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track, and to institute the six-track, longdistance system. Finally, with the courage of a true pioneer, he made his road first, among those that reach the metropolis by ferry, to secure entrance by expensive tunnels under the rivers. That the New York City terminal would involve the expenditure of a hundred million. dollars did not check Mr. Cassatt. He borrowed that amount, and much more, for improvements on his road. He has made it, among the railways of the world, the first in value, as it is in diversified commerce. Mr. Cassatt was ordinary financier, accidentally a railway president. When he thought of the Pennsylvania, he did not think of it as a sponge to be squeezed dry, nor as a property to be used for the benefit of Wall Street first and of its patrons only second. He was one of the most efficient officials the country has yet seen, because he tried to administer a great property for its own benefit and not at all for the benefit of the more or less temporary holders of its stocks and bonds. In his fidelity to this ideal Mr. Cassatt stood out in dramatic contrast to the disquieting spectacle of the financial speculators, not to say buccaneers, in control of certain railways. With these economic and moral ideals, and with an open mind for any suggestion, he had a statesmanlike grasp of the relations between the railways and the Federal Government. He was, if not the first, among the very first, to recognize the necessity of widening the Government's powers under the inter-State commerce clause of the Constitution, and, as logical consequence, he recognized the right as well as the expediency of cooperation by the railways with the Government. His quiet force was felt to the full in the recent railway reform regulations. Uniting all these qualities, Mr. Cassatt also possessed a strong personal charm, which gave a compelling touch to his influence. It will be hard to fill Mr. Cassatt's place. Meanwhile men in similar positions will do well to study the aims and achievements of a man whose name promises to take his oric rank among the constructive forces of an age of great achievements in engineering, administration, and finance.

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daily press in connection with the retirement from his Washington post of Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the British Ambassador, have aroused indignation among Sir Mortimer's friends. His diplomacy has been like his personal manner, dignified, simple, straightfor ward. He has a peculiar charm and worth to those who know him well. Aman of wide knowledge and a close student of current events in two hemispheres, his observations have always been keen and incisive. He is also a literary critic of discrimination, as our readers will shortly judge upon the publication in The Outlook of an appreciation of Longfellow which Sir Mortimer has prepared at the request of the editors of The Outlook, in commemoration of the centenary of the poet's birth. In Lenox, Massachusetts, where the Ambassador has spent his summers, he has been held in enthusiastic esteem by all sorts of boys, because he welcomed them to his cricket field and taught them a game in which they quickly became proficient. Sir Mortimer is fond of all outdoor sports, especially of following the hounds and of big game shooting, his life in India having afforded many an opportunity for the latter pursuit. It was appropriate that he should enter the Indian service, as the son of the late Major-General Sir Henry Durand, whose history of the first Afghan War the son was later to edit, as well as to write the biography of his father. After a number of years of training in that service, in 1879, during the Kabul campaign, Sir Mortimer was made secretary to Sir Frederick, now Earl, Roberts. Later he became Foreign Secretary in India, a position which he long held. Towards the end of his term he conducted an expedition to the Amir of Afghanistan. In talking about India, its frontiers, people, government, society, literature, religions, Sir Mortimer conveys a more vivid notion of the problems there than do most English officials, and the world will be the gainer when he decides to put his Oriental reminiscences between covers. From India the Foreign Secretary was transferred as Minister to Per

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sia, where he remained from 1894 to 1900, a critical period for England's relations with the Middle East. Had his Government followed its envoy's recommendations, its influence might have been intrenched for all time there; instead of that, it has been largely supplanted by Russia. Sir Mortimer wanted England to lend money to Persia on the security of the Gulf ports, a step without precedent. It was not approved by his Government, which was either unwilling or unable to follow his lead. Chagrined later by the results of its failure to follow Sir Mortimer's counsel, the Government promoted him to the Madrid ambassadorship. By this time he had completed a generation of Oriental service, which generally emphasizes any temperamental reticence. quality, inculcated in the East as a cardinal virtue, had stood Sir Mortimer in good stead there. Nevertheless, in the West, despite a seeming shyness and diffidence, he made many friends, and after three years in Spain was promoted to the Washington embassy. During the three years that have elapsed since then, official and social Washington have learned to appreciate the value to society as well as to diplomacy of the British Ambassador and Lady Durand, people who represent refinement and old-fashioned domestic virtue. Their departure awakens keen regret. It is to be hoped that the rumor of a peerage in reserve for Sir Mortimer may prove true, for his Government owes him some such signal mark for long, loyal, yet independent service.

The English Situation

The adjournment of Parliament until February has created a lull in the political discussion in England, and has given both sides a chance to sum up the results of the session and to take account of gains and losses. On the whole, the session, under Liberal leadership, has been full of activity and accomplishment. Probably Parliament, with its infusion of labor members, has never kept itself so steadily to its task or taken itself so seriously as a legislative body. It is It is generally agreed that Mr. Balfour is responsible for the wrecking of the Edu

cation Bill; and there are many, apparently even among the members of his own party, who believe that the temporary and technical advantage the Conservatives have gained by throwing out the chief measure of the Liberal Government is of small account as compared with the strong feeling against the Upper House which the rejection of this measure has created. There seems to have been, among many of the best men, a sincere desire to effect a compromise. To this end, it is reported, the King himself worked. The Duke of Devonshire and the Archbishop of Canterbury represent a considerable number of Conservatives who are anxious to avoid a sharp collision. The Prime Minister and the author of the bill were equally desirous of avoiding a collision between the two Houses. But Mr. Balfour, if report is to be trusted, carried the day against the more Conservative peers. The chief measure of the Liberal Ministry was defeated, with the result that a situation of a very serious kind is created for the House of Lords, and that Nonconformist England has been aroused in a very unusual way. Just before the adjournment of Parliament the Prime Minister announced that the Education Bill would be withdrawn, and declared that it was intolerable that the members of an Upper House should be the servant of the Conservative party when that party is in power, but should have it in their power to defeat the will of the country and thwart the policy which the English electorate had approved. He declared that the resources of the Constitution provided a remedy for the evil, and that the Cabinet would carefully consider the best means of preventing the House of Lords from nullifying the labors of the Lower House and defeating the will of the English people. It is reported that the Government will introduce, early in the next session, a purely secular education bill. In case that also is defeated by the Upper House, and all attempts at compromise thwarted, an issue will be created between the two Houses of the sharpest kind; an issue which, as The Outlook has pointed out, may be settled in one of two ways-by appointing a sufficient number of new peers to overcome the

Conservative majority; by popular agitation against the present constitution, and possibly against the continued existence, of the Upper House, and, if things go to the full length, an appeal to the country on the question whether the House of Lords can longer veto the popular will. If this issue were presented to the country, and the country decided by a great majority against the Lords, and the Upper House refused to recognize the popular decision, the House of Commons might itself, as it has done before, ignore the House of Lords, or resolve that it no longer possesses the veto power. None of these alternatives are likely to be necessary. If the House of Lords remembers, as it probably will, the precedents of its own. history, it will make a strenuous fight to the last moment, and when it discovers that the Commons and the people are resolutely against it, it will make the best terms it can by way of compromise.

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Christmastide tempoThe French rarily suspended the Weekly Rest Act French Sunday-closing conflict, so far as Paris was concerned, for the Prefect decreed that retail shopkeepers be exempted from the obligation of the Act during the festive, busy three weeks of " Noël" and Nouvel An." It is thought, writes a Paris correspondent of The Outlook, that with the New Year some welcome and seasonable compromise will be found to permit of the fuller application of the well-intentioned legislative effort, and terminate four months of sterile agitation in the retail trades of France. From the same correspondent The Outlook receives the following account of the provisions and working of the law: Passed on July 13, the Act nominally came into force on September 2. Its spirit is tersely and unmistakably indicated in its opening paragraphs, which provide that (1) no workman or employee shall be occupied more than six days per week in a commercial or industrial establishment of any kind; (2) that the weekly rest shall be for twenty-four consecutive hours; (3) that it shall be given on Sunday. It will be noticed that by omitting the word

"agricultural" the legislator releases one-half of the population of France (the powerful peasant electorate) from any obligations. It is fair to add that in this class the employers are almost as numerous as the employed. The main idea was to free the comparatively helpless mass of factory and shop workers from a week of uninterrupted labor. That such a rule must necessarily imply numerous exceptions was fully recognized; in fact, the eight lines embodying the principle are followed by eighty lines modifying or limiting its application. When it is proved that simultaneous Sunday rest of the whole staff would be prejudicial to the public or would compromise the normal working of an establishment, certain alternatives are specifically allowed: (1) a week-day holiday to the whole staff; (2) closing from Sunday noon to Monday noon (a long Sunday-closing struggle between Paris grocers and their clerks was settled on this curious basis); (3) Sunday afternoon and a half-holiday during the week by rotation; (4) the whole staff by rotation. A long list of excepted trades (i. e., establishments authorized to adopt any of the above four systems without the Prefect's special sanction) follows: hotels and taverns, hospitals, drug-stores, baths, libraries, journals, means of communication, and trades handling perishable goods generally. Outside these trades exceptions are specifically provided for during the busy seasons prevalent in certain trades, and in other self-evident cases-Government arsenals working under pressure, outdoor callings subject to interruption by the weather, accidents and similar urgent matters.

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employee) were slight; for repeated offenses ($3.20 to $20) hardly exemplary." The decree putting the Act into force was merely a document providing that in the case of temporary or permanent exception from Sunday closing the "compensating holiday" should be duly fixed, and posted up in spots accessible to workers or inspectors. Gravest of all, the existing staff of factory inspectors was (over and above its ordinary and sufficient daily task) to insure the respect of the new law in the 825,000 "industrial or commercial establishments" of France. Under such conditions it is obvious that the actual effect of the Act would chiefly depend on the attitude of four classes-the employers, the employed, the police, and the magistracy and, in cases of insufficiently defined professions, on the municipal councils and prefects, who were locally to study and decide such knotty points. Little difficulty arose in factories and wholesale establishments—the former already familiarized with Government inspection and control, the latter always apt to enjoy easier hours than retailers. The question was (and still is) whether Sunday shopping can be suppressed throughout France. That a loyal effort was made many can bear witness. Trades differed in their application of the letter of the Act, and even in their local preferences. Many classes of shops which could close on Sundays in the wealthier parts of Paris (barbers, etc.), preferred a week day in working-class quarters. Butchers and grocers felt that they must open a few hours on Sunday morning to allow their clients to buy the day's provisions. Compromises were thus frequent, but the tendency to respect the law was general, though not universal. Still, a feeling of uncertainty hung over the whole population. Small Small shopkeepers, conscientiously closing, saw law-ignoring neighbors summoned, but fined only nominal sums by hesitating magistrates-if, indeed, their cases were not remanded till an executive official had studied some technical issue. A few large central dry-goods houses tested the law frankly by remaining open. Many were closed, not by the authorities, but by the peaceable and dogged ob

struction of the crowd of clerks from other establishments, who hung around their doors till business became impossible. The authorities, besieged by conflicting claims-the trade associations appealing for "exceptions," the shopmen's associations (with the moral and often active support of labor unions) demanding that "the law be respected"temporize and seek a solution which will not alienate some powerful electoral class. So the holiday respite is welcome to all. That the action of the Act will be momentarily minimized there is little doubt. But the principle adopted by the nation's vote remains, to grow up gradually as the French conservative timidity towards change gives place to the second national characteristic-the sentiment of all-round justice and solidarity, which may be temporarily clouded by prejudice, but seldom fails finally to triumph.

The United States Senate Moroccan recently ratified the Algeciras Affairs agreement or convention of last April concerning Morocco, but also attached a declaration that the United States has no intention of interfering in European politics. Some Senators declare that this resolution is superfluous; it was apparently rendered necessary by the position of Senator Bacon, of the Committee on Foreign Relations, who was believed to be ready to rally the Democratic vote against the treaty unless such a resolution were adopted. The Foreign Ministers and Parliaments of France, Spain, England, and Germany had already discussed the determination of the two former Powers to send fleets to the Moroccan coast. In the French Parliament, despite the attack of M. Jaurès, the Socialist leader, M. Pichon, the Foreign Minister, carried the Chamber of Deputies with him in defending the Government. The Minister announced the note presented that very day to the Ambassadors of the Powers which participated in the international conference at Algeciras. He declared that the Government's aims in despatching a fleet to Morocco were only to carry out the terms of the Algeciras Convention to maintain order in Tangier, the chief

port in Morocco, and to protect foreigners. The Chamber's confidence in the Government was shown by a majority of over three hundred; it afterwards unanimously ratified the Algeciras agreement. On the same day, in the Spanish Parliament, Señor Perez Caballero, the new Foreign Minister, demanded the immediate ratification of the Algeciras Convention, and assured members that the Government was not supporting any policy of adventure in Morocco. (As to England and Germany, their Foreign Secretaries have given assurances of approval of this plan to restore order in Morocco, so long as the action is kept within the terms of the Algeciras Convention. It is fortunate that the diplomats at Algeciras provided a system. of international protection for foreigners in Morocco, and of international influence to check the misrule which for centuries has reigned there. While such intervention may be but the prelude to the closing act of the drama of Moorish independence, its independence has been purchased at a price which is an insult to civilization. In the early days of the Christian era Morocco, though mountainous in large part, was one of the world's granaries. There are to-day instead only abandoned and untilled fields, yet their soil rivals in fertility that of our prairie States. The population is given over to lawlessness. All this is due to a long succession of weak and lawless rulers. Though the various Powers have recently sent expeditions to the Sultan at Fez, his capital, any good intentions manifested by the monarch cannot be executed by his own military and civil agents because the whole country is infested with the agents of the pretender to the throne and of other rebel chiefs. The result is a condition of anarchy both for natives and foreigners, and this has impelled France and Spain, as the Powers immediately involved, to take appropriate military action.

Just before the Filling up the Canadian snow comes the Prairie Provinces Immigration Department of the Canadian Government at Ottawa takes stock of its year's work.

Canada is eager for immigration; its Gov. ernment spends a large sum of money on immigration propaganda; and from every point of view the stock-taking for the year was satisfactory. It showed that in the season of 1905-6, 189,000 immigrants arrived in the Dominion, as compared with 146,000 during the season of 1904-5. About the same time that these figures are compiled there are also compiled statistics of the harvest laborers carried into the prairie region beyond Winnipeg by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. For the wheat harvest of 1906 the number was 22,850, an increase of 6,500 over the number who went in for the prairie harvest of 1905. Among immigrant and railway officials at Winnipeg it is estimated that forty per cent. of the men who go in as harvesters make their homes in the prairie provinces, and that in the next two or three years a large proportion of them will become homesteaders--will take up quarter-sections of Government land, or purchase land from the railway companies. During the twelve months which ended on the 30th of September, 50,000 homesteaders went into western Canada and possessed themselves of 12,500 square miles of farm land. Winnipeg is the clearing-house for most of this Western immigration; and in these days, when the 250,000,000 acres of wheat land in Canada are being so rapidly peopled by immigrants from Great Britain, from the United States, and from the older provinces of Canada, its position among the larger cities of the North American continent is unique.

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