this movement back to the land. The present assets of the Salvation Army above all liabilities amount to about $686,000.

It now appears that The Law about "Corners" legal proceedings may have helped to break the "corner"in Northern Pacific Railway securities which recently threw the Stock Exchange into such a panic. It will be recalled that two firms bought a great deal more Northern Pacific stock than was in existence, and that those who sold it to them without owning it were forced to pay as high as $1,000 a share for it in order to fulfill their contracts. Many of the "short" sellers could not fulfill their contracts and were on the verge of bankruptcy when the two firms to which they had sold stock that they did not own suddenly relieved them by offering to accept $150 in lieu of each share called for in the contracts. This offer, which stopped the panic, is now reported to have been prompted in part by legal proceedings. Certain brokers who had sold Northern Pacific "short" at about pir, expecting it to go down, and then saw it advancing rapidly toward $1,000, secured a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the contracts they had made to their own ruin. The claim put forward was that the two firms which had bought the proffered stock knew that the sellers could not deliver it, and that therefore-according to old legal principles the contract was not valid. Whether or not this is good law will not now be determined, as the suit was not pressed; but the whole situation suggests that there ought to be a way to prevent its recurrence other than the fear that courts will interfere to help one set of speculators against another. The selling of stock which the sellers did not own was gambling pure and simple. Had the stock gone down, the sellers would have pocketed their winnings without scruple. Their refusal to pay their "losings" when the stock went up seems to fall short of even gamblers' honor, and the appeal to the courts, however justifiable, is not a satisfactory remedy for the evils involved. What the public wants is the prevention of these purely gambling transactions; and the way to secure this seems to be along the lines of ex-Senator Washburn's anti-option bill

which so nearly became law for the produce exchanges: Put no restrictions on the sale of property by its owner, or by any one who has acquired the right to its future ownership, but forbid sales by those who have no title to the property sold. If it is right to prevent by law gambling with poker-chips or a roulettetable, why not to prevent the far more serious gambling operations carried on in stocks which have no existence?

While it is never The Edison Storage Battery safe for laymen and rarely safe for experts to attempt to gauge the industrial importance of an invention not yet in industrial use, the claims made for the new Edison storage battery and the reception accorded these claims by the scientific world make them of great public interest. Hitherto, it may be recalled, the utility of electric storage batteries has been handicapped by their extreme weight, by the length of time required to charge them, and by the rapid deterioration of their cells. It is claimed for Mr. Edison's new invention that by his use of "a novel compound of iron for the positive combined with the same amount of graphite, and a negative of finely divided nickel and graphite," the weight of the storage battery has been reduced to less than one-third, the time required for charging it has been reduced to one-half, and the rapid deterioration now incident to the use of lead cells has been practically done away with. It is asserted that with one charge the new battery will propel an automobile a hundred miles as against the present thirty miles, and that electric motors will soon be much cheaper than horses for all manner of hauling done over city streets. The increased use of automobiles for carrying goods as well as passengers over country roads is also made possible, and the general relegation of the horse from his timehonored place among the useful animals is seriously talked of by some of the heralds of the new invention. Still another possibility of this invention is that by the substitution of portable electric power for steam power-usable only near the generating engine-many kinds of work may be done on farms and in households which must now be brought to the great

factories. Already the electric trolley and the electric telephone have made life in the country more accessible and more attractive, and the electric storage battery may still further counteract the influence of steam in concentrating population in the cities.

The Canteen

At the meeting of the Association of Military and Naval Surgeons last week at St. Paul, Dr. L. L. Seaman, of New York City, made some interesting statements in regard to the canteen question. He not only declared that, as shown by the record of court martials, drunkenness had recently increased threefold, but he astonished his hearers by adding that immorality had increased by one hundred per cent. "When compelled to get their liquor away from the post, the men leave the saloon for the brothel." The surgeons at the St. Paul meeting put themselves on record emphatically for the restoration. of the canteen "in the interests of discipline, morality, and sanitation." The zeal of the Woman's Christian Temperance. Union to promote the welfare of United States soldiers induced Congress to abolish the canteen, but if Dr. Seaman's statements are substantiated by the data now being collected and systematized by our War Department, Congress will be obliged to reconsider the whole canteen question. As Dr. Seaman has shown, the increase of drunkenness is not the worst evil which has come from the abolishment of the canteen; the alarming additions to the numbers of the incapacitated through grosser evils is the most disheartening outcome of the situation.

A reply has been reThe Cuban Convention ceived by our Government from the Cuban Constitutional Con

vention to the recent communication of the Secretary of War insisting upon the literal acceptance of the terms of the Platt amendment by the Convention. The reply is unfavorable. Our Government refuses to recede from its position, holding that the Executive has no authority to modify an act of Congress, but indicates that it can perhaps abridge the seventh clause by dropping the words at the beginning, "to enable the United States

to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense," and confining the clause to the bare statement that Cuba will sell or lease the lands needed for coaling or naval stations at points to be agreed upon with the President. On Monday of this week the Cuban Convention met again. The delegates supporting the Platt amendment maintain that unless the anti-Platt delegates change their vote the Convention will be dissolved.

General Grant on the Filipinos

Replying to questions about the friars in the Philippines, General Frederick Dent Grant, who recently returned from the islands, expressed the firm opinion last week that the friars had not sold their lands, but had turned them over to foreign syndicates so as to hold on to the property and to complicate matters for our Government. The friars, General Grant said, would be obliged to make good their claims to the large estates held by them, as would other property-owners in the islands. Speaking of the acceptation of American ideas by the people of the province over which he had direction, General Grant added that if an election were held to-day, the people would vote to have the United States retain possession of the islands. islands. "I believe that within a year," he continued, "there will be as many of the natives speaking English as ever knew how to read and write Spanish. There were fifty-three towns in my province. When I left, the books of each town were examined, and in every instance there was a surplus in the treasury. . . . We have rescued the people of the Philippines from the barbarism of the fourteenth century. . . . The Filipinos have no idea of the rights of others. They have been trained under a Government which robbed

the people gradually. I think that the American people are to be congratulated that so much was accomplished by our army with such a slight loss of life."

The session of the Canadian Parliament just closed abundantly proved that the Government's majority of fifty in a House of two hundred and thirteen members, together with the fact that the pres

The Canadian Parliament

(ent Parliament has more than four years to run, had left the Conservative minority with little encouragement to take aggressive attitudes. On matters of policy there is now really little difference between the two parties. As Sir Charles Tupper lost his seat in the House last November, it became necessary for the Conservatives to choose a new leader, and their choice fell upon Mr. R. L. Borden, one of the members for Halifax. He entered Parliament in 1896. Mr. Borden appears to have filled the position of leader during the session with tact and ability, though his party was, of course, unable to make much real opposition. A parallel is noted, paradoxically enough, in the position of the Liberal opposition in the British Parliament. The Government was authorized to increase the contribution of the Dominion toward the construction of the Pacific cable to $2,750,000, the remaining thirteen-eighteenths of the cost being borne by Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. Provision was also made for the establishment of a government assay office at Vancouver, B. C., and the erec tion of a mint at Ottawa, where hence. forth Canadian money is to be coined instead of at London-a gratification to Canadians. One of the sharpest contests of the session arose in the Senate over a bill introduced on behalf of the Bell Tele

phone Company. In 1892 this Company applied to Parliament for power to increase its capital stock. The request was granted, but a provision was inserted at the time to the effect that the rates then charged by the Company should not be increased without the consent of the Dominion Government. Some time ago the Company had applied to the Government for power to increase its rates, but consent was refused. The Company now sought from Parliament the repeal of the objectionable provision, on the ground that it was not fair to impose on one company a condition not imposed on all others. A powerful lobby was employed to secure. the passage of the bill, but the measure was defeated by a decisive majority.

Lord George Hamilton has stirred nearPrestige ly all England by his defense of the action of the Indian Government in purchasing locomotives from

England's Manufacturing

America. The reason for these purchases, says the Secretary of State for India, was far from being a preference for American products. The prejudices of the Indian officials were all in favor of the English machinery to which they were accustomed, but at the time of the engi neers' strike production was blocked in England, and purchase from America was necessary. The first trial of the American locomotives did not seem to promise that they would meet with general favor, but, with one or two adaptations to local needs, they had commended themselves to officials prejudiced against them. The subsequent purchases of American locomotives had been due to their greater cheapness and to the greater promptness with which they could be delivered. If English manufacturers would regain their supremacy, they must, by better organization, better technical education, and continual improvements, prepare to meet American competition at every point. These declarations aroused all England to the discussion of England's prestige in manufacturing. The Conservative papers fell upon the labor unions for preventing improvements by hostility to machinery and insisting that good and bad workmen be paid alike, while all papers, Liberal and Conservative, urged the need of an industrial and educational awakening among the iron masters as well as the iron men. The Secretary of the Amalgamated Steel Association, Mr. John Hodge, promptly replied to the criticisms of the English unions by denying that they had been hostile to new machinery, or had ever insisted upon putting good and poor workmen on the same level. As to the latter charge, his argument is not stated in the cablegrams, but it is doubtless the same that President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, put forward last week when he said that the unions never objected to the payment of more than the minimum scale to individual workmen, and that where all workmen were paid merely the minimum demanded by the union, the employers were responsible. As regards machinery, Secretary Hodge asserted that the slowness of the English in introducing improvements was due to the inertia and false economy of the managers. To these sharp criticisms leveled against the employers, Sir Alfred Hickman,

ex-President of the British Iron Trade Association, replied that English machinery is being sold in America, despite high tariffs, at the very time when the Indian Government is purchasing American machinery, and that the American locomotives in Egypt have been found to require twenty-four per cent. more coal and twenty-five per cent. more oil than Fnglish locomotives. To this last charge an American ironmaster, Vice-President Pitkin of the Schenectady Locomotive Works, replies that while the facts are as stated, the truth is otherwise, since, while the American engines require more oil and fuel per mile, they carry much heavier loads. That the American engines are the more economical is indicated, he says, by the fact that the American engines are making the greater headway in the neutral markets. To laymen it would seem that the judgment of the neutral markets was the judgment of the court of last

resort.

Robert Buchanan, whose Robert Buchanan death is announced from London, was one of the most versatile of modern writers. Poems, plays, romances, stories, came from his pen in quick succession. Mr. Buchanan was a man who, trained in the hard school of adversity and self-denial, had overcome many obstacles. He was an untiring worker with a somewhat passionate temper and great facility in involving himself in literary quarrels. Both his prose and his verse showed individuality of gift, but neither in prose nor verse has he left any permanent record of himself.

Hail-storms in Austria and Italy

Five years ago Herr Albrecht Stiger, the burgomaster (mayor) of Windisch-Feistritz, Austria, and a well-known grape-grower, invented a cannon to protect his vineyard from the ravages of hailstorms. His cannon, as we learn from an interesting article by Mr. Eugene Lyle in "Everybody's Magazine," was simply an old locomotive smokestack set on an oak stump, with an opening cut in the side of the stump so that a mortar could be slipped in under the stack. This mortar was loaded with powder, plugged with a cork wad, and fired by a fuse.

Within a year there were no less than thirty shooting stations in Herr Stiger's district, and it has not hailed in that region since. The agriculturists of North Italy then took hold of the invention so vigorously that in 1899, the year of the first Anti-Hail Congress, over ten thousand cannon had been installed in Italy. Insurance companies had promptly reduced their rates by one-third. Sixteen hundred delegates attended the second Congress, among them being the most eminent meteorologists and agricultural scientists. The year had shown a seven-fold increase of cannon stations for Italy alone. The European governments are now interesting themselves in the matter-even so small a government as that of Bulgaria installing fifty cannon for experimenting purposes, with a view to placing them over the entire country. If a smoke-ring can unsettle atmospheric conditions which would otherwise result in a hail-storm, Mr. Lyle considers other possibilities of the cannon, such as that of abolishing frost, for instance. An experiment in France in firing cannon horizontally over some fields resulted in making the ground warm and damp, though the surrounding soil was cold and frostladen. Another instance of the use of this

artillery is in fighting grasshoppers; it is claimed that the shot cuts a discouraging swath in the invading swarms. Finally, Mr. Lyle puts the logical question, What might the cannon not do for a cyclone?

Last week it was semiThe Chinese Indemnity officially announced that the resolution of the foreign plenipotentiaries at Peking not to reduce the Chinese indemnity below four hundred and fifty thousand taels (about $337,000,000) is final. The rumor persists and is not denied that the Chinese Government has accepted this-an indication that the expeditionary expenses of the foreign Powers will be reimbursed. If the Powers will not listen to our Government's proposition to fix the total indemnity at $200,000,000, it is hoped that they will pay some attention to our wishes in the matter of its guarantee and collection. Our dislike of a joint guarantee is based, first, upon the wellgrounded fear of an " entangling alliance" to ourselves, especially as the payments of the proposed loan would extend over a

period of three decades; secondly, the scheme might involve the direct government of China by the Powers and lead to the partition of the Celestial Empire in case of any default in payment. Nor are we the only objectors to a joint guarantee. The British Government has officially stated its position, that, as British credit is the highest in the world and the portion of the Chinese indemnity due to England is small, it would be neither just nor politic to put a British guarantee on all the bonds. Advices from Russia indicate that the Government of that country, having spent more money than has any other Power in a common cause, believes itself to be entitled to define the mode by which it is to be repaid. This conviction is emphasized by the fact that a fortnight since the new Russian loan floated in Paris was enormously oversubscribed. Hence, in the event of the adoption of the plan of separate allotments to each Power, the Russian Government is of the opinion that it could successfully dispose of all the indemnity bonds on its individual guarantee. According to most of the Powers, provision for paying the debt can be made only by increasing the customs dues and taxes. This would lessen the ability of the Chinese to buy goods from foreign lands. The Powers would thus restrict the very market which they wish to develop. It is now understood that the question is likely to be settled by a joint and several guarantee. This will accord with the American view that there should be no joint guarantee in the sense of binding each Government to securing the payment of the entire $337,000,000. It will be joint, however, in the formal aspect of being executed by all of the Powers jointly at the same time, and probably by the same instrument. This instrument will, we hope, include a provision by which each Government is to assume no liability beyond the amount of its own share of the indemnity, which in the case of the United States is limited to $25,000,000.

mony, and his written statement sent to the Council in defense of his cause, passed unanimously the following resolutions:

First, That the charge of immoral and unChristian conduct is sustained by the findings of the Court which at Algona, on March 21, 1901, granted a decree of divorce to Mary Everhard Herron from her husband on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.

Second, The same charge is further sustained by evidence presented to the Council showing that George D. Herron's manner toward the wife who consecrated her life to the effort to make him happy, relieve him of care, and aid him in what she believes to be his high calling, has been that of unfeeling and selfish indifference, and, at least since 1896, of studied neglect, culminating in a heartless desertion and the final tragedy of divorce.

Third, The same charge is still further sustained by confession contained in the paper written by Mr. Herron in his own defense and read to the Council. In this paper he denies the right of society to sanction or undo the marriage tie between man and woman, presents a view of conjugal relation, of parenthood and the home which is abhorrent to enlightened Christian sentiment and which confirms the Council in the opinion that this action of George D. Herron is simply the criminal desertion of a worthy wife and a devoted mother by a man who has deliberately falsified his marriage vows.

In view of these findings it is

Resolved, That we recommend to the Grinnell Association that the name of George D. Herron be dropped from the roll of membership.

Resolved, That we express our conviction that George D. Herron has forfeited all right to be known by the churches of our faith and order as minister of the Gospel, and that he is by vote of the Council deposed from the Christian ministry.

The evidence before the Council showed that Mrs. Herron was more fully educated than her husband, that she was at least his equal in scholarship in college, and she finished her course while he did not finish his; that she has been a faithful wife and mother, without reproach, relieving him of many of the cares usually shared by the husband; that she was interested in his work, and, so far as could be gathered from her utterances, both public and private, in full accord with his teachings; that even when it became apparent that he was seeking companionship elsewhere she showed no resentment, but endeavored to retain her husband's loyalty by serving him more faithfully. There was also evidence tending to show that the divorce proceedings, while brought