ident Clowry's company is making any such arrangements as that described by Captain Goddard, it needs no information from the police authorities, and it must know that people of no extraordinary intelligence are well aware that it needs none. Such an attitude as that assumed by President Clowry, in the face of such specific allegations as those made by Captain Goddard before the City Club, and forwarded by the City Club to every Director of the Western Union, does more than any possible Socialistic propaganda could do to hasten the coming of the time when the telegraph, like the mails, will be under Government control. When that time comes, the telegraph, no more than it is now, no more than the mails, which are under Government control, will be a "censor of public and private morals," but it will not be an instrument which may be used by special and deliberate agreement for the violation of law.

at St. Louis

The Louisiana Purchase The World's Fair Exposition was formally opened on the last day of April with impressive ceremonies and in the presence of a great throng of people. Among the addresses the most. notable was that made by Secretary Taft, as the personal representative of President Roosevelt; and it was natural that Secretary Taft, in speaking of the great historical events commemorated by this world's exposition, should refer to the new and different kind of expansion lately entered into by the United States. Mr. Taft declared that this Far Eastern expansion did in fact involve other and different problems from those presented in the Louisiana Purchase, and added:

They have been forced upon us without our seeking, and they must be solved with the same high sense of duty, the same fearlessness and courage, with which our ancestors met the very startling problems that were presented by the addition of this wide expanse of territory of Louisiana. That they may not and probably will not be solved by conferring Statehood upon the new territory is probable. Augurs of ill and ruin to follow from the experience and solution of the problem are not wanting, but they never have been wanting in the history of this country, and they never have been allowed to control the fearless grappling of new problems by Americans.

A striking hymn, written for the occasion by Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and sung by a large chorus, was received with sympathetic interest, and is indeed a hymn well worth reading by the people of the whole country. The actual as well as the typical opening of the Exposition was accomplished by President Roosevelt through an electric circuit by means of which, at his touch in Washington, the forty thousand horsepower of machinery was put in motion. Perhaps the event in which the crowds present at the ceremonies showed most positive interest was the starting of the great cascades on the Exposition grounds. These cascades form the most individual feature of the Exposition, and in extent and beauty have never been equaled. The immensity of the plan for this world's fair may be judged from the fact that the grounds include 1,240 acres of area, two miles long by one mile wide, while the Exposition at Chicago embraced hardly half this amount of ground. present Exposition has one hundred and twenty acres under roof, while the buildings at Chicago covered only eighty-two acres. The entire cost of the St Louis Exposition up to date has been something like fifty millions of dollars. At the date of opening the main buildings were completed; and so far as construction goes, the Exposition was in a more advanced state than those that have preceded it. As is always the case, the exhibits were not in place as generally as might be hoped; but from the day on which the ceremonies took place to this time, there have arrived constantly in St. Louis hundreds of trains loaded with exhibits, and the work of installing them is going rapidly on. Probably this new and greatest World's Fair will be at its best by the end of this month. It is to be hoped that the reports that the St. Louis hotels are asking exorbitant rates will not be confirmed; to do so would in the end prove a short-sighted policy.

The New South

The

The most significant fact

brought out by the sessions of the Conference for Education in the South recently held in Birmingham, and upon which comment was made in these columns last week, is the growing

and, in many localities, enthusiastic faith in universal education for the Southern people. The Old South as a whole had no public-school system. Its social organization was distinctly aristocratic; it did not contain more families of social and educational opportunity than the North, but those families constituted a governing class up to the close of the war.

Since the end of the

so-called Reconstruction period the most important fact in the development of the South has been the coming to self-consciousness of the middle classes and their rise into power. This movement would have taken place sooner or later under any conditions; it would have taken place eventually had the Southern Confederacy been established; for on this continent, in the atmosphere of American institutions, no aristocracy could permanently have kept political power in its hands. With the advent of democracy has come the conviction that education must be universal in order that citizens may have training for their duties; and the South has awakened to the fact that illiteracy is far too prevalent and that education is too inadequately equipped for the burdens that are being thrown upon it and are to be thrown upon it during the next few years. The leaders of the new educational movement are Southern men who represent both the old and the new order; men like Chancellor Hill, of the University of Georgia, who stand for the best traditions of the old order of things, and a large group of young men who have come to the front in recent years-men who, while they remain true to the best ideals of the Old South, are alive to the demands of the present, have largely escaped the limitations of sectional view, and are the enthusiastic leaders of a movement for the liberation of the South through superior education. It was this great movement in the South-one of the most significant movements of the day in the United States-which found expression at Birmingham, Alabama, not only in the speeches of prominent Southern and Northern men, but also in the interest manifested by the great and deeply interested audiences which filled the place of meeting.

The speeches of both Points of Agreement Northern and Southern men were notable for their frankness, for the absence of partisanship, for the disappearance of the sectional feeling. The speakers did not always agree, but they looked each other in the face, gained common respect for one another's motives, and struck hands in a common devotion to a common cause. Bishop Galloway, whose speech was briefly reported last week, declared that the negro question was one of immense importance to the South from the industrial point of view, and formulated what he regarded as certain things upon which Southern men are now agreed:

First-In the South there never will be any social mingling of the races. Whether middle wall of partition which will not be it be prejudice or pride of race, there is a

broken down.

Second-They will worship in separate churches and be educated in separate schools. This is alike desired by both races, and is for the good of each.

Third-The political power of this section will remain in present hands. Here, as elsewhere, intelligence and wealth will and should control the administration of governmental affairs.

Fourth-The great body of the negroes are here to stay. Their coerced colonization would be a crime, and their deportation a physical impossibility. And the white people are less anxious for them to go than they are to leave. They are natives and not intruders.

With these positions the North is stead ily coming into greater sympathy, as it has already come to the conclusion that the race matter is one which, so far as it affects Southern States, must be settled by Southern men, and with increasing confidence that it will be settled right by Southern men. The matters of chief concern before the Conference were local taxation, the necessity for better school-houses, longer terms of school work, and improved teaching. The question of National aid for education, while it was suggested, was not emphasized, and the Conference did not put itself on record on the matter. Nothing could better serve the process of interpretation between the sections, now so rapidly going on, than such conferences as that held in Birmingham. Every such conference helps to destroy the power of the demagogue, North and

South, whose capital in stock is the awakening of sectional prejudices, and whose disappearance from the face of the earth ought to be witnessed within a measurable period of time.

The National

The

There was a distinct Municipal League atmosphere of hopefulness and efficiency in the sessions of the tenth annual meeting of the National Municipal League just held in Chicago, although there was no disposition to ignore the difficulties and dangers in the path of those interested in rescuing our cities from present conditions and establishing them upon a higher and more efficient basis. compact and interesting annual review by Secretary Woodruff, while outlining the disclosures, investigations, and indictments of the year, brought out in full relief the extent and power of the forces making for improvement. He referred to the New Voters' Festival established in Boston to impress upon those about to exercise the suffrage for the first time the solemn significance of their duty. The work of juvenile city leagues aiming to inculcate habits of civic cleanliness and a regard for the rights of others, the broadening interest of business men and the unceasing activity of business bodies in municipal affairs, and the interest of city officials themselves, were described at length as ground for the belief that substantial progress was being made. Perhaps the most important forward steps undertaken were those to co-ordinate university and collegiate instruction in municipal government, and to investigate the subject of municipal taxation. The need of the former was outlined in Professor Rowe's paper, and the latter in a paper by Mr. Lawson Purdy.

is commonly critical, that, owing to this fact, he lacks ability to co-operate with his fellow-citizens in the struggle for civic improvement, and that those reform organizations which contain a large percentage of college men lack cohesion and show an inability to concentrate effort on common ends. This view represents the opinion of a large and influential class, who, while not opposed to college education as such, hold that the particular type of training at present offered fails to bring the student into harmony with the aspirations and ideals of our American com. munities, and leads him to assume the position of a critic rather than that of an earnest worker. If this charge be true, it is a most serious indictment, and our higher institutions of learning owe it to the country as well as to themselves to examine with great care whether the arrangement of their curricula and the methods of instruction are such as to develop this essentially negative attitude toward public affairs. The cause of this attitude, it was asserted, was due to the fact that instruction in government necessarily assumes a didactic tone which only tends to emphasize the critical attitude of the student. To remedy this it was suggested that the student must be brought into contact with the facts of political life through personal original research.

Some Constructive Suggestions of the League

Mr. Purdy's thoughtful discussion may be

summed up in the following conclusions or suggested programme of action:

Abolish all constitutional restrictions on the power of the Legislature to regulate taxation.

Do away with the necessity for uniform State taxation by apportioning State taxes in proportion to local revenue.

Give to every county the right within the general laws of the State to exempt from taxation any class of property, or proportionof property. ately to reduce the assessment of any class

As an immediate reform, assess real estate annually, state the value of land separately, and publish the assessment rolls in conven

ient form.

With local option on taxation every community will be a debating society, and edu

cation, which now halts and stumbles, will advance with leaps and bounds.

The first annual address by the new President, Charles J. Bonaparte, dealt in striking fashion with the familiar topic "Partisanship in Municipal Affairs." The address was so significant in emphasizing the importance of working with the present National parties in town and city affairs until something better can be devised, and in pointing out sententiously how much better half a loaf is, even among reformers, than no bread, that we comment on it editorially elsewhere. One of the most encourag ing features of the meeting, which filled three days and evenings, was the fact that no time was given to abusing practical politics or politicians, but every paper was devoted to the constructive work which has more and more come to be the characteristic of the League.

Bible League

The first Convention of the The American American Bible League was held in the Marble Collegiate Church, New York City, for three days last week. The man who provided for its financial support, Mr. William Phillips Hall, presided. He stated the object of the League to be the organization of the friends of the Bible, for promoting reverential study of it, and the maintenance of faith in it as the inspired Word of God. He declared that the Bible was being subjected to assault by scholars, and that the League would repulse the assault and restore the Bible to its rightful place. Most of the speakers at the Convention were either clergymen or theologians; several denominations were represented. President Patton, of Princeton Theological Seminary, delivered what was in most respects the most notable address. He based his remarks upon the assumption that the issue lies between those who believe

in Christianity as "a piece of supernatural information with respect to the future life," and those who believe in Christianity as merely a metaphysic philosophy. The critics of the Bible he acquitted of malice or of the intention of doing wrong, and he added:

We want criticism, intelligent criticism, of the Bible. We can't shut it up in a glass

case; we can't make an expurgatorius of books against it. Unless the Bible can stand in the daylight, there is no use keeping all admit that this controversy must be manit in the dark, and it ought to go down. We aged by minute experts of the Bible, on each side. We are willing to submit our case to the court and we expect a verdict. Meanwhile, while these critics, good and bad, fight it out, what are we going to do for those ministers who are going on preaching pretty little amenities of morality and sociology same time getting to that state where they from their pulpits, their congregations at the think one doctrine or two more or less does

not matter?

Several of the speakers did not take quite the same position as did President Patton. So far as any conclusions can be drawn from the rather rhetorical statements made, it seems that other speakers regarded all scholarly and expert examination of the Bible as in the nature of assaults upon it. Of these Dr. Burrell was the representative, in likening the higher critics to a little dog running out to bite an army. There appear to have been two parties in the Convention, one holding to the position that the Bible, being altogether unique, ought not to be subjected to any test whatever, the other holding to the position well expressed by Professor Robert Wilson, of Princeton Theological Seminary, as follows:

The only way in which the conservative party can maintain its position in the field of Biblical criticism is by showing that the premises of the radical critics are false; by gation of the facts that the foundations upon showing through the more thorough investi

which the magnificent structures of the critics rest are, indeed, groundless, unscientific, and illogical, unproved, and often incapable of proof.

The former position is one which is obviously not open for discussion. The latter position is one that is entitled to respect. We believe that both these positions are wrong, but for different reasons. The answer to the former will

be made by the continuance of critical study of the Bible. The answer to the latter consists in showing, on the one hand, that the results of modern critical study of the Bible are not rightly represented by its opponents, and, on the other hand, that these results are at once reasonable and helpful to relig ious life. It is only in so far as they

odist Episcopal Church began its session at Los Angeles, California. This body meets every four years, and for the first time in the history of the Church convenes in the far West, and for the second time beyond the Mississippi River. The report of the Board of Education shows that, as a result of the Twentieth Century Thank Offering, the educational institutions of the Church have profited by an increase in value of property and endowment, exclusive of debt, from about twenty-nine millions of dollars to nearly thirty-six and a half millions. The address of the bishops gives the present membership of the Church as 3,031,644. In the General Conference there are 748 delegates, the clerical and lay delegates being in equal numbers. Among the delegates are twenty-five women, and as women appear in the General Conference for the first time, they contribute a unique and interesting feature of the assembly. Seventy-nine colored delegates are present, and fortytwo delegates from the various foreign mission fields. It is a remarkable fact that of the 748 delegates only 108 have been members of previous General Conferences. In many respects this promises to be a most important General Conference. Among the chief subjects to be brought before the body is the project to unify the publishing interests of the denomination, involving the consolidation of the two printing establishments-one at New York and the other at Cincinnati. This will mean a complete readjustment of the publishing department; and while the scheme has much to commend it, there are those in the Conference who will oppose it to the end. Closely related to this project is

the plan to put the various benevolent enterprises of the Church on a new basis, creating a Foreign and a Domestic Missionary Society, placing the work of the Sunday-School Union under the Educational Department of the Church, etc., the idea being to increase the contributions of the Church to the benevolent causes by reducing the number of special collections. Then the question of the restoration of the pastoral timelimit is a burning one. The last General Conference removed the limit, which was five years, and left the preachers to be appointed to their respective charges annually. During the quadrennium considerable dissatisfaction has developed over the operation of the new law, and the movement to repeal the law and go back to five years has gained considerable headway. An exceedingly interesting feature of the Conference will be the election of bishops and of other officers, such as editors of the various church papers and secretaries of the different benevolent societies. At least four bishops and several missionary bishops. are to be chosen. Another feature of unusual interest will be the reception of the fraternal representatives of other branches of the Methodist family; the principal ones being the representatives of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of England, the Irish Conference, the Methodist Church of Canada, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Conference will continue in session until the latter part of May.