cessful New York merchant, President of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation; Edward M. Bassett, formerly Democratic Representative in Congress, leader in traffic reforms, and expert in property values in two of the boroughs of New York; Milo R. Maltbie, student of municipal conditions and public utilities, former professor of economics, and experienced executive official; and John E. Eustis, lawyer, former Park Commissioner and school official, and active as a member and officer of the Citizens' Union. The Chairman of the Commission for the rest of the State is Frank W. Stevens, of Jamestown, lawyer, who has held several public offices, and won distinction as prosecutor of charges against a judge of the State Supreme Court a few years ago. His associates are Charles H. Keep, of Buffalo, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and for seven months head of the State Department of Banks; Thomas M. Osborne (of whom the readers of The Outlook will recall a sketch published in the issue for March 23 of this year), formerly Mayor of Auburn, and a highly successful man of business; James E. Sague, of Dutchess County, mechanical engineer and practical railway man; and Martin S. Decker, of Ulster County, lawyer, for ten years Assistant Secretary of the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and one of the men who drafted the present Cuban railway law. With study of this list of men one's confidence in their ability increases. It includes Republicans such as Mr. Willcox, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Keep, Democrats such as Mr. Bassett, Mr. Osborne, and Mr. Decker, and at least one Independent, Mr. Maltbie. It includes college men such as Mr. Bassett, of Hamilton and Amherst, and Mr. Keep and Mr. Osborne, of Harvard; and men whose education has been chiefly that gained in the public schools, professional schools, and practical life. It includes the various callings of the law, engineering, transportation, business and scholarly research, each of which furnishes preparation for the work of the Commissions. And it includes men varying in age from thirty-six to sixty. It in

cludes native Americans and one American by adoption. It would not be easy to prepare another list of men as broadly qualified, even without regard to the practicability of obtaining their consent; and it is safe to say that in their various callings they have as high a standing as had the judges of any of the State courts when they were placed upon the bench. The announcement of the appointment of these men should not rouse in the people of the State expectation of marvels; but it ought to awaken confidence.

and the Public

Steel Rails

A conference in New York last week of prominent railway managers and influential officials of the steel-manufacturing corporations gives weight to the complaints which have recently been made that the breaking of steel rails constitutes a serious danger to the traveling public. It is the railway managers themselves who have given voice to these complaints. In New York State during the first three months of the present year it is stated that there were nearly three thousand cases of defective rails. In the single month of February four hundred and forty-nine rails were found to be broken, or to contain dangerous flaws, on the Union Pacific Railway system. It should be said that both the railway officials and the steel officials of the country recognize the importance of this matter and are apparently doing all they can to remedy the difficulty by harmonious collaboration. Nevertheless, the public wants to know and ought to know the facts, and it appears to us that here is a phase of railway operation of which the Inter-State Commerce Commission might well take cognizance. The railway men have placed the blame for breaking on the manufacturers, alleging that steelmakers have used a low quality of ore and have adopted a process less thorough than they ought to employ, because of its greater economy. The steel-makers, on the other hand, declare that the railway managers have used too light a rail for their increasingly heavy trains, and that they must be willing to spend more money in railway construction. It is reported that one of the great trunk lines

of the country, as a result of the difficulty of getting durable rails, has insisted that hereafter its contracts for steel rails shall be carried out in accordance with specifications prepared by its own engineers and under the observation of its own inspectors. The whole matter, we think, should become the subject of National action. It patently constitutes another evidence of the desirability of Governmental supervision over every department of transportation in inter-State commerce. If it is necessary for Congress to appoint a Commission to watch the manufacture of armor plates for our war-ships, how much more necessary is it that a Government Commission should insist upon certain standards of manufacture in the rails which bear millions of our citizens on their peaceful pursuits. There is every reason to believe that the steel manufacturers of the country, both from commercial motives and motives of honor, are endeavoring to turn out the best steel rails possible under prevailing conditions; there is every reason to believe that the railway managers of the country are putting the best possible equipment into the construction of their roads. The chief thing that is needed is entire and authoritative publicity as to the facts. It is not unlikely that an investigation and publication of the facts would indicate that the tariff has something to do with the unfortunate steel rail conditions prevailing at present. So far as we know, there has been little complaint of English, Belgian, or German steel rails, and yet a tremendous duty keeps foreign rails out of the country and forces our railway-builders to pay the enormous price of twentyeight dollars a ton for their rails, while the same rails have been sold for export at nineteen and twenty dollars a ton. The average man hardly realizes that the rate paid here makes a price of fourteen dollars for a single hundred-pound rail such as the New York, New Haven, and Hartford road now uses on its four tracks between New York and New Haven. A rail is thirty feet long, and there are eight lines of them extending for seventy-five miles to New Haven. A little simple multiplication shows that the New Haven road has to pay for rails alone to equip

that fractional part of its system a sum amounting to one million and a half of dollars. If this is the cost of mere rails for seventy-five miles of four-track railway or three hundred miles of single track, the gigantic total cost of steel for the entire system is almost staggering. Ought the railways of the country to be burdened with quite so heavy a tariff as is now laid upon them?

Commencement Notes

At Yale President Hadley's baccalaureate was insistent, as always, upon the principles of ethical religion. To keep the hands clean and the heart pure from the subtler forms of evil, said he, no code of rules will suffice, but only a great purpose which looks outside of self to exalt the social standards of truth and honor. "The only men who are safe are those whose standards of honor are what the world calls quixotic—which really means that they are Christian." Increased requirements are to be made for entrance to the Law School and the Medical School, at the cost of an expected reduction of numbers, at least for a time. Yale is decisively committed against any shortening of the four years' course, but certain semi-professional studies are to be allowed students preparing for a professional career. The three years' courses of the Sheffield Scientific School attract such numbers that it promises to become ere long the largest department of the University. Gifts during the year have swelled the Endowment and Extension Fund to $3,000,000--three-fourths of the required amount. -The Harvard alumni were informed by President Eliot that $8,000,000 has been added to the endowment of the University during the past six years. Each successive class at its twenty-fifth anniversary now puts, it was said, $100,000 into Harvard's treasury. Thus private liberality does for Eastern universities what State treasuries do for Western. The honorary LL.D. at Harvard, going mostly outside of the country, was given to President Wilson, of Princeton, Secretary Root, Professor Vinogradoff, of Oxford, the Duke of the Abruzzi, the French Ambassador, M.

Jusserand, and Ambassador Bryce, who received a most enthusiastic greeting from the assembly. A School of Business Administration is announced at Harvard for a two years' course of postgraduate study in the lines required for, the scientific treatment of business as an intellectual profession. This ideal, already recognized in the German schools of commerce and in departments of commerce in some. American universities, may be traced to its genesis long ago in the so-called commercial colleges.Wesleyan University has removed itself, despite the opposition of many of the older alumni, from the status of a denominational institution. The Trustees have unanimously accepted the amendment to its charter granted by the Connecticut Legislature, abolishing the requirement that its President, with a majority of the Trustees and Faculty, must belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. President Raymond's resignation has been accepted, but it is understood that he will accept the headship of a new department of study.

The College Boat Races

The fact that both at Poughkeepsie and New London the eight-oared intercollegiate races, although closely and hotly contested, were won without the slightest charge of unfairness or sharp practice, strengthens the common claim that of all college sports boating is the most open and generous in its rivalry. Certainly, as a picturesque summer open-air festival, in which the spectators themselves furnish a great part of the spectacle, these annual contests on the Hudson and the Thames leave little to desire. At Poughkeepsie on Wednesday some twenty thousand, at New London on Thursday some sixty thousand, people waited patiently until almost dark to see races well worth waiting for; and the brilliant colors of the crowds, their vociferous enthusiasm, the shouts and songs, the moving observation trains, and the following fleets of yachts and steamboats, combined to make up variegated and blood-stirring aquatic pageants unique in their enjoyable and exciting qualities. Cornell's victory on the Hud

son was by only a yard or two at the finish, and Columbia's achievement in leading for a mile, fighting every yard of the course, forging to the front again in the last half-mile, and only dropping a trifle behind in the last seconds, was indeed remarkable, especially considering Columbia's lighter weight and Cornell's longer training and traditions of triumph. Really the Columbia crew were applauded as genuine athletic heroes, and almost divided honors with Cornell. An interesting and novel fea ture of this university race was the first appearance of a crew from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. They were unable to cope with the two leading crews, but finished third easily, defeating Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgetown, and Syracuse. Cornell's time was 20 minutes 24 seconds. The Varsity four-oared race was won by Syracuse; the Freshman eight-oared race by Wisconsin. At New London much sympathy was expressed with Harvard because on the very day before the race she lost by illness one of her very strongest men; his substitute, however, as all agree, did fine work, and experts credit Yale's victory to her possession of just a little superior reserve force when the last splendid spurt at the end was called for. Both crews rowed in fine form, and no closer-contested race is on the long Yale-Harvard record. One correspondent pithily describes the race thus: "Cheek by cheek and jowl by jowl the sixteen splendidly trained young athletes fought out the battle of sweeps over those four heartbreaking, nerve-racking, muscle-rending miles, with inches only separating the two boats until the finish was in sight, when the Yale oarsmen had more in reserve and were able to make the spurt which won the battle." Yale's time was given as 21 minutes 10 seconds; Harvard's as only three seconds more. Owing to the dusk and the closeness of the race, the result was for some time in doubt among the spectators. The Freshman and four-qared university races, postponed until Friday, were won respectively by Harvard and Yale. On Saturday Harvard won the deciding game at baseball from Yale by a score of 7 to 2.

e Te

elg

Mark Twain at

Oxford

In point of age, history, architectural and natural beauty, personal association, and direct or indirect influence upon the literature and politics of the modern civilized world, Oxford is the most distinguished university in Christendom. An honorary degree from Oxford is, therefore, one of the great academic distinctions of the day-an honor not lightly given nor to be lightly prized by the man who is fortunate enough to receive it. Mr. Clemens, more widely and affectionately known as Mark Twain, has just received this honor from Oxford, and has now the right to place upon the title-page of his next book, "Mark Twain, Litt.D., Oxon.” Lord Curzon, the Chancellor of the University, in conferring the degree, said, in University Latin, to Mark Twain: "You are one of the finest, most agreeable, and most witty men of the day; you have made the sides of the entire literary world shake with laughter; and so, by virtue of my own authority, and with the authority of the whole University, I admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters." It is not, however, merely as the most celebrated humorist of modern times that Mark Twain deserves this honor, which is a source of pride to his countrymen as well as to cth himself; nor is it because he is merely a gifted man of letters. We like to think that it is because he is a fine product of modern democracy-springing from the people, educated by contact with the people, and championing with a human sympathy-which is none the less profound because it so often expresses itself in a jocose form-the fundamental causes of the people that make for a nobler civilization. Mark Twain has never been a pessimist, a cynic, or a destroyer of faith in human nature. He has helped to eradicate meanness and pettiness of spirit in the individual, in commerce, and in government, by holding it up to a simple and yet merciless ridicule. We should not be surprised, in fact, if when he comes home he has something jovial to say about the Latin which the University of Oxford still uses on formal occasions. We think a little conference on this subject between Cicero, Horace,

1

Juvenal, and Dr. Twain, if it could be carried on in English, would "shake the sides of the entire literary world with laughter." Oxford on this occasion conferred honorary degrees upon Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, some distinguished English statesmen and scientists, and upon Auguste Rodin, the French sculptor, Hubert Herkomer, the English etcher, Rudyard Kipling, the British novelist, and Camille Saint-Saëns, the French musician; thus recognizing, as every institution of liberal education ought to do, the place and authority of æsthetic beauty in any general scheme of education. By a happy coincidence, a great historical pageant, which The Outlook hopes later to describe in more detail, was enacted during Mark Twain's stay at Oxford, which elicited the new doctor's interest and sincere admira- · tion. He is reported in the cable despatches to have commented upon it as follows: "It was beyond anything I at all imagined. The Americans can do a few things well, I admit; but America has not the history, and it has not this," waving his hand toward the scenery surrounding the pageant ground. Then he added, with a humorous reference to the drizzling rain which set in steadily in the course of the last scene, "Nor has America that weather which may be said to inspire men to noble fortitude."

A Declaration Against Obstruction

The resolution passed last week in the English House of Commons by the overwhelming vote of 432 to 147 should be taken by the House of Lords as a serious warning. It is not unlikely to be the precursor of one of the most fundamental legislative acts in modern English history. Certainly, if the peers insist in the future upon the policy of such obstruction as was maintained by them in the matter of the Educational Bill, they must face a determined effort by the Liberal party to curtail their powers. That such action would be justifiable has now been firmly asserted by the House of Commons. The text of the resolution (an amendment from the Labor party declaring for