HON. FREDERICK C. STEVENS. (The new head of the Public Works Department of New York State.)

clared that all opposition to the Erie Canal improvement had disappeared from every quarter. The work is proceeding satisfactorily and honestly. Contracts are being let at figures well within the original estimates. Governor Hughes has appointed the Hon. Frederick C. Stevens, formerly a State Senator, as head of the Public Works Department, and his chief task will be the management of this great undertaking, which is to cost the State of New York $100,000,000. It changes the small and obsolete Erie Canal into a much larger waterway, with a 12-foot depth of water, capable of floating barges of 1000 tons capacity. The critics several years ago were scorning canal transportation as being too slow; but most parts of the country would have found the canals far more rapid in their service than the railroads have been during the past year. The average movement of freight across the country during the past few months has scarcely exceeded an ox-team rate. The improved Erie Canal, with its access to lakes Erie, Ontario, and Champlain, may be expected to relieve the railroads of a vast deal of heavy traffic. With the tariff changes that are imperatively needed, a great lumber movement from Canada across the

lakes and down the Erie Canal and Hudson should be one of the early developments of the future.

Prospective Undertakings.

Mr. James J. Hill, who operates great steamships on the lakes and the Pacific, as well as transcontinental railroads, has now declared himself in favor of Mississippi River improvement to the most unlimited extent. The body of public opinion favorable to a great traffic canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi steadily increases. The individual States should not expect the general Government to pay all the bills. Chicago and the State of Illinois can just as well afford to create a waterway from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi by enlargement of the Chicago drainage canal as New York can afford to spend $100,000,000 upon a canal improvement that will benefit the Western farmers far more than it will benefit any class of people in New York. Even in the matter of harbor improvements it would be a far better plan if the cities or States immediately concerned should be expected to pay one-half the bill, and the gencral Government the other half. Thus Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, New York, Galveston, and all other important seaports would have much better harbor facilities in the long run if they shared the expense with the general Government, as in justice they ought to do.

The Merchant Marine Question.

The Ship Subsidy bill at Washington has been modified by degrees until now it has taken the form of a mail bonus arrangement,, to encourage direct communication with South America and to promote our steamship development on the Pacific Ocean. However desirable on many accounts it would be to see the American flag flying in all the ports of the earth, the time is not yet opportune or ripe for the extensive establishment of an American merchant marine. Our capital and labor are still engaged in the highly profitable task of developing the resources of North America. Our foreign trade is important, but it is only incidental to the vast volume of our domestic trade. It is not to our loss, but rather to our great benefit, that the maritime dwellers of Europe, with relatively poor business opportunities on land, are compelled to make their living by doing ocean freighting at low prices. Until we have capital enough available for our most necessary and lucrative railroad improvements our money and our

Mayor of New York City, and that his opponent, George B. McClellan, occupies his seat through the exercise of fraud in the canvass of the ballots. Application had been made to the Republican Attorney-General of the State for proceedings to test Mayor McClellan's title to his office, but the application had been denied. Governor Hughes now recommends that the Legislature immediately provide for a recount of the votes, that hereafter the courts be empowered to order recounts, and that power to authorize suits for testing titles to office be taken from the Attorney-General and conferred on the courts. The fact that the passage of such legislation would give justice to his own opponent in the contest for the governorship last fall only serves to demonstrate the inherent fairness and non-partisanship of the position taken by the new Governor. His further recommendations, it should be noted, in the direction of limiting the expenditures of candidates and empowering court review of fraudulent exclusion of delegates from political conventions, would operate directly against the practices which discredited Mr. Hearst's campaign of last year. In the meantime, Attorney-General Jackson, who was elected on the Hearst ticket, at once began proceedings to oust Mayor McClellan.

A Business

Other recommendations made by Administration Governor Hughes were quite as for New York. disconcerting to the old-time politicians as anything that he said about electoral reform. The State Railroad Commission of New York has long been an unwieldy and inefficient bureau, the refuge of political hacks whose salaries were paid by the railroads themselves. The Governor recommends the abolition of this useless body, as well as of the present Commission of Gas and Electricity, and the creation of a new board with real authority, whose salaries shall be paid by the State and whose jurisdiction shall include all the public-service corporations. He makes a similar recommendation regarding the Rapid Transit Commission of New York City,-not that the last named commission has ever reached the state of uselessness that has long characterized the State commission, but solely in the interest of greater practical efficiency as an administrative body. The appointments thus far made by Governor Hughes in the State's service have been admirable. For State Superintendent of Public Works, the official who will have direct charge of the expenditure of $103,000,000 for the enlarged Erie Canal, he has selected ex-Senator Frederick C. Stevens, a man of independent fortune and recognized business capacity. Here again, as in all his other acts since taking office, Governor Hughes has studiously ignored the behests of the machine politicians. The appointment of Charles H. Keep as Superintendent of Banks further emphasized the Governor's determination to place in positions of public trust responsible and worthy men without regard to political considerations in the narrow and accustomed sense.

State

New Features.

It was remarked in these pages Legislation last month that officials of the general Government at Washington would be glad to see some of the States more energetic in the prosecution of certain lines of administrative work that properly falls within their province. Developments in many of the States since those words were written tend to give assurance that, so far from abdicating their functions, these State governments are more active and energetic than ever before. This is particularly noticeable in the case of certain activities that the public has lately associated with the federal rather than the State governments. We have now come to think of railroad-rate regulation, for example, as a national question, and

yet the State legislatures this winter are doing more in the direction of rate legislation than for many years past. There is a general movement for the restriction of railroad passenger fares to two cents a mile. Bills for this purpose have been introduced in the legislatures of New York, Delaware, North Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska. The Governors of Michigan and Nebraska have discussed the subject in their annual messages. It is also to be noted that "anti-pass" legislation, which began a few years ago in Wisconsin and was then considered a radical innovation, is now discussed not only in the Middle West but in some of the Eastern and Southern States as well. The Governors of New Hampshire, West Virginia, Nebraska and Montana have thought it worth while to allude to the subject at some length in their messages. It was, of course, to be expected that insurance would have a prominent place in the State legislation of the current season, and we find recommendations on the subject in the messages of most of the Middle Western Governors, while bills have been introduced in the New England State legislatures. The pure food question is attracting much attention in the West, and it is also discussed by the Governor of West Virginia.

Taxing and

Taxation has always occupied a Regulating the large proportion of the time of Corporations. our State legislatures, and of late years the propositions advocated by Governors and tax commissions have been increasingly radical. A few years ago the reforms advocated by Governor LaFollette, of Wisconsin, had little support beyond the borders of that State, but at the present time, to judge from the recommendations of Governors Folk, of Missouri, and Johnson, of Minnesota, public opinion has advanced to a point where most of the LaFollette measures seem fairly conservative. Thus, Governor Johnson dwells at length on the immense mineral wealth of his State, which the steel trust is now exploiting, while the State of Minnesota has received in the form of taxation but a mere pittance. The most advanced position taken by any of the States thus far on the question of an income tax is that indicated by Governor Davidson, of Wisconsin, who, it will be remembered, was supported at his election last fall by the socalled conservative element of Wisconsin's Republicans as distinct from the LaFollette

HON. WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH. (Michigan's Senator-elect.)

such a tax is unsurpassed as a leveler of the public burden, and that it most nearly satisfies, with proper enforcement, the conception of an ideal tax. He urges the passage of the constitutional amendment providing for such a tax. This form of taxation is also advocated by Governor Dawson, of West Virginia. Among the first States to follow the lead of New York in adopting a system of regulation of public-service corporations are Michigan and Wisconsin. In these, as in other populous American commonwealths, the electric-railroad corporations have obtained valuable franchises and become increasingly powerful in the business world without attracting the attention of the State governments. It is now realized that some form of regulation is a necessity, and the people are looking to their State governments to perform this function. Not only do the Governors of some of these States advocate such regulation through State commissions, but both Governor Folk, of Missouri, and Governor Davidson, of Wisconsin, come out squarely in favor of municipal ownership, and such utterances are no longer regarded as

Photograph by Marceau. N. Y.

HON. WILLIAM S. JACKSON, OF BUFFALO. (Attorney-General for New York State.)

Mayor of New York City, and that his opponent, George B. McClellan, occupies his seat through the exercise of fraud in the canvass of the ballots. Application had been made to the Republican Attorney-General of the State for proceedings to test Mayor McClellan's title to his office, but the application had been denied. Governor Hughes now recommends that the Legislature immediately provide for a recount of the votes, that hereafter the courts be empowered to order recounts, and that power to authorize suits for testing titles to office be taken from the Attorney-General and conferred on the courts. The fact that the passage of such legislation would give justice to his own opponent in the contest for the governorship last fall only serves to demonstrate the inherent fairness and non-partisanship of the position taken by the new Governor. His further recommendations, it should be noted, in the direction of limiting the expenditures of candidates and empowering court review of fraudulent exclusion of delegates from political conventions, would operate directly against the practices which discredited Mr. Hearst's campaign of last year. In the meantime, Attorney-General Jackson, who was elected on the Hearst ticket, at once began proceedings to oust Mayor McClellan.

A Business

Other recommendations made by Administration Governor Hughes were quite as for New York. disconcerting to the old-time politicians as anything that he said about electoral reform. The State Railroad Commission of New York has long been an unwieldy and inefficient bureau, the refuge of political hacks whose salaries were paid by the railroads themselves. The Governor recommends the abolition of this useless body, as well as of the present Commission of Gas and Electricity, and the creation of a new board with real authority, whose salaries shall be paid by the State and whose jurisdiction shall include all the public-service corporations. He makes a similar recommendation regarding the Rapid Transit Commission of New York City,-not that the last named commission has ever reached the state of uselessness that has long characterized the State commission, but solely in the interest of greater practical efficiency as an administrative body. The appointments thus far made by Governor Hughes in the State's service have been admirable. For State Superintendent of Public Works, the official who will have direct charge of the expenditure of $103,000,000 for the enlarged Erie Canal, he has selected ex-Senator Frederick C. Stevens, a man of independent fortune and recognized business capacity. Here again, as in all his other acts since taking office, Governor Hughes has studiously ignored the behests of the machine politicians. The appointment of Charles H. Keep as Superintendent of Banks further emphasized the Governor's determination to place in positions of public trust responsible and worthy men without regard to political considerations in the narrow and accustomed sense.

State

New Features.

It was remarked in these pages Legislation last month that officials of the general Government at Washington would be glad to see some of the States more energetic in the prosecution of certain lines of administrative work that properly falls within their province. Developments in many of the States since those words were written tend to give assurance that, so far from abdicating their functions, these State governments are more active and energetic than ever before. This is particularly noticeable in the case of certain activities that the public has lately associated with the federal rather than the State governments. We have now come to think of railroad-rate regulation, for example, as a national question, and