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than is generally supposed. New York State, for instance, a State which permits only onefifth of its electorate to vote upon the liquor question, put out of business this last fall over six hundred liquor-selling places. This is two-thirds as many as were closed by Nebraska's vote for State-wide prohibition, nearly as many as went out of business in the entire State of Virginia on November 1, and about three times as many as will be closed by the vote in South Dakota at the last election.

The prohibition forces in New York are now united upon the passage of the Optional Prohibition Remonstrance Bill, which has already been described and strongly commended in these pages. The prohibition forces have also decided to support a Statewide prohibition referendum bill. Both bills will be simultaneously introduced in the Senate and the Assembly in New York and will be given a joint hearing.

It seems to us that the Optional Prohibition Remonstrance Bill, which gives to both men and women of the State a real voice as to whether or not the liquor business shall be permitted to continue, is as advanced a measure as is at present practical.

It repre

sents the result of the legislative experience of the Anti-Saloon League in many States and the practical experience of many of those upon whom has fallen the responsibility of enforcing the liquor laws of the country.

THE APPROACHING MUNICIPAL
CAMPAIGN IN NEW YORK

A news article in the New York "Tribune" is authority for the statement that Republican leaders in New York City are preparing to support Mayor Mitchel, a Democrat elected on a fusion ticket, for reelection in 1917.

Since the " Tribune" does not give the names of these leaders, the report is perhaps to be regarded more as a" feeler" for public opinion than as a definite promise of action. It suggests, however, how important the next municipal campaign in New York City may be for the whole country.

The first and plainest question involved in the renomination and re-election of Mayor Mitchel is simply one of good government.

Is New York wise enough to return to office a Mayor who is both efficient and progressive, and to defeat Tammany in its inevitable attempt to regain control of that city's government?

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The second question is of greater concern, perhaps, to the country as a whole.

Is the Republican leadership in New York State blind enough to attempt to elect a party candidate as Mayor of New York City at the expense of returning to power the old spoils system from which Mayor Mitchel and his administration have so largely and so happily freed the metropolis ?

If the Republicans of New York permit this to be done, they will do much to confirm the opinion of their leadership which prevails throughout so large a section of the West.

PROFESSOR HUGO MÜNSTERBERG

The controversy over Professor Münsterberg's relations with Harvard University and his attitude towards the country in which he has been so long a distinguished guest came to a sudden and tragic conclusion on December 16. While lecturing before a class in Radcliffe College Professor Münsterberg was suddenly stricken and fell unconscious to the floor. He died twenty minutes afterward.

Hugo Münsterberg was born in Danzig, East Prussia, in 1863. He came to America in 1892 to take a chair of Psychology at Harvard. In 1910 and 1911 he was the Harvard Exchange Professor at the University of Berlin. In that year he organized the Amerika Institut of the German Government, and became its first director. Professor Münsterberg's work as a psychologist was not only of technical concern, but in recent years he did much to awaken a popular interest in his science. He wrote many magazine articles on psychology and its application to business and the furtherance of justice.

After the outbreak of the great war his articles and statements in defense of Germany excited bitter protest from many sources. There was no little demand that he should be asked to resign his chair at Harvard, but free speech is one of Harvard's most fundamental traditions, and the authorities of the University very wisely declined to ask for Professor Münsterberg's resignation. Professor Münsterberg explained his own position toward the United States in an article in the New York Times" in September, 1915, in which he said that his views were not set forth as those of a German-American, but as those of a German. He said:

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I am a German and have never intended to be anything else. I did not leave Germany because I liked it less. I was professor at a German university when Harvard invited me to

develop here the interest for experimental psychology. I accepted the invitation at first for a short time only, and under the condition that I might stay here as a citizen of my Fatherland. Later, when many a European summons called me back, I resisted every temptation and stayed on, not only because the American scholars urged me to continue, but chiefly because I had become fascinated by the hope to help toward international amity.

While he supported German policies, Professor Münsterberg denounced many of the activities of the Teutonic hyphenates in this country. He condemned the forming of an alien party within the United States as “a crime against the spirit of true Americanism," and said that its results would reach far beyond the time of the war.

CHARLES BOOTH

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By the death of the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth, at the age of seventy-six years, England and the world lose a foremost economist, for through his monumental Life and Labor of the People of London " Mr. Booth made students of sociology everywhere his debtors.

The Booth Steamship Company of Liverpool is one of the well-known navigation enterprises which distinguish that port; it was formed by Mr. Booth and his brother, Alfred Allen Booth, who is now also the chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company and of the Anchor Line.

Charles Booth's experiences as a practical business man were of benefit to him in keeping him from any doctrinaire or academic view in his study of social problems. He judged those problems directly, personally, intimately, but always practically. When he began to take account of the economic condition of London in so far as the working classes were concerned, his conclusions were not those of the maker of a card catalogue or of the compiler of statistics. The Life and Labor of the People of London," filling seventeen volumes and requiring for its preparation seventeen years of scientific investigation, is probably the most complete survey of the social condition of a great city ever attempted.

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This is Mr. Booth's best-known publication, but there were others also of moment"Pauperism," "The Aged Poor,”... Old Age Pensions," and the succeeding series of volumes entitled "The Religious Influences of London." There was no question about Mr. Booth's belief in the practical as well as in

the ideal virtues of religious conversion as a step toward self-help.

As with social workers in other countries, the unrest caused by inadequate information, leading to sudden strikes and much unnecessary desolation, made due impression on Mr. Booth's mind, as one may note from a recently published pamphlet by him on "Industrial Unrest and Trade Union Policy." He was always a supporter of industrial arbitration, and endeavored to show that no efficiency was worth the name which was not equally profitable to employer and employed. An example of Mr. Booth's style may be found in the conclusion to his "Life and Labor of the People of London:"

Seventeen years and an equal number of volumes have been occupied with this inquiry. In as many pages I must now try to sum up the results: seventeen words would doubtless suffice did I know how to choose them aright. . . .

We see life cursed by drink, brutality, and vice, and loaded down with ignorance and privilege, while industry is choked by its own blind struggles. . . . Improvement certainly there has been at every point, . . . but the gulf is still wide....

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There are two distinct tasks: to raise the general level of existence, but especially the bottom level, is one; to increase the proportion of those who know how to use aright the means they have is another, and even a greater. But each effort should aid the other. . . . For the treatment of disease it is first necessary to establish the evidence as to its character, extent, and symptoms. Perhaps the qualities of mind which enable a man to make this inquiry are the least of all likely to give him that elevation of soul, sympathetic insight, and sublime confidence which must go to the making of a great regenerating teacher. I have made no attempt to teach; at the most I have ventured at an appeal to those whose part it is. . . . The dry bones that lie scattered over the long valley that we have traversed together lie before my reader. May some great soul, master of a subtler and nobler alchemy than mine, . . . make those dry bones live so that the streets of our Jerusalem may sing with joy!

It is not surprising that such a critic of English life was drawn into the service of the state as President of the Royal Statistical Society, as a member of the Tariff Commission, and as Privy Councilor.

BENEDICT XV AND

THE CHILDREN OF BELGIUM

Perhaps no act of the present Pope will be more gratefully remembered than his contribution to the relief of the children of Belgium. In a letter to Cardinal Gibbons

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THE WEEK

he says, referring to a letter received from Mr. Herbert C. Hoover:

Profound compassion of a father has again moved Our heart, when We read an important letter recently sent to Us by the distinguished Chairman of the praiseworthy Commission for Relief in Belgium, describing in few words, yet showing proof of most terrible reality, the pitiable situation of numerous Belgian children who, during two sad years, have been suffering from the lack of that proper nourishment necessary to sustain the tender existence of budding childhood.

In most moving terms the Chairman has described how so many desolate families, after having given everything humanly possible to give, now find themselves with nothing left with which to appease the hunger of their little

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In view of this condition of affairs Benedict XV acted:

We have considered the work indicated so humanitarian and so holy that, in prompt compliance with the appeal addressed to Us, . . . We have decided to approve and recommend it, as We hereby do indorse it most heartily by these words to you, my Lord Cardinal, and through you to the illustrious members of the American Episcopate, to the clergy, and to every generous heart; but particularly to those children of America upon whom is based every hope of success for the plan devised by this beneficent institution. . . . We send you inclosed our contribution of ten thousand lire [about $2,000].

Cardinal Gibbons thereupon wrote to the Roman Catholic bishops. The Pope, he states, had written at the solicitation of the Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, "the only regular channel by which relief can enter Belgium, and which enjoys the full confidence of his Holiness." With Cardinal Gibbons, The Outlook also has no doubt that, as he says, "the touching appeal of his Holiness will be honored by generous contributions which will cheer his paternal heart and bring seasonable joy and comfort to the little sufferers of Belgium."

The Cardinal adds a very practical suggestion; if thoroughly carried out, it should im

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mensely increase the size of the contributions: he proposes to the bishops that "the most efficient and prompt way to relieve the afflicted little ones would be obtained by a general collection in your jurisdiction.”

We hope that the other churches of America will also be touched by the Pope's appeal and will rally in the efficacious way suggested by Cardinal Gibbons to the further support of the children of Belgium.

Those readers who wish to aid Belgian children should send checks to the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 120 Broadway, New York City.

A RAILWAY'S CHRISTMAS GIFT

Partly to meet the increased cost of living, which is being felt all over the country, and partly to share with their employees the great profits which have accrued to many American business enterprises during the past year, a number of large corporations have declared unusual Christmas bonuses to their employees.

Of the announcements of such bonuses one of the most interesting is the announcement of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway. The Christmas gift of this corporation, amounting to about $2,750,000, has attracted particular attention because the members of the four railway brotherhoods, who were affected by the Adamson Eight-Hour Law, are not included in the distribution of the bonus. When asked for an explanation of this omission of the brotherhood members, Mr. Walker D. Hines, general counsel of the railway, made the following statement at our request:

The recent distribution of ten per cent of a year's pay as additional compensation to Santa Fé employees two years or more in the service and receiving $2,500 or less per year naturally did not extend to employees whose compensation is fixed according to the schedules contained in the agreements formerly in effect with the four brotherhoods. Last March the four brotherhoods inaugurated a Nation-wide movement contemplating a permanent increase in wages. The brotherhoods requested the railroad companies throughout the United States to enter into a collective movement for the purpose of considering the demand through a joint committee representing all railroads concerned. The railroad companies complied with this request and appointed a joint committee, which is still in existence. Subsequently, when the railroad

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