LYMAN ABBOTT, Editor-in-Chief

None of the men inauguGovernor Sulzer rated as Governors last of New York week presents a more picturesque figure than William Sulzer. Physically he is picturesque-tall and spare, loosejointed, in form not altogether unlike the ungainly Lincoln. His face and head are described by Mr. James Creelman in the New York Evening Mail" as "long, lean, freshcolored . . . with craggy, high cheek-bones, powerful crunching jaws, a mouth alternately loose and smiling or tight and grim, with a lump at the side made by a wad of chewingtobacco, a singularly steep forehead, and beneath its jutting brows a strong nose, incurved at the bridge and wide at the nostrils, between blue-gray eyes-sometimes the eyes of an innocent boy, sometimes the eyes of a shrewd, suspicious man; a high-crowned head, sign of an idealist or sentimentalist, thatched thickly with tawny blond hair, a wisp of which always hangs picturesquely over the forehead." He is dressed, not in the fashion of the day, but somewhat after the fashion made familiar by Western and Southern politicians during the past thirty or forty years. Thus Mr. Sulzer has been marked by an appearance certainly distinctive. Long a resident of the East Side of New York, one of the most crowded places on earth, he knows intimately, as from the inside, the lives and the manner of thought of those whom men reared in comparative ease sometimes call "the multitude" or "the populace." New York City has been made. what it is by the throngs that have come from every quarter of the globe. It is, indeed, the "melting-pot." Although not a native of the East Side (he was born in New Jersey), he came to it as the others have come. It is from the East Side that he has gone as a Representative to Congress, and it is also from the East Side that he now goes to the Governor's chair at Albany. His political career and his political method are

such as might be expected from one who has shown his liking to be where people are most numerous. While other men in Congress have spoken to their colleagues, he has been among those who have used their position in Congress as an eminence to speak to as many people as possible. Under the convenient franking system in vogue he has circulated his speeches so widely that it is almost a distinction never to have received a copy. He is, or rather was until very recently, a member of Tammany Hall. Mr. Murphy, the Tammany boss, who controlled the New York State Democratic Convention last fall, never, in his career as an exceedingly able boss, proved his ability more clearly than in his course which resulted in Mr. Sulzer's nomination. Mr. Sulzer has been a loyal member of Tammany Hall, but has always identified himself with popular measures, and, in spite of ridicule directed, against him by many newspapers, has always had a large following. Mr. Sulzer is identified both by his adherents and his opponents with the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

Governor Sulzer's Message

This is the sort of man who has come to the position of Chief Executive in the biggest State of the Union-a State with a greater population than the combined population of Arizona, California. Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida. Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont: a greater population, in fact, than twice the population of the entire federated commonwealth of Australia. To this office Mr. Sulzer has come with explicit promises to further progressive legislation. In his message to the Legislature delivered on January 1 he presents a programme which has been welcomed and approved by those people, without regard to party, who believe in the need for a series

of progressive measures. Governor Sulzer urges the ratification of the proposed amendment providing for the popular election of United States Senators. In urging this he puts into one sentence the answer to the fundamental objections to the progressive movement generally: "If the people cannot be trusted, then our government is a failure and the free institutions of the fathers are doomed." It is on trust in the people that he bases his recommendations. In the high cost of living he sees two elements--the increase in the cost of the necessaries of life, and the lack of a corresponding increase in wages. He urges the Legislature rather vaguely to take such action as it deems wise to reduce the cost of these necessaries; but when it comes to the question of wages, his recommendations are by no means vague. In fact, he takes up a whole line of social legislation for the improvement of the conditions of those engaged in industry. We must now convince employers," says Governor Sulzer, "that any industry that saps the vitality and destroys the initiative of the workers is detrimental to the best interests of the State and menaces the general welfare of the Government." It is on this ground that he urges the enforcement of compulsory education, simultaneously with restrictions upon child labor. Emphatically he repudiates the need of employing children, and denies the inalienable right of any industry to child labor. No commerce that depends on child labor for its success," he declares, "has a right to exist." He recommends the establishment of legal safety standards to guard against the accidents and diseases of industry, and in particular "the establishment of municipal museums of safety and Government research and investigation." He recommends also the reorganization of the Department of Labor so that it shall have more power to investigate conditions and enforce law.

to continue its operations. Massachusetts has enacted such a law. Ohio recently adopted a constitutional amendment authorizing the State Legislature to do the same.

Governor Sulzer's intelligent emphasis on the conservation of the natural resources of the State, his pledge to the merit system in the civil service (somewhat qualified by his appointments to the State Civil Service Commission). his urgency of civil and criminal law reform. his extensive discussion of the needs of the farmers and of the necessity for promotion of agriculture and of good roads, his advocacy of the principle of home rule, though not with the needed emphasis on the right of cities to make their own charters, and his recommendations in the direction of economy, form together a coherent progressive policy. The minimum wage, which Governor Sulzer refers to, we discuss below more in detail. His message as a whole is one that accords with the temper and spirit of the people of the State. In his efforts to fulfill his promises he is entitled to the support of all who believe in progressive legislation. His message invites the opposition of such forces within his party as Tammany Hall and those conservative Democrats who are exceedingly jealous of all It has called property rights and interests.

forth criticism from such papers as the New York Times," an organ of its own party, and is welcomed by the New York "Press," an organ of the Progressive party. If Governor Sulzer holds fast to the faith he has here expressed, and is able to induce the Legislature to transform this faith into works, he will become one of the leaders in the inevitable struggle between the conservative and progressive elements within his own party.

What are Minimum Wage Standards?

In commenting upon Governor Sulzer's recommendation of wage

boards, the New York" Sun" furnishes in its utterances an illustration of the prevailing ignorance, even among the ordinarily intelligent, concerning this matter of minimum wage. The " Sun," which prides itself on its information and its qualifications as an instructor of mankind, says that the Governor has apparently failed to distinguish between two kinds of law, and that the Massachusetts law and the constitutional amendment in Ohio which he cited do not refer to minimum wage at all, but to compensation for injury. Such ignorance as the Sun" displays is one of the