and on the French coast too. In France they began inland, but soon moved out on the shore when the facts made it plain that that was the place for them. There are more than fourscore such hospitals along the European shore of the Atlantic to-day.

One of the directors of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, traveling abroad, took note of this forward step in therapeutics, and on his return caused inquiries to be made which established the fact that New York had, if anything, greater need than the Old World cities of the relief which the seashore hospitals offered. The ortho

pædic hospitals and clinics were crowded, and, here as there, ordinary surgery held out no hope to the victims of bone tuberculosis. The Sea Breeze hospital was then fitted up as a demonstration, and proved entirely successful. But it had room for only one in a hundred of the children that were in need of its help. One in ten would be scant enough provision by a city like New York.

This was the story the country heard, and money began to pour in. Mr. Rockefeller subscribed $125,000. The stories of some of the crippled children went far and wide: of "Smiling Joe" and five-year old Max Gross, children of poverty and want, lying all their days strapped to board frames because of their backs that were not like other children's -sunny little Max, who was discovered weeping for once in his brief life because he had heard some one say that he would not get better. "And I don't want to get dead and be a angel," he wailed at his nurse's bosom ; "I want to get off my board and play first." Max never forgot his great visitor of that day (Mr. Roosevelt). "He had nice shining eyeglasses and a big laugh," he said. We became fast friends, and when he heard that I was ill too and in a hospital, he sent me a letter with all the news of Sea Breeze. This was what he wrote: Dear Mr. Riis:

I am very sorry you are sick. Are you on a board like me? I got a yellow pencil. I am writing this letter with the pencil. I am writing it all myself, only some one is holding the pencil too. Are you up?

A big dog bit Rags' eye. I think Rags belongs to Madge. Mary Maguire is dressed up like Miss Roosevelt. She has a long veil. It is made of tissue paper. Maggie Brennan is dressed up too. She is the bridesmaid. Come down again and bring Mr. Roosevelt. I would like to see you again.

Good-by, with love from your friend.

MAX GROSS.

In a year the money was subscribed and a little over $257,000 in all. It took nine years to get the city to provide the site. That was the bargain: the city was to buy the lot, the Association to build the hospital and equip it. I prefer to forget those disheartening years. It seemed as if all the meanness and selfishness that money and property can harbor had been let loose to snarl at the hapless cripples. When we were not running from them in a panic at the chance of their poisoning the ocean or spoiling the landscape, some one was sure to pop up with charges of graft. When it was neither of these things that obstructed us, it was defective titles, or litigation, or just red tape in some form or other. Meanwhile the few chances of getting a footing upon the seashore were slipping away fast. Property that had sold for a hundred thousand dollars half a dozen years back went up to a million, then two millions. There was just one available mile of ocean front left on Rockaway Beach when, three years ago, a Citizens' Committee took the matter in hand and fairly held up the city government until it bought it. Now, after weary seasons of map-making, condemning, and pulling this way and that, the hospital is at last under way. Not that our troubles are over-even as I write protesting voices are raised: we are taking too much land for the sick children, taking it away from the well, for the ocean park is to be a playground as well as a hospital site. It is the latest kick of reform without knowledge or sense. The battle was won for the cripples; but for them there would not have been the prospect of a seashore playground now.

Of this playground The Outlook has heretofore told its readers. It stretches westward between bay and ocean beyond the summer towns of Belle Harbor and Neponsit, a country of tumbled sand-hills overgrown with beach grass and fragrant bayweed that may easily be transformed into attractive parkland. Plans for this have already been made. The tract is reached at present from the Pennsylvania station by way of the Long Island Railroad across the salt meadows of Jamaica Bay; by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit; and, in summer, by steamboats from the Battery.

These routes are all too expensive, the round trip costing from thirty to fifty-five cents or even more. but this fact was deliberately ignored in the purchase. Once the park is under way cheap fares will come of themselves, or, if they do not, will be made to come. Beside the new Sea Breeze at least one other institution will be built in the park which in its way is quite as badly needed a convalescent home for the wageearners of New York. The pressure upon the hospitals of the metropolis is so great that the patients who cannot afford to pay can rarely be kept until they are really fit to go out and take up life's duties again. As soon as the doctor has done what he can they must make room for more urgent cases. A few weeks of rest and freedom from worry would be a boon that might easily make the difference, and too often does, between full restoration to health and a life of invalidism. It is this gap that the convalescent home is intended to fill, and it is not easy to imagine a benefaction that goes straighter to the heart of things.

Except only the crippled children's hospi

tal. I persist in calling it that because any one who has ever been among them will carry that picture away with him for all time. When the new Sea Breeze is all built, it will be seen from the incoming steamers as a dignified red brick structure against the white sand in the southeast corner of the park, running parallel with the beach a thousand feet. It will have room for just that number of patients, one foot of sea beach to each child. and nothing that skill and care can accomplish for them will be wanting there. They will live by day on the beach and in fact sleep there by night. All the windows will be wide open so that the Atlantic gales may surge through unhindered. They will not hurt the children, for they will be tucked in woolen blankets and robes as snugly as so many little Eskimos. Instead they will bring back the roses to their wan cheeks and help build up the strength of the little bodies upon which the doctor must build. Their school-rooms and their workshops, where they will be taught to use tools and acquire steady hands and sure sight, will be to all intents and purposes outdoors too. There will be no steam-heated rooms to coddle these youngsters, and in consequence neither they nor their teachers will be troubled with winter colds. Such are only for those of us who can afford them. Behind the central administration building, where

they are quite out of sight from the sea, will be the isolation wards, the nurses' quarters, the gymnasium, and the school-rooms I spoke of, the power plant, and all the rest that goes toward the care of such an army of young folk.

These things will be when it is all finished. That which is now being built is but a small part of it, two out of the eight pavilions that make up the long structure, and just as much of the administration plant as is absolutely essential. It should be up before snow flies again, with room for one hundred and eighty patients. That is four times as many as can be cared for now; but, after ten years of toil and suffering, during which no one knows how many of those we promised to protect have died unhelped, what a pitiful showing it is! The special committee of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment that was appointed to look the whole matter over after the park site had been bought reported among its findings that:

There are between four thousand and five thousand of the children of our citizens who are crippled and otherwise deformed by non-pulmonary tuberculosis and whose parents are unable to pay for their treatment:" that many of those children could be restored to complete health and physical ability and thereby saved from a life of dependency:" and, further, that the hospital is even a measure of economy, apart from their reclamation for lives of useful industry, as experience at the old Sea Breeze has fully shown.

Accepting this judgment, does not millions of dollars seem a small sum for all this, and shall we wait another generation to see it realized, with poverty and the slum doing their worst right along, and all the pitfalls of politics and municipal finance besetting the way out? In the campaign we have just gone through the candidate who failed vowed on the stump that if he were elected he would put a crimp in the whole seashore park project. Ardent supporters of the one who won are at this moment clamoring to have him curtail the hospital end of it. At best, with its enormous expenditures for water, subways, and sewers, the city cannot be expected to find the money. Where is the man the Master has made steward over much who will build to humanity this imperishable monument? Surely to him shall be the promise, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

A

RATES

YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD

NEW Vision of Pan-Americanism is to be seen by those who read the recent news with

imagination.

It is just announced that our Government has indicated its willingness to accept the good offices of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile in the settlement of the Mexican difficulty.

I write in the enthusiasm which that announcement must inspire in the heart and mind of every American who is conscious of any pride in his country or has any vision of the Nation's glorious destiny in shaping the future of the Western Hemisphere.

The "melting-pot" of the New World contains many strange and antipathetic elements. If the fusing power of lofty purpose and mutual concession shall produce an amalgam that will be impervious to the corrosion of racial prejudice and strong enough to withstand the strain of unenlightened selfinterest, the cause of humanity will be advanced more than by anything since the opposing leaders at Appomattox, with mutual respect, entered into an agreement by virtue of which slavery has ceased to exist throughout the world.

Such thoughts as these may hardly seem pertinent to commerce and finance, but the man of business who does not recognize the altruistic purpose and obligation of his vocation to-day is blind to the evolution of selflessness which, in its happily relentless progress, is certain to overwhelm those who think they can consider themselves alone, and disregard the rights of the community and humanity.

When two men who are about to fight are persuaded by mutual friends to "talk it over," they rarely proceed to blows; and now that Mexico and the United States have thus agreed to deliberate, it seems altogether likely that a prolonged or serious war will be averted.

Of course the voice of the critic will soon be heard again in the land. The men who have been so clamorous for the assertion of our "National dignity" and the extension of our dominion will allege that our traditions have been violated and a glorious opportunity for

self-aggrandizement wasted.

The men who express such views with any intellectual honesty overlook the universal law which decrees the death of both the nation and the individual as soon as they have ceased to serve the progress of mankind.

The seven ages of national existence are just as discernible as those of men and women. The individual is born, grows, begets and rears his kind, and dies. As a rule, he who discharges the responsibilities of life most intelligently, and lives with the greatest self-restraint, lives longest; but we all die, and most of us die as soon as our usefulness is at an end, or when by choice we cease trying to be useful.

Happily none of us dwells upon the constant imminence of death, but the hope of mundane immortality is just as futile for the nation as it is for the individual, and it is well that our National egotism should occasionally abase itself as it faintly glimpses the infinite magnitude of the scheme in which it is an almost negligible factor.

We Americans of the United States believe that we are destined to dominate the Western World. Perhaps we are. The self-confidence which inspires this belief is splendid and justifiable.

Sometimes, however, it leads us into the error of assuming that our present status represents the final stage in humanity's ceaseless evolution.

It may be that we are destined to lose our distinctive nationality in a broader Federation of Mankind. It may be that when we have served the purpose for which we were brought into existence we shall die and disappear as many nations have before us. We cannot tell. Our duty is to seize our great opportunities in a spirit of enlightened selfinterest, but with the humble loftiness of purpose which doubts not that

"through the ages one increasing

purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."

In the world's history military conquest has hitherto always preceded racial, civil, or commercial domination. Is the incident of

this Mexican affair to open a new chapter in the history of civilization's progress?

In 1883 I heard Gladstone make a great political speech to an audience of ten thousand people. He was advocating Home Rule for the Irish. He reached his climax when he said of Ireland: " By force you hold her, by force you have held her, by love we ask you to hold her.”

During Gladstone's lifetime this appeal remained unanswered, but in both England and America the spirit of altruism that it breathed is becoming more pervasive, and President Wilson's period of watchful waiting will have been well employed if it shall end in the establishment of a real Pan-Americanism. the benison of which shall be felt from Labrador to Patagonia.

The commercial and financial benefits of an orderly and responsible government in Mexico, established through the intervention of its most important and friendly neighbors in North and South America, can hardly be overestimated. The reflex of sympathetic understanding that will probably be felt by the nations that have co-operated in bringing order out of Mexican chaos will do more toward opening the doors of South America to our commerce than could have been accomplished by years of formal negotiation.

The South Americans who have hitherto visited Paris, London, and Hamburg rather than New York and New Orleans will come to feel a community of interest with the United States of which they were previously unconscious. The intercourse which the Panama Canal will make possible will increase this neighborliness. Reciprocally, internationalism of thought will become more general in the United States. We have none too much of it now. We have been so busy developing ourselves and our opportunities that we have almost forgotten that there are any other Americans" and have appropriated the common name of two continents with an exclusiveness which is invidious to our southern neighbors.

Perhaps we shall be able to give up the habit of thinking of the people of the United States as the only Americans." It would be a good thing to do. The people of Europe are confused by our egotistical assumption that we are the only Americans, and the citizens of South America resent the attitude of condescension that is implied.

In area South America and Mexico, taken together, are about equal to the United

States and Canada. The population of Latin America is about one-half that of AngloSaxon America. We have assimilated a vast Latin population within the borders of the United States. The Frenchman, the Italian, and the Jew have all become enthusiastic citizens of our great Republic and the beneficiaries of our educational and political system. Through the accident of the Spanish War our influence has been extended to the Orient and the West Indies.

The deposition of Porfirio Diaz and the sequence of the events which have followed have opened to us in Mexico and South America a still wider field for our educational and commercial enterprise.

If we fail to grasp this great opportunity because we may, in doing so, violate some tradition or preconception, or change some habit of political thought or action, we shall show ourselves lacking in the adaptability of vigor, and will soon have to make way for some younger nation that will succeed us in the unmade history of the not distant future.

The accelerated rapidity with which events follow each other in this twentieth century is made possible by invention and science. Military and commercial conquests, being aided by steam, electricity, gasoline, and aviation, are now matters of but months where previously years were necessary, and the alertness and facility of youth are required in both the individual and the nation that would keep in the van of progress and achievement.

The Low Rates for Money suggest some practical advice. It is that those whose credit entitles them to borrow, and for whom the use of borrowed money is legitimate, should arrange for the loans that they are likely to acquire while rates are low.

In New York "call money is lending at 2 per cent, and ninety-day " bankers' acceptances" can be discounted at the same rate in London. The best commercial paper and well-secured collateral loans maturing in from four to six months can be placed in New York at 4 per cent. These figures represent the irreducible minimum in interest rates and are certain in time to reawaken enterprise and create a demand for credit that will make it less abundant.

It is always prudent and generally wise to buy a commodity that is universally required when the supply is large and the price low. This rule is especially applicable to money, and those who would fortify their credit re

vania Railroad has issued an order to employees in charge of its track work, from which I extract the following:

In the use of material and labor you should always consider that "a penny saved is a penny earned," and that if each employee shall make so small a saving as five cents per day, the total saving for our company will be enormous. In the employment of men you should always endeavor to secure the most efficient and intelligent men possible. Employees who do not measure up to this standard should be eliminated from the service, as one inefficient and incompetent employee in a gang will influence the entire organization of that gang, and will extend his detrimental influence to other gangs as well.

In the same spirit of economy, President Underwood, of the Erie Railroad, in a recent address said:

Freight is very cheap if you only realized it; when you write a letter to the Erie Railroad, in common courtesy you expect a reply. To reimburse ourselves for the two-cent stamp which the reply calls for we must carry a ton of freight three miles, or a ton of soft coal five miles.

These things show that the railways are undoubtedly preparing themselves to meet. the situation that will exist if the much-talkedof advance in rates is not allowed. The economies now being practiced are, on general principles, in the right direction and in accord with the spirit of the times. It is astonishing how cheaply we can live when we have to.

The Dissolution of the New York Central Railroad, urged by Senator Norris, of Nebraska, is not favored by the InterState Commerce Commission in its report made in response to the Norris Resolution.

Senator Norris claims that the control of the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore, and the Nickel Plate is in violation of the AntiTrust Law.

He says that "these railroads tap the same territory, and nowhere are they more than eighteen miles apart. Over great stretches they look like parallel lines, occupying the same right of way. There is absolutely no competition in the country which they serve. If there ever was a case where the Sherman Law is violated, here it is. The Union and Southern Pacific, which were held to be operating in violation of law, were a thousand miles apart."

There can be little doubt as to the legal logic of the Senator's contentions. There is also little doubt that the dissolution of the New York Central would greatly demoralize the market for railway securities, and would seriously impair the efficiency with which the various controlled roads are now operated.

This seems to be the view of the InterState Commerce Commission, who, in their report with regard to the proposed consolidation of the Lake Shore and Michigan Central companies, say: We think, from the standpoint of economy in operation and facility in future financing of the two companies, the consolidation is warranted. Neither the consolidation itself nor the exchange of bonds on the basis of increased rate indicated, incident thereto, would, so far as we are advised, offend any Federal statute."

This would be conclusive if the Inter-State Commerce Commission had not qualified their own opinion by limiting it to the particular transaction involved in the exchange of the Lake Shore bonds for New York Central bonds, adding that it would seem that, if the ownership of stock in parallel lines by the New York Central and Lake Shore violates the Anti-Trust Law, the offense is as complete now as it would be after the consolidation."

The incident serves to emphasize afresh the absurdity of a law which can be used to compel competition between corporations that are denied the right to compete under the supervisory regulation of the Inter-State Commerce Commission.