stantiated by evidence. Mr. Dudley denied the statement, made in earlier testimony, that he had been offered money to testify before this Committee. Mr. Heltman gave at length information concerning the practice of passing land claims to patent. Of the four, Mr. George Otis Smith, the Director of the Geological Survey, gave the most striking testimony. He declared not only that Mr. Ballinger had permitted him to carry out the same policies that he had pursued under Mr. Garfield, but had actually enabled him to do so more rapidly and effectively. He was very emphatic in giving his views about Mr. Pinchot. He reported Mr. Pinchot as charging him with being disloyal to his former chief, Mr. Garfield, and as expressing a determination to drive Mr. Ballinger from office. In one place Mr. Smith virtually accused Mr. Pinchot of trying to alter Mr. Smith's course of action by threats of publicity. He had severe words for the Forestry Service, and showed little respect for the policy of conservation as it has been presented by Mr. Pinchot. He acknowledged that his former high opinion of Mr. Garfield, who had been his chief, had been distinctly lowered. He declared that he did not know until after Mr. Garfield had left office that under the previous Administration Reclamation withdrawals had been måde for the purpose of preserving water power sites. He said that he regarded this as a violation of the law. He gave his views as to what constituted Conservation, which he defined as "utilization with a maximum efficiency and a minimum waste." He declared that resources should not be conserved for the use of succeeding generations at too great an expense to this generation. He was skeptical about Government ownership of coal land, and declared that he wanted to see some of that coal land pass over to somebody." He confessed that he was not as enthusiastic about the leasing of coal lands as he used to be. Regarding the leasing proposition he uttered a warning about encroaching upon the police powers of the States. He also offered a tribute to Mr. Ballinger. While Mr. Smith was on the stand, the Chairman, Senator Nelson, made several observations which, like others before, indicated that his mind

was made up. Twice he expressed hearty approval of a letter which Mr. Smith had written in defense of Mr. Ballinger and attacking Mr. Pinchot, and at other points made sneering remarks about conservation. We leave Mr. Ballinger's testimony for report and comment next week.

HOW TO PAY FOR RECLAMATION

A bill has already passed the Senate to authorize advances to the Reclamation Fund. It is commonly called the Thirty Million Dollar Bond Bill. It authorizes the issue of certificates of indebtedness, which are virtually short-time bonds or notes, to enable the Reclamation Service to extend its work. One reason

why this bill has been introduced is because the present Administration has declared that the methods for extending reclamation projects adopted by the preceding Administration were illegal. The bill, however, is unnecessary. Moreover, it involves the expenditure of money by the Government which the former methods did not involve. Still further, it does not, as the other methods did, enlist the enthusiastic co-operation of the people who will use these reclamation projects. Until such other methods are adopted, by Congress if necessary, and shown to be inadequate, the issuance of thirty million dollars of bonds is wasteful and hurtful. This is the situation. The United States Government is engaged, in the vast enterprise of bringing water to arid lands. Like the Panama Canal, this enterprise is of such proportions that no lesser organization than a National Government could undertake it. By means of the water which the Government is bringing, these lands are made fit for cultivation and habitation. The people who come to settle upon these reclaimed lands are glad to pay the Government for the cost of the irrigation which has made the land valuable. With the money which they pay, the Government goes ahead to reclaim other land for other people, who in their turn reimburse the Government. Thus these great irrigation projects become self-supporting. course the great part of the work is the building of the irrigation reservoirs and

Of

aqueducts. But equally essential, though comparatively simple to construct, are the lateral ditches which convey the water immediately to the lands irrigated. Homesteaders, anticipating this reclamation, have come to these lands. Of course they have been eager to have the work finished and the water introduced as quickly as possible. In many cases they have said to the Government, We will not ask you to build these connecting ditches: we can join together and build these ditches ourselves; and when we build the ditches we will build them as you say, according to the plans of the Government engineers ; all we ask is that when the whole project is finished we be given credit for the work we have done so that we will not have to pay the Government for our own labor, but may be allowed a discount from our water dues in proportion to the work we have severally contributed. The Roosevelt Administration was very glad to take advantage of this offer. It saved the Government money. It relieved the contractors of work which they were not anxious to do. It relieved the Government from doing the work itself. It enlisted the co-operation of the people on the ground. So the Government in the Roosevelt Administration suggested that these settlers unite in organizations which would issue certificates to their individual members in proportion to the work which those individual members should do. In issuing these certificates these water users' associations would have to abide by the decision of the Government engineers as to the character and quantity of the work done. After the work was done these certificates would then form, as it were, a memorandum on which would be based the allowance made to these water users when they came to pay for their share of the project—that is, for the water which would be brought to their farms by the project. This certificate plan, in which the Government was not involved except as it directed the workers and as it was saved money which it would otherwise have had to expend, has been, for some reason of which we do not find any adequate explanation, declared by the present Administration to be illegal. The solution would seem to be simple. Congress should at once pass a law requir

ing the Secretary of the Interior to accept as valid such water users' certificates.

PUBLICITY FOR CAMPAIGN FUNDS

The

The McCall Campaign Publicity Bill has passed the House of Representatives. Not only has it passed, but, barring one member, the House voted for it unanimously. The bill's fate now rests with the Senate. Senator Burrows, of Michigan, Chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, is in a position to hasten or hinder its progress. The opposition shown by the Michigan radicals to the Senator's own re-election may cause him to placate them by hastening the bill's consideration. present measure represents the fruit of long struggle by those who believe that secret campaign contributions are the direct allies of corruption. After Mr. Roosevelt's election to the Presidency in 1904 public opinion had become sufficiently aroused to compel the passage of a bill prohibiting corporations from making campaign contributions in any Federal elections. Thenceforth life insurance companies, industrial trusts, and railway corporations must defy the law if they contributed to campaign expenses. Nor were the States idle. About twenty States now have statutes providing publicity. In Massachusetts the law applies to all State, city, and other local committees. But a National Committee might spend a million dollars in Massachusetts and not make any return. In 1908, however, the New York State Corrupt Practices Act was practically adopted by the National party organizations. Spontaneously the Republican National Committee followed its provisions, and published the names of the contributors to the Presidential campaign fund, with the amounts contributed. This praiseworthy example was followed by the Democratic National Committee. It is now desirable to pass a law which shall compel National Committees to make their accountings public. The law should also apply to National Congressional Campaign Committees. These things are provided for by the measure introduced by Representative McCall, of Massachusetts. In his Message to Congress at the beginning of the present session President Taft

emphatically favored the provisions of such a bill. Its passage at this session would be peculiarly appropriate, as elections for members of Congress will be held this year in all the States. Those Senators who oppose its passage will have to bear the just accusation that, in their desperate view of the political situation, they are counting on the use of money, rather than their party's record, to win for them victory at the polls. It is doubtless impossible entirely to prevent the use of money furnished indirectly to candidates for political place or in their interest. But we may well feel that when candidates are required by State laws to publish their expenditures, when State Committees are compelled to do the same, and when Congressional and National Committees are also directed to make a public accounting, the chances for corruption will have been much decreased. Human nature is still so imperfect that to receive and expend funds under a sense of public accountability is to most men a different thing than to receive and expend with only private accountability. Thus publicity is corruption's enemy.

A NEW PAN AMERICAN TEMPLE

Last week at Washington the beautful white marble home of the International Bureau of American Republics was dedicated. It occupies a peculiarly attractive site- -a five-acre tract facing the open grounds below the White House, near the Washington Monument and overlooking Potomac Park and the Potomac River. The building cost $750,000, the generous gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie. The land and equipment cost $250,000, appropriated by the twentyone American Republics. The architecture differs from prevailing Washington types, and recalls well-known LatinAmerican styles. As in other Spanish structures, the building surrounds a central patio, or courtyard; this contains a fountain designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a daughter of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt, which stands amidst a wealth of plants and flowers significant of the South. The next notable feature is the great Assembly Room, to be known as the Hall of the Republics. At last Washington has a room sufficiently

large, dignified, and elegant to be the proper place for international conferences, diplomatic functions, and receptions to foreigners. Last week's was certainly a diplomatic function; and the representatives of the Republics present listened with marked attention to President Taft as he expressed the hope that the time would soon come when "any nineteen of the American Republics can say to the other two, 'You shall not fight.'" Such a sentence carries special weight since within the past few days our Government has been called upon to exercise its influence to prevent war between Peru and Ecuador. To do just this is a primary purpose of the Bureau of American Republics, under its efficient director, Mr. Barrett. The great Bolivar wanted to create a Pan-American Bureau. But he did not realize that it could not succeed unless fathered by the Western hemisphere's most progressive Republic. Since, at Mr. Blaine's initiative, Bolivar's idea has been realized, our leadership has been, not overbearing or tyrannical, but, to use Secretary Knox's words at the dedication, simply as a co-laborer." With such an ideal there is resultant sympathy. As Senator Root said in his speech,

There is so much more good than evil in men that liking comes by knowing." Mr. Carnegie then summed up the country's present attitude :

Two men differ. If strangers, the probable result is strife. Two friends differ. The probable result is a peaceful settlement by themselves, or, failing in that, by the

arbitration of friends, and the two friends become dearer to each other than ever before. That is because neither has assumed to sit as judge in his own case. . . . The greatest crime which man or nation can commit is to insist upon doing that which would consign a judge on the bench to infamy. The crime of war gives victory, not to the nation which is right, but to that which is strong. The most momentous declaration yet made on this subject by a chief of a nation was that by President Taft recently, when he proclaimed that all international disputes, with no exception, should be settled by arbitration.

Secretary Knox has transmitted to Congress a request for an appropriation continuing the American Government's share in

THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE

work and the sending of appeals, will be borne by an auxiliary committee of Armenian young men of New York City, so that every cent contributed by churches and individuals will be sent out intact to relieve the widows and orphans in whose behalf the appeal of the International Committee has come to the people of the United States. Messrs. Brown Brothers & Co., 59 Wall Street, will act as depository of the funds. Those who would contribute should remember that "he gives twice who gives quickly."

THE POOR SEALS

The question, What shall we do with the seals? has now been answered. The Paris Tribunal of Arbitration between Great Britain and the United States prescribed a sixty-mile zone from the Pribylov Islands within which seals should not be taken out of the Pacific. But the provision has been nugatory through its restrictions to vessels operated under the protection of the American and British Governments. The immune zone has become to Japanese sealers the most inviting field for hunting just because the sealing craft of other nations are forbidden to enter it. With nearly forty schooners, carrying about two hundred and fifty small boats, the Japanese have formed a cordon through which the breeding females, when driven to the open sea in search of food, could penetrate only with the certainty of the slaughter of many of their number. In the slaughter of many years prior to the Paris arbitration all the nations interested have participated. When Alaska was turned over to the United States, there were more than four million seals in Pribylov Island waters. Now there are about one hundred thousand. Accordingly, negotiations have been taken up in the Nation's interest by our State Department, for the only way to stop destruction of the seal herd is by international negotiations and agreement. We propose to do our part by prohibiting any killing of seals except under the authority of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The bill in Congress to this end was about to be referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when it was objected that seals may be regarded not only as a natural but also

as a National resource, and that the measure should be referred to the newly erected Committee on the Conservation of National Resources. In the debate Senator Root referred to the Bering Sea Tribunal's decision that seals were not natural resources, hence the bill should be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. On the other hand, Senator Nelson opposed that committee reference because a measure referring only to the killing of seals on United States territory bore no relation to the conduct of any foreign nation, but was strictly a question affecting the natural and National resources of the country. Mr. Nelson's views prevailed, and the bill was referred to the new Committee, of which Senator Dixon, of Montana, is the energetic Chairman. The Committee promptly and favorably reported the bill, and the Senate, we are glad to say, passed it as promptly. Later the House did likewise. We have thus shown our good faith in the matter.

A NOTEWORTHY TRIBUTE

The Richmond (Virginia) papers lately gave an account of a tribute paid by the Westmoreland Club of that city to an old negro servant. Nathan Moore for over thirty-one years was in the employ of this Club, and for a number of years was its head doorkeeper. On his left arm he wore six gold service stripes, one for each five years of continuous service, and on each Christmas he received five dollars for each stripe as a mark of esteem from the members. Though for a number of months past unable because of ill health to attend to his duties, he had been retained on the Club's pay-roll, and his post kept open for him in the event of his recovery. At the funeral the members of the Club, which we believe is the oldest and most aristocratic club in the city, assembled at the club-house and marched in a body to the Second Baptist Church (colored) to attend the service-" an honor," says a Richmond paper, "that has never been paid even to a member of the Club." The incident is worth recording for the benefit of Northern readers, who are apt to imagine that the only attentions paid to negroes in the South are those rendered by lynching parties.