And in all my practical thought and feeling I cannot separate the moral and the metaphysical divinity of Jesus Christ. In all my practical thought and feeling toward him he must be either a man or my God. And thus, to me, the denial of the metaphysical divinity and of the personal pre existence of Jesus Christ is not of mere speculative interest but of the most intense practical interest. The difference between us is that you seem to be able to keep the great feeling of loyalty, and to hold to the moral divinity of Jesus Christ as a separate thing from his metaphysical divinity, while I am not able to do that. But you will pardon me when I say that I think I am in the majority.

To keep my notion of personality from utter confusion it is necessary for me to believe this about my Lord Jesus Christ: That he was the Son of God through all the ages with the Father and the Holy Ghost. That they three were all persons, but fastened together so closely in the law of their existence that there can be no possible discord in their action. That Jesus Christ had personal existence then because he is certainly a person now. That he laid aside the consciousness of his divine life and lived a man's life straight through here on the earth. That the old. consciousness came slowly back to him, as it does to a man when he wakes from sleep. That it was the same person who lived both the divine and the human life, the eternal Son of God. That the human life and death was a great sacrifice, and was necessary because of our sin to bring us back to God. Such a person can have Lordship over me, soul and body, and to such a person I can give worship and love. And the peculiar, extraordinary feeling that I have toward such a person is big enough to be a new transforming motivepower in my sinful life. But if Jesus Christ is a man, with only a splendid moral character as a divine credential, then I can admire the beauty of his life and try to copy it. But I could have no friendship with him, for I cannot get back close enough to a dead man to have friendship with him; and I could not love him supremely, for I would have to divide his love with a thousand other men who have died because of their holy lives; and a splendid moral man is still not big enough for me to worship; and a revealer of

God, though he were an angel, is not overwhelming enough for me to give him my whole self in surrender. If he were a man, my friendship and love and wor ship and surrender would go over the head of Jesus Christ straight to God. And, then, what utter moral confusion there would be to try to give God the credit for what Jesus Christ did back there in Palestine! And what utter loneliness there would be in the universe if we could not give God that great credit! But all this confusion and loneliness is saved when we believe that Jesus Christ was God. ARTHUR D. BERRY. Study of the Pastor of the M. E. Church, Maplewood, N. J.

An Old Question

To the Editors of The Outlook:

For what object does a religious paper exist if not to teach men "to do justice and love mercy"? You publish, I see, with no word of disapproval, General Bell'sstatement that Christian America has caused the death of one in six of the people of Luzon. Do you, then, approve his excuse that what in other countries would probably be thought harsh measures become necessary because the Filipino is tricky and crafty? Surely you have not forgotten how you justified the tricky capture of Aguinaldo. I am. therefore, puzzled to understand on what ground of Christian ethics you condemn the Filipino for being tricky. Does The Outlook hold that to be tricky is the peculiar prerogative of the strong Christian nation with sixty thousand fit men to do its killing, and not at all of the weak Filipino struggling against fearful odds?

Northampton, Mass.

M. E. B.

[We have answered this question as to the justice of our course in the Philippines so often that we begrudge the space necessary to answer it again. We doubt the accuracy of General Bell's statistics; nor do we think his reported statement accurately defines or was intended to define the reasons for the repression of the Filipino armed bands. In our judgment, the United States was as responsible morally for the preservation of law and order in Luzon as was the State of New York for the preservation of law and order during the recent street railway strike in Albany. As the State was bound to fulfill this obligation in Albany, although some innocent men were killed, so the United States was bound to fulfill this obligation in Luzon, although some innocent men were killed. The maintenance of order against anarchy is worth all that it costs,

whatever the cost may be. If any correspondent desires to know on what our conviction of the lawfulness of United States authority in the Philippines is based, we must refer him to the back numbers of The Outlook in which this question has been very fully discussed. Now that the Filipinos have themselves all but universally accepted the authority of the United States Government, we must assume that authority to have been rightfully established the reasons for so thinking we have often stated-and devote our strength to an endeavor to secure its exercise in accordance with liberty and justice. THE EDITORS.]

American Domestic Problems

To the Editors of The Outlook :

A reference to the recently passed election law of Maryland in Dr. Abbott's article on "American Domestic Problems," along with several other references to the same law in your paper, impels me to write a word or two on the same subject. It seems to me that you do not clearly understand the purpose of the law and are unduly eulogistic of certain good features which it seems to contain. At first blush it would seem to tell in the direction of the education of illiterates, as the foot-note to Dr. Abbott's paragraph affirms; but the statement of the text, "Simply the names of the men to be voted for are upon the

Each

ticket. The man who cannot read the name cannot vote the ticket, for he will not know for whom he is voting. The man who does not care enough about politics to inquire about the candidates cannot vote, for he will have no emblem to guide him," is not exactly parallel with the facts. It is true that the names are printed in columns without the old party emblems as was formerly the case. name, however, is followed by the name of the party to which the candidate belongs. To all practical intent these party names do become emblems. The schools for illiterates which were held generally before the late elections were employed mainly to instruct the unlettered how to distinguish the party names. This was done by instructing the voter, if a Republican, to avoid marking his ticket after the word

containing the "little round circle," viz., "o." This letter occurs in " Democrat." He was directed to look for the word containing the "little round circle with a tail to it," or letter "p." This occurs in " Republican." With these discriminations clearly in mind and enforced by blackboard lessons, the task of voting becomes comparatively easy even under a reform election law fathered by the Hon. Arthur P. Gorman. Of course the Democratic illiterates need only reverse the process above outlined in order to vote as easily. The best citizens of Maryland will welcome any properly constructed law that will safeguard the ballot or destroy ignorance, but they are scarcely ready to hail the product of the late extra and unnecessary session of their State Legislature as that

Surely

Consecration of Infants To the Editors of The Outlook: Federation is the cry of the day, and the present is bright with promise. all efforts by Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and others to "get together" are very commendable. There are many in the Congregational fold who do not believe in the baptism of infants and yet who desire to give their children to the Lord, and also this holding to a questionable article of belief keeps other denominations from affiliating with Congregationalists, as I think. Would it, then, not be desirable that a service of consecration of infants without baptism should be more generally introduced into Congregational churches? I am glad to find by your ries of a recent issue that some churches answer to my question in Notes and Queuse such a service. I hope that this good work may go forward, and that the churches of Christ may lay less stress on

Vol. 68

The Seventh National

Bank's Failure

The Seventh National Bank of New York City, which closed its doors last week, first came into National prominence when the last Congress investigated the relations between the Treasury Department and the banks with which public funds were deposited. It was then disclosed that the deposits of the Money Order Department of the New York PostOffice were not under the control of the Treasury Department, but had been transferred by the Post-Office Department to the Seventh National Bank soon after that bank passed under the control of a group of financiers of political prominence, with Assistant Postmaster-General Heath at their head. Under its new management the business of the bank rapidly increased to large proportions, but last week's collapse may serve to generate in New York the distrust which Philadelphia has learned to feel toward all banks which utilize political connections to secure financial profit. The transactions which led to the bank's suspension are not believed to have involved any criminal misconduct, but they do seem to have involved serious violations of the National banking law. One of the requirements of this law is that no National bank shall lend to any one person, firm, or company an amount exceeding one-tenth of its capital, save in such matters as the discounting of the notes of third parties. One-tenth of the capital of the Seventh National Bank was $50,000, but the Bank Examiner found that the bank had loaned to one firm the enormous sum of $1,600,000. The firm thus favored is well connected, and the motive back of the excessive loans may have been personal friendship and personal confidence even more than a desire to make large profits through the taking of large risks; but none the less the bank failed to fulfill its public obli

No. 10

gations, and the Comptroller's Department deserves praise for forcing it into bankruptcy when it could not obey the law's provisions. The National banking system enjoys its prestige because of the restrictions imposed upon it to insure the confidence of the public. It would be as disastrous to the banks as to the public if the non-enforcement of these provisions impaired the confidence upon which the whole system rests. As in the preservation of the dikes in Holland, the only way to keep the system sound is to detect and repair every unsound part the moment the unsoundness develops.

General Sickles's Attack on

Commissioner Evans

The attack made by General D. E. Sickles upon Pen

sion Commissioner Evans has at least the advantage of giving definiteness to the hitherto vague demands that the latter should be removed from his office, or at least not be reappointed to it. General Sickles bases this demand, in the first place, upon a letter received by him last September from Senator Scott, of the Republican National Committee, which General Sickles interpreted as pledging the President to the removal of Pension Commissioner Evans if the President was re-elected. Senator Scott's call for the publication of this letter has resulted in giving it to the public, and we think it is worth while to print it here in full:

Headquarters of the Republican National Committee, I Madison Avenue, New York, September 29, 1900. General Daniel E. Sickles, 23 Fifth Avenue, New York City:

My Dear General-Yours of the 29th to

hand, and contents noted. Of course it would be impossible for me to say to you that the President would not appoint or that he would

appoint certain individuals, but I think I can safely say that I hardly think Evans will be continued as Commissioner, and I have no doubt that the President and all of us who are

It is impossible for us to comprehend how any sane man should think that the President is committed by this letter to any course whatever in the premises, and the fact that General Sickles has SO interpreted it makes us and will make the public generally distrust his report of all other interviews and incidents. Apart from this, General Sickles demands the removal of Commissioner Evans, or the appointment of some one in his place, on the general ground that the Commissioner is unsympathetic with the old veterans, that in specific instances he has made rulings which General Sickles thinks incorrect, and that it is inexpedient to appoint as Commissioner one who has "the almost unanimous hostility of the Grand Army of the Republic." General Sickles's claim to represent that organization, with its membership of 300,000, and behind these 300,000, 700,000 more veteran soldiers, and behind this multitude 500,000 soldiers' widows, and beyond that 1,000,000 soldiers' sons and grandsons, is even more preposterous than his interpretation of the noncommittal letter of Senator Scott as a pledge binding upon the President of the United States. No one has greater interest than the honest pensioner in having the Pension Office so administered and the pension laws so interpreted as to exclude as far as possible all fraudulent claimants. So far as we can judge, the only real objection to Commissioner Evans is that he has administered his office in this manner, and we are glad to see in the daily press published letters from some old veterans warmly commending his administration.

objection to the present method of dealing with pensions, an objection which will seem conclusive to all who are familiar with the extent to which falsehood is embodied in ex parte affidavits sworn to by interested parties who are not to be subjected to cross-examination, and are not liable to have their testimony contradicted in an independent investigation:

The principal weakness of the system consists in accepting as a basis of adjudication ex parte affidavits, which the Government has no power to sift by cross-examination, while at the same time it has no means of research for adverse testimony. In my opinion, there can be under these conditions no security to the Government against dishonest claims, and probably the proportion of such claims which will be successfully prosecuted will increase rather than diminish, the dishonest attorneys becoming more skilled and the temptation to fraud becoming greater as the average value of pensions is enhanced by the accumulation of arrears of pension and growing liberality of legislation.

The pernicious effect of this system, which, as the Commissioner shows, has been protested against by previous Commissioners in vain, is well indicated in an editorial in the New York "Times." As a result, we have thereby, six years after the close of the war, one million names on our pension list, and are paying out in pensions $140,000,000 annually. Individual cases of fraud are reported by the "Times," of which two may serve as a type:

One sturdy, athletic man in receipt of the full pension for total disability was found to be the champion wheelman of his village; another physical wreck, totally disabled and in receipt of a pension which was to keep his body and soul together, was found to be the owner of a very comfortable estate, and when visited was engaged in shingling his barn. The "Times" adds that it is the general knowledge that so many similar cases exist which "has evoked the indignant protest against the pension roll of a million names, of which it is evident that something like one-half must have been placed there by perjury and fraud." Whether its estimate is correct or not, every "old soldier " ought to welcome the effort to expunge from the pension roll every such case of fraud, and doubly welcome the brave endeavor of an honest officer of the Government to prevent the addition to the roll of any more fraudu lent cases. The President will, in our judgment, make a great mistake if he imagines that the two millions whom General

Sickles claims to represent are all clamoring, through General Sickles, for Commissioner Evans's removal, or fails to reappoint Mr. Evans Commissioner, unless some better reason for making a different appointment is offered than any that General Sickles has presented.

Partisan Census Frauds

The demand of Civil Service Reformers that census officials shall be appointed by competitive examination and not by political favor is greatly strengthened by the

outcome of the recent trials of census enumerators in Maryland. An investigation had been ordered in Maryland because of the suspicious circumstance that in Congressman Mudd's district the Republican counties showed striking gains in population, while Democratic counties, similarly prosperous, showed nothing of the sort. The gains in the Republican counties were made the more conspicuous because the Maryland Constitution allows two delegates to the lower branch of the State Legislature to all counties having less than eighteen thousand people, and three delegates at least to counties having more than this population. Two Republican counties were returned as having passed the 18,000 line-St. Mary's County being credited with 18,136 people, and Charles County with 18,316. When the investigation was made, it was found that several hundred people returned by different enumerators could not be accounted for. One enumerator in St. Mary's County had 528 such names on his list-most of whom had been merely temporary residents, but 127 of whom had never lived in the district, and 29 were of dead persons. This enumerator, when on the witnessstand, under trial for conspiracy, admitted that he knew these persons were dead, but excused himself in one instance by saying, "Well, he had not been dead very long." Another of the enumerators who pleaded guilty testified that one Joseph H. Ching had enjoined upon him that he must find more names. When he asked where these names could be found, "Ching replied that if he could not get them anywhere else he could go to the summer hotels in the district and enumerate their guests, adding the significant inquiry, 'Are there no graveyards in your district?"" This

This

enumerator managed to add 198 names to his previous list, partly from recollections of old residents, partly from hotel registries, and partly by the force of his unassisted imagination. The Civil Service Reform League's report of the trials conIcludes as follows:

It is evident that the true remedy for the monstrous abuses that occur in the taking of the census is to remove the appointment of supervisors (and, consequently, of the enumerators selected by them) from the field of partisan politics, by including this branch of the service within the classified system, and by making appointments thereto depend solely upon the ground of fitness, as ascertained by competitive examination.

Senator Hanna was The Ohio Republican the Chairman and the

Convention

66

guiding spirit of the Ohio Republican Convention, but nevertheless its watchword was harmony. Senator Foraker, who used to be regarded as the leader of the faction opposed to Senator Hanna, was cordially indorsed for re-election, and was permitted to shape the platform upon which the campaign should be conducted. The distinctive feature of this platform was its aggressive assertion of the rights of the negroes to all the privileges of citizenship. "We denounce," it says, as no less criminal when committed by theft than when accomplished with the shot-gun and ballot-box stuffing, all attempts to deprive of their inalienable rights millions of our fellow-citizens in certain States of the Union, . . . and we demand that representation in Congress and in the Electoral College shall be based on the actual voting population, as provided in the Constitution, proportionate reduction being made for any State in which the right of suffrage is denied except for crime." The anticipated campaign of the Democrats against governing colored races in the colonies without "the consent of the governed" is to be met, not by a defensive campaign, but by an offensive campaign against governing the colored race in the South "without the consent of the governed." National issues almost monopolized the platform. The course of the Administration in the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Cuba was warmly praised, the increase of the navy was recommended, the immediate construction of an isthmian canal was