opportunities and of rights-shall be reënthroned. This done, and the Republic will soon become the crown and glory of civilization. V. Space renders it impossible to mention more than a few typical examples of Mr. Elwell's art creations which have gained for him an international reputation. Many of his admirers regard his Dickens group as one of his masterpieces. This work consists of a derfully life-like representation of Charles Dickens, seated, and by his side stands Little Nell. The face of the great novelist, like all Mr. Elwell's portraitures, is almost startling in its lifelikeness. MONUMENT AT EDAM, HOLLAND. First Monument by an American-born Sculptor to be erected in Europe. Commission given by Krusman Von Elten, Artist. You involuntarily imagine that Dickens will speak while you are contemplating the statue. But, fine as is the seated figure, it appeals less powerfully to the imagination than the wonderful creation of Little Nell. This group was given a place of honor in the section devoted to American sculpture in the Fine Arts building at the Chicago World's Fair. "Diana and the Lion" or "Intelligence Subduing Brute Force" was also exhibited at that time. The Dickens group was subsequently exhibited at the Art Club of Philadelphia, where it was awarded a gold medal. Later it was purchased by the Fairmount Art Association, of Philadelphia. "Diana and the Lion" occupies a place in the Gallery of Modern Masters in the Art Institution of Chicago. Perhaps one of Mr. Elwell's most famous pieces of work is his heroic statue of General Hancock, mounted on a splendid charger, which adorns the battlefield of Gettysbury. t "The Flag," the Rhode Island State monument at Vicksburg, Mississippi, is a most striking creation, instinct with human interest; while some idea of the wide range of the artist's imaginative power will be realized if from this picture we turn to his wonderful symbolic statue, "Egypt Awakening," in which we see, though the feet and limbs are yet encased in the stone of the dead past, the body is alive and the brain luminously awake. In the upraised hand modern Egypt holds the lotus, the symbol of spiritual truth. "A Serious Thought" is an exquisite creation, as nobly suggestive of thought and contemplation as is "The Flag" of intense action and aroused patriotism. In symbolic representations Mr. Elwell has, we think, no peer in America. It will be interesting to turn from "Egypt Awakening" to the picture of his statue of "Classic Art" and study this representation. The art of Egypt, Chaldea and Assyria, however strong in symbolism and suggestive it might be, failed sig nally in representing life in its grace, beauty and naturalness. Grecian sculptors made a marvelous advance in this respect. Indeed, the gifted sons of this old mother of European art and letters reached perfection in portraying the physical man and woman, their strength, power, grace and beauty; but Greece did not portray the awakened soul. Indeed, the soul side of life has as a rule eluded both sculptors and painters throughout past ages. It is only of comparatively recent date, since the advent of democracy, that art has begun to reflect the deeper and more subtle qualities of brain and soul, and in this noble advance American sculpture is taking a prominent place. We believe that the art of the twentieth century will become the greatest art of the ages, because it will be most fullorbed. It will not only shadow forth physical charm, strength and beauty, but also the intellectual life. Now returning to Mr. Elwell's "Classic Art," let us compare the face with that represented in "The Flag" or "The Dispatch Rider," and we shall readily see the difference between classic art and the soulful twentieth-century concept. In the former statue we have grace of form, regularity of feature and physical charm but the soul quality is wanting. In "Rome," to which we have already alluded, and in "Kronos," we have further illustrations of Mr. Elwell's power as a sculptor of allegorical and symbolical creations. "The Dispatch Rider" is an exceptionally impressive statue, and the history of its genesis is interesting. One day Mr. Alden Freeman of Orange, New Jersey, came to Mr. Elwell's office at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and said: "We are going to have a monument put up at Orange, and I am afraid that it will get into the hands of some stone-cutter. Now if you could make me a sketch or tell me of some idea that would be attractive, I will see what can be done." On the instant Mr. Elwell took his pencil and drew in rough outline what now stands at the corner of Scotland and Main streets, in Orange. This is what he calls inspiration, and he has often said that the trouble with modern education is that it kills the ability of a human soul to seize an inspiration, and the machinery of education so clogs the way that all sorts of things, like conceits of learning, get the better of that message from the Infinite, Who is well able to bring it to the mind of him who can receive it in spirit and in truth. It is a great thing for America that she has a band of high-minded artists, educators and poets who place character before all else and are thoroughly honest, sincere and loyal to the high demands of art; and among this band we know of no one more entitled to a high place than F. Edwin Elwell. Boston, Mass. B. O. FLOWER. THE RECENT PANIC AND THE PRESENT DEADLY PERIL TO AMERICAN PROSPERITY. PRES BY ALFRED O. CROZIER. RESIDENT BARNEY is dead. It was suicide. He had committed no crime. Mortification because of the failure of the great financial institution he had builded with such patience and effort unhinged his mind. The Knickerbocker Trust Company was as sound as any Wall-street bank or trust company. The forced decline of the price-market had caused enormous shrinkage, but every bank does not reveal such losses by honest bookkeeping. Every banker knows that no bank can survive a persistent "run" without run" without outside aid. This is why country bankers fear to oppose the practices of the big Wall-street banks. They may need their aid in some pinch. This fact vastly increases the evil power of those who dominate the great New York banks. The solvency of any bank depends on two things. First, confidence of its depositors. Second, outside and adequate aid in an emergency. To wreck the institution, it is only necessary either to cause a "run" by discrediting it publicly, or refuse it outside financial assistance to meet withdrawal of deposits. Banking is a bluff,-all banking. At all hazards, its depositors some way must be made to believe the bank unbreakable. Only thus can "runs" be avoided. Banking is a gamble, all banking. No bank is absolutely certain it can obtain sufficient outside assistance quick enough to pay all depositors on demand in event of a "run. the extent of some $8,000,000 of checks. Wide publication of these menacing The uneasy depositors of other banks and trust companies naturally took alarm. Runs on many began. Some closed. Others paid out tens of millions, which disappeared from circulation and use. This contraction Company. This contraction further complicated things. A half-billion was loaned on call on Wall-street listed securities. With this good excuse, or real necessity The National Bank of Commerce long had been the member of the Clearing House to act as agent and clear for the Knickerbocker Trust Company. One day last November, and, it is said, without notice, the bank suddenly refused to clear for the trust company to so caused, loans were called wholesale. The weight of these immense offerings smashed the price-fabric, from under which support by the pools already had been largely withdrawn. Prices dropped vertically like a shot. The losses of the American people on the listed securities they were holding totaled billions. Panic reigned. If reports are correct, Wall street ordered the Federal government to place the public treasury at its disposal. This was done. It was the bluff that worked. It quieted depositors and stopped runs that otherwise might have wrecked the entire system of banks and trust companies, to the loss of Wall street itself. Tens of millions of public money was deposited in the banks without interest to further secure depositors, but was immediately loaned out to favored ones among the dominating factors and enabled them to harvest at bottom prices the securities the people were forced to sacrifice because they no longer could borrow of the banks. Was the panic artificial? If deliberately caused by men whose experience told them it would induce suicides, then those men are criminals in morals if not in law. They should be indicted for causing the death of President Barney, for they knew suicide would be the natural and inevitable result of the panic. It is proper to state some facts and ask some questions. The public can draw its own conclusions as to how the panic started. Who caused the National Bank of Commerce to suddenly refuse to further clear for the Knickerbocker? Who caused this act to be so exploited in the public press? What was their object? Are those great Wall-street operators who most profited through the panic the same men who dominate this bank? For years J. Pierpont Morgan has been considered the mightiest force in Wall street. The billion-dollar steel trust acknowledges him as its creator. This trust benevolently assimilated at a bargain the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, its principal competitor, when the panic had put its chief owners in a financial hole. Mr. Morgan is said to be the dominant factor in the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Its monopoly of the New England traffic was menaced by the competition of Morse's $60,000,000 coast-wise shipping trust, and by the Port Chester Railroad's proposed through line from New York to Boston. The New Haven road is reported to have gobbled up both of these competitors for a mere song, the former owners, who presumed to engage in the enterprise without the consent of certain all-powerful parties, being practically ruined. It was a forceful objectlesson to all, of the fate prepared for those who dare to organize industries and transportation lines to serve the people and develop the country, without getting the consent of the few giants who rule the trusts and the railroads of the country, presenting them with control and the lion's share. Other industries and enterprises throughout the country likewise were driven by the created panic into the pawn-shop of Wall street, there to be sand-bagged and seized by the inside few who knew in advance that the panic was coming and thus were able to accumulate the ready cash by selling to the confiding public securities they knew they soon would be able to buy back at half the price they sold them for. Who created the panic? Wall street shouts, Roosevelt. Carnegie lays it on to Providence. But the man caught wearing another's stolen clothes usually is promptly arrested, at least on suspicion, and his mere word that he came by the garments honestly is not accepted as conclusive and final. It must not be forgotten that there was among Wall street's national banks bitter hatred and envy toward the trust companies because they were not subject to the same legal restraints, and particularly because their higher interest rate paid for deposits was attracting money the banks otherwise would have obtained. If the soundness of the trust companies could be discredited, and their power to oppose weakened, it would be easy to get the legislature of New York, soon to be again in session, to pile on a few extra burdens, and incidentally the depositing public might be frightened into pulling its money out of the trust companies and putting it into the banks. Albany, under the advice of eminent Wall-street bankers, is now forging the legal hand-cuffs with which the trust companies are to be shackeled, the keys to which henceforth will be carried by the masters of the Wall-street banks. What a useful thing a providential panic is to a few men. What a curse to the other eighty-five millions! Then to have Providence think so happily to send it immediately before the session of Congress at which the big conspirators of Wall street purpose forcing through a law giving them a stranglehold on the entire currency supply of the people, so they can contract and expand the volume of money at their will for the purpose of artificially raising and lowering at their pleasure and for their profit the prices of stocks and property, and for reducing wages. For years Congress refused to repeal the provision of the national banking law against contracting or retiring more than $3,000,000 per month of national bank currency. It considered the power to suddenly contract in large amount the volume of the people's money too dangerous a power to put into the hands of banks or private parties. But, if Congress passes the Aldrich bill in its present form, it will be possible to contract the supply of currency a quarter of a billion dollars in one day. If the greatest legislative ambition of Wall street is realized, a privately-owned central government bank, with absolute control over the volume of the currency of the country, and unrestricted power to contract and expand it at pleasure, Wall street's secret masters of that bank will soon own the whole United States in fee simple. Also, hereafter they will dictate the nomination and election of the Nation's Chief Magistrate, who will ever rule the Republic for their profit-lust. It is the game of the ages. It is the conquest of the conquests of all history. (It is a struggle to capitalize for the benefit of private greed the welfare of the greatest nation in the world and the liberties of its inhabitants. Yet, on the very brink of this chasm the people are asleep! They have been lulled to slumber and then chloroformed with the sweet siren music about an elastic currency which will automatically expand and contract with the volume of business. The entire country is keeping step to the rythmic tune. Few seem to understand that what Congress at this moment seriously contemplates granting is an elastic currency with control over its expansion and contraction taken away from the government, where the Constitution put it, and given into private hands in a way to make it possible to contract the currency when the demand and volume of business is the greatest. This would create fearful panic. And panics, as we have seen, are the bargain-days when Wall street goes shopping; the days when the balance of the people are sold out of house and home by the sheriff If contraction of some $50,000,000 by depositors in a week can work the recent nation-wide havoc, what sometime may we not expect if Congress makes it possible to take away from the people and destroy a fourth of a billion dollars of money in twenty-four hours? The nation is face to face with one of the most deadly perils in all its history. The good Lord has caused factions among the piratical grafters, disguised as financiers, in their present assault upon the people's fountain of law. One faction would profit more from the Aldrich scheme; another, the central government bank; still another, the asset currency. Each plan is |