Chinese loan negotiations, nothing is said, which was to be expected at this stage, nor is there a detailed statement of some other matters of public interest, such as the Japanese settlement and the rumor of action taken against Mexican counter-revolutionists operating from Texas.

The arbitration treaties with England and France and financial treaties with Nicaragua and Honduras are urged, and it is to be hoped will be approved by the Senate. The latter embody legitimate assistance in about the only practicable form to nations prostrate with perpetual revolution, buried in debt and ignorance. Properly safeguarded, as we believe these projects are, from financial ambition, they are friendly acts of state which should accomplish good.

After Abrogation, What?

A CHORUS of approval from the press

greets President Taft's formal notification to Russia that the treaty of 1832, under which Russia has excluded Jewish American citizens, will be abrogated on December 31, 1912. This course, which is the result of an agitation that has extended over a period of eight years, will "bring general and heartfelt satisfaction," says the New York Times. "The American people will sus

Macauley, in the New York World

tain this action with practical unanimity," declares the New York World. "While there is no disposition to offend Russia," says the New York American, "we do have a mind to put to an end a treaty under which Russia has persistently offended the citizenship of this country." "The real question at Washington, which the President has taken in hand," says the New York Tribune, "has been whether we wanted relief from an unacceptable situation or indulgence in rodomontade." The Tribune believes that a rational view of the situation is as follows:

That the treaty of 1832 was made at a time when the conditions that now exist had not only not come into existence, but were not even remotely foreseen, and that there has now arisen a radical differ

ence of opinion between the two governments concerning the manner in which the terms of the treaty ought to be applied to these new and unexpected conditions. With the view of our own government we must, of course, fully and strongly sympathize. It seems to us to be the only interpretation of the treaty that accords with American principles of equality. Yet it would be unreasonable not to concede a certain ground for the Russian point of view, especially since Russia is not discriminating against us in this matter, but is treating us precisely as she treats other powers, with their acquiescence.

"It may confidently be expected," asserts the New York Times, "that a new treaty will be negotiated

within the year during which the treaty of 1832 will continue in force." It is not easily conceivable that the United States and Russia, with their important and growing trade relations, would consent to dispense even for a short time with a treaty of commerce and navigation. The guarantees of the present treaty embrace not only the rights of sojourn and residence, but they assure equality of treatment to the vessels of each nation in the ports of the other, and to their commodities exported and imported, to their consular representatives and agents, and they protect certain essential rights as to the ownership and disposition of property belonging to the Nationals of one within the territory of the other. It is not to be supposed that either Russia or the United States would desire to impose higher port dues upon the vessels of the other than are imposed upon vessels of, let us say, Germany or Italy, or that duties should be laid by either upon the commodities of the other higher than those imposed upon the commodities of favored nations. Mutual interest will, it may be assumed, supply an all-sufficient motive for the prompt negotiation of a new and more satisfactory treaty long before the year required by the terms of the notice has elapsed.

The St. Petersburg Novoe Vremya, which is regarded as the official newspaper of the Russian government, comments upon the abrogation of its treaty thus:

President Taft has judiciously chosen the best way out to put an end to the scandalous Jewish agitation which is dangerous to both countries. At the same time the incident bears witness that the Jewish bankers have become the real lords of America.

This newspaper then goes on to say that when the tariff war against America begins, the United States will see British and German goods driving out American manufactures and will realize that it has sacrificed real and growing trade interests without any gain in national honor. Referring to Representative Sulzer's resolution, it adds: The menace of a great nation should not be uttered triflingly, as it was by the House of Representatives out of caprice. Russia has not yielded before a threat, and the situation leaves the agitators shorn of their most valuable weapon. The supreme shot has been fired; no other shot is left. The fate of

future negotiations will show the agitators that unless Milukoff becomes Prime Minister of Russia, the concessions that they demand cannot be obtained, especially in reference to Jews of Russian origin.

Congress and the President

THE OUTLOOK for needed constructive legislation by the new Congress is not promising," declares the Indianapolis News, which in this opinion is rather generally supported by many editorial pages. "The presumption is," says the New York Sun, "that the President and his supporters in the Senate on one side, and the Democratic majority in the House on the other, with such aid as it can obtain from the Progressive Republicans at both ends of the Capitol, will work at cross purposes." "It is almost too much to believe that anything more than 'pork barrels' can get through," remarks one Republican editor who, nevertheless, goes on to hope that

Heaton, in the Chicago Inter-Ocean

SURE!

"the report of the tariff investigation board will afford a common ground for. the President, the Democrats in the House, and the Insurgents in the Senate."

The situation as viewed by a Democratic editor is thus voiced in the Mobile Daily Item:

There is a wide breach in the ranks of the Republicans, which is taken by many to mean a decided advantage for Democracy in the presidential campaign of the coming year. But, on the other hand, there is discord in the ranks of the Democrats. The latter, however, is farfetched and really amounts to but little from the viewpoint of the real politician. The Republican breach means an open fight as between Regular Taft and Insurgent La Follette for the presidential nomination, while Democracy has not as yet centered upon her candidate, and therefore there is ample cooling time between the meeting of Congress and the national Democratic convention, the date of which and place of holding are yet to be decided. As a matter

of fact, the only breach in the Democratic fold is that which was caused by attempted friction on the part of the Commoner, William Jennings Bryan, as against Hons. Champ Clark of Missouri and O. W. Underwood of Alabama, the speaker and leader, respectively, of the Democratic majority in the house, and, as intimated above, with ample cooling time, the stalwart from Missouri, who wields the gavel, and the sterling young Democrat from Alabama, who long since has won the admiration even of his enemies for his manly fights for the party he represents so well and ably, will win against the efforts of the Nebraskan.

"The way to effective consideration of the trusts" the Indianapolis News believes "to be blocked almost as badly as is the road to tariff legislation." We quote

further:

Though the Democrats may bring a good tariff bill out of the house, the forty-two senators do not control the upper chamber on that or any other subject. Neither do the Republicans. For thirteen of their forty-nine members are Insurgents or near-Insurgents, whose great effort this session seems to be not only to make the old policies of the party politically untenable, but also "to put the President in a hole." The Democrats seem to be in a hopeless position to do anything except to make a record of proposed legislation on which to appeal to the country next year; the Republicans have no control of the situation; the Insurgents hold the balance of power and still are without power, and the President, whom they fight, is helpless except to suggest and veto.

The Florida Times Union is more hopeful for tariff reform:

The attitude of the insurgent Republicans in the Senate, while dividing responsibility for the features of the tariff bill, fixes on the Democrats responsibility for the enactment of some measure of tariff reduction. While the insurgent Republicans are not ready to go as far as the Democrats, they will vote for substantial reductions. The Democrats, therefore, cannot say that they are unable to reduce the tariff. They are not able to reduce it as much as they should, but if they introduce bills covering all the schedules, all the schedules will be reduced so far as Congress can reduce them, and we do not believe the President will be so free again in the use of the veto power. He has read the messages from the American people on the tariff, and it has been so convincing that he now declares that the failure of the wool bill at the extra session should not be regarded as taking away the only chance for reduction by this Congress.

Aside from the political atmosphere, which bids fair to permeate the session, there are other important matters to be taken up for consideration. The New York Sun outlines these as follows:

The Senate will have to give serious consideration to the arbitration treaties, and the prospect is that a great deal of time will be consumed in ponderous debate before a vote is taken. Whether there will be any Panama Canal legislation at this session is doubtful. Congress ought to find time to satisfy