St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-13
AMONG THE REVIEWS.

themselves. as we'll as the place as.
signed them In the pages. are sufficient
evidence of the vitality and persistence
of this question in the minds of men,
and of its refusal to be compromised
away or quieted with the "mush of con-
cession." Men may dislike it; they
may affect disgust at its mention, and
they may try to stop its onward sweep,
as did the tabled Canute the rising tide
with command to 20 no further; but 1t
needs them not, and announces by its
persistency that it is here with US to
stay until it is settled in accordance
with the everlasting and immutable
canons of right.
AS if life were not one constant re-
minder of the insignificance of man,
which only his insistent ego prevents
from crushing him, Edwin Arnold not
magnifieJ, but somewhat less for the
"Sir" pretiXed and the TX. c. l. E. c.
S. L." affixed TO his name-talks, in
Astronomy and Religion" of the suns
aud worlds and systems of them that fill
the illlmitaDle space into which our dim
eyes peer 'from the bottom of our
ocean of oxygen. nitrogen and the new
gas" and into which InoLick
telescope lets us see little
more without knowing more of. He
sees with the eyes of the idealist
what the patient, matter-0f-fact astron-
omer sees only as cold facts and hard
realities, puzzling him by their immen-
sity and .remoteness. and the romancist
is disposed to quarrel with the star
gaZerS that none of them are poets to
put into grand epic the Emusic of the
spheres" But if he finds it easy to
forgive them this defect he has no
Indulgence for the philosophers
and theologians who have SO ut
terly failed to read the significance
of the heavens and have drawn
from what their dull eyes saw in them
such puerile conclusions. Life and
death would take on newer and larger
and sweeter meanings IF our meta
physicians would salurate themselves
with the new truths of astronomy"
Then their ''dreary and dismal jere-
miads about the origin and end of life"
would cease, and anarchism Itself would
hide its head i'll shame. Ii from even
the inspection one gives the heavens Of
a starry night one feels as if thrown
back on himself with an awe which
overwheImS him, and if there comes
with it a keen sense Of his ins'gnif.
canoe, there comes, too. the better
thought that he is a part of this illlmit.
able whole. and a trustfulness i'll the
incUmprehensible power which created
and orders all.
There is a sharp descent from the
topic of Mr.. Arnold's article to the
Peril of the Treasury. "by eXSecretary
Boutwell,, reminding one that if there
are things eternal, there are also things
diurnal which affect our material we'll
being more closely than does the dis
lance 10 OF the condition OF things on
Aldebaran. MI. Boutwell, says it is his
purpose ITO present an outline of a
financial plan by which gold revenue
shall be provided adequate 10 the prob
able claims OH the national treasury,
and by which the product of American
silver, in excess of the demand by the
arts and industries of the country, may
be used for currency. and all without
regard to the policy OF foreign
should make gold and silver mon
ometallists, or that misty middle
ground of men who term themselves
blmetallists. prick up their ears and give
attention. MIR. Boutwell, has been at
the head of our treasury and has given
to financial matters long and deep study,
and what he may say or what he may
propose is worth listening to and con-
sidering. But We do not propose to de-
prive that excellent magazine of the
revenue it should have from this direc-
ton of attention TO Mr.. BoVtwell's arti-
Gle by even summarizing 1t, and thus
satisfying the curiosity aroused. If
any one wishes to know what MIR. Bout
WELLS plan is, we take pleasure in
informing them that they can get copy
of the North American at any news
stand for 80 cents, regretting. i'll passing,
that its proprietOrS have not followed
suit with the Forum and cut their price
in half.
Mr.. Heaton, M. P. has an interesting
article OH The Transatlantic Nails"
in which he touches this country up
sharply for not subsldiZlng mail lines,
but the purpose of whose article is 10
spread an interest in the cheapeniGg of
the cost of letter postage. He regards
it as an abSurdity that letter from
New York to Vancouver, $500 miles,
should be carried for two cents, while
one from the same place to Liverpool,
the same distance, should be charged
five cents. This anomaly he attributes
to the greed of the smaller and weaker
nations III the postal union, who voted
down the proposition to make uniform
twO-cent rate among all the nations.
In the absence of this general agree
ment he suggests that, taking advantage
OF the permission to form restricted
unions, this country should join Eng
t,,,. fol
making a twO-cent rate, and submits
figures showing the possibility of doing
it without Increase OF aggreSate cost OF
carriage.
Senator Kyle inquiries "HOw Shall the
Indians Be Educated?" and answers it
in an article which will not interest the
average Westerner who cannot, be con-
WINGED that the only good Indian is not
the dead one, or those others who see
the ingrained antagoniSm of the Indian
to the civilization of the whites, and
their immobility, against which senti-
mentality and philanthropy struggle
with paucity of result, as compared
with effort, which makes the task one
not worth engaging in.
The lord mayor of London has an ar
ticle ON the "Municipal Problem of
London" which Is valuable to US in the
larger cities of this country, where the
problems of city government are becom-
ing unpleasantiy pressing and perpleX-
ing. Many good citizen, proud OF his
country and concerned in its future,
turns with a deep depression from his
inspection of the working of our munic
ipal governments, and is inclined to
think that here, where the population is
densest, one can see in the iDefficiency,
even if the corruption be omitted, the
ultimate breakdown of self-government
when this density extends to the entire
country. tits true that the capacity of
men to govern themselves finds Its
period of stress and trial in our cities:
and it is strange that the remedy OF
decentralization, assimllating the organ
iZation to that of the rural communities,
has not been suggested. The centraliZlng
system takes from the citizen all sense
OF responsibility and his interest in the
government which the citizen of the
village or township feels and exer-
cises. The application of the principle