NEW 19, 1901.

The Week. The prompt recovery on the Stock Ex-

change on Monday morning was hardly needed as evidence that the feeling of panicky apgrehension which immediate. ly followed the attack on President Me. Kmley and the news that he could not survive, had no baswin sound judgment of the general situation. I t was inevlta. ble that an event which so profoundly shocked the entire civilized world should shake also the securlty and money mar. Icets. Part of the function of these mar- kets, indeed, IS to express in tangible shape, wlth matters-of this sort, the sen- timent of the hour. Precisely, therefore, as last Fridays excited drop in prices reflected the dismay with which the news from B d a l o was received, so the rise on Monday was in a way the voice of public confidence and reassurance. There was all along, in fact, as little warrant for the free-handed predictions of moneT market panic as. there would have been for predictions that the American people generally would break out into the lynch. ing of anarchists, or into wild and senseless fright over the countrys ture. Its own problems the money mar- ket still has to meet, and i t will meet them as they arise. But these are quite independent of such a collapse and re covery as have followed the incidents of the few past days.

The comments of the English press on Mr. Roosevelts accession t o the Presi- dency are generally complimentary and hopeful. The ChrolzzcZe alone thinks that he mill out-Monroe the Mon- roe Doctrine m his interpretation of the policy which goes by that name, and adds that his attitude toward the Isth- mian Canal question can be inferred accordingly. A safer augury as to his position on ;he canal question can per- haps be drawn from the few words which he pronounced when he the oath of office almost at the bedside of the dead President. He said, with much solemnity: &I to state that it shall be my a m sf President -McKinley for the peaoe, the contmne absdutely the &asperlLy, and the honor of country This promise does not commit Mr. -Roose- velt -to a slavish imitation of his prede- cessor. It does not require him to find out in every instance and in minute detail what Mr. McKinley would have done,. and then to the same things; but it does commit hfm to Mr. .McKin-

policy o? honorable peace with other nations, so- far as it has been made clear. In other way that policy

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been made so clear as in respect of the Isthmian Canal treaty. It was reduced t o writing and sent to the Senate. After zmendment by that body, it was referred to the British Government, and some of the amendments were objected to. Since that time there have been negotiations, vhich are likewise in writing bnt have not yet been made public. All that need be said now is that a conscientious ad- herence by President Roosevelt to the promise he made at Buffalo, will satisfy every patriotic desire as to the Isthmian Canal on this side of the water, and re- lieve all apprehensions on the other side.

The outline of the Presidents policy telegraphed from Buffalo is as encour- aging for what it omits as for what it contains. There is not a line in it whlch breathes short-wmded accents of new broils. On the contrary, It contains the promise to use all conciliatory methods of arbitration in all disputes with for- eign nations, so as to avoid armed strife. The spirit of Jingoism is not only wanting from It, but IS expressly cast out. This is the most admirable feature 01 the communication. Next to this assurance of peace ( for it is certain that no nation is going to seek a quar- rel wlth is the declaration of the trade policy whlch the new Admmistra- tlon will favor, namely, a more liberal and extensive reciprocity in the pur- chase and sale of commodities, and the abolition entlrely of commercial Tar with other countries, and the adoption of reciprocity treaties. This is identical with the policy already adopted by President McKinley and advocated by him in his last pub- lic speech, as well as in many previous ones. Mr. Roosevelt has been a consis- tent Republican throngh all his pohti- cal career, and has perhaps fplt con- strained at times to accept a protective policy more extreme than he would have liked He has never been reckoned, however, as a high-tariff man. His language, on the other -hand, respect- ing the merchant marine wlll per- haps be interpreted as favoring the Hanna-Payne ship-subsldy schen?e. Yet it does not really commit him t o any particular method of encouraging the merchant-marine. Neither the Repub- lican platform of 1900 nor that of 1896 commits the party to any particular method of doing so. Most gratifying is the closing paragraph in the Buffalo declaration which promises the plac- ing in positions of trust men of only the highest integrity. This, me will not loubt, is the firm and honest purpose of the new President. .~

. . . Senator Wellington of Maryland was

!xpelled last week from a club ip Balti-

more of -which he- was a member, for Some very Imfeeling remarks about the attempted assassination of President Mc- Kinley, while the issue was still decided. Those remarks, he says, were not intended for publication, but, having been publlshed, he wishes it to be un- derstood that they express his senti- ments The sentiments of his fellow club members are that they do not want his company any longer, and puhlic sen- timent concurs with them. Every club has its own rules and regulations con- cerning membership, resignation, and expulsion, and it is presumed that these rules have been followed in Wellingtons case. If not, he has his remedy in the courts of law. As t o the suggestion made by ex-Senator Chandlers paper, the Con- cord (N. H.) Monztor, that Mr. Welling- ton be expelled from the Senate of the United States for the same offence, the Constitution says that each house of Congress may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for dis- orderly behavior, and, with the concur- rence of two-thirds, expel a member. The matter of expulsion is left to the dis- cretion of the Senate, for, although dis- orderly behdvior is mentioned in con- nection with it, the power of expulsion is not restricted thereby. Evidently the framers of the Constitution intended to place no limitation on the power t o ex- pel except that a mere majority should not exercise it.

It is pretty certain that two-thirds of the Senate will no t concur in expelling

member for words spoken outzide of the Senate, not accompanied by any overt act. Jesse D. Bright, a Senator from Indiana, was expelled in 1862 for writing a letter t o Jefferson Davis, whom he addressed as Presldent of the Confederation of States, introducing a man who desired to sell to the Confede- rate Government a new and improved fire-arm, this fact being mentioned in the letter. It was held that this was dan- gerously near to the crime of treason. L t was certainly holding correspondence with a public enemy, and giving COun- tenance to the assumption that Jefferson Davis was the head of an indeDendent government; either of which acts was intolerable 1n a Senator of the United States I t mas not contended that Bright intended to put improved weapon the hands of the Confederates, because. he knew nothing about the particular weapon referred to, but the other Of- fences embraced in the writing of the letter were too glaring to be condoned. Bright was accordingly expelled, and rightly so. This case, which the con- cord Monitor cites as a precedent for the expulsion of Wellington, is entirely dis- similar. It has no more likeness to the

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216 affair of the latter than the trial Of Aaron Burr or the impeachment Of

' drew Jackson would have. ..

CL - = Secretary Gage has very propeily ex- tended the time of the Treasury's offer to holders o Government bonds, and he may receive more tenders later. But the offer 'of barely one-third of the total amount asked for- has confirmed the rather general financial view that bonds cannot easily be obtained redemp- 't;on purposes. The trouble is not that bonds available for sale do not exist; at least half of the public debt is in other hands than those of the national banks, and could hence, if its owners.chose, he surrendered. But the inducement to sell does not exist. For one thing, the Trea- sury's public bid for bonds tends in a way to defeat its own purposes. On the o11en market, prices for the class of bonds most readily available moved up

points within forty-eight hours after the Treasury circular was issued. This,

course, tends to make prospective sellers h'ksitate. The well-known fact, moreover, that capital released from Government bonds cannot easlly at the present time find secure investment ex- cept on very exacting terms, removes another possible inducement. There- fore, do not think the financial pub- lic will find it wise to rest in fancied zssurance that bond-buying ends and settles the whole embarrassment Some much more radical measures, in the way of permanent reform in the system of the Treasury, must so.on be taken. In the meantime, however, there is this much I.:C comfort in the existing situation: that really urgent needs, which would presumably be reflected in higher money rates and lower prices for securjties in general, always go a good way towards rsmov~ng automatically the obstacles in the way of more liberal offering of bonds to the Treasury.

One fact ought to be scrupulously in- sisted on, In all discussion of present complications between the Treasury and the money market. This is, that the duty of Congress, when it is able t o act

the sitllation, is t o reduce the sur- plus, not by increasing public expendi- ture, but by decreasing taxes. On the fdce of things, this would appear to be a. self-evident conclusion. Unfortunate- ly. it has not been so at numerous sim- ilar junctures in the past-notably in the period of 1886-1890, when an increase of $66,000,000 in the year's Federal re- ceipts caused an increase of $65,000,000 in the annual pension appropriation, and nearly doubled the size of river and harbor .bills The consequences of that experiment in reducing a current sur- plus by forcing the,Government to spend it, taught their own lesson,mid it quite as effectively as in the earlier experiment reducing a national sur

The Nation. Ilus by giving it to the-States. In 1894, ts in 1837, the Government was almost )n the verge of bankruptcy before its !xperiment mas fairly under way. Only he indirect nature of the Federal Goq- :rnment's largest taxes, and- hence the tbsence of an immediate pinch upon the .axpayer, has made such attempts ;olve the problem possible. To appre- 5ate fully their injustice and absurdity, t is necessary only to imagine a sim- lar course of action in State or city inances-an eager search for new means If expenditure, with the avowed ?ose of getting rid of the proceeds of ;oo high taxation. When the private ichemers and subsidy-hunters besiege .he Capitol next December, as they will, pith appeals for Congress- t o relieve .hem only in order to reheve the money narket, it will be wise to remember that ;he taxpayer has some rights in the ?remises.

The Agricultural Department's figures If last week seem to that the corn :rap, taken as ,a 'whole, will be th.? small- :st with two exceptions in twenty-Eve ypars; those emeptions,being 1894 a n d LS81. , The natural result- has been a rlse in .the price of corn to 2 figure something like one-third higher than :he price a year ago, and this in turn has already cut down exports of corn bom this country, since the 1st of Au. gust, some Qfteen million bushels. Our teaders are, however, already familiar with the remarkable offset which the :Lances of nature have granted to thi! zountry through the wheat crop's great :ood-fortune. I t is true that the same Government report reduces to some ex- tent its August estimate even on the veld of wheat. But, after making thif zllowance, the indicated crop will st111

the largest with one exception in hlstory. This huge product has already been assured a ready market more quick. Iy than ever before in a year of abun dant harvest. Europe's crops have turn ed out as a whole deficient, Russia in particular failing to make good its ear. tier promise: and the Continent has been forced to buy wheat from America on a~ absolutely unexampled scale. Not onlJ did last month's exports of wheat ant flour surpass those of any previous gust, but they have never been approach

in the most active shipping 'period oj the past. The increase during last.montl. in wheat and flour exported has beer greater by fully $8,000,000 than the de crease in corn, and the crowning fact 01 this^ singular harvest outcome is t h a the largest' profit the wheat hade's good fortune has been enjoyed by farm ers in the very States where the cor1 crop failed.

The terms dictated on Saturday- tc Shaffer and his asiocia;es of the Amal ganlated Association Board by the Stee

[Vol. 73, No. 1890 Corporation, evidence an eveu more ut- ter defeat ehan had been anticipated. Not only have nine mills been lost by the Amalgamated, but-most important of- all-the annual conference hetween the employers and the" union has been iacriEced. T-he present terms are to be OT permaneht valid~ty, unless the Trust sees fit to .terminate them by giving Kinety days'' notice of its intention. In losing the right t o dlscuss the scale a t the beginning of each year, the Amalga- mated practically gives up all claims to recognition. So long as it retained this right, it fulfilled a definite economic function that was of considerable im- portance. BY giving it up, the -4malga- mated degenerates into a mere associa- tion of working&en without official status. AS such, its utility will be 'of doubtful value. At best a long time must elapse before it can recover the position which it has lost.

action last week of a body, of South, Carolina mill presidents, in Jo t - ing to .ask for legislation on the subject o child labor, indicates appreciation of the needs of employees as unusual -as gratifying. There is nom very little factory legislation of any sort in the Southern States, and hardly any organi- zation of labor. The rapid growth of manufacturing, however, is likely to pro- duce a great transformation in this state of things, and it m1ll probably not - be long before a system of labor and factory leg~slation similar to that pre- vailing in the North will be introduced. In the present transitional stage a sym- pathetic attitude on the part of capi- talists may result in giving a right di- rectlon to enactments and preventing un- wise restrictions upon production. The South Carolina mill-owners will ask that the age of factory children be less than ten and twelve years for day and night work respectively, and that a com- pulsory school law be passed. These ages seem early as compared with those prescribed by the legislation of New York, Massachusetts, and Ather Northern States. This restriction will, however, make a beginning, and further acts can follow when there has been time to re- adjust the conditions of production and the supply of labor.

-In view of the testimony presented by Rear-Admiral Schley, his Court o f ' In- quiry was eminently justified in sus- ta,ining his challenge of Rear-Admiral Howison. Even had the testimony against Rear-Admiral Howison's fitness been far less convincing, the Courtwould have been justified in asking him to re- tire. So momentous to the navy are the iesues involved, that neither the Court nor the Navy Department should fai1,to do everything in its ,,paver make i c plain to the country t$a;R+ear-Aa,miral Schley is receiving the fairest Possible

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19, r g o ~ ] treatment at the hands of a perfectly open-minded court. The substitution of Rear-Admiral Francis M. Ramsay, on the other .hand, can hardly be said--td n,dd much strength to the personnel the Court. For ten years before his r e $irement, this officer saw po sea service, his last command being that of a cruiser in the early days of the new navy. I1

generally expected that an officer would be chosen who, like Admirak Dewey, Benham, and Howison, had com. manded afleet, and was therefore in some degree familiar with the difficulties of a fleet or. squadron commander. As young officer, Rear-Admiral Ramsaysaw, however, considerable active service dur. ing the civil war, haying been for twa years commander of an ironclad zn the operations before Vicksburg and in the Red River, and also having figured commander of the gunboat UnadzZZa dur. ing the attacks on Fort Fisher in 1864 and 1865, and the capture of Richmond. AS head of the Bureau .of Navigation for two terms, he came in contact with practically every officer in the navy, and has therefore a wide experience of men to aid him in the responsible duties be- fore him. And it must be noted that Admiral Ramsays name was on the list of those which Rear-Admiral Schley de. clared would be satisfactory to him.

That the supervision of the new Hall of Records should, after the death of the architect, Jobn R. Thomas, be turned over to official archztects, Horgan & Slattery, 1s not so strange when i t is nemembered that the job is worth $100,- 000 as it stands, and can easily be made worth more. Mayor Wycks action, too, in disregarding the claim oC the de- ceased architects estate in order to favor the Tammany candidates, most char- acteristic of the man and of the organ- ization in its present emergency. Take the chances of the law, is now the motto, from top to bottom. can at wosrst only lose, and you may win. Horgan & Slattery, be it remembered, began life as architects about four years ago. They testified a year later, in view of a judicial order, that neither of them possessed any property, and, under cross-examination, It appeared also that neither of them possessmed any architecture. They Ihave learned their trade by finishing for the city such monuments as the new Tombs Prison. That they #should now inherlt a $6,000,000 contract, unless, indeed, the courts should think less tsshghtingly than Mayor Van Wyck OS the claims of Mr. Thomass estate, is quite in line with their swift rim in the profession. How the decoratow of the Demwratlc Club mll distribute the $1,000,000 which 1s to be devoted to the ornamentation of the new Hall of Records, is a matter of curl; osity rather than of hopeful anticipation. It would sh&w ? fine of the fit: nesa-dfi things if, mindful of their awn origin, & Blattwy

The Nat ion. up two or three bankrupt boys who have decorated, say, prison cells, and put them in training for the position of of- Eclal artists. 1 - I

I t will doubtless surprise many per- sons to learn that Mayor Ashbridge of Philadelphia has discovered a waste o$ the citys money, and that he has prompt: ly set out to verify hls conclusion and to effect a cure. The fact is, however, that there are various kinds of waste, and the sort which Mayor Ashbridge has discovered IS abhorrent to all good ma- chine men, whether in Philadelphia or elsewhere. It seems that city salarles are being paid in Phlladelphia to Re- publican municipal officeholders who are suspected of not controlling any votes. What sort 3f man2gement has permitted an outrage like this, we are unable to imagine, but from the moment the hor- rid suspicion entered the Mayors mind he has been determined and alert As a result, it has been ordered that each Re- publican in the citys service must show that he controls at least ten votes. If not, the order, with his head w111 go forth as promptly as if it came from the Queen in Alice In Wonderland, and more conclusively. Some of the city ser- vants, especially In dwisions where, ow- ing t o the Philadelphia system;-almost every householder is a city servant, sider the order a hardship, but- this is nothing t o the Mayor. If city money is being paid out t o men who do not con- trol votes, it mast be stopped, whoever suffers. The 3 per cent. assessment of nll municipal employees for Republican machine campaign purposes, with the prospect of an additional 2 per rent. be- fore the campaign is over, might be con- sidered by some weak persons miti- gating the waste which the Mayor has discovered, but his is no such spiritless attitude. So the officeholders are carry- ing papers about in their neighborhoods seeking signatures. Mayor Ashbridge is nothing if no t systematic. He demands the pledges In writing.

The extent of the harm done t o the trade of foreign countries with China by the dlsturbances of the past year and

half clearly appears from the Chinese Lariff report of which a summary appears in current number of the

For the three chief ports the volume of made has on the whole al- Len off about one-half. More damage was probably done by the war to native firms than to foreigners who were con- ducting establishments in China, since the latter made a good traffic in supply- ing provisions, clothing and other things to the soldiery. The total tonnage en- tering the uorthern ports declined from j,S16,384 in 1899 to 3,538,607 in 1900, the loss falling rather unevenly. England auffered more than others, while Korean md American shipping in Chinese ports

Increased. Neyer-

theless, English vessels retained their former vast preponderance over others in the trade. -One especially interesting development is the rise of the port of ICiao-Tchau, to which little Importance has hitherto been attached by the Euro- pean press. Its European tradz has now risen from practically nothing to very respectable figure.

A dispatch from London announces that a delegate of the British Trade- Union Congress will visit some Conti- nental cities In order to ascertai,n where the funds of English trades-unions can be most safely invested in foreign se- curities. I t was felt by the Congress that the recent decisions on trades- union responsibillty, and the suits now pending for damages done to manufac- turers by last years strikes, have seri- ously jeopardized the resources of the unions. The course they propose In safe- guarding their funds recalls the meth- ods employed by American investors in- evading State mortgage taxation. Taken in connection with the recent develop- ments in the United States as to regard for union contracts, the outlook for. en-. forcing responsibility upon the unions is not reassuring. The proposed incor- poration of such bodies in the United States would do little good if they should try to evade the consequences of their acts as Engllsh unions are now doing.

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Excellent evidence as to the general prosperity of the past year is furnlshed by the recent report of the Labor De- partment of the British Board of Trade. From this document i t appears that dur- ing the year 1900 there has been a gross gain by British wageearners oL consid- erably over $1,000,000 per week for an aggregate of 1,135,786 persons. The an- nual addition to the income of the work- ing classes is estimated at fully $30,000,- 000, and while the increase in pay has not been evenly distributed throughout all trades, there has been a very general upward tendency. The year 1900 comes as the climax of a five-year period of continuous increase in wages. Since the opening of 1901 a slight reactlon seems to have set in, and for the first half of the current year there has been some decrease in rates of pay. This decline, however, seems t o have been local, be- ing probably due t o a temporary stagna- tzon in the iron and steel industries, which is now practically over. In the textlle industries wages are now higher-I and employment more abundant than at any time during the past fifteen years. On the other hand, the past eighteen months have seen a gratifying decrease in the number of strikes and labor dis- putes. Vastly more has been done by conclliation boards than ever before. ComparatiTely little time has heen lost in controversies, and only an insignifi- cant proportion of the working gopula-