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tween the same points." In many cases In many cases the person unlawfully favored has become the only shipper between the two points, and the whole provision is rendered hopelessly ineffective. Similarly, the penalties imposed by the act against the carriers. granting the discriminating rates "have been held by the courts not to be applicable to any carrier that is an incorporated company." Only the agent who makes the unlawful concession can be punished, and he is usually the only person by whom it can be ascertained that the rebate has been paid, and when he has testified in relation to the matter he has thereby obtained amnesty from prosecution." prosecution." Attorney-General Knox would have the law changed so that the incorporated companies and the beneficiaries could both be punished, and the right of the courts to enjoin such practices be made certain. He would also have the law provide that the published rates of railroads must in all cases be adhered to, and that where traffic is transported at less than those rates all the participants should be punished.

To Prevent "Predatory" Competition

Thus far the Attorney-General's recommendations re

late only to the discriminations practiced by the railroads through which the industrial trusts have been favored. He proposes an additional provision directed against the discriminations which the industrial trusts themselves practice when they "sell below the general price of a commodity in particular localities, or otherwise in particular localities wantonly seek to destroy competition." The products of such combinations he would exclude from crossing State lines. In order to get all the information necessary to correct trust abuses, he recommends the creation of a new commission charged with the duty of investigating the operations of corporations "engaged in inter-State commerce," and armed with the power to require witnesses to testify and to produce the books, papers, contracts, and documents bearing upon the points investigated. Finally, in order to secure prompt decisions from the Supreme Court upon cases arising under the anti-trust laws, the Attorney-General asks that his department be given the same authority to advance such cases to their final

hearing that the department already has to advance certain other classes of cases of less public moment. What the Attorney-General particularly desires, of course, is a final decision from the Supreme Court upon the constitutionality of an act of Congress debarring from inter-State commerce the products of corporations attempting to monopolize trade by plainly unreasonable acts. If the Supreme Court decides that Congress has this power, the way will be open to develop anti-trust legislation so as to require the same publicity from oil, steel, and other manufacturing trusts that this act requires from the railroads that are engaged in interState transportation. State transportation. The present programme does not claim to be complete. It is distinctively a plan for protecting producers against unfair competition from the trusts, rather than for protecting consumers against unfair prices; yet, as the Attorney-General says in conclusion, the adoption of the legislation proposed " will make a long first stride in advance."

The President ard Negro Office-Holders

The action of President Roosevelt in sending to the Senate the nomina

tion of Dr. Crum, a colored physician of Charleston, as Collector for that port, and the closing of the post-office at Indianola, Miss., because the postmistress, a colored woman, was threatened with violence, have called forth wide discussion throughout the South, and some violent expressions of opinion. In December, in answer to the protests of several citizens of Charleston against the appointment of Dr. Crum, President Roosevelt stated his position in a few words:

I do not intend to appoint any unfit man to office. So far as I legitimately can, I shall always endeavor to pay regard to the wishes and feelings of the people of each locality, but I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope-the door of opportunity—is to purely upon the grounds of race or color. be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong. If, as you hold, the great bulk of the colored people are not yet fit in point of character and influence to hold such positions, it seems to me that it is worth while putting a premium upon the effort among them to achieve the character and standing which will fit them.

The Outlook sees no reason to change its opinion that the President's attitude on

the general question was right, and one which will commend itself in the long run to the best people of the South. The reaction of the South against the injustice and misery of the reconstruction period was inevitable; and it is not surprising that it has gone so far as to affirm that under no circumstances shall any colored man be elected to hold any office. It is clearly impossible for the President of the United States to accept such a principle as this; to discriminate against the negro simply because he is a negro would be inconsistent, not only with the fundamental principles of the Republican party, but with the fundamental conceptions of a republican government. Mr. Roose velt, although a man of fortunate conditions as regards social and educational opportunities, is pre-eminently an exponent of the American doctrine that a man shall be treated as a man, no matter what his position, his religion, or his color. To bar a whole race from holding any position under the United States Government is so plainly a flat contradiction of the spirit and principles of that Government that to state the proposition is to refute it.

The race question in The Race Question the South involves such great difficulties, and demands for its solution so much patience, knowledge of actual conditions, and such far-seeing statesmanship, that it ought to be the policy of the United States Government, as it is certainly now the sentiment of the North, to aid the thoughtful men of the South in their endeavor to put the relations of the two races on grounds of justice, mutual respect, and law. The Outlook is in pronounced sympathy with the best men of the South, who are dealing at first hand with as appalling a problem as any man ever had to face. It believes that these men ought to be aided in every possible way; it recognizes the existence of the inflammable material in many parts of the South which occasionally breaks forth in acts of violence and in incendiary sentiments; and it believes that the Government ought, so far as possible, to co-operate with those men, who are growing in numbers in every State, who are endeavoring to help the negro to better educational and

to larger industrial opportunities, leaving to the future the settlement of his political position when he shall have secured a foothold as a citizen. As a rule, a Federal officer ought to be persona grata in the community in which he holds office, and there are very few communities in the South in which it would be wise, either for the whites or for the blacks, that a negro should be appointed to a Federal position. There is no inconsistency between the conviction that the United States Government cannot exclude from official position a negro because he is a negro and the conviction that, at present at least, negro appointments in the South ought to be few and made with great good judgment. In the Indianola matter it is difficult to see how the President could have taken any other action; that seems to have been simply a recrudescence of race prejudice in its worst form. Nothing has been urged against the postmistress except the fact that she was a negro. She had held office for some time, and, as far as can be learned, had discharged her duties to the satisfaction of the community; she does not appear to have been in any sense an offensive person. Under these circumstances, the endeavor to drive her out of her position by threats of violence was cowardly and ought to have been met by the President as it has been met; and this, we believe, will be the sentiment of the best people of the South.

Reciprocity Legislation by the

"Third House"

One of the most important legislative events in Washington last week took place, not in Congress, but in the parlors rented by the American Beet Sugar Association, where, by a vote of 3 to 2 (or 12 to 2, counting the proxies held by Mr. Oxnard), resolutions were adopted withdrawing opposition to Cuban reciprocity, provided the proposed twenty per cent. reduction in the tariff on Cuban goods is strictly limited to a five-year period. If this limitation is securely pledged them, the Association advises its constituents that they have less to lose from the twenty per cent. reduction than from the continuance of the agitation in favor of helping Cuba. At the same time, however, the Association declares its

inflexible opposition toward the proposed tariff concession to the Philippines granting the products of the islands a reduction of seventy-five per cent. instead of twentyfive per cent. of the Dingley rates on imports from foreign countries. Although this concession has been sanctioned unanimously by the House, it is feared that the beet-sugar opposition may defeat it in the Senate. The chief obstacle to the adoption of the Cuban reciprocity treaty now lies in the opposition of the cane-sugar Senators from Louisiana. Although more than two-thirds of the Senate are ready to vote for the treaty, a few bitter opponents may keep the vote from being reached at this short session.

The scarcity of coal still The Duty on Coal continues to be the cause of a great deal of public suffering and inconvenience. Not only are factories being in some cases shut down and in some cases run upon half-time, but it is reported that in some communities coal is being sold to those consumers only who have a physician's prescription-that is to say, those who can prove that the coal is absolutely necessary to preserve health. Some of the transatlantic steamers which sail from the port of New York have been delayed in their departure from lack of coal. There is every indication of a widespread and rapidly increasing demand for the abolition or suspension of all duty on coal for a long enough time at least to relieve the present crisis. The Legislature of Rhode Island has passed a resolution demanding such suspension from Congress. Senator Lodge has introduced a resolution into the Senate, and Representative McCall a bill into the House, providing for the suspension for ninety days of all duty on coal, and for the suspension of duty on Canadian coal beyond that time, provided the Dominion Government shall enter into reciprocity in this respect. The action of the Rhode Island Legislature and of the Massachusetts Senator and Representative makes the question now a non-partisan one; no protectionist, with Rhode Island and Massachusetts earnestly working for the abolition of coal duty, can say that the demand comes simply from those who wish to attack the protective system.

Senator Lodge has, we are glad to say, apparently changed his opinion since last autumn, when he opposed free coal on the ground that it would endanger the unity and logic of protection of American industries. The absurdity of saying that a man is protecting himself when he freezes to death because he will not use the coal offered to him by his neighbor would be amusing if it were not exasperating at such a time of public suffering.

Crimes Against Non-Union Workers

Day after day last week the Coal Commission heard the testimony of

a score of non-union workmen who had been the victims of cruelties of every description because they remained at work or went to work after the strike had been declared. The boycotting and assaults testified to before the Commission were in some respects less revolting than the petty persecutions and terrorism from which no physical injury resulted. Take, for instance, the case of Thomas Washaiski, of Hazleton, a clerk for Pardee & Co., who was married on September 16, and whose experiences of that day, as told to the Commission, were summarized in the press despatches as follows:

On the night of the wedding a small crowd gathered at the Catholic Church, and as the bridal party entered the edifice Washaiski out after the ceremony, he was assaulted by the and his bride were called "scabs." Coming waiting crowd, which had greatly increased. The driver of the carriage was not permitted to take the couple home, and the witness sought refuge in the parochial residence, and the bride was escorted home in a trolley-car by friends. While in the parochial residence the crowd remained in the vicinity, calling the bridegroom vile names and yelling "scab" at the rector of the church because he had performed the ceremony. Later on, the witness said, he managed to get away from the house, and spent the night in the colliery, being afraid to go to his home. The bride spent an anxious night, as some unknown persons came to the house and threw stones at the place.

In one case of assault testified to before the Commission the victim stated that his assailants were two union men, who had been tried and convicted for the crime. Commissioner Parker inquired whether they had been expelled from the union, and the head of the local union, on being brought upon the stand, testified that he did not know whether they had

men.

been or not, but that the unions and individual strikers had done all in their power to disperse crowds and help keep the peace. Chairman Gray sharply reprimanded the witness for his apparent readiness to wait for convictions by the civil authorities before disciplining his "Do you think," he exclaimed, "that you can have effective discipline unless you make investigations yourself and bring the men up and punish them in some way? I ask you, as a member of the order and as a man who would be glad to see your order come up out of the mire and the clouds that are around the baser parts of it into the sunlight and into the air of free government and a free country." This remark of the Chairman stirred Mr. Mitchell, who came to the defense of his union by declaring that the union had no right to expel men for crimes of which they had not been convicted, and protesting against the assumption that the union organization was responsible for the acts it had been unable to restrain. He contended, as had his attorneys, that if the union was on trial for the outrages, there should be some evidence connecting the union with them. Mr. Mitchell at one time took part in the cross-examination of a witness--the Sheriff of Lackawanna County-who testified that the union in several instances had rendered him material help in preserving order. General Wilson, of the Commission, in cross-examining the same witness, brought out the fact that the deputy sheriffs employed were not paid by the county, but by the coal companies. This explanation surprised Chairman Gray, who said most justly: "I am not familiar with such an un-American law. When the county or State relinquishes the duty of maintaining and protecting life and property and keeping the peace, then they are open to criticism." The result of the week's testimony, however, was extremely hurtful to the prestige of the union, which had plainly failed to instill into great numbers of its followers the conviction that it as well as they were discredited by outrages against its opponents. The Outlook believes that the greatest enemy that the trades-unions have to face to-day is not the criminal aggressions of capital, but the criminal acts of their own members.

The Erie Canal

In his annual message Governor Odell, of New York, expresses for the first time since his re-election his views regarding the improvement of the Erie Canal. He explicitly reaffirms his "belief in the thousandton barge plan." He acknowledges, however, that the plan for the lake route (described in The Outlook for December 20), which he has heretofore favored, is, in the judgment of those who have given the matter study, impracticable. He therefore concludes in favor of the enlargement of the present route, with some variation. Though he thus simplifies the question by putting the weight of his influence on the side of the route which is most generally favored, he introduces a new complication by making an estimate of the cost far in excess of former estimates. He declares that the improvement will involve the expenditure of $255,000,000. If Governor Odell were opposed to all canal improvement, he could have taken no more effectual means to discourage the people of the State from undertaking it than by suggesting the possibility of such enormous expense. It makes the project appear to require a vaster outlay than the Panama Canal. The fact is that this estimate includes interest for fifty years and a twenty per cent. margin for error, and allows also for the deepening of the Champlain Canal to twelve feet. Inasmuch as estimates upon which Governor Odell bases his figures already include a ten per cent. margin for contingencies, and interest for eighteen years, and as the deepening of the Champlain Canal is no essential part of the project, State Engineer Bond's estimate of $123,200,000 seems much nearer the probability than Governor Odell's. At any rate, there is no such reason for dismay at the bigness of the undertaking as the message of Governor Odell would seem to imply.

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municipal franchises should be assessed like real estate. Governor Odell reports that "some corporations can bear this burden without serious results following. But, as is well known, the continued increase of street railroad traffic and the demands for lighting, water, telephone, and other public utility facilities have perhaps brought into existence many corporations which cannot bear the excessive burden which is now imposed under the present law." In our view, this is as bad reasoning as has often appeared in a Governor's message. The franchise tax imposes no burden upon corporations which merely earn a fair rate of interest on the capital actually invested. In such cases the franchise has given no additional value to their property, and the tax upon it amounts to nothing. It is only where the franchise gives to the securities of a corporation a market value far in excess of the capital invested that the franchise tax becomes important. To say that any corporation cannot afford to pay taxes upon the surplus value given to its property by public privilege is preposterous. The argument, furthermore, is made worse by the lines calling attention to the recent great increase in the demand of the pub-, lic for the services of municipal monopolies. Had there been a decrease in these demands, there would have been an argument for tax reduction, but the increase is an argument for increased taxation. The Governor's argument that the franchise tax will yield less than anticipated does not affect the justice of the law, and only further weakens the force of his protest against the burdensomeness of the new law. The Governor's argument that the State, and not the municipality, ought to receive the tax on the value from municipal franchises only needs to be stated to expose its weakness. His final contention, however, that taxes on the earnings of municipal monopolies would be fairer than the tax on the value of their property does demand a word of comment. Taxes on earnings cripple corporations not yet paying their running expenses, and place unjust burdens upon new enterprises. Taxes on market values fall but lightly upon corporations making small profits, and rest chiefly upon those holding monopoly privileges. Further more, and finally, the assessment of mar

ket values is the method applied in the taxation of the property of individuals, and all who care for equal taxation wish the same method applied to the taxation of corporations. It is greatly to be regretted that Governor Odell's disappointing recommendations upon canals and taxation have practically withdrawn public attention from his excellent recommendation of legislation against combinations to prevent enlistments in the National Guard. Such combinations are clearly against public policy, and combinations against public policy, whether of labor or capital, should be prohibited by the public.

"Catering to the Better Element"

The municipal situations in the several important cities of Pennsylvania present, as usual, some extraordinary features. In Philadelphia the Republican machine, after four years of almost uninterrupted victories, has made an important and unexpected concession to public opinion in the proposed nomination of District Attorney John Weaver for Mayor, who has more than met reasonable expectation in the discharge of his duties and has earned. the commendation of the independents. It seems strange, but it is none the less true, that the Republican party organization in Philadelphia should be able to make a nomination for Mayor which the Municipal League would support; and yet this is just what has happened. The League has decided to recommend that if District Attorney Weaver shall be made the Republican candidate for the Mayoralty, he should be supported by the Municipal League. In making this recommendation it was declared that the League was not unmindful of the fact that Mr. Weaver's nomination will be due to methods and influences which radically wrong. It is manifest, however, that under existing conditions in Philadelphia an attempt to oppose the candidate on this ground alone would be unwise. Mr. Weaver has made an admirable. record as an honest and energetic District Attorney, and this is certainly a reason for believing that as Mayor of Philadel phia he will appreciate his splendid oppor tunities to redeem the character of the city government by securing the enforcement of the laws and protecting the interests of

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