THE

THE DIRECT-VOTE SYSTEM: In this issue THE ARENA gives a survey of the campaign that has been waged in recent years in the interest of genuine popular government or for the purpose of so safeguarding the people's interests as to prevent the Republic from ceasing to be a popular government and becoming the creature of privileged classes acting through political bosses and money-controlled machines. Mr. WILLIAM D. MACKENZIE, the author, accompanying his paper with a number of pictures of prominent workers among the Direct-Legislation forces in America and also by several pictures of leading American statesmen, jurists and publicists who have come out unequivocally in favor of DirectLegislation. No movement of the hour is so clearly essential to the best interests of the people or so vital to the very life of a popular governemnt as Direct-Legislation; and no patriot, no man who loves and believes in a democratic republic can fail to rejoice to see great Republican and Democratic states like Oregon and Oklahoma coming out in so clear and unequivocal a manner for popular rule.

The Rimini Story in Modern Drama: Last month Professor ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, Ph.D. gave our readers a masterly and brilliant sketch of the story of Rimini. In this paper he deals with the great Rimini dramas that have embodied the popular but tragic historical incident. Like everything that comes from the pen of this gifted and discriminating critic, this paper is masterly and satisfying.

Justice Clark on Judicial Supremacy: Elsewhere in a note we speak of the exceptionally able discussion of the menace to free institutions of an

uncontrolled and autocratic judiciary, by the Chief-Justice of North Carolina. In a personal letter received a few days ago from the governor of one of the leading Southern commonwealths, the writer said:

"I read everything with avidity from the pen of

Justice CLARK. I wish we had more men like him. They are very much needed now."

This statesman merely echoed a sentiment expressed to us from time to time by numbers of prominent and conscientious thinkers. For more than a score of years Justice CLARK has been prominently before the people in positions of great trust and honor, and during all this time he has not only evinced the ability of a profound statesman and jurist but he has ever been true to the highest interests of the people and faithful to the fundamental principles of genuine democracy. He is a statesman after the order of JEFFERSON and would fill with conspicuous ability, honor and faithfulness any office in the gift of the people.

The Ebb of Ecclesiasticism: We wish to call the especial attention of our readers to the masterly paper from the scholarly pen of GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND, A.M. It is, we think, one of the most striking not to say startling papers on religious conditions that has appeared in years,―more an authoritative revelation of the present-day status of conventional and dogmatic theology, based on statistics and opinions chiefly from leading authorities in the various churches, than an argument. This contribution will occasion widespread controversy. It is a presentation that cannot be ignored

The Peopling of Canada: Mr. FRANK VROOMAN who has recently returned from extended travels throughout all the great new provinces and states of the Canadian Northwest, contributes a paper of exceptional interest to this issue; a contribution as fascinating as a romance and as full of information as a dry-as-dust report of a scholastic investigator. No reader can afford to ignore this pleasing and informing contribution.

A Possible Way Out: The Hon. LUCIUS F. C. GARVIN, ex-Governor of Rhode Island, presents a possible way out of the politico-economic labyrinth that merits the attention of thoughtful people. For several years the advance guard among statesmen, publicists and reformers were compelled to devote most of their attention to uncovering evils and clearly establishing facts to prove their contentions, which the grafters, the bosses, the reactionary politicians and the great corrupt and corrupting masters of the money-controlled machine ever denounce as false and absurd. But developments during recent years have clearly established the truth of the contention of the reformers. Now people the pathway out of the land of bondage in it is the duty of the advance guard to show the which they have been held by the unholy alliance of political bosses, money-controlled machines and privilege-seeking corporations and trusts. THE ARENA is devoting much space to this problem,

which in the nature of the case is constructive in character. Governor GARVIN'S contribution belongs to this class and is richly worth a careful perusal.

The Wonderful Life of Benjamin Franklin and His Great Service to Civilization: Our Book-Study this month is devoted to the life and times of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, a subject very timely and important when unrepublican servants of reaction and oppression are uniting with privileged interests in everywhere seeking to subtly undo the great work wrought by FRANKLIN, JEFFERSON, WASHINGTON and the fathers who founded the greatest free state known to history.

Was Mansfield A Genius? In HARRY WANDMACHER'S paper on MANSFIELD we have a critical examination of the acting of the late RICHARD MANSFIELD with an estimate of his claim to genius. The author frankly admits the many serious faults that marked Mr. MANSFIELD's art but holds that his work in the greatest scenes stamped him a true genius. The paper is illustrated with some fine portraits of Mr. MANSFIELD in various rôles.

The Master Builder: Mr. MAILLY our special dramatic critic and correspondent in the metropolis, contributes a discriminating paper on IBSEN's great play, "The Master Builder," and its remarkable recent production in New York. It is the purpose of THE ARENA from time to time to publish illuminat

ing criticisms of really great plays that are brought out on the American stage so as to keep our readers in touch with the most vital thought that is being presented in the drama.

The Symbolism of "The Tempest": We trust that no reader of THE ARENA will overlook the brief but profoundly thoughtful paper on The Symbolism of "The Tempest" which appears in this issue from the scholarly pen of GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE. Mr. CLARKE possesses the interior insight of the true poet and the broad intellectual vision of the philosopher. He has made a profound study of SHAKESPEARE and everything he writes on the plays of our greatest dramatist is thought-arresting and germinal in its influence.

VOL. 39

No. 220

A

I.

MONG the many picturesque villages and towns of Massachusetts that environ Boston, no place holds such charm and interest for patriot, scholar and nature-lover as Concord. It was here that the first resolute stand was taken by self-forgetting and rugged sons of freedom, from farm, shop and office, in the opening conflict of the most momentous revolution known to history, -the revolution that ushered in the age of popular rule. Here were felt the first birth-pangs preceding the advent of the latest and fairest child of governmentdemocracy. As Emerson later so happily phrased it,

"Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world." This accident of history will ever make Concord a shrine of interest for lovers of freedom.

As the nineteenth century approached her meridian, this quiet and picturesque little town rejoiced in a new and noble distinction. She became a miniature intellectual capital a diffuser of the light of moral idealism and intellectual culture, as here dwelt a coterie of thinkers

marked preeminently for their moral worth, their love of nature and their penetrating mental vision. Of this group Ralph Waldo Emerson was the most distinguished. He was, we think, beyond question the greatest ethical philosopher and the most thought-stimulating essayist and poet that America had given to the world. His writings were among the first literary work whose high excellence commanded the interested attention of the thoughtful of Europe.

Nathaniel Hawthorne at this time also formed one of the brilliant Concord group. group. He was our first great novelist who combined at once rich imagination, subtle penetration, delicate humor and a graceful and fascinating style.

Here also lived Henry Thoreau, the nature-loving philosopher; a college man whose life voiced more eloquently than any of our writers the sentiment expressed by Byron when he wrote:

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."