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dians are well pleased with our speedy reply to their request, a reply which will in do much to prevent any possible exclusion h of Americans from British Yukon regions. m Canadian officials say that there is nothing in the treaty between Great Britain and the United States to prevent such action, but that, as a matter of policy, the action would be extremely unlikely.

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The most ambitious Canadian plan for reaching the Klondike is that of a railway extending northward from Sault Ste. Marie, crossing the Canadian Pacific at Missanabie, and reaching James Bay (the southern extension of Hudson Bay) at the mouth of Moose River, the distance being about four hundred miles. From b this point there is a stretch of thirteen hundred miles of open water to Chesterfield Inlet; thence 175 miles of railway d would connect with Great Slave Lake. That Lake and the Mackenzie River give c a stretch of navigable water fourteen hundred miles in length. The Mackenzie delta could be connected by fifty miles of p railway with the Porcupine River, an important tributary of the Yukon. Our own plans of increased transportation are still in an inchoate condition, but they contemplate increased steamer service and t the building of a railway. The most S picturesque method of transportation is proposed in the renewed suggestion of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the well-known Alaskan missionary and recent Moderator of the General Assembly. For years Dr. Jack-1 son has urged an adequate Government appropriation with which to stock Alaska with reindeer. He declares that there are about four hundred thousand square miles of territory in Alaska not suited to agriculture or grazing and without a sufficient supply of food for the Eskimo inhabitants. This region is covered in large part with a long fibrous moss, the natural food of the reindeer. Dr. Jackson's humane scheme would save the Eskimos from extermination by giving them a continual supply of meat, fur clothing, and means of transportation. This latter end is now a more desirable one than ever, since temporarily at least, the problem of overland transportation might be solved by the proposed use of reindeer.

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cities have and what New York must have if she wishes to maintain even her present trade. There is more to be done, however, than merely to improve the present terminal facilities; New York must create new ones. The capacity of the harbor has its limits, and there is already a necessity for the creation of a new harbor. This might be done by making the Harlem River a proper connection between the Hudson River and the Sound, and by establishing a system of docks at Port Morris. The new harbor would not only be deeper and safer, but would actually offer a shorter route to Europe. At Port Morris, too, there is no present crowding, and there would be plenty of room for all the warehouses required. But we are still not at the root of the matter. The Erie Canal connects the port of New York with the Great Lakes. That connection has become ridiculously deficient. To be sure, the canal is now being enlarged at a cost of $9,000,000, granted by a direct vote of the people, but this is only a drop in the bucket. The canal's carrying capacity should be augmented so as to equal that of the five great trunk lines that parallel it. It is said that traffic is possible by this waterway at a mill per ton per mile, and that the railways need five times that sum to keep running. Again, while the five railways are exacting rates on food products to enable them to pay interest on a capitalization aggregating five hundred million dollars and a proportionate amount for maintenance, there are no fixed charges on the canals, and the State pays for its maintenance.

Last year's foreign trade in breadstuffs was notable: compared with the previous fiscal year, the increase was more than $56,000,000, and compared with two years ago the increase is nearly $83,000,000. The aggregate value of the year's shipments was almost $200,000,000. Of this amount, wheat represented a value of $116,000,000, as against $91,000,000 for the last fiscal year, and $95,000,000 in 1894-5, but as against larger exports during the three fiscal years preceding. As to quantity, we exported 145,000,000 bushels, as compared with 126,000,000 in 1895-6, 144,000,000 in 1894-5, but as

against larger exports in 1891-2, 1892–3, and 1893-4. Regarding price, the average for the year just closed was something over 75 cents a bushel, as against 65% cents, 57% cents, and 67 cents for the three previous years; with those exceptions, however, the price for 1896-7 is the lowest of any. Exports of corn during the fiscal year reached 177,000,000 bushels, 77,000,000 more than in the previous year, and about 150,000,000 more than the exports two years ago. The vast increase of corn puts its total more than thirty million bushels in excess of the wheat exports. The "Commercial and Financial Chronicle " informs us that only once before have corn exports reached the 100,000,000 bushel mark, but the total for last year is seven-tenths more than the total of that high record. The average price of corn during the last fiscal year was slightly more than thirty cents a bushel, the lowest mark in two decades. The increase in the quantity exported, however, adds to the aggregate value of the shipments; even at the low price the total for the fiscal year was $54,000,000, an increase of $16,000,000 as compared with the preceding year. The value of oats, barley, and rye exceeded $20,000,000 as compared with only $7,000,000 for the preceding year.

The report of the Illinois Factory Inspector, Mrs. Florence Kelley, of Hull House, contains this year as last, most important statistics bearing upon the employment of children. The Illinois Factory Law, passed four years ago, prohibits the employment of children under fourteen years of age in factories or workshops, but imposes no regulations upon mercantile establishments. In the factories the employment of little children seems to have been pretty effectually prohibited. Out of 769 convictions obtained against employers last year, only fifty-eight were for the employment of children under the legal age, and out of the two hundred thousand employees in the factories inspected, only 31⁄2 per cent. were under sixteen years of age. In 1893 the per cent age of employees under sixteen was 8. This, certainly, is a most satisfactory advance. A State in which so few children under sixteen are in the workshops is

certain to be a State in which a very high
level of popular education will soon be
secured. To hasten the attainment of the
end, however, there is great need that
stores as well as shops be comprehended
under the provisions of the Factory Law.
That which is of the greatest value in the
report before us is the exhibit it gives of
the earnings of the children employed in
the dry goods stores of Chicago. The
conditions in fourteen stores of different
grades were investigated, and the homes
of 302 children fourteen years old or less
were visited. Of these 302 children, only
nine received three dollars a week-the
highest wages paid. The average wages
were about $2.25 a week. "From their
wages," says the report " 182 children are
obliged to deduct car-fares.
dren do not use the cars.
who live in the first ward
miles a day in additon to the incessant
running of the work-hours. Only thirty-
three ride at school-children's rate-thirty-

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The events of last week produced but little change in the position of the miners' strike. In Southern Illinois a few more mines were shut down, the men yielding to the solicitations of striking fellow-workmen, who marched in a body from mine to mine. This kind of crusade has also been tried with some success in Pennsylvania, where all the important mines seem to be closed except those of the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, of which Mr. De Armitt is the president and Mr. Carnegie is said to be the principal stockholder. An organized advance upon these mines is said to be planned, but its success seems more than doubtful. The company is said to be armed with injunctions forbidding the trades-union_officials to enter upon its

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evil has been largely averted by diligent efforts on the part of the authorities to make or find work; in others the law has been obeyed only in one part and the officers have neglected to find a market for such manufactures as the law allows. There is no need of trying to characterize the general condition of things. No invective can strengthen the terrible force of the simple facts. The Legislature should make its first duty the righting of this wrong.

New York is the center of interest now to all people who believe in improved municipal government. The close of the year will witness the close of the administration of Mayor Strong, who was supported as a candidate by the reform element in the city, irrespective of party. The most careless observer is impressed with the concrete results achieved by an honest administration. First among these must be put the decrease in the city's death-rate. This decrease is due to many causesfirst to clean streets, and the more sanitary disposal of the garbage no longer left in the tenement-house districts until it becomes offensive. The clean streets have had a reflective influence, and the houses in the tenement-house districts are cleaner. The medical inspection of the schools, in operation now but three months, has proved what a source of illness and death the schools were. Of the 63,812 pupils examined, over 4,000 were excluded. These 4,000 were suffering from all forms of contagious disease peculiar to childhood. Another important achievement is the formulation of plans for bathhouses and public comfort stations. legal requirement that these baths should be placed only on land owned by the city is the reason why the close of the present administration may not witness this triumph of municipal wisdom-municipal bath-houses in use. The parks of the city are too small to justify the relinquishing of so much space as a properly equipped bath requires. The prospect is that immediate steps will be taken to erect the first bath on land used by the city for storage purposes, and that ground will be broken at an early date on the lower East Side in a section of the city where a bathhouse is most needed.

The small parks are now an established fact. This is due to the aroused sentiment of the citizens of the city, who were forced, through the work of the Tenement-House Commission, to realize the great need of New York's tenement-house population for breathing-space. The investigations of this Commission called attention to the condition of groups of buildings in the regions where overcrowding was the greatest, and resulted in the condemnation of these buildings by the Department of Health, thus accomplishing two desirable ends, the demolition of unsanitary buildings, and the acquiring of land for small parks in the regions where they are most needed. One recreation pier is in use, and two more will be opened at once-another proof of the value of aroused public sentiment and moral in. telligence in improving the conditions of a city. The opportunity for this form of pleasure-ground has always existed in New York, with its magnificent waterfront. It took the aroused sense of the citizens to utilize this opportunity.

The New York public schools are slowly recovering from the effects of stupid, extravagant, unpedagogical administration. The plans of the Board of Education for the coming year are positive assurance of the future progress of the educational system of the Greater New York. The establishment of High Schools; the erection of nineteen new buildings; the enlargement of twelve old buildings; care for the health of the pupils; the abolition of the pernicious trustee system, with its evils of local control; the appointThe ment of several university men to the Board, and the natural result of raising the requirements for teachers, especially principals, are but a few of the marks of progress under a reform administration. The police also have made great strides, in spite of internal dissensions in the Board that have prevented the progress that was very possible. At least, to-day the police command the respect of the common people. The departments calling for unskilled labor are no longer used to pay the political debts of ward politicians, but demand honest labor, and give in return an assurance of work so long as it is done at the required standard. The

pitals.

moral effect is seen by those in a position persons
to contrast the old and the new in munici-
pal departmental administration. In short,
generally speaking, it may be said that
those departments the conduct of which
most closely affects the life of the people
have been administered in the most liberal
spirit and with the closest economy. The
experiment of non-partisan administration
of the city affairs has not yet been tried
fully; but, so far as tried, it promises the
reduction, if not the entire elimination of
the evils inseparable from the control of
three millions of people within a limited

area.

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Jean Ingelow, the poet and novelist, had the rare gift of inspiring her readers with personal sympathy and affection. Her work, while not of the highest order, critically considered, was by no means without some excellent technical as well as popular qualities. Her lyric vein was genuine, if slender; in fiction-writing she had humor, observation, and true feeling. No bill t In all her best writing there was a pervasive kindliness of spirit and gentleness of heart that reflected her own simple, sincere nature. Such daintily-phrased poems as the "Songs of Seven," "Binding Sheaves" and "The Laverock in the Lift" will long and deservedly survive their author in the popular anthologies and in the esteem of the common people. The dramatic touch in Miss Ingelow's best known poem, "High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire," has made it more familiar than these lyrics, which are really of a higher degree of poetic art. The American liking for Miss Ingelow's poems is shown by the fact that 100,000 copies of the poems have been sold here. Of her novels, "Off the Skelligs" is the only one likely to have anything like a permanent place in literature, but many of her short stories and sketches are charming. Miss Ingelow had long lived in Kensington, which is full of delightful literary and historical associations, and there she died on Tuesday of last week at the age of sixty-seven. A pleasant memory, connected with her residence there, lies in the fact that three times a week she gave what she called a "copyright dinner (the fund being taken from her book copyright receipts) to twelve needy

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