of such an act is perfectly evident. The charges against Mr. Perkins, who was formerly the Vice-President of the New York Life Insurance Company as well as a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and against Mr. Fairchild, formerly President of the New York Security and Trust Company, and at one time Secretary of the United States Treasury, are, in brief, that the New York Life Insurance Company was in danger of being refused permission to carry on business in Prussia because the Prussian authorities insisted as a prerequisite that insurance companies should hold only certain classes of investments. The New York Life held certain securities which did not come within the classification laid down by the Prussian Government. It went through the form of selling the securities in question to the New York Security and Trust Company, which was really subsidiary to the New York Life. On the books of the insurance company the transaction appeared as a sale, but on the books of the subsidiary company the same transaction appeared as a loan. To add to the evidence of subterfuge, it is pointed out that the note on which the supposed loan was based was signed by two totally irresponsible persons, financially speaking, one of whom was a colored employee of low grade. If these facts, which were alleged very plainly in the Armstrong investigation, are as above stated, and unless their significance is more favorably interpreted because of new evidence to be adduced, it seems plain that the officers who carried out the scheme were guilty of violating the laws of New York State for the purpose of obtaining a commercial advantage in Prussia which the company could not otherwise have had, and that therefore there was fraudulent intent within the meaning of the law. Technically, the charge is forgery. It need not be pointed out that an indict ment is a very different thing from a conviction; that all accused persons are entitled to a fair and full presentation of their defense before the courts; that the men under indictment have held positions of great prominence in financial circles and have won the confidence of their associates and, in the case of Mr.

Fairchild, of the country at large; and that public opinion should await their defense before passing judgment on them.

From Rodman to President

Four weeks ago the

country was shocked by the announcement of the sudden death of Samuel Spencer, President of the Southern Railway; last week Alexander Johnston Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania system, died almost as suddenly, though not by accident. The passing of Mr. Cassatt was possibly more pathetic; whatever its proximate cause, its ultimate cause is believed by many to have been grief at the discovery of graft on the part of certain officials in his own company. For this Mr. Cassatt was not responsible; but the discovery weighed on him as much as if he had been. Such a feeling was natural in one who had fitted himself thoroughly for his life-work. There was no financial necessity for Mr. Cassatt to choose any work; he was born a rich boy; he loved his pleasures quite as much as his books; he could look forward to a life of ease. But an increasing number of rich Americans feel it incumbent upon them to choose a profession and to work at it as hard as though they were poor. Mr. Cassatt was one of these. He chose civil engineering. He was fitted for it at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, and was graduated with honors when but twenty years old. He went to work in the lowest grade of engineering on a little railway line in Georgia, and the first year of the Civil War found him a rodman on the Pennsylvania system. From this position he rose through the various technical and administrative grades until, six years ago, he became President of a great system. No railway service, it is believed, has ever been more efficient. For Mr. Cassatt was not merely technically equipped for his task; with faith in the future, with judgment both sound and swift, he was a signal example of broad-gauge energy. He was the first railway manager to take up the air-brake, to recognize the merits of the tank

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no

track, and to institute the six-track, longdistance system. Finally, with the courage of a true pioneer, he made his road first, among those that reach the metropolis by ferry, to secure entrance by expensive tunnels under the rivers. That the New York City terminal would involve the expenditure of a hundred million dollars did not check Mr. Cassatt. borrowed that amount, and much more, for improvements on his road. He has made it, among the railways of the world, the first in value, as it is in diversified commerce. Mr.. Cassatt was ordinary financier, accidentally a railway president. When he thought of the Pennsylvania, he did not think of it as a sponge to be squeezed dry, nor as a property to be used for the benefit of Wall Street first and of its patrons only second. He was one of the most efficient officials the country has yet seen, because he tried to administer a great property for its own benefit and not at all for the benefit of the more or less temporary holders of its stocks and bonds. In his fidelity to this ideal Mr. Cassatt stood out in dramatic contrast to the disquieting spectacle of the financial speculators, not to say buccaneers, in control of certain railways. With these economic and moral ideals, and with an open mind for any suggestion, he had a statesmanlike grasp of the relations between the railways and the Federal Government. He was, if not the first, among the very first, to recognize the necessity of widening the Government's powers under the inter-State commerce clause of the Constitution, and, as logical consequence, he recognized the right as well as the expediency of cooperation by the railways with the Government. His quiet force was felt to the full in the recent railway reform regulations. Uniting all these qualities, Mr. Cassatt also possessed a strong personal charm, which gave a compelling touch to his influence. It will be hard to fill Mr. Cassatt's place. Meanwhile men in similar positions will do well to study the aims and achievements of a man whose name promises to take historic rank among the constructive forces of an age of great achievements in engineering, administration, and finance.

a

Sir Mortimer Durand's Retirement

During the past week some silly stories in the

daily press in connection with the retirement from his Washington post of Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the British Ambassador, have aroused indignation among Sir Mortimer's friends. His diplomacy has been like his personal manner, dignified, simple, straightforward. He has a peculiar charm and worth to those who know him well. A man of wide knowledge and a close student of current events in two hemispheres, his observations have always been keen and incisive. He is also a literary critic of discrimination, as our readers will shortly judge upon the publication in The Outlook of an appreciation of Longfellow which Sir Mortimer has prepared at the request of the editors of The Outlook, in commemoration of the centenary of the poet's birth. In Lenox, Massachusetts, where the Ambassador has spent his summers, he has been held in enthusiastic esteem by all sorts of boys, because he welcomed them to his cricket field and taught them a game in which they quickly became proficient. Sir Mortimer is fond of all outdoor sports, especially of following the hounds and of big game shooting, his life in India having afforded many an opportunity for the latter pursuit. It was appropriate that he should enter the Indian service, as the son of the late Major-General Sir Henry Durand, whose history of the first Afghan War the son was later to edit, as well as to write the biography of his father. After a number of years of training in that service, in 1879, during the Kabul campaign, Sir Mortimer was made secretary to Sir Frederick, now. Earl, Roberts. Later he became Foreign Secretary in India, a position which he long held. Towards the end of his term he conducted an expedition to the Amir of Afghanistan. In talking about India, its frontiers, people, government, society, literature, religions, Sir Mortimer conveys a more vivid notion of the problems there than do most English officials, and the world will be the gainer when he decides to put his Oriental reminiscences between covers. From India the Foreign Secretary was transferred as Minister to Per