In calling attention to the desirability...

NOT BECAUSE OF SENATORSHIP.

In calling attention to the desirability of electing a democratic legislature as well as democratic state officers, Chairman Whiting has acted wisely. This is a matter that ought to be impressed upon the voters of the state. For it is necessary that the law-making branch of the government be in harmony with the executive in order that any substantial reforms may be effected. A hostile legislature might thwart every effort of the governor to bring about the important remedial legislation which he should advise.

Hence it follows that if the people of Michigan are in earnest in their desire for a primary election law, for taxation reform, for establishing legal safeguards against ripperism, for the adoption of the principle of the initiative and the referendum, they must see to it that a legislature is chosen that will be in sympathy with these propositions.

The election of Judge Durand and of a legislature in accord with the splendid platform on which he was nominated will mean the overthrow of demagogism, ringism, and jobbery; of incompetency and spinelessness in the executive department, and extravagance, and ringism in the legislature. It will mean the complete emancipation of this great and intelligent state of ours from the control of a disgraceful clique of politicians - the smashing of machine rule and the re-assertion of the people's right to govern themselves.

Such a victory is worth striving for, it is worth the sacrifice of partisan feeling for once and the working together of all the friends of good government, republicans and democrats alike, for its accomplishment. But it cannot be full and effective unless it includes the election of a reform legislature as well as a reform governor. - Hastings Herald.

The new mandate that has gone forth is to the effect that neighboring districts must consolidate in order to build a good central school building with several rooms and several teachers, and a consequent opportunity for grading the scholars. It is further decreed that the children must be brought to this central school on a cooperative plan, in suitable conveyances for protection from cold and wet and fatigue. Further, it is in the air that the new consolidated country school must adapt its methods of instruction to the real conditions of life. It mus be a social and intellectual center for grown-up people as well as for the children of the region. It must have an ample piece of ground, and this must be kept in the most perfect order as one of the primary interests and duties of the school. Nature study must center largely into school life and work and a positive taste for rural pursuits and for the elements of the natural sciences must be inculcated. The school grounds must furnish object lessons in the planting and maintenance of trees and flowers, and, in so far as possible, may well be utilized to teach practical gardening. A certain amount of manual training for both girls and boys should enter into the work of the school, and every neighborhood should strive to surpass all others in its zeal to secure good teachers by offering proper inducements. - From "The Progress of the World," In the American Monthly Review of Reviews.