miners' views, everything in real question between employers and employees. In a statement by Mr. Mitchell following this letter he says: "There is no instance on record during the quarter of a century in which the railroads have dominated the anthracite industry that an advance in wages has been granted to their employees. Every concession has been wrung from them by strikes and the pressure of public sentiment. . . . The question is asked by the operators, Where is the advance to come from, if it is not charged up to the consumer of domestic coal? It occurs to me that the small advance proposed by the miners might have been taken off the exorbitant freight rates charged by them." For the purpose of hearing the report of the committee, which has been carrying on these negotiations with the operators for the past three months and more, and to determine the policy of the organization in the anthracite industry as to a continuance of the present suspension, the officials of the United Mine Workers of America last week issued a call for a special convention of mine employees of the three anthracite districts to meet at Scranton, Pennsylvania, on May 3.

The entire country is Secretary Taft on likely to take an interCitizenship est in the series of lectures now being delivered before Yale University by Secretary Taft, for in subject and in treatment they are of the broadest public character. They deal with the duties and responsibilities of citizens in turn from the view-point of the college graduate, the bench, colonial administration, and the National executive. The second of these addresses, delivered last week, emphasized and enforced the President's "Muck-Rake " speech. Mr. Taft recognized the exist ence of corruption in municipal government, but pointed out the encouraging movements to stamp the evils out. In National affairs he said that there has been a very decided improvement in the disinterestedness of legislators in the last twenty-five years, and the freedom from venality and corruption in Congress and executive departments. But for all abuses

of corporations, legislative and city officials, the remedy is not, he remarked, distorted, sensational, and exaggerated charges, but in taking measures to secure the maintenance and supremacy of the law, "in the training and character of the individual, on the one hand, and in the strengthening of the arm of the law by judicial procedure on the other." As to the evils of excessive wealth, and its proposed discouragement by an inheritance tax, Mr. Taft said:

Neither under the common law nor under the Constitution is the right of descent of property or of devising it an inalienable right. It depends wholly upon the Legislature, and therefore if the Legislature sees fit to create a tendency to the division of fortunes and prevent their greater accumulation in the second and third generations, there are ample means under our present system and without revolutionary methods to bring this about. The whole argument was directed against any kind of unlawful and violent action by the people at large, even to attack real evils. This, he declared, was to substitute chaos for a government of law. Reverence for law he found less strongly developed here than in England; we must learn to demand and insist on its enforcement. While the jury system should be upheld, there is great value in the common-law plan of letting the court aid and instruct the jury so as to make the trial as originally intended, one by judge and jury, not solely by jury. In Southern and Western States there is what was characterized as a dangerous tendency to forbid the court thus to aid the jury, with the result that the law-abiding element tries to get criminals into the Federal courts, where the judges take more latitude. Lynch law, delays in trial-so that a case which would take a day in England may drag for two or three weeks here—the taking of special favors (like railway passes) by judges, the abuses of the privileges of the press-all were held up to reprobation as incompatible with justice. and respect for the law and its administration. "The courts are the background of civilization. The United States Supreme Court is the background of the whole Government. It is the last resort. Its power rests upon the supremacy of fundamental law. It is possible to

bring legislatures to adopt new amendments to the laws that will bring criminals to justice. Exercise of this privilege is one of the highest duties of citizenship."

An Unjust but Constitutional Tax

The New York Court of Appeals has rendered a decision sustaining the constitutionality of the stock transfer tax law. This law, passed just a year ago, exacts a tax of two dollars on every hundred shares of stock sold at any private sale or on the floor of any exchange in this State. The Outlook has already vigorously protested against the unwisdom and injustice of such a law, on the ground that it is class legislation and that it establishes a dangerous precedent for the taxation of energy or industry. If the sale of shares of stock may be taxed, the sale of silk, butter, lead pencils, or subscriptions to newspapers may be taxed. The Court of Appeals answers the first objection by saying that it is not class taxation, since it "includes all sales of certificates issued by any domestic or foreign company or corporation," and "treats all in the class alike." As to the second objection, the Court explicitly states that the Legislature has the constitutional power to impose a tax upon any one class of property or any one kind of contracts. While it may not tax "a particular house, or horse, or the houses or horses of a particular man," it may impose a tax " upon all houses, leaving barns and business buildings untaxed, or upon all horses or the sale thereof, leaving sheep and cows untaxed." The decision of the Court of Appeals that such a method of taxation is constitutional directs attention in a very emphatic way to the unscientific and therefore the uneconomic and unjust way in which our taxes are imposed. There was, apparently, no intention in the Legislature to tax the business of the stock-broker out of existence. The legislators simply saw a good opportunity of adding several millions of dollars a year— the revenue from this tax has amounted to over five million dollars since April, 1905 to the State income. But the decision of the Court that the stock tax is not a tax on property, but is a tax " on

the privilege of transfer," and is even in this aspect entirely constitutional, appears to us to give the Legislature a very dangerous power over commercial and mercantile energy and enter prise. The sale of paintings and etchings, for example, on the supposition that they are merely the luxuries of very rich men, might be so taxed as very greatly to restrict or perhaps prohibit the artistic development of the State. The concluding sentence of the Court's decision is significant: "The question is not whether the statute is wise, but whether it is valid, and we think it is valid." This throws the burden for the wisdom of all legislation where it really ought to lie, upon the people. Sooner or later some sort of intelligent and efficient public opinion must be formed upon the laws and methods of taxation in New York State. The stock transfer tax can be tolerated by the brokers whom it unjustly affects, but it ought not to be tolerated by the people at large, when they realize that it is a symptom of the generally bad condition of our tax laws

Honoring

On Wednesday of last

John Paul Jones Week, with most impressive ceremonies and in the presence of a large body of distinguished men of this and other countries, the remains of John Paul Jones were placed in their permanent resting-place in Bancroft Hall, of the Annapolis Naval Academy. The day was the anniversary of one in which the first American naval commander won a victory with his little sloop called The Ranger. The military and naval display was in the highest degree picturesque, and in every possible way the occasion was made a worthy memorial of the man and his brilliant and patriotic achievements. Addresses were made by President Roosevelt, by M. Jusserand, the French Ambassador, by General Horace Porter, to whom is largely due the discovery of the forgotten and neglected remains of the National hero, and by Governor Warfield, of Maryland. The President reviewed vividly and with dramatic effect the deeds of John Paul Jones, and held up for example to the assembly "the in

domitable determination and dauntless scorn of death "which marked his career. The lesson that he drew from the early naval history of the country, and especially from what he described as the utter folly of our lack of preparation in the War of 1812, when the burning of Washington was made possible by our failure to provide defense, was as follows:

This Nation was guilty of such short-sight edness, of such folly, of such lack of preparation, that it was forced supinely to submit to the insult and was impotent to avenge it; and it was only the good fortune of having in Andrew Jackson a great natural soldier that prevented a repetition of the disaster at New Orleans. Let us remember our own shortcomings and see to it that the men in public life to-day are not permitted to bring about a state of things by which we should in effect invite a repetition of such a humiliation. We can afford as a people to differ on ordinary party questions; but if we are both far-sighted and patriotic, we cannot afford to differ on the all-important question of keeping the National defenses as they should be kept; of not alone keeping up but of going on with building up the United States navy, and of keeping our small army at least at its present size, and making it the most efficient for its size that there is on the globe.

Many months ago Count Forward Steps Witte, now the Russian in Russia Prime Minister, presented to the Czar a programme of political reform. Among the items were the following: The Council of State, one of the four great boards or councils, possessing separate functions, to which the present Imperial administration is in trusted, was to have half its members elected from the different social classes; the rights of the zemstvos, or provincial councils, were to be extended; the historical political rights of the Finns, Poles, Georgians, and other border nationalities were to be restored as far as possible; the Imperial police system was to be reorganized; arbitrary judgments respecting personal liberty were to be abolished; exceptional laws against the Jews were to be repealed (Countess Witte is by birth a Jewess); secret State organizations for spying on the people were to be suppressed and the censorship of the press was to be modified. Count Witte's first recommendation soon

bore fruit. A year ago the Czar published a rescript containing these welcome words: "I am resolved henceforth, with the help of God, to convene the most worthy men-possessing the confidence of the people and elected by them-in order that they may participate in the preparation and consideration of legislative measures." Five months later the Czar announced his definite plan-a national assembly, or parliament, the elections to which would cover the whole Empire, with certain exceptions, as Finland and Poland, where special conditions obtain. The Duma or Lower House of Parliament would meet "for the preliminary study and discussion of legislative propositions, which, according to the fundamental laws, may be submitted to the supreme autocratic authority by the Council of the Empire," a body now to become the Upper House of the new Parliament. The Duma's competency was to extend to departmental, ministerial, and national budgets; to questions relating to new laws and to modifications of existing laws; to ministerial appointments; to the expropriation of any State property or revenue. The Duma's term was to be for five years, and the Czar might dissolve it at any time. It was thus an advisory body. On October 30 last the Czar transformed it into a legislative body, though with very restricted powers. He granted the elementary rights of freedom of conscience, speech, meeting, organization, and publication; he extended the Parliamentary electorate and he declared that no law should be enforceable without Parliament's approval. Later he restored to the Finns their ancient liberties and admitted the Poles to Parliamentary membership. Finally, last week, an Imperial Commission completed the elaboration of laws containing guarantees of personal liberty to be submitted to the Duma, the chief features being that a person arrested shall be confronted with the charge against him and be given a hearing within twenty-four hours after the arrest is made, and that no domiciliary arrest be made without a warrant; the laws further provide for the inviolability of personal property, and espe

Backward Steps in Russia

During the past few weeks the Russian elections have been taking place; they are not yet completed. They are primary and secondary-that is, the people elect electors, who in turn, meet and elect representatives to the Duma, or Lower House of Parliament. Half the Council, or Upper House, is chosen by specially mentioned university, commercial, and other bodies; the remaining half by the Czar. So far, over three hundred Duma members have been elected. The vast majority are Constitutional Democrats-as their name implies, those who believe in the immediate establishment of a constitution on a democratic basis. The Constitutional Democrats have even invaded the far more conservatively organized Council, the universities, for instance, sending thither a solid block of that party's representatives. Moreover, from that party the most genuinely representative popular leaders have arisenPetrunkevitch, Miliukov, Hessen, and many others. The reactionary conservatives-the court, church, military, and bureaucratic circles were sufficiently alarmed at the Czar's increasingly democratic disposition. The spectacle of The spectacle of their country, however, actually passing, by unexpectedly orderly elections, from autocracy to authorized democracy, has made the reactionaries well-nigh panicstricken, if we may judge from the Congress of Monarchists' resolutions passed at Moscow last week-that the new Parliament will not be representative of Russian public opinion, that the Finns and Poles are unworthy of the privileges granted, and that Jews should be treated as foreigners and excluded from all rights Instead of frankly accepting the people's verdict as shown at the elections, the Czar himself has now done much to placate the reactionaries and to antagonize not only the revolutionaries, but also the Liberals, by the publication of a new edition of the "fundamental laws" above mentioned-a deliberate attempt to intrench every threatened

possible power. It is announced that

this edition of the "fundamental laws " was drafted by the Cabinet and other high Government dignitaries under the Czar's presidency. These laws are not only a modification of those "fundamental laws" beyond Parliament's competency, but also an incorporation of certain temporary laws which it was believed would remain in force only until Parliament met.

According to the telegraphed reports, the new laws repeat the language of the Freedom Manifesto in reserving the Czar's absolute foreign and military prerogatives, including the power to declare peace and war. This was to be expected. After nearly four decades of constitutional government, the Austrian Emperor exercises like authority. The privilege of making war and peace is also held by the German Emperor and the English King. A second article preserves to the Czar the prerogative of declaring cities, districts, and provinces under martial law-a prerogative also held by the President of France. A third clause prohibits Parliament from interfering with expenditures of the Im-. perial house or with allowances made to members of the Imperial family unless these exceed the amounts included in the present year's budget-an irritating provision. More irritating is the clause by which no law passed by Parliament shall be enforced until it shall have been approved and published by the "Senate"

The New "Fundamental Laws "

-a body established by Peter the Great nearly two centuries ago, the Empire's high court of justice, which constitutes the second of the present four great boards or councils of government in Russia; under existing conditions a law to be valid must be promulgated by the Senate. In this country the question of a law's constitutionality is decided after it becomes operative, not before, as is proposed for Russia, and the difference is rudimental. Not only irritating, however, but exasperating is the clause confirming the Czar's power to dissolve Parliament, to which no provision is added

as to the fixed time in which a new Parliament shall convene. Finally, worst of all is the clause by which the right of freedom of residence is now again subject to "existing regulations." So, after all, the Czar would confine the Jew to his pale and the peasant to his glebe! The announcement of these latter provisions has aroused indignation throughout Russia and intensified the suspicion that, after all, the "Little Father" may play his people false. He has certainly furnished a permanent reason to solidify the opposition of the Constitutional Democratic members-elect of the Duma. As compared with the lower houses of other European Parliaments, that body will have limited powers, chiefly evident in the fact that, unlike those bodies, it is granted little influence over the disposition of the nation's purse. Let it not be forgotten, however, that a long and direct step away from autocracy lies in the creation of a body by which a gratifyingly large proportion-including the most intelligent section of the Russian people become politically articulate. That the Duma members will gradually and ultimately graft upon these "fundamental laws many needed reforms we do not doubt.

President Hadley at the University of Berlin

Yale University, had

The announcement was made last week that Dr. Arthur T. Hadley, President of accepted an appointment as Roosevelt Professor of American History and Institutions in the University of Berlin, for the academic year 1907-8. President Hadley's subject will be the extremely important topic, "Economic Problems in the United States." This is the latest and most interesting development of the endowment by Mr. James Speyer of an International Professorship, the intention of which is to allow Germany and America to make an exchange of instructors every year. As The Outlook has already said in commenting on this educational development, in no other way could intimate relations so well be encouraged between nations which are contributing to the broad spirit of internationalism.

The project was approved by the German Emperor a year ago this summer. Under the terms of the endowment, the nominations are made on this side the ocean by the Trustees of Columbia University, subject to confirmation by the Prussian Ministry of Education and with the sanction of the Emperor. The first incumbent of this professorship was Dr. Burgess, of Columbia University, who has been the past winter delivering lectures on American Constitutional History. The plan has been so arranged that American history, constitutional and administrative law, economic and sociological problems, education, science, technology, the arts and literature, will be presented successively by the American lecturers who will be appointed from year to year. A similar professorship, to be held by German scholars, will exist in New York, and the lectures will be delivered at Columbia University in English. This fraternal international exchange of scholarship is kindred to the somewhat similar arrangement existing between Harvard and the University of Berlin, although in the latter case one member of each of the two institutions enters the regular teaching staff of the other for at least three months. All who are interested in the cause of eduIcation or in the cause of international friendship will see in such mutual interchanges as these one of the most hopeful signs of a great world-brotherhood in knowledge. These professorships cannot fail to do a great deal also to encourage courteous appreciation and esteem between the two great nations concerned.

The Olympic

Games

American, English, German, Austrian, French, Irish, Australian, and Greek athletes gathered at Athens last week to engage in the revived Olympic Games. The contests began on Friday, but the games were officially opened by ceremony five days before. The King and Queen of Greece, the King and Queen of Great I ritain, members of the royal families and representatives of European courts, in royal procession, traversed the length of the great stadion. The Duke of Sparta, who is the Crown Prince,