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penses were still less. Adverting to the gen-
eral increase in living expenses everywhere
throughout the country, he makes a telling
point when he says: "But notwithstanding
this, the salaries of Congressmen and Sena-
tors remain precisely what they were forty
years ago." The desire of the wealthy to live
on a scale proportionate to their means he
does not consider reprehensible; "but the
result of it," he sagely adds, "is a very seri-
ous matter to all of us." Literature and
law are resorted to for additional income,
but the former is meager and the latter frag-
mentary. The only paying practice for a
lawyer to-day appears to be corporation
business, and that "in some form or another
touches national legislation, either directly
or indirectly, in a variety of ways." Hence,
it is forbidden territory.
Salary increases will not materially aid in

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this dilemma. The only solution is for the people to make up their minds to keep rich men out of office unless of rare and conspicuous statesmanlike proportions. This would give the nation the service of rich men who are real statesmen, like Washington, and of poor men who are real statesmen, like Lincoln. "But if this is not done the republic must be exclusively governed by the lords of gold, who may be statesmen, may be figureheads, or may be something else." His trenchant conclusion is:

in statesmanship must go. Decidedly also the Decidedly the rich man who is not pre-eminent demagogue must go. Decidedly something more than millions and a purchased public reputation on the one hand, and flaming appeals to passion and class hatred on the other hand, must be required of would-be public men if the Government of, by, and for the people is not to be run exclusively by Croesus and Jack Cade.

A JAPANESE M. P. ON AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP FOR
HIS COUNTRYMEN.

IN N an open letter addressed to Viscount prove to be too great to be trifled with. Those Hayashi, Japanese Foreign Minister, the politicians who are now catering to the pleasures Hon. Julius Kumpei Matsumoto, a member of the Italians, the Germans, the Irish would, with soft and sweet voices, wait upon the Japaof the Japanese Parliament, discusses the lat- nese. They would not perhaps point a finger est developments in the diplomatic relations at them. And of course it is plainer than light between his own country and the United that, in such event, the Japanese exclusion would States. Mr. Matsumoto has been a member be a forbidden thing. In perusing the Constitution of the United States I find that the races of the Japanese Diet for several years. As that are allowed to be naturalized are two: one of the leaders of the Seiyu Kivai, the Constitutional party of the empire, he is entitled to be heard with respect when he speaks on the subject of naturalization for Japanese. Besides being a lawyer of repute, he is a graduate of two American universities, -Pennsylvania and Brown. From the open letter referred to, which appeared in a recent issue of Dai-Nippon (Greater Japan), a monthly review of Tokio, we quote as follows:

the white and the negro. The Supreme Court of the United States interprets this portion of the Constitution and says in relation to Japanese: "The Japanese are neither of the white race, nor of the negro race, but they are of the Mongolian race. Therefore, the Japanese have not the privilege of naturalization." The court thinks this is a just interpretation of the Constitution, and has no compunction about declaring its opinion. In some States, by the State laws, naturalization of Japanese is allowed. There are some Japanese who have already obtained citizenship papers from the State government and believe that they have been duly The fundamental cause of the political and naturalized. But before the Constitution of the social ostracism to which the Japanese are con- United States, which is the supreme law of demned in America is the fact that they have America, the State laws are void if they should not the privilege of naturalization. If the conflict with the federal Constitution. Should Japanese had that privilege, and within three anything happen, and should naturalized Japayears after naturalization they had the rights to nese citizens of America ask the decision of the vote as the Italians, the Irish, the Germans, and Supreme Court of the United States as other nationalities have, the voice of Japanese to the validity of their citizenship papers, exclusion would never have been raised in poli- their cases will be decided by the court tics or in society in America. If the Japanese according to its interpretation of the Conacquire the privilege of naturalization, those stitution. On the whole, therefore, the Japawho will become American citizens will increase nese have not the privilege of naturalization in gradually, and finally constitute themselves pow- the United States. Setting aside the question erful political factors. The Japanese are an en- of justice of the matter, such is an indisputable lightened race. In politics their power may fact of the law as it stands. When persons

denies even the privilege of naturalization, and takes an attitude of seclusion and exclusiveness. This is indeed a lamentable affair for the Americans who are proud of being the champions of

Fortunately, concludes Mr. Matsumoto, President Roosevelt values 66 our mutual friendship, and appreciates our national characteristics."

who come from Italy, Germany, Ireland, Russia,
Spain, Portugal, and other countries have the
privilege of naturalization, it is an insult to the
Japanese to deny the privilege to them alone.
The Japanese call themselves an enlightened the cause of humanity.
race. They class themselves as a nation among
the strongest civilized powers of the world.
But in the United States they are not accorded
the right which even the people of poor and
minor nations of Europe have. If the United
States Government denies the Japanese the same
right to become citizens that it gives to the
Europeans, where is the sincerity of the Ameri-
can people? Naturalization, viewed from the
standpoint of international private laws, is a
special privilege of the people of civilized na-
tions on equal terms. The Americans may be
naturalized in Japan. The Japanese cannot be
naturalized in America. It is against the prin-
ciple of reciprocity embodied in international
law. Are the Japanese so generous as to ac-
cept good-naturedly the discriminative treat-
ments in America, as if they were the people of
a far inferior race in the international position?
Has not the Japanese Government the courage
even for the sake of dignity to open negotiations
with the United States Government in regard to
this matter?
We owe much to America
for our civilization and progress. Our country-
men are all grateful. We look up to America
as our real guide in civilization, as our pro-
pitious friend, and as more than our ally. In
spite of this relationship, America still looks
down upon the Japanese as an inferior race,

It is not therefore impossible to look for a satisfactory solution of the problem during the administration of such a sympathetic statesman. The international agreement takes precedence of the national Constitution of either party to the agreement. To-day, the American President has the support of the majority in Congress, and an unprecedented influence and popularity. He is endowed with veto power by the Constitution. When such a great statesman, who is proud of being a friend of the Japanese people, has the reins of government in his hand, it is high time that we take the opportunity offered to see that the problem meets with a favorable solution. If, by hesitation, we fail to grasp the opportunity, I fear we may lose forever the key to the solution. . . Therefore, I urge our diplomats in service to open immediate negotiations in regard to naturalization. This is a way to harmonize sentiments of the two nations, and to perpetuate the friendly relation existing between Japan and America.

HOW MUCH, IF ANY, SHOULD WE SMOKE?

A HISTORY of the use of tobacco for smoking purposes, from the days the Spaniards first observed the Indians using the plant to the present, is given by Dr. Valentin Nalpasse, of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, and physician to the Persian embassy, in a highly interesting article which appears in the Journal de St. Petersburg.

Dr. Nalpasse traces the development of the use of tobacco as a medical agent, and then comes naturally to the question whether or not smoking is a practice injurious to health. He refers to the great popularity of Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco into continental Europe, and after whom we have the word nicotine. Since Nicot's day, says Dr. Nalpasse, the use of tobacco has been more than a habit or a pastime. It is a passion, a mania, if not second nature.

There are tobaccos and tobaccos, ways of smoking and ways of smoking. The Oriental exclaims: You people of Europe do not know how to smoke." Perhaps he is right.

The Oriental knows all about tobacco. His supply is prodigious. It comprises every variety of fine tobacco, from the finest leaves to the most

varied mixtures of the different qualities. To some of the mixtures perfumes are added. For sweet perfumes are mixed, in greater or less the man who smokes the narghileh, suave or proportion, with the sharp, strong tombekou. That complicated vehicle (the narghileh) is very hygienic. In it tobacco is grilled in a little metallic furnace. The smoke passes through a tube and through a vaseful of pure water, or rose water, and through a second pipe to the lips of the smoker.

Now and then the Oriental interrupts his smoke to take a few sips of coffee from a tiny glass, and by that means he neutralizes the slow intoxication induced by the prolonged use of tombekou.

into Europe, met bitter opposition. Its eneTobacco, from the time of its introduction mies had always been as numerous as its friends, and a close study of its properties which if it is abused are dangerous to the shows that, like all excitants, it has faults physical organism. Says Dr. Nalpasse:

But if tobacco is dangerous if it is abused, it does not follow that it is dangerous if treated as it should be treated and taken in a reasonable quantity. I am not attempting to encourage to smoke those who have not formed the habit of

smoking, but it must be admitted that tobacco may be used without bad effects. It has no bad effect when used moderately by people who are in a condition to use it. It must not be used at all by people who have heart trouble or lung trouble. It must not be used by people who have any disease of the nervous system. In a word, it must not be used by any one who would be unpleasantly affected, or who would be disturbed, by a hearty meal. Under any of those very common conditions tobacco might be dangerous, and it is not necessary to say that, for many reasons of all kinds, tobacco must not be used in any form by growing children or youths. Judged therapeutically, tobacco has an incontestible action on the intestinal canal, continues Dr. Nalpasse.

Many people are forced to smoke at least one cigarette as an aperient before the morning meal; as an aperient the most powerful diuretics are less effective than the after-dinner cigar. In some cases tobacco aids digestion by exciting the salivary secretion and so determining a greater activity of the gastric secretions. When pleading the cause of tobacco physicians cite the case of a woman who suffered from hysteria. She was racked by nausea, and all treatments had failed to check her paroxysms. Dr. Dujardine Beaumetz advised her to smoke one cigar after each meal. She did so and ceased her

vomiting. When she neglected to smoke her paroxysms returned. In many cases the cigarette has been useful for the prevention or cure of nausea. Pregnant women find benefit from it. And, according to the testimony of the Jesuit priest Charleroi, in cases of asphyxiation and drowning tobacco has been of use.

Many doctors have spoken against tobacco, and with reason. Societies have been formed to war against its use. These societies exaggerated the evils of tobacco, and their complaints, made in the name of hygiene,were excessive. They tried to forbid its use in any form. Exaggerations are not successful, and, perhaps, for that reason, many of the societies failed completely.

After a very serious study of the properties and the effects of tobacco, Dr. Nalpasse says: "I conclude that there are no pernicious effects when tobacco is used moderately.'

Pernicious results follow immoderate, often foolishly excessive, use of it. Smoked as it should be smoked, tobacco causes a man to forget his anxieties for a time. And the man who smokes as he ought,-and in the only way that tobacco was made to be smoked,-need not fear his pipe or his cigar. But even habitual smokers should avoid smoking on an empty stomach (unless they take this smoke as an aperient), and no one should smoke in his sleeping-room. Three cigars a day, four at most, or their equivalent in pipe tobacco, ought to be the limit of the habitual smoker. The "colored" pipe, however artistically it may have been colored, is impregnated with nicotine, and therefore is not fit to be smoked. A colored pipe is fit for nothing but to

feast the eyes. The smoker should throw away his pipe after the first few puffs. The cigar should be thrown aside when but three-quarters smoked,-just so the cigarette. This is because nicotine, the alkaloid contained in tobacco leaves, does not volatilize until it attains 250 degrees, and as it is drawn with the smoke toward the mouth when the fire is near the mouth-end of the cigar or cigarette, there is danger; it is apt to be drawn into the mouth. The habit of smoking the wet stump of a cigar impregnated with nicotine is essentially weak, foolish, indelicate,— not to say greedy. Here we have an act that betrays absolute ignorance of the composition of tobacco smoke. The intelligent smoker will not relight his cigar or his pipe, because he knows that the smoke of relighted tobacco is impure and that it cannot be purified. Experienced smokers know that the first puffs of tobacco smoke are most agreeable, while the last of the smoke is distasteful and acrid. If it does not irritate the throat it causes the smoker to cough.

The Japanese, and probably they are alone in this,-have seized the meaning of these last irritating puffs of smoke, and in smoking, as in every other act of life, they have taken hygienic precautions.

I had occasion to study their method on board a Japanese warship to which I was invited fifteen years ago. Their tobacco is stripped in threads like hair, or, to put it better, as fine as cornsilk. This finely stripped tobacco is stuffed into an exceedingly small pipe, and of each pipe the Japanese draws two whiffs,-only two, no more. The sight astonished me, and, noticing my astonishment, the surgeon explained to me that they smoked in that way to avoid inhaling nicotine. The pipes had to be lighted every minute, but no matches were used, the pipes being held at burning fuse-like wicks suspended for that purpose at the corners of the ship. I considered the whole arrangement hygienic.

As tobacco is noxious in proportion to the amount of nicotine held by it, a man ought to think seriously, before he makes his selection, of the origin of his tobacco.

baccos contain only a minimum quantity of nicoAnalyses have proved that the Oriental totine. Western tobacco contains much more. The tobacco of Hungary contains 2 per cent. of nicotine, and that of Brazil, Maryland, and Virginia contains quantities varying from 2.29 to 6.85 per cent. Tobacco marketed by Garonne holds the largest proportion of nicotine,-nearly 8 per cent. Nicotine is a redoubtable poison. The best way to avoid inhaling it is to smoke a pipe through a long stem and with a bowl,-like the chiboukhs of the Turks. That pipe, now out of date, was an excellent one. It was composed of several successive tubes furnished with large screened ends. The chiboukh arrested the nicotine before it reached the smoker's mouth. But of all the "pipes." none can equal the graceful and delightful narghileh or the ghalian of the Persians. Those are the pipes used incessantly by the people of the East, and by their use the noxious action of tobacco is almost wholly annihilated.

THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND AMERICAN TRADE.

sued by the Government, and the titles of some indicate a marked versatility and literary ability in our representatives. Swiss airships, Spanish bullfights, Siamese marriage laws, French pawnshops, Dutch charities, and Florentine lunatics are a few of the subjects of the "special" reports which our en

66

lar pens. The editorial work in connection
with these reports is performed by a special
bureau in the State Department, where
copy " is scrutinized and "blue-penciled
as religiously as in the city room of a metro-
politan daily, lest anything unsuitable for
publication appear. In this respect great
care has to be exercised in the elimination of
statements calculated to arouse criticism or
lead to embarrassment; for instance: Allu-
sions to national customs, religious institu-
tions, pending diplomatic relations, violations
of immigration laws, etc.

CONSULS as trade agents and commercial correspondents, and Uncle Sam in the rôle of a publisher of a daily paper, are undreamt-of realities to the average citizen. Yet, the onward march of this country's commerce has even made the Consul a tributary and embarked the Government in daily journalism. Consuls, heretofore, have ad- terprising Government received from consuvised their governments of trade openings in the countries in which they were stationed, but prior to 1880 their work was desultory, and only in recent years has it been systematized and made obligatory. Under the Root "merit system" for consular preferment our representatives have to furnish trade reports, which become a matter of record and a lever for preferment or promotion. In brief, the history of the issuance of commercial publications by the United States Government is as follows: In 1857, "Secretary Marcy submitted to Congress a report on the commercial relations of the country, in which he said: "The interests of commerce can be viewed as secondary to none, and can scarcely be fostered with a care too sedulous." In 1880, Secretary Evarts, moved by similar views, recommended to the House of Representatives the frequent publication of consular and diplomatic reports upon commercial and kindred subjects. This was approved, and instructions were given consuls to report upon all subjects "calculated to advance the commercial and industrial interests of the United States." The fruits of their pursuant labors appeared in October, 1880, in the Monthly Consular Reports, which was well received and now enjoys a gratuitous circulation of 7000 copies each month. In January, 1898, the Advance Sheets, Consular Reports, a daily periodical, made its appearance, which later changed its title to Daily Consular Reports, and since July, 1905, has been known as Daily Consular and Trade Reports.

This brilliant undertaking is unprecedented and has done much to promote our foreign trade. Its circulation is 5700 copies daily, sent chiefly to newspapers, exporting and manufacturing firms, and commercial bodies. In addition, there is a Monthly Consular Report, a reprint of the daily edition, published each month, which circulates among educational institutions, libraries, country newspapers, and the general public. Special consular reports on commercial as well as non-commercial subjects are also is

The scope of this undertaking is interestingly shown in the February Atlantic Monthly, by Mr. John Ball Osborne, who is at pains to describe in detail its constructive and effective work. Referring to the commercial, industrial, and, indeed, miscellaneous nature of the reports furnished by consuls, he says:

It is a reasonable conclusion that the intelli

gent efforts of our consular officers, directed unremittingly toward finding new and enlarged and industry, have contributed vastly to the markets for these products of American skill gratifying commercial expansion of the last quarter of a century.

Nor does he leave this in doubt. Continuing, he makes mention of numerous instances wherein American beneficiaries have testified to the assistance rendered them by the consular service reports. Many important foreign contracts and valuable markets have been secured, and acquired markets safeguarded, he points out, through the vigilance and promptness of consuls. In practical value, European economists concede that these reports are unsurpassed, and, in the past twenty years, the supremacy gained by the United States in foreign markets which, at one time, were overwhelmingly European, goes to prove the value of such services. In 1905 consular reports averaged 400 each month, and in 1906, during the first quarter, 600. Many of the best features of the American system have been adopted, after investigation, by our commercial rivals. Imitation of this kind is the sincerest form of flattery.

Germany, Mr. Osborne points out, maintains a staff of commercial experts attached to various consulates, and Great Britain a staff of commercial attachés, with diplomatic status, at several important embassies, who report to their governments on commercial matters, answer inquiries of corporations and individuals, and act, in general, as commercial intermediaries. A similar addition "would materially strengthen the existing official machinery for promoting American trade interests abroad." He, likewise, dep

recates the open publication of commercial intelligence secured from our consuls, which is often cabled back to Europe, and sees wisdom in the discrimination with which Germany at times sees that important information reaches her own merchants first. Commenting on this, he says:

I regard that practice as not only sagacious of protecting home industrial and commercial but eminently patriotic, for it is one effective way interests in the international struggle for wider markets.

ON THE EVE OF THE NEW RUSSIAN DUMA.

THE great danger of the present political situation in Russia on the eve of the assembling of the second Duma lies in the apparent impossibility of an understanding and agreement between the government and the progressive elements of Russian society. With the character and work of the stereotyped, fossilized, and corrupt Russian bureaucracy American readers are already familiar. This bureaucracy, report to the contrary notwithstanding, is still in the saddle, although Russia has the forms of the beginning of constitutional government by its

better elements.

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There is no real government in Russia today as the term government is understood in western Europe. This is the assertion of the famous Russian economic and political writer, L. Slonimski, in his review of current events in a recent number of the Vyestnik Yevropy, of St. Petersburg. The leading rôle in the empire of the Czars, he declares, really belongs to those "sinister powers behind the scenes, and the ministers serve only as executors of the various influences which prevail at the court at any given moment." These spheres" are always more or less reactionary, generally hostile, and at best suspicious in their relation to the Russian people at large. Their power lies in the fact that the army still remains faithful to them. Since the famous manifesto of October 30, 1905, many privileges have been granted, on paper, to the Russian people. A so-called Parliament has met. These "spheres," however, never recognized the Duma, and, from its own side, this Russian Parliament was never guided by those practical maxims and conditions under which it should have worked. Many serious mistakes hastened its deplorable dissolution." Mr. Slonimski pro

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ceeds to analyze the condition of Russia as bettered by the meeting of the first Duma, and points out the causes of that body's failure to accomplish genuine reform. At this point he says:

The political parties which had a majority in the Duma labored under the illusion that a real constitution after the western-European model had already been introduced in Russia, and that the question to be settled concerned merely the means of bringing it into working order. Therefore an injudicious and irreconcilable attitude was adopted from the very beginning in its relations to the opponents, who were in possession of all the material resources of the government machinery. Instead of basing its authority and credentials on the great historical sins of the rulers, who had brought the country to the verge of ruin, the Duma attempted to imitate ready formule which are not at all in harmony with parliamentary models, and to apply constitutional our real conditions and needs. In its aimless antagonizing struggle with the ministry the Duma overlooked the fact that behind the ministry stood the court, and behind the court,the army. It was carried away by undefined sentiments and expectations of the masses, and worked under the dangerous illusion that it might succeed in seizing the power of government. This was politically a naïve and inexcusable tactical mistake from the party standpoint, which was to deal above all else with questions of tactics.

As a matter of fact, the first Duma and the imperial government spoke to each other in different languages. The experiences of this Parliament again corroborated the old adage that political reforms must precede social reforms. To quote further:

It was useless to take up the agrarian problem before the constitutional. Nothing can be realized and accomplished without real power, while the effective distribution of power depends on the form of government. Of what use are the best agrarian projects where an insignificant ministry in possession of the government machinery can overthrow and annul them? What can

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