The

dreds, if not thousands, of men on both sides of this controversy have been going about armed; the works of the Pressed Steel Car Company have all but undergone a siege; the strike-breakers have been housed and fed in the works lest they be killed or persuaded to join the strikers; the State constabulary and sheriffs' officers have patrolled streets, searched houses for arms, and treated the people as if actual war were in existence; street cars have been wrecked; fights and the firing of pistols have been common events; and, finally, at least eleven people (strikers, troopers, sheriffs, and innocent citizens) have been killed, and many seriously wounded. Some weeks ago, when the strike began, The Outlook asked the questions: Is the public concerned with the way in which a private company treats its employees? Is the workingman to be treated otherwise than as a tool or a piece of machinery? events of last week and the continued bitterness of this labor war emphasize the need of a reasonable answer to these questions. Beyond doubt the public has a right to be protected from the inevitable results of such a clash of hostile forces. For this reason, as we have before asserted, it must no longer be contended that the sole control of industry belongs to the owner of capital. Industrial autocracy means industrial war to the knife, and that will not long be tolerated by the third party in interest, namely, the people at large. In this case it is instructive to turn from the employers' blunt refusals to compromise, or arbitrate, or even discuss the matters in dispute, to the summary made by Dr. Devine of what the Pittsburgh Survey found to be the industrial situation in Pittsburgh, of which McKees Rocks practically forms part. Here are a few phrases from that summary: An altogether incredible amount of overwork by everybody; wages so low as to be inadequate to the maintenance of a normal American standard of living; absentee capitalism; immigrants with low standards; the destruction of family life; typhoid fever and industrial accidents both preventable, but costing in single years in Pittsburgh more than a thousand lives; archaic social institutions. With these conditions, who can wonder that

ignorance and violence leap out to fight oppression and autocracy? Moreover, the great industries which have made Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania such enormous centers of wealth have, by their importations of low-grade foreign labor, lowered American standards. These industries have received in the past through high protective duties immense industrial advantages, and these privileges have been bestowed very largely in answer to the argument that only by protection can the American standard of wages be maintained. But the labor-contract law has not proved an obstacle to the bringing in of countless thousands of low-priced, ignorant, and sometimes dangerous workmen from abroad. Where is labor's protection from foreign competition? It is the height of insolence for the employers now to say, as they do in almost so many words: We, and we alone, will fix wages and hours; if the men object, they may go starve; if violence ensues, it is the business of the State to protect us.

IS THERE A WAY OUT?

In point of fact, the time is soon coming when that corporation will be considered antiquated in its methods which does not recognize the fact that industry is not war, but business, and that the essence of business is compromise, concession, and mutual benefit. Mark Hanna, whatever may have been his political methods, knew this, and established conciliation courts in the soft-coal mining country which have given excellent results. The Anthracite Strike Commission, called into existence by President Roosevelt at the time of the great anthracite strike, was another long step in this direction. President Baer, after fighting the inception of the idea with all his might, was quoted last spring, after six years' trial of the decision of controversies by arbitration, as saying, "This award of the Strike Commission has been the most satisfactory solution of the labor problem on a large scale that the world has ever seen." Examples of the success of the conciliatory methods in industrial disputes might be multiplied with instances the world over. Ex-President Eliot, in the current issue of McClure's Magazine, and under the pertinent title "The Best Way to Prevent

Industrial Warfare," shows what have been the results in two years of the Canadian law for the maintenance of industrial peace in all public utilities. This has been described in The Outlook. In brief, it makes it illegal in any public utility business (including mines) to resort to a strike or lockout until the matters in dispute have been looked into by a Board of Conciliation and Investigation established by the Minister of Labor of Canada. Either party to the dispute, or both, may ask for such a board; each selects one member, and the two choose a third. Out of fifty'five such investigations held there have been only two cases in which strikes were not averted or ended-in other words, in 96 per cent of these disputes conciliation and arbitration gained the day. Dr. Eliot points out that the law has been of immense value by convincing people that it is a sound principle that "the public has a right to know much about any business which is conducted on rights or privileges conferred by legislation." Strictly speaking, the law does not provide compulsory arbitration; it really relies "exclusively on discussion, conciliation, publicity, and public opinion." These are tremendous forces, and the enactment of similar laws in our States would surely bring about a material and moral gain for the community, as this law has done in Canada. As Dr. Eliot points out, this class of legislation appeals to "the ultimate reasonableness of the parties to the dispute when the facts on both sides are publicly stated and discussed, and to the fairness and sound judgment of that long-suffering and patient public which ultimately pays for the greater part of the cost of industrial warfare."

PURE FOOD AND CHEMICALS

By formal resolution the Association of State and National Pure Food and Dairy Officers, in session at Denver last week, indorsed the report of the Referee Board of consulting scientific experts, appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Wilson at the direction of President Roosevelt, upon the use of benzoate of soda in food products. As the readers of The Outlook know, the so-called Referee Board thus appointed consisted of scientific and practical chemists recognized as of the highest

standing. At the head was Dr. Ira Rem sen, and members of the Board were Dr. Russell H. Chittenden, Dr. C. H. Herter, and Dr. John R. Long. The Board carried on three entirely separate and independent series of investigations as to the effect of benzoate of soda in food products. All three of these investigations (which included the actual consumption in food of the benzoate by young men who offered themselves for experiment for considerable periods of time) not merely gave similar results, but showed the most exact and minute scientific unity of chemical analysis. The Board reported that benzoate in doses up to four grams a day is without deleterious effect on the human system; and it is not understood that doses as large as this are likely to be taken by food consumers under ordinary circumstances. The members of the Referee Board, or most of them, were present at Denver and defended their findings before the Convention. No one has doubted that, as Dr. Remsen says, they have "sought the truth only, not by sentiment or hysteria, but by cold scientific methods, without bias or prejudice." Dr. Chittenden pointed out that benzoate is a chemical constituent of several kinds of fruit, and declared that "the eating of a small quantity of huckleberries, raspberries, or kindred berries is accompanied by the taking into the system of more benzoate than in the administration of three-tenths of a gram of sodium benzoate." He asserted that the use of benzoate of soda in ordinary doses is no more injurious than that of salt. With regard to the charge that benzoate of soda has been used as a preservative to disguise the inclusion of inferior, and even rotten, fruit in canned products, Dr. Long made the following statement:

At the request of a large manufacturing firm, there was sent to my laboratory a mass of rotten tomatoes with which to make catsup. Some of it was preserved with vinegar and spices, some with benzoate, and some left unmixed. The odor and taste of the last were bad; that with the benzoate showed essentially the same condition; while with the vinegar and spices a fair grade of commercial catsup was secured. Benzoate has but little taste and no odor, and therefore it cannot conceal inferiority.

Although Dr. Wiley and many pure food advocates have maintained the contrary to this view of Dr. Long, and have

held also that pure food should contain no chemicals—unless the ordinary condiments and spices should be so regarded it seems to be a necessary conclusion that the Secretary of Agriculture must accept the opinion of the Referee Board, now indorsed by the Pure Food Association. It still remains, however, an open question whether there ought not to be maintained under the law a careful oversight as to the amount and proportion of harmless chemicals used in food products, and, still further, whether public interests do not require that the labels of all canned products should show plainly and clearly exactly what each contains, whether of food or preservatives. The settling of The settling of technical scientific points like those which seem to us to have been very properly referred to the Board of which Remsen is head, does not, moreover, in the least remove or minimize the importance of the most radical and thorough legislation, National and State, to guard the consumer from adulteration and misrepresentation.

MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

Dr.

The National Mu

seum, at Washing ton, which is under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, has received a large number of cases

of animal skins and other specimens coliected by Mr. Roosevelt and shipped to the museum for mounting and permanent exhibition. The specimens are said to be in better condition than those which generally arrive under similar circumstances. It

is announced that it will be some months before the skins are finally mounted by expert taxidermists and placed on public view. The arrival of these specimens will doubtless excite again more of the newspaper criticism of Mr. Roosevelt which has led some supersensitive and misinformed people to conclude that his expedition is guilty of "brutal butcheries." With regard to this kind of criticism, Mr. Roosevelt has written to us, under date of July 21, as follows: "Not merely will fake stories of my hunting appear in the newspapers, but many would-be 'comic stories,' which the puzzled-headed reader who would believe the first will be quite as apt to believe also, so that his mind will be in a condition of helpless

bewilderment in any event. But the average American is all right down at bottom, and so far as he takes any interest in the matter at all will make up his final judgment on what I myself write, which will begin to appear, I suppose, in the October Scribner's. We have certainly had great success so far. As a matter of fact, every animal I have shot, with the exception of, say, six or eight, shot when we had to have food, has been carefully preserved for the National Museum. I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological collections are to be condemned. I know nothing of politics at home, and look forward to a collection of Outlooks which I shall find awaiting me at Nairobi."

MR. JEROME ANNOUNCES

HIS CANDIDACY

William Travers Jerome, the District Attorney of New York County, has offered himself as a candidate for re-election. This is the first definite occurrence in the municipal campaign in New York City. Mr. Jerome has been District Attorney for nearly eight years. He was first elected on the reform ticket headed by Mr. Seth Low. pendent ticket, having been nominated by He was re-elected on an entirely inde

petition, and having appealed to the voters solely upon his own record. In both campaigns he was the most picturesque figure; the success of the Low ticket was in no

small measure due to his fiery attacks upon the Tammany administration. Mr. Jerome now announces his willingness to be nominated again by petition in these words:

After having received for nearly eight years the honor and benefit of this office, it seems to me I should be guided in my determination, not by what may seem most to serve my personal interest, but by the consideration of whether a majority of the electors desire that I should further serve them in this position.

I know of no way in which I can ascertain this except by offering myself as a candidate, and I have decided to seek again a

nomination by petition, and to offer myself as a candidate for election to the office of District Attorney of New York County. The later years of Mr. Jerome's term of office have been marked by bitter accusations of failure to do his whole duty in

certain directions. But a short time ago he presented himself before an audience at Cooper Union and underwent a severe process of " heckling in regard to his discharge of his stewardship. He emerged from the ordeal with undiminished credit, and, in the opinion of The Outlook, better evidence must be produced than has yet been brought forward before Mr. Jerome can be convicted of dereliction in office. The accusations, in almost every case, related to the acts of "high financiers connected with insurance, traction, and Ice Trust matters. Few charges, if any, have been made that Mr. Jerome's general conduct of his office was inadequate. But in the cases in which he has been criticized it should be remembered that in the complicated realm of modern business it is one thing to have a moral conviction that a man has done wrong, and quite another to have the evidence which, under the impartial and critical eye of a court, will secure a legal conviction of the delinquent. Among the flying rumors of pre-campaign days it is frequently surmised that Mr. Jerome's candidacy will be indorsed by Tammany, that it will not be indorsed by Tammany, that he will and that he will not be nominated by the Republicans, that he will or will not receive the approval of the Committee of One Hundred. case, his presence in the campaign will help to save it from any possibility of dullness.

THE SEATTLE PRISON CONGRESS

In any

The American Prison Association, which has recently held its annual meeting in Seattle, justified its name, with more than two hundred and sixty members from thirty-three States, and with a Canadian for President and official delegates from Cuba. The subjects were also those that all America needs to discuss if there is to be widespread reform, such as the abolition of sheriffs' fees, a vicious system, which was properly rebuked by men as far apart as Florida and Oregon; the indeterminate sentence, which had its strongest supporter in a man who has undergone the rigors of imprisonment in San Quentin Prison; the juvenile court, whose most brilliant exponent, Judge Lindsey, was kept talking morning, noon, and night on

this method of cutting off the supply of adult criminals; outdoor employment as that best fitted for the health, the discipline, and the morals of prisoners-the experience of Massachusetts, the South, and of the Pacific Coast showing the truth of these ideas. On the law side there were also earnest discussions as to the propagation of "the Indiana Idea," already adopted by Connecticut and California, which allows the State to so treat habitual and degraded criminals that they can never reproduce their kind, and as to the possibility of taking juvenile cases out of criminal courts and transferring them to the chancery courts. Still another suggestion demanding action, but which is now in practice in Maryland, was the advisability of a law compelling the examination of all prisoners by a physician before trial. As school-children must undergo a physical examination, which often reveals unsuspected disease, so, it is argued, a careful study of the man or woman under arrest may show that they are proper subjects for probation, or, which is equally important, that they should be placed, not only where they may be guarded from doing further harm in the community, but where they may receive proper medical and surgical treatment. Such a law should apply especially to the young. The broad scope

of the Congress was further seen in the three allied societies which make up the Association. The President, of the Wardens' Association was from Virginia, of the Physicians' from Canada, and of the Chaplains' from the great Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Aloys M. Fish, the devoted chaplain of the New Jersey State Prison. The President elected for the next year was Mr. Amos W. Butler, of Indiana, a man who deals in principles and with ideals, but who is not a warden. It is of great value to this Congress to have this close association of theorists and practical prison administrators. There was once a time when the man who looked only at the scientific side was deemed a crank by the turnkey. It is easy to recall the day when even the advocate of temperance would not have met a too cordial reception for his ideas, but the Prison Congress has an open mind; no one theme called forth such prolonged and vehement applause as the suggestion

that prohibition should be invoked for the sake of preventing crime. The next session of this Congress will be contemporaneous with the International Prison Congress, which meets in Washington in October, 1910, with Dr. Charles Richmond Henderson as President, in place of

S. J. Barrows. There will be a good representation coming from Europe and South America, and from Australia and Tasmania also, it is hoped. Each adhering country has one official representative, but it may send as many more delegates as it pleases. The American Prison Association has a strong committee to act in harmony with this wider organization, and further knowledge and greater usefulness are looked for from this next double convention of penologists and criminologists from many States and many lands.

THE SMOKE ERROR

This is the happy designation by the St. Louis Times of the all-prevailing smoke nuisance. The Times points out to the new Mayor that the smoke nuisance of that city costs the business men a round million of dollars a year, unconsciously, of . course. The principal sufferers are the large stores of various kinds, including those that deal in fabrics which lose value by being soiled through the intangible drift of a sooted atmosphere. Clothiers and department stores and haberdashers, who deal in easily soiled goods, are the principal losers from the cause. These figures, however, large as they would seem to be, are underestimated if those of John Krause, Cleveland's Smoke Inspector, are well founded. Here they are :

Let us say that there are about 3,000,000 tons of coal used in Cleveland in a year, and that the use of 10 per cent of this amount is unnecessary. That means an annual loss of $600,000 through an unnecessary use of coal. Houses must be painted more frequently when there is much smoke in a city. There are about 75,000 homes in Cleveland, and, estimating the average cost at $50, the total cost of painting all the houses would be $3,750,000. I should say that a fair estimate of the painting waste would be about 25 per cent of this amount, or about $900,000, as homes must be painted a great deal oftener on account of smoke. Then there are laundry bills. If 100,000 men in Cleveland wear laundered collars and shirts, it would be fair to say that the waste each year amounts to $500,000, as every one of these men spends at

This

least 10 cents a week more for laundry than he would if there were no smoke. is very conservative, as the white dresses and waists worn by women and washed at home make a large item of expense. Then there is the loss caused by soot coming into contact with merchandise in the stores and factories. There is oil in soot, and this causes much damage.

Even these figures, however, fall into insignificance in comparison with those given at the last annual meeting of the International Association for the Prevention of Smoke, by H. M. Wilson, Chief Engineer of the United States Geological Survey, who, in the course of his paper, declared:

The evil is one of the great dangers of modern times, insidiously taking the health of the individual, lowering his vitality, increasing the death rate, and causing untold injury to property. In our cities live more than 30,000,000 people, and these suffer all the loss which is shown in the total of $600,000,000. The statement is based upon estimates made by Chicago, with $50,000,000 loss a year; Cleveland, with perhaps $4,000,000, and a number of other cities. It means a per capita loss of $20 a year to every man, woman, and child in these cities. The smoke nuisance means uncleanliness, poverty, wretchedness, disease, and death. The medical men of the country are unanimous in the declaration that the breathing of coal smoke predisposes the lungs to tuberculosis, and even more violent lung trouble, such as pneumonia.

The brighter side of this depressing picture is that Inspector Krause and Engineer Wilson believe that conditions are improving. The former is authority for the

statement that conditions in Cleveland are better now than they were. Mr. Wilson has declared, not only that smoke prevention is feasible, but that he stands ready to prove it by actual demonstration at the experiment station in Pittsburgh. 'Altogether," he adds, "the investigations show that the smokeless American city is entirely possible, and that it will come when the public conscience is thoroughly awakened to the

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enormous waste of natural and human resources through this evil. The smoky city is to be a sign and relic of barbarism."