United States. Naples and vicinity is often spoken of as offering plentiful and cheap living. Within the customs-bonded district of the port of Naples are large cold-storage warehouses, whence meat is furnished to vessels in the American and Mediterranean service. It is American meat. If it could be carted just 100 yards from the warehouse through the gates of the great iron customs department fence into Naples, this meat could be sold at from 25 to 50 per cent below local prices. The warehouse owners stand ready to do business with all Italy, furnishing a better grade of meat at greatly reduced prices, if the tariff barrier were removed. This is but a single illustration of a general fact. Staple American agricultural products-wheat, fruits, cheese-in many parts of Europe are sold at lower than the local prices or as low. The immigrant, coming to America, finds that if he can buy in quantity (and in cases where he need not) his flour, fuel, potatoes, oil, sugar, coffee, salt--the essentials for his plain table-all cost less than they ordinarily do in the land he left. The cheapness and abundance of many varieties of fruits and of our melons and tomatoes is a surprise to him. Closely after the most pressing necessities comes a line of things cheaper than in Europe--cotton clothing, including overalls, jumpers, shoes (the American shoe has a sale all over the Continent); newspapers, the cent buying twice to four times the reading matter contained in a German, French, or Italian paper. Access to good water renders expenditure for alcoholic drinks less common. The cheapness of good amusements in America deserves more attention than has been given the subject by the professional investigator; it is a social factor having an enormous influence on the tastes and education of the working-class public. The possibility of regarding outlay for amusements as one of the regular items in family expenses is an indication of the working-class standard of living.

Poverty in Great Britain.

How the wage-earners and their families attire themselves is not so much a question of the cheapness of the clothing as it is of what is left over for this purpose after food, shelter, and other unavoidable family needs have been provided for. The features of climate, national costumes, and class standards must also be considered. In southern countries, where the same clothes are worn the year round, people may appear well in public at half the expense required in America, in the north, where there are four seasons. In the United Kingdom the poor dress in much the same clothing summer and winter, the large proportion of the people in shabby clothes in the streets of Dublin, Manchester, or London giving an impression to the American observer of a prevalent poverty.

The masses make a better appearance in Paris and Berlin.

In Italy

a young fellow may be a dandy in a straw hat and cotton duck suit. Fine wool and silk stuffs, furs, laces, and kid gloves cost less abroad than in the United States a fact, however, which bears as lightly in an inquiry into the conditions of the masses as does the tariff on the masterpieces of art.

Housing.

The housing of the wage-workers of the various European countries as compared with that of the same class in America would. in order to bring out the full truth, require a long and faithful study. When the facts were ascertained the real point remaining would be how to present them in order to create an exact impression of the truth. Besides, in making comparisons, a difficulty would be in fixing an American standard. Conditions exist in a few American cities, such as New York, Pittsburg, representing neither European nor American standards, but what are created tarough the transition of the most helpless of our newly arrived immigrants from a state, perhaps, more miserable than that in which they lived in their native countries to a level equal to the financially lowest that is permanent among the American-born citizens. Looking at the housing problem wisely, the greatest fact in favor of America is space. The working man in the country towns and in the cities smaller than those in which the foreign population is congested can rent, or perhaps buy, a separate home. In general, Europe does not give this opportunity. For example, Bremen is the only considerable city in Germany which has small single-family houses adapted to the needs of working people. Only the big tenement house, except in rare cases, is to be found in other cities. The wage-earner in them is regarded as permanently a rent payer, an animal in a stall in a five, six, or seven story stable. No not one animal in one stall-not so good as thatwhole families or a herd of lodgers live in one of the stalls. The doubling up of families of relatives, the keeping of lodgers, the hiring of a small apartment by several young persons, such devices for distribution among many persons of the burdens of rent must be general in cities where apartments are made the landlord's investment and few houses are built to sell the man with a small purse. The barracks-like houses of the German cities are planned so as to accommodate people in comparatively easy circumstances in the desirable apartments of the front, up to the fourth story, while the basement and the small rear and the topmost apartments go to the swarm of folks living on low wages. Berlin has been called "the city that wears a dickey," since its imposing streets of big dwelling houses have the best aprtments on view to the front, behind which exist shabbiness and the general attractiveness of things unseen. In the northern district of Berlin is the new "workingmen's quarter," with broad streets, window-garden houses, and evidences of municipal care as to hygiene, one result being that rents, compared with wages, run close to the high American level.

Rents.

In no city in Europe did I find rents any cheaper, wages considered, than they run in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Louisville, or in the New England towns not having a boom, or even in many cities of the Mississippi basin. What strikes the American is how little the European renting wage-worker gets for his money. Very seldom indeed has he a bit of garden; he takes a poor water service for granted; his rooms are fewer and smaller than is ordinarily the case of an American house. The rent payer is usually a rent payer for life. No institution of the proportion of the American building and loan association exists in any European country. The movement of large masses from the position of rent payers to that of householders has been characteristic of America. European philanthropists, statesmen, and cooperators are at the present time endeavoring to establish the necessary methods to bring about the same results.

Conclusions.

Space here, to my regret, is insufficient to permit me to quote the rentals paid by wage-workers in various European cities which are entered in my notes. I have been obliged to give my conclusions on the subject in general terms. The main conclusion as to housing is the same as that relating to food: IF THE IMMIGRANT TO THIS COUNTRY IS WILLING TO CONTINUE LIVING HERE AT THE SAME LEVEL HE WAS OBLIGED TO ACCEPT IN HIS NATIVE LAND, HE CAN FIND IT FOR THE SAME MONEY.

The general public does not know that many members, serving on the more important committees, spend more hours in absolutely necessary committee work than on the House floor. Witness the volumes of testimony taken at “hearings” before committees, and the carefully digested statements and reports, and the accurately drawn bills based upon the hearings. Add to these labors visits to the various departments and the usually voluminous correspondence, and I know that many members of Congress work more hours and more continuously and patiently than they have done in their private affairs. I know this to be true in my own case, and I have never been accused of indolence. I want to pay tribute to the high personal character of this Congress, to the industry, unselfish patriotism, intelligence, and high ideals that characterize the members with whom I have been brought into contact and who have been under my daily observation.-Representative Sturgiss, West Virginia.

But the most gratifying feature of this picture of banking and financial conditions in our country is the fact that deposits in savings banks-those institutions for the safekeeping of the earnings of workingmen and widows and orphans and chiidren of the country-have increased from $550,000,000 in 1870 to $3,500,000,000 in 1908. What say you, business men, of the future of a country whose workingmen and working woman and children have three and a half billion dollars laid aside for a "rainy day"?—O. P. Austin.

The more carefully and fully the people of this country consider the record of this administration the more heartily and unanimously do all lovers of progressive and good government extend to President Taft the merited commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."-Representative Olmstead.

I would rather have my boys taught to think the finest thing in life is the honesty and frankness, the truth and loyalty, the honor and the devotion to his country of Theodore Roosevelt than to have then in possession of all the wealth in this great metropolis.-Elihu Root.

It is true, as Peter Cooper well said: "No goods purchased broad are cheap that take the place of our own labor and our own raw material.”

The Administration.

President Taft enjoys the enviable distinction of being credited with greater accomplishment during the first sixteen months than any of his predecessors. Never before was there greater unity between the Executive and both Houses of Congress. Never before was the resultant legislation so varied and so important. It has come to be called the "Taft Way," and that means an honest way, a calm and deliberate way, a judicial way and withal an effective way. Neither ambition nor fear of criticism has tended to swerve Mr. Taft one jot from the path of duty. He has responded when possible to the wishes of the people to visit them. He has made sacrifices to remain at his post when needed. He is justly accorded a large share of credit for the vast amount of legislation written during the past session of Congress. He is gaining more and more of the esteem and confidence, not only of his own party, but of all parties in all sections of the country.

No more fitting tribute could be paid to our President than the following by Representative Olmstead of Pennsylvania on the last day of the session:

Extraordinary Success of President Taft's Administration.

About some very worthy, distinguished, and eminently successful officials there is ever an air of anticipation and there is inevitable publicity and sensation both before and after the fact. Ofttimes this serves a very useful purpose. Other officials are quiet and undemonstrative, but get there just the same. The difference is largely one of temperament and of habit. President Taft was for many years a judge. He acquired, and there still rests upon him, the judicial habit of calm deliberation and of not saying much in advance about what he is going to do. He has not endeavored to appeal to the sensational side of our natures, but he has been going steadily forward in the course which he had mapped out.

If it has been marked by judicial calmness and deliberation of judgment, it has also been marked by great determination and by great firmness of execution. The people are just beginning to discover how wonderfully successful his administration has been and is, and that, for an administration so young, it is unprecedentedly rich in accomplishment. The Republicans of Pennsylvania, in their convention on Wednesday of this week, sounded a clear note, which has awakened pleasing echoes throughout the United States. This is an extract from their platform.

We heartily indorse and commend the administration of President William H. Taft, which, less than sixteen months old, is unique in its record of accomplishment. He has, in his own way, carried forward and developed the policies of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, while enforcing his own and those in favor of which the party has in national platform declared. With unwearying patience and gentleness of manner, but with great firmness of purpose and unyielding determination, he will, by the time the gavel falls at the close of the present session of Congress, have succeeded in securing the enactment into law of more important recommendations than any other President has ever secured within so brief a time after his inauguration. Among this legislation may be mentioned the revision of the tariff; the bill for the more complete regulation and control of railroads; the establishment of postal savings banks; the creation of a Bureau of Mines: the punishment of the whiteslave traffic; the creation of a tariff board; the abolition of the immunity bath; the establishment of business methods in various government departments; legislation for the conservation of our national resources;

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into the expenses of every American family.

To the list of accomplished legislation the the concurrent resolution passed finally this ing for a commission to investigate the very of employer's liability and workman's comper bill for publicity of campaign contributions. 1 of exceedingly important and beneficial legisla to the credit of this Congress, as well as of 1 of itself sufficient to commend both to the i praise of the American people; but the succe Taft's administration extends also into other

Continuing, Mr. Olmstead said of the

DEPART

DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

President Taft, when he called to be premier tration that distinguished son of Pennsylvania Knox, who had so admirably and successfully office of Attorney-General under President R manded at once the confidence of the people, an ence to the records of that department will s confidence was not misplaced.

This Congress passed a measure in the legisla and judicial bill under which the Department of radically reorganized and brought up-to-date a the administration of our foreign affairs. The m specific permanent posts for experts and other persons appointed by the Secretary of State, and department's personnel for the more efficient c trade and treaty relations of the United States. also affords a small sum for emergency employ District of Columbia or elsewhere for the same poses.

The present administration has rigorously uphe doing has the more firmly established, the consul form of 1906. By the executive order of Nov President Taft gave a Magna Charta to the diplo of the United States. By that order following the form the foreign service of the United States, bo and consular, has been placed upon a basis of efficiency hitherto unknown. These reforms, ganized Department of State to give instructions t service and to carry on negotiations with foreign & have given the American people for the first time herent machine for the carrying on of their vast relations.

The Department of State has been divided int specialists, many of whom have served in the part tries dealt with, and in this way American intere part of the world can receive scientific study as t their efficient and intelligent protection and furthe exporter can find at the department men whose b to give him first-hand information as to the fore desires to exploit. By the increase and specializa law office of the department American claims aga governments can receive prompter attention.

T

creased production, will soon mean so vital a matter as the employment or idleness of a large portion of our industrial workers.

The innovation of a double tariff entailed negotiations of great complexity which have had the remarkable result of giving us for the first time substantially most-favored-nation treatment in all countries. Great benefits to the commerce of the United States have been accomplished as a direct result of the recent tariff negotiations conducted by the Secretary of State in connection with the application of our new double tariff. Prior to April 1, when the maximum and minimum features of this tariff law became effective, the conditions affecting American commerce in every country in the world had been carefully examined by the tariff officers of the Government and the fact ascertained that there was no undue discrimination against the United States and its products. A series of 134 proclamations attesting this fact was issued in favor of as many countries and colonial possessions, embracing in the aggregate all responsible governments. In the course of this examination, however, some instances of discrimination against the United States were found, and negotiations were opened with a view to their correction. During these negotiations material improvement of the conditions affecting American commerce abroad was brought about.

The policy of this Government was to ask from each foreign government which uses a double tariff system the recognition of the principle of the exchange of their minimum tariff for our minimum tariff; or, compensatory concessions for any exceptions made in the grant of the minimum tariff of the foreign country. These conditions of reciprocal exchange for the benefit of the mutual commerce were recognized by all the foreign governments, with the result that by the 31st of March all instances of undue tariff discrimination against the United States in foreign countries had been swept away and American commerce had been assured substantial equality of tariff treatment with the commerce of competing nations.

Germany granted to all American products her complete and unqualified conventional or minimum tariff rates, and abolished her former restrictive regulation, which required imports of American pork meats to be accompanied by certificates showing their microscopic inspection in the United States, thereby removing the obstacle which had effectually prevented their entry into the German Empire.

France granted to American products her minimum tariff rates on about 97 per cent, including goods on the free list, of her total importations from the United States, thereby giving equality of tariff treatment, for the first time, to the numerous classes of important American commodities, such as agricultural implements and machinery and machine tools.

The Government of Austria-Hungary abolished its restrictive regulation affecting the importation of American pork meats, so that these products henceforth will be admitted when accompanied by the ordinary federal certificates of inspection.

Greece reduced by one-half her former high duties on lubricating oil and cotton-seed oil, both largely imported from the

United States