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country. Even a creditor may find it better to have a silver debtor who can pay than a gold debtor who can't.

"9. A clearing of the atmosphere, so that other important measures may be seen in their true proportions and receive the attention that is their due. The victory of free silver also involves the triumph of democracy over plutocracy, the victory of the great common people over the monopolists and the money power. The men who will go into office if free silver carries the day are men who believe in making laws in the interests of the people and not in the interests of Wall Street trusts and combinations; their success will mean not merely a speedy release from falling prices, but a far better chance for securing the public ownership of monopolies and for the introduction of the Initiative and Referendum, the fundamental institutional reform, because it will constitute an open doorway for the easy entrance of all other reforms.

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10. Free silver legislation alone, without further changes in our monetary system, would still leave the control of the currency volume to private manipulation and the accidents of production, and after the influx of silver had brought prices to an equilibrium the country might again be afflicted by a falling market with all its consequent evils, and Wall Street would again be able, though with more difficulty perhaps than at present, to rob the producing masses of their hard-earned wealth.”

In short, Professor Parsons does not believe that free silver, any more than free gold, is the final answer to the question: "What sort of a monetary system should we adopt ?"

ENGLISH BIMETALLISTS ON THE AMERICAN

THE

SILVER QUESTION.

HE chief organ of British bimetallist opinion at the present time seems to be the National Review. In several successive issues of that important periodical a large proportion of space has been given to comment on the silver situation in the United States. The REVIEW OF REVIEWS has reproduced much of this comment in order to give American readers the benefit of the best current thought in England on the side of bimetallism, as well as to show what the attitude of the English bimetallists is toward the proposition of American free coinage. The editor of the National Review deems the American political situation so important that he is now in this country for the purpose of studying the crisis on the ground. In his October number he presents the views of three English bimetallists on "The Bimetallic Side of the American Crisis."

THE STRENGTH OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT. This is Mr. T. E. Powell's opinion:

"The undoubted strength of the silverites' case lies in the recent great appreciation of gold, which

has wrought much injustice to debtors on an average-an injustice which the substitution of silver for gold would hardly do more than correct, if it did so much. But, just as the British opinion under review makes no mention of the fall of prices, so it declines to consider what effect 'free coinage' might have upon the gold value of silver. Not only that, but it assumes that with 'free coinage' the silver dollar would be worth in the gold dollar only its present melting value-i.e., about 60 cents-coolly remarking, it is unnecessary to digress here to examine' whether with free coinage the value of silver would rise to the gold parity, and so there would be no transfer of property !"

"The silver movement is revolutionary; it is an uprising against the continued and aggravated tyranny of the gold standard. And there is no lack of men of the Marquis de St. Alais type to lend it strength, and no lack of English journals to furnish it with fine arguments.

"That the revolution should come to a head in the United States, a country at once new and old, rich and poor, peopled by a nation to whom boundless activity is nature, and boundless progress a requirement, can excite no surprise. But the gold standard tyrannizes wherever it prevails, and there must be revolution if there is not reform.

"The wonder is that so many gold monometallists should not be content with a limited empire for the gold standard, but should strive to extend it further and further, in the hope, apparently, of pushing it over the whole civilized world. Surely, if the American silver rebellion teaches us anything, it teaches us that the day has gone past for a dream of universal gold monometallism, such as has been dreamed by a handful of misguided doctrinaires like Lord Farrar and Mr. Leslie Probyn. If a man must be a monometallist, and his metal is yellow, why should he not take his hat off to other monometallists whose metal is white? But, if this be reasonable, we may go further and ask, is it not better that some balance of power be maintaned between the two metals? They can be united, but if they are not to be united, surely some equality of domain is desirable, rather than the perpetuation of falling prices by continually demonetizing the one metal at the cost of the other. Looking at the matter in this way, one could even wish that, if monometallism must still be the order of the day, the silverites might win, and so rectify the balance and relieve the pressure on gold. The apotheosis of gold means the annihilation of prices. Is this what Lombard Street wants? To be able to buy everything for nothing? Do they want to be as Masters Nym, Bardolph and Pistol, who would steal anything and call it purchase ?' "'

HOPE FOR INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM.

Mr. Arnold Hepburn is also quite favorably in clined toward the policy of free coinage. He says:

"In America there is but one question before the

elector--not a question of bimetallism against monometallism, but of international bimetallism against national bimetallism. There is not a monometallic party. The Democrats, by declaring their determination to make the attempt single handed, if necessary may perhaps lend some color to Mr. Peel's disbelief in the impossibility of an international agreement, but no one can doubt that, whatever be the result of the elections for the Presidency in November-whether Mr. McKinley, the champion of international bimetallism, or Mr. Bryan, the champion of American bimetallism, be successful, the result of the struggle will lead to developments of the most important character.

“Meanwhile it is amusing to watch the flounderings of the majority of the English press. They support Mr. McKinley and write down his policy of international bimetallism; they regard Mr. Bryan as all that is terrible, the champion of repudiation (without having read his speeches), the advocate of a fifty cent dollar' (whatever that may mean), and kindly assure their readers that the good sense of the American people will prevail, and declare that all the sympathies of all Englishmen are with Mr. McKinley; then next day they remember that Mr. McKinley is a thorough protectionist, and his tariff reduced the woolen districts of Yorkshire to despair and practically annihilated the tin plate trade of South Wales. Are there no Englishmen in those districts? Then, too, Lord Farrar has discovered something worse than fair trade—that is, the uprising in America against the present protection of gold. But perhaps during the continuance of the struggle, the first elements of the currency question may become more widely known; this alone would be a happy result."

EFFECT ON FOREIGN CAPITAL.

Hermann Schmidt declares that the people of the United States have it in their power to put an end to the present monetary uncertainty in either one of two ways-by definitely adopting and rigidly enforcing the single gold standard, or by opening the mints to the free coinage of both silver and gold.

One solution would be as good as another, as far as terminating uncertainty is concerned. No doubt the European capitalist prefers to lend his money in gold, but he will lend it in any other form, provided he sees his advantage in doing so. Europe has of late refused to supply capital to the States, because employment in America was found by bitter experience to be unremunerative; re-establish a healthy and profitable basis of production, such as free coinage is certain to provide, and capital will flow to America, whether the monetary basis be gold, silver or paper. We are at present lending capital to Japan, which means converting sterling into vens; and to China, where sterling becomes weights of silver; and to Mexico, where it becomes silver dollars; and to Argentine, where it becomes government promises to pay; we are

literally deluging India with capital, where we receive in return for sovereigns that nondescript metallic assignat called a rupee. Why should we refuse to lend it in exchange for American national dollars?"

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THE TROUBLES OF THE FARMER.

'HE November Atlantic Monthly begins with a very plain spoken paper entitled "The Causes of Agricultural Unrest," by Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin. Professor Laughlin is absolutely certain that the cause of the western and southern farmer's troubles is the overtrading, the expanding of his operations beyond his means, in a time of commercial depression. After the resumption of specie payments in "73 the rich wheat lands of the middle West, which had lain untouched, were opened up with marvelous and speculative rapidity, and just as after a period of inflation in any other kind of trading, the reaction had to come on the farmer. The wheat grower is, too, at the mercy of various world causes entirely beyond his control and entirely outside of the domestic events within the boundary of his own country. We do not consume nearly the whole product of our wheat and cotton, and the price is determined by foreign markets. These foreign markets have tendencies which are dependent on factors far beyond the farmer's ken. The price of the corn raised by a farmer in Kansas is determined by events in Australia, Argentine, Egypt, India, Hungary or Russia, or by excessive rains in England, France or Germany. When many of these far away causes, together with the inevitable modicum of bad management and imprudence, had brought mortgages on large portions of western lands, which were too heavy for the lands to bear, the farmer, unable to see, as any man of less than average education would be unable to see, these subtle and distant enemies, has come to attribute his misfortunes to restriction in prices caused by "scarcity of gold." Professor Laughlin says this seems hardly an adequate explanation just at the time when the gold product is doubling itself. If scarcity of gold has been pushing prices down, why does not an abundance of gold push prices up? He regards this explanation as absolutely erroneous. In dealing with the advent, at this juncture, of the silver agitation, Professor Laughlin minces no words. He says plainly that our present situation is the result of a great silver conspiracy, the equal of which has never been recorded."

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"The undereducated man, capable of holding but one idea at a time, and holding that idea fanatically, crushed by the coils of an industrial readjustment, with a system depressed by a speculative debauch, finds supposed helpers in the wiliest managers who have ever entered American politics. This is, in a nutshell, the true philosophy of the movement in favor of free coinage of silver. It embraced in its plans years of systematic agitation of the silver

doctrines, both by speaking and by writing, among those dissatisfied classes which I have described. The situation of farmers in the West, depressed after the collapse of a speculation in wheat lands, and of cotton growers in the South, the price of whose product also had been disturbed by world causes, was a rich soil for the silver propaganda. It was begun stealthily and secretly and carried on later with noise and open activity. Newspapers were hired to exploit and advertise silver literature in a way to enlarge their list of subscribers. A literary bureau controlled a systematic distribution of 'catchy' and 'taking' illustrated reading matter. The prejudices and antagonisms of classes were appealed to most skillfully. The wheat farmer and the cotton grower for years were practically permitted to hear nothing else but the wrongs of silver, the evil effects of gold, and the grinding oppression of the money lender. As a piece of successful political intrigue and agitation, this propaganda was probably the most effective since the repeal of the Corn Laws. One can have nothing but admiration for the consummate political skill displayed by the managers of the silver party."

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GENERAL GRANT IN '63.

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N the November Century Horace Porter begins a series of papers under the title, Campaigning with Grant," in which he intends, as the editor's preface explains, to give in close detail the picture of Grant, the man, of whom we know so much less than of the army leader. General Porter joined General Grant's permanent staff and came into close relations with him so early as 1863, and made industrious notes during the whole time of his association with his chief. In this first paper he gives a striking description of General Grant's personal appearance in 1863.

"There were then few correct portraits of him in circulation. Some of the earliest pictures purporting to be photographs of him had been manufactured when he was at the distant front, never stopping in one place long enough to be focused.' Nothing daunted, the practicers of that art which is the chief solace of the vain had photographed a burly beef contractor, and spread the pictures broadcast as representing the determined, but rather robust, features of the coming hero, and it was some time before the real photographs which followed were

believed to be genuine. False impressions of him were derived, too, from the fact that he had come forth from a country leather store, and was famous chiefly for striking sledge hammer blows in the field and conducting relentless pursuits of his foes through the swamps of the Southwest. He was pictured in the popular mind as striding about in the most approved swashbuckler style of melodrama. Many of us were not a little surprised to find in him a man of slim figure, slightly stooped, five feet eight inches in height, weighing only a hundred and thirty-five pounds, and of a modesty of mien and gentleness of manner which seemed to fit him more for the court than for the camp. His eyes were dark-gray and were the most expressive of his features. Like nearly all men who speak little, he was a good listener; but his face gave little indication of his thoughts, and it was the expression of his eyes which furnished about the only response to the speaker who conversed with him. When he was about to say anything amusing there was always a perceptible twinkle in his eyes before he began to speak, and he often laughed heartily at a witty remark or a humorous incident. His mouth, like Washington's, was of a letter-box shape, the contact of the lips forming a nearly hori. zontal line. This feature was of a pattern in striking contrast with that of Napoleon, who had a bow mouth, which looked as if it had been modeled after a front view of his cocked hat. The firmness with which the general's square-shaped jaws were set when his features were in repose was highly expressive of his force of character and the strength of his will power. His hair and beard were of a chestnut-brown color. The beard was worn full, no part of the face being shaved, but, like the hair, was always kept closely and neatly trimmed. Like Cromwell, Lincoln and several other great men in history, he had a wart on his cheek. In his case it was small, and located on the right side just above the line of the beard. His face was not perfectly symmetrical, the left eye being a very little lower than the right. His brow was high, broad and rather square, and was creased with several horizontal wrinkles, which helped to emphasize the serious and somewhat careworn look which was never absent from his countenance. This expression, however, was in no wise an indication of his nature, which was always buoyant, cheerful and hopeful. His voice was exceedingly musical and one of the clear. est in sound and most distinct in utterance that I have ever heard. It had a singular power of penetration, and sentences spoken by him in an ordinary tone in camp could be heard at a distance which was surprising. His gait in walking might have been called decidedly unmilitary. He never carried his body erect, and having no ear for music or rhythm, he never kept step to the airs played by the bands, no matter how vigorously the bass drums emphasized the accent. When walking in company there was no attempt to keep step with others. In conversing he usually employed only two gestures; one

was the stroking of his chin beard with his left hand; the other was the raising and lowering of his right hand, and resting it at intervals upon his knee or a table, the hand being held with the fingers close together and the knuckles bent, so that the back of the hand and fingers formed a right angle. When not pressed by any matter of importance he was often slow in his movements, but when roused to activity he was quick in every motion and worked with marvelous rapidity. He was civil to all who came in contact with him, and never attempted to snub any one, or treat anybody with less considera tion on account of his inferiority in rank. With him there was none of the puppyisms so often bred by power, and none of the dogmatism which Samuel Johnson characterized as puppyism grown to maturity."

PRINCETON COLLEGE AND PATRIOTISM.

THE

HE patriotism of Princeton men during and after the Revolution is the subject of an interesting article by Prof. John Grier Hibben in the October Forum.

President Witherspoon, in whose veins ran the blood of John Knox, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and throughout the war his exam. ple and precept inspired many Princeton students and graduates to patriotic endeavor.

In the constitutional convention of 1787 Princeton graduates were among the leading spirits. Nine of the thirty-two college-bred members of that body were from Princeton, five from William and Mary, four from Yale, three from Harvard, two from Columbia, and one each from the University of Pennsylvania, London, Oxford, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

"Dr. Witherspoon's wide-reaching influence in inculcating the first principles of citizenship in the characters of the young men of his day in Princeton will be most clearly recognized and appreciated when we glance at the catalogue of the public positions which were held by the men who were graduated during the years of Dr. Witherspoon's administration. Of the four hundred and sixty-nine graduates during these years, one hundred and fourteen were clergymen, thirteen of whom became presidents of colleges; and of the remaining three hundred and fifty-five, one was for eight years President of the United States, one was Vice-President, six were members of the Continental Congress, twenty be came senators of the United States, twenty-three entered the House of Representatives, thirteen were governors of states, three were justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and some twenty served as officers in the Revolutionary Army. Witherspoon's administration gave to Princeton not merely a name and reputation, but it placed the college upon that high ground where permanent progress was assured. He was to the college in the earlier period of its history what his honored fellow

countryman, Dr. James McCosh, proved to be one hundred years later. The eighteenth and the nineteenth century Scotchmen came to the presidency of the college in the prime of their lives, and to Princeton they gave the vigor of their mature manhood, the ripened fruit of a wide experience and the powers of a mighty intellect, all unreservedly consecrated to the training of youth in the service of God and of man. One labored in times of war; the other in times of peace; but both to the same end."

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to the late William Morris' factory, by R. F. Zueblin. This writer made for Merton Abbey, the haunt of the Morris artist-artisans, to find what part of the spirit of Morris' religion was there maintained. This religion is expressed in the poet artistartisan's words, "I am an artist or workman, with a strong inclination to exercise what capacities I may have, and a determination to do nothing shabby, if I can help it; or if I do anything shabby, to admit that I have done so, and be sorry for it. This appears to me to be the socialist religion." Morris' idea of the right kind of living and working is expressed in such texts as this : It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither wearisome nor very anxious. In a properly ordered state of society every man willing to work should be insured: First, honorable and fitting work; second, a healthy and beautiful house; third, full leisure for rest of mind and body."

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It was in 1861 that Morris and Burne-Jones and Rossetti formed an art firm which was to hold up the honor of labor and the glory of thoroughness. How has this ideal been realized at Merton Abbey ? The visitor who writes in the Outlook marks a new note in factory existence before leaving the station. The porter directs them to the Morris plant not by way of any gigantic smokestack, sooty clouds or jangling noises, but with the sentence: "You see all those trees? Go right straight in through them, you will find it.”

THE WORK IN STAINED GLASS DESIGNS, The visitors were shown about the factory by one of the workmen in the stained glass rooms. "His face shone with good will, and he had such a factory complexion as I had never seen -the most wonderful glow of health. The stained glass work was first shown to us. Here the genius of BurneJones reigns supreme, since all the stained glass work in the Morris factory is from his designs. We saw many of the cartoons, and the glass in all degrees of disarrangement and arrangement, the cut

ting with the diamond chisel, and the hand shading of the brush. A genial gray-headed man had under his brush Stephen dividing his cloak with his sword. While we were admiring the rich coloring, the art workman jocosely said: ''E's not cuttin' 'is cloak in 'alf; the hother won't get 'is good share.' In these stained glass rooms the signs of work were cheery and inspiring. Often there was the buzz of friendly talk and the whole fellowship appeared to be one of intelligence and mutual interest, and, certainly in that department, these words of Morris have been fulfilled: 'This seems to me most important that our daily and necessary work, which we could not escape if we would, which we would not forego if we could, should be human, serious and pleasurable, not machine like, trivial, or grievous. I call this not only the very foundation of architecture in all senses of the word, but of happiness also in all conditions of life.' Amid this glass art work we are pleasantly reminded of the story of Morris' and Burne-Jones' college days together, of their query as to calling in life, since they were both supposed to be destined for the services of the Church, and, finally, of their This mutual pledge to devote their lives to art. comradeship of purpose and work has lasted long years, and many English churches have been abundantly served in these glorious windows."

WEAVING AND TAPESTRY WORK.

"Next we passed into the mazes of weaving--the plainer rug weaving, the daintier silk weaving, and the wonderful tapestry work. In all these rooms there were simply hand looms, which moved back and forth with a sort of click clack of sociability, but with no wearying thunder. There were younger people at the heavier looms where the rugs were growing, but the two places of honor were held by the patriarchs of the art; a gray-haired man who was carrying through his loom the daintiest silk brocade in white and green and gold, and who stopped with the pleasure of the artist to turn it over that we might see the beautiful imagery of the light side; over by a quiet window sat an old, old lady gently casting her shuttle threaded with pale blue silk, and who smiled when we wondered what fair maiden should be gowned in it. Of this beautiful work, yet possibly monotonous, William Morris writes quite justly: 'I do not call the figure weaver's craft a dull one, if he be set to do things which are worth doing; to watch the web growing day by day, almost magically, in anticipation of the time when it is to be taken out, and one can see it on the right side in all its well schemed beauty, to make something beautiful, that will last, out of a few threads of silk and wool, seems to me not an unpleasant way of earning one's livelihood, so long as one lives and works in a pleasant place, with work day not too long, and a book or two to be got

at.

"But, oh the tapestries ! Two looms were bearing these lovely burdens. One picture grow

ing in most delicate tints, a copy of Botticelli's 'Spring,' this the first time it has ever gone into tapestry, it being the special order of a woman who had long fancied it would well lend itself to being thus wrought. The other, 'The Visit of the Magi,' this being from Burne-Jones' design, and the third time, I think, it has gone on the Merton Abbey loom. The only discouraging feature of the tapestry weaving was that these sensitve, quick fingers belonged to men from the far East, and that it is not yet an English art. Our appreciative guide spoke in honest, rapturous terms of tapestries that during their weaving had lent their beauty to the factory and to all the workers. A series representing the King Arthur legends had been with them seven years. Seemingly they had grown to love them as their life, and now in rich memories their thoughts followed them to the courtly home, whither they could not go."

PATTERN STAMPING AND DYEING.

"The pattern stamping room seemed quite natural, for there we saw the glorious designs and rich coloring in the cretonnes and velvets and fabrics which American importers have graciously made more familiar to us. An old design was slowly growing under the strong and skillful hands of one of these art workers-a design that could easily suggest Mr. Morris' dictum, 'the absolute necessities of this art are beauty of color and restfulness of form. It required muscle to carry the copper plate steadily and perfection of touch to plant it firmly in its proper place. The coloring was in rich, golden brown, which the interested stamper told us was the most durable color, it being practically rust! We all know Mr. Morris' love of the Persian designs which reappear with new life under his pencil, in stamped fabrics and in woven stuffs.”

The dyeing vats showed certain dyes which had stood for seven years waiting for the perfect hue and composition. William Morris was especially severe on the hideous hues of modern dyes. No dyes are perfectly stable, though the old ones are far more so than the new. The old ones when fading simply change gradually into paler tints of the same color, not unpleasant to look upon; the fading of the new ones is "a change into all kinds of abominable and livid hues." "In short, this is what it comes to, that it would be better for us, if we cannot revive the now almost lost art of dyeing, to content ourselves with weaving our cloths of the natural color of the fiber, or to buy them colored by less civilized people than ourselves."

These craftsmen at Merton Abbey are paid the highest wages known to the trade. They work eight hours each day, and these visitors decided that they were realizing the claims of a decent life as Mr. Morris has stated them: "First, a healthy body; second, an active mind in sympathy with the past, the present and the future; third, occupation fit for a healthy body and an active mind, and, fourthly, a beautiful world to live in."

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