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proposal that an international supreme prize court should be established with a definite jurisdiction, and that in war time captures at sea should be brought before this court for consideration, seems to meet general approval and will presumably be adopted. The plan is for a prize court comprised of two admirals and three members of the Hague Permanent Arbitration Court. The court would be called into existence whenever a war makes it necessary, would be dissolved when the war ends, and the expenses would be paid by the belligerent Powers. Less acceptable to some Powers is the German proposal that belligerents may not employ in war the subjects of neutral nations. But the most notable event of the week was the eloquent address made by Mr. Choate upholding the exemption from capture at sea of all private property not clearly contraband of war. followed the history of this question in an illuminating way, expressed pride in America's support of this doctrine for over a century, declared that under modern conditions privateering was a game not worth the candle, and predicted that the success of the American principle would be a crown of glory to modern diplomacy. Count Nelidoff, on the contrary, on the part of Russia, met murmurs of disapproval when, in reply to Mr. Choate, he argued, first, that the American proposition would defeat its own purpose, as the exemption of private property would have only the effect of rendering wars more frequent; and, secondly, that the menace to private property, especially in the case of certain countries whose greatest wealth was their sea.commerce, would exercise a salutary influence on nations which, from material considerations, would avoid wars.

regarding neutrality. A minor matter of some picturesqueness was the acceptance by China of the Red Cross as the Geneva emblem, after the Chinese authorities had been convinced that there was no religious significance in the cross; and, on the other hand, the refusal of the Porte to adopt the symbol, with Turkey's declaration that the crescent would be used instead. An interesting utterance was that of Count Nelidoff, who, in receiving as presiding officer a memorial signed by fiftysix American and English bishops and a very large number of clergymen in many countries to the effect that it was hoped that the burden of ever-increasing armament would be arrested, remarked that the Conference would do everything compatible with the duties and obligations of the various Governments to diminish the burden of armaments. It was two thousand years, he added, since Christ preached the gospel of peace, yet until eight years ago the Governments of the world had never conferred to promote peace. Another memorial which excited no little sensation was that in behalf of the two and a half millions of people of the old Kingdom of Georgia. It was originally signed by hundreds of names of men of all classes-aristocrats, peasants, and workmen alike—but the signatures were not presented to the Conference, it was explained, for fear lest the signers should be deported or shot. This petition recited at great length and with many particulars what the signers describe as a systematic violation by Russia of its treaties with Georgia, together with the ruthless maltreatment and spoliation by the Russian Government of the Georgian people in respect both to public and private interests and rights.

ernment's policy was the substantial one of 120, and this vote followed a fierce debate in which the Socialists and some of the Deputies from the disturbed section in vain attacked the Government as reactionary. As usual, M. Clemenceau held his own in debate, and convinced the Deputies that his conduct had been patriotic and justified. Taunted with alleged oppression, he recalled his long service in the cause of genuine republicanism, and maintained that a situation where two hundred municipalities refused to perform their functions and their citizens refused to pay taxes could not be tolerated by any Government. The Premier admitted that an investigation was desirable, and that the conduct of the soldiers in the disturbed provinces especially required close inquiry. M. Clemenceau summed up the situation in the following words:

The statements made render an investigation imperative. Throughout I have been animated by the spirit of conciliation, but when the municipalities adopted an illegal attitude the Government had no alternative except to use force. The laws were made for everybody. Everybody must pay taxes. The poor peasants of the north, east, and center are ready to pay more for their sugar in order to help the population of the south, where misery is not general, as proved by the accounts in the savings banks. The truth is that we face a revolt. Can it be tolerated?

To this inquiry the Chamber of Deputies shouted an emphatic negative, and equal applause met the peroration of the Premier's address, in which he said: "Our fathers, amid convulsions to which the present incidents are most trifling, built upon a foundation of rock and at the same time gave liberty to mankind, and the French nation will uphold them." Meanwhile in the Midi there has been a partial restoration of normal conditions and order is being restored everywhere.

ugliness." The gist of the bill lies in the second clause, which gives "any local authority" power to make by-laws "(1) for the regulation and control of hoardings [bill-boards] and similar structures used for the purpose of advertising; (2) for regulating, restricting, or preventing the exhibition of advertisements in such places and in such manner, or by such means, as to affect injuriously the amenities of a public park or pleasure promenade, or to disfigure the natural beauty of a landscape." Such by-laws are not to become effective until confirmed by the Secretary of State, who must first consider any objections made to him by persons affected. Vested rights, so to speak, are further respected by a two years' exemption of hoardings or other advertising structures in use at the time such by-laws are made. The penalty for disregard of such by-laws is a fine not to exceed five pounds, and a further fine not to exceed twenty shillings for every day the offense is continued. The bill now goes to the House of Lords, where its passage is practically assured, but where it will probably be amended to extend the exemption described in accordance with an under

standing between the friends of the bill and the bill-posting interests. Through this understanding unanimous consent was obtained for the reference to a standing committee-the only way practically to bring the bill before the House of Commons, as members are greatly restricted in the privilege of introducing private measures, and no party in power would make a Government measure of what an American would call "an æsthetic proposition." thetic proposition." The fact that this understanding was not respected by the House of Commons, despite amendments offered by the friends of the bill, testifies to the strength of indignant feeling in England over advertising defacement, when once given opportunity for expression. The man to whom, first of all, credit should be given, as Lord Balcarres says, for this national pronouncement against disfigurement, is Mr. Richardson Evans, a barrister and publicist, the Honorable Secretary of the Society for Checking Abuses in Public Advertising, a society known for short by

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the name of Scapa. In his efforts to arouse public sentiment Mr. Evans has been earnestly and ably seconded, Americans will be interested to know, by Ambassador Bryce. The passage of the bill is the outcome of fifteen years of persistent effort. The opening wedge was driven into general indifference when, some years ago, special powers were granted to Edinburgh to save the Mound from a blazing sign, and to Dover to save its far-famed cliffs from a like monstrosity. The present act, simply extending a principle then indorsed by the House of Commons, marks, as Mr. Evans says, "the introduction of a new principle into English jurisprudence. For the first time public statute recognizes the claim of the seeing eye to consideration, and for the first time scenery is treated as a national asset.". The need of some similar general law in America is too obvious to be emphasized. In illustration it may be stated that a leading railway recently investigated the matter of suppressing advertising nuisances along its line, only to find that it was practically powerless to control the matter beyond the boundaries of its own property.

But in the United States

The Restriction of the campaign for the

Bill-Boards restriction of the billpboard evil has scored a great victory in the opinion delivered lately by Judge Hazee, of the United States District Court at Buffalo. For several years Corporation Counsel Diesbecker, of Buffalo, has been seeking to give force and effect to the ordinance which prohibits and punishes the erection of bill-boards of upwards of a height of seven feet. The Gunning System has been fighting the legislation, as it has all such legislation everywhere. In the suit which it brought, Judge Hazee handed down a decision holding that the ordinance is a valid exercise of the city's police power, and that its enforcement does not interfere with the Constitutional rights of the Gunning System. Moreover, he goes further, and declares that the judgment in the State court rendered some time since is a bar to the maintenance of the

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suit in the Federal court, and is one to which the court is bound to give the same effect as the courts of the State would give it. It is a significant and suggestive victory for the people throughout this country who desire to eliminate the bill-board nuisance, as well as for Buffalonians. It is considered particularly valuable for the reason that the decision regards the erection of billboards on private property. If eventu ally it is entirely upheld, which seems probable, it will be the opening wedge to successful legislation against billboards throughout the United States. The plea was made that the structures in question were not bill-boards, but bulletin-boards, and therefore the court allowed the System to file a replication to the plea, with a view of determining this question. The structures, it is claimed, are not bill-boards, because bills are not posted or pasted thereon, all advertisements, etc., being painted on tin which is tacked on the wood. The Corporation Counsel has little fear of this issue, and is quite confident of winning the case on every point.

Two

The College:
Points of View

After receiving his honorary degree at Harvard last week, President Woodrow Wilson made a speech in which he contrasted the two universities. Harvard, he is reported to have said, stands for constant progress, for restless intellectual activity and desire to change what needs changing, while Princeton is steadfast in tradition, holds the belief that all change must conform to custom, and is the upholder of the simple, unchanging ideals of the fathers.

The contrast he drew was not exactly one between innovation and conservatism, though in part what he said suggested that; it was rather a contrast between individualism and social order. There is no place in America where tradition more strongly governs than at Harvard; and no college of high rank where the spirit of progress has been more bravely heeded than at Princeton,

pedagogue with some of the traits of a benevolent policeman. It demands millions for lecture halls, museums, libraries, laboratories, and scholarships, but not one cent for residential halls or clubs or athletic fields, unless that cent promises to bear interest. It allows without protest the multiplication of private dormitories which compete with each other for student patronage by offering all sorts of luxuries; it is indifferent to the fact that an undergraduate may spend his college life isolated from the great mass of his fellows and associated with others as rich or as poor, as snobbish or as neglected, as himself. The other view makes of the college a conserve, not only of learning, but also of a rare and charmed sort of life; it stimulates as generous provision for wholesome living as for great learning; it is as impatient of snobbery and narrowness as it is of ignorance; it presents the college, not as an office to which the student repairs as a man goes to work, but as a world in which he lives.

No college administrator would admit holding the first view; and none would, we fancy, assert that any college perfectly embodied the second; but the two tendencies, which logically would issue in these two views, are discernible in American universities to-day.

tions. But in no other section with so large a population and at the same time such a density, such an intensity of industrial development, and such wealth, has the process gone so far. It is approximated, however, both in New York and in Pennsylvania.

New England has now a population of about 6,000,000. But with one-thirteenth of the population of the United States it has one-sixth of the wealth. It is the wealthiest community of its size to be found anywhere. Its people have the largest purchasing power per capita of any in the world. It is a region of large industrial and commercial centers, of prosperous factory towns, all within comparatively easy reach of one another, and united by railway lines running in every direction-steam and electric; or, better defined, ordinary and secondary. The population is chiefly urban; Boston is the second population center in the country, in metropolitan population the fourth American city, and in foreign and coastwise commerce the second seaport in the United States. New England built the first canals in the country, and Massachusetts aimed to achieve by such means traffic connections with the great West before the railway epoch began. All of these canals have been abandoned, with the exception of a short one in Maine; but, after an agitation of more than two cen

their Benefits

The New England railway situation to-day is significant. If the proposed merger, or consolidation, of the two great systems-the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, and the Boston and Maire-is realized, substantially the entire section will be served by one great company. The few exceptions, although of considerable importance, do not count as against this broad proposition. In New England the consolidating process has already proceeded further than in any other part of the country. To be sure, the development of the giant systems all over the United States has established monopolistic conditions for large sections and popula

realized.

The New England railway system was originally made up of numerous small lines, for the most part very short, operated by separate companies. Private and public enterprise shared in their building. Towns and cities aided liberally to make them possible, either by direct contributions or by lending their credit. In various instances States did the same. The stockholders customarily lived along the lines they were interested in, and had a correspondingly lively sense of proprietorship; the directors were customarily local magnates in their respective communities. Little was heard of "foreign capital" in those days. Proprietary conditions were similar to, and at first largely coincident with, those of the palmy days of American