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A HERO FROM THE RANKS Some time ago The Outlook reviewed Mr. H. A. Kelly's "Life of Walter Reed," and told of Dr. Reed's remarkable and valuable service in establishing the now universally accepted theory of the transmission of the germs of yellow fever by the mosquito. Below is told the story of a private soldier who risked his life to help in establishing this theory.

In the autumn of 1900 Dr. Walter Reed, Chairman of the United States Army Yellow Fever Commission, built an experimental station, called Camp Lazear, near Quemados, Cuba, for the purpose of carrying on experiments which should prove or disprove the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of a certain species of mosquito. He was about to issue a call for volunteers for the purpose, when he was called on by two young privates, John R. Kissinger and John J. Moran, both from Ohio, who told him that they had heard of his wish, and came to offer themselves as subjects for experiment. Dr. Reed explained to them fully the risks involved, and then, finding them determined, he said that a definite money compensation would be made to them. Both young men refused, saying that they volunteered in the service of humanity, and made it their sole stipulation that they should receive no reward. Kissinger was the first subject of experiment in Camp Lazear. On December 5, 1900, five infected mosquitoes—that is to say, mosquitoes which had recently (within two weeks) fed upon yellow fever patientswere allowed to bite him, and a little over three days later he was taken ill with the disease. In speaking of the incident afterwards, Dr. Reed said: "In my opinion, there has been no higher exhibition of moral courage in the annals of the army of the United States."

Kissinger had a severe attack, and his life was for some time in danger. He recovered, however, as it was supposed at the time, perfectly, and not long afterwards he left the army, married, and settled down in private life. Within the last year he has been seized with a spinal complaint which has destroyed the use of his lower limbs, and keeps him confined to a wheeled chair. He is now unable to do anything for his own support or that of his wife, and his wife can do nothing which takes her away from home,

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account of his necessities. She has, therefore, been supporting them both by washing, in which he was able, until recently,

to help her, as he sat propped up in his chair. Now, however, the physician has forbidden. him to do so any longer, and he says that he feels the burden on her shoulders more than any other part of his difficulties. He applied some little time ago for a pension, but the sum applied for was cut down from fifty to twelve dollars a month, and even yet hangs fire, because it cannot be shown that his present complaint arose from the yellow fever. It is not likely that he will recover.

The next session of Congress ought to pass a special bill to provide for this man's needs and comfort. Meanwhile, any private contributions to his support might be forwarded through Mr. Howard A. Kelly, 1418 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, Maryland.

PLEASE LEND A HAND

My dear Outlook:

One of the good things which The Outlook does, and forgets, is to print every June our Lend a Hand letter in behalf of old men, blind girls, and lame boys. At the office of Lend a Hand we know all about the fundamental principles of social philanthropy. And if it were necessary we could reel off yards or even fathoms of the same. But we never find this necessary. Certainly it is not on this occasion.

But at the office of Lend a Hand it is our business to take care of the exceptions. And every summer we find fifty, more or less, of the classes, to be scientific, thus described:

One. The class of self-respecting old men. Two. The class of lame boys and girls. Three. The class of blind girls and boys. Unfortunately, scientific philanthropy and the statute of Elizabeth have not provided any organized methods for giving these people an open-air holiday in summer. This is left to the Free Lancers.

What is interesting is that the summer readers of The Outlook like to provide for these people, who would not be otherwise provided for. And this is a circular-letter to the nice people who will read their Outlook at Bar Harbor, at North East Harbor, in Casco Bay, at Kennebunk Port, and at seventy-four other places of summer resort. and at eighty-five shacks, bungalows, and other cottages in New England and the adjacent regions. All of those people who are glad to enjoy the sun and stars and wood and water will be glad of the opportunity to send us five cents or one hundred dollars which we will use before November for our

summer outing fund. You may address Mrs. M. C. Whitman, the Treasurer, at 1 Beacon Street, Boston, office of Lend a Hand. EDWARD E. HALE. Lend a Hand Office, 1 Beacon Street, Boston. THE STARLING SETS AN EXAMPLE It never rains but it pours. My defense of the European starling brought a letter from a lover of birds telling where there were several immigrant colonies, and within a week I came upon a pair of them in Central Park foraging for grubs with the curious military precision that dignifies what in another bird would be a raid into a reconnoissance according to the rules. Nothing escapes. And now, the other day, I made the personal acquaintance of a flock residing in the tower of the Episcopal church at Great Neck, Long Island.

It seems that they moved in incog. and remained so for a year or more before some one who knew identified them. Where they hailed from is not on the records. A little flock came that way, saw the tower and thought it good, and there they stayed, making their nests in a secure but rather exposed place behind some open scroll-work on the outside of the tower, just above the bells. Some sparrows had made the discovery first, and for a season there was fierce warfare between them; but in the end they decided to live together in peace. The sparrows, as the hardier and incidentally the smaller birds, seem to have accepted chiefly the north side of the tower and the shelves below the bells-below the salt, as it were. I looked my old friends over through a pair of field-glasses. They were starlings, sure enough, with all the ear-marks, a little toned down it seemed to me, not quite so gorgeous or shiny of coat as when I knew them as a boy; a little rough, as if they had gone, through a hard experience, as in truth they had; for they seem to have changed their habits with their country. Abroad they migrated, lording it in the Riviera in winter. Here they have been all-year guests so far. Perhaps they have lost their bearings and don't know where to go. At any rate, they stay the winter out. The rector of the church, Dr. Huske, told me that in the coldest weather they forsook the tower and sought shelter under the bushes and brambles in the back lot. He was afraid they were going away, and scattered some oats on the snow. They ate it gratefully, and helped themselves, too, to the seeds of the vines that climb the tower. The starling is a bird of resources. When I watched them, Mrs. Starling was sitting on

eggs, and her lord was busy as could be feeding her grubs, much too busy to sing. He had learned the immigrant's lesson that it is "root hog or die" on a foreign shore. Perhaps, too, the memories of the long win ter haunted him yet.

But he has not forgot his vespers any more than his family responsibilities. The last rays of the setting sun find him, as of yore, in the highest tree-tops, or on the peak of the tower, pouring forth his pæan of praise in his sweet whistling notes. The rector likes him. He was his champion when the vestry found fault with the traces he left on the tower. He told them that it was not good for a church tower to look too new, and that the starling, having sought sanctuary there, should stay. He is a good bird, domestic and of devout habits, and, besides, he sets a good example. He sticks by the church. "I wish," said the good rector, thoughtfully, " that the people would flock to the church as numerously and stay as steadfastly as the starlings."

So now that my friend has been properly received into the church and owned as of the flock, perhaps we shall hear less about his being an undesirable immigrant. He isn't. JACOB A. RIs.

SAVE THE BABIES Inspired by its successes, the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor will press during the coming sum mer, with increasing vigor, the winning battle with the dark, crowded tenements which manufacture crippled children and break down their parents. It calls for twenty-five trained nurses who will volunteer at a moderate compensation. Some are needed on the staff at Sea Breeze Hospital, some in district work, visiting tenement homes, and others at Junior Sea Breeze, where, in the heart of the city, sick babies' lives are saved and their mothers are taught how to care for them. This opportunity offers rich rewards in service rendered and in experience gained under progressive and inspiring leadership, Applications should be made at once, and may be addressed to Mr. William H. Allen, General Agent, 105 East Twenty-second Street. Many Outlook readers were among those who made it possible last summer to take over twenty-three thousand women and children from their hot, stifling tenements to Sea Breeze. They will be glad to know that while the Fresh Air work will not be reduced, more than ever will be done to help the sick and suffering in their own homes, which are, G. after all, the most strategic point.

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Volume 86

Number 10

NEW YORK, JULY 6, 1907

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A Secret of Youth....... 497 Letters to The Outlook. 527

Published by the Outlook Company, 287 Fourth Avenue,
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 subscription price of The Outlook is Three Dollars a
year, payable in advance. Ten cents a copy.
Postage is prepaid by the publishers for all subscriptions in
the United States, Hawaiian Islands, Philippine Islands,
Guam, Porto Rico, Tutuila (Samoa), Shanghai, Canal
Zone, Cuba, and Mexico. For Canada $1.20 should be
added for postage, and for all other countries in the Postal
Union $1.56 should be added for postage.

Change of address: When a change of address is ordered, both the new and the old address must be given. The notice should be sent one week before the change is to take effect, Orders and instructions for advertising must be received eight days before the Saturday on which it is intended the advertisement shall appear.

Copyright, 1907, by the Outlook Company. Entered as second-class matter in the New York Post-Office.

Senator Knox and the Constitution

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Some of the influential newspapers of the country, especially those, like the New York Sun, which are opposed to increasing the power of the Federal Government over inter-State corporations, have been giving a large amount of space to the recent address of Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania, delivered at the Commencement exercises of the Law School of Yale University.. On the one hand, the speech has been pronounced to be an act of courageous conservatism, as a defense of the rights of capital against the irrational attacks of visionary reformers; as a challenge of the social, political, and industrial policies of the President; as a reply to Secretary Root's great speech on the relation of the Federal power to the political rights and duties of the States; and, finally,

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Price $3 a year 10 cents a copy

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as a practical announcement that Senator Knox, if a Presidential candidate, would stand upon a safe and moderate Constitutional platform. On the other hand, it has been looked upon with some consternation and considerable antagonism, by those who believe in the extension of the administrative powers of the Federal Government, as a reactionary attack from a Constitutional lawyer who had previously shown great ability and skill on behalf of the Federal Government in its contest with powerful corporations. Both these views entirely misinterpret the address, and are unjust to Senator Knox. Delivered to lawyers, it is a clear statement of the powers already possessed under the Constitution, with the confirmation of the Supreme Court, by the Federal Government to regulate inter-State commerce. The affirmative portion of the address is decidedly in support of the right and power of the Federal Government, not only to regulate inter-State railways, but all corporations engaged in inter-State commerce, so long and so far as the object of the regulation is "to secure equality of commercial right or to prevent restraint of or interference with commerce." The negative part of the address is devoted to denying the right of the Federal Government to prohibit the manufacture of goods innocuous in themselves under conditions which the Federal Government believes to be harmful to "the persons by whom the articles of commerce are produced." In other words, Senator Knox's long and interesting address is simply an argument against National child labor legislation. We certainly do not think that for taking this position Senator Knox should be either hailed as a defender of the Constitution at a great crisis, or denounced as an obstructor of the Administration in its endeavor properly to regulate interState corporations. If a child labor law

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should be placed upon the Federal statute-books, the Supreme Court will very soon determine whether it is Constitutional or not. So long as we have the Supreme Court, Senator Knox is quite accurate in asserting that "the Constitution is not to perish at the hands of the impassioned phrase-maker." We may add that it does not, at present at least, need the aid of the platitudinous phrasemaker, although the New York Sun-a terribly eager friend of the Constitutionsometimes seems to think that it does.

A Governor's Legislature

After a wrangle which marred a good record, the Legislature of New York has adjourned. The controversy which unduly and vainly prolonged the session was over the problem of changing the political divisions of the State. In order to guard the political interests of former Representative Wadsworth and his son, the Speaker of the Assembly, certain Republican party leaders permitted a deadlock between the two houses. Thus, though the highest court of the State has decided that the present reapportionment is unconstitutional, the Legislature has adjourned without providing a new one. This petty quarrel is particularly unfortunate because it has obscured the praiseworthy achievements which preceded it. Not in many years has a Legislature of the State been so free from suspicion of corrupt influences; not in years has a Legislature of the State passed such an array of good measures, or killed so many that were palpably vicious. After all, however, its chief title to distinction it has won by putting into law the recommendations of Governor Hughes. It has been fiercely criticised on two opposite grounds, and, strangely, some of the critics have not seemed to see the contradiction involved in their criticisms. On the one hand, it

or rather the upper house--has been castigated for withstanding the will of the Governor by refusing to dismiss, in accordance with his recommendation, the Superintendent of Insurance; on the other hand, it has been lampooned as a "rubber-stamp Legislature" because it adopted so many of his recommenda

tions. The fact is that the corrupt or selfish and short-sighted members of the Legislature have united, without regard to party, in trying to defeat the Governor's programme; but the Legislature as a whole has felt the force not only of his personality, but also of his peculiar position as a representative of public opinion. A comparison of his message at the beginning of the year with the list of measures passed shows how strongly dominant the Governor has been. The recommendations in that message were grouped at the time by The Outlook under three heads Elections, Corporations, and Social Welfare. Under the first head, Elections, only two recommendations out of six were adopted-the recount of the McClellan-Hearst votes and the regulation of campaign expenses. Of these the latter was only in part adopted. Mr. Hughes's urgent recommendations for permanent provisions to secure the re counting of ballots, for a better form of ballot, for judicial control of party conventions, and for optional direct primary nominations were disregarded or defeated. Under the third head, Social Welfare, the proposals of the Governor were more successful. As a consequence, the Legis lature more strictly limited the hours of labor for children and women, furthered the movement for good roads, made more secure the public control of public lands and water sources, gave relief to the municipal courts-the " 'poor man's courts "and the like. It was, however, in the drastic legislation under the second head-Corporations-and in the response to special messages that the Legislature most emphatically followed the lead of the Governor. The wellknown Public Utilities Law, and the legislation giving the Governor power to investigate the militia and the executive departments, are extraordinary signs of public confidence.

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Democratic members of the Legislature have done nothing to win respect for their party, though individual Democrats have won respect for themselves. The Governor's success cannot be attributed either to personal magnetism or to skillful political management. Although Governor Hughes's personality inspires admiration and confidence, it has won for him from among men in the several branches of the State Government few, if any, warm friends. No Governor ever held himself more aloof from his associates. Whether because of his temperament or because of his theories as to the separateness of the three branches of the government, he has made confidants of few, and, though he has listened to much advice, has not allowed his executive acts to become matters of consultation and prearrangement. When, for instance, he made his most important appointment, he not only did not confer in advance with any member of the body I from which he had to ask confirmation I of his choice; he did not even confide E his intentions to his closest friends. Likewise, within a week of the day when the members of the new Public Service Commissions are to take office, the Senate, which will have to pass upon their appointment, appeared to have not the slightest foundation on which to rest a surmise as to what men the Governor had in mind for the positions. It is safe to say that the president of any private business corporation who should attempt to follow these methods would be regarded by the directors as self-willed and autocratic. And yet these methods have so far succeeded extraordinarily in a public business where they seem still more out of place. Why? It must be remembered that the situation in which Governor Hughes found himself was extraordinary and called for extraordinary action. The only candidate on his party's State ticket to be elected, the recipient of a vote of confidence which was unmistakably meant for him and not for his party, Mr. Hughes had laid upon him a peculiar burden. In a fashion almost unexampled, he was made the representative of the public opinionor, perhaps more accurately, the public feeling of the State. Whereas the

Legislature remained at the beginning of the year an exponent of party government, the executive in the State became for the time being an exponent of nonpartisan government. For this reason the course of Governor Hughes cannot be regarded as a precedent for other executives under normal party conditions; and for the same reason it has been highly effectual under the special conditions that now exist in New York.

The Public Utility Commissioners

Although the Public Service Commissions, the appointments to which Governor Hughes announced after the adjournment of the Legislature last week, are State boards, their personnel is a matter of National importance. They are the first boards of the kind which have been created in this country; and the problems with which they will have to deal are to be found in all the States. The Governor in selecting these men had a difficult task. The duties of administering the Public Utilities Law, to which he summoned them, will be arduous and exhausting. The choice of a number of distinguished men would probably have met with immediate popular approval. It must be remembered, however, that men who have gained great distinction are already busy, and not always able to abandon their occupations; and that, moreover, mere renown is not equivalent to fitness for a position calling for a special kind of knowledge and ability. It is understood that before he had completed his list the Governor received several declinations from men he had asked to serve. As it is, none of the men chosen could have accepted except under the compulsion of a sense of public duty; for the salary is not such as would tempt men of their attainments to similarly responsible positions in any private undertaking. The Chairman of the Commission for Greater New York is Mr. William R. Willcox, former Park Commissioner, and for over two years Postmaster of New York, the most responsible position in the service outside of the Postmaster-General's staff. His associates are: William McCarroll, suc

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