followed immediately in the same city. One felt, as he entered the hall just before the meeting of the Chicago Convention, a suspicion that this might be only an attempt to fan the dying flame of missionary romanticism. Some of the mottoes on the walls seemed perfervid, notably the watchword, "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation." But such suspicions disappeared as the meetings moved on. Here were no tricks of statistics, no worn-out pleas, no artificial stimulus for jaded emotions. Everywhere one caught the impression of strength, steadiness, and loyalty to fact. Men who "did not believe in Foreign Missions" went away with a new light, not victims of momentary enthusiasm, but with a reasoned conviction that the work of missions is a thing not of dreams but of life. There were great addresses, three of them at the opening session by Secretary Campbell White, Bishop Anderson of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, and the Rev. Willis R. Hotchkiss. Almost or quite as strong were the later meetings. Splendid types of the men the Church sends to foreign lands were seen and heard. One caught the dramatic character of the work in Korea from W. N. Blair; the far-reaching and constructive aims of the Churchmen in China from Arthur M. Sherman and Isaac T. Headland; the tense conflict of Christianity with Oriental traditions in India from George Sherwood Eddy; while Mornay Williams impressed by himself no less than by his words the great fact that the work at home gains, not loses, when the work in other lands is advanced. At the closing session reports came from the various denominations of the Protestant Church in Chicago. Instead of $163,000 contributed during the year covered by the latest available reports, Chicago pledged $275,000 the coming year, resolving, moreover, to maintain the executive office to push the campaign.

THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MISSIONS

deal to have two thousand men, most of them business men, gather at ten o'clock of a business day to discuss Foreign Missions. The attendance at the evening sessions climbed to four thousand; but more significant was the attendance in business hours. The opening address of the Congress was worthy of its place. Other addresses interpreted the movement and its phases, such as its relation to benevolence, its significance as a religious phenomenon, its practical fruits. But the stirring, significant thing was not any or all of the addresses, but the throng of men and the spirit among them. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts. One felt and rejoiced in the reality, the solidity, the enthusiasm that was not fanaticism, the breadth that was not vagueness, the faith that kept its eyes on the stars and its feet on the ground. A vision without a task makes a visionary; a task without a vision makes a drudge," said President Mullins. One felt that a mass of American Churchmen have determined that Foreign Missions shall no longer be a dream of visionaries, or a piece of Church drudgery; but an instance of that practical idealism which the heart of our age loves. Extreme, but not excessive—that is the spirit of this movement. It urges the extreme of Church unity; yet it advocates the loyalty of each man to his own denominational work. This is the first time," said the representative of the Lutheran churches publicly, 66 that the Lutheran churches have come into a union church movement." The secret is the coupling of the great truth of unity of spirit with a practical recognition of the fact of division in operation.

66

A THEOLOGICAL MARE'S NEST

66

enport Church, dating from 1862, having about four hundred members each, are about to unite. When the union takes place, their articles of religion are to be placed on the records of the First Church as an expression of the historic beliefs of the two churches. Furthermore, the forms hitherto used for the admission of members are to be superseded by a new form to be recommended by the pastors and deacons. This new form is still under advisement, and has not yet been published. Its general character, however, has been determined, and this is now of public interest. In substance it is the revival of the form common to all the early churches of New England, from the date of their planting in Massachusetts and Connecticut down to the latter half of the eighteenth century, when theological creeds were introduced to fence out nonorthodox beliefs. A specimen of that primitive form may be read to-day on a memorial window in the First Church of Boston, founded in 1632. It is a declaration of a religious purpose of discipleship to Christ. For return to this ancient usage there was a morally compelling

reason. Men and women of Christian character were found to be hindered from union with the church by scruples at some dogmatic statements of the creed which required their assent. Persons who would have been received without question during the first century and a half of the church's life were thus barred out. That such persons would have been received without question in the Apostolic churches, as they are now received in evangelical churches of several denominations, is undeniable. That the revival of the earlier usage of the church involved the elimination of the Apostles' Creed seems to have given rise to the preposterous charge of apostasy from Christian faith, whereas that formula had never been used in the First Church till 1884. Other New Haven churches which had used it for a while have disused it during the last five or ten years without causing any such stir as has now been made. The fundamental issue raised by the false accuser of his Christian brethren is one for all precisians to ponder. Can any supposed theological interest justify any requirement for Christian fellowship more than the words of

Jesus himself prescribe, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother"?

THE BOY SCOUTS OF ENGLAND

The very name of "scout" has an unfailing attraction for the boy mind, and that fact may be an element in the success of the Boy Scouts in England. Another is probably the leadership in the movement of the great popular hero of the Boer War, LieutenantGeneral Sir R. S. S. Baden-Powell, affectionately known throughout the British Empire as B. P." In two years " B. P." has built up an organization of three hundred thousand boys, drawn from all classes of society. They are banded together, not for military service, but for training that will make them not only good scouts and keen observers but self-reliant, efficient, chivalrous citizens. A writer in the Youth's Companion "describes them:

It is almost impossible now for any one to take a walk in England without encountering groups of boys dressed in the fashion of frontiersmen, with soft, low-crowned, widebrimmed hats, loose blue flannel shirts, kneebreeches, and stout shoes and stockings. Each carries a knapsack and a staff. Each who has passed a satisfactory examination wears a badge shaped as an arrow-head, and inscribed, "Be Prepared," which means that the wearer must always be ready to do his duty to his country and his fellow-man. A bit of string tied to it may seem insignificant to you, but to him it is a symbol of his obligation to let no day pass without a kindly service to somebody. Should you point to the badge and ask him about it, he would call it his "life," and explain that it is given to him as a token that if by any negligence or cowardice he fails in his duty it can be taken away from him-for "life to him is honor.

The boys stride nimbly along at a good pace, erect, yet supple in bearing, keen of eye and intelligent, vigilant and full of pur-J

pose...

Perhaps you find them encamped on one of those verdurous commons which are so often seen in England, or you may be surprised to find them crawling on all fours through the gorse and bracken of a moor, or in the undergrowth of some dark wood, following the spoor, or trail, of some vehicle, animal, or man. They follow signs that you, unless you are trained, cannot see, and between themselves they have secret methods of communication which serve even in the dark, like bits of twigs arranged in various designs on the ground. They track animals and birds, but do not kill them except for

food. You see them separate now and then, and, with a distance between them, they signal by the wigwagging of flags, according to the code used in the army and the navy; or one division is ambuscaded by another in some thicket, and captured and led blindfolded to headquarters.

There are two classes of scouts. In order to become a second-class scout a boy must be able to do the following things:

1. Tie four of the following knots in less than thirty seconds each knot: bowline, fisherman's bend, reef knot, clove hitch, sheet bend.

2. Track a deer's spoor or a horse's track for a quarter of a mile in not more than fifteen minutes; or, in a town, describe satisfactorily the contents of one shop window out of four observed for one minute each.

3. Go at scout's pace for one mile in not more than thirteen minutes.

4. Know the scout's law and signs. To become a first-class scout, a boy must pass the following tests in addition to those described above:

1. Point out the direction of different points of the compass from where he stands.

2. Make a journey alone of not less than fifteen miles from point to point by walking, riding, boat, or bicycle.

3. Describe or show the proper means for saving life in case of one-selected by the court-of the following accidents: fire, drowning, runaway horses, sewer-gas, breaking ice; or bandage an injured patient, or revive apparently drowned

4. Be able to read and write.

5. Have at least something in the savings bank.

6. Show that he has brought a recruit to the Boy Scouts, and has taught him to tie the principal knots.

7. Lay and light a fire, using not more than two matches, and cook a quarter of a pound of flour and two potatoes without cooking utensils.

These rules give an excellent idea of the activities of the Boy Scouts, and suggest graphically why the organization has grown so rapidly and is wholesomely absorbing the interest of so many English boys. But, in addition to these requirements which tend to make them alert, healthy, observant, capable boys, there are other rules which

tend to make them chivalrous and self-sacrificing citizens. The Scout Law ordains obedience to the King, his officers, the scout's employers, his parents, and his scout masters; kindness to animals, courtesy and helpfulness to women, children, and infirm people, and to any one in distress. The scout must not take a reward for any kindness or service that he may have done. This last requirement is especially important, and may have some interesting effect upon the tipping system which, in a country like England, is well-nigh universal. A class of boys growing up all over the country to whom the acceptance of a tip is "a thing no fellow would do " might well before many years have far reaching results. The Boy Scout movement is a most interesting and admirable one for the training of the youth of a country.

STUDENT INTERCHANGE

Mr. Roosevelt's

THE SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN recent visit to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden lends special interest to the Scandinavian-American educational interchanges. As is well known, the professorial interchange begun between France and America and Germany and America was, two years ago, successfully imitated by a Scandinavian-American professorial interchange. This in turn was followed by a Scandinavian-American student exchange. When, a year and a half ago, a Danish student was brought from the Technical Institute of Copenhagen to the Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburgh, Mr. Carnegie himself became interested in the plan. In consequence, the Technical Schools invited the American-Scandinavian Society to send to them one stu dent from each Scandinavian country for the next year. There were many applicants. In Norway the applications were submitted to the Society of Architects and Engineers for nominations. The other students came in the same manner, and are now at work in Pittsburgh, where, fortunately, there is a Swedish-American in the faculty, Professor Martin Hokanson. Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in their sympathy with the above plan, have now voted that for a period of ten years exemption from regular tuition

fees may be granted to advanced students from Scandinavian universities, not exceeding three students in any year, who may be nominated by their respective universities and recommended by the American-Scandinavian Society. This enlarged student interchange will, we do not doubt, do much, not only towards enabling certain young men to add to their education the best that America and Scandinavia can give, but also to establish a more distinctly co-operative effort between America and the Scandinavian nations towards the maintenance of international good will.

THE REFORM OF THE

HOUSE OF LORDS

The death of Edward VII and the accession of George V will give one advantage to the English people: it will probably postpone for a time the Constitutional question which President Lowell so admirably defines in his article on another page, and give them time and patience to consider it in a spirit not wholly partisan. For it is hardly possible that the leaders of either of the two parties will insist on vexing the first months of the new King's reign with a problem as serious as has confronted the English nation since the days of the Restoration.

Let us here restate that problem and the solutions that have been proffered.

The trouble with the House of Lords is not so much that it is composed of hereditary legislators who are also representatives of an aristocracy and of the landowning class (although in these particulars, from the democratic point of view, the House might well be reformed), as that it is continuously and immutably an instrument of one political party-the Conservative. The result is that when the Conservative party is in power in the House of Commons and the Cabinet, England has practically a one-chamber legislature; and the Cabinet, backed by the majority in the House of Commons, can pass any legislation upon which its members, as party leaders, are agreed. When the Liberals are in power, the Cabinet, with the majority in the House of Commons, can pass only such legislation as the Conservative party does not wish to make a

party measure, or such legislation as the Cabinet is willing to appeal upon to the country at a general election.

It is this aspect of the House of Lords which has aroused the antagonism of one of the two great political parties in England, and of two other small but proportionately strong ones. This aspect of the House of Lords is, in fact, the crux of the whole situation. No reform which does not at least in some appreciable degree alter this condition will meet the situation.

How can this unsatisfactory and inequitable condition be amended?

The House of Lords has already adopted Lord Rosebery's resolutions, which lay down the principle that "possession of a peerage shall no longer in itself give the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords." This may mean much, little, or nothing. The effectiveness of the principle, in accomplishing the result described above, would entirely depend upon "the application of it." Two years ago a

committee of the House of Lords under Lord Rosebery's chairmanship proposed a scheme for the reform of the House of Lords which embodied this principle. Under this plan the new House of Lords would be composed of four main classes : 1. Those hereditary peers who are "qualified" by having held certain offices, such as Cabinet Minister, Viceroy of India, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Speaker of the House of Commons, Vice-Admiral, etc., etc., and hereditary peers who have served for twenty years in the Commons (or ten years in some cases). The committee calculated that about one hundred and thirty peers were thus "qualified," but this number has since increased.

2. Two hundred hereditary peers elected for each Parliament by their fellowpeers, as is now done in the case of the Scottish and Irish peerages, the election to be by the cumulative vote or some other method to secure minority representation.

3. Life peers created by the Crown at the rate of not more than four in any one year, and not more than forty in all. Only one to be created in any year who was not duly "qualified " by office.

4. Spiritual lords to the number of ten. Thus constituted, the House of Lords

would be composed of four hundred members, of whom considerably more than three hundred would be hereditary peers. It is obvious that the Conservative complexion of the House at present existing would not be seriously altered under this plan.

Another plan is that suggested as a modification of the scheme of Lord Rosebery's committee by W. S. McKechnie, in his volume on "The Reform of the House of Lords." It provides that the House of Lords shall be made up of two classes of members: (1) Two hundred hereditary peers selected by their fellow-peers; (2) two hundred life peers created by the Crown at the rate of not more than ten per year.

Both these schemes leave the House of Lords in possession of a practical veto power, but propose to modify the character of the House of Lords so as to make it more amenable to popular sentiment. But neither of them would really have the effect of giving it a truly representative character. It would still be almost of necessity a Conservative body in the party or political meaning of that word.

Mr. Asquith's plan does not propose any change in the House of Lords, but only a change in its power. It proposes that a Cabinet shall be enabled to enact legislation for which it can preserve a majority in the House of Commons through three sessions of Parliament, covering not less than two years. This, of course, would not put the Liberal party on an absolute equality with the Conservative party, because the latter can pass legislation without delay, while the former would be able to pass it only after two years' time. The Asquith proposition is, in effect, that since under present conditions there is a onechamber Parliament half the time (when the Conservatives are in power), it will be more equitable and democratic to have a one-chamber Parliament all the time.

It is not the function of Americans to attempt a solution of English problems. We have enough of our own. But in the interest of world-democracy we may express the hope that Englishmen will find a way to make the English Parliament a more truly two-chambered body than it is now, not less so. A more definite plan for this purpose is proposed by Frederic

Harrison in the " English Review." Under his plan the House of Lords would have three classes of members: (1) fifty hereditary peers elected by their fellowpeers; (2) fifty life peers created by the Crown at the rate of not more than ten per year; (3) two hundred members elected by the County Councils. This would insure a hundred members, most of whom would be almost certainly Conservative; but it would also insure two hundred members who might be either Conservative or Liberal. Under such a system the House of Lords might change politically; but, like our Senate, a change would necessarily be more gradual than changes in the House of Commons.

We hope that the English people will work out a plan along some such line as this. They ought to be able in this way to avoid the objections to the plans proposed by Lord Rosebery truly and effectively stated by President Lowell.

LEGISLATION BY PARLIA

MENTARY CONDITION

The great difficulty in respect to the matter is that if the bill is reported from the committee and put upon its passage in the House there will be a movement to introduce amendments in accord with the recommendations of the Federation of Labor by which a jury trial shall be required in contempt cases and boycotts shall be made legitimate. It is feared that if such amendments were proposed they might pass and thus make the bill an obnoxious one. Whether a parliamentary condition can be created which will prevent the submission of such amendments or not is a question that I cannot anticipate.

This is the statement, not of a party leader in Congress in charge of a bill which he is trying to put through by every stratagem known to legislative art, but of the President of the United States. It refers to the bill modifying the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes, and was made by President Taft in his speech at Passaic last week. Let us translate the statement into other words to see exactly what it means. The President in effect says: "There is a bill before a committee of the House providing for legislation which was promised in the Republican platform. The party leaders are afraid that if the elected Representatives of the