The Syracuse "Anti-Kodak Convention

The country might fairly ask that the protesting New York Democratic Convention at Syracuse on May 31, should express itself clearly on these issues. The protestahts, led by the eloquent and ingenious Mr. Frederick R. Coudert of the New York bar, were indignant because the regular State convention was called unexpectedly early in Mr. Hill's interest. Some of them, notably Mr. Coudert, have more recently been active in condemning the "steal" of the State Senate. Will they approve of the gerrymander and the inspection bill which that Senate steal alone made possible?

It is expected that the Syracuse anti-Hill and

anti-Tammany convention will result in a rival delegation to the Chicago convention in Mr. Cleveland's interest, and that the national convention will recognize both delegations on the half-and-half principle. The month seems to have added to Mr. Cleveland's strength all along the line, so far as the choosing of delegates is concerned, although the Rhode Island election was doubtless to some extent adverse to his claims. It cannot be said that Mr. Hill's case is improving at all; while the outlook for "some good Western man" continues to brighten perceptibly.

Mr. Hill and

Speaking of Mr. Hill, we are tempted to Mr. Gladstone Suggest a parallel and a contrast that can hardly be complimentary to that gentleman's claims as the leader of a national party. This year is to witness in both of the great English-speaking countries a tremenduous effort by the party out of power to regain full control. The leadership of the aggressive campaign of the party out of power is in both instances, as generally in such situations, a more observed and noteworthy matter than the leadership of the party that now holds the government. Three months ago this REVIEW presented character sketches of David B. Hill, the accepted leader and master of the New York Democracy, as at that moment the most aggressive and conspicuous candidate for the full leadership of the national party. Mr. Hill was proclaiming himself the Moses of his party. In this number of THE REVIEW we are glad to present to our readers a character sketch of the avowed and accepted leader of the party that proposes to fight its way back to power in England. Mr. Gladstone is the Moses of the English Liberals and Irish Home Rulers. The parallel and the contrast between the nature, method and political philosophy of Mr. Gladstone's leadership in England and Mr. Hill's leadership in America might furnish a theme for the disquisitions by our young collegiate students of political science, after a careful, comparative reading of the two sketches.

The Country's Internal Progress.

This country is so vast in its extent and in its interests that few people are placed at a vantage ground which would make it possible for them to perceive and realize the great internal movements and changes that are adding new chapters to the story of our national development. But Secretary Noble, of the Department of the Interior, might from his pose of outlook tell a strangely fascinating story of what he has seen within the past few weeks. Particularly interesting would be his report of the speed with which the allotment of lands to Indians is progressing, accompanied by the opening of large reserved tracts of excellent land to settlement by white pioneers. Never before has the administration of Indian affairs been half so comprehensive; and it is not impossible that the revolutionary improvements that have been made in our treatment of the aborigines may be accounted in history as the most creditable of the achievements of the Harrisonian period. Under Mr. Noble's supervision the general land office and the various other concerns of the great portfolio of the Interior have had prosperous

management. The flurries that have brought the pension office under Congressional investigation affect minor questions, and no serious discredit has been thrown upon the general operations of that bureau. The country at large is entering upon a marvelous period of internal development.

HON. JOHN W. NOBLE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. (Photographed by C. M. Bell.)

Our Government has restored relations of Brighter Diplomatic cordiality with Italy by paying $25,000 as Skies. an indemnity for the benefit of the families

massacre.

of three Italians who were slain in the New Orleans The act was a purely voluntary one, and it illustrates the disposition America has almost always shown to be generous and forbearing in its dealing with foreign governments. Morally Italy had no shadow of claim. It was merely accidental that these laborers, who were immigrant residents of New Orleans and who had abandoned Italy forever, had not taken out naturalization papers, as had the other victims of the mob. No international question was necessarily involved. Important changes in our citizenship laws and our immigration laws are urgently needed. European countries are dumping their paupers and criminals upon our shores and then impudently undertaking to hold us responsible for subsequent mishaps to such of these people as may have neglected to avail themselves of our lax naturalization laws. Under the modern conditions and facts of emigration the accepted international law doctrine regarding allegiance has become absurd. The Chil

Mr.

ians will of course find it less painful to their pride to pay the indemnity they justly owe for their attack upon American sailors, now that our government has dealt so magnanimously with Italy's claim. Montt goes back to Chili to enter Congress, and Señor Gana succeeds him at Washington. Mr. Egan has leave of absence from his post at Santiago, and will probably be transferred to some other capital. Our relations with Chili are now quite harmonious. The firm position of our State Department has fortunately overcome the deadlock in the Behring negotiations, and Lord Salisbury has assented to a renewal of the arrangement for the protection of the seals pending the arbitration. The affair is therefore in a satisfactory state of progress. England will have certain presumptive advantages arising from the structure of the board of arbitrators; but this country will be prepared to accept gracefully and in good faith any decision that will make for the common good of mankind. Our diplomatic difficulties are thus one by one in process of solution, and Messrs. Blaine and Harrison are entitled to great credit for their efficient foreign policy. It is unfortunate that the House, in its desire to make a record for economy, should decline to order more than one new ship. A good navy will save us far more than it will cost, and our interests at home and on the planet at large require that we should have a navy strong enough to rank as fifth or sixth in the world's fleets. At the present rate of construction we shall never attain so high a place.

Mr. Stead

Mr. Stead, from his London point of on the Behring view, writes on this Behring Sea affair Question. with a good-tempered frankness that should be an example to journalists in general. He was thoroughly in favor of the renewal of the modus vivendi. He comments as follows: "The Behring Sea seal question is now in a fair way of settlement. The treaty referring it to arbitration has been approved by the Senate, and Lord Salisbury's suggestion for solving the difficulties arising from the catching of seals before the arbitrators could give their award, has been accepted by the American government. This is very satisfactory, and it is all the more so because there seemed at one time a disposition on the part of President Harrison to-well, to behave to us as offensively as we behaved to the Americans in the case of Mason and Slidell and the Trent. We reproduce on the following page a cartoon which resembles only too closely some of the many cartoons by which in times past Punch and its rivals have done their best or worst to set nations by the ears. The office of the comic journalist is often one of the wickedest undertaken by mortal men. It is, no doubt, easier to make an effective cartoon by pandering to national vanity, or ministering to savage animosity, but where is the moral sense, nay, where is the good taste of such vulgarities as this? We make no complaint of the artist of Judge. We see in him only the reflection of our own vice. As the old cock crows the young one learns. But as we hear the discordant voice of the young cockerel it may well give us pause."

The remarkable trend toward socialism The English Trend toward in England which the Progressive vicSocialism. tory in the London municipal election, under the lead of socialists like Sidney Webb and John Burns, so strikingly proves and illustrates, has been in recent weeks powerfully accelerated in two other and totally different ways and directions by two anti-socialist Conservative statesmen, one dead and the other in the House of Commons. The first has helped socialism by what he omitted to do, and the second by what he has tried to do as a safeguard against socialism. The first is the late Mr. W. H. Smith, whose will, as probated not long ago, showed him possessed of a personalty of £1,764, 000. What was the value of his landed property nobody knows, but rumor estimates it at least as much again. That is to say, Mr. W. H. Smith died possessed of a minimum fortune of a million and three-quarters pounds and a possible fortune of three and a half millions ($17,500,000). This enormous wealth is the direct product of a monopoly--a monopoly which, although distinctly legal and due to his own individual enterprise, is nevertheless a property that could be nationalized without any serious difficulty. But that is not the moral which is drawn from Mr. W. H. Smith's will. The publi cation of the will coincided with the thick of the fight for the election of representatives to the London County Council. In the course of that contest it was obvious, first, that a great many costly things were needed in London; and, secondly, that the ratepayer was most reluctant to consent to such an increase of the rates as was indispensable if London was not to become bankrupt. These two featuresthe need for increased expenditure and the poverty of the ratepayer-gave point to the moral drawn from the will of Mr. Smith. The spectacle of an enormous fortune accumulated by a monopoly in a single lifetime, the possessor of which made no provision in his will for the return of even one per cent. of it to the city in the midst of which he had made his wealth, naturally set people thinking.

Will.

Mr. W. H. Smith was a citizen of more Mr. Smith's public spirit than most of his contemporaries; he was a good man, who sincerely cared for the common weal. His private beneficence was greater than people were aware of. But none of these facts lessen the disagreeable impression made upon the public mind by the final fact that in his will nothing was left to the public or the poor. Rightly or wrongly, there is growing up on both sides of the Atlantic a deep-rooted jealousy of enormous fortunes. This abhorrence has not yet reached the extreme point of putting a price on the head of a millionaire as of yore upon the head of a wolf; but there are a considerable number of energetic reformers both in England and America who seem to regard that as their ultimate goal. Millionaires will be allowed by them to exist; but they must justify their existence by proving that they are capable of doing things for the public which the

public cannot do for itself; hence the wise millionaire will pay liberal ransom, not only during his life, but also at his death. The time is coming when such a will as that of Mr. Smith's, with many millions made over to friends and relatives and not even a tithe devoted to public and charitable objects, will be regarded as a disgrace to the family in which the will is proved. That it was possible for so good a man as Mr. Smith to make such a will shows-so claim the socialists-the urgent necessity for using the law to educate the conscience as to the responsibility of wealth.

Municipal "Death Duties."

The means for doing this, declare the English socialists, are ready to hand. The proposal to levy a municipal death duty on all large fortunes has received such an impetus from the above incident as Mr. Sidney Webb probably never dreamed of; for if it had been the law that the municipality had a right to levy a tithe upon all estates above a million, the London County Council would have received from Mr. W. H. Smith's estate a sum variously estimated at from £175,000 to £350,000. It is probable that no such drastic law as that of the tithe will be passed, at least for some time to come. But the next Parliament will not expire before an energetic attempt has been made to deal with the question of "death duties," and England will probably have a graduated death duty sooner than a graduated income tax. At first, it is possible that the millionaire may be allowed an option; that is to say, if by will he sets aside the stipulated minimum to objects of public utility or private charity, his estate may be exempted from the new impost; but should he entirely ignore the claims of the public, then the law will step in and levy the proportion which the legis lature in its wisdom deems to be fair and just. Obviously care would be taken not to exceed the limit of safety. That limit in theory is clear enough. Taxation should never be pushed beyond the point where it discourages private energy or individual enterprise. It is nonsense to say that England would reach that frontier in the case of a special tax on the estates of millionaires. Every millionaire would try and make himself a double millionaire, although five per cent. were to be lev ied as a death duty on every hundred thousand he accumulated above the first million.