RAPID GROWTH OF NEW YORK CITY.

THE

HE report just published by the State Enumeration Bureau of New York of the census taken in June contains some avowed surprises even for that part of the press which tries to keep best informed on local affairs. According to the official count, 4,014,304 people live in New York, and 4,052,368 in the rest of the State. The World believes that these figures are inaccurate, as the enumeration was made in summer, when thousands were away.' But while the present population of New York city-being 828,620 greater than that shown by the Federal census of five years agoexcites surprise and gratification, the rate of growth indicated by these figures is, however, the point most interestingly discussed by the press; for by it some trustworthy estimates can be made of the future size of the city. By taking this increase, the papers of a mathematical turn of mind are figuring out just when New York is likely to pass London and assume first rank among the cities of the earth. The New York Times compares the size of the two cities thus:

London, our only leader, contained at its latest census, that of 1901, 4,536,541, but' Greater London,' the Metropolitan Police District, within a radius of fifteen miles from Charing Cross, contained 6,581,372. Strike a circle of fifteen miles from the [New York] City Hall and you include at least three-quarters of a million of Jerseymen, who are as really New-Yorkers, but for the State line between us and New Jersey, as are any of the circumambient suburbans of London Londoners. Add that three-quarters of a million, and the real population which belongs to New York appears as at least an even five millions."

The New York World ventures the following predictions:

At the time of the opening of the Subway, The World, from figures then available, estimated that New York should overtake the county of London by or before 1912. But . . . owing to conditions of business dulness and industrial unemployment in the British capital, London is less likely than New York to maintain its present indicated growth. The chances are that New York will pass the county of London before 1910 and that the 700 square miles of the English Metropolitan District will long before 1920 have been passed by an equal area containing New York, Yonkers, and the near-by Jersey cities, which afford the only fair comparison."

New York grew 37 per cent. in the last decade of the last century. Spurred by the beginnings of rapid transit it bids fair to grow 45 per cent. or more in the first decade of the present one.

That New York city will so soon outrank London strikes many as a too ambitious hope. But all loyal New-Yorkers earnestly and seriously believe that this glorious event can not be much longer. delayed. The Tribune calculates that within the boundaries of the city every six minutes a child is born, every fifty-five seconds a train enters and unloads several hundred passengers, every fortyeight minutes a ship arrives from a foreign country or a coast port, and every two and two-thirds minutes an immigrant makes his home in the city, while every thirteen minutes a man and woman marry. And in order to keep abreast with the times, and to provide for this growth of its population, New York, as the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle declares, "is spreading out "

"Bridges and subways are leading to contiguous territory where space and air abound and healthful conditions prevail. It would be futile to say that the growth in population must stop; but expansion is feasible, and is going on at a rate that will provide room for the additional millions who in the course of years will flock to the country's great center of civilization."

The slow growth of the population of the State as compared with that of the city of New York has not escaped the attention of the press. Many papers look upon the marked contrast as a new illustration of the tendency of the people to move to the cities. In

all the characteristically rural counties like Seneca, Steuben, and Schoharie, a decrease of population was noted. But these returns, as The Evening Post points out, fall in with the mid-decade census of Massachusetts recently published, "which indicated a rapid city growth, and stagnation in the country districts." But, as The Post further remarks, "the old Eastern States are not alone in reporting losses of rural populations." Iowa has for several months been trying to explain the decrease in her population, and to devise some means to stop the "drift to the cities." Many believe that her efforts will be futile, as it seems that proportionately a smaller number of farmers are now required to supply the country with food than was necessary in the days when agriculture was carried on in a less scientific manner. The Cleveland Leader, in explaining present conditions, and making some observations on the future, observes:

Since the coming of the suburban trolley, rural free delivery, and the automobile, the English fashion of maintaining country homes has come into vogue among people of large means. There has been much talk, as a consequence, of turning back the tide which has long flowed into the cities from rural America. In limited localities and under favorable conditions there has been a marked change in that direction, but when a census is taken in a State the difference between urban growth and rural stagnation stands out more vividly than ever. The basis of the difference is economic. It rests on the relative earning power of country and town workers. The producer of food supplies a market which widens only in proportion to the growth of the population. The manufacturer of clothing, furniture, or articles of luxury caters to a demand which has no limits of expansion other than the ability of consumers to pay for what they desire."

A DEFENSE OF RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT BY LABOR UNIONS.

THAT

-as

HAT labor-unions should compel their members to "soldier," and produce less work than they are capable of, has long been regarded "as another evidence of their total depravity "– a writer states in a new book on "Trade Unionism and Labor Problems." He reminds us, however, that there is another side to the matter. "The object and effect of piece wages," says Prof. John R. Commons, who edits the volume, “"are greatly to increase the speed of the workman, with the result that the higher earnings tempt and, through competition, even force the employer to 'cut' the piece rates, so that the workman is earning no more by his intense speed than he did when he took his time." Professor Commons continues:

"The same result is reached on day wages when a foreman or a contractor is remunerated according to his success in reducing costs. One object of labor organizations is to check this intense speed, sometimes by placing an absolute limit on the amount of work permitted to be done in a given time, sometimes by reducing the task, and sometimes by prohibiting piecework, bonus, and task systems. This is usually denounced by employers as restriction of output, and denied by the unions, but the distinction should clearly be made between the fact of restriction and the justification. Advanced as a measure of protection to health and to the older men, a restriction of this kind is, in principle, justifiable, and the only question is that of drawing the line between what is a fair output and what is excessive. Restriction is also justified as a protective measure in cases where the employer takes advantage of increased earning to cut the piece-rate...

"The simple question,' Do unions restrict output?' can not receive a truthful general answer. Each allegation must be investi. gated with reference to all the circumstances, including the attitude of employers. That this involves technical and detailed knowledge of the business . . . should raise a warning to those who without such knowledge accept the ex parte statements of the parties to this acute and invidious dispute.”

Mr. F. S. Halsey, in the same volume, says of piece-work and restriction of output:

6

and fair dealing. It pays for the work done and in proportion to what is done. The industrious are rewarded in accordance with their industry,' etc. The universal opposition of labor-unions to it is looked upon as another evidence of their total depravity. Of course, in so far as the objections of the unions are a reflection of the opposition which some of them have to their members doing a large amount of work it can not be defended and is not worth discussion, but for other reasons and on other grounds their position of opposition is impregnable. Near acquaintance with the system shows that it is not what it appears to be. It is in fact a remarkable illustration of how completely a thing may differ in appearance from what it is in reality. It is in appearance a system of rewards, but it is in fact a system of punishments, and worse still a system of punishments for doing well.

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As this is a severe arraignment it requires an examination of the actual workings of the system. A piece of work has been done by day's-work and it is proposed to change it to piece-work. The piece-cost under day's work is first determined and a somewhat similar piece-price is then set and given to the workman. If he has had no experience with piece-work, he feels that he can not 'make wages' and objects. He is then told that if he will not take it some one else will; in other words, he is compelled to take it, and this is the first objection to the plan-it involves compulsion. If this were all that could be said against the system, it would not have much weight, but it is nevertheless worth noting. Leading is always better than driving, and compulsion is a good thing to avoid if possible.

66 'No man knows what he can do under an incentive until he has tried it. The workman in saying that he can not make wages' at the piece-prices offered when piece-work is first introduced is entirely sincere, but he is nevertheless mistaken. All experience shows that when the test comes the increase of output under the incentive of piece-rates is far beyond what any one-manager or workman-would have believed possible. The output mounts up and the wages with it, and the employer soon finds that he is paying an extravagant rate of daily wages, an extravagant rate being understood as a rate materially in excess of what it would be necessary to pay another workman for doing the same work, he having the first man's experience before him. The employer submits to this for a time, but the wages continue to increase and ultimately he is driven to his only recourse-he cuts the piece-price. This is an immediate announcement to the workman that the promises of piece-work are false. He was told that he would be paid a certain rate per piece, but he finds that to be true up to a certain limit only.

The workman, again under compulsion, accepts the new price; but unless he is very dull, he has learned a lesson. If he is very dull, it may require a second cut to enforce this lesson; and this second cut, either on the price of his own work or on that of some fellow-workman, is soon forthcoming. The lesson is that if he pushes his production to a point which raises his earnings beyond a certain more or less clearly defined limit the direct result will be a cut in the piece-price. Perhaps new men come in or the old ones are given new work to do—the result is the same. one is so unwise or so unfortunate as to do a large amount, he is at once punished for it by having his rate cut. Such cuts from the workman's standpoint have but one result-he is compelled to work harder than before, but he earns no more. This is the result of his own efforts to increase his output, and hence it is that I call the piece-work system a system of punishment for doing well.

If any

"The net result of the system is a somewhat greater output and somewhat higher wages than would be obtained with the day'swork system, but there is no spirit of progress. The workmen push their earnings as near to the limit as they dare and then stop making further effort to increase their output. If one man has several pieces of work, on some of which the prices are high while on others they are low, he makes out false time-tickets, charging time to one job which belongs to another, so as to equalize matters and give a fair average and thus take advantage of the high rates on some pieces to equalize the low rates on others. The whole tendency is to cultivate deceit and antagonism. The piece-work plan is, in short, simply a mischief-maker and a discord-breeder."

WE are indebted to Professor Troop, of the Chicago University, for the assurance that Victor Hugo was not a novelist. The peculiar value of this information lies in the fact that it could have been obtained from no other source.-The Kansas City Journal.

IT is scarcely necessary to remark that President McCurdy will not enter the lecture field.-The Chicago Tribune.

Ir might be a good plan to select only bachelors for presidents of the life-insurance companies.-The Washington Post.

No charges are made for looking at the outside of

INSURANCE INVESTIGATION SWEAT BOX

INVESTIGATION

PRISON

the life-insurance buildings. Funny that the managers overlooked it.-The Chicago News.

"HYDE will take the witness stand," says a New York paper. That's about the only thing he has not already taken. - The Washington Post.

IF the Democrats are wise, they will organize an insurance company to get up funds for the next Presidential campaign.-The Atlanta Journal.

IT may be the belief that honesty is the best policy that renders selling any other kind such a difficult matter just now.-The Detroit Free Press.

SOME of the king grafters of the life-insurance graft swear they will never resign. They ought never to be permitted to resign.-The Atlanta Constitution.

WHAT the New York State Superintendent of Insurance knows about resigning is equal at least to what he knew about evidence.-7he Detroit Free Press.

EVIDENTLY some of those insurance officials are determined to demonstrate that government control could not make matters any worse.-The Detroit Free Press.

It should not be overlooked at this time that so far as the McCurdys are concerned they have been consistently leading the mutual life.-The Chicago Inter Ocean.

THE policy-holder who was wise enough to die last year certainly has the laugh on those who are having to view these insurance exposures.-The Los Angeles Express.

COMING DOWN.

-Handy in the Duluth News-Tribune.

IT might be a good scheme for insurance companies to follow the example of proprietary-medicine men and call on any contented policy-holders to write testimonials and furnish pictures for publication.-The Washington Star.

THE claim of the big three insurance companies that they could invest a man's savings to better advantage than he could himself has been completely vindicated if the proper view of "the advantage" is taken.-The Detroit Free Press.

It looks to us as tho the life-insurance agent were the innocent bystander in this investigation. Soliciting business at this time must be about as pleasant a job as carrying an elephant up sixteen flights of stairs.-The Chicago News.

MAYBELL

Now that the Mutual Life has decided to investigate itself, we may soon have an impartial and disinterested showing as to what the facts really are, instead of the one-sided and prejudiced findings of the State.-The Kansas City Journal.

CUNLIFFE, the express robber, says it is difficult for a man to be honest on a salary of $65 a month. The life-insurance investigations indicate that it is difficult for some men to be honest on a salary of $65 an hour.- The Washington Post.

Now that President McCurdy has appointed a committee of three directors to investigate its affairs we may confidently expect to be surprised almost any day when we find out what a really good company the Mutual is.-The Detroit Free Press.

It is a little astonishing that the Enterprise Bank, of Allegheny, has not followed the example of the life-insurance managers and presented the claim that they gave that $600,000 to politicians "to save the country from Bryan."-The Washington Post.

THE Sultan of Turkey says he would rather perish than surrender control of the finances of Macedonia. Talks like a life insurance president.-The Washington Post.

WE are about willing to accept John A. McCall's assertion that he is a poor man, now that he explains how he has invested all his savings in life insurance.- The Washington Post.

ANOTHER difference between the methods of McCurdy and those of Cunliffe, who robbed an express company, is that the express company got its money back while there is no hope for the policyholders.-The Topeka State Journal.

-Bartholomew in the Minneapolis Journal.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE ARMY.

THE

HE novel published a little over a year ago in which a German lieutenant vividly describes the life of a German army post, bringing in stories of drunkenness, bribery, gambling, and immorality, is distinctly recalled by many American journals in view of the unpleasant revelations growing out of the Taggart divorce scandal at Wooster, Ohio. While the editorial writers are emphatic in the denial that the case is symptomatic of social conditions at any of the army posts of the United States, they admit that the situation at Wooster was similar to those described in "A Little Garrison." The Taggart case has occupied the attention of the public for many weeks, but a good many journals, especially those in the East, have taken little notice of its progress because, as the Boston Herald intimates, its details are not fit to print. This case, however, raises in many minds the question whether our army is becoming demoralized with drunkenness and dissipation. 'In the Taggart case," insists the Indianapolis News, "the army is not on trial. It can not be tarnished by the unworthiness of a few people who have been and are connected with it," and the Milwaukee Sentinel thinks the Government should extend its housecleaning to the army. Heretofore, remarks the Chicago News, American army officers have borne a high reputation for sobriety, and "if there are any drunkards or debauchees among them, let them be found out and dismissed from the service."

In an editorial entitled "What Is the Matter with the Army?" the Boston Transcript declares that it is suffering from " tropicalization" and "politicalization" and it proceeds to give this pretty dark picture:

"Things are not as they ought to be in the army, not as they have been. Which does not mean, as many good people are presently going to maintain, that the officers are all drinking champagne. You can drink very little champagne on a second lieutenant's salary of fourteen hundred or a captain's salary of eighteen hundred. Few people are going to stop to think that the champagne which the court proceedings depict as frothing in a fragrant surge about the Taggarts was purchased out of a private income of fifty thousand a year. Yet there is far more drinking and carousing in the army than there ought to be. There are more men too fat from beer and too short-winded from cigarettes than there ought to be. We don't expect a soldier to keep himself on the regimen of a training athlete, but the nation maintains him to be in 'fighting trim,' to be ready to march and endure hardship.

The morale of our army is not what it was, not what it ought to be. The more than human or perhaps scarcely human reform organizations which are now reported to be preparing to deluge the Government with protests against conditions in the army should not expect too much of mere human men; still, things are not as they should be in the army. Some of the causes of the lowering of morale were not, are not, preventable. The Spanish War very nearly destroyed the old army, and with it the old traditions, for these traditions descend by word of mouth; and when after the war the army was trebled in size and few of the old officers were left in active service, the new officers did not learn the old traditions. This was not preventable. The tropicalization of the army was not, is not preventable. In the tropics our men were exposed to that weakening of the moral fiber characteristic of the tropics. They met people of lower civilizations, not so much immoral as non-moral.

The army is slowly regenerating itself from politicalization, slowly recovering its equilibrium. The best way to secure reform in the army will be to leave it to itself. If a host of reformers succeed in getting Congress to interfere in its affairs it will only make worse a state of affairs due to previous interference. Civilian interference has been the cause of the chief and preventable ill. The army itself will carry on a far more effective and radical purging and regeneration than any civilian commission ever would. With all his faults, the army man is prouder of his uniform than any of the rest of us are, and the good men in the army do not wish to see that uniform disgraced by men unworthy to wear it."

Gen. Nelson A. Miles, whose long period of service qualifies him to judge of the social ideals among the army officers, is quoted in the Boston Herald as saying:

"The army has been called a place of eternal adieus. It is one of the hardships of the service that officers must hold themselves in readiness to move from post to post as the service may demand. This transitory state of living compels an army officer to rely for social comfort very largely upon his own family, and therefore the domestic ties of an army officer are almost invariably much more firmly knit than those of a civilian. I speak from experience and observation.

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'Gambling and drinking are not characteristic features of the army officer's life, whatever impression this divorce case of which you speak may convey. There are certain ideals inculcated in an officer's education which are against such indulgences. An officer is expected to lead the life of a gentleman; he is restrained by army regulations, and unless he is willing to wreck his entire career he will be governed by the ideals which obtain among his fellowofficers."

THAT

NEW TROUBLES BREWING WITH CHINA. HAT the ill-will existing in China for the United States, as shown by repeated acts of insult and injury perpetrated against American citizens, has created a situation that can not continue much longer without jeopardizing the friendly relations between the two nations, is a belief that now seems to be generally entertained by the press of this country. The assault upon RearAdmiral Charles J. Train, commander-in-chief of the American Asiatic squadron, and his son Lieut. Charles R. Train, by a mob of Chinese peasants displaying unmistakable signs of race prejudice; the continuance and spread of the boycott against American goods in spite of the imperial edict issued against it; the project formed with the cognizance of the Chinese Legation at Washington to sue the United States before The Hague Tribunal to recover damages for alleged unlawful exclusion of Chinese citizens from American soil; the reluctance shown by the Chinese Government officials to enter into any new treaty with the United States which

Copyright by J. E. Purdy, Boston.

REAR-ADMIRAL CHARLES JACKSON TRAIN, Attacked by a Chinese mob for slightly wounding a Chinese woman by a stray shot, while hunting pheasants near Nanking.

does not provide for free access of all Chinese citizens at least into Hawaii and the Philippine Islands; and finally the murder of five American missionaries by Chinese fanatics at Lienchow, are recent events of a startling nature which have occurred so closely together that they appear to many to be a series of hostile acts inspired by one and the same spirit, and occurring on an ascending scale of enormity that gives them their greatest effect and might provoke the United States beyond endurance.

In fact, many papers think that things have reached such a stage that the wisest statesmanship and most cautious diplomacy must be exercised if very serious consequences are to be avoided. The unfortunate and dangerous state of affairs is looked upon as all the more alarming for the reason that the Empress seems to be practically unable, and the Governors of many provinces avowedly unwilling, to punish the wrongdoers and prevent a repetition of their offenses. Thus, altho the central Government has made earnest effort to suppress the boycott, and last December issued a proclamation providing heavy penalties for all who discriminated against this country, yet The Journal of Commerce on the first of this month said:

"Cables received by American houses doing business in South China [say] that the boycott on American goods not only continues in Canton and some interior ports, but is assuming a more aggressive and dangerous character."

The boycott, as The Journal of Commerce shows further on, is either winked at or openly encouraged by the rulers of all the provinces where its progress has been most marked among the people. And with the exception of the massacre of the missionaries, the conduct of the official classes in connection with all other unfortunate occurrences seems to be of the same cloth as their conduct in the boycott cases. Thus the correspondent of the Baltimore American, in speaking of the assault on Admiral Train, says: "An alarming feature of the reports from Nanking is the atti

66

tude of the Chinese authorities, who are represented as having upheld the mob's action in attacking Admiral Train and capturing his son. Had either Admiral Train or Lieutenant Train been placed under arrest by the authorities for the accidental shooting of a native this phase of the affair would not be regarded as serious, but the consent of the Chinese officials to the ruling of a mob is likely to be a chief cause of complaint by this Government to China."

Of course there is every probability, as the Brooklyn Times observes, "that diplomacy will be brought into play at once to smooth out the unpleasant wrinkles of the situation." But nevertheless many papers consider that the incident is "deplorable and unfortunate owing to the somewhat strained relations between the two countries." The Pittsburg Post thinks that "the temper of the Chinese people toward us was unpleasantly exhibited in the attack." The Hartford Courant holds this same opinion and says:

"In the case of Admiral Train it is plain that the anti-American feeling, which has been assiduously cultivated in China, was what moved the ignorant and ugly natives. It has threatened other Americans over there. Admiral Train is one of the most genial and good-natured men to be found. Nobody could take offense at him personally, and, when the Chinese started for him, it was for some larger reason than anything personal."

Many also believe that the scheme to collect damages from the United States for the exclusion of Chinese citizens from American soil in alleged violation of treaty obligation was devised with official sanction as an act of retaliation and to increase the friction between China and the United States; for, as the New York Tribune shows, there seems to be no merit to the Chinese claims, as the highest authorities of this and other countries have decided that the right to exclude foreigners is "inherent in every indepen

WHERE THE DAWN COMES UP LIKE THUNDER OUT OF CHINA, 'CROSS THE
BAY."-KIPLING.
-Hager in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

dent sovereignty." The facts upon which this interesting case are said to be based, as related by the Hartford Courant, are as follows:

"In 1868 this country made a treaty with China that is known as the Burlingame treaty. The Burlingame treaty placed no restrictions upon Chinese emigration to this country. The treaty of 1880 with China placed restrictions upon the immigration of Chinese laborers, but did not exclude them altogether, and it also guaranteed to Chinese laborers in this country all the most-favored-nation rights and privileges. In 1888, however, and under this treaty, our Congress passed a law forbidding all Chinese laborers who had left this country from returning to it. China protested against