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anything. These drastic remedies have been attended with remarkable improvements in the death rate, and with many benefits. But measures of prevention are chiefly relied upon; and advantage is taken of the natural tendency to build up suburbs and to spread the population over a large area by virtue of modern transit facilities. It is not commonly known that the population of the city of New York is by far the most congested of any in the world. Many circumstances have united to crowd an unprecedented mass of population into the tenement houses of the lower half of Manhattan Island. A recent act of the state legislature appropriated some ten thousand dollars for the expenses of an inquiry into the condition of New York tenement houses, and a tenement house committee was appointed to conduct the inquiry, with Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine, as chairman. Among Mr. Gilder's colleagues are Dr. Cyrus Edson, the distinguished health authority; Mr. George B. Post, an eminent architect; Mr. Roger Foster, a well-known lawyer, and several practical business men. The inquiry has been prosecuted with great fidelity. Many witnesses have been called to testify before the committee, house-to-house examinations have been made, and much statistical information tabulated, as a general result of which the committee will be in position to make important recommendations to the legislature. It is not that any revolutionary treatment of the question is expected at the present time, but only that certain specific reforms can be introduced and a more enlightened public opinion formed to stand behind the Board of Health and the other official authorities who are charged with the administration of laws and ordinances.

Trinity Church

as

Landlord.

The testimony given at the public hearings of the committee did not for a while seem to secure an adequate amount of attention from the newspapers; but when the question of the character of the tenement house property of the millionaire Trinity Church Corporation came up for exposure, a sensational interest was visibly stimulated. Trinity Church derives a vast revenue from New York property in which thousands of people are born, eat, sleep, and die. It is charged against the management of this property that the death rate in Trinity tenement houses is not only far higher than the average death rate of the city, but also appreciably higher than the average in the tenement districts which house a corresponding class of people. It would seem necessary to say that so far as figures of actual death rates have been produced, the mortality in New York tenement houses is decidedly less than that which is to be found in the so called slum districts of European cities, even where the average rate for the cities as a whole compares favorably with the rate for New York as a whole. Nothing is to be gained by the attempt to make the situation blacker than it is, and we are sure that this is not the desire or disposition of the Tenement House Committee, which indeed is showing a spirit of fine

judgment and discrimination in its work. But it may well ask why the Trinity Church tenements should not be made as healthy as those of the Peabody Fund in London, or as the best models in New York and Brooklyn, instead of showing twice as high a death rate? The facts do not seem to warrant any special censure of Trinity Church for past conditions, but point rather to the duty and opportunity of an entirely new future policy in the conduct of its secular affairs. Any further discussion of the Tenement House Committee and its work, so far as we are concerned, may well await the final report. But it is worth while to suggest that all the facts ascertainable would tend to show that the worst evils of American slums can be abated at far less expense and with far less difficulty than European cities are compelled to meet. It only behooves us to act promptly and efficiently, and in the main through measures of prevention. It is not really necessary in this country at the dawn of the twentieth century that any large part of our population should be housed less decently than horses.

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THE REV. MORGAN DIX, D.D.,
Rector of Trinity Church.

Nor is it true that this is a question The Duty of Society. which the law of supply and demand can settle through its own unaided operation. For the most part, improved shelter for the human race in civilized lands will indeed come about through the operation of ordinary economic forces; but the chief difficulty with slum populations is that they are not open to the inducements which determine the conduct of better favored elements. Through force of gregarious habits, lack of ambition and a strange sort of stupor which seems to overtake people thus situated, the overcrowded slum populations are not eager to leave behind them those conditions that

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are not only fatal to their own interests but harmful to the whole community. Some one may reply that if they are content it is their own business; and that neither they nor their greedy landlords should be molested. But no such answer could be made by any one who had ever given a serious second thought to the problem. The slums are full of children; and society has taken upon itself the responsibility not only of giving full citizenship and political sovereignty to every man, but has also accepted the responsibility of furnishing education and an environment of social order to the rising generation. It is therefore the plain business of the community to take scientific hold of the slums precisely as a farmer would proceed to drain and reclaim a swamp. It is the business of society to see that streets are wide enough to let in air and sunshine, and that no houses or rooms shall be used for human habitations into which air and light do not amply penetrate. It is the business of the community to see that the best of schools are provided; that the children have some proper physical culture and manual training as well as mental and moral instruction; that play-grounds are provided; that criminal influences are eradicated to the utmost; that baths and evening classes, as the auxiliaries of ordinary school facilities, should be placed where every poor child may have access to them; and that landlords are compelled to co-operate by repairing or destroying every dwelling which does not conform to a reasonable standard as to its arrangements and sanitary conditions.

It is on several accounts fortunate that the Municipal Reform in work of the Tenement House Committee New York. has been going on in New York concurrently with the investigation into police corruption conducted by the Lexow Committee and abetted by the work of Dr. Parkhurst and his assistants. While it is important in the highest sense to break up the criminal conspiracy which has ruled and robbed New York, it is also well that there should be brought before the minds of the people the need of various positive improvements in the public services and the conditions of municipal life. The Lexow investigations, as resumed after the November elections, continued day by day to unearth new facts and to show by fresh sources of evidence how thoroughly corrupt from top to bottom has been the entire police system and Tammany "machine." The unmistakable demand of the citizens is for an extension of the powers of the Lexow Committee so that it may investigate all the departments of the city and may work without cessation until nothing is left to be revealed. It is seriously feared lest certain influential Republican leaders may be disposed to call a halt at the very moment when a continuance of the investigation is most urgently desired. It will be unfortunate for the Republican party in the State of New York if it forgets that its victory was a protest against bad government, and was won under pledges of disinterested administration in the interests of the people, without regard

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The Municipal Outlook in General.

Municipal reform, and a non-partisan conduct of the affairs of municipal corporations, have been the watchwords of the month. A very important convention of the Municipal Reform League has been held in Minneapolis, and prominent representatives of numerous cities brought cheering reports to the gathering. To enumerate the American cities which are now engaged in tasks of investigation into their local affairs with a view to improvement, would mean the listing of nearly every important place comprised in the United States census. While the people are in the mood for it is the time to act. There will be reactions here and there; but if energetic work is done in this new year 1895, it can be said with confidence that the bottom has been touched and that American municipal government will never again reach a point of degradation and humiliation so low as it has known in the days that are past. In Boston and the principal Massachusetts cities, as also in various other New England communities, municipal elections were held in December. Not to particularize, it may be said that the average result has been highly encouraging to the men who have worked for municipal improve

ment regardless of personal cliques and party rings. The question of license or no license has been voted on in a great number of New England towns, with the apparent result of a gain in the no-license vote. In many places the vote of last year was reversed. New England should learn that no real good can ever come from a reopening of this license question at the yearly municipal elections. It is a matter that should be settled upon some dignified basis, once for all. At least it should not be opened oftener than once in ten years; and then it should be considered apart from ordinary municipal elections and made to stand or fall upon its separate merits. The perpetual intrusion of this issue of policy as to the liquor traffic, weakens public interest in other important phases of municipal life, and is profitable neither to the temperance party nor to the saloon party. Massachusetts ought to find a better way to deal with the question.

The friends of deep water communication The DeepWaterways between the great lakes and the Atlantic Movement. seaboard have met with many rebuffs, but they were never less inclined than now to dismiss their favorite theme. They have formed themselves into an International Deep-Waterways Association, with standing officers and a permanent executive board composed of Americans and Canadians. The moving spirits have lately been in session at Chicago, and have agreed upon a bill which has since been introduced at Washington in both houses and which

provides for a commission of investigation consisting of one army officer, one navy officer and three civilians. A preliminary report is desired before the first of next December, and a final report at the end of 1896. It is a part of the plan to secure also from the Canadian Parliament a similar commission; and the drafted bills provide that the two commissions may at times sit in joint session if they find it expedient to do so. It is proposed that the investigation to be made shall have the broadest possible character and shall include testimony upon all proposed routes and methods for securing deep-water communication with the great lakes. It will be a part of the task to estimate the present and prospective usefulness of such communication, and to examine thoroughly into the question of expense. The present form in which this topic demands the public hearing is the result of the deep-waterways convention that was held in Toronto last September, which resolved itself into an International Deep-Waterways Association, of which the Hon. Oliver A. Howland of Toronto was made president, Mr. L. E. Cooley of Chicago and the Hon. James Fisher of Winnipeg vice presidents, and Mr. Frank A. Flower of Superior, Wisconsin, executive secretary. Mr. A. L. Crocker of the Minneapolis Board of Trade was made chairman of the executive committee, which, besides the officers named, includes Messrs. James Dunham of Chicago, James Conmee of Port Arthur, Arthur Gifford of Meford, Ontario, R. R. Dobell of Quebec, Edwin H. Abbott of Boston, J. H. Davidson of St. Paul, and W. H. Sey

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mour of Sault Ste. Marie. Besides the international organization, there have been appointed a list of presidents of state and provincial organizations for the entire region that can be regarded as in any sense tributary to the chain of great lakes and the river St. Lawrence. The list of state presidents is made up of men of recognized energy and ability. The movement has thus been put upon a basis which must

MR. FRANK A. FLOWER.

command a respectful hearing. The platform adopted at Toronto some months ago recognized the desirability of joint action by the United States and Canada in all further projects looking toward a deepwater outlet for the commerce of the interior. It declared that all channels through the lakes and their seaboard connections should be not less than twentyone feet deep, and that all permanent structures should be designed on the basis of a depth of not less than twenty-six feet. The convention declared that it recognized the utility of the natural route to the sea by the St. Lawrence river as the most cheaply and quickly improvable, and that it was also impressed with the commercial necessity of the route reaching the Atlantic ocean via the Hudson river. The deep-waterways movement represents the hopes, and the more or less enthusiastic convictions, of a vast number of people in the interior of the United States. The credentials that it presents to Congress are unimpeachable. It asks what is eminently reasonable when it proposes this official commission of inquiry. It is to be hoped that the demand will be granted.

The

Canal.

One of the first questions to secure a hearNicaragua ing upon the reassembling of Congress in December, was that of the status of the much-buffeted Nicaragua canal project. The canal has a staunch and 'patriotic defender in Senator Morgan. To speak in general terms, and not to enter here upon the discussion of details, it would seem a clear proposition that the political and financial authority and control of the United States government ought to dominate the affairs of the Nicaragua canal. It is true that Nicaragua is not a portion of the United States; and yet in a very important sense any deep-water channel across Central America would constitute a most essential part of our national coast line. England's interest in the Suez canal on account of her hold upon India has a very shadowy validity in the nature of things, when compared with the propriety of a full control by the United States of the Nicaragua canal. For, after all, India is a great Asiatic empire pertaining in no way to the integrity of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and probably destined in the early future to resume the autonomy which British conquest has suspended. The control of the Nicaragua canal might better be compared with that of the Irish Channel as forming an essential route between parts of one sovereign state.

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British

There are many important reasons Versus American why action by our government rePolicies. specting the canal should be prompt and unambiguous. We in this country had supposed that the Bluefields difficulty was entirely disposed of, but Great Britain has unexpectedly refused to acknowledge Nicaragua's complete jurisdiction over the Mosquito strip. As our readers are aware, the Mosquito Coast is as essential to the integrity of Nicaragua as the coast of New Jersey is to that of the United States, or the coast of Kent to that of England. Nothing could be more frivolous than England's claim, through a pretended regard for the Mosquito Indians. to intermeddle in any manner whatsoever with the question of Nicaragua's full jurisdiction over her own territory. England might as well dispute the sovereignty of the United States over the Indian Territory by virtue of some pretended interposition in behalf of the Cherokees. What makes England's position the more absurd is the entire acquiescence of the Mosquito Indians themselves in all the governmental and jurisdictional claims of Nicaragua. There can be only one intelligible explanation of the British desire to intermeddle on the Mosquito Coast, and that is England's determination to have some share in the control of the Nicaragua canal, the Mosquito Coast lying very near the entrance to the proposed passage. All that is needed on our part is a clear and intelligent policy. Nothing but our own seeming indifference could have emboldened England to her new series of claims regarding matters in this hemisphere. It is not that England has in any wise asserted herself against the

United States, but rather that she has felt it not unreasonable that she might step in where we are in default. Thus there would seem little doubt of the truth of Admiral Walker's recent assertions regarding British intrigues in the Hawaiian Islands. Since the United States has declined to accept those fair possessions as a freely-offered gift, the British can

ANDREW HENDY,

Chief of the Mosquito Indians.

scarcely oe blamed for desiring that so enormously valuable an acquisition should come her way rather than fall to Japan or Germany or some other power. We would not be misunderstood as desiring to cast any reflections whatsoever upon British policy. The present prime minister of Great Britain is an imperialist of the most avowed type; and it is considered a bad week in British imperial circles when some new island of the seas, some new African district, or some populous Asiatic province contiguous to the Indian empire, has not been added to the domains which acknowledge allegiance to the British Crown. Nothing could be more idle than for us to complain of the cardinal principles upon which the imperial politics of both great British parties are founded. Our entire discussion has to do with appropriate American policies. Conquest is not desired by any group or party in the United States; but inasmuch as we are living in a world whose affairs are largely dominated by nations of a highly aggressive disposition, it behooves us to guard firmly our own interests. The annexation of Hawaii, the undivided control of the Nicaragua canal, the acquisition of a strong naval station in the West Indies, and the emphatic asser

tion of certain principles regarding European interference in the affairs of Central and South America, would form a very moderate and reasonable American policy.

The

We are glad to observe that President Venezuela Cleveland has taken occasion in his mesQuestion. sage to Congress to call attention to the dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain, regarding the boundary lines of British Guiana, and to express his wish that Great Britain should consent to an arbitration of this question. In view of the history of the case, as outlined in these pages last month. Mr. Cleveland might well have expressed himself with greater emphasis. The subject is one which ought to be dealt with by Congress. Boundary disputes are in constant process of adjustment by joint commissions or outside arbitration, and there is no conceivable reason why the metes and bounds of British Guiana should not long ago have been determined. It is reported that Mexico and Guatemala have just now yielded to good counsels by agreeing to submit for adjustment by a joint commission what had begun to be a very acute boundary quarrel.

The character of the verdict rendered in Damages to Seal the arbitration over the seals in the Bering Poachers. Sea, left it incumbent upon the United States to pay certain actual damages in compensation for losses entailed upon Canadian poaching vessels which our revenue patrol steamers had captured or warned away from the sealing grounds. The official inquiry into the amount of such damages has been completed, and the President recommends that Congress shall accordingly appropriate a sum exceeding four hundred thousand dollars, to meet in good faith this international obligation. The award is seriously criticised in some quarters, and it is claimed that a small fraction of this amount would be ample to pay all losses that could be fairly reckoned in. We prefer to believe that the inquiry has been diligently and properly conducted by our own government, and that Congress would pursue the wise and dignified course in promptly assenting to the President's recommendation. There can be nothing gained by wrangling over the items and details. Our government had pursued the policy of protecting the seal herd against poachers because we believed it was our right to do so and that the preservation of the herd required it. But having submitted all questions in controversy to a tribunal of arbitration, and having accepted its findings, we should not haggle over minor expenses but should proceed to pay the bill with good nature and alacrity.

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