tional honor. But it is apparent that our higher civilization will only turn to war after every other means has been tried. We tend ever in the direction of discovering new means for peace.”"

The Senator is usually most guarded in his utterances relative to our relations toward foreign powers. Long service in the Senate has instilled into him the Senatorial brand of conservatism, just as it has given him a sweet and charming dignity and graciousness toward those of either high or low degree with whom he comes in contact. His experience as the head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate has not tended to make him brash in discussing our foreign affairs.

The chairman of that great committee necessarily maintains the closest possible relations with the nation's chief executive. What he says is not only important as moulding and developing public sentiment in this country, but because of the way it is received by foreign powers.

Many who watch the drift of foreign affairs and who know the gossip of the diplomatic corps at Washington, recall the effect of a speech on reciprocity delivered by Senator Cullom a year or so ago at Chicago. Germany was about to enter into new trade agreements with all the world powers. To no nation more than the United States did she look more eagerly for an advantageous arrangement. When Senator Cullom spoke with favor of reciprocal trade agreements, the German ambassador made it the subject of representations to his government, and held out the hope to the German foreign office that a reciprocity treaty might be arranged. He dwelt with enthusiasm on the attitude publicly outlined of the chairman of the foreign relations committee. Every one now knows how completely the German government failed to make a trade agreement with this country, and was obliged to extend the status quo for a year. The German diplomat, no doubt, failed to separate Senator Shelby M. Cullom, the master politician, whose practical ability as such has kept him secure in his seat for decades, as a representaive of one of the greatest of the states, with its full quota of ambitious men, addressing his constitutents, from Senator Shelby M. Cullom, statesman, chairman of the foreign relations committee, discharging a national responsibility in his committee.

room at the capitol or in secret session of the senate.

None knows better than Senator Cullom himself of the significance of his words and their import to foreign powers. Yet he discussed with me the foreign relations of the government, and touched upon reciprocity, both in its national and international aspects. It is but fair to him to say that he is too hard-headed, and too much awake to existing sentiment in the senate, for him to believe it possible any reciprocity treaty can now secure ratification there. The Senator explains that the reciprocity he has in mind is to be based on the possibilities offered by a maximum and minimum tariff system, which he believes this country must eventually adopt. FOREIGN RELATIONS SATISFACTORY

"The present relations. of the United States with foreign countries," the Senator said, "are most satisfactory. Ever since our war with Spain we have enjoyed the respect of all powers. Everything points to the indefinite continuance of our peace. The great accomplishment of the President of the United States in bringing about the peace between Russia and Japan has established him as a man of peace, and one who is ready at all times to bring about or maintain peace when fair terms can be secured. I cannot imagine any condition of affairs touching the foreign relations of the United States about which we are liable to have any serious trouble.

"This country is not disposed to acquire territory either by war or other means, except that which may come to us without the asking. We desire no territory and no extension of political power. We seek only commercial advantage and trade development. Our ends can best be served by the continuance of peace. The extension of our trade under our own flag into the ports of all the world, I believe, is very largely the ambition of our people.

OUR ENDS BEST SERVED BY PEACE

"The American people. believe in a tariff designed for the protection of our industries, and along with that belief is a great desire to build up our maritime commerce so our flag will be carried everywhere on the high seas. Content with our own development and the advantages we have enjoyed, we have no ambition to interfere with the af

fairs of nations about us. So far as I am concerned, I am in favor of reciprocity as one of the effective means of extending our commerce and bringing us into closer and more amicable relations with other nations. I firmly believe such policy will be adopted, and that it can be maintained with reasonable protection to American industries. We cannot maintain a position of isolation. We must enter into relations with foreign countries, and it is for our mutual advantage that there be commercial relations on a fair and equitable basis. We can best do this by means of commercial treaties or agreements in which the spirit of trade, of give and take, is recognized. Give us fair commercial agreements, rigidly adhered to by the parties to them, and we have taken a great step in the direction of maintaining the world peace. There has been much said within the last year about the revision of the tariff. Action in this direction will probably be taken in the next congress, but not in this. I hope and believe that when this is done the question of reciprocity can be taken up and the principle recognized in a reasonable way without endangering or ruining our domestic industries. In other words, the United States, while taking care of its own, must bear in mind that other nations must live and do live, and in their relations with us they acquire certain rights and equities which we must recognize."

No graver responsibility has come to Senator Cullom than the management of the Santo Domingo treaty. Members of his own party, as well as of the minority in the senate, have bitterly assailed the proposed international agreement, and have thrown repeated obstacles in the way of its ratification. Through it all Senator Cullom has remained the steadfast friend and supporter of the administration meas

ure.

"The Santo Domingo THE SANTO treaty, so called, is still DOMINGO pending, and there probTREATY ably will be nothing done about it during the present session of congress," he explained.

"I have believed from the beginning, and do now, that the treaty ought to be ratified. I think it will be, although not at this session. The President had no purpose on earth in the negotiation of the treaty, except to do what, in his judgment,

he felt was best for the people of the United States and all other countries having relations with Santo Domingo. That country was much in debt, and the nations holding its obligations were anxious to make collections, and were pressing their claims. The government of Santo Domingo was anxious that the United States should take charge of its affairs and bring about a better situation. It seemed most natural that the President of the United States should take the action he did. Our interests, the interests of Santo Domingo, and the interests of all the countries with which she has had dealings, prompted the framing of the treaty, and now demand its ratification. There is no doubt that after the passage of a little time the whole matter will be put in the hands of the President and the claims against Santo Domingo reduced to an honest basis. Then it will be but a few years before her debts will be cleaned up and a better internal condition and a better government will be provided for her people. Whether the treaty is ratified at this or a future congress, I am convinced that it ought to be, and I believe it will be."

THE FIRST NATION OF THE EARTH

"Wisdom teaches that we should not only desire to prosper and to advance our material welfare, but that we should let other nations live as well. The American people are the most wonderful of all the peoples of the world. Our nation has grown and prospered and progressed until it has far outstripped that of any other people. Statesmanship of the right kind prompts us to look into the future and to mark well our way from year to year so as to avoid a false step and to insure us against a selfish or unthinking policy that will bar us from further vantage in the great world contests. We have the people and we have the natural resources. We need only conserve that which has been given us and guard against the encroachment of selfish, ambitious, unpatriotic interests at home or abroad. I firmly believe in the right impulses of the great masses of our people. If we do not make some serious and rash mistake in our future national policies, we will continue to grow and prosper, from year to year, and from generation to generation, without limit, all the time maintaining our unchallenged position as the first nation of all the earth."

AM interested in the reports of the Journal d'Anthropologie of the find by M. Personne of the remains of an Assyrian library, being what we may describe in modern language as baked clay tablets (thin bricks), with cuneiform inscriptions. Most of these "books" are fragments, but many are whole, and the Egyptologists, with that wisdom which passeth understanding, seem able to translate them all.

The mere existence of these fire-hardened records of three thousand years before Christ is interesting. It is also interesting to know from these wise Egyptologists that the people who had a written language and the skill to build temples and bake bricks, undoubtedly had more facile methods of writing upon more portable material, paper and other fabric. all of which transitory stuff has disappeared in the insatiable maw of time. But the thing of real interest is the thought expressed in these records-thoughts believed by the writers too valuable to trust to perishable papyrus, skin or cloth; and it is astonishing to find. mingled with the religious superstitions of an early people, so much that we ourselves would do well to inscribe upon the thrice indestructible tablets of our hearts.

I disregard the rites and formalities and mere superstitions of religion, and the laws decreed for the people by their governors, and select only a few of the wise saws for modern instance.

"Mind your own business. The misery of the world is from meddling." Gold! Gold! Pure Pure gold. Instead of being scratched in a brick this should be engraved in gold.

"There is no one so strong as to resist

giving advice." "He who gives advice unasked would also give blows. One is as unrighteous as the other." O wise unknown! How I do honor thee.

"All men desire to rule. It is the curse of the earth. Only Shamash, the great ruler of all creatures, has the wisdom to rule others, and he refrains, knowing this to be best. Bel, also, who fixes destinies, he leaves all men to their destinies, and so, too, the God prince Ea. Only men are vain enough to rule each other, and in the heart of man lurks the tyranny to enforce his will upon others." This surely is a truth which shall never again be buried.

"There are some men who are too good. I am afraid of the too much good. He who has sinned is my brother." Such wisdom makes the Electric Twentieth Century seem like going backward! "The too-good are merciless. Their souls are cold as the scimetar of Lin, which shines among among the Gods." O changeless old world! Didst thou, my Assyrian brother, also find it so? "The too-good are not good, they are only well behaved." That is deep and will bear study.

"There is the tyranny of Kings and the tyranny of Captains, and the tyranny of Judges, but the greatest tyranny is that of the Reformer of vice. He knows not his own folly." "The ardor of him who would enforce goodness is not truly against evil, but that he may compel all men to be good as he esteems goodness. May the blighting curse of Shamash come upon him. He is a maker of trouble." Well! Well! That is strong language, my dead friend. I wonder what evil was being reformed by law and force in those days. But there is another vein.

"Belit, the great mother, has sent woman to disturb us." Same old story! "A woman is full of selfish unselfishness."

It looks as if the Assyrian women were women. "Ishtar is a woman. She is the goddess of conflict and slaughter." "Ishtar plucked a bitter flame and put it in the heart of woman. It is jealousy." "The "The life of a woman is Love and herself." "The man is blessed whose wives love him too little to be jealous." Thou long dead sage! How thou must have suffered. "A man wants not love, but peace. Not caressing, but rest." This vanished soul was fit for a monk. "Blessed is the man who is not loved to excess. The jealousy of a wife is a curse greater than the sword blow of Norgal." "A man's son shall desert him, and his daughter, but his wife shall pillow his head." That is better. "A man should have many wives and slave women, so will children not fail him, and if from some he get ill ones, from some of the others may come heroes."

I have put in these frank expressions of a morality so different from ours because I am wondering whether there has been really any change in heart or in custom in five thousand years, or only a pretense of change. Is our morality really different or only cloaked with hypocrisy? Here are some more bricks:

"Beware of the man who is always in a hurry. He is as empty as a sandstorm of the desert." "If a man deal with thee honestly only as the law requires, he is dishonest. The truly honest man hath no limit to his honesty." "He who strikes a free man shall pay five shekels, and he who strikes a slave shall pay his master one-half mana of silver, for a slave is of value." Always property first, humanity last! When shall we see the change

come?

"Who hath seen Bel or spoken with the dead? Perhaps they are not. but the greatest question is, How shall we live most righteously? I shall disappear, and

this city, but this inscription shall not perish, for it is a part of the whole." This is indeed a brick of gold.

"Ishtar send fire into the bowels of him who advises the King against the people." "The King is one, the people are many." "The rulers are few, the people are many. The welfare of many is better than the welfare of few." "The rulers are shrewd, the people are stupid. A few shrewd shall live upon many stupid." And was it even so then? And were there Rockefellers in those days?

"I have seen the merchant sell armor to the young warrior that he might go to battle, while the merchant returned to his wives, and I have said there is a fool and a wise man." The ancient brickmaker with the wisdom of an oracle, declines to suggest which was the fool. It is astonishing how in every age multitudes of the bravest, loyalest, and best have crowded forth to die for their luxurious oppressors. It is a hard heart that refuses a tear to those mere lads (like Matthews) who so bravely went to the scaffold for the Pretender-boys of nineteen-who never saw James, who would have gained nothing by a change of monarchs. What does it matter to the people and to Progress under which King we live or die? Yet these brave-hearted boys, with the tide of life full within them, trod those steps of horror and said their goodbye to the bright sun with undaunted hearts and bold eyes though blanched faces. And it is a challenge to all government of man by man, be it republic or monarchy, that such deeds have been done. The thought always makes me sick, and I am out of tune for the old Assyrian and his fellow-scribes of the terra cotta volumes. I have quoted enough to show that the world is not so new, nor we so all wise as we ourselves have supposed.