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is still plainer in reference to the other provinces of the Empire. By Clause 23 it is expressly provided that local autonomy shall be given to those provinces. By this clause the Sublime Porte undertook to introduce reforms into the other provinces, which, in order to make them correspond to the wants of every province, should be deliberated upon by commissions, in which the respective local elements were to be prominently represented. But the final settlement of these reforms was to be left to a European commission.

Now the commission met years ago, and decided as to what ought to be done in Macedonia. The practical effect of this was nil, although, fortunately, a preliminary discussion proved that there was no difficulty on the part of the powers in arriving at a practical agreement as to the nature of the autonomy in question. But there the matter rested. Macedonia, for whose benefit this autonomy was specially devised, remains to this day as she was when the Russians evacuated the territory, and left the Turks to re-establish their authority over the province which Russia had freed but which England had reenslaved.

HOW TO DRY UP THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

What ought to be done, therefore, for all the provinces outside those inhabited by the Armenians, is simply to take this clause and insist upon Turkey giving effect to the provisions of the organic statute for Macedonia drawn up by the powers nearly twenty years ago. There would be no disruption of the fabric of the Ottoman Empire. We should simply, to use the phrase familiar to students of prophecy, provide for the quiet "drying up of the river Euphrates." In each province local autonomous governments would come into existence under governors practically appointed by the powers. Nor would there be any objection, although there is no specific treaty obligation to do so, to appoint a superintendent charged with the superintendence of the application of Clause 23 in the provinces other than those inhabited by Armenians.

FOR CONSTANTINOPLE THE STATUS QUO. There remains the question of Constantinople. But this question is the very last that needs to be raised, for it is as yet utterly impossible to arrive at any agreement as to who shall be put in the place of the Sultan, and therefore the Sultan must remain there. Nor need we be in the least alarmed about this. If there is an efficient European superintendent seeing that reforms are carried out in every province where the Armenians live in Asia, and if the autonomous constitutions promised by the twenty-third clause of the treaty of Berlin are being established in all the other provinces of the Ottoman Empire under the superintendence and guarantee of Europe, the Sultan can be allowed to continue to reign over the shadowy outline of the empire which his predecessors conquered by the sword. His power for evil would be ended, but he

would remain as useful a custodian of the Straits as any one else who could be named. In short, the true solution of the Eastern Question-at any rate, for the present-is to smash no diplomatic crockery whatever, but while preserving the semblance of a Turkish Empire, to draw the teeth of the Turk by enforcing the treaty which constitutes the charter of his existence.

HOW TO BELL THE CAT.

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There remains the question of securing the adoption of those reforms by the Sultan. If matters do get so far as we are supposing—i.e., if the AngloTurkish Convention is torn up, Cyprus placed in the hands of the European powers, a Russian superintendent for Armenia ready to enter upon his duties, and similar arrangements provided for securing the application of Article 23 in the other provinces, then it is evident that the powers would no longer be laboring under their present fever-fit of mutual distrust, but would believe that, for the time being at all events, they all meant playing on the square. If that were so, the Sultan would bow before their will with the fatalism of his race. If, however, by any possibility he refused, the ambassadors of Constantinople could easily secure his deposition and the installation of his successor without any more trouble than was necessary to depose Abdul Aziz. But admitting, for the sake of argument, that the Sultan would not submit, and that the usual resources to revolution had failed at the moment when it was to the interests of every one, including the Turks themselves, that they should succeed, there still remains the last argument of force.

HOW THE SULTAN CAN BE COERCED.

How that force should be applied is a matter for the decision of admirals and generals. But I cannot for a moment admit that the powers are shut up to the alternative of shelling the unarmed city or being defied by the crowned Assassin. The methods of coercion that are available under such circumstances are numerous. The simplest and most obvious would be the stoppage of supplies. Constantinople occupies a magnificent position which can be held against great odds, provided that its occupant has the control of the sea; otherwise, the ruler of Constantinople is like a rat in a trap. Constantinople is not a city that feeds its own population any more than London. It draws its supplies from Asia on the one side, and from Russia and the Balkan peninsula on the other. The Russian fleet in the Black Sea, with the international fleet which would force the Dardanelles, and cut off communication between Asia and Europe, would very soon suffice to starve the Sultan into submission. The only military operation that might be necessary would be the landing of a small force to occupy the railway and the high road by which supplies might be poured into the country from Adrianople. For the Sultan to talk of resisting the will of Europe while, without firing a shot, Europe could starve him into submission, is too absurd.

LEADING ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.

SHOULD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS BE CHOSEN BY DISTRICTS?

ISHOP MERRILL of the Methodist Episcopal Church contributes to the North American Review for October a thoughtful paper on "Our Electoral System," in which he shows that under the constitutional plan of choosing presidential electors provision is made for the equality of states, but not for the equality of individual voters, the advantage of the individual voter for electors being with the voters in the larger states.

The inequality of which Bishop Merrill complains and which, as he says, is a subtle one, lies in the relatively greater power possessed by a vote cast in a large state. The question is, "Does one vote cast for each of thirty electors have a greater effect in the final count than does one vote cast for each of three electors ?

In the state of New York the voter casts a ballot for each of thirty-six electors. His vote is counted for each, and each elector chosen by that ballot votes for President; so that the vote of one man bears directly on thirty-six votes in the electoral college. In one respect the man has but one voice, but that one voice is potential in filling many seats in the body which decides the election. In another state each voter has a voice in selecting twelve electors, or one third the number chosen in New York. His voice counts in determining twelve votes in the electoral college. His influence in the whole body is one-third as great as it would be if he could vote for three times as many electors, as does the vote cast in New York. In another state of still less population, the voter has a voice in the election of three electors, or one-twelfth as many as the voter in New York influences. In this condition of things it is pretty evident that the voter in New York has twelve times the power in the choice of President that he possesses who must exercise the right of suffrage in the smallest state. There is no unfairness in the fact that the larger state should have this preponderance of power, as a state, for the larger voting population justifies this; but that each voter should wield such an excess of power is scarcely compatible with equity and justice. The equality of the power of single votes is destroyed.

"It will be alleged in reply to this that the inequality disappears when it is remembered that in the larger state more votes are required to make the majority which elects; but the reply is fallacious, for the trouble is not in the greater or less number of votes requisite to the majority in the large or small state, but it has reference to the power of the single vote. Is not that vote multiplied, or its power increased, in proportion to the number of electors it helps to elect? If so, the lack of equality

in the power of the single voter in the different states is demonstrated. This question of majorities will illustrate the point. A single vote is as influen tial in determining majorities in a large state as in a small state. Suppose that in the great state of New York the electors are all chosen by a majority of eleven hundred-is not that a supposable case? A change of six hundred votes would put the ma jority on the other side. That change of six hundred votes would take thirty-six electors from one side and add them to the other side. Then suppose that in Montana the electors are chosen by a majority of eleven hundred votes. A change of six hundred votes would put the majority on the other side. The change of six hundred votes in Montana would take three electors from one side and add them to the other side. Thus it is seen that the six hundred voters in New York have twelve times the power of six hundred voters in Montana. Then, if six hundred voters in New York can wield twelve times the power of six hundred in Montana, who will say that each individual voter does not wield twelve times the power in the former state that he does in the latter? Nor is it possible that twelve votes cast in Montana can equal the one vote cast in New York; for the one vote touches the election of thirty-six electors in New York, while the twelve votes in Montana can only affect three electors, even if they do swell the vote of the three more than the one vote swells the majority of the thirty-six. If the ballot for each elector were cast separately, he of Montana would vote three times, and he of New York thirty-six times. Say not, then, that the ways of this system are equal.

"How can equality be secured? It cannot be till voters throughout the country vote for the same number of electors. This requires the election of presidential electors by districts instead of by states. Slight alterations in state constitutions will authorize this, and nothing oppressive would result if the National Constitution should be made to require it. In this way the voice of the people can have free expression and a voter in one part of the Union will become equal to a voter in any other part of the Union. It gives to every one the right to vote for the elector of his choice, with the assurance that his vote will be as influential in determining the composition of the electoral body as will the vote of any other man."

The importance of Bishop Merrill's proposition will be better appreciated when one considers the immense influence of city populations in determining the presidential vote of states. Under the district system every section of the state would be represented by the choice of its majority; both city and country would be fairly treated.

Besides the district electors two "senatorial " electors would have to be chosen, and these would be voted for on a general state ticket. Each voter would vote for one district and two "senatorial electors. This would give, as Bishop Merrill believes, to every man who votes an equal voice with every other man throughout the Union.”

THE

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ELECTIONS IN AUSTRALIA.

HE Australian ballot system has been so gener. ally adopted in the United States that American voters are interested in learning whether the superiority of that system for securing freedom in voting has been fully maintained in the country from which we adopted it. In the October Forum the Hon. Hugh H. Lusk of New Zealand severely criticises the American election methods, and in that connection describes the Australian electoral machinery as he has seen it in operation.

"An election in Australia is a simple and expeditious process. It is not considered either necessary or desirable to make election days holidays, and it has never been found that even the smallest difficulty was experienced by voters in taking part in an election owing to the loss of time involved in attendance at the polling place. Two things mainly contribute to this result--one is that in Australia no two issues are ever mixed at a single election. If the election be for members of the legislature, it is never mixed up with an election to any other office whatever; if for any other office, as, for instance, a mayor, it is never held at the same time as that for members of the legislature. The other reason for the comparative rapidity of the polling is to be found in the extreme simplicity of the operation itself. An Australian polling booth is a temporary erection with doors in front and behind. Where the con. stituency is large the booth may be divided into a number of compartments, each representing so many letters of the alphabet, with a front and back door for each. On entering the voter is confronted by the returning officer or his deputy, who, seated at a table on which stand the ballot boxes, has before him the electoral roll of the district. The voter's name is demanded and found in the roll and he thereupon receives from the returning officer a ballot paper marked with the initials of the official, and his name is erased from the roll. He passes at once into one of the separate compartments provided, and there it is a work of but a second or two to prepare his ballot. On the paper itself there is nothing but a list of the names of the candidates in aphabetical order, and at the bottom a note directing the voter to erase with the pencil provided all the names he does not wish to vote for, leaving no more names than the number of persons to be elected. This can be done in a moment, where, as is always the case, the candidates are

already well known to the voters, and no confusing considerations of party claims or fantastic party emblems are admitted to divert the voters from the personal issue.

NO USE FOR LARGE CAMPAIGN FUNDS.

"In this way it is that an Australian election is no elaborate function involving a cessation of business, with all the objectionable surroundings of idle voters and busy paid agents of parties or candidates, whose very existence is a menace to freedom of choice and purity of election. Under its operation a single polling booth can be made easily to accommodate eight or ten thousand voters between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon, and the result of the voting-thanks largely to the simple expedient of obliterating instead of marking names--can be ascertained speedily and with certainty. One thing, indeed, the Australian system does not do-it in no way lends itself to party or machine politics, and it is absolutely opposed to everthing that can lend an excuse to the use of money in connection with elections. So stringent, indeed, are its provisions in this respect, that the courts might almost be depended upon to invalidate any election where it was shown that any subscrip tion for election expenses had been made on behalf of a candidate, or where a candidate himself could be shown to have paid for anything except advertising in the newspapers, a committee room on the day of election, and a day's wages for one representative in each polling booth. These expenses are recognized by law in Australia, and all others are sternly prohibited."

Mr. Lusk takes an extremely gloomy view of the American system, asserting that it is in no sense a true copy of the Australian ballot system, that nearly every important fixture has been altered, and that every one of the alterations has been in the interest of corrupt politics, or at least against the interests of the independent voter.

J'

"IF SILVER WINS."

USTICE WALTER CLARK of North Carolina discusses in the North American Review certain "inevitable constitutional changes which he says will be demanded by the free-silver men in the event of Bryan's election.

In the first place the victorious party will insist on the election of United States Senators, federal judges, and postmasters by popular vote. In regard to the election of federal judges by the people, Justice Clark asserts that no objection can be made to that method which would not apply with equal force to the system of selecting state judges which prevails almost exclusively. The arguments for the popular election of Senators are familiar to all. As to postmasters, Justice Clark believes that the evils of the patronage system would be largely reduced if

these officials were chosen every four or six years by the voters of the territory adjacent to their offices.

The President, in Justice Clark's opinion, should be ineligible for re-election, his single term being fixed at six years, and the veto power should be abolished. The election of the President by direct vote of the people is not advocated, first, because such a method would destroy such advantage as is now held by the smaller states in possessing two electoral votes each, irrespective of the state's size, and second, the obliteration of state lines in voting would open opportunities for election contests. A modified plan of proportional representation is suggested, under which the present scheme of apportioning the number of votes to each state in accordance with the numbers of Representatives and Senators is retained, the vote of the state being divided pro rata, instead of being cast according to the majority, as now.

Justice Clark's concluding proposition relates to the railroads.

"There is a formulated demand by one great party that government control of railroads be made more efficient, and by another that the government shall own all the principal lines of railways, appointments to service therein to be made under civil service rules. It is very certain that under the present system governmental control, though held constitutional by the Supreme Court; is a sham. The manufacture of millionaires, by secret rates and other methods, goes right on with the coincidence of crushing out all small competitors and the impoverishment of the masses by high rates. The Interstate Commerce Commission seems powerless, and, as to the state railroad commissions, in too many instances, the railroads, through their lobbyists, have secured the election either of their tools, or of weak men, as commissioners, and in other states, as a railroad president cynically remarked, the railroads have simply added the railroad commission to their assets. One of the results of a victory by the people in this election will certainly be the absolute and sure governmental control of transportation, and if that is found impracticable, then governmental ownership, at least of all the trunk lines, so as to fix rates. To this end, any constitutional amendment that may be requisite will be made. Even with governmental control, a cabinet officer, 'Minister of Public Works,' will be created to supervise this matter, though this can be done by an act of Congress. The governmental ownership of telegraphs and telephones will require no constitutional amendinent, since the electric mail is merely a betterment, the adoption of modern facilities for the post office, and the Constitution already vests the exclusive control of the post office in Congress. In truth, the operation of the telegraph and telephone by private corporations is illegal, being the exercise of postal functions which under the Constitution can be exercised only by the government."

SILVER IN COMMERCE.

A PHASE of the silver question which has been

less thoroughly discussed during the campaign than its importance would seem to justify forms the subject of an instructive paper by Worthington C. Ford in the Political Science Quarterly.

Mr. Ford undertakes to show that while silver, as a depreciating standard of value, has no measurable influence in stimulating exports, as a depreciated metal it does have important functions in international trade.

An examination of the commercial returns of those silver-using countries whose exports seem to have increased more rapidly than those of gold. using nations, leads Mr. Ford to conclude that the increase is in fact due to other purely economic causes. It is impossible to review here the statistical data on which Mr. Ford's argument is based, but his deductions are interesting, apart from the detailed statements of fact on which they are founded.

"Much significance attaches to the fact that the products of silver-using countries are such as stand apart economically from those of gold-using countries. This alone should make us cautious about accepting a free comparison of the statistics of the trade of the two groups as proof of the stimulating effect of a depreciating currency on exports. Look at the principal exports of these Eastern and South American countries:

Argentina: wheat, wool, meat products.
Brazil: coffee, sugar.

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Guatemala: coffee, silver, fruit, hides.
Japan silk, tea, rice.

Uruguay meat products, hides, tallow, wool.
Venezuela coffee, cocoa, hides.

It requires only a superficial examination of this list to show that the development of trade in all of these commodities can be explained on purely economic grounds, without resort to any influence of a depreciating or appreciating currency.

EFFECT OF LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY.

"Even more significant is the fact that in Europe the dominant feature of economic progress during the last generation has been the application of machinery in every line where human labor could be superseded. The result has been that the enormously increased output of goods at greatly reduced prices has led to increased consumption of manufactured articles; and this has been accompanied by a distinct decay in the ability to grow much of what is required to feed this machine power, as well as the labor employed in caring for and directing it. It is not a mere accident that has led to agrarian agitation in nearly every country of Europe and even in the United States. In populous com

munities intensive farming must be the rule. They cannot with profit devote to the culture of cereals, or to the raising of cattle for beef or of sheep for wool, the enormous tracts of land available at little or no cost in new and sparsely settled communities. The history of wheat culture in the United States is ample proof of this. The same influence that has so materially modified the economic conditions of sections acts as powerfully on the distribution of production throughout the world. The cultivation of many drugs, dyes, tropical fruits and similar products, used in the arts or for food, cannot be conducted in Europe or in the United States with any profit. For every advance in population and industrial power a nation pays something, and such a payment has recently been exacted from the wheat cultivators and cattle raisers of Europe and the United States.

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After a minute study of the trade in many individual articles of special lines of products, I have failed to discover a general influence such as some claim has been exerted by the fall in the commercial price of silver. Results apparently flowing immediately from that influence on the commerce of one country fail to materialize in the commercial relations of another country having much the same conditions of trade and exchanges. Comparisons of prices and of the statistics of trade of various countries yield no definite conclusions. I cannot but conclude, therefore, that the recent movements in commerce are due to a cause other than the fluctuations in silver, and that the presence of a silver monetary unit has no immediate action in stimulating exports. Whatever influence it does exert is too small to be isolated from other and more important influences.

SILVER AS A COMMODITY.

"If, then, silver has little or no influence on trade, has it any influence or function in trade? This distinction is important. In international trade silver is a commodity, bought and sold like any other com modity, such as wheat, iron, or copper. As such this metal has at no time played so important a rôle in the foreign commerce of the United States as at present.

Mr. Ford presents an interesting table showing the production and commercial value of silver in the United States, together with the exports and imports, for each year since 1873.

Of the importance of silver as a commodity, Mr. Ford says:

"Silver is one of the most important of the metallic products of the United States, for its yearly production is exceeded in value only by the outputs of iron, gold and copper. It is also one of the chief articles of export, for it is surpassed in importance only by cotton, provisions, breadstuffs, gold and mineral oils. This eminence, moreover, is not the result of temporary conditions, but will be permanent, unless legislative interference confines silver to a purely domestic market by depriving it of any

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FREE SILVER VERSUS FREE GOLD.

T last a man has been found who is willing to admit that there is much truth on both sides of the silver question, that gold has its advantages and disadvantages, and that the same is true of silver. That man is Professor Frank Parsons, who contributes to the October Arena a dispassionate article which attempts to state the real evils in our present financial system, and to estimate the probable results of the adoption of free coinage.

The evils of the present régime, as set forth by Professor Parsons, are, that it leaves the control of the currency volume to chance and private manipulation, that it causes or permits a falling market, which leads to depression in business and increases the burden of public and private debt, and that it affords opportunity for Wall Street speculators to capture the wealth produced by others.

Against these evils, however, Professor Parsons credits gold with giving us harmonious monetary relations with Europe, supplying a stable base in reference to labor, and affording a monetary system which has the confidence of the capitalistic and investing classes.

Turning to the proposition for free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, Professor Parsons finds that the results would probably be :

"1. The retirement of five or six hundred millions of gold from our monetary resources.

"2. A possible panic through the fears or the desperate opposition of those who have large control of money and industry.

"3. A vast gift to the owners of silver mines and silver bullion here and abroad.

"4. The temporary scaling down of salaries and wages.

"5. Injustice to creditors in respect to all debts contracted in recent years under the present standard, including depositors in savings banks, as well as more wealthy lenders of money.

"6. A just relief to debtors whose obligations were contracted when prices were much higher than at present.

"7. An ultimate enlargement of the volume of the currency accompanied by a rise of prices, stimulation of industry, reabsorption of a considerable amount of unemployed labor, increase of wages, and a change from general depression to general prosperity.

"8. A special benefit to the burdened farmers of the West and South, and through them to the whole

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