Filchner's plan is not of recent conception; it is a pet idea of the daring explorer which inadequate means have heretofore prevented him from prosecuting. Bruce, the discoverer of Coatsland, means to start from that point and make an earnest endeavor to cross the Antarctic region; the same course, advocated by Peary, is contemplated by the Americans. But while in both cases the chief aim is to reach the South Pole, Filchner puts another problem in the foreground,-the clearing up of the relation between the east and west polar regions. Are these connected, or are they divided from each other? A great geographical problem awaits solution here, more important than the attainment of the South Pole. To solve this problem is the task that Filchner has set himself, and there is every reason to believe that he will succeed in solving it. His achievements in the highlands of Tibet,-often under the most adverse circumstances,-seem to mark him as predestined for such a task; his motto: Pessimist in preparation, optimist in action," betrays the prudent investigator who realizes how multitudinous are the requirements for boldly penetrating into the unknown Antarctic regions. In order to carry out his plan Filchner wants to utilize two small vessels,-it being more difficult for those of a large size to steer their way through the ice-channels. Chief importance, however, is attached to the sledges, which will be drawn by ponies and dogs, the first obtained from Greenland, the last from Central Asia. The success of an expedition depends primarily upon thorough preparation; among other things, those who are to participate with Filchner propose to spend a number of weeks in the summer of 1910 in the north polar regions in order to familiarize themselves with the conditions in such sections. The real expedition, which is calculated to extend Over about three years, will not start before the summer of 1911. ROOSEVELT ADDRESSES EUROPE WHAT is it that makes Mr. Roosevelt extensively on these utterances of Mr. Roosethe power he unquestionably is?" velt. With this query the London Daily Chronicle begins a keen, yet sympathetic analysis of the ex-President's speeches at Paris, Christiania, and Berlin. In essaying to answer its own question this London journal admits that he is "not a deep or subtle thinker," that "most of his harangues are little more than strings of eminently estimable platitudes," and yet "they always thrill the audience to whom they are addressed and always thrill the greater audience who can only read them in print." The truth is chiefly, concludes the editorial from which we have quoted, that Mr. Roosevelt "brings to the problems of life and conduct and politics, first, a thoroughly fresh, pristine, and elemental type of mind and character, and, secondly, the courage to say out loud what most men feel, but few even whisper." Moreover, Mr. Roosevelt himself always practices what he preaches, and "his earnestness and sincerity are so overwhelming as to invest the most hoary platitude with a new meaning and a new message.' Concluding with the remark that a possible proof of Mr. Roosevelt's subtlety of intellect may be found in his understanding that "the great majority of mankind enjoy being preached at and like to hear the eternal virtues thundered at them through a megaphone," the Chronicle reproduces the text of the speeches in question. Most of the journals of England and the continent comment THE OBLIGATIONS OF REPUBLICAN "Citizenship in a Republic" was the title of an address delivered by Mr. Roosevelt before the Sorbonne on April 23. After rapidly sketching the progress of civilization pioneering in new regions of the world, and at the same time instituting a comparison between the settled conditions of European life and the rude surroundings of colonial America, the lecturer passed to his subject of the responsibilities of individual citizens in republics, such as France and the United States. A democratic republic such as each of ours,— an effort to realize in its full sense government by, of, and for the people, represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught with greatest possibilities alike for good and for evil. The success of republics like yours and like ours means the glory, and our failure the despair, of mankind; and for you and for us the question of the quality of the individual citizen is supreme. Under other forms of government, under the rule of one man or of a very few men, the quality of the rulers is all-important. If, under such governments, the quality of the rulers is high enough, then the nation may for generations lead a brilliant career, and add substantially to the sum of world achievement, no matter how low the quality of the average citizen; because the average citizen is an almost negligible quantity in working out the final results of that type of national greatness. But with you and with us the case is different. With you here, and with us in my own home, in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the aver- maxims will be a nation of character, for age man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, everyday affairs of life, and next in those great occasional crises which call for the heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. It is not the critic who counts, Mr. Roosevelt contended, but the man who, while he makes mistakes, achieves and achieves because of optimistic belief in the value of life. Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief towards all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fail, comes second to achievement. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride or slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. Among the lessons that France has taught to other nations, one of the most important, Mr. Roosevelt believes, is that "a high artistic, and literary development is compatible with notable leadership in arms and statecraft." 66 Then by easy stages he passes to his favorite subjects of virile prowess in war and racial fertility. While war is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is a crime against. humanity," the question must not be merely, "Is there to be peace or war?" but "Is the right to prevail? Are the great laws of righteousness once more to be fulfilled?" The chief of blessings, moreover, for any nation is "that it shall leave its seed to inherit the land. The first essential in any civilization is that the man and the woman shall be the father and mother of healthy children, so that the race shall increase and not decrease.” The nation that observes these "the homely virtues of the household, the ordinary workaday virtues which make the woman a good housewife and housemother, which make the man a good worker, a good husband or father, a good soldier at need, stand at the bottom of character." ward. Just so long as there is inequality of service there should and must be inequality of reWe may be sorry for the general, the painter, the artist, the worker in any profesthan whose fault it is that he does his work ill. sion or of any kind, whose misfortune rather But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any other course is to create a new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and weakness; and special privilege is injustice, whatever form it takes. To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have the reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, is to say what is not true and cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. French opinion upon the address at the Sorbonne may be summed up in the comment of the Temps in the words: "It is the advice of an honest man, valuable to France because his deeds in life during thirty years have qualified him to speak." AT CHRISTIANIA HE ADVOCATES A LEAGUE OF PEACE In his address on "International Peace," before the Nobel Prize Committee at Christiania on May 5, Mr. Roosevelt traced the progress made during recent years in the cause of international peace. He paid tribute to the part taken by the Scandinavian nations in the advance of international arbitration, complimented the work of the Hague Tribunal, spoke a few vigorous sentences in favor of checking the growth of armaments, and advocated as a master-stroke the forma ing and advance in transportation facilities made it possible only at the dawn of modern times for the branches of the human family, widely separated by distance and alien tongues, to deal with one another, to exchange influences, and finally, by the expansion and organization of commerce, to enter upon a real world movement. tion of a League of Peace by those great real world movement been possible. Printpowers that honestly desire world friendliness. These nations, he believed, should not only keep the peace among themselves but prevent, "by force if necessary," its being broken by others. Nevertheless, said the exPresident, reverting to his favorate theme of enforcing peace by being prepared for war: We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher lever, with a broader spirit of brotherly good-will one for another. Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life; but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality. "THE WORLD MOVEMENT" AT BERLIN It was during the rather extended commemoration ceremonies of the centenary of the University of Berlin that ex-President Roosevelt delivered on May 12 his lecture entitled "The World Movement," under the auspices of the Roosevelt exchange professorship at the German capital. A brief review of the honorable part played in the advance of European civilization by peoples of the German stock and the different ruling dynasties of German blood preceded the general subject of the lecture, which the speaker introduced in these words: Germany is pre-eminently a country in which the world movement of to-day in all of its multitudinous aspects is plainly visible. The life of this university covers the period during which that movement has spread until it is felt throughout every continent; while its velocity has been constantly accelerating, so that the face of the world has changed, and is now changing, as never before. Despite the temptation to grandiloquent generalization, the ex-President's survey of human progress for several thousand years was characterized by individuality, intellectual honesty, and specific illustration. In modern times only, he contended, practically only since the invention of printing, has a In the elaboration of his theme Mr. Roosevelt reached the emphasis he always places on the necessity of civilization preserving the fighting edge." He elaborated the point by complimenting the German Emperor and the existing German army in a few strong paragraphs on the necessity for a citizen soldiery. Modern civilization, he contended further, is much superior to the civilization of Greece and Rome in the relation it has established between wealth and politics. In view of our constant and fierce denunciation of this unholy alliance as it exists to-day, it is interesting to read these words: In classic times, as the civilization advanced toward its zenith, politics became a recognized means of accumulating great wealth. Cæsar was again and again on the verge of bankruptcy; he spent an enormous fortune; and he recouped himself by the money which he made out of his political-military career. Augustus established Imperial Rome on firm foundations by the use he made of the huge fortune he had acquired by plunder. What a contrast is offered by the careers of Washington and Lincoln! There immense majority of the Greeks and the Rowere a few exceptions in ancient days; but the mans, as their civilizations culminated, accepted money-making on a large scale as one of the incidents of a successful public career. Now pened within the last two or three centuries. all of this is in sharp contrast to what has hapDuring this time there has been a steady growth away from the theory that money-making is In permissible in an honorable public career. elevated, and things which statesmen had no this respect the standard has been constantly hesitation in doing three centuries or two centuries ago, and which did not seriously hurt a public career even a century ago, are now utterly impossible. Wealthy men still exercise a large, and sometimes an improper, influence in politics, but it is apt to be an indirect influence; and in the advanced States the mere suspicion that the wealth of public men is obtained or added to as an incident of their public careers will bar them from public life. Speaking generally, wealth may very greatly influence modern political life, but it is not acquired in political life. The colonial administrators, German or American, French or English, of this generation lead careers which, as compared with the careers of other men of like ability, show too little rather than too much regard for moneycaused by conduct which a Roman proconsul making; and literally a world scandal would be would have regarded as moderate, and which would not have been especially uncommon even in the administration of England a century and a half ago. On the whole, the great statesmen of the last few generations have been either men of moderate means, or, if men of wealth, men whose wealth was diminished rather than increased by their public services. Are we, the lecturer asked in conclusion, so many among whom have lost the “ fighting edge," to go the way of the old civilization? The immense increase in the area of civilized activity to-day, so that it is nearly coterminous with the world's surface; the immense increase in the multitudinous variety of its activities; the immense increase in the velocity of the world movement,—are all these to mean merely that the crash will be all the more complete and terrible when it comes? We cannot be certain that the answer will be in the negative; but of this we can be certain, that we shall not go down in ruin unless we deserve and earn our end. There is no necessity for us to fall; we can hew out our destiny for ourselves, if only we have the wit and the courage and the honesty. Personally, I do not believe that our civ ilization will fall. I think that on the whole to develop any one set of qualities, any one set THAT HIDE-AND-SEEK POLITICS our whole representative system something too complicated for them; and, is in the hands of the "machine"; consequently, "it must be done for them that the people do not in reality choose their by professionals." Thus, under present conrepresentatives any longer, and that their ditions, "the voters only choose as between representatives do not serve the general in- the selections, the appointees, of the one terest unless dragooned into doing so by ex- party, boss or the other. It is out of the traordinary forces of agitation, but are con- question for them to make independent trolled by personal and private influences; selections of their own." But, says President that there is no one anywhere whom we can Wilson, "if the machine as bossed and adhold publicly responsible, and that it is hide- ministered is an outside power over which and-seek who shall be punished, who re- the voter has no control, the fault is with the warded, who preferred, who rejected, that system, not with the politicians." He, howthe processes of government amongst us, in ever, sees no reason to despair of representashort, are haphazard, is the arraignment of tive government, " because the people are prethe American people made by President vented by the system of elections from electWoodrow Wilson, of Princeton, in the ing representatives of their own choice." North American Review. We set out as a The people of other countries are not so prenation "with one distinct object, namely, to vented; and President Wilson cites the city put the control of government in the hands of Glasgow as an example. He says: of the people," and, after experimenting for a hundred and thirty-odd years, we find we have no control, much less efficiency, and must begin all over again. 66 President Wilson admits frankly that "the machine is as yet an indispensable instrumentality of our politics"; it cannot be abolished unless the circumstances are changed, and very radically changed at that." In asking the people to select all the officers of government they have been asked to do Glasgow is known as one of the best-governed cities in the world and its government is not in any essential peculiar to itself. Its administration is entirely in the hands of its municipal council, which has a membership of thirty-two. The mayor has no independent executive powers. He is merely chairman of the council and titular head of the city when it needs a public representative on formal occasions, when it welcomes guests or undertakes a ceremonious function. There is no upper and lower chamber of the council; it is a single body. It is not a legislature. No city council is. There the voter does not need "the assistance of professional politicians to pick out a single candidate for a single conspicuous office. Moreover, the structure of the city's government is so simple that he can follow his representative throughout every vote and act of administration. Certain American cities, following the example of Galveston, Texas, have secured from their State legislatures charters authorizing them to put their administration entirely in the hands of a small commission of five or six persons, and the results have in several cases been very satisfactory; but whether so small a body as five men wholly unaided can successfully manage the administration of a modern city sufficiently in detail to keep them clear of inefficiency and abuse remains to be seen. Probably a larger body of men will be required; but "that need not result in putting a greater burden on the voter and bringing the nominating machine again into existence as his indispensable assistant and ultimate master." In President Wilson's opinion the short ballot is the short and open way by which we can return to representative government. What the voters of the country are now attempting is "not only impossible, but also undesirable, if we desire good government." The charter of the city of New York is cited as an example of a mere system of "obscurity and of inefficiency." "It disperses responsibility, multiplies elective offices beyond all reason or necessity, and makes both of the government itself and of its control by the voters a game of hide-and-seek in a labyrinth." What we need is a radical reform of our electoral system. NEW FARMING METHODS AND HIGHER PRICES WRITING in the Popular Science TABLE SHOWING THE AVERAGE YIELD OF WHEAT PER France, 3.40; United States (exclusive of Professor Price shows the enormous influence that certain changes in the methods. of transportation, as well as the development of labor-saving machinery, have exerted on the agriculture of the country. For exam ACRE BY TEN-YEAR PERIODS FOR THE LAST TWENTY ple, the refrigerator-car services have ren Total Bushels. 138.442,000 dered possible the shipping of fruits, vegetables, and meats across the continent; and production. the results of labor-saving machinery are well 55.585.000 illustrated by the following extract from the 310.526.000 article under review: "If the present wheat 664,602,000 crop of the United States were harvested by the method employed at the time of the Civil War it would require every man of military age in the United States to work for at least two weeks in wheat harvest." Naturally as labor-saving machinery is increased the proportion of population engaged in agriculture. has decreased. Notwithstanding this, however, the per capita production of most agricultural products has advanced. The accom The fact that of the four countries cited the United States has the largest total production is due to the simple circumstance that our wheat area is nearly eight times greater than that of France, which comes next to us in point of acres under wheat cultivation. The most reliable figures available show that the number of acres per capita is as follows: United Kingdom, 1.70; Germany, 2.37; |