degree should always indicate eminence in some department of life acquired by the individual on whom it is conferred. Thus D.D. should indicate that he has acquired eminence in theology, Litt.D. in literature, Sc.D. in science. Properly speaking, LL.D. should indicate that the recipient has rendered eminent service either in the making, the interpretation, or the administration of laws, though the title has now, we think unfortunately, acquired a wider significance, and is often given to a man who has rendered eminent service in any department of life to which no other title is peculiarly apt.

The question whether the university granting the degree concurs with the opinions which the recipient of the degree entertains and represents has nothing whatever to do with the propriety of granting the degree. The university authorities have not to consider whether he is right or wrong, but whether he is eminent or uneminent. Otherwise, liberal theologians would vote against granting the degree of D.D. to a conservative theologian, and conservative theologians against granting D.D. to a liberal theologian; the Darwinian would refuse an honorary title to Agassiz, and the disciple of Agassiz would refuse it to Darwin. In other words, if the correctness of opinion, not the eminence of the service, is to be taken account of, the honorary degree would signify simply that the university granting the title concurs with the recipient of the title in the opinions which he represents.

On

To apply these principles by way of illustration: Benjamin F. Butler was a shrewd and successful practitioner; but he had never attained eminence either as a maker, an interpreter, or an administrator of laws, such as entitled him to be honored with the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Harvard for the services which he had rendered. the other hand, Mr. McKinley is eminent throughout the world as the representative of the idea of a high protective tariff and of the expansion policy lately initiated in this country. To deny his worldwide eminence as a leader in these two National policies is to deny the most patent fact in recent history. To refuse to grant him the degree of LL.D. because his critics think there ought not to be a high

protective tariff-a position which The Outlook has always held-or that there ought not to be an expansion policy, is to misinterpret the function of the university in such a matter, and the significance of the degree which it bestows. Let us add that if all degree-granting institutions would confine their giving of degrees to those who had already attained eminence, and would never bestow them simply for the purpose of giving eminence, American degrees would be far more significant than they are to-day.

A Southern Poet

The unveiling of a statue of Henry Timrod in his native city, Charleston, on Wednesday of last week, was a tardy recognition of one of the truest lyric poets that has yet appeared in this country. In certain respects Timrod was the most characteristic of the Southern poets; one whose ideals, temperament, imagination, and character were representative of the best and the most distinctive qualities of Southern life. Timrod's voice was the first from the Far South to sound a new note in our poetry. He was born in one of the most interesting and distinctive of Southern cities, in a community which possessed the keenest sense of local solidarity. In the air of Charleston, in the first quarter of the century, the moral fervor of the Huguenot-the Southern Puritan had passed into a passion of loyalty to the tradition and inheritance of a community touched from the beginning with the grace and light of idealism in faith and manners. There was in the Charleston of that time an old-fashioned culture of a very genuine quality; a culture which held to the best traditions of the earlier classical education and of the eighteenth-century English writers; a culture which was manifested, not in breadth of thought and keen intellectual curiosity, but in refinement and delicacy of mind, in cultivated tastes, and in an urbanity of manner and spirit which is the best evidence of a true social culture. There was also in the community, in Timrod's youth, a group of men of marked intellectual and poetic tastes who formed a coterie and sustained one another in their literary aspirations and dreams; of this little

company Timrod, Paul Hamilton Hayne, and W. Gilmore Simms were foremost.

Timrod was a sensitive child, who was fortunate, like Goethe and many another boy of poetic temperament, in finding in his mother a visible providence of the imagination-one who recognized the double parentage of her child, and made him at home in the world of nature and sentiment, of beauty and gladness, where the born poets are trained. He was of a sensitive spirit, shy in the presence of others, but impetuous and frank with a friend, and a passionate lover of nature. His college opportunities were meager, but he early found his way to the best literature, and made his friends especially among the Latin and English poets. tried to be a lawyer, but soon discovered his blunder, and became a teacher by vocation and a poet by avocation.

He

The sky was already beginning to darken with the clouds of civil strife when Timrod entered upon his active life, and there was but a brief interval before the bursting of the storm. The first edition of his poems was published in Boston in 1860, and found instant recognition in the North, where he would have had a generous hearing and a large audience if the arts had not suddenly been thrust into the background by the approach of war. No poet in the country was more deeply moved by that struggle; to no poet did it bring more definite inspirations; from no poet did it evoke a truer lyrical note. Timrod's "Ethnogenesis," written while the first Southern Congress was debating, in February, 1861, the question of secession, may be taken as a prelude to the struggle, as Lowell's "Commemoration Ode " may be taken as its epilogue; between the two was created that splendid tradition of heroism which is not only a common inheritance for the whole country, but will be a perennial source of inspiration for the National poetry of the future. In "Carolina,” a much longer poem, the lyrical passion of Timrod reaches its highest point; the misconceptions of the poem are part of the great misunderstanding of the time; its passionate fire, its lyrical charm, its pulse of stormy music, place it among the permanent contributions to American literature.

In "The Cotton-Boll," in depth of thought, in comprehensiveness of imagi

nation, and in beauty of style, Timrod touched his high-water mark. This poem, in its large and free movement of imagination, belongs, with Lanier's "Sunrise and Whitman's Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," among the most original achievements of American poetry-rich alike in what it conserves and in what it promises. It is, however, as a song-writer that Timrod showed the greatest mastery of his art, and it is as a song-writer that he will live in the poetry of the future. The lines on the occasion of decorating the graves of the Confederate soldiers at Magnolia Grove Cemetery in 1867 are among the most perfect which have yet appeared in our poetry; the poem is one of the four or five songs of the war time which will be heard in the distant future.

High-minded, pure-minded, consecrated to his art, with all the charm of the Southern temperament and the generosity of the Southern nature, Timrod is one of the most attractive figures and one of the most pathetic in the brief history of our literature. The story of Southern poetry is tragic in its reiteration of the waste of war, the absence of opportunity, the lack of sympathetic fellowship; but it is conspicuous also for the uniform heroism, the singular beauty of nature, and the loyalty to art which have characterized the representative Southern singers. Timrod, Hayne, and Lanier were not only men of stainless life; there was a touch of the heroic in each of them. They have not yet come to their own. Caught up in the storm of war, or coming upon the scene in those terrible years which followed the war, when the South was prostrate and the continent was strewn with wreckage from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, they contended against terrible obstacles, and were denied the recognition, the comfort, and the ease of mind which ought to have been theirs for the freest development of their art. They belong as much to the North as to the South. Timrod especially appeals to the Northern reader by reason of his freedom of imagination, his power of surrender to emotion, and the chivalric note of his spirit.

The unveiling of the statue in Charleston is an evidence of local recognition; it is time that the Nation gave this pureminded and generous-hearted Southern singer the reputation his work deserves.

The Spectator

Is there the inspiration in the abundance of books to-day that there was in their scarcity of pre-library days? Does the "captain of industry," the modern type of hero, find, as Andrew Carnegie did, his first mental stimulus and satisfaction in some precious because rare volumes which chance or wise thoughtfulness had put in his way? In his boyhood the Spectator took it for granted that all properly developed careers of "self-made men" began with reading over and over two or three-never more than three-master works, borrowed as a great privilege, or bought at a great cost in toil and saving. That must have been an impression derived from the Spectator's first Life of Abraham Lincoln, perhaps "The Pioneer Boy," to fit in title "The Bobbin Boy" and "The Tanner Boy," a series of lives of Banks, Grant, and other war heroes," adapted to the youthful mind," as the phrase used then to run. rate, whatever the name it answered to,

At any

that Life had a vivid picture of Lincoln, the tired but happy boy, stretched full length beside a blazing fire in a rude cabin reading and re-reading, by the firelight in general and one big pine-knot torch in particular, a copy of "Esop's Fables" which he had borrowed of a friend by tramping twenty miles, ten to the friend's house and ten back. A new book got at that cost meant much, especially when the old books were only two, the Bible and "Pilgrim's Progress."

The Spectator was sure that so strong a boyish impression was not wholly the product of that juvenile Life. So he turned to the second Life of Lincoln that he read, a sort of campaign work, whose author was J. G. Holland, given to the Spectator in 1866, so the fly-leaf records. How many of the numerous libraries that once "boasted" its conspicuous presence in covers of stamped leather, no longer hold a place for it in an obscure corner?-the Spectator wonders. Of all biographers Dr. Holland could be depended on most surely to more than point a moral, and so the Spectator turned the opening pages in assured expectancy and found this: "The books which Abraham [a modern biog, rapher would be almost sure to say "the

youthful Lincoln "] had the early privilege of reading were the Bible, much of which he could repeat, Æsop's Fables,' all of which he could repeat, Weems's 'Life of Washington,' and a 'Life of Henry Clay,' which his mother had managed to purchase for him." A few sentences down came the moral, rather neatly put: "For those who have witnessed the dissipating effects of many books upon the minds of modern children, it is not hard to believe that Abraham's poverty of books was the wealth of his life."

Dr. Holland's book is really noteworthy for another thing--the "previousness" of its dedication to Andrew Johnson, "to whom Providence has assigned the completion of Abraham Lincoln's labors," with the prayer that "History, which will associate their names forever, may be able

to find no seam where their administrations were joined, and mark no change of texture by which they may be contrasted." Was ever finely phrased sentiment, recorded with such impressive conspicuousness, so quickly turned into absurdity?

The special type of self-made man of which both Lincoln and Johnson are representative (Johnson, so runs the unverified tradition of the Spectator's boyhood, was taught to read and write by his wife) has passed, the Spectator supposes, with the frontier, "backwoods" era which produced it, although the self-made man himself will always be a distinguishing American product while America is America. But if the " backwoods" frontier were still left to us as Lincoln and Johnson knew it, would it escape the invasion of books under the ingeniously pushed campaigning of modern library work? And would not that invasion-does it not, to come to present facts-mean a loss of book influence in forming character? The Spectator has more than once seen a statement, to return to the leading library campaigner of all, to the effect that "if Mr. Carnegie gave his men shorter hours and fewer books, they would get more out of the books." So he was interested in talking over the situation in Homestead and Braddock with a friend whose business made him a resident of Braddock and then of Homestead he does

to 24.52. Mr. Straus believes, and I think we will all agree with him, that a policy which makes so directly for the health of the community should not be allowed to depend upon private initiative and enterprise and benevolence for its continuance. The Rev. C. F. Dole, in October, 1900, in an address on "Our City Politics," followed the same lines, maintaining that there should be a municipal milk supply, so that every child in the city might have pure milk.

The disclosures last summer of the connection between the Ice Trust and Tammany officials created a profound impression, not only in New York City, but throughout the country, because of hardship involved to those least able to Comptroller Bird S. Coler and others came forward with the suggestion of a municipal ice plant, and the conservative "Evening Post" reported the large economies possible therefrom. Those who supported this idea held that it was in line with the general policy of municipal ownership as applied to light, heat, and transportation; while those who opposed it seemed to fear that it would lead to the city controlling many things it had no business to control. As one opponent said, "Where is this municipal ownership to end? We will have municipal soda-water fountains next." Another said: "I shall certainly oppose it. We will be having municipal bakeries next."

This, however, is not so extreme as some would imagine, as municipal bakeries have been suggested, and I think in some places built, in British cities; and Grenoble, France, has had a municipal restaurant for years, which has been a success practically from the start.

Municipal markets are no new thing. As a matter of fact, markets are among the oldest forms of municipal property, and their ownership has almost come to be regarded as an essential function of a well-equipped city. Municipal abattoirs, however, are by no means so common, and in one instance at least (at Montgomery, Ala.) have been declared illegal.

We have already noted the movement for municipal milk, based on the plea that it is the duty of cities to adopt such measures as will improve the public health. It is only a step from this position to the

municipal control of dairy products, as advocated by a writer in the Indianapolis "Bulletin :"

In all the range of dairy matters there is no one thing of more general or more vital importance than municipal control of dairy products in cities, towns, and villages. While the primary purpose and the justification of all such control is the protection of the consumers of these products from disease, filth, and fraud, the same control, when wisely regulated, also protects honest producers and pure products. The necessity for such control has come to be almost universally recognized by cities and towns (and is fast gaining recognition among the better class of villages), where regulating ordinances have been very generally enacted.

Of course there is an important distinction between control and ownership; but if we have municipal markets and the municipal control of dairy products, it is not a far cry to the city conducting the latter business directly on its own account.

For some reason, to me at present inscrutable, the coal and ice businesses are often conducted under a single management. Coal and ice companies are numerous in Philadelphia. If, then, we have municipal ice plants, why not municipal coal-yards? And so we have. Several years ago an attempt was made to secure the right to establish them in Boston; but it was defeated. Again last May (1900) an effort was made on behalf of Danvers, Mass.; but this, too, failed. That is to say, the Massachusetts Legislature refused to confer upon this town the right to deal in coal, on the ground, as I recall it, that such a law would be unconstitu tional; although the same town now has the right to deal in gas extracted from coal. Municipal coal-yards, according to a late despatch, are to be instituted by Glasgow, Manchester, and several other British towns.

The municipal ownership of docks is by no means a new policy; but I think a municipal ferry is. Yet this is what was proposed by the New York "Herald" a year ago between Staten Island and Manhattan, and by numerous prominent citizens of the former place. The suggestion grew out of the dissatisfaction over the operation of the existing franchise by the present company.

Comptroller Coler is a strong advocate of the municipal operation of docks. He believes that the city should not only own them, but actually manage them, instead

of leaving private companies to reap large profits from their management. He would buy up all docks not now owned by the city and run these, together with those already owned, as a department of the city and as a business investment. He is of the opinion that within thirty years a sinking fund could be accumulated which would pay for the original cost.

Municipal telephones, although not thus far actually started in this country, are not far distant. The West Side Business Men's Association of Buffalo is working for them to secure relief from the excessive charges of the existing company. In its issue of April 20, 1900, the Chicago "Chronicle" said: "Chicago is to have a municipal telephone system-an innovation in America. Its immediate use is to

be confined to the police and fire departments, but its projectors say that eventually it will serve as the nucleus of a great metropolitan system that is expected to become a healthy rival to the Chicago Telephone Company and the new Illinois Telephone and Telegraph Company. Rates sufficiently low to make the telephone a cheap convenience are predicted by those who see a great future in the municipal plant."

A recent despatch from London says: "The London streets are being torn up by the laying of the wires of the new telephone system to be run by the GovernContinued complaints of overcharging and inefficiency of the monopoly led the Post-Office to take this important step. Preparations are making for 40,000 subscribers. It is hoped to begin to operate in a year. The cost will be over $5,000,000, and the rates will be so low that the smallest store will be able to have a telephone." Municipal telephones have been tried in several foreign cities. Amsterdam bought out the private company some four years ago, and has since managed the service to the satisfaction of the subscribers.

Under Mayor Quincy's administration a municipal printing plant was established in Boston. A report which was rendered in July, 1899, showed a saving of $10,386.08 for a year's operation, although these figures have since been disputed. The present Greater New York Charter Commission is in favor of establishing a plant similar to the United States Govern

ment Printing-Office at Washington. The present Comptroller of New York is heartily in favor of such action. In a recent interview he said:

The city's printing is enormous, and there is no reason why it cannot be done just as well by the city as the work of the Federal Government is done by the Government PrintingOffice. A member of Congress can introduce a bill to-night, and to-morrow morning printed copies of that bill are on the files of the members. That looks as if the service was prompt and efficient, does it not? Take one departand look at the big amount of printing it rement in this city-the Board of Educationquires every year. Its minutes have to be printed, as do the minutes of other departThe contractors have to pay the men employed ments. This costs a great deal of money. on city work the same amount of wages as if those men were employed directly by the city, and these men can work no more hours for the contractors than they could for the city. What I want to see is the power conferred upon the city to start such a plant. After that is done we can figure out how it is to be operated. It has been suggested that men employed in a city office would not render as much and as good service as if they were working for any private concern. I do not believe that that amounts to much. Men must be taught that when they are working for the city they must render as efficient and honest service as if they were employed by a private person or firm.

Syracuse, N. Y., has a municipal lodginghouse which gives its lodgers breakfast, supper, and lodging for a period not to exceed two weeks, the lodger to work out his board by service in the street-cleaning brigade.

A municipal theater has often been advocated in this country. Now one has actually been built in the city of Calumet, Mich. It was erected as a wing to the new City Hall. It will be conducted by a manager in the city's employ, and all profits will accrue to the city, which is also prepared to bear the losses, if any. Franklin, Ind., has also assumed control of its theater and has appointed a manager to conduct it.

Municipal pawnshops are coming into vogue. Chicago has one, which is doing. an increasingly large business, and its success has been such as to encourage other cities to follow in Chicago's footsteps. As special legislative authority is necessary, the movement is likely to be slow of growth. Municipal employment bureaus. have been proposed in a number of places, and one has already been started in Toledo, O., which, according to Mayor