protection they are admitted. It seems to us that while the country is in a state of war it is entirely legitimate for the military authorities to take such action respecting the admission of strangers to the territory as appears to them necessary for the more effective prosecution of their campaign. When the war is over and peace is established, the question of the policy to be pursued should be decided irrespective of any law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese into the United States. At present neither Porto Rico, Hawaii, nor the Philippines is, properly speaking, a part of the United States. They belong to the United States, and it is for the United States to determine, through its properly constituted authorities, what is the nature of the government to be exercised therein, and what are to be the relations between these several communities and the sovereign power to which they belong, but of which they are not, properly speaking, an integral part.

The President's Course

Mr. Frederick E. White, the Democratic candidate for Governor in Iowa, in a speech at Davenport, September 14, which we find reported in the New York "Evening Post," makes the clearest and strongest statement of criticism against the official course of President McKinley in dealing with the Philippines which we recall. This is, in brief, that, after the treaty with Spain was agreed to by the Spanish and American Commissioners, but before it had been ratified either by the United States Senate or by Spain, the President proclaimed his purpose to extend military government of the United States over the entire archipelago.

This he did without being empowered so to do; and, remember, Congress was then in regular session. The treaty of peace, article 9, provides that "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territory here by ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." After the ratification of the treaty, President McKinley failed to communicate with Congress upon the subject, which the Constitution and treaty both enjoined him to do.

This criticism is not without force. It must, however, be remembered that the

ty with Spain was not ratified by the until February 6, 1899; that it was

not ratified by Spain until March 18, after Congress had adjourned and that until this joint ratification had taken place, Congress had no power to pass laws respecting the Philippines. Meanwhile the President had only the option to maintain the silence respecting the future condition of the Philippines, for maintaining which pending the negotiations at Paris he has been so severely criticised, or else to declare to the Filipinos what would be the policy of the Government when the treaty was ratified, and take the risk that this policy would be supported by the legislative branch of the Government. In our judgment, the second alternative was the wiser one of the two. His so-called proclamation to the Filipinos, which was not in terms a proclamation to them at all, but instructions to the commanding general in the field, was a notification to them that the United States would maintain its sovereignty over the whole archipelago, but that it would administer this sovereignty in the interest of the people, and under it would provide the largest practicable local self-government. It remains, of course, to be seen whether Congress, when it assembles, will sustain the President in this his declaration of what the course of the Nation would be. But we cannot but think that, if he had made no intimation be, he would have subjected himself to a to the Filipinos what that course would more serious and a more practical criticism than that to which he is subjected now by the Democratic Governor of Iowa.

No Secret Alliance

The Secretary of State, John Hay, in a published letter, gives to the report of a secret alliance with England a most emphatic, positive, and unequivocal denial:

There is no alliance with England, or with any other power under heaven, except those known and published to the world-the treaties of ordinary international friendship for purposes of business and commerce. No treaty other than these exists: none has been suggested on either side; none is in contemplation. It has never entered into the mind of the President or of any member of the Government to forsake, under any inducement, the wise precept and example of the fathers which forbade entangling alliances with European Powers.

Such a denial as this will be accepted by all unprejudiced Americans as entirely

American Reform

in Havana

The most encouraging facts leading toward the hope that Cuba will become a self-respecting and self-governing community are such as those contained in the report of Brigadier-General Ludlow, the Military Governor of the city of Havana, which has just been published. What the condition of Havana was at the close of the war Mr. Kennan's letters have told our readers fully and plainly now Havana is another city, and a vastly better one. From being a pest-hole it has become healthful; instead of being an offense to the eye, its streets are now orderly and clean; police discipline is in force, sanitary conditions are watched, civil government is being perfected. The one comprehensively significant fact in General Ludlow's report is that the general death-rate has been lowered, not only from the record of the two former years, but in comparison with such normal years as those from 1890 to 1895. For instance, up to September 1 of this year there were only twenty deaths from yellow fever, while the average of such deaths from 1890 to 1895 was nearly four hundred. Add to this the significant fact that only three deaths from yellow fever have occurred among several thousand American soldiers, while the Spanish troops during their occupation of the islands lost many thousand yearly from the fever, and the contrast is complete. A complete modern sewer system is the next imperative necessity. General Ludlow says, without selfpraise or rhetorical language, "In Havana the rule of law is practically complete, while the rural districts are as quiet and as orderly as the interior of New England." Readers of Mr. Kennan's letters will particularly remember the interest

with which he recorded the fact that the Cubans he met were intensely eager for school privileges; General Ludlow says the same thing, and urges that facilities be immediately given for the many thousands of children who cannot now be accommodated. Already General Ludlow, on his own initiative, has opened many schools, and taken thousands of neglected children from the streets. Throughout his report General Ludlow gives full credit to the Cubans themselves for joining in the effort to rehabilitate and renovate the city of Havana. Many of the American ideas of cleanliness and order are new to the people of Havana, but this report shows that they are learning rapidly, and that as a body of citizens, they are neither rebellious nor difficult to deal with.

The Political Conventions

The Republican Convention in Nebraska not only indorsed the President's policy in the Philippines, but put the Philippine issue to the front for the approaching campaign. The despatches state that a large number of Silver Republicans were present in the Convention, and that the scene of greatest enthusiasm was when the Populist Chaplain of the First Nebraska declared that he had returned. home "to vote as he shot." On the currency question the resolutions indorsed the gold standard without qualification, declaring that present prosperity demonstrated the wisdom of the Nation's decision in 1896. With regard to trusts, the Convention declared its hostility to combinations which aim to stifle competition, and recommended the establishment of a Federal bureau with power to prevent over-capitalization, require complete publicity, and otherwise check threatened evils. Upon this question, therefore, its programme differed little from that proposed by Mr. Bryan at Chicago. The only officials to be nominated were a Judge of the Supreme Court and two University Regents, but a vigorous campaign is in prospect, since all parties realize that the result in Nebraska will profoundly affect the prestige of Mr. Bryan and the ascendency of the principles he advocates in the Democratic National Convention next

unprecedented step of electing the delegates to this National Convention a year in advance. The action was bitterly opposed by the anti-Bryan delegates, who urged that the Democrats of the State ought next year to have the right to decide what their course next year should be. Some of Mr. Bryan's supporters recognized the justice of this view, and the plan to nominate at once was adopted by only a narrow majority, on the plea that it had been announced before the primaries were held, and that nothing but inconvenience would result from ordering new primaries next spring. The result of this conflictwhich nearly led to a riot before it was finished is the complete control of the Massachusetts organization by George Fred Williams and the radical silver wing of the party. The platform, which was adopted with singular unanimity, reaffirmed the Chicago platform, pledged allegiance to Mr. Bryan, denounced the war in the Philippines, favored direct legislation and the municipal ownership of natural monopolies, and opposed the legislative sanction of the lease of the Boston and Albany Railroad to the New York Central. Mr. Robert Treat Paine, Jr., was nominated for Governor.

City Officials in Convention

The third annual Convention of the League of American Municipalities, held in Syracuse, N. Y., last week, was notable for the number of good papers read and the civic spirit shown by the officials assembled. The address of President Black, of Columbus, O., with which the Convention opened, illustrated the worth of comparing notes among public servants in different localities. In Ohio, he said, the cost of making gas is practically the same. throughout the State, and the city councils everywhere have the right to fix the price of gas every ten years. Yet in several cities the price is from 40 to 100 per cent. higher than in several others where the public has looked into the cost of making gas and insisted on reasonable reductions. Mayor Jones, of Toledo, gave an exhilarating talk upon "Golden Rule Government," urging the advantage of citizens co-operating through their city governments to make city life more healthful, attractive, and elevating. He did

not, however, make a fetich of collective action, but took the common-sense view that we must "let the individual do what the individual can do best, and let the government do what the government can do best." H. J. Gonden, of New York, gave the Convention the results of his investigation of the garbage problem in thirtyseven cities. Only about half of these cities make public provision for the collection of garbage. Mr. Gonden compared the cost where this work was done directly by the public and where it was turned over to contractors, reaching the conclusion that the public did the work itself at less cost and with considerably less corruption. The question of municipal ownership of municipal monopolies, as usual, occupied a great deal of attention, and able papers were read on both sides. Mayor Johnson, of Denver, who made one of the speeches in favor of the municipal ownership of water, light, transportation, and telephone services, was elected President of the League for the ensuing year. Though advocating municipal monopoly, largely because of the exceptional economies which monopoly made possible in this field, Mayor Johnson's paper was especially instructive where he pointed out the benefits of private competition as against private monopoly. Denver, for example, is now paying $120 a year for the unlimited service of a telephone, while in Indianapolis-a city of the same size-the competition of two companies has reduced the rate to $40 a year for business houses and $24 for private residences. The only monopoly by which the public service could be secured, Mayor Johnson said, was one which the public controlled.

co-operative action, and not to discuss for partisan advantage. In view of the differences among the delegates the recommendations on which they were able to agree were rather remarkable for their number and importance. The resolutions unanimously adopted proposed action along the following lines:

1. That contracts in restraint of trade be defined, and that penalties be enacted for individuals and corporations entering into such contracts-punishment to the corporation to the extent of dissolution."

2. That full public reports be required, not only from domestic corporations, but also from corporations chartered in other States; and that every State shall adopt a license system by which outside corporations shall be subjected to the same restraints as domestic corporations if they would do business within its borders.

3. "That no corporation should hold or own stock in another corporation engaged in a similar or competitive business ... the object or result of which is to create a trust or monopoly."

4. That wherever stock is issued for more than the amount of capital actually paid in, the shareholders shall be liable to the extent of twice the face value of their stock. The third of these remedies is the one that deserves the greatest attention, since it proposes for manufacturing corporations restrictions similar to those by which banking corporations in different places are now kept from consolidating. The fear of banking monopolies led the people of the last generation to stipulate that no National bank should even own a branch in another community; and while the restriction has doubtless prevented the establishment of banks in some towns, it has enabled business men nearly everywhere to deal with principals instead of agents when they wished bankers' accommodations, and has kept banks in competition with each other for the business of customers. If the fear of manufacturing monopolies comes to equal the cld fear of banking monopolies, we may expect new legislation along these historic lines. It was somewhat notable that the Conference failed to call for the use of the tax power of the State to prevent over-capitalization. In our opinion, the provision that every corporation shall be taxed upon at least the par value of its securities would accomplish far more to reduce the issues of watered stock than the requirement that its holders shall incur a double lia bility to creditors.

More Rioting Against Negro Miners

There seems to be no end to the Illinois riots against the employment of non-union negro miners. Last week at Carterville, in the southern part of the State, a group of negroes, tired of confinement at the neighboring mines, ventured to the railway station as a train was coming in. The crowd about the station, according to the despatches, immediately set upon them with taunts and threats. The negroes at first retreated toward the mines, but afterwards decided to go back and assert their equal rights. The crowd thereupon became more threatening; one of its number struck the leader of the negroes, and at once there was a general fusillade of pistol-shots-every miner, white and black, seeming to be armed. Four negroes were killed before their party took to flight, and three more were killed before they reached the mines. For a few hours there was danger of a race conflict on a still larger scale, but Governor Tanner, realizing the disgrace which these outbreaks are bringing on ing on the State, promptly despatched a force of militia to the scene, and promised that the whole National Guard. should be called upon if necessary to bring to justice those guilty of the "wholesale murder." On this occasion the Governor's attitude was that which the situation demanded, and the present prospects are that law and order will be upheld. Nevertheless, the hatred remaining between the white and the colored miners is such that murder may again result. The troubles began, it will be recalled, when some of the Illinois miners refused to accept the decision of the board of arbitration for the settlement of the miners' strike, and imported negroes from the South to take the strikers' places. Beginning with the outbreak at Pana just a year ago, thirteen whites and fifteen negroes have been killed, and about twice these numbers wounded. Had white nonunionists taken union miners' places under such circumstances, the bitterness would have been intense, and the addition of race feeling to union feeling has made each restoration of order simply an armed truce. The situation demands martial law until the unions recognize that their only hope lies in unionizing instead of terrorizing the negroes.

New York's Reformed Primaries

In

The results last week of the Republican and Democratic primaries in this city proved the value of the new law in enabling the voters to curb the despotism of the machine. The primaries were held on the same day, in the polling places used in regular elections, the two parties meeting separately in alternate election districts. Every voter who had signified his party preference at the time of registration was entitled to vote, and the fear of prosecution for illegal voting and false counting made these weapons of the machine of less avail than usual. The supreme interest centered in the Democratic district where Mr. John C. Sheehan fought for the leadership, as the avowed opponent of Mr. Croker, and Mr. Croker's lieutenants used every means to defeat him-down to the issue of false ballots to divide the Sheehan vote. spite of these tactics, Mr. Sheehan won by a considerable majority, and the unpopularity of Mr. Croker's rule within his own party was signally demonstrated. At the present time the choice of the voters at the primaries is limited to the choice of delegates to represent them in the party councils, but in Brooklyn the Young Men's Republican Club has demanded that the next step be taken and the voters be allowed to choose directly their candidates for all public offices. This enthronement of the voters above the machine is permissible under the new law whenever the local machine is forced to grant it; and the demand of the Young Republicans of Brooklyn, if persisted in, may soon make New York primaries what they should be -the place where the citizens of each party choose their candidates by direct vote, instead of merely choosing which politicians shall choose for them.

time classes to accommodate the pupils who have prepared for them. It is estimated that six thousand children may be excluded from the schools of the city for lack of room. That, in view of the large increase, the Boards of Education have so nearly met the city's need is proof that the near future will see New York's greatest disgrace, lack of schools, removed. That the pressure for room is felt in the high schools, the Normal and the city colleges, proves the advance in the educational standards of the citizens, it removes the reproach from the system that amplest provision was made where there was the least demand. The solution of the immediate problem as to room in the primary grades, made last year by Dr. Maxwell, the Superintendent of Schools, is again offered, that rooms be hired on every block in the crowded sections of the city and equipped as kindergartens. This would provide for thousands of children now crowded into grade work, and would give opportunity for kindergarten training to hundreds of children who cannot go two or three blocks to a crowded school alone. Kindergartens away from a crowded building where the "lock-step" begins at the door would permit a more natural atmosphere for little children, who rarely are fitted for grade work under six years of age. Should the Boards of Education act at once on this suggestion, it is possible that there would be room for every child of school age in the city of New York.

Charles P. Daly

Judge Daly, who died on Monday of last week, was not only one of the ablest lawyers and judges the State of New York has known, but a man of varied and brilliant attainments in other than legal matters, and one of notably forceful character-a fine type of the American citizen, self-made in a high sense. Although he began life as the son of an immigrant Irish carpenter and was for three years a sailor before the mast, he seized advantages of education so rapidly that he was admitted to the bar when twenty-three years old, was sent to the Legislature when twenty-seven, and became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas when twenty-eight. All this he did almost or quite without assistance, earning his living as a clerk or by a trade