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his affection for the hills and lochs of his native land, and without engaging actively in public life he ever strove to elevate civic ideals.

He is a true democrat, using that term in its broadest and noblest signification as one who has faith in the people, as one who believes in putting into practice the bed-rock principles that differentiate a democracy from a government by classrule. "In any case of doubt, says Mayor Adam, "leave it to the people"; and in this, one of his favorite maxims, we see the true democrat.

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Not only does he believe in DirectLegislation, but like other broad-visioned and practical thinkers who are not interested in private corporations or who are not beholden to those who are, and who have also studied the subject sufficiently to decide intelligently, Mayor Adam is a strong believer in public-ownership.

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He entered politics by one of those seeming accidents that so frequently prove the turning-points in one's life. It was in 1895. The Democrats wanted strong and influential man for councilman in a certain district. No one suggested seemed to measure sufficiently large to make success even probable. One of the politicians strolled to the window of the room in which the conference was being held and looking out he caught sight of the erect figure of the great Buffalo merchant walking down the street.

"Why not nominate J. N. Adam?" said the man at the window.

"The very person!" exclaimed another. And so he was nominated. He protested, urging that he was a business man and not a politician. "The very kind of man who is needed," urged his friends, and his sense of duty to the common good or civic responsibility led him to accept. He was elected and since then he has been in the council or on the board of aldermen ever since, until he was elected last autumn to be the chief magistrate of the city.

In the city government he was in a hopeless minority, as the Republicans

controlled everything, but this did not prevent him from boldly fighting for the best interests of the city; and he displayed such business foresight and sagacity, such a sense of fairness coupled with aggressive honesty, regardless of what the privileged classes desired, that he won the confidence of the rank and file to such a degree that when nominated for mayor last autumn he turned the Republican majority of ten thousand into a Democratic majority of ten thousand, or an overturn of twenty thousand votes in the city.

III. AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO.

Mr. Adam was in Scotland when the political forces began to prepare for the municipal contest. He reached Buffalo a short time before the nominating convention assembled. By common consent he had been selected as the standardbearer not only of the Democrats but of the people who placed good government and loyalty to the fundamental ideals of free institutions above partisanship.

He announced his platform to be Honesty versus Graft. A grafter he defined as a thief in disguise. After his nomination he went before the people speaking from three to five times every day, explaining the evils and weaknesses of the municipal government and insisting that a great municipality should be conducted as a great business enterprise, for the benefit of all the interested ones, which in the case of the city meant all the people, and that it should not be run for a set of favored politicians, corporations or any other class seeking special privileges and unjust immunities.

The Republican party and the corporations waged a vigorous battle, bringing all their forces to bear to defeat this man in whom the people believed much as in other days the masses had believed in Jefferson and in Lincoln. But all the resources of the machine and the corporations were unable to defeat the will of the people. The magnitude of the victory,

however, astounded those who had long ish bribery or corruption or any attempt held the people in contempt.

After the election the successful candidate, having about two months before he assumed office, visited various leading American municipalities in order to personally study conditions and to confer with leading officials. When he returned he forestalled the office-seeking army by announcing the names of those he expected to appoint to various offices that would become vacant during his term, and in every instance it was found that he had been guided by the same general principles that would have governed him if he had been managing a great private business instead of a municipality; that is, he selected only the men he believed would be the best qualified to render the city the most efficient and unselfish service, without regard to politics or any other consideration save the giving to the city of the most efficient and honest service. He also displayed great wisdom in giving representatives of different sections of the people fair representation, so that all elements should be justly considered.

He gave fair warning to all grafters that he would do his utmost to have them receive such punishment as the enemies of the state deserve. On the subject of official duty and of faithlessness to the solemn obligation imposed upon them he said:

"Every public official should be interested in keeping the conduct of affairs free from the giving or taking of anything to which the giver or taker is not honestly entitled-or in one word, graft. I believe graft should be scotched by not only arresting and trying, but by convicting and imprisoning the grafter, whether he be an office-holder or not.

"Disguise should not be permitted to keep a thief out of jail, and a grafter is a thief in disguise. I will do all in my power to put any grafting public official not only out of office, but into jail. I will do all in my power to expose and pun

to wrongfully control or influence the conduct of our public affairs, no matter how high or low the wrongdoer may be.

"I hope and trust no necessity for such use of power ever will arise, but if it does I will act fearlessly, doing my full duty in accord with my oath of office, and shall expect the coöperation of all public officials and of all good citizens."

When the Mayor assumed the office, he found that the city employés were in many instances slack in their duties but over-alert to get more pay than was due for any over-time service. He changed all this by example and precept. Every day he is at his post at eight o'clock in the morning, and he let the employés understand once and for all that they were expected to serve the city just as faithfully as they would serve a private employer, and if they were not prepared to do this others would take their places.

In his inaugural message, among other strong and brave words, the Mayor attacked the swindling of the city out of taxes on millions of dollars' worth of property by the public-service corporations, through the connivance of the State Board of Tax Commissioners.

It matters not where one looks in the state government of New York since the Platt- Odell - Harriman - Root - Ryan - Higgins elements have become the dominant power in the Empire State, the corporations and special privilege grafters seem to have absolute control. The insurance department, with its Hendricks at the head, has been fully exposed, but so rotten is the state government that the faithless head was not summarily removed. The bank department became so malodorous and such a crying scandal that it seemed for a time that even Governor Higgins and his confederates would be unable to head off an investigation, and there was general consternation among the master-spirits of the Root-Ryan-Higgins machine at Washington and Albany, no less than among the high financiers,

and word came from Washington that a public investigation would be a public public calamity, so in spite of the scandal the investigation was refused. The State Tax Commission seems to be equally complacent to the public-service corporations, judging from the facts brought out in Mayor Adam's message and subsequent revelations. The public-service companies of Buffalo are taxed on only $14,000,000 of property, although the stocks and bonds of one corporation exceed $30,000,000. The city of Buffalo was not notified when there was to be a public hearing at Albany before the Commission, though the corporations were all duly notified, but the city found out when the hearing was to be held and sent the Corporation Counsel and the Commissioner of Public Works. The trip was fruitless, however, as the officials found when they reached Albany that everything had been cut and dried." In referring to the subject the Mayor in his message said:

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"In the matter of special franchises, we find ourselves at the mercy of the Board of State Tax Commissioners, a body which fixes the valuations and whose course at times has caused us almost to wonder if they regarded Buffalo as aught but a place for immune corporations."

In commenting on the shameful action of the State Tax Commission in placing the valuation for all public utility corporation property at $14,000,000, the Mayor said:

"The people of the city resent such proceedings. Such conduct of public affairs is fit subject for legislative investigation, and I believe that legislative enactment not only should require the State Tax Commission to hear the City, but also to take into account the capitalization and selling value of each corporation in making the franchise valuations. The valuation of special franchises is not a lottery or a matter of chance. It

is an important business matter affecting vitally the financial welfare of our City.

The Mayor next showed how the public-service companies dodged paying a part of the taxes on the pitifully low valu

ation that the State Commission had

obligingly given them.

As before stated, the new chief execu

tive of Buffalo is a strong believer in public-ownership. In his message he

says:

"Municipal-ownership is coming surely, and recent developments in cities throughout the country indicate it is coming swiftly. In Buffalo it may arrive sooner than expected."

The Mayor had the Comptroller insert an item of $250,000 in estimates for a municipal lighting and power-plant, in conformity with the vote of the people favorable to the establishment of a public lighting and power-plant. The faithless Board of Aldermen, however, struck out the item, in spite of the fact that the people had voted for the municipal plant and the majority of the aldermen, we also understand, had prior to the election pledged themselves to carry out the will of the people.

In his message Mayor Adam thus voices his sentiments on the Referendum:

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"A symptom of the attitude of our citizens on the question of municipal-ownership is found in the referendum vote on the lighting question. I believe in the Referendum. It means more direct and more frequent instructions from our citizens to their public servants.”

He is very outspoken in his advocacy of this necessary method for maintaining free government, agreeing with Governor Folk, Mayor Johnson and other popular leaders, that the hope of free institutions depends on getting back to the people, which can be done only by breaking the backbone of the present corrupt rule of corporate wealth through criminal bosses and money-controlled machines, by giv

ing the people an opportunity to instruct their servants or to veto measures which are as clearly against the wishes and interests of the people as they are in the interest of corrupt corporations and privileged classes. He believes in direct responsibility to the people and he has no sympathy with the attitude of our grafting statesmen who are the tools and attorneys of the trusts, monopolies and class interests. "Public office," he declares, "is not a private graft. Our municipal affairs are the business of the people of this city. I am answerable to the people and I would rather be answerable to 400,000 people than to one boss. You can trust the people."

The Mayor is a strong champion of education and is actively engaged in the effort being made to extend and enlarge the University of Buffalo, an institution

which he hopes to see become one of the most effective of the higher educational institutions of the land.

He is a great reader and much of his keenest pleasure comes from the perusal of the master-thoughts of our noblest thinkers. He is a great lover of the poems of Robert Browning, although Robertson of Brighton is said to be his favorite author.

In Mayor Adam the forces of fundamental democracy, clean government and civic advance have another strong leader-a man of the Lincoln stamp, whose aggressive honesty, large business ability and loyalty to the interests of the people place him in the class of American municipal leaders of whom Mayor Johnson of Cleveland is the pioneer and honored leader. B. O. FLOWER.

Boston, Mass.

PART I.

BRITISH EGYPT.

BY ERNEST CROSBY,

Late Judge of the Mixed Tribunal at Alexandria.

'N A RECENT Blue Book on Egypt,* Lord Cromer devotes several pages to a recapitulation of the recent history of that country, and he expresses himself with a frankness that does him credit. “In 1882," says he, "a serious revolution took place in Egypt. I use the word revolution advisedly. The idea, which at the time obtained a certain amount of credence, that the Arabi movement was a military mutiny and nothing more, is wholly erroneous. It was, in its essence, a genuine revolt against misgovernment, such as has frequently happened in other countries. It may, in so far as its broad

*Egypt, No. 1, 1905. Reports by His Majesty's Agent and Consul-General on the Finances, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1904, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty, April, 1905.

features are concerned, be condemned used in condemnation or justification of or justified by the arguments ordinarily those who attempt by violent means to effect radical changes in the form in which their country is governed." Lord Milner, formerly Undersecretary for Finance at Cairo, gave the same character to Arabi's rebellion eight years or more ago in his work on England in Egypt. "Their first object," he tells us (that is, of “Arabi and his associates"), ". . . were neither unreasonable nor blameworthy." (Page 18.) "The European concession-hunter and loan-monger, the Greek publican and pawnbroker, the Jewish and Syrian money-lender and land-grabber, who could always with ease obtain the 'protection' of some European power, had battened on the Egyptian treasury and the poor Egyptian cultivator to an almost

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incredible extent. In a very great measIn a very great measure then there was reason in the onslaught upon European privilege, and even in the ominous and misleading watch-cry of Egypt for the Egyptians. The concurrence of two such authorities as Lord Cromer and Lord Milner must be held to establish once for all the justification of the rising of 1882, and to put an end to the vulgar belief which long survived in the British colony in Egypt that Arabi was a reckless and criminal adventurer who should have been summarily hanged. The opinion of both these noble historians that Arabi could not have been safely entrusted with the government of the country in no wise detracts from the initial purity of his motives. This official admission of the just character of an insurrection, the suppression of which gave Great Britain the opportunity to take possession of the Delta, seems to cast something of a cloud upon the title of that country, and invites a discussion of all the circumstances which led up to the final subjection of the khediviate to the British By what right is England in Egypt and what are the main functions which she is performing there? To answer these questions briefly is the object of this paper.

Egypt is history. Just as in some countries the edges of geological strata are so laid bare that the trained eye can spell them out like the ruled lines of a manuscript, so on the banks of the lower Nile the records of human history have been so accumulated, preserved and uncovered that he that runs may read. Not only do the ruins of temple, tomb and mosque speak of Pharaoh and Ptolemy, Cæsar and Saladin,-not only do we see in the museum of Gizeh the actual lifelike bodies of Seti and Rameses, and those of their servants and domestic animals, and the jewelry and household utensils which they wore and used, but in the living men and women of to-day, in the fellah and his beasts of burden, we behold the ancient sculptures come to life

again. The modern Egyptian cat, for instance, is like no other cat in the world. He seems to have stepped down from some temple-wall, and the camel, it has been well said, is older than the pyramids. If it be true that ancient history predominates in the land of the Pharaohs, it is no less true that modern history has not altogether passed it by. Alexander and Cæsar visited Alexandria, but so did Napoleon, and indeed this is the only spot in the world associated with all three of the great commanders. For many years Mohammed Ali attracted the attention of the world to the Nile Valley, and during the last quarter of the nineteenth century the storm-center of Christendom and of Islam was never long absent from its banks. We have at last come to a point of rest. The Soudan has been reconquered and occupied by England in the name of the Khedive, the intention of remaining in Egypt permanently has been acknowledged at Westminster, and the unaccustomed lull which has set in at the beginning of the twentieth century affords an opportunity to investigate at leisure the latest deposits which the rise and fall of empire have left in this remarkable land.

It was Napoleon who drew Great Britain into Egypt a century ago. Unfortunately for him the works of Captain Mahan had not then been written, and he hardly appreciated the importance of the sea-power. Egypt is practically an island, surrounded by water and desert, and armies are useless there for the purpose of keeping open the way to the base of supplies or of retreat, unless supported by by a dominant naval force. The French defeated the Mamelukes, but when Nelson destroyed their fleet in the Bay of Aboukir, they were obliged to evacuate. England might then have taken possession of the Delta, had it not been for the rise of a daring young Albanian adventurer, Mohammed Ali Pasha, who secured the governorship of the country for himself and defeated their army at Rosetta, and the heads of General Frazer, the British

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