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needs it. But is this quite the Christian way of looking at the matter? Has the black man no claim to be heard as to his own wishes and needs?

Conceding that the white man's insistence is due to his race prejudice, you state that it is a fact, and bid us accept that as its justification. Again, is this Christian? Do we refrain from opposing other widespread and persistent evils because they are facts?

You argue that the black man needs separation in the churches because without it he will not develop self-dependence and selfcontrol that remaining under the white man's tutelage would retard, if it did not absolutely prevent, his self-development. But has not The Outlook taught us that the Filipinos will hasten their self-development by remaining under the white man's tutelage? Aside from this, however, the assumption that either race, as a race, must necessarily be under the tutelage of the other in American church relations is entirely gratuitous.

You disavow referring to negroes as an inferior race-yet your whole argument implies their inferiority and falls to the ground without it. You prefer to associate them with "subject or foreign races "-notwithstanding their subjection was ended by legis lation a generation ago, and their occupancy of this country has been practically as long as the white man's. They are to-day an integral part of our American citizenship, and have already become, to a large extent, "white folk with colored skins "if I am able to understand what that much-dreaded product really is. But, accepting your classification, what other "subject or foreign race do we force or freeze out of our churches as we do the negroes?

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You say that the brotherhood of the races should be left for time and religious and intellectual education to accomplish. But how many æons of time will this take if methods more direct than these are indefinitely postponed? Jesus did not think it too early to begin to break down race prejudice when he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, nor Peter when, after his heavenly vision, he visited Cornelius.

No-the Lambeth Conference is right in opposing race segregation in church relations. The Episcopal Church in this country is right in refusing to give it official sanction. The Roman Catholic Church throughout the world is right in opposing it. And I am informed that the Christian Science Church, which is already welcoming negroes, will never consent to it. Can other denominations afford to be behind these?

Your criticism of the Lambeth metaphor of "welding the races seems inconclusive.

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You say that pieces of iron when red hot can be hammered together because they have no power of resistance, but that men cannot be hammered together because they can resist. But you forget that the pieces of iron do resist welding when they are cold

just like men. Suppose, however, that men of different races are red hot-or even moderately warm-with Christian love and mutual respect for one another-what then? HORACE BUMSTEAD.

Brookline, Massachusetts.

PORTABLE HOUSES ON VACANT LOTS

Allow me to suggest through the medium of your magazine the use of vacant city lots for housing poorer classes of population in special portable houses. This is not a form of charity, but a straight business proposition. Such houses could be put up or dismantled in a few days, so that the owner of the lot could have the house removed on, say, two weeks' notice. Therefore the use even of valuable lots could be obtained at a low rental, since the owner would retain the possession of the lot, and could sell it or build on it at any time. It is no engineering feat to design a type of one-story three or four room house that can be assembled on a light foundation and held together by bolts. Armies carry with them in a dismantled form objects much more bulky and complicated than a little house. Of course such an enterprise must be organized on a large scale; according to the familiar prophecy, The poor we shall always have with us; therefore there will be no lack of business for such a company. Governments of large cities could also very well engage in such a scheme themselves, so as to relieve the congestion in tenement districts, and to bring tenement proprietors to more reasonable

terms.

They could even pass certain regulations making compulsorv the use of vacant lots for such a purpose, without any hardship to the owners, and against a reasonable compensation. Portable houses suitable for a family may be built out of shields of incombustible material, such as reinforced concrete, asbestos, wood, etc., all of the same size, with standard doors and windows, so as to be entirely interchangeable. If manufactured in a factory by the hundreds, such houses would cost only a few hundred dollars apiece, and would pay for themselves long before they are worn out. There will be some expense for making water, sewer, and gas connection, but this can be charged in part to the owner of the lot, since he will need such connections anyway when building

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A little less than two years ago Bishop Greer purchased the grounds and buildings and established the present institution, the first one under other than Roman Catholic jurisdiction in the State of New York.

New buildings were added to the old, and the latter remade for practical use.

The idea of the work is to maintain a model industrial school in connection with a home of cheerful and wholesome surroundings for these children who swarm in the Children's Court, and for whom almost daily an appeal for refuge is made by the civil authorities.

There are at present one hundred and fifteen children in residence.

The girls are taught to sew, to keep the dormitories in good order, and to aid in the general housework, and are thus trained for any branch of domestic service which suits them best. It is hoped very soon, when some of these have gained a mature age, to place them out at service in homes where they may earn their own living in a continuance of the moral atmosphere.

It is hoped also, in time, to make the Farm self-supporting, and the large gardens are cared for chiefly by the boys in the institution.

Besides this open-air work a shop is pro

vided, and here, under the supervision of the Rev. Mr. Hazzard, warden in charge and a man of unique ability, almost everything that is required for the repairing and maintenance of the buildings is fashioned by the boys, who are laying for themselves a foundation of a useful trade as a means of livelihood.

In addition to this a school is in session, which all the children are required to attend. A large dairy is connected with the Farm, which alone will go far towards its support.

The equipment is being enlarged constantly, but the children the authorities are urged to take far outnumber the accommodations yet made for them.

However, Hope Farm is a sure and certain outlet from the narrow confines of criminality into the wide spaces of morality.

As some one has said: "There could hardly be an institution more worthy of support, not only because it provides a place for little unfortunates whose lot would otherwise be most desperate, but because these children are there surrounded with so much that is wholesome and uplifting, and trained in so much that is practical."

LEONORA SILL ASHTON. Hyde Park on Hudson, New York.

ANTHRACITE

In an editorial in The Outlook of August 22 you speak of "The Great Anthracite Coal Strike." Isn't the word "coal" superfluous? P. S. HALEY.

Corona, Alabama.

[The dictionary sustains our correspondent, although the phrase is exceedingly common, probably because it balances to the ear with "bituminous coal ;" and some might argue that the usage is so general as to be

established." It is to be said also that some authorities (see articles on Coal in the New International Encyclopædia and in "Har per's Book of Facts") use the phrase "anthracite coal." The case is similar to that of "kerosene oil," where the word oil also is superfluous. Anthracite may, to be sure, be used as an adjective, according to the dictionary, but not accurately with the word coal, for it means in itself hard coal. The only instance the Century Dictionary gives of the use of anthracite as an adjective is in the name of a coal-black bird, the anthracite hawk.-THE EDITORS.]

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NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 12, 1908

Published by the Outlook Company, 287 Fourth Ave., New York. Chicago Office, Marquette Building.
Lawrence F. Abbott, President. William B. Howland, Treasurer. Karl V. S. Howland, Secretary.
Lyman Abbott, Editor-in-Chief. H. W. Mabie, Associate Editor. R. D. Townsend, Managing Editor.

The New York Times of August 30 published a posthumous article, written by Grover Cleveland just before his death, on the political situation in America. This article was to have been followed by two others, but these his last illness and death prevented him from writing. Internal evidence indicates that he had not opportunity to revise this first article, and to such lack of revision, and to his failing health, must be attributed certain infelicities of expression by which it is characterized. These do not, however, deprive it of its peculiar significance. Mr. Cleveland was a representative man, as well as a recognized political leader. It is therefore safe to assume that this article rightly interprets the views of a large number of so-called Cleveland Democrats, and will have great influence upon all that class of citizens, and their name is legion, who were inclined to follow his leadership while he was living. The article is characterized by his usual independence and his habit of saying what he meant and meaning what he said. He urges similar independence others. "The population of some of the New England States is so inherently Republican that the fallacy would be palpable indeed that would not earn their support, just so it had the approval of the leaders of the Republican party. On the other hand, the South has long taken a stubborn, foolish pride in its enlistment under the Democracy, and has stood like a rock in its partisanship," at times to its great and manifest disadvantage. Realities, not symbols, principles, not words, counted with Mr. Cleveland, and while he makes no attack upon Mr. Bryan, he makes it clear that he regards Bryanism as destructive of the democracy in which he believes, and

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that the best way to advance that democcracy is to defeat Bryanism. True democratic principles, he anticipates, will assert themselves in the future, "perhaps under a different panoply, and perhaps with a reincorporation of the decayed fragments of an organization that failed to serve its purpose.' 99 Regarding the issue before the American people as essentially one between Socialism or semi-Socialism and its opponents, he explicitly indorses the candidature of Mr. Taft. His personal tribute to Mr. Taft is worth quoting in full:

There is fear on my part of being misunderstood in what I am about to say, but surely the fair-minded man must realize when he considers my attitude towards my own party, all now a matter of immutable record, that it is prompted by a sense of simple fairness. Personally and officially I have had the opportunity of knowing many things concerning Mr. Taft that were not a matter of general knowledge, and with a keen interest I have watched his large share in the conduct of our National affairs in very recent years. His excellence as a Federal Judge in Cincinnati is something not to be underestimated or overemphasized, for should he come to the Presidential chair the

qualities which made him a judge of high ability, which I know him to have been, will be the most needful to him as President of the United States. His high ideals of honesty and of relative justice, his great capacity for severe labor, and his humorous wisdom in the face of the serious problem are attributes equally valuable and commendatory to people seeking him in whom they may repose the trust of their collective interests while they turn their increased attention to their pressing individual demands.

His Definition of Principles

Mr. Cleveland does not, however, advocate the election of Mr. Taft as He signifies a

the lesser of two evils. cautious but unqualified approval of the more essential principles and policies of the Republican party as interpreted by Mr. Taft. The four most prominent

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questions before the country are our colonial policy, our so-called military policy, the tariff, and the trusts. Mr. Cleveland affirms that, whether Americans like it or not, America has become extended and must pursue a policy which will unify its various heterogeneous elements:

Dwelling on the unwisdom of prematurely acquiring colonies is fatuous, the National duty is neither to keep those colonies for their exploitation nor to cast them off to avoid the burden of their responsibilities. The questions involved are no more matters to be harrowed through the mill of politics than is the policy of the Panama Canal something to be stamped either as Republican or Democratic. These questions are fruitful of trouble and perturbation, and the primary requisite of the man or men who must deal with them is an abundant knowledge of the people of the outlying domain. That Mr. Taft is possessed of this knowledge as is no other man in the country is hardly to be

denied.

The peril that might be involved in Mr. Bryan's election Mr. Cleveland not obscurely indicates in the sentence, "The misery and misfortune which an ignorant or obstinate administrator, no matter how high the ethical standard of his motives, could entail upon our wards of the Pacific and Caribbean are appalling to contemplate." Of militarism Mr. Cleveland evidently has no fear. While he does not directly discuss the question, What should be the size either of our army or our navy? he affirms that we were a world power when we went into the Mediterranean to punish pirates, and when we dared to balk the European programme that made Maximilian Emperor of Mexico, and that if we are to retain the position in the world which we held half a century ago, an increase in our military and naval forces is rendered necessary by the growth of our country and the growth of military establishments and colonial activities in Europe. He regards our National peril to be, not militarism at home, but new and complicated relations with military powers abroad. "We are palpably drifting into a set of relations toward other powers, especially in the matters of China, Hawaii, and the Philippines, from which we can emerge without war only through the strongest and wisest statesmanship; nevertheless, the justice and humanitarianism of our

acts and policies will serve us in the highest degree, and we may be able to surmount the crisis without those certain results which would be deplorable in the extreme." Upon the tariff question Mr. Cleveland's opinions have not changed, but he perceives that "tariff for revenue only" is not at present a political issue. "Not in this election or the next is the question of the tariff at all likely to be a paramount issue of the principle involved.

That will come later when conditions have altered nationally, and our foreign trade interests have assumed something of the gigantic proportions that are their ultimate destiny." Speaking upon the question of the trusts and the railways, Mr. Cleveland declares that "illegal combinations, illegal repression of competition, and illegal exploitation of the public are things which the public intends to make no longer possible." Thus he appears to regard the danger from the despotism of capital as already largely averted. What he dreads is the social movement "which attacks with the idea of destruction the fundamental idea of property and the plain principle of wage employment." In this estimate of possible peril to the country The Outlook agrees with Mr. Cleveland. The problem which now lies before America is not how to destroy the present industrial system and build a new one upon its ruins, nor how to prevent possible changes in our present industrial system, but how so to reinforce and direct social reform as to make our industrial system truly democratic.

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sustained by the popular support of reforms which should not redound to its glory solely, those reforms having been the work of decent men of all parties." At the same time he anticipates an increase in the Socialistic vote, though he makes it clear that he includes in the Socialistic vote that of the Independence League and the Socialist Labor party, as well as of the party bearing the title Socialist. "It will be no matter of surprise to me," he says, "if the returns show more than that up to the point of having tripled the record made four years ago," which was a record of half a million votes. On the other hand, he does not anticipate that the socalled "labor vote" will be cast solidly for any candidate. "The union labor vote is an indeterminate quality [quantity?] and never will be more in America. . . . The mere fact of being federated on the basis of a single interestthat of a common employment as skilled laborers for wages-can never force the mass of union men to act politically with anything like solidarity." The political history of the past abundantly justifies this judgment of Mr. Cleveland. The American workingman is altogether too independent to allow any man to corral him into either a political or a religious organization against his own judgment.

The Direct Primary and the New Idea in

This year for the first time the voters of New Jersey will New Jersey make their nominations for State officers without the intervention of conventions. Through the efforts of Senator Colby and his associates in the New Idea movement, the last Legislature established the direct primary system, and its first trial will be made on September 22. The new law was a victory in the fight between the New Idea and the boss-and-corporationcontrolled machine; the next battle in this contest will come at the first primary under the new system. Everett Colby is seeking renomination to the State Senate, and three of his associates who have been members of the Assembly are also seeking renomination, while a fourth is put forward for sheriff. For

three years Mr. Colby has upheld in the Senate, against the bitter opposition of the Republican machine and the corporations who have held the State in their unrelenting grasp for years, the cause of popular government. At the very beginning of his career in the Senate he asserted his independence, fearlessly bolting the party caucus when bind him to vote for measures which he knew were vicious. He fought without faltering for the "new idea" that the corporations should not rule the State, that they should not receive special and inequitable privileges at the expense of the people. And the fight was not without results. Aided by able associates in the Assembly, and backed by a gradually aroused public sentiment, Senator Colby was largely instrumental in passing acts limiting public service franchises to twenty years (with an extension to forty years in case the citizens of a municipality so vote); increasing the taxes paid by the railways, which had been notoriously low, so that they now pay two and a half million dollars more each year; allowing the voters to express at the primaries their choice for United States Senator; increasing the rate of taxation of franchises, formerly two and a half per cent on the gross receipts, one-half of one per cent each year until the rate of five per cent is reached; establishing the principle of civil service reform; repealing the notorious promoters' liability law which cut down the statute of limitations onethird in the case of promoters; and establishing a Railway Commission with limited powers. In addition, a telling blow was struck at boss domination by the adoption in the Assembly of a rule requiring a committee to report a bill within two hours on demand of fifteen members of the body. In the old days many a bill distasteful to the corporate interests had slumbered in committee, which the machine members of the Assembly would not have been willing to oppose in open session where their position would be made a matter of record. The new rule was one important application of the principle that is included in the New Idea, that all political activity, all legislation, all govern

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