The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-22

past, but the London of the present and l future.
 1 In all it has had to buy out more
 than 90 public houses. Not merely the buildings, but the licenses and good
 will have had to be paid for. In many instances those thus driven out of busi- 1 ness were paid bonus of fifteen thou sand dollars, and in one instance twen-
 ty thousand was the figure, though the average was much below this. All these drinking licenses the council has squelched. It could have reoccupied it. self by keeping them, or it could have sold them, but it has declined thus far to have any direct interest in that traf- fic which is one of London's greatest
 curses, In this cause it has sunk more
 than a million dollars. That's the
 way the money goes," is the comment
 of some indignant rate payers, but
 surely it's a good way if it helps to
 make London sober.
 In the not distant future the London
 County Council will be housed, no
 doubt, in a building worthy of it, like
 the Hotel de Vile of Paris. At present
 it's rented offices at Spring Gardens,
 leading from Trafalgar Square'into St.
 James's Park, are beggarly inadequate,
 The office staff numbers no less than
 S03 and the total number of employees
 doesn't fall far short of four thousand.
 The different departments of the Coun-
 cil are managed by 2S large committees.
 The chairman of the bridges committee
 is Will Crookes, a former dock laborer,
 who is so much of an expert and so
 useful that his services one year secur-
 ed him the honor of reelection the
 next. On many of the committees eX-
 perts are appointed from outside the
 Council. A notable instance is the
 technical education committee. More or less under the supervision of this
 committee are the 4,000 evening classes now in operation in London for the diff fusion of technical knowledge, and the l.. c. C., through this committee, is ar ranging to open in the metropolis a large college for the training of school teachers.
 This L. c. c. is rapidly municipalizing the enormous tram and bus service of the city, and is doing it's work so we'll that, besides reducing fares in many cases, it is making a good profit on its ventures. and is, at the same time, im- proving the condition of the conductors and drivers On the lines acquired by the Council the average fines of en- ployees have been reduced from eight pence halfpenny per year to five pence. They work their men only six days in the week, and pay them as much as they formerly got for seven days work. This branch of the Councils business is managed by the highways committee and MT. Torrance has just said that "this committee has vast schemes in and under consideration. It aims at revolution. It will not rest un- til every district in London is properly served with tramways. It is convinced that horse power is doomed and that the power of the future is electricity" Rather late in the day, Americans will think, to announce with a flourish of trumpets conclusion of that kind. But these English are proverbially late in adopting improvements, and only for the unusual enterprise of the l.. c. c. | electric trans would be an even greater l rarity in London than they are.
 Constantly is this l.. c. c. looking for | new breathing places for it's teeming ] population. Only last week it took over | from the Archbishop of Canterbury ! park belonging to Lambeth Palace. Upon this it has expended 10000 dollars 'or improvements and at an outlay of | 50,0 900 dollars it has secured an exten- sion of 42 acres to Brockwell Park. Twelve years ago, when this Council ,ame into service. the parks and open paces of London numbered 40 and cost 250,000 dollars for main enance. Now there are 92 and the an- lual cost is 550,000 dollars. In the same ime the acreage has increased from ,636 to 3,S33, and hardly a month pass s without witnessing some further ad- Iition to these lungs of London"
 Less than three years ago a law was 'assed by Parliament empowering corporations to establish in briate asylums. The first to take ad- antage of this law was the London 'ounty Council, Considering how much london needs such places this was per aps appropriate. At all events the L. :, C's inebriate home for women has cen running for two years with results hat are most encouraging. This ex- eriment by the Council of London has d to the taking up of this work by the one office of the general government.