Fetherstone, an engineer who has been in the employ of the city since 1898, and who has been twice sent abroad to study methods of sewage disposal, to succeed Commissioner Edwards, of the Street Cleaning Department, are likewise worthy of note.

Mr. Mitchel's reappointment of Mr. R. A. C. Smith to the Commissionership of Docks and Ferries is the only important selection with which The Outlook does not find itself in sympathy. Our doubt is due to the fact that we have not yet been convinced that the policy to which Mr. Smith is committed for the "improvement " of Riverside Drive and the development of the western water-front of New York is by any means the most advantageous that can be made.

THE REPORT OF THE

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE

The annual crop report of the Department of Agriculture is always a subject of National interest and concern. The report just issued estimates the total value of all crops grown during the past year as six billion one hundred million dollars. To this the Department adds the farm value of animals sold and slaughtered and of animal products, making a total gross valuation of nearly ten billion dollars. This exceeds the value of the crops produced in the year 1912 by five hundred million.

In monetary value produced the farms of the United States have this year set a new record, although the actual production was materially below the average. The most interesting part of the report, however, is contained in the statement of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Mr. Leon Estabrook, in regard to the relation of production to prices. His report gives recognition to the fact that increased production is by no means synonymous with greater income for the farmer or with decreased prices to the consumer. The "two blades of grass panacea receives a hard blow.

"However desirable," he says, "increased production on farms may appear to be from the consumers' standpoint, it does not follow that such increased production would result in any increase in the cash income per farm or per capita of farm population, or that prices paid by consumers would be any lower.

"Had the total production in 1913 equaled or exceeded the 1912 production, it seems probable that the cash income per farm would not have been greater, and might have been less, than in 1912; but it is extremely doubtful whether the cost to the consumer would have been any less

because retail prices are promptly raised on a prospect of underproduction, but are very slow to decline if there is overproduction.

"The long line of distributers and middlemen between the farmer and consumer are in a position to take advantage of the market and to a certain extent control the market in both directions, because they are better organized to keep informed of crop and market conditions and to act promptly than either farmers or consumers, who are not organized and as individuals are helpless.

"The high prices paid by consumers, ranging from 5 to nearly 500 per cent in some cases more than 'the farmer receives, indicate that there is plenty of room for lowering the cost of farm products to consumers and at the same time largely increase the cash income per farm without increasing farm production.

"This condition is undoubtedly a marketing problem, which will have to be solved by better organization of farmers and improved methods of marketing.

When, as the result of such organization and improved methods, the price of farm products can be maintained at a higher level without increasing the cost to consumers, farmers will be justified in increasing the output of their farms with a fair prospect of realizing a reasonable profit on their investment of time, labor, and money, which in the aggregate is enor

mous.'

With some noteworthy exceptions, the metropolitan press, which delights to dilate upon the prosperity and luxurious existence of all farmers, and which apparently possesses a knowledge of rural affairs gained exclusively. from the observation of Arcadian operas, has not taken kindly to this pronouncement of the Department of Agriculture. Some day

our city dwellers will realize how much they are made to suffer from the economic disadvantages under which our agricultural population is made to labor.

Our farmers form the last class of our citizens to take its place in the organized world of modern industry. It will be to the advantage of all when they have finally achieved the position and recognition which they have so long deserved.

TO SAFEGUARD RADIUM

Secretary Lane, of the Interior Department, urges upon Congress the need of immediate legislation to empower the President to reserve to the Government all rights in radium-bearing ores found on the public land. This right of reservation or withdrawal, it seems, does not now exist under the law.

Incidentally, Secretary Lane gives an interesting account of the situation as regards

reveal a new record for the calendar year of 1913, despite the fact that laws affecting economic conditions in this country in a marked way have been in process of adoption throughout the last nine months. The immigration since July 1 has been particularly notable. For the four months for which data have been made public by the Bureau of Immigration the inward movement was at the rate of approximately 1,631,000 for the fiscal year. The rate was maintained up to the middle of December, when the passenger figures indicated that the crest of the wave had passed and the tide was ebbing. That the flow should continue at such a rate in the face of the slackened industrial activity was one of the interesting phases of the year's movement. As perhaps was to be expected, the chief increases were among the Slavs, the peasants from southern Italy, and the Hebrews. The Slavs were entering in the first four months of this fiscal year at the rate of 620,000 a year, as compared with an actual admission last year of 373,992. As for the Italians, they promised to be an army of more than half a million-231,613 came in 1912 -more than doubling the record of 242,497 made in the fiscal year of 1907. Of course, with a slowing down of the current and a stimulation of the outward flow, which will probably follow the reduction in industrial activity, these figures are not likely to be reached. In examining the causes of this phenomenal inward movement the discouraging economic conditions reported in certain European countries must be taken into account. This may have a bearing upon the fact that the outward movement late in December was not above the average, despite conditions here. This is an element governing the volume of the stream which has not been reckoned with so generally in estimating causes as have our own industrial requirements. It has been asserted also that the possibility of the setting up of a literacy test in the near future has been a stimulating influence. This remains to be proved, how

ART AND THE

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

There are skeptics who declare that the best art makes an appeal to the educated few alone; that the masses can neither understand it nor appreciate it. Of course such a statement brings on the ancient query, "What is art ?" and we must ask to be ex

cused from the discussion that inevitably follows. Examples are not lacking, however, to bear out the contention that the real works of art, those that may be classed as such by every usual test, do appeal to the people, when the people are given a fair chance to absorb their beauty.

About two years ago the experiment was tried of offering classic music, produced by accomplished performers, to the children of the New York City public schools and their parents in the school auditoriums. There was an immediate response to this experiment, and the concerts are now an established part of the extra-school curriculum, so to speak.

The Department of Education and the Wage-Earners' Theater Leagues, which have co-operated in providing concerts for the children at the price of a fraction over three cents for each performance, have now undertaken to introduce the classic drama to the schools. A committee, whose chairman is Dr. Edward W. Stitt, District Superintendent of Schools, has arranged for a number of performances of Shakespeare by the Ben Greet Company in high school auditoriums during the winter. If these "take" with the boys and girls as well as the concerts did, productions of the plays of Schelling, Molière, and the classic Greek dramatists will be given, and a permanent arrangement made for future seasons.

As the Board of Education offers the auditoriums rent free, the only expenses to be met are the salaries of the performers. In the case of the actors these amount to more than in the case of the musicians, however; but, in spite of this additional expense, it is hoped to establish a uniform price of ten cents, with ten performances a week.

The public school concerts have taught the children that there is something better than the cabaret and hurdy-gurdy styles of music, and in the same way it is now hoped to teach them that dramatic art does not end with burlesque shows and the typical Broadway musical comedy, so called, which finds its drawing power in plenty of noise, horseplay, and chorus girls.

If the New York educators find it possible to popularize classic drama, and we have no doubt they will, other American cities should follow suit. The average American child is a barbarian so far as his or her artistic tastes are concerned simply because no one has tried to develop them. Both the schools and

the parents are to blame. Now that the schools have begun to teach children that there is other beauty in the world than that found between the covers of a Greek grammar or of a volume of Euclid, it is more than likely that through the children they will educate the parents, and thus raise the taste of the general public. At any rate, in art as in politics, social reform, and everything else, all hope lies with the younger generation.

JAMES BRYCE A VISCOUNT

At the same time Americans are cosmopolitan enough to be glad that this richly earned but belated royal distinction has come to Mr. Bryce. He is Viscount Bryce now, and as such is designated by King George as our right trusty and well-beloved cousin.' But he will always be plain Mr. Bryce to Americans. And in future ages, when the name "Bryce" is mentioned, one will quite forget whether he was Mr. Bryce or Lord Bryce, just as one never thinks whether John Morley is Mr. Morley, as he used to be, or Lord Morley, as he is now.

OTHER HONORS

Among the other seventy-seven men who received titles or honors are: Sir Rufus Isaacs, the new Lord Chief Justice; Alexander Ure, the Lord Advocate for Scotland; Sir Charles Cripps, the well-known Member of Parliament; and Sir Harold Harmsworth, a brother of Lord Northcliffe, and himself a newspaper owner-the proprietor of such

declaration of General Ortega that all the Federal generals captured (there are said to be seven in this small army) would be executed offhand.

Some hundreds of the Federal soldiers did, in fact, cross into Texas. They were disarmed by Major MacNamee, of the United States army, who also required the artillery attacking Ojinaga to stop firing upon American territory; Presidio, a small Texan town, is almost directly across the river from Ojinaga.

VILLA THE EX-BANDIT

There were reports toward the end of the week that Villa in person was about to take the field against the Federals at Ojinaga. Villa's ideas of warfare and government are primitive, but his power has come to be extraordinary. He has held as a hostage the son of General Terrazas, millionaire and exGovernor, and has made him sign printed money for a quarter of a million dollars to be paid to Villa's soldiers and thus put in circulation at Chihuahua. He is conducting the business of that town in a way fully like a dictator and partly like a Socialist. Thus he has plans for a state bank under his control, and for a mint to coin money. A correspondent of the New York "Sun " says:

The street car system, the stores, the electric light plant, the brewery, a clothing factory, and the railroad between Chihuahua and Juarezeven the gambling-houses-are all being operated by the rebel government, and all of them are yielding a profit. In some of them the prices have been cut below those charged by private individuals. In the case of the railroad, where persons are not able to pay and their necessity for travel exists, they travel without

Villa's word is the only law that the city knows. He is feared to-day as no other man is feared in Mexico.

Villa "the bandit" shoots his men for looting or stealing, but Villa "the chief" confiscates whole estates, factories, railroad systems, and operates them as nonchalantly as he used to hold up and rob an ore train in the mountains. The moneys derived from their operations he applies to the payment of his army. In this respect only his work is Socialistic, but inasmuch as he declares all able-bodied men in the State are in his army he argues that his work is truly Socialistic.

Such is Huerta's most formidable foe today. What the relations are between Carranza and Villa it is hard to say. The former has been very little in evidence since Villa's sweeping victories of late. So far as known,

Villa still recognizes Carranza as the head of the Constitutionalist movement.

It would seem almost impossible to think of Villa as President of Mexico, but it is as difficult to believe, in view of Mexican history, that if his victories continue and Huerta's rule falls, he should step aside for Carranza or any one else. He is ignorant and has behind him a life stained with brigandage, loot, and "executions" which to modern military ideas are murder; but he is said to be just to those who obey him, and his successes have given him an increasing army of devoted adherents.

VISCOUNT CHINDA

The increasingly complicated AmericoJapanese affairs make Viscount Chinda, the present Japanese Ambassador at Washington, a peculiarly interesting person.

He is fifty-seven years old. He was born at Hirosaki, but when a young man came to America to get a broader education than was then possible in Japan. In 1881 he was graduated from De Pauw University, Indiana. Four years later he was appointed a clerk in the Japanese Foreign Office, and his rise in the foreign service shows what might be accomplished in America had we a permanent and paying service. Young Chinda was finally given charge of the telegraph section at the Japanese Foreign Office, and did so well at this important post that, together with a recognition of the advantages of his American education, he was appointed Consul at San Francisco in 1890. Four years later he was transferred to the consulate at Chemulpo. Later he was made Consul-General at Shanghai. Two years later he entered the diplomatic service as Minister to Brazil, and in another two years became Minister to The Hague. From Holland he was transferred to perhaps the most important of all Japanese diplomatic posts abroad, namely, to St. Petersburg. He had hardly been a year there when Marquis Komura-possibly the greatest Foreign Minister Japan has ever had -came to this country as the principal Japanese Ambassador at the Portsmouth Peace Conference. This made it necessary for Viscount Chinda-he had no title at that time -to return to Tokyo and enter the Foreign Office. Here his service was distinguished enough to cause the Emperor to make him a noble. He was now Baron Chinda. Later he was appointed Ambassador to Germany. Three years later he became a

Viscount and was appointed Ambassador at Washington.

In appearance and manner the present Japanese Ambassador (of whom a portrait is printed on another page) somewhat recalls his predecessor, Baron Takahira-that is to say, he has the Baron's direct, businesslike manner, and his atmosphere of what an exalted personage once called "his contagious honesty." An Oriental does not always receive such praise. The experience of Americans with men like Komura, Katsura, Chinda, and Takahira may make us grasp the not always appreciated fact that in the Orient, as in the Occident, are to be found men of as pronounced probity as of pronounced ability.

THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS

With the death of Prince K. Tokugawa the last Shogun disappears from Japan.

When Commander Perry went to that country, it was with the determination to put himself in direct communication with the Emperor; as a matter of fact, his communications were with the Shogun. For a long time the Americans supposed they were dealing with the Emperor, and when at last they learned that there were two rulers in Japan they rushed to the conclusion that the Emperor exercised spiritual power, while the Shogun exercised temporal power. The Shogun was, by a legal fiction, the executive power, but all honor and authority were derived from the Emperor, who was by tradition the supreme and absolute ruler of the Japanese Empire; and the present dynasty, which began in mythology, is now represented by the one hundred and twenty-second Emperor on the throne. No other reigning family compares in antiquity with it.

About eight hundred years ago a feudal lord, Yoritomo by name, as a result of certain military service rendered to the Emperor, assumed the title of "Generalissimo,' or Shogun. He became a kind of Mayor of the Palace. He was the founder of feudalism, as well as of the dual system of sovereignty which held in Japan until the restoration of the Empire in 1868. There were many able men among the Shoguns, and they were very skillful politicians, preserving scrupulously the fiction that they derived their power from the Emperor and always representing themselves as his delegates.

This system continued more than seven hundred years, though the title of Shogun