Society was delivered by Mr. Bliss Perry, on "The Academic Temper." At the alumni dinner Judge Grosscup discussed "The Every-day Man and Our Corporation Problem," and said, among other things:

The American people have on deposit in banks and banking institutions nearly $13,000,000,000, a sum of money unemployed for investment directly by themselves, but employed by a comparatively small borrowing class. This huge deposit nearly equals at their present market prices the value of all the railroads of the country put together. It constitutes almost the entire wealth on which the corporate business of the country actually rests. It is not the rich men of the country who own this wealth. Indeed, were all the banks and savings societies to liquidate at once, there would immediately turn up in direct possession and ownership of the people at large so large a part of the corporate securities that the American people could be said to be, in fact, the owners of the property of America.

How ought sane men to meet these conditions? Should the corporation, for the mere sake of election tactics, be hawked at from every angle of human disappointment?. We should transform the corporation from a position of inviting distrust to a position that invites the people's trust. In the evolution of events the corporation has become sole trustee over nearly the whole field that ought to invite the individual interests, the individual hopes. And this alone ought to invite us out of the delusion that the character and career of a statemade corporation is of no more public concern than the character and career of an

individual. The corporation is a mighty agency of and for the people whose character and career are of the deepest public concern. And the great work of this generation is to raise it up to the stature of the mission it has to perform; to make it for the future a trustworthy agency commanding the confidence of the future. That, and that alone, is the sane way of meeting the conditions that confront us.

The Anti-Smoke League of The Smoke the City of New York has Nuisance announced that, in its judgment, the smoke problem in the great power establishments has been satisfactorily solved. These establishments are practically the only ones in the metrop olis which have been breaking the law and pouring out from their great chimneys clouds of black smoke. As a result of experiment at a station of the New York Edison Company, which has been among the foremost offenders, the nui

sance will hereafter be abated. There are eight great chimneys at this particular station, and the volume of smoke which has come from them has very materially blurred the sky and contributed an element of gloom and dirtiness to the whole neighborhood. This is only the beginning of what it is to be hoped will prove to be the final triumph of the Anti-Smoke League in preserving the skies of New York, and also its beauty and healthfulness. It has been shown that the impregnation of the air by smoke is a material element in very serious diseases; that it involves an enormous waste in the way of expenses and loss of property is also well known. From every point of view black smoke ought to have no place within the limits of a great city. The endeavor has been made to secure this general result without imposing too heavy a burden on the great establishments, and for this reason the League has been patient with a number of offenders. If the problem has been solved in a practical way, every excuse will be removed, and the League will be in a position to compel all other smokeproducers to conform to the law. Outlook has regarded this as one of the most important public services now being rendered by any organization in New York City, and the Anti-Smoke League is entitled to the gratitude of the whole country; for the sky of the metropolis is one of its most beautiful features.

By Air-ship to the North Pole

The

The proposal of Mr. Walter Wellman to reach the North Pole by an air-ship has been regarded by most people, we fancy, as visionary and impracticable. With just this feeling the present writer glanced at Mr. Wellman's own account in the current McClure's of the present state of the project. A drawing of the skeleton frame of a hall built to house the air-ship caught the eye by its remarkable dimensions. It is 190 feet long, 82 feet wide, and 85 feet high, and is covered with sail-cloth. Not only was this great iron structure erected last year on the northwestern point of Spitzbergen, but it was fitted out

with many tons of apparatus, including a gas-making plant; and three ship-loads of all manner of materials, provisions, machinery, tools, coal, instruments, and an almost endless variety of necessities, were landed. Moreover, the air-ship itself was in part set up and equipped, and only the delay of the Paris contractors rendered it impossible to make a start last summer. This air-ship, be it noted, is not a mere balloon such as wafted Andrée helpless to death, but is in large part a reproduction of La Patrie, the most successful of French dirigible balloons, which has shown a speed of twenty-four miles an hour, and has made more than eighty ascensions. La Patrie now belongs to the French army. Mr. Wellman's air-ship, The America, is one hundred and eighty feet long, has a speed of fifteen miles an hour before a favoring wind, is driven by a motor weighing six hundred pounds and having sixty horse-power, carries over five thousand pounds of fuel, and in all, in addition to its own weight, can carry about nine thousand pounds of cargo and machinery. With an opposing wind perhaps five miles an hour might be made. Slow as this seems, it is far faster time than has ever been made over broken ice-fields by sledges. Last July and August at Spitzbergen the winds were light and variable, often, Mr. Wellman says, blowing for days at a time out of the south directly toward the Pole. As to what will happen this year, the adventurous explorer says:

Some day in July or August, 1907, as we hope and believe, a man standing at the northwestern point of Spitzbergen, six hundred miles almost directly north of the North Cape of Norway, will behold a strange and wonderful spectacle. He will see, rising from a little pocket of land amidst the snow-capped hills of Danes Island, an enormous air-ship-a huge mass of hydrogen gas imprisoned in a stanch reservoir of cloth and rubber, in shape much like a thick cigar, its sharp nose pointed northward. Well, it is at least possible! The royal road to the Pole may be, as claimed, "the free aerial pathway." Professor Janssen, the eminent astronomer who warned Andrée that what he was undertaking was "not an exploration but a suicide," declared before the French Institute that he believed Mr. Wellman had an excel

lent chance. Naturally, on the other hand, Commander Peary is somewhat incredulous. What is certain is that, even if successful, the Arctic aeronaut will see nothing of importance or of real scientific value that Peary, Nansen, and others have not already surveyed. The race to the North Pole has been of recent years more an international contest in endurance and for the world's award of honor than anything else. If Mr. Wellman succeeds in passing over the ice-fields in the neighborhood of latitude ninety, longitude nothing, he will at least make future North Pole expeditions unnecessary.

The Intercollegiate Civic League

As a rule, the graduates of American colleges and universities are fairly well fitted to take their place in civilized society. But, however gratifying this generalization, do they in particular appreciate the responsibilities of citizenship? In every American college there is more or less intelligent and even appreciative study of national and international political conditions. How about the study of municipal conditions? Abysmal seems the ignorance generally shown by the average student as to municipal rights, privileges, needs, and duties, as well as to a knowledge of the present administration of the student's home city. Mr. Bryce is surely a notably keen and kindly observer of our affairs. Of this he has given us monumental evidence in his "American Commonwealth." It is his opinion, after a comprehensive and careful survey, that, of all necessary American reforms, the transformation of our municipalities is the most urgent. How shall that reform best be accomplished? By interesting the students in our institutions of learning, not only in in National and State governments, but theories of politics and their application in practical city problems-the police, for instance-which seem increasingly difficult of solution. Interest among students can be most quickly evoked, not through books, but, first, by lectures and papers from those in first-hand touch with municipal interests, and, second, by requiring the students to begin some practical connection with municipal affairs. From such initiative honester and

more efficient public service must result, not so much by an increase of those who make politics their profession as by the increase of those who would be vigorous reformers, yet who realize that they can never be fully such if they are dependent upon any political organization for their livelihood. The field is fit for this harvest, for in most colleges civic or good government clubs already exist. Twenty of these have now banded together into an Intercollegiate Civic League. Its Graduate Secretary, Mr. Arthur Woods, Harvard '92, is corresponding with nearly fifty other colleges which have expressed interest in the League's purposes and are either forming political clubs or are bringing those already formed into affiliation with the League. The under taking has President Roosevelt's hearty approval, and other prominent men have contributed articles for the League's use. These have been and are being published by the different clubs in their college papers, and hence have had a wide influence in student circles-for instance, the Hon. James Brown Scott, Solicitor for the State Department, has written a paper for the League on " Municipal Problems in the Light of International Law;" ex-Alderman William Kent, of Chicago, on "A Municipal Creed;" Mr. Thomas Carl Spelling, General Counsel of the American Federation of Labor, on "Municipal Franchises;" Dr. Lyman Abbott on "What to Do;" Mr. Jacob A. Riis on "Man or Money ;" and Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, Secretary of the Na'tional Child Labor Committee, on "A Challenge to Chivalry."

necessary for these bodies to reorganize their missionary and publishing societies so as to make one society dc the work now done by three, and also to reorganize their conferences and associations so as to make one ecclesiastical body serve the purpose of three. The union does not necessarily involve the merger of local churches, though this might doubtless follow in some localities. A liberal and evangelical declaration of faith has been agreed upon, though there is not in the Articles of Agreement anything to indicate that this declaration of faith is imposed as binding upon any of the churches. It is apparently a statement of what the churches do believe, not a statement of what the churches and the ministers are required to believe. The name of the joint organization is hopelessly cumbersome. It is, "The United Churches, Comprising the Congregational Churches, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and the Methodist Protestant Church." It is suggested that the title "The United Churches" will in practice be substituted; but if the one title is too cumbersome, the other title is too unmeaning: Very serious opposition to the union has been developed in some of the strongest Congregational churches, pre-eminently among them the Old South Church in Boston, the Broadway Tabernacle in New York, and the Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn. It is not the province of The Outlook to discuss purely ecclesiastical questions; we leave those to be debated by the ecclesiastical journals. It is legitimate, however, to explain for the benefit of non-Congregational readers the three fundamental principles of Congregationalism. They are: (1) The absolute independence of each local church, which is a pure democracy and has power to frame its own creed, organize its own ritual, form its own rules of business, and elect its own officers. In doing this it may ask counsel of other local churches, but no ecclesiastical body, whether Council, Conference, or Association, has any authority over the local church. (2) In the local church all the members are on an absolute ecclesiastical equality; neither pastor nor deacon, however great

his influence may be, has any greater authority than the humblest member. (3) These churches fellowship one another and co-operate in common undertakings, and societies have been organized for the purpose of carrying on these cominon undertakings, but they are not under the direct ecclesiastical control of any distinctly ecclesiastical body. The The Congregational Councils and Associa tions exercise neither legislative nor judicial functions; they only express opinions and offer advice. Whether the proposed Articles of Agreement between the Congregational, the United Brethren, and the Methodist Protestant Churches are consistent with these fundamental principles of Congregationalism is one of the questions upon which the Congregationalists themselves seem not to be fully agreed. Without undertaking to pass judgment on that question, it is clear that the Congregationalists ought not to surrender or modify either one of these three fundamental principles unless they do so intelligently, purposely, and with a clear understanding of what they are doing; and if they do not mean to surrender or modify either one of these principles, those principles should be made so clear in the Articles of Agreement that there can be no opportunity for future discussion on the question whether they have done so.

Church

The Established The Scottish of Scotland, though ever Churches averse to the intervention of the State in its affairs, availed itself, two years ago, of the appeal to Parliament made by the United Free Church for relief from the legal decision which despoiled it of its property. A bill creating Commissioners for that purpose carried a "rider" authorizing the State Church to alter its formula of subscription to the (Westminster) Confession, which in Scotland, as here, is the Presbyterian standard of doctrine. At the recent meeting of the General Assembly this was accomplished at the end of a debate of no great length. The object aimed at was to eliminato phraseology which was said to have "kept good servants out of the Church."

The

amended formula reads thus: "I hereby subscribe the Confession of Faith, the public and avowed Confession of this Church, approved by former Assemblies as most agreeable to the Word of God, and ratified by Parliament in the year 1690, declaring that I believe the Reformed Faith therein set forth. To that I will adhere." What liberty this gives to many who scruple at the distinctive dogmas of high Calvinism appears when it is construed as a legal document, affirming no more than the words require. These seem to have been so drawn as to require adherence to only so much of the Confession as sets forth "the reformed faith"-a phrase of evangelical rather rather than scholastic import. The United Free Church is now practically out of its controversy with the small minority to whom the decision made in 1904 adjudged all its property, valued at $20,000,000. The Royal Commissioners, empowered by Parliament to allot the property on the basis of competency to hold and administer it, have assigned to the United Free Church 941 churches and stations out of a total of 1,107, and also the three colleges of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, with most of the foreign missionary property and funds. About $750,000 will be required to replace the churches and manses of which they have been dispossessed. The chief event of the recent meeting of the General Assembly was the election of Dr. Marcus Dods, well known among us, to the principalship of New College, Edinburgh, in which he has been Professor of New Testament Exegesis since 1889. The General Assembly of the legal Free Church (popularly dubbed "Wee Frees") expressed sore dissatisfaction with the allotments made by the Royal Commissioners. Possession of only 115 churches and manses has been given to this fragment of the disrupted body, and divided occupancy in thirty cases beside. Now it is facing a financial deficiency. It still poses as the only bulwark of orthodoxy left in Scotland, and its Assembly has just pronounced condemnation upon the three colleges of the United Free Church as "seminaries of German rationalism and of infidel criticism."

d'État

The Russian people have met the latest act of revolution on the part of the autocracy with a calmness and dignity which passionate Russian patriots of a generation ago, like Turgenief, would have thought incredible. There has been no disorder, no recrimination, but a noble silence, broken by a few strong, decisive words of protest. Since Napoleon III. seized the French Government fifty-six years ago, there has been no act in violation of the rights of a people so flagrant and inexcusable as this act of the Czar. It is true that he is the representative of a long line of irresponsible rulers. It is true that Russia has been governed for centuries by an autocracy sufficient unto itself and accustomed to act without taking into account the Russian people. It is true that, in a manifesto issued two years ago this summer decreeing the election of a Duma, the Czar reserved unimpaired "the fundamental law regarding autocratic power;" but it is also true that three months later, by another decrec, he gave the country to understand that he renounced autocracy; that a Duma was to be elected on a basis to be changed only by the authority of the Duma itself. In other words, he guaranteed the integrity of a popular assembly and the inviolability of its members as well. On that understanding and under the conditions of that decree, bearing the name of the supreme ruler of all the Russias, the Russian people made a serious and earnest attempt to establish a responsible government on a basis of well-defined fundamental rights. The Duma, or National Parliament, had conducted itself with rare discretion and moderation. It made what appeared to the outside world to be a sober endeavor to bridge the chasm between irresponsible and responsible government, and to deal with real conditions in Russia in a conservative and not in a destructive spirit.

Again, as on the fatal Sunday two years ago, the Czar has struck his people a blow in the face. He has broken faith with them, violated his word, set at

become an irresponsible tyrant in this fundamental conflict between mediæval and modern ideals of government. He has all the advantages of position, armament, and organization. The Cossacks are behind him, the true representatives of the old ideas for which his Government stands. Accepting his promise at its face value, his people, who have been endeavoring to establish a working basis with him, have been taken unawares. They are for the moment powerless, though not for an instant cowed. Without warning, their Popular Assembly was commanded to violate its own integrity, and to condemn an entire group of its members without the opportunity of considering for a day the evidence against them. When it proposed an adjournment from Friday until Monday to sift the evidence and discuss the gravest question that could be presented to it, it was met by an abrupt and arbitrary dissolution. If certain deputies were guilty of treasonable practices, it would have been easy to deal with them without treating the entire Duma as particeps criminis. It was against such practices that the great majority of the Duma constituted the real defense of the Empire. They stood between the Czar and the Destructionists.

This coup d'état is a flagrant violation of the constitution granted by the Czar two years ago. It is a notification to Russia that no promise made by him will be kept any longer than suits his convenience; that his decree establishing fundamental rights is waste paper. In other words, he is doing all that he can to create in Russia a situation like that which Charles I. created in England when the English people were driven to the conclusion that they were dealing with a man whose personal word and whose public pledges were equally worthless. No agreement can be made with a man who tears it up when it suits his purpose; nor can any working arrangement be made with a monarch who has no sense of honor in dealing with his people. The Czar has again forced the Russian people to face the ultimate issue; and they can no longer blind themselves to the fact that autoc