resulted in the death of fourteen persons and the injury of fifty-four. The Inter-State Commerce Commission's report concerning the Westport wreck is now at hand. It says: "To meet the requirements of a situation disclosed by the Bridgeport wreck, similar in all respects to the accident under consideration, no new devices have been installed or seriously investigated, nor have any attempts been made. . . even to experiment with devices intended for the purpose of meeting these emergencies." Perhaps the railway company agrees with Mr. Fagan's illogical criticism in his recent letter to the New York "Times:" " If we relieve the engineer from the duty of watching the signals, ... we simply pass the responsibility along to the man. whose duty it is to keep the automatic apparatus in order.” At all events the railway company has now advertised a reward of ten thousand dollars to the inventor who shall first produce an automatic device that will safely arrest an express steam locomotive that has passed danger signals." Unless we are mistaken, the New Haven road presents no insuperable difficulties to the installation of an adaptation of the Kinsman system, which for years has been in successful operation in the New York City subways and the Hudson Tunnels, bringing untold peace of mind to the millions of passengers who daily travel in safety therein.

Dr. Wiley's Successor

The President has recently exercised the appointing power of his office in filling posts which have very close connection with the life of the people. In appointing a successor to Dr. Harvey W. Wiley to head the Bureau of Chemistry the President had a peculiarly difficult problem. Dr. Wiley's services in the campaign of education which resulted in the enactment of the Pure Food Law, and no less his services in the enforcement of that law, are well known and almost universally recognized with gratitude. In the course of the performance of his duties he did not inspire gratitude in the minds of all, for there were many interests which were opposed to his activities. Moreover, Dr. Wiley, being a man of strong opinions,-encountered strong opinions in opposition to some of his methods and decisions-in many cases from those who were heartily in sympathy with the objects he had in view. Even those, however, who differ with him recog

nize not only Dr. Wiley's sincerity but his ability and remarkable achievements. His career as Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry came to a close in the midst of conflict. Any man following Dr. Wiley would have the difficulty encountered always by the successor of a strong man, and besides would inherit the animosities created in the course of the conflict. As Dr. Wiley's successor President Taft has named Dr. Carl L. Alsberg. Since 1908 Dr. Alsberg has been a chemist in the Bureau of Plant Industry, and has made a specialty of working on plants that are poisonous to live stock. Before that he had been in charge of the Department of Biological Chemistry of the Harvard Medical School. He is a graduate of Columbia University in the class of 1896, and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the Columbia Medical School. He has done research work in Germany, both in Frankfort-on-theMain and in Berlin. He brings to his work an unquestionable devotion to the public welfare, and the sort of efficient honesty that is everywhere needed in the public service. The President has pursued the wise course of promoting to a place of higher responsi bility a public servant who has proved his adherence to high ideals and his fidelity to the public welfare in a lower position. In doing this the President has exemplified in a practical way a procedure which should prevail, and we believe some day will prevail, throughout the Civil Service. Dr. Alsberg's capacity for the task intrusted to him will be severely tested. Public opinion should give him the support that is necessary if he is to have a good opportunity to show his fitness for the difficult post.

The Commission on Industrial Relations

The other instance of the exercise by the President of his appointing power

is his selection of the members of the Commission on Industrial Relations. Our readers will undoubtedly remember that Congress a few months ago established by law a Commission to take up the question of the relations between capital and labor in this country.

That law was passed as the result of the urgency of a group of men and women who are deeply interested in labor questions and the establishment of industrial conditions on a sound basis. These men and women were formed into a committee, and it was

In

through the influence of this committee that Congress passed the act. On that committee were such men as Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay, of Columbia University; Professor Jeremiah W. Jenks, formerly of Cornell and now of the New York University; Dr. Edward T. Devine, of the New York School of Philanthropy; Mr. John A. Kingsbury, of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; Mr. Owen R. Lovejoy, of the National Child Labor Committee. recommending the legislation, President Taft declared that the time was ripe “for a searching inquiry into the subject of industrial relations which shall be official, authoritative, balanced, and well rounded." At the head of this Commission Mr. Taft has appointed Senator Sutherland, of Utah, an able lawyer of the conservative type. Senator Sutherland was one of the majority on the BallingerPinchot Committee that sustained Mr. Ballinger. The other appointees of the Commission include representatives of employers and employees. Those representing employees were suggested by the American Federation of Labor. The appointments are subject to rejection or confirmation by the Senate. At a recent meeting of the committee through which the movement on behalf of the Commission originated, a statement was adopted expressing disappointment at the selections the President had made. As the President would constitute it, the Commission, in the opinion of those who signed this statement, is not such as to promise the sort of inquiry that is needed, though some of the men named are able and distinguished. The committee making this statement note that no woman is named on the Commission, although there are more than six million women wage-earners in the Nation; that there is no economist or social worker to bring to such an inquiry the knowledge acquired by experience in university study and in the work of social organizations, and that "the Commission lacks men of such public prominence in this special field of inquiry as to give assurance that the enlightened public interest, which is the chief interest at stake in this most important task, will be adequately represented." When the question of confirmation comes up in the Senate, the personnel of the Commission should be thoroughly considered, for upon that will largely depend the success or failure of the inquiry with which it is charged.

The Attempted Assassination of Lord Hardinge

assassination.

Last week at Delhi, India, Baron and Baroness Har

His

dinge, the Viceroy and Vicereine, barely escaped They were making their ceremonial entry into Delhi, the new Imperial capital. About a year ago King George V laid the first stones of the new city. previous announcement that the capital of India would be moved to Delhi from Calcutta a purely commercial place-appealed strongly to the native imagination. In Delhi the Hindus see the embodiment of some of their sacred legends which come down to them from the dawn of history. In Delhi the Mohammedans see the ancient and sacred capital of their Mogul emperors. The announcement also appealed to the practical sense of all the people, whether British or Indians. For, unlike Calcutta, the new capital enjoys a central position geographically, is in immediate contact with very many varied types of Indian society, and is a well-known meeting-point of diverse races and creeds. This place is to be the living center of British rule in India. The main criticism of the capital's transfer seems to have come from those, whether natives or British, interested in the prestige of Calcutta. Last week's assassin, who has not yet been found, may have been some Bengali who resented the loss to the province of Bengal of the seat of government of all India. Or he may

have been some Mohammedan fanatic protesting against a British superimposing of a capital on the ancient Mogul capital. Or he may have been moved by some private grievance. Or he may have been simply an irresponsible maniac, unmoved either by fancied public wrong or private grudge. The outrage occurred as Lord and Lady Hardinge were passing through the principal street of Delhi, a long, narrow lane lined with houses mostly only a story high. Thus the assassin, who stood on a roof when he threw the bomb, was only a few feet from the Viceroy and Vicereine in their howdah-or the great box in which persons sit when riding elephants. The howdah was covered with imperial purple drapery decorated with gold lace. In front, between the elephant's ears, sat the driver guiding the animal in the usual way by tapping him on the forehead with a steel spike. Behind the howdah stood an attendant holding over the heads of those within a great parasol, which indicates the royal dignity. As the bomb burst the attendant was instantly

killed, as was a boy up in a tree watching the procession: but the Viceroy, Vicereine, and the driver all but miraculously escaped death; indeed, Lady Hardinge was unharmed. husband and the driver were wounded in many places, the bomb's splinters entering their necks, backs, and shoulders. The howdah was blown to match-wood. As it is an honored British tradition that a ceremony once begun must go on, no matter what happens, Sir Guy Wilson, Financial Member of the Viceroy's Council, took Lord Hardinge's place in the procession. The march was continued to the Durbar camp near the old fort which played a prominent part in the mutiny of 1857. Here were gathered a great number of native chiefs and British officials, who showed intense indignation at the dastardly deed. This is not surprising, for Lord Hardinge has proved to be a popular Viceroy.

The Map of Europe:

Last week was impor

now shrunk to less than a quarter of this size. But the allies would have it now shrink to one-thirtieth of its present size! In other words, they would reduce Turkey from about the size of the State of Missouri to a district about as large as the State of Delaware. The area of Turkey on the mainland of Europe exceeds sixty-five thousand square miles. If the allies' demands are acceded to, the Sultan would be sovereign over only about two thousand square miles in Europe. Since the Congress of Vienna parceled out Napoleon's empire, no nation has been summoned to surrender as much European territory as this. Nor is this all. If we include the Egean Islands, the Turkish territory amounts to over seventy-one thousand square miles. It is proposed that she lose these islands too. They are all now occupied either by Italy as a result of the Italo-Turkish war, or by Greece as a result of the present war. So much for territory. The strategic value of what remains to Tur

of the map of Europe.

In accordance with the traditions of Oriental diplomacy, there was much preliminary skirmishing at the London Conference between the delegates from the allies-Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece-on the one side and from Turkey on the other. Finally the allies announced the following conditions precedent to a conclusion of the present Balkan war. Their demands were:

The cession by Turkey of all the territory west of a line starting from a point east of Rodosto on the Sea of Marmora and ending at the Bay of Malatra on the Black Sea. The peninsula of Gallipoli is excluded. [Thus Turkey is called upon to cede all of Macedonia and almost all of Thrace.]

The cession of all the Ægean Islands.

The cession of all Turkish rights in the island of Crete.

The erection of the province of Albania into an autonomous province under Turkish suzerainty but not sovereignty.

The terms of finance to be agreed on later. Doubtless the allies propose more than they expect ultimately to get. Certainly these terms seem startling to those who have been wont to think of Turkey as intrenched in Europe. It is true that Turkey-in-Europe has greatly shrunk from what it was at the height of its power in the middle of the sixteenth century.

It then dominated Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary, Rumania, and some of the Black Sea northern shore line. It has

sulas of Constantinople and Gallipoli assure to Turkey command, the one of the Bosphorus, the other of the Dardanelles. The desire of the Turks to retain Adrianople is easily understood, whether on sentimental, strategic, commercial, or political grounds. To meet this, the Bulgarians have placed against it their own relinquishment of Rodosto on the Sea of Marmora. Of course, if the Bul-, garians remained at Rodosto, Constantinople would seem to be at their mercy.

The Map of Europe: The Turkish Proposals

At the end of the week the Turkish delegates at London made their counter proposals of peace. As reported, they are as follows:

The retention by Turkey of ail the territory east of a line from the 4gean Sea to the Black Sea [this includes Adrianople and most of Thrace], the territory to continue to be absolutely under Turkish sovereignty.

Autonomy under Turkish suzerainty to be conferred on the territory west of this line. [This includes the rest of Turkey-in-Europe.] ;

Bulgaria to be allowed commercial privileges on the Egean Sea similar to those to be allowed to Servia on the Adriatic.

No war indemnity to be paid by Turkey. Thus while the allies say. Give us practically all Turkey-in-Europe," the Turks reply, We will keep Turkey-in-Europe, but will grant certain privileges." In both sets of demands, it will be noted, stress is laid upon the distinction

"

between sovereignty" and "suzerainty." Sovereignty means actual supremacy; suzerainty generally means something less than absolute power. Thus the Balkan allies offer to recognize Albanian autonomy under the Sultan's suzerainty, but not under his sovereignty. Albania would become what Crete has been in its relation to Turkey; that is to say, the Sultan would be the nominal ruler, but without the political, administrative, and military power which he would have as sovereign. As to the feeling among the peoples involved, that in Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece is reported as being strenuously insistent upon an immediate acceptance of the conditions put forth, otherwise the London Conference would be broken off, the fighting resumed, and the Turk, this time, really swept out of Europe. For such fighting, however, the Turks are in far better condition than at the beginning of the armistice. Hence, on the Turkish side, with this heartening conviction, the demands of the allies were quickly scouted as being both arrogant and impossible. An immediate renewal of the war was called for as préferable to the consideration of anything so humiliating. The Turkish newspapers also unanimously oppose the conditions outlined by the allies, and add that Turkey sent delegates to London to arrange peace, not to commit suicide.'

The Balkan War: Atrocities

While the Peace Conference was in progress last week in London, the Turkish Government repeated to the six great Powers-England, France, Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy-the demand made by it a month ago for a consular inquiry respecting the atrocities alleged to have been committed by Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece in the Turkish territory occupied by them. It is unfortunate that the prowess of these Balkan allies should be sullied by reports of atrocities. We are wont to attribute all such reported outrages to the Turks. Indeed, the massacres in eastern Macedonia by the Turks who fled before the Bulgarian advance, in western Macedonia and southern Albania by those who fled before the Greek advance, and the massacres in central Macedonia by those who fled before the Servian advance, are hardly offset by the later reports of atrocities committed by the Bulgarians and Greeks. According to the correspondent of the London "Times," the

Turks burned a number of villages and put a great number of Christian families to death before the entry of the Bulgarians; this so angered the Bulgarians that, ignoring the promise which had been made to respect the lives of the citizens, they slaughtered a large number of innocent victims. Further light on some of these massacres, says the correspondent, indicates that they were committed by Armenians who joined the Bulgarian army as volunteers. From Salonika, the greatest of the Ægean ports, a dynamite depot was exploded by the Bulgarians, killing many unoffending Mohammedans. It is not necessary to suppose that all these outrages were committed by soldiers, for the armies are followed by men whom the officers do not control. As to the Greeks, their apparently generous agreement, when they captured the city, to the Turkish plea that the native army should be disarmed by its own officers, was unfairly taken advantage of; Turkish soldiers were afterwards found in possession of implements of warfare. This was made the excuse for searching all Turks-the numerous Jews in Salonika, representing half the population, being of course subjected to the same procArms were not the only object of the search as it developed; large numbers of Mohammedans were robbed of objects of value. At nightfall, it is said, the soldiers of the two armies gave themselves up to wholesale looting. Even from the three great mosques of the city-which were once Christian churches and have survived from the fifth and seventh centuries--helpless Mohammedan refugees were rudely taken, robbed of their few possessions, and left, tentless and starving, exposed to cold and rain, amid the filth engendered by the absence of sanitary arrangements. Of course such brutality is disavowed by the heads of both armies. The Greeks are endeavoring to care for the forty thousand refugees in Salonika by a committee at the head of which is their Queen, who, with the King, is now in that city. This committee has adopted effective measures to insure sanitation. All cases of infectious and contagious disease are reported to the authorities, and hospitals for the care of these patients have been opened. The water supply and the municipal scavenging system are being reorganized, and an extensive medical service has been arranged. In other words, civilization seems replacing uncivilized conditions.

ess.

The event

At

Last week Edouard Detaille Edouard Detaille passed away, at the comparatively early age of sixty-four. draws attention to the kind of painting in which he and Meissonier were the most brilliant examples. Of the two names, Meissonier's is the more famous; but Detaille's is also notable. The two men saw much of each other. Detaille was Meissonier's pupil, and the first picture ever exhibited by the disciple represented "A Corner of Meissonier's Studio.' But while other kinds of genre as well as of military life attracted the elder artist, the principal attraction to the younger was that which he made his lifework-a delineation of scenes from a soldier's life, with every detail minutely and truthfully but very smoothly rendered. the very next Salon following the one in which he had exhibited the Meissonier studio scene he exhibited the famous "Halt of Infantry." It instantly attracted the praise of the critics, among them of Edmund About, who, in an article published in the Revue des Deux Mondes," called it "a jewel." The following year Detailie's Repose During Drill" firmly established his position, and he received more commissions than he could execute. Then followed the Franco-German War, giving to the artist a horrible wealth of material. And Detaille knew how to use this material not only to tell his usual martial story but also to awaken sympathy for his beloved France. Take his "Conquerors," for instance, in which German soldiers are carting off furniture from Paris houses the ground is covered with snow; in the distance are the towers of Notre Dame and Saint Sulpice, and the dome of the Invalides. One feels the chill and the desolation and the humiliation of the scene. In this country there are some notable examples of the painter's work—"The Passing Regiment" at the Corcoran Gallery at Washington, for instance, and "A French Cuirassier and 1814 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City. In these pictures we realize anew Henry Houssaye's remark that "Detaille recalls that famous general who said on the eve of a campaign, We are ready, quite ready; we lack not a gaiter button.' Detaille's soldiers are of this sort. Their equipment is complete. The cuirasses are well polished, and the horses conscientiously curried. Not a grain of dust. Their hairs are laid according to rule. The packages are all in order. The sergeant of the

the neglect of the National Legislature, a large amount of bird life, vitally important to the agricultural interests of the whole country, is rapidly diminishing. Congress has persistently refused to pass measures for the preservation of our bird life. Three bills are now pending. While the several States have enacted laws regulating the killing of birds, the temptation for each State to secure a full share of game birds during spring and fall migrations has prevented effective State supervision. Bag limits in nearly all States are far too generous. Conditions under State regulation have been such that experts say that only closed seasons for ten years can save some of our most valuable species from utter extermination. Of the three measures now before Congress, the Committee on Wild Life Protection of the Fourth National Conservation Congress, which met in Indianapolis last October, favors the McLean Bill, providing that all migratory game and insectivorous birds shall hereafter be deemed to be within the custody and protection of the Government of the United States," and that they shall not be destroyed except under restrictive regulations of the Department of Agriculture. There are six hundred and ten species of migratory birds belonging to the whole Nation and undergoing slaughter under sanction of State laws. While the conservation of non-migratory birds on the part of each State is to be hoped for, immediate National legislation in behalf of birds during their northern and southern migratory passages and during their stay in different States is imperative. To this end the Department of Agriculture should be authorized to adopt suitable regulations as to closed seasons and protection, paying due attention to breeding habits, zones, temperature, times and lines of migration. Any one to whom the arguments for the protection of bird life appeal cannot do less than direct the attention of his Congressman to the need of a Federal migratory bird law.