dramatist. He began it as a professor of mathematics.

Born in Madrid in 1833, he was gradua ed at the age of twenty at the head of his class in the Escuela de Caminos, and soon was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the school in which he had been a student. He became quickly recognized as one of the leading engineers and mathematicians in Spain.

The revolution of 1868, which dethroned and exiled Queen Isabella, forced him into politics, and between that year and 1874 Echegaray acted as Minister of Education and of Finance. Upon the restoration of the monarchy, however, he withdrew from public life, and at the age of thirty-nine founded a new and international reputation, this time as dramatist.

The next twenty-five years he was to produce nearly fifty plays. The best known of them is "El Gran Galeoto." The title is taken from Dante. The play presents the power of slander to induce men to commit sins otherwise impossible; in other words, the play depicts the fatal mischief that may arise from irresponsible or malicious gossip. Next to this, Echegaray's best-known play is "El Hijo de Don Juan" ("The Son of Don Juan"), in which the problem of heredity is discussed along the lines laid down in Ibsen's "Ghosts." Other well-known plays are "Mariana," with its much bloodshed, and "O Locura O Santidad " ("Folly or Saintliness"), translated into English by Miss Lynch, who also translated El Gran Galeoto." In "Locura," as in all the author's dramas, there runs a thread of what we might call mathematical exactness—his long training as a mathematician naturally led him in this direction.

Though Echegaray was a sincere Christian, a man opposed both to Anarchism and to extreme Socialism, he was doubtless influenced by the school of which Ibsen and Sudermann have perhaps been the most notable representatives. Despite their sometimes overemphasized light and shade and not a few eccentricities of manner, the Echegaray plays have had a healthful influence in Spain, and wherever they have been known. It is easy to see that their author has aimed at right and lofty ideals, especially that he has attempted to bring home the conviction of the inevitable connection of sin and retribution. His deftly manipulated plays are not without rugged grandeur.

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

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The field of activity of our Department of the Interior is so broad and inclusive that one never ought to be surprised at the list of things touched upon in reports from that Department. Under Secretary Lane are the Commissioner of the Land Office, the Commissioner of Pensions, the Commissioner of Education, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Commissioner of Patents, the Director of the Geological Survey, of the Reclamation Service, and of the Bureau of Mines. Keeping track of such diverse undertakings is an undertaking fully worthy of the activities of even so efficient an executive as Secretary Lane. As an illustration of the range of subjects covered by Secretary Lane's Department, it is interesting to record from information received directly from the Department some of the work which has recently been done by three of its subdivisions. story deals with the cattle industry of the West, and the other with the Indians of Alaska and the United States. In our account of this work we have borrowed generously from the language as well as the facts in the memorandum sent us by the Department.

SAVING THE WATER SUPPLY OF THE STOCK GRAZERS

One

The importance of the smaller springs and streams in the arid portions of the great West as a source of water supply has been appreciated for years by the miner, the stockman, and the home-seeker. When springs are a day's journey apart, their names become as well known to travelers as those of villages in the humid East. Their locations are often pointed out by the converging trails worn in the surface of the ground by the hoofs of horses and cattle seeking water.

The cattle industry of the West is dependent to a large degree upon the existence and accessibility of stock water. A single good spring may make it possible for stock to graze over twenty-five or fifty square miles of range in its vicinity. But cattle will not willingly go more than a few miles to water, and range which is far from water will consequently be left ungrazed. The ownership of a spring by a stockman, carrying with it the right to exclude the cattle of others from the water, may thus afford him control of a township or more of public grazing land.

This situation is well understood by the large stock interests, and many of the big cat

companies have, by judicious selection and purchase of public lands controlling springs, been able to possess and monopolize large areas of range, although they might actually own but a small portion of it. Good springs, because of the competition of rival stock interests for their possession, thus come to have great value, and the lands surrounding and controlling single springs have been sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

Secretary Lane of the Interior Department, through the instrumentality of the Geological Survey, is now engaged in searching for such springs and watering places, and reserving them for the ownership of the public. As an indication of the progress being made, Secretary Lane has recently pointed out that President Wilson has withdrawn over seven hundred springs which have been reported valuable for this purpose. A single order signed by him recently withdrew over fifty springs in Arizona controlling the use of seven thousand square miles of grazing land. The entire area withdrawn from settlement is nevertheless very small, less than 30,000

acres.

Many of the withdrawals have been requested by stockmen in order that the customary use of the springs by all in common might not be disturbed as a result of the acquisition of the immediately surrounding land by ambitious individuals. The policy

has been emphatically indorsed by grazers in many of the localities affected, who realize that the assertion of Government control insures fairness to all users of the public range.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH WORK
AMONG THE INDIANS

Strange as it may seem to one who is unfamiliar with the organization of the Department of the Interior, work which Secretary Lane has carried on in Alaska in an attempt to check the ravages of disease among the natives has been done, not through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but through the Bureau of Education.

With the aid of special appropriations granted by Congress during the last two years, the Government has recently opened a well-equipped hospital at Juneau for native patients, and small hospitals are maintained at three other centers of native population. A number of physicians and nurses have been employed for service in hospitals and in

maintaining sanitary conditions in native villages; and the teachers of the United States public schools in Alaska are supplied with medicines and medical books in order to enable them, in the absence of a physician, to treat minor ailments.

An investigation made several years ago showed that without this work in disease prevention on the part of the Government the native race in Alaska would soon die of tuberculosis and other diseases. The Department of the Interior and Congress have realized the urgent need for medical relief, and it is believed that the steps now taken will help to keep our record clear in maintaining the native population of Alaska, and in relieving them from the suffering caused by disease and the lack of proper medical attention.

Under the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, an officer under Mr. Lane's authority, progress has also been made in improving the health of the Governinent wards within the United States itself.

The widespread prevalence of tuberculosis and trachoma among the Indians has made necessary most vigorous efforts to meet the health conditions on the several reservations. To this end earnest efforts have been made to afford better hospital facilities, the number of such hospitals having been increased from 53 in 1912, with a capacity of 1,256, to 74 in 1915, with a capacity of 2,045, and more are contemplated.

Substantial increases have also been made in the number of field matrons and nurses, and an attempt has been made to furnish the best practicable service with the appropriations that Congress would make.

Modern thought having indicated the importance of well-cared-for teeth, seven traveling dentists have been employed, whose duty it is to keep the teeth of the children enrolled in Indian schools in the best condition practicable.

In Montana a hospital has been constructed and equipped on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and a house-to-house health campaign has been conducted by a corps of experts with a view to improving conditions among these Indians.

On the Crow Reservation a new hospital has been erected and equipped. A camp hospital has been erected on the Flathead Reservation, and a building on the military reservation at Fort Spokane has been remodeled into a hospital. On the Western

Shoshone, Idaho, Reservation a day school is being remodeled into a hospital.

The Indian is turning more and more to the white man's physician and his medicine, and the day of the Indian medicine man is rapidly passing on every reservation.

THE STONEMEN

The Rev. H. C. Stone is the rector of Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia. Owing primarily to his magnetic personality, but also partly to "Billy" Sunday's Philadelphia campaign, the Men's Club of this church received a large number of new members about a year ago; indeed, the membership was not bound by the limits of the parish. But they continued to come, and are steadily coming. now reach the seemingly incredible figures of over 140,000 first degree men, some 32,000 second degree men, and about 1,200 third degree men. They call themselves, after the name of their organizer and chaplain, "Stonemen."

They

What is the cause of this particular movement, and what is the meaning of its three degrees?

First, because there are more men than we think who have reached the conclusion that a life with God as its center is the happiest and truest of lives-indeed, the only life-and they have very likely reached this conclusion after vain attempts to reach happiness through other channels.

Second, because in order to live this life any man is helped by others who are trying to live it.

But does not the Church exist for just this purpose? It does, but it has many divisions. Because of them many like-minded men have never actually shared the same religious privileges or the same religious experiences. They come together, therefore, not because they want to withdraw from any one division of the Christian Church, not because they want to subtract from their positive convictions, but because they mean to add to them. True to their spiritual heritage, each member of the organization wants to be what he is and something more.

To bind themselves together by opportunities to share the same religious privileges and the same religious experiences the Stonemen have instituted three degrees. Each degree is conferred in a distinctly religious service given in buildings' dedicated to divine worship.

To be eligible to the first degree a man

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must be eighteen years old, of God-fearing and brotherly spirit, and have a certificate of character and conduct from the Representative Committee.

All first degree men are eligible for the second degree. To be admitted there must be a favorable recommendation regarding the candidate's character and conduct from the degree master, a certificate from the chaplain that the candidate has been sufficiently instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, and the baptismal service for those who are unbaptized, while for those already baptized there is a renewal of their baptismal vows. Every man who is unbaptized and has no church home is given his choice of religious affiliation and is baptized in the church of that affiliation.

In

All second degree men are eligible for the third degree. The qualifications are a certificate from his degree master that he has lived up to the requirements of the second degree since initiation into it, a certificate from the chaplain that he has satisfactorily passed the examination for the third degree, and the rite of the laying on of hands. the case of those upon whom this rite has never been performed, the honorary chaplain (the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania) officiates, using the PrayerBook service. In the case of all others he simply lays his hands upon them, sealing and witnessing the candidate's renewal of his baptismal vows. Members of the third degree are expected to partake of the Lord's Supper at least once a month; indeed, application for the third degree is an evidence of the candidate's desire for the Communion with all those thus minded. If any third degree candidate has already been admitted to communion in any Christian church, he may, if he wishes, sign the following statement:

In submitting to the laying on of hands I am desirous of receiving whatever spiritual gift may come thereby and also of being admitted into the sacred rite [the holy communion] of the Fellowship. I am not disparaging the spiritual value of admission to communion in the Church or of the Lord's Supper as administered in that Church.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED

AND ANSWERED

Despite this, as the Fellowship has increased in numbers, so has adverse criticism from those who might approve everything but the confirmation feature. Many of them

met in Philadelphia recently and issued a declaration of principles urging the Fellowship to modify its ritual.

Certainly the growth of the organization has given rise to interdenominational problems not present a year ago when the Fellowship was small and was merely a group connected with an Episcopal parish. Certainly the Fellowship should adjust itself to changed conditions and prove to be a unifying rather than a divisive force.

But the objection of some clergymen is no proof of the invalidity of the plan. A few things may be taken into account, we think :

1. Though the Fellowship is probably too young to justify all the affirmations respecting its spiritual fruitage, we can at least say that, in general, it has done more good than harm. Is not this all that can fairly be said even of the work of an organized Christian communion?

2. As to confirmation or the laying on of hands, a convinced Congregational clergyman remarked the other day: "I have partaken of communion in Episcopal churches, but if it were a prerequisite that I should be confirmed I see no reason why I should not make this concession to the peculiarity of ritual in that body, thus accomplishing church unity in a practical way." That other men think so too is shown by the fact that of one hundred and fifty Stonemen who partook of the Lord's Supper together the other day only eleven were Episcopalians. After the service they all went to their respective churches. Did the sacramental union make them any worse Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists?

3. As to unity. The chaplain, in addition to his own duties as rector, preaches in a different church every Sunday morning. He writes us: "I have engagements up to February 1, 1917. If I am alive on January 1, 1917, I shall have preached in fifty-two different churches on fifty-two consecutive Sundays, representing every known Protestant faith in this city" (Philadelphia). Thus the Fellowship sets forth the opportunity to get back to primitive ages and show to the world at large the unity of all who acknowledge Christ in a religion which has nothing to do either with religious politics or religious denominationalism.

4. As to evidences of religious growth, the services above mentioned have always been crowded, seventy per cent of the attendance being men. Every Sunday afternoon

the second degree is given to about six hundred men, and thousands are actually now in preparation for the third. They represent all Protestant denominations.

5. The Fellowship is human. During the very hot weather the men take off their coats in church, but in this way an opportunity is created to preach to fifteen hundred men in summer, and this has been the case every Sunday.

6. Requests from some sixty cities have come for the establishment of the movement. The social life of the Fellowship centers around a Saturday evening meeting and the religious life around a Sunday evening service, the latter addressed by representatives of various Christian communions.

MUNICIPAL FORESTS

In that admirable publication, "American Forestry," Mr. J. W. Toumey, director of the Yale Forest School, has an article which should be read by all interested in city ownership of forest property. Though this is the dominant forest ownership in Switzerland, it has been until recently practically unknown in the United States. It is therefore gratifying to note that the movement here is now rapidly advancing, even if areas thus acquired have been mostly for the purposes either of protecting near-by watersheds from which potable water is obtained, or for recreation. In ten of the United States there is now a total communal forest area of over one hundred and thirty thousand acres, and, when complete data of all those forests are obtained, Mr. Toumey believes that there will be over two hundred and fifty thousand acres.

For instance: In New Jersey, Newark leads with its great property of more than twenty-two thousand acres; then there is that of the Essex County Park Commission, of more than three thousand acres; then Atlantic City's two thousand acres; then the eight hundred acres belonging to East Orange and the two hundred and fifty acres belonging to Bridgeton. A large part of the Newark tract is farm land that has been depopulated to prevent water contamination. At various times young trees have been planted, and the tract will one day become forested. In contrast, over two thousand acres in the Essex County Park Commission's property are forested with hard woods, and half the East Orange property is in forest, while planting is in progress on half of the

remainder, and a forest nursery is maintained.

Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, would seem to have a model tract in its more than four thousand acres which protect the city's water supply. During the past fifteen years, systematic planting, the removal of mature and diseased wood, the construction of roads, and other work has been in progress, assuring the orderly development of the property for timber production, as well as for the purposes of water protection and recreation.

Thus we note the recognition of the value of land for the production of timber without lessening its importance for the other purposes above mentioned. The movement towards town and county ownership of nearby forested areas must, we believe, increase in effectiveness. In this, as in some other respects, our country should take its stand nearer that older republic, Switzerland.

BAD TEETH AND MENTALITY

In The Outlook for August 23, 1916, Dr. Matthias Nicoll, Jr., of the New York State Health Department, called attention to the effect of bad teeth on health. The effect of bad teeth on mentality is no less marked. Some time ago an experiment was carried on in a Cleveland school under the auspices of the National Dental Association and other dental societies to discover if bad teeth had any effect on mentality. Ten dentists, with nurses and attendants, visited the Marion School by arrangement with the Board of Education and inspected the teeth of the 846 students. Forty pupils from five grades -approximately ten per cent of the children in those grades were made a special class for observation and study. These children were to have their teeth put into perfect condition free, be made to brush their teeth three times a day and to eat properly. A fivedollar gold-piece was offered to each child who continued faithful throughout the test. Twenty-seven of the forty got their goldpieces. The test lasted a year and a half.

Before anything else was done two psychological tests were held by Dr. Wallin, the noted psychologist, to determine the capacity of the children in memory, accuracy of perception, rapidity and accuracy of thought, and spontaneity of thought and differentiation. Two more tests were held while the children's teeth were being treated; and two others a sufficient length of time after

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the mouths were put in perfect condition. Among the children were some who were well behaved, earnest, and bright, while some were disobedient, reckless, and troublesome. The selections for the class were made wholly according to the dental charts, only children with teeth in bad condition being chosen. Most of the children had sallow, muddy complexions, and suffered from headaches, liver complaint, heart trouble, and other ills.

When the teeth had been put in perfect condition, and the children had learned how to eat properly-sensitive teeth had formerly prevented them from chewing their food properly-these ailments disappeared, complexions cleared, and deportment improved wonderfully. In short, the children were simply made over. But the most striking change, perhaps, was mental. The psychological tests made after the teeth had been treated showed an average gain in mentality for the entire class of 99.8 per cent. In other words, treating the teeth almost doubled the mental capacity of these children. They could do the same amount of work better and in much less time than before the test.

Striking though all this is, the most significant thing brought to light by this and other teeth investigations, perhaps, is the fact that practically all children suffer from defective teeth. The city of Boston found that eightyfour per cent of its children had defective teeth or mouths. The New York City Department of Health found that practically. ninety-nine per cent of New York children suffer likewise. In the Marion School at Cleveland Dr. Ebersole's committee found three among eight hundred and forty-six children with perfect teeth. Many of these imperfections are doubtless slight; but many are of a serious nature. It is evident that many of our children, because of dental deterioration induced by new modes of living, are being badly handicapped.

Confirming the findings by the Cleveland investigators are the results obtained by treating the teeth of the insane at Blockley, the Philadelphia almshouse. No one, of course, would be so absurd as to claim that prophylactic dentistry can make a genius out of a blockhead or a sane person out of one suffering from organic brain disease. But it is certainly becoming more and more clear that an intelligent care of the mouth and teeth is essential to a normally healthy condition of both the body and the mind.