simply that whatever party got control of the machinery of elections could maintain itself in power by simply rejecting virtually all candidates for the suffrage who did not support it. The amendment now proposed to be submitted to the voters of the State next November, avoids that manifest scheme for establishing oligarchical government, but it retains a part of that scheme which, if not so obviously outrageous, is bad enough to warrant defeat. A great many Southern States have established property and education qualifications which exclude from the suffrage those who are both ignorant and thriftless. Many of these Statessuch as North Carolina and Georgiahave accepted also provisions which temporarily admit to the ballot certain ignorant and thriftless voters who are descended from soldiers or voters, or who can understand the Constitution. These "grandfather clauses" and "understanding clauses" were adopted because without them no amendment for raising the standards of the suffrage could have been secured, but they expire in time. The Maryland amendment has such a provision-in this case a "grand father clause "--but the essential difference between it and similar provisions in other States is that it is permanent. A provision which is tolerable as a device to prevent the disfranchisement of an arbitrarily selected class of present incompetent voters becomes intolerable when it is a permanent device for admitting an arbitrarily selected class of incompetent voters throughout future generations. The Maryland amendment allows men with certain educational or property qualifications to vote; it also allows any man to vote who could vote in 1869, and any male descendant of such a person; any foreigner who was naturalized between 1869 and the adoption of the amendment, and any male descendant of such a person. Inasmuch as no negro voted in 1869 or has been naturalized since, the only way a colored man could be entitled to the ballot would be by qualifying under the property or education clauses.

much as all white voters would be either voters of 1869 or citizens naturalized since 1869, or the descendants of such, white voters would not need to qualify

under the property or education clauses. In other words, this amendment encourages the formation of an educated and thrifty black electorate and discourages an educated and thrifty white electorate. Whether it complies with the Federal Constitution or not, this amendment is dead against the interests of the white people of Maryland, and ought to be defeated. If Maryland wants to purify her electorate, let her raise education and property qualifications; but if she must, in order to secure higher standards, admit some of the thriftless and the propertyless, let her do it by provisions that are not permanent but temporary. In this respect let her follow the example of her Southern neighbors.

Standard Oil Company, which was given a unique position among contemporary judicial incidents by the unprecedented $29,000,000 fine, has advanced another stage in its journey through the courts. The United States Supreme Court has refused the application of the Government attorneys for a writ of certiorari to have the case as it now stands reviewed by that body. The effect of this determination on the part of the Supreme Court is to send the case back for trial to the court of first instance. The case will be tried again precisely as it was the first time, with this exception, that the trial judge will be governed in his rulings by the decisions of the Court of Appeals which reversed the original conviction. These decisions are, in effect, that the trial judge erred in adopting the view that a shipper can be convicted of accepting a rebate when it is not shown that he knew what the lawful published rate actually was; that the number of offenses in a case of rebating is not to be determined by the number of car-loads transported, as Judge Landis ruled, but by the number of "transactions" which result in shipments; and that Judge Landis was guilty of an "abuse of judicial discretion" in imposing so large a fine. The District Attorney in charge of the case has announced that the Government will seek to have the new trial begin at the earliest possible moment.

The case would naturally come up for retrial in the same court in which it originated, but Judge Landis has let it be known that he will not hear the case again, but will ask Judge A. S. Anderson, of Indianapolis, to preside. We hope that the new trial will be conducted to a speedy conclusion, and that the important points involved in the case may ultimately come before the Supreme Court.

GOVERNOR HUGHES ON PARTY NOMINATIONS

Charles E. Hughes has twice been elected Governor of New York State against the will of the party bosses. He is a prominent representa tive in office of the growing public protest against what he describes as " the control of the powers of government by selfish interests." Nominated and elected as the result of an expression of popular feel ing, he has found that his most important work, aside from that of giving the people of the State an honest and efficient administration, was to fight against the domination, by bosses and their allied special interests, over the activities of the party and consequently over the functions of the Government. In making this fight he believes that he is giving the best evidence of party loyalty. He has many times expressed the belief that "he best serves his party who best serves State." In his first term, just ended, the fight focused in the struggle for the repeal of the race-track gambling laws. At the beginning of his second term he has indicated in his Message to the Legisla ture that he intends to carry on the fight by attempting to improve the methods of nomination and election. The evils which have grown up about our present system of nominating candidates for public office he indicates in his Message:

the

astrous effect upon party leadership. The power of nominating candidates, which has come to rest largely upon the party leaders, is so important that it offers a constant temptation to the manipulation of party machinery for its preservation in the hands of individuals. Secondly, it tends to discourage party voters from participation in the affairs of the party. The average voter is an infrequent attendant at party caucuses and primaries. Third, candidates too often regard themselves as primarily accountable, not to their constituents, nor even in the broad sense to their party, but to those individual leaders to whom they realize they owe their offices, and upon the continuance of whose favor they feel that their political future depends. The fourth evil, and the most serious, is the consequence to the people at large :

To the extent that party machinery can be dominated by the few, the opportunity for special interests which desire to control the administration of government, to shape the laws, to prevent the passage of laws, or to break the laws with impunity, is increased. These interests are ever at work, stealthily and persistently endeavoring to pervert the Government to the service of their own ends. All that is worst in our public life finds its readiest means of access to power through the control of the nominating machinery of parties.

THE REMEDY FOR THE EVILS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF NOMINATION

Coming to inquire what remedy shall be adopted, Governor Hughes realizes that none can be considered as complete, "because human nature cannot be changed by legislation, and opportunities for political mischief will exist under any system." He recommends as a first step that the primary laws of the State should be improved by providing for an official primary ballot, by extending the enrollment system, and by placing the primary elections under substantially the same restrictions as the general elections.

But he believes the State should go beyond this. He recommends a system of direct nominations by all parties for all elective offices other than those of Presidential electors. This will, he believes,

promote true party leadership by making it less susceptible to misuse and more in

accord with general party sentiment. By increasing the direct influence of the party voters their participation in party affairs will be encouraged. It wil make the elective officer more independent of those who would control his action for their selfish advantage, and enable him to appeal more directly to his constituency upon the basis of faithful service. It cannot fail, in the main, to prove a strong barrier against the efforts of those who seek, by determining the selection of candidates, to pervert admin istration to the service of privilege or to secure immunity for law-breaking. It is a reform which is instinct with the spirit of our institutions, and it is difficult to see how any party man, however earnest in his par tisanship, can oppose the right of the voters of the party really to decide who shall represent them as candidates.

Without desiring unduly to elaborate detail, he recommends that participation in primary elections be limited to enrolled party voters, that the expense of holding primary elections be borne by the public, that the State prescribe the expense which may be lawfully incurred in connection with candidacies for nomination and ensure the publicity of all expenses, and that the amount which may be expended by candidates for nomination be limited. Gov ernor Hughes's statement of the evils which attend our present system of nomination for office is admirable. His suggestion of the direction in which reform in that system should proceed is thoroughly sound. The remedy, said de Tocqueville, for the evils of democracy is more democracy. Elections in this country, in the vast majority of cases, express faithfully the will of the majority of the people. Nominations must be made to express faithfully the will of the majority of a party. But whether the method which Governor Hughes proposes for attaining this reform-the direct primaryis the right method we are not prepared to say. This question of the direct primary is no longer one the merits of which are to be determined by consideration and discussion in the study or in the legislative chamber. The direct primary has been tried, for longer or shorter periods, in more than a dozen States. How it has worked under different conditions can be known. We would like to see the subject investigated and studied by an expert commission appointed by the Governor before legislation is attempted. In this matter we would like to have

Governor Hughes follow the method! which he has adopted in other cases d like character-investigation and informa tion before action.

TENNESSEE MURDERERS

CONDEMNED

The conviction of the Tennessee night nd ers who have been on trial for the murder of Captain Rank is a triumph for law and order. How great a triumph it is only those who have known of the terrorism that has prevailed in the region of their operations can imagine, for every witness against the accused gave his testimony with the knowledge that he was endangering not only his own life, but the lives of those who were dear to him. The trial brought out the fact that there was organized in the region a band of men who did not hesitate, for example, to drag a woman. out at night and beat her brutally; who did not hesitate to torture and to kill, who made life so unsafe that one man, who had incurred their displeasure, had fortified his house and surrounded it with mines, as if his household were a center The cause of combatants in time of war. of the murder for which these men were on trial was, as The Outlook has stated heretofore, the land transactions which interfered with the traditional fishing of the people of the region. The mode of defense which the night riders adopted was the mode of the savage. Of the eight men on trial, the jury found six guilty of murder in the first degree and two of murder in the second degree. The ruling of Judge Jones, who presided over the trial, that any one in the mob who was present for the purpose simply of inflicting corporal punishment upon the victim was as truly guilty of murder as the man who killed him, will give to those who think lightly of joining a mob of lynchers reason to fear the law. The agitators on behalf of theoretical anarchism are recognized as enemies of the Republic; but the anarchists to be feared and fought are those who practice the anarchy of the mob.

YUAN-SHI-KAI: HIS FRIENDS

Two hours after the announcement of Yuan-ShiKai's downfall, a meeting of the representatives of the Powers was held at Peking to see if, without unduly interfering in a friendly state's affairs, some statement might be made to the Chinese Government of appreciation for the fair methods which Yuan-Shi-Kai has used in the treatment of the Ministers; not directly praying for his reinstatement, because that is China's internal affair, but expressing a hope that the dismissal of that statesman whose presence in the Peking Government had inspired confidence in its stability, might not be due to a reversal of the policy of which he had become the exponent. In 1900 Yuan realized, before the Government did, that the anti-foreign movement must fall. If he advocated a middle course, his friends declare that it was to retain some influence over the Empress and to gain time. Meanwhile he did not kill the foreigners in his province, as it was reported he had been ordered to do; and he gave the first assurance to the outside world that the diplomats, their families and attachés, were holding their own within the Legation precincts at Peking. Indeed, it was the information which Yuan conveyed through the Consul-General at Shanghai to John Hay, our Secretary of State, that encouraged the European Governments to join with America in the allied march of troops to Peking resulting in the liberation of the legationers. Yuan thus gained the foreigners' confidence. As we have seen, he had at that time already begun the organization of the Chinese army, with which his name should always be connected. When we consider the conditions under which he has had to work, it is little short of a miracle that in a decade he has been able to obliterate much of the traditional, popular, and caste objections to military service, so that many of the sons of Chinese nobles are now not only willing but proud to appear in a soldier's uniform. Yuan's services to education have been no less notable. He substituted modern textbooks for ancient classics, and inspired the various education decrees which have transformed China from the Confucian age of literalism to our modern elastic conceptions. Again, Yuan compelled the

reason given in the Regent's edict is that Yuan has rheumatism of the leg." The edict further orders him to vacate all his offices and to return to his home, adding, "Thus our clemency is manifest." One might therefore infer that Yuan has been lucky to escape with his head! Such luck is now explained by Kang-YuWei, the Chinese reformer, who, ten years ago, succeeded in persuading Kuang-Hsü, the young and inexperienced Emperor, to issue a succession of reform decrees. According to a despatch from Penang, in the Straits Settlements, where Kang-YuWei is residing under British protection, he contends that in 1898 the opportunist, Yuan-Shi-Kai, then Viceroy of Shantung province and commanding about the only efficient military body in China, induced the reformer to believe that his influence would be exercised in their favor; that he was instrumental in the issuance of the progressive decrees, yet, as he was certain of the Emperor's inability to carry them out, he really aided the Empress Dowager to resume her hitherto baleful authority. Furthermore, according to the despatches, the reformers assert that Yuan-Shi-Kai was also an actual traitor to them, since he used his troops, not on behalf of the reformers in obeying the Emperor's order to have the Empress Dowager placed under restraint, but in reinstating that ruler and in aiding her to capture and kill six of the reformers. Yuan not only betrayed his young sovereign, but compassed that sovereign's death, so it is said. The story goes that when the Empress Dowager realized her own end to be near, she suggested to Yuan, who had been her confidant for many years, that, after she was gone, the Emperor might reassert himself and perhaps recall Kang to Peking, and that therefore it might be well if the Emperor did not survive her. The Emperor's death, it will be remembered, occurred just one day before that of the Empress Dowager. According to this view Yuan was not dismissed because his political views differed from those of Prince Chun, but because the opportunist had been shown to be untrustworthy and worse and because the dynasty was imperiled by the presence of so powerful a subject so near the throne. Such is the theory of Yuan's disgrace put forward by his enemies.

abolition of torture. When he became Viceroy of the Province of Chili, in which Peking is situated, he transformed that capital from the filthiest city in the world into a comparatively clean town. Yuan's recent relations with the outside world were singularly satisfying, and his downfall is deplored by most of those who have been brought into contact with him. We say "most of those;" it is hardly within the bounds of human nature that those whose ambitious schemes for the partition of Chinese territory and for the violation of Chinese commercial integrity should not feel some secret sense of elation. Yuan's friendly feelings to America are shown by the presence here of his protegé, Tang Shao-Yi, for the purpose of thanking the American Government for a remission of half the Boxer indemnity. In the views of Yuan's enemies and of his friends there is probably some measure of truth. Doubt less an opportunist, he has nevertheless done much for the cause of liberty and progress in China. Prince Chun, who dismissed him, may or may not be a reactionary. But this dismissal can hardly signify any permanent reaction. The tide of progress in China is now, we believe, running too strong for Prince Chun or any other man to resist.

THE WEEK IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The ruined cities Messina and Reggio, now abandoned by their people and surrounded by a cordon of guards, are to be rebuilt. The declaration of Italy's purpose was made on Friday of last week, at a special session of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The scene is described as solemn and pathetic, and when the President of the Chamber spoke of the loss of life and suffering, the Deputies listened standing in religious silence, broken only by the sobs of speaker and audience. The Premier, Signor Giolitti, thanked the nations of the world for their ready sympathy and aid, and presented the first draft of a law to regulate the situation. During the week many comparatively slight earthquake shocks have been felt, and tremors have been noticed even in Switzerland. No serious additional harm has been done by these shocks, but one can imagine the terror they cause to the already anguished people. The

scenes in and about the cities and villages destroyed have been full of horror. The greatest energy last week was expended in trying to find still living victims among the ruins; quite a number of such rescues were effected, and the stories told of the persistence of life under seemingly im possible possible conditions are extraordinary. The task of burying the dead has been a serious one, and, the despatches indicate, had not been completed at the end of last week, so that the danger of pestilence would be extreme if the people had been allowed to stay in their neighboring homes. There seem to have been very few, if any, deaths of Americans beyond those mentioned last week. The flood of relief contributions continues, and those from this country have been notably large. Congress promptly met the President's suggestion of a large appropriation by passing a bill carrying $800,000 for relief. The sums raised by the Red Cross are considerably over half a million dollars, while New York State in various ways has contributed at least an equal amount, part of which has gone through the agency of the Red Cross. of the Red Cross. It is impossible to

give exact figures for the total money relief sent from this country, but it is safe to say that it will considerably exceed two millions. The personal assistance and sympathy, to say nothing of the energetic action, shown by the King and Queen of Italy have excited admiration the world over. Without ostentation, they have been foremost in the work of succor and practical relief. A single instance may be quoted from a press despatch:

Queen Helena, who is perhaps the most useful of all the agencies of relief, has had the heavy furniture removed from three big sewing-machines, forty or fifty work-baskets, rooms of the Royal Palace, putting in tables, chairs, and nothing else. Here ladies of the oldest aristocracy and workgirls are gathered together in friendly intimacy, cutting out and finishing. The Queen is as busy as the rest, sewing as though their lives depended upon advising and directing, even giving lessons and taking a hand herself. This goes on practically all day until five o'clock, when tea is served for an hour. At these divertissements the great lady and the modest sewinggirl associate as equals. Indeed, they almost change places in giving instruction.

The newspaper correspondent comments: "No wonder Queen Helena was called at