Queens and Richmond counties of New York, and Hudson and Essex counties of New Jersey. These six counties contain an area of considerably less than 500 square miles-about one-half the area of Cook county (Chicago), Illinois-but have a population of 4,200,000, an average of 8,500 persons to each square mile. Some idea of the immensity of these figures may be gleaned from the fact that were the entire country thus peopled it would have a total of nearly 30,000,000.000, or thirty-fiye times as many persons as

There are smaller cities with smaller areas that are denser than many in this list, owing to the fact that in various States the custom of incorporating suburbs is different; but these are, as a rule, not of a size sufficient to be termed population centres, except Cleveland, O., with an average of 11,569.

BAD GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES

ONFRONTED by such figures as these the importance of municipal affairs in our great cities takes on a new aspect. The government of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia directly affects 6,429,474 people, nearly a tenth of our whole population. How are these vast public interests faring in the hands of those who have them in charge?

The pitiable condition of Philadelphia culminated in the infamous "street railway grab," chronicled in these pages last month, which has made her a synonym for political corruption in every newspaper of the land. The franchises, deliberately stolen from the public and granted to a political ring in the face of Mr. Wanamaker's offer of $2,500,000 for them, are now said to have been sold by these harpies to an existing traction company for a sum almost as large. It is possible that an aroused public sentiment may bring this humil iating case of highway robbery into the courts, but the disheartening fact would remain even then that it is merely a flagrant example of has marked the history of Pennsylvania ever the indescribable political corruption which since she has been dominated by Quay and his band of spoilsmen.

It would not be difficult to find almost parallel cases in Chicago; and as this is written the newspapers are chronicling in scare-heads the virtual bankruptcy of "the second city in the most prosperous nation of the world." Mayor Harrison, failing to raise the assessed valuation of property above $100,000,000, has instituted rigid economy owing to the above, to the city's antiquated in every department; but he declares that charter, excess of tax-levying bodies, and absurdly low debt limit-"policemen will have to be discharged; fire companies will have to be reduced; teachers' salaries will have to be cut; some of the library sub-stations will have to be abandoned; when bridges and viaducts go to pieces they will have to be closed, as we will have no money to repair them; our streets will be dirtier than they have ever been, our alleys will be uncleaned;

we shall not be able to dispose of garbage; health inspectors will have to be laid off."

Hardly a satisfactory state of affairs there! And a glance at a few recent events in New York (among whose sixty City Fathers are thirteen liquor dealers, one Bowery musichall proprietor, one speculator, eight so-called "real-estate dealers" and two members with no known occupation) is not particularly reassuring.

A

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE SCARE

FEW weeks ago a tremendous sensation was caused by the discovery that a dozen bands and rods on the Brooklyn Bridge had been broken for days, though the official inspectors had failed to report any such evidence of over-strain. Cars were stopped, and for nearly two days thousands of people were put to great inconvenience by reason of an accident which experts said could have been mended in a couple of hours. But by far the most serious aspect of this occurrence was the appearance of official neglect. When the police at the first alarm closed the bridge to the cars, nearly everybody responsible for

the care of the structure seemed to be out of town; the only engineer in sight contented. himself with railing at the police and asserting that nothing was the matter, nothing at all-and what there was was merely due to heat, or vibration or some other agency removed from human control. Engineers who helped to design the bridge say it was never intended to bear anything like the strain which has been by degrees put upon it; and the public evidently has not the least confidence that anyone in authority will in the future guard against such accidents or infinitely worse.

IT

INCREASED LOSSES BY FIRE

T is stated that the losses by fire in Manhattan and the Bronx during the last three years were $17,835,000 as against $10,197,000 for the three years preceding. Widely varying explanations are given; but is it not suggestive that the Grand Jury has indicted the Fire Commissioner and a friend who has been making an enormous income by using his "influence" in favor of certain manufacturers of fire-department supplies? While

and it is declared that the failure of the police to turn in calls promptly is merely one of many small reasons for inefficiency growing out of general misgovernment. The firedepartment still costs nearly four million dollars a year, and there is every reason why it ought to be the most serviceable in the world.

WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY LIES

THE

HESE are random and obvious points of notorious misgovernment. The business of water supply and a dozen other similar abuses are potent to every observer. The plain remedy lies, not primarily in municipal ownership (Philadelphia tried that with her gas works; and finally sold out at a loss, congratulating herself on getting rid of them at any price) but in attention by all respectable

citizens to civic affairs. None of these dis

graceful conditions could prevail for one week that time to give as much care to the methods if the business men of New York were during of our government as they now give to making money. The political bosses are merely acting according to their lights—the fault is with

the so called "better element." We shall never have honest and efficient municipal management until the obsolete party fetish is banished from consideration and men are elected to civic office to run the city's affairs as a private business is run-every action being published abroad and all good citizens unanimously holding them strictly accountable for each deviation from the path of public welfare.

It is a simple and obvious remedy, which each business man believes in abstractly, but rarely applies himself. The Merchants' Association of New York is doing admirable work along the lines of making public the actual happenings in a municipal administration, and it proposes to publish each year a detailed "digest" containing the items that made up the city's expenditure of $200,000,000, with illustrative comparisons.

This is surely the first step: with the facts thus exploited, even the busiest citizen has only himself to blame for a continuance of misgovernment.

REFORMING POSTAL ABUSES

as the city has ever had, the department as a whole suffers from this same blighting cause;

subject to abuse as that which orders the carrying of "second class" matter at the rate of a cent a pound, and the Postmaster

General's recent ruling aims to cut off from this privilege all the paper books (which as periodical "Libraries" have hitherto come under this heading), the "fake" periodicals which have existed solely to dispose of something besides the magazines themselves, and the "returns," or unsold copies sent back by the retail newsdealers.

The following statement of the intent of the measure and the manner in which it will be interpreted has been very kindly furnished us by Mr. Charles Emory Smith, the Postmaster General, in response to an inquiry:

"The clubbing of magazines in reasonable combination at reasonable figures which do not defeat the intent of the law is not prohibited. Neither is a combination with a book under like circumstances forbidden. The intent of the law is plain. It is that the periodical shall be of a character which will command subscribers on its own account, and not because of outside inducements it may offer. This does not preclude the use of aids which may operate as a discount, but it does preclude the use of means which become the decisive factor rather than the character of the publication itself. The law intended to give the benefit of the pound rate to publications which the people sought for their own sake, but it did not intend to give that benefit to publishers who practically circulate their periodical for little or nothing in order to get a big list to appeal to advertisers. In other words, the law is designed for the benefit of the reader and not of the publisher. As to the question of definition, it is the business of the Department to administer and not to define. It will deal with each case as it presents itself. What would be a 'nominal rate' in one case might not be in another. It depends upon the conditions and circumstances. The subscription price, the offers, the actual results, the proportion of legitimate subscribers -these and other elements are to be considered. The Department will seek to apply the rules of common sense and fairness without assuming to dictate how any publisher shall conduct his business, and at the same time without tolerating the evasions and subterfuges which are resorted to in order to circumvent the law and which have brought such enormous abuses. I have full faith that fair intelligence and honest purpose will easily distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate publications, and restrict the latter without

injuring the former. And the value of such a reform is inestimable."

On such a fair-minded and just basis as this the Department may reasonably expect the coöperation of all reputable publishers, even of those who may be inconvenienced by the new rulings.

THE NEED OF MORE POSTAL FACILITIES

ONE

NE of the greatest arguments for this change has been the large deficit which the postal authorities have always had to face on this class of business. It never came anywhere near paying what it cost and has seriously hampered the whole financial administration of the post-office. Now that a part of this annual loss is to be gradually wiped out, there have been many suggestions that the saving might be utilized to give us one cent postage. This is not only premature but illadvised: there is far more need of perfecting the present service than of such a reduction; indeed it would probably work actual harm, for it would increase the mails so much that the facilities would be more than ever inadequate.

The condition in New York City has been particularly unsatisfactory, delays in all classes of mail having been so frequent that the Merchants' Association made the matter the subject of several special inquiries. Postmaster Van Cott says that his force has hitherto been inadequate for the vast amount of business transacted; but the corps of clerks was largely increased on July 1st and an increase of carriers is promised for this fall; so he is in hopes of being able to put the service into better shape. The sufferings of the horses during the terrific heat of July and the serious delays thus caused emphasized the loss sustained by the discontinuance of the pneumatic tube service, for which Congress failed to make an appropriation. For four years it had proved its value in making possible early deliveries and late collections for outgoing trains and boats. It is probable that petitions for its restoration will be presented to Congress from both New York and Philadelphia. The eight hour day seems to be responsible for some of the Department's difficulties. Carriers will stop in the middle of a collection or delivery route and return if their eight hour limit happens to arrive then; and though of course another carrier completes the trip, some hours are often lost.

trophy. The Newport races, the New York Yacht Club's course and the Astor Cup races gave no light beyond this-except to eliminate from consideration Mr. Thomas W. Lawson's Independence, which caused so much discussion and for which such remarkable claims were made.

The challenger, Shamrock II, has also been defeated during the trials, but she is announced to be some minutes faster than Shamrock I-which might still leave her in the wake of Columbia according to the record of the 1899 races. She sailed from Liverpool on July 26th, in company with the steam yacht Erin, and will probably be on this side of the ocean preparing for the contest by the time this number of the magazine appears. It would be rank treason to doubt for an instant that the America's cup will remain with us in spite of indefatigable Sir Thomas Lipton. But the Cup Races are still as they have long been the most exciting sporting event of the year, a contest in which every citizen of the United States, however remote from his knowledge and sympathies yachting in general may be, takes a keen personal interest. It is our boat and its sailors against one from overseas, and Anglo-Saxon blood asks no more in order to be stirred to the depths.

This combination of sporting enthusiasm and national pride are fortunately sufficient to itself, for the cup yachts were long ago developed into racing machines whose success or failure has not the least utilitarian significance. It was of course very different in the "clipper" days when the America first won the famous cup: but the commercial advantages of the speedy sailing-craft vanished with the appearance of steamers. A victory of the Constitution or Shamrock will carry not one suggestion to any builder of merchant vessels whether on the Clyde, or the Atlantic seaboard, or the Great Lakes or Puget Sound.

THE FIRST TURBINE STEAMSHIP FOR
PASSENGERS

which under the demand for enormous horsepower and high speed has been increasing so in size, weight and consumption of steam as to become very unsatisfactory. The speed shown by the Turbinia resulted in the building of two torpedo boats, the Viper and Cobra; and the former electrified the world a year ago by reaching a speed of nearly thirtyseven knots an hour, and thus proving herself the fastest vessel afloat.

This definitely settled the question of the turbine's value in this type of war vessel, but the recently launched King Edward VII, marks the first adaptation to commercial uses, and she is therefore of special interest. On her trial trip on the Frith of Clyde this 250-foot boat made an average speed of 20.48 knots; the weight of her motors, condensers, propellers, etc., is 66 tons-about half as much as that of the machinery required to develop equal horse-power in a paddle-wheel steamer; the consumption of coal is believed to be less; the compactness of the machinery gives additional room for freight or passengers; and the machinery runs without noise or vibration. vibration. The propellers themselves cause a very slight vibration right astern, but there is an entire absence of the familiar throbbing and pounding which is the last straw to the "poor sailor."

The new boat seems to be a success in every way and her builders are very confident that they have perfected an engine which will soon make the reciprocating engine a thing of the past in marine transportation. Strangely enough no steam turbine vessel has yet been built in America; but a large firm of New York builders has one in process of construction and the development of the idea here will be watched with keen interest. Meanwhile Mr. Charles R. Flint, the New York merchant and promoter, has just built a yacht aptly named the Arrow which was ordered with the stipulation that she should make forty knots an hour; and the claim is being made that Lieutenant Graydon, who has long been working to improve the Parsons turbine, has succeeded in perfecting an engine which will raise the record speed to fifty knots! However this may be, these phenomenal vessels have made even the Deutschland seem slow and inventors and shipping owners are now talking of four day boats to Queenstown. The Cunard Line has already invited tenders for a twenty-five knot boat to restore their