principles within the limits of the system as it now stands. The main achievement of savings bank insurance, however, the report declares, has been "not the business transacted by the banks, but its force in compelling the great industrial insurance companies to make a reduction of about twenty per cent in their rates and in other respects to greatly liberalize their policies." This, it is estimated, means a saving which will soon amount in Massachusetts alone to about a million and a half dollars a year. It is calculated by the officers of the system that the rates now charged by the largest industrial insurance companies on their weekly premium policies are 31 per cent higher than was the net cost of the savings bank monthly premium policies in the first year of the experiment, and that for the second year the percentage of economy between the two methods has been

even larger; while the rates charged by the industrial companies before this movement was inaugurated were such as to make the difference between the cost of the two methods as much as 55% per cent. The Massachusetts Savings Insurance League has lately carried on a course of educational talks in the schools on the subject of thrift as illustrated by insurance through the savings banks. Altogether, the evidence is strong that the plan has made progress, and that the question is worth careful consideration whether a similar plan might not be wisely introduced in other States.

of legislation enacted for the purpose of improving civic conditions. Such a memorial is a far better interpretation of the spirit of a man like Mr. Gilder, at once poet and servant of humanity, than any visible and tangible structure, however beautiful; for it is, in effect, a continuation of the work in which Mr. Gilder's heart was so deeply engaged. It preserves and passes on in an active form his great and valuable influence as a leader in the amelioration of social conditions; it will serve to keep before the minds of the students of Columbia University the inspiring example of a man who dedicated himself to the service of his kind in the most practical and arduous ways a form of ethical teaching which Dr. Jowett predicted would be universally adopted in the future. It will, at the same time, qualify young men of earnestness and ability to contribute in the most intelligent way to the examination of the social and economical problems of the day. Mr. A. S. Frissell, President of the Fifth Avenue Bank, New York, is the treasurer of the fund.

THE PLOT AGAINST THE

JAPANESE EMPEROR

Rumors nave recently obtained that the plotters against the life of the Japanese Emperor and the lives of the members of the Imperial family and of the Ministers of State were being tried at an entirely secret trial. There has been a consequent feeling that injustice might possibly result. The plot was to have been executed some time last autumn. The plotters were apprehended and imprisoned, a large amount of dynamite having been discovered in their possession. A majority of the prisoners voluntarily confessed their intent. When the plot was unearthed, the Attorney-General, representing the Crown, requested the Chief Justice of the Japanese Supreme Court to designate a judge to make the preliminary investigations required by law. The Judge of Preliminary Investigations of the District Court of Tokyo was appointed, and he, after trying the men apprehended, concluded that all were guilty, and forwarded the records to the Supreme Court. The trial in that court will soon be concluded. But from the beginning of the preliminary examination to the present the whole procedure has been in harmony with the Constitution and established laws of Japan. The lawyers for the defendants have high reputation, and for those of the accused who could not afford to engage lawyers the Court, in accordance with the law covering such cases, has designated members of the bar to appear for them at the public expense. As to closing the trial to the public, Japanese law provides that the Court may exclude the general public whenever it deems that publicity is prejudicial to peace and order or to the maintenance of good morals. Such steps are taken from time to time in ordinary cases in all classes of Japanese courts. Of course, in such a case as the present, having a serious bearing on the safety of the Empire, the Supreme Court is specially entitled to see that good order should be protected. As a matter of fact, the trial has been closed only to the general public. Those who have especial or technical interest in the trial-such as members of the Bar Association, etc.-may, by the Court's permission, hear the trial. We note that members of foreign embassies and legations stationed in Japan have availed themselves of this permission. Paris was inundated, and the rains have been very persistent ever since. All the rivers are above their normal channels, fields are inundated, and a great deal of out-of-door work is seriously interfered with. Last summer garden houses, boathouses, and lawns were half submerged in many parts of the country. Many of the most important rivers are now in a chronic state of flood, and "sunny France" for many months has been overhung by a pall of clouds. The same conditions prevail in Spain, where the Guadalquivir and many other smaller and less famous streams are threatening towns and have been destroying crops in many directions. Serious disturbances of normal conditions are reported from Italy. The Alps are prolific in avalanches, and have been almost obscured from view for many months past. It is probably many years since Switzerland has known a season so disappointing to visitors, and the conditions still prevail. From Russia comes the same story, and England is soaked with superfluous water. These conditions have lasted so long and are so widespread that there has been much speculation with regard to their causes. The usual the ories of a great weather-rhythm have been advanced, among them the theory of seven wet years and seven dry ones, and Europe is taking what comfort it can from the prediction that good weather will return in 1913. Of course the sun-spots have been invoked; and one eminent authority is of opinion that the rain will steadily increase for several years to come. As usual, this country comes in for its share of blame, and a French astronomer declares that the unhappy weather conditions abroad are due to deforestation in this country. It does not seem to have occurred to this gentleman that deforestation in Spain and Italy may have something to do with the situation. It is said in Spain that when a Spaniard buys a place in the country and there happens to be a tree on it, the first thing he does is to cut it down; and the great stretches of sunburned landscape in that country eloquently bear witness to the absence of foliage. The French astronomer's theory is evidently based on the idea that a certain amount of water must fall, and that if we drive it away from this country,

Canada as well as

THE TORONTO the United States

STREET CAR SITUATION

has street car troubles. The re-election of Mr. J. R. Geary as Mayor of Toronto, and the popular indorsement of a by-law authorizing the expenditure of a large sum in the construction of municipally owned street car lines, emphasize the embittered state of public opinion in Toronto regarding the service at present rendered to that city by the Toronto Street Railway Company. Certainly the action of the citizens at the polls is a much more substantial protest than that registered a few weeks ago when, following a mass-meeting at the largest public hall in Toronto, the street cars were attacked by a mob, which fortunately did no more serious damage than the breaking of a couple of hundred dollars' worth of window-glass. The grievances of which the people of Toronto complain may be summed up in the one word "overcrowding." The past five years have witnessed a remarkably rapid growth in population, with a resultant

expansion of the city territorially, and the car service has signally failed to keep pace with this development. The result is that on many of the principal car lines almost every hour of the day is a "rush hour," and the traffic in the morning and evening hours is so heavy that thousands of people prefer to walk rather than attempt to squeeze their way into cars packed from door to door. To make matters worse, the street railway management, finding, it is alleged, that they were losing many fares on account of the inability of conductors to go through the crowded cars, adopted a pay-as-you-enter" system, but without equipping their lines with standard pay-as-you-enter" cars; and at the same time put in force a regulation requiring all passengers to leave by the front door. It was this innovation more than anything else that led to the mass-meeting and subsequent rioting; and since then the obnoxious regulation has been virtually rescinded, while the "pay-as-you-enter" system has been abandoned on all cars save those properly equipped. Toronto, for a large city, does its business in a remarkably small areathe downtown district. Into this section the great majority of business men and wage-earners have to make their way every morning, and from it return to their homes at night. The street car lines just voted for look rather to the extension of car service into outlying districts than to the solution of the downtown problem ; and this latter, it would seem, cannot adequately be solved until the present surface system is supplemented by an elevated or subway service, agitation for which has begun. Moreover, even after the new lines are built the problem of their operation will remain, for by the terms of its charter the Toronto Street Railway Company enjoys the exclusive right of surface car operation in "old" Toronto; and until 1921, when the Company's franchise expires, it will be impossible for the city to bring its own cars from the outlying into the main sections.

Europe gets it. A still more unpleasant prophecy is to the effect that Europe is now in the heart of a cycle of wet and cold, and that there is no hope for dryness and warmth until 1920.

THE ALL-BRITISH IMPERIAL EXHIBITION

Following the FrancoBritish and the more recent Anglo-Japanese

Exposition in London, plans are now being matured for a great All-British Imperial Exhibition to be held in London, opening in June, 1915, in celebration of the seven hundredth anniversary of the Magna Charta. Certainly the event to be celebrated is one of great interest to all English-speaking countries, as well as all in which free institutions have been established. While at first glance it might seem to be an occasion for a universal exposition, such as that of 1851 and the World's Fairs since held in various countries of the world, perhaps Imperial inter ests will be best served by making it ex clusively a British Empire Exhibition, as the various parts of the Empire are more immediately concerned than others in the great event to be celebrated. It is contemplated to have an exhibition on a larger scale than ever before planned in Great Britain, and no foreign country will be invited to participate. Its promoters evidently have in view the binding together of the various parts of the widely sundered divisions of the Empire more closely by such a participation in an exhibition that shall be strictly British. Lord Hill, one of the promoters of this All-British Exhibition of Imperial resources, arts, and industries, in defining the scope of the coming celebration, says that the products in manufacture, art, agriculture, minerals, timber, fruit, grain, and probably horses and cattle, of every British possession will be shown. In addition, arrangements are being made to have all these various products and exhibits brought to and taken from London over British railways and in British ships manned by British subjects. In still another important particular this Imperial Exhibition will differ from most World's Fairs, in that no national subsidy will be asked for it, each country and Crown Colony defraying the entire expenses connected with its part in the big show.

NATIONALISM AND POP. ULAR RULE

This is the second of the series of editorials by Mr. Roosevelt on the general subject of " Nationalism and Progress." The first of the series was published in last week's Outlook and was entitled "Progressive Nationalism; or What?" -THE EDITORS.

In Mr. Herbert Croly's "Promise of American Life," the most profound and illuminating study of our National conditions which has appeared for many years, especial emphasis is laid on the assertion that the whole point of our governmental experiment lies in the fact that it is a genuine effort to achieve true democracy-both political and industrial. The existence of this Nation has no real significance, from the standpoint of humanity at large, unless it means the rule of the people, and the achievement of a greater measure of widely diffused popular well-being than has ever before obtained on a like scale. Unless this is in very truth a government of, by, and for the people, then both historically and in world interest our National existence loses most of its point. Nominal republics with a high aggregate of industrial prosperity, and governed normally by rich traders and manufacturers in their own real or fancied interest, but ocсаsionally by violent and foolish mobs, have existed in many previous ages. There is little to be gained by repeating on a bigger scale in the Western Hemisphere the careers of Tyre and Carthage on the shores of the Mediterranean.

If there is any worse form of government than that of a plutocracy, it is one which oscillates between control by a plutocracy and control by a mob. It ought not to be necessary to point out that popular rule is the antithesis of mob rule; just as the fact that the Nation was in arms during the Civil War meant that there was no room in the country for armed mobs. Popular rule means not that the richest man in the country is given less than his right to a share in the work of guiding the government; on the contrary, it means that he is guaranteed just as much right as any one else, but no more-in other words, that each man will have his full share as a citizen, and only just so much more as his abilities entitle

him to by enabling him to render to his fellow-citizens services more important than the average man can render. On the other hand, the surest way to bring about mob rule is to have a government based on privilege, the kind of government desired not only by the beneficiaries of privilege, but by many honest reactionaries of dim vision; for the exasperation caused by such a government is sure in the end to produce a violent reaction and accompanying excesses. The Progressives, in fighting for sane and steady progress, are doing all they can to safeguard the country against this kind of unhealthy oscillation, of government by convulsion.

A number of Progressive conventions have recently enunciated the following among other principles as necessary to popular government :

Drastic laws to prevent the corrupt use of money in politics.

Election of United States Senators by direct vote.

Direct primaries for the nomination of elective officials.

Direct election of delegates to National Conventions, the voter to express his choice for President on the ballot for delegate. The introduction of the initiative, referendum, and recall.

In Oregon most of these principles are already law. The recent Republican State platform of Wisconsin has declared for all of these principles; and this declaration is entitled to very serious consideration, for Wisconsin has taken a leading position in Progressive legislation, and has to her credit a noteworthy record of laws for social, political, and industrial betterment, which laws have been proved in actual practice and have worked well.

Most Western Progressives, and many Eastern Progressives (including the present writer), will assent to these five propositions, at least in principle. I do not suppose that there can be any dissent from the need of passing thoroughgoing acts to prevent corrupt practices. The movement for direct primaries is spreading fast. Whether it shall apply to all elective officials or to certain categories of them is a matter which must be decided by the actual experience of each State when the working of the scheme is tested in practice. There is a constantly growing feeling also in favor of the election of United States Senators by direct popular vote. On this point, as indeed on most of these points, there is room for honest divergence of opinion, but I believe that the weight of conviction is on the side of those who

would elect the Senators by popular vote, and that the general feeling is inclining this way.) The arguments made against such method of election are practically the same as the arguments originally made against the election of President by popular vote; and the electoral college was designed on precisely the same theory in accord with which it was supposed that the legislature rather than the people should be trusted to choose the best type of Senator. Such change in Senatorial elections would no more alter the fundamental principles of our Government than they were altered by the change in Presidential elections. At present, although the form of an electoral college is preserved, the vote for President is really a direct popular vote; and this absolute reversal in practice of the theory of the Constitution as regards the choice of the most important public officer in the land offers a curious commentary on the attitude of those who declaim against all change by practice in the construction of the letter of a written Constitution. Again, and for the same reason, it seems to me an admirable plan that there should be a direct election of delegates to National Conventions, with opportunity for the voter to express his choice for President and Vice-President; although, of course, such latitude of action must be left to the delegate as to permit his exercising his own judgment if his first or second choice proves impossible. This is merely slightly to alter the present day practice when delegates are instructed by State and district conventions to vote for a given candidate.

The proposition that will excite most misgiving and antagonism is that relating to the initiative, referendum, and recall. As regards the recall, it is sometimes very useful, but it contains undoubted possibilities of mischief, and of course it is least necessary in the case of short-term elective officers. There is, however, unquestionably a very real argument to be made for it as regards officers elected or appointed for life. In the United States Government practically the only body to

whom this applies is the judiciary, and I shall accordingly treat the matter when I come to treat of Nationalism and the Judiciary.

There remain the initiative and referendum. As regards both of these, I think that the anticipations of their adherents and the fears of their opponents are equally exaggerated. The value of each depends mainly upon the way it is applied and upon the extent and complexity of the governmental unit to which it is applied. Every one is agreed that there must be a popular referendum on such a fundamental matter as a Constitutional change, and in New York State we already have what is really a referendum on various other propositions by which the State or one of its local subdivisions passes upon the propriety of action which implies the spending of money, permission to establish a trolley line system or something of the kind. Moreover, where popular interest is sufficiently keen, as it has been in the case of certain amendments to the National Constitution at various times in the past, we see what is practically the initiative under another name. I believe that it would be a good thing to have the principle of the initiative and the referendum applied in most of our States, always provided that it be so safeguarded as to prevent its being used either wantonly or in a spirit of levity. In other words, if the legislature fails to act one way or the other on some bill as to which there is a genuine popular demand, then there should unquestionably be power in the people through the initiative to compel such action. Similarly, on any bill important enough to arouse genuine public interest there should be power for the people to insist upon the bill being referred to popular vote, so that the constituents may authoritatively determine whether or not their representatives have misrepresented them. But if it is rendered too easy to invoke either process, the result can be only mischievous. The same considerations which are more and more tending to make thoughtful people believe that genuine popular control is best exercised through the Short Ballot have weight here also. There are plenty of cases in which, on a given issue of sufficient importance, it is better that the people should