department of hygiene of the University of Pennsylvania, and author of the famous Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office (1880), was appointed superintendent of the consolidated New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations (Vol. 5, p. 141).

Bishop Henry C. Potter of New York in March was appointed select preacher to the University of Cambridge, England, for the month

of May, 1897.

The two indictments for forgery against Erastus Wiman of New York, on one of which he was convicted in June, 1894, were dismissed February 10 by Judge McMahon in the court of general sessions. This is the end of a long-fought case, in which all efforts to prove criminal intent on Mr. Wiman's part have failed (Vol. 4, pp. 159, 361, 619; Vol. 5, pp. 145, 912).

On February 25 Miss Elizabeth M. Flagler, daughter of General D. W. Flagler, chief of ordnance, NEW UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY. United States army, was convicted, on her own plea of guilty, of involuntary manslaughter in having caused the death, by shooting, on August 2, 1895, of Ernest Green, a colored boy, whom she suspected of stealing fruit from her father's orchard. Her intention was merely to frighten the boy by firing in the air. She was sentenced to a fine of $500 and a nominal imprisonment of three hours.

By the death of Governor F. T. Greenhalge of Massachusetts on March 5, the duties and powers of the office of governor devolved, under the constitution, upon Lieutenant-Governor Roger Wolcott.

On March 6 the judgment of $40,000 damages obtained last year by W. R. Laidlaw against Russell Sage of New

York city (Vol. 5, p. 388), was affirmed by the appellate division of the state supreme court.

The Stanford Case.-On March 1 the United States supreme court finally sustained the decisions of the lower courts against the United States government and in favor of the estate of the late Senator Leland Stanford of California. The suit, it will be remembered, was brought by the government to recover something over $15,000,000, Mr. Stanford's proportion, as a stockholder of the Central Pacific railroad, of the alleged liability of the corporation to the United States for bonds advanced to it by the government.

The suit was originally begun in 1894 in the United States circuit court for the southern district of California (Vol. 4, p. 376). Both in that court and in the circuit court of appeals, the government was defeated (Vol. 5, pp. 387, 912).

The supreme court decision, announced by Justice Harlan, is summarized thus:

"The justice said that the acts of congress of 1862, 1864, and 1865 all related to one subject, and must be considered as a whole when their application to that subject is to be learned. The acts of 1862 and 1864 provided for the sale of the railroads and their property in case the corporations failed to pay the bonds, as the full extent of the protection congress deemed it necessary to make for the repayment of its debts by the companies.

"No one of these acts contains a clause imposing personal liability upon stockholders for the debts of the corporation. Congress should have done so but failed, and stockholders therefore are not to be held liable. The state laws of California regulating the personal liability of stockholders, said the justice, could not be held to apply, except upon the theory that congress intended to require a greater security for the loan to the Central Pacific than for that to the Union Pacific, and there was no evidence in the legislation of any intent to make such discrimination."

Cometallism.-That the currency laws of the United States need revision, no one denies. For several years the evils of the present complicated monetary system have been impressing themselves on the people. Much time has been spent in discussion both in congress and throughout the country-with little tangible result save that of increasing sectional and factional animosities. No subject is more intimately bound up with the welfare of our land, and none is more worthy of careful study.

Interest in the project to which the name "cometallism" has been given-the mechanical joining together of both gold and silver in a single coinage unit, which shall be the standard of value and be made legal tender-has been revived by a favorable contribution on the subject,

AFFAIRS IN AMERICA.

1st Qr., 1896.

which appeared in the New York Engineering and Mining Journal of date March 7, from the pen of I. W. Sylvester of the United States Assay Office:

Space forbids even a summary of the article here; but it is pointed out that the object aimed at is rency which, by combining the two metals, gold and silver, in one "to produce a metallic curunit of value, should make our financial system more truly serviceable to our people, reconcile now antagonistic opinions, and compel allegiance to that constitutional interpretation which recognizes both gold and silver as money, subordinating neither."

The distinction between cometallism and bimetallism is indicated in part thus: Bimetallism is the free coinage of two entirely independent metallic dollars or units of value, each of which by law is made a legal tender in payment of all debts, both being nominally of the same value, and intended to be interchangeable each for the other. This system places the choice of metals in the payment of any debt entirely in the debtor's hands. provides for the creation of but one standard of value, the creation of * * Cometallism, on the contrary, but one dollar, one unit of account. This is made by uniting in the

*

same coin a definite number of grains of each metal; and when a creditor has paid to him a certain number of dollars, he receives a certain number of grains or ounces of gold and a certain number of grains or ounces of silver. There is no choice of dollars open to a debtor's selection; there is no particular kind of dollar a creditor can demand, for the debtor must pay and the creditor must receive the dollar prescribed by law-the cometallic dollar containing the due proportion of each metal. little; its value will be regulated by the laws of trade and be noted This dollar may be worth much or in the decline or the appreciation of prices; but at whatever value it passes, its value will be just and correct because valued by the people themselves in their marts of trade."

A paper dealing with the same subject, and presenting a plan formulated by Mr. Oliver S. Garretson of Buffalo, N. Y., was published in CURRENT HISTORY at the time of the financial upheaval of 1893 (Vol. 3, opposite p. 438). The earliest pamphlet which has come to our notice, outlining a scheme of cometallism, was published in 1885, by Nicholas Veeder of Pittsburg, Penn.

The reader will form his own opinions as to the advantages claimed for cometallism. more thoughtful study of the scheme will at least tend to A wider discussion and promote a correct solution of the vexed monetary problem.

The Manufacturers' Association.-A convention of the National Association of Manufacturers was held in Chicago, Ill., January 21-23. The attendance represented every important manufacturing state in the Union. The following principles indicate the lines upon which the association is working:

"To the largest possible extent our home market should be retained and supplied by our own producers, and our foreign trade re

lations should be extended in every direction and manner not inconsistent therewith.

"The principle of reciprocity should be embodied in national legislation, in accordance with the requirements of equity, so that reciprocal trade relations between the United States and foreign countries may be developed and extended.

"Believing that ships sailing under the flag of the United States should carry our entire maritime commerce, and in view of the injury thereto by subsidized foreign shipping, we declare in favor of a judicious system of subsidies as a means to the complete restoration and extension of our merchant marine.

"The Nicaragua canal being essential to the commerce of the United States and of national importance, we favor its construction and operation under the control of the federal government.

"Our natural and artificial waterways should be improved and extended by the federal government to the full needs of commerce, connecting the great lakes with the rivers of the Mississippi valley and the Atlantic seaboard."

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To further these objects the executive committee was directed to appoint a number of sub-committees, including a committee to place expert commercial agents in all markets covered by the agents of the national board of trade of Great Britain, and at such other points as may seem expedient;" a committee "to secure such legislation as will create a new member of the cabinet, to be known as secretary of commerce and manufactures" (see account of proceedings in congress, p. 128); and a committee "on re-establishment of treaties of reciprocity."

The chief officers of the association are Theodore C. Search of Philadelphia, Penn., president; Robert Laidlaw of Cincinnati, O., treasurer; E. P. Wilson of Cincinnati, secretary; and twelve vice-presidents, including Warner Miller of New York city.

The St. Paul " Stranded.-Early on the morning of January 25 the American liner St. Paul went ashore in a dense fog on the New Jersey coast opposite Long Branch. For a time during the passage from Europe, the St. Paul and the Cunard Line steamer Campania had been in company with each other, and for some reason both ships got about fifteen miles south of their reckoning. The passengers and mail from the St. Paul were safely landed; but for ten days all efforts to drag the ship off the sands proved unavailing, and it was not until February 4 that she was finally floated at high tide. The ship sustained practically no damage. The cost of salvage amounted to about $100,000. Captain Jamison was fully exonerated from blame for the accident by the board of United States inspectors of steam vessels.

Miscellaneous.-The elegant new marble clearing house of the Associated Banks of New York city, on Cedar street, was formally dedicated January 15.

At a meeting of the trustees of Columbia College, New

York city, February 3, the following resolution changing the name of the institution was unanimously adopted:

"Resolved. That in all official publications hereafter issued by or under authority of the trustees, all the departments of instruction and research maintained and managed by this corporation may, for convenience, be designated collectively as Columbia University;' and the School of Arts, as the same is now known and described, may hereafter be designated as Columbia College' or 'The College.'

On March 19 the name of the University of the City of New York was changed by the state board of regents to "New York University.

On February 18 it was reported, that owing to the checking of the current in the Niagara river by the combined forces of ice and wind, the Cave of the Winds" at Niagara Falls was practically dry-for the first time in about fifty years.

On February 29 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, one of the oldest corporations in American railroad history, passed into the hands of receivers. The immediate cause was the inability of the directors to raise about $400,000 to pay interest charges due March 1. The result is attributed to years of mismanagement.

A statue of Father Marquette, Jesuit missionary and explorer, who died in 1675, was unveiled in Statuary Hall of the capitol at Washington, February 29. It is the purpose of the state of Wisconsin to present the statue to the government. The American Protective Association opposes the acceptance of the statue by congress, and a joint resolution for its removal from the capitol and return to its donors was introduced in the house by Representative Linton of Michigan, February 29.

About April 1, by a close decision of the United States supreme court (the vote standing five to four), the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission were greatly increased. Its inability to compel railroad officials to testify to anything tending to incriminate themselves is now removed. In spite of the fifth amendment of the federal constitution declaring that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," and in spite of the act of congress of February 11, 1893, exempting any person from prosecution on account of any transaction concerning which he may testify before the commission, it is now decided that officials must testify even though their testimony incriminate themselves.

Justice Brown rendered the opinion, which was concurred in by Chief Justice Fuller, and Justices Harlan, Brewer, and Peckham.