improperly removed from the Minnesota court. Without waiting for the result of this suit, the Attorney-General of the United States sued in the Circuit Court of the United States for Minnesota, charging infraction of the “Sherman anti-trust law” of 1890. That court, after elaborate hearings, found the Northern Securities Company to be an unlawful combination in restraint of trade, and ordered its dissolution. As was expected, an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, where in March, 1904, the decision below was affirmed, the chief justice and three associates dissenting. Under judicial direction the Northern Securities Company proceeded to return the stocks taken in exchange, and at length went into dissolution. The same men own the two roads still. Early in the year 1908 the Supreme Court of the United States considered that the Circuit Court for the District of Minnesota had the right to punish the attorney-general of Minnesota for attempting, in disobedience of its process, to enforce a state law regulating railroad rates, held to be obnoxious to the national constitution. Minnesota enjoys a great advantage in point of transportation to both oceans in the competition of Canadian roads, with branches penetrating to her principal cities. The water route eastward from Duluth has moderated costs of shipping out her staple products—grain, ore, and lumber—and given her favorable rates on returning merchandise. The new states of the Northwest have departed far from the conservative doctrine that governments exist merely for the protection of persons and property. Two examples of this departure in Minnesota may be mentioned. In 1899 the legislature created the Minnesota Public Library Commission. Its duties are to maintain (1) a bureau of information on library matters, (2) a circulating library, and (3) a clearing-house for periodicals. From the circulating library, “traveling libraries” of twenty-five or fifty volumes are sent to small towns and rural communities on payment of a small fee. Home study and juvenile libraries are also sent out, and small collections in five different foreign languages. No provision for the general culture could be more popular. Equally acceptable have been the ministrations of the Minnesota State Art Society, organized under an act of 1903. This body manages periodical art exhibitions, offers and awards prizes for excellence in artistic work, and will ultimately form a permanent collection. The exhibitions, held in St. Cloud, Mankato, and Winona have been of great educational value.