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"In vain," says Mr. Sweeney; "the Board of Pardons turned us down." "But that did not one whit discourage him. A new trial before the Supreme Court was secured. A conviction followed. Then Sweeney was instructed to "go out and abolish capital punishment." Governor Brumbaugh reprieved the boys and gave public notice that no death warrant would be signed by him until the people of the State had an opportunity through the Legislature of reconsidering the question whether they were willing to retain the death penalty or wished to abolish it.

DR. LEWIS'S STATEMENT

The Hon. William Draper Lewis, Ph.D., formerly Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Law School, and in 1914 Progressive candidate for the Governorship of the State, gave me the following statement:

"I have always been opposed, theoretically, to capital punishment. But I must confess that I did not take any initiative in the present movement. The question of prison reform on the lines advocated by Thomas Mott Osborne began to be agitated here about a year ago. The Pennsylvania Prison Reform Association was established, and I consented to act as chairman of its Legis lative Committee. I am now president of the Association. A few months ago I noticed that the Ledger had begun a campaign for the abolition of capital punishment. The Associa tion threw itself into the movement. Meetings were held, and we were surprised at the strength of the public sentiment against the death penalty.

"I am in favor of the abolition of the death penalty, because I believe that the only possible justification for the taking of human life by the State would be if its effect was shown to be the protection of life. If I believed that capital punishment had any deterrent effect, I would not be in favor of the abolition of the death penalty. But those who have come into personal contact with the criminal classes, and especially with murderers, whether they are penologists, wardens, lawyers, or social workers, seem to be almost a unit in believing that the infliction of the death penalty has no effect in reducing the num ber of murders. In my opinion, testimony of this kind is worth reams of abstract sentimental discussion." Dr. Lewis paused for a moment, and then said, speaking very slowly and thoughtfully: "I also believe, from my own experience as a lawyer in certain cases, that the abolition of the death penalty, together with other measures showing a fundamental change of attitude on the part of the public towards the criminal and the social problem he presents, will have the effect of lessening not only murder, but also all crimes of violence."

THE GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA

Governor Brumbaugh has been for years on public record as opposed to capital punishment. He believes that enlightened public sentiment demands its abolition. He is strongly opposed to the usual alternative proposition-of leaving the option of life or death to juries-on the ground that it is too great a responsibility to devolve on any chance twelve men who may happen to form a jury. Two years ago he vetoed a bill giving juries this discretionary power.

THE REV. SAMUEL UPJOHN'S VIEW. THE RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT I deeply regret to say that in my hurried visits to Philadelphia I was unable to find time to interview the Rev. Dr. Upjohn, of Germantown, though I strongly desired to do so, as he is one of the distinguished leaders of the opposition. A prominent newspaper man in Philadelphia thus describes him to me in a letter just received: "As to the Rev. Samuel Upjohn, he upholds capital punishment on well-known Biblical authority. He believes that it does deter men from committing murder. Added to this, he holds that the Maker was thinking of the protection of society when he established capital punishment as a divine institution, and man has no right to question the laws of God."

MR. RUSSEL DUANE'S VIEW. THE PRACTICAL ARGUMENT

Russel Duane, a well-known practitioner in the civil courts, is the recognized head of the body of citizens, by no means despicable in numbers and influence, who wish to retain the death penalty. A pamphlet issued by him last month summarizes the arguments favored by this party. Capital punishment is deterrent of potential murder. It would be especially danger

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ous to abolish any legal restraint now in force in a community composed so largely of foreigners and Negroes." It would be unfortunate to try such an experiment at the close of a great war. Italy abolished capital punishment in 1890, and the result was an increase of murders of over four hundred per cent. In France the "Apache" murders prevented the formal abolition of capital punishment. In England the swift and certain course of law, where the Court of Appeals must decide within thirty days after the conviction, prevents murders. The admirable operation of this system is shown by the recent case of Dr. Crippen. The sentence of life imprisonment is rarely carried out. If capital punishment is abolished, there is great danger of the spread of the practice of lynching. It is as common an error of the sentimentalists that the abolition of capital punishment would result in more convictions as it is that innocent persons have been executed. There exists no general sentiment among the thinking people of Philadelphia in favor of the Wells Bill. Mr. Duane's statistics and conclusions may all be disregarded. Against his statement of a four hundred per cent increase in murders in Italy I quote the statement of a writer of at least equal authority that in Italy in the decade preceding the abolition of the death penalty the ratio of murders was 16.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, while in the decade succeeding that event the ratio was 11.32 per 100,000, a decrease of thirty-two per cent. At the International Prison Congress held in Chicago in 1910 the Italian representative, while not quoting statistics, pledged his reputation on the statement that the results of the abolition of capital punishment had been excellent."

Mr. Duane's fear of the increase of " lynching bees" if the death penalty is abolished may be dissipated by the unanswerable fact that in 1914 in the seven States in which there was then no capital punishment (the number is now eleven or twelve) there were no lynchings; in the twenty-six States in which the jury had the option of pronouncing the death sentence there were thirty-five lynchings and thirty-six legal executions; in the fifteen States where death was the only penalty allowed by law there were nineteen lynchings and thirty-eight executions.

MY OWN VIEW

I am unalterably opposed to the death penalty:

Because the State should act on the belief that all human life should be sacred.

Because capital punishment, even as practiced in this community, is but a survival of a primitive desire for vengeance, and because it is a cardinal principle with the modern penologist that the law should not be vengeful, but consider the evil-doer as one whom it is society's duty to return to the right path, following good Biblical precedent: "For I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn from his evil ways and live."

Because the death penalty is irrevocable. Mistakes cannot be rectified. And many mistakes have occurred. I myself have seen an innocent man go to the electric chair despite my almost frantic attempts to save him. No human tribunal can be infallible, yet none but an infallible tribunal can be intrusted with the tremendous power of inflicting death.

Because, regarded as a deterrent or a punishment, it is a failure. The vilest criminal goes to his death sure of the sympathy of every human being he meets, surer still of the admiration he evokes from the only class in society whose opinion he values. Because the halo of false glory which surrounds the brow of the man who has " gamely" gone to his death is an incitement to weak-minded admirers to emulate his crime.

fall upon the innocent surviving relations of the murderer. Because the punishment, the suffering, and the degradation

Because public sentiment is so strongly opposed to putting a human being to death that our best citizens are averse to serving on juries in capital cases.

The only cogent and valid argument which I have encountered in support of the retention of the death penalty is that under our political conditions murderers would be pardoned out too freely and too early if they happen to possess political, social, or financial influence. I regard this danger as so real that I am in favor of the infliction of a rigorous, inexorable, and irrevocable sentence of imprisonment for life in the literal meaning of the last word. JACOB GOLDSTEIN.

Brooklyn, New York, April 22, 1917.

T

THE war in Europe has finally brought us face to face with the absolute necessity for a system of compulsory military training in the public schools wherever democratic gov ernment exists, and this particularly applies to the United States and the Dominion of Canada.

The basis of all preparation work in the life of any nation should be found in the public school system of that nation, and yet in neither the Dominion nor the Republic has the question as regards military training ever been seriously considered until these recent months of conflict. If a system of this kind had been in vogue a few years ago, it would have saved much time and enormous sums of money during the period of preparatory training which Canada has given all her units since she began sending troops for overseas service.

I am glad to see that the United States has at last perceived that military preparedness is an essential for every wide-awake nation, and I believe that the Republic, as well as the Dominion, should from now on put the greatest emphasis on training her young citizens to be even more efficient members in the Nation's working system.

I know that most mothers have an instinctive dread of bringing their children in touch with matters of a military nature at too early an age. And yet I believe that when all the arguments have been adduced they may probably see that simple elementary training will be an added blessing to the correct upbringing of children, rather than a hindrance to the life-work of the young student. With these impressions in view, let me make a hurried sketch of what, in my opinion, should be a comprehensive course for a system of military training which would be workable in the schools of either Canada or the United States.

THE CORRECT AGE AT WHICH TO BEGIN

The correct age to begin training boys in simple military movements is between ten and sixteen years of because age, between these periods of time the boy has surplus energy which can be utilized in the open in learning those things about which he has read, and which will employ his attention when otherwise his time might be wasted in something which would be of no use whatever.

The best places for implanting the lessons are in the public and high schools where boys in sufficient numbers can be got together for company drills and limited field movements. Of course, previous to this time light physical drill work with primary movements should be taken up by the younger children from six to ten years of age.

There are many reasons for commencing early universal training. I might instance a large number, but several should suffice: 1. Youth is always impressionable, and if as much attention is not paid to the physique as to the mind the nation will sooner or later deteriorate in a physical way. 2. It is easier to teach target shooting effectively to children than later on in life. One reason for this is that they are keener on attaining proficiency in physical motion than are their elders. 3. I have never known a great cricket, lacrosse, or baseball player, or, in fact, any other kind of an athlete, who did not learn the elementary stages of his chosen pastime in his early youth. The biggest reason, however, is this: that if a boy, or, for that matter, a girl, does not learn at an early age the advantages of drill movements in the open air and the health-giving influence of camp life it is ever so much harder to cultivate these in later years when the bones and muscles have more fully matured and the natural will power has to some extent diminished.

Another prime reason for a national training movement is the fact that, in its earlier stages at least, there is relatively no cost to the country in the way of equipment or loss of time from work of producing units in the industrial world. Then, again,

it does not involve any large expenditure for training camps or armories or any of those other expenses which must be incurred in training soldiers when their early training has been neglected. From the standpoint of national economics alone it will readily be seen that a course of preparedness in the school should be very much worth while.

AFTER RESULTS OF MILITARY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

A prime feature which has always appealed to me as being one which was very much to be desired is the effect that an early military training has on the boys who have been given that advantage.

In the first place, it molds them into excellent physical condition, it teaches them the value of discipline, it shows them what can be accomplished by system, it strengthens their memory and powers of observation, it teaches them one of the first and greatest principles of economics-that the whole is only as great as the part, and the part as great as the whole and it enables them more efficiently to play the part which they are destined to take in the service of their country, whatever that service may be.

Another point is that when boys leave school after having had a course of military training they are better fitted to take part in effective volunteer service at any time they may be required, and it is an old military axiom that you can do more in four days after primary training than you can do now in six ⚫ weeks with raw recruits.

I know of no better record anywhere for military training than has been shown by the schools of the city of Toronto, where military training has now been effectively carried out for some years. The records throughout the school system of that city go to show that not a single child has ever gone seriously wrong who has partaken of this course from beginning to end. On the other hand, many of the pupils who have taken the greatest interest have made the largest success in other branches of the curriculum.

TO SUM UP

By advocating military training in the schools I wish to state with great emphasis that I, for one, do not desire the importation to this continent of the Prussian system. The training I have in mind is unlike the Swiss system, inasmuch as it begins with first principles and makes for the immediate improvement of the physical, mental, and moral citizenship of the coming generation. The system would not tend to teach hatred of other nations, but rather would it teach the value of individual responsibility to one's self, to one's family, and to one's country.

Two things are certain-it would most decidedly improve the physical preparedness of children to play a man's part in a nation's service should they ever be called upon to do so, and, what is even better, it would tend to discountenance a foolish snobbery which seems to come into being with the methods which have heretofore prevailed in raising and equipping troops under the present system.

I have repeatedly said, and I state it here again, that if war was forever wiped off the face of the earth I would still advocate physical and military training for the youth of the land, because it makes children better physically, morally, and spiritually, and guarantees in perpetuity the sanity of the nation; it develops high ideals, love of home life, love of country, and a higher regard for the real inherent meaning of the word liberty."

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I have never heard a single cogent argument against military training in the schools, and I believe this branch of our national work should be immediately enlarged in scope so that a more uniform basis of activity along this line could be carried out. It would do more to develop national consciousness than any other thing I can think of at the present time.

E

NFFICIENT farming requires more capital for seeds, fertilizer, live stock, implements, machinery, and equipment than for land. This the Federal Farm Loan Act ignores; it does not provide for short-time securities or for the use of personal credit.

In every rural community prosperous farmers have money in the bank to buy such supplies, but many farmers-probably the majority-have their money tied up in land and buildings to such an extent that it is pretty difficult for them to command as much cash as could be profitably used in these ways. Private capital could be depended on to supply this need if the farmers were given the opportunity under suitable laws to organize cooperative associations in which they could pool their resources and do their buying and selling to better advantage. That has been done generally, and with great success, in France, Italy, Germany, and other European countries.

My faith in the ability of private capital to fill this field without Government aid has been strengthened lately by learning of the successful efforts made by three banks to develop the farming interests of their districts. The methods used and results obtained by these banks are such notable examples of the application of broad-gauge business methods to agriculture that they deserve recounting for the information of bankers, farmers, and other business men generally.

Two of these banks are in Massachusetts, the third is in St. Paul. One of the Massachusetts banks-the Plymouth County Trust Company-is in Brockton, a shoe-manufacturing city of fifty thousand population in the eastern part of the State. The fact that Brockton is only twenty miles from Boston suggests that the farming in the region undoubtedly tends to the dairy and market-gardening sort. The President of the bank, Mr. Charles P. Holland, thus describes the inception of the work among its farm clientele:

"It had been my theory for some time that the bank's relation to the farmer should be the same as its relation to the storekeeper or to the commercial man, and in order to be of greatest assistance to the farmer I felt that the situation needed an agricultural expert who might be of assistance in estimating the safety and desirability of making loans to farmers. We engaged as a regular employee of the bank a graduate of the four years' course at Massachusetts Agricultural College. His duties were to acquaint himself with the farmers of Brockton and vicinity, find out all he could about their needs and opportunities, and instruct them as far as he might in the modern scientific methods of farming. This man has been given two assistants, a stenographer, is allowed an automobile in which to go about, all his expenses are charged to the bank, and he is told to make himself as useful as possible to the farmers."

The report of the bank's "field agent" indicates the nature of his work. In the first two years of his employment he distributed 569 pigs to" pig clubs," held a pig show, bought 163 head of high-grade and pure-bred stock for the district and assisted in the purchase of other thoroughbred stock, and has pending the purchase of three pure-bred Percheron horses for breeding purposes-a total of nearly twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of better stock brought into the community. He directed the co-operative buying of sixteen cars of alfalfa and hay, eight cars of grain, one of fertilizer, and two of lime; and organized and financed a grain-buying association that saved its members three hundred dollars in the purchase of its first three cars of grain. The agent arranged for the building of six silos in the first year and expected to erect many more in the second year, assisted with four farm-building plans, figured twenty-seven dairy rations, made out ten crop rotations, and as financial agent of the bank handled loans to sixty farmers, ten factory hands, and thirty-six boys and girls for agricultural purposes.

This man has under way the organization of two "bull associations" (that is, the bank will finance the purchase of purebred bulls in order to bring up the class of live stock) and a

calf club of twenty-five members raising high-grade and purebred heifer calves, expects to start two more grain-buying associations, and is planning a contest among factory hands to stimulate them to raise more and better home gardens.

This bank also has on its pay-roll a young woman graduate of a normal school, trained in domestic economics, whose task is to give lessons in cooking and home management to the wives of the employees in Brockton's big factories.

Doubtless it is partly due to these activities of the Plymouth County Trust Company that Brockton has the largest number of home and school gardens of any city of its size in the country; that in 1915, in a State-wide contest with thousands of contestants, it won first prize for the best school garden; and that in 1916 it won the first State prize for purity of its milk supply.

The other Massachusetts bank to which I referred is the Holyoke National. Holyoke gets valuable hydraulic power from the Connecticut River, and many of its fifty thousand people are employed in the paper or textile industries on which the prosperity of the city chiefly depends. But it is also the center of a flourishing agricultural district, for the Connecticut Valley is the most fertile part of Massachusetts. Tobacco and onions grow well in its rich, deep soil, and dairymen find ready markets for their products in near-by cities. With good soil and good transportation to ready markets, the Connecticut Valley has many advantages for the experiment in better farming that the Holyoke National Bank is helping to promote.

This experiment is best described in the words of the President of the bank, Mr. George C. Gill. He says:

"Our plan is simply using a little common sense in our banking relations with the farmer, and placing his business upon the same level with any commercial or manufacturing business. The farmer's account is, of course, usually smaller in volume than the ordinary commercial or manufacturing account, but it is on a par with the average small merchant or shop, with the advantage to the bank that we can always see the farmer's assets as far as the bank is concerned; and during the growing season we can always make an inspection of the crop and calculate upon the harvest. I do not know of any other class of borrowers with whom an inventory of the assets can be made by a representative of the bank sitting in his automobile by the side of the road. Our farm manager can visit perhaps twenty farms in a day, and, knowing the market prices, can make a good guess as to the value of the crops per acre; and by counting the help can figure quite accurately about what the net returns should be for each farm.

"The portion of the Connecticut Valley which we cover lies along the river from Springfield to Greenfield, a stretch of about twelve to fifteen miles wide by about fifty miles long. The farms of this part of the valley have gradually changed ownership from the old New England stock to the Polish people, who first came as farm help or to work in the mills, and have saved their money (their rule is one-half their earnings) and finally bought farms. They work early and late. The good ones have no bad habits and are very thrifty. In fact, since establishing this work we have found more money stowed away in trunks, stockings, etc., than it has taken to finance all the farm loans we have made. The fact that we would take one man's money and pay him interest from the day of deposit until its withdrawal, interest added quarterly, and loan it to his friend, neighbor, or acquaintance, has so stimulated our business that we must soon add another man to this department.

"These Polish farmers cultivate tobacco and onions and produce some milk-the milk to provide a settled income throughout the year. At harvest time they usually receive a very tidy sum for the onions and tobacco. We have known one of them to receive as high as twelve thousand dollars for the year's crop of tobacco alone. These proceeds are usually brought to us and

their obligations paid off or new farms bought. The Polish people are successfully demonstrating to the 'old stock' the way to keep their boys on the farm by buying automobiles, motor cycles, and victrolas to make the home attractive, and, when the boys are old enough and show ability, buying them farms of their

own.

"In February, 1913, we engaged as head of our work among farmers a young, energetic, educated Pole. The department was started at this season of the year so that the farmer could borrow from us, if necessary, and take advantage of cash discounts for his fertilizer; or, if intending to build tobacco barns or additions, he could make his commitments upon a business basis and save much more than the cost of his interest.

"Our representative devoted his first year to visiting the farms and getting acquainted with the financial affairs of the owners. When they had decided upon improvements, extensions, or additional purchases, if he approved of the plans, he would offer help, providing they needed it. Usually the farmers have some portion of the necessary money; but if not, and the equity above the first mortgage, if any, is a sufficient basis for credit, we supply it. Sometimes, on the indorsement of a friend or neighbor of known worth, again, a second mortgage might be taken by the indorser and assigned to us as his and our protection. If the amount is not large and the borrower has a good equity in his property and is a good, steady, thrifty man, we take the note with signature of both man and wife. We have never yet made a loss on a farm loan. In most cases the farmers anticipate the due date of their notes and are very prompt in all their dealings."

From this account by Mr. Gill it will be seen that his bank confines itself pretty closely to financing the farmers of its region, and does not go into educational work like that conducted by the Brockton institution. That is undoubtedly due to the fact that Hampden County, in which Holyoke is situated, has a live Improvement League, with headquarters in the neighboring city of Springfield. The work accomplished or undertaken by the Hampden County Improvement League in developing the agricultural resources of the Springfield region deserves an article by itself. I know of no more interesting and promising experiment of an agricultural nature now under way in this country than its project of bringing into touch for their mutual benefit the farmers and the business men of Hampden County.

Quite different from the tasks of these Massachusetts institutions, striving to develop the neglected agriculture of their counties, is the vast work to which the First National Bank of St. Paul has set itself. Through its customers and correspondents it is in touch with the affairs of the great grain States of the Northwest. In the district which it serves are four of the six leading wheat-producing States of the Union-Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Washington.

The Northwest has become a great agricultural section, and the welfare of all interests, both city and country, depends to a large extent on the farm. Wheat has brought prosperity, but the soil, especially in Minnesota and the Dakotas, is already showing the effects of continuous grain-growing for a period of years with almost no application of artificial fertilizers or manures. These conditions and the fact that, owing in part to the decrease of good range land, meat and all animal products are exceedingly high in price, have convin ced agricultural experts and business men of the grain States that the continued prosperity of their region requires a more extensive development of the live stock industry there.

No man knew the Northwest so thoroughly or did so much toward its upbuilding as the late James J. Hill. He saw as quickly as any one the importance of diversified farming in the country served by his railways and financed in part by his bank, for he was the principal stockholder in the First National, in which his son is now Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Hill himself was responsible for the inception of the live-stock department in the bank, for not many months before his death he started it by securing as its head an eminent agricultural

authority, Professor Howard R. Smith, then Professor of Animal Husbandry in the University of Minnesota.

Naturally Professor Smith cannot come in direct contact with any considerable number of farmers in the extensive territory served by the bank, but in co-operation with country bankers he is making his influence felt. He describes his work as follows: "No one in a community is in better position to do constructive work for the betterment of agricultural conditions than the local banker. It is he who decides largely to what extent money shall be spent in the community for the purchase of live stock. Unless he has faith in the importance of the development of the industry in its relation to increased production and is in position to give valuable advice in a business way, progress is certain to be retarded.

"The work of this department has been carried on along five lines of activity:

"1. During the first year fifteen bankers' conventions in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana were addressed on such subjects as 'How the banker can promote the live stock industry,'' Importance of live stock and its relation to prosperity, etc. In these addresses emphasis was given to the presentation of facts and figures to show increased profits with diversified farming where live stock is one of the principal sources of revenue.

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"2. During the year seventy farmers' meetings were addressed, nearly all of which were upon the invitation of the local banker in the various communities of the Northwest where these meetings were held. At these meetings methods of production to make the industry most profitable were discussed. An effort was made also to point out to the farmer why it would be to his advantage to engage more extensively in live stock.

"3. The writer served as cattle judge at four State fairs and four county fairs. In addition to making the regular awards at these fairs, judging demonstrations were given and explanations made of ratings, so that those in attendance might get a better idea of what types of cattle within a certain breed will give the best returns from the feed consumed, both as to quantity and quality of product.

"4. A number of country bankers in the Northwest have taken an active interest in the purchase of better sires and other breeding stock for their respective communities, in many cases. taking notes in payment. As much assistance as time would permit has been given bankers in making selections.

"5. Considerable information of a helpful character has been sent through the mails."

The three enterprises described are all in the experimental stage as yet, the oldest, in Holyoke, having been started four years ago. It is too early to generalize very broadly on the results obtained, which are wholly favorable thus far. But to those who believe in the capacity of our institutions and our people to solve the problems of National growth as they arise, without leaning unduly upon government, they are distinctly encouraging.

The ideas and methods developed by these banks, with the variations required by local conditions, are susceptible of wide application, for they are based on the broad principle that any plan which will increase the return from the soil at reasonable expense cannot fail to benefit the banker along with the farmer and the general public. At this time of almost world-wide food shortage and high prices, it is not only good business policy but a patriotic duty for this country to increase production to its utmost limit. The United States can make no more important contribution to the winning of this war than the stimulation of food production. The co-operation of the country's bankers with the farmers is essential to that end.

It is to be hoped that the farmers' organizations, the agricultural journals, and the press generally will continue to emphasize the vital importance both of increased production and of conservation of food resources. Abundant supply of the daily necessities of life is indispensable to the successful conclusion of the struggle to liberate society and government from the dark forces that threaten their freedom.