well be doubted. It rather seems as if it would make Harden a martyr and increase his influence as well as the people's suspicion of the military bureaucracy of the empire.

Civil Disturbances

in Persia

The new constitutional rights of the Persians have been endangered by the machinations of those who were in power during the despotic régime. These persons succeeded in getting the ear of the young Shah and impressing him with the idea that the constitution was the cause of the nation's troubles. The reactionaries in league with the Shah's soldiers attacked innocent people and made hostile demonstrations. Explanations were demanded by Parliament and the cabinet resigned. The premier and the minister of the interior were imprisoned by the Shah, who planned to expel the Constitutionalist leaders and dissolve Parliament. By the intervention of the British minister at Teheran, the ministers, however, were released, the premier at once leaving for Europe as an exile. The two parties prepared for an armed conflict, and the Parliament issued a manifesto to all the foreign representatives, informing them that the Shah had violated his covenant with the people and appealing for support in the maintenance of constitutional rights for Persia. Great Britain and Russia decided upon joint action to settle the differences involved. Finally, however, on December 22, the Shah yielded and signed a declaration

The Aftermath of the Panic

BARON KOGORO TAKAHIRA The new Japanese ambassador to the United States

signifying his fidelity to the constitution. He accepted the conditions laid down by Parliament, including the punishment of the ringleaders in the recent riots and the dissolution of the court clique.

There have been few sensations in the financial world during the past month. Mr. F. A. Heinze has, it is true, been placed under indictment for misconduct in connection with his bank, but since October Mr. Heinze has been no factor in the financial world. Far more important has been the placing of the Seaboard Air Line in the hands of a receiver. All lovers of fair play hope that this means that justice will in some way be given Mr. Williams, who made the line what it is and saw it snatched from his control by Mr. Ryan of New York. The Chicago

Great Western has also been put in the hands of a receiver, although as its president, Mr. Stickney, insists, for the interests of the road. The Great Western has always been something of an anomaly in railroad financiering. It has no bonds, but has millions in short-term notes. Its president has claimed that such arrangement made it impossible for it to be thrown into the hands of a receiver. Investigation has, however, shown that the railroad to all appearances is heavily overcapitalized, that it can not possibly meet its notes as they come due and that its receipts are declining. An issue of bonds.

now seems assured. It remains to be seen whether it can be floated on the basis of the road's present capitalization.

General

Signs of Better Times

industrial conditions have measurably improved with the opening of the new year, and many establishments which had shut down in December are now working on full or part time. The banks have practically canceled their clearing-house certificates, and have resumed payment in currency. There have been a considerable number of commercial failures, but on the whole it would seem as if the country was adjusting itself to new conditions. There are those who insist that the house-cleaning to which the banks have been subjected will be followed by similarly severe treatment in commercial circles. There are, however, no indications of such a process at the time of writing, but on the contrary, indications of a renewal of business activity. The country is to be congratulated that, although it faces a presidential campaign, there is no indication of any such radicalism as terrified the commercial world in 1896. The farmers are growing conservative, except where the trusts are concerned, and the banks have shown themselves masters of their situation.

Ile

The administration had its innings regarding the financial situation when Secretary Taft Secretary Taft spoke in on the Finan- Boston before the Mercial Situation chants' Association. His address was worthy both of the speaker's past and of his very probable future. It was, on the one side, a mustering of the facts which characterize the financial world at large, and on the other hand, a sensible prophecy as to the future. argued that the causes of the recent panic were the almost universal waste of loanable capital in war and in extravagance, as well as its absorption in great business expansion. He gave due credit to the shock given confidence in financial operations by the exposure of the methods of insurance and railroad companies, as well as individual financiers. Grounds for his belief that the country will recover are three: the gold standard, the generally healthy conditions of railroad finance, and the favorable balance of trade. He

ought to have added good harvests and general agricultural prosperity.

It is time that credit be given the rank and file of dealers in bonds and other inUnnoticed vestments. They have Factors of consistently and persistProsperity ently urged their clients to invest in securities which just now are low. The bond houses are thus among the conservative influences which are tiding over the present situation. The same must be said for such great corporations as the United States Steel Company. In the midst of the criticism which properly has fallen on the methods of financiering of some of the great corporations, simple justice demands recognition of the fact that the United States Steel Company has kept the steel market from demoralization. So far from being, as in previous periods of financial stringency, a menace to commercial stability, steel has been one of the potent forces preventing a general collapse of prices.

A rather interesting situation has grown up at Goldfield, Nevada. Goldfield, as

Shall the everybody knows, is a minSoldier Become ing town, which, in an ima Policeman? possible region, has sprung into prominence because of the discoveries of gold in the neighboring mountains. It has already been the site of one fierce struggle between organized labor and the mine owners.

When another strike was in operation Governor Sparks of Nevada became apprehensive and called on the President for troops. This appeal was, however, not justified by any act of violence committed, but was due to what seemed to the Governor and the mining corporations the certainty that the United States troops alone could prevent disturbance. The President yielded to the appeal, but found that the state was doing nothing on its part. nothing on its part. The legislature was not summoned to meet the situation, and local authorities had apparently done little to guarantee order. After the troops had been in Goldfield for a number of days President Roosevelt notified Governor Sparks that they would be withdrawn if he did not assemble the legislature and take necessary steps to maintain order. At the time of writing the legislature has not acted, but the country at large, if it gives

full tilt into the traditions of the service. In the interests of what seemed efficiency he appointed a medical officer to the command of the hospital ship "Relief." Rear Admiral Brownson, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, opposed this appointment, and when his objection had been overruled, resigned. This resignation brought from the President a stinging letter of disapproval, which, with that of Admiral Brownson, has been published. Admiral Brownson's contention that a hospital ship should be under the command of-not the navigation-of a naval

officer as distinct from an officer of the staff seems unjustifiable from the point of view of policy and of practice. When the Relief belonged to the army it was commanded by medical officers, and during the Russo-Japanese War hospital ships were commanded in the same way. When Mr. Bonaparte was Secretary of the Navy he officially approved a report favoring the same arrangement. If a hospital ship is to be regarded as neutral in time of war, it seems logical that it should not be under the control of a naval officer of the line. This view of the case, however, does not appeal to the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, and Senator Hale has reported a bill limiting the formation of bureaux and forbidding a surgeon to have command of any ship.

gotten in the greater horror on December 7 when nearly four hundred men were killed by an explosion of black damp or methane in two mines at Monongah, West Virginia. At Yolande, Alabama, December 16, seventy-five men lost their lives by another explosion in coal and coke mines, and yet again three days later, came the awful news of the entombment, with practically no hope of rescue, of some two hundred miners in the Darr mine at Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania, by an explosion of gas. It is impossible to appreciate the sorrow and suffering thus caused to hundreds of women and children. has been in most of the cases generously extended. It is surely time a law was enacted compelling the installment of more complete safety devices and greater precaution in the working of the mines. The nation pays a great price in human. life and misery for the necessaries of present-day existence. The number killed in coal mines has increased from 701 in 1890 to 2,061 in 1906, and last year nearly 7.000 men were killed or immured. A meeting of mine owners was recently held for the consideration of safety devices.

Relief