of the early inventors in the field of telegraphy. He was born in 1845; and served in a New Jersey regiment in the Civil War. Among his inventions was that of the three systems of duplex telegraphy purchased by the Western Union and the Southern Telegraph companies.

MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE. An institution of the higher learning for women at South Hadley, Mass., founded in 1837. There were 787 students enrolled in the fall session of 1920, The faculty numbered 95, including 12 new members. The productive funds amounted to $1,701,409.69 and the income was $72,786.44. There were 73,638 volumes and pamphlets in the library. An additional endowment fund of $3,000,000 was being collected. President, Mary Emma Woolley, L.H.D., LL.D.

MOVING PICTURES. To the average observer of moving picture theatres, there was little change to note as regards the popularity of this form of amusement as compared with the previous year. The marked decline in business and industrial activity that began to be noticeable during the autumn of the year, however, showed plainly that the moving picture industry was affected by the same general causes that were in evidence in all lines of business. There was an enormous amount of new film produced during 1920. Activity in those centres where the largest studios were located was very intense in the earlier months of the year and there were at that time probably more persons employed in the industry than at any other period in its history. From the standpoint of technical detail little change was noticed. The weekly reviews depicting news topics were presented to the public in a surprisingly short time after the events themselves had occurred and covered every phase of activity such as are published in the daily press. While some slight progress was observed in the production of color films the result still left something to be desired from the standpoint of artistic effect. It was difficult always to secure such perfect registry of the three primary colors used as to avoid the annoying fringe of color forming the out-lines of the objects on the screen. It was reported that several inventors had almost perfected a mechanism for combining a talking machine with the projection lantern. The same difficulty, however, that had confronted previous attempts in this direction, namely, that of securing perfect synchronism between the film mechanism and the talking machine was still unsurmounted. Some critics have held that the result produced by such a combination, even if mechanically perfect, would not be a satisfying one because a person watching the development of a story on the screen, aided by well written captions supplies for himself an imaginary conversation and supplementary action which fills out the screen picture. If every action on the screen were accompanied in exact unison by words given out by a machine the art would be reduced to a more mechanical level; so it is generally believed the story would lose much of its appeal to the average spectator.

The slowing up of business referred to above showed its effect on the moving picture industry by a great reduction of operations at the producing centres. It was reported that at one very large studio where 30 different companies had been employed for some time before, at the end of the year there were only eight companies working. Attendance at theatres began to fall

off, except in the large cities were premiéres and special features were regularly presented. The news came from California that more than 50,000 actors were laid off during December owing to the slowing up of operations. In this connection, too, it was stated on good authority that the over production of films had been carried to such a point that there were stored away a quantity valued at $25,000,000.

One fact was quite noticeable during the past year, and that was the increasing discrimination shown by the average audience in its judgment of the plays presented. Formerly it seemed as if the craze for this form of amusement by the public impelled the managers to present almost any kind of scenario; often mere trash, from a literary and dramatic point of view. During the past year, however, there was a notably different reception accorded by the public to the really strong plays of good dramatic quality. The opinions of the press critics were much more than formerly, indications of favorable or distasteful impressions of the public taste.

The question of censorship was again a live one during the year, but it could hardly be said that any particular progress was noted except in certain instances where self-constituted bodies undertook to pass on the suitability of pictures for public exhibition. Many state legislatures discussed bills offered for censorship and at Washington there was the usual unsuccessful endeavor to enact a national or federal measure for censoring moving pictures. In New York City an organization was perfected many of the directors of which were women, to encourage the production of films particularly adapted to the entertainment and instruction of children. It was said that this committee had made many valuable suggestions to the producers, which, it was hoped, would soon bear fruit in a number of bright, clean, entertaining photoplays. It would be difficult and hardly fair to pick out from the really successful dramas those that were considered to achieve the greatest popularity. Judged by the length of run in New York City, however, four plays stood out as worthy of being considered "big successes.' Those were: "Humoresque,' "Over the Hill," "Way Down East," and "Passion." It was reliably reported that the American rights to "Passion," a German production, were purchased for the sum of $40,000. The New York Times announced that at the close of the year, the American producers valued these rights at $500,000. "Passion" was presented at the Capitol Theatre, New York City. and during the first week of its run drew 106,000 spectators. During this same week the gross receipts of the theatre were estimated to have been at the rate of $10,000 a day. Thus in spite of the business depression referred to before, it was quite evident that the close of the year was witnessing a satisfying test of the strength and drawing power of photo-plays in general, and certain ones in particular.

MOZAMBIQUE. See PORTUGUESE EAST

AFRICA.

MUDGE, HENRY U. Railway president, died, January 30. He was born at Minden, Michigan, June 9, 1856, and went into railway work in Kansas, August, 1872. He rose through the various grades of the service and became general manager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. From 1909 to 1915 he was president and chief executive officer of the C. R. I.

and P. railway. In 1915 he was made president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway and of the Rio Grande Southern Railway.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. Continued growth of the city-manager plan was the outstanding feature of the year. The plan went into effect in some 40 or more cities and was adopted in five to 10, effective in 1921. The total number of cities having managers, according to records kept by the City Manager's Association, is 204 in the United States and four in Canada. (See large table, pp. 456-459). Only 13 states do not appear in the list. Michigan leads with 27 cities and Texas and California follow with 17 each. The South Atlantic, Southwestern, and North Central groups of states are close together with 45, 44, and 43 cities in the list and the New England group is at the foot with only seven. Akron, Ohio, is the largest and McCracken, Kan., the smallest city having a fulltime paid city manager, the respective populations being 208,435 and 371. In salaries, Norfolk, Va., leads with $16,000 a year, paid to C. E. Ashburner, the earliest city manager, who began service at Staunton, Va., in 1908, and served also at Springfield, Ohio, a number of years before going to Portsmouth. Six other

cities pay $10,000 a year or more. Discrepancies in number between the list here given and some others published is due to the fact that other lists are confined to commission-manager cities. The number of plain commission-plan cities added to the list in 1920, as reported by both the National Municipal League and the American City Bureau, was but five: Fresno, Cal.; Aurora, III.; Henderson, Ky.; Onoway, Mich.; Brenham, Tex. The total number of plain commission and comm 3ion-manager cities in the United States is probably well towards if not over 600. siderable number of the plain commission-plan cities listed in the tables published in earlier YEAR BOOKS are now in the commission-manager class.

A con

The voters of Boston, Mass., at the November election, disapproved a legislative amendment to their city charter changing the city council from nine members elected at large to 15 members chosen by districts.

At Philadelphia the small single bodied council of 21, that took office January 1 in place of the bicameral body with a total of 145 members, appears to have justified the change, although 14 of the 21 members were in the old councils and there has been much criticism of the new body. Commenting on the new council in the National Municipal Review, November, 1920, F. P. Gruenberg, director Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research says: "The new council is a great improvement. Not only is it simpler and more business-like in theory, but it actually functions better in practice . . the attendance record is now virtually perfect . . . the important committees are almost always up to date in their work . . . [council] meetings are less perfunctory and there is real deliberation and often genuine debate, neither of which was so much as attempted in the old unwieldy body, (but) there is still a tendency to follow the 'bell-wether' on roll call."

A proposed county council-manager plan for Baltimore County, Md. (See National Municipal Review, Aug., 1920) was defeated at the November election. It provided for a council of 15 members and a manager chosen by the council, the latter with less power to appoint and remove

executive officers than is usual under the city manager's plan.

An attempt at Ashtabula, Ohio, to abolish both the city-manager plan and the election of the city commissioners by proportional representation was defeated at the general elections in November.

Chicago voted at the November elections to increase the number of city wards from 35 to 50 but to reduce ward representation on the city council from two to one, thus cutting the council membership from 70 to 50.

Home rule charter making powers for Kansas City, Mo., were secured by an amendment to the constitution of Missouri adopted in November. At Minneapolis, Minn., acting under existing authority, the voters adopted a codified city charter including all legislative amendments to the old charter to date, but no changes except the very important new provision that will enable the city to alter its charter at will hereafter, without going to the legislature.

Sacramento, Cal., voted on November 30 to change from the commission to the commissionmanager plan and to elect the nine councilmen by proportional representation. The vote was 7962 to 1587, but of 30,469 registered voters only 9549 expressed their choice. The change in plan is subject to legislative approval, which in California follows as a matter of course. The new plan will go into full effect on June 30, 1921. The city manager will be appointed by the commission and will in turn appoint all other city executives except the city attorney, treasurer, clerk, and the police judge. The city engineer will exercise many of the functions of previous commissioners of streets and of public works. The boards of Parks and Playgrounds will be succeeded by superintendents of Parks and of Playgrounds. The Board of Education will be appointed by the City Council and will have as its executive officer a superintendent of schools.

Montreal, Canada, continued during the year to be governed in fact by the Administrative Commission, created by the Provincial Government, though the old mayor and council were still nominally in office. Meanwhile a charter commission created by the provincial government has been framing a new charter. The commission has approved the principles of complete municipal home rule for Montreal, with a city council of nine members, elected for four years by proportional representation from the city as a single election district; a mayor having few or no functions except those of city dignitary; and a general manager. The manager would be appointed by the city council, "solely on the basis of his executive and administrative capacities," and would appoint all heads of departments except the city clerk, attorney, and auditor, but the council could reject the appointments by a majority of all its members. Proportional representation at Montreal would be watched with interest on account of the conflicting religious and social conditions existing there, some three-fourths of the population being French Catholics and the remainder Irish Catholics, English Protestants, and a large number of Jews. (See also CITY PLANNING).

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, or the choice of members of city councils so as to give representation by parties or groups instead of by geographical districts, held its own during the year in the three American cities that had previ