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For: 29 East of Missouri, 14 S., 7 W. Against: 3 66 11 S., 16 W. The causes which seem to us to have operated in bringing about the rejection of this Treaty were chiefly four: (1) Personal antagonism to President Cleveland and Secretary Olney created a prejudice against the Treaty, and Senators once committed against it were not sufficiently large-minded to change their position. (2) The Treaty would have had the effect to reduce the prerogatives of the Senate, by transferring from the Executive Depart ment, of which in the ratification of the treaties the Senate is a part, to the Judicial Department the adjustment of international difficulties. Like all aristocratic bodies, the Senate is exceedingly jealous of anything which threatens a diminution of its powers. (3) The hostility to England, which we regret to believe is widespread, though we hope not deeply seated, and which has been recently intensified by the extraordinary inaction of Great Britain in the presence of the Armenian massacres and its still more extraordinary action in respect to Crete and Greece, operated strongly against the Treaty. (4) The general spirit of conservatism, which leads a great many men to think nothing can be which has not been, and to oppose the principle of international judicial system simply because it is a novelty in international relations, made some Senators regard the Treaty as impracticable.

We are inclined to think that the defeat of the Treaty, as emasculated, will in the end prove more advantageous than its adoption. With an emasculated Treaty

the country might have been satisfied; with its defeat the country will not be satisfied. The lovers of peace must begin a new agitation, not for international arbitration, but for the establishment of a permanent court of judicature, to which all international questions of every description must be submitted as a matter of course, exactly as all controversies between the States of the Union are submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. The next proposition should be, not for a tentative tribunal for the adjustment of difficulties between Great Britain and the United States, but for a permanent tribunal for the adjustment of all controversies between the United States and any civilized nation which will join us in this endeavor to substitute law for war-that is, reason for brute force.

April financial and business reports are of interest. That of the United States Treasury shows receipts to have increased over a million and a half as compared with March, and over thirteen millions and a half as compared with April, 1896. The increase is, of course, due to the revenue from customs. Present imports at the port of New York are on a great scale, those for the past fortnight being over $33,000,000. Treasury expenditures for April were five million dollars ahead of those for March, and three millions ahead of those for April, 1896. The Treasury deficit has thus been greatly reduced. For the ten months of the fiscal year receipts have been nearly six million dollars more than during the corresponding period a year ago; expenditures have been over fifteen millions more. An equally interesting April statement is that of business failures, as we find it in "Dun's Review." The number of failures during the month was 941, as against 1,000 in April 1896, 999 in April 1895, and 1,050 in April 1894. In seeming contrast with this, liabilities of the concerns that have failed are reported at $17,600,000 for last month, as against $12,400,000 for the corresponding month a year ago. The value of tracing failures to particular lines of business is well illustrated here; failures of five New Bedford mills for nearly $8,000,000 amount to more than the whole increase, and do not reflect any

proportional weakness in the trade itself. "Dun's Review" also publishes a report of actual sales in April by leading houses in every line of business in the principal cities east of the Rocky Mountains. These sales average six per cent. more than in the same month last year, and about onetenth less than in April, 1892, the year of largest business hitherto. Perhaps the most notable feature of the commercial world during April was the speculation in wheat—a result of the Græco-Turkish war. Dealings in grain futures of all kinds were nearly two and one-half times as great as in April last year. An industry presenting unsatisfactory conditions at present is that of railways, and the reduction by the Chicago and Alton Company of its dividend rate is an impressive illustration. The Alton's dividend record at eight per cent. has been maintained for sixteen years.

The action of the "Occident" in endeavoring to impose its own understanding of Presbyterian standards upon the Christian Endeavor Convention, and to exclude from office in that body a Congregational minister in good and regular standing in his own denomination because he could not be admitted to a Presbytery action on which we have commented in another column-is surpassed by that of the non-Episcopal divines of New Orleans, who are endeavoring to excommunicate from the Christian Church an Episcopalian Bishop, because he does not agree with their theological views. Among the heresies of which the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran clergy accuse Bishop Sessums are:

The explicit denial of the fall of man from a state of primitive holiness, with the derivation of a corrupt nature consequent thereupon.

The express denial that Christ hath "redeemed us by his blood," being not a sacrificial offering for sin, but consisting merely in the influence of a good example reclaiming man from the error of his ways.

The assertion of the final restoration of all men to the favor of God in a state of probation after death.

We have not Bishop Sessums's sermon before us, and in response to telegraphic request for information he disavows responsibility for the newspaper report of his discourse. It is hardly necessary,

however, to say to our readers that these three heresies are all "orthodox" in the Episcopal Church. Neither one of them is inconsistent with either the Apostles' or the Nicene Creeds, which say nothing respecting the fall of man, the method of Christ's redemption, or the limits of divine grace in the future. Cheyne and Driver both deny, on grounds of Biblical criticism, the historical authority of the first chapters of Genesis, which constitute, of course, the foundation for the ecclesiastical doctrine of the fall. Dean Stanley repudiates the idea that Christ's death is an "expiatory sacrifice for sin." Dean Farrar maintains the doctrine of "the larger hope." The Episcopal Church is bound to the facts, not to a philosophy of the facts. If the other Protestant clergy of New Orleans regard the fall of man, the sacrificial atonement, and everlasting punishment as essential articles of the Christian faith, they do quite right to preach and teach them; but to assume that he repudiates Christianity who finds no authority either in the Bible or the ecumenical creeds of Christendom for these theological formularies, and to attempt to coerce the Episcopal Church in Louisiana into putting an Episcopal Bishop on trial for holding what nitaries in England, is an extraordinary is held without reproach by Episcopal digcourse of procedure. For ourselves, we have no doubt that these doctrines, whether true or false, are not essential elements in make them so is analogous to the attempt Christian faith, and that the attempt to which Christ condemned in his own time, to overlay the simple truth of the Gospel with the traditions of the schools. All that is essential to Christian faith on these three points is summed up in the declarations: "I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. I believe in the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting."

Bishop Potter lately made before the New York"Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor an address which has created, as his addresses are apt to do, some little stir, and has been apparently misreported—a mischance very apt to befall addresses which

have any point to them. He has been, for example, reported to have complained of the introduction of machinery as throwing men out of employment. What he really seems to have said was that it was the tendency of machinery and the accompanying division of labor to make men themselves mechanical. We quote from a report in the New York "Times:"

It [machinery] is doing away with intelligence in labor. It is turning the laboring man into a simple idiot. Not long ago I visited a large, fac tory in this State, and was much impressed with what I saw. The owner proudly showed me around, pointing out the manner in which labor was simplified. I saw a young man sitting before some sort of a large hammer. He sat with his legs crossed, and all his work consisted in shoving into an opening in the machinery a small piece of iron. He would turn the metal two or three times, throw it into a large box, and take another piece. That was this man's work, day after day, week after week. No wonder that at night-time he drank, gambled, and fought. He had to; otherwise he would go mad. How many of us would stand this and not cry out? Not one of us but would become a striker. Myself among the first. It must be confessed that this is very trenchant in form, and also that it presents only one aspect of the case, but it is an important aspect, and one to which a great many men are singularly blind.

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To Bishop Potter two replies have been made, one by the New York "Times,' the other by the New York "Sun." The first affirms that under the reign of machinery the son gets twelve dollars a week for the same hours of labor for which the father received but seven dollars, and that for the twelve dollars he can buy as much as the father would have had to pay fifteen for. Of course this has nothing to do with the question, which is not whether the man can make more money and buy more things with the product of his industry, but whether the industry itself makes more or less of a man of him. The reply of the New York "Sun" is so extraordinary that we report it in its own words: The Gospel of Christ constantly makes poverty and suffering the avenue of approach to the heavenly gates, and riches a bar to admission through them. . . . What inatters it how men suffer and are denied here so long as they win the reward of the life to come? Nor does it require religious faith to recognize the profound philosophic truth in this view of life. This life exists and forever has existed with reference to the life succeeding it. One man sows, another man reapeth. One generation makes way for

another, struggling to prepare for its coming; and thus the ages roll on and the world goes on; self-sacrifice, self-effacement always.

This is the kind of teaching which makes men infidel, and if it truly represented Christianity ought to make them infidel. No religion can be true which pretends to fit men for another life by making them unfit for this. We desire to add our emphatic indorsement to the indorsement which the Springfield "Republican" has given to the spirit of Bishop Potter's address: "Jesus was with the laborer every time. Let us hope that the professed churches of God will come up to this Bishop's standard, and speedily, moreover." The evil which Bishop Potter indicates is real, though there are compensating advantages. The remedy is to be found, of course, not in the abolition of machinery, but in giving to the laborer a larger share of the advantages which machinery confers, by making shorter hours for toil and longer hours for self-improvement.

The death of Admiral Richard W. Meade, at Washington, ends a naval career conspicuous for courage and capacity. Admiral Meade was born in this city in 1837, and was the nephew of General Meade, who was in command of the Federal forces at Gettysburg; graduated from the Naval Academy in 1855, joined the frigate Merrimac, cruised in the West Indies and about northern Europe until April two years later, when he received his commission as a master, and was assigned to duty on the African squadron. In 1862, as Lieutenant-Commander, he joined the ironclad Louisville, and did admirable work in breaking up the guerrilla warfare on the Mississippi River. A year later he was in command of the steamer United States, and he had charge of the naval battalion during the July riots in this city. Later in the year he was in command of the steam gunboat Marblehead, and took part in the defense of John's Island, off South Carolina. He was in active service at one point or another during the entire war, and became widely known throughout the navy as Fighting Dick Meade." He was a

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man of impetuous and impulsive nature. While in command of the Northern At

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lantic Squadron he was not allowed to execute a plan of maneuvering in the Caribbean Sea, and his ships were ordered to New York; whereupon he resigned and asked for retirement, and at the same time expressed himself with great freedom with regard to President Cleveland's administration. There was some talk of court-martial proceedings, but the incident terminated with a reprimand from the President in his order retiring Admiral Meade from active service, the President expressing his regret that the service of an officer so brilliant and marked by so many honorable incidents had been tarnished at the close by insubordination. It cannot be said that to those who knew Admiral Meade's character this reprimand carried any great weight. They felt that it was needed as a matter of discipline, but that the qualities in the man which called it out were too intimately allied with his courage and gallantry to carry with it any stigma.

The report made by Secretary Woodruff at the meeting of the National Municipal League in Louisville, Kentucky, last week, was most encouraging. Apart from the remarkable growth of the discussion of municipal problems in books, magazines, and newspapers, there has been during the past year a succession of victories for the principles the League was formed to advocate. The most important of these victories, not heretofore recorded in these columns, was the reelection of a competent Democratic Mayor in Providence, R. I., though the city gave a Republican majority of 10,000 in the National election. For the great victory of the Civic Federation in Denver, Colo., Secretary Woodruff gives a large share of the credit to woman suffrage. In Chicago the election of Mayor Harrison is shown to have involved no defeat for the principle of Civil Service Reform. The new Mayor's attitude on that question, says Mr. Woodruff, has been so satisfactory that the Civic Federation of Chicago has adopted resolutions indorsing it. One of the chief gains made during the last year has been the extension of civil service rules to the government of several more large cities, including New Orleans, Louisiana; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Seattle and Tacoma,

Washington. In all parts of the country, says Secretary Woodruff, there has been "an awakening sentiment in favor of the municipal ownership and control of semipublic monopolies like street railways, gas and electric light plants, and water-works." This extension of municipal activity is the natural supplement of Civil Service Reform. The overthrow of the spoils system not only enables the public to discharge its present functions more efficiently, but to assume others which it has been delegating to private corporations at the cost of arbitrary and unreasonable charges for the services rendered.

The forty-third annual report of the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Public Instruction, just issued, presents many encouraging features, and makes suggestions which should receive careful consideration from all citizens of the State. Ninety-four per cent. of the children of the State of New York never go beyond the elementary schoolsa fact which demonstrates the importance of improving the conditions and raising the standards of education in our elementary schools. In connection with this statement Superintendent Skinner lays great emphasis on the necessity of the maintenance of libraries in connection with our public schools; and says that from the beginning of a school career every child should have access to a library which should supplement his school work. As only six out of every one hundred children have the advantages of what we call higher education, the important question arises, What is the duty of the State to the ninety-four per cent.? The Superintendent advises an improvement in the method of teaching spelling and composition; he protests against the promotion out of grammar grades of any pupil who cannot intelligently and accurately express his thoughts in writing. As ninetyfour per cent. of the children educated by the State must acquire their knowledge of arithmetic between the ages of eight and fourteen, the Superintendent believes that at fourteen years of age the child should have included in his studies commercial and business arithmetic, and he considers these as essential as a thorough drill in English. That courses of study

are overcrowded and often beyond the ability of the pupil to master, the Superintendent acknowledges; but he believes also that time wasted between ten and fourteen years of age by children of active minds.

Of the one hundred and fourteen school commissioners elected last November, sixty were re-elected. Ninety-nine of the one hundred and fourteen commissioners have been teachers; ten are college grad uates; twenty are graduates of normal schools; five hold State certificates, and thirty-two have won first-graduate certificates. The report also brings out the deplorable fact that, because of the low salaries paid to our school commissioners, forty-seven have to engage in other occupations. It is to be hoped that before the expiration of the term of the present commissioners legislation will have provided higher salaries. Special recognition is made of the work of the women commissioners of the State. Ninety per cent. of the graduates of the normal schools become teachers. Naturally, the law that has raised the standards of requirements for teachers in our public schools receives the approval of the Superintendent. This law, which is acknowledged to be one of the most progressive passed by the Legislature in many years, establishes a minimum preliminary education for every candidate for a teacher's position, and this embraces practical and theoretical training in pedagogy. The compulsory school law resulted in the arrest of four hundred and forty-three persons in the State holding parental relations to children who were recognized as habitual truants. But the law is made to some degree inoperative because so many communities have no place where truants can be cared for. Educators throughout the State are preparing to appeal to the Legislature for the establishing of one or more State home schools for truants. The increase of teachers' salaries must give satisfaction to all citizens interested in education. In 1885 the average weekly salary of teachers in cities was $16.86; in towns, $7.84. The average weekly salary of the teachers in towns has increased to $9.26; but this average deducts the number of weeks of vacation from the school year. On an

average of fifty-two weeks to the year the salaries paid in towns are but $5.87, and in cities $14.30 per week for fifty-two weeks; or $18.59 for a year of forty weeks. While the tendency is upward, the mortifying fact remains that teachers' wages do not compare with those of other public servants.

The schools in the rural districts occupy a large space in the report, and the Superintendent strongly advocates the township system. The first difficulty encountered in the rural schools is the lack of systematic and businesslike management. These schools cannot be brought to a proper standard until their administration is conducted on some other than the present district school system. In 1860 the waste of public moneys in the support of the rural schools was pointed out by Superintendent Van Dyck. The Superintendent of Education in 1877 followed the example of his predecessor, and urged the substitution of the town system for the present school district system. Superintendent Draper, in 1892, unhesitatingly declared that it was his belief that if the township system of schools were once in operation it would greatly promote the efficiency of those schools. Superintendent Crooker in 1893 said, "The leading educators of the State, irrespective of their political views, stand as a unit for the township system." Horace Mann in 1839 declared that the law of 1789, which authorized the towns in Massachusetts to divide themselves into school districts, was the most unfortunate law on the subject of common schools ever enacted in the State. In 1870 there were fifteen hundred district schools in New York State, with an average daily attendance of less than ten pupils each. In 1896 there were thirty-five hundred such districts. One of the officials of the Department of State Education in his report stated that he visited a school where the teacher sat embroidering because there were no pupils, and an investigation showed that there were no children of school age in that school district. The remedy for this condition has been found, in Massachusetts and several of the other States, in the establishment of good schools in the center of each dis

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