"Pardon me, gentlemen," said the governor, "but it seems that I have bothered you without any reason."

"Yes," answered the district attorney, "I just met my assistant and it seems that the round object which terrified Mr. Formalin so much was nothing but a lamp globe."

"That is just what the chief of police has been telling me this moment. Well, go on."

"And at the moment when the clerk was going down the stairs," continued the chief, "his Excellency came out and

"In such uncertain times it is natural for one to be suspicious," interrupted Formalin; "all the papers are full

"Well, we won't talk any more about it," answered the governor.

"Of course, the first thing to do is to free the prisoner at once," said the district attorney.

"Of course," agreed the governor and added: "Perhaps you had better do it right off by telephone, and make out the papers afterwars."

"With pleasure."

The district attorney, the governor and the rest went into the reception room. The district attorney went to the phone and asked to be connected with the jail, then began to talk to the jail warden. Suddenly the receiver fell from his hands, and himself, pale as a ghost, leaned against the wall, looking dazedly at those present.

"What is the matter?" exclaimed the governor, taking him by the hand.

"Do you know what the warden just told me?" quietly asked the district attorney.

"What?"

"The prisoner was brought there all beaten up, never recovered consciousness and has just died."

All shuddered and looked at the chief of police. He looked at the ground.

Translated by GEORGE MORGAN.

The Red Special. A special train carrying Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for the presidency, together with other speakers and a load of enthusiastic socialists, is now touring the United States from Chicago to the Pacific, and back to the Atlantic. It is a splendid object lesson to show the growing strength of the political movement of the working class in the United States. It will reassure the timid converts who are afraid of throwing their votes away. Best of all, it will bring the socialist message to at least a million workers who might otherwise have missed it. We socialists are slow to become enthusiastic over an individual; we want no "leaders"; we prefer to do our own thinking. But we must have spokesmen, the more the better, and we are fortunate in the spokesman who will have the widest hearing this year. Debs is a clear-headed revolutionist; that is the essential thing and fortunately we have many other spokesmen for whom the same can be said. But he is also warm-hearted; he loves people and they love him. He is a hard fighter; there is nothing uncertain about the blows he levels at capitalism, but all the time there is a winsomeness about his personality that few can resist. And in the discussion of public policies leading up to the November election, the advantage is all on his side before an audience of wage-workers. Taft can readily convince a capitalist that injunctions where labor troubles occur are essential to "business interests". Debs can as readily show a wage-worker that if he wants to get what he produces, he, and not the capitalist, must control not only the judges who issue injunctions, but also the tools with which he produces wealth. The cost of the Red Special is estimated at $20,000; it is money well spent. Enough to cover the western half of the trip was practically in sight when the train started, on August 30. The rest of the money is needed at once and we advise every reader of the Review who can spare a dollar or more for the Red Special to mail it at once to J. Mahlon Barnes, National Secretary, 180 Washington street, Chicago.

What We Can Do This Year. For the next two months both impossibilists and opportunists may well suspend discussion of our differences and talk of the things on which we unite. It may or may not be possible, it may or may not be desirable to place a large number of socialists in office this year, or one, two or four years from now, but it is certainly possible and desirable to bring more and more wage-workers each year to understand that the most effective way to win happiness for themselves and their children is to do away with capitalism. More effective methods of organization are desirable and will come, but a certain amount of propaganda and education must precede organization, must, in other words, supply the recruits that are to be organized. This propaganda and this education are being carried on now, in the midst of this presidential campaign, more actively and more effectively than ever before. Let us all unite at it, and when the smoke clears away after election, take up questions of tactics again with more data to work on.

Not Guilty. Mr. Bryan's recent speeches are largely devoted to defending himself and his associates in the Democratic party against the charge of being Socialists. He proves his case. Twelve years ago many "half-baked Socialists", the writer of this paragraph among them, voted for Mr. Bryan because they imagined that he was headed for the Co-operative Commonwealth. They have learned better. If any still make this mistake, it is not Mr. Bryan's fault. He is sincerely and consistently advocating a political program designed to restore competition, to dethrone the trust magnate and put the little capitalist in his place. Of course that can not be done, but the point we wish to urge here is that if it could be done it would not be a step toward the realization of the Socialist program but away from it. The big capitalists are perfecting a social organization of production as fast as they can. In some departments of industry this organization is nearly complete, in others it is far from being so. One thing that the capitalists need in carrying on this essential work is a political administration that will keep hands off and let them do as they like. This they believe Taft will give them and they are probably right. Now where does the wage-worker come in? His ultimate interest is to abolish capitalism. This can not come about until capitalism has run its course, and any such petty obstructions as Bryan in office could rear, would simply delay things. And his immediate interest is to have a job. In the excellent little article on pages 135 and 136 of last month's Review, Clarence Meily showed that there are plenty of jobs at such times as the capitalists are reinvesting the surplus value produced by the workers in new machinery of production. The capitalists seem to think, and they ought to know as well as any one, that such reinvestment would be discouraged and retarded by the election of Bryan. So that if one indirect effect of voting for Debs would be to hurt Bryan's chances, the wage-worker need not be anxious on that score.

"Something Right Now." The Socialist party platform embodies a number of general, industrial and political "demands" of greater or less importance. It is to be regretted that at least two of our party papers have printed these demands without the Declaration of Principles, in a way that would give a distorted idea of the purposes and methods of the Socialist party. If the party had no other excuse for existence than these "demands," it would be quite superfluous. The "demands," or most of them, are likely to be conceded by the capitalists within, the next few years. And the quickest way to get them conceded is not to agitate for them but for possession of the whole machinery of production. Two million votes secured by a clear-cut appeal to the class interests of wage-workers would frighten the capitalists into conceding public works for the unemployed, government railways, telegraphs and coal mines, eight hour laws, child labor laws, state insurance and other reforms asked for in our program. If we elect men to the state legislatures or to congress, these men may well put a deal of careful work on the details of such reforms, and try to make each law as favorable to wage-workers as possible, but in our general work of propaganda and education, let us put all the emphasis on the principles of Socialism upon which we are agreed.

Mr. Taft on the Defensive. On Aug. 29 Mr. Taft opened his campaign in a speech at Athens, Ohio. The most interesting portion of his speech deals with the question of injunctions. He denies that he invented these, but he holds that they are a good thing.

He says:

"The civilization of our country depends on our making the courts more effective and in giving them power which shall enable and require them to do their work more quickly, so that justice may not drag on one, two or three years.

"I am sure that the intelligent working men of this country, when they come to face the question of whether they wish the tribunals for the administration of justice weakened to the point so that the people may laugh at them or whether they wish them to be sustained, will forget their particular and especial interest in a class of cases and, like patriots as they are, rise to the point of saying that the administration of the courts must be held high, that the power of the court be held up, so that they can enforce their own orders."

These words should be convincing to any capitalist, large or small, or to any workingman whose mind has not been hopelessly weakened by capitalist morality. Mr. Taft is undoubtedly right in claiming that if capitalism is to go on, "the power of the courts must be held up." The real question is whether it is for the advantage of the man who is to cast his vote that capitalism continue. If you believe it is "justice" that the capitalist class should take all you produce except a bare living, the logical thing to do is to vote for Taft. If you have come to the conclusion that you want to get what you produce, vote for Debs.

It is a real revolution that has taken place in Turkey-though some of the great political journals seem not yet to have discovered the fact. No better case could be cited to show to what an extent international politics have become an abstract science. There is an outbreak in the Turkish army. Straightway the French and English papers discover that it is all a plot of the Kaiser's to overthrow British supremacy. German papers, not to be outdone, connect it with the recently formed Anglo-Russian entente. Marvelous ingenuity is brought to bear; every possible element in the situation is analyzedexcept the feelings of the Turks themselves.

And in truth the revolution appears to be nothing more nor less than a tardy assertion of the national spirit of these neglected Turks. . Perhaps after all it has not been the nation which has been "The Sick Man of Europe," but only the autocracy. For about thirty years now the powers have kept the Sultan on his shaky throne. Five separate times they have outlined reforms, but never has an honest attempt at improvement been made. Every sign of a popular movement has been instantly crushed. The powers have found it to their advantage to have an autocracy, but a weak one dependent on their support rather than on public good-will. So the most flagrant abuses have flourished. Ministers and generals have heaped up fortunes while soldiers and state employes have gone unpaid. There has been no such thing as religious freedom. Brigandage has been so common as to excite little comment. Thousands of the most intelligent subjects of the Sultan have been sent into exile. The powers did nothing, or next to nothing, to put an end to all this.

For a long time it has been known that a committee of exiles with headquarters at Paris has been planning a revolt. Its followers are known as the Young Turks. So secretly was their propaganda carried on that no serious attention was given to it. When their plans were finally executed the whole world was taken by surprise. The Turkish army has long been in a state of semi-revolt. More than once there have been accounts of whole regiments, headed by their officers, marching to headquarters and demanding their pay. Early in the month of July affairs seemed to be coming to a head. From Monastir, Saloniki, and other parts of Macedonia came reports of the murder of officers. Then, about July 16th, the news was heralded abroad that a large part of the Macedonian army was in organized rebellion. It was led by Niazi Bey and other officers, mostly educated in the west. These men set up a provisional government, issued a proclamation to the citizens and began to receive taxes. By July 21st they were strong enough to demand of the Sultan the restoration of the constitution of 1876.