some were directors of what is known as rural extension work in home economics-that is to say, teachers who go out into farming communities and hold classes composed of the wives and daughters of neighboring farmers; some were municipal visiting housekeepers-teachers who go into the homes of immigrants and teach home economics to them; some were directors of various types of institutional households; and some were wives and mothers, housekeepers and homemakers. It was a significant fact that among the speakers there were a number of men, and that they, without exception, whatever their several subjects, either began or ended their addresses with some statement as to the necessity that men, particularly men in America, should take a more active interest in household affairs and make a more serious effort to ally the interests of the home to those of the community. Though there were more women than men present, yet the meeting was a meeting of men and women concerned, and concerned equally, with the problems which have to do with economics in American homes. The meeting lasted for a week; it held two regular sessions a day, and a considerable number of extra conferences and assemblies of one kind or another. Unlike many a schedule, the schedule for this meeting was so skillfully planned that no two sessions, conferences, or assemblies conflicted; it never happened that any person was expected to be in two places at once, or to do two things at the same time. The Association had provided against this by choosing for its Secretary Miss Isabel Ely Lord, Director of the School of Household Science and Arts of Pratt Institute, who in her daily work has demonstrated to her students that one of the kinds of ability most needed by housekeepers and homemakers is executive ability-the ability to "plan a day in such wise that no hour is empty and no hour is too full.

The Various Sides of the Home

The general subject was discussed under such divisions as the following: The Social Side of Home Economics, the Industrial Side, the Extension Side, the Educational Side, the Housekeeper's Side, and the Institutional Side. The speakers along these varying lines were specialists. But members particularly interested in the problems of Domestic Science as applied to

the tenements of large cities were to be seen, not only at the sessions devoted to that particular aspect of the general subject, but also at the sessions relating to Home Economics on the farm, and vice versa. Members interested in teaching Home Economics in the schools not only came to the sessions scheduled under "Educational Side," but were also present at sessions having to do with Home Economics in hotels and institutions, and vice versa. It was even more interesting to note that all the members, whatever their several forms of work in connection with Home Economics, were invariably present whenever any problem whatsoever on what was called the " Housekeeper's Side" was to be discussed. Moreover, specialists, while interested in discussing the general subject, or some particular phase of it, with other specialists, appeared to be equally willing to talk it over with any person interested, however far from being a specialist along that or any other line. In short, the meeting really was a meeting; the persons present really "met." Those who are accustomed to "annual meetings" of one kind or another need not to be told that this is not always, nor even usually, the case. Why was it so on the occasion of the annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association? In more than one of the addresses given-notably in that of Miss Sarah Louise Arnold, Dean of Simmons College and President of the American Home Economics Association, and in that of Dr. George E. Vincent, President of the University of Minnesota, and in that of Dr. Liberty Hyde Bailey, Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University-an answer to this question might be found. These speakers put especial stress on the fact that, whatever other interests any person or group of persons in America may have, particularly any group of highly intelligent persons, the paramount interest of such a group is the home and its important function in the State. The group at Cornell was a group of Americans of signally high intelligence-its chief interest was, as a matter of course, the home and its importance.

day. But one should also think of the wider participation of the celebration as another result. The Fourth of July, 1913, was noteworthy in both results. Instead of being synonymous with firecrackers and with patriotic sentiments expressed only in terms of noise, the day this year was synonymous with far more impressive rejoicings. The firecracker and torpedo era seems to have passed, if we may believe the returns already at hand from eight such important and representative cities as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. Their combined population is something over 11,000,000. On July 4, 1908, there were, according to statistics published in the daily press, in those communities twenty-five persons killed and six hundred and seventy persons injured. On July 4, 1913, there were none killed and a hundred and forty-three injured. Another indication of the progress of a "safe and sane Fourth" is found in the records of the fire prevention bureaus, which have the duty of preventing the unlicensed sale of fireworks. Last year there were about four thousand violators of the law in New York City; this year, only about three hundred. The hospital records also gave evidence of a better Fourth. In our cities the hospitals used to be crowded with emergency cases; now there are practically no cases. If the day has been curtailed in one way, it has been enlarged in another. Games have taken the place of firecrackers and miniature cannons. In New York City, for instance, nearly forty thousand men, representing practically every athletic organization in the city, competed at one or another of the thirty-five centers at which the games were held. Despite this enormous outpouring of spectators, not a single accident marred the day. Never were such crowds seen in the city, and never was there such a display as the lighting of the city by no less than seventeen thousand eightcandle power lamps at fifteen display stations. The same emphasis was observed in other cities and towns, and even in rural villages where the new order has been established. Materially and morally, therefore, the new Fourth of July is worth a great many of the old.

nines, like the audiences on the "bleachers " as well as in the grand-stands, were willing to give the foreigners a chance, of course. But the feeling towards the foreigners, it was evident, was sometimes one of cynicism. What the Chinese play ball ? And the Chinese from such a hot place as Hawaii ? But they did play ball. Somewhat more stocky than the Japanese, they seemed as firm and steely in muscle as any Japanese. No one supposed the Chinese could run; they were thought to be too clumsy. But they did run. Their running was really wonderful. In all the tricks of the game, too, they had apparently nothing to learn from Americans. The result was that in nearly every instance the American nines, which supposed they would have a "walkover," found that the "walkover" was not at all easy. In a number of cases American nines were surprised by being defeated, and roundly defeated, by the Chinese. Individually, these Chinese seem fairly well Americanized save for one thing. In two or three cases when they were hit by pitched balls, or fell while running bases, they made more of it than our boys usually do. Our students are now so hardened by football as apparently to regard bruised bones and wrenched tendons as a part of the day's work. In the game between the Chinese and the Williams College boys, one of the latter happened to get hit in the leg by a ball and was helped off the field by a Chinese-an indication of the better understanding and more fraternal relations which must come between East and West, of which much is being said as the great event of our coming age. A contribution to that understanding may be the realization by our coming generation that the youth of the East are. after all, not men of no muscle, flabby men, mollycoddles.

Art in Chicago

Some people who do not know Chicago find humor in the suggestion that there are evidences there of the appreciation of art. Such persons might well glance at the Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Chicago Art Institute. From it we learn that over 1,080,000 visited the Institute during the twelvemonth just closed. Such a record is not only the highest in the history of the Institute, but, we believe, for any museum of art in Europe or America. At the Institute over a hundred thousand persons attended the lectures, and no less than 77,000 visited

the library. At the Institute's schools of art there were nearly three thousand students. Such figures are eloquent of what art means to the people of Chicago in general, and what the Chicago Art Institute in particular is accomplishing. If the Annual Report of the Institute's Trustees is interesting, so is the Annual Report of the Institute's Director, Mr. William M. R. French, and especially with regard to the exhibitions of contemporary foreign art held during the past year at the Institute. There have been many such exhibitions, of which the most talked about was the so-called "Cubist show." The question has been raised, says Mr. French, whether the Art Institute ought to exhibit work of so extreme and radical a character; indeed, whether an established art museum ought not to adhere to recognized standards, and refuse to exhibit works which may represent but a small and eccentric group. The Chicago Art Institute, however, always liberal in policy, has been willing to give a hearing to strange and even heretical doctrines, because, as Mr. French asserts, it relies on the inherent ability of the truth ultimately to prevail. The curiosity of art circles in Chicago was much excited by the attention paid in Paris and New York to the various developments of modernist art. There was no prospect of the works being seen in Chicago unless the Art Institute exhibited them. It did, and the exhibition strikingly illustrated the advantages of publicity. "The exhibition has come and gone," writes Mr. French; "the radicals have been given the opportunity of exhibiting them in the most advantageous manner. The public curiosity is satisfied; everybody now knows the worst and the best, and even debate has exhausted itself. No bad results are perceptible." Why? Because, as Mr. French answers, scarcely anybody took the more extreme parts of the exhibition seriously. Even the art students, supposed to be very susceptible to passing influences, were, he declares, not in the least affected. Such comment is not only interesting but extremely instructive.

New York have done much for their city; but in the way of providing additional playgrounds there is a great opportunity for those with means to earn the gratitude of future generations. These playgrounds could be equipped and endowed either by the donor or by the city, and, if desired, could bear the name of the donor. To the average New Yorker the "park" means either Central or Prospect Park; but these form only a small percentage of the city's park area, which includes between seven and eight thousand acres of park land and many miles of parkways and boulevards, extending from Yonkers on the north to the south of Staten Island, and easterly to the city limits beyond Flushing, Long Island; including, in short, all of Greater New York, over which the city landscape architect exercises æsthetic and technical jurisdiction. Much of this tract is still awaiting the development that will make it beautiful through art and special adaptability to the needs of the people; and here the creative and constructive work of Mr. Carl F. Pilat, whose recent appointment as city landscape architect was lately noted in The Outlook, will lie. Central and Prospect Parks are the finished product; they represent two of the finest examples of the landscape architect's art. Their value as a source of inspiration and recreation in a large sense for brains and bodies worn in the city's struggle for existence is incalculable; in preserving their beauty New York can silence any accusations of a lack of ideality in her city life.

A brief résumé of some of New York's distinctive park features will be of interest; some are complete, some in process of construction, still others existing as yet only in the imagination of those who are to give their beauty body and form through art and skill. In Brooklyn, for instance, in addition to Prospect Park, there is the newly acquired "Dreamland Park" of Coney Island, where work has not yet begun. Bronx Borough is particularly rich, with a park and parkway area of 4,148 acres, including Van Cortlandt Park's fine golf course, and the parade ground. developed primarily for the use of the National Guard of New York, but on which in summer ten thousand people daily find recreation in playing baseball, cricket, lacrosse, and other games. The Botanical and Zoological Gardens, as well as Pelham Bay Park, with its

New York's Parks that Are and Are to Be

shore line of over ten miles, are in this Borough. Queens Borough, Long Island, has the newly acquired Rockaway Beach or "Delawana Park," not yet constructed, and much natural beauty in its park reservations. In Manhattan Borough proper, work is under way for the extension northward of Riverside Drive, the covering of all tracks of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad along the Hudson on the west side of Riverside Park. It is also proposed to construct a boulevard through Flushing to the city line which will provide an ample and effective entrance and exit for New York to the north shore of Long Island.

Daily

Vacation Bible Schools

A dozen years ago Robert G. Boville started the Daily Vacation Bible School Movement in New York City. His attention had been drawn to the need of bringing together idle children, idle churches, and idle students. He saw that

if children were taken off the streets in summer their lives would be safer, their habits would be better, and their parents would be freer from anxiety. He noted that it would be well to keep the children's minds and hands busy, to eliminate quarrels in their games, and to instill patriotism. He also surmised that as many Bible lessons could be taught in six weeks as the ordinary Sundayschool teaches in seven months, and that for many children the opportunity he had in mind might be their only opportunity for such knowledge. He began his summer schools by obtaining permission to open five church buildings, and there he provided that manual work, organized play, and Bible study should go hand in hand to as many children as could be accommodated. From the start the schools were successful, and now in New York City the churches of every communion are represented. Before long there came a call from other cities for the introduction of these schools. Twenty-four cities now have them. There are one hundred and sixty schools altogether, cared for by over seven hundred teachers, and providing for more than thirty-eight thousand children. A fully equipped school has four student teachers, regularly employed and paid-alert college men and women inspired with the spirit of social service. One student teacher serves as principal, and the three others have charge respectively of the music, industrial, and kindergarten departments.

Such

interest is taken by the children that, in order to provide more schools, they contributed last summer about four hundred and fifty dollars in pennies, and plan this summer to raise a thousand dollars. Such a contribution by such children should challenge the generosity of those who want this movement extended. Contributions may be sent to Mr. J. Adams Brown, 40 Bible House, New York City. The demand for extension comes from at least fifty communities in the South and West, from the Pennsylvania coal districts, and from Eastern industrial centers.

Honor Among Thieves

Probably the most remarkable example of self-government in the world to-day is to be found in the Iwahig Penal Colony on the Island of As Palawan, one of the Philippine Islands. has already been noted briefly in The Ontlook, at the instance of Governor-General Cameron Forbes, a friend of William R. George and a believer in his Junior Republics, the Junior Republic principles of selfsupport and self-government have been applied to this colony of supposedly dangerous and desperate adult criminals. Eighty per cent of these convicts were convicted of such crimes as brigandage, robbery, homicide, and murder. The island is a tract of three hundred and sixty square miles. There are in the neighborhood of one thousand convicts, with only five American officers and eight natives themselves ex-convicts-to look after them. The officers are not permitted to carry firearms, nor are there jails or guardhouses. Nevertheless, all is as peaceful and orderly as in any well-regulated village, and the colony. has gradually become self-supporting.

Twenty-eight Pennsylvania cities will go on a commission government basis on the first of next January as the result of the passage of the Clark Bill by the Pennsylvania Legislature. Only thirteen votes were cast against this measure in the House, the Philadelphia members co-operating heartily with the representatives of the second and third class cities in promoting the passage of the bill. There is one important feature of this which is to be noted with interest and satisfaction, in that it admits of the adoption of the "business manager plan.” In one-half of the cities of the third class the bill as finally amended provides that the

Commission Government in Pennsylvania

Mayor shall receive $500 per annum and each Councilman $250. In the twelve larger cities the salaries of the Council are from $2,000 to $2,500 each. The salaries of succeeding Councils may be fixed by ordinance, thus providing for expert management without adding largely to the cost of administration. It is possible under the provisions of the bill affecting salaries to adjust them so as to admit of the adoption of the business manager plan. The passage of the bill represents the conclusion of a four-year campaign in which the League of ThirdClass Cities bore a share; but the brunt of the burden was borne by one man, Mr. A. M. Fuller, of Meadville, who has worked indefatigably, and with great intelligence and persistency, to promote the cause to which he has unreservedly devoted himself. If sufficient interest is aroused in the boroughs, which number 624 in Pennsylvania, and which range in population from 500 to 10,000, Mr. Fuller may continue the work so as to extend the commission government plan to them. If the Pennsylvania cities go on a commission government basis, it will bring the number of such cities in the United States up to over three hundred.

Those who love to walk in England Box Hill in the delightful Sussex country know Box Hill. They will be interested in the suggestion that the Hill should be purchased and dedicated to the memory of George Meredith. It was at Box Hill that Meredith lived and wrote and died. Surely such a memorial would be a fitting one. But other people are connected with Box Hill. Nelson stayed at the inn at its foot before he left England to take up his command at Trafalgar in 1805. Keats used to walk up the Hill by moonlight, and wrote " Endymion” there. The homes of John Evelyn and Fanny Burney are close at hand. Were Box Hill transformed into a public memorial park it would perhaps not be more associated in the minds of students of history and literature with certain notable people than it is now, but the very fact of the memorial might introduce those notable people to many bank holiday trampers and other visitors of the sort we know as "the man in the street." Incidentally we may add that the view across the stretch of down is a famous view, and that the box trees covering the slopes of the Hill are among the finest in all England.

A LOOK FORWARD

Mr. O. C. Barber's article in this issue is presented to our readers not because we agree with all that Mr. Barber says-on the contrary, we disagree with much of it-but because it is a forceful presentation of facts which ought to have public attention, and because the arguments which these facts are used to support are such as to command either assent or disproof.

Without undertaking to comment in detail on what Mr. Barber says, we state here our opinion on certain points he raises :

No one class of men should be blamed for the evil consequences of the faults of our people as a whole.

Extravagance and wastefulness are National traits, and corporation managers and big business interests ought not to be held solely responsible for wasteful and extravagant practices to which they have been trained by a National habit, or for taking shrewd advantage of popular carelessness and prodigality.

The present railway managers are not essentially different from other men. Some may be crooked, some are certainly unwise, and some are both wise and straight. It is not right to lump all railway managers together, and hold all responsible for the misdeeds or mistakes of some.

That the overcapitalization of American railways is due in part to recent action has been made plain by the findings of the InterState Commerce Commission, reported elsewhere in this issue, concerning the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. On the other hand, a great deal of this overcapitalization is due to bad practices of the past which to-day are much less frequent. How far the penalty for the wrongs perpetrated by the railways in the past should be visited upon the owners of railway property in the present is a question not lightly to be answered. We do not believe the American view of what is fair play would agree with any plan that would render the present holders of railway stock the only or even the chief sufferers for the result of conditions which were allowed by the whole people.

Whatever may be the ultimate outcome, it seems to us that there is no immediate prospect of Government ownership and operation of inter-State railways. The United States is trying the experiment of Government regulation; it has proved that under such regula