in 1924 exactly so much as it thought would rebound to its own advantage in 1928. Mr. Davis's position might be taken as that of the Democrats outside the McAdoo and Smith camps but the very groups which, outside those camps in 1924, made his nomination possible may exert the balance of power to keep the rule as it is. Mr. Davis would abolish the unit rule also, and that may not please some of those who would be glad to see the two-thirds rule go by the board. The unit rule is sometimes troublesome, but it does constitute a sort of safeguard against the use of undue influence upon individual delegates.

Whether the two-thirds rule is a good or a bad thing is still, despite the several declarations against it, open to question. Theoretically, perhaps, it is bad. It does not appear to be entirely democraticbut the Democratic party is sometimes in the same apparent situation. In practice, no great harm has ever resulted from it. Blamed by many for the longdrawn deadlock in Madison Square Garden, it really had no bearing on the situation. Neither McAdoo nor Smith ever had a majority and, if only a majority had been necessary, neither ever could have obtained it by any means. It is claimed that Champ Clark did, for a little while, have a majority at Baltimore in 1912, and his failure to obtain the nomination embittered for the rest of his

plies. Commercialized baseball and the motion picture industry went into "czardom," largely, in the hope of preventing the enactment of regulatory laws. The radio industry does a thing somewhat similar for lack of regulatory laws and proposes to abandon it when such laws have been passed.

Secretary of Commerce Hoover, who sometime ago predicted chaos, is now somewhat less pessimistic. He believes that if the co-operation of the organizations is kept up for only six months, the broadcasting problem will be near solution. He says that, as a result of the mere announcement that there is to be such co-operation, "there has been a tendency already on the part of those stations which have gone off their regular wave lengths to get back to those which have been assigned to them."

It is not entering too much into the realm of prophecy to predict that, if this organization can produce such results in a few months, it will never be abandoned. An up-to-date law for the regulation of radio is needed and it is difficult to believe that Congress will let another session pass without enacting it. But the radio industry will always be able to do many things toward self-regulation that no Federal administrator could do for it.

Andrews and the British

no means certain, however, that the Clark majority was absolute; some of the votes cast for him under a two-thirds rule, when they were not sufficient to nominate, probably would have gone elsewhere on those ballots under a majority rule. And, no matter how the fact. may be as to that, even the enemies of Woodrow Wilson have perhaps never doubted that the best interests of the country were served in that instance by the two-thirds rule.

ference, held in London between General Lincoln C. Andrews and officials of the British Government, gives promise of fruitfulness. Indeed, it already has borne fruit. Some time must elapse before the effects will be apparent in the quantity of smuggled liquor that reaches ---or, more strictly speaking, which does not reach-American shores, but the agreeable manner in which old irritations were removed is in itself an achievement. The British officials, in paying a tribute to General Andrews and his associates, said that no exaggerated claims were put forward by the Americans and that, as a result, it was possible on every point to suggest methods of closer co-operation between the two Governments. General Andrews spoke in the same tone of the British officials. "In any given case," he said, "it was only necessary to arrive at an understanding of the existing conditions when the British themselves were quick to suggest a remedy."

The terms of the agreement have not been announced and probably will never be made public in detail. In general, they are known to consist of specifica

tions of the kind of help that the British authorities can give in preventing smug

gling from the sea and particularly from bases in the West Indies. The most important feature is understood to be an arrangement for the pooling of informa tion by American prohibition authorities and British departmental officials. The British authorities will notify the Prohibition Unit of sailings of suspicious ships when such sailings cannot be prevented, and Americans will keep the British informed of British ships suspected of smuggling and will supply evidence for prosecutions under existing British law.

Secretary of State Kellogg has announced that what was done in London does not constitute a treaty or a convention but merely a working agreement.

Ontario Turns to Private Power

HE Province of Ontario, delivering

THE

electric current at low cost to its inhabitants, has for years furnished the advocates of public operation of utilities with one of their most impressive "talking points." The hydroelectric power system of the province had, indeed, two extraordinary assets; one of them a share in Niagara Falls and the other the genius and devotion of a great public servant, Sir Adam Beck. Sir Adam died last August, and Niagara Falls now supplies, and Ontario uses, the electric product of about all the water which the International Commission permits the province to divert. For one or both of these reasons, Ontario has found it necessary to turn to a privately owned power source for a needed addition to its electric supply. A despatch from Toronto recently announced that the province was to purchase from the Gatineau Power Company upward of 200,000 horse-power a year for thirty years. There has been no more striking instance of private business stepping over the door-sill of public enterprise.

Some of the warmer partisans of the rigid segregation of business and government may proclaim the event a proof that government operation cannot, at the best, hold its own against private undertakings. Perhaps a few chagrined supporters of public ownership schemes will be betrayed by their disappointment into a somewhat similar view. As a matter of fact, the case is not such a simple one. Ontario has developed all the great power sites that it finds available at this moment. It had to choose between building coal generating plants

in a Dominion still abounding in unharnessed water and tapping a hydroelectric source beyond its own provincial bounds. It chose the latter way. One government conducting for the benefit of its own people a vast productive enterprise in the jurisdiction of another government might well meet with complications. So Ontario did the simple and obvious thing by seeking to lease the electric output of a private company.

Has not public electric generation met in this case a serious limitation not heretofore generally reckoned at its full weight? Private enterprise can find its way across borders that would halt a provincial or in our case a State government. In this day of swift geographical expansion of electric enterprises, the limitation may be a vital one.

Poincaré Hesitates about
France's War Debt

"To pay or not to pay" evidently is

the question worrying Premier Poincaré most as he starts on his new term of office as head of the coalition Cabinet in France. Reports from Paris as to the new government's intentions concerning the French war debts to the United States and Great Britain have been conflicting. At first it was said that the Premier intended to shelve both of the recently concluded debt agreements, and rely upon internal resources to finance the government and meet maturing obligations; then, that he had found that he would need some foreign credits, and so intended to bring up the British agreement for ratification in Parliament and postpone action on the American agreement; then, that he would bring up both agreements, probably with reservations on the American agreement designed to open the way for an attempt at modification of its terms. What France wants, of course, is the long-discussed "safeguarding clause" which would make French payments to the United States contingent upon German reparation payments to France.

Meanwhile, Poincaré has succeeded in getting a sweeping vote of confidence from the Chamber of Deputies and in jamming through the first part of his financial program. This was a tax bill planned to increase revenues by direct and indirect levies to the amount of some 5,000,000,000 francs. He is also said to have a project for creating a sinking fund out of new revenues, to meet internal debts as they fall due, while reparations receipts would be reserved to

liquidate foreign debts. Further, a scheme is in the air for a national tobacco company, to take over the state tobacco monopoly and so provide new funds through the sale of shares.

Altogether, it is too early to estimate Poincaré's full policy. But the fact that French francs have begun to recover

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Premier Poincaré

some of their value on the exchange markets shows that he has done the most important thing, which is to revive both at home and abroad-the waning faith in the future of France.

Protect Grade-Crossings!
W

HEN a grade-crossing fatality occurs we rightly blame the criminal folly of the driver of a motor car who runs a race with death and loses.

But is that all of it? Should people be allowed to commit suicide under the intoxication of speeding or of whisky? The railways say that they cannot abol

ish grade-crossings; that to make bridges or underroads would ruin the railways financially; that they must deal with the danger gradually-the worst crossings first.

Very well; but is that any reason why grade-crossings should be left totally unprotected?

In the recent grade-crossing accident near Lakewood, on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, five persons were killed by a fast express train. The Coroner's Jury brought in the following verdict:

We, the jury, have decided that the five people killed on the Whitesville crossing met their deaths through negligence of the Central Railroad of New Jersey through not properly guarding the crossing by flagman, signal or gate; also by obstructing the view by having cars placed on the side switch. We exonerate the train crew entirely.

The attention of the railway officers having been called to the circumstances they commented as follows, according to a dispatch in the New York "Times:"

Under the laws of New Jersey the railroad was under no obligation at that crossing to ring the bell and blow the whistle. It was under no obligation to install gates or station a guard there. If there was necessity for gates or a watchman it was within the province of the State Public Utilities Commission to order them installed.

It certainly is within the province of the Public Utilities Commission to order some kind of adequate protection given. to dangerous grade-crossings. If they can't be abolished, they must be protected.

Flivver-Flying Reported Safe
WH

HEN the airplane becomes as safe as the automobile, people will "take to the air." When they begin to do that, mass production of airplanes will follow, the cost of planes will be brought down, and ultimately the man. of average means may own and use a plane. This is the belief of Edsel Ford, expressed to President Coolidge at White Pine Camp. "The future of flying lies with multiple-engine planes," he said. He believes that relatively safe planes are now produced at the Ford plant. They are three-engine affairs, capable of carrying a thousand pounds of freight at a speed of eighty-five miles an hour. The present cost of such a plane is $37,000 but this could be almost immediately reduced by twenty-five per cent. Mr. Ford said, and ultimately would be low enough "to make air service profit

able without Government aid." The Ford planes are in commercial use by the company between Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland, and have achieved a record of 98.3 per cent successfully completed flights.

President Coolidge, as has long been known, is intensely interested in the development of commercial aviation in the United States. No doubt he was gratified to learn that the Fords are ready to put a part of their resources into an enterprise designed to make-as Edsel Ford said-airplanes relatively as cheap as Ford automobiles have always been. Despite his belief that this can be done, the younger Ford is not an extreme optimist as to the future of the airplane. He sees its usefulness in quick and emergency trips, but does not believe that an airplane can be developed which would carry heavy loads profitably. More Church Press Merging THE

HE Methodist "Christian Advocate" of New York, announces that it has absorbed the Washington "Christian Advocate," which has been published at the Nation's capital for half a century. It now joins the New York "Observer," the "Evangelist," the "Continent," "Christian Work," "Methodist Times," and "Northern Christian Advocate," all of which have disappeared within recent years. Yet churches grow and revivals ring successfully throughout the land. The crop of sinners is probably as large as it ever was. Possibly the trouble with the shrinking religious press may be that it is made too exclusive for those who have accepted the tenets of their faith and do not need to be told more about it.

California and Daylight Saving

"CALIFO

ALIFORNIA, of all places, should insist upon saving every hour of daylight possible for recreation, both for its own people and for the visitors who come here to the land of sunshine and flowers." So one of the leading dailies on the Pacific coast comments editorially on the movement now in progress to introduce daylight saving into California. Our correspondent in San Francisco reports that the question, still so largely unsettled both in the East and elsewhere throughout the country, has been definitely constituted a practical issue and that a resolution has been drawn up by the city of San Francisco urging upon the Legislature the advisability of enacting a law advancing the official time for the State one hour during the summer months.

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Edsel Ford

until the sun has been some time above the horizon, and where the lower latitudes render the hours of daylight shorter, anyhow.

However, the Daylight Saving Law went the way of many other war-time laws, and, curiously enough, there has been no vigorous agitation for its reenactment until now. San Francisco is taking the lead in the matter, and, while it would be possible for the city to adopt daylight saving by ordinance, this would put San Francisco clocks out of harmony with the rest of the State, resulting in the same inconvenience which

obtains in the case of so many cities in the East where independent action has been taken.

Save the Salmon

THE

HE Salmon Protective Association of the Northwest, through Mr. Hugh C. Mitchell, has issued an appeal to the people of Oregon on behalf of conserving the sea salmon, now threatened by the damming or pollution of rivers where they come to spawn. "A great resource," he observes, "is being permitted to peter out. It is undervalued because it runs along each year and is utilized and enjoyed with the feeling that nature will function and will supply us with yearly returns and renewals, while our own indifference causes us to neglect to supplement and in many cases to supplant nature. No section of the United States has the resources of the Northwesttimber and fish. Timber is going, and we must act to save the fish."

It would appear that between onethird and one-half of the salmon sources

in the Columbia River have been lost through the development of irrigation and hydroelectric projects. The streams best for salmon culture have been those most favored by industrial invasion.

"Slowly, but certainly," observes Mr. Mitchell, "the advance of civilization creeps upon this territory, and unless the salmon in the Columbia River are zealously guarded the runs will be reduced to such an extent that the packing of fish will cease to be profitable."

The magnitude of the salmon industry may be understood by an examination of reliable reports of its operation. In all, 39,022,070 pounds of fish were taken from the waters of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington last year. Idaho figures not available would swell this total. Approximately 35,000,000 pounds of fish were packed and the remaining 5,000,000 pounds were shipped as a fresh, frozen, or pickled product. The pack in Columbia River by cases for 1922 was 374,420; 1923, 468,873; 1924, 485,622; 1925, 540,452. The salmon fisheries annually bring into Oregon more than ten million dollars. Most of this is new money, coming from the markets of the world, and the greater part of it is kept in the State. Forty thousand people are dependent in a greater or less degree upon the future run of salmon. The warning so cogently stated by Mr. Mitchell should be heeded. On the North Atlantic coast we have destroyed our shad and salmon fisheries at

a great public cost through neglect and pollution.

Romance or Fraud?

AST year a searcher of newspaper

LA

files found indubitable proof that Longfellow's oft-recited ballad "The Wreck of the Hesperus" was pathos misplaced; instead of being dashed upon Norman's Woe with dire loss of life, she merely broke her bowsprit on a ship prosaically named William Badger.

Now comes another dispeller of romance and resolves the mystery of the Marie Celeste into just a plain lie. Fiftyfour years ago the captain of the Dei Gratia towed the brig Marie Celeste into Gibraltar. He told a story that no one could explain then and no one seems to have doubted that is until "Chambers Journal" published the other day the narrative of John Pemberton, seventyseven years old, who says he was cook on the Marie Celeste and that the captain who collected salvage on the brig was a plain liar.

The captain's story, in part, of the vessel he found under full sail is summarized as follows by the New York "Herald Tribune:"

He reported that there was not a man aboard; that there was no sign of trouble of any kind; that her boats. were untouched; that there were five seamen's chests full of clothes in the forecastle, and that a meal was laid in the cabin. The galley stove was warm, though the fire had been raked out, and her cat was calmly asleep on a locker. There was no corpse aboard, no sign of any disturbance, no bloodstain. What had happened?

What Cook Pemberton says happened was that the captain of the Dei Gratia found four men aboard the Marie Celeste, including the cook; that three of them had previously sailed in the Dei Gratia and that with a weather eye on full salvage he suborned them to perjury and it got by. This is reprehensible but not romantic-that touch about the sleeping cat was genius.

Not to be outdone, however, John the Cook furnishes a harrowing movie-like tale of his own about what precededagain we quote from the "Herald-Tribune's" version of Pemberton's tale:

It seems that the captain's wife was musical and that she insisted on shipping her piano. The mate lashed the instrument fore and aft, but one day when the Marie. Celeste heeled over suddenly the piano broke loose and crushed the captain's wife, who was playing it. The captain buried her at sea; hurled the piano overboard, then

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himself. The mate had a quarrel with one of the men, who accused him of helping in the captain's untimely end, and in the drunken scuffle which followed that man was drowned, too. Finally, the Marie Celeste made the port of Santa Marta, where the mate, the boatswain and one of the remaining crew deserted, leaving the ship to continue on her way with the cook and the three men who had been lent from the Dei Gratia. These three knew that their old ship would soon be due at Gibraltar and decided to wait around on the chance of meeting her.

Verily, they who go down into the deep waters see, or say they see, great wonders! But it is a pity to destroy a per