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greater concession than was generally expected-but spokesmen for the union who oppose the acceptance of this offer say that it defines those mills only as "closed" in which everybody has quit. Apparently the union is holding out to get better terms for its members in the partially closed mills. Meanwhile nearly half of the union lodge at Milwaukee has voted to go back to work, and unless the strike is settled it seems likely to disintegrate.

The Ethics of Loot

An interesting discussion has been called out by the reported offer to the Metropolitan Museum of New York of a present to consist of a collection of fine Chinese porcelain known to have been looted from palaces in Peking. It is evident that secondary moral responsibility must stop somewhere, but if the circumstances alleged in the present case are true, the reported unwillingness of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum to receive such a gift, if it should be offered, will meet with general approval. We have no direct knowledge whatever of the facts, but report the allegations of the press because if they are untrue--as we certainly hope they are-explanations should be had, in justice to the persons named in the transaction. The story states that this particular collection of porcelains consists in the main part of extremely valuable and rare specimens which were the property of Yen-Li-Sen, the Chinese Imperial Treasurer. Now it is a well-known fact that this Chinese official was not only not concerned in the attacks on foreigners, but he put forth earnest efforts to protect the foreigners during the Boxer troubles. Indeed, it is beyond question that his death, one of atrocious cruelty and of personal degradation, was ordered by Prince Tuan in punishment for the Treas urer's defense of foreigners. That the palace of such a man should be subject to loot by the representatives of the very foreigners whose lives he had saved seems incredible. The story, however, goes further than this, and declares that the looting was done by a minister of the Gospel, the Roman Catholic Bishop Favier, who, it is said, having an exquisite knowledge of porcelain, selected all the finest specimens. From Bishop Favier, accord

ing to the story, the articles passed either by direct purchase or through auction sales to Mr. Squier, the United States Secretary of Legation. Mr. Squier is sending the collection, which is said to fill several railway cars, to this country, and the rumor that he intended to offer all or part of the collection to the Metropolitan Museum has called out the discussion to which we have referred. Whatever may be said as to the propriety or impropriety of a museum accepting gifts which were at one time obtained by plunder and have since passed through several hands, all Americans will join in the hope that American representatives in China may be cleared of any part or lot in such a transaction as has just been described.

The Disturbances in South America

Three events of importance occurred last week in the quarrel between Venezuela and Colombia. The first was the advance of troops from Ecuador toward the Venezuelan border. Two or three small war vessels belonging to Ecuador are also, it is alleged, moving toward the coast of Venezuela. Naturally, the active participation of Ecuador in the impending war is of serious import. Confused accounts of fighting between bodies of Colombian and Venezuelan soldiers are not to be accepted until confirmed by further news. The second event of importance was the bombarding on Saturday by a Venezuelan fleet of Rio Hacha, a town on the north coast of Colombia. This seems to be the first overt act of war. The third event of importance was the publication of a message or letter from Secretary Hay, of our State Department, to President Castro, of Venezuela. This letter does not amount to intervention, as some papers ill informed in international usages assume. It is merely a plain and clear statement of the position of the United States in regard to the neutrality of the Panama Isthmus. The right of the United States to intervene in case the neutrality of the Isthmus or the safety of railway transport across the Isthmus is threatened rests upon a treaty between Colombia and the United States. Secretary Hay declares that the United States would sincerely deplore a

breach of amicable relations between any of the South American nations, and would especially regret the necessity of any action by one of those nations which would constrain the Government of the United States to put in motion its functions defined under the existing treaty with Colombia. Accordingly, there is a suggestion, rather than an offer, that the United States would be pleased to undertake to arrange any differences between Colombia and Venezuela; but, of course, only with the acquiescence of both parties. This is in fact a diplomatic offer of mediation, and, as coming from the most important American power, is one that should be welcome to the contending nations. Colombia, indeed, has already intimated its desire to accept the peaceful intervention of this country, and is no doubt in earnest in its hope that war with Venezuela will be averted. Venezuela holds a more aggressive attitude and seems not to wish mediation. As we have before pointed out, the real cause of war is the sympathy between the liberals or anti-clericals in Venezuela with the similar party in Colombia, who now comprise the insurgent element, led by Uribe-Uribe. The position taken by Secretary Hay is beyond criticism. The Monroe Doctrine has no application to the case in point, and the attempt of some foreign papers to bring it into the dispute is totally without reason. A proclamation has been issued by Venezuela, but as it was not put forth in the form of an identical letter to the Powers, or sent through the regular diplomatic channels, it may be regarded as merely a statement of the Venezuelan case. Both Colombia and Venezuela claim vigorously that the hostilities have been precipitated by the opposing nation, and it is difficult at this distance to decide who is the aggressor, or to distinguish between acts of the Government and unauthorized expeditions from the territory of the one nation into that of the other. At present there appears to be no serious disturbance on the Isthmus, the fighting, such as it is, being confined to the borderland between the two countries involved, or to mountainous regions in the interior. That our Government, under its treaty with New Granada, now Colombia, has the right to preserve peace and equity on the Isthmus is beyond question.

The Embassy of Expiation

If it is true, as reports from China continue to maintain, that the Emperor of Germany originally demanded as a requisite of the mission of expiation from China that the Chinese imperial officers should kotow before Emperor William as they would do on state occasions to the Emperor of China, then it is also true that the Chinese may regard the waiving of the proposed ridiculous ceremony as the equivalent of a triumph for China. The Chinese are peculiarly susceptible on points like these, and, as Prince Chun is the Emperor's brother, there is some probability in the statement that the postponement of the signing of the protocol of peace at Peking was caused by the discussion on the ceremony of expiation. What happened at Berlin last week was that the Chinese Imperial Envoy was received at Potsdam by the Emperor, and that all the preliminary ceremonies were so arranged as to indicate coldness and severity-thus, no military salute was accorded to the Chinese Imperial Envoy on entering, the buttons and epaulets of the Emperor's uniform were covered with crape, and the suite of Prince Chun were not allowed to enter the throne-room. After Prince Chun had read his statement and the Emperor had replied, the severity was relaxed, and from that point on the Chinese members of the mission were treated with courtesy and received many social attentions. The letter from the Chinese Emperor to the Emperor William expressed deep regret at the murder of Baron von Ketteler, and added, "We were not in a position to take due protective measures, a fact that was painful to our sense of responsibility." Moreover, the letter declares that "feelings of penitence and shame still deeply animate us." It is notorious that the Chinese Emperor personally was averse to any anti-foreign action, and as official cognizance cannot be taken of the fact that the Chinese Emperor is really a dummy in the hands of the all-powerful Empress, it would certainly seem that the apology made was sufficiently humiliating and acceptable. In his reply the German Emperor branded the killing of the German Minister as infamous by international law and the usage of all nations, recognized the personal freedom from guilt of the Chinese

Emperor, and warned the guilty advisers and the Chinese Government to conduct themselves with circumspection hereafter under penalty of severe measures. At Peking the protocol was finally signed on Saturday last by Prince Ching and LiHung-Chang. The foreign troops are to evacuate the palaces, temples, and public places by September 17.

A Good Example

The people of Minneapolis were astonished a short time ago when John Lind asserted that his only political ambition was to become an Alderman of that city. The reporter to whom the statement was made was surprised into asking if it was a joke, the papers announced the fact in doublecolumn scare-heads, the politicians laughed knowingly and other people smiled incredulously when they heard of it. John Lind served in Congress as a Republican.

Later he became the leader of the Silver Republicans in Minnesota, and in 1898 he was elected Governor of his State, and during his two-year term showed himself to be possessed of backbone and executive skill. Last fall, on being defeated for re-election (though running over fifty thousand ahead of his ticket), he settled in Minneapolis to practice law. Since then there has been much speculation regarding his political future, and it was in response to questions about his reported candidacy for Congress that he announced his aldermanic aspirations. That such an announcement by such a man should be greeted with surprise and incredulity is worthy of more than passing notice, for it is an excellent example of perhaps the most unfortunate phase of our municipal politics. If to serve one's municipality well were the crowning honor of a public career; if it were deemed a political duty to devote the experience, skill, and wisdom gained in State and National fields to the affairs of one's ward and precinct, American cities would not be the worst governed in the world. As it is, the Common Council, the Board of Aldermen, and the School Board are often looked upon as political kindergartens for the inexperienced, or as fit only for those who have no reputations to lose. As a result, we have the spectacle of cities trying to protect them

selves against corruption, theft, and gross mismanagement by changing their charters so as to increase the number of checks and to decrease the power of the representative bodies, vainly hoping to elaborate a system that will make inefficient and dishonest men capable and trustworthy. It matters little what sort of a charter a city has; if the men who serve under it are patriotic and fit, it will be well governed. The late Governor Pingree, of Michigan, did nothing more admirable during his public career than to announce his willingness to become Mayor of Detroit again after his term as Governor was over; and it is to be hoped, not only that exGovernor Lind will carry out his intention, but that his example will be followed in other cities.

Faulty Methods of Garbage Disposal

At the recent meeting of the League of American Municipalities at Jamestown, N. Y., Mr. M. N. Baker, of the "Engineering News," read a paper on garbage disposal which deserves attention in our small cities because it showed that few of them have any public system of protecting the public health against decaying garbage, and deserves attention in our large cities because it showed that all of them have extremely costly systems. In measuring the costliness of the service furnished in our large cities Mr. Baker did not demand that our service should be as economical as that in England, where the "refuse destructors" burn a great variety of waste material, much of which is combustible and therefore furnishes fuel for the entire plant, but he did ask that the contrast between the American results and the English results should be lessened. To accomplish this, he made the following extremely practical suggestions: 1. When a garbage reduction contract is given out, let the contractors be required to render a public accounting of the cost of operations. It is distinctively public work, and those who demand to do it for the public, on the ground that they can do it cheaper, have no valid ground for keeping the public completely in the dark as to the cost of operations. 2. When a contract is given out, let it be for a sufficiently long period to permit the suc cessful bidder to erect an adequate plant

without being obliged to recover its whole cost during a few months of operation. The present method of short-time contracts, Mr. Baker points out, results not only in enormous waste but in the establishment of a corrupting monopoly in close touch with the city administration. Philadelphia, he says, is the most notorious example of maladministration of this sort: Year after year, in the latter part of November or early in December, it receives bids for the collection and disposal of garbage for the ensuing calendar year. Since improved means of disposal have been adopted in that city the contract has been falling each year more and more surely into the hands of the same contractor. The period between the reception of bids and the beginning of work under the contract is too short for any one to secure a site and erect a plant. Even if there were ample time in this respect, no man without a decided political pull could take a one-year contract at a price that would not stagger any city; for, without being sure of the renewal of the contract, the whole first cost of the plant, as well as the cost of service, would have to be included in the bid.

In order to avoid these evils without incurring those incident to very long term contracts, Mr. Baker sensibly suggests that in awarding contracts the city should provide for the purchase of the plant at the expiration of the contract, either by itself or by the successful new bidder. Sooner or later the work of garbage reduction is likely to be performed directly by the city itself. Mr. Baker concludes his paper by asking whether municipal ownership might not be better than the contract system from the start.

Ecumenical Conference

The reports given by The Methodist the cable of the early sessions of the great World's Conference of Methodists in London indicate that there has been no lack of plain speaking on living questions. At the earliest possible moment The Outlook will give to its readers an account of the Conference from correspondents who are present. Meanwhile we may note here some of the more important subjects brought before the meeting as indicated by the cable reports. The race question was brought to the front by Bishop Walters, of Jersey City, himself a negro, who, according to the press reports, received the heartiest welcome of any of the American delegates. Bishop

Walters made an impassioned plea against race prejudice, and asked from the English people that sympathy for his race in the future which had been extended in the past. Incidentally he made a defense of his race as to morals, and among other points recapitulated the statistics of lynching in the year 1900, asserting that while ninety negroes were lynched, in only eleven cases was there proof of outrage upon women. The address of Bishop Walters is said to have greatly displeased many of the Southern delegates. If this speech of Bishop Walters was in a measure an apple of discord, still more so was that by Sir Charles Skelton, formerly Mayor of Sheffield, who, while welcoming the American delegates, severely criticised the war in South Africa, exclaiming, "Hell is let loose in South Africa!" and appealing to the American visitors to aid by preaching and example in making such wars impossible in the future. A Primitive Methodist English delegate, the Rev. Joseph Odell, followed in the same strain, while Dr. Potts, of Toronto, replied vigorously in a "heated patriotic and imperialistic speech." Still another ripple of excitement occurred with reference to a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he expressed a hope that the Methodist and Episcopal Churches would sometime be united-of course by the absorption of the former in the latter.

Unhappily, the message was not sent to the Conference directly, but to an editor of a religious newspaper, and the Conference appears to have welcomed the technicality as affording it an opportunity to decline to receive the message. Still later the South African question again occasioned eager debate, and once more a Canadian, the Rev. Joseph Gibson, appeared as defender of the action of the British in South Africa, while he was repeatedly interrupted by English delegates, one of whom finally declared that if Mr. Gibson proceeded he would have to be answered in a controversial strain, as he was voicing sentiments by no means shared by many present. imagine that the cable despatches give more prominence to the discussions just noted because of their semi-sensational character than to the sessions which related strictly to church matters; still, there are abundant indications that the

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discussions as to the position of Methodism in the world of religious life were earnest and practical. To this discussion delegates from many distant countries contributed. The representation of the delegates to the Conference is on a basis of one delegate to twenty thousand persons, and the United States and Canada together thus obtain three hundred out of the five hundred total delegates. The Conference is meeting in the City Road Chapel, which was built by John Wesley in 1760, and is sometimes called, colloquially, the Cathedral of Methodism. The sessions of Saturday last were dominated by the news of the assault upon President McKinley. The President's connection with the Methodist Church added an almost personal tone to the expressions of sorrow and sympathy.

Lewis G. Janes

Dr. Lewis G. Janes, who died at Greenacre, Me., on Wednesday of last week, was one of the men who, in common with Professor Le Conte and Dr. John Fiske, have been influential in America in bringing about a better understanding of the true relations of religion and science. Born at Providence, R. I., in 1844, Dr. Janes in early youth took a great interest in the humanitarian and religious discussions that were stirring the hearts and consciences of the people of New England in the decade preceding the Civil War. He became later an ardent but not undiscriminating disciple of Herbert Spencer, and devoted much of his life to the interpretation and popularization of the Synthetic Philosophy along ethical lines. In 1885 he was instrumental in founding the Brooklyn Ethical Association, which for several years carried on with vigor and wide-reaching influence the work of bringing evolutionary thought into touch. with popular audiences. The later years of his life were devoted to work in connection with the Cambridge Conferences on Religion and Philosophy, which were held at the residence of Mrs. Ole Bull and were described in The Outlook of August 7, 1897, and at Greenacre, Me., where for several seasons he conducted a Summer School of Comparative Religion. Dr. Janes was also President of the Free Religious Association of America. Dr. Janes had a rare gift as a sympathetic

expositor, and reached a wide circle of thoughtful students, not only in his published writings on "The Evolution of Morals," "The Scope and Principles of the Evolution Philosophy," "A Study of Primitive Christianity," "Health and a Day," etc., but through an extensive correspondence and by personal touch in classes and conferences, in which his peculiarly gentle yet forceful personality made a deep and lasting impression.

The Canteen :

During the past fort

A Minister's Defense night two important contributions to the discussion of the anti-canteen law have been published. The first is a book entitled "Cant and the Canteen," by the Rev. S. B. Dexter, who was Secretary of the Chicago Ministerial Commission on the investigation of Fort Sheridan. This Commission reported in favor of the new law, and denounced as baseless fabrications the press despatches about the opening of new saloons in the neighborhood of the fort as soon as the law was passed, and the outbreak of riots therein on the succeeding pay-day. Mr. Dexter states that he signed the report under protest and with the understanding that the investigation would be continued. He himself did continue it, and learned that the statistics published by the Commission had been both inaccurate and incomplete. The Commission reported that during the "three months" prior to the removal of the canteen the percentage of arrests among the soldiers at the garrison was 5.2, while in the "three months " following it fell to 4.9. Mr. Dexter points out that the first period of "three months" extended from November 1 to February 10, the date of the closing of the canteen, and included 102 days, while the second period of "three months" ended on May 2, the date of the investigation, and included only 81 days. For the time covered, therefore, the percentage of arrests was nearly one-fifth greater after the canteen was closed. Since the date of the investigation, Mr. Dexter continues, the percentage of arrests has increased-the number of courts martial in May and June being nearly half again as great as from January to April. In addition to this, he has learned from his subsequent investigations

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