tional political organization, as national jurisprudence has been developed by a system of national political organization."

Dr. Tydeman, President of the delegation from Holland, said: "There is now no Old World, no New World, but one world-the whole world. It will be a grateful work to the President and the people of the United States to lead the world on to the establishment of justice by international arbitration and organization. The development of the United States has prepared the people of America for this work."

The action of the Interparliamentary Union, and the call for a conference of nations based on its resolution, is a prelude to the actual birth of a World's Parliament, and this sketch of what was done by the Interparliamentary Union to advance this idea, and what is hoped for by its leading members, would be unpardonably defective if nothing were said of the last supper taken by these workers for the world's welfare before they dispersed. The night after the President had announced that he would call the Conference as requested by the

Interparliamentary Union, supper being over, Mr. James L. Slayden, of Texas, was called upon to propose a toast to the man most worthy to be toasted on that memorable occasion. He said, in response, that some day Great Britain. will rear at the seat of the Parliament of Nations a monument more majestic than that which now stands in London to the memory of Wellington or any other military hero, and that it will be reared to the English carpenter and labor unionist, William Randal Cremer, who created the Interparliamentary Union, which has brought into practical politics this idea. of a World's Parliament as a means of perpetuating peace.

A day came for the British Parliament to be born, and it was born. A day came for the United States Congress to be created, and it was created. The day will come for the World's Congress to be constituted, and it will be constituted. It was the dream of prophets and poets of the past; it is the hope of practical men of the present, for the preservation of the peace of the world and the salvation of mankind from the horrors of war.

AST November the mightiest locomotive ever built sped along four miles of track leading out of Schenectady, New York. In an ordinary run this huge engine exerts 2,200 horse-power; at a spurt, when it has a hill to climb, or an unusually heavy load to draw, it can put forth 3,000 horsepower. So much for the gain in leaving fuel, furnace, and boiler at home, while their full impulse, as electricity, is derived from a few pounds of iron sliding on a special rail. The electric cars on which we ride every day, just like common bicycles, have toothed wheels that slow down the swiftness of the electric motor to the, moderate gait desired in the propelling axle. In the Schenectady locomotive, this gearing, with its friction, its liability to hurt and harm, is omitted; each motor turns directly on an axle of its own. Another strong point in the design is that sixty-nine of the ninety-five tons weight of the engine rest on its driving-wheels, conferring a degree of tractive efficiency never before approached. Because of its gigantic power, so effectively placed, this locomotive can get up speed much more quickly than a steam apparatus-a point of importance in a heavy suburban traffic with frequent stops. Drawing eight cars, and limited to but four miles of run, this engine attained a speed equal to sixty-three miles an hour. Yet more, because the machinery is comparatively light and its motion purely rotary, it delivers blows to the track and receives shocks in return much less severe than in the case of a ponderous steam locomotive with its piston moving to and fro instead of round and round. This tells us one reason why the repairs of an electric railroad are much less costly than where steam is the immediate motive power. Another weighty factor is, of course, that the furnaces, boilers, and engines of a power station are worked under conditions of shelter and economy in vivid contrast with the exposure and

waste unavoidable by a steam locomotive. Plainly enough, the feat at Schenectady gives a new edge and bite to electricity in competition with steam as a means of transit. The Schenectady engine is one of fifty, under construction by the General Electric Company, which are to haul through passenger trains between the Grand Central Station, New York, and Croton, thirty-four miles distant on the main line of the New York Central road, and between that station and White Plains, twenty-four miles away on the Harlem division. A speed reaching sixty-five miles an hour has been agreed upon for this service.

Such a replacing of steam by electricity on one of the chief highways of America prompts the question, In the near future what other lines are likely to follow suit? First of all, let us note similar transformations now under way. On the Long Island Railroad eighty miles of track will be ready next summer for electric operation, including service to Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway. By tunnels under the East River, through New York City, and under the Hudson River, this road will eventually unite the shores of Long Island with those of New Jersey, forming part and parcel of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. In New York City the tracks of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad begin at Mott Haven; thence to New Rochelle, twelve miles, there is soon to be an electrical installation of six tracks, two for freight, two for local passenger trains, two for expresses. For some miles of its line from Hoboken it is understood that the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad will at an early day employ electricity as motive power. Taking a stride half-way across the continent, we come to Denver, where the Colorado and Southern Railroad is about to equip its line of thirty miles to Boulder with electricity in place of steam.

All these cases, it will be remarked,

are providing for heavy suburban traffic, and all but one of them have the metropolis of America, with its stupendous business, for its focus. But other large cities of the Union are being closely scanned by electrical engineers, with a view to capturing an immense local transportation now conducted by steam. Boston, the center of a cobweb of railroads, is regarded as likely to fall under electric sway before long. Washington has planned a vast and splendid union station, to be approached by tunnels; what more probable than that electricity will here score another triumph, and at length actuate trains all the way through Baltimore and Philadelphia to New York? Chicago, perhaps beginning with the Lake Shore tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad, may soon be added to the territory wrested from the steam engineer by his electric rival. Chicago, be it noted, has completed fifteen miles of her subway for freight, to be electrically actuated. The line will be extended so as to include every railroad freight-house in the city, and the premises of leading shippers as well.

On

At the head of the trunk lines of America are men thoroughly aware of the advantages of electric propulsion. But in their hands are immense investments of capital which would become largely worthless if the steam locomotive were banished from its place, even were banishment possible. At this stage of the electric art it is, as a rule, only for runs comparatively short, with traffic uncommonly large, that steam can with gain be superseded by its rival. this point let us hear from Mr. L. B. Stillwell, chief electrical engineer of both the Manhattan Elevated Railroad and the Subway, New York. He says that to warrant electrical installation a steam railroad should handle every day not less than ten thousand tons of freight on each mile of its double track. An average American railroad carries but onetwelfth this amount. Indeed, the only considerable lengths of line that come up to Mr. Stillwell's figures are the stretch of the Pennsylvania road between Jersey City and Pittsburg, and the roads bringing iron ore and coal into Pittsburg. Of course, as trunk lines approach

great cities their traffic far exceeds his requirement, and therefore in and near such terminals we are likely to see one electric plant succeed another with steady pace.

But if the ousting of the steam locomotive in America may prove a slow affair, Europe is in a different case. In many of her districts the populations are extremely dense, and where these enjoy cheap fuel or water-power the electric revolution may proceed both swiftly and soon. During October, 1903, in a series of remarkable runs between Zossen and Marienfelde, near Berlin, an electric locomotive attained a speed of 131 miles an hour. It is plainly feasible that the German capital can be joined to Hamburg by a service at once more rapid and pleasant than that of steam. Between Liverpool and Manchester-341⁄2 miles apart-an electric line is under construction on which trains are to run through in twenty minutes, or at the rate of 1031⁄2 miles an hour. Switzerland, with magnificent water-powers, with engineering talent unsurpassed in all the world, is considering the electrification of her entire railroad system. Sweden, with dear fuel, many large waterfalls, and illimitable freightage in her beds of iron ore, is discussing a similar course, together with new and extensive lines, wholly electrical. Our neighbor, Canada, counts as one of her chief resources the vast water-powers which dot her map for much of its breadth between ocean and ocean. Dr. Robert Bell, director of the Geological Survey of the Dominion, reminds us that the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario to Montreal has a descent of 233 feet, quite abrupt in places; of the energy here available but a trifling part is as yet in harness. Scarcely less valuable as a source of power is the Ottawa River, which, between Lake Temiscaming and Montreal, has a descent of about 600 feet. Apropos of the line to the Pacific coast to be built by the Grand Trunk Railroad Company, Dr. Bell tells us that north of Lake Winnipeg abundant power is to be had from the Nelson River, the Athabasca and its tributaries; and that toward the Rocky Mountains the Peace River develops a rapid cur