Council did not hesitate long before establishing a Works department, which would act as a contractor to all the other departments. John Burns had long advocated the creation of such a departinent. It was part of his programme of collectivism. The department has now been in existence from May, 1893, and has executed works valued at about £200,000. Mr. Burns is a member of the Works committee and has watched its development closely. His knowledge of good workmanship has been valuable. He has seen that the material used has been of the best; that there was no slop work, no "jerry building," no defrauding of the rate payers as under the contract system. During the last year his attention has been concentrated largely on the Works department. On him has fallen the chief strain of protecting and defending it. Never had a municipality a more difficult task. The Works department had critics in every direction. It had critics inside as well as outside the Council-enemies in officials as well as in members. It was watched on all sides by interested enemies ready to pick holes in its work.

All the hierarchy of middlemen were eager to pounce upon it. Departments of the Council which used to pride themselves on executing their own work were jealous of the Works department when working for them. In fact, the Works department was expected to be above suspicion—the most perfect executive concern ever organized. There is any number of checks surrounding it. An estimate must be submitted to the Works department by entirely independent officials. If the department considers the estimate sufficient it contracts to do the work; if it is not satisfied with the estimate the job is put up to tender. There must be an estimate, as the Council is not allowed to spend any sum exceeding £50 without an estimate, which, however, can only be an indication of what the cost will be. If the cost exceeds the estimate the Works department is said to have saved; if it is under the estimate it is supposed to have lost. Judged by this somewhat arbitrary rule, and when the estimates are made out by hostile officials, the Works department has been a great success. It has saved 5 per cent. The real saving," however, is not seen in the figures; it is in the superior quality of the materials used and the higher class of labor employed that the great advantage to the community has been. All materials used are bought by tender. The chief danger to the Works department has come from within, not from without.

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While Burns was busily repelling attacks, he was always watching the workmen and seeing that they gave the community better labor than they would give a private individual. He made enemies, too, in keeping out lazy fellows who wished to sponge on a public department, and in getting rid of inefficient workmen. This department has made mistakes. It expanded too suddenly; it undertook more work than it could execute in the time. It was handicapped for want of machinery and a trained set of foremen. All these early deficiencies in organization have been repaired. The older it grows the better and the cheaper

As I have said, Mr. Burns is not a frequent speaker at the Council, but he always speaks with a purpose. It is his powerful oratory and convincing argument which has more than once decided a question. Only quite recently he turned the balance of feeling in the Council in favor of insisting on a certain moral standard in the conduct of music halls. He is sometimes indignant in his utterance, generally eloquent, and always careful. He comes primed with facts, which he fires off in telling epigrammatic sentences. In an attack on the contract system and a defense of the Works department on the day he left London for New York, he produced in the course of his speech samples of bad bricks, bad painting, bad mortar used by contractors. He often introduces dramatic touches like these.

Besides being a member of the Works, Main Drainage and Bridges committees he is a member of the General Purposes committee, which decides matters of policy, and of the Parliamentary committee which promotes bills. He works hard, but with great tact and shrewdness. It suits his purpose to let his influence be felt where his hand is not seen. He also declines to accept the chairmanship of any committee. In the first Council Burns had to lead the battle of labor single handed, as he was the only direct labor representative. He has now seven colleagues; moreover, the majority of the Progressive party are in full sympathy with him. The Works department is supported by bankers, lawyers and all classes of business men in the Council.

Burns was re-elected by Battersea again at the head of the poll in 1892, and in the same year was elected to Parliament. The programme upon which he was elected to the County Council in 1892 was as follows:

1. The extension of the powers of the Council, so that the city, with all its funds and endowments, be included in and used by a real municipality for London.

2. That all monopolies, such as gas, water, tramways, omnibuses, markets, docks and electric lighting should be municipalized, and the profits, amounting to £4,000,000, or three times the Council's revenue, devoted to public purposes.

3. Establishment of free hospitals in every district, and control by the Council of those which already exist. 4. Artisans' dwellings to be constructed and owned by the Council.

5. Enlargement of powers, so as to enable the County Council to undertake the organization of industry and distribution, especially of those departments dealing with the necessaries of life.

6. Rigorous enforcement of Public Health Acts, and efficient sanitary and structural inspection of dwellings and workshops.

7. The organization of unemployed labor on useful work at fair wages.

8. The direct employment of all labor by the Council

at eight hours per day for equal work. Three years' experience has proved that contract work, however well supervised, does not produce such good buildings and workmanship as the Council could secure by its own workmen.

9. Direct control by the Council of the five millions of money now spent and too often squandered on useless officialism and feasting by charitable institutions and City companies.

10. The police of the City and Greater London to be controlled by the County Council.

11. Cumulative rating, the taxation of ground landlords for the relief of the occupier, and providing new sources of revenue, as 6 pence (half our present rate) now goes to pay the old debt left by our predecessors, thus depriving London of many necessary improvements. Besides these measures, I will work and vote for any plan that will enable London to reduce its poverty, brighten the lives and increase the comfort of its people.

AS A LEGISLATOR AND PARLIAMENTARIAN.

Since Mr. Burns was elected to Parliament such has been the pressure of government business and the obstruction of the House of Lords that there has been little scope for the legislator. The platform upon which he was elected was more advanced than that of any other member. Here it is:

The recent movements of labor, the popular demand for more leisure and a higher standard of life, the determination to use Parliament for a social end and not as an appanage of vested interests, will find in me an earnest advocate.

As a Social Democrat, I believe that nothing short of the Nationalization of the land, railways, mines and the means of production, will permanently remove the poverty and inequalities which surround us, and that eventually society will accept that view. Till that is completely realized, and it is being fast accomplished, Parliament can be made the means of giving to the people those legislative, municipal and decentralized powers by which poverty can be reduced, burdens lightened, and the community immeasurably benefited.

As a candidate, dealing with immediate questions and asking your votes, I am in favor of the following:

"Home Rule for Ireland, and such measures of legislative independence as the Irish people may demand for their political, social and industrial emancipation.

"Abolition of the House of Lords and all hereditary authorities.

"Conferring upon the London County Council all the powers enjoyed by other municipalities and giving to London a unification of complete municipal self-government, with power to acquire all existing monopolies.

"District and Parish Councils, with full and popular powers.

"Alteration of the incidence of taxation, so that the ground landlord, the owner, and the rich shall pay their just proportion of taxation.

"Disestablishment of the Church.

"The Legal Eight-Hour Day as the best means of securing work for all, overwork for none, the avoidance of strikes, reduction of the rates, and giving permanent

JOHN BURNS.

Reproduced from a cartoon by "Spy" in Vanity Fair.

employment where demoralizing casual labor now prevails.

"Raising the age of child labor, and placing all trades within the scope of existing and future Factory and Sanitary acts.

"Alteration of existing Poor Law, and diversion of its funds to some scheme of Old Age Pensions that, by cumulative or graduated Income Tax on the rich, would give sustenance to old people, without pauperization.

"Giving to localities absolute and complete power in

deciding upon all questions relating to the drink traffic by Direct Veto and Local Option.

"The recognition of Trades Unions, the abolition of sweating and sub-letting, the payment of Union wages in all government departments and the checking of waste, jobbery and extravagance wherever found.

"Beyond the above, I will attend to all local matters before Parliament, and will always endeavor to make the district in which I have lived my whole life respected where it is not feared, and will ever have in view the best and most permanent interests of the community."

It will be noticed that except for the vague reference to "all hereditary authorities" there is nothing that smacks of Republicanism in this document. Not that Burns is a monarchist; far from it. But as the monarchy behaves itself in England by doing nothing, he knows that the way to bring it down and every other privilege is by development on social lines. When the landed aristocracy are cut down and the House of Lords abolished, the props upon which the monarchy rests will topple over and the crown crumble in the dust at the feet of democracy.

It takes some time to make one's mark in the House of Commons, but Burns has succeeded in impressing it, in influencing it and in getting something out of it. He has made the government a "fair house." That is to say, he has got the government works, the arsenals, the dockyards, the powder and small-arms factories to adopt trade union wages and some of them the eight-hour day. He has also induced the government to send circulars to local bodies counseling them to do what Battersea Vestry and the County Council does-arrange their work to fall in the season when most workmen are unemployed. And here I may say that Burns does not believe in municipal workshops and farm colonies as remedies for distress. He wants to see the unemployed absorbed into industries which already exist by abolishing all overtime and cutting down the hours of labor to eight per day. Municipal workshops, he says, would produce goods for which there is no demand. He would like to see municipalities acquiring garden allotments during the winter season, as the County Council has done, and setting the unemployed to make the land ready for cultivation.

Burns' work in Parliament so far has been mainly in getting government departments to do things which they had power to do rather than agitating for new laws which there was no chance to get through. He has obtained inquiries into the prison system, into the cab trade in London, and other matters. He worked hard for an eight-hour law for miners and a new employers' liability act. He also supported the County Council bills; but his parliamentary successes have been mainly in influencing departments. He has become a wily parliamentary hand.

KNOWS WHEN TO BE SILENT.

The most notable feature of Burns' character as a public man is the caution which he shows and the tact he displays in all his actions. Mr. Gladstone has the wonderful talent of giving satisfactory answers which mean little or nothing, or may mean

whatever their autnor desires at a later period. Burns is not such a talented phrasemonger, and as he cannot give evasive answers he gives none at all. He knows when to hold his tongue. He preserves a significant silence on occasions when others less cautious would commit themselves. He is appealed to for his opinion on all sorts of matters, and the parliamentary angler dangles attractive bait before him, but he never responds. The letters which he has occasion to write are peculiarly laconic. His writing is like his speeches-incisive, direct and to the point. He strains somewhat after phrases and has a happy knack of pithy epigram. He never makes a speech in which there is not some thought neatly and cleverly expressed.

HIS HOME LIFE.

Mr. Burns lives in one of the principal streets of Battersea, at 108 Lavender Hill. The street is partly commercial, partly residential. It contains the principal local institutions-the town hall, the free library, and John Burns. Until recently Burns only occupied two rooms in the basement of the house; but since he has been in Parliament he has added two rooms on the first floor, but the modest character of the lodgment may be judged by the fact that the rent is only 11 shillings ($2.75) per week. Mrs. Burns makes an excellent housewife. She springs from the working classes, like her husband, but, like him, has learned a great deal. She writes well, and talks well, and without participating in her husband's public work, is in complete sympathy with him and is very helpful to him in many ways. They have no family-indeed, Burns declares himself a neo-Malthusian. The Burns tenement is well furnished and is kept scrupulously clean. Ever since he was a boy Burns has been collecting and reading books. His little den is lined with books and documents, carefully arranged. You will find there all the leading economic works, histories, blue books, a marvelous collection of labor pamphlets, and many works in French, which Burns understands. American literature is represented by Labor Bureau reports. One side of the room is occupied with a large glass case, which was once used by a geologist, but instead of accommodating fossils, it now contains ammunition for aggressive labor campaigning. Here we find clippings, reports, etc., carefully tabulated under various headings, such as "Sweating," "Direct Labor in the Provinces," Bogus Organizations," "ProfitCo-operation," Sharing Schemes," Strikes and Lockouts," "Labor Leaders," etc. He has, by the way, a complete record of all trade unionist and labor leaders; and rather dangerous material it proves to those against whom it may be directed. Apart from studying the particular books which are helpful to him in his public work, Burns is fond of reading 'historical and philosophical books, and occasionally dips into works of current literature. As for recreations, he is fond of cricket, skating, and other outdoor games and tries to maintain his healthy mind in a healthy body.

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HOW HE HAS BEEN MAINTAINED.

Mr. Burns was working as an engineer when he was elected to London's first Parliament, but it soon became evident that he could not do justice to himself, to the constitutents, or to his work unless he gave up his daily labor. The workingmen of Battersea, with some assistance from outside, therefore subscribed a sum to maintain him. For the first three years he received £2. 2/ per week. The money was collected by the Labor League, and a careful balance sheet prepared, showing every item of disbursement. The Dockers' Union, of which Mr. Burns was trustee, voted him a guinea ($5) per week, and his wages as

BENNY HUTCHINSON. 92

WHERE JOHN BURNS LIVES.

County Councilor were thus raised to some $15 per week. After all his traveling expenses, postage, and other outlays were covered, he was just left a bare living. County Councilors are allowed traveling expenses when attending committees and visiting works, but Mr. Burns has never claimed any expenses from the Council. Every now and then the Burns Wages Fund has run very low, and appeals have had to be made for subscriptions from the public. He declines subscriptions from political organizations or from political leaders. He has had many tempting offers or bribes from parlimentary wire pullers, company promoters and self-seeking patronizers of labor, who have tried to" nobble" him, but he has systematically refused such help. He prefers, as he says, "to be, with all its occasional personal humiliation, the industrial robin redbreast, picking up the crumbs of of labor contributions, rather than accept Greek gifts from other sources, with their inevitable result to labor and myself." Since he has been elected to Parliament, Mr. Burns has been paid £5 per week,

out of which he has to defray all his household expenses, his traveling expenses, which must be considerable, postage, books, newspapers, etc.

In addition to the money which is required to maintain Mr. Burns, there are also funds to be found to keep up his electoral organizations to pay election expenses. Altogether during the six years of his public work nearly £3,000 has been subscribed for registration and election expenses and other outlays of an impersonal character.

But for the fact that he is a man of very simple tastes he could never maintain himself on the pittance which he has received. He has rarely had but one suit of clothes at a time, he has never been seen with the luxury of an umbrella, and rarely has an overcoat. He is a teetotaler and an anti-tobacconist, and the only luxury he indulges in is an occasional visit to a theatre, where he may be found in the cheap parts of the house. He never takes a cab, and if a cheap 'bus or street car cannot be found he walks. He has usually to walk home from the House of Commons to his house, a distance of three miles, in the middle of the night. There are various legitimate ways in which a County Councilor or member of Parliament may increase his earnings. He may, for instance, be made a member of a Royal Commission and receive an allowance for attendance. Mr. Burns has been offered a position on several commissions but has declined. Lord Rosebery has offered him a position of Under Secretary in one of the ministries, but he has also refused to take office. For the same reason he has abstained from taking the chairmanship of any County Council committee, and has kept himself clear from all official entanglements.

Mr. Burns' public work has not by any means been confined to his work on the County Council, upon which he has attended twelve hundred committee meetings in five years, or to his position in Parliament, where he has put in four hundred attendances and divisions, nor to his work on the parliamentary committee of the Trades Union Congress.

He is a governor of Battersea Polytechnic Institute, and has fought the battle of labor in over fifty strikes, and has been adviser and mediator in many disputes, as well as taken part in innumerable public meetings. He was president of the Progressive Council at the last School Board election. The benefit which he has conferred upon labor is incalculable. The model set by the County Council has been adopted by over two hundred and fifty public authorities in the United Kingdom, and they, in their turn. have influenced private firms to accord better treatment to labor and to raise the standard of life. Alderman Hoare, one of the leading bankers in London and a member of the County Council, has declared, " as a banker, that John Burns' services to labor in this country are worth £3,000,000 a year."

FREE AND INDEPENDENT.

Burns does not belong to any political or social party organization. He is not a member of the Social Democratic Federation, the Independent Labor

Party, or any of the Socialist leagues or the Fabian Society. He meets with the hostility of them all, with the exception of the Fabians, who are peaceable folk and do not like to quarrel with any one who is promoting collectivist principles. Burns' severance from others with whom he worked is a remarkable but not a surprising fact. The truth is that English Socialist organizations are undermined by personal jealousies between rival leaders. The Social Democratic Federation despises the Fabians and declines to act with the Independent Labor Party. With the latter it is independence of party ties, or nothing, and so far it has been next to nothing. Most of the best men who do good work have left the Social Democratic Federation. The chief fault which this body and the Independent Labor Party find with Mr. Burns is that he compromises with Liberals. He negotiates, schemes and contrives to get his reforms carried. Burns' reply is that one practical scheme in the hand is worth a dozen Socialist dreams in the bush. He objects, too, to the Social Democratic Federation pursuing factious opposition and futile candidatures. His chief fault with them is that they are not true to the principles of social democracy. He has not changed his opinions, but he has modified his method of advocating them, and he now evades wild cat, harum scarum schemes of socialist Utopias and recognizes that the transition to social democracy

must be gradual; that the policy must be give and take, and that all the existing institutions and machinery must be utilized to advance the cause. It must be said that Burns does nothing to conciliate the hostile elements against him. On the contrary, he embitters them. He is authoritative and hits out strongly when attacked. He feels that he has nothing to fear from friend or foe, and is more direct in his replies than his opponents like. It is the weakest point in the English labor movement that the various leaders cannot unite. While the others are quarreling, changing their tactics and remodeling their societies, it must be admitted that Burns has the satisfaction of seeing his programme of social democracy being realized.

While up to now he has abstained from taking any official position, there is not the slightest doubt but he will yet accept office, and some day be Lord Mayor of unified London. His popularity in London is constantly growing. his capacity for administrative work is increasing with his responsibilities, and his statesmanlike qualities are developing concurrently as his opportunities are enlarged and his duties accumulate. As Burns has been the leading fighting figure in the social and civic regeneration of London during the last ten years, nothing could be more fitting than that he should fill the position of its first citizen and chief magistrate.

MY

Y friend, the Rev. Dr. Henry Lunn, is about to pay a brief visit to America, and he will have some opportunities of bringing before American audiences an outline of the great religious ideals to the furtherance of which he has devoted the self-sacrifice of his life. My experience of the unbounded kindness and hospitality of many American friends, who had not even been known to me by name when I first set foot in the United States, makes me quite sure that Dr. Lunn will receive that kindly-I had almost said that affectionate-welcome which it was my own happy lot to enjoy and which has been so generously accorded to many English visitors. But as there may be many who know but little of Dr. Lunn or of his work, and as my regard for him is great and my sympathy with him in his efforts is warm, I gladly accede to the request of the editor of the American REVIEW OF REVIEWS to say a few words with reference to his visit.

Dr. Lunn was born in 1859, and is therefore still a young man. Even as a youth he consecrated his life to self-denying labor, and deciding to enter the Wesleyan Ministry passed through a Theological College, and then proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in Arts, Medicine and Surgery, with a

view to becoming a Medical Missionary in India. Amid these labors he also studied in the Divinity School of the University, where he won the Essay Prize given by the President, and the Oratory Medal of the Theological Society of the College.

At the age of twenty-seven he carried out the fixed intention of his life by proceeding to India as a Medical Missionary. The experience which he here gained bore fruit in the articles which he contributed to the Methodist Times on Mission work. They produced a powerful impression and gave rise to what is known as the Wesleyan Missionary Controversy. But repeated attacks of fever showed that Dr. Lunn's health would not permit him to live in India, and he was reluctantly compelled to abandon his Missionary abors.

But inactivity was not possible to his strenuous nature, and Dr. Lunn sought for manifold opportunities of usefulness which his ability readily secured.

Then he became the Chaplain of the Polytechnic Institution in Regent street. It was founded by my friend Mr. Quintin Hogg, and like all the most remarkable efforts for the good of man it grew gradually, noiselessly, from the most obscure and humble beginning. Mr. Quintin Hogg was a gentleman of a