him in his lower\nconditions. Can the grub have the same companionship as the butterfly?\n\nVictor Hugo also says that the \"'Midsummer Night's Dream' depicts the\naction of the invisible world on man, but 'The Tempest' symbolizes the\naction of man on the invisible world. In the poet's youth, man obeys the\nspirits. In the poet's ripe age, the _spirits obey man_.\" This shows a\nfine apprehension of the interior revealings of the supreme poetic\ngenius. Every great and true poet is also a prophet and seer. Then why\nshould not Shakspere--the supremest in all the \"tide of time\"--not have\nthe widest and most far-reaching vision of the wonderful attainments\nand powers of the perfected man. He undoubtedly saw and felt the\ngrandeur of the ages to come, and knew, with divine prescience, that\nonly the hem of the garment of knowledge had been as yet touched. There\nis but one power in the universe, and as Emerson says, \"Every man is an\ninlet to the whole.\" Then where is his limitation?\n\nDid not nature obey the Nazarene, and the winds and mountainous waves\nlie gently down at His bidding? And did He not say that His disciples\nshould do greater works than He had done? Then why should not Prospero,\nas a typical man, have control over all the forces of nature?\n\nIt is interesting to note that Shakspere has given to him almost the\nidentical powers of the Man of Nazareth! This is not strange, as it is\nan absolute truth that when man rises to the royalty of spirit every\nelement will be his obedient servant. Thought will be the agent of his\nministries; which the poet has so marvellously portrayed in its\npersonification as Ariel. Ariel says: \"Thy thoughts I cleave to;\" and\nProspero, in calling him, \"Come with a thought.\" It is now claimed by\nthe most advanced and best psychologists, that a forceful, living\nthought does become a real embodiment which may be perceived by the\nfiner senses. Ariel was what the mind of his master made him, sometimes\na sprite, sometimes a sea-nymph, again a harpy, anything and everything\nthe master directed.\n\nSycorax symbolized ignorance, and thought had been long imprisoned in\nthe holds of nature by this creature of darkness, but ever painfully\nstruggling to reach the light. Ignorance imprisoned thought, but could\nnot free it. Prospero, as wisdom, gave it freedom and directed its\naction until he could send it forth in still more glorious freedom.\nFreedom of thought is a dominant strain in the drama, and is even sung\nby the \"reeling ripe\" Stephano. Caliban represents the child of\nignorance, closely allied to nature and partaking of its poetry and\ngrandeur. He is man in his first estate, just emerging from the animal.\nYet, in this crude, forbidding aspect how superior in dignity compared\nwith Stephano and Trinculo in their vile abasement through the vices of\ncivilization.\n\nShakspere's knowledge of the power of thought over the body is shown in\nhis saying that Sycorax, \"through age and envy, had grown into a hoop;\"\nand of Caliban that, \"As with age his body uglier grows, so his mind\ncankers.\" It is not strange that Shakspere perceived the new psychology,\nfor Milton sang--\n\n    Oft Converse with heavenly habitants\n    Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape,\n    The unpolluted temple of the mind,\n    And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,\n    Till all be made immortal.\n\nThe poet Spenser most beautifully expresses this truth in saying:\n\n    So every spirit, as it is more pure,\n      And hath in it the more of heavenly light,\n    So it the fairer body doth procure\n      To habit in....\n    For of the soul the body form doth take,\n    For soul is form, and doth the body make.\n\nThis is the teaching also of St. Paul, that the body must be transformed\nby the renewing of the mind.\n\nHere we perceive the source of the heavenly beauty and grace of Miranda.\n\"The pure in heart shall see God.\" Her thought and vision wrought out\nfor her a bodily expression that made her seem celestial to the\nbeholder, and held him in doubt whether she were goddess or mortal.\n\nIn esoteric thought the perfected being must be an equal blending of the\nmasculine and feminine, which Balzac has so gloriously interpreted in\nhis \"Seraphita.\" This quality we see in Prospero, the gentle, refined\nelement of motherhood, blended with sublime dignity and strength. His\nchild was to him \"a cherubim infusing him with fortitude from heaven,\"\nand he gave to her the richest dower of inheritance--knowledge, with\npurity of heart and purpose. With the gentle patience of love he\ninstructed her in the laws of nature and her being, with divine purity\nof thought. For all nature is pure as God himself. Thus Miranda became\nthe peerless young Eve of blended wisdom and innocence.\n\nAfter a display of his power, he states, in his address to Ferdinand,\nthe most abstruse problems of the ideal philosophy.\n\n    These ... were all spirits, and\n    Are melted into air, into thin air;\n    And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,\n    The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,\n    The solemn temples, the great globe itself,\n    Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve\n    And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,\n    Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff\n    As dreams are made on, and our little life\n    Is rounded with a sleep.\n\nThis sublime inspiration was almost the last outburst of the mighty\ngenius of Shakspere, and is a fitting crown of glory.\n\nProspero was fully conscious of his superiority, and with simple but\ngrandest dignity he claims that practically it was his own power that\nworked all the wonders. Most sublimely he expresses this when he calls\nbefore him his invisible helpers:\n\n    Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,\n    And ye that on the sands with printless foot\n    Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him\n    When he comes back; ... by whose aid,\n    Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd\n    The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,\n    And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault\n    Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder\n    Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak\n    With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory\n    Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up\n    The pine and cedar; graves at my command\n    Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let them forth\n    By my so potent art.\n\nPassing from his power over nature to the manifestation of his higher\nself with men, we see the spiritual plane he had reached. In coming\nagain in contact with the world of humanity his first action is the\nrecognition of the good and the forgiving the evil:\n\n                --O good Gonzalo,\n    My true preserver, and a loyal sir\n    To him thou follow'st, I will pay thy graces\n    Home both in word and deed.\n\nHis divine forgiveness of those who had so cruelly wronged him shows the\nheight of his spiritual attainment:\n\n    Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,\n    Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury\n    Do I take part; the rarer action is\n    In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,\n    The sole drift of my purpose doth extend\n    Not a frown further.\n\nIn the very remarkable events of his life he recognizes a higher power\nin all his guidance. \"Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue should\nbecome kings of Naples?\"\n\n    There's a divinity that shapes our ends,\n    Roughhew them how we will.\n\nIn no drama has the poet risen to such supreme types of character.\nProspero was the highest expression of Shakspere's latest thought, but\nonly the shadowing forth of a supremer ideal. We can portray what is\nbeneath us far more vividly and truly than what is above us. Shakspere\nhad _lived_ Hamlet, and that is why he so vitally touches every human\nsoul. In Prospero it was the vision by the great poetic soul of a\npromised land he had only viewed from a mountain top. He had seen the\nwonderfully luscious grasps of Eschol, but had not yet tasted them. This\nis why we feel the vast yet subtle difference between \"Hamlet\" and \"The\nTempest.\"\n\nIf the immortal poet had lived the years allotted to man, with ever\nincreasing openness of vision, his own soul would have attained that\nlofty height where, from the \"pattern on the mount,\" he would have\nportrayed the splendor of divine manhood in godlike majesty, the soul\nirradiating the body like the shining face of Moses in its halo of\nawe-inspiring divinity. The people required a veil; they would require\none still.\n\nAlthough Shakspere left us before he had lived in the radiance of the\ntruly spiritual realm, we may well crown his Prospero with his words of\nanother:\n\n    He sits 'mongst men like a descended God:\n    He hath a kind of honor sets him off,\n    More than a mortal seeming.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CREATIVE MAN.\n\nBY STINSON JARVIS.\n\n\nIn the April number of this magazine its Editor gave us a paper called\n\"The Man in History.\" Readers will not have failed to note the grand\nwidth and depth it gave to ordinary views. The facts concerning the\nhuman being, from the earliest records to those of the present day, were\nmarshalled in so masterly a way, and the mental grip on the whole mass\nwas so far-reaching and unique, that people must have perceived that\nthey were gaining the benefits of a lifetime study.\n\nThis article is therefore in no sense a reply to Dr. Ridpath's\nmasterpiece. On the contrary, I wish to refer to all the historical\nevents as he has introduced them, and can only regret that want of space\nforbids a reprint which would enable the original to be read with these\ncomments. My endeavor is simply to bring forward for contemporaneous\nconsideration certain suggestions which seem to me to be of a highly\ninteresting character, and which were forced in upon my own thought by\nthe results of experiments upon the human being. After the long series\nof articles published in THE ARENA about three years ago, many of my\nreaders will not require further explanation of these experiments; but\nfor others I will briefly refer, later on in this paper, to the\nphenomena which greatly affect one's views regarding man's powers and\npossibilities, together with the nature and extent of his agency in the\nworld's events.\n\nDr. Ridpath has brought forward as interesting a question as was ever\nlaid before a public, namely, how far, if at all, Man is the maker of\nhistory. And by the word \"history\" the learned author does not mean\nthose records of events which any chance chronicler may choose to\npresent, but the events themselves, their causes, action, and results.\nHere he presents both sides of the question, with the arguments which\nmay be alternately used in support of each. He cites two master\nthinkers, Carlyle and Buckle, whose differences of opinion relative to\nman's agency in history were distinctly defined: Carlyle seeking the\nhero in each great event, and recognizing only one force, that of God,\nbehind the principal actor of the temporary drama, and never satisfied\nuntil the _individual_ origins of history could be discovered. On the\nother hand, Buckle, to whom man, including the part he played, appeared\n\"as the mere result of historical forces,\" and in the view of scientific\nrationalism contemplating \"only the lines of an infinite and unalterable\ncausation encompassing the world and bringing to pass whatever is done\nby the agency of men _en masse_.\"\n\nI confess I was not by any means clear at first as to what Buckle meant\nby this \"infinite and unalterable causation.\" If he meant the shapings\nof heredity coming down through many generations to produce a man able\nto lead in a certain event, then I followed him. I also sufficiently\nunderstood him if he referred to national desires and necessities\nassisting to produce competent manipulators of important events. But I\ndid not gather until later that this language might possibly be intended\nto include what in common parlance is called \"the will of God.\"\n\nIn the alternation of contention which Dr. Ridpath lays before us with\nso much skill, we are all more or less familiar with the Carlyle side of\nthe argument, so let us consider a part of what is said on the Buckle\nside. In sentences collected from different portions, the \"believer in\nthe predominance of universal causation\" is represented as speaking in\nthis way:\n\n     Men produce nothing. They control nothing. On the contrary, they\n     are themselves like bubbles thrown up with the heavings of an\n     infinite sea. They do not direct the course of history. Nations go\n     to battle as the clouds enter a storm. Do clouds really fight, or\n     are they not rather driven into concussion? Are not unseen forces\n     behind both the nations and the clouds? What was Rome but a\n     catapult, and Caesar but the stone? He was flung from it beyond the\n     Alps to fall upon the barbarians of Gaul and Britain. What was\n     Alfred but the bared right arm of England? What was Dante but a\n     wail of the middle ages?--and what was Luther but a tocsin? What\n     was Napoleon but a thunderbolt rattling among the thrones of\n     Europe? He did not fling himself, but _was flung_!\n\n     The whole tendency of inquiry respecting the place of man in\n     history has been to reduce the agency of the individual. Every\n     advance in our scientific knowledge has confirmed what was\n     aforetime only a suspicion, that the influence of man, as man, on\n     the world's course of events is insignificant. Over all there is a\n     controlling Force and Tendency, without which events and facts and\n     institutions are nothing.... History may be defined as the\n     aggregate of human forces acting under law, moving invisibly--but\n     with visible phenomena.... The individuals who contribute to the\n     vast volume do not understand their contributions thereto, or the\n     general scheme of which they are little more than the atomic parts.\n\n     Over this aggregate of human forces there presides somehow and\n     somewhere a Will, a Purpose, a Principle, the nature of which no\n     man knoweth to this day. To this Will and Purpose, to this\n     universal Plan, which we are able to see dimly manifested in the\n     general results and course of things, men give various names\n     according to their age and race; according to their biases of\n     nature and education. Some call it ... Fate; some, the First Cause;\n     some, the Logos; some, Providence; some of the greatest races have\n     called it God.\n\nWe come then to the admission on the Buckle side of the argument that\nthe forces referred to as \"universal causation\" may possibly include the\nwill of God. And from the time this admission is made there seems to be\nlittle of material difference between the contestants. Practically, both\nrefer, or may refer, back to the will of God; and the discussion here\nbrings me to the point at which some pertinent questions may be asked.\n\nIn what historical crises has the will of God been manifested? Can you\nconfidently point to one? If so, your conversational friend will\nprobably call your attention to some terrible disasters which arose from\nit. Perhaps you may thus point to some monarchy. But your iconoclastic\nfriend will probably refer you to a loathsome system of parasitic\nadulation, in which place and position went by favoritism and whimsical\npreference, and where advancement through personal merit was almost\nunknown. These ills, you think, could not be present in a republic; but\nwhen you point to one of these, your attention is directed to an\ninternal rottenness in which justice and liberty are bought and sold by\nmen who must make their fortunes during a short term of irresponsible\noffice. You are then apt to smile at the idea that any of these\nrepresented the intentions of God.\n\nOr, to take an extreme case, you may instance the life, teachings, and\ndeath of Christ. But if your friend be a fairly good amateur historian\nhe can sufficiently indicate the many wars, the almost countless\nconflicts and incalculable amount of manslaughter that belief in Christ\ngave rise to. He can tell of those stupendous waves of crusadic\nfanaticism in the course of which the pillage and rapine of utterly\nlawless hordes brought undying disgrace upon Europe. He can pile story\nupon story of carnage and divided homes until you may possibly conclude\nthat it would have been better for the world if the cross of Golgotha\nhad never been heard of. A wrong conclusion, most certainly; but one\nthat has oceans of facts to back it.\n\nOutside the cases in which retribution has seemed to follow close upon\nwrongdoing, where can we find a momentous event of history which we can\npoint out to ourselves and say with confidence, \"That, certainly, was\nbrought about by the will of God.\" If amalgamation of hostile baronies\ninto one dominant nation and the acquirement of many civil advantages\nmay be regarded as a blessing, then some will point back to an immensely\npicturesque figure of history and claim that the Norman William was one\nspecially produced by the divine will for an event from which issued\npeculiarly valuable results. But here we have to face a question which\nis continually prominent when historical events are attributed to the\nwill of God: \"Is it necessary,\" we are driven to ask ourselves, \"that\nGod's purposes be brought to a culmination through trickery, perjury,\nmanslaughter, and every kind of falsity?\" Personally I feel totally\nunable to think this. I wish to mention the difficulties which everyone\nwho thinks honestly must encounter, and to do so reverently. History\nthus seems to enforce acceptance of one of two conclusions: Either that\nthe justice of God is not what we are glad to suppose it to be; or else\nthat these matters were not conducted according to the divine will. For\nin William's case we find all these difficulties: the claim to be acting\non Harold's promise, the prior mortgaging of the intended results to the\nchurch of Rome in order to gain the assistance of foreign hordes by\ncalling the proposed invasion a holy war, and other trickeries which\nneed not now be set out. He brought his newly-made England into the\nbondage of a hierarchy, and in buying Romish aid established a precedent\nthat was followed by other kings until priestcraft gained the unlimited\npower which drained the coffers of Europe, impoverished Italy, beggared\nSpain, revelled in the demoniacal Inquisition, subsequently degraded the\nLower Canadians to almost the ignorance of the beasts, and is now using\nthe whole of its political power to fasten its vampire clutch upon the\nfair virgin provinces of the Canadian Northwest.\n\nIf William could have foreseen some results of his handiwork he could\nhave been properly regarded as one of the worst devils ever let loose\nupon the earth. And yet we are asked to believe that all these things\nwere foreknown to the Deity, and that the shaping of William's policy\nwas under the divine will.\n\nThis brief survey of a great event is only one of a large number that\ncould be made, each collection of occurrences showing similar mixed\nconditions--some exhibiting resulting benefits, but in many cases\nmingled with disaster and distress to such an extent that the movement\nas a whole cannot possibly be attributed by any thinking person to the\ndivine will.\n\nEvery historian will admit that in the great events of history, the\nconquests and other large acquisitions of territory, some one or more of\nthe following disgraces were present: the killing of human beings, false\npretences, pillage and rapine, human tortures, treacheries,\nimprisonments, introductions of diseases, plagues, and bad habits,\ntraffic in drugs and liquors which debauched, degraded, and killed. Such\na list is almost endless. And shall we say that an Almighty Father\ncaring for his children could have desired such proceedings? Surely not!\nLet us be sensible and conform our judgment to the evidence.\n\nIn doing so, what is our alternative? Are we not forced to comprehend\nthat even the most valuable improvements were only advanced so far as\nhuman intelligence could advance them when this intelligence was\nilluminated by a partial exercise of its highest faculties? Are we not\nforced to admit that the resulting benefits, whether personal or\nnational, were for the most part those which were humanly foreseen, and\nthat the subsequent disasters were for the most part those which could\nnot be foreseen by human intelligence?--or were foreseen and\nintentionally risked and braved? Has there been a single event of\nhistory which cannot be honestly attributed to human intelligence--this\nbeing aided by a partial exercise of its highest faculties?\n\nWhat, then, are these highest faculties? What are the powers within man\nwhich enable him to transcend other men, and previous men? Let me here\nstate my conviction, which later on will seem justified, that advance in\ncomprehension of the higher faculties in man must be gained through a\nfurther acquaintance with phenomena which may be present in hypnotic\nconditions. I do not mean that personal attention to the experiments is\nnecessary, no matter how preferable. Nor do I suggest that they tell as\nmuch as one could wish--at least, so far as I have followed them. Mine\nhave only led me to the outside ramparts of vast realms which await the\ninvestigations of others.\n\nWhat I mean is that everyone should in some way be made certain, either\nthrough personal experiment or reliable hearsay, that in the human\nmake-up there are faculties which may be forced by will-power into an\nactivity which they do not manifest in the ordinary daily life. There is\nno reason to doubt that these are the same faculties which become so\napparent in the keen-sightedness of those who are great in statecraft,\ndiplomacy, business, or in any other way. With ordinary people,\nespecially the laboring classes, these faculties seem more inactive,\nthrough disuse. In most men they seem to show activity only when forced\nby concentration and will-power; but there are bright people of both\nsexes in whom they seem very alert without urging.\n\nMy reasons for stating that everyone should be acquainted with these\npeculiarities are well founded. Without this the admission that there is\na \"soul\" in man is largely due to the compulsion of hearsay. Without\nthis, and certain other studies, some of the reasons for the evolution\nof man and beast are obscured, and the most telling argument in favor of\nfurther evolution remains practically a blank. Without this we need not\nlook for a better understanding of man's place in history. But, on the\nother hand, this kind of research supplies proof of many seemingly\nmiraculous powers in man which have valuable explanations to make in\nregard to the history of history.\n\nHere the truth-seeker may prove to himself the reality of \"soul.\" And\nwhy should anyone admit its reality if he has never had cause to regard\nhimself as anything better than a good-natured animal? Unless he has had\nmade clear to him some soul-truths (which, owing to the fact that every\nhuman being is a hypnotic patient, are generally made manifest without\nany dabbling in experiments)--unless, I say, he has been in some way\nconvinced of the reality of \"soul,\" his moral ramparts are chiefly\nconstructed of the hearsay that provides but slim defence. The\nsuggestion here is that the best way to be able to believe in miracles\nis to learn how to perform them!\n\nThis paper, however, will deal solely with man's place in history, which\nis only a section of the ranges of view which the study of the mesmeric\nphenomena forces into consideration. We want to know more about those\nwho have controlled armies, nations, events, and themselves. We want to\ngain a better idea of the forces at work in the making of history; how\nfar, if not entirely, man was responsible; how far, if at all, he was\nassisted in any peculiar way toward the acquirement of a farsightedness\nsuperior to that of his fellows; why historical events, both in their\ninception and action, were so peculiarly human and often so dreadfully\nanimal; why the sought-for and acquired benefits have so often been\nmingled with distress and catastrophe.\n\nThese somewhat numerous inquiries are answered, in effect, by an\nexposition of the faculties referred to, and of the powers by which\nthese may be forced into increased activity. When these are understood\nso far as they can be explained here, then the answers to all the above\nqueries will become apparent to those who apply the facts to their\nknowledge of history; and they will need no more detailed answer than\nthat which I shall give.\n\nMany have noted the fact that the foremost personages of history have\nbeen men of great will-power. They might be French, Greek, Jew, or\nMoslem; they might be of any occupation, rank, or color; but always they\nwere men of great will-power. This has been the one peculiarity common\nto all. But why should will-power be a _sine qua non_ of greatness? The\nreasons will appear as we proceed.\n\nIn the year 1897 an attempt to explain mesmerism is not as necessary as\nit used to be. The amount of notice which the newspapers give to the\nsubject suggests that an interest in it is very widespread in America.\nEven the most illiterate must now be aware that persons may be so\ninfluenced by the wills of others that they pass into a sleep, or a\ncondition resembling sleep, during which they are to a large extent, and\nsometimes entirely, subject to the wills of the actuators. Professionals\nhave also assisted in instructing the public as to the minor phenomena.\nOne of them has lately been making money in New York by keeping his\npatient in the hypnotic trance for a week, during which ignorant medical\nstudents and doctors tried brutal methods of awakening the victim--the\nsame methods which disgrace some of the hospitals when unfortunates pass\ninto trances from unknown causes. In other cases, persons in the\naudience are requested to pencil secretly some lines on paper and hide\nthe writings in their pockets. The patient on the stage then reads the\nwriting, and this reading is subsequently compared with the hidden\npapers and found to be correct. The numbers engraved on people's watches\nare also read in the same way.\n\nI have never attended such performances because they had nothing to\nteach me; and if confederates were used, all I can say is that the\nperformances could be given much more easily without confederates. My\nreason for mentioning these people is that their work, if genuine, as I\nsuppose, allows me a greater brevity in this paper; also because their\nlarge numbers prove the truth of what I published long ago, that anyone\nof fairly strong will-power can perform these seeming marvels if a\nsuitable patient can be procured. It may, however, be accepted as\nabsolutely correct that the vision of mesmerized patients is not impeded\nby materials. In my earliest experiments I tried all kinds of\nreceptacles when secreting articles. But the changes made no difference.\nThe patients can discern the interior of an iron box as easily as we in\nthe ordinary state can see through a glass one. Of course this has\nnothing to do with ordinary vision, the eyelids being closed at the\ntime. All such trials as this I ranked in the lowest grade, because the\npatients may have been reading what was within my own knowledge--a\nfaculty that was partly exhibited to prominent men in chief cities by\nMr. Stuart Cumberland and Mr. Irving Bishop.\n\nThis classifying of my experiments is only to bring on their mention in\nthe order in which they seem to increase in importance. As a fact, the\nsame faculties attend to them all. Still, the division is useful.\nSecond, then, come those which dealt with long distances. To one of my\nfirst patients (a messenger in a law-office) I showed scenes in Syria,\nEgypt, Athens, and Rome, and after I had removed him from the mesmeric\nsleep I handed him a pile of photographs which I had brought from\nforeign countries. He turned them over rapidly and picked out the\npicture of the scene he had witnessed, and without hesitation. I ranked\nall this class next to lowest in importance because I had the scenes in\nmy own mind at the time. Yet the patients saw more than I was thinking\nof. When I showed this messenger the obelisk in front of St. Peter's at\nRome, he also described the great colonnade around the piazza, which I\nhad at the moment forgotten. Subsequent experiments with others made me\nknow that he was viewing the scene itself.\n\nThe class ranked third, or next higher, were those in which the patients\nwere called from a distance. In the Arlington Heights Sanitarium some of\nthe patients formerly received, and I suppose still receive, beneficial\nhypnotic treatment. One patient, Grace ----, could be called into the\noffice at any time by the simple will of Dr. Ring, the proprietor. I\nreceived the account from a valued nurse who attended this patient in\nthe hospital. I was able to do the same thing myself in one case, but\nonly when the patient was at some occupation which did not require much\nconcentration. I am not prepared to speak as to the spaces across which\nthis influence may be exerted. With another patient, who was over two\nmiles away, the experiment seemed fairly successful, but I am not\nsufficiently certain to claim a success.\n\nIn class four, the patients told facts which had not been previously\nwithin their knowledge or mine. For tests of this kind I would procure\nfrom friends some old coins wrapped up so that I could not know the\ndates on them. When the first patient with whom this was tried was told\nto pass into the sleep she called out the date of the coin almost\ninstantaneously--\"1793.\" I thought she was still awake and guessing. But\nin that instant she had passed into a deep sleep and had told the date\ncorrectly.\n\nIn the fifth class the reader's credence will be much tested. Many of\nthe Scripture miracles were not a whit more difficult to believe. In\nfact, some were precisely the same. Professional frauds have created\nmuch hostility to the idea of anyone possessing clairvoyance. But the\nsomewhat amusing fact is that every human being is a clairvoyant--which\ncould be shown beyond disagreement if the doubter were placed in the\nmesmeric trance. An instructive experiment has lately been told me, in\nwhich the same patient, Grace ----, was used. A Mrs. Fuller, an invalid\nin the hospital, was anxious about her daughter, who had not lately\nwritten. Dr. Chapin, one of the house doctors, was the actuator. Under\nhis will the faculties of Grace ---- were made to see the child, then\nabout thirty miles off. She described Mrs. Fuller's home, its interior,\nthe daughter coming from school with her books, whom she talked to, what\nshe said, the precise time on a peculiar old clock in the room, and a\ncall on a neighbor then made by the daughter--all of which was afterward\nproved to have been correctly reported. I mention Dr. Chapin's work\nbecause it relieves me of some of the seeming egotism which a recital of\nthis kind enforces, and because my own experiments, which were, in\neffect, precisely the same, though different in detail, have been\npublished elsewhere.[16]\n\n     [16] \"The Ascent of Life,\" by Stinson Jarvis. Postal address,\n          Branch \"X,\" New York, N. Y. Price $1.50.\n\nAs if these facts were not astounding enough, we come finally to a sixth\nclass, in which we find that these marvels can be produced by one's own\nwill-power acting on one's own interior faculties--the proofs of which I\nhave already published.\n\nNow here, I submit, we get our right clew to the true position of man in\nhistory. We now see why great men had always to be possessed of peculiar\nwill-power. They were great when the intensities of their ambitions,\ndesires, or necessities forced from their soul-faculties some portions\nof knowledge which gave them a temporary ascendency, such, for instance,\nas would provide an advantage in strategy, statecraft, duplicity,\ntreachery, or any other qualities which have assisted men who were\nleaders. There was no limit to this, for the experiments show that there\nis some quality in the soul of man that seems to be omniscient, or in\ndirect correspondence with omniscience.\n\nIt was always through stress. None have become great in idleness or\nslackened energies. And as soon as the stress ceased, after the occasion\nfor the intense strivings of years passed, when the fruits of victory\nwere being enjoyed, when the aim of life was simply to hold and not to\ngain, then the man ceased to be markedly different from others. Then\nother men lead, because nature's leaderships are gained by that\nintensest concentration which forces the best methods from the\nsoul-faculties. Apply this system of nature to any great event of\nhistory and you will invariably find it accomplishing the known results.\nThere you will find a man making a name for himself, and, in a sense,\nmaking history. Always through stress, strain, and necessity, in the\nsame ways that extraordinary ingenuity comes to men and animals to\nassist their escape from situations of dire peril. Lock up the human\nwild beasts who agonize for liberty, and you will find that few jails\nwill hold them. And their escapes may well be called miraculous.\n\nThe question then comes back for answer: What about this \"universal\ncausation\"?--Fate?--the will of God? Here it must be said, as before,\nthat no event of history can be selected which cannot be honestly\nreferred to the intelligence of man when this has been assisted by a\npartial use of his soul-faculties. When human projects ran foul of\nnatural laws, disaster followed. For instance, the acquirement of a new\nterritory may take a vast amount of energy and heroic fighting--and the\nwill of one man may then be paramount in making a fact of history\ncoupled with his name; but if the army of occupation dies in the swamps\nof the conquered country, shall the disaster be attributed to God? Shall\nwe not rather say that if the events of history were in His intended\ncontrol they would be less cruel, less human, less bestial? Can anyone\ntrace a lasting benefit that arose from Napoleon's career? The meteor\ndisappeared into impalpable dust. The conquered lands returned to their\nowners. Was any country improved by his coming? He left a bloody trail\nthrough Egypt, but not till the last decade has the Egyptian fellah\nknown a whiff of liberty or justice for two thousand years. The only\noutcome that lasts to the present day is the assisted vanity of the\nFrench people, a vanity built on the abilities of one man, which were\nlost to the country when he died. Does anyone see a trace of the will of\nGod in all this? I do not.\n\nHis Corsican mother bore him while she attended her husband in his\nbattles. The offspring was marked for war in his mother's womb. He was\npreeminently a natural product; and in him we find indomitable will\ncontinually concentrated on faculties which yielded the discernments\nthat made him master of men and master of war. No man came under his\nscrutiny without feeling that he was read to the core. The weaknesses,\nstrengths, vanities, braveries, and ambitions of others were all read,\nused, and played upon for one man's ends. And from Bismarck back to\nCyrus we find all the great ones ruling in the same way--through the\ndiscernments that are will-forced from the soul-faculties.\n\nBut among lesser men, and in everyday life? Here, the same, only in\nlesser degrees; not with a knowledge of the processes at work, and thus\nwithout the conscious direction of effort which would produce more\nsatisfactory results; though often the world is astonished when the\nextraordinary introspection of some business men enables them to make\nmoney in all their dealings. This is not luck. Their amassed wealth is\nthe proof of their life's strain--almost another name for it. And it\nshould be remarked, in passing, that most of the great ones have been\ndeeply religious in their own ways. Jay Gould was deeply religious in\nhis own way, though I am told he wrecked many. So is Bismarck. So were\nWellington and Von Moltke--men who guided frightful carnage. We may\nsmile at the religion which wrecks and kills and prays, but we do not\nremove the combination; and it is probable that the great ones have been\ntoo closely conscious of their own sudden discernments to find a gross\nmaterialism possible. It was the same with the pagans. Even Bonaparte\nhad an implicit belief in what he called his lucky star.\n\nThe followers of Buckle claim that man is personally hardly more than a\ncipher in history, that his name is hardly worth writing in the great\nscroll. But how is this when the fate of Europe rests, as it may rest at\nthis moment, wholly and solely in the faculties of one man? The instinct\nof hero-worship is too deep-set to be valueless. And the experiments\nwhich do so much to explain the sources of increased human knowledge\npoint to the fact that it is in the man of the hour that the history of\nthe hour is written. One leads; the others follow. Gifted he may be,\neven before he is born; endowed he may be, by forefathers who were\nclean; but when the event approaches there is always one who more than\nothers realizes the stress, strain, or peril, and in a mighty effort\ncreates from his own faculties a scheme or plan which others are glad to\nfollow.\n\nThat is greatness. That is history. That is creation. For creation is of\nspirit; and man, as these seemingly trivial experiments prove, is also,\nin part, of spirit. The disasters that may result through other causes\nfrom his action are only the proof of his humanness--proof that his\nstrain for enlightenment was not continued. In these ways history is\nhuman, but always with a partly secreted and godlike faculty awaiting\ndemand. \"Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto\nyou.\" The greatest man that ever lived taught this. And whatever he was,\nor was not, he knew more than any other man.\n\nThis article is by no means intended to suggest that the will of God\nneed not be considered in the study of history. When it is proved that\nhuman privacy is impossible, and that any ordinary person's soul may be\nmade to see us at all times, then we may be quite sure that the Giver of\nthese faculties to man possesses them himself and that we are watched\nboth personally and nationally. But the article _is_ intended to suggest\nthat man has progressed and has been great when the exercise of his\nwill-power, or the concentrated desire of prayer, has forced his\ninterior faculties, perhaps through their correspondences, to help him\nthrough enlightenment. We find ourselves placed on this planet in total\nignorance as to why we came or where we go, but there seems to be one\ncontinuous purpose through all--that man shall improve. It may be that\nhigh intelligence, combined with experience in all grades of life, is\nrequired somewhere else. It may be that in order to gain such experience\nit must be lived through. There would certainly be no striving if\neverything came to us as an unearned gift. The disasters resulting from\none man's action are a warning to the next venturer; and if experience\nis not, or cannot be, sent into a soul as an unearned gift, then the\nhigher wisdom may be non-interference.\n\nThe estimate of man's personal agency in history is necessarily raised\nwhen the faculties he has utilized in gaining his ends are inquired\ninto. Such a study seems to lead toward an alteration in the accepted\nidea of divine control in matters of history when it suggests this\nintention--that the divinity of a right control shall be shown through\nman. Such a study shows that he is sufficiently endowed with a spiritual\nnature, not only for this purpose, but for any other; and it suggests\nthat, as his faculties bring him into direct connection with some\nAll-knowledge from which every kind of intelligence may be drawn, he is\nexpected to use his opportunities; also that the natural consequences of\nmistakes will not be rectified except through the intelligence supplied\nto further demand.\n\n\n\n\nPLAZA OF THE POETS.\n\nTHE NEW WOMAN.[17]\n\nBY MILES MENANDER DAWSON.\n\n     [17] From advance sheets of \"Poems of the New Time,\" by Miles\n          Menander Dawson, The Humboldt Library, Publishers: New York.\n          Cloth, 12mo, $1.00.\n\n\n    She stands beside her mate, companion-wise,\n    Erect, self-poised, with clear, straightforward eyes.\n    For what she knows he is she holds him dear,\n    And not for what she fancies him--with fear.\n\n    Brave spirit! Disillusionized, she lifts\n    What blinder women bear as heaven's ill gifts.\n    She asks but, ere she reproduce a man,\n    He truly be one, so a woman can.\n\n    She gives not for the asking, nor as one\n    Who does unpleasant things that must be done.\n    Nay, he who half-unwilling love receives\n    Knows not the full-orbed joy she freely gives.\n\n    Emancipated, on firm feet she stands,\n    And all that man exacts of her demands;\n    The new morality, the art of life,\n    And not obedience, holds her as wife.\n\n    Hail, the new woman! By her choices she\n    Determines wisely what mankind shall be.\n    She will not with eyes open be beguiled\n    To choose a tainted father for her child.\n\n\n\n\nUNDER THE STARS.\n\nBY COATES KINNEY.\n\n\n          It is a sad, sad sight.--_Carlyle._\n\n    O stars! as the flakes of a snowstorm\n      How ye fly and fall and drift!\n    Swift snowing of suns out of darkness,\n      Whirled by winds of force and whiffed!\n\n    Fly! fall! but the wind the Almighty\n      Still behind you always runs,\n    Still pushes you onward together,\n      Fixed each sun in drift of suns.\n\n    Fixed, ay, to the vision of mortal\n      Never change hath shown in you;\n    Lands, seas, and their kingdoms and races\n      All have changed, but ye are true--\n    Still true to the old constellations,\n      Such as when the forebrain first\n    Uplifted itself to their glories\n      With this human spirit's thirst.\n\n    Calm! still! though in every sparkle\n      Motions like the thunderbolt,\n    Wide whirlings of worlds in their sunlight,\n      Planet's wheel and comet's volt,\n    All hang, as it were, in a dewdrop\n      Frozen to a steadfast gleam;\n    Time, place, dwindled down to a glitter,\n      Whimseys of an instant's dream.\n\n    Drift! drift! all the universe drifting\n      Round some sun too vast for thought!\n    On! on! awful maelstrom of matter\n      Whirling in a gulf of naught!\n    Whirl! wheel! and my soul like a seabird\n      Flies across and dips and flees--\n    Wild wings of my soul, like the seabird's,\n      Tossed and lost upon the seas!\n\n\n\n\nTHE CRY OF THE VALLEY.\n\nBY CHARLES MELVIN WILKINSON.\n\n\n    Too long, too long on the mountain's brow\n      You linger, O storm-cloud! Know you not\n    I, the suffering lowland, need you now\n      Where the scorching sun glares hot?\n\n    You deluge the barren cliffs of chalk\n      While wither the grass and the fruitful grain,\n    And the red rose, shrivelling, dies on its stalk\n      With a smothered cry for rain.\n\n    You lavish your wealth on the lordly height\n      That knows not a miser's need therefor,--\n    With a smile I must take what is mine by right\n      As the gift true souls abhor.\n\n    But the rain that is mine by the love of God,\n      By the grace of the mountain a gift to me,\n    Of what avail to the parching sod,\n      Since it runneth down to the sea?\n\n    O cloud, I charge you to right my wrongs!\n      Be just with the bounty of God's own hand,\n    And scatter the rain where the rain belongs,\n      On the hot and thirsty land.\n\n    I charge you, cloud, by the love of God,\n      That you pour His gift on the humble plain\n    Till the myriad mouths of the parching sod\n      Drink deep of the blessed rain.\n\n\n\n\nA RADICAL.\n\nBY ROBERT F. GIBSON.\n\n\n    I am a Radical, and this my faith:\n    The aim and hope of all true citizens\n    Are justice and real happiness for all.\n    Some are content--I know not why--to sit\n    Among the sleepy worshippers who fill\n    The gilded temple of conservatism,\n    And sitting, awestruck, there they think they serve.\n    I am too busy for idolatry.\n    I carry in my hand a naked sword,\n    And pity, roused for one, stays not my hand\n    When prompt, sure blows mean freedom for a score.\n    That is my faith, and I am not afraid\n    To face my Maker when my name is called.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EDITOR'S EVENING.\n\nOur Totem.\n\n\nCarlyle has remarked upon the significance of symbolism. All nations\nseek a sign. The sign becomes the visible expression of the highest\nthought. It is made into an emblem around which the given people march\nby day and encamp by night. Thus have come all the totems which mankind\nhave lifted up, from the brazen snake in the desert to the Stars and\nStripes on the mountain.\n\nSymbolism has its beauty and also its ugliness. In some cases the symbol\nis happily conceived. It is benign; it expresses hope, truth, fidelity,\naspiration, even immortality. Behold the egg of the Egyptians and their\ncircle expressive of undying life and eternity. Note the owl of the\nAthenians. Note the sweet lily of ancient Provence, adopted by France as\nthe emblem of purity and national peace. Note the Irish shamrock--that\ndelicate green trifolium which has signified so much of union and hope\nto an enthusiastic and failing race. On the other hand, note the serpent\nof the Aztecs, the crawling reptiles of Malaysia and India, the savage\nbeasts and carnivorous birds adopted as the symbols of race-life and\npurpose by the coarse barbarians of northern Europe, and preserved on\nthe flags and banners of their descendants to the present day.\n\nRussia is a bear. Germany is a black eagle. France also, in her\nBonaparte mood, is an eagle. Imperial Rome _was_ an eagle from the days\nof the Caesars. Great Britain is a lion, and Prussia is a leopard, and\nSiam is an elephant, and Mexico is still a snake. As for Great Britain,\nnot satisfied with one lion, she repeats him seven times, rampant or\ncouchant, on the royal standard. She also preserves on her coat-of-arms\nand coins the unicorn, that fabulous, one-horned monster of a horrid\ndream.\n\nThe American Republic seems to have accepted the eagle for its totem. We\nmight have taken a bear or a caribou, but the eagle has pleased our\nmythologists more--and so, instead of belonging to the tribe of the\nTurkey, the tribe of the Dog, or the tribe of the Calf, we belong to\nthe tribe of the Eagle. But what does our totem signify?\n\nThe eagle in our symbolism and war-myth has come to us from the past. He\nwas of old the totem of the Romans. From the Tiber he flew beyond the\nAlps, to perch on the standards of German chieftains and Gallic\nemperors. He has visited all lands that are affected with the civil and\nethnic life of Rome. He has appeared here and there on the flags of the\nLatin races in the Old World and the New. He has made an eyrie in our\nmountains, and his scream has been heard in our wars. He has settled on\nour flagstaffs, and has been seen by certain and sundry poets who\napostrophize him in verse. He has been admired by orators whose\nimaginations rise as high as battle and conquest, but not as high as the\nStars and Stripes. He has been adored in academic essays. He has hovered\nover the pages of inchoate histories, until his claim to be regarded as\nthe American bird is established. The eagle has become traditional as\nthe totem of the United States.\n\nIn so far as the eagle is the symbol of the independence and freedom of\nmen, let us accept him! In so far as he represents the idea and\nsublimity of height and flight, let him soar! The eagle as a sign of the\nfree voyage of the human mind, triumphant over nature, visiting on\nstrong wing the far and otherwise inaccessible heights of escape and\nglory, is the noblest of all the totems ever discovered by man; for\nflight is the noblest and most sublime of earthly actions. Height is the\nsublimest of all earthly stations. Height and flight are precisely the\ndream which we would select from the infinite visions of the soul and\nhave engraved on our seal as a motto for eternity. Height and flight and\nfreedom!\n\nIn so far as the eagle may be regarded as the bird of the past; in so\nfar as he stands for violence and conquest; in so far as he represents\nthe rending and destruction of life, the carnivorous passion in mankind,\nthe rage of battle and triumph,--to that extent be there no eagle for\nthe Republic or for us! It is high time that some race of men should\nrise to the height of discarding violence and blood as the beginnings of\nfame and power. It is high time that some race should renounce all bears\nand leopards and lions and mythological monsters as the symbols of its\nspirit and purpose. It is high time that some nation should ascend to a\nlevel from which it may look down on the savage emblems and beast-born\nsymbolism of the past world as no longer fit to express the central\npurposes and noblest visions of an enlightened people.\n\nThe American eagle in the better and more glorious sense--in the sense\nin which he typifies freedom and height and flight--is a totem of which\nneither philosopher nor peasant need be ashamed. The eagle's wing is\nmore than pinion; it is thought. The eagle's eye is more than fierce\ndisdain; it is a flash of ineffable light. His glance is more than\nterror; it is an arrow shot into the darkness. His breast is more than\npressure and force; it is defiance of wind and battle-rack. His spirit\nis more than destruction; it is supremacy over chaotic elements and the\ntriumph of the emancipated spirit. His scream is more than the shriek of\ncarnal victory and rage of destroying strength; it is the cry of liberty\nand the shout of progress to all peoples in the valleys of the world.\n\nGive man the spirit of the eagle. Give him height and flight and\nfreedom. Give us who are Americans the splendid arena of the plains and\nthe open vault of heaven. Give us the mountain, the beetling crag, the\nprecipice, the gnarled oak, the lightning, and the cloud. Give us the\nwarfare of the lawless elements, the world-blaze of the magnificent sun,\nthe starlight of the profound and unspeakable night. Give us the\ntransport of the unchained seasons, the snow-blast and the sun-flash,\nthe tenderness of the dawn, the sorrow of the evening, the rainspout of\nthe bursting nimbus, and the mellow light of autumn. Give us the\nsplendid apocalypse of October and the infinite air-bath of the perfumed\nJune. Give us all the aspirations of the man-soul standing in the midst\nof this splendor and mutation, standing high and opening the eagle-wing\nto cloudland and the sky, soaring and circling unfettered, viewing all\nlakes and hills from the aerial curves of freedom, alighting at will on\nthe chosen summit, undisturbed by fear and untroubled by the torments of\npower!\n\n\nVive La France.\n\nA strange fact is the apathy of the American nation towards France and\nthe French people. There is every reason to expect a different sentiment\non this side of the sea. France was ever our friend; since the colonial\ndays we have never warred with her. The French were our allies when the\ndays were dark and the winds of our destiny were loosed on the deep. We\nhad been assailed by an unnatural mother. That strong mother had wronged\nus, treated us as aliens, erased us from her book, turned loose\nmercenary armies upon us, killed our patriot fathers.\n\nIn that hour of fate France appeared willingly on the scene as our\nchampion. She succored us. Whatever may have been her motive, she put\nher aegis over our head. She sent her heroes to our camps; she gave us\nLafayette and Rochambeau. She placed her fleets at our ports, with guns\npointed seaward for protection. Then, when the fight was won, she aided\nus to enlarge our territories, to confirm our new republican empire.\nThough in the afterdays of her monarchical gloom France sometimes looked\naskance at our flag, the French nation was never once disloyal to\nus--never once indifferent to the fate of our great democracy.\n\nIn our institutional development for more than a century we have\nproceeded on the same general lines with the French. If we are satisfied\nwith the result--if we _believe_ in our republic--we ought, in good\nreason, to believe in the republic of France; for the republic is a\nuniversal fact, little trammelled by locality. The barrier of race ought\nnot to predominate over political and social sympathies. The barrier of\nrace ought not to separate us from our own. The fact that we are allied\nin ethnic descent with the English people ought not to make us enamored\nof the social life and civil institutions of Great Britain. Much less\nshould the industrial and commercial life of England allure us as if to\nprovoke a like manner of life in ourselves. Least of all should the\nfinancial method of Great Britain lead us by imitation to fix upon\nourselves a similar incubus and horror.\n\nThis leads us to say that to break away from Great Britain, even when\nincited thereto by the antipathy and prejudice which we must needs hold\nagainst her; to leave her behind; to treat her as a historical fact not\nfavorable, but inimical rather, to our progress and independent\ndestiny,--seems to be the hardest task imposed upon the American\ndemocracy. The preference of race and language is so profound, the\ninfluences of the commercial life are so far-reaching, the admiration\nfor political stability is so natural, the domination of centralized\nwealth is so overwhelming, and the allurements of consolidated power so\nwell calculated to fascinate the masses, that even American democracy\nhas found it hard to break the British tie and sail away uncabled and\ndisenchanted on the sea.\n\nThis deluded instinct of attachment to Great Britain, and this unnatural\nlack of sympathy for France have cost us dearly. The two sentiments have\nmodified our national life, and have left a result different by not a\nlittle from what it would have been if influenced by other and more\nwholesome dispositions on our part. Our nationality has lost much force\non both counts--on the score of our illogical attachment to Great\nBritain on the one hand, and of our unnatural indifference to France on\nthe other. Under the one influence we have become _tolerant of\nsubserviency_ as a national trait, and under the other we have become in\na measure _incapable of enthusiasm_. The addition of British\nsubserviency has been aggravated with the subtraction of French\nenthusiasm from our public and private life.\n\nAll this had been better otherwise. All this--even after the lapse of a\nhundred and twenty-one years from the great summer of our\nIndependence--ought still to be bettered with amendment. It is not\nneeded, stiff as we have already become in our national instincts and\nmethods, to go forward by going backwards. To approximate Great Britain\nis to go backwards. The English _people_ are among the greatest of the\nhistoric races, but the British _monarchy_, with its mediaeval\npretensions, its humbug of a throne and a crown, its subordinated ranks\nof society, its military and naval despotism, and its vast skein of\n_tentaculae_ stretching to every valuable thing in the world,--is perhaps\nthe one thing that modern civilization should most dread and put away\nfrom the field of its desires.\n\nOn the other hand France is, in nearly all respects, admirable. Her\nmobility is life, and her warmth is a fructifying force. France gives\nforth more than she takes from the nations. Her republic is a splendid\npiece of political workmanship. Her spirit is patriotic. Her people,\ninstead of straggling over the world like adventurers and pirates,\nremain in the borders of _La Patrie_, happy and vital in the possession\nof freedom.\n\n  Her lilies still bloom in the depth of the valleys.\n\nHer vineyards are a covert under which if there be a peasantry it is not\na peasantry forced down by oppression, but only the modest residue of\nthe stronger life above and beyond. The free institutions of this\nbeautiful land are the natural counterpart of our own; we should be all\nthe better for warming ourselves not a little in the glow of the Gallic\nenthusiasm. _Vive la France!_\n\n\nLe Siecle.\n\n    The century passes as a broken dream\n      That fades into the darkness ere the dawn!\n      The hopes it cherished and its griefs are gone\n    As spirit-shadows on Time's silent stream!\n    The outcry and the anguish of it seem\n      Like echoes on dusk hills--like lights upon\n      The haunted borders of oblivion--\n    Pale will-o'-wisps of a disordered scheme.\n\n    O thou New Age that comest! welcome thrice--\n      More welcome than the ever-welcome birth\n        Of the expected love-child of our youth!\n    Bring us a nobler portion--nobler twice\n      Than ever yet was given unto earth!\n        Bring us our freedom--bring us love and truth.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK REVIEWS.\n\n     [_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which\n     is not regarded as a real addition to literature._]\n\nPresident Jordan's Saga of the Seal.\n\nDavid Starr Jordan, President of Leland Stanford Junior University, has\nmany times deserved well of his country. As a scientific man he has, we\nbelieve, given to the American public and the world a greater number of\noriginal monographs on important branches of current investigation than\nhas any of his distinguished contemporaries. From his special department\nof ichthyology, in which he became an expert fully a score of years ago,\nhe has branched into nearly all fields of scientific exploration,\nfinding ever new paths, leading to new regions and new empires of\nknowledge.\n\nUpon this basis is builded Dr. Jordan's fame as an educator. In two\ngreat States of the Union he has presided over the affairs of high-grade\ninstitutions of learning. After a successful career as President of the\nIndiana University, he was selected from the great array of American\nscholars to preside over the destinies of Leland Stanford Junior\nUniversity, at Palo Alto, California. But the onerous duties and\nresponsibilities of these positions have hardly distracted Dr. Jordan's\nmind from his central motive and aim of scientific investigation.\nThrough all the years of his busy career he has prosecuted his\nresearches with the most conspicuous success.\n\nMeanwhile, he has endeared himself to the American people as an able\npublicist, whose writings and leadership have become potent in many\nlines of our public policy. President Cleveland had the good judgment to\nselect Dr. Jordan to preside over the inquiry into the condition of\naffairs in Bering Sea. The fur-seal imbroglio had already become an\ninternational menace; the peace of great nations was threatened by it.\nIt has thus fallen to Dr. Jordan's lot in his official position to\nconduct an inquiry of the highest importance. He is the United States\nCommissioner in charge of the fur-seal investigation, and it is this\nfact and the results of this fact that now bring him to the fore in a\nliterary production, the only adverse criticism on which is its brevity.\nWould it were longer.\n\nIn 1896 Dr. Jordan published his \"Observations on the Fur Seals of the\nPribilof Islands.\" This was a _preliminary_ report. But it is\nnevertheless replete with statements of the bottom facts and of\ngeneralized information from which a clear notion of the condition of\naffairs in the fur-seal regions must be derived. It is not of this work,\nhowever, that we shall at the present speak, but rather of Dr. Jordan's\nlater production, \"Matka and Kotik; a Tale of the Mist-Islands.\"[18]\n\n     [18] \"Matka and Kotik; a Tale of the Mist-Islands.\" By David\n          Starr Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford Junior\n          University and of the California Academy of Sciences; United\n          States Commissioner in charge of Fur-Seal Investigations. One\n          volume, square duodecimo, illustrated, pp. 68. San Francisco:\n          The Whitaker & Ray Company, 1897.\n\nIt appears that during his investigations from a scientific and official\npoint of view the author's mind has been profoundly impressed on the\nsentimental and poetic side by the conditions in which he found himself\nin the Pribilof Islands. The result of this profound impression is the\nlittle work before us. Though it is done in prose it is none the less a\npoem; it is the Saga of the Seals. It is a poetic appeal to all\nChristendom in the simple and dramatic way of Frithiof and his\ncontemporaries.\n\n\"Matka and Kotik\" will be a revelation to those of Dr. Jordan's friends\nand admirers who were not already acquainted with the deep, clear vein\nof poetry in his composition. I have noted that several of our\nnineteenth-century scientists have this vein. Huxley was of this number;\nthe spirits at the seances used to designate him as the \"Poet of\nScience.\" Dr. Jordan in \"Matka and Kotik\" vindicates his right to be\nknown as the _American_ Poet of Science.\n\nIt is evident that while the President of the Fur-Seal Commission was\nperforming his duty in the Pribilofs, in the summer of 1896, his mind\nbecame profoundly impressed with the sorrows of the seal. Not only have\ncommerce and the equity of nations been outraged in this matter, but the\ncry of humanity is heard. Aye, more; the cry of the seals themselves is\nheard; and it is this cry that Dr. Jordan has interpreted and sent to\nthe world. Not satisfied with the preparation of his preliminary report,\nhe has found opportunity to appease his sense of indignation, by writing\nthis book, every line of which tells a story of avarice and crime and\nbutchery which, if we mistake not, the roused-up spirit of mankind will\nsoon abate.\n\nDr. Jordan's book is a sort of dramatical story, the _personae_ of which\nare all Seals except one man, Apollon the Destroyer, and a few of the\ncreatures such as Chignotto, the sea-otter; Bobrik, her son; Epatka, the\nsea parrot; Eichkao, the blue fox; Isogh, the hair-seal; Amogada, the\nwalrus; Sivutch, the sea lion; and Kagua, his wife, etc. The principal\nactors are Atagh, an old \"beach-master\" living on the Tolstoi Mys;\nMatka, his wife; Kotik, their child; Unga, Atagh's brother; Polsi,\nMatka's brother; Minda and Lakutha, Kotik's sisters; Ennatha, Matka's\nsister, and Annak, Ennatha's child. It is the manner of life and fate\nof these personages that Dr. Jordan has delineated in the \"Tale of the\nMist-Islands.\" He tells us that it is a true story--that the author\npersonally knew Matka before Kotik was born, and that he witnessed the\nevents which he describes.\n\nI shall not attempt to give an extended review of the story of \"Matka\nand Kotik.\" I must satisfy myself and, I trust, incite the interest of\nthe readers of THE ARENA, by sketching only an outline of the Saga of\nthe Seal. The scene of the story is the Mist-Island, or, more properly,\ncertain parts of the shore and headlands of that island whereon the\nseals pass an important part of their migratory life. From these coast\nlines they take to sea at certain seasons and swim away, generally to\nthe south. Tolstoi Head is the point of observation from which Dr.\nJordan begins his charming delineations of seal-life, and there he\nconcludes the story; which, in the meantime, transforms itself into the\npathos of sad separations and finally into the dumb tragedy of slaughter\nand death.\n\nThe author gives character--human character--to his personages,\ndiscriminating them according to their natures into beings whose very\nnames, notwithstanding the limited range of their faculties, bring us\ninto intimate and profound sympathy with them. Old Atagh, the lordly\nsea-bull of the Tolstoi Mys, looms up grandly above the rest--\n\n  In shape and gesture proudly eminent.\n\nMatka, the wife, is an embodiment of her sex. Kotik is the child of her\nchoice. All her offspring are veritable children: the uncles are uncles,\nthe aunts are aunts, the cousins are cousins, and the rest are the rest.\nEven the \"supers\" appear in the nebulous names of the drama.\n\nThe point of the \"Tale of the Mist-Islands,\" the great lesson of it, is\nthe horrid abuses and cruelties to which the seals have been subjected\nby the brutal fur-pirates who have thronged the Alaskan waters in the\npast two decades, and whose intolerable lust of slaughter and\ndevastation has threatened the extinction of the fur-seal race. If the\nstory of \"Matka and Kotik\" could be perused, as it should be, by the\nAmerican people, the very mothers of the country would rise up against\nthe piratical butchers of the Pribilofs, who would quail under their\nfrown. Meanwhile, diplomacy drags its length, and official reports carry\nto Congressional Committees a vague statistical account of what has been\ndone and is still doing in the Alaskan waters.\n\nI most heartily commend to all who are interested--and who is not?--in\nthe fur-seal question and in the manner of its solution, Dr. Jordan's\ninteresting little book. I have hardly ever seen a better piece of\nEnglish than this. The author's style is admirable. I scarcely recall\nanother book so monosyllabic and terse. Whoever commences to read \"Matka\nand Kotik\" will continue to the end. The story fascinates while it\ninstructs. I dare say that Dr. Jordan, in the scientific sketches which\nare cunningly scattered in these paragraphs, is always correct.\n\nIf our space permitted, we should be glad to make extended quotations in\nillustration of the sterling merits of this tale of our far Northwest. I\nshall be obliged to conclude the review with only a single extract, but\nmust first remark that \"Matka and Kotik\" is illustrated with forty-two\nstriking photographic reproductions, the beauty and excellency of which\ncan hardly be too highly praised. To these are added thirty-four pen\nsketches by Miss Chloe Frances Lesley, a student in zooelogy in Leland\nStanford Junior University. The illustrations which appear are adapted\nto the text with perfect good taste. We also note \"The Calendar of the\nMist-Islands.\" This is appended to the story proper, as is also the map\nof the Mist-Island. In the calendar Dr. Jordan gives a diary of the\nmovements of the seals beginning January 1st and ending November 15th.\nThese notes convey a great amount of scientific information in the most\ncondensed and interesting form. It is evident that Dr. Jordan has\nwritten under a strong sense of the significance of the scenes which he\nwishes to portray. At the close, he says:\n\n     And when Kotik came back in the spring and climbed over the broken\n     ice-floes to take his place at Tolstoi, Atagh was sleeping yet. [It\n     was the sleep of death!]\n\n     And now the dreary days have come to the twin Mist-Islands. The\n     ships of the Pirate Kings swarm in the Icy Sea. To the Islands of\n     the Four Mountains they have found the way. The great Smoke-Island\n     has ceased to roar, because it cannot keep them back. The blood of\n     the silken-haired ones, thousand by thousand, stains the waves as\n     they rise and fall. The decks of the schooners are smeared with\n     their milk and their blood, while their little ones are left on the\n     rocks to wail and starve. The cries of the little ones go up day\n     and night from all the deserted homes, from Tolstoi and Zoltoi,\n     from Lukanin and Vostochni, and from the sister island of Staraya\n     Artil.\n\n     Meanwhile, Kotik and Unga, Polsi and Holostiak, stand in their\n     places, roaring and groaning, waiting for the silken-haired ones\n     that never come.\n\n     Their call comes across the green waves as I write. I turn my eyes\n     away from Tolstoi Head and put aside my pen. It is growing very\n     chill. The mist is rising from the Salt Lagoon, and there is no\n     brightness on the Zoltoi sands.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ARENA FOR SEPTEMBER.\n\n\nTHE ARENA for September will carry to our patrons more than the usual\nnumber of superior contributions. Several of these are timely to a\ndegree. It is intended that the great questions of the epoch--the real\nquestions in which the people feel an instinctive concern--shall be\ndiscussed in THE ARENA with the sole purpose of elucidating them in the\nbest possible manner, thus conducing to the betterment of the serious\nconditions now present in American society.\n\nOne such article of the first importance will appear in the number for\nSeptember. This is a contribution on the \"CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH,\" by\nHerman E. Taubeneck, well known as an expert in the political and\neconomic questions of the times. The present article is the first of two\non the same subject. Mr. Taubeneck patiently undertakes the theme on the\nfoundation of fact, and reaches his conclusions by an able and\nirrefutable inductive argument.\n\nA second article of like interest is that on \"MULTIPLE MONEY,\" by\nEltweed Pomeroy, President of The Direct Legislation League of the\nUnited States. Mr. Pomeroy is known to THE ARENA readers as a strong and\nthoroughgoing publicist whose writings are as instructive in\nsubject-matter as they are lucid in style.\n\nA third contribution in THE ARENA for September will be an article\nentitled \"ANTICIPATING THE UNEARNED INCREMENT,\" by Hon. I. W. Hart,\nOfficial Reporter of the Third Judicial District of Idaho. Mr. Hart's\ncontribution is a powerful expose of the evils of land speculation in\ncities and towns, and the consequent extravagant prices of realty and of\nhigh rents.\n\nOur special contributor, sent by the courtesy of the Yarmouth Steamship\nCo. and the Dominion Atlantic and Intercolonial Railways to Nova Scotia\nand New Brunswick to investigate the Social and Industrial Conditions\nprevailing in those regions, is engaged in completing his article, and\nthe same will appear in THE ARENA for September.\n\nBesides the abovenamed contributions, THE ARENA for September will\ncontain \"STUDIES IN ULTIMATE SOCIETY,\" by Lawrence Gronlund and K. T.\nTakahashi; a special article, \"THE AUTHOR OF THE MESSIAH,\" by B. O.\nFlower; an article entitled \"SUICIDE: IS IT WORTH WHILE?\" by Charles B.\nNewcomb; \"THE FIRST DEADLY SIN,\" by Marvin Dana; \"MUSEUMS OF REPRODUCED\nART,\" by Arthur Altschul; \"THE CIVIC OUTLOOK,\" by Dr. Henry Randall\nWaite; Plaza of the Poets; Editor's Evening; Book Reviews, etc. Our\nreaders will find THE ARENA for September, with its 144 well-filled\npages, a feast of good things, participating in which they will be wiser\nand stronger for the battle that is toward in these lands.\n\n\nThe Great Opportunity.\n\nThe reduction of the subscription price of THE ARENA to two dollars and\nfifty cents a year brings to all the friends and relatives of THE ARENA\nfamily (their name being legion) a golden opportunity to add their names\nto the swelling list of our patrons. Let every champion of our cause\nsend in his name and the names of his friends for the subscribers' list\nof THE ARENA. Begin with the number for July and thus secure the\ncomplete volume.\n\nRemember the great reduction!\n\n_$2.50 for_ THE ARENA _for one year_!\n\nAddress all subscriptions and other business communications to\n\n  JOHN D. MCINTYRE, Manager,\n           Arena Company,\n                Copley Sq., Boston.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Transcriber's Notes:\n\nThe transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious\nerrors:\n\n  1. p. 165 aggressivenes --> aggressiveness\n  2. p. 182 assest --> asset\n  3. p. 200 uncalculable --> incalculable\n  4. p. 208 involutary --> involuntary\n  5. p. 221 Footnote anchor missing for footnote #9. Footnote text\n            placed after most likely paragraph.\n  6. p. 226 aud -->  and\n  7. p. 259 abtruse --> abstruse\n  8. p. 266 falculties --> faculties\n\nEnd of Transcriber's Notes]","title":"The Arena, Volume 18, No. 93, August, 1897","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":55772}