drain a watershed and basin of less than 50,000 square miles; the Missippippi and its tributaries drain an area of 1,257,000 square miles. The total discharge of the Sacramento River at its mouth at extreme flood is about 600,000 second feet; the normal discharge of the Mississippi at New Orleans is 600,000 second feet, and during floods is, of course, immensely greater. The population of the Sacramento watershed and basin is less than a million; the population of the Mississippi Valley is more than 40 millions.

The Mississippi Valley below St. Louis is the Nile Valley of America, the immense fertile bed of a continent. Civilization was born under the beneficent influence of the Nile and Egypt has been reincarnated a nation since the English engineers have harnessed the great river. Civilization in the lower Mississippi Valley has been blighted by floods and destruction and after a hundred years of settlement the great valley is in many ways the most backward part of the country except at a few points where high bluffs have allowed an occasional city to perch like a watchtower to overlook a semi-developed region that should be sending a wealth of produce through its markets.

The redemption of this fertile empire to the best uses of men is one of the most colossal and most pressing material tasks that confronts the Nation.

EXPERT AID TO LEGISLATORS

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HE city of Cincinnati and the state of Ohio have recently followed the example of the state of Wisconsin in establishing a legislative reference library. Prof. S. G. Lowrie, whom the University of Cincinnati got from Wisconsin, is to have permanent charge of the Cincinnati library, which is to start the reference library for the benefit of the state legislators.

One of the worst evils in our state and city governments is the tremendous number of half-baked measures which are enacted — measures conceived in good intentions, but also in ignorance of the fate of similar experiments elsewhere. The technical skill to draw bills that will have

the desired effect is not in the grasp of most state legislators and city councilmen, nor are they familiar with the legislative experience of other states or cities here or abroad. A well-managed legislative reference library can aid other legislatures, as the famous institution under Dr. McCarthy has aided the legislature of Wisconsin, and there is no reason why a similar institution should not be correspondingly valuable not only to Cincinnati but to other cities as well.

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Besides providing Cincinnati with a legislative reference library under one of its professors, the University of Cincinnati is trying in other ways to be as practically useful to the city that supports it as the University of Wisconsin is to its state, which is explained in Mr. Stockbridge's article in another part of this magazine.

The engineering school of the University of Cincinnati coöperates with the manufacturers of the city to train young men in the chief local industries, its medical school acts as a laboratory for the health authorities, its teachers' college helps the school board prepare teachers, and the municipal reference library will aid councilmen to prepare bills.

Most of this work is new and it has not yet had time to show a long record of results, but it is based upon a sound theory that the seat of learning which is paid for by the city taxes should be the source of practical, helpful information for the city, and should furnish leadership from its faculty as well as leaders from its graduates.

In 1910 the record of American book production was 13,470 new titles, in 1911 it was 11,123, and in 1912 it had dropped to 10,903. In 1910, the year of the greatest number of books, there were 1,539 books of fiction, 2,091 books that come under the more serious title of general literature and essays, and 943 books devoted to religion and theology. During the next two years the number of novels dropped to about a thousand and such subjects as sociology, economics, and agriculture have had a larger quota of the total.

It is true, of course, that as a rule the novels sell more copies than other kinds of books, at least to begin with, but it often happens that books of useful information, interesting biographies, and the like, reach more people than most books of fiction. It is a good sign that useful books are coming to be, as they should be, the everyday tools of our working population, farmers as well as teachers, and business men. Nor is this any reflection upon the large number of novels, for the two kinds of books are complements of each other, not competitors, and it is but a poor public that does not enjoy a good story.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN SCHOOLS?

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ASHINGTON ranks first of all the states in the all-around efficiency of its schools, according to an analysis which the Russell Sage Foundation recently made of the report of the United States Commissioner of Education whose figures, in turn, are largely an analysis of the census of 1910. Massachusetts, New York, California, Connecticut, and Ohio are the next five in rank in descending order. Ten tests of efficiency were applied to reach these results.

Astonishing gaps between the best schools and the poorest schools appear when these tests are applied. For examples: Only 7 per cent. of the children of Vermont are out of school, but 44 per cent are out in Louisiana; Massachusetts has invested $115 per child in school buildings and equipment, whereas Mississippi has invested only $4; Washington spends $32 a year to educate every child, and South

Carolina spends $3; every child averages 131 days of the year in school in Massachusetts and 46 days in New Mexico; the schools of Rhode Island are open, on an average, 193 days in the year and in New Mexico 100 days; Oklahoma spends 75 cents for school purposes for every $100 of its wealth, and New Mexico spends 19 cents; in New Hampshire, of every 1,000 pupils in the elementary schools, 118 enter high school and 23 enter college, but in West Virginia only 22 enter high school and 10 enter college. The most striking of all these comparisons, however, is between the average yearly salaries paid to teachers in the several states in California and in North Carolina, $816 against $200; and, more astonishing still, in prosperous Iowa, $302. The average for the whole country is $485 a year, and this figure shows itself in its true light better when compared with the yearly wages of other occupations:

These figures give a hint of the size of the stupendous task that must be done before the quality of education in the United States is worthy of the children who receive it.

The twelve states lowest in all-around efficiency are these, named in descending order: Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. This list indicates where the intensity of the educational problem is greatest in the rural South. Fortunately, encouraging progress has been made in these states, for in the last forty years illiteracy among the whites has been reduced from 12 per cent. to 3 per cent., and among the Negroes from 95 per cent. to 30 per cent. Fortunately, also, in these states the forces of economic regeneration are well under way, and in every one of them are leaders who are inspired with a consuming ambition to direct the new resources of an awakening people into practical and efficient education for the common man.

A UNIFORM LAW FOR DIVORCE

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HE National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has recommended a uniform divorce law that is now in force in Delaware, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, and in practical effect in Illinois. The uniform Negotiable Instruments Act drawn by this same body is in effect in thirty-eight states and territories and in the District of Columbia, and its Warehouse Receipts Act is in force in twenty-two states and

the District of Columbia.

Its uniform divorce law provides six causes for divorce: adultery,,bigamy, conviction of certain crimes, extreme cruelty, wilful desertion for two years, and habitual drunkenness for two years.

It recognizes that divorce is to be dealt with by the states, not by a national divorce law, and the principal emphasis is placed upon the jurisdiction of the courts in which the divorce may be had. In the main it makes necessary a two years' residence of at least one of the parties to

the suit in the state in which the suit is brought, although when the cause of the suit is adultery or bigamy this is not required.

The six causes for divorce named in this act with one exception are identical with the six causes that were recommended by the British Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, whose report was described in the WORLD'S WORK for last January. This exception is that the British Commission recommends incurable insanity where the American Conference recommends bigamy as a cause for divorce. Thus the most careful and distinguished students of this subject in the two foremost English-speaking countries are practically agreed unanimously upon the justifiable grounds for divorce.

A PERMANENT MEXICAN PROBLEM

RANCISCO MADERO is dead and his short-lived administration that came in on one revolution went out on another, as have so many Mexican administrations before it. Only three times since 1810, when Mexico began

its war of freedom from Spain, has the presidency changed hands without bloodshed. The first time was before the French intervention under Maximilian, in 1861; the second time was in 1880, at the end of Porfirio Diaz's first term when, in obedience to a constitutional provision against second terms, he gave up the presidency to General Gonzalez. The third peaceful transfer came when Diaz, in spite of the constitution, succeeded Gonzalez.

The fundamental idea underlying a republican form of government is the peaceful enforcement of the people's wishes. In this the Mexican republic has failed, for the only lasting peace which it has known was the practical dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.

Mexico's past gives little encouragement to hope for a peaceful government by the people, more than half of whom are Indians or chiefly of Indian extraction. The long peaceful period under Diaz seemingly did not build up the character and the intelligence equal to the responsibilities of republican government. During the last part of Diaz's long rule people in Mexico. were continually asking, "After Diaz, what? A real republican government, another dictator, or civil war?" So far, there have been two years of civil war.

The long reign of peace under Diaz tempted much foreign capital, American, English, and to a lesser extent German and French capital, into Mexico. That capital asks for protection. And, whatever we think about using the army and navy to guarantee the safety of our citizens' money outside our own country, that is the policy of England and Germany, but we do look with disfavor upon their or any other European intervention in any republic of the two Americas. This attitude leaves on our hands a grave responsibility not only now but for many years to come.

THE JAPAN OF THE NEAR EAST

ULGARIA is the Japan of the Near East. This is the most striking fact that has been brought to light by the Balkan War. It means that a new and lusty nation among the considerable

Powers of the world must hereafter be reckoned with. Bulgarian diplomacy created the league of the Balkan States and chose the auspicious hour to launch its power against Turkey; Bulgarian strategy and leadership planned and executed the victorious campaign; and the Bulgarian army was the effective body that won the decisive victories.

But more important than these things, and the reason for them, are the Bulgarian people who have revealed themselves in this play of nations. Here is a nation that has built a modern railroad system which serves both its military and its economic needs; that has developed its agriculture; that has opened its mines; that has seriously undertaken the reforestation of its mountains; that has built Sofia into a modern, sanitary, and efficient capital city; that has, above all, grown into a national unity and a national consciousness. It has done these things in a neglected and mountainous corner of Europe, harassed by powerful nations that are greedy for its territory and that have added to the violence of their racial and territorial ambitions bitter religious antagonisms. Bulgarian diplomacy must now deal with the sharpened appetites of its allies and with a new set of complications of the old struggle between Russia and Austria for control of the Balkan Peninsula, and of Great Britain to keep both from threatening the Suez Canal.

Bulgaria's problem is as perplexing as Japan's. But at least the world has discovered a new economic unit and a new national power and a new interest in refreshing its memory of an almost forgotten page of the atlas.

of the get-rich-quick promoter. He asserts that during the two years that the law has been in force it has saved the people of Kansas more money than is needed to run the state government. And its success has made such an impression that in about thirty of the thirty-eight state legislatures in session this year similar measures have been introduced, patterned largely after the Kansas law.

The Investment Bankers' Association feels that the Kansas law is too strict, hampering legitimate business more than is necessary, and that future laws should be left more open for legitimate enterprise to enlist the services of the dollars saved from the financial sharper, but it is as anxious as the Kansas authorities to save the money from the sharpers.

State bank commissioners, legislatures, the investment bankers, a lately organized international association, and the postoffice authorities have all declared war on the get-rich-quick game, and their efforts ought to save a large proportion of the 120 millions of dollars that now slip into the unprofitable channels of unsound. promotions. And this cleaning-up process will, also, if thoroughly done, deservedly increase the public confidence in the whole stock, bond, and security business.

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ABOUT AN OIL FLOTATION

IN THE February number of the WORLD'S WORK there was an article headed, "A Warning Written in Oil," which was a story of the flotation of the preferred and common stocks of a petroleum company by Messrs. William Salomon & Co., of New York, and other bankers.

After that article was written, and while it was on the press, Mr. George G. Henry, a member of that firm, was a witness before the Pujo Committee. He added several details which conflict in some respects with the facts brought out in former testimony. For instance, it was stated that the bankers paid $10,000,000 in cash and received $10,000,000 preferred stock and $10,000,000 common. It appears from an exhibit put into record during Mr. Henry's testimony that the bankers paid $8,215,662, for which they

received $10,000,000 preferred stock and $7,572,845 common stock.

It was not known at the time the article was written what proportion of the stock was sold by the syndicate of Salomon & Co. and the allied houses at private sale and what proportion was sold through public speculative operations. Mr. Henry's testimony brought out the fact that practically all of both the preferred and common stock had been sold privately by the bankers in the syndicate to their Own customers and others before the operations on the Curb and Stock Exchange began. It appears, therefore, that the stock which was turned over so often in the market places (twice the entire capitalization of the company was sold in one month) was traded in after the syndicate had sold all their stock privately, at the price of 91 for the preferred and 40 for the common, respectively.

Since there has been a great deal of public comment on this particular company and the methods of its promotion and flotation, and since one Federal suit may grow out of circumstances that arose in the investigation of it, it seems good judgment to reiterate the statements made in that article to the effect that no criticism of the oil company in question was implied in that story. The oil company seems to be a perfectly legitimate development of legitimate resources, with a strong earning capacity and good management. The use of the phrase "gambling" in connection with its stock in the former article, referred loosely, of course, to the buying and selling of this class of stock by the public, and not to the industry itself.

The lesson of the whole incident, namely, the warning not to buy speculative stocks at times of great market excitement and manipulation, remains.

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GOOD many letters come regularly to the WORLD'S WORK from people who deny emphatically any desire to speculate, even in the slightest degree, but who, nevertheless, believe there is some way in which they can invest and have their investment increase in value, without any speculation entering into the transaction. Not infrequently the writers of these letters are business men and others who have surplus money to put to work under circumstances which may make it perfectly proper for them to assume some of the ordinary risks of investment, provided they do so in a sensible and intelligent way; and it is more especially for such investors, rather than for those whose circumstances demand that they hew closely all the time to the line of safety and assured income, that this article is written. Let us take two typical cases.

A Michigan merchant wrote not long since to explain that he had several thousand dollars a year that he did not want to

put back into his business, and to ask for suggestions of bonds that in all probability would increase in value. He said he would, of course, expect to get securities which paid at least 5 per cent. and which could be sold in a hurry in case he happened to need the money. His letter ended with the strict admonition that the magazine, in making suggestions, should bear in mind that he didn't want to speculate.

A letter from a young man down in Maine" began by saying that the writer was unmarried and, therefore, felt he could take a larger risk with his money than would be involved in buying gilt-edged bonds. "But", he added, "I want a strictly conservative investment". And then, somewhat naïvely: "Am I right in thinking that, if I were to buy Steel common, I could be assured of a good income regularly, with a fair chance of selling at a profit of, say, ten points two or three years hence, when I anticipate using this money to go into business for myself?" Of the two courses upon which these investors were purposing to embark, the