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copies of the New Testament, reading the lesson, and studying its simple and fundamental truths. Not much time is spent, only from ten to twenty minutes, according to the length of the nooning. The men gather in any convenient space in the midst of their workroom. There seem to have been no discouragements from the start, so tactfully has the work been conducted. "The problem now seems to be how to keep pace with the demand, find teachers, and cover the field." The pamphlet report above referred to, by its detailed account of the work-how to start it, how to manage it, the qualities requisite for leadership, the things to be cultivated and the mistakes to be avoided-aims to promote the extension of the work to other centers, large and small. It has been found that there is a demand for these Bible classes in various languages, and that men in all varieties of occupation are reachable, if due regard is had to their hours and conditions. Among the results are noted the decrease of profanity and vile conversation, the strengthening of moral sentiment in favor of honest and faithful serv. ice, and the promotion of friendliness between employers and employees. The whole report impresses one, not only with the clear-sighted, vigorous common sense in the lead of this movement, but with the spirit of unassuming, manly comradeship with the workingmen whom it aims. to interest. The importance of the work it seeks to spread, especially for the great number of workers who have practically no Sabbath, is sufficiently obvious. It should be added that the report concludes with the outlines of the "shop lessons" given during a half-year on the first four chapters of Mark.

Between August and The English War Tax December the tax collectors in England push their work, and with the income tax collection this year the heavy burden of the war in South Africa is being severely felt in thousands of middle-class homes. Before the war the income tax stood at eight pence in the pound (34 per cent.). Twice since the war began it has been increased. It now stands at one shilling and two pence (5 per cent.); so that to every income

tax payer the war means a direct addition of three-quarters to the amount demanded by the tax-collector when he makes his annual call. The tax is payable on all incomes above £160. In respect, however, of incomes which do not exceed £700 there is a system of graduated abatements, and only people in receipt of more than £700 a year pay the tax on their full income. Life insurance premiums are also deductible from income liable to taxation. These are the only reductions. When these have been made, a man must pay income tax alike on his earnings and on any income he may have from investments. Four hundred pounds is looked upon as a fair income among English middle classes. In London such an income would represent a house of a rental of £50 or £60 a year in one of the better-class suburbs. With the best of management in most families such an income allows of only a small margin between incomings and outgoings; and it is on families living on such means and in this style that the war has thrown the heaviest burden. From an income of £400 a year there is an abatement of £160, besides say $10 in respect of life insurance. The amount to be handed over to the income-tax collector is consequently £13 8s., of which £5 15s. is directly due to the war. A new burden like this, from which there is no escape, means a curtailment somewhere in the family expenses. To many families the war has meant a shorter or a less expensive summer holiday; and in this way the effect of the expenditure of so many millions in South Africa has reached a large number of people whose earnings are below the taxable level. To some extent, the great falling off in English railway receipts which marked the summer and early autumn is attributable to the heavy burden the war has thrown on income-tax payers. Railway travel is one of the expenditures on which a family begins to economize when its margin between incomings and outgoings is nearing the vanishing point. The working classes are paying their quota to the war through the new import duty on sugar and through the increased duties on tobacco which went into effect in April, 1900. In the main, however, the working classes may be said to be smoking their

way through the war; for in the fiscal year 1900-01 the revenue derived from tobacco was £12,838,000-the highest since the tobacco tax was established.

William McKinley

The first effect of any death as unexpected as that of President McKinley is to benumb the faculties; its second effect is to abate the passions and rebuke the prejudices which have made impossible sober judgment concerning the living. The fires of political campaigns are extinguished, their smoke is cleared away, and he who had been seen distorted in the lurid light of party passions appears somewhat as he will appear to posterity, when history records the unprejudiced judgment of mankind concerning him.

When Mr. McKinley was inducted into office, the cruel despotism of Spain in Cuba, which a century of diplomacy had proved powerless to abate or even to ameliorate, was growing intolerable to the American people. The revelations of Weyler's policy of extermination and the destruction of the Maine combined to arouse a storm of moral indignation which was irresistible. A President can veto an Act of Congress, but he cannot veto the concurrent demand of the people. How unanimous was the public sentiment is indicated by the Congressional appropriation, without opposition, of fifty millions of dollars to prepare for war before the final declaration.

In the war which ensued President McKinley was not only in name but in reality the Commander-in-Chief of the naval and military forces of the United States. It was under his direction that Admiral Dewey was assigned to the command of the Pacific squadron and Admiral Sampson to the command of the Atlantic squadron. It was under his orders that Dewey pursued the Spanish fleet into Manila Bay and destroyed it there, and that Sampson blockaded Cervera's fleet in Santiago and destroyed it when it attempted flight. We now look back with amusement on the panic which affected all our coast towns from Portland to Key West; but the panic was serious then; and now to belittle our opponent as a

decrepit and imbecile power is but to discredit our National intelligence if not our National courage. It was the President, moreover, who, while the war was being carried on, conducted diplomatic negotiations so effectively as to secure the moral support of England without a formal alliance, and to prevent interference by France or Germany, from both of whom at one time interference was seriously apprehended. The war over, it was the President who directed the general course of negotiations which ended in a treaty with Spain alike chivalrous toward her and honorable to ourselves. That America. sent the Spanish soldiers home from Cuba at American expense, that she demanded no indemnity, that she paid Spain in cash for the money expended in permanent improvements in the Philippines, that she guaranteed to Spain the same trade privileges which she claimed for herself in the conquered archipelago, were due to the fact that President McKinley rightly interpreted the temper of the people, who had undertaken this war not for the subjugation but for the emancipation of the Spanish dependencies. In the subsequent war in the Philippines it was under the President's orders that the attempt of Aguinaldo to assume the sovereignty in an island which our army and navy had set free was resisted, and the archipelago was saved from an anarchy which threatened greater disasters than even Spanish despotism had inflicted upon it; it was on the President's recommendation that civil government was organized before the insurrection was fully over, and the Filipinos were thus assured of all the civil and religious rights enjoyed by Americans in American territories. Those who hold that the Spanish and Filipino wars were fought for territorial aggrandizement, inspired by ambition for political power and commercial enrichment, do right to hold Mr. McKinley responsible, for Mr. McKinley more than any other citizen embodied the American spirit, shaped the American policy, and led the American people. Those who believe with The Outlook that the Spanish war was a nobly unselfish one, fought at self-sacrifice by one people for the emancipation of another, and that the Filipino war was a necessary and therefore just one, in order to insure a people newly emancipated by our arms.

from one despotism against falling under the bane of a despotism still more intolerable ought to give President McKinley ungrudging praise for his ready recognition of the American mood and motive, and his able execution of the American purpose. It is true that much of the wisdom and strength of the President's administration were due to the men who were associated with him; but it is also true that only a wise and strong man is able to secure, in such a time, the co-operation with him of wise and strong men, or is willing to give them a free hand and a cordial support in their several Departments. It is not one of the least indications of President McKinley's political ability that he has been able to secure a Cabinet certainly not surpassed and scarcely equaled by that of any President in many years past.

The two criticisms most commonly made upon President McKinley, by the same critics, and sometimes in the same issue of the same paper, curiously contradict each other. These critics charged him with possessing a despotic temper, with seeking to build up an Empire on the ruins of the Republic, with endeavoring to create an excuse by wars abroad for an increase of an army at home, which could then be used to put down the workingmen that the capitalists might exploit both the old and the new territories of the Nation without resistance. At the same time the same critics accused him of being without strength of will or tenacity of purpose, of having no mind of his own, of always having" his ear to the ground," of watching public sentiment and of going with it whithersoever its fitful and changing winds might carry him. Both cannot be true; neither is true.

There are two theories of government, neither of which is carried out by any sound political thinker to its radical extreme, but toward one or the other of which all political thinkers tend. The first or paternal theory is that the best men in the Nation should govern the rest as a father governs his children: these best men may be selected by a process of natural breeding, in which case we have an aristocratic government; they may be elected by the people, in which case we have a democratic government: but in either case the ruler, when chosen, whether

by the one process or the other, rules. The other theory, that of self-government, is that each man is to govern himself in matters that concern only himself, each locality to govern itself in all matters which concern the locality, and the Nation to govern only in those matters which are of National concern; but that, inasmuch as a Nation of seventy million people cannot in mass-meeting vote on detached questions of policy, as one or two hundred can in a town or district school meeting, they should delegate certain of their number, not to govern them, but to embody their spirit and to execute their purpose. This is the American principle, although it is, on the one hand, not understood by some Americans, and, on the other, is pushed to impossible conclusions by other Americans, who would abolish all qualifications for suffrage and admit to the mass-meeting the ignorant, the incompetent, and the vicious on equal terms with the intelligent, the capable, and the virtuous.

Mr. McKinley appears to us to have appreciated the American principle more fully and carried it out more rationally and consistently than any President since Abraham Lincoln, whom in this respect he resembled. It is not true that he has been weak of will or infirm of purpose, or has followed with vacillating policy the shifting comments of public opinion. He resisted successfully the increasing public demand for war against Spain, until it had been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the overwhelming majority of Americans that the emancipation of Cuba could not be achieved by diplomacy. He resisted the popular demand for the recognition of the Cuban Republic, a recognition which we all now see would have involved Cuba in hopeless bankruptcy and ourselves in serious international complications. In more than one instance he resisted public clamor for the removal of officials whom the people thought not equal to the responsibilities of their office, in some instances, in our judgment, resisted too long for the best interests of the country; for loyalty to his subordinates with him, as with Grant and Washington, was an element of nobility in his character which at times became an element of weakness in his administration. It is not true that President McKinley has been without a definite policy of his own. He

has had such a policy, and has adhered to it consistently on the three great questions before the country-tariff, finance, and expansion. He has been a high protectionist and has brought his party to his views, in later months modified by reciprocity treaties to which he would have brought his party had he lived. He was a bimetallist, believing in the parity of gold and silver as a currency, and he labored, as long as there was any hope of success, to bring about such bimetallism by international action. When the course of other nations changed the issue and compelled us to choose between gold and silver monometallism, he chose the former, but not until that was the sole issue presented. From his accession to the Presidency he has been an expansionist. He advocated an international canal, maintained the Monroe Doctrine, urged the peaceful annexation of Hawaii, sought by diplomacy to emancipate from mediæval misrule neighboring islands, and when at last war came, refused to recall our troops from any soil where the American flag had been raised until the principles of American liberty were assured under the practical protectorate of the American Nation.

But he did not attempt to force any policy upon an unwilling constituency. He patiently waited for the people to understand, confident that when they did understand they would adopt these principles. This confidence has been well founded. Through changes greater than have ever occurred in the history of this country except during the Civil War and the immediately subsequent period of reconstruction, President McKinley held not only his party but the country together; he so united the factions in the party that his renomination was assured by public acclamation, and he had so overcome opposition in the country that he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority, which would have been still greater if all the men in the South who really desired his election had possessed the courage to vote in accordance with their convictions. This result he achieved because he believed in the American theory of government, because he was one of the people and embodied their spirit, and because he was willing to proceed no faster in the accom

plishment of the ends he consistently kept in view than the people would go with him.

For these reasons we regard Mr. McKinley as a great statesman of the American or democratic type, and the European estimate of him as more sound than the American estimate. As time passes and he recedes into history his excellencies will be seen to be essential, his defects incidental. It is true that he was somewhat of an opportunist, as the statesman ought to be; but, like every true statesman, he was an opportunist with a purpose. He readily changed his methods, but never his ends; as when he secured absolute free trade for Porto Rico with a united party, by conceding a temporary tariff to the anti-free trade wing. His appointments to important offices. were, with rare exceptions, worthy of all praise, and in these few exceptions there is reason to believe that the questionable appointments were forced upon. him by unwise advisers whom either personal good feeling or political prudence, or both combined, forbade him to offend; if minor appointments were freely used under his administration to strengthen the party, it was because he belonged to that passing but still influential school in politics which believes, as we do not, that such use of minor offices is necessary for party organization. If he did not arouse enthusiasm in the general public, he never sought to do so, satisfied with the enthusiastic devotion of the friends who were nearest to him and knew him best, and with the respect of the rest of mankind; never in speech or act did he play the demagogue. He invariably treated political opponents with courtesy, whatever treatment they may have accorded to him, and it was characteristic of him, in the moment when he was shot, to endeavor to protect his assailant from violence, by calling out, "Let no one hurt him." No American statesman has conformed his public life to a higher ethical standard; not very many have recognized an ethical standard so uniformly high. In private life he was a Christian gentleman without reproach; his fidelity to his invalid wife has perhaps done more to endear him to the people than his public acts; his last words, "It is God's way. His will be done, not ours," indicate the spiritual

secret of a life which throughout had faith in God for its inspiration and the doing of God's will as its final end.

President Roosevelt

Mr. Roosevelt is now President of the United States. In this grave crisis there was not a moment's hesitation, a moment's uncertainty, or a moment's suspense. All men knew, even in the first shock and consternation of an awful crime, that, while a President had fallen, not only was the Government undisturbed, but that the administration of its laws would go on without break or change. This is the noble heritage of political character gained by a thousand years of living under free institutions, and by the example and leadership of hosts of statesmen who, like President McKinley, have held their own wills subordinate to the will of the Nation, and the will of the Nation subordinate to the will of God.

There is a deeper and more vital continuity than that of policy; it is the continuity of character. No more impressive illustration of faith, sincerity, and beauty of character has been seen in modern times than that which was witnessed by those who stood about the death-bed of President McKinley. Stainless amid all the temptations of public life, without blot under the fierce light which has beat upon him in these recent years, with a devotion to his wife as dignified and touching as anything in the annals of chivalry, President McKinley, in the first place of the Nation, stood for the noblest qualities of the men of the English-speaking race. He had the purity of Washington and the sweetness of Lincoln; and in the supreme hour his dignity and strength sustained at the highest levels the tradition of personal character which has never departed from the White House.

That tradition will be continued unbroken by Mr. Roosevelt. There will be no change in the character of the President of the United States. Of a different stock from that which flowered in the industry, the integrity, and the indomitable patience of Mr. McKinley, Mr. Roosevelt is as genuine an American. Eght generations of honorable men, prominent again

and again in the affairs of the city and the State of New York, link him with the earliest colonial times. His family history has been an unbroken tradition of integrity and public usefulness; and whatever impetus and impulse come from the legacy of an honorable ancestry have borne their fruit in Mr. Roosevelt. No one has ever questioned either his integ rity or his courage. Entering upon a public life at one of the most depressing and discouraging periods in the history of the country, he has stood from the first for integrity of private character and for independence and competency in public action. But one principle has governed him: a passionate desire to do the work of the State without fear and in the best possible way. In the Legislature of the State, in the Civil Service Commission at Washington, as Police Commissioner in the city of New York, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy on the eve of the war with Spain, and as Governor of New York, his course has been marked, not by passive honesty, but by resolute and aggressive integrity. Whether the work to be done was outside of or within the public gaze, whether it was apparently of small or of great moment, it has been done with an enthusiasm for righteousness in public action which has been an inspiration to the younger men of the country. A gentleman in the best sense of a muchabused word; a man of honor upon whose reputation, in spite of the bitterest criticism, not a shadow rests; a man of proven courage, Mr. Roosevelt will continue in the Presidency the very highest traditions. of integrity and independence which are associated with the place.

Although the youngest man who has ever become President, Mr. Roosevelt has had an unusual preparation for the position. He was fortunate, to begin with, in having the opportunities of a thorough training. He has supplemented university education by a life of study no less than by a life of action. When he entered college his health was very uncertain; but instead of yielding to the limitations of his condition, he made a resolute and intelligent attempt to overcome them, with the result that he has become a man of exceptional strength and endurance. This achievement is typi cal of his spirit and his career. His whole life has been an energetic and persistent

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