National.

Ex-President Roosevelt, on his speaking tour through the West, has declared himself in favor of these doctrines: Elimination of special interests from politics; complete and effective publicity of corporation affairs; passage of laws prohibiting the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; government supervision of the capitalization not only of public service corporations, but of all corporations, but of all corporations doing an interstate business; personal responsibility of officers and directors of corporations that break the law; increased power of the federal bureau of corporations and the interstate commerce commission to control industry more effectively; revision of the tariff, one schedule at a time, on the basis of information furnished by an expert tariff commission; graduated income tax and graduated inheritance tax; readjustment of the country's financial system in such a way as to prevent repetition of periodical financial panics; maintenance of an efficient army and a navy large enough to insure the respect of other nations as a guarantee of peace; use of national resources for the benefit of all the people; extension of the work of the departments of agriculture, of the national and state governments, and of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, so as to take in all phases of life on the farm; regulation of the terms and conditions of labor, by means of comprehensive workmen's compensation acts, state and national laws to regulate child labor and the work of women, enforcement of better sanitation conditions for workers, and extension of the use of safety appliances in industry and commerce, both in and between the states; clear division of authority between the national and the various state governments; direct primaries, associated with corrupt practices acts; publicity of campaign contributions not only after, but before election; prompt removal of unfaithful and incompetent public servants; provisions against the performance of any service for interstate corporations or the reception of any compensation from such corporations by national officers.

President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton University, addressing the American Bar Association at its annual convention, said: "Constitutional lawyers have fallen into the background. We have relegated them to the supreme court, without asking ourselves where we are to find them when vacancies occur in that great tribunal. A new type of lawyer has been created; and that new type has come to be the prevailing type. In gaining new functions. in becoming identified with particular interests, the lawyer has lost his old unction, is looked askance at in politics, and must disavow special engagements if he would have his counsel heeded in matters of common concern. Corporations do not do wrong. Individuals do wrong, the individuals who direct and use them for selfish and illegitimate purposes, to the injury of society and the serious curtailment of private rights. You cannot punish corporations. Fines fall upon the wrong persons—upon the stockholders and the customers rather than upon the men who direct the policy of the business. Many modern corporations wield revenues and command resources which no ancient state possessed and which some modern bodies politic show no approach to in their budgets. And these huge industrial organizations we continue to treat as legal persons, as individuals. We can have corporations, can retain them in unimpaired efficiency, without depriving law of its ancient searching efficacy, its inexorable mandate that men, not societies, must suffer for wrongs done. You will say that in many instances it is not fair to pick out for punishment the particular officer who ordered a thing done, because he really had no freedom in the matter; that he is himself under orders, is a dummy manipulated from without. I reply that society should permit no man to carry out orders which are against the law and public policy, and that, if you will but put one or two conspicuous dummies in the penitentiary, there will be no more dummies for hire."

The great forest fires in the Northwest are attributable in part, according to Gifford Pinchot, to the niggardly policy of Congress in not affording means to provide against such disasters by constructing trails, roads, telephone lines, and furnishing a reasonable number of men for patrol.

A demand for reparation, estimated at one million dollars, is being prepared for presentation to the interstate commerce commission by merchants and manufacturers in the Missouri river territory who assert that they have been defrauded by excessive railroad rates.

International.

Soon after the United States had acquired Porto Rico by conquest in the Spanish-American war, negotiations were begun by Denmark for the sale of the Danish West Indies, St. Thomas, St. John, and Santa Cruz, to the American Government. Opposition to the sale developed and the negotiations were dropped. Once more, however, they are offered for sale. The total area of the three islands is one hundred and thirty-eight square miles and the population in 1901, when the last census was taken, was 30,257, almost entirely negroes.

A little over a year ago there were less than one hundred aeroplanes in all Europe, principally in France, but statistics of constructors show that since the first cross-channel flights Bleriot has built two hundred and fifty duplicates of the monoplane with which he crossed from Calais to Dover, and Farman has manufactured at his works over a hundred biplanes. Other types bring the French production up to about eight hundred, which have sold for something over two million five hundred thousand dollars.

A republican form of government in Portugal will soon be a fact, predicts Dr. Costa, head of the Republican party in Spain. He says that the election of the Chamber of Deputies, which has just ended in big gains for the Republicans, will be the last election under the monarchy, although the government party still has a majority in the chamber. The election was the fairest ever held in Portugal, and as a result the Republicans and their allies will be able to dominate the next session of the chamber.

Brazil's system of railroads at the close of the year 1909 totaled approximately twelve thousand miles of line in operation, of which some three hundred and sixty-six miles were constructed during the year. Of the total mileage about two thousand miles were owned and operated by the federal government, while nearly twice that mileage was owned nationally, but operated under lease from the government.

The increased cost of living, especially for the working classes, has induced the French government to institute proceedings, where proof is obtainable of unlawful speculation tending to increase artificially the prices of the necessaries of life, and to take action on any conduct which, while not legally punishable, may result in interfering with the ordinary course of supply and demand.

Fearing that international complications would ensue from the continued attacks of the populace on the Bogota City Railway Company, an American concern which has a franchise from the Colombian government to operate a street-car service in the capital, the municipality of Bogota has bought the company, paying eight hundred thousand dollars for it.

When moving the second reading of the land tax bill, the prime minister of the commonwealth of Australia stated that he expected that it would produce a revenue of five million dollars during the current financial year.

The recent speech in which Emperor William intimated his belief that he ruled by divine providence rather than by the sufferance of the people, has created not a little stir in Germany.

One of the leading authorities in the British army believes that the days of the volunteer are numbered and that the time has come for compulsory service in the army.

Melbourne, Australia, is to improve her docking facilities. This will enable her to handle her increasing trade and accommodate the largest vessels that may call.

In his recent monoplane flight at Havre, Leon Morane, the French aviator, reached a height of 2,150 metres, or 7,054 feet.

The Australian government is taking steps to make its lands attractive and accessible to new settlers.

Industrial and Commercial.

Nineteen lawyers, representing big western railway systems, were present when the interstate commerce commission, last week in Chicago, began its hearing of testimony bearing on the advance in railroad rates scheduled to go into effect Nov. 1. The hearing involves two hundred and two transportation lines in western trunk line, trans-Missouri, and Illinois freight committee territory, as well as the shipping interests.

At a recent meeting of its board of trade a plan was submitted outlining a program for making at Sknowhegan, Me., the third largest water plant in New England. This involves merging the several water rights, as now established by deed, into one new corporation, the issue of one million dollars first mortgage five per cent bonds, and the expenditure of the proceeds in acquiring necessary property to build new dams, canals, and power station.

A thorough investigation into the reasonableness of rates charged by express companies will be made this year by the interstate commerce commission. In the early autumn a series of hearings will be held. Up to date all complaints against interstate express rates have been filed by shippers and organizations. No complaint has been received from a state railroad commission.

Arbitration of the wage scale of employees of the Connecticut company, which holds the trolley lines in that state for the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, has resulted in awards which give 1,956 regular men and 598 extra men an average increase of about one half a cent per hour throughout the system as compared with the present scale.