Such a commission would collect data of inestimable value, data that was reliable, and of which there is now none worth while. Such a commission would doubtless make mistake after mistake, perhaps would depart from all its preconceived notions at the start. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that step by step it would gradually and slowly work out a solution. Looking the country over, we see that voluntary organizations have accomplished temporary good, but their effort has never been persistent, continuous, permanent, authoritative, legal. The adoption of the plan suggested would take out of the hands of those wholly unfitted for so great an undertaking this momentous question, and place it in the hands of others who we would have the right to assume would ultimately be found to deal with it, so far as human intelligence, study, observation and experiment can enable and qualify men to deal with it. Another and a greatly to be desired result would also be accomplished. It would remove from the police that which today contaminates the organization, so that in every city they have been brought under a suspicion unfortunately too frequently deserved, an opprobrium too justly applied. The casting of this burden upon the police, more than any other cause, sows the seed of corruption, furnishes the opportunity for profit, brings into alliance the law officers and the law-breakers, disgraces the police force, and keeps off of it many men who would otherwise be glad to serve their communities in a position that should command the respect and consideration of the people. This police burden has in turn been the biggest rock upon which self-government has capsized in our American cities. THE BELGIAN STRIKE [_The mass strike of the Belgian workers was carried to an issue last week. The motion of the Liberal member which brought the strike to a close, while it does not specifically grant the reform asked for by the Socialists, is considered such a lien on government action as to amount to a victory for them. These interpretations of the larger significance of the strike from different angles were, of course, written while the struggle was going on._ _Mr. Walling, who is a member of the radical wing of the Socialist party, is a student of international Socialism, his most recent book being The Larger Aspects of Socialism. He was in Russia during the Revolution, and knew intimately the details of the great Russian general strike of 1905._—Ed.] I. GRAHAM TAYLOR