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It is to extend to the whole community, THE CITIZEN will have a wider scope than The rapid withdrawal of gold from the Treasury in January, and especially during the first two weeks of February, induced the President to sell another issue of 4 per cent bonds upon terms which mean that the rate of interest will amount to 3 per cent as against 3 per cent for the November issue, which was to the amount of $50,000,000, and produced barely enough gold to sustain the Treasury for three months. The contract for the new bonds has been bitterly criticised; but the need of an immediate supply of gold was urgent, and the attitude of Congress was a menace to the national credit. The Treas- ury was between the Devil and the deep sea -on the one hand, a Congress unfavorable to a clear pronouncement satisfactory to lenders, on the other, bankers unwilling to supply gold without charging roundly for their ser- vices, and for the slight risk as to payment The refusal of the House of Representatives Successfully to readjust the fiscal system of a great country requires ability of the first NY been competent to deal with the currency question, it could not have arrived at a conclusion in the time at its disposal, because, under the Senate rules, which admit of interminable debate, a group of Senators can stop legislation if they choose to do so. Under these circumstances the country will look forward to the meeting of the Fifty-fourth Congress, which, if not of better material than the Fifty-third, will at least have two years in which to overcome the inertia of the Senate. Mr. Abraham Hewitt's estimate of the abilities of congressmen from one part of the country has been held by others to be not far from the truth as applied to congressmen in general. It is felt that there is a distinctly low average of ability and patriotism among our public men at Washington as well as elsewhere. There is significance in the fact that this feeling is finding wide-spread expression at a time when local government has become too bad to be endured. The machinery which is based upon minor politics practically controls all nominations, and there is little reason to expect it to give relatively better results in Congress than in our cities. The sacrifice of good local government in the hope of strengthening a national party is as dangerous a fallacy as has ever taken root. With a Republican Congress after the fourth of March, and Mr. Cleveland in the White House until 1897, there is little probability, for the present, of further changes in the tariff. The fiscal policy of the country therefore becomes the all important and pressing question. It is not a question upon which either of the two great parties has a definite policy. It must be met and settled by the united wisdom of Congress and the Executive. No condition could more forcibly illustrate the advantage of having in Congress the best capacity and the most enlightened patriotism that can be found among our people. The occasion requires not. men chained to party allegiance, and the product of a corrupted political system, but men able to deliberate on great questions of business with breadth of mind and a sense of responsibility to the country as a whole and to the people as a nation. In the long run our national administration will suffer as much as the government of cities from low ideals and bad practice in local affairs. The entrance of Japan into the ranks of the world powers, as evidenced by her recent history, is one of the most important events of the last quarter of this century. Nearly all modern writers on politics have taken the view that the political future of the world lay entirely in the hands of the white race. Some of the most eminent publicists have not hesitated to assert that the yellow races have shown little more capacity for political organization than the black, and that the only hope for them, as for the latter, is a gradual development under the tutelage and domination of the white. This view of politics has much to warrant it in the history of Asia for the last century. Wherever the white races have come into serious conflict with the yellow races they have come off victorious. The seeming resignation of the latter to a distinctly inferior political position has justified the belief that they were not likely to assert themselves vigorously against occidental domination. The probability that Asia would thus become a mere political dependency of Europe, to be divided up, like Africa, among the European nations, was rendered still greater by the fact that the leading nation-China-showed little or no inclination to adapt herself to modern conditions, or to prepare herself, by taking advantage of the results of modern progress, to resist successfully European attacks. It looked more and more as if the political fate of Asia lay entirely in the hands of Europe, and as if the process of division would be slow or rapid-not because of any oriental influence, but solely because of European jealousies and intrigues. The whole face of affairs has been changed by the action of Japan. A purely Asiatic nation goes to school for a time to Western civilization, adapts her own customs to modern conditions, changes her system of government and her code of laws to bring them into a certain degree of harmony with the political standards of Western Europe, and then suddenly advances to the front and demands entrance into the list of the civilized nations of the world, claiming all the privileges of the most favored nation, notably, insisting that the same rules of international law shall be applied to her in dealing with European nations as the latter require among themselves. This claim is asserted, in the ordinary method of Western Europe, by the exercise of skillful diplomacy, by which Japan has shown herself, in this respect at least, to be entitled to a place among leading nations by her ability in negotiating treaties and in playing off one country against another. It is supported at a critical time by a display of military force which has surprised the world and given ample notice of her power and determination to insist upon the recognition of her new position among the great powers of modern times. It This exercise of her military strength is in a direction which will probably impress the imagination of China in such a way as to force her into line with modern progress. will not be surprising, therefore, if from this time shall date one of the most stupendous events of modern times, the appearance of two great Asiatic powers among the political forces of the modern world. Such an event would compel a radical change in many prevailing political theories. Aryan tendencies would surely be modified by Mongolian influences in many ways unsuspected at present. Perhaps we may get some of that staying power into our civilization which has characterized the life of the East for centuries. There is a wide-spread feeling that the time is ripe for the opening of a vigorous campaign in behalf of public libraries in Pennsylvania. We present in this number a carefully digested account of the steps by which in the past five years the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has added to the number of her free public libraries until less than two per cent of her population are without library privileges, and we are permitted to reproduce from Mr. Fletcher's excellent book on Public Libraries in America, the chapter which is of particular interest in the initial stages of library agitation. The present situation in Pennsylvania is outlined in the following paragraph from a paper on Libraries and Popular Education in the "Pennsylvania School Journal" for February, by the Editor, State Superintendent N. C. Schaeffer: "A just sense of the value of free public libraries has hardly been awakened in the people of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia started libraries in the last century, and still ranks third as a city of libraries among her American rivals. The liberality of Carnegie led to the founding of libraries in Pittsburg, Allegheny and Braddock. Scranton, Wilkesbarre and Johnstown boast of public libraries. The cities and towns which are the seats of colleges and other higher institutions of learning, have libraries specially adapted to the needs of their professors and students. Comparatively few centres of population have good-sized collections of books for the benefit of the public. The appointment of a library commission tó aid in the establishment of public libraries would greatly promote the intellectual advancement of the people of Pennsylvania." The University of Oxford is at last considering a plan for giving formal recognition to the advanced research, or graduate study, of persons who are already Bachelors of Arts either of Oxford or of other universities. Cambridge has appointed a syndicate to consider similar action. The American student is likely to chafe under the length of the term of residence required in the proposed Oxford statute, which is three years, especially since at the end of that time he will find himself in possession only of a new Bachelor degree. At the end of another period of two years he may supplicate, if he chooses, for the degree of Master of Arts. A German university would have rewarded similar labor with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the end of three years or less from matriculation. It is probable that the statute will be amended in this particular before its adoption, as many of the more radical reformers are in favor of a reduction of the required term of residence. The movement is to be heartily welcomed. It indicates a growing sentiment at both of the old English universities in favor of the position that it is their legitimate function to |