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players run their fingers gently back and forth across the strings. Indeed, the wide variety of tonal effects by an orchestra composed solely of plucked instruments is not the least impressive achievement of these Russian players. The balalaika is a favorite instrument of the Russian peasant; but it has been specialized, so that in place of a single instrument of restricted range there is this orchestra of great range. The music which this orchestra plays is largely the folk music (the folk songs and the folk dances) of Russia. Mr. Andreef has not only used great skill in developing the instrument, but also in adapting the music for the instrument when developed. He has preserved its simplicity of form, its quaintness and freshness of harmony, and its melodic directness. At the same time he has made it richer and fuller and more elastic in expressiveness. The orchestra does not confine itself to this Russian folk music. It plays very effectively such pieces as a set of selections from the opera of "Carmen," or a transcription of Schumann's "Warum." This, it is true, is not the highest art; but it is very pleasing. It is, however, the peasants' music that is most worth while to hear on this balalaika orchestra. generations folk music has been used as material by composers to produce works of art. Here is an attempt to use, not only folk music, but the folk instrument.

SAVE THE LIFE SAVERS' LIVES

For

Last June the United States Senate passed a bill providing for pensions for the members of the Life-Saving Service. The bill has since been before one of the House committees. Its number is Senate Bill No. 5677. It is a good bill, and ought to be passed. A fortnight ago The Outlook called attention to the fact that, while soldiers and sailors may look forward to their retirement pay, the members of our Life-Saving Service, combining the work done by soldiers, policemen, and firemen, have no such outlook. The Service employs about two thousand men.

All, save a small percentage, are surfmen. They are employed only about nine months of the year. They are poorly paid; yet out of their income they must furnish their own uniforms and storm clothes. If they are married-and four

out of five are-they must maintain the family from which they are necessarily absent for at least three-quarters of the year. Their work is valuable in the highest degree. Hundreds of vessels are warned by them every year of danger, and very many among the passengers and crews of the vessels which meet with disaster on our coasts are saved by the exertions of the men at the Life-Saving Stations. There are nearly three hundred such stations at points of danger on our coasts. The present personnel is of a high order, but in order to keep it so, retirement pay, after a specified term of service, would be not only a common act of justice, it would also be a good stroke of policy. But the first reason ought to be quite sufficient; and we believe, if the bill can be brought to a vote, it will be passed.

A FIRST-CENTURY DOCUMENT

£3

A highly interesting, if not so highly important, discovery, has again rewarded scholarly search for ancient manuscripts in finding what appears to be a Jewish-Christian writing of the first century. Several years ago it was known that Dr. Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, was engaged in examining a mass of about twenty thousand Hebrew manuscripts, which he had obtained from the Jewish congregation in Cairo, their custodian for ten centuries. He has lately issued through the Cambridge University Press a volume, "Fragments of a Zadokite Work," in which he translates and comments upon the important document he has found. An extended account of it is given in a recent Sunday edition of the New York "Times." It is an eight-page manuscript, in which the leader of a religious group addresses his brethren, adherents of "the new covenant in the land of Damascus." To each of two great Jews who had endeavored to enlighten and strengthen their countrymen it gives the name Messiah." The first is said to have been "from the family of Aaron;" the second, coming to his work some twenty years later, is less definitely termed a" Teacher of righteouness." Both were dead, but were expected to reappear. Another character, named "a man of

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scoffing" and "Belial," is denounced for sundry immoralities, especially for endeavoring during forty years to pervert Israelites from adherence to their ancient Law. Who these three were is now for critics to determine. Dr. Schechter offers rather cautiously a conjecture that the "man of scoffing " merely personifies the anti-Jewish principles that provoked the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C., and that the two Messiahs may stand for a single individual of that period. Dr. George Margoliouth, custodian of Hebrew manuscripts in the British Museum, is quoted as speaking more positively for another opinion. He regards the two Messiahs as meaning John the Baptist and Jesus, the "man of scoffing" as the Apostle Paul, who, according to Acts xxi. 28, was denounced in Jerusalem precisely as in this document. This, in his view, comes from a Jewish group who, having settled in Damascus after the fall of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, maintained observance of the Mosaic ordinances in combination with Christian faith in the new covenant described in Hebrews viii. 8-13. The considerations adduced for his theory by Dr. Margoliouth are rather persuasive. Whether this will ultimately stand or not, it is an extraordinary experience to be assured by so eminent critical authority that a Jewish-Christian document not improbably coeval with Mark, the earliest of the extant Gospels, has been discovered. It does not, however, appear that this is likely to shed light on any problem of New Testament criticism. This is the fourth find during the last forty years of special interest to New Testament scholars.

THE

PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS

A National Society for Prevention of Blindness and Conservation of Vision was organized on December 17, at a conference held in the United Charities Building in New York City, and thereby an important forward step was taken toward saving helpless and ignorant people from loss of sight. The meeting was called by Dr. F. Park Lewis, Chairman of the Committee on the Prevention of Blindness of the American Medical Association; Edward M. Van Cleve, President of the Ohio Commission for the Blind; and James P. Monroe, President of the

Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, who were a committee appointed for the purpose at a conference in February last. The object of the organization is to unify the campaign which has been carried on by separate organizations in various States and localities. The Committee on Organization recommended that the society include all persons and bodies desiring to co-operate in prevention of infantile blindness, prevention of blindness from industrial and other accidents and from disease, and conservation of vision through improved hygiene during school life and in industrial occupations, and that it invite the co-operation of prevention societies now in existence, of State and National medical societies, educational bodies, labor organizations, commercial bodies, women's clubs, and the like. A resolution was passed recommending that measures be taken to secure State legislation for the training, registration, licensing, supervision, and control of midwives, whose ignorance is held responsible for much preventable blindness. Many causes of blindness that might be prevented were discussed by specialists-such as the poor lighting of public buildings (to which cars and ferryboats might be added), the tencent spectacles sold on the streets, and infection from swimming-pools and all public baths where the water is not changed often enough. Samuel Ely Eliot, Secretary of the Russell Sage Commission for the Prevention of Blindness, showed lantern slides of bad lighting conditions in schools and elsewhere, and also illustrations of protective devices in the steel industry, and of the measures that are taken in the medical inspection of schools. The National organization project was approved by five of the following leading ophthalmologists and physicians: Charles Stedman Bull, M.D.; John M. Weeks, M.D., of the New York Eye and Ear Hospital; G. E. de Schweinitz, M.D., member of the Committee on Prevention of Blindness of the American Medical Association; John Winters Brannan, M.D., President of the Board of Trustees of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals of New York City; and Cressy L. Wilbur, M.D., Chief Statistician Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C.

THE LORIMER CASE

Last week The Outlook expressed its earnest hope that the Lorimer case may be taken out of the hands of the special Senate Committee to which it has been referred and may be fully ventilated in open debate upon the floor of the Senate in order that the whole country may have an opportunity to learn the facts and to understand the attitude of each Senator upon the important questions involved.

What is the Lorimer case, and what are the legal and moral questions which it presents?

On August 8, 1908, a direct primary was held in Illinois to guide the Legislature in its election of a United States

Senator; it was simply advisory, and under the Illinois statute was "for the sole purpose of ascertaining the sentiment of the voters." At this primary A. J. Hop

kins received 170,000 votes, G. E. Foss 120,000, W. E. Mason 87,000, and W. G. Webster 15,000. William Lorimer, then a Representative in Congress, was not a candidate. The first ballot was cast in the Legislature January 19, 1909, and the contest was so acute that ninetyfive ballots were taken, the voting lasting until May 26. Mr. Lorimer's name did not appear in the balloting until May 13, when he received one vote. On May 18, 19, and 25 he also received one vote. On May 26 he received 108 votes, 53 of these being Democratic and 55 Republican. It was and is generally believed in the State of Illinois that these extraordinary features of Mr. Lorimer's election were brought about by the use of money,

and the result was that certain members of the Legislature were indicted and tried for bribery and corruption. The facts brought out in these legal proceedings created a political and social scandal of the first magnitude in the State of Illinois. Mr. Lorimer, nevertheless, took his seat in the United States Senate. But the alle gations of corruption pursued him there, and in June, 1910, a memorial signed by Clifford W. Barnes, President of the Legislative Voters' League of Chicago, was referred by the Senate to its Committee on Privileges and Elections. This memorial, the Senate records show, alleged that the election of Mr. Lorimer was

secured by bribery. The allegations were so serious that a sub-committee went to Chicago to make an investigation of the charges. The full Committee, after hearing from the sub-committee, has now made its report. In this report it is stated that precedents established by previous cases in the Senate determine that, in order to declare the election of one of its members invalid, the Senate must be convinced, either—

1. That the person elected participated in one or more acts of bribery, or attempted bribery, or sanctioned or encouraged the

same, or

2. That by bribery or corrupt practices enough votes were obtained for him to change the results of the election.

bers of the Illinois Legislature testified in The Committee admits that four memcourt "to receiving money as a consideration for their votes," but its general line of argument appears to be that what the Committee calls the infamy" of these bribe-takers was so great that their statements regarding the men who bribed them are incredible; that therefore the Committee cannot be sure that anybody bribed them; and so, finally, it cannot be proved to the satisfaction of the Commit

tee that there were more than four corrupt votes in the election, and it requires seven corrupt votes to remove Mr. Lorimer from his seat. We quote the language of the report :

joint assembly of the two houses of the

The majority for Senator Lorimer in the

General Assembly of the State of Illinois was fourteen. Unless, therefore, seven or more of these votes were obtained by corrupt means, Mr. Lorimer has a good title to the seat he occupies in the Senate. If it were admitted that four of the members of the General Assembly who voted for Mr. Lorimer were bribed to do so, he still had a majority of the votes cast in the General Assembly and his election was valid. It is, however, claimed that if the four witnesses before named were bribed to vote for Mr. Lorimer, those who bribed them were equally guilty, and that the votes of Browne, Broderick, and Wilson [the legislators who have been accused of doing the bribing] should also be excluded. But the Committee can find no warrant in the testimony for believing that either one of said legislators was moved by any corrupt influence.

We do not think this report forms a cheerful document for those citizens who would like to believe that high standards

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of intelligence, ability, and honor prevail in the United States Senate. Senator Bulkeley, of Connecticut, who signs this report, is as shrewd and skillful a practical politician as there is in the Senate. is thoroughly familiar, from his experience in his own State, with the methods of legislative corruption. We should like to ask what kind of testimony would be regarded by him as "a warrant for believing that either one of said legislators was moved by any corrupt influence." It is a relief to turn to the dissenting report of Senator Frazier, of Tennessee, who did find warrant for believing that the alleged bribers were moved by corrupt influence. We quoted his words last week, but they are important enough to repeat:

The four self-confessed bribe-takers im plicate three other members of the Legislature who voted for Senator Lorimer as the persons who bribed them. The testimony satisfies me that the three alleged bribegivers were guilty of that offense.. To my mind, the man who bribes another is as corrupt as the one who is bribed, and by his corrupt act of bribery he demonstrates the fact that he is none too honest to receive a bribe if offered him.

The facts stated by the majority of the Committee in their exoneration of Senator Lorimer, taken in connection with Senator Frazier's expressed belief that bribery was proven to his satisfaction, appear to us to make it clear that Senator Lorimer's election is invalid in accordance with the standards which the Committee itself lays down. But we go still further, and place our protest against the admission to the United States Senate of such a man as Senator Lorimer on broader grounds.

In the volume on "The Government of England," by President Lowell, of Harvard University, we find the following description of the operation of the Corrupt Practices Act in English Parliamentary elections:

If upon the trial of a controverted election the court reports that any corrupt practice has been committed by the candidate, or that bribery or personation has been committed with his knowledge and consent, his election is void and he is forever incapable of being elected to Parliament by that constituency. Moreover, if the election court reports that a corrupt practice has been committed by his agents, although he may be personally quite innocent, his election is void and he is incapable of being chosen by that constituency for seven years. . . . If bribery,

treating, personating, intimidation, or undue influence, whether physical or ecclesiastical, has been general in the constituency-that is, so extensive that the voting could not have been the free expression of the will of the electorate-the result of the election is

invalid at common law, although neither the candidate nor his agent is directly impli cated.

The United States Senate ought not to be behind the British Parliament in the

standards of honesty which it demands in

the election of its members. The testi

mony collected by two Illinois State attorneys of opposite party faith and submitted to the Committee of the Senate shows

beyond the shadow of a doubt that the bribery prevailed in the Illinois Legisla most appalling condition of corruption and

ture at the time of the so-called election of Mr. Lorimer. We are at a loss to understand how any men of honest convictions can read this testimony without concluding that this widespread corruption included corruption in connection with the election of this United States Senator. According to English standards this would of itself be sufficient to dismiss Mr. Lorimer from his seat.

It ought to be. Such corruption not only disgraces all who take part in it, but disgraces every public man who condones it, and every constituency that knowingly elects to office those who condone it.

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Lieutenant-Commander Belknap's book1 recalls a thoroughly healthy and pleasant memory of our international relations. In times of terrible and overwhelming disaster to any nation, the sister nations of the world of to-day-in striking contrast to what has been true of past ages-are for the time being lifted above the plane of self-interest on which they normally move and must move, and show themselves capable of acts of sincere and disinterested friendliness.

The whole civilized world felt a shudder of genuine horror and a thrill of genuine sympathy over the news of the frightful calamity which had befallen Messina. Among the nations whose sympathy found

1 American House Building in Messina and Reggio. By Reginald Rowan Belknap, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $2.

immediate and practical expression our Sisters of the Poor sent a letter of thanks own country stood foremost. Congress so touching that it deserves to be quoted at once made provision for furnishing in full: relief to the sufferers; and the American battle fleet, then nearing the end of its cruise round the world, acted without even

waiting for explicit orders. No small part of the respect and good will inspired by the United States in the world at large during recent years has been due to the known preparedness for war of the United States navy; and it is a matter for just pride to Americans that the very qualities which give the navy its military efficiency are also the qualities which have again and again at Martinique, at Jamaica, at Messina-enabled the navy to give the most convincing proofs of efficient National good will to foreign peoples. When, by consultation with the Italian Government, it was found out exactly what shape our help should take in order to do most practical good, Lieutenant-Commander Belknap was sent to Messina to take charge of the work; and a number of the officers and enlisted men of the navy were detailed to serve under him.

In this volume the Commander shows just what the work was and how it was done. It was signally successful from every standpoint, and reflects the utmost credit on the Commander and all his subordinates, both those from the navy and those from civilian life; including especially the Red Cross. In efficiency, in economy, in speed, and in thoroughness there was nothing left to be desired as regards any part of the work.

Next to the ability, energy, and zeal of the workers, the main cause of their success lay in the admirable relations they were able to maintain with the Italian officials and the people of Messina--for the manner of giving is, of course, always as important as the gift. The book itself is dedicated to Commander Belknap's "devoted colleague," Lieutenant Brofferio, of the Italian navy. The commune of Messina conferred citizenship upon the American officers, Messrs. Belknap, Buchanan, Wilcox, Spofford, and Donelson (how truly National our navy is, is instanced by the fact that their respective birthplaces are in Massachusetts, Indiana, Georgia, Oregon, and Mississippi), and the artist Mr. John Elliott. The Little

To the Directing Manager and Gentlemen engaged in the erection of Barracks at Messina:

Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Gentlemen-I the undersigned, Superior having been apprised of your approaching departure from Messina, feel it my duty to thank you for the great kindness shown to our Sisters in that unfortunate country; no noble manner in which you have treated us. words can express our gratitude for the

We have every reason to hope that our Home will soon be reopened, as it is the desire of our Holy Father, Pius X, that the aged poor should be taken care of.

Gentlemen, you may rest assured that your benevolence for our work will never, never be forgotten; you will always be considered the prayers of our dear poor will follow you as our first benefactors, and our prayers and everywhere. If you come back to visit this desolate country of Messina, we hope you will come at once to see us, as we are really your "protégées."

Receive, gentlemen, my most grateful homage, and believe me

Your most humble servant in Christ our Lord, SR. AIMÉE DE LA PROVIDENCE, Provinciale des Petites Sre. des Pauvres, Piazza San Pietro in Vincoli, Roma. August 8, 1909.

Where all did so well, it seems invidious to single out any for special reference; yet I think that all who saw the work at Messina took away a peculiarly vivid mind picture of the stalwart enlisted men of the United States navy. Taken as a whole, there are no better citizens of this country than the officers and enlisted men of our navy. If any other country has their equals, that country is indeed fortunate.

Perhaps the difference between what could occur in our navy and what is possible in any other navy may be illustrated by the recital of something that happened just at the close of our work at Messina. One of the civilian volunteers who worked hard and faithfully under Commander Belknap was Lloyd Derby, who had reached Messina immediately after Captain Belknap took charge. Derby had just graduated from Harvard, and was finishing a trip round the world, but when he reached Messina, finding that there was need of volunteers, he stopped, and for three or four months served under Belknap. When the work was over, he went to Rome to spend a few days, and

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