As a further result of his study of tax systems, Mr. Wells had grave doubts of the effective administration of income taxes. It was his view that "practical and equitable assessment, based on the known income of each man, is an idea that never has been and never can be realized. When we come to enacting laws for the collection of revenue we must take human nature as we find it, and laws which are directly antagonistic to the two most powerful influences that can control human action- love of gain and a desire to avoid publicity in regard to one's private affairs can never be efficiently administered."

That the internal revenue bureau of the United States treasury department is handling a herculean task in an admirable manner on the whole is the judgment of observing students of tax administration. But, notwithstanding, there is bound to be no end of trouble and annoyance for the government administrators and taxpayers in coping with intricacies of any involved tax system. American genius can and will evolve simple revenue measures which will produce the necessary public funds, and when the people insist on having such laws our legislators will listen to the voice of experience in framing revenue statutes.

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LITTLE more than 50 years ago, or in April, 1869, letters patent were issued by the United States to George Westinghouse, jr., then employed by his father in a small machine shop in Schenectady, New York, covering the first air-brake device. Its device, which, in its improved forms, has been applied to steam and electric railway vehicles of every sort, in its then somewhat crude development was applied only to what now seem the undersized passenger cars of that period. Those passenger coaches, like the freight cars used generally in the United States up to a much later period, were, until the development of the Westinghouse device, checked in their speed, or brought to a full stop, by the application of hand brakes operated by men stationed one on each car, or on alternate cars who set or released them at the whistlesignal from the engineer. The elapsed time between the giving of the signal and the stopping of the train, when some emergency demanded the greatest possible speed in such action, resulted, in those days, in frequent serious mishaps, and it was to obviate this delay, rather than to make possible the use of larger and heavier cars and locomotives, that Mr. Westinghouse had been working on a device which he sought to operate by steam controlled from the cab of the locomotive. But he had discovered, in his efforts to perfect that device, that it was impossible to convey the steam the entire length of a train without condensation, and that some other agency would be necessary. It is related that while he was still puzzling over his problem there came into his possession a magazine containing an article describing the use of compressed air in operating drilling machines in constructing

the Mont Cenis Tunnel in the Alps, completed shortly thereafter in 1870.

Of course the deduction was simple, and the application was readily made. He argued that if air could be conveyed 3,000 feet to drive a drill, it could be conveyed through pipes the length of the longest railroad trains and be made to set brakes firmly, and almost simultaneously, on the wheels of each car or coach. But while the earlier tests made in the application of the device proved conclusively that, fundamentally, this was mechanically possible and feasible, there was a recognized defect in the application to fast-moving trains, because of the fact that the brakes on the forward cars were applied sooner than those on the rear cars. This, of course, allowed the rear cars to retain their speed after the forward cars had been checked, with results which, for the commuter or the tourist, need no description. This difficulty was, however, overcome in 1872 by the invention, by Mr. Westinghouse, of what was called the automatic air-brake, which, without attempting a technical description, permitted the simultaneous application of brakes to the wheels of all cars and to the locomotive and tender. This device was later improved by two distinct types of controlling mechanism, one patented by the original designer in 1887, and another in 1897. In the intervening periods, and since during the career of Mr. Westinghouse, constant improvements in mechanism were made, but it is important to record the fact that none of these newer devices has departed, fundamentally, from the original device, first tested on a railway train placed at the disposal of the inventor by the officials of the Panhandle railroad in Pittsburgh.

No one could at that time have foreseen

of course, the immense importance of the device which was being tested. Rapid tranRapid transit by railroad, tunnel, and trolley, enjoyed almost everywhere in the present day, would not have been possible but for this or some similar device. As the ability to handle traffic rapidly and with comparative safety has been increased many fold, so also have the size and capacity of passenger coaches, freight cars, and trolley cars. One man twisting determinedly at a brake-beam controller would have little effect upon a modern steel passenger coach speeding at 60 miles an hour. Dependent even upon the combined

energies of a corps of these trainmen, the station, or perhaps the emergency, would be passed, or met with the wheels still turning.

While it may be argued, perhaps conclusively, that the great discoveries and inventions in transportation have been in the application of steam, electricity, and internal combustion to motive machinery, it is an incontrovertible fact that it is as necessary to stop a train or a car as to start it, and that sometimes it is vastly more necessary that the stopping shall be done quickly and safely.

Warren B. Bullock, director of forest extension, New York State college of forestry, Syracuse university, writes that the magazine article by Hugh P. Baker, dean of the college, appearing in a recent number of STATE SERVICE, was of great assistance to the forestry work. Mr. Bullock has an interesting article in this issue dealing with new developments in forestry education. It should be read by all who are interested in the big things being done by Syracuse university.

The December number of STATE SERVICE will be a special holiday edition and although it may be a little later than usual, it is hoped that it will be issued in ample time for Christmas. Its cover will be in colors and it will contain more interesting matter than usual. All of the pictures of members of the State legislature will be reproduced in the December number instead of January as heretofore. As there are sixty-two new members of the assembly who were not members last year, the magazine will be the first publication in the State to bring these pictures together and print them for the information of its readers. Many other subjects of general public interest will be treated in the December number.

When the first issue of STATE SERVICE-August, 1917appeared, there were many compliments on the information it contained relating to the State government. Some of the State officials doubted, however, whether there was enough material to fill each magazine for any length of time in the field to which it was dedicated. One of these officials was John C. Birdseye, secretary of the State civil service commission. Mr. Birdseye has been a subscriber since that time and has watched the magazine with peculiar interest owing to the fact that he has been for more than thirty years secretary of the State civil service commission and from the nature of his work has intimate relations with all of the State departments.

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Recently Mr. Birdseye commented on his early opinion of the magazine saying: "Your magazine has been a revelation to me every month and I have always wanted to say to you that the excellence and interest of its articles have been more than sustained from the beginning. I had doubt during the first two or three issues whether you would be able to find enough material in the State departments on the subjects relating to the State government to keep up the standard then set. I read it religiously every month and it would seem as if none of us really know what wonderful things are being done through the agencies of the State government. I was much interested in such articles as have been written about the Palisades Interstate park, particularly Bear mountain by George W. Perkins. Before these articles appeared I had a very vague idea where Bear mountain was or what it meant.