strife. It has been advanced as an explanation of or excuse for the violence in connection with the strikes of the Western Federation, that the surroundings are different from those in the more thickly settled eastern country. The coalminer in Montana or Wyoming lives in the same atmosphere as the quartz-miner. The owner of a coal mine is not different from the owner of a gold or silver mine. The difference appears to lie in the quality of leadership in the two unions and the consequent policies of the organizations. The results seem to justify the conclusion that conciliation can accomplish more than strikes and that diplomacy is better than revolutionary utterances.

A Breakdown of Ward Government

A noteworthy and unexpected indorsement of the commission form of municipal government has come from a recent investigation by a Grand Jury of a bribery scandal in St. Louis. In its report the Grand Jury declares that the lower house of the St. Louis municipal assembly-known as the House of Delegates-elected by wards, should be abolished and that the assembly should be supplanted by a commission or a unicameral body of limited membership. The upper house, elected at large, the Grand Jury finds to be composed of men of ability, dignity, and standing, and it commends their work. The lower house, composed of twenty-eight ward representatives, it says is "a menace to decency, order, and good government." A large part of the A large part of the trouble, in the opinion of the Grand Jury, is due to the ward representation. "The idea," the report continues, "that any one member should represent his own locality to the exclusion of the interests of the entire municipality is repugnant in itself." Yet this is what has happened repeatedly, and the Grand Jury finds that legislation of the most beneficial public character has been held up and denied. Existing conditions, it thinks, show that the charter of St. Louis has become obsolete and that radical action is necessary. Therefore, the report says, "We most heartily recommend that our present system of a bicameral legislative body, with its large membership, be sup

planted by either a commission or a unicameral body of limited membership, to the end that the responsibility for the faithful and efficient discharge of the duties of our city officials may be assumed by men elected, not through political pull or ward popularity, but rather because of their approved intelligence, character, and ability." This instance from St. Louis is only one among many which show that American cities are more and more turning to the Texas idea, first demonstrated in Galveston and Houston, for relief from municipal inefficiency. The commission plan, centering authority and responsibility in a board of perhaps five men elected at large, does away with the difficulties of divided responsibility and conflicting ward interests experienced by St. Louis and most other large American cities. That it makes for efficiency and honesty has been amply demonstrated.

Preparations for

Prohibition

With the beginning of the new year prohibition will go into effect in Georgia. The enforcement of a prohibitory law depends upon a supporting public sentiment in the various localities of the State. In those communities where supporting public sentiment is weak the law is likely to be loosely observed or but spasmodically enforced. In Georgia conditions are largely favorable to the new law. In the first place, sentiment against the saloon has been spread widely throughout the State under an effectual system of local option. County after county had expelled the saloon; out of about one hundred and forty only a score or so recognized it as legal. In the second place, Atlanta, which, as the chief city of the State, might naturally be expected to regard the saloon with lenity, was stirred with animosity toward the saloon by the experiences of the riot of September, 1906. At that time it became evident that the worthless blacks who were a menace to the city and the brutalized whites who composed the avenging mobs were fostered if not produced by the drinkingplaces. It is believed that if a local option election had taken place at that time the vote for no-license would have

been overwhelming. The opposition to the saloon in Atlanta is not merely a sentimental feeling-it has become an element in many men's business principles. Consequently preparations for enforcement are businesslike. Breweries are being transformed into ice-houses and manufactories of "soft drinks." On Decatur Street one saloon at least is giving place to a bank-the first to be located on that street. The city has been districted for the organization of law and order leagues; these will undertake to prevent or drive out "blind tigers." As for saloons under the guise of social clubs, a tax on such places laid by the Legislature is expected to be prohibitive.

Substitutes for the Saloon

If such a reform is to be made permanent, restrictive measures must be supplemented by measures that are constructive. This many churches of the city have realized. In place of the saloons they are undertaking to provide wholesome resorts. We are informed that the churches for the whites are project ing "institutional " facilities to cost over a half million-the Baptists two hundred and fifty thousand, and the Methodists four hundred thousand dollars. For the negro population one colored church is preparing similar facilities. The minister of the church, Dr. H. H. Proctor, one of the leaders of his race in the South, has prepared plans for an enlargement which will include a reading-room and library, a gymnasium, bath, model kitchen, sewing-room, etc. This movement has the indorsement of the Governor of Georgia, the Mayor of Atlanta, Dr. Booker T. Washington, and others. The white people of Atlanta are supporting this movement financially, and, with what Dr. Proctor is securing in the North in addition to what his own people are giving to the limit of their ability, this significant movement would seem assured-a movement to utilize the religious sentiment of a race for its practical betterment by harnessing it to life. In the effort to secure temperance and orderliness these positive measures taken by the citizens and the churches of Atlanta are as important as the new law.

American Painting

Reflects

American Character

No student of art should miss the opportunity of observing the peculiarly national note in American painting as afforded by the annual exhibitions of the National Academy of Design in New York City. Among some observers it has long been the fashion to slight these exhibitions. This was notably true during the years when the Society of American Artists, a secession from the old Academy, held rival exhibitions. Yet even now, when the Academy has reabsorbed the Society, some critics say that the exhibitions have reverted to the level of their least distinguished period! It is true that the average of the nearly four hundred pictures at this year's show is far from reaching the average of the Ten American Painters' Exhibition, for instance. To Americans in general, however, the Academy exhibitions are more varied, interesting, and suggestive; they serve as a specially popular object-lesson to the whole country in present-day American painting, as distinguished from French, Dutch, or any other. More and more our painters reflect our restless, nervous, but virile energy, our instinct and sense for the vivid in anything, our vivacity and touch-and-go of manner, whether in an individual's movement, carriage, conversation, gestures, or in a painter's brush-work. These qualities are emphasized this year in two departments of painting in which our artists have won preeminence-portraiture and landscape. As examples of the first, Mr. Kenyon Cox's portrait of Saint-Gaudens, Mr. Alexander's portrait of Mr. Worthington Whittredge, Miss Emmett's "Father and Son," and Mr. Wiles's "The Twins," may be selected. Expressed by more or less competent technique, one feels the varying vigor and vitality of the subjects. Emphasis is placed upon the tenderer aspects of portraiture in Mr Henry Oliver Walker's "Brother and Sister," as is usual with this painter, whose refined workmanship also rarely loses sight of the purely decorative as an ideal. But neither with him nor with any other of our best men has this ideal been lowered to a mere prettiness

a reproach too often and too indiscriminately leveled by foreigners at our painters. Indeed, a certain set of young men, in particular, Mr. Bellows, Mr. Luks, and Mr. Henri, now go to the opposite extreme; they deliberately and conscientiously paint the ugly wherever. it occurs; holding that only so can they delineate life as it really is. This idea is also accentuated in the department of landscape. Nature is now being treated not only in some but in all of her moods; Mr. Ochtman's austere "December or Mr. Redfield's impressive "March" will serve as example. The quality increasingly apparent, however, is the atmospheric that something which makes one "breathe" the picture, that fidelity to primal tones, that exact iridescence of color which, as seen in the canvases of a Claude Monet, spells the final word in landscape painting thus far. American art, if Mr. Childe Hassam has not Monet's peculiar power of imagination, he is equally interesting to the student, for he reveals precisely how nervous American appreciates the quivering vitality of the physical world.

a

Excommunication?

In

According to the New What is Greater York Sun's special despatch, Pius X., in his campaign against Modernism, has pronounced the Greater Excommunication against all in any way concerned in the production or reading of the Italian liberal monthly review, Il Rinnovamento. Excommunication, as practiced by the Roman Catholic Church, may be either temporary or perpetual, partial or total. Total or greater excommunication involves the loss not only of the sacraments but also of the society and fellowship of the faithful in this world and the next, and makes the offender, as far as the Church has the power, an outlaw. The greater excommunication was pronounced by the Council of Nicæa against the Arians, and in the Middle Ages by the Council of Trent against all heretics. Throughout the Middle Ages excommunication was used with tremendous emotional effect both on heretics and believers. The awful words were solemnly read at evening by the

bishop, surrounded by priests bearing flaming candles, who at the last word simultaneously cast them on the floor and trod out the flame as though they were human souls snuffed out in eternal night. But the weapon was too frequently used, and this constituted one of the many causes for the Protestant Reformation. In Scotland, for instance, if a poor husbandman failed to pay his tithes, he was excommunicated. In Germany, for the contumacy of some citizens, a whole city was excommunicated, as in the case of Nuremberg. In England and Italy Papal excommunications had already provoked immortal protests. Wyclif declared, "No man can be excommunicated who does not excommunicate himself;" and Savonarola wrote, in protesting against his own excommunication: "We ought to obey our Superior in so far as he holds the place of God. But he does not hold the place of God, and he is not our Superior, when he commands what is contrary to God." In the struggle for Italian unity, half a century ago, though Cardinal Antonelli, Secretary of State to Pius IX., declared that the greater excommunication had not been put into force since the Middle Ages, and would not be used against the revolutionary Piedmontese who had brought about the loss of the Province of Romagna to the States of the Church, the Pope did launch that excommunication against all who had promoted or abetted that separation. A decade later, Pius IX. similarly anathematized all who had taken part in the downfall of the Papacy's temporal power. Such a decree now strikes, if we may believe the Sun's despatch, not only the proprietors and editors, but the whole staff of printers and others employed in producing the Rinnovamento, as well as its every contributor, subscriber, and reader. The Rinnovamento is not antagonistic to religion, but opposes the Vatican's present policy, as other protesting Modernists have done. The sentence was communicated on Christmas Eve to the directors of the review by Cardinal Ferrari, Archbishop of Milan, who, so says the despatch, was also ordered to publish the edict from the pulpit of his cathedral,

whence, it is stated, no similar manifesto has ever before resounded. The decree will certainly sadden many Roman Catholic Liberals who, like Signor Fogazzaro, the author of "The Saint," have felt that they could combine loyalty to their Church with liberty of learning. It is a satisfaction to note, however, that their sadness does not overcome their sense either of justice or of their right to be heard. According to the despatch, the proprietors of the Rinnovamento have replied to the Papal fulmination by an announcement of their intention to continue a firm but respectful resistance to the Vatican's policy, which, they declare, is crushing the liberty of research embodied in the aim of their review. It may seem to them and to us as if the punishment were disproportionate to the crime. In reality, however, Pius X.'s action shows a keen appreciation of the Rinnovamento's real influence. The fact that he would not discharge his highpowered gun at a mosquito is the clearest possible recognition of his adversaries' strength.

Assurances of a

Under the caption "Revolutionists and

Fair Trial Patriots" The Outlook

last week described the efforts made in this country to secure the release or at least open trial of Nicolas Tchaykovsky and Catherine Breshkovsky. An Associated Press despatch from St. Petersburg now reports that the Russian Premier, Mr. Stolypin, has received the American petition, to which now some five thousand names have been affixed. It is gratifying to add that Mr. Stolypin, after personal inquiry into these cases, authorized the Associated Press correspondent to say from him that "the American public can rest assured that everything will be done to avoid delay in the inquiry, and to give M. Tchaykovsky a fair trial before a competent court as soon as possible." Russian and American ideas as to what constitutes a fair trial differ, but we hope that this utterance may be liberally construed. Mr. Stolypin regretted his inability to reveal the details of the accusation against the prisoner, as the preliminary investigation had not yet

been finished nor had any indictment been formulated. A request that the correspondent be allowed to interview Mr. Tchaykovsky was at first refused; but later it was intimated that the almost unheard-of privilege might be granted.

Church and State

in France

A correspondent of the New York Sun has recently given a very interesting résumé of conditions in the Roman Catholic Church, as he sees them, after two years' separation from the State. When that separation took place, many Catholics feared that it might result in the disorganization of the Church in France; others believed that it would be followed by a reawakening of faith among the members of that Church. In the judgment of the correspondent, neither the fears nor the anticipations have been entirely realized. The Church, he says, has gained independence in ecclesiastical appointments and more freedom in the exercise of its religious ministry, and it has suffered a serious loss of property and finds itself deprived of legal status, since the State no longer takes legal cognizance of its existence. There has been no outburst of religious fervor, but a large number of bishops report that their dioceses have lost nothing by the separation, from the religious point of view, and that progress has been observed in various directions since the separation went into effect. It was feared, among other things, that the number of candidates for the priesthood would be diminished. As a matter of fact, in some dioceses it has actually increased. Many bishops are pressing the necessity of concentrating in important parishes in order to make them missionary centers, freed from administrative interference and from the propagation of political ideas. The priests, according to some reports, are taking on more and more the character of evangelists, and devoting themselves to social duties. "My ideal," says a leading ecclesiastic, "is this: that the priest should be the teacher, the public benefactor, rendering to his fellow-citizens all the moral and material service in his power, and devoting himself to them

According to this correReorganization spondent, the two neces

two years of separation, the Sun's correspondent declares the results seem to indicate that the process of reorganization is well on its way, but that its progress must be slow, and that persevering efforts will be required to bring order and solidity into the church organization. It is significant of the Pope's anxiety to help in the movement of reorganization that the number of French cardinals has been increased from five to eight.

development of religious teaching, and the spirit of association. The Church is now obliged to substitute its own organizations for that which the State formerly furnished. In many dioceses a double organization has been arranged, one administrative, taking the place of the former administrators of church property, the other of propaganda, taking the place of Catholic committees on religious activity, the former having as their first duty the financial administration, the latter the founding of schools and mission work through the press and by lectures. An admirable step has been taken in the direction of publicity, and almost everywhere the Church is receiving and giving openly, and according laymen a large share in the management of collections and the uses to which they are put. "Since the public is called upon to pay the expenses," writes Monsignor Ricard, "it is clear that it may consider it has the right to know the budget of receipts and expenses." Reports from many quarters show that the receipts collected by these improvised organizations are sufficient for the annual maintenance of worship. A broader participation in the life of the Church on the part of laymen appears to be one of the features of the present condition; and another promising feature of that condition is the apparent determination of the bishops not to form a Catholic party. That idea the Sun correspondent characterizes as "chimerical and dangerous," and declares that it is no longer to be feared. It has been rejected by a majority of authoritative Catholics and by the bishops.

After

The praises of memory have been often sung. But to be able to forget what should be forgotten is as advantageous as to be able to remember what should be remembered. We praise a good forgettery.

Forget your enmities. Forget the wrongs that have been done you, the insults that have been offered you, the injuries you have suffered. Or remember them only to seek out some occasion for helping him who has wronged you. You have vowed that he shall never have an opportunity to insult you again. Right. One way is to avoid him; the other way is to make him your friend.

Forget your faults and failures. Or remember them only to learn the lesson they have to teach, the frailty or folly or wickedness of spirit which they should disclose to you—the vanity that weakens, the pride that hardens, the greed that corrupts. Let your past be not a ball and chain tied to your ankle to keep you back, but a journal to tell you what road you have traveled. Then, looking back only long enough to see where you are and what your course should be, forget the things that are behind and press forward.

Forget not your sorrows. You cannot forget them. You do not wish to forget them. But forget their bitterness. Forget the despairing, failing battle against them. Forget the doubts of God's goodness and life's value which they awakened in you. Remember the alleviations, the consolations, the love of the loved one in the past, the sympathy of friends in the present, the comfort of