great monument will not consist in these things, but rather in her unselfishness, her devotion, and in the good that she has made possible for others. She has indeed passed "into immortality”—a great and noble woman.

The Dreaded Scourge

If there is any one thing which should call forth the sympathy and aid of men it is any work which has for its object the alleviation or cure of consumption. The hopelessness and helplessness of this terrible scourge is something to appall even the strongest hearted. An especially pathetic thing about those who are afflicted with tuberculosis is that as a rule they are not able financially to bear the burdens necessary to bring about a cure, even when a cure is possible. And every day that the sun sets there have died in the United States alone over 499 people of this awful scourge. Yet, strange as it may be, it is only within comparatively late years that any systematic effort has been made to study the disease and record the results. One of the notable benefactions to ferret out a cure, if possible, and to relieve the sufferings of those who are not financially able to take the necessary treatment, has been the donation of Henry Phipps, who gave in 1903 $25,000 as an endowment for the work. The report of the Henry Pipps Institute for the first period has just been made public, and although nothing startling has been accomplished, yet the results shown are practical and reassuring. Great credit is due Mr. Phipps for the endowment and the interest which he has shown in the cause, and it is to be hoped that other wealthy men will follow the example he has so nobly set.

Municipal Ownership

The recent election in Chicago in which municipal ownership was adopted by an unprecedented majority may be said to mark an epoch in civic as well as in national progress. There is no denying the influence of the great cities of the country. If Chicago stands for an open town, the smaller cities near by, as well as those in distant parts of the country, are influenced in the same direction. If New York goes in for decency and honesty in its municipal affairs, the results are not only heralded all over the union and the world by telegraph, but there emanates from the city a distinct influence which moves men elsewhere in the same direction. A great and good man at the head of this country determined to do the right in spite of all opposition and political influences makes for decency and righteousness in every city and state. Municipal ownership is in the line of progress, and the whole world will look with interest upon the experiment that is to be made in Chicago.

The Chicago Strike

Judging by the great movements which are taking place all over the world and the important bearing that they have upon the welfare and progress of humanity, the early years of this century will probably come to be recognized as having more than ordinary influence upon the social structure. We are now in the midst of a revolution that has a most important bearing upon economic progress the fight for the open or the closed shop. Chicago is in the throes of a strike the object of which is to enforce the closed shop, a cause which labor as a whole seems to be advocating, although it is repugnant to the first principles of justice and contrary to the spirit of American institutions. The unions seem to believe, erroneously, as we think, that unionism will rise or fall as this point is maintained or lost. Labor must be organized in order to protect itself, but to hinge the whole organization upon the unhealthy and indefensible theory that if one man does not desire to work no one else shall be permitted to work in his place is a short-sighted policy which all true friends of labor greatly deplore. The closed shop not only arouses the antipathy of every lover of liberty and freedom, but it strikes at the roots of the foundation of our government itself. If the nation as a whole admitted the theory and adopted the policy of the closed shop, an intolerable state of affairs would result. The labor unions are not conspicuous for the brainy men who represent them. We are all familiar with the evils of the walking delegate, which would be multiplied a hundred fold if the closed shop were an accepted policy. No American with the blood of Revolutionary ancestors flowing in his veins could come to adopt willingly such an unjust and indefensible theory as that for which the labor unions are now clamoring. It is a pity that they cannot be better advised.

Evacuation Two months had hardly passed since the fall of Port Arthur before the Russians were forced to evacuate Mukden, in upper Manchuria, and of Mukden retreat to Harbin, the last stand in the Mongolian country. The Japanese army, with two wings steadily marching northward to the east and to the west, folded about the forces of the Czar with iron arms, all but cutting them off in retreat at Tie Pass. But, after one of the bloodiest battles in the world's history, raging for fifteen days about the Shakhe and the Hun rivers, the Imperial troops escaped from their relentless pursuers, because the Japanese were so completely worn out by the terrible onslaughts of many hours' duration, without food or rest, that they were not able to follow up their advantage immediately. They had fought as desperately as at Port Arthur, and had been compelled to rush onward without supplies sufficient to sustain them, and they had reached the limit of even Japanese endurance. The wings of the aggressive army were beyond the main body of the Russian army, first on the Shakhe and later on the Hun river, and the plan evidently was to have the wings draw together and crush the Russian forces in a trap, annihilating the whole army. But Tie Pass, the city of Mukden once left, proved an avenue of escape, and the Russians retreated in comparatively good order, though fearfully hampered by wounded, until they were safe beyond the pass and for the time being could give themselves an opportunity to breathe.

Bloody Battle on the Hun

The Russian forces were evidently about to make a forward movement against the Japanese at the time that the fiercely aggressive tactics of the Japanese were begun. On February 24th the Russians were planning an attack to the westward, when the orders were suddenly changed on account of a persistent attack upon the left flank. From that time onward, without delay, the Japanese continued the attack, which spread until it became general on the whole Russian front. The line held, however, until February 28, when an unexpected attack was made to the southwest and two whole corps were forced to retreat. By March 1st the Japanese were moving around the Russian right in heavy columns and the southwestern position was abandoned by the Russians to form a line from the bridge across the Shakhe river parallel with the railway. Within a few days the Russians were in an excellent position for defense on ground they knew well, and had fortified. Their line extended from the Shakhe bridge to Madyapu on the Hun, and six miles beyond, to the Sinmintin road. Seeing that the Japanese intended to turn this position and to cut off the retreat, the Russian line was extended eastward to the railway and clashed with the Japanese arms. By March 7 the fighting was heavy and the losses on both sides were enormous. The outcome on that date was on the whole favorable to the Russians, General Linievitch repelling the fierce onslaught on the heights east of Mukden, capturing several hundred prisoners and a number of machine guns. At that time the Russian army was shifted into a new position, but as yet there was no thought of retreat.

Attack in In shifting army corps there was some confusion on account of the darkness and a dust storm which arose in the morning. Before the Dust Storm Russians could assume a position to their best advantage the Japanese were upon them, fighting like demons and taking advantage of every hole in the Russian line. The Russian front at this time was about five miles wide and the fighting there was an even match, the Russians forcing the Japanese slowly back, as they secured better order among themselves. The Japanese in turn concentrated their attack upon the right flank, forcing General Kuropatkin into concentrating his strategic force at that point. Kuropatkin led his army personally on a flank movement on the Japanese, who were endeavoring to cut through his line, and forced a retreat, capturing eight Japanese guns.

While this last movement was taking place, the dust storm still raging,

The Onslaught the Japanese cut through the center of the Russian main line and at and Retreat the same time sent a powerful force to the northward to head off the retreat of the Russian forces. The double movement proved effective. The danger for the Russian forces was imminent and critical, and at nine o'clock on the night of March 9 a general order was issued to retire to Tie Pass. Fearful fighting had been on for days and estimates of the dead alone ran as high as 200,000 men. The whole Russian force amounted now to only 100,000 men. The Japanese were on both flanks, leaving only a narrow boot-leg passage of less than five miles through which the Russian army passed in remarkable order. No railroad crew in the world was ever worked so hard as that one running north from Mukden. Through their efforts Mukden was completely evacuated in nine hours. First, the private trains of generals passed north, and immediately the rest followed. Sixteen trains of over fifty-two cars apiece passed through the boot leg that night, a lurid glare lighting up great stretches of country where the soldiers had fired their abandoned supplies and ammunition. The wounded had been dispatched northward in 540 cars the night before. Along the line of railway fierce fighting was going on five miles north of Mukden, and the trains traveled unlighted and without whistling, under eight-mile speed. Japanese attacks more than once created a panic among the drivers of wagon trains, but the progress of these continued and the retreating army passed safely the Hun river bridge, which was blown up behind them.

During this retreat the most masterly movements were made by General Kuropatkin Linievitch, and he was justly placed at the head of the Russian forces Removed in the place of Kuropatkin. Thrown suddenly into the executive position, which no man would willingly take at such a time, he proved able and, when the story of the war is known, to him will probably be given the credit of saving the Imperial troops from total destruction. The most aggressive movement during the fifteen days of fighting was made by him. Kuropatkin, when removed, gracefully acceded to the Czar's command and strove valiantly within the narrower compass of his command to serve his country. General Linievitch has never had an opportunity to show what he can do, for at best he was forced to continue a disgraceful retreat. Later, if the peace movement has no results, he may be able to repulse the Japanese from the gates of Harbin.

Talk of
Peace

#

*

It is difficult not to lose patience with Russia for the manner in which she has gone about the movement for peace. She has acted as if she were victor and were in a position to dictate terms. But this "bluff" will not avail. The grand dukes may intimidate a lot of mild-tempered peasants and lord over them, but they are facing fearful defeat, and the enemy is not at all anxious to see an end of war, as long as the present success lasts. And to the Japanese Russia is on the run. But still the war party talks big in Russia and says it might consider peace without indemnity and loss of territory. President Roosevelt has been named, if the verb is not too definite, to carry on the peace negotiations, and he is perfectly willing to act. But even the Powers could hardly ask of Japan to consider such terms, and the Japanese themselves must be angry at the effrontery of such an offer. For Russia is licked and, bluff or no bluff, will have to admit to being vanquished in the end.

*

Streets of To have a mob assemble, to have it attacked by the soldiery and the list of wounded to run into the many dozens is so common an incident Blood in all parts of the Russian Empire that the significance of this state of affairs is overlooked. The revolution still smoulders in Russia. Baron von Nolken, chief of police of Warsaw, was hit by a bomb the other day and no one thought anything about it. By and by the killing of grand dukes will be carried as a small item in the press reports. Socialism, nihilism, terrorism, the worst forms of anarchy, in fact, are at the very basis of the restless movement, and the condition does not improve. Less is known of the revolutionary tendencies without, but the occasional outbreaks within show that the government must either place itself in a better position or an actual revolution will result. At the present time the government is posing before the people and would not dare to accept the terms of a disastrous peace. On no side is the prospect good. The Czar is between the devil and the deep sea.

Confederate The Congress just adjourned did a graceful act in returning the Confederate battle flags captured during the Civil War. It has taken the Flags Returned nation a long time to come around to the point of viewing this little act of courtesy with general approval. There has existed in the North for many years a more or less natural hatred, which time has at last softened and all but ended. Congress, however, acted upon its own responsibility, and the joint resolution ordering the return of the flags passed almost unnoticed. A few editors throughout the country spoke of it and all but a very few, possibly not more than one, approved of it. But it will be remembered that when Secretary of War William C. Endicott proposed to do the same

thing, and President Cleveland approved of it, there was a cry more or less general that it should not be done, and politicians making capital of it, aroused the Grand Army against it, and President Cleveland reconsidered his approval and announced that it would be better for Congress to pass an act ordering the return of the flags. It has taken Congress eighteen years to bury the last hatchet by so doing.

Mrs. Chadwick America's most fashionable adventuress yet brought to justice, Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick, has been convicted of conspiring to defraud a Convicted national bank. A new trial has been ordered and the day of expiation has been set a little further off, but there is no doubt that Mrs. Chadwick has reached the end of her rope and will go the way of all forgers who have been found out. The magnitude of her criminal undertakings lends her a soiled bit of romance, and if she were of the young and dashing variety of adventuress portrayed in the old-time melodrama, no doubt a play would have been written about her, as about the James brothers, Harry Tracy and other well known and picturesque bandits. But Mrs. Chadwick, though forging a note under the name of Andrew Carnegie for $5,000,000, and spending money lavishly, is a sordid heroine after all, and even her ingenious lie about being an illegitimate daughter of the steel king, has not served to place her among the country's criminals about whom a film of romance can be flung.

Mothers

This is a great age of conventions, an extreme example of the tendency being the Mothers' Congress which has just held its triennial session Who Talk at Washington. If there is one thing which seems to require no exploitation it is motherhood, but still the national hobby could not leave this universal subject alone. There is nothing new to be said on motherhood, and if there is, it is the place of the family physician to do it, and anything that is worth hearing is of a variety which could not be lectured upon from a public platform. Reports of the convention show that the speeches were general and commonplace, and one plain-spoken doctor on his daily rounds probably did more good toward bettering the condition of both mother and children than all the addresses which were delivered before this convention. There was one point brought out pretty plainly, however, which almost justifies the whole meeting, and that was that a woman's first duty is to be a good mother. But common sense teaches that by itself, and it is extremely doubtful if the women who attended the congress were as a whole a representative body of American mothers.

*

canal commission, placing

President Roosevelt has appointed a new New Canal most of the power in the hands of three men, whom he evidently believes Commission the most able in the country. Only one member of the old commission remains, Benjamin M. Harrod. Those in power are Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the committee;_Charles E. Magoon, governor of the canal zone; John F. Wallace, chief engineer; Rear-Admiral M. T. Endicott, Brigadier-General Peter C. Haines, retired, Colonel Oswald M. Ernst, corps engineer, and Benjamin M. Harrod. Practically all power rests with the first three, and they receive salaries several times as large as the others, Shonts being paid $30,000 a year and expenses. The aggregate annual expense of supporting the commission will be about $20,000 less than the old one. It is appar ently the belief of the President that he has at the head of the commission the three best men he could secure, and undoubtedly the work will progress rapidly and without

scandal.

American

Revivalists

The evangelistical movement in America being carried on among the rank and file, it is with some surprise that the announcement is made in this country that Reuben A. Torrey and Charles M. Alexander, American revivalists, have carried on a series of meetings in London at which the most fashionable people of the West End were in the habit of attending. Lord Kinnaird, who is president of the Evangelical Council, has presided, and the Bishop of London has written letters of welcome. London was prepared for their coming by advertising of the ordinary sort, which was spread over a month's time. When the meetings opened $60,000 had already been collected for carrying them on, but the extent of the scheme was so large that $25,000 more was needed merely as preliminary expenses.

Trawler
Tragedy

The international commission which was making inquiry into North Sea trawler tragedy has finished its mummery and has very soberly laid the blame on the Russians for firing on the gamecock fleet October 22 last. It listened with great decorum to the contention of Admiral Rojestvensky that the Russians believed they saw Japanese torpedo boats among the fishermen, then limited itself to the opinion that, as there were no Japanese torpedo boats among the the fleet. The fishermen, Admiral Rojestvensky not justified in firing upon was Russian commissioner, with the admirable consistency of a bull-headed nation bull-headed course, alone dissented from this finding. The commission also decided that

on a

Admiral Rojestvensky had done wrong in not reporting to some naval station in the Channel that he had blown up the little fleet, though his failure to extend help at the time was justified.

Railroad
Rate Bill

President Roosevelt showed in a degree the influence he has over this country when in a short three weeks he brought around a hostile House of Representatives to favor his views on the railroad rate matter. Although the bill embodying the President's desires was passed some time ago, the general knowledge regarding it is limited. It was a compromise between two bills, that introduced by Representative Esch of Wisconsin, making it the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to substitute a reasonable rate for any rate fixed by a railroad which seemed to the commission unreasonable or discriminatory, and that of Representative Townsend of Michigan, which provided for a federal court which should have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all suits growing out of the interstate commerce laws. By the compromise bill the rulings of the commission go into effect thirty days after notice is given of them to carriers affected. Appeal can be had any time within sixty days to the Court of Transportation. The commission has the privilege of modify ing its orders even when before the court. By the machinery thus set in motion quick action can be had upon the question of rates.

Simplon TunThe boring parties which have been working on the Simplon tunnel through the Alps since 1898 have met and the great engineering feat nel Finished is about completed. The task was much greater than originally sup posed, for the calculations of geologists as to the lay of the rock were erroneous, and where it was supposed to be horizontal was vertical, making progress much slower than anticipated. Large streams of water were encountered also, and when the two ends met there was a rush of boiling water following the explosion, and, although coffer dams provided for carrying it off, the atmosphere became stifling and the workmen were nearly suffocated. It was originally intended that the tunnel should be finished a year ago, but the calculations of the engineers were rendered erroneous by the mistakes of the geologists. An undertaking similar to this is one of the lesser enterprises connected with the Panama canal, where, if a sea-level canal is agreed upon, a tunnel four miles long will have to be driven under a mountain to divert the surplus waters of the Chagres river.

From Rhine to Danube

An inland canal to connect the Rhine and the Danube is under discussion in Germany. The scheme is no small undertaking and involves great expense, about $35,000,000 in all. The Neckar would be dredged from Mannheim, its conjunction with the Rhine, to Heilbroun, from there the canal would run over the watershed, down small streams a distance of seventy-one and onehalf miles to the Danube. On account of the watershed to be crossed considerable

engineering work will be necessary. The purpose is to build a ship canal which will float craft of fairly deep draught, especially barges. The system would furnish communication between the various German states and bring them into much closer relations than at present. Bavaria would be brought into closer communication with the upper Rhine and with the canals of Alsace and Lorraine and France. Through the Danube and canals to the eastward it would gain access to Austria, Russia and the Balkan peninsula.

Northern
Securities

By a decision of the Supreme Court the Union Pacific or Harriman railroad interests can not regain control of the Northern Pacific, the stock of which they surrendered to the Northern Securities Company. Instead, the Northern Securities stock, which includes both Northern Pacific and Great Northern stock, the court ordered distributed pro rata. By this means the Harriman interests will not secure sufficient stock to control either road. Previously the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Northern Securities Company as an illegal combination, and now there is not a very clear understanding of the attitude taken by the court in ordering its stock distributed. In point of fact, however, the second decision is in a measure a solution of the first.

Question of Austria-Hungary always has matter for dispute at hand. When the political parties have no immediate cause of quarrel, there is the Language question of tongue. Hungarians object to speaking German, and the Germans treat the Hungarian language with contempt. The Germans have the better of it, and the Magyar must do the quarreling, a thing he has no objection to. Now there has arisen trouble between the Hungarians and the Crown over the language of command in the Hungarian army. The Crown prefers German, while the Hungarians insist that their own tongue should be used. The Crown maintains that its prerogative permits it to settle this matter for itself. This tyrranical method does not go well with the men who have the same blood with Louis Kossuth, and serious trouble has been threatened more than once in the last few weeks.