The Chicago teamsters' strike is ended, and the strikers have absolutely nothing to show for their effort. It was in force for 133 days, during which nineteen lives were lost in riots and assaults and 462 people were injured by similar unlawful acts. Over four thousand teamsters were out of work, and the loss to these and to business houses that were embarrassed by the strike is computed at ten million dollars. Labor organizations at large contributed nearly $100,000 to aid the strikers.

As is not unusual in these days the strike was a sympathetic one. The teamsters had no grievance. A firm of garment manufacturers saw fit to discharge nineteen women from their employ. The teamsters employed by the firm demanded that the women should be reinstated. This was refused, and the strike of the teamsters followed, first of those employed by the firm; then those employed by the firms with which the clothing firm did business, and afterward the expressmen who were serving any business house which would not boycott the clothing firm, until there was a general paralysis of business, with no end of tumult, disorder and crime. The sentiment of sympathy was so pervasive that several thousand school children struck against school attendance because the coalbins of the schoolhouses were being filled by non-union coal teamsters. The sympathetic strike extended to the third or fourth degree from the original source of trouble, and nearly all lines of business were embarrassed. In the meantime the police had been striking heads promiscuously in their efforts to maintain order, and in the exuberance of their sympathy the union men mauled some individuals to death. Anything so hotly and brutally sympathetic has never before been seen, not even in Chicago.

Some six thousand strike-breakers were brought into the city to take the places of the strikers, many of whom were colored men. This precipitated another feature of the strike a general race riot, the strikers assuming that no colored man had any rights a striker was bound to respect. The mayor was too nearly in sympathy with the law-breakers to act vigorously against them, and the police were less efficient than their position demanded. The Federation of Labor resolved that the action of the Board of Education in compelling school attendance was "pseudo-plutocratic cringing of ignorant lackeys to capitalism," and none of the labor unions could see any impropriety in the conduct of their fellows in Chicago; many of them supplied money

to encourage the strike. It was disclosed in court that the unions were employing "slugging committees" to assault nonunion workmen and several confessed their crimes in mitigation of penalty.

A serious feature of the strike, not new but now brought conspicuously before the public, was the employment of a professional strike-breaker. There are several such men, but one John Farley seems to be the representative man. He has had experience, having participated in breaking at least thirty-five strikes, and boasts of success in every instance. He claims to have thirty-five thousand men enrolled, whom he can throw into any locality, and and that he has applications from twentyfive to a hundred men a day for positions. As a rule these men are reckless, courageous, and not averse to a fight; in short they are quite like the strikers in temperament, but they feel that the law is on their side. He gets a "rake-off" or commission from employers to whom he supplies workmen, and it is said he has already grown rich in his unique business.

He handled the recent strike on the New York subway and electric lines, and had five thousand men under his control. His income from that single strike is said to have been equal to the annual salary of the president of the United States. Besides this, many companies pay him an annual retainer, so that he can be commanded to manage their strikes if they happen to have

any.

As might be expected, the frequency of labor-union strikes has led to the organization of employers. One of these is the American Anti-Boycott Association, and another, the direct outgrowth of the Chicago teamsters' strike, is the Employers' Union. These associations do not disclose their membership for obvious reasons, but they are ready to meet emergencies affecting individuals in their membership with abundant means to employ Mr. Farley's army, or in any other way to meet emergencies. One feature is an insurance fund to protect members from losses by strikes. The Employers' Union is reported to have $750,000 in hand with which to protect its membership.

It appears that the managers of the labor unions are slow to recognize the fact that their constituents are responsible to law as are all other citizens. They have full right to organize and to act collectively, but only so as to keep within the law. Riot, lawlessness and assaults are not among the "rights of labor," and a few more experiences like those of New York

and Chicago should thoroughly and permanently teach the lesson. Aside from this they will learn, too, in time, that they are at a practical disadvantage in a struggle with their employers when the latter are equally well organized. Workmen cannot live without wages, but the employer usually has means by which he can exist, even if the union closes his shops. That he can live longer without work is his great advantage. Both parties have concessions to make, and sound business policy demands that both should recognize this. Until this is done the laboring man is at a disadvantage, but he will not advance his cause nor win. general sympathy by such unconsidered and unreasonable outbreaks as that at Chicago, nor in any movement in which the purely sympathetic strike is a dominant factor.

Mr. Dalrymple of Glasgow came here to show Mayor Dunne of Chicago how to municipalize American public service corporations, but he found the conditions here "so unlike those at home, you know," that his visit was not very helpful. And now Robert Crawford, an ex-town-councillor of Glasgow, has come over to lecture on "Municipal Socialism and its Practical Working in Glasgow." Civic improvement is more than a hobby with him-it is a passion-and he has spoken on it in every part of the United Kingdom. Wherever a town undertakes a fight for public benefit as opposed to private profit Mr. Crawford can be counted on to lend a hand. And he hopes to be able to help along the same cause in America. But he is academic rather than practical. In a recent letter relative to his visit he says he prefers to deal with broad principles concerning the question of the public ownership of municipal services and utilities apart from the hurly-burly of the fight over concrete instances. That is, he would deal with theories rather than conditions. He, like Mr. Dalrymple, will prove interesting, perhaps, but hardly helpful, for the concrete instances are too various and self-characterized to admit of Scotch generalizations. Mr. Crawford says he has "always been intensely interested in the growth and development of the capacity and desire of people in one community to combine and organize themselves for communal ends. I see no limit to the possible good to be done in this way provided that good, honest, capable men are found with civic patriotism enough to serve their fellows without fee or reward in carrying on these public services as part of their duty to the community among whom they live. So long as the aim of civic government is clean, the tone high, the ideal lofty and the object is to foster and create better conditions of

life for every citizen alike, high or low, rich or poor-apart from all sectional or political interests-then and then only I hold the control and extension of municipal enterprises of all kinds is a blessing and will be always successful-toward this end civic reformers in the States must work." We agree with all that, but the perennial revelations of greed and graft in public office in nearly every considerable city in the United States do not encourage the hope that he is near the consummation of his ideal. He has taken Emerson's advice to "hitch your wagon to a star," but that involves a very long journey among new and complicated surroundings. It may land him somewhere, on some Utopian star not yet visible to mortal eyes, but it will take time; it will take time.

Boston's population in 1890 was 446,507. Its present population is 621,000, an increase in fifteen years of about 25 per cent., but this fact fails to indicate the real growth of the city, for with improvements in transit the residential limits have been extended far beyond its borders. "Boston bed-rooms" are in every direction within a radius of twenty-five miles of the State House. During the same period the assessed valuation of the city has increased over 50 per cent. while its total length of streets has increased by seventy-four miles. The number of city parks has increased from six to forty-one; their area is now about 2,290 acres, and their cost has been about $18,500,000. But, just as Boston's population extends beyond its borders, its park system has a similar expansion under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Park Commission, which controls_reservations and park-ways in thirty-nine adjacent cities and towns, with an area of over 10,000 acres, acquired and developed at a cost of over $12,000,000. The ocean commerce of the city has more than doubled both in exports and imports in fifteen years, so far as entrances and clearances are concerned, while exports have increased 21 per cent. and imports have increased 30 per cent. in the same period. The export figures are, however, not a full basis of comparison, as last year's exports were below the normal; in grain alone the amount being only 7,000,000 bushels last year, while in 1901 it was over 39.000,000 bushels. In the same period customs receipts increased 11.7 per cent.. and internal revenue receipts increased over 50 per cent. Postal receipts during the period show an increase of over 99 per cent. While the national bank capital has decreased from $52,600.000 to $29,200,000, the bank surplus has increased over 27 per cent., deposits have increased over 69 per cent., and clearing house exchanges

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Recent investigations in Great Britain point to a physical deterioration of the people which is attracting general attention. The first disclosure came from the military authorities, who discovered not only that an increasing proportion of recruits was rejected for physical unfitness, but those accepted failed to meet the requirements for continuous service in so large a proportion as formerly. A movement was undertaken to improve the physical condition of the children in the public schools, but it was soon discovered that there was nothing at hand showing the present condition upon which a suitable scheme of improvement could be based. To meet this defect an investigation was ordered in various parts of the United Kingdom. London school showed that only ten per cent. of the pupi's were capable of proper school work, and in other large cities from fifty to seventy per cent. were found to be defective. Mal-nutrition is given as the leading trouble, and it is asserted that in the poorer districts a very large proportion of the children are growing up so deteriorated by starvation and improper food that they can never become normal citizens, but must be a permanent and prolific seedbed of disease and crime. While the school boards, public health authorities and military managers have become satisfied that this is the true condition, ParliaOne ment has as yet taken no action. committee, indeed, reported that they found no deterioration, but the report was based on the fact that there was no standard of comparison extant from which the relative condition of the pupils could be inferred. This lack of evidence seemed comforting to the committee, but they felt compelled to admit a large decrease in the birth rate in the upper and middle classes; that the race is being perpetuated by its least fit part. Infant mortality, too, is reported as alarmingly increased.

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and conflicting authority in sanitary and relief matters is pointed out, and the need of a radical awakening and intelligent and persistent reform is urged by those who best understand the situation.

Ever since the discovery that milk is an important agency in the conveyance of

disease germs into the human system, scientists have studied to secure some form of sterilization. Salycilic acid, formaldehyde, and other deleterious chemicals have been used, but their dangers are as great as the troubles they attempt to cure. Heat has proved to be the least harmful sterilizer, but a sufficient degree of heat produces such changes in milk as to unfit it for the use of infants and others who are delicately organized. The attention of electrical experts has been called to the matter, and for several years, in Italy and in Belgium, experiments have been conducted. Numerous failures resulted from the coagulation of the milk if a sufficient electric current was applied, thus confirming the ordinary experience of the unlearned dairy-maid, that a thunderstorm will sour the milk. The latest reports, however, promise success, if the following conditions are observed: The milk must be traversed by an alternating current of sufficient frequency to prevent the decomposition of the liquid; the density of the current must be sufficient to electrocute the microbes; the alternating current must be of a sufficiently high tension to overcome the somewhat high resistance of the milk. If only an alternating current of low tension is available, a salt or an acid may be added to the milk in order to render it more conductive. In this case there would be required a much greater current intensity. The apparatus for the process is very simple, and consists of a well insulated receptacle and two electrodes, say of platinized carbon. Two factors evidently intervene-the duration of the treatment and the intensity of the current. Since the use of electricity is daily becoming more general, it may be that the process will be adopted to a certain extent, since it gives absolutely sterilized and in no otherwise altered milk.

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Boston was incorporated as a city in 1830, and her first mayor was John Phil'ips Reynolds. He was buried in the Old Granary Burying Ground Tremont street. His grandson of the same name has just marked his resting-place with a tablet to his memory on the antiquated Phillips tomb. He was born in 1770 and sent to Harvard University after his academy eduIcation at Andover. He studied law after his graduation and was then made the first town advocate of the first municipal court of Boston in 1800. He was successively a member of the Court of Common Pleas, a member of the lower house of the Legislature, and then was elected twenty years successively to the Senate, and presided in that body from 1813 to the year of his death.

Victoria, which is the southerly tip of Australia, and its earliest settled portion has just voted the electoral franchise to women. The state has a population of about 1,200,000. There are some 7,500 Chinese and only 652 aborigines. Aside from these the two sexes are practically equal in the population the males preponderating less than one-half of one per cent. Of the whole population over 44 per cent. are classed as bread-winners. Universal manhood_suffrage has prevailed in election of the Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament, the number of electors in 1902-3 being 256,635. The number of electors on the roll of the Legislative Council, the upper house, was 136,142, under a property qualification of the possession or occupancy of property of the rateable value of $50 a year, if derived from freehold, or $125 a year if derived from leasehold or occupation of rented property, with exemption of certain classes. For the year ending June 30, 1902, the state's revenue was $34,988,960, and the expenditure was $36,994,160. It seems father startling that this new and far-away country should be so advanced in its enlightenment. Our state of Wyoming was the pioneer in allowing woman suffrage, but that the imitative response should come from the antipodes was hardly expected.

The popular idea that the country towns in Massachusetts are losing in population is not justified by the results of this year's census as compared with that of ten years ago. Eighteen towns have made a net gain in population during the past ten years of 753. Only eight towns, namely, Orleans, Sandisfield, Sheffield, Stockbridge, Deerfield, Wales, Enfield and Norwell, show a loss of a total of 629, or an average percentage of 11.12; and ten towns, Norton, Cottage City, Tisbury, Wenham, Wilmington, Norfolk, Hull, Pembroke, Sterling and Westminster, show a gain of 2,382, or an average percentage of 20.64. The largest gain was made by the town of Hull, which added to its population 1,016, a gain of 97.32 per cent. The old remark concerning elections, "As goes Hull so goes the state,' has ceased to apply since the town began to grow as a summer place. The smallest gain was by Westminster, which shows an increase of thirty-three persons, or 2.51 per cent. The greatest loss was in the case of the town of Orleans, which has 146 persons, or 12.19 per cent. less than it had ten years ago.

The "Official Gazette," published weekly at Manila, by authority of the insular government illustrates in an interesting manner the social condition of the Philip

pine islands, and the progress of law and order under the new regime. Among the public laws recorded in the issue of May 10th, we find an authorization of Manila to incur a debt of $4,000,000 for a sewer drainage and water system, one for a loan to aid a railroad in the province of Cavite, and another for a loan for road construction in the province of Cebu; one restricting the fees and expenses of public officials; one for registering and control'ing the slaughter of cattle, etc. A dozen or more decisions of the Supreme Court, in serious criminal cases, indicate not only that the laws are well enforced, but the criminals are treated humanely and their rights as fully respected and guarded as in the Massachusetts courts. Customs and immigration regulations, and schemes for civil service examination, etc., are published and suggest that substantial progress toward a higher civilization is well inaugurated with good promise of beneficent results.

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If anything could justify Dr. Osler's notion that elderly men are useless it is the attitude of many eminent clergymen who are past middle life toward what is known as "the higher criticism." The "Nation" reports that at a recent religious conference the venerable Rev. Dr. T. L. Cuyler, Presbyterian, expressed regret that the people are given the knowledge that such views are held by Christian ministers. He would apparently put the papal limit on all teaching of faith and morals. marked contrast to his opinion is the recent petition of over a hundred English clergymen of the established church, pointing out "the important results of this 'higher criticism,'" and asking that "the clergy, as Christian teachers, may receive encouragement from their ecclesiastical superiors to face the problems which arise with entire candor and reverence." If the pulpit is to teach doctrine at all it should be free to study and discuss all phases of reverent thought, and all suggestions of reverent and intelligent scholarship.

It is an unusual if not unique tribute to Elinor Macartney Lane, that ever since her novel "Nancy Stair" was written the Boston Public Library has been haunted with people who want to consult "Burke's Peerage, and the "Lives" of Robert Burns and other contemporary material, to secure additional information concerning the irresistible "Nancy." The novel is so cleverly written that a large portion of the public accepts "Nancy" as a reality, and the book as history embellished perhaps by the author's fanciful enrichment.