this district on trivial pretext, but really for daring to be a Republican. In the 15th senatorial district the State Board of Canvassers, openly encouraged by Governor Hill, in defiance of the explicit order of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, awarded the certificate of election to Osborne which had been bestowed by the people upon Senator Deane. Governor Hill removed the county clerk of Dutchess County, in this district, for refusing to certify a return pronounced by the Democratic Court of Appeals to be false and dishonest. In the 27th district, where Mr. Sherwood had been elected by 1,640 plurality, the Senate, made Democratic by the two preceding thefts, ignoring the plurality of 1,640, seated a Democrat by the name of Walker. All these things were done under the inspiration of Governor Hill. Not a single prominent Democrat has dared either to approve the act or to lift his voice in condemnation, so absolutely has Mr. Hill reduced to terrorism the Democratic party and the Democratic press in the State of New York. One man alone he was unable to terrify, and that was Judge Rufus W. Peckham, of the Court of Appeals.

HIS PRESENT ALLIANCE WITH TAMMANY.

Mr. Hill absolutely controlled the State convention of 1891 by the aid of Mr. Murphy, of Troy, and Mr. Croker, of Tammany Hall, New York. Mr. Hill formulated the platform adopted at that convention and named the ticket (his pretence of trouble with Sheehan notwithstanding). Mr. Hill named Dr. Bush for Speaker of the Assembly and Senator Cantor for temporary President of the Senate. His own creatures were put in places of power wherever he suggested. Even after the election of Mr. Flower as Governor, Mr. Hill held the helm with a firm hand. Mr. Flower himself accepted from Mr. Hill his private secretary and the Superintendent of Public Works, the most powerful office outside the Governor's office in the State civil service. The bank examiner appointed by Hill was also accepted by Governor Flower. In fact, Governor Flower does not seem to have asserted his own individual preference in any particular so long as Hill remained in Albany. And to-day finds Mr. Hill in possession of all the Democratic machinery of the party in the State of New York. He will control the next State convention, and he will be its choice as nominee for President by an enthusiastic unanimity not seen in years, and he has the senatorship to dispose of to placate some powerful ally.

Thus it will be seen that Mr. Hill, getting his power at first by pandering to the saloon element and by his ready subservience to Tammany Hall and others in authority, has gradually risen. through his intense devotion to self, from the position of a ward heeler into that of absolute political dictator of a great party in the greatest State of the Union. He owes his power to the loyal adherence of Tammany Hall and the corrupt canal ring, with all that that implies; but, over and above all else, to the financial and electoral support given to him by the

united liquor interests of the State of New York, and this item alone, it must be remembered, means not less than from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand votes. His alliance with Tammany Hall means more than most men understand; for Tammany expends for her pay roll not less than twelve millions of dollars a year, and no man is employed by Tammany, from the highest position with its thousands of dollars of salary down to the meanest position of a sweeper of mud on the crosswalks, who is not expected to influence other votes to enable him to keep his position. Hill's connection with Tammany is like the connection that binds. two freebooters or highway robbers. Each is distrustful of the other, but each is necessary to the other. Singly, one might help destroy the other; unitedly, they are almost irresistible.

THE BASIS OF HIS FURTHER AMBITIONS.

Mr. Hill's hope for extending his influence abroad in the nation must of necessity depend upon New York State's vote in the Electoral College. Hill from Delaware would be intolerable. Hill from Rhode Island would be contemptible. But Hill from New York, bringing with him the reasonable assuranceof thirty-six electoral votes, is to the solid South precisely what Tammany Hall itself is to Hill--a har binger of victory. In New York City there are over twenty thousand Southern Democrats, men of edu cation and men of better instincts than those of the average Tammany bruiser. They are not Tammany men, and yet, on account of loyalty to the Democratic party's interest in the nation, they have not only tolerated, but they have assisted, both Tammany and Hill. The same influences that have brought these people into Hill's army and to Tammany Hall's as sistance will bring the solid South to Hill, and will cause other Democratic leaders to temporarily lay aside their jealousies and their ambitions, in order to place this man, who has shown that he is brave with the bravery of a highwayman, in position to establish his party in all the strong places of the Government.

It was unquestionably the influence of Hill and Hill's friends that led to the election of Mr. Crisp as Speaker of the House of Representatives. His speech at Elmira on the silver question, uttered under peculiar circumstances just before the congressional caucus, gave him an opportunity to boast of his success in influencing Congress to throw Mr. Mills aside.

THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE WARD HEELER.

Mr. Hill stands in American public life as the type of the successful practical politician, in the lowest meaning of the words. In fact, he is the apotheosis of the ward heeler. He has never put his faith in the power of persuasion and enlightenment. In no campaign has he ever depended upon square advocacy of the platform or alleged principles of his. party. His dependence has been placed almost ex clusively upon organization and a skilful catering

to the liquor men and other selfish interests. So far as public utterance goes, he has followed the lines of shrewd misstatements of the position of his adversary, bitter animadversions upon individuals, and false claims for approval for acts to the credit of which neither he nor his party were in any wise entitled. He does not rely upon the merit either of the record or the principles of his party so much as upon organization, manipulation, and combination. The word principle is not in his vocabulary, save for use in declamation for effect. While he does not understand nor have any reverence for principles as such, he does understand the practical advantages of every political makeshift, and is thoroughly at home in all that is wrapped up in the word "expediency." He has been marvellously suc cessful, and has grown insolent and arrogant upon his success. His complete subservience to the liquor interests, his opposition to the home-rule principle and defeat of rapid transit, his pettiness in the treatment of the patronage in his gift, his prostitution of the veto power and interference in local legislation, his enmity to ballot reform, taxation reform, and educational reform, would have ruined the political prospects of any other man.

HIS RECENT SPEECHES.

No more characteristic thing can be readily instanced than his two recent deliveries, proposing a program for national Democratic performance. These two speeches of his, the one at Elmira and the other at Albany, have been spread broadcast through the land. They have been admirably summed up by the leading Democratic newspaper of Indiana, the Indianapolis Sentinel, which, in speaking of them, has said.

"It is a program of cowardice, dishonesty, and partisan imbecility. It is a program of trickery and false pretence. It contemplates a shameless violation of solemn pledges and a deliberate abandon ment of sacred principles. It represents no respectable body of public opinion, and voices nothing but the wishes of a little coterie of political adventurers and mercenaries. The Sentinel declines to sanction the proposed policy of demagogism and poltroonery.”

Thus has this caustic Democratic writer characterized two speeches of Governor Hill. The same criticism might be extended to cover his entire career. He has succeeded because the conservative, well-informed, better element of his party has sup ported him through its allegiance to the older and better traditions of the Democratic party, and because he has persuaded the liquor interests and the tough element that in him they have a friend.

HIS POLITICAL VICIOUSNESS.

The absence of what may be called personal, as distinguished from political, vices, and the presence

of what may be called personal, as distinguished from political, honesty in the man, have blinded a great many people to his intrinsic dangerousness.

Pretending to economy, he yet expended $104,000 of the people's money in beautifying the executive mansion and filling it with articles of luxury and beauty for his personal enjoyment.

In the alleged interest of retrenchment, he boastfully cut out $180,000 of appropriation from the annual appropriation and supply bills, but has never alluded to the fact that to more than eighty per cent. of the items he subsequently gave his written approval.

Expressing great willingness to approve proper restrictive legislation on excise questions, he seriously vetoed a measure prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages in buildings belonging to the State with the sapient averment that chemistry revealed the presence of alcohol in lemonade.

An interview with him, published in the New York Herald of January 6, gives in his clear and succinct style circumstances under which he would be honest. He was asked whether the Democrats proposed to change the method of selecting presidential electors in the State of New York. He laughingly said that no such departure from custom would be followed, because it was not worth while. That illustrates Mr. Hill exactly. When it is not worth while to be otherwise, then no one can talk more solemn. ly of principle or quote more approvingly Thomas Jefferson and the saints.

POSING FOR THE NATION.

It must be conceded that such a man is not without his attractions to the unthinking multitude, with whom there is nothing so successful as success, and whose eyes are dazzled by the solar splendor of his sudden rise from obscurity to great prominence and power. Happily for the nation and happily for the State, Mr. Hill is a unique and isolated character. Within the sphere of his own experience and knowledge he is keen, resolute and unflinching. In new fields, facing new conditions, he is timid and apt to be unskilful; but he is quick to comprehend and swift to learn.

If the Democratic party is searching for a man to lead it into power for the purpose of a selfish use of the patronage, and who will use every atom of force in the presidency to extend and perpetuate the power of the Democratic party for the purpose of extending and perpetuating his own power, who would sacrifice every principle and every promise for the sake of temporary expediency, who holds temporary success and possession of office nearer and dearer than any friendship or any principle, it cannot do better, nor choose wiser, than to adopt as its leader the new Senator from the State of New York.

T is confidently expected that before the close of

from the port of New York a large steamer specially chartered to carry to Russia a cargo of six millions of pounds of American flour, contributed for the most part by the generous merchant millers of the United States. In charge of this splendid benefaction will be Mr. W. C. Edgar, editor and manager of the Northwestern Miller, and Colonel Charles McC. Reeve, also of Minneapolis. Although the Russian famine has assumed proportions which make it the most appalling calamity that has visited any European land in modern times, an almost incredible apathy would seem as yet to exist in quarters from which one would have expected the liveliest and most substantial tokens of sympathy.

In England, where several relief funds have been started, the gifts thus far have been pitiably small. This American millers' donation is more valuable, many times over, than the sum total of all the gifts as yet announced from Great Britain. Inasmuch as Mr. Edgar and Colonel Reeve are commissioned to attend personally to the distribution of the flour in Russia, their expedition will be one of singular interest.

Through its foreign correspondents, the Northwestern Miller learned of the famine in Russia rather sooner perhaps than most American journals. Commerce is sensitive to any change in the normal state of things; and this enterprising weekly journal, being commercial in character and having to do with international trade, was quick to feel that Russia would not be the factor this year which she ordi narily is in contributing to the world's food supply. Of course this was a matter directly affecting the prospects of the flour makers of America, and the Northwestern Miller was early awakened to the consequences which might result from the non-exportation of Russian wheat and rye. The crop failure in tnat country, discredited by many, was early in the season made known to the Miller and its constituency through information which could not be questioned.

Inquiry into the matter put Mr. Edgar in possession of facts regarding the terrible condition of the Russian peasantry, which showed a degree of suffering happily unheard of and undreamed of in our country. One could not long dwell on the purely commercial aspects of the situation without giving some thought to the starving people whose condition formed such a contrast to that of those about us.

Northwestern crops over-abundant, the elevators filled to overflowing, the railways blocked with the immense product of fertile fields, and the millers busy and hopeful-all this constituted a picture the reverse of which was seen in Russia. Knowing the

W. C. EDGAR,

Editor of the Northwestern Miller.

liberal character of the great flour makers, it occurred to Mr. Edgar that if a plan and a system could be arranged whereby they could contribute to alleviate the distress of the Russian peasants, they would promptly and generously respond.

Primarily it was necessary to learn whether the Russian Government would accept the gift it was hoped to secure. An inquiry resulted in a favorable reply. In the absence of the Russian minister at Washington, Mr. Greger, the chargé d'affaires, cabled the Minneapolis proposition to St. Petersburg, and in reply he was instructed to accept the flour in the spirit in which it was offered.

Upon receipt of this message a subscription list was at once opened. Desiring first to test the spirit of the trade at large by an appeal to the ever-generous and broad minded millers of Minneapolis, Mr. Edgar approached them on the subject, and in less

than an hour had secured subscriptions amounting to over 400,000 pounds of flour. Not a miller in the city of Minneapolis declined to contribute.

With this as a basis, an appeal was made through the columns of the Miller to the millers of the United States; and ever since that time the replies have been coming in.

The Governor of Minnesota, Hon. W. R. Merriam, had, previous to the publication of this appeal, decided to take action of a similar kind. Learning from the papers that the Miller had inaugurated the movement, he sent for Mr. Edgar and asked for an explanation of his plan. Upon hearing it, he very heartily indorsed it, and at once issued an appeal to the people of the State of Minnesota, in which he called upon them to contribute from their store in aid of this object. He appointed a commission to attend to the matter, of which Messrs. Reeve and Evans were members and Mr. Edgar was chairman. Later Governor Merriam appointed sub commissioners in every county in the State. These gentlemen are now busily engaged in the solicitation of flour and money for the relief of the Russian peasantry, and the results will be included in the cargo which the millers expect to ship.

Meanwhile, the exertions of the Northwestern Miller have brought the matter to the attention of the millers of the United States generally. Millers' associa tions everywhere have co-operated in the work, and are at present laboring to secure the necessary amount.

Following Governor Merriam's lead, the executives of other States have issued appeals. Iowa and Nebraska propose sending cargoes of corn and corn products, and Massachusetts has a relief committee appointed by Governor Russell, at the head of which is Bishop Phillips Brooks.

The Northwestern Miller subscription list, which began in Minneapolis, has now extended over the entire length and breadth of the milling States of the country. Reckoning up to the 15th of January, the millers of St. Louis had given 90,000 pounds and those of Buffalo 210,000 pounds. Taking up the list by States, we find that up to that date millers had subscribed the following quantities: Nebraska, 68,000 pounds; Iowa, 35,000; Illinois, 75,000; Kansas, 88,000; Missouri, 108,000; North and South Dakota, 101,000; Minnesota, 613,000; Wisconsin, 69,000; Michigan, 128,000; Indiana, 70,000; Ohio, 78,000; and New York, 304,000.

So many confusing and contradictory telegrams appeared in the papers regarding the misappropriation of relief funds in Russia that in order to assure subscribers to this fund that their donations would be conscientiously distributed, it was found necessary to guarantee personal supervision. To this end, Governor Merriam appointed Colonel C. McC. Reeve and Mr. Edgar a special commission to proceed to Russia in advance of the cargo and oversee its final distribution. This commission will go at its own expense, and will represent the State of Minnesota and the millers of America who have contributed to

the cargo. Its mission will be to supervise the apportionment of the gift and make a report.

At first it was proposed that the Russian Government should pay freight on the flour to New York and furnish transportation to Russia. Indeed, this was the understanding on which the offer was ac cepted. The American railroads, however, had something to say when this point came up, and characteristically offered, without any solicitation, to carry the flour to New York free of charge.

It was then suggested by Senator Washburn that the flour having been given by American millers and transported by American railroads, it would be in keeping with the spirit of the undertaking to have an American vessel carry it to its destination. To this end he consulted with Secretary Tracy and immediately on the assembling of Congress offered in the Senate a joint resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to charter a steamship in which to forward the flour to Russia. This resolution passed the Senate by a heavy vote, but when it came into the House it was defeated. The action of the House was totally unexpected, and surprised even the partisan members who voted against the resolution, more with a mistaken idea of going on record in favor of retrenchment and reform than with any serious objection to the measure. The indications are that it will be again taken up and probably passed. Many members are evidently ashamed of their action, being spurred to a realizing sense of their mistake by the unanimous censure of their constituents and the press, irrespective of party.

If Congress should by any chance act promptly and reverse its hasty decision, a Government vessel may be used to carry the Nothwestern Miller's cargo; but meanwhile the flour is being forwarded to New York, and it is quite probable that a ship will be offered by private parties and the cargo despatched before any congressional action is taken.

Over 2,000,000 pounds of flour have already been subscribed. It is estimated that 6,000,000 pounds will be necessary to fill the ship; and the amount will be secured if there should remain time enough to make a thorough canvass before the date when it will be advisable to ship. The entire quantity would have been in hand by this time but for the statements which have been published from time to time in the daily papers to the effect that the extent of the famine and the sad condition of the peasants. had been grossly exaggerated. Furthermore, interviews which were sent broadcast by means of the Associated Press-such as that of Colonel D'Arnaud, wherein it was declared that Russia did not need and did not want the millers' flour-have greatly hindered the work. The effect of such information and opinion has been to cause a temporary suspension of the work, and has undoubtedly taken from the starving peasants of Russia thousands of dollars' worth of food which otherwise they would have received.

What object Colonel D'Arnaud and others may have in thus discouraging honest and sincere efforts.