patriotic and civic spirit of your friends and neighbors and induce a few of these to pledge themselves to meet regularly at least once a month for the ensuing year. Form an Arena Club in your midst, send in the names of the officers, and date of meetings, that they may be entered on our roster. In this manner you will come in touch with other similar clubs and an educational center in your midst will be established. V. Suggested Form of Association. In answer to requests from friends for a form of association, we would suggest that the organization be simple; that the form of organization be somewhat like the following: VI. Some Benefits. The benefits that will attend the establishment of these clubs, when those who form them have that degree of consecration that shall make their success inevitable, are many and the influence resulting therefrom will endure long after the founders and workers have passed from the scenes of this life. Among these we may mention: (1) The establishment of live centers for a rational educational agitation for the preservation of the democracy of the Declaration of Independence; for the making of our city, state and national government in fact what it is in theory-a government of the people, for the people and by the people, instead of a government of privileged wealth, for privileged wealth, rendered autocratic and all-powerful by political bosses and party-machines enof class interests,-centers that shall be in fact riched and protected by the corrupt wealth beacon-lights of democracy in every village, town or city where established and which shall be kept in touch with one another-a chain of clubs or leagues that shall become as powerful an agency for the reclamation and preservation of pure democracy as were the that made the establishment of our republic Committees of Correspondence vital centers inevitable. This purpose alone is one that should appeal to every high-minded man and woman and lead to that high degree of consecration, that devotion to a holy cause, that moral enthusiasm, that makes failure abso We, the undersigned, realizing the inestimable blessings of a free and just government and the sacred duties it imposes upon all citizens, and appreciating the grave danger of the present evils which are subtly but rapidly substituting the monarchal, imperialistic and class-rule ideals for the fundamental demands of democracy or the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, hereby form ourselves into a club or association, to be known as The Arena Club of and we pledge ourselves to be present, unless unavoidably prevented, at all regular meetings of this club, to be held at least once a month, during the ensuing year, and to do whatsoever lies in our power to increase the interest and value of such meetings. We promise to faithfully aid our fellow-workers in all legitimate efforts to arouse the people to the importance of maintaining the funda- lutely impossible. Never did duty summon mentals of democracy against the rapid aggressions of privileged interests and class-rule, by seeking to secure those ideal democratic measures known as Direct-Legislation that most admirably meet the changed conditions of the present and render ineffective the corrupt influence of interested classes which threaten to destroy democracy while preserving its form. We furthermore promise to do all in our power to promote and render successful any public meetings which are arranged for under the auspices of our club. All the officers that are necessary for such a club are a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. As soon as such a club is formed the secretary should communicate with the editor of this magazine, giving the name of the club, its officers, date of meetings, and also a roster of its members with their addresses. men and women to a nobler standard; never was need of faithful service and united action more demanded than to-day. (2) While the work of bringing back the government to its true source the peopleand compelling the public servants to be servants instead of masters of the people and privileged interests is the supreme objects of lackeys in the service of political bosses and the clubs, they will also prove of immense in the work and to the community in which benefit to the members who faithfully engage they are established. The members will hear at these meetings digests of great books carrying the message of freedom and justice, and outlines from authoritative works on what the initiative, the referendum, the right of recall and proportional representation really are, how they have succeeded, and how their introduction will give the voters again the power of administering the government in the interests of all the people. Other subjects, such as direct primaries, the School City, and the success of democratic measures in foreign lands would be discussed from time to time. In a word, a broad, comprehensive programme for an intelligent, systematic educational agitation will be thus carried on, and this will inevitably broaden the culture, making nobler, finer and broader-visioned men and women who by virtue of their having conscientiously accepted the high duty imposed by democracy or freedom upon all her children in the present crisis will have come into moral rapport with the apostles of progress in all ages, who through consecration and selfless devotion to the high demands of duty have blazed the pathway of civilization. (3) The clubs will necessarily give moral and intellectual stimulation in every commu nity and become potent feeders of the flame of true democracy-engines for peaceful advance, for progress and for the maintenance of the priceless blessings of free government, thus successfully combatting on the one hand the oppression and exploitation of the people by the politico-commercial despotism of the hour, and averting the menace of revolutionary outbreaks, with their attendant slaughter, misery and waste, on the other. Are not such results worthy of great sacrifice, worthy of high, faithful and consecrated service on your part? Are not the maintenance of democracy and the emancipation and elevation of all the people objects worthy of your best endeavors? And if so, will you not register a pledge to consecrate a portion of your time and life's energy to this work? THE RAPACITY OF THE THEATRICAL-TRUST. TH HE RECENT suit brought by David Belasco against leading members of the theatrical-trust revealed a condition of affairs that should arouse the indignation not only of every self-respecting member of the dramatic profession, but of the thoughtful theater-going public everywhere, to such a point that this sordid and rapacious trust would find its power at an end. Trusts and monopolies operated by private parties always degenerate into sordid, rapacious and oppressive engines used by the privileged ones to extort unearned wealth from the people; but there is something peculiarly sinister about a trust that invades the provinces of education, literature and art and which, as in the case of the theatrical-trust, places the box-office receipts above all thought of moral elevation, artistic development or the culture of the people. In such a case the domain thus blighted becomes more often a poisonous swamp filled with moral and mental miasma than otherwise. The theatrical-trust and its work furnish a striking case in point. Instead of developing a strong, wholesome and morally and mentally virile American drama and giving the people great works by great artists, it is starring a number of mediocre actors and actresses who, though they would appear fairly well in stock-companies, are wholly incapable of assuming great parts; while the plays produced are for the most part sensational and thoroughly ephemeral works, many of them distinctly morally enervating. It is also putting on great spectacles and anatomical shows void of true artistic value, innocent of any literary merit, and which tend to lower the moral ideals of the people; while by virtue of its control of the leading theaters of the land, the trust makes it well-nigh impossible for independent actors of genius to rise or succeed. Thus the effect of this sordid commercialism is anything but ennobling or educational, or rather, it tends to educate the people downward instead of upward. CITY, STATE AND NATION. The Ship Subsidy and Its Missionaries. course, devote to any legal purpose it sees fit, but such use is none the less a burden to those The Hig-sidy cien are industriously who are compelled to pay the tax." laboring and lavishly spending their money to secure the passage of a measure that will enable a few over-rich men to get their greedy hands into the public treasury and further despoil the farmers and the millions of wealthcreators of America. The money they are after must necessarily come from the tax-paying millions, and let it be not forgotten that the very rich pay proportionately very little of the At taxes. They have various methods for evading the burdens which the poor have to meet. Frequently they succeed in having their property rated at a pitifully insignificant figure, wholly out of proportion to its value. other times they cover up their wealth or swear it off, while the farmer, the man in moderate circumstances and the comparatively poor man are compelled to pay the full pro rata and far more than would be exacted if the rich men bore a just proportion of the taxes. Nothing has been more clearly shown than that ship subsidies do not helpfully stimulate commerce. France furnishes a striking illustration of this fact. Her heavy subsidies, though draining the treasury, have utterly failed to produce the results anticipated; while the commerce of Norway in proportion to her wealth and inhabitants makes an ex The Herald further points out the fact that not only is there an active and powerful lobby at work in Washington in the interests of the ship-subsidy promoters, but that they have their missionaries busily at work over the country. The case of Alexander R. Smith and his labors in the south is admirably discussed by this journal. We call special attention to this case because it is typical of how special privileges work to secure the enslavethe people for the further enrichment of multiment, the exploitation and the oppression of millionaires. The ship-subsidy steal is one of the most brazen attempts to break into the United States treasury of recent years. Mr. visited Mobile and Birmingham, Alabama; Smith, as the Herald points out, has recently New Orleans, Louisiana; Pensacola and Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah, Atlanta and other cities. Of his work and his masters the Herald says: "Mr. Smith is an active worker, with an exceedingly persuasive tongue. In Alabama he told his hearers that he had good authority for believing that a ship-building company would shortly locate itself in Mobile bay, ceptionally fine showing, without any sub-eral millions of dollars, for the purpose of making an investment there aggregating sevsidies whatever. If our cormorants of privilege who are seeking a ship subsidy succeed, the tax-payers will be called upon to meet a new burden, while another privileged interest will acquire millions of dollars from the treasury to further corrupt legislation and keep the corrupted in power. In speaking of this the Boston Herald well observes: "If millions of dollars a year of the public money are to be paid indirectly to ship-builders, through ship-owners, then the money so obtained must be taken from somebody. The government has no funds except those which it collects by taxing the people, and the money which it obtains from these sources it can, of building modern steel steamships upon a large scale- that is, this plant would be established there if the subsidy bill went through. However, this confined the range of operations rather too narrowly, hence Mr. Smith has added that he looks to see not only this Alabama plant in Moblie bay, but another one in Pensacola, and in Georgia, in North and in South Carolina ports, so that in ten years, if the payment of subsidies is continued, more steel ships will be built south than north of Mason and Dixon's line, and cargo steamships will be running from every southern port to the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America and Europe. "There is nothing picayune in Mr. Smith's outlook, provided, of course, you only give him a sufficiently generous subsidy to work upon. Is it at all strange that with the smoke of the future enormous ship-building plants filling in imagination both nose and eyes, with the clash of the rivet-hammers on ship-plates ringing in their ears, the members of the Commercial Club of Mobile should recognize 'the pressing importance of an American mercantile marine,' and should express 'the earnest hope that the bill will receive the support of Alabama's senators and representatives in Congress'? If there is any considerable amount of public bounty going around, Alabama wishes and deserves to have its share, just as much as the other states of the Union. "Mr. Alexander R. Smith appears to be flattering our southern friends into a support of this method. These latter can see the injustice of high railroad rates or rates made high by artificial manipulation, but they somehow do not seem to realize that equally unfortunate results can come about if high transportation rates are imposed upon the watercarriage of that part of their products that they wish to sell in foreign countries, and that a hypothetical steel-ship-building plant in Mobile bay can hardly serve as an offset to this certain forced contribution imposed upon our export trade." One of the best criticisms that has appeared recently on this latest scheme to plunder the nation's treasury for a privileged few is found in Moody's Magazine for December. The editor of this extremely able "review for investors, bankers and men of affairs," among other strictures observes: "It is un-American to tax our self-supporting and prosperous industries and to turn the proceeds over to weaklings. "It is unwise to legislate in opposition to natural economic laws. Neither is the constitutionality of such legislation fully settled. "It yet remains to be proven that a merchant marine has ever been built up by subsidies or discriminating duties. It is certain that the countries that have been most liberal with subsidies, like France and Italy, have developed their shipping facilities much slower than have countries like Great Britain and Norway, that have given little or no subsidy. "It has never been shown, and probably never will be, that subsidies ever lowered freight rates or increased the commerce of any country. Our own sad experience with the Collins, Brazil and Pacific Mail lines is the experience of all other countries. "As a business proposition, it is unwise for us to deliver our goods, when we can hire them delivered by others for half what it costs us to deliver them in our own vehicles. When we want to send a message, we call a messenger boy. Likewise, we should insist that our goods be delivered in the cheapest way. "The absurdity of the whole proposition was well stated by Mr. James J. Hill, when he appeared before the Merchant Marine Commission, in May, 1904. He said that what we most need now are foreign markets; that there are plenty of ships to carry our products; that the ships that will transport our products cheapest should do the work; that we need not worry about what flag is 'at the peak of the ships'; that neither on account of military or naval needs is subsidy justifiable; that 'we could buy all the ships we want in time of war .. cheaper than we could build them'; that 'if we have to buy a merchant marine and pay for it out of the general treasury it will not last long'; that 'no direct subsidy will result in building up a merchant marine'; that discriminating duties offer no solution of the problem; that ‘anything that the government may offer to do would soon be absorbed by a comparatively small number of ships'; that furnish us very little relief in the matter of 'mail subsidies and mail-carrying ships will carrying our products,' for these ships carry but little cargo; that our inability to compete high cost of production here; that subsidy more freely in foreign markets is due to the in any form would tax our people, and especially our farmers, and put additional burdens upon production here; that 'if you admit foreign-built ships free of duty you will get a merchant marine quicker than in any other way." Progress of the School-City Movement. WE HAVE on several occasions called the attention of our readers to the School City as one of the most promising and practical movements for the developing of democratic citizenship. Elsewhere we publish a sketch and portrait of Mr. Wilson L. Gill, the founder of this great educational movement. Last August the National School-City League was organized, with Mr. Wilson L. Gill of Philadelphia as president, Professor Frank Parsons of Boston as vice-president, Ralph Albertson of Boston as secretary, and George H. Shibley of Washington as treasurer. Since then a systematic work of arousing public interest and of organizing School Cities has been pushed as vigorously as the funds at the command of the League have permitted. At our request Mr. Ralph Albertson, the able secretary of the League, has furnished a brief outline of some of the things accomplished since September first under the auspices of the National School-City League, which we epitomize below: On September 22d, Mr. Gill organized the Southwestern School of Hartford, Connecticut, consisting of the primary and grammar grades. At the time of the organization a member of the City Council of the city of Hartford was present and took such keen interest in the School City that he invited the little School City Council, as a body, to be his guests as visitors at the next meeting of the Hartford City Council. On September 26th, Mr. Gill, Dr. Parsons and Mr. Albertson, in response to an invitation from the Superintendent of Schools in Maynard, Massachusetts, organized all the children in the schools of that city into five School Cities. The school committee of Maynard had passed a vote providing for the adoption of the School City. The hearty coöperation of the officials and teachers in the Maynard schools has accomplished altogether satisfactory results there. Mr. Albertson visited Maynard about the first of November and found the organizations running smoothly, the teachers all testifying to many good results. On September 29th, Mr. Gill organized the Hancock School in Boston, a school of 700 girls, largely of foreign birth or extraction. Under the direction of the principal of the school, Miss Sawtelle, and her sympathetic and able corps of teachers, this has been from the first a model School City. ton, Long Island, a school of 69 children situated in a town, and therefore organized under the township form of government. On November 15th, Mr. Gill organized one of the large schools of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the work is proceeding most favorably. On November 17th, Mr. Gill organized the fifth to ninth grades (325 children) of the Pickering School, Salem, Massachusetts. On November 20th, he organized one of the rooms in a South Boston school into a little School City by itself. Mr. Gill has since organized three School Cities at Norfolk, Virginia, and has reorganized two of the Philadelphia schools in which the organization had been dropped because of changes made in principals and teachers. On December 6th, Mr. Albertson organized the School Street school at Haverhill, grades four to nine, into a School City, and at four o'clock of the same day addressed a meeting of all the Haverhill teachers at which deep interest was shown by both teachers and the superintendent in the subject, and additional schools are likely to be organized in Haverhill soon. Apart from the public-schools, the School City organization has been adopted by various other organizations, such as boys' clubs, social settlements, Sunday-schools, etc. Mr. Gill addressed the annual convention of the Pennsylvania Federation of Women's Clubs, at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, on October 18th, and after his address the convention passed the following resolution: "Resolved, that the President of the Federation of Pennsylvania Women be and is hereby instructed to appoint a School-City Committee of three, to be increased when necessary, to cooperate with Mr. Wilson L. Gill for the introduction and efficient supervision of moral and civic training into all the schools of the State." Waste and Refuse. On October 9th, Mr. Gill visited the new School City organized by Miss Jennie V. Enriching The Metropolis by Utilizing Its Terry, principal of the Wadsworth School at Rosebank, Staten Island, New York. This school is composed of 400 children in the first eight grades. Mr. Gill's visit was useful to this school in completing some necessary features of the organization, and the School City is doing well. About October 1st, a School Town was organized in the public-school at East Willis ONE OF the most interesting illustrations of the practical utilization of waste products is found in the efficient system introduced by Major J. M. Woodbury, Commissioner of the Department of Street Cleaning of New York City. For years the cost of disposing of the waste products and refuse of the great metropolis was a great burden to the tax-payers. A |