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1907

WHAT FRANCE HAS DONE

could not recognize the sovereignty of the Pope, because every vestige of it is gone.

Has France repudiated a national debt? Upon what is the accusation based? Upon the assumption that the agreement to pay salaries in the Concordat was to be perpetual. The article of the Concordat reads: "The government assures a proper salary to the bishops and pastors whose dioceses may be included in the rearrangement." There was no contract as to how much should be paid or how long.

It has been said that France has actually done what the State of New York would do if it should seize and hold the property of Trinity Church. France has not assumed to-day in the new law the ownership of any buildings or churches which it has not owned for more than a hundred years under the Concordat. In that document the Pope formally renounced on behalf of the Church the title to the property acquired by the nation in the French Revolution. For instance, the ancient churches such as Notre Dame and the Oratoire, the former a Catholic and the latter a Protestant house of worship, belong to the For a hundred French Government. years France has allowed these religious The new law does bodies to use them. not confiscate them; it simply reaffirms the title to them which was declared in Nor has the State conthe Concordat. fiscated any church buildings erected since the Concordat and built by the individual offerings of pious Catholics. The law does not raise the question of their title. When there is any doubt on this point, it leaves the decision to the

courts.

With reference to other property, real and personal, now held by the Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish churches, it requires that an inventory shall be taken of the same, and that it shall be legally held by associations or trustees formed from the representatives of these bodies. The law reads: "Conforming to the regulations of the general organization of the religious worship of which they propose to assure the exercise." The twenty-three eminent Catholics whose address to the bishops has already been

referred to laid great stress upon this;
they pointed out that the Pope had "the
power to outline what are the general
laws of organization for a Catholic asso-
ciation of worship." They completely
answered the objection that such an
association must be composed only of
laymen, the rock of offense to the Pontiff.
These eminent Catholics showed con-
clusively that the object of the law was
to prevent non-religious associations
from getting possession of the churches;
We are not hindered by
they declare,
the Law of Separation from believing
what we choose, nor from practicing
what we believe;" the hierarchy re-
mains intact; "our churches, too, being
allowed to remain at the disposition
of organized associations and under
the direction of the bishops;" and they
point out the disastrous results of not
organizing under the law.

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The asperity of the discussion, and the evident desire of the extreme radicals to affront the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church, and even to scoff at religion itself, are greatly to be secular, deplored, as is the violence of a few extremists, both clerical and especially in the taking of inventories, a prudent measure in the law introduced at the demand of the ConservaIt is to the credit of the great tives. majority of Catholics, however, that they have refused to listen to the appeals of incendiary journals like La Croix; and it is to the credit of the Government that it has demanded, and in most cases secured, moderation on the part of its officials. These are matters incident to the enforcement of the law; they do not affect its underlying principle.

We have shown what France has not It is not difficult to understand done. what it has done. Omitting all unnecessary and minor details of the law, France has apparently decided:

That the union between Church and State shall be severed; that the Roman Catholic Church shall no longer be a privileged religion; that all sects shall stand on the same footing before the law; that liberty of conscience and freedom of worship shall be guaranteed to all; that the Government will no longer sustain official relations with the Pope;

that the State will retain the title to the cathedrals and churches that belong to it; that it shall freely place these at the disposition of the different religious bodies; that the property belonging to different sects shall be held by their legal representatives; that no religion shall be salaried or supported by the State; that the reduction of salaries now paid shall be gradual, and that pensions for life may be given conditionally to pastors and priests over forty-five years of age; that the State shall no longer nominate ministers of religion to clerical offices, but they are restored to all their political rights.

have a general rate of two cents an ounce with a special reduction to a cent and a half to favored buyers. What the American people object to is not high rates, but special privileges. No doubt individuals can be found who complain that railway rates are too high. No doubt in some cases they are too high. But this is not the cause of the popular discontent. Very little has been said by President Roosevelt, who is the author of the railway rate regulation, about the prices being too high. Not much complaint was made on this score in the Congressional debates. The avowed purpose, we repeat, is not to reduce rates, but to equalize rates so that all shippers and all communities shall be

Railway Rate Regula- treated alike. Public discussion to be

tion: The Next Step

The New York Sun publishes a speech by Mr. M. H. Smith, the President of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, which, to use his own words, "sounds a pessimistic note." That note is, in brief, that the cost of improving and operating railways is constantly increasing, and that the people are demanding that the railways shall pay larger taxes and shall receive less sums in freight and passenger rates, and that if this process is continued indefinitely, the end must be bankruptcy. The cardinal mistake in this address, as it is with many if not most of the special advocates of the railways, is in the italicized portion of the following sentence: "A law has been enacted giving to a Commission mandatory power to fix rates, the avowed purpose being to reduce the rates."

It is a mistake that the avowed purpose of the recent railway rate legislation was to reduce rates. Its object was, in some cases, to raise the rates-to some shippers. The objection of the American people to the railway rates was not that they were too high, but that they were unequal. The object of the American people was not to reduce the rates, but to equalize them. We repeat an illustration which we have used before: it would be better for the people of the United States to have a uniform rate of postage of three cents an ounce than to

of value must be discussion of the real question, not of an imaginary one.

There are two theories on which railway rates may be adjusted. The first is that the railway has something to sell, namely transportation, and that it may properly sell this transportation for the best price it can get, as a farmer does his apples, or a butcher his meat. The other theory is that transportation is not a piece of private property to be sold, but a public service to be rendered, and that freight charges are not a price paid by a customer for a thing purchased, but a toll paid by a trader for the use of a special kind of public highway. On the first theory the owner charges for the transportation which he has to sell whatever he thinks he can get for it-in other words, he charges all that the traffic will bear. On the second theory the toll is fixed by the State on equal terms to all who use the road, and this rate ought to be so adjusted as to pay a fair interest to those whose capital is invested in the road and a fair compensation to those who operate it, and no more. In old days we had turnpikes in some of our States and a toll-gate at either end. Our railways have been operated on the theory that the toll-gate keeper may charge any man who comes along whatever he can get out of him. The people demand that the toll be fixed by law, be charged on equal terms to all who use the turnpike, and be just alike

to the traveler and the turnpike company. Some of our ablest railway officials recognize this distinction and accept the latter theory. The sooner all railway officials accept it, the farther we shall be on the road to a final settlement of the somewhat difficult question, On what principles shall we determine what rates are just and equal to the railways, to the shippers, and to the various communities? All that we have done so far is to give the Inter-State Commerce Commission power, on complaint that particular charges are unjust and unequal, to order them made just and equal. This is a good first step, but not a final one. What we next want is an official recognition by law that freight charges are a turnpike toll, and a conference by representatives of the people appointed by the Government, and representatives of those railways only that accept that principle, in an endeavor to settle upon certain general principles to be universally applied by the Government in determining what the tolls should be.

mopolitan character increases and more sharply defines itself from decade to decade. Those who suppose that it is simply a business community know very little about it. Its life is many-sided; and the vast number of different peoples included within its boundaries present problems of the deepest interest. It is not, however, a comfortable city to live in; it is distinctly uncomfortable. In the rudimentary conception of the management of cities which has prevailed, small place was made for comfort; but comfort holds a great place in the life of any highly civilized community, and the success of the management of a city is very largely measured by the comfort in which its people live. The discomfort of living in New York is due to a considerable extent to its conformation, to lack of means and methods of transportation from point to point. At certain hours in the day every vehicle that runs on wheels and is open to the public, above or below ground, is crowded, not only beyond all comfort, but well beyond the line of decency. The scenes which take place, not only at the Brooklyn

The Discomforts of Bridge, but often at the stations of the

New York

Americans have still a great deal to learn in the application of ideas and intelligence to the government of cities. Our notions on this subject have been largely rudimentary; we have treated cities as if they were mere aggregations of houses instead of vital organizations of community life, with a unity which can be expressed in legislation, in building, in the direction of affairs. We have thought of the government of cities as a kind of minor politics, involving the filling of offices, plans for raising money, collecting taxes, and gaining ground for the party. In Europe, as Americans have come to understand, many cities are studied as a whole and treated as unities, from the regulative, the administrative, the educational, and the æsthetic side; and to this point of view Americans are coming as rapidly as their preoccupations and prejudices will permit.

New York is becoming every year a more interesting place to live in ; its cos

Subway, are fast breeding a kind of savagery which will give the city in the end a very unenviable reputation. The logical outcome of the present tendency would be a free fight at the entrance to the platform of every car, and the opportunity of getting aboard to those who survive in the struggle. survive in the struggle. Women especially are subjected to familiarities which no woman, decent or otherwise, ought to bear, and the men who are eager to prɔtect them are helpless under the pressure of the merciless horde which fights its way to a car platform. Public sentiment will do something when it is aroused; but final relief cannot come until the means of transportation are multiplied. In the meantime, and perhaps for all time in view of the conformation of New York and the fact that such a host of people are anxious to go in the same direction at the same time, the city needs to create a strong sentiment imposing restraint, patience, and courtesy on its citizens.

In many instances the trouble is due to the lack of application of ideas to the

situation. It is very hard, for instance, for a layman to understand why the provisions for transporting people across New York are so hopelessly inadequate. At the foot of West Twenty-third Street four large railways have their city terminals and pour in every day an army of men and women. To distribute this army over the city there is a single railway through Twenty-third Street. Between four and six o'clock in the evening the accommodations for passengers who wish to go to the ferries at the foot of West Twenty-third Street are hopelessly inadequate; and in the morning, from eight to ten, when the army of commuters and shoppers come in from the various roads across the Hudson River, they swarm around the insufficient cars like bees around a hive. The disproportion between these commuters and travelers and the means of carrying them would be ridiculous if it were not exasperating. There ought to be a conference of the passenger agents of the four railways that have terminals in West Twenty-third Street and the managers of the Twentythird Street electric car line to provide for a proper distribution of the multitude that is landed there every day and is often obliged to wait in the bitter winds of winter until a number of cars have passed before it is possible to obtain even foot-room. To the lay mind the construction of some kind of a loop at West Twenty-third Street would seem imperative, or the building of parallel lines through Twenty-second or Twenty-fourth Streets. Under any circumstances, the number of cars in use during the rush hours ought to be very largely increased.

Another source of discomfort in New York is the multitude of unnecessary noises. The daily life of a modern city cannot be conducted without a great deal of noise, but probably two-thirds of the most irritating sounds that pierce the ears of residents of New York are unnecessary. Mrs. Rice, who has organized the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noises, is in the way of rendering the public a great service if she succeeds in carrying out the work which she has planned. She has interested a number of the most prominent men of the metropolis, and proposes, in the first

place, to secure relief for the hospitals. She calls attention to the fact that the street-car company that operates a line of cars passing St. Vincent's Hospital on Seventh Avenue agreed, at the time of securing its franchise, that no bells should be rung in front of the building, and she asks very pertinently why the same rule cannot be enforced in the neighborhood of other hospitals. She hopes to secure the co-operation of automobile clubs in order that, in passing the hospitals, noises may be avoided. She intends to ask that a policeman be assigned on every block on which there is a hospital. Several physicians in different hospitals who have been consulted are agreed that street noises in the neighborhood of these institutions are a serious menace to the well-being of patients, and one of them expressed the opinion that two patients in the hospital with which he is connected became insane during the year owing, partly, to the constant noises prevailing about the building. If Mrs. Rice is able to effect, even in part, what she has in mind, she will render a very important service not only to the hospitals but to residents of New York, and the movement may lead the way to a marked diminution of one of the most uncomfortable concomitants of city residence. It is high time to study the possibilities of diminishing the discomforts of living in one of the most interesting cities of America.

During the last few months residents of New York have endured the discomforts of traveling across the Desert of Sahara or over the alkali plains of Montana without securing novelty of surroundings or unusual scenery. Not in the memory of this generation have the streets of the city been in such a deplorable condition. In wet weather the mud in many places is inches deep; in dry and windy weather the streets are filled with clouds of dust. The condition is deplorable; and unless circumstances exist which are unknown to the public, it is unpardonable. What has happened to the street-cleaning department? has it gone into the hands of a receiver? It is giving New York the reputation of being the dirtiest city in America. Not many years ago, under

the leadership of Colonel Waring, it was one of the cleanest cities in the world.

Self-Condemned

Last week a number of well-known men in New York assured the Secretary of State by letter of their conviction that for any measure he might adopt in order to give the European Powers the moral support of the United States in "any undertaking to secure conditions in the Congo that will not disgrace civilization," he would have their “earnest and urgent approval." The signers of this letter pointed to the fact that over a year has passed "since the report of the Commission chosen by the Chief Executive and virtual owner of the Congo to investigate conditions in. that State was published," and that those Commissioners "felt constrained to report the existence of measures and practices of flagrant inhumanity." In view of the repeated assertions that the criticism of the Congo Government is based upon the tales of prejudiced missionaries and superficial travelers, it is important to remember that there is no occasion for looking any further for an indictment of the Congo Government than the report of these Commissioners. From that report were selected seven points for specific mention. One needs only to turn to that report to see how well established are those seven statements made by the writers of the letter. We here quote those seven points, and under each point certain portions of the report which substantiate the statement. We shall use the English translation of the report, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, entitled "The Congo: A Report of the Commission of Inquiry." The numbers in parentheses refer to the pages of this edition. Readers of The Outlook who wish to follow this matter further will find these references useful. The measures and

practices which the writers of this letter

note are as follows:

The first point in this letter is, "The exaction of a labor tax so oppressive that many natives on whom it falls have little, if any, freedom." The Commissioners remark (p. 30) that "a labor tax,

as in the case of all taxes, should absorb only a small portion of the activities of the individuals; it ought to supply simply the needs of the government, be in relation to the benefits which the contributors receive therefrom; it ought finally, as we propose, be in harmony as far as possible with the principle of individual liberty, and we believe that within these limits it cannot be criticised." By decree of the King-Sovereign (p. 37) the total amount of the labor tax "cannot exceed during any one month forty hours of actual labor." As a matter of fact, however, what do we find? In the first place (p. 39), it is not labor but produce that is exacted, and so great an amount of produce that in some cases the native has little or no time for anything but the toil of gathering it and conveying it to his taskmasters. Thus, concerning the collection of chikwangue (p. 46, 47, 48):

All of the witnesses who were heard by the Commission on this subject were unanimous in criticising the large amount that was imposed upon the women of certain vil lages, the continuity of the imposition, and the long journeys that had to be made.. The worst feature of this imposition is its continuity. As the chikwangue can be preserved only a few days, the native, even by doubling his activities, cannot at one time discharge his obligation extending over a long period. The imposition. . . becomes a sort of obligatory labor, since there is ever before the native the thought of delivery that must soon be made. . . It is inadmissible that he should be obliged to travel 150 kilometers [over ninety miles] to bring to the place of delivery a tax which represents a value of about one franc and a half [about thirty cents]. . . . Following the rule that we have observed in vogue, the labor is thrown upon the weaker members of the family, so that it is the women, children, and domestic slaves who are forced to be the agencies of transport. This peculiarity, instead of attenuating the bad features of the system,

rather increases them. For it is these who form the industrious element of the village, by the exigencies of the impost and procurand if a great part of their time is taken up ing the means for their own subsistence, they have not, however great may be their desire, a chance to perform other labor; hence the abandonment of native industries

and impoverishment of villages.

of wretched conditions as a result of So the report gives a similar picture forced labor for porterage (p. 57 seq.):

Without doubt the form of impressed labor that weighs most heavily upon the natives is the service as porters. ... Caravans

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