the faction opposed to the party's freetrade, free-coinage, and anti-monopoly programmes. Upon the Philippine question Senator Gorman supported his party's policy in the Presidential election of 1900, but a year later, when shaping the State campaign to secure his own re-election to the Senate, he ignored anti-imperialism and proclaimed the restriction of negro suffrage as the paramount issue. His election as the Chairman of the Democratic caucus in the Senate is the most serious open blow recently given to Mr. Bryan's position as party leader.

An Important Labor Law Question

Judge Adams, of the United States Circuit Court for the eighth circuit, sitting in St. Louis, and acting on the application of the Wabash Railroad, has issued an injunction commanding the officers of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen "to desist and refrain from in any way or manner ordering, coercing, persuading, inducing, or otherwise causing, directly or indirectly, the employees of the said Wabash Railroad Company . . . to strike or quit the service of said Company." The injunction further forbids them from in any way molesting or interfering with the trains of the Company. It is understood to be a temporary injunction pending an argument yet to be heard on the question whether it shall be made permanent. There are some disputed questions of fact as to the rate of wages, conditions of labor, etc., on the Wabash system, and some as to the action or threatened action of the officers of the two Brotherhoods. These disputes are involved in the issues joined before the court, and cannot be easily settled by the press on ex parte statements in advance of judicial investigation. But the principle of law involved in this case appears on the face of the injunction to be measurably independent of these disputed questions. of fact. It is not, we think, to be doubted that the Wabash Railroad, being engaged in inter-State commerce, comes within the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. As it is amenable to the writs of the Federal Courts enforcing obedience to the law, it is entitled to the writs of the Federal Courts in seeking the protection

of the law. Practically this has been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Debs case. On the other hand, the injunction does not prohibit the trainmen and locomotive firemen on the Wabash Railroad from striking. If they choose, they can quit the service of the railroad company singly or in a body. The right of employees to do this has been established by too many legal decisions, and is too evidently an absolute right of free labor, to be called in question, and it is not questioned by this injunction.

The Question Discussed

But the trainmen and locomotive firemen of the Wabash Railroad belong to Brotherhoods which include employees of other railroads, and the officers of these Brotherhoods are not in the employ of the Wabash Railroad, nor, we presume, of any other railroad. The question raised by this injunction-and so far as we know it has never been legally decided-is whether men not in the employ of an inter-State railroad may lawfully order, counsel, or induce the employees of that railroad to strike. Will the courts forbid such counsel or order to be given by one who has no relation to the corporation, on the ground that this is an unwarrantable interference either with the rights of the railroad or with the commerce of the country? On the one hand, it may be contended that public interest requires that controversies between a railroad corporation and its employees should be settled by them without any outside interference. On the other, that trainmen and locomotive firemen have a right to ask counsel wherever they can get it; that they have a right to employ a broker or attorney, put their labor into his hands, leave him to negotiate their contracts for them, and determine in their place and stead the terms and conditions on which that labor shall continue. It appears to us clearly that this is their right; that the courts can no more legally forbid employees from following the counsel of a paid officer of their Brotherhood than it can forbid the corporation from following the counsel of their paid attorney; that, if the trainmen and locomotive firemen are to be free to make contracts at all, they must be free to do so through agents

not in the employ of the corporation, and this for two reasons: first, because an agent in the employ of the corporation would always be liable to have a divided interest; second, because the nature of their employment is such as to keep them occupied daily and hourly upon the road, and so prevent them from getting together and consulting as to their common interests, or even studying the situation, acquainting themselves with the facts, and coming to any just and reasonable judgment as to the right conditions of a contract between them and their employer. The Outlook hopes that this case may be carried up to the Supreme Court of the United States, and in such a form, and so divested of all side issues, as to present clearly the question of the right of employees, in their negotiations with their employers, to act through the officers of their Brotherhood or Trades-Union.

All friends of Ireland and

The Irish Land all friends of peace will Question rejoice because the chief

measure to be introduced at the present session of the British Parliament is to be an Irish Land Bill. The bill is to be presented by Mr. Wyndham, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and in part will follow the recommendations of the conference, already chronicled in these columns, between Lords Dunraven and Mayo, Colonels Everard and Poe, representing Irish landlords, and Messrs. Russell, Redmond, Harrington, and O'Brien, representing Irish tenants. According to their conclusions, "the only satisfactory settlement of the land question is to be effected by the substitution of an occupying proprietary in lieu of the existing system of dual ownership." This "occupying proprietary" idea contemplates no compulsory sale of land on terms claimed to be unjust by the landlords; instead, the latter are to be induced to sell by an offer of sums onehalf greater than would be called for by existing values. The offer, as suggested by the conference, would be a sum amounting to nearly thirty years of the rents. The present average price of land in Ireland represents a sum amounting to about twenty years of the rents as revised by the Land Commission Courts in 1881 and 1896. The conference concluded,

however, that landlords should continue to enjoy sporting and riparian rights over the lands they sell, and may have the opportunity to purchase their mansions. By these suggestions the conference registered its belief that the common good requires a continuance of identification by the landlord class with Irish society. If landlords are to be thus induced to sell, it would seem as if tenants are equally to be tempted to buy. It is proposed that, in place of rents, tenants shall become owners of their farms by paying to the State a kind of rental called "terminable annuities," these to be from one-seventh to one-quarter less than the existing rents as established by the Land Courts and to be subject to a reduction every ten years. This double difference between present prices must be made up by grants, amounting ultimately to several hundred million dollars, from the royal exchequer, the burden of course falling upon the taxpayers. We are inclined to believe that the taxpayers will get their money's worth. They may settle the question which, more than all others put together, has been at the bottom of Irish unrest. It would seem that the spirit of union, now happily evident between landlords and tenants, as shown by the recent conference, if strengthened by sympathetic legislation, would lastingly supplant that other spirit which made necessary the large numbers of the royal Irish constabulary and the enforcement of extraordinary measures to keep even a semblance of peace.

Macedonia and Turkey

The pessimistic tone in the reference to Macedonia in the speech of King Edward at the opening of Parliament was abun dantly justified, if we may judge from the Blue Book since issued by the British Government. The communications therein comprise consular reports and the despatches of Sir Nicholas O'Conor, the British Ambassador to Turkey, during 1902, and confirm the unofficial reports of misrule, outrages, and violent crimes in Macedonia. These, however, were not all due to Turks; there is also confirmation of the outrages and murders ascribed to the Bulgaro-Macedonian revolutionists, though the intolerable situation originally arose from Turkish misgovernment. The reve

lutionists have been sending marauding bands from Bulgaria into Macedonia to stir up the Turks to new atrocities by destroying their villages, hoping that the European Powers would interfere and reforms or freedom be secured. At the same time the revolutionists have terrorized any Macedonians who have not approved the programme of the BulgaroMacedonian Committee by declaring that "it has now become the government, that everything must be conducted in the government's interest, and that whoever sets himself in opposition must suffer the consequences." The Macedonians are thus doubly downtrodden and intimidated. A system of limited proprietorship prevails in the province. The vast majority of the natives work their land upon shares; they do not own it. One-third of the crop goes to the landlord, and on the remaining twothirds the peasants pay such an enormous tax that, in some cases, the value as prescribed by the assessors more than equals the value of the crop itself. The Turkish assessor and the Turkish collector are generally one person; and hence such an official has been able to extort infamous payment. If in his daily workagriculture-the Macedonian finds his goods practically stolen, in his domestic relations his fate is even more terrible. He himself is terrified and beaten by the gendarmerie, or police, and often the female members of his family are subjected to violation. This condition has existed during the four centuries and a half in which the Turkish Empire has been established in Europe. The Turks remain what they were in 1453-savages; but to their savagery they have added sensuality and corruption. It is, therefore, with something like incredulity that the world learned of the Sultan's agreement to the reform proposals made concerning Turkish administration in Macedonia.

The principal points of Reform Proposals the programme which the Powers unanimously forced on Abdul Hamid are: (1) The appointment of a Macedonian Inspector-General for a term of three years, with an extension of authority, particularly in his power to make requisition, whenever necessary, upon a

military force without waiting for permis sion from Constantinople; his recall and the appointment of his successor to be in agreement with the Powers. (2) The organization of the gendarmerie by European officers, in which body Christian inhabitants are to be admitted in a number proportionate to the population; the Christians shall not be required to be able to read and write Turkish before being admitted. (3) The prompt settlement of cases brought before local courts. (4) A reorganization of the financial system by providing that the taxes shall not be assessed and collected by the same person; that each vilayet or district shall furnish a budget at the end of each year in which local expenses are to be a first charge upon the revenues; the revenues are to be paid into branches of the Ottoman Bank; only if, after such payment, there is a surplus, may it be sent to Constantinople; thus, from a condition of small salaries and uncertain payment the prompt payment of the local officials and of the gendarmerie would seem to be provided for, with a consequent removal of one of the causes of bribery and oppression. (5) The establishment of stringent measures to hold in check the Albanian marauders who have, in reality, been almost as vexatious to the Turkish as to the Christian inhabitants of Macedonia (in Albania itself their methods have been more barbarous still, as was shown recently by the assault upon the Russian Consul at Mitrovitza). In agreeing to these reforms, however, the Sultan apparently proposes to continue his time-honored policy of evasion, as might be deduced from his announcement that there is no money in the Turkish treasury to carry the reforms into effect! It is hard to tell, from the reports, from which class the Macedonian Christians are now suffering the most-the representatives of the Bulgaro-Macedonian Committee, or the Turkish soldiers and tax-gatherers. One thing is evident: Macedonia cannot endure the present situation, any more than Cuba could the oppression of Spain. The only logical and humane outcome, as it appears to many disinterested observers, will be the extension by the Powers in Macedonia of the autonomy now enjoyed by the other Balkan States.

A fortnight ago Giacchino Pecci, Leo XIII. better known as Pope Leo XIII.,

celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election to the Papal chair. Last week he celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his coronation, and also his ninety-third birthday. Should he live until the middle of May he will have attained the traditional years of St. Peter as Pope, but in order to equal Pius IX.'s reign (1846-1878) he would be almost a centenarian. The whole Christian world hopes that he may attain that age, if he can continue to deliver his Church from political intrigue, and continue to direct its energies instead into intimate, sympathetic, and salutary relations with the social movements of our time. Indeed, one may claim with justice that the scholarly and accomplished Pecci has become the most democratic of pontiffs; certainly, in the history of democratic and social progress his encyclical letters will find fit place. Hence, socially as well as religiously, there is no temporal sovereign whose anniversary could match the one of last week. The vast theological and ecclesiastical power of the Church militant was represented by the participation of nearly fifty cardinals and over three hundred archbishops and bishops in the high ceremonies at St. Peter's, which were carried out with all pomp and circumstance. But the seventy thousand people in attendance, Protestants as well as Roman Catholics, were gathered to do homage to the man as well as to the Pope, and they greeted him with a more striking demonstration of reverence and affection than has been vouchsafed to any Roman pontiff for centuries. Well might they thus greet one whose ardent and indomitable spirit belies his age and is hardly contained by his frail body. Fifteen years ago, at a similar ceremonial, Leo XIII. was a figure from which apparently all physical attributes had retired; his face was like alabaster and his hand seemed almost transparent as it slowly moved in benediction. The white-robed, white-mitered form looked like a ghost, not a mortal. If he was then a" grand old man," Leo XIII. is now a wonderful old man, not so much by reason of length of years as because during these later years his most telling work has been done. In contemplating this venerable figure the minds of Christians are

impressed, not only by religious emotion and historic imagination, but also by a sense of present social service rendered to present social needs.

The Child Labor Agitation

Both in New York and Pennsylvania the child labor agitation is being vigorously conducted. In New York a series of admirable bills have been presented in the Legislature to make the present child labor laws enforceable by requiring age certificates of real value, to extend the application of these laws to messenger and delivery services in the same way in which they now govern factories and stores, to limit the employment of children between fourteen and sixteen to nine hours a day, and to forbid children under twelve to work as bootblacks, and children under ten to work as newsboys. At the hearing before a legislative committee last week, the opposition, curiously enough, centered upon the restriction of the street trades and not upon the ninehour provision for factories and stores. Commodore Gerry, formerly President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, led the defense of unrestricted child labor in the streets, declaring among other things that the restrictive bill was unconstitutional and that the licensing of newsboys put a stigma upon them. In reply to him it was brought out that the constitutionality of restricting child labor had been recognized over and over again by the most conservative courts, and that the possession of a license would put no more stigma upon a newsboy than upon a physician or lawyer. Dr. Felix Adler made the most stirring address in favor of the bills. He admitted that many good men had spent part of their boyhood in the street trades and come out unharmed, but so, he said, had many strong men come safely through dangerous contagions. Legislation, moral as well as sanitary, must be based upon the general influence of the environment, and the records of the New York juvenile asylums, which Dr. Adler proceeded to give, showed that to an astonishing degree the New York City street trades served as the schools of vice and crime. In Pennsylvania the child labor laws urged are being supported by the

State Federation of Women's Clubs, the Civic Club of Philadelphia, and the State Consumers' League, as well as by the labor unions. The prominent part borne by women's organizations in this movement for the protection of childhood is quite in line with English precedent-the instinctive sympathy of English women having been perhaps the strongest force in enabling Lord Shaftesbury to carry through his great reform against the influence of factory-owners and economists. In Pennsylvania the economists, we believe, a e now supporting the moderate child labor law demanded, but factory-owners are still resisting it. A trusted correspondent writes us as follows of the present situation:

On Saturday morning, February 28, the papers of Pittsburg announced that the West ern Pennsylvania Association of Glass Manufacturers had appointed a committee to go to Harrisburg to prevent the enactment of any child labor agitation at this session. The manufacturers were reported as adopting reso lutions denouncing and ridiculing that section of the bill which provides that children must learn to read and write English before beginning work. (It is probably due to the enactment of this provision in New York in 1886 that New York, in spite of its enormous immigration, has fewer illiterate children between ten and fourteen years of age than Pennsylvania, and ranks, under this test, with the Northern States, while Pennsylvania ranks with the Southern States.) The glass manu

facturing industry is one of the most highly protected industries in the United States, yet it effectively prevents any legislative protection of young children. The influence of the Pittsburg glass manufacturers kept in office, as chief factory inspector of Pennsylvania for several years, Mr. James Campbell (just removed by Governor Pennypacker), who had been their advocate for years at all the hear ings on the glass tariff before the Committee on Ways and Means at Washington. This is the man who told the Mothers' Congress in Pittsburg last October that Pennsylvania suffers from the excessive education of the workingmen's children.

Less than any other State can Pennsylvania afford to teach that people have a right to get cheap labor from whatever source at whatever cost.

The Protest of the Tenement Dwellers

State Legislature to change the existing tenement-house law. Inasmuch as it is understood that Governor Odell will not sign any tenement-house bill that does not have the approval of Mayor Low and the Tenement House Commission, this statement was reassuring and was therefore greeted with energetic applause. The speakers at this hearing were almost all dwellers in East Side tenements, and were representative of scores of thousands of others. A representative of the Downtown Ethical Society, one of the East Side Civic Club, one of the East Side Socialists, and one of the Janitors' Society made speeches; all of them were earnest, and their eloquence was that of men whose families were in peril. It was perfectly clear that the opposition to this assault on the tenement-house law is not theoretical, its strength does not lie with philanthropists, but with those whose own homes the law in a measure protects. As the Mayor said, this fight on the part of tenement dwellers for more light and air was illustrative of the old saying, “Who would be free, himself must strike the blow." On the same day TenementHouse Commissioner Robert W. De Forest made an address in Brooklyn, in which he called attention to the principle, which the newspapers in Brooklyn have been districts changes in the course of years, ignoring, that the character of residential that "the palaces of to-day may be the hovels of to-morrow." He cited the instance of his grandmother's house, once one of the finest private houses in a fashionable neighborhood, now bearing a sign "French Flats for Colored People." The law, he said, must anticipate such changes. Both he and the Mayor announced that amendments "adjusting the law to business and structural conditions" are being prepared by the TenementHouse Commission. We hope that if these amendments are offered they will be accompanied by others making more rigorous the even yet too lax require

ments.

Trained Nurses

providing for the registration of trained or professional nurses. One is vicious and ought to be killed;