which stands the Russian Emperor."
The unfavorable attitude of the Finns toward the proposal of the War
Ministry for extending to them the general regulations that deal with
the obligation to serve in the army is also intelligible. That
obligation of military service is exceedingly irksome; and it is not
only the Finns who desire to fight shy of it, nor can one discover any
specially dangerous symptom in their wish to preserve the privileged
position which they have hitherto enjoyed as to the way of discharging
their military duties. They seek to perpetuate the privileges conferred
upon them in the form of fundamental laws, and they strive to avoid
being incorporated in the Russian Army, because service there would be
very much more onerous for them than in their own Finnish regiments...

If we now turn from the political to the economic aspect of the matter,
to the question how far the order of things as at present established
in Finland has proved advantageous to Russia from the financial point
of view, we shall search in vain for data capable of bearing out the
War Minister's opinion that, for the period of a century the Budget of
Finland has been sedulously husbanded at the cost of the Russian
people.

Ever since Finland has had an independent State Budget, she has never
required any sacrifices on the part of Russia for her economic
development. Ill-used by nature and ruined by wars, the country, by
dint of its own efforts, has advanced toward cultural and material
prosperity. Without subsidies or guaranties from the Imperial Treasury,
the land became furrowed with a network of carriage roads and railways;
industries were created; a mercantile fleet was built, and the work of
educating the nation was so successfully organized that one can hardly
find an illiterate person throughout the length and breadth of the
principality. It is also an interesting fact worth recording that,
whereas the Russian Government has almost every year to feed a starving
population, now in one district of the empire, now in another, and is
obliged from time to time to spend enormous sums of money for the
purpose, Finland, in spite of its frequent bad harvests, has generally
dispensed with such help on the part of the State Treasury...

Under these circumstances it is hardly fair to assert that Finland has
been living at Russia's expense. On the contrary, Finland is perhaps
the only one of our borderlands which has not required for its economic
or cultural development funds taken from the population of Russia
proper. The Caucasus, the Kingdom of Poland, Turkestan, part of
Siberia, and other portions of our border districts--nay, even the
northern provinces themselves--are sources of loss to us, or, at any
rate, they have cost the Russian Treasury very much, and some of them
still continue to cost it much, but the expenses they involve are
hidden in the totals of the Imperial Budget. A few data will throw
adequate light on this aspect of the situation. It is enough, for
instance, to call to mind what vast, what incalculable sacrifices the
pacification of the Caucasus required from Russia and what worry and
expense it still causes us. No less imposing is the expenditure which
the Kingdom of Poland with its two insurrections necessitated in the
course of last century.... And if we cast a glance at the youngest of
our borderlands--Turkestan--we shall find that here also the outlay
occasioned by the political situation of the country has already become
sharply outlined.... When we set those figures and data side by side we
shall find it hard to speak of "our expenditure on Finland" or of "the
vast privileges" we have conferred on the principality.

It follows, then, that the system of administration established for
Finland by the Emperor Alexander I. has not yet had any harmful
political results for Russia, and that it has dispensed the Russian
Government from incurring heavy expenditure for the administration and
the well-being of the country, and in this way has enabled Russia to
concentrate her forces and her care on other parts of the empire and to
devote her attention to other State problems.

One can not, of course, contend that the system of government adopted
in Finland satisfies, in each and all its parts, the requirements and
the needs of the present time. On the contrary, it is indubitable that
the independent existence of the principality, disconnected as it is
from the general interests of the empire, has led to a certain
estrangement between the Russian and the Finnish populations. That an
estrangement really exists can not be doubted; but the explanation of
it is to be found in the difference of the two cultures which have
their roots in history. To the protracted sway of Sweden and Finland's
continuous relations through her intermediary with Western Europe, the
circumstance is to be ascribed that the thinking spirits among the
Finns gravitate--in matters of culture--not to Russia but to the West,
and in particular to Sweden, with whom Finland is linked by bonds of
language--through her highest social class--and of religion, laws, and
literature. For that reason the views, ideas, and interests of
Western--and in particular of Scandinavian--peoples are more
thoroughly familiar and more intelligible to them than ours. That also
is why, when working out any kind of reforms and innovations, they seek
for models not among us but in Western Europe.

It is, doubtless, impossible to look upon that state of things with
approval. It is highly desirable that a closer union should take place
between the interests, cultural and political, of the principality and
those of the empire: that is postulated by the mutual advantages of
both countries. As I have already remarked, Russians could not
contemplate otherwise than with pleasure the possible union and
assimilation--in principle--of the borderland with the other parts of
our vast fatherland: they will also be unanimous in wishing this task
as successful an issue as is possible.....

But what is not feasible is to demolish at one swoop everything that
has been created and preserved in the course of a whole century. A
change of policy, if it is not to provoke tumults and disorganization,
must be carried out gradually and with extreme circumspection. The
assimilation of Finland can never be efficacious if achieved by
violence and constraint instead of by pacific means. The Finnish people
should be left to appreciate the benefits which would accrue to them
from union with a powerful empire: for an adequate understanding of
their own interests will, in the words of the Imperial rescript of
February 28, 1891, "inspire them with a desire to draw more closely the
bonds that link Finland with Russia." There is no doubt that even at
present a certain tendency is noticeable among the Finns in favor of
closer relations with Russia: the knowledge of the Russian tongue is
spreading more and more widely among them, and business relations
between them and us are growing brisker from year to year. The
desirable abolition of the customs cordon between the two countries is
bound to give a powerful fillip to the growth of commerce, which is the
most trustworthy and most pacific means of bringing about a better
understanding and strengthening the ties that bind Finland to Russia.

Harsh, drastic expedients may easily loosen the threads that have begun
to get tied, foster national hate, arouse mutual distrust and
suspicion, and lead to results the reverse of those aimed at.
Assimilative measures adopted by the Government, therefore, should be
thought out carefully and applied gradually.

J.N. REUTER

"Might can not dominate right in Russia," said M. Stolypin, Russian
Minister of the Interior and President of the Council of Ministers, in
the speech which he delivered in the Duma on May 18, 1908, when pressed
by the various parties to declare his policy with regard to Finland.
This noble sentiment has the familiar ring of Russian officialdom. It
may, perhaps, be worth while to consider it in the light of recent
history and present-day issues.

Alexander I., the first Russian sovereign of Finland, addressed a
Rescript to Count Steinheil on his appointment to the post of
Governor-General. Therein he wrote: "My object in Finland has been to
give the people a political existence so that they shall not regard
themselves as subject to Russia, but as attached to her by their own
obvious interests." It is not the place here to give an historical
account of subsequent events. It may, however, be briefly stated that
the political ideal expressed in the words quoted here was at times
forgotten, but was again revived, and, in such times, even resulted in
the extension of Finland's constitutional rights. Then, again, this
ideal was abandoned, and gave way to a totally different one, which
found its most acute expression in February, 1899, when the Czar, a
year after the issue of his invitations to the first Peace Conference
at The Hague, suppressed by an Imperial manifesto the constitutional
right of Finland. The arbitrary and corrupt Russian bureaucratic regime
little by little forced its way into the country, while Finlanders
watched with bitter resentment the suppression, one by one, of their
most cherished national institutions.

This manifesto was condemned in many European countries at the time,
and a protest against it was signed by over a thousand prominent
publicists and constitutional lawyers, who presented an international
address to the Czar begging him to restore the rights of the Grand
Duchy.

In 1905, however, it seemed at last that a new era was about to dawn.
The change was brought about by the domestic crisis through which
Russia herself was then passing. An Imperial manifesto promulgated in
October, containing the principles of a constitutional form of
government in Russia, was followed as an inevitable sequel by the
manifesto of November 4th, which practically restored to Finland its
full political rights. In 1906, a new Law of the Diet was enacted.
Instead of triennial sessions of the Estates, annual sessions of the
Diet were introduced, while an extension of the franchise to every
citizen over twenty-four years of age without distinction of sex gave
to women active electoral rights. Moreover, the door was opened to new
and far-reaching reforms, the fulfilment of which infused fresh life
into the democratic spirit of Finnish national institutions. While,
however, so much was done to improve the political, social, and
economic condition of the country, the promises which were then made
have not been fulfilled. The principal reason for this failure to
redeem their pledges lies in a change of attitude among Russian
officials and their interference in Finnish affairs. It is by
consideration of this change and of its effect upon Finland that we may
best judge how much truth there is in M. Stolypin's claim that in
Russia "might can not dominate right."

Ominous signs of a reversal of policy had appeared before, but the
first official expression to it was given in the speech of M. Stolypin
already referred to. In this speech he claimed for Russia as the
sovereign power the right of control over Finnish administration and
legislation whenever the interests of the empire were concerned. This
claim meant practically the restoration of the old Bobrikoff regime and
was based on the same ideas as those underlying the February manifesto
of 1899. M. Stolypin attempts to justify his attitude by arguing that
the constitutional relations between Russia and Finland are determined
only by Clause 4 of the Treaty of Peace between Russia and Sweden,
dated September 17,1809. This clause runs as follows:

"His Majesty the King of Sweden renounces irrevocably and forever, on
behalf of himself as well as on behalf of his successors to the Swedish
throne and realm, and in favor of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia and
his successors to the Russian throne and empire, all his rights and
titles of the governments enumerated hereafter which have been
conquered by the arms of his Imperial Majesty from the Swedish Army, to
wit: the Provinces of Kymmenegard, etc.

"These provinces, with all their inhabitants, towns, ports, forts,
villages, and islands, with their appurtenances, privileges, and
revenues, shall hereafter under full ownership and sovereignty belong
to the Russian Empire and be incorporated with the same."

After quoting this clause, M. Stolypin exclaimed, "This is the act, the
title, by which Russia possesses Finland, the one and only act which
determines the mutual relations between Russia and Finland."

Now this clause contains no reference whatever to the autonomy of the
Grand Duchy, and if it were the only act by which the mutual relations
of Russia and Finland were determined, then Finland would have no
constitution. The political autonomy of Finland, which has been
recognized for exactly one hundred years, would have been without legal
foundation. Even M. Stolypin admits that Finland enjoys autonomy.
"There must be no room for the suspicion," he said, "that Russia would
violate the rights of autonomy conferred on Finland by the monarch." On
what, then, does the claim to Finnish autonomy rest and how was it
conferred? Clause 6 of the Treaty of Peace contains the following
passage:

"His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, having already given the
most manifest proofs of the clemency and justice with which he has
resolved to govern the inhabitants of the provinces which he has
acquired, by generosity and by his own spontaneous act assuring to them
the free exercise of their religion, rights, property, and privileges,
his Swedish Majesty considers himself thereby released from performing
the otherwise sacred duty of making reservations in the above respects
in favor of his former subjects."

This entry in the Treaty of Peace refers to the settlement made at the
Borgo Diet a few months earlier, and it is under this settlement,
confirmed by deeds of a later date, that Finland claims her right to
autonomy. M. Stolypin recognizes the claim of Finland to autonomy, but
refuses to recognize the binding force of the acts of the Borgo Diet on
which alone it can legally be based. This claim gives Finland no voice
in her external relations. All international treaties, including
matters relating to the conduct of war (though laws on the liability of
Finnish citizens to military service fall under the competency of the
Finnish Diet), are matters common to Russia and Finland as one empire,
one international unit, and are dealt with by the proper Russian
authorities. This is admitted by all Finlanders. But M. Stolypin
extended Russian authority by making it paramount in all matters which
have a bearing on Russian or Imperial interests.

The attempt to curtail Finnish constitutional liberty has taken
different forms. Early in 1908 the Russian Council of Ministers, over
which M. Stolypin presides, drew up a "Journal," or Protocol, to which
the Czar on June 2d gave his sanction. The chief provisions of this
Protocol were briefly as follows: All legislative proposals and all
administrative matters "of general importance," before being brought to
the Sovereign for his sanction, or, as is the case with Bills to be
presented to the Diet, for his preliminary approval, as well as all
reports drawn up by Finnish authorities for the Czar's inspection, must
be communicated to the Russian Council of Ministers. The Council will
then decide "which matters concerning the Grand Duchy of Finland also
have a bearing on the interests of the empire, and, consequently, call
for a fuller examination on the part of the Ministries and Government
Boards." If the Council decide that a matter has a bearing on the
interests of the empire the Council prepare a report on it, and, should
the Council differ from the views taken up by the Finnish authorities,
the Finnish Secretary of State, who alone should be the constitutional
channel for bringing Finnish matters before the Sovereign's notice, can
do so only in the presence of the President of the Council of Ministers
or another Russian Minister. But in practise it has frequently happened
that the Council send in their report beforehand, and the Czar's
decision is practically taken when the Finnish Secretary is permitted
an audience.

This important measure was brought about by the exclusive
recommendation of Russian Ministers. Neither the Finnish Diet nor the
Senate nor the Secretary of State for Finland, who resides in St.
Petersburg, was consulted or had the slightest idea of what was going
on before the Protocol was published in Russia. It has never been
promulgated in Finland, and no Finnish authority has been officially
advised of it. The whole matter has been treated as a private affair
between the Czar and his Russian Ministers.

The excuse has been made that the Czar must be permitted to seek
counsel with whomsoever he chooses in regard to the government of
Finland. But this is not a question of privately consulting one man or
the other. The new measure amounts to an official recognition of the
Russian Council of Ministers as an organ of government exercising a
powerful control over Finnish legislation, administration, and finance.
The center of gravity of Finnish administration has, in fact, been
shifted from the Senate for Finland, composed of Finnish men, to the
Russian Council of Ministers.

The Finnish Senate protested to the Czar in three separate memoranda,
dated respectively June 19, 1908, December 22, 1908, and February
25,1909. The Finnish Diet adopted on October 13, 1908, a petition to
the Czar to reconsider the matter. On the occasion of the opening of
the Diet's next session the Speaker, in his reply to the Czar's
message, briefly referred to the anxiety prevailing in Finland, with
the result that the Diet was immediately punished by an order of
dissolution from the Czar. The Senate's memoranda, as well as the
Diet's petition, were rejected, the Czar acting on the exclusive
recommendation of the Russian Council of Ministers. They were not even
brought before him through the constitutional channels, the Finnish
Secretary of State having been refused a hearing. As a result all
members of the Department of Justice, or half the number of the
Senators, resigned.

In the same year another but less successful attack was made on the
Finnish Constitution. In the autumn of 1908 the Finnish Diet adopted a
new Landlord and Tenant Bill, but before it was brought up for the
Czar's sanction the Diet was dissolved in the manner just described.
The Bill being of a pressing nature, the Council of Ministers was at
last prevailed upon to report on it to the Czar. The latter then gave
his sanction to it, but, on the recommendation of the Council, added a
rider in the preamble. This was to the effect that, though the Bill,
having been adopted by a Diet which was dissolved before the expiration
of the three years' period for which it was elected, should not have
been presented for his consideration at all, the Czar would
nevertheless make an exception from the rule and sanction it, prompted
by his regard for the welfare of the poorer part of the population.

The Senate decided to postpone promulgation of this law in view of the
constitutional doctrine involved in the preamble. It was pointed out
that this doctrine was entirely foreign to Finnish law. The preamble
which, according to custom, should have contained nothing beyond the
formal sanction to the law in question, embodied an interpretation of
constitutional law. Such an interpretation could only legally be made
in the same manner as the enactment of a constitutional law, _i.e.,_
through the concurrent decision of the Sovereign and the Diet. The
Senate, therefore, petitioned the Czar to modify the preamble in such a
way as to remove from it what could be construed as an interpretation
of constitutional law.

In reply, the Czar reprimanded the Senate for delaying promulgation,
recommended it to do so immediately, but promised later on to take the
representations made by the Senate into his consideration. Five of the
Senators then voted against, while the Governor-General and five others
voted for promulgation of, the law. The minority then tendered their
resignations. The inconveniences resulting from this new constitutional
doctrine proved, however, of so serious a practical nature that the
Czar eventually, in July, 1909, issued a declaration that "the gracious
expressions in the preamble to the Landlord and Tenant Law concerning
the invalidity of the decisions of a dissolved Diet do not constitute
an interpretation of the constitutional law and shall not in the future
be binding in law."

A third and most important encroachment by the Russian Council of
Ministers on the autonomy of Finland was also carried out at the
instigation of M. Stolypin. The Finnish Constitution makes no
distinction between matters that may have, or may not have, a bearing
on the interests of Russia. At the same time Russian interests have
never been disregarded in Finnish legislation. It had been the
practise, when a legislative proposal was brought forward in Finland,
and a Russian interest might be affected by it, to communicate with the
Russian Minister whom the matter most closely concerned, in order that
he might make his observations. This practise was confirmed by law in
1891. In its memoranda of 1908 and 1909, on the interference of the
Russian Council of Ministers in Finnish affairs, the Senate suggested
that, in case the procedure under the ordinance of 1891 were not
satisfactory, a committee of Russian and Finnish members should be
appointed to discuss a _modus procedendi_ of such a nature that the
Constitution of Finland should not be violated. On the recommendation
of the Council of Ministers, the Czar rejected these suggestions, but
the Council of Ministers took the matter in hand and summoned a
"Special Conference," consisting of several Russian Ministers, other
high Russian functionaries, the Governor-General of Finland, who is
also a Russian, with M. Stolypin as President. Their business was to
draw up a program for a joint committee to be appointed "for the
drafting of proposals for regulations concerning the procedure of
issuing laws of general Imperial interest concerning Finland." This
conference accordingly drew up a program, approved by the Czar on April
10, 1909, in which it was resolved that the joint committee should
suggest a definition of the term "laws of general Imperial interest
concerning Finland." These laws, it was proposed, should be totally
withdrawn from the competency of the Finnish Diet and should be passed
by the legislative bodies of Russia, that is, the Council of State and
the Duma. The only safeguard for the interests of Finland suggested in
the program is that a representative for Finland should be admitted to
these two bodies when Finnish questions were discussed there.

It is impossible to say what laws concerning Finland will be defined as
being of "general interest." Having regard, however, to the wide
interpretation which Russian reactionaries are wont to put on the
expression, there is every reason to suppose that the Russian members
of the committee will insist on its extension so as to include every
important category of law.

The Finnish members through their spokesman, Archbishop Johansson,
declared that they proceeded to work on the committee on the assumption
that in case alterations in the law of Finland should be found
necessary, having regard to Imperial interests, such alterations should
be made through modifications in the constitutional laws of Finland.
The Finlanders are prepared to do their duty by the empire, but, the
Archbishop said: "Sacrifices have been demanded from us to which no
people can consent. The Finnish people can not forego their
Constitution, which is a gift of the Most High, and which, next to the
Gospel, is their most cherished possession."

M. Deutrich, who spoke on behalf of the Russian members, explained that
any law resulting from the labors of the committee would not be
submitted to the ratification of the Finnish Diet.

So M. Stolypin's way was now clear. The sanction of the people will not
be required. The Finlanders have practically no other help than that
given by a consciousness of the justice of their cause. They have no
appeal.

In November of 1909 the Finnish Diet was dissolved by a ukase of the
Czar. Since then the Russian Government has been passing decree after
decree for Finland, giving the constitutional authorities no voice even
of protest. So ends Finland.




MAN'S FASTEST MILE THE AUTOMOBILE AGE

A.D. 1911

C.F. CARTER ISAAC MARCOSSON

On April 23, 1911, an automobile was driven along the hard, smooth sand
of a Florida sea beach, covering a mile in 25-2/5 seconds. And it
continued for a second mile at the same tremendous speed. These were
the fastest two miles ever made by man. They were at the rate of a
trifle over 140 miles an hour. As this record was not equaled in the
three years that followed, it may be regarded as approaching the
maximum speed of which automobiles are capable. And as another
automobile, in endeavoring to reach such a speed, dissolved into its
separate parts, practically disintegrated, and left an astonished
driver floundering by himself upon the sand, we may assume that no
noticeably greater speed can be attained except by some wholly
different method or new invention.

In contrast to this picture of "speed maniacs" darting more swiftly
than ever eagle swooped or lightning express-train ran, let us
contemplate for a moment that first automobile race held in Chicago in
1894. A twenty-four horse-power Panhard machine showed a speed of
thirty miles an hour and was objected to by the newspapers as a "racing
monster" likely to cause endless tragedy, menacing death to its owners
and to the public. Thus in the brief space of seventeen years did the
construction of automobiles improve and the temper of the world toward
them change. The present day may almost be called the "automobile age."
The progress by which this has come about, and the enormous development
of this new industry is here traced by two men who have followed it
most closely. The narrative of the "auto's" triumphs by Mr. C.F. Carter
appeared first in the _Outing Magazine_. The account of the industry's
growth by Mr. Isaac Marcosson appeared in _Munsey's Magazine_, of which
he was the editor. Both are given here by the permission of the
magazines.

C.F. CARTER

When the marine architects and engineers catch up with the automobile
makers they can build a ship capable of crossing the Atlantic in
twenty-three hours; or, if we forget to make allowance for the
difference in longitude, capable of making the run from Liverpool to
New York in the same apparent time in which the Twentieth Century
Limited makes the run from New York to Chicago. That is, the vessel
leaving Liverpool at three o'clock in the afternoon would arrive at New
York at nine o'clock the following morning, which, allowing for the
five hours' difference in time, would make twenty-three hours.

When the railroad engineers provide improved tracks and motive power
that will enable them to parallel the feats of the automobile men, if
they ever do, the running time for the fastest trains between New York
and Chicago will be reduced to seven hours, while San Francisco will be
but a day's run from the metropolis.

And when the airship enthusiasts are able to dart through the air at
the speed attained by the automobile, it will be time enough to think
of taking seriously the extravagant claims made in behalf of aviation.

For the automobile is the swiftest machine ever built by human hands.
It is so much swifter than its nearest competitor that those who read
these lines to-day are likely to be some years older before its speed
is even equaled, to say nothing of being surpassed, by any other kind
of vehicle.

So far as is known, but one human being ever traveled faster than
Robert Burman did in his racing auto on the beach at Daytona, Florida,
on April 23, 1911. This solitary exception was a Hindu carrier who
chanced to tumble off the brink of a chasm in the Himalayas. His name
has not been preserved, he never made any claim to the record, he was
not officially timed, and altogether the event has no official
standing. Still, as he is the only man who is ever alleged to have
covered so great a distance as six thousand feet in an obstructed fall,
the matter is not without interest; for, according to the accepted rule
for finding the velocity of a body falling freely from rest, he must
have been going at the rate of seven miles a second when he reached the
bottom.

About Burman's record there can be no doubt, for it was made in the
presence of many witnesses, and it was duly timed with stop-watches by
men skilled in the art. The straightaway mile over the smooth, hard
beach was covered from a running start in the almost incredibly short
time of 25.40 seconds.

The next fastest mile ever traveled by human beings who lived to tell
about it was made in an electric-car on the experimental track between
Berlin and Zossen, in 1902. As the engineers who achieved this record
for the advancement of scientific knowledge of the railroad considered
such speed dangerous, it is not at all likely to become standard
practise. The fastest time ever made by a steam locomotive of which
there is any record, was the run of five miles from Fleming to
Jacksonville, Florida, in two and a half minutes by a Plant system
locomotive in March, 1901. This was at the rate of 120 miles an hour.
As for steamships, the record of 30.53 miles per hour is held by the
_Mauretania_.

These things, if borne in mind, will serve to throw into stronger
relief the things that an automobile can do, and to supply a
substantial basis for the premise that, at least in some respects, the
automobile is the most marvelous machine the world has yet seen. It can
go anywhere at any time, floundering through two feet of snow, ford any
stream that isn't deep enough to drown out the magneto, triumph over
mud axle deep, jump fences, and cavort over plowed ground at fifteen
miles an hour. It has been used with brilliant success in various kinds
of hunting, including coyote coursing on the prairies of Colorado,
where it can run all around the bronco, formerly in favor, since it
never runs any risk of breaking a leg in a prairie-dog hole. Educated
automobiles have been trained to shell corn, saw wood, pump water,
churn, plow, and, in short, do anything required of them except figure
out where the consumer gets off under the new tariff law.

But to get back to the subject of speed, as automobile talk always
does, the supremacy of the motor-car has been established by so many
official records that any attempt to select the most striking only
results in bewilderment. The best that can be done is to recite a few
representative ones.

That was a most interesting illustration, for instance, of the capacity
for sustained high speed made by a Stearns car on the mile track at
Brighton Beach in 1910. In twenty-four hours the car covered the
amazing distance of 1,253 miles, which was at the average speed of
52-1/5 miles per hour. This record is all the more remarkable from the
fact the car was not a racer, but a stock car which had been driven for
some months by its owner before it was borrowed for the race, and did
not have any special preparation. The men who drove it were not
notified that their services were wanted until the morning of the race.

While this is about the average rate per hour of the fastest train
between New York and Chicago, it should be remembered that the trains
run on steel rails, that curves are comparatively few, and they are not
sharp, while the automobile was spinning around a mile track made of
plain dirt, and was obliged to negotiate 2,506 sharp curves. Besides,
the locomotives on the fast trains are changed every 120 to 150 miles,
while the entire run of 1,253 miles was made by one auto which had
already run 7,500 miles in ordinary service before it was entered in
the race.

Unfortunately for the automobile, it has achieved so many remarkable
speed records that its name is suggestive of swiftness. If the English
language were not the stereotyped, inelastic vehicle for the
communication of thought that it is we should now be speaking of
"automobiling" a shady bill through the city council instead of
"railroading" it. There are few places where it is permissible to
attain record speed, and fewer men who, with safety to others, may be
entrusted with the attempt. The true value of the automobile to the
average man lies in its ability to keep right on going indefinitely at
moderate speed under any and all conditions.

One of the innumerable tests in which the staying qualities of the
automobile were brought out was the trip from Pittsburg to Philadelphia
by way of Gettysburg by S.D. Waldon and four passengers in a Packard
car, September 20, 1910. This run of 303 miles over three mountain
ranges, with the usual accompaniments of steep grades, rocks, ruts, and
thank-you-ma'ms to rack the machinery and bruise the feelings of the
riders, was made in 12 hours and 51 minutes.

A little run of three or four hundred miles, though, is scarcely worth
mentioning by way of showing what an auto can do in a real endurance
contest. A much more notable trip was the non-stop run from Jackson,
Michigan, to Bangor, Maine, in November, 1909, by E.P. Blake and Dr.
Charles Percival. The distance of 1,600 miles was covered in 123 hours,
which meant traveling at an average speed of 13 miles an hour in rain
and snow and mud over country roads at their worst. In all that time
the motor never once stopped. In the Munsey historical tour of 1910 a
Brush single-cylinder car covered the 1,550 miles of a schedule
designed for big cars and came through with a perfect score. If you
know the hill roads of Pennsylvania you'll realize what that means in
the way of car performance.

Still more remarkable endurance tests are the transcontinental trips
which are undertaken so frequently nowadays that they no longer attract
attention. One such trip which shows what very little trouble an
automobile gives when handled with reasonable care was that made in
1909 by George C. Rew, W.H. Aldrich, Jr., R.A. Luckey, and H.G. Toney.
Traveling by daylight only, they made the journey of 2,800 miles from
San Francisco to Chicago in nineteen days in a Stearns car. They might
have done better if they had not loitered along the way. On one
occasion they stopped to haul water a distance of twenty-five miles for
some cowboys on a round-up. The motor gave no trouble whatever, while
the only trouble with tires was a single puncture caused by a spike
when they tried to avoid a bad stretch of road by running on a railroad
track.

The time record from ocean to ocean was held by L.L. Whitman, who left
New York in a Reo four-thirty at 12.01 A.M. on Monday, August 8, 1910,
and arrived in San Francisco on the 18th, covering the 3,557 miles in
10 days 15 hours and 13 minutes. This achievement may be more fully
appreciated by comparing it with the transcontinental relay race in
which a courier carried a message from President Taft to President
Chilberg, of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, in September-October,
1909, in 10 days 5 hours, by using thirty-two cars and as many
different drivers who knew the roads over which they ran.

Those who are fortunate enough to have friends who own cars know that
automobiles can climb hills; and that the accepted way to do it is to
throw in the extra special high gear, tear the throttle out by the
roots, advance the spark twenty minutes, and push hard on the steering
wheel. The fact that the car will overlook such treatment and go ahead
is a source of never-failing wonder. Indeed, when it comes to
hill-climbing the automobile is so far ahead of the locomotive that it
seems like wanton cruelty to drag the latter into the discussion at
all.

The steepest grade on a railroad doing a miscellaneous transportation
business climbed by a locomotive relying on adhesion only is on the
Leopoldina system in Brazil between Bocca do Monte and Theodoso, where
there is a stretch of 8-1/3 per cent. grade with curves of 130 feet
radius. There are some logging roads in the United States with grades
of 16 per cent. How trifling this seems when compared with the feat of
a Thomas car which climbed Fillmore Street, San Francisco, which is
alleged to have a gradient of 34 per cent., with twenty-three persons
on board. As 25 per cent. is regarded as the maximum safe gradient for
an Abt rack railway, since the cog-wheel is liable to climb out of the
rack on any steeper grade, it will be seen that the strain upon the
credulity of the hearer of this story is almost as great as that upon
the car must have been.

Enthusiasm may be expected to run high in the presence of such
astounding triumphs, and it should, therefore, not be deemed surprising
that accounts of hill-climbing contests are generally lacking in
definiteness. The name of the car and the driver are always given with
scrupulous care, but such incidental details as length of ascent,
minimum, maximum, and average gradient, maximum curvature, and so on,
are generally left to the imagination.

Among the few exceptions to this rule was the hill-climbing contest at
Port Jefferson, Long Island, in which Ralph de Palma went up an ascent
of two thousand feet with an average gradient of 10 per cent. and a
maximum of 15 per cent. in 20.48 seconds in his 190-horse-power Fiat. A
little Hupmobile, one of the lightest cars built, reached the top in 1
minute 10 seconds. De Palma climbed the "Giant's Despair" near
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, an ascent six thousand feet long, with
grades varying from 10 to 22 per cent., in his big machine in 1 minute
28-2/5 seconds. A Marmon stock car reached the top in 1 minute 50-1/5
seconds. Pike's Peak, Mount Washington, Ensign Mountain, in Utah, and
lesser mountains elsewhere have also been climbed repeatedly by
automobiles. As the mere announcement of the fact vividly exhibits the
staying powers of the auto in a long, stiff climb, the engineering
details may be disregarded.

Next to its ability to do the exceptional things when required, the
most useful accomplishment of the automobile is its wonderful capacity
for standing up to its work day in and day out in fair weather or foul,
regardless of the condition of the roads. This is shown every year in
the spectacular Glidden tours, otherwise the National Reliability
tests, in which a number of cars of various makes cover a scheduled
route of two or three thousand miles, in which are included all the
different kinds of abominations facetiously termed "roads." Other tests
without number are constantly being evolved to demonstrate the already
established fact that an automobile can do anything required of it.

There was the New York to Paris race, for instance. Starting from New
York on February 12, 1908, when traveling was at its worst, and
arriving in Paris July 30, the winner floundered in snow, mud, sand,
and rocks, over mountain ranges and through swamps, in eighty-eight
days' running time for the 12,116 miles of land travel. That was a
demonstration of what an automobile can do that has never been
surpassed. Yet the Thomas car that did it was restored to its original
condition at a cost of only $90 after the trip was ended.

Another remarkable demonstration of endurance was that given by a
Chalmers-Detroit touring car, which was driven 208 miles every day for
a hundred consecutive days over average roads. When the 20,800 miles
were finished, just to show that it still felt its oats, the car which
had already covered 6,000 miles of roads through Western States before
the test began, ran over to Pontiac, Michigan, and hauled the Mayor 26
miles to Detroit. Then it was run into the shops and taken down for
examination. Being found to be in perfect condition except for the
valves, which required some trifling adjustment to take up the wear on
the valve stems, and for the piston rings, which needed setting out, it
was reassembled and started on another test.

But, after all, the most wonderful thing about an automobile is its
almost infinite capacity to endure cruel and inhuman treatment. No
matter whether the brutality is inflicted through ignorance or
awkwardness, or, rarest of all, through unavoidable accident, the
effect on steel and wood and rubber is the same. Yet the auto stands
it.

In brake tests it has been demonstrated that a car traveling at the
rate of eighteen miles an hour can be stopped in a distance of
twenty-five feet. The knowledge that this can be done in an emergency
is a great comfort, but it should be equally well known that it does
not improve the car to make all stops that way. Yet how often are
drivers seen tearing up to the curb at twenty miles an hour or more to
slam on the brakes at the last instant with a violence that nearly
causes the car to turn a somersault, bringing it to a standstill in
twenty feet, when there was no earthly reason why they should not have
used four times that distance. Or if occasion arises for slowing down
in a crowded street, the same kind of driver throws out his clutch and
applies the brakes with the throttle wide open so the motor can race
unhindered.

With the greenhorn the automobile is long-suffering. There was a new
owner in Boston, whose name is mercifully suppressed, who took his
family out for a first ride. In going down a hill on which the clay was
slippery from recent rain it became necessary to turn out for a car
coming up. The new driver made the turn so successfully that he turned
clear over the edge of the embankment. Having nothing but air to
support it, the auto turned completely over without spilling a
passenger and landed right side up and on an even keel in a marsh
fifteen feet below. It was necessary to get a team to pull the car out
of the mud, but once on the solid road the new owner simply cranked 'er
up and went on his way rejoicing.

Another new owner could not find the key to fasten one rear wheel on
the axle when he unloaded his auto from the car in which it had been
shipped from the factory. Nevertheless, he started up the motor
according to directions and traveled twelve miles with one wheel
driving. By this time the outraged motor was red hot. Whereupon the new
owner stopped at a farm-house and dashed several buckets of cold water
on it. Then he plugged around the country a week or so before he
decided to go to the agent to lodge a complaint that his derned car
didn't "pull" well.

Still another new owner complained that his car did not give
satisfactory service. The agent was not at all surprised that it didn't
when, upon investigation, he found that the car had been driven five
hundred miles without a single drop of oil being applied to
transmission gear and rear axle.