alluring vision set before the country by men who choose to ignore the patent fact that the primary system where in operation imposes expenses that practically bar all but very rich men from the competition.

From Ex-Governor Black's Speech Before New York Bankers' Association.

"The election of United States Senators by popular vote would be an unwise and retrogressive step. The very purpose of the Constitution in that regard was to insure the deliberation of one important arm of Federal government removed somewhat from the influence of powerful but rapidly changing popular sentiment. The people are not always right upon the instant, and tribunals that are not carried off their feet by the passions of every hour are needed safeguards against hasty popular mistakes. These changes, which I believe are wrong, are widely advocated, and the new, flamboyant statesman has them all in his platform and is now focussing his mind upon another plank, which would be even more popular, but hardly more unsound, pensions for indigent voters. If the intelligence of the country had acted and spoken as it ought for the last six years this condition would not be. And it will not be to your credit if it goes on."

autumn settled all question that remained over the outcome. The popular election of senators is another amendment, and as it happens a highly desirable one, that is likely to get before the legislatures in the near future, and if so is sure to be ratified. But will the amending process stop there? What of the proposed election of a President by general popular vote, a most dangerous change in our system? The life tenure of the federal judiciary is a point on which the West has long been restive. Old-age pensions may call for another amendment. The Supreme Court has decided that the general government cannot make payments from its treasury except in connection with civil or military service; but as soon as that issue raises its head here, as it is done in Great Britain, what would prevent an appeal for an amendment, if that process once became fashionable, to do the trick? In fine, it is not unlikely that the real battles of the future will come in reserving the prohibitions of the Constitution. Not a few radicals have proposed that a convention should be called, just as the States have often done, for a general revision.

Since the decision in the Ohio and New Jersey cases at the close of the civil war, and until this is reversed, it will be altogether too easy to get through any amendment which passes both houses of Congress by the required majorities. Under that ruling the rejection of an amendment is a temporary matter, while its acceptance admits of no revocation. By this jug-handled arrangement it is only a question of time when any amendment that is strong enough to secure submission to the legislatures

would find their approval, and Congress itself will remain the only barrier against change.

PERITY."

From the Portland Oregonian

People of the United States are engaged in the big job of trying to equalize prosperity. Driven by spectacle of big profits accruing to relatively a few men, they are "insurging" in various ways against the old order of things. In some respects they already have gone too far, as in so-called conservation; in denunciation of efforts of business and prosperity interests to protect themselves in politics; in curtailment of railroad profits, and in general antagonism toward capital and busi

ness.

The purpose of the popular mind in this movement is clear; it is to diminish the profits that have been accrued to relatively few persons through their superior opportunities or intelligence, and to bring in as partners as large element of the people as possible. Citizens of the United States have been prosperous Curing the last decade as never before; bread and butter and luxuries have been easier to earn than at any time in the nation's history, despite the rising level of prices. Yet the people are not content. They are hardly more content than when, fifteen years ago, they were suffering the pinch and penury of "hard times."

"The people will endure poverty, servitude, pauperism," wisely remarked the French economist and statesman, DeTocqueville, "but they will not endure aristocracy. For

Likewise, the American people dislike the aristocracy of high profits and are willing, evidently, to endure diminution of prosperity to gain their desire. Their rampant colonel makes violent attacks on property "interests" and on wealth, as in his Osawatomie speech, and as an apostle of discontent and equality outspeaks the late lamented Bryan.

It is useless to tell the people that their unparalleled prosperity up to this time should be conserved with care. They seek equalization of prosperity just as fifteen years ago they sought equalization of hard times. They can do much if guided by moderation; but they will accomplish nothing good if controlled by radicalism.

BRITISH SHOES COMING.

The Lynn Daily Item is of course keeping close watch of tendencies in the shoe trade. It says:

"English made footwear will be handled by the Columbus Shoe Company, Columbus, O., which has just been incorporated with a capital of $25,000. A considerable sale of English made shoes in Ohio has already been worked up by one member of the new company who has been acting as agent for English shoe manufacturers since the tariff was cut to 10 per cent.

"Leicester is one of the English shoe manufacturing centres that Americans will have to match, because it is already sending shoes to the United States. J. Johnson &

a

a

"commission" in the ordinary sense of the word. What those who believe in a tariff commission have sought to get has been the establishment of a serious organ of investigation which would set forth to the world the facts about our tariff schedules and the industrial conditions on which they are founded. The movement has been primarily of business character and has never until now received the support of the office-holding or office-seeking class in the community. That being the case, no fairminded man can help viewing with the profoundest alarm the introduction of such a bill as that which Representative Longworth is now known to be formulating. This bill will provide for a commission of five members and others are ready with amendments raising the number to seven or even nine, thereby providing some acceptable places for statesmen who

retire from public life on March 4. Nobody with the remotest appreciation of the facts in the case can suppose that a tariff commission can ever be vested with judicial or administrative power or that it can ever acquire authority to modify tariff rates even under general permission from Congress-a permission which that body will never grant. The work of this commission can be nothing else than investigative, and investigation is not best carried on by a group of officeholders who meet regularly, pass resolutions, hold hearings and the like. If investigation is desired it will be obtained best by the organization of a compact bureau, similar to the Bureau of Corporations which has done excellent work of this kind, under the leadership of a single man, scientific in his attainments and absolutely fearless in expressing his opinions when they have once been formed.

Should a tariff commission of the usual bipartisan type, large and unwieldy, permanent in character, and with a membership made up largely on the basis of expediency be created under congressional legislation, it is most seriously to be feared that the results will be a grave disappointment to the men who are now advocating this step. Everyone wants fairminded and thorough investigation; everyone wants to know the facts about the tariff; everyone agrees that up to date these facts have been kept in the background while the work of remodelling schedules has been carried on hastily, unscientifically, and without due knowledge on the part of the public. But no one whose opinion is worth con

sidering desires the creation of any organization that will threaten the successful attainment of the very purpose for which it is established. It is alleged that only by the creation of such a large body can "public confidence" be confirmed and the belief stimulated that the administration is sincere in its expressions about the reform of the tariff. There may be an element of temporary truth in this view. But this result would be very much better attained by a strong and courageous report on some phase of the tariff, originated either by the present board or by a single investigator charged with the duty, and sent to Congress by President Taft with an urgent reccmmendation that it be acted on. The country is utterly tired of the ineffective work of boards and commissions. It wants results, not machinery.

An esteemed contemporary suggests that the recent election has had something to do with the fall in prices. Sure! As soon as the growlers stopped their involuntary boosting dealers abated their demands; likewise the diminishing demands of the consumer have lowered the producer's pretensions. Let us hope that the condition will not endure long, for there is nothing so disagreeable as the concurrence of cheapness and inability to buy. San Francisco Chronicle.

You have got to look elsewhere than to the tariff for the cause of advancing prices, and you have got to seek the cause in all civilized countries, for the growing prices are general. Meanwhile it is the salvation of the wage worker that protection as administered in the United States assures an income much better fitted to meet living expenses than is the case elsewhere. - Philadelphia Inquirer.