a dozen arrests have since been made by the State police, and the ringleaders, it is claimed by the police, are now in custody awaiting trial. At the present writing no deaths have resulted, although at least two of those shot are believed to be fatally wounded. Warrants charging felonious shooting have been sworn out against the troopers, but have not yet been served These manifestations of violence and disorder were followed on May 2 by the issuance of a proclamation by Governor Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania, in which he calls upon all citizens to assist in the maintenance of the law, at the same time setting forth the principles of right action by the State in times of industrial disturbances. It says: "Every man is entitled to labor and to get for his labor the highest compensation he can lawfully secure. There is no law to compel him to labor unless he so chooses, and he may cease to labor whenever he considers it to be to his interest so to cease. The laboring man, out of whose efforts wealth arises, has the sympathy of all disinterested people in his lawful struggles to secure a larger proportion of the profit which results from his labor. What he earns belongs to him, and if he invests his earnings the law protects his property just as the rights of property of all men must be protected. He has no right to interfere with another man who may want to labor. Violence has no place among us and will not be tolerated." This accords with the position The Outlook has so often taken on occasions of rioting and violence in strike times, but the principles cannot be too often emphasized. The law must be observed first and above all else, and when and where it is not observed proper punishment should be speedily inflicted. It is proper here to say, however, that the wonder is not that these two isolated cases of rioting have occurred during the past five weeks since the suspension of coal-mining became effective, but that more of them have not taken place. With more than 175,000 mine workers idle in the two regions where the violence has taken place, and with this number swelled by thousands of other workers thrown out of temporary employment by the suspension, the manner in which this

reflected in the acts of railway and coal company officials—a record somewhat analogous to that of insurance officials high in the esteem of the public previous to the recent investigation of these companies-has been disclosed in the hearings held the past several weeks by the Inter-State Commerce Commission. The present investigation of this body is being conducted under the joint resolution of Congress directing an inquiry into the relations existing between railroads and coal mining and oil companies, and so far the hearings conducted in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington have been confined to the taking of testimony as regards the softcoal-carrying roads and the bituminous coal industry. These have shown that railroad companies own certain coal-mining companies; that officials high in the traffic counsels of railroad companies are not only financially interested in coal companies but have accepted as gifts their stock, and have also received other "presents" from such companies; that coalmining companies identified in these and similar ways with the carrying companies are favored in the distribution of cars and in other directions, while companies and shippers not so identified are discriminated against in the supplying and distribution of cars as well as in the furnishing of facilities and instrumentalities for receiving, forwarding, and carrying coal; that the private coal-car system is a very grave evil and is subject to serious abuses injurious to the public, and that the systems or methods of allotting cars are unfair and unjust to independent shippers not in favor with the railway officials. The testimony also shows that independent companies have been forced to sell their property at a loss to rival companies having railway favor. In another case one large coal

company was forced to take into partnership a railroad mining company without any cost to the latter for thousands of dollars' worth of stock. The evils of industrial promotion are glaringly illustrated at different points in the testimony, one case disclosing that officials of one coal company purchased as individuals a rival coal company and then bought it from themselves for the company of which they were officials at a clear profit to two men of $249,900. Throughout the testimony is exhibited a most shameful record of so-called financial transactions, barely distinguishable from theft, by means of which a few individuals have been enabled to accumulate fortunes at the expense of stockholders and the public. That some railway officials were not without conviction that their relations with coal-mining companies were at least questionable is evident in the fact that, according to the testimony before the Commission, there was a scampering on the part of some of them to dispose of their stock holdings in coalmining companies when it became definitely known several months ago that an investigation was to be authorized by Congress. This part of the testimony before the Commission dealing with the relations of railway officials to coal-mining companies is a terrible indictment of the code of business ethics which is found to prevail among these representative corporation officials. A preliminary report by the Commission is expected to be made to Congress within the present month. One effect of the investigation is the sale last week by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad of its majority interest in the Consolidation Coal Company, the latter operating principally in West Virginia and controlling some eight other companies, including the Fairmont Coal Company. The president and two vicepresidents of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad have also resigned as directors in the Consolidation Company.

Another feature of Monopoly Control of the Commission's Soft-Coal Traffic present investigations, so far merely touched upon, but which promises to grow more important

as the hearings continue, is the corporate methods employed by the soft-coal-carrying railroads, dominated by the Pennsylvania, to overcome the legal restrictions placed by the Inter-State Commerce Law upon monopolistic control of trade between the States. The hearings in Philadelphia disclosed the existence of secret organizations or associations and bureaus, through which monopoly power is exercised over the production, carrying, and distribution of soft coal. Not only is there a division of markets among six of the more important railway systems, but the output and price of the product is controlled and the freight rates determined. By means of the Tidewater Bituminous Steam Coal Traffic Association, whose existence the railroads have taken unusual precautions to keep secret since its formation in 1895, six important railway companies-the Pennsylvania, the New York Central, the Baltimore and Ohio, the Norfolk and Western, the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Philadelphia and Reading-have allotted among themselves, upon a percentage basis, the entire soft-coal traffic to seaboard ports, the rates upon this traffic, of course, being fixed by agreement. It is no doubt true that the problem of transporting bituminous coal from so many different fields to so many common markets by different railroads is a most complicated one, and that the problems involved in dealing with the traffic questions covering so vast a territory and affecting so many diversified interests are troublesome and intricate; yet all this does not justify a studied violation of the law. Not only among the bituminous-coal-carrying railroads, but also among the hard-coal systems, there is too much evidence that the aim of their officials has been, not to do all they can to obey the clear mandates of the law, in spirit as well as in letter, but that they have rather put forth their best efforts to find a way of doing what the law explicitly says they shall not do. So clear does this violation appear to the United States Attorney-General, from the testimony so far taken by the Commission, that Mr. Charles F. Hughes, of insurance investigation fame, and Mr. Alexander Simpson, Jr., of Philadelphia,

have been retained by the Federal Government as special counsel to prosecute the coal-carrying railroad companies. The hearings of the Inter-State Commerce Commission seem to prove beyond further question that there is a group of men whose desire for the accumulation of riches leads them to put forth special efforts to overcome or make inoperative the clear mandates of the people for the safeguarding of the general welfare. We believe that the public is slowly approaching to this view of the situation, and that the people in their own way will, sooner or later, find a remedy for these growing evils which result in the amassing of great fortunes by questionable methods. There is need on the part of corporation officials of greater respect for and obedience to the laws of the Nation and State as expressed in our constitutions and statutes. The violation of their provisions is not justified by the answer that these expressed interpretations of economic laws are wrong, and that corporations, in working out the organization of the industrial State, are subject alone to the "higher" law. Organized society exists solely by obedience to laws expressed through its chosen representatives. Any other course leads but to chaos and anarchy. It is better for the general welfare that obedience be rendered to statutes, even if they do misinterpret natural laws, rather than to permit a group of men within society, such as officials of corporations or labor unions, to place their own self-interested interpretation upon these laws.

The Court of Appeals of New York State has decided that the law taking from the Board of Aldermen in New York City the power to grant franchises and giving the power to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment is constitutional. Both Boards are elected; but the Board of Estimate and Apportionment contains only nine members, who are elected, some by boroughs, some by the entire municipality; the Board of Aldermen contains seventy-three members and is elected by wards. The tendency to transfer municipal powers

Experiments in Municipal Government

from a large legislative body elected by wards to a small administrative body elected on a general ticket is gaining in America; it is a tendency in the right direction. After the destruction of the city of Galveston its affairs were put into the hands of a commission, first appointed by the Governor, afterward elected by popular vote. This worked so well that first Houston, then Dallas, Texas, followed the example, and with apparent advantage. The affairs of Nashville, Tennessee, have been similarly administered for a score of years, and it is reported that the administration has been wholly free from corruption. When the earthquake and the fire threw the city of San Francisco into chaos, the citizens instinctively adopted the same principle, and to-day its affairs are being for the time administered by an extemporized board of citizens co-operating with the Mayor. The city of Washington is exceptional; its administrative body is appointed by the Federal Government; but the success of the administration argues for a small governing body in all cities. The abolition of the large and unwieldy Boards of Education and the substitution of a small workable body has, we believe, been invariably attended with good results. The experience of many English municipalities, whose administrative bodies are generally small and represent the whole municipality, confirms the limited experience of American cities. There is no reason why city governments should be modeled after the State and Federal Governments. There is no reason for representation by wards, which produces a very bad kind of ward politics. There is very little true legislative function to be performed by a city board; its work is mainly administrative. It is as democratic to have a small body as a large one, and more democratic to have a body elected on a general ticket instead of by wards. The New York Legislature would make no mistake if it were to abolish the Board of Aldermen altogether and substitute a body akin to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and then by suitable enactment put all the administration of the city's affairs into its hands.

The National

Municipal League

Mr. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, in his annual address as President of the National Municipal League at Atlantic City, discussed the subject "Why we have Unsatisfactory Public Servants and how we can get Good Ones," declaring, "We can as readily get good civil servants as we can get good military servants; we can obtain legislative and executive officers of as high grade as are our judicial officers, or even as these ought to be; but to gather the same harvest we must sow the same seed and use the same husbandry." In other words, public servants must be adequately compensated; they must be assured a permanency of tenure and a "safeguard against an old age of misery," and "we must treat them as decent, reputable people expect to be treated, must help them to work cheerfully and to good purpose." The American people cannot be justly called stingy. For manual or merely routine public work we pay as liberally as any other nation, if not more so; but we adopt a different rule when we deal with those of our servants who are also our rulers. The whole tone of the Atlantic City meeting was one of encouragement. The reports were uniformly to the effect that there was a general and most satisfactory awakening of the people to their municipal obligations and opportunities. The Secretary of the League, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, in his annual review, which was appropriately entitled "Practical Progress," said: "At each meeting (since 1894) I have been able to report some advances, some encouraging developments; but the past twelve months have outstripped all others in practical progress. Indeed, they represent more substantial achievement than all the preceding years together. From every quarter comes word as to awakened interest and patriotic endeavor. Heroism, heretofore largely an incident of military activity, is now in large degree manifested in our endeavor." Secretary Root's letter to Mayor Weaver, Secretary Taft's speech in the Ohio campaign in which he declared against the Cox ticket in Cincinnati, Secretary Bonaparte's attitude in the Maryland campaign, ex-Attorney

General MacVeagh's and ex-PostmasterGeneral Smith's activity in the Philadelphia campaign, were cited time and again as striking evidences and reinforcements of the contention long maintained and insisted upon by the National Municipal League, that National parties and National party questions have no part and should play no part in the determination of local issues.

Encouraging Facts

The very rapid spread of interest

among city officials in the subject of uniform accounting and reporting was described at length by L. G. Powers, of the Census Bureau, in a striking paper on "The Acceptance of Municipal Accounting Reform." The wisdom which guided the League in drafting its schedules is evidenced by a number of facts. "No city which adopted its classification has ever abandoned it. The number of cities using it has increased from the beginning in a geometrical ratio." Some of the effects which have followed the publication of Census Bulletin No. 20, with its statistics of cities of 25,000, have been most striking. For instance, it disclosed to the cities of the Pacific Coast the fact that, unlike most other cities of the country, they were not receiving any interest on the current deposits of cash in banks. A disclosure of this has led to an agitation for legislation, and there is every probability that before long laws will be made to require interest not only on all deposits of cities, but on those of counties and other civil subdivisions. In Missouri it was disclosed that the cities of that State (except St. Louis) had no way of ascertaining from their own books the amount of taxes from railroads to which they were entitled, and this is to be remedied by the next Legislature. The question as to the municipal ownership and operation of public utilities evoked an animated discussion. Ex-Mayor James M. Head, of Nashville, Tennessee, told a moving story of his experiences with the local public service companies. He brought out the helplessness of municipal corporations, likening them to "lunatics, idiots, and married women under the

common law," without power to carry on their own business. His description of the opposition of all the corporate interests of the State to his bill to permit Nashville to make and sell electric light brought out the solidarity of these interests. Mayor Head contended strongly for a reservation in every franchise of the right of the city to purchase at any time. He maintained that a limited franchise, while removing the corporate influence from politics for the time being, brought it back in full force and effect at the expiration of the term in order to secure a renewal.

The New San Francisco

The hearts of all who care for a beautiful America will be gladdened by two recent movements-one on the Pacific and the other on the Atlantic coast. The first and most important is the careful consideration which is being given to the rebuilding of San Francisco so as to give the new city unity, individuality, and distinction. Mayor Schmitz, who has apparently risen fully to the demands of the great crisis in the affairs of the city, estimates that the replacement of the wrecked municipal buildings, including schools and fire houses, will cost not less than one hundred millions of dollars. In order that the situation in regard to rebuilding may be dealt with intelligently and in the most statesmanlike manner, a committee of forty leading citizens in all lines of activity has been appointed by the Mayor. This committee will consider various plans suggested in regard to the architectural reorganization of the city.

Extensive plans were made some time ago by Mr. Burnham which contemplate radical reconstruction for the purpose of making a beautiful city which shall symbolize to the eye the commanding position of San Francisco as the gateway to the East on the Western coast. It is proposed to get the best architectural, engineering, and sanitary advice; to secure, if possible, a general plan which will combine convenience and beauty; and it is greatly to be hoped that the energy, courage, and faith in the future which have been characteristic of San Francisco will prompt its citizens

to take a step forward and make the new city a leader in the movement which is destined sooner or later to include every intelligent community. Paris still stands almost alone among the large cities in dealing with itself as a municipal whole, in which parts are subordinated to the general effect, and convenience and beauty are combined in a unity which is an expression of the artistic genius of the French people. San Francisco has the opportunity, with proper adaptations to new conditions, to achieve the same results and to become a distinctive city in the convenience of its arrangement, the beauty of its general scheme, and the harmony of its buildings. It costs no more money to secure beauty than to perpetuate ugliness. There are enough ugly cities in America-towns which show no unity and are nothing but an aggregation of houses. San Francisco has a chance to become a city worthy of the name, in architecture as well as in government.

The Record of a

The New York

"Reform Legislature" Legislature which adjourned last week was one of three which were conspicuous products of the "anti-boss" elections last fall. Something of what the Pennsylvania and Ohio Legislatures accomplished The Outlook has already told. To give a dog too good a name is almost as bad for the dog as to give him a bad name. Of each of these Legislatures too much was expected; consequently each was in a measure the cause for disappointment. This has been especially true of the New York Legislature. Yet its record has been a creditable one. “Grab bills," about which much was heard a year ago, have either not appeared or have been effectually suppressed. Difference of opinion has arisen concerning the merits of some of the bills passed, but in no case that we call to mind has there been evoked the general condemnation of decent or publicspirited people. The most important service the Legislature has rendered is the enactment of insurance laws designed to remedy the conditions laid bare by the Armstrong investigation. In general, the