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and fair hours. Because the ordinary legal procedure failed to give workmen fair compensation for injuries received in their work, there has been a rapid spread of employers' liability laws. A new social conscience is restricting the hours of women's work and gradually prohibiting the working of young children.

All these reforms are primarily in the interest of the working people, and yet, curious as it may seem, they have been achieved more by other agencies than by the labor unions. In these constructive tasks of social justice the unions have not made their influence felt as they might. Manufacturers, lawyers, social workers, and all kinds of leagues and societies, charitable and otherwise, have been the chief promoters of these reforms.

But even yet there are slow witted men herded like cattle to work; there are still women ruining their health and happiness in a few short years in industry; there are still little children at work. There should be no abatement in the zeal with which we root out these evils. But in doing this we should be doing justice only. These things are not favors. They do not constitute a special privilege to a particular class. They should be done because neglecting them works harm to the whole body politic.

Some of this legislation seems likely to be misinterpreted by the leaders of the labor unions. While we have been legislating for social justice on the one hand in favor of the wage earner, the corporation the great employer of labor-has been undergoing its hour of trial. It had come to look upon itself as a thing with special privileges; to gain its ends it had broken the law; and a heavy justice has followed.

The labor unions have played their part against the "oppressing corporations" and every defeat of the corporations was accepted as a union advance. But, like the corporations, the unions have taken advantage of the public indifference to break the law. Conspiracy in restraint of trade is a part of their every-day operations as it used to be a routine of business. When occasion demands the unions descend to intimidation or even bloodshed. Some of their methods are as bad as the old

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It is my sober judgment that in the City of New York at least 25 per cent. of all fires are of incendiary origin. When it is said that of 14,571 fires in Greater New York in a single year, 3,643 of them were probably deliberately started and planned, a full realization of the prevalence of this crime may be arrived at.

I have during my career in the New York Fire Department entered a building to find many bladders filled with oils hanging around, ready at the first touch of flame to scatter their contents, oil-soaked streamers stretching in every direction, ready to communicate the fire to all parts of the premises, and with a candle burning in the midst of a pile of oilsoaked rubbish, steadily, second by second, burning its way outward toward the surrounding prepared material, perhaps a hundred sleeping people above, tired and worn out with their day's toil, while the candle shortens inch by inch, and while the firebug waits nearby mentally counting his approaching gain.

The gain is, of course, the insurance money. The life insurance companies refuse to issue policies to people of certain callings and characteristics because of the risk they run of sickness and death. There is an infinitely greater hazard in insuring buildings for the benefit of men without character than there is tring the lives of men with por fire insurance comp honest policy

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and to the community to be much more stringent in the moral requirements of the people to whom they issue insurance.

About 3,500 fires were deliberately lighted in New York City last year. Seventy-two cases of arson were brought to court, twenty-three convictions were secured. The need is urgent that the hand of the law fall heavier than this upon men who are willing to risk the safety of thousands of people to carry out their dishonest schemes for money-making.

It is time, too, that the public demand better measures of fire protection. As explained elsewhere in this number of the magazine, the mutual insurance companies have shown that rigid inspection and proper appliances will almost eliminate the risk of fire. While city conditions are not the same as the conditions surrounding the mills insured in the factory mutuals, the same methods could accomplish approximately the same results. What is needed to get these methods adopted is an enlightened and aroused public opinion. The fire problem is not only the insurance companies' business and the fire commissioners' business, it is every man's business not only in New York but in every city in the country.

DAYTON'S STEP FORWARD IN CITY GOVERNMENT

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AYTON, Ohio, has adopted the "city manager" plan of municipal government to take effect under a new charter the first of next year. After that date the city council will consist of five commissioners whose duties, except when they appoint the general manager, are purely legislative. They take the They take the place of the older larger council and concentrate responsibility for city ordinances in a few hands. But the remarkable phase of the new charter is the concentration of practically all the executive power of a large city in the hands of one man, the general manager. He is to administer all the city's business except the courts and the schools.

This is an advance even upon the charter of Staunton, Va., which originated the

general manager plan, for in Staunton the control of the police and fire departments remains in the hands of the mayor, and the general manager is entrusted principally with business details, such as the purchasing of supplies, paving of streets, and similar functions that involve the expenditure of money.

This is, of course, also a radical advance upon the commission form of government, under which the legislative and executive functions are in the same hands and under which the executive departments are parcelled out among the commissioners and the executive responsibility thereby divided. Dayton puts the whole burden of administration upon one man. Abuse of his extraordinary power is prevented by provisions for the initiative, referendum, and recall.

Dayton thus approaches the nearest of all large American cities to the German system, by which the administration of municipal government has become a specialized technical profession that is undertaken as a life work by men of the highest intelligence and ambition, who prepare for the task by years of study and who find their employment well paid and stable. So seriously is their work considered that, a few years ago, a large German city advertised for months for a mayor (who corresponds to Dayton's general manager), offering a high salary, before an applicant who dared pretend to possess the necessary qualifications asked for the place.

It may very well be that Dayton has taken the step forward that will place the chief administrator of a big city's affairs in a position of such security and dignity that municipal government may become a field for the best business ability and the most statesmanlike intelligence of the country.

Years ago, when the recently-retired Ambassador Bryce wrote "The American Commonwealth," city government was the one conspicuous failure which he had to chronicle. With the wide spread of the commission form of government and the hopeful experiments in city-managers, the present would afford a much brighter picture.

THE PROFESSION OF BUSINESS

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HE soldier is, relatively speaking, unimportant in American life. As compared to other countries and other times, even our statesmen, with the possible exception of our Presidents, are not held first in our estimation. In spite of all convictions under the Sherman Law, and the many disclosures of business lobbies, a “successful business man" comes near to being our national ideal.

We are beginning even to utilize business in fiction in a way that previous generations have not done. Always there have been "business men" in literature. Shakespeare wrote of Antonio and Shylock, but it was not the technique of their business that he chose to portray. To glorify merchandizing and to put in a novel the science of salesmanship is a thing that is probably peculiar to this age. Neither soldier, sailor, poet, nor politician is looked upon with such regard as the American business-man. And this should have its good effect. The more esteemed a calling the better its standards. A nation that looks up to its industrial leader puts a premium upon making business a high calling. Already, at least two colleges, Harvard and Dartmouth, have business schools, not so much to teach the student business practice as to give him a broad business vision and a high business standard, such an attitude toward his calling as is common among the professions that require special training.

In a way we are becoming the Chinese of the Occidental world. We are doing now what they have done for centuries, glorifying the merchant and neglecting the soldier who with us for centuries past in fact and in fiction has been the dominant man of our national ideals.

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Croker, it wielded authority only over the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For a generation Brooklyn and the outlying suburbs were particularly proud that they had successfully resisted Tammany domination. Several years ago, however, Tammany "crossed the bridge." For the last two years it has even controlled the New York State legislature. In the Dix administration Mr. Murphy, the Tammany leader, wielded an important influence in the Governor's chamber. Last fall he nominated a candidate who apparently assured him complete domination over the executive department. The fact, however, that Governor Sulzer tried to set up for himself, in defiance of Mr. Murphy, has precipitated the most scandalous political situation New York has known in a generation. As a counter move against the independence of his old time ally, Mr. Murphy has laid hands upon the power of impeachment. Tammany, in its long and unsavory history, has utilized various agencies for its own profit, but this is the first time that the highest judicial tribunal in the state, that organized to conduct impeachment trials, has ever been utilized as part of its machinery.

And this, after all, is the aspect of the matter that has the largest public concern. The guilt of Governor Sulzer on this count does not particularly matter. That he has been unfit for the high office of Governor has long been evident. But his unfitness is not the reason for his impeachment. The real reason for his impeachment is his refusal to hand over the powers of his office to Tammany.

Other episodes in the recent New York legislative session emphasize this point. In the early days circumstantial charges of bribery were brought against Senator Stillwell. The proof was abundant against Mr. Stillwell but the Tammany legislature acquitted him. He is now serving a term in Sing Sing, sent there on conviction of the identical charges for which the Tammany legislature gave him a clean bill of health. A few months ago charges were preferred to the legislature against Justice Daniel F. Cohalan, of the Supreme Court. The case was similar to

Governor Sulzer's; certain offenses said to have been committed by Justice Cohalan before his election to the bench were held to disqualify him for judicial office. The legislature, after listening to the evidence, "vindicated" Justice Cohalan. The chief point in which his situation differed from Mr. Sulzer's was that Justice Cohalan was still on good terms with Tammany.

Here, then, is a political organization of ill repute that uses the high ends of justice to "vindicate" those who remain loyal to it and to "impeach" those who endeavor to break away. And Tammany has had the hardihood to force this situation upon the public attention immediately before a city election.

There was never a better time to take New York City out of Tammany's hands. It has drawn attention anew to its own shortcomings in its vengeance upon Mr. Sulzer. This is no defense of the Governor. He was not a proper candidate to begin with, and his nomination and election by Tammany are just as good proofs of Tammany's unfitness to rule as are Tammany's motives in the impeachment.

FOR THE GOOD OF THE SERVICE

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ECRETARY GARRISON has completed his tour of inspection of the army posts which are scattered all over the United States. Many of them are relics of the Indian Wars or even of Revolutionary days. The General Staff of the Army is on record that most of them are of no military value. The Secretary himself, even before he made his tour, realized that there was urgent need of cutting down the unnecessary expenses of maintenance and that garrisoning the useless posts meant the division of the army into such small units as seriously to hamper its efficiency.

this condition and tried to remedy it, but he failed to win the approval of Congress for his plans.

Mr. Garrison and Mr. Daniels have. therefore, before them an opportunity to put the United Service on a better footing and at the same time to save the Treasury the large sums of money that are now being wasted. How the Secre taries meet this issue will give a fair indication of their aims and ideals in the administration of their departments and of their ability to gain the necessary coöperation from Congress.

THE APPOINTER-GENERAL

IN THE first 152 working days since Postmaster-General Burleson began his administration he appointed 5.765 postmasters. Of these 2,203 were Presidential appointments that have to have the confirmation of the Senate. In other words, the director of a great transporta tion agency that is vital to the interests of the whole country has had to spend much of his time looking over the qualifi cations of the privates in his army-not only the qualifications of the thirty-eight a day that were given jobs but two or three times that many that had to be refused This is a waste of his time and a detnment to the service. To hire a postmaster who is to get $3 a day, or about carpenter's wages, necessitates consultation between the Postmaster-General and one of two Senators, and also probably with a Representative. And then when the job is assigned it is necessary to make the President of the United States go through the red tape of appointing the man and to make the Senate of the United States perform its august function of confirmation

Of course Postmaster-General Burleson did not originate this plan nor can he do away with it without the approval of Congress, but it would be a welcome sight after his improvements in the parcel post. to see him attack this long standing abuse. Such practices as these, and the fact that recent Postmaster-Generals have been also campaign managers, give to the post office a political aspect which for the Secretary Daniels's predecessor knew of good of the service should be eliminated

In the Navy a similar situation exists. There are a number of useless and expensive stations scattered up and down the coast, from the yard at Portsmouth, N. H., to the station at Charleston, S. C. They, too, are survivals of past conditions or of political pull.

A FINANCIAL TALE OF TWO CITIES

HIS is a financial tale of two cities written for the investor in municipal bonds.

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One of the cities is Atchison, Kans. Though among the oldest in the state, it has never been ambiious to become a metropolis. Its citizens ike to boast of the substantial character, rather than of the rapidity, of the city's growth, both in population and in property values. Its population by the last census report was about 16,500.

On July 1, 1883, Atchison issued $266,950 worth of bonds to pay off some old indebtedness. These bonds bore Interest at the rate of 4 per cent. a year, and were to run for thirty years. Among the provisions of their issuance was one which made it a duty of the city officials to raise every year, by means of taxes, a sum of money large enough not only to meet the interest on the bonds but also to create a fund for the payment of their principal at maturity.

Presumably, all the legal preliminaries necessary to making an issue of this kind were properly attended to. The bonds were bought as an entire issue by bankers who, in turn, parcelled them out in several smaller lots to investors. For years they were forgotten, except as their owners were reminded twice every year of the interest being "due and payable at the office of the City Treasurer at the City of Atchison," or, perhaps, when they occasionally passed from hand to hand in private business transactions. Had these municipal bonds been true to family tradition, they would have ended naturally a quiet and uneventful life - held in high regard by investors exactly at the end of three score years, and there would have been no occasion to mention them here.

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went on to explain that, in the past, it had apparently been deemed unnecessary to maintain the sinking fund for which provision had been specifically made; that "on account of a temporary stringency in the money market" Atchison had not been able to raise the necessary funds to meet the maturing debt; and that, therefore, the best the city could offer was new bonds in exchange for the old, "with the same rate of interest that had satisfied for thirty years." This, the mayor thought, ought to be acceptable to every one under the adverse circumstances.

But he had reckoned without his host. A New York banking house, into whose hands some of the bonds had fallen, lost no time in making it plain to the city officials that new securities would not be acceptable under the terms offered. It was pointed out that, though the 4 per cent. interest might have been satisfactory for many years after the bonds were issued, under present conditions investment funds were demanding and receiving a higher rate than that. In fact, it was declared flatly that new 4 per cent. Atchison bonds were not worth par.

It should, perhaps, be explained that the fundamental difference between the kind of "refunding" proposed by the mayor of Atchison and the familiar kind so frequently resorted to by the great railroad and industrial corporations lies in the fact that the latter always offer to the bondholder the alternative of receiving cash payment if he is dissatisfied with the terms of the new securities, even though they may in fact, practically always do - bear a higher rate of interest.

Two ways of solving Atchison's financial problem were suggested. First, raising the necessary funds by making an appeal to the civic pride of local bankers; second, fixing the rate of interest on the new bonds at 5 per cent. and, perhaps, providing for their early maturity. It was recalled that the latter was the kind of solution which the state of Tennessee had sensibly and successfully applied to a

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