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civil war, but civil war that is unorganized. The general joy at the death of Trepoff, the reactionary commander of St. Petersburg, who was thought to be the best embodiment of the cruelty of the old régime that these turbulent times brought forth, and the well-nigh successful effort to kill the Premier with a bomb when his house was shattered and his children wounded, show the deliberate, determined, and continuous policy of the terrorists and their allies. Just as bad-or worse-is the continued policy of repression by the Government. There is abundant evidence of the Government's instigation of "pogroms.' The revolution, if that be a proper name for it, has taken the form of a civil war without the frankness and organization of war. No wonder a distinguished Russian spoke of it as an ineffective revolution under an incapable government.

JAPAN A NATIONAL TRUST

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WITH the recent war now practically for

WITH gotten in the "instant need of things,"

the Japanese Government has committed itself to a scheme of industrial expansion which is practically the nationalization of the means of acquiring wealth. It has already begun taking over the railroads of the country. It is proposing to combine with private capital to control the mines, the forests, and the railroads, and the whole industrial development of Manchuria. It has made provision for financing a combination of cotton manufacturing companies and other exporting enterprises which aim to capture the export trade to Manchuria and Korea. It will lend $3,000,000 at 41 per cent. and return of one per cent. as a bonus to any company that does a notably large business. It proposes to organize a governmental purchasing department that shall buy raw materials and sell them to private concerns a device of wholesale buying on an unprecedented scale to effect economies in the nation's manufacturing. Our Consul-General at Tokyo, Mr. Henry B. Miller, calls the whole undertaking "one of the greatest experiments in the world's history in the relations between government and industry." It is all that.

If the scheme be carried out in full, the trusts cannot own the nation because the nation will own the trusts. Will Japan avoid the economic problems of the Western nations by becoming at one leap itself a trust and a coöperative community at the same time?

If so, whatever may be the ultimate effect on its social organization, we may look sharply to our Oriental trade. Korea is now a Japanese province. The underlying cause of the war with Russia was a need of more territory for the teeming population of Japan; and, with

better fortune than the Elder Statesmen could have forseen, Manchuria has become subject. to Japanese control and colonization. Öne of the most important objects of the nationalization of industry and commerce is to capture the markets of these Japanese colonies. Already Japan has borrowed half a billion dollars from other nations, largely from the United States and Great Britain; it has borrowed as much more at home; and it will cost $200,000,000 to take over all the railroads. Saddled with these financial burdens, the Government must conduct a business campaign as vigorous as its wonderful military campaign. With the marvelous Japanese "teamwork' to count on, this huge national trust will be a more formidable rival for our exporters to compete with in the Orient than the Germans or the British could dream of being. For it will fight on its own ground.

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LIFE INSURANCE FOR THE POOR

R. LOUIS D. BRANDEIS, of Boston, has made a thoughtful suggestion about what is usually called "industrial" insurancethat is, life insurance taken for small amounts and paid for in small weekly instalments. This "industrial" insurance now costs the insurers proportionately twice as much as the holder of an ordinary policy pays. In one company that sells both kinds, for example, an "industrial" policyholder beginning at twenty-one pays as the total of his weekly contributions $31.20 a year for a policy of $984, whereas the ordinary policyholder pays only $16.55 a year for a policy of $1,000. This proportion holds for policies of smaller amounts, which make up the bulk of the industrial business, for the average amount of the policies is only $140. At least two-thirds of them, moreover, lapse within three years after issue. Of all the "industrial" policies in the three big insurance companies that do most of the business, only one-eighth of those terminating in 1904 terminated by payment to the policyholder. Or, to suggest the situation in another way, industrial policyholders in Massachusetts alone paid the companies more than fifty-eight million dollars in fifteen years and received back less

than six million. Poor working people, in brief, are paying from their earnings in driblets of a few cents a week hundreds of millions of dollars for which they get small return.

The trouble is, of course, not so much that anybody is making the stupendous profits that this system hints of, as that the carrying on of the business is extraordinarily expensive. The stockholders receive very large, but not astounding, dividends; not many large salaries are paid to officers; yet, whereas the expenses of the "Big Three" ordinary companies was only 23 per cent. of the premium receipts in 1904, the expenses of the three big industrial companies, the Prudential, the Metropolitan, and the John Hancock, was 37 per cent. It is the system itself that is costly. The expenses are the commissions paid to the agents who make weekly rounds to collect the ten, fifteen, and twenty-five cent premiums, and the salaries of superintendents and clerks who take care of the business. These employees are not paid much, but there is such an army of them that their compensation every year amounts to millions. A pathetic waste of human energy this! One large class in the community toiling

hard for poor pay to no other purpose than to gain a bare living from the pennies of people who can ill afford to part with them; and of the millions of contributors of the pennies the luckiest pay unduly high for what they get, and the others simply give away money they cannot spare to support the system that gives them an inadequate return.

Now Mr. Brandeis suggests that the savings banks issue industrial policies on the same terms as they receive deposits. Life insurance computations are scientifically made. Indeed, there is less risk about an insurance business than about any phase of banking. The savings banks, not being obliged to send out collectors, could conduct their insurance activities with very little additional staff or additional expense. They could offer more attractive and far cheaper insurance than is offered now by the industrial companies. A bill is to be introduced at the next session of the Massachusetts legislature to permit savings banks to do this, and the experiment will be watched with interest.

WASTE ENERGY AND THE IDEAL TOWN

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no bill-boards; vacant lots turned into attractive squares; benches at intervals along the roadside; backyards made beautiful; flowerboxes in windows; recreation piers; playgrounds, for 'the boy without a playground is father to the man without a job'; cheap clubs to take the place of saloons."

But the excellence of this programme is fortified by the further suggestion that women's clubs of all sorts take the work up, as most of them do. Here is a task for the Daughters of the Revolution, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and for all other sorts of clubs. The success of village improvement societies has been the work chiefly of women. Almost any town or small city in the land could be made more attractive and life would run on a higher level by persistent, concerted work toward such a plan. If there are bridgewhist clubs that long for a better life (as most of them ought), Miss Salmon has shown the way to attain it.

TO THE READER, IF HE WILL

THE WORLD'S WORK begins its seventh year with some humble pride in the constant increase in the number of its readers and in many other evidences of its growing influence. American magazines of every type are now come up from the old-time excellent monthly of all-round entertainment, with its love stories and sketches of travel written for home-keeping spinsters, to your most yellow monthly, which has superseded without improving on the dime novel-with the difference, too, that your dime novel was written for boys in their 'teens, whereas your yellow magazine is written for the credulous and excitable and immature of all ages. They come and they go, this blessing and this pest of monthlies; and the man is hard to please who cannot find one to his taste.

But a most noteworthy fact is that, since this magazine began to try to interpret the best forms of American activity, the literature of this nature has grown amazingly. Some of it is good and much of it is inaccurate, as must needs be in a craft that is yet new.

But the fundamental idea of THE WORLD'S WORK has proved itself sound-that the most interesting and helpful things in the world are the things that good and capable men are now doing; that the best inspiration comes from the honest work of those who toil with us in our

own interesting land and era. And the manifold interpretation of present life in its most helpful and cheerful activities will continue to make this magazine. Its editors and writers are just beginning to learn how to do their task. If their work has yielded them so much enjoyment these five years, and if the help

and pleasure that it has given to its readers have been half as great as many of them say, what joy we shall all have in the next half-decade of much better work and, no doubt, of an even more interesting period of activity! For this is a time when it is good to be alive, with a clear, helpful purpose and an energetic mood.

PR

THE SAFETY OF SAVINGS BANKS

RACTICALLY all investment starts with the savings bank. Now and again a man makes money suddenly, or inherits it, and thereby becomes an investor on a large scale, but such a man is the exception. The rule is that a man is a saver of money before he is an investor in securities or property. Herein lies the answer to the question so often asked: "What shall I do with my small savings?"

Many methods present themselves to the ordinary earner of money whereby he can put aside his surplus. There have been enumerated over forty forms of co-operative, mutual, benefit, savings, and other similar associations scattered over the United States. They will take the smallest savings, or the largest. Many of them are perfectly honest in intent. Some of them have become so wealthy that they may be esteemed perfectly safe.

Yet these associations, guilds, or companies -they go by many names cannot usually be called a proper medium for the putting aside of savings. The reason is that in almost every case the success or failure of the concern depends upon the ability and the honesty of some individual or individuals. In consequence, there is no uniformity of method in their administration, no legal limitation upon their use of funds entrusted to them, no hard and fast code of laws that shall ensure to the depositor the safety of his money.

It is astonishing how little inroad has been made upon the business of the savings bank by this host of new savings institutions that has grown up within the past ten years of high prosperity. The sober common sense of the people has refused to listen to the voice of the charmer who was ready to promise returns at least 25 per cent. higher than the savings bank,

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These figures are an index of prosperity. They show that there are nearly 3,000,000 more persons who came to be savers of money, who became the possessors of "bank accounts,' within that ten-year period.

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More than that, these figures should raise, in the mind of every man and woman who considers them, certain intimate questions. If the reader be neither the owner of a bank account nor the owner of investments in other forms, they should bring humility to him. They mean that there are very nearly 8,000,000 people in the United States who have outstripped him in the race. They mean that almost one out of every ten men, women, and children in this country is wealthier, and therefore stronger, than he is.

This is a question that comes home especially to the young men and the young women who earn wages. Not one out of a thousand of these is in a position to invest for himself or herself, even if the savings from the monthly or weekly salary permitted it. The real question is whether or not to save; and, that decided, how to carry out the decision.

As to the desirability of saving money no one will raise a question. The very statement that it is desirable is trite. How, then, can it be done? Mr. Andrew Carnegie has published the simplest recipe that has so far found its way into print:

"The best way to accumulate money is to resolutely save and bank a fixed portion of your income, no matter how small the amount."

It may be noted that Mr. Carnegie's recipe is simply to put the money in the bank. He does not say what kind of a bank. That is the question to be decided by every depositor of money. If the saver have accumulated as much as $100, he may choose from a great variety of banks. If he have nothing but a dollar bill and a good intent, his choice is practically limited to the savings banks and the building and loan associations.

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It is not the purpose of this article to belittle the building and loan associations. At the close of 1905 there existed in the United States over 5,200 of these institutions, holding over $600,000,000 of assets belonging to 1,600,000 people. There are more than four of these institutions to one savings bank. In the state of Pennsylvania there were at that date 1,223 associations with 319,459 members, to 13 savings banks with 426,113 depositors. An institution that has grown to this importance is deserving of consideration.

But the one great advantage of the savings bank over all other forms of investment for small savings is that it is regulated by law more carefully than is any other form of banking institution. This is a general statement, and must be taken by every reader as an invitation to study carefully the laws under which the savings banks of his state carry on their business. For the laws that regulate the savings banks in their investment of funds are state laws, and vary in each state of the Union.

In New York the savings banks come almost as close to absolute safety as it is possible to come, and yet afford to the banks such freedom in investment and in the use of the deposits as will permit the payment of over 3 per cent. to depositors. The average rate paid by these banks in 1905 was 3.33 per cent. Many of them are now paying 4 per cent. to their depositors. Quite recently there developed a strong tendency toward the 4 per cent. rate, and some of the oldest and most conservative of the banks adopted that rate. It may be taken for granted that the savings bank depositor in the state of New York can get 4 per cent. on his money. The oldest and probably the strongest of the Ohio banks pay 4 per cent. The average rate runs from a minimum of about 3 per cent., the rate in New Jersey and

Minnesota, to 4.50 per cent, the rate in West Virginia.

To take up in detail the laws that safeguard these investments would be beyond the scope of this article. It is enough to sound the note of caution. Blind deposits of savings in a savings bank are no wiser than blind investments of funds in securities. Every depositor should know whether or not the state in which he lives throws proper safeguards around his deposits. In the panic of 1893 the state of New Hampshire recorded more failures of savings banks than any other Eastern state. The commission that investigated the matter reported as the sole reason for this unenviable distinction the fact that prior to 1892 there had been no laws regulating the investment of savings bank funds in that state. One institution was found that had a very large proportion of its deposits invested in stocks and bonds of the Sioux City stock yards, investment companies, and other concerns, over 50 per cent. of which were in default.

Yet, to this day, there are states in which the investment of savings bank funds is left to the discretion of the president and directors. In such states, the savings bank is a pitfall, nothing less. It has the name of safety

without the substance.

The answer to the question, "Is the savings bank safe?" is, therefore, "It is safe if the laws of your state are properly drawn to make it safe. You must first seek out an authority and discover whether or not you live in a state where the interests of the depositor are safeguarded by proper legislation."

In general, it may be said that the Eastern States have laws relative to investment of savings bank funds that fairly well safeguard the depositor; the Middle States are less careful, with the possible exception of Ohio; while most of the Western and Southern States leave much to be desired on this point. There are flaws even in the laws of New York, the most carefully regulated of all the states, but they cannot be called serious enough to vitiate the whole savings bank structure.

Granted that one lives in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, or any other state whose laws shall be found sufficient to safeguard the depositor, the regular deposits of savings to be left to pile up their compound interest over a series of years shows quite remarkable results. A simple table showing the results from such deposits in a savings

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I

AN OBJECTION TO ALL REFORMS

WAS born

HUMOR AND PHILOSOPHY WHICH MAY EXPLAIN THE
SLOW PROGRESS OF MANY WORTHY MOVEMENTS

BY

TUDOR JENKS

with a natural tendency toward every species of reform. It was sufficient that any cause should be advocated before me with the proper amount of enthusiasm for me to consider seriously the adoption of it as a life-mission. I was a natural prey for every sort of tract, and a complete resumé of my successive religious views might be used for a composite photograph of a World's Congress of Religions.

At another time I should take pleasure in tracing this catholicism of view to its cause, and in determining whether it was the result of mental weakness or (as I prefer to think) the outcome of a liberal breadth of mind; but at present it is rather my purpose to show why, in spite of a number of attacks, I have passed a certain part of my life much the larger part, if I may trust the tables of lifeexpectation and yet skilfully avoided the advocacy of any reform for long at a time.

There has been only one serious objection to each reform in turn as it presented itself. In every case I have found the theory delightful, and have longed to make it my own; but also, in every case, I have been saved by the reformers themselves. In short, the trouble with each reform has been the advocates of it. So long as it could be approached as a set of mental ideas, there was something delightful in the thought of becoming one of the elect of the earth of separating one's self from the opportunists; of joining some devoted band of martyrs; of living and (theoretically, of course) dy

ing for a cause. But just as I have reached the full flush of youthful enthusiasm, it has always been my fate to be presented to some light of the new faith, some enthusiast whose ideas seemed to fit him little better than his clothes; whose extravagancies of speech or of manner matched his extravagancies of hair; who was so absorbed in his own peculiar cult as to be entirely oblivious to the many advantages derivable from enlisting me in it. And it may be that in my wounded self-esteem lies the secret of the repugnance which the reformer has aroused against the reform.

When strenuous young men approach me in my hours of ease and argue vociferously that it is my duty to attend primaries, to go to the polls, and otherwise conduct myself as a good citizen should, I never argue with them; but, while accepting all their propositions, I ingeniously evade all the obligations that should follow. There is no doubt that they are right in their statement of the citizen's obligations, and if one chose to give up good hours to confuting these enthusiastic young men, one might yield at once all for which they contend on the political side of the subject, but beg leave to ask them whether the duty of the good citizen begins and ends with his political relations. One might inquire whether there are not other things beside the government of their fellowmen that require the citizen's attention. Why not, for instance, make a comparison between the effects of good literature upon the ethical state of a nation

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