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NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

Civic Responsibility

T is not alone the big cities of this country that need an awakening of the civic conscience, it is the smaller towns as well. It is just as wicked and just as mean to "graft" a few hundred dollars yearly from your home town as it is to do the same thing by the thousands in a big city. The democratic form of government as we apply it to a New England town seems to give especial opportunity for this sort of meanness and petty rascality What is everybody's business is nobody's business and that seems especially to apply to the small town where the local government is commonly "departmented" almost to death. In such the number of "selectmen" who are also overseers of the poor and assessors of taxes varies from three to nine and there

is plenty of chance for confusion of authority and shifting of responsibility. There is a town clerk whose duties are occasional, a treasurer whose responsibilities do not prevent him from engaging strenuously in other lines of business, a tax collector who certainly earns some of the taxes in collecting them, and a great host of other officials. In an average one-horse town of five thousand inhabitants the number of officials voted for and elected or deposed each year amounts to about thirty and the pulling and hauling in the political game runs throughout the year. The action of an official during his term is apt to be biased as much by the probabilities of re-election, the desire to stand well with this or that faction or society, as it is by the strict demands of justice and civic responsibility. Therein lies the opportunity for the local bunco man. Every town has such, some man or men who are eager to do work for the town at exorbitant prices and can work their political pull with the authorities to have the bills approved. Probably most any keen business man would contract to do the local construction work and repair work, amounting in most towns to tens of thousands of dollars yearly, for half what the towns pay for it, such is the difference between political pull and business done without a string attachment. Probably the business. man would make money at that.

In some towns the civic common sense is becoming roused to this sort of thing and the voters are endeavoring to correct it. These towns are too small to have a Tarbell or a Steffens to chronicle this awakening so we rarely hear much about it in print, but it is going

on just the same with good results. Such an awakening has recently occurred in the suburban town of Winchester, Massachusetts. There a committee of citizens went carefully to work to investigate conditions and report on needed reforms in methods of administration. This committee reported some radical and seemingly reasonable recommendations. The first of these was that the offices of collector of taxes, town clerk, clerk of selectmen, clerk. of water registration and clerk of fire engineers, be consolidated, and all the duties be performed by a town clerk to be nominated and elected by the citizens. By this change, $850 will be saved to the town annually. It also recommended that the fees hitherto collected by the town clerk and tax collector should be paid into the town treasury, and that the superintendent of streets henceforth

have charge of the sewer, and the water and park departments, thus making a further saving of $800 a year in salaries.

These recommendations were so reasonable, in view of the facts impressively brought out by the study of the situation-just such as would have been given by those responsible for the affairs of a private corporation that they were adopted at a meeting of the voters of the town, called for their consideration.

It is quite probable that the reforms which the committee of Winchester citizens contemplates will go further than appears in the reports to date of their work, provided that more reforms are needed. That may be the extent of the need in Winchester. There are other towns in New England where public office is regarded as a public trust and the

officials conduct themselves after the latest style of trust magnates. The citizens know of these actions whereby they are robbed yearly of the money which they pay in taxes yet do not seem to have the courage or the initiative to remedy the abuses. Winchester points to such the way. A committee of upright and fearless citizens, not office holders, working on the lines followed by the Winchester committee, can easily do such towns an inestimable service, first by reforming obvious abuses and second through the fact of their existence operating as a check on would-be violators of the laws of good citizenship and honest service. All that is needed is a moderate amount of courage, plain common sense and a feeling of civic responsibility.

The Giorgione Controversy THE New England's article on

"The Art Treasures of Fenway Court," published in the November number, was widely quoted and roused much interest among artists and lovers of art in America. It did more than this however; it roused Italy and started a controversy concerning the authenticity of one of Mrs. Gardner's pictures which the lapse of months seems to make merely cumulative. This picture is the beautiful painting of "Christ Bearing the Cross," heretofore believed by all American authorities to be the original by Giorgione. No sooner however had the magazine reached its readers in Italy than a storm arose. The Italian authorities resented the purchase of the picture. Its reproduction in the magazine and the story concerning it first called their attention to the

doing many wonderful things for us and a discovery like this will make the New England farming lands still further increase in value. Meanwhile the farming interests of our section can report progress from an unexpected source which is the railroads. President Tuttle of President Tuttle of the Boston and Maine is keenly alive to the importance of agriculture in New England and is taking wise measures to help increase that importance. The farmers who are already at work making a living on their farms have no time to go to the agricultural colleges, so in some way the colleges must be brought to the farmer. Accordingly President Tuttle has placed at the disposal of the agricultural colleges a special train, which will take the teachers to the farms of New England, where they will show the latest improved apparatus, the best plant foods and tell them how to meet the difficulties which arise in their own farming. The special will stop wherever there is a demand for it, preferably in the smaller places, where the instruction will be of the most benefit, and it will cover a large part of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, travelling some fifteen hundred miles.

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Such a mission should be of great practical value in many ways. will teach the farmer much to his advantage and result in the adoption of improved methods and greater profits. It will without doubt react for good in another direction also. It will give the agricultural colleges a chance to see what the actual needs and practical home difficulties of the farmer are, things which they might not discover on the college farm or in the text books and class room. Moreover it will give a chance for greater community of interests between the farmer and the roads which must carry his products to market. The railroads do not live by the manufactures of New England alone. The farmers and the farming communities also take much grist to the railroad mill both directly and indirectly. Anything which will help to a closer understanding between the two will be mutually helpful. The farmers are fortunate, the agricultural colleges have added opportunity in the new scheme and President Tuttle is to be congratulated on a move which will increase the popularity and prosperity of his road. The "Farming Special" will be in demand from now on.

Uncle Joshua's Last Word

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By ARLO BARLOW

NCLE JOSHUA was eccentric, but he was also rich and wealth covers a multitude of eccentricities. Thus it came about that he was well beloved of his relatives who made it a point to invite him often and go out of their way to be nice to him.

Nephew William and his pretty, politic wife used often to have him down to see them and always took care to give him the best the house afforded. Especially were they careful to bring to his notice the little daughter Ethel, now four and winsome. Mrs. William, with a bright woman's eye to the main chance, had hoped that the child would be a boy that they might name him Joshua after his wealthy uncle. A child named after an uncle is likely to draw college expenses from that uncle and may stand first in his will, even if the uncle is, as Mrs. William said in her heart but took great care not to express it, even to William, "a surly old bear."

No doubt William had hoped so, too, but when the madam, in a desperate attempt to recover lost

ground, suggested that they name. the little roly poly mite Joshuina he flatly refused. He voved that something was due to his own dignity and if they named the girl Joshuina the Frolic Club would have the fact for the prize joke in their next minstrel show, and no doubt he was right. Yet Mrs. William had hopes. Some one had told her that Uncle Joshua was very fond of music, old ballads, and had been moved to tears by the singing of "Ben Bolt."

That settled it for Mrs. William and she spent much time in training little Ethel to use her really pretty voice in singing ballads, Ben Bolt in particular. One day when Uncle Joshua was at the house she used much diplomacy to get him seated in the big armchair in the music room and coaxed the shy child to the piano with a pretty prelude, saying, "Now Ethel, darling, sing that lovely old ballad for your uncle, the one we all love so much." But just as the childish treble piped up with "Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?" Uncle Joshua bolted, saying, "I don't want to hear her sing," and was later seen in the garden, smoking his nasty old pipe.

Then Mrs. William rose hastily from the piano and went off down