twenty-year contract which contained this provision:

If no new agreement be made by the parties hereto, the telegraph company shall, at the termination of this contract or at any time thereafter upon receiving written notice from the railroad, remove within six months of the receipt of said notice all its poles and wires, and leave the property of the railroad in good condition and free from encumbrance, to the satisfaction of the General Manager or other proper officer of the railroad company, and if not so removed the railroad company may remove them at the expense of the telegraph

company.

The Pennsylvania Railroad stands upon its contract rights, has made an agreement with the Postal Telegraph Company to place other lines along its right of way, and has ordered the Western Union to vacate the premises. The Western Union has declined to do so, and has obtained an injunction against the removal of its lines under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey court, upon the ground that Congress, in the statute of July 24, 1866, enacted that—

Any telegraph company now organized, or which may hereafter be organized, under the laws of any State, shall have the right to construct, maintain, and operate telegraph lines

over and along any of the military or post roads of the United States which have been or may hereafter be declared such by law . . but such lines shall be so constructed and maintained as not to interfere with the ordinary travel on such military or post roads. Inasmuch as all railroads are by Federal statute declared to be post roads, the New Jersey court holds that the Western Union Company, which accepted the restrictions and obligations of this statute, is thereby given a right of eminent domain to construct lines along the right of way of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and since the removal of its present lines prior to the construction of new ones would work irremediable damage to the telegraph company, the court intervenes to prevent such removal. The Pennsylvania court denies that the act of Congress confers upon telegraph companies any such sweeping rights of eminent domain to use the right of way of railroads, and points out that in the contract of 1881 between the Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad, the telegraph company expressly "relinquished and abandoned any easement or right of way heretofore acquired . . . upon any of the roads comprised in

this agreement," and expressly agreed that its right of way should cease with The the expiration of the contract. Pennsylvania court holds that the telegraph company cannot now claim a right which it thus formally abandoned, and grants the railroad the right to proceed with the removal of the telegraph company's lines. The case will, of course, be appealed to the higher courts, and a decision reached as to the extent to which the public interest in the maintenance of unhampered telegraph communication gives telegraph companies the right of eminent domain in the use of the property of a railroad.

Public Rights in the Telegraph

It is interesting to note that the Federal legislation under which the Western Union Company claims to have been delegated the right of eminent domain includes the following provision:

The United States may, for postal, military, or other purposes, purchase all the telegraph lines, property, and effects of any or all companies acting under the provision of the Act of July 24, 1866, . . . at an appraised value to be ascertained by five competent disinterested persons, two of whom shall be selected by the Postmaster-General of the United States, two by the company interested, and one by the four so previously selected. [U. S. Revised Statutes, 5267.]

It is not generally known that the right of the Government to purchase the telegraph lines has for a generation been so explicitly established. The special interest to the public of this litigation lies in two points: first, that it brings out very distinctly the public function of the Western Union Company; and, second, that it makes manifest the right of the public to take over by purchase and manage the telegraph as it manages the post-office. In the opinion of The Outlook, if the business of any private corporation or trust is to be taken and operated by the Federal Government, it might well be that of the telegraph trust.

professed to be bending every energy to increase the supply of coal in the needy markets. In the testimony before the Coal Commission responsibility for the present limited output was the point of keenest interest; the operators arraigned the miners for unwillingness to work overtime, and the miners arraigned the operators for unwillingness to employ two shifts of workmen, and the railroads for failure to furnish sufficient cars. The fact that the miners get no advance in wages by reason of the great advance in prices is held by their friends to absolve them from the charge of desiring to maintain the scarcity, but the accusation of President Mitchell that the operators are still keeping three thousand miners unemployed is vehemently denied by the operators and not credited by the public. The most extraordinary feature of the present panic for coal is that it has its greatest intensity in the soft-coal States. In the soft-coal-producing State of Ohio the Governor was last week compelled to issue a proclamation to repress the coal riots at Xenia; in the soft-coal-producing State of Kansas a resolution was introduced into the Legislature calling for an investigation of the famine there; and in the soft-coal-producing State of Illinoiswhich ranks next to Pennsylvania as a coal State the Attorney-General nounced that a legislative investigation of the famine would be recommended after the special Grand Jury in Chicago had reported on the famine in that city. The report of the Chicago Grand Jury was given to the public last week, and is eminently moderate in its tone. The Grand Jury finds that Chicago has not suffered more than other places, that the coal shortage is mainly due to the falling off of 25,000,000 tons in the year's production of anthracite, and that the railroads have been unable suddenly to increase the number of coal cars so as to transport fuel as rapidly as the present situation requires. Nevertheless, the Grand Jury also finds that the "Northern Illinois Soft Coal Association," the "Retail CoalDealers' Association of Illinois and Wisconsin," and "a certain combination of Indiana coal operators" have violated the laws against conspiracies in restraint of competition, and it has presented indictments against them. The indictment

an

against the Retail Dealers' Association is the most formidable. Among the eight counts in this indictment are the charges that the Association "fixed a minimum price on their wares and forced that price upon the consumers of this State and of Wisconsin; that they agreed to prevent wholesalers from selling direct to consumers in furtherance of the upholding of their own price agreements, and declared against those of the wholesalers who failed to recognize this pledge." If dealers thus acted together, while consumers acted separately, each bidding against the other, the abnormal prices do not require further explanation. It is, however, a striking example of the failure of consumers to act together that the American people are this year paying a great deal more for a short supply of coal than they usually do for a full supply. There would, indeed, have been no occasion for a panic if the supply had been evenly distributed. In 1901 this country produced 261,000,000 tons of coal. Even when we reckon that one ton of hard coal goes as far as two tons of soft, the falling off in the supply this year was not more than one-eighth. The coal stored in yards and bins at the beginning of the strike was nearly enough to have offset the deficiency. It was only the feverish anxiety of everybody not to be left in the lurch that made the present panic and extortion possible.

The Trial of Colonel Lynch

Last week at London occurred the trial of Colonel Arthur Lynch, member of Parliament for Galway, on the charge of high treason. As may be imagined, the occasion, was one of deep impressiveness. It is sixty-odd years since an Englishman has been on trial for high treason. The defendant at that time was the lunatic who tried to shoot Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on Constitution Hill. Colonel Lynch was born in Australia, is a British subject, but in 1900 took the oath of allegiance to the Transvaal and issued his appeal to Irishmen to fight for the Boers. He himself fought against the British at the head of an Irish brigade, and prosecuted spies with all the rigor of martial law. When the war was over, he again professed to be a British citizen, and

was elected to Parliament by the pro-Boer Irish. The trial began last week before Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice, and two other Justices. The prisoner pleaded "Not guilty." After Sir Robert Finlay, the Attorney-General, had recited the alleged treasonable acts, counsel for the defense submitted that the prisoner was protected by the naturalization laws, that a man was entitled to become an alien at any time, even after the outbreak of war, that Colonel Lynch took up arms in behalf of the Transvaal without secrecy and under the belief that the Naturalization Act permitted it. Sir Robert Finlay, on the other hand, argued that Colonel Lynch procured naturalization for the purpose of fighting against his own country, and added that, even could naturalization cover the prisoner's subsequent action, it could not cover his anterior treason-the adherence to England's enemies, and the statement of his willingness to fight against Engla d's army. The Lord Chief Justice, in summing up, said that the case involved no difficulty either of law or fact. It was treason to join the enemies of the Sovereign for any purpose. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the sentence of death was passed on each of the four counts in the indictments. It is believed that the sentence will be commuted; but the King's clemency will in no way change the conviction of most Englishmen that the prisoner was proved to have been a traitor in both letter and spirit, particularly since, as is reported, there is no record of any formal renunciation of British citizenship or of any formal naturalization in the Transvaal. The charge would probably not have been brought if Colonel Lynch had not had the effrontery to stand for Parliament.

learning for the officials is one of the two great needs of China at present, the other (and, to our mind, more important) being elementary education for the masses. This opinion is also reflected in a recent address by Mr. C. S. Addis before the Educational Association at Shanghai. "The China pony," he remarked, “is endowed by nature with a courage and endurance second to none. It has required, however, a long course of foreign training to develop the added powers of intelligence and swiftness which make him a formidable competitor on any racing field.” The same training is necessary with the Chinaman. The native good qualities are there-sobriety, frugality, patience, industry, adaptability; but, despite these, there is both inefficiency and waste of Chinese labor; "as compared with European it is as one to three." The Chinese lack the capacity to combine their good qualities and apply them to modern industrial conditions; as Mr. Addis says, "the power of mental concentration is wanting.” The conviction which has taken hold of enlightened native officials and foreigners alike has borne fruit, not only in the sending of young Chinamen abroad, but also in the opening of primary and intermediate schools at home. Prefectural schools are to follow; but a higher grade, namely, the university, has already been established, not only at the Peking Imperial University, but also in the provinces of Shantung and Shansi. The great problem of the universities, of course, is to obtain competent foreign professors to teach in Chinese, or to obtain Chinese professors who have mastered the leading branches of foreign learning. In preparing China for all this educational renaissance a principal agency has been the "Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese," of which Sir Robert Hart, Imperial Director of Maritime Customs, is President, and Mr. Addis, whom we have already quoted, is one of the Vice-Presidents. Whatever harmony of progress there now exists between China on the one hand and Europe and America on the other is largely due to the wise and persistent endeavors of this Society. Its members realize that foreign diplomats and merchants alone cannot succeed in bringing China into line with more civil

The American

In a very interesting Institute of Social Service article called "The Best of Paris," published in last week's issue of The Outlook, the author, Mr. Carl S. Vrooman, after praising the Musée Social as an invaluable institution, expressed the belief that "a virile, scholarly, and constructive institution of the sort will one day be established in our country to boil down and popularize, supplement and stimulate, the work of our present Bureau of Labor Statistics." Such an institution now exists, has already done excellent work in this direction, and has of late largely increased its scope and plan of usefulness. The American Institute of Social Service, in a charter granted it last month by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, defines its object as "the collection and interpretation of facts bearing on social and industrial betterment and the dissemination of the resulting knowledge for the education of public opinion." The Institute is an expansion of the League for Social Service, which was founded some four years ago. Since that time it has been accumulating material, and, as we have heretofore told our readers, has put itself in touch with social needs on many sides. The aims of the Institute are identical with those of the League, but it will have additional departments and a more ample equipment throughout. Its organizing committee was headed by the late Abram S. Hewitt, and includes many men and women of influence, of whom we may name a few only. Among the men are Carroll D. Wright, Spencer Trask, Robert C. Ogden, Albert Shaw, Jacob A. Riis, R. Fulton Cutting, Josiah Strong, and W. H. Tolman; among the women, Miss Helen Gould, Grace Dodge, Miss Caroline Hazard, Mrs. Mary L. Dickinson, are representative names. The Institute is

and has established other international relations of great value. The Director, Dr. William H. Tolman, will spend part of the coming summer in the principal cities of Europe gathering material relating to such subjects as improved housing, settlements, playgrounds, public baths, and other developments of social economy of European cities and countries. The Institute will issue Social Service handbooks describing societies and institutions occupied with charity, recreation, art, education, improved houses, and the like; will send out a bi-weekly letter service to hundreds of newspapers describing and interpreting new movements; will provide for illustrated lectures; will continue to carry on its commercial membership section in which are interested many of the most important and foremost estab lishments of the country; and in many other ways will act as a center and clearing-house of social economy. The public service which may be rendered by such an institution can hardly be overestimated; and its opportunity for increasing this service is limited only by the support it receives from the public.

The

of Fine Arts

The Outlook has alPennsylvania Academy ready called attention to the annual exhibitions of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as constituting a genuine American Salon. Through the remark able energy and tact of the managing director, Mr. Harrison Morris, these exhibitions have come to be representative of all that is best in the various departments of painting, pen-drawing, illustration, and sculpture among American artists, whether at home or abroad. The Pennsylvania Academy, as the oldest institution in America devoted to the fine arts, seems thus to have resumed its original leadership, and this not only because of the compelling excellence of its exhibitions and of its training-school, but also because it has gained in a peculiar degree the confidence of the entire American artist body. It certainly is a relief from the divided and subdivided exhibitions of Paris and New York to find one showing of pictures which is at once comprehensive, representative, and really National in its chaṛ

acter. The present exhibition at Philadelphia, which will continue until the end of February, should be distinguished from its predecessors and from others because it seems to mark the declining interest taken by the public in that department of painting which we know as genre. The examples of this department are notably few in number as compared with those which have crowded the walls of picture shows for the past generation. The public has finally tired of whatever has been meretricious in the genre school of overempha sized millinery and upholstery, and there has been a correspondingly increasing in terest taken in landscape painting-not in the hard, metallic, photographic reproduction of actual scenes, but in the evanescent, atmospheric aspects of nature, those which give greatest play to the imagination. Finally, the noble art of portraiture has gained steadily in influence and in vogue, so that not only are American artists overwhelmingly occupied with orders, but every year witnesses the coming to our shores of a notable group of foreigners who find here their most profitable employment. In the present exhibition the works of such men as Messrs. Alexander Harrison, Winslow Homer, Gedney Bunce, and Charles Morris Young, for instance, indicate the fineness and variety of perception of painters of nature, whether on sea or land, and in portraiture the canvases of Messrs. Whistler, Sargent, Alexander, Chase, Tarbell, Benson, Abbott Thayer, Irving Wiles, Miss Cassatt and Miss Beaux. As indicating the wealth of output behind each name represented at the Philadelphia Academy, we may add that there are there no less than six pictures apiece by Mr. Whistler, Mr. MacEwen, and Mr. Harrison, four by Mr. Sargent, five each by Mr. Chase and Mr. Tarbell, seven by Mr. Alexander, and twelve each by Mr. Palmer and Mr. Winslow Homer.

Julian Ralph, who died in this Julian Ralph city on Tuesday of last week, belonged to the group of men who have been developed by the exigencies and opportunities of modern journalism. Mr. Ralph was what is known as a Special Correspondent; a trained man of great quickness of resource, courage, and capac

ity, who could be sent at any moment, to any part of the globe, to report a war, a plague, a revolution. The intrepidity of the Special Correspondent in the wars of the last thirty years has been quite as great as that of the bravest soldiers. Their exploits of this kind have rarely been recorded; but the story of their heroism, energy, and triumphs over obstacles forms one of the most romantic chapters in recent history. Mr. Ralph was the son of a physician, born in New York, educated in the public schools; he entered a printing-house at the age of thirteen, and two years later had attracted attention by reason of the excellence of his descriptive work. After acting as editor of several short-lived or out-of-town newspapers, Mr. Ralph came to New York in 1870 to join the staff of the "Daily Graphic." His work had so much individuality and vividness that its quality was at once recognized, and Mr. Ralph was invited to join the staff of the New York "Sun," a position which he held for about eighteen years, representing the newspaper in different localities, and intrusted with important and difficult commissions. During the last eight years he had various newspaper connections. He represented the London "Mail" in the Turko-Grecian war, and two New York newspapers in London during the Jubilee of Queen Victoria; he was the representative of various London journals during the Boer War in South Africa, and he participated in the campaigns of Lord Roberts and General Methuen. He had traveled widely in China and the Black Sea region, and was the author of a number of books of travel and observation and of two novels. Personally Mr. Ralph was a very interesting talker; fresh, frank, original, full of special knowledge of remote localities and peoples, with an immense interest in life. His enthusiasm was the joy of his friends. He was always "discovering" commonplace things or familiar localities again. It used to be said that he found Tompkins Square at least once a year, and that he more than once discovered City Hall in this way. "Discovery meant to him a new look at a building or a locality, a new feeling for its human interest or its charm, and an immense zest in his enjoyment of beauty, of novelty, or of significant types.