WHAT CAN THE UNITED STATES DO FOR CALLS numerous. ALLS for some form of intervention by the United States Government are becoming more and more frequent and Reports of fresh outrages and massacres have aroused the wrath of many public men, and Senator Hoar is believed to have expressed a widespread sentiment in his message to President Cleveland, pledging his "unwavering support" to any measure that may be recommended to Congress "for putting a stop to the massacre of Christians" in the Turkish Empire, even tho the recommendation should extend so far as the treating of the guilty persons "as pirates or common enemies of the human race." The latest news is that a second terrible massacre has occurred at Morach, and that thousands of Christians were killed. An American theological seminary is reported to have been burned, and two students to have been wounded. The Kurds, it is said, are attacking the Christians under the belief that they are carrying out the intentions of the Government. The new question of interference by the United States raised by Senator Hoar and others is being widely discussed in the press. The People Favor Vigorous Action.-"Our people are not quibblers. They have a wholesale contempt for the shibboleths of so-called diplomacy. They would like to see the United States take a front place in the forceful protest which Christendom is bound to make against the bloody tyranny of the Turk. "Only the cowardly and un-American foreign policy of the Cleveland Administration has prevented the power of this great nation from making itself felt on the Bosporus. "Minister Terrell has only done the bidding of his master in suppressing news in order to condone the Grand Turk's terrible crimes against modern civilization. "What a Thanksgiving all Christendom would have if Turkish misgovernment of Christian provinces could be wiped out! And what a thrill of enthusiasm would pass from Maine to California if the cable should tell us later that on this Thanskgiving Day the guns of an Amercian man-of-war had sounded the death-knell of the Ottoman cruelty that makes all Christians shudder! Unluckily that is impossible. Grover Cleveland is still President. "The Recorder (Rep.), New York. Are We Prepared to Reverse Our Policy ?-"This country has never hitherto been a party to 'the Eastern question,' and it may fairly be presumed that our Government will not depart from the policy of wisely holding aloof from Old World quarrels. Our attitude toward Turkey for its ill-treatment of American citizens, or for violation of treaty pledges, should be precisely our attitude toward another power committing the same offenses, going not a step further nor falling back in the slightest degree from the precedents we have established. Senator Hoar's cry for the intervention of the United States on the ground of 'humanity' has a sound that is peculiarly appealing at this time when the whole world is shocked by the atrocities inflicted on the Armenians by Turkish officers acting under the Sultan's orders or with his tacit approval; but the United States, much as it may sympathize, can not take it upon itself to act as the champion of every oppressed race, unless it is prepared to wage constant warfare and to shed the blood of its citizens in quarrels which reason When our citizens are wronged or maltreated by the Turkish Government it is not only the right but the duty of the United States to exact the amplest reparation for It should make no difference that citizens so can not call their own. their wrongs. If "Following such a policy the course of the United States is logical and consistent; whereas were our Government to make itself a party to intervention, or to announce that it would champion humanity as humanity, it would enter upon a troublous way. it did not prepare to back up this challenge by a show of force it would be ridiculed by the whole world as a braggart who dare not make good menacing words. To follow up a declaration of championship, we should send to the Mediterranean at least a score of vessels with instructions to attack Turkish ports and posts, since military operations in the interior of Armenia are out of the question. But whither would such a demonstration lead us? Not merely against Turkey, but presumably against the European powers, who would sink their differenc. s out of sight to coalesce against an intruder who proclaimed the absence of diplomatic motive in assailing Turkey in the name of 'humanity."" -The Transcript (Rep.), Boston. Only Two Things We Can Do.-"There are only two things which we can do with effect. One is what Mr. Terrell is doing, to address vigorous remonstrances to the Porte about the safety of our own citizens. These have apparently been effective thus far, but more by good luck than anything else. Threatening the Porte with our navy would be bad policy, because he knows that our navy can not do anything more to him than the combined navies of Europe which are threatening him already. . . . No one has yet suggested the dispatch of our little army, or of the Seventh Regiment, to occupy Armenia and fight the Turks in the snow. When that proposal is made we shall discuss it with the gravity which it merits. "The other thing we might do, and ought to do, is to send money, provisions, and clothing for the thousands of unhappy people, mainly, in all probability, women and children, who will have to face the terrible winter of Asia Minor without any protection against weather and hunger. If there were more of this going on, we could do with very much less 'voicing' of indignation and less vituperation of the Turk. It is a feasible work and ought to be actively prosecuted. A fighting rôle on the Turkish question is not open to us. The humane rôle is. Jingoes ought to reconcile themselves to the fact that Providence has clearly not intended that we should have a hand in all fights, or it would have made all parts of the globe accessible to our navy. The ruffians and oppressors who carry on their atrocities in the interior of large continents are clearly meant to be chastised by other hands than ours, and in the mean time we must all be thankful that we have a President and Secretary of State who are mindful of the national dignity, and do not expose us to the ridicule of mankind by sending forth impotent yelps to the ends of the earth." -The Evening Post (Ind.), New York. "There can be no doubt that Senator Hoar's righteous wrath is shared by millions of people. Words can not adequately express the horror of the situation. The whole civilized world stands aghast. The cruelties are frightful in their nature and enormous in their extent. Every hour the cry of Christendom that the nations shall make common cause against the merciless murderers increases in vehemence and in volume. No doubt it is difficult to know just what to do, but the feeling that something must and shall be done is one which is sure to find imperious expression in Washington pretty soon, as it is finding it already in London, Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and every other Christian capital. "- The Advertiser (Rep.), Boston. "On contemplating the fearful results which attend the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe, civilization must stand aghast. The terrible deeds that must be tolerated for policy's sake by a Christian people stamp the whole institution as an outrage so great that it is a wonder that Providence will permit it. In complications that demand such sacrifices of a national conscience, the free people of the United States would have no part. To combine with royal murderers is not the duty of a free nation. The wisdom of the Monroe doctrine has received no more striking illustration than from the events of the past few months. The Monroe doctrine essentially implies a policy of no interference in foreign affairs, no entanglements with European nations which would lead to putting the United States in the shameful position of England at present.”—The Times (Dem.), Kansas City. A genuine American [President] would have something to say about the perils of American missionaries in Turkey, and if distrust or fear of each other render European powers unwilling to take the first independent and uncompromising step for maintenance of the rights of civilization, even in the dominions of the 'unspeakable Turk,' who ought to have been tumbled out of Europe many years ago, this nation might at least defend its own citizens as promptly as it did when the United States really had no naval power, more than thirty years ago, and was not known, even to itself, as a great power in warfare on land."-The Tribune (Rep.), New York. A EUROPEAN ECONOMIST THE ON AMERICA'S FINANCIAL SITUATION. HE leading French economist to-day is M. Paul LeroyBeaulieu, whose influence is recognized throughout Europe. As professor, author, and, above all, editor of "L'Economiste Français," he occupies a commanding position in the economic world. His view of the present financial situation in America and of the most feasible solution of our difficulties is likely to attract wide attention. He contributes to The Forum (December) an article on the "Conditions for American Commercial and Financial Supremacy," wherein he submits observations on two points-the issues of paper money by the Government and the question of silver or bimetalism. At the close of an elaborate review of the situation, he states his conclusion to be that "the two necessary conditions on which the United States can secure a financial position as important as that they now hold in agriculture and in industry," and hope to "approach and equal Great Britain as a financial power," are, first, the abandonment of all paper money issued by the state, and, second, the definitive adoption of gold as the sole standard. Our "frequent and severe crises," which obstruct our development in so many directions, M. Leroy-Beaulieu attributes wholly to our failure to observe these two conditions. The article opens with a few general observations concerning the unfitness of Government to maintain paper money in circulation, even if the paper is redeemable in specie. Paper currency, says the writer, must not be rigid and uniform, but elastic, and government officials have neither the personal nor material means to keep such a currency flexible, only business men, with special training and experience, being equal to such a task. Coming to the difficulty of maintaining a gold reserve, M. LeroyBeaulieu says: "The inconvenience of state regulation of fiduciary currency is most striking in connection with the maintenance of the specie reserve. This reserve is absolutely indispensable to any country if it is desired that transactions shall have a solid basis, and contracts for a term of some years shall be possible. In most countries the banks, either public or private, maintain the specie reserve. Obliged to pay their notes in specie on demand, it is their permanent interest that the specie reserve shall not be exhausted. Moreover, they have very effectual means for protecting it. Gold may be required for export to settle debts that have either a commercial or financial source, resulting in the latter case from either public or private loans. Gold must always be furnished for export, otherwise business with other countries will be restricted and at times rendered impossible, and the credit of the country will be impaired. But when gold exports become too extensive, and particularly when they seem caused by a speculative movement, and threaten the metallic reserve of the country, the banks have an excellent means of obviating and removing the evil-an advance in the rate of discount. rapid and adequate way to protect the specie reserve and prevent excessive exports of gold. Thus whenever the banks, public or private, are charged with the protection of the metallic reserve of the country, they accomplish it with certainty by this sovereign method of raising the money rate. In a normal condition of international financial relations, this advance may be moderate, and the country experi ences only slight detriment, a light and momentary embarrassment, not to be compared to the shock and the discredit resulting from an outgo of gold the end of which can not be calculated. On the contrary, when the state issues the fiduciary currency, as in the United States, it has no real means of protecting the metallic reserve. It is under obligation to pay gold to all who demand it, without any power to regulate or reduce the demand. It is absolutely disarmed. Its sole resource is to secure specie by loans abroad. But as these loans have no effect on the general current of business, their proceeds are soon exhausted, and they must be renewed. This incapacity to protect its reserve is the chief reason why a state is not fitted to issue fiduciary money." "There has been and still is much discussion of the means of protecting specie reserves. In reality there is only one way in which good results may be obtained in this direction. To raise the rate from 22 or 3 per cent. to 4. 5, or even 6 per cent. (in former times it has touched 10 per cent. in England) is the only With respect to silver, M. Leroy-Beaulieu says that Europe is unable to understand the hesitation of this country to reduce it to the rank of subsidiary coin. England's supremacy has been largely due to her gold standard, he says, and continues: "If the United States are to attain a commercial, and still more a financial position, equal to that of England, the dollar must be given the qualities of the pound sterling; that is, there must be no sort of doubt that it is a gold dollar, and that never for any reason or under any pretext that which is called a dollar shall be paid in silver. Then all nations will have the same faith in the dollar that they have in the pound sterling. As the United States have a territory infinitely more vast than that of England, a territory full of the most varied resources and in which capital can find great opportunities of profit, that country will become the chosen land for the capital of the whole world. The old nations, with narrow territory already almost completely in use, such as (besides Great Britain) France, Belgium, Switzerland, and recently Germany-all these strenuous producers of savings that they no longer know how to employ will direct their overflowing capital toward the United States. All that is lacking is a completely solid monetary system to enable the American people to profit by a large part of the capital accumulated in such enormous quantities by the old nations of Europe." Not a single European country, says M. Leroy-Beaulieu, attaches the slightest importance to bimetalism, and the talk about an international agreement is perfectly gratuitous. With regard to the alleged scarcity of gold, he says: "The increase in the production of gold since 1888, and especially since 1893, and the probability of a still greater increase within the next ten years, must blast the hopes of the bimetalists. If the production of one metal only-the one most convenient for use as money, most sought in the arts, the only one at present employed in international payments-shall amply suffice for all the needs of the civilized world, why should there be joined with it a less convenient metal, more despised in the arts, and to the use of which modern custom is opposed? The bimetallic movement must be regarded as bound to collapse and vanish." The article concludes with the following advice to America: "In these conditions there is but one course worthy of a great nation like the United States. It is not to persist in trying to 'rehabilitate' silver; it is definitely to recognize the preeminence of gold and to make of this metal the sole keystone of the American monetary system. Silver will never be anything but subsidiary money for the Western nations. The United States Treasury will, without doubt, lose a part of the sums it has so imprudently sunk in the purchase of silver. But this loss is unimportant for so rich and progressive a people; it is of no consequence compared with the solidity the gold standard will give to the American monetary system and to American credit. "So soon as the capitalists, small and great, of Europe, shall know that the United States have definitely adopted the gold standard and relegated silver to a subordinate monetary rôle, the savings of Western Europe will flow toward that country. Freed from the fear that he may some day be repaid in depreciated money, every person with savings in all Europe will be happy to This "The philosopher and the writer of song or romance could not visit a scene which is fuller of inspiration and suggestion. To see 15,000 or 20,000 people, men and women alike, on the occasion of a brilliant play rising simultaneously from their places, waving their flags and ribbons in the air and shouting their enthusiasm and apparent joy, is a sight to thrill the most serious man. is a scene which is distinctly American, and if the people of Europe could be transplanted from continent to continent for a few hours, and could witness one of these great games, they would be treated to a sight to fill them with positive bewilderment." The Boston Transcript congratulates the friends of football upon the results of “a season which many have felt to be one of trial" as to whether excesses can be rooted out, and reviews the situation as follows: Of If "In the games between the greater colleges there has been but one instance of disqualification for‘slugging,' a record made with umpires who have been chosen because of their impartiality and strictness in enforcing every penalty under the rules and who have been alert in the discharge of those onerous duties. covert meanness and obvious attempts to disable there have been several instances which have been seen from the side lines but which have escaped detection. Considering the multiplicity of opportunities these have been of the rarest. It has come to be recognized among the players themselves that such underhandedness must be held by each individual as his veriest secret. known among fellow players, censure will meet it and it will not be tolerated. It may be of special interest in this neighborhood to say that the closest observation has failed to detect a single instance in which a Harvard player has done one of these meaner things. "The amended rules have modified the game somewhat. Punting is almost constant and the game more open. Defensive tactics have been more systematized. Injuries of any moment have been wanting. The games have been fought out in the fullest, fairest, and most sportsmanlike spirit, which in itself must be beneficial. The other benefits of the game, the careful training, the care in every detail of play, the courage, the perseverance, the quick judgment in measuring opponents, and in seizing and making opportunities, the prolonged determined struggles in the face of every odds in order to 'play the game,' are too well recog nized to need comment. It is to this extreme carefulness in every detail of play, the pluck with which she meets the unexpected, and the calm determination with which she has fought for all that was in her, that Yale is indebted for her many victorious seasons. Hero worship, which sometimes accompanies the victors, is not always wise, but the qualities which the game develops and from which its chief value comes will wisely minimize what of this is fulsome. A STARTLING JUVENILE CRIMES. STRANGE feature of the criminal record of the past week or two is the youth of many of those accused of atrocious and revolting deeds. Young boys have figured as murderers, burglars, forgers, and thieves. In New York a fourteen-year-old boy named Beresheim is under arrest on the charge of having murdered a man named Krauer, and the Gerry Society is said to be convinced of his guilt. Two students of Union College, charged with burglary, have confessed that they had begun as amateur vandals and gradually developed into professional thieves and robbers. But the case which has created the greatest sensation is that of the four boys who recently wrecked a fast mail train near Rome, in this State, causing the death of two men and severe injuries to a number of others. The object of the crime seems to have been plunder, and there is said to be evidence of great care and skill in the planning of the crime. The leader is a boy of eighteen named Hildreth, a son of a New York lawyer, and his associates are Bristol, aged eighteen, Plate, aged seventeen, and Hibbard, aged nineteen. After their arrest, detectives found a number of sensational stories in their rooms, including a life of Jesse James, and the general impression is that their crime was due to the effects of detective novels and "penny dreadfuls." The newspapers, in commenting on this extraordinary number of juvenile crimes, discuss the means of preventing the circulation of such literature among the young. We reproduce some interesting selections: The Boys Lived in a False World.-"Theirs is not a case which calls for any exercise of clemency, for they are not children, nor did they act on impulse in committing their crime. They have all reached the age of responsibility for their deeds, the youngest being over eighteen, and all are possessed of at least average intelligence. One or two have had unusually good advantages, and they planned the train-wrecking deliberately, and proposed to rob the injured and dead victims with all the cold-blooded calculation of hardened criminals. It is charitable to think that they did not realize what they were doing, and had no definite prevision of the horror and cruelty of their intended deed-with its ghastly corpses and the bruised and wounded men to be taken from the wreck. Had some mental process put before either of them, even the most hardened, a picture of the dead engineer as he lay crushed under his engine, from which he refused to jump, there would have been no train-wrecking by that party. "How to explain their crime is not so easy without knowing more of the ancestry and environment than the dispatches have given. "Vile literature plays its part in this ruin of young lives, as was to have been expected. Flamboyant exploitation of the deeds of famous criminals, and exciting if not eulogistic descriptions of exploits of train-robbers, thieves, and murderers of the Jesse James type are said to have been eagerly and frequently read by these youthful train-wreckers. In Hildreth's room, which was a sort of headquarters for the gang, sharing that honor with the canal-boat saloon, were found numerous examples of this sort of literature, and in the pocket of one of the gang, when arrested, was a biography of Jesse James. Worse literature than this is said to have also been found in the possession of these boys, and the evidence is complete that the work of demoralization and training for their crime was completed if not begun by this sort of reading. The case seems to be not only one of exemplified viciousness, the origin of which is not plainly traced, but another example of the working of a diseased and distorted imagination operative on weak characters and on natures without moral foundations. These boys lived in a false world, with false conceptions of heroism, false ideals, and false notions of enjoyment and happiness, and they must awaken from their degrading dreams, if they ever do, in prison. Their condition differs only in degree from that of hundreds of others, and the authors and publishers of the kind of literature with which they fed their imaginations can not escape responsibility for their crime and its consequences."-The Republican, Springfield. Responsibility of Sensational Writers.-"They have sought to make heroic the most cowardly of criminals, for there can be no more cowardly crime than that of wrecking a railroad train. A few years ago the boys, who, chafed under the restraints of home discipline, wanted to go out to fight Indians. Later they were taken with the romance of the cowboy's life, but as both these romances have disappeared the sensational writers have found nothing better to glorify than the deeds of cowardly criminals who placed obstructions upon railroads and then robbed the dead and wounded. "This is a wonderful degeneration in the wild hero. In war there has never been found a worse example of the sneaking, cowardly outcast than the camp follower who skulked between the lines and roamed over the battle-field to rob the dead and wounded. But in our modern yellow-back literature such cowards are made over into heroes to tempt restless and perhaps thoughtless boys to follow lines of crime."-The Inter Ocean, Chicago. Of a Piece with the Jingo Craze for Foreign Adventure."The boy train-wreckers near Rome, N. Y., had this in common with the student burglars at Union College, that they found life flat and dull and felt justified in resorting to crime to enliven it. The students distinctly say that they set out on their career of robbery 'for fun.’ If excitement is the main end of life, we do not see how they can be blamed; and that it is, they have many teachers to tell them. At bottom, the jingo craze for foreign adventure and war is all of a piece with the desire of fictionfed boys for a glorious career of crime. "How far a semi-criminal literature is responsible for the production of boy-criminals, is a nice question. That it pushes many an ill-balanced mind into crime is undoubted, but we still have to ask what makes the mind ill-balanced, and whether the latent tendency to crime might not have been awakened by some other means, if not by a prurient or sensational literature. The case is like the inquiry whether detailed accounts in the press of extraordinary suicides do not directly cause other suicides. There is some evidence that they do, but it has been recently pointed out that, in Switzerland, where the number of suicides is proportionately greater than in any other country of Europe, the press is very little sensational and makes no display of the attractive horrors of suicide. However the question be decided, it is plain that government, when most paternal, can not suppress the literary glorification of crime. Efforts have been made again and again in England to stamp out the 'penny dreadfuls,' but one Home Secretary after another has had to confess that it passed the wit of lawyers to draw a bill which would discriminate between, say, Stevenson's 'Kidnaped' and the 'bluggiest' Whitechapel hair-raiser."-The Evening Post, New York. The Duty of Sunday-School Teachers.-"We believe that but a very small part of those who teach the young either for their mental or spiritual benefit, have any adequate conception of the harm done by the pernicious class of literature to which we have referred. Its sale is something enormous, and boys are its chief patrons. They conceal themselves at home and read it. They read it while delivering papers, carrying messages, doing errands, wherever and running elevators, going to and from school· whenever an opportunity can be made. Ninety per cent. of the juvenile criminals are lovers of the cheap trash, and the evil is growing in a way to alarm the better elements of society. It is the duty of the Sunday-school teacher not only to teach the observance of what is good, but the avoidance of what is wrong, and should the powerful auxiliary of the church direct its energies against the evil of corrupting literature, the work of harvesting the souls of the young would be wonderfully promoted. "— The Free Press, Detroit. "To every one who has the care of a growing boy or girl, the moral comes with special emphasis. The boy or girl who reads bad books does so usually because he or she has no interesting and attractive good books to read. At this day, when almost every publishing-house issues at holiday time large numbers of the best class of books for boys and girls, it is more than a pity when the sons of well-to-do citizens go to the lives of vicious, brutal criminals for their instruction and amusement."-The Advertiser, Boston. "I SUPPOSE you are a socialist, or anarchist, or something?" asked the lady of vague ideas. "Madam," replied Mr. Brokedown Baldwin. "I am a passive altruist." "What in the name of common sense is that?" "I believe in being helped all I can."-The Journal, Indianapolis. ΟΝ THE GREAT RAILROAD POOL. NE of the most powerful railroad organizations ever perfected in this country came into existence as a result of the unanimous adoption, by the trunk-line presidents, of the plan for the regulation of rates and traffic which has long been under discussion. According to The Railroad World, Philadelphia, the purposes of the agreement are: "To aid in fulfilling the purposes of the Interstate-Commerce Act; to cooperate with each other and adjacent transportation associations; to establish and maintain reasonable and just rates, fares, rules, and regulations on State and interstate traffic; to prevent unjust discrimination, and to secure the reduction and concentration of agencies, and the introduction of economies in the conduct of the freight and passenger service." The articles have to be ratified by the boards of directors of the nine trunk lines involved, and the plan is expected to go into force on January 1, 1896. There are provisions imposing a penalty for infractions of the agreement, and the intention is to enforce it as an express and direct contract. The question widely discussed in connection with this pooling arrangement is whether it does not violate the Interstate-Commerce Law. A number of newspapers believe that it does, and are vigorously denouncing it as a gigantic conspiracy against the people. Senator W. E. Chandler takes the same view, and has written another letter to President Cleveland calling his attention to the agreement, and demanding that he shall "stop it" by an "earnest word" to Mr. J. P. Morgan, who is one of the chief parties to the transaction. We append a number of comments from different points of view : Legal and Beneficial.- "The effect of such an agreement as briefly outlined can not now be fully appreciated. It means the maintenance of rates and the abolition of unjust discrimination, and if these can be fully carried out the benefit, alike to the public and the corporations themselves, is incalculable. The railroads have annually lost millions of dollars in rate wars, and further large sums have been lost through discrimination; and the general public has benefited but little in either case. Under the plan, the small shipper will be on a par with the large shipper; one rate will be given to all, which will thus largely eliminate the railroads as a factor in the competition between business men in the same locality. It is not to be supposed that such a gigantic scheme as this will not meet with great opposition, especially by those who have heretofore enjoyed the benefit of a discriminating rate, and by people who pose as the dear public's friend, like Senator Chandler, for example. But it is probably safe to say that the provisions of the agreement have been kept well within the 'intent and purposes' of the Interstate-Commerce Law and all other laws having any bearing upon the railroads. Never before has there been such an overhauling of Federal and State laws applying to railroads. Such being the case, there is no reasonable ground for doubting the legality of the new agreement, nor should there be any doubt as to the sincerity of those who have agreed to enforce its provisions."- The Railroad World, Philadelphia. Why Don't They Simply Obey the Law?-"The new railroad trust is the largest conspiracy of the kind ever formed. It is also the one most dangerous to the popular welfare. It combines enterprises representing three billions of dollars' capital. It places in the hands of nine irresponsible men the absolute control of the railroad business of the continent. "It confers upon these men the right and the power to determine absolutely at what rate freight and passengers shall be transported from one point to another, without any check from competition or any relief from reason. "These nine men are empowered to say arbitrarily what the cotton, wheat, and corn crops of the country shall be taxed as the condition of reaching a market. They are empowered to decide what tribute shall be levied upon the dry-goods, the clothing, the hats, shoes, clocks, groceries, agricultural implements, and everything else used by the people in their passage from maker of a trust. There could be nothing more flagrantly violative of law. The statutes against it are specific, and without reference to the statutes our highest courts have held such combinations to be criminal at common law. "The excuse just now urged is that the agreement is necessary to protect the small shipper against unjust discriminations in favor of the large shipper. But the small shipper is protected already. The law makes discrimination against him a penal offense. "If the railroad magnates are really anxious to protect him they have only to obey the law. Their contention is in substance that they are such incorrigible lawbreakers that they must resort to the greater crime of conspiracy in order to prevent themselves from committing the smaller one of unjust discrimination."— The World, New York. Not a Trust Because Subject to the Commission.-"Senator Chandler evidently does not see the merits of the agreement. Not only would it lift many railroads from the hands of receivers, save many others from a similar impending fate, earn money for the stockholders of railroads, and in time of its own accord force a uniform reduction of rates and fares, but the shippers, the greatest present sufferers, would be benefited... "The competition between railroads is so keen that all the large systems endeavor to stimulate traffic by fostering enterprises along the lines. When it shall have been demonstrated that railroads, by charging certain fixed rates to all shippers, can earn fixed charges and a reasonable interest for the stockholders and shall then have a surplus left, the time will have arrived for a reduction of rates sufficient to equalize the surplus. "The railroads are the great factors of the commerce of this vast country. In the building up of one man's business at the expense of tearing down another's they are not stimulating that commerce, and it was the realization of this by the presidents, as well as the desire to earn something for the stockholders, that prompted the successful drafting and approval of the agreement which Mr. Chandler seeks to have torn to pieces, or if the parties to the contract sign it to have them proceeded against. "It may be, as Mr. Chandler asserts, that the agreement is only a step toward securing legal authority for pooling of traffic, but it is hard to see wherein it becomes a trust, since it is only for the enforcement of the rates of tariff and fares approved by the Interstate-Commerce Commission. Mr. Chandler is a lawyer, but were he an iron-master, and had he to meet the prices of a competitor who was given a secret rebate on every ton of pig he received or every ton of manufactured product shipped, his wail would be in a different key."- The Courier-Journal, Louisville. A Useful Plan, but Forbidden by Law.-"There is practically no difference of opinion on the advisability of pooling railroad rates, if the law should allow such a course. The difficulty at present is that the law expressly forbids such arrangements, and there is a strong sentiment among business men that if any change at all is made in the Interstate-Commerce Law, the provision against pooling should be stricken out, inasmuch as that provision is to some extent an incentive to such unnecessary competition between the railroads as would usually lead in the end to a rate-war. Congress Should be Heard From.-"The acts of Congressthe will of the people expressed through their representativesare utterly and most contemptuously ignored by these railroad lords, who propose to operate the great transportation lines in the interests of the officers and stockholders, to the detriment of the interests of the traveling and trafficking public. "The audacity of these monopoly lovers and promoters should be rebuked, and, perhaps, will be. That they do not feel absolutely secure in their move to keep rates up and crush competition is manifest from the fact that the gigantic pooling arrangement does not go into effect until Congress shall have been in session one month. It is to be hoped, however, that they will hear from · Congress in a way that will effectually check their high-handed proceedings. "It will be fortunate for the monopolists if their joint traffic conspiracy does not result in a measure looking to the absolute ownership of railroads, particularly the trunk lines, by the National Government."- The Pilot, Norfolk. Speaker Reed's Service to the Republic. -Theodore Roosevelt reviews the record of Thomas B. Reed as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the current issue of The Forum. The title of the Fifty-first Congress to a definite place in American history, according to him, rests chiefly on the new rules in regard to dilatory motions and quorum-counting enforced by Mr. Reed. Mr. Roosevelt recalls the bitter and widespread opposition to these rules on the part of the Democratic and Independent newspapers, and their subsequent vindication by the Supreme Court and a Democratic Congress. We quote as follows from the article: "The Reed rules represented the mere application of common sense, courage, and honesty to parliamentary procedure. So evident did this become that his very opponents while still in power were themselves forced to adopt his rules, and the people, by an overwhelming majority, undid the wrong they had done and replaced him as Speaker; only in a position far more secure and far more triumphant than when he had first held the chair, for be had back of him an enormously increased majority. There have been times when a statesman has triumphed after defeat because he himself has changed; but in this case it is not Reed who has changed-it is the popular feeling. His position remains unaltered. He consistently maintained the righteousness and justice of his proceedings, and his bitter political enemies were forced by the hard logic of events to acknowledge that they had been wrong and that he had been right. Rarely in the history of American politics has any statesman received so dramatically complete a vindication. "Speaker Reed rendered a great service to his party by his action as Speaker of the Fifty-first Congress; and, by the fact of having rendered this service, placed himself at one leap among the foremost of the party leaders; but he rendered an even greater service to the American Republic. In order that a republic may exist there must be some form of representative government, and this representative government must include a legislature. If the practises to which Mr. Reed put a stop were allowed to become chronic, representative government would itself be an impossibility. Not for many years has there been a man in our public life to whom the American people owe as great a debt as they do to Speaker Thomas B. Reed." A Law Against Protracted Campaigns.-Following the initiative of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce in advocating a short campaign, the Providence (Rhode Island) Board of Trade has adopted a memorial to Congress asking that a Federal law shall be passed fixing the dates of national conventions, or providing that they shall not exceed three months previous to Presidential elections. The Chicago Chronicle, one of the few large papers which oppose the movement for shorter campaigns, vigorously attacks this proposal as an attempt to infringe upon political rights. It says: There would be as much sense in a law declaring that no man shall form his political opinions except within three months of a Presidential election as there would be in a law declaring that the candidate that he is to support shall be nominated within three months of the day when the popular vote is to be cast. A citizen bas as much right to plenty of time for making up his mind as to the ticket that he will vote as he has to plenty of time for making up his mind as to what principles and plans of administrative policy he likes best. The Constitution gives Congress no power to fix the time when national conventions shall be held for the nomination of candidates and the adoption of platforms. . . . The methods by which political parties shall manage their affairs in honest ways is not a proper subject of legislation. It is within the domain of personal liberty, which neither Congress nor any State has a right to invade. The fair, voluntary action of individuals and of political parties as to the time, manner, and method of discharging political duties and exercising political rights is not a proper subject of police surveillance under either Federal or local laws." |