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SOCIAL SCIENCE, 



CONTAINING THE 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



NUMBER XIX. 



DECEMBER, 1884. 



SARATOGA PAPERS OF 1884. 



PART I. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 

A^IERICAX SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 

i'.V CTJPPLES, KI'IIAM & CO., BOSTON, AND G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

NEW YOUR. 

1885. 




.EDITED BY 

F. B. SAN BORN, 

GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION, 
. COXCOBD, MASSACHUSETTS. 



TO L MAN & WHITE, 

Printers for the American Social Science Association, 
383 Washington Street, Boston. 



CONTENTS OF JOURNAL No. XIX. 



INTRODUCTION, iv 

GENERAL MEETING OF 1884, v-vi 

MR. ADAMS'S ADDITIONS, vii 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, F. B. Sanborn, .... 1-10 

SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TARIFF LEGISLATION Carroll D. Wright, . 11-26 

FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES Prof. Henry C. Adams, . . 27-46 

WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES Edward Atkinson, . . 47-116 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION Francis A. Walker, .... 117-131 

CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS Eugene Smith, 182-144 

THE PARDONING POWER Francis Wayland, .... 145-155 

THREEFOLD BASIS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW Rev. F. H. Wines, . 356-167 

HEBREW CHARITIES Miss Mary M. Cohen, 168-176 

CONSTITUTION, LIST OF MEMBERS, ETC., . . . . . 177-191 



PREFACE. 



The Papers included in this number of the Journal of Social 
Science are about half of the Saratoga Papers of 1884. As some 
misapprehension may exist in regard to the publication of Papers 
by the Association, it may here be said that all Papers, engaged 
for the General Meeting of the American Social Science Associa- 
tion, are so engaged with, the understanding that they may be 
printed in the Journal of Social Science, if the Council so decide ; 
if, therefore, the writers choose to publish their Papers elsewhere, 
(to which the Council offers no objection), it must be with the 
stipulation that these Papers may also be published in the 
Journal, at the option of the Council as to the time of publication. 

A list of all the Addresses and Papers at the Meeting of 1884 
will be found on pages v. and vi. 



ORDER OF BUSINESS 



GENERAL MEETING OF 1884 



IN GENERAL SESSION. 

Monday Evening, September 8th, 8 P. M., Opening Address of the Presi- 
dent, Hon. JOHN EATON, of Washington, D, C. 

Tuesday, September 9th, 12 M., A Debate opened by President WALKER of 
tlit 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Industrial Education. (In 
this Debate the National Prison Association took part, and a joint meeting of 
the two Associations continued through the evening, after the election of 
officers.) 

4, P. M., The first meeting of the American Historical Association, in con. 
nection with the Social Science Association. 

8, P. M., Report of the General Secretary, and Election of Officers. 

Wednesday Evening, September 10th, 8, P. M., Address of CARROLL D. 
WRIGHT, of Boston, on The Scientific Basis of Tariff Legislation. Mr. 
ATKINSON'S Paper was submitted at this session. 

Thursday Evening, September llth, 8, P. M., An Address on The Condi- 
tion of the Freedmen Before the Law, by GEORGE W. CABLE, ESQ., of New 
< )rleans. 

DEPARTMENT MEETINGS. 

Tuesday, September Qth. 
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 

9.30, A. M., Address by the Chairman, Prof. W. T. HARRIS, on The 
Study of Greek and Latin in American Colleges. 

10, A. M., Report of the Secretary, MRS. TALBOT, on Recent Educational 
Work. 

11, A. M. , A Paper on The Higher Education of Women, by Miss 
LOUISA INNES LUMSDEN, of Aberdeen, Scotland, followed by a Debate, which 
was opened by Miss FRANCES DOVE. 

Wednesday, September Wth. 
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

9.30, A. M. , Address by the Chairman, PROF. D. A. SARGENT, of Harvard 
University, on The Tendency of Modern Athletics, followed by a Debate. 

11, A. M., A Paper by PROF. HITCHCOCK, of Amherst College, on Physical 
Training in Colleges practically Considered, followed by a Debate. 

1, P. M., Report on The Results of Physical Training in Schools and 
Colleges for Women, etc., by the Secretary, Miss LUCY M. HALL, M.D., of 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Vi THE GENERAL MEETING OF 1884. 

Wednesday, September 10th. 
DEPART MIM i IMN\\CK. 

!l..Su. A. M., A I'ajier by l'i;..i. Hi. MM C. AKAM-. on The An/> 
Standing of States. 

Thursday, September \\ilt. 
DEPARTMENT <i .Jri:i-i-i:i M.M i.. 

At :t.:U>, A. M., A Paper on The Law of Commitment in Lunacy, by Ki \ 
F. H. WINES, of Springfield, 111., followed by a Debate on Lunacy Lavs, by 
DR. D. H. TUKE, of London, Eng., DR. BOBERT BAKKI:. ami nil 

11, A. M., A Paper on The Conflict of State Laws, the Evil and the 
Remedy, by Y.\ -,KM: SMITH, ESQ., of New York. 

12, M., A Paper on The Threefold Basis of the Criminal Lai'-, by REV. F. 
H. WIM.S. of Springfield, 111. 

12.30, P. M., A Paper on The Pardoning Power, by PROF. Fi: \N ^ YV.o- 
I.AXD, of Yale College. 

1, P. M., A Paper by PROF. A. 0. WRIGHT, of Madi.-on, Wis., on Lunacy 
Laws in the Northwestern States.. 

(The two last named Papers were submitted, but not read.) 

/ 

Friday, September 12th. 

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL ECONOMY. 

9.30, A. M., Address by the Chairman, F. B. SANBORN, ESQ., of Concord, 
Mass. 

10, A. M., A Paper on The Extension of Reform Methods to the Civil Ser- 
vice of States and Cities, by EDWARD M. SHEPARD, ESQ., of Brooklyn, N.Y. 

12, M., A Paper on Hebrew Charities, by Miss MARY M. COHEN, of 
Philadelphia, followed by a Debate. 



The joint meeting of the National Prison Association, and the Social 
Science Association, was presided over by Hon. R. B. HAYES, Ex-President 
of the United States, and President of the Prison Association, which held a 
session of several days at Saratoga, before and during the Social Scii -IK 
meeting. 

The American Historical Society was organized at the joint meeting of 
Tuesday Afternoon, Sept. 9th, and afterward held several sessions by itself 
during the week. 

The Officers of the American Social Science Association were elected on 
the 9th, as they stand in the list on page 180, and Miss LIMMIEN. and Mi* 
FRANCES DOVE, of Scotland, M. F. BOUSSIN. of Paris, France, and M. P. 
BULS, of Brussels, Belgium, were elected Corresponding Members of the 
Association. 




ADDITIONS TO THE PAPER OF PROF. ADAMS, AND 
CORRECTIONS THEREIN. 



Prof. H. C. Adams has made certain additions to his paper on 
"The Financial Standing of States," since it was printed in the 
early pages of this JOURNAL, and some corrections and 
substitutions as follows : 

Page 29. Instead of the sentence beginning " It was as a sub- 
ordinate part of a general policy," insert, 

" There seems at this time to have been a reaction in favor of 
an extension of local administrative functions. The States were 
thus forced to the front and imposed with new duties, and it was 
their effort to respond^to the demands of this general policy which 
led them into financial embarrassment." 

Page 41. Instead of the sentence, "But with the reaction 
of opinion, these local laws were changed," insert, 

"When, however, the reaction against this sentiment arose,, 
which sprang from the failure of experiments actually undertaken, 
local laws were radically changed." 

Pages 45-6. Beginning with the sentence near the bottom of 
page 45, " This once accomplished" let the passage read thus, 

"This once accomplished, and popular government in this 
country is placed in serious jeopardy. Say what men will, there 
is an eternal difference between a Democratic Republic and a 
Republican Empire. Popular government means local govern- 
ment. Real power lies at the centre of administrative control, 
and nothing can take us so far from the idea of the fathers as to 
establish for domestic affairs the same concentration of man- 
agement in the hands of Congress as now exists for foreign affairs. 
The early statesmen recognized the difference between these 
two lines of public duty, and it is not now the part of wisdom 
for us to obliterate this distinction. Yet consider how embarrass- 
ing is the position of the American people in the presence of 
such relations. A clear recognition of the evils of too great 
concentration of power in the hands of the central government 
is practically a guarantee to the corporations that they will not be 
interfered with except through restraining laws that do not 
restrain ; for the States, the natural recipients of such powers are 
precluded from interference by the fact that they have lost their 
financial standing. This condition of affairs is, at least, sugges- 
tive. 



viii CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS PROF. ADAMS* PAI'KR. 

It was not my purpose, however, to bring tin- railroad question. 
U -nrli, into prominent view. The conclusions of this study are 
general and not particular. They point to the dillieulties that arise 
in the solution of a large class of pnlilic questions, and indeed, the 
misfortunes that have already come to this country on account of 
the decadence in financial standing of the States. It is an historic 
rule of wide application, that as countries become more populous, 
and the social and indistrial relations more complex, the functions 
of government must necessarily extend to continually new objects. 
This rule holds good now and in this country, and, in consequence, 
the question of the residence of new powers becomes important. 
Consider, as a simple illustration, the increasing necessity of a cure 
of the forests. The frequent recurrence of floods, the more rapid 
and marked alternation of drought and wet, the progress of fann- 
ing toward the exhaustion of lands, and other signs, point clearly 
to the fact that the people of this country must soon turn their 
attention to the culture of trees. But this is a line of enterprise 
that individuals will not enter upon, because the returns in divi- 
dend are too remote from the first investment. It is a legitimate 
sphere for the employment of public credit, and the only remain- 
ing question is, shall the enterprise be undertaken by the central 
or local governments? To my mind there is but one answer. 
The several States are the proper centre for the excerise of this 
function, yet they are in no position to perform this dut} T . They 
have been deprived of the facilities for undertaking such a 
measure by an over-solicitous people, frightened by one unfortu- 
nate venture." 

Prof. Adams' Paper having been read during his absence from 
the country, and the proof-sheets having failed to reach him in 
time for his revision, a few corrections of the press are here given. 
.Page 27. For " millions," read " billions." 

Page 28. The quotation is from the London Times of 1840. 

Page 29. For " their party," read, " such a party." 

Page 36- For "national policy," read "national banking 
policy." 

Page 40. (Line 2.) For "first empire," read " Hamiltonian 
empire." 

Page 44. (Line 20.) For " commercial," read, "transporta- 
tion. (Line 25.) For " They," read "This system." (Line 26.) 
After " these," insert, " latter." 

Page 45. (Line 29.) For " must," read, " can." 



THE COMMONWEALTH OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY, F. B. SANBOBN. 

(Read Tuesday, September 9, 1884.) 

" When the right virtuous Edward Wotton and I were at the 
Emperor's court together," said Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Apology 
for Poesy," 300 years ago, " we gave ourselves to learn horseman- 
ship of Giovanni Pietro Pugliano ; and he, according to the fer- 
tileness of the Italian wit, sought to enrich our minds with the 
contemplation therein which he thought most precious. He said 
soldiers were the noblest estate of mankind, and horsemen the 
noblest of soldiers ; they were the masters of war, and ornaments 
of peace ; speedy goers and strong abiders ; no earthly thing bred 
such wonder to a prince as to be a good horseman ; skill of govern- 
ment was but a pedantry in comparison. Then would he add 
certain praises by telling what a peerless beast the horse was ; the 
only serviceable courtier without flattery ; the beast of most beauty, 
faithfulness, courage aud such more, that, if I had not been a 
piece of a logician before I came to him, I think he would have 
persuaded me to have wished myself a horse. But this much, at 
least, he drove into me, that self-love is better than any gilding to 
make that seem gorgeous wherein ourselves be parties." 

Is it self-love in us that bids us believe there is nothing in the 
range of human knowledge better than that which we call Social 
Science, even though to most men it seems but an airy Pegasus 
carrying them nowhere, or else a poor pack-horse, stooping like 
Issachar, between his two burdens of statistics and inferences. Let 
us, in our customary manner, examine this matter a little, and 
again set forth the nature and dignity of that commonwealth of 
confederated studies which must be known, for lack of a better 
name as Social Science. 

It was Cicero who pointed out, in a well-known passage, that all 
the arts pertaining to culture are linked in one chain, and hold a 
sort of relationship to one another ; each suggesting, if not accom- 
panying a kindred train of " its sisters, its cousins and its aunts." 
Particularly is this saying true of the social sciences, which appear 



2 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

as a family leathering or Thanksgiving dinner, spread out under 
the banyan branches of the tree of knowledge : 

Full of proportions, one limb to the other, 

And all to the world besides; 
For head with foot hath private amity, 

And both with moons and tides. 

Our commonwealth of social science is then like that island where 
I found myself, a month ago, in which everybody is of kin to 
everybody else, and the most hostile, as well as the most friendly 
relations exist within the same narrow circle of names. Political 
economy may bite its thumb at Philanthropy ; the Malthusian may 
apply his preventive check to the followers of Franklin ; the science 
of wealth and the science of health may grapple in deadly combat ; 
but it is a warfare worse than civil, for the antagonists are brothers 
and sisters, like the Theban princes of the old Greek tragedy. 
" Live and let live," should be their maxim ; they should hang 
together, as the witty rebel said, " lest the}' should all hang 
separately." 

Xerxes rewarded the man who invented for him a new pleasure ; 
and we ma}' well offer a prize for a new definition of our science. 
I almost thought I had found one in the newest Encyclopedia, Mr. 
Lalor's, just completed at Chicago, in which the French economist, 
Maurice Block, discourses briefly and generally of " Social 
Science." He says: "There is a science which concerns itself 
with the means of satisfying our natural wants ; there is another 
which has to do with our moral wants. One is political economy, 
the other, moral science ; it is therefore, the union of the two which 
constitutes Social Science. For the good of humanity, the two 
branches of Social Science shouLl exercise a perfectly equal influ- 
ence, and thus establish thatequil.brium which is the sign of health." 
This is good advice, and may well be followed even by those who 
do not quite see the force of M. Block's " therefore." But these 
two sciences, in order to fulfil tliis author's conditions hypotheti- 
cally, must contain each many other subordinate sciences, as in 
fact they do, and it is the application of these branches of 
knowledge to the circumstances of mankind, that constitutes what 
we must regard as the true and practical Social Science. 

Nowhere in the world has this practical application, this crucial 
experiment, been made under conditions so favorable to observe 
the result, as in our own country within the past 200 years. It is 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY. 3 

now more than a century since the kindly genius of St. Pierre, 
that French philanthropist who created "Paul and Virginia," 
undertook to imagine a commonwealth in which political order 
should conform to natural law ; and he placed this fancied Utopia 
in South America, near the banks of the Amazon. 

"I spread myself in imagination," he says, "over the vast 
forests ; I built forts ; I broke up the ground ; I covered it with 
abundant crops and with trees and vines laden with all kinds of 
fruit foreign to Europe. I offered an asylum to men of all the 
nations in which I had known unhappy persons. There were 
Hollanders and Swiss who had no land in their own country, and 
Russians who had no money to cultivate their vast wilderness with ; 
Englishmen fatigued with the convulsions of popular governments, 
and Italians tired of the lethargy of aristocracies ; Prussians dis- 
satisfied with military despotism, Poles with their republican 
anarchy ; Spaniards worn out with the intolerance of Spanish 
opinions, and Frenchmen with the inconstancy of their own ; 
Knights of Malta and Algerians ; peasants from Bohemia, Poland, 
Russia, Burgundy, Brittany, fleeing from the tyranny of their own 
countrymen ; fugitive negro slaves from our barbarous colonies ; 
powerful persons of all nations with their dependents ; courtiers, 
lawyers, literary men, soldiers, merchants, bankers, all tormented 
with the maladies of European thought ; Africans and Asiatics, 
all seeking to oppress one another, and acting upon each other by 
force, fraud, impiet.yor superstition. These persons, abjuring the 
natural prejudices which had made them all their lives the enemies 
of other men, and especially that passion which is the origin of all 
the hatreds of the human race, and which Europe makes its chil- 
dren imbibe with their mothers' milk that desire to be foremost, 
abjuring these, they adopted, under the guidance of the Author of 
nature, principles of universal toleration. By this act of common 
justice, they found exercise without obstacle, each for his own 
special characteristics. The Dutch, in that new country, carried 
agriculture and commerce into the midst of swamps, the Swiss to 
the summit of mountains, and the Russians, skilful with the ax, 
to the middle of the dense forests. The English devoted them- 
selves to navigation and the useful arts which strengthen society ; 
the Italians to those liberal arts which embellish it ; the Prus- 
sians to military manoeuvers ; the Poles to horsemanship ; the 
solitary Spaniard employed the talents which require constancy ; 
the Frenchmen those gifts which render life agreeable, and that 
sociable instinct which makes him the connecting link between 
other nations. All these men, so different in opinion and habit, 
showed each other, by toleration, the best side of their characters, 
and tempered the defects of one by the excess of another. Hence, 
must result in due lime, by education, laws and customs, a union 
of tirts, talents, virtues and religious principles, in a single people 



4 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

whose destiny is to maintain complete harmony at home, withstand 
all foreign conquest, and amalgamate with all the rest of mankind." 

Such \vas tin- dream of St. Pierre in 1773. and such he commu- 
nicated it to Rousseau, with whom he was then intimate, rambling 
with him in the suburbs of Paris and conversing on human perfec- 
tion and the corruptions of the eighteenth century. In one of these 
conversations St. Pierre asked his Mentor why he (Rousseau) had 
not tried to form a blissful republic somewhere. " Why not," he 
suggested, " in some uninhabited isle of the South sea, with some 
Europeans, (myself, for instance,) who have neither country nor 
fortune, establish a colony like that of William IVnu in North 
America, in the midst of savages ? " To which Rousseau answered : 
" Our age is so different ! In Penn's time people believed some- 
thing ; now-a-days nobody believes anything." And so both of 
these philanthropists gave up their vision of a great nation in 
America, and agreed that St. Pierre should write a romance about 
the shepherds of Arcadia. " I had imagined," he said, " in our 
time, and in a part of the world not unknown, the existence of a 
people of importance, made up almost entirely of the unsuccessful 
refuse of European countries, and yet arriving speedily at the 
height of good fortune ; but this rare phenomenon, worthy, at 
least, of the curiosit} 1 of Europe, ceased to interest men as soon as 
they found it did not exist." The literary fiction must change its 
form, therefore, and flit back to the good old classical mirage of 
pastoral life. 

But do we not behold the fable of St. Pierre turned into the fact 
of American life sixty millions of people in the United States 
and Canada, fulfilling, with slight qualifications, the ideal con- 
ditions that the eighteenth century laid down for a blissful republic? 
Here is universal toleration ; here the amalgam of races ; here the 
domestic peace and the contempt of foreign conquest. And here, 
which is more to our purpose, is the grand international exhibition 
of the social sciences in full operation, unfettered by traditions 
and precedents, and escaping easily from the dominion of vested 
interests and petrifying institutions. Great is the opportunity 
then, if we can only get this vast problem accurately studied and 
intelligibly reported. What are our means for that? 

This Association, and those two younger ones which meet with 
us this year, could do little in reporting the investigations of Social 
Science, however extended might be their researches, if it were not 



THE COMMONWEALTH OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 5 

for the newspaper press an agency of which the French encyclo- 
paedists took little account, because, in fact, it did not exist as we 
know it now, in the days of Rousseau. There were journals for 
which Franklin and Johnson' wrote, and others from the income of 
which men of letters, like Marmontel and St. Pierre, received pen- 
sions ; but the period of the London Times and the New York 
Herald was not then so much as imagined. The best image and 
model of the " Republic of Letters " is now this newspaper press 
which, in its way, unites the Dutch, the Swiss, the Bohemian, the 
solitary Spaniard., the sociable Gaul, the practical Englishman, the 
artistic Italian, the Pole on horseback, the Prussian martinet, and 
the Russian with his hatchet, in as firm an amalgam as St. Pierre's 
Amazonian commonwealth could have done. Besides these, we 
have added to the ranks of journalism the irrepressible Irishman, 
the canny Scot, the serious Scandinavian, and the universal Yan- 
kee, to say nothing of the Greeks and Jews, Hindoos, Japanese, 
and Californians. Ex uno disce omnia from this one daily cyclo- 
paedia we now learn everything; it is "not one, but every man's 
epitome," and aspires to the omnipotence and omniscience that an 
earlier age ascribed to divinity alone. 

That incomparable Countess of Pembroke, " fair and learned 
and good," " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," did not mean 
to describe the modern newspaper when she wrote, three centuries 
ago, this abridgment of its powers and intelligence : 

Thou walkest with me when I walk ; 
When to my bed for rest I go 

I find thee there, 

And everywhere ; 

Not youngest thought in me doth grow, 
No, not one word I cast to talk, 
But, yet unuttered, thou dost know. 

If forth I march, thou goest before ; 
If back I turn, thou comest behind; 

So, forth nor back 

Thy guard I lack, 
Nay, on me, too, thy hand I find ; 
Well I thy wisdom may adore, 
But never reach with earthly mind. 

Remarkable as this anticipation of the ubiquitous and all-knowing 
interviewer must seem, it is surpassed in aptness by that verse in 
which Lady Mary Herbert announced a New York journalist of 



6 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

our day, and his newspaper that "shines for all," but positively 
blazes for Gen. Butler : 

O Sun ! whom light nor flight can match, 
Suppose thy lightful, tlightrul wings 

Thou lend to me, 

Anil I could flee 

AH far as thee the evening brings, 
Kvi-n led to West, he would me catch, 
Nor should I lurk with western things. 

To this Sibyl, with its infinity of inscribed leaves, which the same 
wind inspires and disperses, must we commit the daily oracles of 
social science, obtain these as we may. But there are, also, vol- 
umes of deeper research, demanding long and patient study, the 
comparison of many records, and such observations as physical 
science makes on revolving stars, moving earthly bodies and the 
viewless currents of the two oceans, of water and air, by which we 
are surrounded. In human affairs "everything flows," as Hera- 
clitus whispered beside the cradle of natural science ; and our 
instruments must measure motion from a moving deck on a restless 
stream. We shoot not only folly but wisdom "as it flies," and 
what was the statistic of one age becomes an old almanac of the 
next. Admitting this for true, we may still take pride in that 
monument of research and observation, which some of our mem- 
bers President Walker, Col. Wright, Mr. Weeks, Mr. Wines, 
Mr. Atkinson, and others have produced in the volumes, present 
and future, of the United States census of 1880. The undertak- 
ing was only less vast than the fortunes of the country, and the 
resources of Social Science, and small blame that its results fell 
short of the daring purpose which endeavored what was practi- 
cally impossible ; yet the work actually done surpasses all that has 
been attempted before. In such volumes, and in the kindred 
researches of state officials, professional economists, writers for 
reviews and cyclopaedias, and the too-often unrecognized editors 
of daily and weekly journals, must be found the records of Social 
Science in America, rather than in the discussions or publications 
of our little society. We serve more as a working-point or shaft 
for the accumulation and transfer of motive power than as origi- 
nators of what, in so wide a field, ten times our small number 
could not initiate. Yet in time the labors of a few ceaseless inves- 
tigators build up the fabric of a science ; and posterity may find 
among our members some to whom the origin of a theory or a 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL, SECRETARY. 7 

demonstration must be assigned. We have now and then asserted 
our modest claim to have initiated that civil-service reform, which 
has since become the shibboleth and secret dread of politicians, 
and many of our members are still engaged in carrj'ing forward 
that now triumphant policy into every province where it can take 
effect. It was by our Association that the Conference of Charities, 
now so vigorous, was planted and promoted. The National Prison 
Association, which we hope will become equally efficient, was at 
first promoted and then recalled to life by us ; it being one of the 
functions of this Association to serve as a creche, or day-nursery, 
in whose care the intellectual parents of promising movements may 
leave their infants until they are able to go alone. 

We are now in the twentieth year of our existence, reckoning 
from the little conference in Boston, out of which came the circular 
of August, 1865, that brought our first meeting together ; and this 
is the twentieth annual meeting we have held. In that time we 
have seen many changes, not only of material condition and polit- 
ical development in the country we represent, but also in the intel- 
lectual opinion and moral status of America and the world at large. 
Short as our period has been, it includes the " reconstruction " of 
nearly half the United States on a new theory of labor and politi- 
cal rights ; the utter downfall, beyond apparent recovery, of the 
flourishing Napoleonic empire, and the upreariug of another great 
empire, the German, amidst the sovereignties of Europe ; the set- 
tlement upon a just and, let us hope, a permanent basis, of the 
long-vexed question of Italian unity ; and one or two steps taken 
toward the removal of that common plague of Europe and Asia, 
the " unspeakable Turk " from his camp on the Bosphorus. De- 
mocracy has made long strides in the short interval, and we see it 
today, not onlj r dominant in France, but threatening the House of 
Lords in England, and aiming wild blows at the absolute despotism 
of Russia. It is odd to find the English poets and Punch attack- 
ing the House of Lords, and figuring the British Lion with the face 
of John Bright ; but we do not yet expect to see that most English 
of institutions go down, when a little compromise will save it- 
Yet it must continue to exist, if at all, under great concessions to 
the democratic spirit, which has advanced not only in the political 
field, but in the domain of economic science. Within the life-time 
of our Association the aristocratic " wage-fund" theor}', that fic- 
tion of English economists, has gone to pieces, and an American 



8 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

economist lias laid down the counter-proposition in accord with the 
democratic spirit, that the " residual claimant to the product of 
labor is not, as under the old economic doctrine, the capitalist. 
employer, but the laborer." 

This proposition has been developed in a practical way, by our 
associate, Edward Atkinson, in a valuable paper read before the 
Hritish Association at Montreal, in which he seems to show that in 
a given product (of the Massachusetts cotton-mills for fifty years 
past), the profits of capital necessarily diminish, and the wages of 
labor increase. This is an interesting statement, which is held by 
Mr. Atkinson, and other American economists, to point toward a 
general law. Should their opinion be sustained, the common 
saying that under our industrial civilization, " the rich are growing 
richer, and the poor poorer," would not appear to be necessarily 
true ; and one great argument of demagogues, one chief fear of 
philanthropists would be removed. Col. Wright, our Massachu- 
setts statistician, who has undertaken the perilous task of proposing 
a fair settlement of the basis of discussion in regard to tariff rates, 
has for years been working towards the statistical results by which 
Mr. Atkinson's theory must be proved universally true, if that can 
be done at all ; and we all wish him success in his labor of infinite 
detail. 

The chief topics for discussion in our Health Department, again 
remind us of the progress made since the Association was organized. 
College athletics for young men scarcely existed in 1865, in any 
systematic form, while for young women the}' did not exist at all, 
for the good and sufficient reason that there were no colleges for 
women. But now, as Mrs. Talbot and Miss Lumsden have shown 
us today, the higher education of women, for which this Associa- 
tion has constantl} 1 striven, has proceeded so far that inductions of 
some value can be made concerning the physical effect of such 
education. The kindergarten, too, for the better instruction of 
young children, has come into the American system of education 
since 1865 ; and largeh" by the efforts of a few of our members, 
Miss Elizabeth Peabod}- and Prof. Harris, in particular. 

Among the questions that will come before the Jurisprudence 
Department on Thursday, there is scarcely one in which great 
practical changes have not occurred since we first met, at the close 
of the civil war. The freedmen, as a class, were created by that 
war; and their condition, whether before or behind the law, has 



THE COMMONWEALTH OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 9 

been one of the chief political issues in the United States ever 
since. Our Association has never shrunk from the discussion of 
this topic, not as a political issue, but one which involved every 
department of our organization, the national education, health, 
finance, jurisprudence, and social economy. We are fortunate in 
its treatment by one who has shown as much skill in the reasonable 
presentation of facts, as in the delightful rambles and resources of 
fiction. 

The laws concerning insanity and the punishment of crime, 
which are to be debated on Thursday, have been greatly system- 
atized and made more uniform throughout the country, since 1865 ; 
yet much remains for this Association, and the specialists in each 
field, to do, as will doubtless appear in the discussions of the Juris- 
prudence Department. 

On our closing day, the immediate application of civil-service 
rules to the various official grades in the States and cities will be 
the chief subject for debate ; and none could be of more vital im- 
portance to good government and the whole disposition of our 
social economy. It is in these minor matters, rather than in the 
more extended concerns of the national government, that civil 
service comes home to the business and the bosoms of men, as a 
daily affair of their security and comfort. This subject connects 
itself with that of public charity, concerning which several ques- 
tions will be raised by Miss Cohen's statement of Hebrew chari- 
ties, the alms-giving and alms-avoiding usages of that ancient 
race, from whom the modern world has derived its religion and no 
small part of its culture and discipline in life. We thus return at 
the close of our session, to that which was the beginning of Social 
Science, the revelation of God to man through institutions and 
precepts, now hallowed by age and venerable even in misapprehen- 
sion and error. 

For we cannot too often consider and repeat that the origin of 
every science, and preeminently of the social sciences, is divine ; 
that these fruits of man's wisdom, whether ripe or unripe, fall to 
us from a celestial tree, and do not spring up by chance, or in the 
course of rude nature from the earth on which we tread. " I 
cannot tell," said Sir Philip Sidney, in his translation of the French 
Calvinist Duplessis' argument against atheism, " whether I may 
wonder more at the good insight of the philosophers in the knowl- 
edge of many natural things, or at their blindness in the knowledge 



10 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of the Author of them. The things which we are to do in times to 
come, be already present in His sight. Ilr knows men's natures 
in the seed, whereas we scarce know them in the flower." It is by 
the fruit, indeed, that we judge the principles of human conduct, 
and the character of men in action, whose activity in its infinite 
variety, is the subject-matter of Social Science. To " know men's 
natures in the flower," by a scientific prediction, is what we aspire 
to ; and there are men of genius who can guess at that in the seed, 
as Shakespeare and other great poets have done. Such an intui- 
tion of Social Science is denied to us, as to most men ; we must 
proceed by the slow methods of observation and inference, guided 
always by a faith that teaches us the wisdom, the permanence and 
the goodness of that Power by whom the natural and the super- 
natural order of the universe is established and forever continued. 

" Clothed with state and girt with might, 

Monarch-like Jehovah reigns, 
He who earth's foundations pight, 

Pight at first and yet sustains ; 
He whose stable throne disdains 

Motion's shock and age's flight, 
He who endless One remains, 

One, the same, in changeless plight. 

Rivers yea, though rivers roar, 

Roaring though sea-billows rise, 
Vex the deep and break the shore, 

Stronger art thou, Lord of skies ! 
Firm and true thy promise lies, 

Now and still, as heretofore ; 
Holy worship never dies 

In thy house where we adore." 



PAPERS OF THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT. 



I. THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TARIFF LEGISLATION. 

BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT, A. M., Chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics 

of Labor. 

(Read September 10, 1884.) 

In a commercial sense there are two great parties in this country, 
the Free Traders, and the Protectionists. The two great political 
parties have not, in recent years, drawn their lines distinctively on 
the issue of free trade and protection, because the two great com- 
mercial parties furnish a large portion of the members of the two 
great political parties, and so interchangeable and so thoroughly 
interwoven are the commercial elements with the political elements, 
that such a division is not likely to occur until one or the other 
system of commerce, or of trade, can be demonstrated beyond a 
doubt as the best system or policy for this country to adopt. This 
condition exists because the discussion of the tariff is still carried 
on within the realms of theory, neither party being able to demon- 
strate the correctness of its theoiy when reduced to practice. 
Of course all true theories must be true in practice in the long run, 
but the difficulty is that some conditions essential to the perfect 
working out of the theory do not exist when the principles of the 
theory come to be applied. This is very clearly illustrated in one 
of the great fundamental features of the tariff discussion. 

There are in this countr}- 90,000 operatives engaged in the man- 
ufacture of woollens ; it is true, theoretically, that if woollen 
goods can be manufactured cheaper by English, French, German, 
or other operatives than by the American, the American consumer 
is entitled to the benefit of such cheaper manufacture, and that 
the 90,000 woollen operatives should therefore vacate their trade, 
and seek some other occupation, and let the manufacture of 
woollens take place where it can be done on the cheapest basis. 
This, theoretically, is the true doctrine without doubt, but, in order 
to have it work practically, we must, in the first place, secure the 
perfect mobility of labor, and until such mobility can be secured, 
the theory, however fine, or howev'er true, can not find a practical 
application, because, as the conditions of industry now exist, such 
a number of operatives could not successfully seek other employ- 



12 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

ment. Tliis immobility of labor docs not antagonize the theory at 
all, even in practice, for theoretically, the 90,000 woollen opera- 
tives would, in the lonu run, cither find something else to do, or 
live a miserable existence until they needed nothing more to do. 
So, the theories of the free trader and of the protectionist, as 
illustrated by this one instance, cannot be so clearly demonstrated 
to the common mind as to make the tariff question as yet, a clearly 
defined political issue. 

The discussion is still further involved, and to a great extent, by 
the want of illustration, that is, of sufficient data, whereby either 
theory can be clearly demonstrated ; the advocates of the two 
great systems depend so largely upon assertion and assumption, 
and so little upon actual facts, that the common verdict, reached 
by the majority of the people, is that the tariff is a muddle, and 
even enlightened men, who have not made a special study of the 
question, do not hesitate to say that they do not understand what 
it means. 

The advocates of each great commercial system bring to their 
advocacy great learning and great intelligence, and we are bound 
to say, when we look at the character of the advocates, thorough 
integrity, and we must also assume that each part}', as represented 
by its members, is seeking only the good of -the whole country, 
and yet sometimes, the asperity of the discussion, and it is too 
often so, would indicate that each thinks the other party is seeking 
only the destruction of the industries of the nation. Honest men 
honestly believe in the correctness of the positions they assume 
with reference to this great question, for this question is either a 
vital one, or it is not ; the tariff either has a great influence on the 
prosperity of the masses of a country, or it has not ; the welfare 
and the happiness of the wage receivers are enhanced by the 
existing policy, or they are not ; the industries of a country are 
either built up, or restricted in their building up, by the influence 
of tariff legislation ; the people are robbed, or the}- are not robbed, 
through import duties ; they are swindled as consumers, or they 
are not, through the influence of these duties ; and taking these 
questions as fundamental in the tariff discussion the tariff question 
does become a vital one, and if it is a vital question now, it has 
been a vital question in the past, and must be so until it is settled ; 
and yet with these vital elements there are two sides, each of which 
is hotly fought. And this hot contest, it would seem to an ordi- 



PAPER BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 13 

nary observer, should have been productive of sufficient intelligent 
data, on which legislation could be correctly based, long ere this. 

A very brief and casual study of tariff legislation in the United 
States, proves to any one that it has not been carried through on 
any clearty defined basis, or on a sufficiently clearly defined basis 
to admit of saying that the tariffs of the past have been constructed 
on scientific groundwork. 

It is not my purpose in this paper to discuss the merits or the 
demerits of either of the great commercial systems. With the 
exception of England, the protective principle is adopted in nearly 
all great producing countries, I mean those countries which are 
engaged in manufactures. In the United States, the free trade 
party finds its warmest adherents among the economists, students, 
and those generally who seek the practical application of theoreti- 
cal systems, and among the great importers. On the other hand, 
the protectionist party finds its most active adherents among the 
producers themselves, including the manufacturers and the people 
they emplo}*, and the producers of raw materials. Here then we 
have two well defined parties, the theorists on one side, and the 
business men, or those who must apply principles practically, on 
the other side. The merits and the demerits of the two great 
systems are so often and so forcibly set forth by the respective 
advocates, that no necessity exists for their discussion at the 
present time. So far as the motive of this paper is concerned 
then, the rights and the wrongs of the question are not to be con- 
sidered, but taking the system which exists as one likely to exist 
for some years at least, the first duty we have in the premises it 
seems to me, is, to make our legislation depend upon clearly 
defined bases, and not upon haphazard statements, and not upon 
the representations of self interest alone. 

I presume it is perfectly true that when the tariff acts of the 
past have been constructed, manufacturers made such repre- 
sentations to the proper congressional committee as in their 
judgment would indicate for the industries involved the true basis 
for the establishment cf rates. But they could have only the 
crudest facts on which to base such a judgment ; the best part of 
it was their knowledge of the markets of the world, and of the 
cost of manufacture, as obtained from very crude data, and the 
cost of importation, that is, of freight, but they had no well 
established data on which to make their recommendations to 



14 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Congress, and so our tariff acts represent a wide range of judg- 
ment, resulting in a wide range of rates of duty, any attempt to 
readjust which, has only resulted in more and greater discrepan- 
cies in the range. 

My purpose then, is to show, 

1st. What I mean by a scientific basis for tariff legislation. 

2nd. The necessity for such a basis. 

3rd. How can such a basis be secured? 

And 4th. What would be the results of legislation based upon 
such a basis ? 

The First point, what is a scientific basis, is very briefly 
answered. 

The basis which* shall enable legislation to be clearly defined, 
and just in its operation in every particular, if any legislation is 
to be had at all, may properly be called a scientific basis. 

When facts can be classified in such a way as to show their 
truth, which truth can be uniformly applied, you have reduced 
the matter to a science, which is, to quote Worcester, "the 
knowledge of many methodically digested and arranged so as 
to become attainable by one." It is knowledge certain and 
evident in itself. A classification of the facts which bear upon 
a tariff and by which certain absolute positions as to rates become 
established, would constitute a scientific basis, as the term is used 
in this paper, and such classification should be the result of such a 
wide collection of individual facts as to leave no doubt in the 
mind of any man, whether free trader or protectionist, of the posi- 
tion to be attained relative to each great industr}'. I am however 
well aware that such a basis, even when reached, would be to 
some extent a temporary one, but I am also convinced that the 
temporary features of such a basis would relate only to degree 
and not to the fundamental value of the basis itself, that is to say, 
the changes in industrial conditions are as a rule so slight, that 
the variation in the basis scientifically reached would not inval- 
idate its usefulness to any great extent for just legislation. Great 
industrial disasters, from whatever cause, might result in the 
radical disturbance of some of the compositions determined by a 
scientific classification of data, but were such the case, the same 
methods which secured the original basis, would secure its scien- 
tific readjustment, so that the criticism which might perhaps 
properly be made upon the basis which I shall indicate, has not 
deterred me from prosecuting my study. 



THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TARIFF LEGISLATION. 15 

Second. Is there any necessity for a basis such as that indi- 
cated? To my own mind there is, and I come to this conclusion 
from the character of the discussion between the two great com- 
mercial parties, and from my own observations extending over a 
number of years. 

A recital of some of the leading points made by the advocates 
of each great system, would indicate the necessity of some basis 
even for discussion, whether we have a basis for legislation or not. 
One following the discussions, will notice that American free 
traders allege that protection is the cause of the frequent recur- 
rence of labor difficulties in this country, while English free traders 
allege that our protective policy causes English labor difficulties. 
Again, English manufacturers have in many instances said to me, 
when asking the cause of the silent looms and machines in their 
works, that the} 7 are rendered silent by our protective policy, at 
the same time in argument, they have always claimed that the 
application of their national policy in America would secure a far 
greater industrial pros peri 13* in this country than has yet been wit- 
nessed. Again, it is claimed by the advocates of free trade that 
the wonderful industrial prosperity which has blessed the English 
people is due entirely to their policy of free trade, while all pro- 
tectionists claim that the wonderful industrial prosperity which 
has blessed the people of the United States is due entirely to pro- 
tection. 

Two or three illustrations of these adverse claims n^ be neces- 
sary. 

John Bright, who certainly is an ardent free trader, in his well 
known speech at Birmingham in June, 1883, on the presentation 
to him of an address and plate, at the Bright celebration, made a 
veiy careful review of the industrial condition of England now, as 
compared with what it was before the adoption of free trade. He 
showed b3 T facts and figures which cannot be disputed, that wages 
were higher, that the condition of the workingman is better, and 
that the progress of the country during the period stated had been 
wonderful indeed, all which, he claimed, was due to the adoption 
of the principle of free trade. If you should turn from Mr. Bright's 
speech to the multitude of speeches in favor of protection made in 
the United States Congress during the last session, during the 
debate on the Morrison bill, or in speeches made whenever the 
subject of the tariff has been before Congress, or if you will refer 



16 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

to any of the protectionist writers, or if you want something more 
easily reached, Mr. Blaine's letter of acceptance, }"ou will find it 
claimed without exception that American prosperity is due to tlie 
protective policy of our goveninient. One can pick up any of the 
pamphlets which are issued in advocacy of either of the two great 
principles, and find plenty of evidence of the truth of the state- 
ment I have made. Both these claims cannot be correct. 

Again, it is alleged that the periodical stagnation or depression 
in American industrial enterprises is largely, if not wholly, due to 
protection, because protection prevents our manufacturers from 
finding a foreign market for their surplus goods, and that free 
trade here would prevent such recurrence, while the fact exists 
that in Great Britain, under free trade, the same conditions are 
met with, and that stagnation there when it does come, is as SCMTC 
as any that we experience. The American and the English man- 
ufacturer alike demand extended markets for their surplus. 

There is something in this besides the influence of free trade 
and protection. 

The free trader urging the adoption of free trade in America in 
order that surplus products may be sold abroad, claims at the same 
time that " there are scores of profitable industries that cannot now 
be carried on in this country on account of the tariff, but would spring 
into existence as soon as it was removed."* On the other hand, 
the equally intelligent protectionist says in substance, there are 
scores of industries now carried on because the tariff does exist, 
that with its removal would be abandoned. 

Which of these two propositions can be demonstrated as true ? 
one must be false, but it is said by a prominent writer that the 
guarantee for the anticipations of the results of the adoption of the 
English S3'stem kt is in a correct understanding of the laws of pro- 
duction and commerce."! Such an understanding would also 
settle the question relative to the extension of trade, so as to secure 
a market for the surplus products of both free trade and protective 
countries. I am afraid that the conditions of Prof. Summer's 
guarantee cannot be accepted for many generations. Certainly 
not while eminent doctors disagree. 

Again, it is claimed by ardent protectionists, that protection is 
the sole cause, or if they do not go so far, that it is the leading 

W. G. Sumner, in " Xorth American Review," September, 1884. 
t Ibid. 



PAPER BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 17 

cause, of the advance of wages in America, while the free trader, 
on the other hand, claims that the advance of wages in Great 
Britain is due to the policy of free trade, while any careful invest 
tigation will show that there has been an advance in wages during 
the last fifty years in both countries, and that so far as the man- 
ufacture of textiles is concerned, the advance has been nearly 
equal under the two great commercial systems.* This one fact 
shows that the claims of each party as to wages is entirely without 
foundation. 

The discoverer of the causes which regulate the rates of wages 
has not yet seen fit to give his name to the public. It is perfectly 
easy to discuss the question of wages in various lights, and to 
assume this, that, or the other cause as most powerful in their 
regulation, and yet, one rises from a study of such discussions 
entirely unsatisfied. 

My friend, Mr. Atkinson, has come nearer to a satisfactory 
explanation than any other writer, or rather I should say, nearer 
to the practical demonstration of the best theory on the subject 
than any other writer. Probably President Walker has more clearly 
stated a theory which can be demonstrated than any of his con- 
temporaries ; but the great causes are still beyond such demonstra- 
tion as will satisfy all men alike of their fundamental character. 
Certainly, the permanent influence of the tariff upon wages is a 
mooted question. 

To be sure, the protectionist quotes the high wages of America 
to substantiate his ground, and he puts them in comparison with 
the lower wages of England ; the free trader turns upon the pro- 
tectionist, and while he admits the higher wages of America quotes 
the low wages of the protectionist countries of Europe in compar- 
ison with the rates paid in the free trade country of England. I 
have been waiting to see some writer go still further in the race, 
and quote the still lower wages of countries way down in the scale 
of civilization in comparison with the rates paid in the protective 
countries of Europe. 

The free trader without being able even to hint at the proof of 
his assertion knocks the, protectionist down with the statement that 
wages are high in America notwithstanding the tariff, and would 
be whether we had a tariff or not. The pi-otectionist trips up the 

* See chapter on wages in " Factory System," Vol. 2. Report on the United States 
Census of 1880. 



18 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

heels of the free trader by his assumption that wages :uv higher 
in England than on the continent, without regard to the tariil', and 
thus each uses the other's arguments so far as wages are con- 
cerned to prove himself in a muddle, and we get no nearer the 
truth, and the whole discussion consists largely of assertions an<l 
assumptions. 

Again, it is observed that nearly all the arguments in favor of 
either great S3'stem of commerce are usually based upon the same 
array of statistics, when statistics are used, and the student who 
does not care which system prevails but who is simply seeking the 
true one, concludes that, as a rule, the pretended arguments are 
mere assumptions, the assumptions being the results of the theory 
of the speaker or writer, and that the theory is usually the result of 
his relation to the industries of the country. That my own state- 
ment in this respect may not mark my own condemnation, and be 
considered a mere assumption, allow me to illustrate. 

In a little work, entitled "Wages, Living, and Tariff," by Mr. 
E. A. Hartshorn, now prominently before the public, the results 
in the United States of the various tariff measures, or rather the 
results of the two systems of commerce during a period of seventy 
years from 1813 to 1883, have been summarized, and from this 
summary we find that the writer concludes, that under the free 
trade or revenue tariffs, as established in 1817, 1834. 1846, and 
1857, labor was seeking employment, wages low, emigration de- 
clining, farm products low, manufactures high, revenue, public 
and private, small and decreasing, bankruptcy nearly universal, the 
national status one of growing dependence, and the national credit 
bad; while under the protective tariffs, as established in 1813, 
1828, 1842, and 1861, labor was in demand, wages high, manu- 
factured products low, public and private revenues large and 
increasing, public and private wealth increasing, the national 
status one of growing independence, and the national credit good ; 
and the writer then remarks, "in the presence of these important 
historical facts, let the candid reader remember that the American 
people have never yet attained the best results of protection, nor 
the worst results of free trade," and further he asks this question, 
"if the results of partial protection to labor have been so satis- 
factory, and the results of partial free trade so unsatisfactory, 
which system shall we choose?" 

In laying down Mr. Hartshorn's pamphlet, and picking up the 



THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TARIFF LEGISLATION. 19 

admirable treatise of Mr. Henry Loomis Nelson, entitled, " Our 
Unjust Tariff Law," we find in his chapter on "What a low tariff 
did for the country " the following statement : ' ' there never was 
a period of greater prosperit}' in the history of the country," and 
then he goes on with an elaborate and very carefully adjusted 
statement of facts to prove the correctness of his assertion, and 
concludes, while referring to the very tariffs which Mr. Hartshorn 
claimed were productive of so much evil, by saying, "no other 
decade, excepting that during which the country was blessed with 
a revenue tariff, has such a stoiy of prosperity to tell as these ten 
years have stamped on our historj'. No other decade will have 
such a story to tell, until the Government ceases to tax four-fifths 
of the people for the benefit of a small fraction of the other fifth." 
I have quoted these two little works to illustrate my point 
instead of quoting larger and more elaborate treatises, and perhaps 
more standard works, because these two that I have named are 
prepared with apparent candor and integrity, and are being widely 
read, at the present time, by the people, but the same features 
might be illustrated, and very fully too, from older and more 
standard works. Certainly, if we turn to the newspapers of the 
day, we find statistics relative to imports and exports, and the 
trade and productions of the country, brought into elaborate 
tables, and arrayed on either side, and if we did not know the 
tendency of the paper in which we found these arrays of figures, 
we should not know upon which side they were used as arguments, 
unless the writer was careful to announce his point. 

The feat is constantly attempted of bringing diverse conclusions 
from the same premises. A recent writer* quotes the low interest 
at present paid for the use of capital in this country, as a demon- 
stration that obstruction to imports or exports immediately acts 
to reduce the value of capital ; but what has reduced the rate of 
interest in England ? Our own rates of interest are now approach- 
ing the rates of interest paid in Great Britain. What has the 
tariff to do with it? 

The same writer, with all the facts before him, concludes that 
the average rate of wages paid in American cotton mills, in pro- 
portion to the number of hours at work, is actually less than it is 
in England ; and then, after arraigning the theories of his oppo- 
nents, says, "that all these theories are the purest assumptions, 
not warranted by facts, and directly contrary to experience and 

* Thos. G. Shearman, " North American Review," September, 1884. 



20 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

reason." This is exactly the charge made by protectionists, and 
upon the same array of facts. 

Another charge which is reciprocally made is, that " men whose 
minds have once closed with a good grip on a dogma, never give 
it up on account of facts of experience, or on account of absurdi- 
ties into which it carried them." 

All these attempts to secure antagonistic conclusions from a 
single premise, thoroughly illustrate the necessity of a scientific 
basis, not only for tariff legislation, but for tariff discussion. 

AVith the one secured, the other follows. This necessity is 
further illustrated by a study of the rates of duty established by 
law, and when this study is made, it is no wonder that the tariff is 
declared to be a muddle. The table showing the excess of tariff 
duties over cost of labor, prepared by Hon. Thomas J. Wood, of 
Indiana, for use in debate on the Morrison tariff bill, is exceed- 
ingly valuable in this connection. By this table, it is shown that 
the smallest excess under the existing tariff is 5 per cent., and the 
largest about 80 per cent. A comparison of the wage statistics 
reported in the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts 
Bureau of Statistics of Labor, where the percentage of excess of 
wages paid in Massachusetts over those paid in Great Britain in 
like industries is mathematically stated, with the rates of duties 
affecting the same industries, would show a discrepancy as large 
as that displayed by the table prepared by Mr. Wood.* 

* The disparity between the average wages paid in certain industries in Great 
Britain and Massachusetts, and the average duty laid on the products of such indus- 
tries, is shown in the following table: 

Average weekly wages Average 

higher in Massachu- duty laid 

Industries. setts than in Great under ex- 
Britain, by percent- istinglaws. 
ages, as follows. Per Cent. 
Agricultural Implements, . . . 15.8 35 to 40 

Artisans' Tools, 141.3 45 

Boots and Shoes, 166.1 30 

Brick, . , 107.5 20 

Carpetings 47.9 49.78 

Carriages and Wagons, .... 182.2 35 

Clothing 49.1 35 to 60 

Cotton Goods, 38.4 38.3 

Food Preparations, 260.7 20 

Furniture, . 38.7 35 

Glass, 76.9 25.2 to 68.5 

Hats 99.8 35 to 50 

Hosiery 39.0 40 to 55 

Metals and Metallic Goods, . . . 52.0 45 

Printing and Publishing, .... 106.0 25 

Wooden Goods, 115.0 35 

Woollen Goods, 42.0 64 

Worsted Goods, 103.3 49.8 



PAPER BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 21 

These two statistical illustrations show most forcibly the neces- 
sity of a scientific basis, so far as arguments drawn from like pre- 
mises are concerned. 

Again, one party asserts that the people are robbed through the 
action of the tariff, that the manufacturer may gain wealth ; while 
the other side as strenuously asserts that the manufacturer gains 
nothing beyond his legitimate due, and that the payment of taxes 
for the support of the national government through consumption 
is the easiest method for providing for our national budget. One 
of these propositions must be false, and the proper basis for tariff 
legislation would prove which one is false. 

Finally, the necessity of such a basis as I have indicated is 
proven, because no adequate data exists for determining the indi- 
cative points presented. 

Third. If there is a necessity for a scientific basis for tariff 
legislation, how can it be reached? 

Such a basis can be reached only through a knowledge of all the 
facts bearing upon the question, and these facts have not as yet 
been classified. They may have been collected in part and exist 
in fugitive condition, but as yet without thorough classification. 
To reach this classification, I submit four propositions : 

PROPOSITION I. a. There should be a classification of all 
articles on which a duty is now laid, and the rates on each article. 

b. There should be a classification of articles on which duties 
are now laid, showing those articles, the duties on which are in- 
tended for protection, and those on which the duties are laid 
simpty for securing revenue. 

c. A classification of such articles as are produced in this and 
other countries, and in what countries. 

d. A classification of such articles as are produced in other 
countries only, and in what countries. 

e. A classification of duties imposed upon such articles under 
the various tariffs. 

/. A classification of what may be termed natural industries 
of the various countries, in competition with the United States. 

PROPOSITION II. a. A collection and classification of data re- 
lating to the composition of the product of all leading articles 
named in Proposition I, and showing the percentage of labor, raw 
material, etc., entering into the product in each of the leading 



22 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

countries where such articles are produced, such data to be col- 
lected entirely from original sources. 

b. The collection and classification of data, showing the cost, 
including all elements up to the selling price of such articles in 
the leading countries where they are produced, such data to be 
collected on samples as far as possible. 

c. A list of jobbing and retail prices of all such articles in the 
countries where produced. 

(J. The cost of importation of such articles as are produced in 
countries abroad. 

e. A list of jobbing and retail prices in this country of such 
articles. 

/. The jobbing and retail prices of like articles produced in 
this country. 

g. A summar}' of prices of such articles with and without duty 
charges, and under various tariffs so far as possible. 

[This proposition involves rates of wages paid, in the industries 
involved, in various countries, the efficiency of labor in the coun- 
tries involved, the capacity of machinery and all other elements 
affecting cost of production ; and the mathematical working out of 
the results of the proposition, would show exactly what consumers 
of articles imported and produced here pay for goods on account 
of the tariff, and what they would have to pay if no duty were laid 
on the articles named. It would also enable one to find that rate 
of duty absolutely essential to place the American producer on an 
equal footing, and on the same footing, so far as goods offered 
for sale in our markets are concerned, with the foreign producer, 
the foreign producer having thereby no advantage in this country 
that he would not have were his works located here. With such a 
rate in our leading industries, which would be a mathematically 
correct rate, duties could be levied on that rate, or above it, or 
below it, as the exigencies of the country might demand, but the 
people would know the exact point, and that a duty laid above it 
would be for protection as well as for revenue. If the rate were 
laid exactly on the rate mathematically determined, then the con- 
sumer would know that he was pa}*ing the same for his goods that 
he would pay were there no foreign manufacturers of the same 
goods in existence. If a duty above this mathematical point were 
laid, the consumer would know that he was paying something 
towards the running expenses of the government, and that at the 
same time he was aiding in the exclusion of foreign products. 



THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF TARIFF LEGISLATION. 23 

The working out of this Proposition II, would also enable the 
United States Government to adopt, with regard to every leading 
industry, the well established principle adopted by the British 
Government, and as at present practised by that Government, of 
laying a duty on the importation of certain articles on which an 
excise tax is laid at home, so that the importer shall have no ad- 
vantage over the home manufacturer on account of the excise tax 
paid by the latter.] 

PROPOSITION III. a. A classification of data, showing the 
amount of tax paid by consumers on account of tariff, such amount 
to be shown by means of budgets of annual expenses of families 
in various grades of life. 

6. Data showing what a "per capita" tax would be on the 
basis of our national expenses, should the revenue be raised by 
such a tax. 

c. Data showing what a property tax would be on the basis of 
raising our national revenue by such a tax. 

d. Comparative statistics giving the results of the data as to 
the three methods, namely, per capita, property, and an import 
duty method of raising our public revenue. 

[The working out of this proposition would show which method 
would bear the lightest and the most justly on the people, and it 
would also show what grade of consumers, using the word grade 
with relation to annual expenses, bears the tax burden chiefly.] 

PROPOSITION IV. A statement of the preceding propositions, 
mathematically wrought out. 

These propositions embody only the leading features of what I 
should call a basis for securing the proper information for ascer- 
taining a rate of duty in each industry which should equalize the 
advantages and the disadvantages of foreign and domestic pro- 
ducers, and the process of taxation by which the consumer should 
be justly taxed, and by which he should know whether he was 
being justly taxed or not. 

If a single illustration of the point I would attain, with regard 
to each leading industry, is required, it will be found in the suppo- 
sition, that if in woollen goods, after the collection and analysis of 
the information I have indicated, and all other information relative 
thereto, it should be found that the American producer of broad- 



24 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

cloth stands at a disadvantage of $1.00 per yard as compared with 
the British producer of the same kind of goods, then a tax of $1.00 
per j'ard would simply place the foreign and American producer 
on an equality ; in other words, the American manufacturer of 
broadcloths, if a tax of $1.00 per yard were laid on his product, 
would have no inducement to abandon his factory in America and 
set it up in England. If the tax of $1.00 per yard were not laid, 
it would be for his interest to abandon his factory in America, 
and move to England, or to Canada, or out of the country some- 
where, where the same conditions which give the foreign producer 
the advantage of $1.00 per yard, exist, and there set up his works. 
Having a tax, exactly and mathematical!}' determined, as essen- 
tial to place the foreign and domestic manufacturers on an equal- 
ity, the consumer of broadcloth is simply aiding in preserving that 
equality when he purchases broadcloth, and through the duty 
which he pays, he is not enabling the manufacturer to ask any 
more for his yard of broadcloth than he would if no duty were 
laid. The revenue is preserved and no advantage given to the 
American producer, nor is he placed at a disadvantage through 
the location of his factories in this country instead of in some 
other. If now Congress wished to protect the American manu- 
facturer of broadcloth, that is to say, put him in a position where 
the foreign producer of the same goods could not compete with 
him, then any tax or rate of duty on broadcloth above $1.00 per 
yard would be essential, and he could ask a higher price for his 
goods on that account, and the home consumer could purchase the 
foreign article if he chose, although it would be enhanced in price 
on account of the duty beyond the one dollar. The distance 
beyond the $1.00 per yard of the duty laid upon broadcloth 
would determine whether the duty was a protective one or a rev- 
enue duty onl}', and the public would know exactly what kind of 
duty it was paying. 

The result of this illustration if it could be applied to all leading 
articles would soon define the lines of the parties in this country, 
and would soon determine the question of how far a tariff shall 
become protective. Do not misunderstand me in the use of the 
word protective, I use it in its literal sense, that the protective 
duty excludes foreign products. The consumers, under the basis 
I have indicated, would clearly understand the question. 

One of the chief advantages of determining mathematically the 



PAPER BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 25 

rates essential in each great industry to the preservation of qual- 
ity between the domestic and foreign producer would be in the 
wise adjustment, or rather, extension of the free list ; that is to 
saj', with the results of such a basis we would know exactly what 
articles could be placed upon the free list without injury to the 
domestic producer. 

The great question of the reduction of the surplus revenue, 
which now disturbs the minds of the people, would be easily set- 
tled, or at least the surplus could be so adjusted that it would not 
be a source of anxiety to those who see in the accumulation of 
surplus, a danger far exceeding that attending a great indebt- 
edness. 

One of the chief results, and to my own mind the most just result 
of legislation upon such a basis as I have outlined, lies in the fact 
that all articles would be taxed with perfect fairness and equality. 
I cannot better illustrate this than by quoting from J. B. Sargent's 
recent article on the " Evils of the Tariff System," found in the Sep- 
tember "North American Review :" " No article is entitled to a 
higher tariff for protection than any other, or, in other words, the 
people should not be compelled by the Government to pay to the 
producer of any one article, a greater percentage of extortion than 
is paid on another. In all cases where one article has a higher rate 
of tariff than another, either no attempt to produce the higher rate 
article should ever have been attempted in this country, or there 
was improper and unholy scheming by, and favoritism to, the pro- 
ducers or manufacturers of it." 

The morality of this proposition cannot be controverted. 

A further advantage of correctly adjusted duties lies in the ease 
with which they are readjusted. Under the conditions indicated, 
a bill for the horizontal readjustment of rates would be logical. 

I am perfectly well aware, that as regards some industries, the 
attempt has been made, on a limited scale, to apply the force of 
the facts especially to the correct adjustment of tariff rates. This 
has been notabty so in this country in the woollen industry ; but. 
even here the application has been only one of degree. 

I am also aware that the carrying out of the propositions laid 
down would involve on the part of Congress quite a large appro- 
priation. I believe all the data indicated could be collected, 
classified, and each rate mathematically wrought out at an expense 
not exceeding $50,000, but the expense, even at $100,000, would 



26 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

be productive of far greater good than has been secured by much 
larger appropriations for similar purposes, but without similar 
motives. 

I cannot, of course, say where an investigation of the nature 
indicated, would lend politically, whether it would aid the party of 
Free Traders, or the party of Protectionists ; but I am of the 
opinion that it would lead to a discovery of rates which would be 
mathematically and scientifically correct, and morally just to all. 
The working out of the propositions laid down must be done fear- 
lessly and without regard to results, for the necessary investiga- 
tions should be made with a patriotic view of benefiting the con- 
sumers and the producers, without reference to individual interests. 

I am sure there is nothing chimerical in the scheme ; on the 
other hand, I am sure, from the necessities of the case, that with 
such a basis as I have indicated, or any other which will secure 
the results which I think this would secure, the tariff' question 
would assume a simplicity in its constituent elements which would 
enable all men to understand it, and which would secure its early 
and final removal from the politics of the country. Certainly 
these are results to be desired by all patriotic citizens. 



THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES. 27 



II. THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES. 

BY PROF. HENRY C. ADAMS, OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 

(Read Wednesday, September 9, 1884.) 

One of the most curious chapters in the history of American 
financiering pertains to the second period of State indebtedness. 
This period covers the years from 1830 to 1850, and receives its 
peculiar character from the fact that States undertook financial 
operations of a business nature. It is not, however, mere curiosity 
that leads one to study this chapter of local financial control, for 
it is full of pertinent suggestions, and is capable of throwing 
somewhat unaccustomed lights upon certain questions of current 
interest. My plan of treatment, in the present paper, is not at all 
ambitious, since it extends no farther than an orderly statement of 
the general facts, together with an explanation of the relations in 
which they stand to each other. In this manner, it is believed, 
the true meaning of the period will stand forth, for facts orderly 
arranged will the best interpret themselves. 

After the assumption by the Federal government of those local 
obligations incurred during the progress of the Revolutionary war, 
the States as political sovereignties, made no extensive use of 
public credit previous to 1820; nor was it until some twelve or 
fifteen years later that they appealed lavishly to this source of 
revenue. How lavishly this appeal came finally to be, appears 
from the figures which show the growth of local debts. During 
the ten years following 1820, public stocks were authorized in the 
various States to the amount of twenty-six millions of dollars, of 
which nearly eighteen millions were held against the three States, 
New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Between the years 1830 and 
1835, forty millions more were added to the obligations of the 
States, while the three years previous to 1838 witnessed an in- 
crease of local indebtedness to the amount of one hundred and 
seven millions of dollars. The total liabilities resting upon the 
States in the year 1843, including both direct and floating debts 
and loans of credit, reached the sum of two hundred and thirtj*- 
one and six-tenths millions of dollars. These figures, it is true, 
may not appear excessively large at the present time, accustomed 
as we are to speak and think in millions, but at that day, before 



28 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the system of public debts had been generally developed, and 
before men had adjusted their habits of thought to concentration 
of capital, they excited the alarm of all citizens. Nor will it be 
inappropriate in this connection to remark, that it is not the mag- 
nitude of an operation that renders it interesting to the student, 
but its position in the general development of a peoples' life ; so 
with regard to this period of financial control, it is not the amount 
borrowed that commands our attention, but the consequences 
rather of the fact that local governments borrowed at all, and the 
far-reaching influence of that policy which led the States to assume 
control of great public enterprises. 

What, then, are the specific questions, an answer to'which will 
lead to a satisfactory understanding of this chapter in local finan- 
cial history? They must be such as will lead to the heart and life 
of the period. They must call for a clear explanation of this un- 
warranted expansion of liabilities. They must discover to us the 
purpose for which such large sums of money were borrowed, and 
the political idea in harmony with which States were induced to 
assume these extended obligations. But more than this is required. 
A complete understanding of the period demands an explanation 
of the fact that men with money were willing to place it at the 
disposal of the States. 

After the crash came, which followed closely upon such a lavish 
use of credit, and they who had loaned money found themselves 
without security, complaints were loud and censure was severe. 
A quotation from the London Times well illustrates the feeling 
engendered: "America," says a writer in that journal, "is not 
the country it is cracked up to be ; too many speculators and gam- 
blers, indeed, to be plain, I look upon it, from Maine to Florida, 
as one vast swindling shop." Yet a swindler is impossible without 
some one who is willing to take risk of being swindled. A period 
of expanding credit means eagerness to lend as well as to borrow. 
To understand this period, therefore, one must discover also the 
source of that confidence which was granted without question to 
the States. 

In following out the line of study suggested by these queries, 
the first fact to which I would call attention, is neither financial 
nor industrial, but political. The year 1830, which marks the rise 
of the borrowing period among the States, witnessed the reversal 
of certain political tendencies, which, up to that time, had main- 



PAPER BY PROF. HENRY C. ADJ1S. 29 

tained in national affairs. The spirit of ultra democracy proved 
to be in the ascendancy, and many measures were adopted by the 
dominant party, the purpose of which was to weaken the adminis- 
trative power of the central government. It was as a subordinate 
part of a general policy that the States were brought into the fore- 
ground and imposed with new duties, and it was through their 
response to demands made upon them that they became financially 
embarrassed. 

What is here intended may be clearly perceived if one will pay 
some little regard to the notion of local government as it appears 
in the development of national politics. Political parties in this 
country arose out of the controversy respecting the adoption of 
the constitution. The point at issue was the following : Is this 
constitution a national or a Federal instrument? Will it ultimately 
result in the establishment of an Empire or a Republic? The 
story of the manner in which the name Federalist came to be the 
name of the national party is interesting, because it shows what 
must have been the ruling sentiment of the people in the years 
1788 and 1789. It was tacitly admitted that an anti-Federal 
constitution could not be adopted. At first, the anti-adoptionists 
called themselves Federalists, as showing the ground of their 
opposition to the proposed government. Their opponents saw the 
strength of this position and the power of their party cry, and 
with true strategic insight, determined to capture the name. The 
whole argument, therefore, ranged about the question as to which 
part}* truly represented the Federal idea. The result is familiar. 
The anti-adoptionists were driven from their stronghold ; the}' first 
assumed the name of Federal-Republicans and then of Republicans. 
This is the party properly regarded as the historical progenitor of 
both Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy. 

The first three administrations were under the control of those 
statesmen who had persuaded the people to accept the Constitution. 
Their tendency was naturally toward consolidation of power and 
an enlargement of the duties and functions of the central govern- 
ment. No one can deny that this was the result of the first twelve 
years of national life, while man} 7 may be found ready to defend 
this tendency as an inevitable and a just policy. In the treasury 
department, indeed, a method of doing business was adopted 
which no House of Commons would have tolerated since the time 
of William III. In 1801, the Republicans came to power, but 



30 AMKiyCAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

such was the condition of foreign allairs that they were unable to 
redeem their campaign pledges and restore to the Stairs any of 
their lost importance. Their tax reform counted for nothing, 
while the Louisiana purchase showed that the trend of events 
toward adequate nationality was stronger than the avowed purpose 
of a party. Nor must it be forgotten that Albert Callalin, the 
guiding member of the Jefferson cabinet, was a statesman of broad 
and national policies. This is evidenced most strongly by his 
grand scheme of internal improvements which he hoped to reali/e 
through the agency of the Federal treasury. Then came the rise 
of the war party, and the establishment of the " American system " 
of protection, both of which worked to the detriment of the States 
and increased the relative importance of the central government. 
During the years following the second war, let us say from 1818 
to 1828, the centralizing forces appeared sufficiently strong to 
occasion grave apprehension, and in consequence there arose a 
conscious reaction against them. The opposition thus engendered 
proved to be of two sorts. The one found expression in the meta- 
physical doctrines of Calhoun, the other in the practical measures 
of Jackson's domestic policy. It is this latter with which we are 
especially concerned, for it was in harmony with Jacksoniau ideas 
that the States again assumed the role of practical administrators 
and became the centres of public activit}'. The policy of decen- 
tralization adopted in 1830, was extremely simple, consisting as it 
did in throwing certain duties previously performed for the States 
by the central government, upon the States themselves, thus 
granting them the chance to work out the : r own political integrity. 

It appears then that after local quiet of more than forty years, 
the State governments again found themselves the centres from 
which all important measures of public domestic policy must pro- 
ceed. The dominant political ideas were such as to encourage an 
extension of local activity, and the conception of corporate or 
private management had not developed sufficient strength to as- 
sume control.of certain great enterprises which the times demanded. 
The States were thus forced into a prominent position. 

What I present here as the second step in explaining this period 
of local indebtedness, may perhaps be regarded r.s a mere illus- 
tration by specific example of that which has just been stated, but 
it possesses also an independent and direct importance since its 
purpose is to show the objects for which the States borrowed money. 



THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES. 31 

Previous to 1830, the United States government had maintained 
a partial control over two lines of activity which not a few regarded 
as reserved by the Constitution to the several States. Thus the 
establishment and maintenance of currency other than coin or, 
in other words, the control of a national bank was believed by 
many statesmen to lie outside the delegated powers. With the ex- 
ception, however, of the years intervening between 1811 and 1816, 
the United States had been stockholder in, and in large part mana- 
ger of, an extensive banking concern, through the medium of which 
the currency of the country had been for the most part controlled. 
The other line of activity which the central government entered 
upon to some extent and desired to follow out yet more intensely 
than in reality it was enabled to do, pertained to the establishment 
of inland highways of commerce. The original incentive to this 
was political. Thus Washington clearly saw that a country of 
such vast extent and vartety of territoiy as that ceded by Great 
Britain, could not be held together except by community of inter- 
ests between the various sections, and (hat this community of in- 
terest could only arise from easy and continuous intercourse in 
trade. His own words will show how strongly he felt on this 
point. " I need not remark to you," wrote he to the Governor of 
Virginia, " that the flank and rear of the United States are pos- 
sessed by other powers, and formidable ones, too ; and how neces- 
sary it is to apply the cement of interest to bind all parts of the 
Union together by indissoluble bonds especially that part of it 
which lies immediately west of us with the Middle States. For 
what ties, let me ask, have we upon the people (in the Mississippi 
valley) ? How entirely unconnected with them shall we be, and 
what troubles may we not apprehend, if the Spaniards on their 
right, and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing stumbling 
blocks in their way, as they now do, should hold out lures for their 
trade and alliance ? What, when they gain strength (which will 
be sooner than most people conceive, from the immigration of for- 
eigners who will have no predilection for us, as well as the removal 
of our own citizens), will be the consequences of having formed 
close connections with either or both of these powers in a commer- 
cial way ? It needs not, in my opinion, the gift of prophecy to 
foretell." The Western States, he went on to say, " hang on a 
pivot," and to turn their thoughts Eastward rather than Southward, 



32 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

he proposed that easy means of communication be provided be- 
tween the two sides of the Appalachian mountains. 

It is quite natural that the conception of public improvements 
which sprang from the idea of nationality, should find ready ac- 
ceptance with men infused with national sentiments. Even the 
plan which Gallatin presented in 1807, according to which twenty 
millions of dollars were to be maintained as a revolving fund for 
building highways of commerce, was, to say the least, far-reaching 
in its tendencies, although intended to be in harmony with the 
recognized rights of the States. During the years previous to 
1830, it will be remembered that one of the great questions of na- 
tional policies was the building of canals and wagon roads. A 
national board of Internal Improvements had been established, 
national surveys were being carried on, and had not certain ques- 
tions that imperilled the general safety forced themselves upon 
public attention, we should now have been able to write the expe- 
rience of national improvements actually undertaken. According 
to Bentou, "the candidates for the presidencj 7 spread their sails 
upon the ocean of internal improvements." As early as 1824, 
when Monroe placed his veto upon the Cumberland Road bill, the 
sentiment favoring internal improvements was general, and became 
more intense through the administration of John Quincy Adams. 
Many, however, believed that no warrant could be found for this 
duty in the Constitution. This was the burden of the veto message. 
Said Mr. Monroe in that document : 

"It is of the highest importance that this question be settled. 
(That is the question as to whether Congress had the right t6 man- 
age roads running through the States.) If the right exists, it 
ought forthwith to be exercised. If it does not, surety those who 
are friends to the power ought to unite to recommend an amend- 
ment to obtain it." 

The culmination and the break of this movement appeared in 
connection with the Maysville Road bill. Jackson's veto of this 
bill gave expression to an idea respecting the proper placement of 
authority, which had come into control b}* the election of 1828. 
The programme adopted was one of negative action. Congress was 
prohibited .from doing many things which before it had undertaken 
or desired to undertake, and these duties were thrown on the 
shoulders of the States. They were of such a nature as to call 
for a large amount of ready money, and this demand was the oc- 



PAPER BY PROFc HENRY C. ADAMS. 33 

casion for the employment of local credit. The Southern States 
borrowed to establish banks, and thns " create capital" for those 
sections ; the Northern States, on the other hand, were more 
deeply interested in public highways of commerce, and made this 
the occasion for entering upon debt financiering. 

Now, to my mind, it is of some importance that this relation 
between what may be termed the national and the local theory of 
internal improvements be clearly recognized, for then only can one 
understand the unbounded enthusiasm with which the local gov- 
ernments went into the business of supplying the country with 
canals and roads. It seems that the strength of this enthusiasm 
had grown up under the fostering care of the Federal power, or 
at least under the leadership of some of the most prominent Fed- 
eral statesmen. Nothing of importance was worked out in this 
manner, because of the question of constitutional right ; but the 
movement toward public works under governmental control was 
by no means ended, because Congress was obliged to abandon the 
field of direct control. The agency only was changed. The State 
Legislatures now took the place of Congress, having received, by 
bequest as it were, the duty to fulfil the wishes of the people, which 
had for so many years been encouraged by the central government. 

The change of policy about 1830, here referred to, was recog- 
nized by those who had to do with shaping public affairs. Thus 
the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, writing in 1840, upon State debts, 
says : "The Americans are proverbial for never being discouraged. 
If they cannot carry a point directly, they manage to do it by some 
round about way. They were determined upon improving the 
communications between the seaboard and the interior. A very 
large number of them thought it best that this should be done 
under the superintendence of a common head, and they proposed 
a method of action accordingly. But the extent of it excited the 
apprehensions of a still greater number, and they refused to adopt 
it. According to them, the business could be only entrusted to 
the care of the separate States upon whom it in the end devolved. 
The consequence has been the outlay of quite as much money, if 
not a great deal more, than would have been expended on the 
other plan." 

It will not be necessary for us to trace the growth of this move- 
ment in the various local centres. Sufficient is it to say that the 
States, as a rule, entered upon the work of supplying public high- 
3 



34 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

ways with an unbounded enthusiasm, and projected schemes abso- 
lutely absurd in their magnificent extravagance. One specific 
illustration is worth many general statements, and for that reason 
I venture to present the plan as it was adopted by the Legislature 
of the State of Michigan. 

Michigan was admitted into the Union in January, 1837, and it 
might be imagined, from the proceedings of her early Legislatures, 
that the one great purpose for which she sought the privileges of a 
State was, that she might build canals, railroads and turnpikes, 
and improve rivers and harbors. The Legislature, in its first ses- 
sion, appointed a "Board of Commissioners on Internal Improve- 
ments," and directed them to take the necessary measures for 
executing the following public works : The}' were to survey three 
lines of railroad across the State, called, respectively, the South- 
ern, the Middle, and the Northern routes, and one shorter road, 
called the Havre Branch Railroad. They were also to undertake 
three important canals, the Clinton, the Kalamazoo, the Saginaw 
or Northern, and a canal about the St. Ma^-'s river. In addition 
to this, the Grand, the Kalamazoo, and the St. Joseph rivers were 
to be improved. The total extent of these works entered upon by 
the first Legislature amounted to 1,100 miles of highway, of which 
557 miles were to be railroads, 231 canals, and 321 improvements 
of rivers. The population of the newly admitted State was at 
this time 175,000, from which it appears that the Legislature pro- 
jected one mile of improvement for every 150 of the inhabitants, 
which, upon common averages, gives one mile for eveiy thirty 
votes. Besides these improvements under the direct control of 
the State, there were in existence, in 1837, twenty charters to pri- 
vate companies for the building of railroads. The extent of lines 
proposed by these companies was 930 miles, from which it appears 
that there was over 2,000 miles of commercial highway projected 
before the State was a year old, and this estimate does not include 
turnpikes. Some idea of the appropriateness of these plans may 
be gained when compared with the amount of railroad facilities 
which the settled experience of the State shows to be adequate to 
present demands of commerce. In 1881, with a population of 
1,050,000, there were but 3,306 miles of road-bed, being one mile 
for every 500 inhabitants, or every 100 votes. Certainly Governor 
Barry was correct when, in 1842, referring to this great scheme 
of internal improvements, he said: "The system so called was 



THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES.. 35 

altogether beyond our means, and, indeed, embraced projects of 
improvements that were not at the time required by the public 
good." 

Such plans as these of the State of Michigan (and Michigan was 
by no means peculiar in her enthusiasm for internal improvements) 
do not find adequate explanation in the withdrawal of the Federal 
government from the direct prosecution of public works. These 
schemes were magnificent ; the years following 1830 were entranced 
by their own dreaming ; the States undertook to perform the impos- 
sible, while the legacy of duty which the}' received from the central 
government was moderate and rational. The change of policy in 
1830 must, as it appears to me, serve as the background upon 
which all other facts are thrown, but there came at this time a 
constellation of forces, partly independent and partly the outgrowth 
of this new policy of Democracy, with which one must acquaint 
himself in order to complete the full explanation of this second 
period of local borrowing. 

1. In the first place, the States received direct assistance from 
the general government in money and lands. Not only did Con- 
gress give up all claims of active control in matters of inland 
commerce, but that bodj r donated also the surplus revenue of the 
national treasury and a percentage upon the sales of all lands to 
form a fund with which the States could carry out therrplans of 
public works. These monej^s formed by no means an insignificant 
sum in the eyes of the people to whom local debts proved to be 
the most disastrous. In Michigan, for example, the experience of 
1836 gave every reason to hope large things from the funds estab- 
lished by the Federal government. One fourth of all the lands 
sold in the United States during that year were situated in Michi- 
gan, and that was the year in which the public lands were the 
source of greater revenue than ever before or ever since. The 
average revenue from this source is from one to three millions of 
dollars ; in 1836 it was twenty-five millions of dollars. Thus, 
standing on the verge of the }-ear 1837, those who controlled the 
policy of this State saw coming into the treasur}' $280,000 from 
surplus revenue, and $175,000 from their percentage on land sales. 
There was no precedent for such extensive sale of lands, and it is 
not surprising that this young State indulged in dangerous op- 
timism, not distinguishing between purchases for speculative and 
for settlement purposes, and not recognizing .hat these immense 



36 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

real estate dealings were one of the evil results of the financial 
policy of the central government. What happened in Michigan 
happened in other States, and there is no question but that the 
assistance of the general government, coming at the time when it 
did, is largely responsible for the carelessness with which local 
obligations were incurred. 

2. But again, the invitation to embark in great public works 
was especially alluring during the three years previous to 1838, in 
which the larger part of local debt was created, on account of 
the process of inflation through which the currency was passing. 
With the downfall of the National Bank, an era of unsecured paper 
money ensued. The rapidity with which inferior instruments of 
exchange grew, upon the reversal of the national policy, may be 
seen from the following figures giving the notes in circulation, the 
deposits and loans of the banks. Certain years of interest to us 
in this connection are alone presented : 







Circulation. 


Deposits. 


Loans. 


January, 


1830, . . 


61,324,000 


$55,561,000 


$200,451,000 





1835, . . 


103,269,495 


83,081,000 


365,i(;:;,0(iO 


" 


1836, . . 


140,301,038 


115,104,000 


457,506,000 


it 


1837, . . 


149,185,890 


127,397,000 


525,115,000 



This most certainly indicates a period of inflation, and all the 
results of inflation familiar to the student of economy followed in 
their most intense form. Values were radically disturbed ; ficti- 
tious profits were regarded as real, and this apparent success of 
moderate endeavors led men to enter boldly into great undertak- 
ings ; land speculation was especially excessive, for it was believed 
that the "vast West" was to come immediately into the market. 
It is not too much to say that these were years of business insan- 
ity. Cool judgment had for the time lost control, and men acted 
upon an impulse which they themselves were unable afterwards 
to understand. The enthusiasm of legislators, therefore, was not 
at all peculiar to State management ; it was merely one of the 
manifestations of the general enthusiasm of the times. I have 
collated with some care the enterprises projected by the Legisla- 
ture in one of the Western States, and those set on foot by private 
parties, and I do not hesitate to say that, whether judged from 
the standpoint of results or of business probabilities, the State 
authorities showed greater foresight and greater business conser- 
vatism than did individuals. The intimate relation between an 
inflated currenc} r and the projected improvements in the State of 



PAPER BY PROF. HENRY C. ADAMS. 37 

Michigan, is well told by Governor Barry in his message of 1842 : 
"The conception of the plan on a scale so magnificent," said the 
Governor, '* is to be attributed to the erroneous opinion of wealth 
produced by a too redundant paper currency. The system was 
altogether too extended for our wants, and required expenditures 
beyond our means. It was projected at a time when things were 
too often viewed through a distorted vision. Property had assumed 
fictitious value ; national as well as individual revenues were greatly 
over-estimated, and the minds of men had become inflated by imag- 
inary success in the acquirement of wealth. Individuals embarked 
with confidence in enterprises which they now regard as extrava- 
gant and visionary. The spirit of the times, unfortunately, became 
the governing policy of States, and Michigan, with a population 
then less than two hundred thousand, inhabiting a territory new 
and recently settled, with few immediate resources but her credit, 
projected a system of internal improvements which would have 
been a grand undertaking for the oldest and most wealthy States." 
3. The programme of public improvements adopted by the sev- 
eral States which led to the extensive employment of local credit, 
finds further explanation in a fact not at all connected with any 
policy of the central government. It is usually the case that a 
wide-spread enthusiasm for any industrial enterprise is imitative 
rather than original. This is most certainly true of the period we 
are now studying. The State of New York must be regarded as 
the pioneer in matters of public works, and the financial and com- 
mercial success of the Erie canal exerted no slight influence in 
leading other States to believe that a like success awaited every 
enterprise. This highway of commerce was finished in 1826. It 
immediately became a source of revenue, and proved that the 
statesmen who urged it upon the people were wise counsellors. 
Nor was it alone the final success of the enterprise that worked 
upon the imaginative optimism of other localities, but the accuracy 
of the calculations also induced men to place great confidence in 
enterprises similarly managed. In 1826 it was estimated that the 
debt incurred in building the Erie canal would be expunged in the 
course of ten years' operation. The figures upon which the con- 
clusion rested are the following. On the side of receipts, the 
annual income was : 

From tolls, $700,000 

From auction sales, 250,000 

From salt duties, 170,000 



38 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Chargeable to the revenue which was applied to canal management 
and debt payment, there was : 

* 

Interest on the debt $410,000 

"Expense of repairs 100,000 

leaving a yearly debt appropriation of $610,000. Upon the basis 
of these figures, the debt would be discharged in ten years, and 
the result of the management of the enterprise showed the calcu- 
lation to be correct within six months. It was, perhaps, the suc- 
cessful management of this New York enterprise, more than any 
other one thing, that occasioned the outburst of enthusiasm in 
favor of local improvements. 

There is, however, another fact worthy of attention in connec- 
tion with the Erie experiment. Previous to the completion of this 
highway of commerce, the city of New York, like the cities of 
Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, had been a local village, 
draining the country naturally dependent upon it ; but, with the 
completion of the canal, it at once became a port of importance 
to the entire country west of the Alleghany mountains and north 
of the Ohio river. The interests of Philadelphia and Baltimore 
were placed in jeopardy, and those cities, together with the States 
in which they are situated, at once undertook protective measures 
by pushing vigorously their own schemes for inland commerce. 
Then began that struggle between the seaboard cities for commer- 
cial supremacy over the West, which has become more and more 
intense even to the present time, an essential result of which is 
the perfecting of commercial facilities. The point which I wish 
to make is this : About 1830, men in the East were for the first 
time coming to realize the great possibilities of the West from a 
commercial point of view, and the rivalry between the various sec- 
tions of the East to secure to themselves the benefits of the trade 
which was sure to spring up, induced men in these sections to lend 
freely to those enterprises which would be! of especial advantage 
to themselves. It was under such encouragement, and because 
the idea of corporate control had not yet been sufficiently devel- 
oped, that the States were led to freely mortgage their sovereign 
credit for pushing public works. 

I have thus endeavored, in the foregoing pages, to suggest the 
active forces which gave character to the years of local control 
between 1830 and 1840, and it is believed that, taken in their 



THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES. 39 

relation to each other, they furnish an adequate explanation of the 
excessive employment by the States of their sovereign credit. 
The States borrowed money to build public highways. That pub- 
lic highways should be built was one of the imperative demands of 
the times. That the States should undertake this work rather 
than the central government or corporations, was the result of this 
historical accident, that the call for inland improvements came 
just when, in the development of political ideas, there had been a 
reaction against the policy of Federal administrative control, and 
before the doctrine of laissez-faire had in this country produced 
anj* results except in matters of foreign commerce. The general 
confidence in the States which led men to place money freely at 
their disposal, was in part merely an expression of the general 
confidence of the times ; in part an indirect consequence of the 
easy payment by the Federal government of its debt ; and in part 
because men saw in the public improvements which the States were 
undertaking, an additional advantage beyond that of a mere in- 
vestment of so much capital. All these forces taken together 
made up the atmosphere of the times, which, to say the least, 
proved very invigorating to those who breathed it. 

We need not arrest our attention at this point for the purpose of 
an\ T detailed statement respecting the failure of these grand 
schemes for local improvements. That most of them were the 
source of immediate disappointment, is known by all who are in 
any way acquainted with the period. The two hundred and thirty 
millions of debt resting upon the States, unsecured by any property 
at all adequate to support such a burden, is evidence of general 
failure. Had these enterprises been set on foot by private corpora- 
tions, the}' would have been placed in the hands of a receiver, or 
the individual members of the corporation would have availed 
themselves of stay-laws and bankrupt laws ; but since they had 
been projected by States, and since the sovereign credit of tue 
States had been placed in bond, nothing remained but to throw 
upon taxes the deficits of the business. This brought the failure 
of the policy home to the people with great force. In the State of 
Michigan, for example, the rate of taxation for county and State 
purposes was but seventy cents per capita, while the interest on 
the debt arising out of the public improvement experiment, would 
have demanded one dollar and thirty-five cents per capita, had it 
been paid. Or again, the helpless and childish tone with which 



40 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

some of t lie States came back to the central government for aid, 
asking Congress to play a pi in the role of the first Empire and re- 
lieve the States of their just obligations, indicates the complete- 
ness of the failure of this second period of local debt financiering. 

It is of much more importance than a portrayal of the details of 
the crisis in the various State treasuries, that we learn what the 
immediate result was of the failure of these financial schemes, and 
in what manner the difficulties into which the State treasuries fell, 
influenced later development. It cannot be otherwise than that 
such an important chapter in local history should have sown seeds 
of which we now are reaping the harvest ; it is pertinent, therefore, 
to inquire what the permanent influence of this period of activity 
has proved to be. 

The immediate consequence of these disasters is not far to seek. 
A reaction took place in public sentiment respecting State control 
over public improvements, and as is usually the case, it showed a 
strength proportional to that against which it was aroused. As 
the people had driven their representatives to enter upon internal 
improvements without caution, so when taxes began to press they 
censured them without justice and disowned their policy. This 
reaction was complete and irresistible, and one may discover now 
in the structure of industrial society two facts that are traceable 
to it. Thus in the first place, the withdrawal of the States from 
the domain of internal improvements marks the rise of corporate 
power in the United States. As in 1830 the Federal government 
abandoned the thought of direct control over remunerative public 
works, giving up this field of activity in favor of the local govern- 
ments, so during the years from 1842 to 1846, a revulsion of sen- 
timent turned all this business over to individuals. So far from 
realizing the programme of Jacksonian democracy, according to 
which the States were to recover their administrative importance, 
this experiment resulted in the establishment of a new power, 
which exercised truly sovereign functions, but which was unknown 
to earlier statesmen. The rise of the corporations marks the third 
period in the history of inland commerce. The material advance- 
ment of the United States during this period, no one can, nor does 
one care to deny; yet the industrial, the political, and the social 
influences that have been introduced into national life by the un- 
precedented growth of corporate power which has accompanied 
this development, are the occasion for grave apprehension. Under 



PAPER BY PROF. HENRY C. ADAMS. 41 

the guidance of this third policy, cities have been unnecessarily 
crowded, real estate values have been arbitrarily distributed, a 
social dependence is being introduced, not surpassed, in its evil 
tendencies by any previous form of servitude, politics are being 
run in the interests of profit to those already gorged with profit ; 
while, from the political point of view, it is to the encroachment of 
these corporations, as much as to the centralizing tendencies of the 
Federal government that the present impotency of the State 
governments is due. It thus appears that the financial crisis of the 
State treasuries was a turning point in the development of national 
life. 

In the second place, this failure of the internal improvement 
programme threw the country into what may be properly termed a 
constitutional panic. One at all acquainted with the business 
management of great enterprises, under the present credit system, 
knows the intimate relation that exists between the improvement 
of commercial highwaj's and the contracting of debts, and that a 
curtailment of the borrowing power is a stricture upon any direct 
control by the State over canals and railroads. A study of the 
various constitutions will show that previous to 1830, no State in 
the Union was prohibited in any way from an employment of its 
credit ; at the present time, however, there are but three States 
whose constitutions do not limit in some way the power to borrow 
money. Michigan and Arkansas, which were admitted into the 
Union at the time that the public improvement fever was at its 
height, incorporated into their constitutions a clause making it the 
duty of the legislatures to establish a system of public improve- 
ments. In this fact there is disclosed the spirit that ruled the 
entire country, for the sentiment that spoke in these cases through 
the general conventions of the people, found expression in other 
States in current elections. But with the reaction of opinion, 
these local laws were changed. In 1848, and the years following, 
the new constitutions, as well as amendments to the old ones, 
quite generally prohibited the States from having anything to do 
with remunerative works requiring capital. This finds direct 
expression in the organic laws of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Michigan, while many constitutions by curtailing the power to con- 
tract a debt, render it impossible for the States to incur those 
business obligations necessary for the economical prosecution of 
great works. It became the general cry that public works should 



42 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

be earned on by private enterprise, and to secure this, the States 
were prohibited from interference. The direct connection between 
these two theories of control is the best illustrated in the modifica- 
tion of the constitution of Illinois. Illinois had endeavored both 
State banking and State improvements, and had failed in both. 
In her constitution of 1848, she retained the clause that internal 
improvements should be encouraged, but with this significant 
qualification, this was to be done " by passing liberal laws of 
incorporation for that purpose " 

We have now reached a point at which the suggestions of our 
study begin to crystallize about a very important question of polit- 
ical organization. I have called this paper " The Financial Stand- 
ing of States," and the pertinency of the title now appears. The 
fact is, that the States at present have no standing whatever in the 
financial world. The}" are totally ignored in all those departments 
of activity where control over capital is the test of power. Yet it 
is well known that real power lies with the possession of money, 
and it requires no very extended system of reasoning to come to 
the conclusion that, until the States are relieved from the restric- 
tions upon the employment of their credit now embodied in their 
fundamental laws, the}* are entirely out of the race so far as actual 
administration of affairs is concerned. They are sovereign, but 
their sovereignty is an empty name, since the}* have no power to 
perform sovereign administrative acts. The two statesmen whose 
public careers have worked together to bring about this result, 
held totall}' opposite views of public policy. Alexander Hamilton, 
by nature an imperialist, believed in concentration of power under 
the national government, and subordinated all considerations to 
secure it. Andrew Jackson, whose character was a curious union 
of nihilist democracy and personal tyranny, changed violently the 
drift of sentiment, and set in motion those forces which brought 
disaster to the local authorities which he intended to build up. 
The success of the Hamiltonian and the failure of the Jacksonian 
policies worked both in the same direction ; through both has the 
sovereignt}' of the States suffered. But among active peoples, 
power of control must reside somewhere, and in consequence, the 
outcome of it all lias been, that as the States receded from public 
importance, the central governments and the corporations, each in 
their sphere, have come forward and assumed the abandoned con- 
trol. 



THE FINANCIAL STANDING OF STATES. 43 

There are many who look upon this result as natural," necessary, 
and defensible. Perhaps the majority of men in this country, in 
their blind optimism, believe that the control of public officers 
should be restrained within the narrowest possible limits in all 
matters pertaining to domestic affairs. Such persons claim that 
the result of State management, as it appears in the years from 
1837 to 1843, is what must in every case be expected, and is in 
consequence an unanswerable argument against the interference of 
the State in business. State control, they say, was abandoned 
because it proved itself inefficient, and corporate control arose 
because it was necessary. It is true, they admit, that the theory 
of local government functions was changed by this step, but this 
change was necessary and in the right direction. 

There are, as it appears to me, two questions involved in a claim 
of this character. Thus in the first place, one must inquire whether 
or not the history of State management, as it appeared in the years 
studied, is conclusive against the efficiency of State control ? And 
secondly, whether the subsequent administration by corporations 
has been so exceptional as to compel confidence in them as perma- 
nent centres of power? 

"With regard to the first of these questions, I may, perhaps, be 
permitted to present my own conclusions without stating at length 
the grounds upon which they are based. To my mind, the fact 
that the experiment of internal improvements by States led to 
embarrassment in the local treasuries, is far from being conclusive 
against the policy of local ownership and management of inland 
highways of commerce. Thus every fact which shows that the 
period in which the experiment was made was peculiar and unfor- 
tunate for its success, is a palliating fact, and common fairness 
requires that the criticisms based upon such considerations should 
not be pressed beyond the period to which they appty. Failure in 
any undertaking, traceable to temporary causes, can never become 
the basis of a general criticism. A careful study of this period 
will show that the misfortunes of the States arose from a disregard 
of the most simple rules of public financiering. It was in the 
management of the loans that especial stupidity was shown, a 
stupidit} 1 so exceptional that we cannot believe it would again 
occur should the States again be called upon to use their credit. 
The financial mismanagement was only equalled by that of indi- 
viduals in their private affairs, and in both cases is traceable 



44 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

to that fatal optimism then reigning in regard to the efficiency 
of paper credits. Consider, for example, the following: Michi- 
gan, in the management of her debt, actually borrowed money 
on time. The full extent of her so-called repudiation was 
that she refused to pay, out of taxes, those bonds for which 
she received nothing, but which had been hypothecated by her 
agents with European bankers. Yet this affair of the bonds 
was what brought the people of Michigan to believe that their 
scheme of internal improvements was a failure, and which worked 
up the sentiment that called for the abandonment of the policy. 
My point is, that this sentiment was illogical at the time it sprang 
up, as is, also, the argument in favor of corporate management of 
highways based upon it, for, had men looked a little farther, they 
would have seen that, in general, the State administration was 
good. Its failure, so far as it was the fault of the Legislatures 
and not inherent in the spirit of the times, was in a matter easily 
remedied, and subject to strict control. 

But there is yet an additional reason why we cannot rely too 
strongly upon the experience of the States after 1830. This was 
a period of transition in commercial methods. Previous to 1830, 
all plans for inland commerce were based upon the idea of canals 
and wagon roads ; but, about that time, thought was turned to the 
development of the railroad system. The changes actually intro- 
duced b}' railroads have been greater than any dared to imagine. 
They did not at once spring into perfect form, but gradually 
encroached upon wagon-roads and water-ways, until these were 
almost entirely abandoned. The consequence was, that many of 
the plans which contemplated them not only ceased to be remune- 
rative, but involved their projectors in disaster. So far, then, as 
the failure of the schemes of internal improvements arose from the 
fact that canals became useless because railroads proved in every 
way better, it is certain!} 1 illogical to claim that failure proves 
incompetency on the part of the State, for disappointment must 
have come in an\* case to those interested in water-ways. This 
fact, as it appears to me, has not been taken adequately into con- 
sideration. Indeed, it is believed that the more carefully one 
studies this experiment of State management of public highways, 
the less strenuous will he be in his claim that it furnished an argu- 
ment against business management by the local governments. 

But, in the second place, it is necessary to inquire if the admin- 



PAPER BY PROF. HENRY C. ADAMS. 45 

istration of the corporations, since they have assumed control over 
inland transportation, has been so conservative and just that the 
people may rest fairly satisfied with things as they are? The 
transportation business is one necessarily bound up with centrali- 
zation of power ; can that power be safely left with the corpora- 
tions? Were this question longer an open question, the loss of 
strength to the States that results from their financial inability 
would not be the occasion of such grave apprehension. But the 
fact is, it is not necessary longer to argue this question before the 
people of the United States. Even conservative thinkers are 
anxiously inquiring what shall be done with the corporations. 
From papers not regarded as revolutionary, from the trend of 
court decisions, from the writings of publicists on questions touch- 
ing political philosophy, as also from the expressions of the self- 
styled anti-monopolist, it is possible to learn that there exists 
great fear of the excessive development of corporate powers. For 
my own part, I believe this fear to be well grounded. The actual 
workings of corporate control have been such that even though 
one accepts the doctrine of non-interference as the maxim to be 
in general followed, he must admit of an exception in the case of 
railroad management. The major premise of action is established 
in public sentiment: the business of inland commerce must, in 
some way, be brought under governmental control. The question 
open for discussion deals only with the proper method. Now it is 
in connection with this state of affairs that the subject here dis- 
cussed assumes importance. Suppose that control by commissions 
prove inadequate to the demands made upon them, and a step yet 
in advance appears to the people necessary ; what division of our 
complex government must take upon itself this function of direct 
management over inland transportation, a function that gives the 
governing body greater power over the governed than any other 
that can be mentioned ? The States are in no position to do this ; 
as things are now, it must be the national government. This 
once accomplished and there is an end to the reality of popular 
government in this country. Say what men will, there is an 
eternal difference between a Democratic Republic and a Republican 
Empire. Popular government means local government. Real 
power lies at the centre of administrative control, and nothing 
can take us so far from the idea of the fathers as to establish for 
domestic affairs the same concentration of management as they 



46 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

established in foreign affairs. They wisely recognized the differ- 
ence, and it is the part of wisdom for us to maintain it. Yet con- 
sider in what a position it leaves us. To recognize the evils of too 
great a concentration of administrative power, is a guarantee to the 
corporations that they will not be interferred with except through 
restraining laws that do not restrain, for the States, the natural 
recipients of such powers are precluded by the fact that they have 
lost their financial standing. This condition of affairs is, at least, 
suggestive. 

It is not, however, the railroad question that I desire to bring 
into view, but rather to show what a misfortune has corue to this 
country through the decadence of the financial standing of the 
States. It is an historic rule of universal application that, as 
countries become more populous and the social and industrial rela- 
tions more complex, the functions of government must necessarily 
extend to continually new objects. This rule holds good now in 
this country, and in consequence the question of the residence of 
the new powers becomes of importance. As a single example. 
The frequent recurrence of floods, the more rapid and marked 
alternation of drought and wet, the progress of farming toward 
the exhaustion of lands, and other signs, tell plainty that it will 
be soon necessary for this country to attend to the planting and 
caring for forests. This is something that corporations will not 
do, for the time of return is too remote from the first investments. 
It is a legitimate sphere for the employment of sovereign credit. 
Shall this be undertaken by the central government or the local 
government? To my mind there is but one answer. The States 
are the proper centres of this power, yet they have been driven 
from the possibility of such works by an over-solicitous people, 
frightened by one unfortunate venture. 

If the States would regain their lost sovereignty and again be- 
come important factors in the life of the Nation, there is but one 
path by which they may reach that goal. They must in some way 
recover their lost credit and regain their standing in the financial 
world. Without the control of money, all claim to sovereignty 
must ever remain an empty name. 






WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 47 



III. WHAT MAKES THE KATE OF WAGES ? 

BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 

(Submitted and read in part Wednesday, September 9, 1884.) 
(All rights reserved.)* 

The phenomenal circulation, in England, of Henry George's 
book, entitled "Progress and Poverty," and the statement that it 
has already been translated into every civilized language, although 
it made little impression in the United States, draws attention to 
the fact that all other questions have become relatively insignifi- 
cant compared to the problems which relate to the distribution of 
wealth. The premises which Henry George assumes are without 
substantial foundation in fact, and his conclusions are, therefore, 
without warrant. The production of what constitutes wealth or 
welfare is no longer at issue. Modern science and modern instru- 
mentalities of production are adequate to produce what would suf- 
fice for a good subsistence for everj' man, woman and child in any 
and all countries. The whole question at issue is the distribution 
of this substance after it has been produced. Production and dis- 
tribution are but two phases of the same work. 

Land, capital, and labor are the three factors in production, but 
even when these three factors are worked in the most hearty coop- 
eration, the world is always within a year or less of starvation. 
The main question, therefore, is: How is the annual product dis- 
tributed ? because it is upon the distribution of the annual product 
that subsistence depends, rather than upon the ownership of land 
or of the products of labor which have been saved in a concrete 
form, and which have become capital. The capital or labor saved 
in a concrete form never exceeds in value the sum of two or three 
years' production, even in the richest State or Nation, and is more 
apt to be less than the product of a single year. 

In the work of production and of distribution, by far the largest 
portion of the people of the so-called civilized world work for 
wages in one form or another, that is to sa}', they are at any 
given time in the position of the employed rather than that of 

* This treatise, with addenda, together with two essays by the same author, one 
on " What is a Bank," the other on the " Railway, the Farmer, and the Public," 
are about to be published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, under the title of " The Distribu- 
tion of Products, or the Mechanism and the Metaphysics of Exchange." 



48 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

employers. They change from one class to the other, according 
to their relative abilities or opportunities. It follows of ncccs>ity 
that tin- paramount question the one which is of prime importance 
to the vast majority of the people of civilized lands, is, What 
makes the rate of wages? because it is by means of the money 
which they receive from their employers as wages, that their share 
of each year's annual product is obtained and is measured. This 
being admitted, the practical question at once arises, are those 
who labor for wages receiving in each year a less and less propor- 
tion of the annual product, while capitalists are securing for them- 
selves a larger share, or the reverse? Are the rich growing richer, 
while the poor become poorer? or, are nations themselves becom- 
ing poorer as a whole, rich and poor alike securing a decreasing 
share of a decreasing and, perhaps, insufficient product? 

In treating this question, two definitions become necessary. 
What is production? It is not simply the primary process of 
bringing forth grain, timber, and metals in their crude form, from 
the field, the forest, or the mine; it is not simply carrying these 
products through the mill, the furnace, or the forge, into their sec- 
ondary form, called manufactures ; but the word must include alj 
that is indicated by its etymology pro duco pro-duce-ing lead- 
ing forth and directing the forces of nature to the final use of, or 
consumption b}', man. This covers distribution, as well as what 
is commonly called production. The word wages may, therefore, 
be defined so as to include all earnings of persons in the employ- 
ment of others. The larger part of the work, in many directions, 
being done by the piece, the wage is an uncertain quantity, vaiying 
with the skill and capacity of the laborer. In this treatise, the 
word wages will stand for the sum of money which is earned by 
factory operatives, farm laborers, machinists, mechanics, railroad 
employes, laborers, clerks, salesmen ; in fact, by each and every 
class of those who are employed by others in what is commonly 
called production or distribution ; those who agree- in advance to 
work for a fixed payment, either by the piece or by the da}-, 
month, or year. 

The true wage which the workman seeks is the food, fuel, shel- 
ter, and other means of subsistence with which the sum of his 
wages will supply him. If we look to the derivation of the word 
itself, his wage is the measure of the expectation of subsistence, 
against which his labor is staked, wagered, or hazarded. It is not 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 49 

customary to include the salaries of the clerical or administrative 
force, nor the payments which are made for purel}* mental work 
under this term, although they are of the same nature. For the 
purpose in hand, we will limit the application of the word wages to 
the sum of money earned by persons who engage in the actual 
work of producing or distributing material substances ; who either 
work with their hands or direct machinery to these ends ; who are 
in the employment of other persons upon terms stipulated in ad- 
vance and who are subject to be discharged with or without notice, 
as the case may be, at the will of the employer. In this category 
will be found by far the largest portion of the people of this coun- 
try who are old enough to become wholly or in part self-support- 
ing. 

This great class consists in very large measure of persons who 
depend almost wholly upon their daily work for their daily bread, 
whose accumulations are small,- slowly and painfull}' made or 
saved, and sufficient only to relieve them from the necessity of 
work for the last few years of old age, if perchance adequate for 
that without the aid of their children. The welfare of the vast 
majority of the people of this country, and of every other country, 
therefore, mainly depends upon the adequacy of the rate of their 
wages, and upon the purchasing power of the money in which their 
wages are paid. It follows that there can be no more important 
social question than the wage question, none in which error will 
be more fatal. 

If. under the existing conditions of employer and employed, 
of capitalist and laborer, of wage-payer and wage-receiver, in 
other words, if by way of competition the rich only grow richer 
because the poor grow poorer; if greater progress under present 
laws and customs is only consistent with greater poverty ; if the 
profits of capital can only be increased by diminishing the wages 
of labor; if " wealth accumulates" only when "men decay," 
then Socialism may be justified, even Nihilism may be right ; the 
capitalist may be the enemy of the laborer. If such is the truth, 
Henry George only goes half way in his remedy, when he merely 
proposes to nationalize or confiscate land. The remedy for these 
great apparent wrongs may, in such event, be found only in dyna- 
mite and the dagger. ]f even the change in institutions or in the 
title to land which can be secured by legislation is insufficient, then 
dynamite and the dagger may be the only adequate remedy, as 
4 



50 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

AVi udell Phillips hiiited ; but even he dared not say so in his Phi 
Beta Kappa oration. The very existence of modern society is the 
major issue which is bound up in the simple and apparently minor 
question, " What makes the rate of wages?" Compared with this 
all problems relating to the collection of revenue, the function of 
banks, the hours of labor, etc., sink into relative insignificance. 
If the fundamental question is, What makes the rate of wages? 
these minor questions are merely the froth and turmoil upon the 
surface, which manifest to the eye and ear the great undercurrent 
that may rend modern society in twain. 

What are the facts? Upon the Continent of Europe, ancient 
forms of society, customs, laws, and institutions of many kinds, 
from which we in this county are substantially free, are being 
actually rent and destroyed, and the whole socialistic tendency of 
legislation at this time, in Great Britain, France, Germany, and 
elsewhere, is but an attempt to solve the apparently simple ques- 
tion, What makes the rate of wages, or of the earnings of those 
who depend upon their daily work to meet their daily wants? By 
socialistic tendency is meant such acts of legislation as the Land 
Acts relating to Ireland lately passed by the Parliament of Great 
Britain ; the acts for compulsory life or annuity insurance which 
have been proposed by Bismarck ; the attempts which have In en 
made in France to own and control the whole railway system, and 
to maintain national workshops ; and many other measures of like 
kind which have been either proposed or attempted in different 
parts of Europe. The issue is made more difficult by the existence 
of conditions in Europe to which we have nothing analogous. 
The question there is not only, What makes the rate of the wages 
of the factory operative, the mechanic, or the artisan ? but, What 
makes the rate of earnings of the Irish cottier, or the rack-rented 
farmer, or of the English tenant farmer working leased land ; or 
of the French or German peasant confined to allotments which 
have been mainly established by the compulsory division of laud 
on the Continent, and which have become so small by frequent 
subdivision that modern agricultural machinery cannot be applied 
to them in any great measure ; on which the crops are therefore 
made b}' the exertion of the maximum amount of manual labor 
with the minimum of product per man ? An example may be here 
cited of the vast difference, in different places, in the productive 
efficiency of one man, working one year. I cannot give the exact 






WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 51 

measure per man in bushels of grain or barrels of flour, of foreign 
agriculture, but the German or French peasant makes but a very 
small crop, who, with arduous toil with the spade and hoe, plants 
a little strip of grain, harvesting it with the sickle, and thrashing 
it with the flail. Every one can conceive how small a quantity of 
grain must be the product under these conditions, yet these are 
the conditions under which a considerable, if not the larger portion, 
of the grain crops of Europe are made. 

On the other hand, let us consider an extreme example of the 
application of capital to great areas of land in this country. By 
division of labor and by the application of machinery upon the 
great farms of Dakota, such enormous abundance is secured that 
when we convert bushels of grain to the equivalent of one man's 
work, working 300 days in one year, we find that in an average 
year, on land producing twenty bushels of wheat to the acre, 
5,500 to 5,600 bushels of wheat are made for each man's work. 
Retaining enough for seed, this quantity suffices to make 1,000 
barrels of flour. It can be carried through the flour mill and put 
into barrels, including the labor of making the barrel, at the equiva- 
lent of one other man's labor for one year ; and at the ratio of the 
work done to each man emploj'ed upon the New York Central 
Railroad, the 4,500 bushels of wheat can be moved from far Dakota 
to a flour mill in Minnesota, and thence the 1,000 barrels of flour 
can be moved to the cit}' of New York, and all the machinery of 
the farm, the mill, and the railroad can also be kept in repair at 
the equivalent of the labor of two more men ; so that the mod- 
ern miracle is, that 1 ,000 barrels of flour, the annual ration of 
1 ,000 people, can be placed in the city of New York, from a point 
1,700 to 2,000 miles distant, with the exertion of the human labor 
equivalent to that of only four men, working one year in producing, 
milling, and moving the wheat. It can there be baked and dis- 
tributed by the work of three more persons ; so that seven persons 
serve one thousand with bread. 

Before we proceed further in the consideration of this and other 
related facts, let me say that there appears to be an almost unac- 
knowledged belief, even among well-read students, that the so- 
called principle which Malthus first propounded is true ; or at least 
that it contains such an element of malignant truth, if one may use 
such an expression, that it is unpleasant to face it, lest one's faith 
in the Power that makes for righteousness should be disturbed. If 



52 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the dogma of Malthus is true, that population tends to increase 
faster than the means of subsistence, there is no escape from tin- 
conclusion that all our efforts at progress, so called, are worse than 
useless. For instance, when we attempt to save the life of children 
by the improved sewerage of our cities ; when we provide pure 
water and better dwellings for the poor, when we teach sanitary 
science to enable each and ever}* member of the community to at- 
tain better present conditions of comfort and welfare and a longer 
life ; we are merely building up our present prosperity in order that 
the adversity of a future day may affect a greater number of people. 
If population increases faster than the means of subsistence, the 
rate of wages must always tend to become a less and less propor- 
tion of a decreasing product, and their purchasing power must at 
last become so low as not to ensure even the necessary subsistence : 
because there would not be substance enough to sustain life to be 
purchased by any wages which could be paid. In such a view of 
life all our humanitarian efforts are criminal if successful, because 
the}' cause a more rapid increase of population, and only hasten 
the evil day when, in spite of every effort or of any measure of in- 
telligence, our mother Earth will fail to provide for the wants of 
her children. They must then slay each other or die in myriads 
by famine and pestilence, in order that only the fittest may sur- 
vive. Even then, when those only have survived for whom there 
is enough for the moment, the evil cycle would begin once more 
and so go on forever. It is upon the seeming truth which is con- 
tained in this abhorrent and atheistic dogma that many false theo- 
ries have been presented, man}* bad acts of legislation have been 
justified, and that it has become a widespread conviction that there 
is a war, or constant struggle and antagonism between capital and 
labor, between rich and poor. It seems to be the conviction of 
great masses of people that with ever increasing wealth there is 
and must be ever increasing poverty, and this formula is working 
in special places in the most active and pernicious manner at the 
present time. Again we may ask, what are the signs of the times? 
Russia struggling with Nihilism ; Vienna under martial law, for 
fear of Socialism ; Germany and Austria dreading what may come 
when Bismarck dies ; the commune of Paris kept down only by 
fear and bayonets ; even England, gravely disturbed by a single 
book which attacks her land system, is coping with Irish destitu- 
tion by acts of Parliament which are but socialism disguised, and 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 53 

which would be overruled, if enacted by the Congress of the 
United States, the moment they were presented to the Supreme 
Court. These dangers to the body politic are signs that the 
struggle for life has indeed become urgent among great masses of 
people in special and limited places. They indicate that even in 
the present day the horrors of the Reign of Terror might be re- 
peated ; that want is lawless ; that hunger and destitution will in- 
cite to violence in any land ; and the}' also prove that the more 
the attempt is made to suppress these dangers b}' force of arms, 
the greater the danger will become. It would be as dangerous to 
disband the armies of Europe as it is impossible to sustain them, 
because the habit of government by force cannot be overcome ex- 
cept after many years. Yet, as I have said, in the world there is 
alwa}'s enough. Production is ample to give good subsistence to 
every man, woman and child, especially in the civilized world, and 
the mechanism of distribution is also fairly adequate. The whole 
question is one of the method of distribution of each year's product, 
and inasmuch as this distribution is mainly effected by way of the 
payment of wages, the paramount question is again presented : 

WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES ? 

If we glance again at the condition of the nations which have 
been named, we cannot help observing, for instance, that Ger- 
many is poor in fact ; the soil of large portions of her territory 
will barely sustain the people who dwell thereon, and although 
there has as yet been no absolute famine, the people of many 
parts of Germany are always on the very edge of want. We 
must therefore explain to ourselves the conditions of danger to 
which the best instructed people of Europe have been brought, by 
the consideration of other matters. The people of Germany must 
be subsisted either upon what her own soil will produce, or upon 
the food for which her own manufactures will exchange. Her 
own annual product, at its exchangeable value in mone}', must be 
the source of her own profits, wages, and taxes. When we utter 
the last word, may we not touch one secret of her poverty? There 
are money taxes and also blood taxes. One man in every twenty 
in Germany is a soldier in camp or barracks, and one other man 
in every other twenty must be employed in sustaining the idle 
soldier, while every man wastes a considerable part of his life in 
preparation for this destructive art and is liable to be called away 



54 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

from productive work at a moment's notice. Under such con- 
ditions, before either profits or wages can be paid to those who do 
the work, at least ten per cent, must be assigned to the wasteful 
and destructive, although generally passive war, which is the con- 
dition in which all the nations of Europe now exist. 

How is this arm)- maintained ? There is room enough elsewhere, 
and to spare, for Germany to relieve herself of the population 
which cannot live upon her soil, except on the edge of starvation ; 
there is room enough even in our own land, and here they would 
be welcome. But every German boy who reaches the age of 
eighteen is enrolled for service in the army at a future day, and if 
he dares leave the country after he is enrolled, he expatriates him- 
self, renders an}- property which may be devised to him liable to 
confiscation, and can never return, even though he may have 
become an American citizen, except at the risk of being treated 
as a deserter, and forced to render his three year's service in camp 
or barracks. Under such conditions as these it follows that 
neither the poverty of German}-, France, Austria, Italy, nor any 
other country, can be attributed to any real antagonism between 
labor and capital, but must be attributed in part to the poverty of 
the soil, in part to artificial systems in the division of the land 
which are enforced by statute, and in part to privileges and to the 
burdens of standing armies of which we have no counterpart. 
These dangers to the body politic are but signs that the struggle 
for life has indeed become urgent among masses of people who 
number too many for the limited area in which they are, but where 
they are kept by force, the natural law of distribution by which 
they might spread themselves over the earth being obstructed. 
Much of this is done under the pretext that the right to property 
can only be permanently sustained by force, while the rights of 
man are denied. 

We may also observe that almost all modern dangers of war 
are dangers connected with the distribution of wealth, or from 
national jealousy in respect to commerce, which is but another 
name for the distribution of the annual product of the world. 
This jealousy is mainly caused by the continued prevalence of the 
false idea that in international commerce what one nation gains 
another loses. Hence we find nations endeavoring to establish 
and maintain colonies, in order to control their commerce, at a 
cost to themselves of more than the whole commerce is worth. 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 55 

No one fights today for a religious dogma, unless it be an Arab 
or a Sepoy. None are armed merely to maintain a dynasty. It is 
the Chancellor rather than the Emperor on whose fate the Empire 
of Germany may depend. The question as to who shall control 
the Suez Canal endangers the peace of Europe, }~et this canal is 
but a spout through which Europe exchanges clothing for food ; it 
is a mere instrumentality of distrubution. All modern questions 
of any importance relate to the means of subsistence ; the distri- 
bution of the means of subsistence is finally brought about by the 
payment of wages. The first question which England has met in 
endeavoring to promote good government in Egypt, is the debt 
incurred by a despotic power but imposed on the people who were 
oppressed. Whether the repudiation of such debts is not the first 
condition precedent to the common welfare of those upon whom 
the debt has been imposed without their consent, is one of the 
many questions about to be forced to an issue in other countries 
than Egypt. If one half the product of Egypt is absorbed by the 
debt, will the other half suffice even for subsistence? Can the 
sum of wages be more than what is left of her own produce ? 
Must not the annual product of each country be the source of its 
own wages? 

As I have said, when we attempt to solve this question, we find 
that there need be no fear of want because there is not enough for 
all. Enough there is, and to spare. The only question is, 
"Where is it ? Distribution is limited or restricted in part only by 
want of proper mechanism, i. e., by the lack of railways, the lack 
of ships, and the like ; in part by legal obstruction, in part by 
national jealousies, but yet more by obstacles to free exchange, 
even where the mechanism suffices. I do not limit the term free 
exchange to the narrow question which is at issue between the 
advocates of free trade and protection ; that is a minor question- 
I mean the obstacles to free exchange which are mainly caused by 
that ignorance and incapacity which stand in the way of mutual 
service, even among the people of -the same country. The farmer 
of our own land may have his barns running over with the abund- 
ance of his product, and may desire a hundred things for which 
he would be willing to exchange ; but if, on the other hand, those 
who desire to share his abundance are ignorant, incapable, or 
vicious, who cannot or will not work upon the things the farmer 
wants, there can be no mutual service ; they may starve while his 



56 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

crop deca3 - s. It is mainly the imperfect or restricted distribution 
of what there is read}- for use, which is caused by the ignorance 
or incapacity of those who need it, that creates want in the midst 
of plenty, not only in Europe, but in the heart of the great cities 
of our own land. We waste enough in this country to support all 
our poor in luxury ; yet were we to give this excess to tlu-in in mere 
charity, what we waste, thus consumed, would forever convert the 
poor into paupers. Charity or alms-giving cannot remove pauper- 
ism ; it may only increase it. The common laborer, so called, is 
the one who suffers most in times of depression ; and he usually 
is and remains a common laborer merely because neither his hand 
nor his head have been trained together so as to enable him to do 
work requiring skill, which kind of work is everywhere and at all 
times waiting to be done, and by doing which he might become 
entitled to a share of existing abundance. We are attempting, in 
this country, to cope with these problems by legislative methods. 
In Europe the attempt is made both by legislative methods and ly 
force combined. Neither method can permanently succeed. 
Neither wealth, welfare, nor common subsistence can be perrna- 
nentty imposed from above, or instituted from without. Neither 
masses of men nor individual men can be permanently helped who 
cannot or will not help themselves. The final remedy for these 
wrongs can only come by the development of individual manhood 
from within. Individual intelligence and integrity, sustained by 
public justice, constitute the sole condition under which permanent 
prosperity can become the rule among men. Then life and liberty 
will be the only common factors, making for the welfare of each 
and all. It may be a far-off day, which none of us living may 
live to see, when this shall be accomplished ; but the potential 
agency in promoting this end is the advancement of science. 

With the chemical or physiological question which underlies the 
abhorrent dogma of Malthus, I may not attempt to deal. Sub- 
sistence is but a conversion of forces a chemical process ; whether 
or not the proportion of force or energy which constitutes material 
life, and which takes the form of the body in which man lives 
awhile on this earth, may find a limit without recourse to war, 
pestilence, or famine to check its undue development, is not yet a 
practical question. When it arises, it may be time enough to 
meet it, in some far away period. 

The absurdity of the attempt, as yet, to measure the power of 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 57 

subsistence and to declare it to be limited can te demonstrated in 
two or three simple ways suitable to the use of a statistician like 
myself: First, no man yet knows the productive capacity of a 
single acre of land anywhere in respect to food. Second, the 
whole existing population of the globe, estimated at 1,400,000,000 
persons, could find comfortable standing-room within the limits of 
a field ten miles square. In a field twent}- miles square they could 
all be seated, and by the use of telephones in sufficient number 
they could all be addressed by a single speaker. Third, the aver- 
age crop of wheat in the United States and Canada would give one 
person in every twent}' of the population of the globe a barrel of 
flour in each year, with enough to spare for seed ; the land capable 
of producing wheat is not occupied to anything like one-twentieth 
of its extent. We can raise grain enough on a small part of the 
territory of the United States to feed the world. The great Amer- 
ican desert has gradually disappeared. The " bad lands " of Mon- 
tana prove to be the best grazing ground of the Northwest, and 
in the heart of the Eastern States the mountain section of the 
South waits for a population equal to that of Great Britain, who 
can there find potentialities in agriculture or in mining equal to 
those of any similar area on this or any other continent. As yet, 
therefore, the doctrine of Malthus has found only a limited appli- 
cation, where some local or temporary congestion of human force 
has gathered. As I have said, in the world there is somewhere 
and always enough. The only question is, Where is it? When 
found, the next question arises, How to get it. 

The first method which obtained in the world, was to grab it 
the age of force. The second method was to give it the era of 
conqueror and conquered, of master and slave, of lord and vassal, 
of giver and taker, not of employer and wage-earner. The third 
method is to exchange for it. Under this third method commerce 
has arisen, men have become sorted as capitalists and laborers, as 
employers and employed, as wage- payers and wage-receivers ; 
service for service is the common rule of life ; the exchange of 
product for product is the practice of commerce. All States have, 
or may become interdependent and then "the ships that pass 
between this land and that will be like the shuttle of the loom, 
weaving the web of concord among the nations." And again we 
meet the apparently simple question, What makes the rate of 



58 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

wages by which the greater part of these services are measured 
and under which the greater part of the distribution is effected? 

I have had but little time for the reading of books or the consid- 
eration of theories of wages ; but I believe we must pass from the 
English orthodox system of political economy to France, in order 
to find the first true statement of the relations of the wage-receiver 
and the wage-payer, of employer and employed, of laborer and 
capitalist, or of labor and capital. Many years ago a single 
phrase in Bastiat's " Harmonies of Political Economy" became 
engraved upon m}' mind, and by its application 'I have been ena- 
bled to observe the phenomena of wages in the course of my busi- 
ness life with much clearer insight. It is this: "Jn proportion to 
the increase of capital, the absolute share of the total product falling 
to the capitalist is augmented, but his relative share is diminished; 
while on the contrary, the share of the laborer is increased both abso- 
lutely and relatively." 

Among English writers, Thornton exposed the fallacy of the old 
wage-fund theory, the theory that all wages are paid out of a fund 
of capital previously accumulated and will be high or low as the 
ratio of that fund may be great or small, in proportion to the num- 
ber of persons employed. Professor Cairnes propounded the true 
theorj" of wages in one of his latest books, in terms so nearly 
identical with some of those which the writer has used in this 
treatise, that the writer would have suspected himself of uncon- 
scious plagiarism had he not found his own records antedating the 
unpublished works of Professor Cairnes on this subject. In this 
country, Professor Francis A. Walker has presented the true 
theory of wages in the most effective manner, and has probabl}* 
done more than anj* other writer to clear the subject of obscurity. 
It has been a matter of great satisfaction to me, that my practical 
observations are so fully consistent with the theories of these 
authors. Giving due credit to all these writers, my own conclu- 
sions have been based almost wholty upon facts and deductions 
from business experience rather than from books, although m}' 
attention was first attracted and a direction was given to my 
observations by the paragraph which I have quoted from Bastiat. 

The two forces that are engaged in the production of the sub- 
stances which constitute food, fuel, means of shelter, or the mate- 
rials which may be converted into additional capital, are of course, 
labor and capital. Land itself is but an instrument, being useless 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE Or WAGES. 59 

and valueless unless labor and capital are employed upon it. By 
the cooperation of these two forces, an annual product is made. 
The true function of capital is that of force put to use in order to 
increase production, rather than a substance to be immediate!}' 
divided and consumed. 

Fixed capital, so called, although the name is hardly a suitable 
one, may be likened to the foundation, boiler and engine, and 
quick capital to the fuel with which the boiler is supplied : the one 
is very slowly, the other very quickly consumed, yet neither works 
directly to the subsistence of men, but indirectly both work to the 
vast increase of the actual substances with which men are fed, 
clothed and sheltered ; these substances constitute the annual 
product which is divided among them. The term annual fits the 
case, because the year represents the course of the four seasons 
and the succession of crops. A small part of each year's annual 
product, commonly called "quick" or " active capital," must be 
carried over to start the next 3 T ear's work upon, as a small part of 
last year's product had been brought over to start this year's work 
upon ; one proportion balancing the other. The fixed capital 
seldom exceeds in value two year's production. It therefore fol- 
lows that all profits, all wages, all taxes, in fact all consumption 
whereby existence is maintained, must be substantially drawn 
from each year's product ; it is therefore in the division of 
these substances produced within the year, that true profits and 
real wages are to be found. But, in order that this product may 
be distributed and consumed, since no man lives, economically 
speaking, for himself alone, the various products of the year must 
all be exchanged, by purchase and sale, and therefore must all be 
measured in and reduced to terms of money, except that part of 
the annual product which is consumed upon the farm by the farmer 
and his family without being sold. With this exception, it there- 
fors follows, that substantially the whole product of each year 
must be converted into terms of money. I think it escapes com- 
mon observation, that in all departments of industry, except agri- 
culture, few men now produce anything which they use themselves ; 
and even in farmers' families, domestic consumption is now limited 
to a small part of the farm product ; all else is procured by ex- 
change ; all men are interdependent. The sum of money repre- 
sented by this conversion is and must be vastly greater than the 
sum of real or actual money which is used as the instrument of ex- 



60 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

change, hence the necessity for true raone}*. The greenback falla- 
cy can oulj- deceive those who fail to comprehend the function of 
mone}*. Inconvertible paper money is a fraud, and the burthen of 
proof rests upon its advocates to justify the honesty of their inten- 
tions by the weakness of their intellects. In this process of con- 
version into terms of money by way of purchase and sale, a part 
of the value of the. annual product is sorted on the one side as 
profit, rent, interest, or by whatever name the share of the owner 
of capital may be designated ; and, on the other side, another and 
vastly greater part constitutes the share of those who do the work, 
and is named wages. In the subdivision of this latter share into 
individual parts, the rate of each person's wage is established in 
terms of money. 

It would not be consistent with the general purpose of this 
treatise to attempt at this point to give precise details in respect 
to the value of the annual product of a normal year in money. 
The general conclusion at which I have arrived is, that in the year 
1880, the census year, when the population of the United States 
numbered a little over 50,000,000, the annual product had a value 
of nearly or quite $10, 000, 000, 000 at the points of final consump- 
.tion, including, at market prices, that portion which was consumed 
upon the farm, but which was never sold. Omitting that consumed 
upon the farm, it was about $9,000,000,000. What portion of 
this product constitutes the average share of the capitalist at the 
present time cannot be substantially proved. In a normal year, 
under normal conditions, I am of the profound conviction that not 
exceeding ten per cent, can be set aside as either rent, interest, 
profit, or savings ; and that nine-tenths constitutes the share of the 
laborer, which, by subdivision, becomes expressed in terms of 
personal wages. 

During recent years, the increased efficiency of the railway ser- 
vice, and the consequent elimination of two-thirds of the cost of 
distributing commodities in bulk, has undoubtedly augmented for 
a time the amount falling to the capitalist, but without in any 
measure reducing the amount previously falling to the laborer ; on 
the contrary, greatly promoting the laborer's interest as well as 
that of the capitalist. 

The great fortunes of the railway magnates (aside from one or 
two conspicuous and notorious thieves who have stolen franchises 
and defrauded their stockholders) have consisted of but a small 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 61 

portion of what they have saved to the community. The main 
work of railway capitalists has been to reduce the cost of distribu- 
tion ; their true function ought not to be prejudiced by the fact 
that a judge of one of the courts of a neighboring State was im- 
peached and disqualified from holding any office of trust or honor 
for "corrupt practices" with a notorious railway official. The 
corrupt judge is dead the corrnptor of the judge still lives a base 
and dishonored life, probably continuing to exist physicallj' be- 
cause he is mentally and morally incapable of conceiving the tur- 
pitude of his existence or of feeling the loathing and contempt of 
the community. But even the railways which he has constructed 
will continue to serve some useful purpose after the corruption 
which he has engendered has been buried with him in a nameless 
grave. 

In treating this question of the rate of wages, it must be kept in 
mind constantly that money is but the instrument of exchange, 
that real wages are what the money will bivy, and there cannot be 
more real wages than the whole product, less the share of capital. 
If, then, we can even approximate the value of the product and di- 
vide by the known number of persons employed, we then approxi- 
mate the annual measure or average rate of wages in terms of 
money. 

At the risk of repetition, this point must be further considered. 

VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION OF OUR NATIONAL PRODUCT. 

The population of the United States, in the census year, con- 
sisted of a little over fift}" million persons, or about ten million 
families of five each. Substantially one in every three was en- 
gaged in some kind of gainful occupation. Agriculture was and 
is the leading occupation. Upon small farms, a large portion of 
the produce is consumed by the farmer, his family, and his labor- 
ers. Upon large farms, the greater part of the produce is sold. 
In the families of country mechanics, much productive work is 
done which in cities is procured by purchase. We can onty ap- 
proximate in a general way the value of the domestic consumption. 
If one-tenth of the consumption of the country is of the nature of 
purely domestic production and consumption, which is never con- 
verted into terms of money by purchase and sale, the total sum 
which would represent such domestic consumption would be $20 
to each person, $100 to each family, or $1,000,000,000 total value. 
Of this the census enumerator would find no trace in the figures of 



62 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

commerce. This is a large estimate, undoubtedly, of the domestic 
consumption of articles which might be or might have been pro- 
cured by purchase, but which were in fact produced and consumed 
without purchase or sale. The remainder of the annual product, 
at whatever sum of money it ma}- be finally valued when sold for 
the last time and distributed for final consumption, constitutes the 
value of the product converted into terms of money, from which 
sum all money profits, all money wages, and all money taxes must 
be derived. There can be no other source. Each bargain for a 
sale or a purchase is and must be made in terms of money. The 
manufacturer, the merchant, and the shopkeeper take their toll of 
profit in money, not in kind. The assessor levies a tax payable 
in money. When this tax is levied upon a producer or a distribu- 
tor, it is charged to the cost of the business, and is thus distributed 
among those who buy the goods for consumption. The laborer re- 
ceives his wages in money, seldom in kind, except the farm laborer ; 
he then converts his money into his share of the annual product by 
the consumption of which he sustains life. The total sum of 
money which represents the value of all that is produced, at its 
point of final consumption, is and must be the final measure of 
that part of the annual product which is bought and sold. There- 
fore, all profits, wages, and taxes constitute a portion of this lump 
sum ; in order to ascertain what the rate of profit, the rate of tax. 
ation, or the rate of wages may be, we must ascertain what tins 
lump sum is, and how it is divided. On the other hand, by ascer- 
taining what the total sum of taxes, the sum of all wages, and 
the sum of all profits may be, we can again approximate the total 
value of the annual product. Ko absolute results can be reached 
by either method, but approximate results can be fairly set off, one 
against the other. This is what the writer has endeavored to do. 

The principle which I have attempted to sustain in this treatise 
may be considered without any regard to its application to the 
existing figures of the present date. I have given these figures^ 
however, in the wa} - of illustration. 

The principle might be stated in algebraic symbols. For in. 
stance, given the question, " What is the value of the annual 
product of the year 1884?" it would consist of the following 
elements : First, the wear or consumption of fixed capital pre- 
viously accumulated ; the proportion of the quick capital or product 
of the year 1883, brought over to and consumed in the year 1884, 






WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 63 

in order to begin work. Let these two elements be called a. To 
them would be added the actual product of the year. Let this be 
called 6. From this product a certain proportion would be carried 
over to begin the work of the year 1885. Let this be called c 
The formula could then be stated in the following terms : * 
a -f- b c a?, the annual product which is subject to subdivision 
and to consumption. 

Let profits be called d, sum of all wages e, persons engaged in 
gainful occupation for a given rate of wages /, and the average 
rate of wages i. The complete formula would then be as follows : 

a -\- b c = x 
x d = e ~f=i 

If i be the average of all there is, one wage earner will earn less, 
another more, accoiding to relative capacity and opportunity, and 
by competition each with the other ; but these earnings, differing 
each with the other, will be absolutely within the limit of t, while i 
itself will annually stand for an increasing share of an increasing 
product, if my premises are sustained. 

In a computation of what makes the total accumulated wealth of 
the United States, which was made by the Census Department, one 
half the value of the product of mines, oil wells, and the like, was 
taken as being on hand at a given time, constituting a part of the 
accumulated wealth, together with three-fourths of the annual 
product of agriculture and manufacturing. Working from these 
data, it appears that the, census estimate of the value of the annual 
product of the United States for the census year was from $8,200,- 
000,000, to $8,500,000,000, not including domestic consumption. 
There appears to be no actual computation of the value of the 
annual product in the census, but the figures used in the computa- 
tion of wealth yield these approximate results. The writer had 
reached his own conclusions b}' very different methods from those 
used by the Census Department, and had satisfied himself that if 
there be added to that part of the annual product which is sold, 
and which is, therefore, reduced to terms of price in money in the 
markets of the world, the domestic consumption upon farms and 
in families, the total value of the annual product would not exceed 
$10,000,000,000 in the census year, at the retail prices for final 
consumption. If the census estimate be divided b} r the popu- 
lation of substantially 50,000,000 people, we reach $160 to $170 



64 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

per year as the sum representing the avenge annual product 
for each person, or a fraction less than forty-four to forty- 
seven cents per day for 365 days. That is to say, when the 
products or services of each person were brought into compe- 
tition in the markets of the world, the money value of the entire 
commercial product in the census j'ear was measured by the 
average sum of foity-four to forty-seven cents' worth to each 
person. My own computation gives a little under $200 to each 
person, including the domestic consumption of farmers, or a little 
under fifty-five cents' worth per day. That is to say, the average 
product of each person may be estimated by any one who will go 
into the market, hire shelter, procure food and clothing, and save 
something out of what fifty-five cents a day will pay for each 
member of a family. If no more is produced, no more can be 
had. What there is may be bought and sold ten times over ; it 
only wastes a little each time ; it does not increase. Paper may 
be substituted for true money, and the rate of paper wages may be 
apparently doubled, but then it will take $1.10 in paper to buy 
what fifty-five cents gold now buys. There cannot be any more 
shelter, food, fuel and clothing sold than there is produced, and 
the value in money of all that there is produced is the final measure 
of all profits and wages. The subdivision of all there is produced, 
therefore, makes the rates of bath profits and wages. 

If, again, we call $1,000,000,000 the domestic consumption, and 
value the saleable portion at $9,000,000,000, and then divide by the 
whole number of persons who are engaged in all gainful occupa- 
tions of every name and nature, to wit, 17,392,099, we reach an 
average of $523 as the annual measure of the productive services 
of each person thus engaged in useful work, each one at work sus- 
taining two others. This computation may be proved to be sub- 
stantially correct by a comparison with the actual wages or earn- 
ings of all classes, which were treated separately in the census, 
giving due consideration and applying judgment to the relative 
value of the work done. 

It may, therefore, be assumed that the average value of the 
gross product of each person who was engaged in any lucrative or 
productive employment in the United States in 1880, can be fairly 
established in the census year at a sum closely approximating $523. 
If such is the measure in money of all that was produced, then all 
wages, profits, taxes, and all savings or additions to capital must 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKJN8ON. 65 

have been deiived from such a sum. There can be no other source 
for either, unless the country incurred a foreign debt, which it did 
not in any great measure. It paid more debt in the census year 
than it incurred. 

If such is the gross sum, let us see what the net sum free from 
taxes may have been. In the same census, the gross sum of all 
National, State, county <, and municipal taxation, was computed in 
round figures at over $700,000,000, or nearly eight per cent, of 
the value of the total commercial product. If we apply this rate 
to the average share of the product which fell to each person who 
was occupied in gainful occupation* we reach the following result:: 
Gross product, $523 ; deduct 8 per cent, for taxation, $41.84 ; net 
share of the annual product, free of taxes, valued at $481. Now 
it will be apparent if only one in 2.93 persons is employed in 
gainful or productive occupations, then 2.93 persons must be sub- 
sisted upon what $481 per year, or $1.32 per day will purchase, 
or 45 cents worth to each person ; if it be considered also that 
from this sum must be set aside profits or additions to capital 
which take precedence of wages or earnings, then it will at once 
appear that by far the larger part of each year's product must be 
consumed ; that is to say it must enter into the cost of production; 
In point of fact each year's work barely suffices for each year's 
wants, and but little can be saved or added to capital because it is 
evident at a moment's consideration that not much can be saved 
out of what 45 cents will buy for each person each day. There ia 
no absolute method of determining the exact proportion of the 
annual product which can be set aside as profit or addition to capi- 
tal, nor of ascertaining that part which constitutes the actual 
wages or earnings. All that can be said is this : Jf 10 per cent, 
of the gross product can be set aside in a normal year, for the 
maintenance or increase of capital, that is to say, $48.18, out of 
each person's net share of the whole, then the average rate of 
wages or earnings of all the people of this country engaged in 
gainful occupation, is at the rate of $433.62 per annum, $1.19 
per day or $1.44 per working day. This result, again, fairly 
approximates to the disclosure of the census, if it be compared 
with the specific^ ascertained earnings of persons engaged in> 
special branches of industry. If anything, it is a large estimate 
rather than a small one. 

If the foregoing premises be admitted, it follows of necessity 

5 



66 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

that so far as those who work for wages are concerned, the rela- 
tive or proportionate rate which each one or each class may receive 
cannot be in any very large measure affected by the sum which is 
set aside as profit or increase of capital, but must be mainly affected 
by the competition of laborer with laborer and will be finally deter- 
mined by the relative efficiency of each person within the limit of 
the average proportion which his class receives out of the annual 
product. That is to say, the relative condition of each class of 
laborers must be determined by the variation from a standard or 
average which is determined by the quantity and price of the 
aggregate product of that class, i. e., in that special branch of 
industry. The general rate of wages can therefore onh* be raised 
by an increase of product coupled with a wider market commen- 
surate with such increase, so that the price may be maintained. 
Absolute wages may be increased although the rate in mone}- may 
not, by an increase in product, accompanied by a decrease in the 
price, so the same or a less rate of wages may buy more com- 
modities. The gross product may be increased by two methods 
only ; first, by the intelligent use of the increase of capital ; and 
second, by the more intelligent cooperation of labor with capital. 
Contention or antagonism can only result in diminished rates both 
of profits and of wages. Prices and rates of wages can only be 
maintained by enlarging the market as labor becomes more effec- 
tive and a greater quantity of things is produced by a decreasing 
number of persons. When a greater quantity of any given 
product is made by an improvement in machinery or a new inven- 
tion, and men who have before been employed in that art are no 
longer wanted then a wider market must be found for products 
which remain within their capacity to produce. Hence those 
nations which apply machinery in greatest measure, and thus 
increase the quantity of their product while diminishing the cost 
as well as the number of persons employed, possess the greatest 
power of competition in supplying other nations in which arts are 
mainly handicrafts. For instance, England and the United States 
compete with each other in supplying China with a portion of the 
cotton fabrics needed by the Chinese ; (supplying perhaps ten per 
cent, of the cotton fabrics which are consumed in China) in 
exchange for tea, silk, etc., etc. The cultivation and preparation 
of tea and silk being of necessity handicrafts, this exchange would 
occur even if no climatic condition entered into the case. The 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 67 

exchange of fabrics made by machinery for tea and silk, yields 
each nation what it needs with the least effort, although the 
quantity of labor varies greatly. 

It therefore follows that the power to control commerce with 
the non-machinery using races, who constitute more than three- 
fourths of the population of the globe, rests with that nation 
which applies machinery most effectively to the greatest natural 
resources, and whose product is least diverted from being applied 
to profits and wages by destructive taxation, such as the support 
of a great standing army or costly navy. 

The invention of machinery creates commerce. If we revert 
to the former conditions of life in different sections of the United 
States, may we not find an explanation of the vast increase in 
the domestic commerce of the country, in the greater interdepend- 
ence of each section of the country upon each other section, as 
well as in the greater interdependence of individuals upon each 
other. Exchanges of product for product have widened and 
increased, perhaps in greater measure than the aggregate product 
itself. If we recall the conditions of life of the New England 
farmers and artizans in the early part of the century, a very small 
money income sufficed them, because they lived mainly upon what 
the}' produced themselves, and because many of their exchanges 
were made without the intervention of any money. The}" swopped 
or bartered services in the erection of their dwellings and in har- 
vesting ; they raised, spun, and wove their own wool ; they 
packed their own pork ; they raised their own corn and paid for 
grinding it by a toll in kind ; they cut their own fuel. These 
primitive conditions can even now be observed in the mountain 
sections of the Southern States. But even under such conditions, 
the consumption of food and fuel by each person may not have 
varied greatly in quantity or weight from that of the present time. 
It differed greatly in kind and quality, and also in the method by 
which it was attained ; but the quantity of food in ounces, which 
is the final standard, cannot greatly vary in one period as compared 
to another. We waste a great deal more now than we did in those 
early days, but our actual consumption of food per person cannot 
have increased in any very large measure. In the primitive days, 
under these primitive methods, the labor was so arduous and the 
hours of work were so continuous that onlj' the strongest survived. 
The figures representing commerce were very small, and when 



68 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



were paid at all. they were :it very low rates for K.nir hoars 
i.f merely manual labor. Under the modern method of extreme 
subdivision, and the application of adequate machinery, i. c., 
capital, the labor is less toilsome, the hours of work are shorter. 
the weakest can find something to do, eaeh serves the other, and 
in the process of manifold exchanges, the figures representing 
commerce rise to almost incomprehensible millions ; yet the actual 
quantity consumed, as I have said before, may not have varied in 
any great measure, so far as food and fuel are concerned. So far 
as clothing is concerned, production and consumption have 
increased enormously. 

; The end of all this vast system of exchange is, however, that, 
in one way or another, each person may secure about three ponnds 
of food per day, a few yards of cotton or woolen cloth each year, 
two or three tons of coal or five or six cords Of wood a year, and a 
given number of cubic feet of space sheltered by a roof. They 
needed as much per person of the absolute necessaries of life fifty 
or a hundred years since as the}' do now, but they obtained them 
only by working twice or thrice as hard. They were more inde- 
pendent, less interdependent. There was far less capital, and 
much more arduous and excessive labor. The conditions of life 
were more equal, but it was the equality of sordid, continuous, 
excessive manual labor, aided neither by the factory nor by the 
railroad ; neither by the more modern inventions of the masters of 
science, nor by the administrative and organizing power of the 
great capitalists, without whose potential work all modern progress 
would have been substantially impossible. The fortunes which 
those great directors of industry have made for themselves bear 
but the proportion of a small fraction to the labor which they 
have saved their fellow-men. 

I will repeat again what I have said before : the late Cornelius 
Vanderbilt may be taken as an example of a communist in a true 
sense. He was the greatest communist of his age. He consoli- 
dated and perfected the railroad service in snch a way that a year's 
supply of meat and bread can be moved one thousand miles, fiom 
the western prairies to the eastern workshops, at the measure of 
cost of a single day's wages of a mechanic or artisan in Massachu- 
setts that is to say, if the mechanic or artisan of the East will 
give up one holiday in a year, he removes one thousand miles of 



PAPER BT -EDWAKD/ATKINfiOmMMl/.A 69 

distance between himself and the main source of his supply of 
necessary food. 1 

;i, ;' ' g ~ h ' n~, ' ' ~ n .':'.: .':'.'.'/ :!;: 1 

1 I have cited the late Cornelius Van(Jerbilt as. the great communist of his age fo r 
the reason that he may be said to have first invented the consolidation of a through 
line of railway from the prairies of the West to the markets of the East, with/a con- 
sequent reduction in the cost of bread and meat to the dense population of the 
Atlantic seaboard. By this , consolidation and effective, service, one thousand miles 
of distance has been substantially overcome at such a small cost as tohavej:endere4 
thfi choice of position, at any point within that range, a matter of so little moment 
in respect to the supply of Western food as to be practically out of consideration, 
For instance, the value of the product of five hundred operatives in a coarse cptton, 
factory in Massachusetts is over one million dollars per year a,ll the western flp.ur, 
and meat which these operatives need in a year can be moved from Chicago to Lowell 
at a cost of 000, and sometimes for less. 

,It is sometimes urged that such great fortunes as that of Vanderbilt and a few 
others are against the public interest, and that some method ought to be, devised for 
limiting their accumulation. This ungrounded prejudice has mainly arisen from the 
jealousy rightly caused by the great fortunes which were accumulated by, expert 
gamblers under the malignant system of, the greenback pr legal-tender paper mpney 
before these notes had been made redeemable in gold coin. 

It is very true that the most of the fortunes which were made out of the fluctua- 
tions of the currency were speedily lost, but the foundation^ of a portion of the most 
conspicuous existing fortunes were laid under these bad couditipus,. 

It is hoped, and maybe believed, that the advocates of paper., money will never 
again be enabled to impose such a malignant instrument of fraud upon the com- 
munity. 

Other fortunes which rightly excite jealousy, and which might, perhaps, have 
been prevented by legal measures, are those which have been made by fraud and by 
the abuse of trust in corporations on the part of a very few conspicuous or notorious 
railway promoters and speculators. They need not be named because, fortunately 
for the welfare of the community, the number of persons who have successfully 
stolen the property of those who trusted them is very limited; hardly more than one 
name will come to the mind of any person as the chief exponent of this nefarious 
class at the present time. 

But in regard to such persons it may. be said that they .are in the nature of mon r 
strosities; they are the spawn of a corrupt period; in cue way or another, the njan 
who corrupts a court will be abated in some way as a public nuisance if death does 
fortunately remove him, or ruin overtake him. 

. The great fortunes of those who have fairly earned them by their capacity to 
direct and use great masses of capital in the most efficient way, cannot be a subject 
of jealousy, suspicion, pr distrust. As well might larg steam engines .be a cause pf 
distrust and a clamor be raised for the substitution of a number of little ones. 

I have endeavored tp show hqw both the rate of wages and the purchasing power 
of the wages depend wholly upon the abundance, ready distribution, and .quick sale 
of the joint product of capital and labor. 

It is now constantly affirmed by certain enthusiasts and sentimentalists, who are 
sustained by cranks and demagogues, that, inasmuch as all production rests ulti- 
mately upon labor, therefore laborers are entitled to the first consideration and the 
remuneration of capital ought equitably to be subjected tp the prior claims of labor. 

This extreme position is the exact reverse of the conception of the relations of 
labor and capital which prevailed during the first half of the present century, when 
the science of political economy first became a matter of real study. At that time 
capital received the first consideration and labor was deemed subordinate, or sub- 
ject, we might say, to capital. One extreme position is as utterly false as the other; 
both are mischievous ; but, if injustice is done in either direction.it is the laborer 
who suffers most and the capitalist who suffers least. Perhaps the greatest measure 



70 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

I hiving attempted to estimate the main factors which determine 
the general or average rate of wages at a given time, we may now 
consider the subdivision or the forces which affect the subdivision 
of the true wages fund. Why is the average rate of wages in a 
given occupation two dollars a day in one place, and one dollar a 



of suffering to laborers who are nominally free will be caused when capital and 
capitalists are subjected to unjust restrictions and injudicious discrimination. 

The main purpose of this treatise has been to bring into most conspicuous view the 
great fact that capital is & force which may be applied to the increase of production 
aud which promotes abundance in the greatest measure; but that it is not a sub- 
stance to be divided, on the division of which the wages of the laborers depend. 

Now, every great force requires the most intelligent and careful diiection; the 
greater the force, the greater the measure of intelligence and care required. For 
instance, since the introduction of the steam-engine, or the application of gunpowder 
to the purposes of mining, no force has been applied with such general benefit to 
humanity as the railroad, whereby the products of the richest sections of the world's 
surface are distributed over the widest area. 

So long as the railway service between the East and West constituted detached 
sections, several of which existed between Albany and Buffalo, as well as elsewhere 
between New York and Chicago each section being worked under a different 
administration more or less effective fhe general service was ineffective and costly. 

It required a man of positive genius in the use of capital and of the greatest 
administrative power to bring into effect the consolidation of this single line. 

It matters not what the motive of the late Cornelius "Vanderbilt may have been. 
It matters not what may have been the motives of those who consolidated that most 
wonderful organization of all, the Pennsylvania system of railways. It matters not 
what may have been the motives of those who have laid out the several great sys- 
tems which are scattered over the country since Vanberbilt set the example and led 
the way. The general result of all this work has been a reduction of the railway 
charge for moving merchandise throughout the United States to the lowest possible 
point consistent with leaving any incentive of profit sufficient to induce the great 
masters of the subject to continue their work. 

This work is not that of the laborer in the sense in which that word is used by so- 
called labor reformers. It is not labor in the common acceptation of the term, yet it 
is an effort of the human mind of such a quality that except capital had thus come 
under the control of these men all the efforts of labortrs would have utterly failed to 
promote the general welfare. The farmers of the West would have "smothered in 
their own grease," and would have continued to burn their Indian corn for fuel, 
while the workman of the East might have starved or would have been compelled to 
labor long and arduously on the sterile soil of New England, in order to obtain a 
mere subsistence. 

The true function of capital and the capitalists is of the utmost beneficence. It 
cannot be exerted in the present condition of the world except by the ownership of 
land and of capital, subject to the limitations and to the duties which are implied by 
existing laws. That the relations of labor and capital may be measurably changed 
and perhaps improved by changes in legislation, especially in respect to taxation, may 
not be denied ; but the fundamental principles of individual ownership, subject only 
to the right of eminent domain and to the payment of taxes, are essential to that 
abundant production and ready distribution which makes for the general welfare. 

As human nature is now constituted the individual control of capital is essential to 
its adequate use. Corporations are of the nature of artificial persons, and even they 
never succeed unless there is some one man capable of becoming the head or chief 
officer, sustained by as many able assistants as the case requires. 

Even the successful co-operative shops in Great Britain exert the closest competi- 
tion in purchasing their goods and pay very high salaries to those who do this part 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 71 

day in another, within the same country at the same time? Or, 
why has the rate of wages in the same place been one dollar a day 
at one period, and two dollars a da}* at another, at different times ? 
Third, wh}- is it that one true dollar will buy more in one place 
than two true dollars will buy in another? Why do absolute wages 
vary, as they do and have varied, in such proportions as are indi- 
cated by the rates in mone}'? And why do the rates of wages 
vary even when the prices of commodities are the same ? In reply 
to such questions as these we are often answered with the orthodox 
expression: " Supply and demand determine such points." But 
this is no conclusive answer until we know under what law the 
supply has been assured, and under what law the demand exists. 
These terms, supply and demand, are commonly used as if each 
were absolutely certain to induce the other ; but such is far from 
being the truth, except it may be after a long interval of time. 
Capital may become so effective, by the improvement of the ma- 
chinery in which it consists, that a few laborers may be able to 
supply an article of the utmost necessity in such rapid and ex- 
cessive measure as to keep the quantity beyond the purchasing ca- 
pacity of those who need it ; the need may exist, but the demand 
that is to say, the purchasing capacity is limited not only by 
outside conditions, but by personal mental capacity and manual 
ability of consunr IT. We may assume, for instance, a community 
consisting of cot . n growers, who raise and pick cotton as a handi- 
craft, and of cotton spinners and weavers who have, also, spun and 
woven the cotton fibre as a handicraft upon spinning wheels and 
hand-looms. These two classes now exist side by side in the 
mountain sections of the South. Up to a given date these two 
sets of persons ma}* have exchanged services with each other in the 
ratio of one spinner and one weaver to four growers of cotton ; or, 
in order that we may be able to eliminate those who are displaced 
by an improvement in machinery, we will assume greater numbers ; 
sa}* in the ratio of one hundred spinners and weavers to four hun- 
dred growers. But suddenly capital, in the form of a cotton fac- 

of their work else they would surely fail. Every co-operative factory is under the 
personal control of a well-paid superintendent. 

" The tools to him who can use them." Capital is a tool which cannot be used ex- 
cept to the mutual benefit of capitalist and laborer. Service for service is its neces- 
sary law the only open question is the ratio which each service bears to the other, 
and, if my observations are sustained, the law of competition is that the ratio of 
profits diminishes while the rate of wages steadily increases. 



72 AMERICAN 6OCUL SCI^'CE ASSOCIATION 7 . 

torv. takes the place of hand spinning and hand weaving ; the ca- 
pacity of a single person operating the machinery of a modern 
factory being sixty to one hundred fold the capacity of a hand 
worker, and the outside market for the cotton fabric being only 
among the cotton growers, one hand in the factory exchanges with 
them, taking their cotton and furnishing them with cloth, and 
ninety-nine hand spinners and weavers are displaced. They may 
know uo other art. They demand cotton fabrics to cover their 
nakedness, but they can no longer exchange cloth for cotton. The 
cotton growers may be able to increase their product in some 
measure, but the)* cannot or will not exchange with the hand spin- 
ners and weavers when tbey can exchange on better terms with 
the factory. The cotton grower and the factory operative may 
each have more than they had before, and may each prosper ; but 
until the ninety-nine hand spinners and weavers who have been 
displaced can qualify themselves to do some other service for the 
cotton growers, or until the cotton growers have developed a want 
for something else than hand spinning and weaving, there may be 
no equality in the distribution of the greater supply of cotton fibre/ 
and of cotton fabric ; there may be want in the midst of plenty. 
The bard and fast rules of supply and demand must therefore be 
varied according to the capacity of the persons on whose wants 
supply and demand are predicated. We heard a great deal about 
over-production during the long depression between 1873 and 
LS7U, and we are hearing the same cry of over-production at the 
present time of depression in 1884. "Why is this? Over-production 
simply means an excess of food, fuel, and means of shelter ; in 
other words, it means supply of capital. It cannot be said that 
the people of this country all have so much food, fuel, and shelter 
that there is no demand for any more. On the contrary, want ex- 
ists ; the need is urgent, but the demand does not become poten- 
tial because something is wanting to bring supply and demand to 
the terms of an exchange. It takes two to make an exchange. 
One may have what the other wants, but if the other cannot serve 
the one, both suffer one from over-production, the other from 
under-consumption. 

We may perhaps find a clue to this apparent paradox by a con- 
sideration of one single branch of industry to wit, the construc- 
tion of railways. A railroad is, to all intents and purposes, a 
product of handicraft. The work done in the construction of a 



PAPER BY EPWARD ATKINSON. 73 

railroad mainly consists in positive, direct human labor, in levelr 
ling the way, filling up the valleys, piercing the hills, working in 
mines and in blast furnaces. Every mile of railroad added to our 
existing measure stands fov the work of about fifty-six men, mostly 
common laborers, working one j-ear. In 1882 we constructed over 
11,500 miles of new railroads. In 1884 we shall construct less 
than 5,000 miles. More than 400,000 common laborers have been 
discharged from work by this change in this one branch of con- 
structive enterprise. They want food, fuel, means of shelter, and 
clothing now as much as they did in 1882 ; the.y represent need 
or potential demand. Over-production, on the other hand, repre- 
sents supply ; but until other work within the capacit3" of common 
laborers is found, the wants or demand of these men will not be 
met, and the over-production or excess of supply will not be con- 
sumed. The final end of such a condition is, of course, that pau- 
perism ensues unless an adjustment of labor can be made, and the 
over-production or excess wiil then be distributed by the noxious 
method of alms-giving or State aid. The only true remed}" is to 
develop the individual capacity of each common laborer, and to 
render him capable of performing more than one kind of service. 
To use a Yankee expression, we must evolve " gumption," which 
is a purely personal quality, in order that there may be neither over- 
production nor under-consumptiou. 

Let us now return to the direct question : What makes the 
rate of wages ? I will challenge your attention, by submitting 
certain paradoxical propositions which I will presently prove by 
examples. Although subject to exceptions and to temporary in- 
terruptions, they take the form of rules of substantial and uniform 
application if time be given them to work. In any given countiy, 
like the United States, where the people are substantially homoge- 
neous, where the means of inter-communication are ample, where 
there are no hereditaiy or class distinctions, and where there is no 
artificial obstruction to prevent commerce, high rates of wages in 
money will be the natural and therefore necessary result of low cost 
of production in labor. That is to say, the two forces of capital 
and labor being combined in the production of any given commodi- 
ty, the greatest qunntit}' of that commodity will be produced where 
the conditions are most favorable and where the least number of 
persons is therefore required to do the work. 

To that point, the best workmen and the most adequate capital 



74 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

will surely tend. This product, whatever it may be, will then fall 
into the general market of the country, to be converted into terms 
of money by sale, and will there meet other commodities of like 
kind which have been produced elsewhere under less favorable 
conditions or by less skilful persons, with the application of less 
adequate capital, i. e., poor machinery. That portion which has 
been produced under the best conditions will, therefore, be the 
representative of the work of the smallest number of persons ; and 
that which is produced under the hast favorable conditions, of 
relatively the largest number of persons. Equal quantities from 
each source being sold, the sum of money recovered from the sale 
will be the same, and it will, of course, yield on the one hand to 
those most favorably situated, large profits and high wages to the 
small number employed ; and on the other hand small profits and 
low wages to the larger number less favorably placed. These rel- 
ative conditions may continue for very many years, as it is not 
easy to change the place either of "capital or of large forces of 
laborers. All will not go to the most favorable place, because 
there are many other things than mere money which control the 
disposition of population. For instance, I have given some figures 
relating to the production of wheat on the great plains of the far 
northwest. The wheat there produced is greater in quantity in 
ratio to the capital and to the number of laborers employed, than 
in any other part of this country, and wages are very high in the 
harvest season ; but it does not follow that every person who has 
been engaged in raising wheat in Central New York will leave his 
farm, whether he be owner of the farm capital, or laborer. There 
are many conditions of life in Central New York which will keep 
men there in preference to migrating to Dakota, even though both 
profits and wages be less. Hence it follows, that although the 
total production of an)- given thing may not be concentrated at the 
very best point, it will yet be found to be true that where the con- 
ditions are the best, the cost measured in terms of da} T s of labor 
will be lowest, and the wages measured in terms of money per day 
will be the highest ; the high money wages being the necessary 
consequence of the low labor cost. Conversely, low rates of money 
wages are the natural and necessary result of a high labor cost of 
production. This rule mainly affects such products as are made 
by handwork, or which of necessity remain handicrafts, i. e., work 
in which the hand is assisted only by very simple tools of which 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 75 

each operation is guided by the hand. In such cases both the 
materials worked upon and also the product may bear a very high 
price ; but the work upon them, not being aided by effective 
machinery, the quantity of labor will be very large, and the result 
of the sale ma}" therefore leave but a very small sum to be divided 
among very man}' laborers after the cost of materials has been set 
aside. All mere handicrafts are quickly overcrowded, except such 
as call for artistic or original power of design. For instance, after 
the pattern is drawn it takes merely manual dexterity to make 
Brussels lace. The material which is used in this branch of indus- 
try is fine and costly cotton thread, which is converted into lace by 
hand without the aid of any machinery whatever, but merely by 
the use of two or three simple tools ; the lace-makers of Brussels 
are among the poorest of the poorer classes of European opera- 
tives. They work at the very lowest rates of wages, which will 
barely keep them in existence, but their product is of very high 
cost in mone}'. The very best Lj'ons silks and German velvets 
are other examples. They are made upon hand-looms of the most 
primitive kind. Beet-root sugar is another example. Beets require 
constant hand work in weeding. We cannot afford the time or 
labor for such work so long as we can exchange wheat rised by 
machinery for money and with the money bivy our sugar. In all 
handicrafts the quantity of labor is ver}" great, but even at the 
high prices which such products bring, the total sum of money 
recovered from the sale, leaves but a very low rate of wages to be 
divided among those who have performed the work. It thus 
becomes very apparent that the rate of wages must be determined 
by what the product will bring in the market, from which must be 
deducted materials and profits. The total annual product may be 
converted into a lump sum of mone}', which will represent the com- 
bined result of the sale of each particular part of the annual pro- 
duct, each part of which has been separately converted into a defi- 
nite sum of money by sale. From the gross sale of the whole the 
general rates of wages and profits are and must be derived ; and 
from the sale of each particular part the rate of wages and Ihe 
rate of profit on that part, i. e., in that branch of industry, must 
be measured and defined. 

So lovig as we consider the total product of the United States as 
a unit or single subject of division, the conception of that division 
may be limited to the two objective points of profits and wages. 



76 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Reverting to the algebraic formula, :i simple statement serves; 
a; being the value of the annual product, the formula is: x a 
(profits) ='& (the sum of the wages of all persons employed), 
15m whon we take up any special art tin- proposition becomes a 
very complex one, and it is extremely difficult to separate the 
various elements of a given cost, except by tin- measure iu money 
in which such elements of coat are usually expressed. Each part 
of the work must be considered separately, in order to prove that 
the rate of wages of each body of workmen who arc engaged in 
each part of the work constitutes a remainder over, and is a result 
or consequence, rather than an element or measure of cost. 

THE PROBLEM IN COTTON MANUFACTURE. 

We may perhaps solve this problem by an example, and for this 
purpose a cotton fabric may best be taken, because it is an exam- 
ple of production to which the highest art in the application of 
machinery is necessary in one department, as well as the lowest- 
priced manual labor, but little aided by machinery in another. 

The elements of a cotton fabric are : 

1st. Cotton, including the profit of the cotton farmer, the wages 
of the |ptton laborer, and the wear and tear of the capital or tools 
Used in the production of the fibre. 

2d. Other materials, which need not be considered separately, 
as the same principles which govern the supply of cotton also gov- 
ern these. 

3d. The transportation or movement of the cotton to the fac- 
tory. 

4th. The wear and tear or depreciation of the factory, resulting 
both from use and from the invention of better machinery. 

oth. The wages or earnings of those who do the work. 

6th. If taxes are levied upon machinery, the capitalist will also 
assure himself that he can charge the taxes as a part of the money 
cost of the goods before he builds the mill, and thus distribute 
them upon consumers, but they do not of necessity enter into this 
consideration. 

With respect to cotton, no attention need be given to any 
assumed value of land in the southern United States, considered 
merely as land. The area of cotton cultivation has never yet 
equalled three acres in one hundred of the area of the cotton 
States, and if the same measure of intelligence were applied to 
cultivation in all the States which was given to cotton production 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 77 

by the late Parish Furman, of Georgia, the whole commercial 
cotton crop of the world, including that of the United States, 
India, Egypt, and South America, could be produced on one 
fifteenth part of the area of the single State of Texas. 

The price of cotton, therefore, yields profits to the farmer arid 
wages to the laborer ; as time goes on, the two are becoming more 
and more identified. The price Of the cotton is determined by 
competition in the great markets of the world in Liverpool, 
Havre, and New York. When the cost of transportation has been 
set aside and the profit of the cotton farmer has been realized the 
remainder over, although it is but a small sum per pound, yet 
suffices to pay the laborers upon the cotton farms of the United 
States the highest rate of wages earned by the cotton cultivators 
of the world a far higher rate than can be attained by the ryots 
of India, the fellahs of Egypt, or the peons of South America. 
The purchasing power of the wages of the negro of the southern 
cotton field is also very high when measured by his wants ; he 
prefers bacon and corn "hog and hominy" with a little molasses, 
to any other food ; his week's ration consists of three and a 
half pounds of bacon and one peck of meal, and this can be 
furnished him at fifty to seventy cents per week, according to the 
season and to the abundance of the western crops, or at seven to 
ten cents per day. The food of the rice-fed races of India costs 
less nominally, but if consideration be given to the force concen- 
trated in and represented by the food, there is probably no other 
laboring force in the world which can be subsisted at so low a cost, 
either measured in labor or in money, as the freed negroea of the 
South. 

The price of raw cotton being thus determined, the place at 
which it may be converted into cotton cloth must next be deter- 
mined. Into this question many conditions enter: 

1st. The use of water or steam power. 

2d. Climatic conditions. 

3d. The density of the population and the capacity of the 
separate members of the population to do the work. 

4th. The proximity of the factory to the market in which the 
principal demand exists. 

5th. The consuming power of the community in the midst of 
which the factory is placed, and their ability to buy the products 



78 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

for which the cotton fabrics made in excess of their own wants 
are exchanged. 

Omitting all consideration of fine cotton fabrics, which perhaps 
depend upon the relative or constant humidity of the atmosphere in 
the choice of the place where they are to be made, but which are of 
little relative consequence in the supply of clothing, and limiting 
our attention to pure cotton fabrics of heavy or medium weight, 
which constitute the most important portion of the supply of such 
fabrics, it appears that the lowest cost of production has been 
attained in some of the principal factories of New England. The 
fabrics of these factories meet those of other countries in China, 
India, Africa, and South America, and are there sold in compe- 
tition. The price received has thus far sufficed to defra3" the cost 
of the materials, the transportation of the cotton from the 
southern field to the northern factory, the heavy local taxes, and 
a reasonable rate of profit to the owners ; and the remainder over 
has sufficed to give the operatives the highest rate of wages earned 
in this art in any part of the world. Whether this superiority 
can be maintained by New England in competition with the Pied- 
mont section of the Southern States is now considered an open 
question by some observers. In this paper it will suffice to call 
attention to two facts by which the propositions herein submitted 
are fully sustained. 

MR. ATKINSON'S MAIN PROPOSITIONS. 

1st. That in this art the rate of profit in a given product has 
steadily diminished, and the rate of wages (or of the remainder 
over) has as steadily increased. 

2d. That in the most important division of this art, to wit : 
the manufacture of coarse and medium fabrics from cotton 
unadulterated with clay, the highest rate of wages (or remainder 
over) is realized where the cost of production is lowest, i. e., in 
New England. 

In treating this subject it matters not whether this result has 
been reached b}- means of a protective tariff, or in spite of one. 
It is admitted that special rales of wages in a particular art may 
be raised by the exclusion of a foreign product of like kind, so 
long as the price of the domestic product is maintained above 
what it would otherwise be ; but this is exceptional. I have 
selected examples of products of which the price is determined 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 79 

both by domestic but also by foreign competition, in order that 
the main question may not be confused by any prejudice for or 
against any special policy. Reference will be made hereafter to 
the conditions under which the policy of protection may or may 
not be expedient.* 

* In this connection the writer may venture to express an opinion as to the place in, 
or section of, the United States where the cotton manufacture will be gradually con- 
centrated. 

It has been submitted that the most ample capital and the most skilful labor will 
tend to the most favorable place, because at that place the remainder over of which 
wages consist will be the greatest proportion recoverable from the sale of the product. 

Steam having substantially displaced water as the motive power of the factory, 
the climatic or atmospheric conditions in which the cotton fibre can be most success- 
fully spun and woven have become perhaps the most important elements in deter- 
mining the place of conversion. In England there is a steady and constant trend of 
the spinning mills to the points where the deposition of moisture is most uniform, 
and where the humidity of the atmosphere is most constant. There is scarcely a spin- 
dle left in Manchester, and there are eleven million spindles in Oldham, a town which 
has grown from insignificance to this importance in a very few years. It is about 
800 feet above the level of the sea, on the edge of the level moors, at a point where 
the deposition of moisture is constant. In this country it may perhaps happen 
that cotton spinning will be concentrated more and more along the coast of the 
southeastern part of Massachusetts, in Rhode Island, and along the coast of Con- 
necticut, where the influence of the Gulf Stream is most apparent, ard where cotton 
and fuel can be laid down at the least proportionate cost of transportation. It will 
be observed that in the annual expenses of families living upon au income of 500 to 
$800 per year, the cost of mere subsistence is sixty per cent, of the whole expenditure. 
In the section designated, the staple articles of western food grain and meat can 
be delivered at a cost of $5 per ton for over 1,000 miles of distance, anil one tou suffices 
for a years' ration of grain and meat for four or five persons. On the other hand, 
this section has a positive advantage over almost any other in respect to groceries 
and in the supply and preservation of vegetables, while its distance from the cotton 
field is fully offset by its greater proximity to the principal markets for goods. The 
colder climate of winter gives a necessary stimulus to industry, and is more readily 
modified than the excess of heat in the southern summer. Hence it may happen 
that at this point, or in this section, the highest wages will always be the remainder 
over from the manufacture and sale of staple cotton fabrics. 

In this section the population will also be likely to remain more dense, and also 
more capable of great diversity of employment and subdivision ol labor. These 
are very important considerations, since the margin of profit is becoming less ard 
less. It may almost be said that in all the gieat arts the profit is found in the 
utilization of the waste or of the secondary product of the factory, and in the facil- 
ity with which the machinery can be kept up without the necessity of maintaining 
a large force of spare hands under constant pay. Hence the isolated cotton mill, 
which is far away Irom the paper mill on the one side and the machine shop on the 
other, is at a relative disadvantage which tells against it in the close competition 
under which a quarter of a cent on the yard of cloth is equal to four or six per cent, 
on the capital invested. This tei.tleucy of particular arts to become fixed in particu- 
lar places calls for more attention than has yet been given to it, in order that the 
reasons may be fully comprehended and their influence on wages considered. 

It would be a matter of curious interest to study the forces or influences which 
made gloves the chief product of Gloveisville in New York, and gave the town its 
name; why card clothing is made chiefly in Leicester and Worcester, Mass.; why 
men's heavy boots are made in Spencer and Brookfield, and women's boots and 
shoes in Lynn ; why brass work of certain kinds is conducted so largely and exclu- 



80 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Wage* are held to be a consequence, a result, a remainder 
over al'ti-r capital has received such pro lit as will have induced it to 
undertake the work; the rate of usages cannot ^ therefore, be .con- 
sidered u true measure of the cost of production. Wages are a 
consequent result, and their measure or rate is, and must be, 
determined, iu the long run, by what the product will bring, and 
not by what the capitalist may either promise or be willing to pay 
for a given time. He may not be able to forecast the future in 
such a manner as to be able to carry out a single promise which he 
has made in advance of the sale of his product. The sum, but not 
the rate, of the wages in any given quantity of products, may 
serve as a means of comparison of the money cost, when persons 
who are engaged in the same branch of business desire to compart; 
their conditions ; but the rates of wages constitute no measure of 
comparison, unless the conditions under which the work is done, 
that is to say, unless the quality and kind of machinery, the 
materials used, the advantage of position, the hours of labor, and 
other elements of the real cost, are absolutely identical. 

I have said that in a country which is inhabited by a homo- 
geneous people, the rate of wages will be highest where the con- 
ditions of production are most favorable, because the quantity or 
intensity of the labor will there be least and the product will there 
be greatest. In like manner, when exchanges are made between 
two different countries, each country will exchange with the other 
some portion of its own product, which it can make under the 
most favorable conditions, or in excess of its own needs. The 
two products being each converted into terms of money will be 
exchanged as equivalents, without any regard to the proportion or 
quantity of labor which each represents. We may exchange one 
day's labor in a Lowell factory in the manufacture of drills, for 
one hundred days of labor in China in the preparation of tea. It 



ftively in * few towns in Connecticut ; etc., etc. There are, of course, very obvious 
reasons why primary work of many kinds should be found in special places, but the 
reasons for the concentration of secondary work are not so plain, and a study of 
the causes might yield most valuable results, especially iu their effect upou. the 
remainder over which makes the rate of wages in these arts. 

The time has been when fine cotton yarn has been spun in England, sent to France 
to be woven, to Germany to be dyed, and brought back to England to be sold. The 
best flour of Minneapolis is even now in some small measure sent to London to be 
baked into biscuit, and is brought back to Boston and New York to find a market. 
If profits and wages were not recovered from these movements in greater measure 
they would not occur. What are the subtle causes of such commerce/ 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 81 

matters not what the rate of wages of the Lowell operative had 
been, or what the earnings of the Chinamen handling tea had been ; 
their product is converted into terms of money, and is exchanged 
at certain prices which represent a given number of yards of drills 
for a given number of pounds of tea. Each is an equivalent to the 
other. No one asks what the rate of wages or the quantity of 
labor in each has been. The wages are the result, not the 
antecedent. 

When the exchange is continued, it proves that each party makes 
a profit by the transaction. The Lowell operative could not have 
produced the tea, the Chinaman could not have produced the 
American drill ; when the exchange is made, the tea sells in 
America for more than the equivalent of the drill there, and the 
drill sells in China for more than the market price of the tea there ; 
therefore, there is a certain sum of money, or result of labor 
expressed in terms of money, to be divided among the laborers in 
each country, in excess of what there would have been had not the 
exchanges been made. The final result of the labor of the Lowell 
operative is the number of dollars which the tea brings, less the 
cost of transportation ; that sum is more than the drills would have 
brought at home, else they would not have gone to China. 

Try this on a little larger scale. We now import into the United 
States, annually, materials which are free of dut}- to the value of 
$200,000,000, and we exchange for them, at this measure in terms 
of money, the surplus of our cotton which we could not now spin 
ourselves, the surplus of our oil which we could not now burn 
ourselves, and the surplus of our wheat which we could not now 
eat, even if every man had every day all the bread he could possi- 
bly consume. What we send out is our surplus, our excess, apart 
of our over-production, which could not be converted into terms of 
money at any price, or which would have reduced the price of the 
whole product if it were retained ; if retained at home it would 
yield nothing to divide in terms of money as the equivalent of such 
excess among those who did the work. But the substances for 
which we have exchanged this excess having been brought into the 
country where they do possess a value of $200,000,000, or more, 
there is that additional sum to be converted into terms of money 
and subdivided in profits and wages. In the use of this foreign 
material, much of which enters directly into the work of domestic 
manufactures, all wages are therefore, by so much higher than they 
6 



82 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

would have been otherwise. There is so much more to be divided 
in terms of money, because so much has been added to the quan- 
tity of tilings which could be used; while the cotton, oil, and 
wheat sent out from the countoy could not have been used. Now, 
it matters not what may have been the rate of wages paid in 
the production of the cotton, wheat, or oil ; and it matters not 
what may have been the rate of wages paid in raising the wool of 
Australia, in making the tea of China, or in saving the hides of 
South America. We ma}- receive the work of ten men for one day 
at twenty cents a day, for the work of a single man working one 
day for two dollars. 63* so much as the quantity of labor in our 
exportable commodities is less than the labor in those which we 
import, will the rate of wages be higher to our home labor as the 
necessary result of the exchange, because so much additional sub- 
stance has been added b}' import from abroad to the quantity of 
things for which a home market could be found. This import 
has been received in exchange for home productions, for which 
there is no market, because they are in excess of home wants. 
There can be no continuous commerce unless there is a continuous 
service or profit to both parties. 

It follows that the nation which has diminished the quantit} 1 of 
human labor in greatest measure by the application of machinery, 
produces goods at the lowest cost, and by exchange with the hand- 
working nations, who still constitute the majority of the people of 
the world, are, by way of such exchange, enabled to pay the 
highest rate of wages in money, because their goods are made at 
the lowest labor cost. This is the secret of English commerce. 

The rate of wages is higher in England than in any country 
with which she makes large exchanges, except the United States. 
She buys largely from us in spite of our higher wages, because by 
way of high wages, we make grain, cotton, meat, oil, and many 
other articles necessary to her use, at a lower cost in money than 
any other nation. 

Having thus attempted to present the principle at issue in this 
matter, let us now consider its application. The only problems of 
any great importance, which are now presented to the people of 
this country for their determination, consist of the various prob- 
lems in regard to the collection of the revenue, to the banking 
system, to the quality and kind of coin which shall be a legal 
tender in the settlement of debts, and other fiscal questions. The 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 83 

tariff, the currency, the banking system, and the coinage, are the 
onl}- political questions of any moment. Fortunate for us that it 
is so, and that we are free from the complications of other coun- 
tries. Strange it is, and true it is, that the most difficult political 
question to be dealt with by the people of the United States is, 
how to get rid of a surplus revenue. 

Neither one of these problems can even be stated without imme- 
diate reference being made to their bearing upon the rates of 
wages of the people of this country. 

Aside also from questions of revenue, banking, and coinage, the 
relations of men to ea.ch other cause discussion, the hours of 
labor, the respective duties and rights of employers and employed, 
competition and cooperation, and all the other subjects which are 
customarih' summarized under the general term of " the labor 
question." Not one nor all of these questions can ever be discussed 
without an immediate consideration of the rate of wages. In every 
speech, in every essay, and in eveiy conversation by the way, upon 
any of these subjects, the rate of wages comes at once to the front, 
and, as a rule, one or the other of the following propositions is 
almost invariably assumed, all of which are the very reverse of 
being true, and all of which are inconsistent with the law of wages' 
which I have attempted to propound. All such discussion serves 
but to confuse the mind, simply because no distinction is made 
between the rate of wages and the sum of wages, and because it is 
assumed that all laborers or operatives are equally efficient. 

I again desire to express the hope that the form of these prop- 
ositions may not prejudice any one, be an advocate of protection 
or of free trade. The so-called principle of laisser falre is by no 
means implied in this treatise. The welfare of laborer and capi- 
talist rests upon many other conditions than the rate of profits or 
wages, but the forces which determine these rates must be fully 
considered before an}- intelligent discussion of any social question 
can be undertaken. It is to these forces that I have endeavored 
to limit this treatise. 

THE FOUR FALLACIES. 

Popular Fallacy No. 1. The cost of production of any given 
article can be ascertained by finding out and comparing the rates 
of wages paid in its production in different places, here or else- 
where. 

Popular Fallacy No. 2. Low rates of wages are necessary 



84 \MI:I:K AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

to low cost of production ; liiuh /"/<N of wages can only be paid 
consistently with high cost of production. 

Popular Fallacy No. 3. Inasmuch as laborers work for 
wages, wages enter directly into the cost of production, therefore 
cheap labor can only be assured by the payment of low rates of 
wages. 

Popular Fallacy No. 4. An employer must of necessity be able 
to hire laborers at low rates of wages in order to make goods at 
low cost. 

Now if one asks any employer which workman is the first one 
to be discharged in a period of depression, the workman who, 
being employed by the piece, earns the lowest rate of wages for 
himself, or the one who earns the highest, unless some other 
question than the mere cost of goods enters into his consideration 
he will reply : "Why, the poor workman wiil be discharged first, 
of course, he who earns the lowest rate of wages." Each 
employer understands perfectly well in his own business that the 
cheapest man, that is, the man who does the most work for the 
least money, is the one who works the greatest amount of 
machinery with least stops, i. e., the most effective workman ; in 
manual labor it is the strongest ; in a handicraft it is the one who 
possesses the greatest manual dexterity ; in the operation of 
machinery it is the one who understands the machine best and can 
get the most work out of it. The very man who may have taken 
part in a discussion in which he has assumed that, the popular fal- 
lacies which I have recited are unanswerable truisms, will never 
conduct his own business consistently with them, and if he did he 
would be sure to fail sooner or later. 

The true cost of any given article is the quantity of labor or the 
human effort expended in its production ; now, if we consider a 
human being as an automatic machine, similar to any other 
mechanical power or force, the true cost is the quantity of food 
and fuel expended in the conversion of a given amount of material 
substance into human force. How true this is has been proved by 
Brasse} 7 in his comparison of the cost, even in money, of the 
labor of the English navvy as compared to the Hindoo or any 
other of the rice-fed people of the world. This human effort is 
measured or converted into terms of monej*, and it is the sum of 
the wages, not the rate, which constitutes the money cost ; to this 
sum the rate of wages may bear a large or a small proportion. 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 85 

Wages in money are the instrumentalities for procuring food, 
fuel, and shelter; and the worker is practically the more effective, 
the more money he can earn, or, in other words, the more money 
he can spend in a judicious manner for a good subsistence. The 
English navvj r may be instanced again as being worth twice as 
much, either in the measure of his work, or by converting the 
measure of his work into wages, as the rice-fed coolie. He earns 
more, he spends more, he eats more, and he does more than double 
the work. Therefore, although he attains a high rate of wages, the 
result of his labor will be a lower cost of production. Again, the 
skilful weaver who can tend six looms, and keep each loom 
moving, being paid by the piece or according to the quantity of 
cloth woven, earns higher wages than the unskilful weaver who 
only tends four looms, and has one stopped a large part of the 
time ;. the sum of the wages of the six-loom weaver is the least in 
proportion to the quantity of cloth produced. The high wages 
represent the low cost. 

Not very long since, a German steamer on the way to New 
York, was very much damaged, so that very extensive repairs 
became necessary. It was decided to do the work of repairing in 
New York, as it appeared difficult to send her back to Bremen ; 
but the agents were instructed to report in Bremen, day by day, 
the number of men employed and the rates of wages ; which 
report they made. When the first report was received in Bremen, 
a telegraphic message was returned, ordering the steamer back to 
Bremen for the completion of the repairs, for the reason that the 
owners of the line said that the} 1 could not afford to pay such high 
rates of wages, being well assured that the cost of repairs would 
be more than what the)' would of necessity expend in Bremem. 
But it was too late ; the work had begun and it was necessary to 
finish it in New York. When the final account of the sum of 
wages was sent to Bremen, it proved to be a less amount than the 
same repairs would have cost in Bremen. Since then there has 
been no reluctance to repair these German steamers in New York. 

Again, the rate of wages may be precisely the same in two fac- 
tories in the same place, and yet the cost of production will vary 
so much that one mill will prosper while the other will fail, be- 
cause the quantity of product will vary, and the profit or loss of 
any textile factory rests mainly upon the quantity of yarn spun 
and of the goods woven. There may be many reasons for this 



86 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

difference : in one mill the machinery may be old, in the other 
new ; in one the material may be well selected, in the other badly ; 
in one the goods may be well sold, in the other badly sold ; in one 
the goods may meet the fashion, in the other they may be out of 
date, although better in quality. Under all these varying condi- 
tions, the source of wages being the money produced by the sales, 
high wages ma}" have been paid consistently with low cost of pro- 
duction in one factory ; and low wages ma}" have been paid, not- 
withstanding the high cost of production, in the other ; or, if the 
cost of production be the same, the goods of one mill being well 
sold and those of the other ill sold, the sum left to be divided might 
amply suffice for hih profits and wages in the one case, and be 
deficient in the other. Thus, difference in management will alter 
results, in the same place, at the same time, in the use of similar 
machinery. The same management will yield different results, 
both in profits and wages, on different machinery. The same man- 
agement and similar machinery will yield high wages in one place, 
and the reverse in another, at the same time, because the condi- 
tions vary in other respects. 

I have submitted these several propositions under the name of 
popular fallacies. It will be apparent that a very large part of 
the discussion in respect to hours of labor, in respect to taxation, 
and to all other matters connected with the so-called labor ques- 
tion, are commonly based upon them, and the common conclusions 
are as fallacious as the propositions. 

A true theory of the source of wages and their actual relation to 
productive industry is therefore necessary to any intelligent dis- 
cussion of any of the questions now before the country. 

THE QUESTION OF WAGES IN GENERAL. 

The wage question must be treated from four points of view. 

First. What individual effort is required to earn a given sum 
of money in a given time ? 

Second. What is the purchasing power of that money? 

Third. What are the relative efforts, as well as relative sums of 
money earned in the form of wages, by those who compete in a 
given product in the same or in different countries ? 

Fourth. What is to be considered in addition to the cost of 
materials and the rate of wages, in placing the goods produced at 
the point of consumption ? 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 87 

The fallacies which have been previously submitted may be met 
by counter propositions, all of which can be substantially sus- 
tained ; exceptions being readily designated, and the reason for 
such exceptions being readily found. 

First. The rate of wages constitutes no standard even of the 
money cost of production ; which cost must be made up by adding 
together the sum of all wages and dividing by the product, in order 
Jo establish a unit of cost in money by way of a unit of measure 
whether by the yard, barrel, or pound. 

Second. Low rates of wages are not essential to a low cost of 
production, but on the contrary usually indicate a high cost of 
production, that is to say, a large measure of human labor and a 
large sum of wages at low rates. Conversely, high rates of wages 
ma}-, and commonly do, indicate a low cost of production, that is 
to sa}', a small proportion of human labor and a small proportion- 
ate sum of wages at high rates in a given quantity of product. 

Third. Cheap labor, in a true sense, and a low rate of wages 
are not synonomous terms, but are usually quite the reverse. 

Fourth. An employer is not under the necessity of securing 
labor at low rates of wages in order to make cheap goods, but he 
may and commonly does pay high rates of wages, for the very 
purpose of assuring the production of goods at the lowest cost, 
that is, in order to be able to sell them on the lowest terms, or 
" cheap " in the popular sense. 

The abuse of the word cheap leads to more mischievous fallacies 
than any other abuse of language. The cheapest labor is the best- 
paid labor ; it is the best-paid labor applied to machinery that as- 
sures the largest product in ratio to the capital invested. 

If these propositions can be sustained, it may be submitted that 
the more the capitalist increases his wealth and applies it to repro- 
duction, the more the welfare of the laborer is assured. The cam- 
petition of capital with capital tends constantly to a decrease in 
the ratio of the profit of capital to the total production, and of 
necessity tends also to a constant increase in the rate of wages of 
the laborer ; thereby more than counteracting the tendenc}- of the 
competition of laborer with laborer to diminish wages. 

I will now attempt to prove these apparently paradoxical propo- 
sitions by one of many examples by means of which this theory 
can be sustained. It will be taken from the records of the cotton 
manufacture, not only because this branch of industry is most fa- 



88 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

milinr to my-elf. l>ut because it was almost the first of those which 
were brought under the factory system by division of labor, and 
under this system factory accounts have been kept in the snme 
way from the very beginning. 

THE MASSACHUSETTS COTTON MANUFACTURE FOR FIFTY YEAH-. 

In 1830, when the first statistics in my possession are dated, the 
average earnings of all the operatives in a large cotton-mill, who 
then worked thirteen hours or more a day. and among whom were 
comprised a much larger proportion of men than at the present 
time, while the women were older and there were fewer children, 
were $2.50 to $2.62 per week. The quantity of machinery which 
each hand could tend was much less ; the production of each spin- 
dle and loom was less ; the cost in money of the mills per spindle 
or loom much greater, while the price of cloth was at times more 
than double the price at which it can now be sold with a reasona- 
ble profit. The average earnings of all the female operatives in 
what purports to be the same factory, at the present time, on the 
same fabric, working ten or eleven hours a day, under vastly bet- 
ter sanitan* conditions, both in the factory and in their dwelling- 
houses, are $5 per week, and in some cases even $6 or more to 
the most skilful. That is to sa}-, women only now earn about 
twice as much in ten hours as men and women combined averaged 
in thirteen hours a little over fort}- years ago. Between these two 
dates, subject to various fluctuations from temporary causes, the 
course of events in this branch of industry has been as follows : A 
continuous reduction in the hours of labor, coupled with an in- 
crease in the earnings per hour ; a diminution in the money value 
of the machinery, that is, in the ratio of capital to production, 
coupled witli an increase in its productive efficiency ; a constant 
increase in the supply of cotton fabrics per capita, coupled with a 
in the price ; a continuous increase in the purchasing 
gold dollars in respect to almost all articles of necessary 
subsistence, a few articles only having advanced in price, mainly 
meat and timber. 

In all these points the cotton manufacture is not exceptional, 
but the same facts can be proved in respect to all other branches 
of industry where the accounts have been kept upon a uniform 
system. 

After making all necessary corrections in the data respecting 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 89 

cotton fabrics, on account of the variations in the price of raw 
cotton, it therefore appears that the apparently paradoxical prop- 
ositions which I have submitted the reverse of those which are 
commonly accepted are fully sustained. 

First. The rate of wages paid has not been a true measure of 
the cost of production. 

Second. The lowest rate of wages have been paid when the cost 
in money was the highest, and the highest rates of wages are now 
paid when the cost of money is lowest. 

Third. Low wages and cheap labor have not been synonymous 
terms. That labor has, in fact, proved to be cheapest by which 
the largest product for each dollar expended was assured, and that 
has been the highest paid labor. 

Fourth. The employer has not been under the necessit}' of pay- 
ing low wages in order to make low-priced goods, the goods now 
made at the rate of $5 to $6 per week being sold at less than one- 
half the price, in many instances, of those which were formerly 
made at the rate of $2.50 to $2.62 per week. Not only is the cap- 
ital in the cotton-mill now less than one-half what it was in 1830, 
even when measured in terms of money, in ratio to the value of 
the product, but the average rate of profit which capital now rests 
satisfied with is less than one-half on each dollar invested what it 
was in 1830. Hence the competition of capital with capital has 
increased the quantity of cotton cloth at a decreased rate of profit. 
On the other hand, the competition of labor with labor has not 
prevented the continuous rise in the rate of wages, and these wages 
have more than doubled in the purchasing power of each dollar, by 
comparison with the cotton cloth in the making of which they have 
been earned. In respect to some kinds of cotton cloth, such as 
printed calicoes, the actual weekly wage of to-day will buy four or 
five times as much as the weekly wage of forty years ago. In 
this branch of industry, at least, all interests have thus been har- 
monious. The increase of wealth in the cotton manufacture has 
been accompanied by a yet greater increase in the welfare of the 
cotton operative, while both have been accompanied by a vastly 
greater supply of cotton fabrics, and by their increased consump- 
tion at lower and lower prices. 

These data have been compiled from the accounts of certain fac- 
tories which have never become bankrupt whose stock has never 
been reduced in its par value, and which have paid a fair average 



90 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

dividend to thc>ir stockholders, from time to time, since they were 
established to the present day. I have taken as examples coarse 
fabrics, the common wear of the million. Daring this period, from 
1830 to 1884, this branch of industry, like all others, has been 
subjected to over thirty changes in the tariff; to the suspension of 
specie payments in 1837 and 1857. brought about by purely com- 
mercial crises; to the suspension of specie payments at the begiu- 
iiing of the war, brought, about by the imposition of the Legal- 
Tender Act ; to a variation in the price of cotton from five cents a 
pound to 81.83 per pound; to the weary depression from 1873 to 
1879 ; to several minor commercial crises. They have also been 
subjected to numerous acts of interference on the part of the State 
Legislature in the conduct of their affairs. If constant vascilla- 
tion and change in acts of legislation, in respect to the tariff, cur- 
rency, banking, bankruptc}", taxation, hours of labor, and other 
acts which are now deemed of present permanent interest to legis- 
lators, could have killed these establishments, they would have 
long since been very dead. ~blay not this prove that we depend 
much less upon governments and upon statutes than we think we 
do? We are almost forced to accept the dogma of Buckle, that 
the greatest service of modern legislators is to repeal the obstruct- 
ive statutes of their predecessors. 

The same progress and improvement in the condition of the 
operative has occured in England during the same period ; only 
the change has been greater there than it has been here, because 
the English operatives started from a much lower plane and have 
now nearly attained an equality with the condition of our own 
in many departments. 

We may now recur to the question, What makes the rate of 
wages? In other words, Why are the average wages expressed 
in terms of money in the same factory nine to ten cents an hour 
today, against three and a half to four cents an hour fort}- or fifty 
years ago, while the rate of interest or profit on capital, when 
invested in the safest possible securities, is now only three to four 
per cent, against six, eight, or even ten per cent, then? 

NEW ENGLAND AND NORTH CAROLINA. 

In order to bring out the point of this argument with yet 
greater clearness, having already compared one period of time with 
another in the same factory, we may now compare one mode of 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 91 

work in this art with another in the same country in two different 
places, to wit : Let us compare the homespun fabric of Western 
North Carolina with the factor}* cottons of New England. It is 
computed by men who have had much experience, and whose 
observations are entitled to credence, that there are two or three 
million persons living in the heart of the United States, in the 
mountain section of the South, who are still clad in homespun 
fabrics of cotton and of wool. I have myself been among them, 
and have examined the conditions of the art of making cotton 
goods as it there exists. Two carders working with hand cards, 
two spinsters operating spinning-wheels, one weaver working a 
hand-loom five adult persons in all convert four to five pounds 
of cotton into eight yards of cloth in ten hours ; the cloth heavy, 
rough, and unsightly, veiy durable, and worth in the neighbor- 
hood, when sold, about twenty cents a yard. If the value of the 
cotton be deducted, the five persons might possibly earn twenty 
cents a day, the total value of this product being $1.60. The 
capital invested in the hand machine can hardly be computed, 
because the only thing purchased would have been the two hand- 
card ; but if the hand labor expended in the construction of the 
spinning-wheels and hand looms were computed in money, the 
whole investment might come to $100. The proportion of capital 
used, in its ratio to the annual product would therefore be very 
small, and the ratio of labor, even at twenty cents a day, be very 
large. In New England, $5,000 worth of capital, operated by five 
persons, male and female, averaging each one dollar per day in 
wages, will suffice for the conversion of three to five hundred 
pounds of cotton into eight hundred yards of the same kind of 
coarse cotton cloth ; the cloth softer, more sightly, and not 
quite as durable ; when sold as low as even seven or eight cents a 
yard, yielding money enough to pa}- for the cotton and other 
materials, profit enough to pay ten per cent, on the capital, and 
yet leaving as a result for the wages of the operatives one dollar 
a day as their share of the product. Between these two extremes 
every phase of the progress of a century in the art of cotton- 
spinning and weaving can even now be observed, in a journey of 
a week, from Boston to North Carolina and back. The small 
mill, like that of 1830, fitted with old> heavy, slow-moving 
machinery, still exists, in which twice or thrice as many Southern 
operatives, working thirteen hours a day, at two-thirds the rate 



92 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of earnings made in Lowell, get off a less product of cloth at a 
far higher cost. As we journey back toward the North, the mill 
becomrs larger and more effective, until we arrive at the great 
factories in New England, where the highest wages are paid and 
the lowest cost of production is assured. The same or even 
greater extremes may be found by comparing India and China 
with England; while the cotton-mills of England, when compared 
with the factories of Germany and Italy, although the machinery 
may have been made by the same makers, yet show the same rule 
a larger number of persons, less effective work, lower rates of 
wages, and higher cost, as we go away from England to Germany, 
to Austria and Italy. 

THE TRUE THEORY OF WAGES AND PROFITS. 

It would, therefore, appear that wages are a remainder over from 
the sale of the product, and are determined by the sum of money 
which that product will bring in the markets of the world. From 
this sum of money must be assigned : 

First. A portion or sum sufficient to restore the depreciation 
of the capital used, in other words, to keep the machinery in 
effective condition. 

Second. A sum equal to the average rate of profit on capital 
invested in the veiy safest securities, and, in addition to that rate, 
as much more as is necessar}- to compensate the owner for the 
greater risk of one branch of work as compared with another. 

Third. The cost of the materials. 

Fourth. The sum needed to secure the very best administra- 
tion. 

Fifth. The proportion of the national, State, and municipal 
taxes which are collected from the consumers of the goods through 
the instrumentality of the person, firm, or corporation owning the 
property ; which taxes enter into the money-cost of the product, 
and must be recovered from the sales. 

Lastly. The remainder over constitutes the wages or earnings 
of the laborer, whatever that remainder may be. 

Profits, taxes, and wages are therefore alike derived from the 
sale of the joint product of capital and labor. 

Unless one branch of industry yields the average of all branches, 
due regard being given to the greater or less risk of each as com- 
pared with the other, it will not be undertaken ; or, if undertaken, 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 93 

it will not long continue to be pursued. Wages, therefore, are 
apparently deferred to profits ; but, on the other hand, wages con- 
stitute all that there is left, and under the inexorable law of compe- 
tition of capital with capital, the profits of capital are constantly 
tending to a minimum, while the rate and purchasing power of 
wages are both constantly tending to a maximum. Capital is 
always ready to take the risk and to become the guaranty or in- 
surance fund for the recovery from sales of goods of higher and 
higher wages for any kind of skilled labor which is capable of in- 
creasing the product of any given quantity of machinery. From 
the sale of this increased product, in the first instance, capital 
gains. More of the same machine^ is then added, and, as it 
becomes greater in quantity and more effective in use, the rate of 
profits diminishes, although the aggregate may increase ; in other 
words, capital secures a less and less proportion of the constantly 
increasing result, while labor receives all that there is left over. 
That is, the remainder over is constantly becoming a larger and 
larger proportion of an increasing product. There are, of course, 
temporary fluctuations ; but both observation and experience com- 
bined with statistics, confirm this rule, both in this country and in 
England. In other words, the rule laid down by Bastiat is sus- 
tained by experience ; the rggregate profit of capital is augmented, 
but the relative profit is diminished, while the wage of labor is in- 
creased both absolutely and relatively. 

I had been engaged in this examination and compilation before 
I even knew tbat Mr. Robert Giffen was engaged in the same 
work. His results and my own, covering a period of fifty years, 
are identical. 

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Having thus attempted to answer the general question, What 
makes the general rate of wages? now let us give a few moments 
to the particular question, What makes the rate of wages higher 
in this than in any other countiy ? In order to give an intelligent 
reply to this question, we must treat the annual product of the 
United States as a whole, and consider only the general rate of 
wages in this country. In some particular branches of manufac- 
ture, or in some hereditary or national arts, other nations may still 
apply machinery more effectively than we do ; and in some special 
branches of agriculture, such as wine, olives, sugar, and the like, 



94 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

other countries may either possess better conditions, or for the time 
being, greater skill. On the whole, however, the people of the 
United States are in the possession of more ample and varied 
natural resources, and of the most effective capital in the form of 
machinery ; they are also endowed with greater facility in the 
adaptation of machinery both to agriculture and to manufacturing ; 
they possess more effective mechanical instrumentalities of dis- 
tiibution by rail and river; they enjoy a continental S3'stcm of un- 
restricted commerce between the States ; The}* have a fairly 
complete system of common education ; but lastly, they are sub- 
jected to the least diversion of any part of their annual product to 
purposes' of destructive taxation, that is, to the support either of 
standing armies or of privileged classes. I do not recite our 
advantages in a boastful way, but in order merely to bring out the 
salient point, that while other nations prepare for war, we prepare 
for work. 

Our oul}' great war has been fought in the interest of labor, in 
order that labor might be free. It gave such an incentive to in- 
vention in the North that all our principal crops increased during 
this period even though a million men were taken away from their 
work. It opened the way for the Southern States to such con- 
ditions that the South itself is today richer and more prosperous 
than in the palmiest days of slavery. Our national debt, in 1866, 
was 883 per head of population. It is now butf 825 per head, and 
will soon be wholly paid. 

When two simple principles shall have become a part of the 
common knowledge of the people of the United States, the end of 
all standing armies in the civilized nations of the world will have 
come. 

These two principles are : 

First. All nations are interdependent, and in all commerce both 
parties gain in welfare. 

Second. In all arts which are not mere handicrafts, high wages 
in money are the necessary result of low cost of labor of produc- 
tion. 

In the grand competition for the commerce of the world, which 
now turns on a cent a bushel, a quarter of a cent a yard, or a frac- 
tion of a penn3* on a pound of iron or steel, no nation which bears 
the burden of standing armies like those of Germany, France, 
Italy, Austria, and Russia, can hope to enter into successful com- 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 95 

petition with England or the United States, when the whole 
English-speaking people take advantage of their position and serve 
the nations of the world with goods at low cost, in which all who 
have joined in the work have made higher wages than can be 
earned in any of the countries named. The commerce of the army- 
burthened nations, with others, will be destroyed by its own 
restrictions. Na'tions can only be ruined by their own burdens ; 
then what may come? Their own resources will not suffice to 
sustain their armies, but with the burden of their armies upon them, 
they cannot engage in competition with England or America ; thf ir 
product will be small and insufficient ; their wages Very low in their 
rate, barely capable of buying enough to sustain life, if even for 
that, while their cost of production, as a whole, must be very 
high. 

It is difficult to foresee the course of events. These armies are 
as impossible to be disarmed as they are incapable of being sus- 
tained, without revolution and destructive war. What will be the 
end, no man can tell ! 

In contrast with these adverse and costly conditions, the English- 
speaking people may well rejoice in the relative freedom of Great 
Britain and the absolute freedom of the United States. With 
respect to my own country, I may venture to say, that in addition 
to the advantages I have recited, our taxes are, on the whole, 
constructively expended. The necessary result ensuing from our 
conditions is a larger annual product in ratio to the number of 
persons employed in making it, measured either by quantity, or, 
when brought into competition with the world, by price or the sum 
of money which is received for it, than can be elsewhere attained. 
It is also, as a rule, of better quality, because of the more intelli- 
gent methods applied to its production. If we consider produc- 
tion as a whole, our annual product comes into competition for 
sale, with other products of the world of like kind, and its price, 
as a whole, is determined, directly, or indirectly, by this world- 
wide competition. From this determination of its price, its value 
is converted into terms of money. Quantity and quality alike tend 
to increase the sum of money recovered from the sale, and this 
sum of money is the sum which is to be divided between capital 
and labor. Large, general profits and Ligh general rates of wages, 
are the necessary result. 

It is therefore proved to have been absolutely true in this 



06 AMKKK'AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

count rv. that, in proportion to the increase of capital, the absolute 
share of the value of the annual product falling to capital lias 
been augmented, but its relative share has been diminished ; while, 
on the other hand, the share that has fallen to labor has been in- 
creased, both absolutely and relatively. The generally high rate 
of wages, expressed in terms of money, in the I'nitcd States, is 
the necessary consequence or result of the generally low labor cost 
of production, that is, of the smaller quantity of labor by which 
the production is assured ; which less quantity of labor suffices 
because of the application of the most effective machinery, i. e., of 
capital, to the work, 

Let me give two or three salient examples proving this rule. 
Man does not live by bread alone ; but bread is the staff of life. 
What people gain their bread with so little exertion of human labor 
as the people of this country ? If we convert the work done in the 
direction of machinery upon the great bonanza farms of far Dakota, 
into the yearly work of a given number of men, we find that the 
equivalent in a fair season, on the best farms, of one man's work 
for three hundred working days in one year is 5,500 bushels of 
wheat. Setting aside an ample quantit}' for seed, this wheat can 
be moved to Minneapolis, where it is converted into 1,000 barrels 
of flour, and the flour is moved to the city of New York. By 
similar processes of conversion of the work of milling and barrel- 
ling into the labor of one man for a 3'ear, we find that the work of 
milling and putting into barrels 1,000 barrels of flour is* the equiva- 
lent of a man's work for one year. By a computation based upon 
the trains moving on the New York Central Railroad, and the 
number of men engaged in the work, we h'nd that 120 tons, the 
mean between 4,500 bushels of wheat and 1,000 barrels of flour, 
can be moved 1,700 to 2,000 miles under the direction of one man 
working eighteen months, equal to one and a half men working one 
year. When this wheat reaches New York city, and cornes into 
possession of a great baker, who has established the manufacture 
of bread on a large scale, and who sells the best of bread to the 
working people of New York at the lowest possible price, we find 
that 1,000 barrels of flour can be converted into bread and sold 
over the counter by the work of three persons for one year. Let 
us add to the six and a half men already named, the work of 
another man six months, or half a man one year, to keep the 
machinery in repair, and our modern miracle is that seven men 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 97 

suffice to give 1,000 persons all the bread they customarily con- 
sume in a year. If to these we add three for the work of pro- 
viding fuel and other materials to the railroad and to the baker, 
our final result is that ten men working one year serve bread to 
one thousand. 

Again, iron lies at the foundation of all the arts. At an average 
of 200 pounds per head in the United States, the largest consump- 
tion of iron of an\- nation, we yet find that the equivalent of one 
man's work for one year, divided between the coal mine, the iron 
mine, and the iron furnace, suffices for the supply of 500 persons. 
One operator in the cotton factory makes cloth for 250, in the 
woolen factory for 300 ; one modern cobbler (who is any thing 
but a cobbler), working in a boot and shoe factory, furnishes 1,000 
men, or more than 1,000 women, with all the boots and shoes they 
require in a year. So it goes on ; and the more effective the cap- 
ital, the higher the wages, the lower the cost, the more ample the 
supply. 

NATURAL LAWS AND INTERFERENCE THEREWITH. 

But in the consideration of this or any other theory of wages, it 
must always be remembered that these natural laws which govern 
the actions of men in the conduct of the processes of industry, 
work very slowl}', and are subject to variable causes or interrup- 
tions which may suspend, retard, or even reverse their normal 
action for a considerable period. For instance, the process of 
making iron, beginning with the mining of the coal and of the ore 
and ending with the conversion of the materials in the furnace, 
calls for the use of a veiy large capital, and for the highest scien- 
tific attainments in the heads of departments, and in the adminis- 
tration of the work. It also requires special skill on the part of a 
small portion of the workmen, but the larger part of the work is 
not of the kind that calls for any great measure of intelligence, 
and is, in fact, mainly hand-work. It might therefore happen that 
the country which first engaged in this branch of industry on a 
large scale would obtain a paramount control of all markets, and 
might be able, for a long period, to prevent the building up of 
competitive works elsewhere. In fact, so long as the only fuel 
with which iron was smelted was charcoal, the colonies of America 
were able to supply themselves, and even to export large quantities 
of iron to Great Britain. But when a method was invented for 
7 



!>S AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the application of coal to the smelting of iron, the supremacy of 
Great Britain in this art was assured for a long period. A <1 
population gathered round her mines, skilful enough for this work, 
but otherwise unintelligent, uninstructed, and irremovable, or 
practically incapable of meeting the conditions necessary for 
beginning this work in other countries. Under such conditions as 
these, the British employers of labor in making iron were in a 
position which enabled them to keep wages down, and to keep 
prices and profits up for a long period, as in fact they did. Under 
such relative conditions the competition with all other countries, 
especially a country like the United States where population was 
very sparse and capital was very limited, was of necessity long 
delaA'ed, even though our deposits of iron and coal are so placed as 
to be more easily worked. And even though a ton of iron made in 
the United States now represents a much less quantity or less num- 
ber of days' labor than a ton of iron produced in Great Britain, it 
was not always so. It therefore became a mere question of expe- 
dience" whether or not to interpose a temporary protective duty in 
order to overcome certain artificial conditions. It was held that a 
country should render itself substantially independent of all other 
countries in the making of iron, because iron is one of the essen- 
tial articles of war. These arguments were entitled to all the 
consideration which they may deserve. No opinion need here 
be expressed upon them. 

The same retardation in the working of natural laws also 
occurred in respect to the inventions of Arkwright and others in 
cotton-spinning. England succeeded for a long time in retaining 
control of these inventions, which were of prime importance, by 
making it a penal offence to carry drawings or models to any other 
country. By this joint control of the processes of making iron 
and the application of machinery to the cotton manufacture, Eng- 
land obtained the supreme control for a time of this latter art, and 
fairly succeeded in preventing these modes of work from being 
carried to this or any other country for very man)- } - ears. The 
cotton manufacture was not established in this country until 
Samuel Slater succeeded in building machinery from memory, hav- 
ing been unable to bring plans from England. Of course such 
an undertaking was at a great disadvantage. In this -case, 
again, the main question as to the development .of textile estab- 
lishments by means of a protective duty became one of expediency 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 99 

only. The expediency of these protective duties was sustained 
upon the ground that although the people were for the time sub- 
jected to the necessity of paying higher prices for their iron and 
for their textile fabrics then they would otherwise have paid, an 
ultimate reduction of cost and of price to a much lower plane was 
thereb}- assured, and has doubtless been accomplished. 

These two examples are cited in order to show that this theory 
of wages does not of necessity carry with it the laisser fiire idea 
of legislation. It is not denied that special branches of industry 
may be promoted by legislation of this sort. It is not denied that 
wages in that special branch raay be temporarily raised, because 
by means of the obstruction to foreign import which the duty 
interposes, the price of the domestic fabric is for a time maintained 
at a higher point than it would otherwise be ; and since the sum 
from which wages and profits are alike derived is the value of the 
joint product, it follows that, in these particular arts, so long as 
the protective duty serves to keep up the price, there may be more 
money to be divided in rates of wages to the operatives who do 
this special work. 

But, it will be observed that such additional profit or additional 
wage is at the cost of the consumer in the same country, and that 
there can be no material effect upon the general rate of wages 
because the number of persons now engaged in any branch of 
industry which could be subjected to foreign competition is very 
small in ratio to the whole number of persons engaged in gainful 
occupation. Such duties may be expedient or not. That is not 
the question at issue in this treatise. I cite these cases in order 
that the true theory of wages may not be prejudiced in the mind 
of any one by any apparent antagonism to the protective theory, 
which may be justified on entirely independent grounds. 

In my judgment the source of wages and the law by whiah 
the}' are determined fail to be comprehended, both by the advo- 
cates of protection and free trade, and this failure leads to much 
useless and bitter contention. If the honest advocate of protec- 
tion were once convinced that, when an industry had become fairly 
established, the rate of wages determines itself according to the 
general average of wages in other work of analogous kind, and 
that the wages thereafter tend to the share of the laborer becoming 
greater and greater, he would be less averse to considering the 
date when the protective duty could either be reduced or removed. 



100 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

No one but the most coufimed doctrinaire can deny that the argu- 
ment in respect to wages and to th-ir maintenance \\hich is 
presented on behalf of a protective tariff, is conscientiously pre- 
sented in the interest of labor on behalf of those who adhere 
to it. 

On the other hand, if the equally sincere advocate of free trade 
could once be convinced that the continued imposition of the duty 
does not of necessity involve the continued taxation of the many 
for the beneQt of a few ; if he could admit that it might even be 
expedient, under certain circumstances, for the State to grant a 
special privilege to some special branch of work for a certain 
period of time, much foolish talk, bitter contention, and absurd 
misrepresentation would be avoided. 

The tariff question, the protection of women and children in fac- 
tories from overwork or from injur}*, and other like subjects of 
legislation, are questions of expediency, varying with the time and 
circumstances of each country. They are not like slavery or in- 
convertible paper money, moral questions, upon which no com- 
promise can be tolerated ; but, on the contrary, they are subjects 
for reasonable consideration and for reasonable compromise among 
honest and fair minded men. When the whole direction of domes- 
tic industry has been in some measure altered by the continued 
imposition of high duties upon foreign imports which were the ne- 
cessity of war, nothing could be more injudicious than to adopt 
revolutionary changes. It ma}' have been bad policy to impose 
the high duties, but it does not follow that it would be good policy 
to remove them all at once, or that he is a spoliator who asks time 
to adjust his capital and the labor which he employs to other con- 
ditions. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

I have recited the various changes which have affected a single 
textile art. Periods of prosperity and adversity affect all commer- 
cial and manufacturing countries alike. They are more intense in 
one country than another ; sometimes more intense in a country 
which, like Great Britain, depends upon the widest foreign com- 
merce, sometimes in a country which, like the United States, de- 
pends mainly upon domestic commerce. Statutes in regard to the 
collection of revenue, the hours of labor, and the like, may make 
these fluctuations a little more, perhaps a little less intense, but in 
the long run they have and can have no permanent effect. Com- 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 101 

petition adjusts itself to all conditions, and, in the long run, wages 
or earnings will be the highest in that country in which capital and 
labor cooperate to the fullest extent, thereby assuring the largest 
production at the lowest labor cost. 

The progress of the United States has been uniformly onward, 
despite all the vacillations and changes in her financial policy. 
Our greatest dangers and most serious disasters have arisen from 
bad money rather than from bad methods of taxation. The danger 
now before us, growing out of the continued coinage of a silver 
dollar of light weight, is perhaps the most serious one. Next to 
that comes the danger growing out of the enormous excess of our 
national revenue ; but even this enormous excess of revenue will 
itself force upon us a change in our method of taxation. In that 
again comes a danger, because, next to the evil which may 
be inflicted upon a countiy by the imposition of heavy taxes, is 
the evil which may come from an injudicious method in removing 
them after the industry of the country has adjusted itself to them. 

I have endeavored to separate the fundamental principle of 
wages from all such side issues, and to prove, with as much scien- 
tific accuracy as may be possible, that the interests of the employer 
and the employed are absolutely identical, and that progress and 
poverty are not of necessitj* evolved together under the existing 
customs of the English-speaking people. I have referred to the 
admirable address of Mr. Robert Giffen, proving a similar progress 
to that of this country in Great Britain, and from similar data. I 
had not read that treatise until after the substance of this essay 
had been compiled. 

Let me refer final!}-, and but a moment, to one great cause of 
disturbance in the relations of men to each other. The inventor, 
the man of science, is the great disturber of existing conditions. 
He renders worthless great masses of capital which had been . 
valuable ; he takes away the hereditary occupation of vast num- 
bers of laborers who may be capable of doing no other kind of 
work. In the process of adjustment to these new conditions many 
hardships arise, but the end is progress, both in wealth and in the 
alleviation of poverty. The only accumulation which has any per- 
manent value consists in that experience and versatility, in that 
habit and capacity of applying brain and hand alike to any kind 
of work which is waiting to be done, whereby men are enabled to 
prosper under any and all conditions. The only capital of any im- 



.AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

portnnce, which can be transmitted from one generation to another 
is this power of applying bruin and hand together to useful work, 
whatever may be the changing conditions under which the work of 
each generation must be done. 

Poverty may for a time ensue, as the consequence of invention 
and the consequent displacement of labor; but it will be observed 
that this poverty does not ensue either from the :tec.mmilation of 
capital or from the private ownership of land, so much as it does 
from the destruction of capital and in taking away the value from 
land. 

The jenny and the mule destroyed the spinning-wheel ; the 
power-loom destroyed the hand-loom; the railroad is destroying 
the canal ; the railroad is reducing the value of land in one place 
and increasing it in another. The discovery of coal oil would have 
destroyed the candle market, were it not that a demand for the 
altars of the Catholics continued to sustain a few candle works. 
The gas engine is destroying the small stationary steam-engine in 
England, and will soon do so here. Sir Henry Bessemer has taken 
from the English land-owner all power to collect any rent from laud 
devoted to wheat. With each of these changes the few suffer for 
a time, but the many gain in welfare. With each of these changes 
the proportion of capital necessary to a given production is de- 
creased ; great fortunes are lost, unless the owners of such fortunes 
can adapt their machinery to all the changing conditions ; but 
while some fortunes are thus destroyed, others are gained. At 
the present time, or we may say for the last three years, half the 
iron works in the United States have been out of blast, and many 
will never come into blast again ; but during the same three j'ears 
the production and consumption of iron has been greater than in 
any other three years since the continent was settled. True pros- 
perity may be gauged by the consumption of iron in all the arts of 
life, about as surely as b}* any statistical method. The loss of 
fortune to a few producers of iron is of no consequence except to 
themselves, if more iron be provided for consumption. Most of 
these changes come gradually ; some of them come suddenly. 
What are called hard times, induce the greatest progress. The 
great crops in this country increased every year during the war, 
such was the incentive to invention, which became almost com- 
pulsory in consequence of the withdrawal of a million men from 
productive industry. 



WHAT MAKES THE KATE OF WAGES. 103 

I have compared the cotton-mill of 1830 with that of 1883, in 
the same mill-yard ; but there is little left of the factoiy, either 
mill or machinery, of 1830 ; and if there were it would be almost 
useless. The saving in the cost of moving merchandise over 
existing railroads, comparing one year with the next preceding, 
that is, over the railroads existing in each year, has far more than 
equalled the cost of building all the new railroads constructed in 
the subsequent year for fifteen years, from 1865 to 1880. In 
other words, the reduction in the charge on existing railroads each 
year, computed on the quantity of merchandise moved in that 
year, has amounted to a sum equal to the sum expended in the 
extension of railroads in the next year, for each and eveiy year 
since 1865 to 1880. 

We have been treating only a question of material welfare : 
What makes the rate of wages? One answer at least we may 
surely give. When head and hand are rightly trained together so 
that a man can do the work which is always waiting to be done, 
whatever the rate of wages may be, it will suffice for the purchase 
of good subsistence. He who combines the greatest skill of head 
and hand in useful work will make that exact progress in the accu- 
mulation of wealth which will be the just measure of the services 
which he renders to his fellow-men. In the last analysis the rate 
of wages rests wholly on character and capacity, and under such 
conditions the advancement of science is but another name for 
progress in human welfare. 

I am well aware that there is nothing original in the statement 
of the fact that the application of machinery to production has a 
tendency to increase the wages of the workman, and at the same 
time increase the purchasing power of the money in which wages 
are paid. This is a truism, but how seldom is it comprehended ! 
Apparently never, in the ordinary discussions. Neither employer 
or employe can regulate the rate of wages which is to be paid in 
m:ne}*, by any bargain or agreement covering a long period. If 
one employer agrees to pay a higher rate than his competitors, it 
will only be a question of time when his business will become 
unprofitable and he must become bankrupt, unless he uses more 
effective machinery, and thus assures a larger product from a less 
number of laborers. If any considerable number of employers 
secure the work of laborers at a less rate of wages than others in 
the same kind of occupation, unless there is some compensating 



104 . AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

advantage to the workman in their special establishments, the more 
fact that the laborer is willing to work at such less rate proves 
him to be incapable or inefficient, and therefore his work will be 
of high cost. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

I him- attempted to demonstrate that in all productive employ- 
ment the rate of wages which can be paid in money must drpi-nd 
on the sum of money which is received from the sale of the 
product. Inasmuch as those who work for wages in strictly pro- 
ductive occupations constitute by far the largest portion of v, 
receivers, the rates of wages for personal services, which are only 
indirectly productive, are gauged by the same standard. All 
profits and wages must come out of the gross product. Further- 
more, all profits, wages, earnings, or other income, must be 
substantially derived from each year's product, because the year 
corresponds to the series of seasons in which one crop is made. A 
part of the product of each year is carried over to start the work of 
the next year upon ; but a part of the product of the present year 
was brought over from the previous 3'ear to start the work of this 
upon. Therefore the measure of what there is to be divided by 
the measure of money, must, in the long run, depend upon what 
each year's product will bring in money. If then, the annual pro- 
duct is large, because the resources are great, because capital is 
ample, because labor is effective, because the army is but a border 
police, then the sum of money derived from the sale will also be 
large, for the reason that in spite of all natural obstructions 
between one nation and another, the product of one nation, as a 
whole, comes directly or indirectly into competition with the 
product of the world. 

If the propositions submitted in this treatise can be sustained 
to wit : that wages are a constantly increasing remainder over 
after lessening rates of profit have been set aside from an 
increasing product, it follows that the ability of a very pro- 
ductive country to find a market for its excess, especially of 
farm products, is a most important factor in determining the price 
of the whole product, and therefore in determining the general or 
average rate of wages and profits which can be recovered from 
the sale of the whole. Hence arises the importance of our foreign 
export of the products of agriculture. Even though the quantity 
exported be but a tithe of the whole, yet the sale of this part 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 105 

determines the price of the whole, and it therefore becomes 
a prime factor in the the general rate of wages. 

If this latter statement be questioned, it will only need a 
moment's consideration to determine it. If the surplus or over- 
production for domestic use, of our oil, grain, cotton, meat, cheese, 
butter, lard, etc., could not be sold in or exchanged for the products 
of other countries, what should we do with it? We could not now 
consume it ourselves ; we could not move people from other 
countries here in sufficient number to consume it in any one 3 - ear. 
We cannot establish manufactures more rapidh r because goods are 
alread\ T in excess. We must exchange our excess for tea, coffee, 
sugar, hides, wool, and the like, and in the process of this 
exchange the price of all our crops is determined by what this 
excess will bring ; the remainder over from these sales establishes 
the standard of farm wages, by, or in comparison with which, all 
other wages are in the main determined. Hence the average rate 
of domestic wages rests in a very great degree, under our present 
conditions, on our finding a foreign market for the excess of our 
products of agriculture ; if this market is limited or reduced, the 
purchasing power of our farmers, numbering one-half our popu- 
lation, is reduced, and this reacts on the demand for domestic 
manufactures. Thus it is, that directly or indirectly the value of 
our total production is determined by a world-wide competition. 
What would be the effect of the competition of the laborers who 
now engage in the production of that which we export if they 
were forced into other work for domestic use only? 

May it not therefore be said that all commerce, both domestic 
and foreign, is a process of liquidation, by means of which the 
respective shares of capital and labor are determined, each becom- 
ing a larger share of a larger sum recovered from such sales, 
the wider the exchange of product for product, and the greater 
the service which each renders the other, whether capitalist or 
laborer ? 

Fiualh 7 , the rate of wages, measured in terms of money, can 
only be determined by dividing this remainder over, after capital 
has received its compensation, among the laborers who do the 
work ; the respective share of each laborer is then rated only by 
his or her individual skill, industry, and integrity. In the end 
character and capacity determine the relative rates of wages of 
those who do the work. 



106 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

I may conclude by again referring to the proposition of Freder- 
ick Bastiat, which is the motto of this essay : All interests are 
harmonious. "In proportion to the increase of capital the abso- 
lute share (of the product) fulling lo capital is augmented, but 
the relative share is diminished, while the share of the laborer is 
increased both absolutely and relatively." 



[Our space permits us only to give a small part of the appendices 
which will be found in Mr. Atkinson's volume. The following is 
the beginning and the conclusion of Appendix I., all the details by 
which the deductions are reached being omitted.] 

APPENDIX I. 



This appendix will be very uninteresting except to students. A 
summaiy of its contents ma}-, therefore, be given for the benefit of 
readers, who do not care to go over its dry details, as follows : 

Approximate estimate of the value of annual product of the census 

year 310,000,000,000 

Domestic farm consumption 1,000,000,000 



Commercial product 9,000,000,000 

Estimated profits of capitalists 8450,000,000 

Estimated savings of other classes 455,000,000 900,000,000 



Wages fund 8,100,000,000 

Number of persons engaged in all gainful occupations 
iu round figures 17,400,000 

Deduct soldiers, marines, and persons engaged in sub- 
ordinate positions in the government service . . 100,000 



Remainder 17,300,000 

Administrative force, i. e., mental rather than manual work . . 1,100,000 

Working force, i. e., wage-earners or small farmers .... 10,200,000 

Average remuneration of the administrative force, per year . . 1,000 

Average wages or earnings of the working force, per year . . . s432 

Gross amount of national, State, and municipal taxes in census 

year, over 700,000,000 

or eight per cent, of the commercial product. 

Each worker is one of a group of 2.93 persons ; therefore each 
average person in a workman's family must find shelter, subsist- 
ence, clothing, and pay taxes out of what forty to forty-five cents 
a da}- will buy. 

Each five cents' worth added to each person's share, or each 
fifteen cents added to each workman's wages per day, implies, at 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 107 

the present time (1884) an additional product and sale of com- 
modities worth one thousand million dollars a }'ear, which is about 
the present value of our wheat product, of our pig-iron product, 
and of all oar textile fabrics of cotton, wool and silk combined. 

When the complaint is made that a 

good subsistence and an adequate shelter can barely be obtained 
by each three persons upon an average income of only $400 to 
$500 a year, at the retail value of all they consume of their own 
production, or procured by purchase or exchange for the three, the 
only remedy which can be provided is to increase the product. If 
such is the present measure of all there is, then such is the meas- 
ure of the utmost that all can have. How difficult and how slow 
such an increase must be, may be comprehended by a very simple 
statement: Assuming the maximum of SI 0,000, 000, 000 given in 
this treatise as the value in the census year (or $11,500,000,000 
now), then over 81,000,000,000 worth of produce must be added 
in a year, and the prices must be maintained where they are, in 
order that each person of our present population may have five 
cents a day more than they now do, or in order that each person 
engaged in any kind of gainful occupation may be able to obtain 
an increase in the rate of wages of fifteen cents a day. Upon 
such small fractions must subsistence depend ; and when political 
leaders present magnificent pictures of national progress, summed 
up in thousands of millions of wealth or product, these facts may 
well be recalled. 

Even if our progress has been great and our conditions are rela- 
tively prosperous compared to other nations, yet the average per- 
son, including capitalists, land owners, employers and employed, 
must have been sustained and sheltered, must have paid taxes and 
saved profits, out of what fifty cents a day would buy in the cen- 
sus year, because such teas apparently the measure of all there was 
produced which could be bought and auld or exchanged. 

APPROXIMATE SUMMARY OF INDIVIDUAL INCOME. 

Product of the United States, 10,000,000,000, worth per day to each person 

by estimate 56 cts. 

Domestic production consumed without purchase or sale .... 5 

50 cts. 

Share of capitalists . 2% cts. 

Savings of the people 2% 

National, State and municipal taxes 3% 

Cost of mental or administrative work above the average of 

wages iy 2 

Average to each wage-earner 40 

50 cts. 



108 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

For each error of five cents a day in this estimate if the reader 
finds oue or believes there may he one, add one thousand and 
fifty-eight million and four hundred thousand dollars to my gross 
estimate, and divide the proceeds amoiiii the f>8, 000, 000 persons 
who will probably constitute our population January 1, 1885. 



APPP:NDIX n. 



THE LAW OF COMPETITION: IN ANY GIVEN PRODUCT, PROMTS 
DIMINISH, WAGES INCREASE. 

The following deductions have been made from the accounts of 
two New England cotton factories, both constructed prior to 1830, 
and operated successfully and profitably since that date, mainly 
on standard sheetings and shirtings No. 14 yarn. The figures 
given, from 1840 to 1883 inclusive, are absolute, being taken from 
the official accounts of mills, of which the sole product has been a 
36-inch standard sheeting. The figures of 1830 are deduced from 
a comparison of the data of two mills. The figures of 1884 are 
deduced from nine months* work in 1883-84. 

WAGES PER OPERATIVE PER YEAE. 
1830 1.64 gold. ^^ 

1840 1.75 gold. ^ ^ 

1850 1.90 gold. ^^^^^ ^ 

1860 1.97 gold. mmm-m~mm~~mmm~m~m^m 

1870 2.75 cur. 

1870 2.40 gold. i ^^^^ 

1880 2.59 gold. ^ 

1883 2.87 gold. ^^ -^^^^ ^^ 

1884 2.90 gold. i 

PROFIT PER YARD NECESSARY TO BE SET ASIDE IN ORDER TO PAY 10 
PER CENT. ON CAPITAL USED. 

1839 2.40c. gold. ^^ ^ ^^ 

1840 1.181 gold. i^_^^^ _ 
1850 1.110 gold. ^ 

1860 .688 gold. 

1870 .760 cur. = 

1870 .660 gold. 

1880 .481 gold. 

1883 .434 gold. -^ 

1884 .408 gold. ^^ 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 



109 



YARDS PER OPERATIVE PER TEAR. 



1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 
1870 
1880 
1883 
1884 



4,321 
9,607 
12,164 
21,760 
19,293 
28,000 
26,641 
28,032 



Changes in the ma- 
chinery affected 
production. 



COST OF LABOR PER YARD. 



1830 1.900 gold. 

1840 1.832 gold. 

1850 1.556 gold. 
1860 .905 gold. 

1870 l,425^ur. 

1870 1.240 gold. 
1880 .930 gold. 

1883 1.C80 gold. 

1884 1.070 gold. 



COMPARISON OF 1840 WITH 1883-4. 



This comparison will not show the full reduction in the cost of 
labor per 3'ard which ma}' be expected in 1884-5, because changes 
have been in progress, which, when completed, will increase .the 
capacity of the mill about 15 per cent., and it is a well-understood 
rule that, while such changes are being made, the current work of 
production is done at a disadvantage. 



1840-1884. 



I. Capital . . . 1840 
1883 

II. Fixed capital . 1840 
1883 

III. Active capital. 1840 
1883 

IV. Spindles . . . 1840 
1883 

V. Looms . . . 1840 
1883 

VI. Fixed capital 1840 

per spindle, . 1883 

VII. Xo. of opera- 1840 

tives emp. . 1833 













( Same 




I Same. 
{Increase, 










i Increase, 










57 per cent. 
1 Same. 





110 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



IX 
X, 
XI 
XII 
XIII 
XIV 
XV, 

XVI. 

10 
XVII 


1,000 spindles 1883 




) CO per cent. 


die per day . 1833 






10 76 100 ^ ^n ! 


< Increase, 


ative per day 1883 








per day . . 1883 








, Increase, 


ative per hour 1883 
. Wages per op- 1840 








erative pr. y'r 1883 










erative pr. h'r 1883 










1883 










per ct. on capital 1883 
Price of goods, 1840 




I 63 per cent; 


cost cotton same 1883 







COMPARISON OF 1830 WITH 1884. 

In this comparison the statements are based in part upon the 
figures of each mill. Both appear to have cost about $40 per 
spindle, including dwellings for operatives. More than one kind 
of goods were made in each for a time, but the figures have been 
adjusted to standard sheetings, an average having been computed 
by the yard and pound. 



Fixed capital 1830 8332,000 

1884 $310,000 

Spindles 1830 8,192 

1884 30,824 

Fixed capital per spindle . 1830 $40.50 

1884 10.07 

Operatives per 1,000 spindles 1830 49 

1884 17 2-10 

Pounds per operative per day 1830 9.04 

1884 31.22 - 

The hours of labor in most of the factories 
in 1830 were 14 per day. 

Wages per operative per y'r 1830 ?164 

1884 290 . 

The wages per hour in 1884 are more than 
double those of 1830. 

Wages per yard 1830 1.90cts. - 

1884 1.07 cts 

Profit per yard at 10 per 1830 2.40 cts. - 

cent, on capital .... 1884 .41 cts. - 



Decrease, 
' 37 per cent. 

Increase, 

i 276 per cent. 

Decrease, 

75 per cent. 

Decrease, 

64 per cent. 

Increase, 

214 per ct. 



Increase, 
77 per cent' 

Decrease, 
44 per cent. 

Decrease, 
83 per cent 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 



In the mountain section of the southern United States the pe- 
ple are still clad in homespun fabrics. ' Five women two carders, 
two spinsters, and one weaver can produce eight yards per day. 



Product of 5 per- 
sons 1 year in 2,400 
North Carolina yds. 

Product of 5 per- 
sons in New 140,000 
England . . . yds. 

Wages in New 
Englaad at 1 
08-100 cts. per 
yard .... $287.00 

Wages as they 
would be in N. 
Carolina at 1 
08-100 cts. per 
yard .... $5.19 

Cost per yard in 
New England 
at $287 per year 
each operative l.OSc. 

Cost in N'th Car- 
olina at $287 
yer year each 
operative . . 58.49c. 



The rule of diminishing rates of profit and increasing rate of wages, of 
necessity ensuing from the progress of invention, is fully sustained by these 
tables. As the capital is increased both in its quantity and in its effective- 
ness, the absolute share of product falling to capital is increased, but the 
relative share is diminished. On the other hand, the share of the laborer is 
increased, both absolutely and relatively. Labor takes of necessity a con- 
stantly increasing proportion of an increasing product. In this example, the 
wages of the operatives have increased, since 1840, 64 per cent, per day and 
96 per cent, per hour; since 1880, 77 per cent, per day and -)- 100 per cent, 
per hour. High wages in money have ensued as the necessary result of the 
low cost of labor. 

It will be observed that in 1840, the price of standard sheetings being 9 
cents a yard, it required 1.18 cents to he set aside for profits, or 13 per cent, of 
the price, in order to pay 10 per cent, upon the capital. Next it required 
1.83 cents to be set aside, being 20 per cent, of the whole price, to pay wages 
at the average rate of only $175 a year to each operative. In 1884, the price 
being 7 cents a yard, it required less than 6 per cent of the gross sales, 40 
cent a yard, to be set aside in order to pay 10 per cent, upon the capital ; 
while 1.07 cents being set aside for the share of labor, or a fraction over 15 



112 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

JUT rent, of the gross sales, yielded to the operative. 8290 in gold. The 
goods cannot now lie sold at 7 cents, and there is little or no profit for the 
time being. But while 10 percent, was a moderate rate of profit in 1840 it is 
an e\rr-M\e rate in 1884. The business would extend with great rapidity if 
there were a positive assurance of G per cent, upon the capital, or a quarter 
of a cent a yard and less than 4i per cent, of the gross amount of sales. 

But it may he said, having assigned 0.40 cent to profits, and 1.07 cents to 
labor out of 7 cents a yard gross value, there remain ">.53 cents a yard to be 
accounted for. This of course represents the money cost of cotton, fuel, 
starch, oil, supplies, taxes, cost of administration, transportation of the goods 
to market, and the cost of selling them at wholesale. 

Does this all go to labor, or is there also a profit to be set aside on these 
elements? 

Our space would not suffice to treat each of these subjects, but it may be 
said : First, the cotton is substantially all labor ; there is no large margin of 
profit at the present time in raising cotton, which is mostly produced by 
small farmers. Second, the other items, constituting the materials, form a 
very small part of the total cost, and are subjected to profits in small treasure 
only in respect to fuel and oil. 

The cost of transportation yields to the railroads less than an average of 5 
per cent, on the capital invested, and cotton fabrics pay but a small fraction 
of their value even for very long distances. The cost of administration con- 
stitutes a very small part of the cost of the goods, and in a general treatise 
on wages belongs in a class by itself rather than to be considered as profits. 
The charge for selling staple plain cotton goods at wholesale does not exceed 
1 per cent, to 1 per cent., and a large part of this is distributed among the 
clerks and salesmen who do the work. 

If the subject is analyzed, first, as a whole, and, second, in each depart- 
ment, it will appear that at the present time the proportion of profit which 
can be set aside from the sale of coarse cotton goods, sufficient to cover profits 
in all the various departments of the work, is less than 10 per cent, of the 
wholesale market value of the product, and 90 per cent, is the absolute share 
of the laborers who do the work both in respect to materials used and to the 
finished product. 

It is also necessary to remember, in respect to the cotton factory, that the 
value or proportion of capital to a given product is greater than in almost 
any other branch of industry; the proportion of capital to product bein_ 
of capital to each 1 or $1.50 of product, according to the weight of the 
fabric and the quantity of cotton used. In the boot and shoe factory, on the 
other hand, the ratio of capital to product is about 1 to S3; therefore in the 
boot and shoe business a much less proportion of the gross sales needs to be 
set aside as profit on the business, to induce its being established. 

On the whole, as far as the manufactures of New England are concerned, 
the average of capital to the gross value of the products is one dollar capital 
to two dollars product ; therefore three per cent, of the gross sales set aside 
as profit will yield six per cent, per annum upon the capital invested in the 
buildings and machinery which are applied to the conversion of raw or half 
manufactured material into finished forms ready for final consumption. 



PAPER BY EDWARD ATKINSON. 113 

The foregoing charts have been prepared on the basis of tables 
giving the actual facts in respect to the machinery, the product, 
and the wages of two successful cotton-mills, manufacturing what 
are known as standard sheetings, in New England. Technically 
these goods are known as 36-inch sheetings, No. 14's. In point 
of fact, the number of the yarn is a little coarser. The data have 
been combined so as to cover the entire period from 1830 to the 
present date, a part of them having been furnished from one mill 
and a part from the other. I have in my possession the accounts 
of many other cotton factories, and the statistics of the wages, 
covering a great variety of fabrics, during the last fifty years ; but 
I have carefully chosen the data of two factories which have been 
uniformly successful, in which the capital stock has never been 
reduced, and of which the product has, to a large extent, been 
sold for export. This selection has been made in order that the 
data might not be effected in any measure beyond that of other 
occupations than cotton-spinning, by the many changes in the 
tariff which have been made since 1830. 

In the main treatise to which this is an appendix, I have at- 
tempted to sustain the proposition that the rate of wages cannot 
be taken as a standard for determining the cost of production, 
even in money ; but, on the contrary that wages are a remainder 
over, or result of production, recovered from the sale of the 
goods, and subject to the prior claim for payment of the cost of 
materials and the profits of capital. 

Wages will vary in rate in the same country, at different peri- 
ods, in the same place ; at the same period in different places ; in 
different countries at the same time, being determined by the dis- 
tance of the factory from the source of the materials, by the intel- 
ligence and skill of the people who do the work, by the incidence 
of taxation, (the laws of different States varying on this point) 
and by many other elements which enter into the problem. On 
the other hand, although wages are deferred to profits, and are a 
remainder over, subject to deduction of profits from the sales, yet 
the competition of capital with capital not only always tends to a 
minimum of profit, but also to an increase of the product in ratio to 
the amount and effectiveness of the capital. Hence, while profits 
tend to a minimum, wages tend to a maximum. It therefore fol- 
lows that, under these conditions, wages constitute an increasing 
proportion of an increasing product, provided markets can be 
8 



114 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

found to take the inerease without a reduction in price correspond- 
ing to the reduction in the labor which constitutes the true ct. 
In point of fact, very few nations have learned to apply machinery 
to the arts of life, a larger portion of the population of the 
world is clad in homespun than in machine-made or factory-made 
fabrics. I have lately read a notice of a recent report, made in 
Manchester, to the effect that nearl}' 1,000,000,000 persons, out 
of a computed total of 1,400,000,000, may be considered as non- 
machine using nations, clad in hand-made fabrics, so far as they 
are clothed at all. In the United States, machinery is applied, on 
the whole, more ^effective!}* than anywhere else. Hence, although 
prices have diminished, they have not diminished as fast as the 
labor cost of production has been reduced. Consequently, wages 
have not only risen in rate, but also in purchasing power. All 
of this is proved by the figures of the charts which have been 
given above. 

Between the two extreme dates which I have covered in the chart, 
1830 and 1884, the cost in money for manufacturing a coarse cot- 
ton fabric has been reduced more than one-half. In the same 
period, the rate of profit on each dollar invested, which sufficed to 
induce the construction of the factory, has also been reduced one- 
half. In the same period, each unit of the machinery itself has 
become so much more effective, that one operative will perform 
three and a-half times the work in eleven hours that one operative 
could perform, from 1830 to 1840, in thirteen hours. Thus it has 
happened that, while capital ma}- now be satisfied with one 
quarter part as much money derived from the sale of the product 
as it formerly secured, wages have doubled per day, and more 
than doubled per hour, in the period named. From 1830 to 1840 
inclusive, it was necessary to take fourteen per cent, from the 
gross sales of goods in order to pay ten per cent, on the capital 
of the factory From 1880 to 1884 inclusive, six per cent, of the 
gross sales would suffice to pay ten per cent, upon the capital, 
while six per cent, profit would now be nearly a normal rate. 

In these charts I have treated the art of spinning and weaving 
cotton by machinery, upon what are called the self-acting mules, 
spinning-frames, and power-looms. We may contrast the con- 
ditions of the same art, at the present time, in different parts of 
this country. In the heart of this country, upon the hillsides and 
in the valleys of the great Allegheny region, in Virginia, in Ken- 



WHAT MAKES THE RATE OF WAGES. 115 

tucky, in Tennessee, and in the Carolinas, there is a population 
of two millions or more of people, who are even to this day 
chiefly clad in homespun fabrics, of which the yarn is spun upon 
the hand spinning-wheel, and woven upon the hand-loom. These 
people have been kept in isolation by the surrounding pall of 
slavery, until a very recent period. Their country is now being 
opened by railroads, and the art of making homespun fabrics will 
soon be a lost art among them. The capacity of five of these 
persons to wit, two carders, two spinsters, and one weaver, in a 
day of eleven hours, is eight yards of coarse fabric, heavier, but 
of moie open texture, and therefore more quickly woven by 
machinery, than the standard sheeting. Five operatives in a 
modern factory would spin and weave one hundred fold as much, 
or eight hundred j'ards a day. But we will limit the comparison 
to the actual product of standard sheetings, and we will assume 
that the home spinners could make eight yards of standard sheet- 
ing in a day. This would give them 2,400 yards as the product 
of a year, against 140,000 yards in the northern factory. The 
cost of spinning and weaving the standard sheeting in the north- 
ern factory in 1883 was 1.08 cents per 3'ard. If the southern 
operatives were obliged to sell their product in the open market 
at the same rate of wages that is, at the wages which could be 
derived from 1.08 per 3 - ard, the total earnings of the five in one 
year would be $25.92, or a trifle over $5.00 each. If they were 
content with the profit on each yard which yields to the northern 
capitalist ten per cent, a year, it would be .43 of a cent a yard, or 
upon 2,400 yards $10.32. The total wages and profits of the five 
southern operatives, working by hand for one year, at the stand- 
ard of cost and profit of the northern cotton-mill would therefore 
amount to $36.24. On the other hand, in order that the earnings 
and profits of the southern operatives should be equal to those of 
the northern operatives and owners of the factories, it would be 
necessary that the homespun fabric should sell in the open market 
at about ninet}' cents a yard. It therefore follows that the high 
wages of the northern operatives are the result of the low cost of 
production, and that if the southern people now engaged in the 
art of homespun work can find other work to do, in dealing with 
the abundance of timber, in saving the wild fruits, in agriculture, 
or in the many other branches of work which their climate and 
soil open to them, but which are not open to the inhabitants of 



116 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the Northern States, they will save both time and labor by an 
exchange of product, and by becoming inter-dependent, rather 
than by remaining isolated and independent. And this is what is 
now occurring. As soon as the incubus of slavery was removed 
and an exchange of products between the two sections of the 
country fairly began, each found that it could serve the other, 
and that slave-grown cotton was no longer king. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. F. A. WALKER. 117 



IV. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 

BY FRANCIS A. WALKER, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
(Read September 9, 1884.) 

In the active discussion now in progress concerning Industrial 
Education, that term is used in such widely different senses as to 
require that a paper treating of this theme should begin with a 
definition. With a view to this, I offer the following classification 
of the schools which undertake what is by one person or another 
understood to be industrial education. 

First, we have the schools of applied science and technology, 
whose purpose it is to train the engineer, the architect, the geolo- 
gist, the chemist, the metallurgist, for the work of their several 
professions. These schools do not aim to educate the men who 
are to do the manual work of modern industry. In the main, the3" 
do not even aim to educate the men who are to oversee and direct 
the work of others the men, that is, who are to act as superin- 
tendents of labor. It is the function of the schools of this class to 
train those who shall investigate the material resources of the 
countiy, and shall project operations for the development of such 
resources, to be carried on by bodies of labor and of capital under 
the direction, in the main, of persons who have received their 
education and training in schools of a different order, or through 
practical experience in the field, the shop and the mine. 

The distinction here rudely outlined between the person who in- 
vestigates the material resources of the country, in any direction, 
and organizes industrial enterprises for the exploitation of those 
resources, and the person who superintends and directs the labor 
employed in such enterprises, is not, indeed, strictly maintained ; 
but it exists in a general way, although a tendenc}" to emploj-, in 
increasing degree, civil, mechanical and mining engineers, chemists 
and metallurgists in administrative and executive capacities, has 
been observed during the past few years. 

The expcdiencj" of establishing schools of the class herein indi- 
cated, is no longer a matter of debate. The general government, 
and many, if not all, of the State governments have recognized 
the importance of thus providing for the scientific development of 
our industries ; and the large and increasing measure of reputation 



1 18 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

and financial success enjoyed by the Troy School of Civil Engi- 
neering, the Hoboken School of Mechanical Engineering, the 
Sheffield School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, the Colum- 
bia School of Mining Engineering, the Boston Institute of Tech- 
nology, with its departments of civil, mechanical and mining 
engineering, the Worcester Free Institute of Industrial Science, 
the Chandler Scientific School and the Thayer Engineering School, 
both of Dartmouth College, with a score of other institutions, all 
deserving to be named were this the immediate subject of our 
paper, show that the value of such institutions has passed beyond 
challenge or cavil. 

A second, and widely different class of institutions is found in 
the so-called trade schools. The purpose of schools of this class 
is to train the actual workers in industry, and to train them, more- 
over, for what it is presumed will be their own individual occupa- 
tions in life. In the main, these schools do not aim to train the 
overseers and superintendents of labor, but the individual opera- 
tives. And, in general, the work of these schools assumes that 
the particular avocation for life of the children who enter them is 
already reasonably well determined. 

The efforts at Industrial Education in the States of Europe have 
commonly taken this form. The trade schools of Switzerland, of 
Holland and of France, are schools in which young people are 
taught defined trades, generally such as are pursued in the im- 
mediate region where the schools are established. Thus, certain 
trade schools in Switzerland have reference to the great watch- 
making industry of that country, and have it for their object to 
train pupils who, it is assumed, will, by almost an industrial 
necessity, become watchmakers. 

The third class of schools, and that to which the present paper 
will be confined, comprises those into which manual and mechani- 
cal instruction and training are introduced in greater or less 
degree ; not, on the one hand, to make engineers, not, on the other 
hand, for the purpose of training the pupil to become an operative 
in an}' particular branch of industry which it is presumed he will 
enter ; but as a part of the general education of the scholar, with 
reference to the fuller and more symmetrical development of all 
his faculties and powers, and to promoting his success in whatever 
sphere of labor it shall subsequently be determined he is to enter. 

It is schools of this class, the establishment of which is at this 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. PRES. WALKER. 119 

time being especially urged under the general title of Industrial 
Education. 

In some respects, the term "industrial education" is itself an 
unfortunate one. The term "mechanical education" would better 
express the objects of those who are now advocating an important 
modification of our sj'stem of instruction. But the term first 
referred to has been so widety adopted in the discussion of this 
subject, that it is likely to be used long after the mechanical edu- 
cation of our children and youth has passed the period of debate 
and become incorporated in our public school sj'stem. 

The distinction between the trade school and the school of the 
kind last indicated, will be seen, if properly contemplated, to be 
ver}* marked. Not only does the trade school assume that there is 
a high degree of probability that the pupil will enter a definite 
field, of labor, for which it undertakes to prepare him ; but the 
establishment of such schools undoubtedly contributes, in an im- 
portant degree, to enhance the probability of that result. 

The confusion of trade education with a general mechanical 
education has undoubtedly engendered not a little of the prejudice 
which the scheme of industrial instruction has encountered in cer- 
tain quarters within the United States. It has been alleged that 
the establishment of the proposed system would be opposed to 
the sentiments of our people and to the genius of our institu- 
tions, inasmuch as it would assume that the children who were 
to receive training were born to a certain condition of life, 
and were destined to perform a certain industrial role. The 
scheme of industrial education has, therefore, been objected to, 
as curtailing the glorious birthright of every American boy to 
become banker, merchant, judge or president, as his own abilities 
and virtues ma}" qualify him. It will appear, I think, in the further 
course of this paper, that the objection is founded upon a mis- 
apprehension ; and that the adoption of the system of education 
under view would not only not confine the choice of the pupil as to 
his subsequent mode of life, but would tend to give him an even 
greater freedom of movement and action. 

That the establishment of trade schools, in the strict sense of 
that term, has proved advantageous in many of the crowded com- 
munities of Europe, I entertain no doubt. When, by reason of 
the dense occupation of the soil and the diversification and localiza- 
tion of industries, the choice of young persons is, in fact, very 



120 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

closely limited, it is probably the part of wisdom to recognize that 
f:u-t, to accept the situation, and to prepare the young as well as 
possible for the work which, by almost a moral necessity, they 
will be called to perform. That even in some communities of the 
United States, the point has alread}- been reached where the 
establishment of trade schools by private benevolence, or even by 
municipal authority, might be practically advantageous, I am not 
disposed to deny. 

In any large city whose population is chiefly, and perhaps almost 
wholly, occupied in some single and highly special branch of in- 
dustry, the instruction of the j'oung in the arts specially concerned 
in the prosecution of that industry, ma}', not unreasonably, be 
deemed the dictate of practical wisdom. 

Yet the position of those who have opposed industrial education 
on the ground that the United States have not reached the condi- 
tion which requires or justifies the education, at the public expense 
and under State authorit}', of young children with reference to 
specific trades, is in the main sound and just. The proper answer 
to this objection is, that the system of industrial education proposed 
would rather enlarge than confine the subsequent choice of occupa- 
tions by the children of our public schools. 

The purpose sought by the advocates of so-called industrial 
education, is the training of the eye and the hand of the pupil, and 
his acquisition of those elementary principles of physics and me- 
chanics which underlie all dealing with the forces of nature and 
with material objects. 

I have spoken of the " establishment" of schools for industrial 
or mechanical education. Yet, in truth, it is not so much the 
creation and endowment of separate schools of this character, which 
is in view, as the gradual conversion of all the existing schools 
of the land to this use, through the grafting of certain studies and 
exercises upon the traditional curriculum. Such conversion would 
involve only a slight disturbance of the structure of the existing 
schools ; but it would require the surrender of a not inconsider- 
able portion of time to the new studies and exercises. 

In order not to protract this paper unduly, or to provoke need- 
less controversy, I shall, on the present occasion, confine my 
remarks to the relations of the proposed changes in public instruc- 
tion to the boys of our public schools, leaving open the question, 
whether the girls shall join in the new departure, or not. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. F. A. WALKER. 121 

As to the precise nature and extent of the studies and exercises 
which should, to this end, be incorporated in the public school 
curriculum, and as to the order of these exercises, much difference 
of opinion will doubtless be developed among those who advocate 
an extensive modification of the present scheme of education. The 
true final system, will, of course, have to be worked out through 
long discussion and experimentation. The following is presented 
as a fairly conservative programme : 

Beginning with the pupil at the stage when Kindergarten methods 
and appliances are exhausted of their efficiency, the scholar should 
be instructed in the elementary principles of physics and mechanics 
through the use of simple models and apparatus, and should be- 
come familiarized through frequent statement and illustration, with 
the fundamental conceptions of geometry. There is a deep-seated 
popular error as to the age at which such things as the above can 
advantageously be acquired. It is too often assumed that because 
the young child is not competent to study geometry systematically, 
he need be taught nothing geometrical ; that because it would be 
foolish to present to him physics and mechanics as sciences, it is 
useless to present to him any physical or mechanical principles. 

An error of like origin, which has wrought incalculable mischief, 
denies to the scholar the use of the symbols and methods of algebra 
in connection with his earl}* essays in numbers, because, forsooth, 
he is not, as 3 - et, capable of mastering quadratics ! If our children 
were taught to "do their sums," algebraically at eight, nine or ten, 
the later parts of the algebra would have far less terror for them, 
at fifteen, sixteen and seventeen. And yet, from the notion that 
the teacher must not take up any subject which the pupil is not 
prepared to go through with to the end and master scientifically, 
we drive our boys and girls to the most painful and absurdly 
round-about methods of solving problems. The moment 
the child begins to "do sums" upon his slate, he needs 
his x and y, and for lack of them he is continually driven back to 
" What d'ye call 'em," or " thingumbob," his unknown quantity, 
the object of his enquiiy for which he is refused a symbol, the 
length of the pole, John's share of the cake, the number of gallons 
in the cistern, or what not. The whole infant generation, wrest- 
ling with arithmetic, seek for a sign and groan and travail together 
in pain for the want of it ; but no sign is given them save the 



122 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

sign of the prophet Jonah, the withered gourd, fruitless endeavor, 
wasted strength. 

To teach the so-called arithmetic of the common school with- 
out the use of the algebraic signs and notation, is in the last 
degree barbarous; yet it is done, almost without exception, in 
the case of ten millions of school children, nil from the notion that 
they are not yet prepared to eater upon the study of algebra I 
Study of algebra ! Algebra is a tool, and nothing but a tool, 
and, so far as equations of the first degree are concerned, it is a 
tool which the child needs the moment he is set to enquire in how 
many days Jones and Brown can do a piece of work together, if 
Jones could do it in ten days alone or Brown in fifteen. For 
an equall}* bad reason, many things have been withheld 
from school children, though these were things of which every 
child should be informed at the earliest possible moment, because 
they belong to geometry, for the systematic study of which the 
scholar has been held not to be prepared. 

It is true that of late years, teachers, drawing doubtless their 
inspiration from the kindergarten, have presumed to give the geom- 
etry of the square and cube before requiring the arithmetic of 
square root and cube root ; but this concession to common sense 
stands almost solitary and alone on the pages of the modern text- 
book. Take for example, the conception of a plane, the most 
difficult and the most important of all conceptions, for the purposes 
of the geometer, the astronomer, the mechanician. This con- 
ception should, for subsequent success whether in geometry, in 
astronomy or in mechanics, be formed in the mind of the child at 
the earliest possible moment, just as the notion of right should be 
formed in his mind }'ears and years before he is called to the sys- 
tematic study of ethics. No subsequent effort can make up for 
the neglect of such fundamental conceptions in the very beginnings 
of education. The freedom and force with which these conceptions 
will be referred to and made use of in after life, must in a large 
degree depend upon the age at which they are first acquired. 

They should be early implanted in the mind that they may grow 
with its growth and strengtheu with its strength. What sort of 
students of literature would you have if you put off the teaching 
of the alphabet of letters till fourteen or fifteen or sixteen, as you 
in fact put off the teaching of the alphabet of science ? You give 
the child English letters at five or six, and let him grow up. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. PRES. WALKER. 123 

through long practice in easy lessons, with fairy stories and picture 
books, and tales of travel and adventure, to the capability of read- 
ing and comprehending the master-pieces of literature ; }*et it is 
only on the day when the young man begins the scientific study of 
optics, for example, that you give him a definition of light, and 
show him simple experiments in reflection and refraction. The 
student should at this age be unable to remember when he did 
not know these things ; and no amount of hard work in after 
life can ever wholly make up for the lack of early familiarity with 
the subjects of his study, the value of which every instructor 
acknowledges in other branches of education, whether relating to 
literature, to morals or to practical affairs. 

Time will not serve for an extended illustration of this subject. 
A child of ten or twelve years is capable of understanding the 
principle of the lever just as perfectly as did Archimedes of 
old Syracuse. Once implant that conception in his mind and it 
becomes germinal, and, without watering or tending, will bear 
fruit perennially through all his life. 

A child of the same age can comprehend the principle of the 
arch, when illustrated by a few blocks from a carpenter's shop, 
as fully as does the architect who hangs a stone dome one hun- 
dred feet in air ; and when he has once comprehended the construc- 
tion and office of the arch, his eye will never thereafter fall unintel- 
ligently upon an example of it. A child of the same age is 
capable of comprehending the law of perspective. Why in the 
name of common sense should one go on for years, walking 
through our streets or over the fields, his eye falling at every 
glance upon some object which is subject to this law, and yet never 
be instructed regarding it? 

Do you ask how much of the elements of physics and mechanics 
should be given to the child of tender years ? I answer, just as 
much as he will take, be the same more or less. And it is always 
safe to offer him a little more than he will take. It can't do him 
any harm. Cramming him with hard and lumpy facts, from so- 
called geographies or histories, may produce mental indigestion or 
colic ; but an idea, an apprehended principle, never yet hurt a 
human being, and never will to the latest syllable of recorded time. 
For myself, I would not stop short of teaching a child the doctrine 
of the persistence of force through all its transmutations. Doubt- 
less he would at first fail to apprehend it fully ; yet he would gather 



124 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

something from its familiar, picturesque enunciation ; and, as the 
proposition became familiar to his ear, and as illustrations of the 
equivalency of motion, heat, light and sound were multiplied and 
repeated to him, I should hope that he would grow into an appre- 
hension and appreciation of this grand all-embracing law. 

If it be asked of what advantage would it be to the youthful mind 
that it should be taught these and the like things, I answer, First, 
that if to observe phenomena quickly and clearly, if to reflect 
closely and justly, if to acquire an habitual, and in time, instinctive 
disposition to trace effects to their causes, if these things be among 
the prime objects of education, comparison may be challenged be- 
tween the matter of study that has been described and the work 
that now takes up two-thirds of the time of the scholar of the age 
we have been considering. Secondly, that if the direct usefulness 
of the information acquired be adopted as the test of different 
systems of instruction, the elements of geometry, physics and 
mechanics, have preference, in an enormous degree, over the 
traditional studies of the primary and grammar schools. But, 
Tlnrdly, that the main argument for the early acquisition of these 
elements is to be found in their usefulness as a preparation for the 
stud}' of geometry, physics and applied mechanics in later years. 

While altering in a degree the traditional curriculum of the pub- 
lic schools by the introduction of the elements of geometry, physics 
and mechanics, I would recommend the extension of the drawing 
practice of the schools even beyond the point to which it is now car- 
ried in our most enlightened cities. And it is a consideration of 
prime importance in this connection, that, great as is the interest 
awakened by drawing practice, under the better teachers, even as 
students are now prepared for it in our public schools, those exer- 
cises would acquire a, vast increase of attractiveness from the 
studies already described in the elements of geometry, physics 
and mechanics. The pupil would in a higher degree appreciate 
much that he was called to do in his drawing exercises, and would 
find a hightened pleasure in the practice of this art as it became a 
means of expressing principles with which he had been made 
familiar. And as the drawing exercise received a g;eal enhance- 
ment of attractiveness through the pupil's comprehension of the 
principles underlying the figures and designs to be constructed, so, 
at the other end, would it receive a fresh addition of interest by 
being correlated with the shop-work in wood, in iron and in clay, 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. F. A. WALKER. 125 

which, according to the friends of industrial education, should form 
a part of the exercises of the public schools. 

We here reach the last stage of our subject. Industrial educa- 
tion involves, first, the teaching of the elements of geometry, phys- 
ics and mechanics, secondly, drawing, and thirdly, shop work of one 
kind or another. During the past few years practice in the mechanic 
arts, especially in wood working, but also in forge, foundry and lathe 
work, has been introduced as an integral part of a system of edu- 
cation, in several sections of the country. No one is known to have 
been in any way connected with this new kind of teaching who is 
not an enthusiastic believer in its beneficent effects at once upon 
the scholar and upon the general sj'stem of public instruction ; 
while of late, converts have been rapidly made from among those 
who formerly doubted or denied the expediency of this 
innovation in education. The } T ear now closing has seen the 
school-room space, the apparatus and machine^*, and the teaching 
force devoted to this work more than doubled, perhaps we might 
say trebled. The next year will undoubtedly witness an even 
greater increase. The thing is coming, and coming fast, faster 
probably than the ' means can well be provided ; and doubtless 
mistakes, not a few, will be made in the haste to introduce this 
kind of teaching. 

In general it may be said that the course of propagation is 
likely to be from the high school downward to the grammar and 
then to the elementary schools, and from the city outward through 
the small towns to the rural districts. The chief difficulty to be 
encountered will not be the difficulty of finding means or the 
opposition of school committees or boards of Aldermen, but the 
lack of competent teachers. In this view the State of Massa- 
chusetts has wisely initiated practice in the mechanic arts in two 
of its Normal Schools. 

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which eight years 
ago, under the enlightened administration of Dr. Runkle, estab- 
lished a school of the mechanic arts, the applications for instruct-; 
ors in this department are already far in excess of those which can 
be met. Dr. Runkle has, within a few weeks, issued a pamphlet * 
which embraces in condensed form many well-considered sugges- 

* Report on Industrial Education, by John D. Runkle, Ph. D., LL.D., Walker Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boston : W. F. Brown 
& Co. 



126 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

tions regarding the organi/.ation of this kind of schools, \\\i\i de- 
tailed statements as to the equipment <>f shops for instruction in 
the mechanic arts. The reports of the St. Louis Manual Train- 
ing School, under the supervision of its capable and enthusiastic 
director, Prof. Woodward, contain information of great value 
regarding the new form of education. 

The advantages to be anticipated from the introduction of train- 
ing in the mechanic arts into the grammar and high schools of the 
land are many and important. 

First, it will increase the freedom of industrial movement, allow- 
ing our youth as the}' leave school to find for themselves places in 
the industrial order with more of ease and assurance than at pres- 
ent. This, as has been said, is in contradiction of a vague popular 
opinion, that the proposed system is in the direction of class edu- 
cation ; but the principle is undeniable ; only the degree of its 
importance can possibly be disputed. 

A lad of fifteen leaving the Grammar School, or a lad of eighteen 
leaving the High School, is not required to become a mechanic 
because he has had long practice in the use of tools, because he has 
acquired a familiarity with the materials of construction, because 
he has become neat, dextrous and expert in manipulation, because 
he can make a working-drawing of a piece of machinery or of 
furniture ; because he has had his sense of form, of magnitude 
and of proportion trained to the nicest discrimination, and because 
he can work with his eye and his hand, as well as with his brain, 
and with all of these in the closest cooperation. But if he is to 
become a mechanic, he will have a much wider choice between in- 
dividual trades, by reason of these things ; and again, when he has 
chosen his trade, he can acquire the special knowledge and the 
special skill requisite thereto in one half the time which a mere 
apprentice would take, and he will acquire them, moreover, to 
much better effect; while, still again, he will be a workman, who, 
after a few years of practice, will be fit, by reason of ability to 
make working-drawings, knowledge of mathematics and mechanical 
principles and superior mental training, to be promoted to the 
post of foreman or superintendent of construction ; or he may set 
up for himself as contractor or master, with a prospect of success 
far exceeding that of one of equal natural abilities who has enjoyed 
onby the special training of a single trade. 

Secondly, so far as the graduates of the reformed Grammar and 






INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. PKES. WALKER. 127 

High schools are not to become mechanics, they will certainly be 
no wor,se off, in any waj', by reason of this training, but in many 
ways they will be the better qualified, even in commercial pursuits 
or in clerical capacities in connection with manufacturing or rail- 
road enterprises, to make themselves useful to their employers 
from their manual dexterity, the capability of using tools and the 
special knowledge acquired in school. But far more than this will 
be the advantage derived from the training of the perceptive 
powers, the formation of the habit of observation and the develop- 
ment of the executive faculty, the power, that is, of doing things 
as distinguished from thinking or talking or writing about them. 
To these, the traditional curriculum of the schools fails to minister 
in the smallest degree ; and the longer mnemonics, analytics and 
dialectics are exclusively pursued, the farther is the student carried 
from the temper and the qualities of mind which achieve success, 
except in a few closely restricted and already overcrowded pro- 
fessions. It is the sense of this which leads so many parents to 
withdraw their children at an earby age, reducing the number who 
go forward from the Grammar to the High school, to a petty 
fraction of the whole number. 

With the school exercises modified and diversified as has been 
proposed, I sincerely believe that the average period of attend- 
ance would be at once appreciabty increased, and that parents 
would withdraw their children only at the demand of pecuniary 
necessities which could not be denied, and not, as so largely now, 
because they feel that the school is doing nothing practically use- 
ful for their children, and indeed, that the longer they stay, after 
fifteen, the less will they be fitted for the work of life. 

Thirdly, the introduction of shop work into the public sj'stern of 
education cannot fail to have a most beneficial influence in pro- 
moting a respect for labor and in overcoming the false and perni- 
cious passion of our young people for crowding themselves into 
overdone and underpaid departments, where they may escape man- 
ual exertion at almost any sacrifice. This tendency of the times 
has been loudly complained of, but how have those a right to com- 
plain who support the old order of things under which all the praise 
and all the prizes of the school are bestowed upon glibness of 
speech, retentiveness of memory, ease or force of declamation, 
and skill in dialectics? If the authority of the State and the influ- 
ence of the teacher combine to set up such a standard, what wonder 



128 AMKRICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

that tin- pupil accepts the same view of what is admirable and 
de;-inible, holds other qualities in little esteem, and deems.liiuiseir 
too fine for a common trade and a humble calling? Let the State 
honor labor in the school ; let some of tin- praise and some of the 
prizes go to neatness of manipulation, skill in the use of tools, 
taste in design, patience and ingenuity in execution ; let the pupil 
see his master, now and then, with his coat off and a paper cap 
on his head, teaching the use of the plane and the lathe ; give the 
boy to know the delight of seeing things grow and take shape 
under his hands, and it requires no prophet to assure us that our 
young people will come to look on life very differently and much 
more wisely. 

Fourthly, the consideration which weighs more than any other, 
in my mind, is that the introduction of shop work into the public 
schools, closelj 7 affiliated with exercises in drawing and design, 
will give a place, where now there is no place at all, or only a most 
uncomfortable one, to those boys who are strong in perception, apt 
in manipulation, and correct in the interpretation of phenomena, 
but who are not good at memorizing or rehearsing the opinions and 
statements of others, or who, by diffidence, slowness of speech or 
awkwardness of mental conformation, are unfitted for intellectual 
g3'mnastics. It is mighty little which the ordinary Grammar or 
High school does at present for scholars of these classes. Not 
only do they, at the best, get little personal pleasure from their 
work, and receive little of the commendation of the teacher, but, 
in the great majority of cases, they are written down blockheads 
at the start, and have their whole school life turned to shame and 
to bitterness. And yet it not infrequently happens that the boy 
who is so regarded because he cannot master an artificial system 
of grammatical analysis ; isn't worth a cent for giving a list of the 
kings of England ; doesn't know, and doesn't care what are the 
principal productions of Borneo, has a better pair of eyes, a better 
pair of hands, and, even by the standards of the merchant, the 
manufacturer and the railroad president, a better head, than his 
teacher. 

I desire not to exaggerate ; I wish to speak with the utmost 
seriousness and in strict truthfulness. Of how much advantage is 
it to a scholar in the average Grammar school of Boston or New 
York, or Chicago, in doing his work or in earning the praise of his 
teacher, that he has a quick perception of form and color ; that he 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. F. A. WALKER. 129 

sees everything presented to his view at once broadly and particu- 
lar!}*, his eye taking in all the features of an object in their due 
order and proportion, his mind justly interpreting the significance 
of each and every feature by turns and in the whole ; that he has 
a subtle touch, great patience under vexation, an ingenious and 
inventive mind? There are as many boys in our schools of whom 
the above can be said, as there are of boys who are quick to memor- 
ize and rehearse the opinions and statements of others, or are strong 
and lively in the gymnastics of arithmetic and of grammar. There 
are not only as man}' of the former class of boys as of the latter, 
but they are quite as deserving of sympathy and respect, besides 
being rather better qualified to become of use in the industrial and 
social order. And yet for that class of boys the school offers 
almost nothing upon which they can employ these priceless 
powers. They may, by laboring very painfully over the prescribed 
but uncongenial exercises, escape the stigma of being blockheads, 
but they can never do very well ; they will always be at a dis- 
advantage in comparison with boys of the other class ; they will 
know nothing of the joys of commendation ; and it is most fortunate 
if they do not become discouraged, indifferent and in time care- 
less or even reckless of their standing. Such boys are practically 
ploughed under, in our schools, as not worth harvesting. The 
teacher may te ever so pitiful and patient ; that matters some- 
thing so far as the child's happiness is concerned, but, so long as 
he is kept wholly at exercises for which he is not by nature 
qualified, it makes little difference as to his chances of success 
as a scholar. 

The introduction of practice in the mechanic arts would strike a 
responsive chord in the hearts of all boys of the class I have so in- 
adequately described'; it would at once give them something to do 
in which they could excel ; it would quicken their interest in the 
school ; it would save their self-respect ; to many of them it would 
open a door into practical life. 

For a partial illustration of these effects, let me refer to the in- 
troduction of drawing into the public schools, already so widely 
accomplished. If the acquirement of this art were absolute!}' of 
no value ; if the training of eye and hand involved were put out of 
account, I fully believe that, in spite of the very shabby way in 
which this subject has generally been taught heretofore, drawing 
in the schools has repaid its cost ten-fold, simply in the opportu- 
9 



1HO AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

nity it has given to a host of scholars to do something well, to 
their own satisfaction, to the commendation of their teachers, and 
to the admiration of their mates. 

Here is a little fellow who has no aptitude for the traditional 
studies of the school room. He has either given way after a short 
struggle to a feeling that he is a dunce anyhow, and that it is of 
no use to try ; or, after a longer and harder struggle, he has suc- 
cumbed to a still more bitter and lasting discouragement. He has 
become accustomed to be blamed at school and at home for his low 
standing ; he has ceased to listen for words of approbation ; he 
has learned to expect a look of sadness or of anger on his father's 
face as his monthly card is presented. 

But now a new exercise is introduced into the school, and after 
the inevitable blottings and smearings of the first trials, it comes 
one day to the comprehension of the teacher that this boy has ex- 
ecuted his work better than any other scholar ; has done best of all 
something which by authority has been pronounced worth doing. 
For the first time that lad, who has all the while been struggling 
with a hopeless incapacity^ for identifying " appositive modifiers" 
and " cognate objectives," hears the sweet and pleasant voice of 
praise, sees the admiring glances of his comrades fall on him, yes, 
on him ! and feels the pulse of ambition throb at his temples. 

With what anticipations of pleasure will this lad hereafter await 
the signal to take up drawing ; with what pains will he exe- 
cute his work, with what pride hand in his faultless sheets ! How 
changed to him henceforth is the school room ; how differently, 
even, sounds the school bell in the morning! If the introduction 
of drawing has done so much for many a boy, how much more 
fully and complete!}' will the needs of this class of youths be met 
by the introduction of shop-work in its various branches of carpen- 
try, forge, foundiy and lathe work, in intimate and vital relations 
with drawing and with the elements of geometry, physics and 
mechanics ! 

I might dwell on other considerations ; upon the impulse to be 
communicated to invention and discovery, upon the disclosure, 
here and there, of rare mechanical genius, which, under the old 
system of education, might have been hopelessly lost in a dreary 
wilderness of words ; upon the value of the arts acquired in saving 
dis-repair within the home, enabling the thousand needed strokes 
of the hammer to be well and promptly given, securing the inser- 






INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. F. A. WALKER. 131 

lion of the nail in time that saves nine ; upon the virtue which a 
general mechanical education of the people would have in pre- 
serving and exalting the priceless sense of social decencj" which 
keeps the fence along the village street in order, the gate hung, 
the glass set, the shutter in place ; but perhaps I have already said 
enough to introduce the discussion of the question of Industrial 
Education. 



132 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



PAPERS OF T1IK .irillSPHUDKNCK DKl'AUT.M KNT. 



I. CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS, THE EVIL AND THK KKUKI >Y. 

I.V EUGENE SMITH, ESQ., OF NEW YORK. 

(Read September 10, 1884.) 

The conflict of laws has long been a fruitful theme for discussion 
and for authorship. But I propose to speak of that special phase 
of the subject which relates peculiarly to our own time and 
country ; to point to the fact that our national map is a dissected 
one, cut up into territorial fragments, called States, of arbitrary 
size and shape, each fragment controlled by a separate and dis- 
tinct body of State law ; to glance briefly at the confusion wrought 
by these jostling and often conflicting systems of State law which 
produce ever-increasing evil and are retarding the growth of 
national unit}- and prosperity ; and to inquire, finally (and here 
is my main object) , what remedy is best fitted to stop this conflict 
and to secure to the whole country an harmouious and self-consist- 
ent jurisprudence. 

The systems of statute law within the various States of the 
Union have each grown up and been developed from within the 
State itself ; and the process of their evolution has gone on in 
each State without much reference to the course of legislation in 
sister States. The natural result has been a dissimilarit}' and 
divergence between the systems of State law, until now there is 
hardly any department of jurisprudence in which cases are not 
constantly arising to illustrate the conflict between the laws of the 
different States. In the laws relating to contracts of every kind, 
including even negotiable paper, in the laws pretaiuing to corpora- 
tions, to wills, to marriage and divorce, to the administration of 
estates, to taxation, to civil and criminal procedure, the systems of 
the several States present a variance which is as constant as it is 
unwise and wholly- unuecessar}". How substantial and pervading 
this variance is in its character, is shown by the significant fact 
that no discreet lawyer would assume to pronounce an opinion 
upon a case, however simple, arising under the laws of a neigh- 



CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 133 

boring State, until he had made a special examination both of the 
statutes and of the judicial decisions in that State bearing on the 
question involved. 

It would be an interesting subject of inquiry and one not diffi- 
cult of treatment to trace out in detail the dissimilarity of State 
laws in the various departments of legislation, and to show how 
broad are the legal lines of demarcation between the States. But 
such an inquiry would lead bej'ond the limits of the present paper 
which is designed to treat rather of the evil resulting from the con- 
flict of State laws and of the remedy for that evil, than to illustrate 
the fact itself of such conflict. 

The injurious consequences of the diversity in the systems of State 
law are more far-reaching than is apparent at first sight. Perhaps 
the doctrine of State sovereignty involves more than is generally 
Realized. But it is a fact that the Federal government and Federal 
law touch at very few points the every-day life of the people. 
The matters of internal domestic concern committed to the Federal 
jurisdiction are very few in number and extremely limited in 
scope. Cases arising under acts of Congress make a very minute 
fraction of the litigation with which the courts are burdened. 
But while the jurisdiction of the Federal government is circum- 
scribed, that of the State government is practically boundless. 

The State has supreme and sovereign control over all those 
interests that affect vitally the domestic, social, and business life 
of the people. The protection of life and property, the education 
of children, the family relations, the institutions of religion and of 
charity, the repression and punishment of crimes, the whole broad 
subject of civil rights and remedies, all come within the domain of 
State law. And so it is that the public prosperity, the character 
of the national life, so far as they are influenced or moulded by 
the laws, depend, not on national, but on State-law. 

The incomparably superior importance of State over national 
legislation is not popularly appreciated. While the affairs of Con- 
gress excite wide interest and undergo close scrutiny, while a 
degree of statesmanship is recognised as the fitting qualification 
for a member of Congress, the legislature of the State is supposed 
to represent a lower plane of politics. No qualification beyond 
that of party service, is demanded from the State legislator, to 
whom are confided the really vital interests of society. The neces- 
sary result in each separate State is a crude and ill-digested mass 



134 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of legislation, adopted without knowledge of the laws of other 
States ami without the slightest aim at any unity of system be- 
tween the States. 

But diverse laws on the same subjects in different States are 
hostile to the real interests of the people in many ways. They 
are opposed to the national spirit and temper of the times. The 
people of the United States are yearly growing to be a thoroughly 
homogeneous nation . The only division in the past has been limited 
by sectional lines, which did not coincide with State boundaries, 
and those lines are being surety obliterated. The boundaries 
between the States are purely legal and fictitious lines indicating 
no corresponding separation of social or material, or moral inter- 
ests. All the tendencies of the time are serving to unify those 
interests. The newspaper press and the extension of railways 
are only among the prominent agencies that are constantly bring- 
ing the people into closer and closer contact with each other ; and 
a truly national tone of feeling and character manifests itself in 
all the concerns of daily life. 

This fusion of interest is more sensibty felt in the business 
enterprise of the country. There is no artisan so humble that his 
capacity to earn a living is not affected by causes operating out- 
side the State in which he dwells. The markets of the country 
respond with electric sympathy to disturbances occurring in the 
remotest regions of the Union. The enormous and increasing 
growth of corporations is an important factor in the national life. 
These great bodies, railroad, insurance, telegraph, and other 
business corpoi'ations, having holders of their stocks and bonds in 
ever}- State and transacting business in every State, illustrate the 
common and consolidated character of the material interests of 
the country. 

Nothing can be more utterty regardless of State lines than every 
kind of trade and business in its natural, healthy development. 
Yet every business enterprise in extending its ramifications into 
another State encounters a new S3'stem of State law and of judicial 
procedure ; it must adjust itself to altered conditions ; a new 
method of taxation may drive it out of the State ; contracts and 
modes of dealing which were valid in the State of origin are found 
to be in conflict with the laws of the new State ; without effecting 
its reorganization, the enterprise cannot establish a foot-hold in the 
sister State. These requirements are not merely oppressive ; they 






CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 135 

hamper the free growth of trade. Business enterprise is expan- 
sive by nature ; it demands above all things, certainty and uni- 
formity in the civil law that governs it, and in so far as it must 
accommodate itself to a varying or conflicting jurisprudence, its 
natural development is retarded or arrested. There can be no 
doubt that the establishment of a single code of civil law over all 
the States in the Union would vastly promote the moneyed, and 
all the material interests of the country. 

The moral welfare of the county would be not less advanced 
by such a code. It is in this direction that the evils of the exist- 
ing diversity are even more apparent and crying. When it is true, 
as it is now true, that a child, legitimate in one State, may be 
disinherited and bear the brand of illegitimacy by the laws of 
another State ; that a man may be either married or unmarried 
according as he stands on one side or the other of a State 
boundary ; that a man may suffer imprisonment in the State Prison 
in the State of New York for the crime of bigamy in marrying a 
woman who by the law of New Jersey would be his lawful wife, 
when these anomalies result, as the}* do result, from the conflict 
of State laws, it begins to be possible to realise the absurd and 
demoralizing condition of our jurisprudence. 

All the interests affected by legislation suffer from the want of 
harmon}- between the systems of State law. The uniformity in 
the condition, character and needs of the whole people, the abso- 
lute identity of their material and moral interests, demand one 
code of civil law. No State has now any separate or peculiar in- 
stitutions requiring a distinct body of jurisprudence, differing from 
the other States ; every State ought to enjoy the benefit of the 
experience and legislative wisdom of its sister States, and that 
which is the best legislation for one State is the, best for all alike. 

There is another noticeable tendency of the times which renders 
the divergence of State laws more dangerous for the future than it 
has been in the past. I refer to the tendency to extend the domain 
of legislation to subjects which have hitherto been left to the 
operation of natural laws. The paternal theory of government is 
undoubtedly gaining ground ; it may be said, perhaps, to accord 
with the temper of the age. Herbert Spencer has made this 
tendency, as manifested in the course of modern English law, the 
subject of his violent denunciation ; he sees in it a drifting toward 
what he terms " the coming slaveiy," when individual freedom of 



136 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

life and conduct shall be seriously curtailed by the operation of 
tutelary laws. The same thing is apparent in our own country. 
It is popular to look to the ".overnnient for a cure for every ill, 
and for aid to every measure of progress. Thus, while the enlarge- 
ment of the scope of legislation will increase the variance between 
State codes, the growing community of interests and of needs 
throughout the nation, will make that variance to be felt as more 
and more irksome and obstructive. 

What I have said, thus far, is little calculated to elicit opposition 
or even debate. Every one admits the evil of conHiet in State 
laws; but when we ask how this evil shall be met and remedied, 
then we shall encounter the widest diversity of opinion. This 
question of a remedy is the difficult one to which I now invite 
attention. 

In the first place, the only remedy possible is a radical one. The 
evil cannot work out its own cure through existing agencies. If, 
indeed, all the State legislatures were composed. of statesmen who 
were animated by an intelligent desire to harmonize the State 
codes, some of the more glaring discrepancies could be corrected. 
But our State legislators are not, and are not likely to be in the 
future, uniformly of that highly enlightened character. They 
come together for a brief session, the}- hastily enact a body of 
crude and incoherent statutes in the manner which was so forcibly 
presented before this body three years ago, in the opening address 
of your president, Prof. Wayland, on ' Certain Defects in our 
Methods of Making Laws." These legislators have neither the 
capacity nor the opportunity to study the laws of other States 
relating to the subjects on which they act. Even were they dis- 
posed and competent to do so, they would find the research ex- 
tremely laborious and difficult. No, it is utterly Utopian to look 
for the harmonization of State laws through the simple action of 
the State legislatures, as now constituted ; and, it is none the less 
Utopian to hope to reconstruct and elevate the personnel of State 
legislatures according to the standard required for such a work. 

There is only one plan of correcting the evil of diverse State 
laws that can be said to have gained any popular currency. That 
plan looks to the Federal government as the agency by which the 
States are to be brought into harmony. In the h:ws relating to 
marriage and divorce is presented the most glaring instance, per- 
haps, of divergence between the States : the conflict of the laws on 



CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 137 

these subjects has elicited wide discussion, and the practical out- 
come of it all is a general demand that Congress shall take the 
subject in hand and enact a uniform code of marriage law, which 
shall be supreme throughout the Union. If any objection is 
suggested touching the constitutional power of Congress to legis- 
late on the subject, the answer is made that such an objection is a 
purely technical one ; that if necessary, as a matter of form, the 
Constitution can, and should be, amended, so as to confer upon 
Congress the required jurisdiction, and that the people, as supreme 
sovereign, can alter the Constitution to adapt it to new popular 
needs. 

This appeal to Federal intervention to regulate marriage and 
divorce, is in accord with the general political sentiment of the 
country. There is a growing disposition to widen the scope of 
Congressional action, and to commit to the surveillance of the 
central government many interests that have heretofore been left 
to private enterprise and to State control. It is proposed to 
expend millions of the public money to promote the interests of 
education, and amounts increasing from }*ear to year in wide 
schemes of internal improvement. The demand for postal tele- 
graplry is all but unanimous ; the operation of the railwa}' system 
of the country by the government, and for the public account, is 
openly advocated ; and, at least, the enactment by Congress of a 
code of railroad law, which shall bring all the railway corporations 
in the United States under one uniform system, regulating their 
rights and obligations, and shall subject them to the jurisdiction 
of Federal courts, seems to many the only feasible way of avoiding 
the complications that have resulted from imperfect and conflicting 
State laws. 

I do not propose, now, to discuss the political wisdom of these 
suggested innovations nor to inquire how far all of them are infused 
with a latent element of socialism. I intend to direct attention 
simply to their bearing on our special system of government. It is 
curious that the people fail to apprehend the extreme radicalism of 
all these proposed Federal measures. They are realty measures that 
involve the complete overturning of our whole plan and theory of 
government. It has been the boasted and the distinctive feature of 
our constitutional system that the powers of the central govern- 
ment were so limited that the separate States retained an absolute 
sovereignty in all matters of internal and domestic concern. In 



138 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

everything affecting our status as a nation, and with relation to for- 
eign powers, the Federal government is supreme ; in the develop- 
ment of the civil life of the people, the State is equally supreme. The 
regulation of the lamily relations and the legislative and judicial 
control of all business enterprise have been, not only in fact, but 
necessarily, State functions ; they cannot be transferred to the 
Federal government without subverting the whole theory an 1 sub- 
stance of the Union. The transference can, of course, be affected 
by so-called constitutional amendments ; but such amendments 
cannot property be called amendments they are, rather, revolu- 
tionary changes, introducing a new and radically different form of 
government. The States, in&tead of remaining independent sov- 
ereignties as to all matters not specially committed to the general 
government as they were originally constituted, would be subordi- 
nated to the Federal power ; and after the process of absorption 
had once begun, the ultimate result would be, the civil government 
of the whole people, not by States, but by the central power at the 
Capitol. 

The advantage of such new system would be in a uniform sys- 
tem of law harmoniously and consistently administered throughout 
the length and breadth of the land ; its disadvantage and its dan- 
ger would be in the magnitude of its empire. 

Here, then, are the problem and the dilemma that confront 
us. A nation, firmly consolidated in its interests, and demanding 
an harmonious and national code of civil law, but in fact divided 
and hampered by inefficient, conflicting sj-stems of State law 
possessing a central power at "Washington, now limited, but capa- 
ble of extension, until, by absorbing the present functions of the 
States, it shall secure to the entire nation one common and uniform 
jurisprudence. But, on the other hand, lies the patent and grave 
danger a continent, soon to contain a population exceeding a 
hundred millions can it possibly be governed by a central author- 
ity? Will it not inevitably fall, through its own weight and 
magnitude, into separate fragments. 

I can conceive of but one possible way to avoid the obvious 
danger of centralization, on the one hand, and to secure, on the 
other, the needed unity. The onty remedy lies in the concurrent 
action of the States themselves. The plan I have to propose con- 
templates the appointment of one, two or more commissioners by 
each State men of wide experience, deeply versed in jurisprudence, 



CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 139 

with a broad and liberal comprehension of the national needs ; 
the commissioners so appointed to meet in conference, and to 
compile and codify a sj-stem of statutory law embracing all those 
topics of common and pnblic concern with reference to which the 
interests of the people in ever}" section of the land are identical ; 
the code so formed to be submitted to the legislatures of the 
several States for adoption and enactment. In this way, and this 
way only, can our traditional form of government be preserved, 
and yet the whole people be brought under the sway of a uniform 
law. 

In advocating this plan, I hasten at the outset to meet an 
objection as to its practical feasibility. How can the States be 
brought to the concert of action which the plan presupposes? 
How can the movement be initiated ? 

If the effort were now made to induce all the Slates to join in 
the establishment of a commission to codif}' the whole bod}' of 
statute law, I admit that the effort would prove futile. The idea 
is a new one, and would excite conservative opposition by reason 
of its novelt}-. But the plan proposed is susceptible of a partial 
application and test. If a few of the States could be induced to 
unite in the formation of a joint commission to draw up a body of 
law relating to a single subject, the principle of concurrent codifi- 
cation would thus be introduced ; and when once established, the 
principle might be left to work out its own extension and develop- 
ment. For this purpose, the present agitation regarding the law 
of marriage and divorce affords a read}- nucleus. Probably, not 
less than one-half of all the States of the Union would now unite 
in the appointment of a commission, to be composed of delegates 
from the several States, for the purpose of compiling a body of 
statutes covering the whole subject of marriage and divorce ; the 
code thus formed would not, of course, have the force of law in 
any State until formally enacted b}' the legislature of that State ; 
but it is safe to conclude that if the commission were judiciously 
constituted, its work would be ultimately adopted by the States 
with substantial unanimity and thus the blessings of a uniform 
law throughout the Union on this vital subject could be secured. 

The time is now ripe for this concurrent State action on the 
subject of marital law, and should such action be taken, resulting 
in the successful redaction of a code of marriage law, the evont 
would mark an important epoch in our national history. It would 



140 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

demonstrate (In- possibility of concerted action by the States, and 
would estalili;-h a precedent of inestimable value. The same method 
would then seem the easy and natural one through which to secure 
amongst all the States a uniform code of railroad law, or of law 
relating to corporations generally. 

There is a strong tendency alread} 1 apparent among the several 
States (led, in this respect, by the State of New York) toward the 
general codification of the law of the State ; and if the principle of 
joint or concurrent codification by the States in common could once 
have a practical exemplification, as in the proposed instance of a 
code of marriage law, the time would not be far distant when the 
plan I have proposed would become in its widest extent not only 
feasible but popular the plan, namely, of the States uniting in 
the appointment of a commission to prepare a general code of public 
law, to be submitted to the legislatures of the several States, for 
their separate adoption and enactment. 

The plan of concurrent codification by the States themselves 
will not only secure the benefits of a uniform law throughout the 
Union, but when viewed from many sides it commends itself as the 
best remedy that can be applied to the existing conflict of State 
laws. It falls in with the tendencj 1 of the times, just adverted to, 
demanding codification within the separate States. The worst en- 
emies, not less than the advocates, of legal codes will concede 
that one common code, even of average excellence, is more tolera- 
ble than the thirty-eight separate and different ones with which the 
country is now threatened. But a code which embodies the widest 
legal experience and the best legal ability, culled from all the 
States, will be in itself more exact, more practical, more cosmo- 
politan, than any code which is likety to be produced within any 
single Slate. 

Then, the principle of concurrent State action will impose the 
best practical check upon the popular drifting towards Federal 
centralization, which is the most serious danger that now threatens 
the perpetuity of our historical form of government. The plan 
proposed will secure the States in the exercise of those functions 
with which they were left endowed by the founders of the republic, 
but functions which are now tending toward progressive absorption 
b}' the Federal, and only central, power ; it will insure the civil 
government of the people by the States upon the basis on which 
the Union was formed ; and will impart to that government the 



CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 141 

harmony which is indispensable to the prosperity of a wide-spread 
but thoroughly consolidated nation. 

It would be necessary to provide for the settlement of differen- 
ces in the judicial construction and application of the code which 
would be apt to arise, placing the courts of the different States at 
variance. Practically, such differences would generally be devel- 
oped in controversies between citizens of the conflicting States ; 
and those controversies, being between citizens of different States, 
would fall within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, with a 
right of ultimate appeal to the Supreme Court. The judges of the 
State courts have always manifested a disposition to weigh and to 
respect judicial decisions rendered in sister Slates, and have intel- 
ligently striven to harmonize the rulings in kindred cases. With 
this traditional attitude of the State courts and with the right of 
final recourse to the Supreme Court, there is little ground to 
apprehend any serious divergence in the judicial application of a 
national code of laws. 

The plan I have proposed, of concurrent codification by the 
States, if it proceeded ho further than the enactment of an uniform 
code of civil law, would prove an imperfect remedy for the conflict 
of State laws ; it would, indeed, yield complete temporary relief, 
but it would afford no efficient guaranty for the future. The plan 
involves a further element, vital to its success, to which I have not 
yet adverted. 

A written code of law, no matter how excellent, is of necessity 
only a temporary expedient. The life of a people is an unceasing 
development ; new habits of life, new forms of business activity, 
new conditions of material and moral and social growth are con- 
stantly springing up, changing the face of society and changing its 
interests and its needs. In like manner, civil law, if it at all fulfils 
its function, must be a living and growing science, adapting itself 
with plastic energy to these varying forms of the society it governs. 
It is to such expansive and adaptive properties of the Common Law, 
the unwritten law, that the robust development of the Anglo-Saxon 
races is, in no small measure, due. A written code is less pliable 
under new conditions ; it holds society in a rigid mould which tends 
to trammel its free growth. This is perhaps the strongest argu- 
ment of those who oppose any general codification of law as a 
measure vicious in principle. The argument is not, I conceive, 
unanswerable, but the truth on which it is based is indisputable. 



142 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

The law can be cast in the form of an inflexible code, but it cannot 
long maintain that form unaltered in the midst of a health}* society. 

Suppose, then, our national code of civil law to have been joint- 
ly elaborated and separately adopted by all the States in the manner 
suggested, with the amplest provisions to secure its harmonious en- 
forcement. Not a year would elapse before the flux of the current 
of national life would necessitate changes, amendments, amplifica- 
tions, in that code ; and the separate States, having, as now, no 
medium or agency by which to secure their uniform action, would 
begin immediately to diverge again, through amendments that would 
be diverse, incongruous, wholly irreconcilable. The ultimate result, 
within a decade or two of years, would be confusion worse con- 
founded, and the conflict of State laws again in full course. Is there 
any way to meet this difficulty ? How can the States, when the}' 
have once gained for themselves an harmonious system of law, be 
preserved from future divergence and conflict ? 

The answer to these questions will complete the exposition of 
the plan I am proposing as aii effective cure for the conflict of 
State laws ; and the answer is this. The agency used to bring the 
States into harmony must be made a continuing agency. The 
joint convention to which is entrusted the redaction of the national 
code, must be constituted a permanent council, perpetuated by re- 
appointments as occasion ma}- suggest, and holding annual sessions. 
No amendment to the national code should be adopted by any 
State until it had first been submitted to such council for considera- 
tion. The council, composed of the ablest jurists selected from the 
several States, would constitute a most august body and would fill 
a position of commanding influence and dignity. Its members 
would be brought into the closest personal relations with the execu- 
tive, judicial and legislative departments of their several States ; 
and any measure of legislative concern brought before this body, 
would have light thrown upon it from every section of the country, 
would be discussed in the broadest national spirit, and would 
decided with an intelligent apprehension of the situation and net 
of the entire nation. This body would have no legislative power 
and could exercise no coercive force over any State ; it would 
simply an advisory council for all the States participating in it ; 
but it would occupy a high vantage-ground, in comparison with 
any State legislature, or any possible State legislative commission, 
in pronouncing on every measure of proposed general legislation. 



CONFLICT OF STATE LAWS. EUGENE SMITH. 143 

The moral power of such an official body would surely be effectual 
to preserve the States from any serious divergence, and to maintain 
throughout the whole country a substantially uniform, an en- 
lightened, a progressive jurisprudence. If the proposed conncil 
were only self-constituted or voluntary, it may be doubted whether 
it could attain an effective degree of influence ; but I think that its 
power and the public estimation of it would be greatl}- enhanced 
by its official character and by the fact that it was formally consti- 
tuted by the State for the purpose of directing the course of legis- 
lation. The State legislatures would realize, and if they did not 
the people would force them to realize, that the conclusions of 
such a council could not be lightly disregarded. 

The practical service which such a permanent council could 
render to the country would be of inestimable value. It would 
constitute a standing ' ' commission " at the service of all the States 
for the investigation of those difficult questions of legislative 
policy, which are now frequently submitted in each State to special 
commissions ; and it would enter upon the examinations of such 
questions with peculiar qualifications, and having at its command 
unrivalled facilities. The council would prove itself a powerful 
agency in communicating to the State legislatures a,nd to the 
people at large, broader views and more enlightened intelligence 
regarding the subjects of legislative action and their national 
bearings. 

The sovereignties of Europe maintain ambassadors at the Courts 
of each other, that each ma}' keep informed of the official action 
of the rest and may guard itself against any foreign policy preju- 
dicial to its own interest. Diplomacy is found necessary to pre- 
serve the harmon}* of Europe. The States of this Union, so far 
as their legislative functions extend, are sovereignties, as independ- 
ent of each other as are the States of Europe, and the necessity 
for maintaining harmonious State policies is ten-fold more urgent 
here than it is in Europe. But there is no official agency what- 
ever for holding the States of the Union to uniform lines of 
policy ; there is no official medium of communication between the 
States, whereby the legislature of one State can gain knowledge 
of the action of sister States, or the legislatures of different 
States be placed en rapport with each other on matters requiring 
concurrent action. 

Each State is pursuing its own independent and narrow policy, 



144 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

while the nation has outgrown the States. A consolidated people 
has spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with interests so inter- 
\\o\en and complicated, that they can no longer be locally dis- 
severed, and compressed within the compass of conflicting systems 
of State law. These local systems must be unified, made more 
cosmopolitan, broadened and harmonized to meet the national 
requirements, or else they miist be suppressed and supplanted by 
a central and federal jurisprudence. The logic of events is forcing 
this inevitable issue. The civil government of the Union by 
States can only be perpetuated by bringing the States into a 
harmony corresponding to the unity of the people. Concurrent 
action of the States to attain this end, or complete Federal cen- 
tralization, is the only ultimate alternative. 

I advocate the only conservative course the preservation of 
the constitution, the maintenance of the Union as it was origi- 
nally founded, the continuance of the traditional form of govern- 
ment. I deprecate the other remedy, that of Federal centraliza- 
tion ; it is revolutionaiT, it is fraught with evils that are palpable, 
and it contains, beside, the menace of unknown dangers. 



THE PARDONING POWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 145 



II. THE PARDONING POWER: WHERE SHOULD IT BE LODGED 
AND HOW SHOULD IT BE EXERCISED?* 

BY FRANCIS WAYLAND, CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JURISPRUDENCE. 

Pardon, in its broadest sense, has been defined, correctly 
enough, as "An act of grace by which the sovereign declares that 
the guilt}' shall be regarded as innocent." 

Pardon, in its legal sense, though always nominally and often 
really an act of grace, simply abstains from enforcing the still 
unsatisfied penalty imposed by law after conviction. 

The definition of Chief Justice Marshall, in U. S. vs. Wilson, 
7 Peters, 150, has been quite generally accepted b} r text writers 
as sufficiently accurate : "A pardon is an act of grace which, 
proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the 
laws, exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed from the 
punishment which the law inflicts for a crime which he has com- 
mitted." 

Even if this is an adequate definition for general purposes, it 
should not be overlooked in such a consideration of the pardoning 
power as is proposed at this time, that it is incorrect in various 
essential particulars. 

First. The act of grace proceeds from the sovereign, or whom- 
soever the sovereign may designate to exercise the power. In 
this country, the power remains with the sovereign people as 
represented by the legislature when it has not been delegated to 
the executive, al >ue, or acting with the advice and consent of a 
council, or of some or all of the officers of State, or a board 
specifically selected to perform the dut3\ 

Second. Pardons are frequently granted for the sole reason 
that the petitioner is innocent of the crime for the alleged com- 
mission of which he has been suffering a penalty. 

Third. There are often incidental penal consequences attached 
to conviction for crimes, from which a pardon does not always 
absolve the criminal, such as forfeiture of the elective franchise, 
incompetency to testify, &c., &c. 

A more correct definition of pardon, ns practically in operation 

This paper, first read before the National Prison Association, Sept. 8, was sub- 
mitted in the Jurisprudence Department, Sept. 11, 1884. 

10 



146 AMKRICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

in this country, would be a remission of the penally imposed by a 
court of justice. 

Let us now inquire how the exercise of this power is regulated 
in the States of our Union. 

In twenty-eight States the pardoning power is conferred on 
the Governor by constitutional provision. 

In several States it is by the Constitution made subject to such 
limitations as may be, by law, provided relative to the manner of 
applying for pardons. In Indiana, constitutional provision is 
made by virtue of which the General Assembly may, by law, con- 
stitute a council composed of officers of State, without whose 
advice and consent the Governor shall not have power to grant 
pardons in any case, except such as, by law, may be left to his 
sole power. 

Generally, it would seem to have been assumed, where not 
specifically provided for, that when the pardoning power is lodged 
in the hands of the Governor, the legislature may prescribe in 
what manner the power may be exercised ; as in the statu te 
enacted in California in 1860, providing that pardons shall not be 
granted in any case where the applicant has been twice convicted 
of felony, unless upon written recommendation of a majority of 
the judges of the Supreme Court. 

In Iowa, where the constitution provides that the pardoning 
power of the Governor shall be subject to such regulations as may 
be provided by law, it has been enacted that after conviction of 
murder in the first degree, no pardon shall be granted by the 
Governor until he shall have presented the matter to and obtained 
the advice of the General Assembly thereon. 

In three of the States the pardoning power is lodged in the 
hands of the Governor and a council. In Maine the counc-il 
consists of seven, elected annuall}- by the legislature ; in Massa- 
chusetts of eight, elected annually by the people ; in New Hamp- 
shire of five, elected biennially by the people. 

In two States, Rhode Island and Louisiana, the constitution 
confers the power to pardon on the Governor, by and with the 
consent of the Senate. 

In the remaining States the following provisions are made for 
the exercise of the pardoning power : 

In Florida and Nevada by the Governor, Justices of the 



THE PARDONING POWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 147 

Supreme Court, and the Attorney General, or the major part of 
them, of whom the Governor shall be one. 

In New Jersey by the Governor, Chancellor and six Judges of 
the Court of Errors, or a major part of them, of whom the 
Governor shall be one. 

In Pennsylvania, by the Governor, on the recommendation of 
the Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney-General 
and Secretar}' of Internal Affairs, or any three of them. 

In none of the foregoing States is unanimous consent required : 
in nearly all of them, cases of impeachment and treason are 
exempted from the jurisdiction of the delegated pardoning power. 

Our enumeration thus far has included all of the States but 
Connecticut, which will be considered hereafter. 

In many States, it is made the duty of the Governor to report 
annually to the Legislature or to file with the Secretary of State 
the number of pardons granted, with the material facts in each 
case and the reasons for granting the pardon. 

While in the large majority of States it is specifically provided 
that the pardons may be absolute or conditional, with such con- 
ditions as ma}* be deemed salutary checks upon criminal inclina- 
tions, it has been urged with much show of reason that the right 
to grant absolute pardons includes the right to annex conditions. 
Certainly, this power of annexing conditions, judiciously and 
humanely exercised, is of great value in the restraint imposed 
upon the offender, and the protection afforded to society. 

It should seem sufficiently obvious that conditions should be 
reserved for those cases in which it is conceded or believed that 
the petitioner for pardon was guilty of the crime for which he has 
been suffering the penalty. Yet an incident which recently 
occurred in Massachusetts serves to show that so plain a principle 
is sometimes overlooked. 

One Donahoe was sentenced in 1872, by the Superior Court in 
Suffolk County, to fifteen years in State Prison, for rape. In 
December, 1876, on the recommendation of the Attorney-General 
and on the discovery of new evidence that he had not been 
guilty of the crime of rape, he was conditionally pardoned ; the 
condition being that if he were subsequently found guilty of 
another crime, he should be compelled to serve out the unexpired 
term of his original sentence ! In 1878, Donahoe was convicted 
of larceny and sentenced to two }'ears in the State Prison. Re- 



1 -IN AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

leased on the expiration of this term of imprisonment, be 
recommitted for breach of the condition annexed to his pardon. 
After he had served a year's confinement on the original sentence, 
it occurred to the pardoning power that (I quote from the official 
record), "if the Governor and Council of 1876 were satisfied that 
Donahoe was not guilty of the crime charged, even a breach of 
the conditions of the pardon they granted does not justify the 
present Executive in punishing him for that for which a former 
tribunal has found him not guilty." 

This brief summary of the provisions in the several States with 
reference to pardons is a natural, if not necessary introduction to 
the consideration of the first branch of the subject before us, viz. : 

" Where should the pardoning power be lodged?" 

Now, remembering that the petitioner must be supposed to have 
had a fair trial, before an impartial jury and a competent judge, 
with the defence of counsel and always with the presumption of 
innocence in his favor, the conclusion cannot be escaped that there 
is a very strong probability that the verdict pronouncing him 
guilt}' was justified by the evidence and that the sentence of the 
court was deserved. Bear in mind, also, that the decision of the 
jury must be unanimous. The dissent of a single unconvinced 
juror from the conclusions of the remaining eleven, renders con- 
viction impossible. 

From this, certain inferences seem to invite attention. 

First. As a hearing on a petition for pardon often involves a 
rehearing of the case or the determination of the value of evidence 
purporting to be new and material, is it not obvious that the tri- 
bunal which is to pass upon the question should have a judicial 
element? 

Second. As the plea of insanity is frequently raised, is it not 
expedient that the tribunal should contain an expert in mental 
disease? 

Third. As men convicted of aggravated crimes are sometimes 
possessed of very considerable political influence, by reason of 
the votes which they or their friends can control, is it not in the 
highest degree important that the tribunal should be superior to 
all partizan considerations ?* 

The legislature of Kentucky has sought to protect the Chief Magistrate of that 
State from temptation by enacting the following statute" If any person, other 
than an officer of the Commonwealth, for fee or reward or the promise thereof, 



THE PARDONING POWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 149 

I need hardly say that it would be unreasonable in the extreme 
to expect to find all these qualifications combined in the person of 
a single individual, elected by popular vote, on the nomination of 
a political convention. Nor could we reasonably count upon 
much greater fitness for this important duty in a body of men 
with no especial preparation or aptitude for the discharge of such 
a trust as we are considering. 

Every dictate, therefore, of common sense, as well as every 
lesson of experience and observation conducts us to the conclusion 
that the pardoning power should be lodged in a Board of Pardons, 
so constituted as to secure action which shall be at once intelli- 
gent, wise, impartial, and, in the truest sense, humane. 

And this brings me to the State of Connecticut. For 3 r ears it 
was the only commonwealth in the Union which retained in the 
hands of the legislature the right to grant pardons. The Consti- 
tution was silent on the subject, and the power was not delegated. 
The evils of the system were flagrant, and in time became intoler- 
able. It was not easy to overcome the reluctance of the legisla- 
ture to surrender a right so long exercised, but after several 
successive years of struggle and defeat, the friends of a reform in 
the mode of dealing with pardons presented a bill so judicious in 
its provisions, and so broad in its scope, as to secure the almost 
unanimous approval of the law makers. I make no apology for 
presenting it for your consideration. 

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A BOARD OF PARDONS. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
General Assembly convened: 

SECTION 1. The Governor, a Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Errors, to be designated for that purpose by the Judges of that 
Court, and four persons to be appointed by the General Assembly, 
one of whom shall be a physician, shall constitute a Board of 
Pardons for this State ; provided that in case a Judge of the Su- 
perior Court who is a member of said Board of Pardons shall have 
tried a case in the Superior Court, he shall not act on said Board 
of Pardons in the same case, but the Chief Justice, in such case, 

shall engage or assist in procuring the passage of any bill or act or the rejection 
thereof by the General Assembly, not being a member thereof: or the granting or 
ri'fusinij of a pardon or remission or respite of any punishment or fine by the 
Governor he shall be lined not less than $20 or more that $500 but this act shall not 
apply to an Attorney at Law," &c., &c. 






150 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

shall designate a Judge of the Superior Court to act in such case 
on said Board of Pardons. 

SEC. 2. The jurisdiction for granting commutations of punish- 
ment and releases, conditional or absolute, from the State prison, 
shall be vested in said Board. 

SEC. 3. The Board hereb}' established must all concur in 
order to make their judgment of commutation or release opera- 
tive. It shall hold two sessions at Hartford in each year, ln-<;i li- 
ning the first Monday of December. INS, 1 }, und thereafter the 
meetings shall beheld on the first Mondays of June ami December 
in each year, at the Supreme Court room in said City, and it may 
hold special sessions, when and where occasion may require, and 
it may fix by rule the mode of procedure before it, and the man- 
ner in which its judgments shall be carried into effect. 

SEC. 4. The General Assembly shall appoint two members of 
said Board, who shall hold their office for one year from the first 
Monday of June, 1883; two members who shall hold their office 
for two years from the first Monday of June, 1883. The General 
Assembly shall annually hereafter appoint two members of said 
Board, not more than one of whom shall be of the same political 
party, who shall hold their office for two years from the first Mon- 
day of the following June, and shall, at its annual session, fill 
an}- vacancy in said Board for the remainder of the unexpired 
term. Any vacancy arising when the General Assembly is not in 
session may be filled by the Governor until the Wednesday after 
the first Monday of the following January. 

SEC. 5. The members of said Board shall receive no compen- 
sation for their services, but shall receive for their necessary 
traveling and other expenses five dollars per day for each and 
every day actually employed in the duties of said Board ; and 
said Board shall have power to appoint a clerk, who shall receive 
a salary of two hundred dollars per annum. 

SEC. 6. This act shall take effect from its passage. 

The rules of practice established by the Connecticut Board of 
Pardons, are as follows : 

(ADOPTED DECEMBER 3, 1883.) 
I. 

All proceedings for release shall be instituted by a short peti- 
tion containing the name of the petitioner, his age and nationality, 
a statement of the crime of which he was convicted, when and 
where the same was committed, when sentenced and for how long r 
what commutation has been earned by good behaviour, whether 
this is first imprisonment and whether prior applications for 
release have been made, and finally setting forth special claims 
for consideration. The following is suggested as a short and 
convenient form for such a petition : 



THE PARDONING POWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 151 

To the Honorable Board of Pardons for the State of Connecti- 
cut, to be convened at Hartford on the first Monday of 
A. D. 18 

The petition of 
for release from State Prison, respectfully represents : 

1. That he is years of age. 

2. That he was born in 

3. That he was convicted of the crime of at 

in the Count}- of in 188 , and sentenced 

to imprisonment for a period of years and 

months. Said crime having been committed in the Town of 

4. That by good behaviour he has earned a commutation of 
months of said sentence. 

5. That this is the time he has been in prison. 

6. That this is the time he has applied for release. 

7. That he claims especial consideration because he says, 

The petitioner therefore pra}-s your Honorable Board to take 
his case into consideration and grant him the relief herein prayed 
for ; and as in duty bound he will ever pray. 

Dated at Wethersfield, this day of" A. D. 188 . 

II. 

No petition shall be heard unless the same shall have been filed 
with the Clerk of this Board at least thirty days before its regular 
sessions in December or June, and notice of the pendency of such 
petition shall have been published in a newspaper printed in the 
County in whieh the prisoner was convicted, at least two weeks 
successively before such regular session, and a copy of the news- 
paper in which such notice is published shall be filed with the 
Clerk of this Board. 

III. 

Unless otherwise ordered, arguments on all questions of fact 
will be limited to fifteen minutes. 

IV. 

The seal of the Board shall be the seal of the State of Connec- 
ticut surrounded by the words, "THE BOARD OF PARDONS." 

V. 

A clerk of the Board shall be elected at its December session 
every alternate year, who shall hold his office for two years. 

VI. 

It shall be the duty of the Clerk of this Board to notify the 
State's Attorney of any county where the petitioner was convicted, 
of the pendency of such petition, and request him to appear and 



152 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

In- heard by himself ami his witnesses, if he sees fit, in opposition 
to the same. 

VII. 

It shall be the duty of the Clerk to keep the seal and records 
of the Board; to receive the petitions for release and keep a 
docket of the same; to give the required notices to the State's 
Attorneys; to note and keep on file a brief statement of each 
case ; to record the official proceedings of the Board ; to issue all 
warrants of release and perform such other duties us may, from 
time to time, be required of him by the Board. 

VIII. 

When the prayer of a petitioner shall have been granted, there 
shall be issued an order by the Clerk under the seal of this Board 
and countersigned by all the members thereof, to the Warden of 
the State's Prison, commanding him to release the prisoner from 
confinement, and such order so attested shall be his warrant for 
the release of said prisoner. 

The Board, as now constituted, consists of the Governor, ex- 
officio, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors, a physi- 
cian of high repute and an expert in mental disease, an editor 
long interested in prison management, and two prominent members 
of the Connecticut bar. 

The result of the first twelve months of the new tribunal as 
compared with a few previous years, is as follows : 

1879, Percentage of pardons to petitions, . 22 

1880, " " " . 20 

1881, " " " . 13 

1882, " " " . 21 

1883, " " " . 7 

The remaining question : " How shall the pardoning power be 
exercised ?" is one of extreme and acknowledged difficulty. The 
difficulty will perhaps diminish if we keep distinctly in view a few 
general principles or propositions. 

First. The object of imprisonment for crime is to protect 
society by confining and reforming the criminal. 

Second. Thorough moral reformation in a prison where there 
is no systematic, individual treatment, is more often superficial 
than genuine. 

Third. Society has a right to insist on adequate protection 
from convicted criminals. 



THE PARDONING TOWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 153 

Fourth. The presumption of innocence does not survive a 
verdict of guilty. 

Fifth. The deterrent element of punishment resides mainly in 
its certainty. 

And now for some of the practical bearings of our subject. It 
would seem to be too evident for argument that a Board of Par- 
dons should conduct its proceedings largely according to rules and 
usages prevailing in courts of justice. Indeed it would be wiser, 
perhaps, to call such a tribunal a Court of Pardons. For obvious 
reasons, no pardon should be granted except b} T the unanimous 
consent of the Board. Unanimity was the prerequisite to convic- 
tion. 

Clearly, the desire to escape punishment which dictated the 
defence on the trial will be intensified now that the punishment 
has commenced. Therefore every statement, whether of fact or 
opinion, made in behalf of the petitioner should be scrutinized 
with the utmost vigilance in accordance with these rules of evi- 
dence which have proved so effectual for the discovery of truth 
and the detection of falsehood or mistake. 

It goes without saying that no petitions in aid of an applica- 
tion for pardon should be entitled to the slightest consideration 
unless the petitioners submit to an examination in open court, to test 
their means of knowing the facts which they assert, or the value of 
the opinions which they express. Where this is impossible, a 
disposition should be demanded with opportunity for cross- 
examination. Ex parte affidavits, unfortunately, are too easily 
obtained to be reliable in critical cases, while it is notorious that 
petitions are daily signed by reputable citizens with absolutely no 
knowledge of the truth of the statements which they contain. 
To attach any serious importance to petitions for pardon, " numer- 
ously and respectably signed," without such a personal examina- 
ation as is here commended, would be as dangerous as to refer 
the whole matter to the decision of a town meeting. 

If reference is made to the evidence given at the trial, the 
minutes produced and relied on should be amply authenticated 
by the presiding judge and, when that is impracticable, by the prose- 
cuting officer. 

If newly discovered evidence is claimed, it should be made to 
appear that such evidence conclusively shows the petitioner to 



154 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

have been innocent of the crime of which he was convicted, If it 
is contended that the sentence was too severe, it must be borne in 
mind that the decision of the judge, formed when all the facts 
were fresh in his mind, should not be overruled except on over- 
whelming proof that he erred. Evidence of good character should 
be presented at the trial and atler verdict in mitigation of sen- 
tence. Ordinarily it should not have much weight with the 
pardoning tribunal. The prisoner's good conduct while under- 
going sentence should be and generally is rewarded by a fixed 
remission of so much time for such a period of uniform obedience 
to prison regulations. It is most unwise to base an}- theory of 
thorough reformation on the conduct record alone. It is the 
testimony of all prison officials whom 1 have consulted on this 
subject that the most hardened criminals are most likely to earn a 
reduction of their alloted term. 

The belief that the prisoner is incurably ill and has not long to 
live, is frequently urged as a reason for pardon, and is often 
effectual. It is by no means clear that this plea should ever pre- 
vail ; at all events it should only succeed after a most thorough 
and searching investigation, and on the concurrent testimony of 
the best obtainable medical authorities. A few years ago a con- 
vict was pardoned by the Governor of a New England State on 
the ground, plausibly supported, of incurable illness, and the 
manifest prospect of speed}' death. In less than a month he was 
arrested in the act of committing a burglary in a neighboring 
State. Surely, in this instance, society was not adequately pro- 
tected. Illustrations of the same kind might be indefinitely 
multiplied. 

Another reason for the exercise of mercy, so called, which is 
often pressed upon the attention of the pardoning power, is the 
fact that the family of the prisoner is in destitute circumstances, 
and requires his assistance. We need not pause long over this 
kind of appeal. It has nothing whatever to do with the merits of 
the case, 

If innocence of the crime for which the petitioner is suffering 
be clearly shown, his pardon should be granted, strictly speaking 
his unconditional and immediate release should be ordered, as an 
act of simple justice. 

If it be made to appear beyond any reasonable doubt, that the 
sentence was unwarrantably severe, this would seem to be a fit- 



THE PARDONING POWER. FRANCIS WAYLAND. 155 

ting case for the exercise of executive clemency. It is hardly 
necessary to illustrate my meaning further than to allude to the 
fact that in times of great popular indignation over the alarming 
prevalence of crimes of violence, the first victim who is caught 
and convicted is often made to suffer, not only for his own offence, 
but for the undetected outrages of other ruffians, and is visited 
with a sentence which would be at once pronounced by all exces- 
sive, but for its surroundings. 

There remains another class of cases which naturally, and per- 
haps deservedly, will appeal with great force to the attribute of 
mercy. I refer to exhibitions, on the part of prisoners, of con- 
spicuous courage, loyalty, fidelity to duty in seasons of excessive 
danger, whether from an epidemic, a revolt, a fire or any crisis 
demanding prompt decision for or against the prison officials. 

There may be other reasons which from time to time are urged 
upon the pardoning power by sympathizing friends or subsidized 
attorneys of prisoners impatient of confinement. No two cases 
will be precisely similar, but there are, as I have sought to show, 
certain general principles applicable to all cases. It is believed 
that an intelligent and impartial Board, keeping these principles 
ever in view, and pardoning only by unanimous consent, is not 
likely to go often astray, or to commit serious mistakes. 

NOTE. This Paper was discussed by P^x-President HATES, who 
presided when it was read, by Prof. WAYLAND, Mr. SANBORN, and 
others ; but no report of the debate has been preserved. 



156 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



III. TIIL TIlKKKFOLl) BASIS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. 

BT REV. F. H. WINES, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 

(Read Thursday, September 11.) 

The question of the punishment of crime, which has attracted 
the attention of the most eminent thinkers, nmy be discussed 
either from its philosophical, or its historical side ; but here, as 
elsewhere, it will be found that while history illustrates philosophy, 
philosophy illuminates history. By common consent, there are 
but three possible grounds upon which the infliction of pain upon 
offenders against the criminal law can be justified, n:r.uely : retri- 
bution, protection and reformation. Some writers reduce these 
three to two, retribution and protection. Others reject the idea 
of retribution, and resolve the remaining two into one, protection ; 
for, in their view, the reformation of the criminal is one form of 
protection of society against crime, and the attempt to accomplish 
his reformation, contrary to his own will, would, on any other 
ground, be indefensible. 

It is my purpose, in this paper, to give what appear to be valid 
reasons for believing that the criminal law ought to be based, and 
is, in fact, based, not upon any of these three principles, nor upon 
any two of them, but upon all three taken together ; that, though 
inter-connected, they are independent of each other; and that the 
denial of either is perilous to the stability and security of society. 

To begin with the historical argument, it is clear that in the 
primitive state of mankind, when international (or, to speak with 
greater precision, intertribal), disputes were settled b}* arms, and 
personal disputes were referred to the same stern tribunal, and 
commonly ended in murder, the criminal code, in its then crude 
and undeveloped form, was a bloody code. Usage, not written 
statutes nor judicial decisions, constituted law ; and usage sanc- 
tioned public and private retaliation. That murder should be 
avenged by murder, that he who strikes another should himself be 
struck, said ./Eschylus, is the most ancient of all laws. The lex 
talionis may be traced through all the codes of antiquity of which 
we have any knowledge, Egyptian, Syrian, Assyrian, Persian, 
Greek or Roman. To every reader of the Bible, it is familiarly 



THE THREEFOLD BASIS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. 157 

known tinder the form in which it was enunciated b} T the great 
Hebrew lawgiver : an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 

In the ancient criminal jurisprudence, there are also distinct 
evidences of the existence of a desire for self-protection, suggesting 
many of the bloody deeds with which the early pages of the world's 
history are stained. In the earliest times, offences even against a 
ruler, were regarded rather as private than public, as torts or 
injuries, rather than crimes. At a later date, the distinction 
between public and private offences began to be recognized. But 
it may be readily imagined that always and everywhere, the primi- 
tive man looked upon the punishment of a wrong as an act, like 
war, at once of vengeance and of self-defence. In the estimation 
of a despot, nothing could have been of more importance, than 
that he should rid himself effectually of rebels, traitors and rivals ; 
and no doubt myriads of lives were a forfeit to the sentiment of 
fear. In no other wa}- can we account for the inclusion of the 
offspring of a political offender in the sentence pronounced against 
himself. Sometimes religious motives prompted the most horrible 
atrocities. The history of our race is a record of successive 
superstitions, and the dread of divine displeasure was often 
inextricably blended with the fear of human enemies. Certain 
acts of supposed impiety were believed to excite the anger of the 
gods against the tribe or nation, and for the appeasing of the 
gods, human sacrifices were essential. We see in such sacrifices 
the early recognition of the double nature of punishment, retribu- 
tion and protection, or protection by expiation. 

The gradual amelioration of the barbaric severity which repaid 
nearly every conceivable offence with death, was effected by the 
introduction of a system of compounding offences by the injured 
part}', who accepted from the man whose life was forfeited to him 
an agreed recompense in money, or its equivalent. In this way, 
by degrees, fines came to take the place of bloodshed. The 
frequency of capital punishment was also arrested by the system of 
sanctuary. Before the Christian era, however, there does not 
appear to have been an}- purpose in the criminal law to protect 
society against crime through the reformation of the offender. 
Jesus Christ taught that we must forgive our enemies, and that 
" If we forgive not men their trespasses, neither will our Father 
which is in heaven forgive us our trespasses." The Apostles in- 
sisted upon the duty of forgiveness. " Dearly beloved," said the 



158 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

apostle Paul, --avenge not yourselves, for vengeance is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord." And again : " Brethren, if a man he 
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in 
the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be 
trmpk'd." But it was long before the application of these admoni- 
tions to the treatment of crime and criminals forced itself upon the 
notice even of Christian nations. Practically, the movement for 
the amelioration of the condition of prisoners and the effort to 
secure their reformation while* in prison, dates from the last 
century only. 

With modern criminal jurisprudence, most students of penolog}' 
are more or less familiar, and know that what is termed tin- 
echelle des peines, or scale of penalties is, upon the continent of 
Europe, a fruitful theme of discussion. The echelle des peines is 
an attempt to adjust penalties to the supposed magnitude of the 
offences against which they are denounced in the code. Something 
of the same indistinct apprehension of an ideal proportion hctwcm 
crime and punishment is apparent in our own codes, with their 
minimum and maximum terms of imprisonment, which vary accord- 
ing to the supposed heinousness of the crimes to which they attach. 
If there were no actual ground in the constitution of the human 
mind for belief in the principle of the lex talionis, it is difficult to 
see how this attempt to adjust punishment to guilt could have 
originated, unless it is merely a survival of an obsolete conviction. 
It is certain that the idea of retribution is less vivid now than 
formerly, but it is pertinent to put the inquiry : If it has been 
dropped from criminal legislation, when and where did this revolu- 
tion in criminal jurisprudence take place? I confess that I do not 
know. 

Obviousl}-, the questions of the actual and the ideal basis of the 
criminal law are distinct questions. It is one thing to assert that 
the law ought to ignore the idea of retribution, and it is quite 
another to assert that it does in fact ignore it. I am somewhat 
embarrassed to know how to treat the subject, in consequence of 
my ignorance of the ground to be taken by my opponents, if I have 
any, in this discussion. 

Reference has been made to the supposed measure of guilt ; but 
it is difficult to find such a measure. Guilt is not measured wholly 
by the heinousness of the act committed, nor by the evil intention 
of the actor, nor by the magnitude of the injury resulting from the 



PAPER BY REV. F. H. WINES. 159 

criminal act. It is rather a compound judgment arising from our 
apprehension of all three of these elements, which are in them- 
selves distinct from each other. The difficulty of estimating the 
guilt of an offence is illustrated by the fact that when legislatures 
are required to form such an estimate, and to embody it in statutes, 
they allow such a wide range of discretion to judges in pronounc- 
ing sentence, a$ they do, ranging in some cases from a petty fine 
without imprisonment, to imprisonment for a long term of years. 
No code with fixed penalties has ever proved satisfactory in prac- 
tice. It is further illustrated by the fact that judges do not agree 
in the sentences pronounced by them in their discretion, as every 
one familiar with the interior life of American prisons very well 
knows ; since one prisoner may be sentenced by one judge for a 
long term of years for the very same offence for which another 
prisoner receives, at the hands of another judge, a merely nominal 
punishment. Undoubtedly, the agitation of the question of reform 
in the criminal law, springs largely from the conviction that justice, 
in the strict sense of the word, cannot be dealt out by fallible 
human tribunals, and that the only judge who is qualified to pro- 
nounce final sentence upon the guilt or innocence of those brought 
before him, is the great Judge of the quick and the dead, before 
whose bar all must one day stand. And yet are not human judges 
as fallible in their decisions in civil as in criminal cases? It was, 
I believe, after a decision rendered against an attorney who pleaded 
his own cause in a civil court, that he uttered the famous sarcasm, 
in the form of a definition of law : Law is the unequal distribution 
of injustice. 

Without law, nevertheless, society could not exist, and every 
law consists of two parts, a command or prohibition, and a sanc- 
tion, which is a threat of punishment in case the law is violated. 
Punishment is the infliction of pain. The words vt pain," 
" penalt}"," " punishment," " penitence," and " penitentiary," all 
have the same derivation from the Latin word poena, which signi- 
fies pain. To punish is to inflict pain upon one who deserves it. 
Penitence is the mental pain which springs from the consciousness 
of ill-desert. A penitentiary is a place in which those who are 
punished may exercise the grace of penitence. Without the in- 
fliction of pain, punishment is impossible. 

The idea of punishment implies two parties, one of whom 
deserves to be punished, and in the other, the right to punish must 



100 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

inhere. Hut it appears to be clear that the right to punish must 
exist prior to the act of punishment., and that it must depend 
rather upon the antecedents than upon the consequences of that 
act. In the order of logical sequence, cause must precede effect, 
and the cause must be sufficient to account for the effect, without 
reference to the effects of the effect. In the chain of cause and 
effect, of which crime and punishment are separate links, the 
original cause is a criminal disposition, which leads to a criminal 
act, which is followed by punishment, and punishment is in turn 
the cause which produces certain other effects. For instance, it 
has an effect in deterring others from committing crime ; and it 
has an effect in deterring the criminal himself from the repetition 
of his criminal act ; and it may lead him to such serious reflection 
as will produce in him genuine amendment of purpose and reforma- 
tion of character. But the right to punish does not have its origin 
in the effects which follow punishment, but in the conviction enter- 
tained, prior to the act of punishment, that punishment is deserved. 
The experience which we have of the effects of punishment may 
constitute a subsequent and subordinate (or even a principal) 
motive for insisting that crime shall be punished, and it may 
modify the form and the degree and the mode of punishment ; but 
it cannot affect the right to punish, without which there can be no 
law, and without law, no social order. 

The philosophical basis of punishment is the principle that action 
and re-action are equal and contraiy, a principle which is of as 
unvarying application in morals as in physics. Punishment is the 
reaction against crime. A wrong done, whether to an individual 
or to the community, produces a sentiment of indignation and 
detestation, on the part not only of those who suffer wrong, but of 
all who witness a criminal act. The indignation felt may be mis- 
directed or excessive. But of this sacred anger, even celestial 
minds are capable, and it is essential to all true manhood. The 
natural, though often mistaken and ill-judged, expression of hostil- 
ity to wrong, is the infliction of pain upon the wrong-doer. Now 
law and government deal with men not as they should be, and in 
an ideal state might be, but as they are. All government is in 
effect a compromise between the ideal and the actual. Laws in the 
form of statutes are the expression of our imperfect conception of 
relations, conditions and obligations, which would be precisely 
what they are, were there not a written statute in the world ; 






THE THREEFOLD BASIS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. 161 

except in so far as written law has an educational value, or is the 
embodiment of purely police regulations. Under the operation of 
law, the passions of mankind find vent in an orderly manner, 
where, without law, they would lead to disorder and excess. But 
no law can change human nature. Accordingly, we find that, 
wherever the laws against crime are weakly administered, the 
people, largely from an instinct of self-protection, no doubt, take 
the law into their own hands and execute it. I apprehend that, if 
all thought of retribution were to be eliminated from criminal 
jurisprudence, this would be the natural and inevitable result. 

The following quotation from the tenth chapter of Maine's 
Ancient Law is confirmatory of the view just expressed : "Like 
every other institution which has accompanied the human race 
down the current of its history, the punishment of death is a 
necessity of society in certain stages of its civilizing process. 
There is a time when the attempt to dispense with it baulks both 
of the two great instincts which lie at the root of all penal law. 
Without it, the community neither feels that it is sufficiently 
revenged on the criminal, nor thinks that the example of his 
punishment is adequate to deter others from imitating him. The 
incompetence of the Roman Tribunals lo pass sentence of death, 
led distinctly and directly to those frightful revolutionary intervals 
known as the Proscriptions, during which all law was formally 
suspended, simply because party violence could find no other 
avenue to the vengeance for which it was thirsting. ]S T o cause 
contributed so powerfully to the decay of political capacity in the 
Roman people as the abeyance of the laws ; and, when it had once 
been resorted to, we need not hesitate to assert that the ruin of 
Roman libert\ - became merely a question of time. If the practice 
of the tribunals had afforded an adequate vent for popular passion, 
the forms of judicial procedure would, no doubt, have been as 
flagrantly perverted as with us in the reigns of the later Stuarts, 
but national character would not have suffered as deeply as it did, 
nor would the stability of Roman institutions have been as seri- 
ously enfeebled." 

To this quotation I will add another, which seems to be in point, 
from the 17th chapter of Stephens' History of the Criminal Law of 
England: " If, in all cases, criminal law were regarded only as a 
direct appeal to the fears of persons likely to commit crimes, it 
would be deprived of a large part of its efficiency, for it operates 
11 



162 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

not only upon the fears of criminals, but upon the habitual senti- 
ments of those who are not criminals. Great part of the general 
detestation of crime which lumpily prevails amongst the decent part 
of the community in all civilized countries arises from the fad that 
the commission of offences is associated in all such communities 
with the solemn and deliberate infliction of punishment wherever 
crime is proved. . . The sentence of the law is to the 
moral sentiment of the public in relation to any offence, what a 
seal is to hot wax. It converts into a permanent final judgment 
what might otherwise be a transient sentiment. . . Teh 
infliction of punishment by law gives definite expression and a 
solemn ratification and justification to the hatred which is excited 
by the commission of tli2 offence. . . The criminal law 
thus pioceeds upon the principle that it is morally right to hate 
criminals, and it confirms and justifies that sentiment by inflicting 
upon criminals punishments which express it." With this view I 
concur, except that the sentiment of hatred which is morally 
justifiable is not hatred of criminals, but of crime ; and I would 
add that such hatred of crime is not only morally right, but of 
moral obligation, and that it is a sentiment which needs to be 
stimulated, developed and cultivated, rather than repressed. 

In all our thinking upon this abstruse and difficult subject, two 
distinctions need to be kept constantly in mind. First, we must 
discriminate between a right and the exercise of that right, or 
between the right to punish and the obligation to punish. Sound 
public policy may dictate the waiving of this right in certain cases, 
and the overlooking of offences instead of punishing them ; and 
society may, in the application of penalty to the individual, dis- 
tinctly disclaim the intention to inflict pain for the sake of giving 
pain. But if society has the right to punish, it cannot part with 
that right, even by its own act. The right remains, even when in 
abeyance. The other distinction which we must make is between 
punishment, regarded as an act of justice, and the mode of punish- 
ment, which need not be vindictive, cruel or "harsh. If, as I have 
said, the protection of society is a principal aim of punishment, 
that end should be made duty prominent, and no more pain should 
be inflicted than is necessary to secure that end. Practically, the 
only interest which society has in the punishment of crime is it 
repression or a reduction in its volume, either through the opers 
tion of the principle of fear, or through the reformation of tl 



PAPER BY REV. F. H. WINES. 163 

criminal through the operation of the principle of love love for 
the criminal as a man, which is not inconsistent with hatred of 
the crime of which he lias been guilty. 

It is objected to*the retributive theory of punishment, that re- 
venge is a sentiment unworthy of a man ; to which it may he 
replied, that the theory of simple protection makes punishment 
spring from fear, which is equally a sentiment unworthy of a man. 
It is also objected that it is contrary to the teachings of the New 
Testament ; to which it may be replied, that if the New Testa- 
ment forbids the avenging of injuries, it no less explicitly forbids 
resistance to evil. Christ said: " I say unto you that ye resist 
not evil, but if a man will take awaj' thy coat, let him have thy 
cloak, also." The Biblical argument, pushed to its extreme logical 
conclusion, proves too much ; it has even been employed in de- 
fence of communism. It is no in )r3 conclusive, when urged 
against the- satisfaction of justice by the punishment of crime, 
than when it is made to do service in favor of the dogma that 
capital punishment is ordained of God, and obligatory under all 
circumstances and in every age. 

It is further objected to the retributive theory, that it rests upon 
the assumption that guilt can be measured, and that punishment 
can be adjusted to guilt, but all experience teaches that this 
assumption is without foundation. To this it may be answered, 
that the theoiy of simple protection rests upon the assumption that 
it is possible to measure the amount of injury inflicted upon 
society by particular criminal acts, and .the danger to society 
resulting from the enlargement of the criminal an assumption 
which is equally unfounded. Such is the imperfection of all human 
institutions, in consequence of the necessary limitations of the 
human intellect and conscience, that we might almost say,' in the 
form of a paradox, that punishment does not punish, protection 
does not protect, and reformation does not reform ; but this is no 
argument against either. We forever struggle to attain an ideal 
perfection which is forever beyond our reach. 

The argument in opposition to the elimination of retribution 
from the criminal law has perhaps been presented with sufficient 
fulness for our present purpose. The argument in favor of the 
proposition that the protection of society is one object of the 
criminal law does not need to be presented, since there is no differ- 
ence of opinion as to this point. It therefore only remains to add 



1G4 AMKIMCAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

:i \\ord with reference to the proper place of reformation in the 
scheme of criminal jiirisprn<lcii> 

Upon this subject there are two extreme views, both of which 
number among their advocates men whose opinion carries weight. 
One is, that the reformation of the criminal has no place whatever 
in criminal jurisprudence; and the other, that it should be, though 
at present it is not, its sole animating purpose. The safer view 
appears to lie between these two extremes. 

Tin 1 criminal law seeks to protect society, lirst, against the 
repetition of criminal acts by the individuals by whom they were 
committed ; and. second, against the spread of crime through 
imitation, for crime is in its nature highly contagious. Success- 
ful crime and crime unpunished provoke emulation on the part of 
others who are criminally predisposed. The deterrent effect of 
punishment must never be forgotten. That it does exert a deter- 
rent influence, though sometimes disputed, is abundantly suscep- 
tible of proof. 

Now there are but two ways by which the criminal himself can 
be prevented from the commission of fresh crimes; these have 
been called, by Recorder Hill, of Birmingham, reformation and 
incapacitation. There are many who seem to think that this easily 
remembered formula reformation or incapacitation sums up in a 
single phrase all that needs to be said or can be said on the sub- 
ject of punishment. This would be true, if it were only the con- 
victed criminal against whom the law must protect society. If 
the man who commits crime is incapacitated, by his execution, or 
by perpetual imprisonment, society is as safe from his attacks as 
it would be from the ravages of a wild beast which has been 
caught and securely confined. But incapacitation should never 
be resorted to, where reformation is possible. And reformation is 
itself incapacitation. It may be compared to the extraction of 
the teeth or claws of a wild beast ; for, if the criminal is so 
wrought upon while in prison, that he no longer has any disposition 
to commit crime, society is protected against him in the surest man- 
ner, and in a way not to offend the sentiment of humanity, but, 
on the contrary, to elicit public approval and admiration. 

The reformation of the criminal, therefore, should be kept in 
view as an end to be sought, and this end should be made very 
much more prominent in prison discipline than it is. It is to be 
feared that the organization of our prisons, (which is the out- 



THE THREEFOLD BASIS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. 165 

growth of popular ignorance of the principles involved), is such 
that in practice, at least, the idea of reformation is thrust into the 
back-ground, and in some prisons wholly ignored. What the 
people demand of a prison officer is that he shall hold his prison- 
ers, and that he shall, if possible, make them pay their own way 
while in prison. All else is pretty much left to his discretion. 
The actual status of a prisoner is that of a slave. Undoubtedly 
many prisoners are reformed ; some of them by genuine conver- 
sion of the heart to the love of right, but more of them through 
the fear engendered by the remembrance of the suffering endured 
in prison, which forces them to the conclusion that crime is an 
unprofitable career. But there is a very general conviction 
among prison officers, founded upon the persistence of certain 
types of criminal character, that the reformation of criminals is a 
chimera, and that the time and labor expended in this direction 
are wasted. My father, on the other hand, used to say, that until 
an earnest and honest effort to reform criminals while in prison 
shall have been made, and made by men inspired with the hope of 
success in such an effort, it will never be known what per cent, of 
criminals are in fact susceptible of reformation. Criminal law is 
one thing, but prison discipline is another ; and while criminal 
law may have principally in view the repression of crime, prison 
discipline should have for its principal object the elevation of the 
criminal. 

It is not surprising that persons who are more deeply interested 
in questions of prison discipline than in the philosophy of criminal 
jurisprudence should manifest a very decided leaning toward what 
is known as the indeterminate or indefinite sentence. There are 
two forms under which this theory is held, of which one advqcates 
the abolition both of the maximum and minimum sentences now 
embodied in our criminal statutes ; but the other would abolish 
the maximum only, while retaining the minimum sentence. But, 
they agree in regarding the criminal not as a transgressor to be 
punished, but as a moral invalid, to be healed, or a moral imbecile, 
to be trained and developed. The extreme view contemplates 
taking both from the legislature and the judiciary all discretionary 
power to formulate sentences for crime, and vesting this power 
exclusively in boards of prison control, or in special tribunals, 
authorized to discharge prisoners from custody whenever satisfied, 
from the evidence adduced, that the end of punishment in the 



166 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

reformation of the criminal has been accomplished, or that society 
would not be endangered in consequence of his release. The 
other view equally deprives the judiciary of discretionary power 
in pronouncing sentence, but favors the fixing, by the legislature, 
of tin- mtixiinum term of imprisonment. I do not propose to 
enter into any argument for or against the indeterminate sentence, 
which, in theory, has much to commend it, and, in some form and 
measure, might probably work successfully in practice ; but I wish 
to remark that it must be discussed, not from the point of view of 
prison discipline alone, but upon the higher and broader level of 
its relation to the non-criminal class; that is to say, upon tin; 
basis of the principles which underlie the entire system of criminal 
jurisprudence, in all its parts. Prison discipline must be made to 
conform to justice and to the principles of law ; but these cannot 
be subordinated to the fancied needs or interests of prison disci- 
pline. 

If the indeterminate sentence rests upon the conviction that the 
reformation of the criminal is the sole object of punishment, then 
it must be rejected. For the reformation of the criminal, so far 
from being the sole object of punishment, is not even its principal 
object. If the view so generally entertained by prison officials, 
that the mass of criminals are irreclaimable, is correct, then the 
reformation theory founds the entire system of prison discipline 
upon the condition, needs, and capacities, not of the majority but 
of the minority of those who are by the law subject to imprison- 
ment. The reply which will be made to this assertion, namely, 
that the indeterminate sentence contemplates the incapacitation of 
criminals who are insusceptible of reformation, and that the knowl- 
edge that society has determined either to reform or to imprison 
for life all who have committed any serious infraction of the law, 
will have a deterrent influence in the prevention of the spread of 
crime, is, in fact, a concession that reformation is not the sole 
object of imprisonment, nor even the principal object, but that the 
principal object of punishment is to deter men from the commis- 
sion of crime, through the inspiration of fear. 

There is nothing more difficult than to reconcile the dictates of 
justice with the suggestions of mercy. Religion is, and law 
should be, the minister of both. The apparent contradiction 
between the two is simply one illustration of the fact that truth is 
many-sided, and that all partial views of truth are essentially of 



PAPER BY REV. F. H. WINES. 167 

the nature of error. The total rejection of any one of the three 
theories of punishment upon which the criminal law rests, instead 
of indicating breadth and clearness of mental vision, evinces an 
imperfect and immature conception of the relations of the entire 
subject ; and it is a mistake to suppose that the reformation 
theory, in its application to prisoners, involves, of necessity, any 
less pain and suffering on the part of the offender against law, 
than do either of the other two. Indeed, the formula, ''reforma- 
tion or incapacitation," contains in itself an element of additional 
severity, since it is an assertion of the right to imprison for life 
those who have been guilty only of minor offences, and it is 
questionable whether this right in fact exists, or is consistent with 
absolute justice. 

Of the retribution theory, it ma}' at least be said, that if it is an 
asssertion of the right to inflict all the pain which a particular 
criminal act may merit, it is the denial of the right to inflict upon 
any human being any needless and unmerited pain. 



NOTE. Other Papers of the Jurisprudence Department will 
appear in the next number of the Journal. A Paper read in the 
Department of Local Economj- will close this number. 






168 AMKKICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

IIKIJKKW CIIARITIKS. 

BV MISS MAKY M . roilKN, or I'll 1 1. A I >KI. I'll I A. 
(Read Friday, September 12.) 

The word charity has many meanings. "Kindness," " tender- 
ness," and " active goodness" arc among them ; also " liberality 
to the poor;" but none appeals so strongly to the soul of man as 
this" universal love to human kind." The Hebrew word Tsedakah, 
signifying " righteousness," has this large sense. 

Charities are Hebrew inasmuch as they are dispensed by mem- 
bers of the Semitic race, chiefly, but by no means exclusively, 
to the suffering of that race. If a motto were desired for the 
Hebrew Charities, none better could be chosen than " universal 
love to human kind." 

A verse of the book of Deuteronomy lays down the Divine 
precept of charity: "For the needy will not cease out of the 
land : Therefore do I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open 
wide thy hand unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, 
in the land." * It was thus early impressed upon the Jewish nation 
that charity was a positive duty ; not something to be left to the 
chance impulses of the occasionally tender heart, but a habit of 
unselfishness and consideration to be cultivated. The power of 
charity grew with the exercise, for, as a Hebrew sage has declared 
(and this truth has lately been turned into current gold for the 
world at large by the Midas-touch of noble George Eliot), 
" The reward of performing one duty is the power to fulfil 
another." Jewish benevolence has become a proverb. The perse- 
cution of the Middle Ages persecution such as no other people 
on the face of the earth has borne increased the responsibility of 
the more fortunate Jews ; they saw that the nations among whom 
they were scattered were far from wishing to aid the homeless, 
poverty-stricken Hebrews, unless, indeed, the outcasts would adopt 
the popular religion. Then alms and favors would have been 
lavished upon them. But principle forbade this course, and the 
Jew therefore depended solely on his brethren for aid. 

There was no class of suffering humanity that the Divine code 
did not recommend to compassion. The fatherless, the widow, 
and the stranger most emphatically the stranger were frequently 

*Deut. xv, 2. 



HEBREW CHARITIES. MARY M. COHEN. 169 

commended to the tender and active sympathy of their happier 
brethren. 

Innumerable special rules were laid down for the protection of the 
poor. If a loan were made, the lender could not enter the house 
of the borrower to take his pledge ; the borrower brought it into 
the street, and delivered it there. In a case of great need, the 
lender was not permitted to keep the pledge over night ; before sun- 
down it must be returned. The wages of laborers were to be paid 
on the very day that they were earned. Interest was not to be 
taken by any Hebrew from another. The practical application 
of these laws was generous to a degree far surpassing the letter 
of the text. 

Among the measures designed to prevent poverty were, the law 
of the seven years' release, which obliged every creditor to release 
the loan made to his neighbor or brother ;* and the institution of the 
Jubileef every fiftieth year ; these provisions restored money and 
land to those bereft of either, and with them restored that self- 
respect which is the highest incentive to greater exertion. They 
rendered impossible those extremes of poverty and wealth which 
give rise to the great problems of this century. And who shall 
estimate or express the ecstasy of the slave that, at the sound of 
the cornet, felt himself and his children free ! 

" So far as we can judge from the Scripture narration," says a 
thoughtful writer, " though there were poor in all the olden time, 
yet there were no paupers, that is, no able-bodied paupers sup- 
ported by public charit} 7 .]: 

A further instance of a law preventive of poverty was the 
decision of the inheritance of the daughters of ZelophchWl.|| 
This was brought directly before the Divine tribunal. Infinite 
Wisdom defended the cause of those who might otherwise, on 
account of their sex, have been deprived of their only means 
of support. 

Special kindness and generosity were commanded to be shown 
the Levites. They were of course entitled to the tithe and to the 
cities set apart for them, in return for priestly service. 

Loving care for the dumb brutes was taught also ; they were to 
share the blessing of a Sabbath. 

Deut. xiv, 1-2. 

t Lev. xxv, 8-12. 

t " Social Science in the Law of Moses," by Rev. H. L. Waylaml. 

II Numbers xxvii. 






170 'AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

The importance of education as a factor in diminishing poverty 
was not fully recognized by the Hebrews until after the first cap- 
tivity, when education was made compulsory. Then schools 
spread abroad the incomparable light of knowledge ; in the pithy 
words with which Deutsch translates the Talmud : "The world 
is saved by the breath of school-children." Then, too, nu>ntal 
training and manual labor grew side by side ; the rabbi, doctor, 
teacher, was obliged also to learn some trade, so that if literary 
work became unprofitable, he might be saved from mendicancy by 
the honest toil of his hands. 

The wise and humane spirit which characterized the Mosaic 
legislation continues to mould and inform the Hebrew Chaiities of 
to-day. In considering the present status of these charities, it 
may naturally be enquired : 

I. What are the dimensions and amount of these charities? 
II. Are they extended to Hebrews only, or to all races and 
creeds? III. By what methods are they distributed? Are they 
preventive, tending to make recipients self-supporting? IV. Are 
they national or international ? 

I. The dimensions and amount of Hebrew Charities to-daj- 
assume large proportions. A recent attempt by a Jewish writer 
to obtain and publish statistics of these charities failed because of 
the vastness of material. Wherever civilization is found, there is 
the Hebrew charity. 

Some of the most prominent organizations ma}* be mentioned. 
First in rank is the Universal Israelitish Alliance, the most far- 
reaching of all. The Jewish Orders next. Then the United 
Hebrew Charities. Then no less effective, though not as 
extended Hospitals, Homes for Aged and Infirm, Foster Homes, 
Orphan Asylums, Charity Ball Associations, Free Burial Societies, 
Ladies' Aid Associations, Societies for Nursing the Sick, Loan 
Associations, Nurseries, Child's Protectories, Kindergartens, Free 
Schools, Children's Free Excursions, Sunday and Sewing Schools, 
Sheltering Guardian Societies, Industrial Schools. In every 
European cit}*, and in almost even* city of the United States, 
some of these are found. In London alone seventy societies 
exist. 

Besides the public institutions are the numerous gifts by indi- 
viduals, during life as well as by bequest. From time imme- 
morial, it has been customary with Hebrews on the occurrence of 



HEBREW CHARITIES. MARY M. COHEN. 171 

any domestic event a birth, a marriage, an anniversary, even a 
death to give liberally to the poor and afflicted. When Jewish 
festivals occur, the needy and the stranger are cordially invited to 
share the hospitality of the household. 

II. These charities extend to all races and creeds. On May 
14th, 1884, in Berlin, was held a conference of German Rabbis, 
sixty-nine of whom were from the provinces. At this conference 
was adopted a declaration on the interconfessional attitude of 
Judaism, from which the following is quoted : 

" The precept of charity laid down in Lev. xix., 18, ' Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord,' does not 
apply only to brethren in race or faith, but like the precept of 
Righteousness in Lev. xxiv., 22, 'Ye shall have one manner of 
law, as well for the stranger as for one of your country,' is to be 
regarded as an unrestricted command, embracing all men. Every 
one who manifests his humanity b} T the practice of righteousness 
stnd love, and by walking humbly before God, although he may 
have been born in another creed, is, in the judgment of Judaism, 
eligible for eternal salvation, according to the maxim of Rabbi 
Joshua : k The righteous of all nations have a share in eternal 
salvation.' 

These teachings are the fundamental motives of the interconfes- 
sional attitudes of Judaism. If in the extensive literature of the 
Jews, expressions are discovered which do not reach the height of 
this ideal, they are only to be regarded as the opinions of individ- 
uals, called forth by the pressure of the times, and possessing no 
binding virtue." 

To name but a few of the Hebrew philanthropists would be to 
prove that this creed is borne out by deed. The benevolence of 
such men and women as the Montefiores, Rothschilds, Goldsmids, 
Jessels, Cremieux, Baron de Worms, de Hirsch, the Oppenheims, 
Touros, Gratzes, Michael Reese, Jacob H. Schiff, Julius Hall- 
garten (the munificent gift of the last including members of the 
colored race as recipients) knew no limit of nation or sect. A 
recent essay * by an able writer not identified with the Hebrew 
race, says, in speaking of Jews in the United States : 

"The number of Hebrews among us is less than 300,000, of 
which about one-fourth are in the city of New York. * * * 
their princely charities abound in all our large cities, and accord- 
ing to their custom are for the most part open to all creeds. Their 
educational institutions are of every kind." 

The heavenly gift of liberty which Hebrews enjoy in this 

* " The Modern Jew: his present and future," by Anna Laurena Dawes. Reprinted 
from The American Hebrew. 1884. 



172 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

country of unique and happy freedom fosters the spirit of charity, 
and much is also due to the unaU'ected good-will and sympathetic 
interest of the non-Israelites by whom they are surrounded. 
Mutual love and labor, a sense of the Fatherhood of (lod and the. 
brotherhood of man, unite all souls in the everlasting tie of 
righteousness. 

III. In order to consider the methods by which Hebrew Chari- 
ties are distributed, a brief examination of the chief organi/a'ions 
becomes essential. But it ma}' first be stated that, warned by tin- 
greatly impoverished condition of the poorest classes, and noting 
the admirable principle followed by other chanties, Hebiews are 
striving above all things to render their charities preventive^ that 
is, helping the poor before they become helpless, thus aiding them 
to be self-supporting. 

The Universal Israelitish Alliance was founded in 1*00, and 
will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary next year (1H85). The 
seat of the society is in Paris, with branches in various parts of 
the world. It is supported (not as fully, however, as could be 
wished,) by contributions from Jewish societies and individuals 
throughout the globe. It aims to help and improve the condition 
of the Jews, especially in lands where they have been oppressed, 
and hence stand greatly in need of such aid. 

* u It has established and supports schools in the Turkish 
provinces, in North Africa, in Servia, Bulgaria, and Palestine. 
Hopes are entertained of extending the system to Russia and 
Rcumania. * * * These schools imply the identification of 
Hebrew children with the scions of the most progressive races of 
the age. Modern languages, modern science, handicrafts, and 
even agricultural labor are the departments which enlist the active 
interest of true friends of the oppressed. * * * The large 
and well-ordered schools at Tunis have sensibly contributed to the 
social and political improvement of the Jewish population. * * * 
In Palestine the modest beginnings, including the Jaffa Agricul- 
tural School, promise rich fruition. * * * So highly are the 
schools appreciated at Constantinople that the Sultan has confer- 
red public honors on the representatives of the Alliance at the 
capital, as well as at Smyrna, and Bagdad." 

A recent writer in the London Jewish Chronicle describes the 
Jews in Cochin as miserably poor ; perhaps in time the Alliance 
may be able to uplift these impoverished ones into a higher 
existence. 

See Report of Board of Delegates on Civil and Religious Rights, 1884: Jewish 
Messenger, July 18th. 



HEBREW CHARITIES. MARY M. COHEN. 173 

There are four Jewish Orders in the United States ; their objects 
the moral, social and intellectual advancement of Israelites, as 
well as the promotion of all benevolent undertakings ; the pay- 
ment of pecuniary benefits to members in case of sickness, and in 
case of death endowments of Si, 000 to their families. These 
Orders are : The Independent Order Benai Berith, the Indepen- 
dent Order Free Sons of Israel, the Order Kesher Shel Barzel, 
and the Improved Order Free Sons of Israel. There are several 
female Orders attached, and others, independent.* 

The Benai Berith (Sons of the Covenant), for the five years end- 
ing December, 1878, paid for sick and endowment benefits $i,007,- 
039.54. 

Kesher Shel Barzel (The Band of Iron) paid in 1878, for 
similar purposes, $129,803.23. 

Improved Order Free Sons of Israel, in 1879, paid $39,038.88. 

A vast amount of assistance is thus given, just^hen and where 
it is most needed. Some of the leading minds, however, among 
the several Orders are in favor of consolidation into one. Mr. 
Simon Wolf, of Washington, Chairman of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the third Order, in his recent report, says: "Let the 
organization embrace all Israel, of all ages and opinions ; let us, 
in short, have an American Alliance, similar to the Universal, and 
yet embracing subjects wholly different and distinct. Let Educa- 
tion be one object. Let Benevolence and Charit} 7 , including 
asylums, homes and hospitals, be another. Let Endowment (if 
necessary) be still another. Let Religious and Civil Rights be 
another." 

The United Hebrew Charities had its rise in Philadelphia, and 
tells its own story thus : 

" Fourteen years ago an experiment was tried in Philadelphia 
in amalgamating a number of Hebrew Charities, and its failure 
was predicted. * * * Two prominent reasons were given ; 
one was that such a society would surely die for want of support ; 
for people would not contribute as much to one as they had been 
accustomed to give to six ; the other, that even if life should 
flicker in a sickly wa}' in such an organization, the work that 
had been done by six could not be performed by one. * * * 
It must be admitted that a trial for fourteen years is a fair test. 
The union did not die, nor lead a sickly existence, but took a firm 

* See "Statistics of the Jews of the United States," compiled by Wm. B. Hacken- 
burg, under authority of Board of Delegates, etc., Philadelphia, 1880. 






174 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

hold at once upon the affections and sober judgment of the lorael- 
ites in this city. Its revenues have been larger than all of the six 
combined. Its work has been more thorough and systematic than 
six or sixty of the former societies without a bond of connection, 
and invariably working at cross-purposes. It has prevented 
bei^mu from house to house, where with lying tales the worthless 
imposed upon the kind-hearted of our people. * * * The 
society has given with a liberal hand to the poor, and cared for 
the sick ; has sheltered the homeless, and buried the dead ; it has 
brought to bear its forces and the power of the law to protect the 
oppressed against his oppressor; it has in many cases lifted up 
the lowly from degradation to self-reliance and self-respect ; and 
some of those who were supported by it now not only earn their 
own livelihood, but also contribute from their means to sustain 
this charity * * * It was the first in this country that demon- 
strated the great forces of union ; and its plan and system have 
been copied and followed in many of the leading cities of the 
United States."* 

The Board of Government is aided by a Ladies' Associate Com- 
mittee ; each member works in an appointed district, and makes 
full reports of cases to the Board ; except in instances of pressing 
need, relief is not granted until the report is received. 

The temperance of the Hebrews is a power in decreasing pov- 
erty. Insobriety is rarely, if ever, found among them. 

The United Hebrew Charities of New York City, and the He- 
brew Education Society of Philadelphia, (the latter founded by 
Judah Touro), have started Industrial Schools. There is no 
doubt that the industrial feature will lead in all the charities of the 
future. It must be of supreme benefit to the whole community as 
well as to the race shut out for centuries from every pursuit but 
commerce. In this country the work of educating poor children 
by means of kindergartens and industrial schools has received a 
strong impetus from the efforts of Dr. Felix Adler of New York. 
The Young Men's Hebrew Association of that city, though hardly 
coming under the title " charitable," yet has extended its educa- 
tional work to the poor Russian Jewish emigrants ; the gifted 
Emmar Lazarus also bestows time and energy on the task of lifting 
the suffering and ignorant into a happier state. 

IV. Hebrew Charities are international. This has been clearly 
shown in the nineteenth century. One man the now venerable 
Sir Moses Montefiore has led thousands in the direction of un- 
limited philanthropy. Men like Cremieux, Lowe, Laurence Oli- 

* Annual report of U. H. C., Philadelphia, 1884. 



HEBREW CHARITIES. MARY M. COHEN. 175 

pliant, have undoubtedly had their sympathies enlarged and their 
powers strengthened by his influence. In 1840, when Damascus 
Jews were tortured and imprisoned on the false charge of using 
human blood at their Passover service, Montefiore, accompanied by 
friends, went to Egypt, and, interceding for the Jews at the throne 
of the Viceroy, obtained their immediate release. In 1846, when 
the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia enacted most cruel laws 
against his Hebrew subjects, Montefiore personally requested the 
Emperor not to execute those measures. In 1859, when the Mor- 
tara child was taken from his parents, Montefiore visited Rome, 
and entreated Antonelli to restore the child. When, in 1861, the 
Morocco Jews and Christians were suffering heart-rending perse- 
cutions, it was again Montefiore who obtained a charter of pro- 
tection for them from the reigning Sultan. This large-hearted 
man has also sought the welfare of his Jerusalem brethren, giving 
them means wherewith to erect schools, and personally urging 
them to become interested in agriculture. 

In 1882, Russian persecution forced many Jews of that country 
to emigrate to more hospitable lands. Then not the Hebrew heart 
alone melted with compassion, but all humanity cried aloud. Then 
cities and countries made solemn protest against these cruelties, 
and demanded redress. The Czar, threatened alike, though for dif- 
ferent reasons, by the upper and the lower classes of his people, has 
remained supine. The London Mansion House fund and various 
other funds, here and abroad, have been formed to aid the 
oppressed to depart from Russia to lands of liberty. Many of the 
persecuted have colonized in Palestine, Canada, and America. 
The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of New York planted the 
"Alliance Colony" in New Jersey. Of the seventy families 
settled, fifty remain. Each family tills its own piece of ground. 
In the cigar factory established there, skilful workmen earn six 
dollars a week, and still keep their farms in order. The people 
are very industrious, intelligent, sober, and moral. The system 
has made many of the colonists self-respecting' men and women.* 

An event approaches which will draw universal attention to the 
international character of Hebrew charities. On the 26th day of 
October will be celebrated the hundredth birthday of the great 
Hebrew philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore. The four seasons 

* See Letter from Cyrus AUler to Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 1st, 1884. 



176 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of life have shed their glories upon him. The crown of winter 
encircles nis brow, but the youth of spring is still in his soul ; 
imtunin gently whispers of rest, but, the Denial warmth of summer 
throbs yet within his heart. All peoples arise to do him honor. 
All bless the "God of the spirits of :ill flesh" who has permitted 
his servant for a hundred years to rejoice and benefit humanity. 

" Life hath he asked of Thee, Thou gavest it to him, 
Length of days for ever and ever." Psalm xxi, 5. 

Greetings of peace to thee, oh venerated sage, 

We gladly sing, 
And glowing praises of thy ripe and noble age 

With joy we bring, 

Offering our hearts' pure tribute, joined with earnest prayer, 
That the Divine Protector keep thee in His care. 

Thou didst beseech thy God for long and useful days, 

As did the king 
Of whom the Psalmist wrote in his immortal lays; 

So wilt thou cling 

'More closely still unto the Everlasting Arms 
Which held and shielded thee midst perilous alarms. 

Eventful hours have swept above thy gracious head, 

But thou wert strong ! 
The furious storms of hatred plunged thy race in dread, 

Yet no real wrong 

Went unredressed by thy courageous, rescuing hand, 
Oppressors raised the yoke before thy mild command. 

One voice of grateful millions comes from land and sea, 

To bless thy name! 
To countless Israel may its fragrance ever be 

Of priceless fame : 

With Israel's God may be thy last, sweet, full repose, 
And on His glory may thy heavenly eyes unclose I 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 



CONSTITUTION, 



1884-5. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER 1, 1885. 



I1II. AMI RICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 

Was organized in October, ]8(i."i, at a public meeting in Huston, at which the 
hit.- Governor AMUIKW presided. Its Presidents have been Prof. W. H. 
h'oi.i.us. SAMTEI, ELIOT, GEOKI.I WIM.IVM CURTIS, President. WOOI.M^, 
DAVHI A. Wi;i.i>. 1'resiilent (in.MAN. of Haltimorc, Professor \V.\ii. AND. of 
Yale, and (Jencral EATON, of the I'. S. Hiirean of Education, who now lills 
theoftice; its Secretaries, SAMUEL ELIOT, HENKY YII.I.\KI>. and F. H. 
itoitx. It now has members in nearly all sections of the United States, num- 
bering in all between 300 and 400. , 

Its object, stated briefly, is to encourage the study of the various relations. 
social and political, of man in modern life; to facilitate personal intercourse 
and the interchange of ideas between individuals interested in promoting 
educational, financial, sanitary, charitable, and other social reforms and 
progress; and promptly to make known to the public all theoretical or prac- 
tical results which may How from such studies or investigations. To some 
extent these ends have been successfully attained, by the organization and 
growth of the Association, and the periodical public meetings of the members, 
with the accompanying reading of papers and discussions. 

Our income has hitherto been sufficient to meet our expenses ; but it has 
been necessary to rely upon sources which may be called extraordinary. The 
Association has no funded property ; its regular income is composed mainly 
of annual payments from members, which amount to less than $1,('<Q() per 
annum. The cost of publishing two numbers of the Journal (about 400 
pages, 8 vo.) is 700; the salary of Secretary, expense of annual meetings 
and incidentals, 800 more, in round numbers, or a total of 81,500. It is 
thought that the time is come when we may confidently appeal to the general 
interest felt in Social Science throughout the country, for the purpose, of 
establishing our finances upon a solid basis, by enlarging our list of members 
to 500 or 1,000. It is believed th.it an institution supported in this way, and 
relying on a wide-spread popular feeling of interest, will not only stand 
firmer, but will accomplish its educational object far better than if (as 
hitherto), supported by a few subscribers. In order to avoid misapprehension 
and prejudice, it may be stated that while the Association welcomes all new- 
ideas, and encourages the greatest freedom of intelligent expression and 
debate, it does not hold itself responsible for the opinions of its individual 
members. 

Membership is obtained by the annual payment of five dollars. This con- 
fers the right to take part in business meetings of the Association, and to 
vote in election of officers, and entitles one to receive its publications free of 
expense. The publications consist chiefly of the "Journal of Social Science," 
which includes the results of the work of the Association, more especially 
the proceedings and papers of the General Meetings. 

It would seem that the desired increase in membership ought to be easily 
obtained ; and the Council believe that it can be, if those who read this will 
become members, and aid in interesting others. 

Publications can be obtained and information had by addressing F. B. 
SANBOBN, Concord, Mass., or the Publishers for the Association, A. WILLIAMS 
& Co., Boston, and G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York. 



CONSTITUTION. 



[It will be seen that under the Constitution, as here printed, a new organi- 
zation of the officers of the Association has been made, what was formerly 
called the Executive Committee, being now the Council.] 

The Constitution, as amended January 14, 1880, is as follows : 

i 

I. This Society shall be called the AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIA- 
TION. 

II. Its objects shall be classified in five departments : the first, of Educa- 
tion ; the second, of Health; the third, of Trade and Finance; the fourth, of 
Social Economy ; the fifth, of Jurisprudence. 

III. It shall be administered by a President, as many honorary Vice-Pres- 
idents as may be chosen, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a Council, charged 
with general supervision ; five Department Committees, established by the 
Council, charged with the supervision of their respective departments ; and 
such Local Committees as may be established by the Council at different 
points, to serve as branch associations. The Council shall consist of the 
President, Treasurer, and Secretary, the Chairman and Secretary of each 
Department, and ten Directors, with power to fill vacancies and to make their 
own By-Laws. The President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Chairman, and 
Secretaries of Departments, and Directors, shall be chosen annually by mem- 
bers of the Association, and shall hold office till their successors are chosen. 
The President, or in his absence, a Director, shall be Chairman of the 
Council. The Chairman of the Local Committees shall be chosen at the 
pleasure of their respective committees. Whenever a Branch Association 
shall be organized and recognized as such by the Council, its President shall 
be ex-officio one of the Vice-Presidents of the American Association, and, 
together with the Secretary and Treasurer, shall be entitled to all the privi- 
leges of membership in that Association. And whenever a Local Department 
shall be organized and recognized as such by the Council, its chairman shall 
become ex-officio a member of the parent Association. The Chairman and 
Secretary of each Department, with the consent of the President of the Asso- 
ciation, may appoint such special Department Committees as they may think 
best. The General Secretary shall be elected for three years, unless he 
resigns, or is removed by a two-thirds vote of the members present -and 
voting in a regular meeting of the Council ; and out of his compensation he 
may pay the salary of an Assistant Secretary, who may also be Secretary of 
one Department. 

IV. Any person may become a member by paying five dollars, and may 
continue a member by paying annually such further sum as may be fixed at 
the Annual Meeting, not exceeding ten dollars. On payment of one hundred 
dollars, nny person may become a life-member, exempt from assessments. 
Honorary and corresponding members maybe elected, and exempted from the 
payment of assessments. 

V. The Council shall have sole power to call and conduct General Meet- 
ings, and to publish the Transactions and other documents of the Association. 
The Department Committee shall have power to call and conduct Department 
Meetings. 

VI. No amendment of this Constitution shall be made, except at an 
annual meeting, with public notice of the proposed amendment. 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, 

1884-1885. 



President, JOHN EATON, Washington, D. C. 

First Vice-rresident, FRANCIS WAYLAND, New Haven Ct. 

Vice-P residents. 



DANIEL C. OILMAN, Baltimore, Md. 

MARTIN B. ANDERSON, Rochester, N. Y. 

THOMAS C. AMOUY, Boston. 

RUFUS KINO, Cincinnati. 

Mrs. JOHN E. LODGE, Boston. 

Miss MARIA MITCHELL, Poughkeepsie, 

N. Y. 
Mrs. CAROLINE H. BALL, Georgetown, 

B.C. 
WALTER HILLMAN, Clinton, Miss. 



HENRY HITCHCOCK, St. Louis, Mo. 

'l'ni:oixii;i, D. WOOI.SKY, New Haven. 

HENRY B. BAKER, Lansing, Mich, 

T. M. POST, St. Louis. 

NATHAN ALLEN, Lowell. 

II I:\KV VILLARU, New York. 

Hi c,ii THOMPSON, Columbia, S. C. 

JOHN M. GREGORY, Wasliiugton, '). C. 

R. A. HOLLAND, New OT!IMII~, l.a. 



General Secretary, F. B. SANBORN, Concord, Mass. 
Treasurer, ANSON PHELVS STOKES, 45 Wall St., New York. 



Directors. 



DORMAN B. EATON, New York. 
HORACE WHITE, " 

CHARLES A. PEABODY, " 
JONAS M. LIBBEY, " 

F. J. KINGSBUHY, Waterbury, Ct. 



T. W. HIOGINSON, Cambridge. 
GEORGE T. AXGELL, Boston. 
H. L. WAYLAND, Philadelphia. 
J. L. M. CURRY, Richmond, Va. 
GEORGE \V. CABLE, New Orleans, 



J a 



Department Officers. 

I. Education. Prof. W. T. HARRIS, Concord, Chairman; Mrs. EMILY TALBOT, 
Boston, Secretary. 

II. Health. D. A. SARGENT, M. D., Cambridge, Mass., Chairman; Miss LUCY 
M. HALL, M. I)., 191 Park Place, Brooklyn, N. Y., Secretary. 

III. Finance. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Boston, Mass., Chairman; Prof. HENRY 
C. ADAMS, Ithaca, N. Y., Secretary. 

IV. Social Economy. F. B. SANBORN, Concord, Chairman; Mrs. HENRY 
WHITMAN, Boston, Secretary. 

V. Jurisprudence. Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, New Haven, Chairman; Prof. 
WILLIAM K. TOWNSEND, New Haven, Secretary. 



Executive Committee. 

Gen. JOHN EATON, President; F. B. SANBORX, f.'i-np.r/tl Secretary; ANSON PHKJ.I-S 
STOKES, Trviixurer: Mrs. EMILY TALBOT, K ducat ion Secretary: Dr. L. M. HAI.L. 
Health Secretary; Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, Juritipnidcnce Chairman; CARROI.C 
D. WRIGUT, Finance Chairman; Mrs. HENRY WHITMAN, Social Economy Secretary 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



DEPARTMENT COMMITTEES 1884-5. 



Education Department. Prof. W. T. Harris, Concord, Mass. ; Pres. F. 
A. Walker, Boston; T. W. Higginson, Cambridge, Mass.; Justin Winsor, 
Cambridge, Mass. ; A. R. Spofford, Washington. D. C. : W. F. Poole, 
Chicago, 111. ; Samuel S. Green, Worcester, Mass. ; Prof. G. P. Brown, 
Terre Haute, Ind. ; W. T. Switzler, Columbia, Mo. ; John Hitz, Washington, 

D. C. ; Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, Boston, Mass. ; Mrs, Martha E. Ware, St. 
Louis, Mo. ; Mrs. Rebecca D. RickofF, Yonkers, N. Y. ; Pres. F. A. P. Bar- 
nard, New York ; Gen. S C. Armstrong, Hampton, Va. ; Louis F. Soldan, 
St. Louis, Mo. ; Rev. Washington Gladden, Columbus, O. ; Rev. A. D. Mayo, 
Boston ; Miss Sarah E. Doyle, Providence, R. I. ; Miss Alice E. Freeman, 
Wellesley College, Mass. ; Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Boston; Prof. Edward 
C. Pickering, Cambridge, Mass. ; Edwin P. Seaver, Boston ; G. Stanley 
Hall, Baltimore, Md. ; Mrs. Emily Talbot, Boston. 

Health Department. D. M Sargent, M.D., Cambridge, Mass.; E. M. 
Hunt, M.D., Metuchin, N. J. ; Walter Channing, M.D., Boston; D. F. 
Lincoln, M.D., Boston; W. G. Wylie, M.D., New York; Prof. W. H. 
Brewer, New Haven, Conn.; J. C. Hamilton, M.D., Mobile, Ala.; George 

E. Waring, Jr., Newport, R. I.; J. S. Billings, M.D., Washington, D. C. ; 
Charles B. White, M.D., New Orleans, La. ; Henry B. Baker, M.D., Lansing, 
Mich. ; John Ranch, M.D., Springfield, 111. ; E. C." Seguin, M.D., New York; 
A. N. Blodgett, M.I)., Boston; Mary Putnam Jacobi, M.D., New York; C. 

F. Wingate, New York; H. P. Bowditch, M D., Boston; Emily F. Pope, 
M.D., Boston; Lucy M. Hall, M.D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Finance Department. Carroll D. Wright, Boston, Mass. ; Hamilton A. 
Hill, Boston; George Walker, Paris, France; George S. Coe, New York; 
F. A. Walker, Boston; B. B. Sherman, New York; J. M. Gregory, 
N<>w York ; Joseph D. Weeks, Pittsburgh, Penn. ; Edward Atkinson, Boston ; 
William F. Ford, New York; Robert P. Porter, Chicago, 111. ; Frederick W. 
Foote, New York; B. F. Nourse, Boston; H. W. Farnam, New Haven, Ct. ; 
Henry C. Adams, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Jurisprudence Department. Prof. Francis Wayland, New Haven, Ct. ; 
Charles A. Peabody, New York; Prof. Henry Hitchcock, St. Louis, Mo.; 
Rufus King, Cincinnati; Prof. Carleton Hunt, New Orleans; Prof. T. W. 
Dwight, New York; E. Coppee Mitchell, Philadelphia; A. R. Lawton, 
Savannah, Ga. ; F. J. Dickman, Cleveland. Ohio; B. H. Bristow, New York; 
Anthony Higgins, Wilmington, Del. ; J. C. Parsons, Hartford, Ct. ; E. J. 
Phelps, Burlington, Vt. ; Emerson Etheridge, Memphis, Tenn. ; Peter Ham- 
ilton, Mobile, Ala. ; Theodore Bacon, Rochester, N. Y. ; Theodore S. 
Woolsey, William K. Townsend, New Haven, Ct. 

Social Economy Department. F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass. ; Robert 
Treat Paine, Jr., Boston; F. H. Wines, Springfield, 111. ; Charles L. Brace, 
Ni-w York; Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, Indianapolis, Ind. ; Rev. Frank Rus- 
sell, Mansfield. Ohio; William P. Letch worth, Portageville, N. Y. ; Mrs. 
Clara T. Leonard, Springfield, Mass. ; Mrs Florence Bayard Lockwood, 
Nfw York; Miss Mary M. Cohen, Philadelphia; Robert T. Davis, M.D., 
Fall River, Mass. ; Mrs. Henry Whitman, Boston. 



182 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



MKMl'.KK'S OF THE ASSOCIATION. 

[All Officers are ex-officio members of the Association ; I ml 
persons serving on Department Committees ma}' or may not be 
members of the Assoeiation. In the present list the annual mem- 
bers are given alphabetic-ally, without reference to States; then 
the life members follow, classified by States, and finally the honor- 
ary and corresponding members. The only distinction between 
honorary and corresponding members is that the former reside in 
the United States, the latter in foreign countries. It is a rule of 
the Association to drop from the list of annual members those who 
have not paid their assessment for two years; but members so 
dropped can be restored to the list by paying their arrears. If 
former members do not find their names on the list as it now 
stands, it will generally be for the reason just mentioned. 

No List of Members of the Association, as printed, can ever be 
quite complete, so many changes occur by death and withdrawal, 
the accession of new members, etc. The following list is as com- 
plete as the Secretary could make it, up to Dec. 1, 1884, but, no 
doubt, the addresses of several members are wrong, and there are 
instances of names misprinted, etc., of which the Secretary will 
thank any person to notify him when the fact is observed.] 



ANNUAL MEMBERS. 



Adams, Prof. Herbert B., Baltimore, 

Md. 
Adams, W. Irving, New York City, 

419 Broome Street. 
Allen, Dr. Nathan, Lowell, Mass. 
Ambry, T. C., Boston, 19 Common- 
wealth Avenue. 

Amory, Win., Boston, 60 State St. 
Anderson, Dr. M. B., Rochester, 

N. Y. 
Andrews, Israel W., Marietta, Ohio. 

Prest. Marietta College. 
Angell, J. B., LL.D., Ann Arbor, 

Mich. 
Anthony, Henry B., Providence, R. 

I., 9 Benefit Street. 



Ashburner, William, San Francisco, 

Cal., 1014 Pine Street. 
Atkinson, Edward, Boston. 
Baker, Henry B., Lansing, Mich., 

State Board of Health. 
Baldwin, Prof. S. E.. New Haven, Ct. 
Bancroft, Dr. J. P., Concord, N. II. 
Barnum, Hon. Win. II., Lime Rock, 

Conn. 

Bartlett, Geo. B., Concord, Mass. 
Battell, Hon. Bobbins, 74 Wall St.. 

P. O. Box 904, N. Y. 
Belcher, G. C. W., St. Louis, Mo. 

(Belcher Sugar Refining Co.) 
Bessey, Dr. William E., Montreal, 

Canada. 



ANNUAL MEMBERS. 



183 



Billings, Frederick, 279 Madison Av., 

New York. 

Bird, F. W., East Walpole, Mass. 
Bissinger, Philip, New York City, 22 

St. John St. 

Bittinger, J. B., Sewickley, Pa. 
Blake, Stanton, Boston, 30 Kilby St. 
Blatchford, E. W., Chicago, 111 , 375 

North La Salle St. 

Bond, Charles H., Middletown, Conn. 
Bond, Frank S., Marshall, Texas. 
Bonney, Dr. Franklin. Hadley. Mass. 
Bowker, R. R., New York City, 

Franklin Square. 
Brace, Charles L., New York City, 

19 East 4th St. 

Bradford, Rev. A. H., Montclair, N..T. 
Braman, J. C. Boston, Mass., 50 

State Street. 

Breed, W. J. , Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Brewster, Lyman D., Danbury. Conn. 
Brockway, Z. R., Elmira, N. Y. 
Bri'ihl, Dr. Gustav, Cincinnati, Ohio, 

32 Hopkins St. 
Brooks, Phillips, Boston, Clarendon 

Street. 
Buffum, Miss Fanny A., Linden 

Mass. 
Bull, Dr. Charles Stedman, 47 East 

23d St., New York City. 
Bullard, W. S., Boston, 5 Mt. Ver- 

non Street. 
Butler, Dr. John S., Hartford, Conn. 

U. S. Hotel. 
Chamberlain, Dr. C. W., Hartford, 

Conn. 
Chapin, Dr. J. B., Pennsylvania 

Hospital for the Insane, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 
Chase, George B., Boston, Mass., 

234 Beacon Street. 
Chilton, Mrs. James R., care David 

Thurston, 5} a Pine St., New York. 
Church, Frederick E., Hudson, N. Y. 
Chirk, Albert (1601 I St., N. W.), 

Washington, D.C. 
Clark, J. S., Boston, Mass., 7 Park 

Street. 

Coe, Mrs. Geo. S., Englewood, N. J. 
Cohen, Miss Mary M., 1828 Ritten- 

house Square, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Colby, James F., New Haven, Conn. 
Coleman, E., 3209 Powelton Avenue, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Collamoiv, ".Miss H., Boston. 115 

Beacon Street. 

Collier, M. Dwight, New York. 
Comstock, T. Griswold, M.A.,M.D., 

St. Louis, Mo., 507 N. 14th St. 



Converse, Charles A., Norwich.Conn. 
Converse, Miss Emma M., 41 College 

Street, Providence, R. I. 
Coolidge, T. Jefferson, Boston.Mass. 

GO State Street. 
Corning, Erastus, Albany, N. Y., 87 

State Street. 
Coxe, Eckley B., Drifton, Luzerne 

Co., Pa. 
Curtis, Geo. W., West New Brighton, 

Staten Island, N. Y. 
Dull, Mrs. Caroline H., Georgetown, 

D. C. 
Davies, Julien T., New York City, 

120 Broadway (Davies, Work, 

McNamee & Co.) 

Davis, A. McF., Cambridge. Mass. 
Davis, Wm. II., Cincinnati, Ohio, 

124 East Fourth Street. 
Dexter, Julius, De Laporte Av., To- 
ronto, Can. 

Dexter, Wirt, Chicago, III. 
Dickerman, L., Hotel Eliot, Rox- 

bury, Mass. 
Dimock, H. F , New York City, 8 

West Street. 

Dike, Rev. S. W., So. Royalton, VU 
Doughty, W. H., Troy, N. Y. 
Dowd, Charles F., Saratoga, N. Y. 
Draper, Dr. Joseph, Brattleboro, 

Vt. (Vermont Lunatic Asylum). 
Dreyer, Ferdinand I., 1520 Spruce 

Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Dwight, Theo. W., New York City 

(Law School, Columbia College). 
Earle. Mrs. Ann B., Worcester 

Mass., 40 Summer Street. 
Earle, Dr. Pliny, Northampton, Mass. 
Eaton, Dorman B., New York City, 

2 East 29th Street. 
Eaton, Hon. John, Washington, D.C. 

(Bureau of Education). 
Eaton, L. B., Memphis, Tenn. 
Edmands, A. Lawrence, Boston, 

Mass, 118 Federal Street. 
Edmonds, Walter D., New York 

City (Temple Court). 
Eliot," C. W., L.L.D., Cambridge, 

Mass., 17 Quincy Street. 
Eliot, Samuel, Boston, 44 Brimmer 

Street. 

Eliot, Rev. T. L., Portland. Oregon. 
Farnam, H. W., New Haven, Conn. 
Fisher, Dr. Chas. H., Providence, R.I. 
Forbes, R. B., Milton, Mass. 
Force, M. F., Cincinnati, Ohio, 89 

West 8th Street. 
Foote, F. W., Wall Street, New 

York City. 



184 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



Foote, Miss Mary B., Cambridge, 

Mass., 352 Howard Street. 
Footer, T. A., M.D., Portland, Me., 9 

Brown Street. 
French, Franc-is O., New York City, 

33 West 37th Street. 
Frothingliiiin, Kev. Fred'k, Milton, 

.Mass. 
Frothingham, Rev. O. B., Boston, 

Hotel Vendome. 

Galhmdet, E. M., LL.D., Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Gano, John A., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Gates, Merrill E., LL.1>.. 1'res. Rut- 

ger's Coll., New Brunswick, N. J. 
Gilman, D. C., LL.D., Pres. Johns 

Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Gilman, Rev. Edward W., 1 >.!>., 

New York City (Bible House). 
Gladden, Rev. Washington, Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 
Goddard, Miss Matilda, Boston, 251 

Newbury Street. 
Godkin, E'. L., New York City, 115 

E. i'5th Street. 

Green, Samuel S., Worcester, Mass. 
Green, Jacob L., Hartford, Conn. 
Greenough, W. W., Boston, 24 West 

Street. 
Gregory, J. M., LL.D., Temple 

Court, New York City. 
Grew, Henry S., Boston, 89 Beacon 

Street. 

Groesbeck, W. S., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Hale, Geo. S., Boston, 39 Court St. 
Hall, Mrs. M. B., Decatur, 111. 
Harding, George F., Chicago, 111. 
Harkness, Prof. A., Providence, R.I. 
Harris, Wm. T., Concord, Mass. 
Herrmann, Mrs. H., 59 West 56th St., 

New York. 
Higginson, T. W., Cambridge, Mass., 

25 Buckingham Street. 
Higginson, Waldo, Boston, 131 Dev- 
onshire Street. 
Hildreth, J. L., Cambridge, Ma^., 

1', rattle Street. 
Hill, Hamilton A., Boston, 23 St. 

James Avenue. 
Hitchcock, Henry, St. Louis, Mo., 404 

Market St. 

Ilitz, John, Washington, D.C. 
Hoadley,' Geo., Cincinnati, Ohio, 3, 4, 

and 5 Masonic Building, 
Hollister, G. B., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Holt, Henry, New York City, 14 East 

54th Street. 
Homes, H. A., Albany, N Y., (State 

Library.) 



Hooker, Mrs. I. B., Hartford, Conn. 
Horsford, Prof. E. N., Cambridge, 

Mass. 

Horton, S. D., Pomeroy, O. 
Hotchkiss, Justus S., New Haven, Ct. 
llowlan.l. liicliard (,., Hope. II. I. 
Hunt, J)r. H. M., Trenton. N. J. 
Hunt, T. Sterry, L.L.I)., .Montreal, 

Canada. 

Hutchins, John, T awrence, Kan 
Hyde, c. M., Honolulu, Sandwich 

Islands. 
In;;ald>liee, Milo, South Hartford. 

Washington Co., N. Y. 
Jacobi, Dr. A., New York City, 110 

West 34th Street. 
Jacques, David R., 55 Liberty St., 

New York ( 'ity. 
James, Mrs. John W., Boston, 119 

Boylston Street. 
Jiingst. W., Cincinnati, O., " Volks- 

tVeund" Office. 
Kellogg, Chas. D., 79 4th Ave., New 

York. 
Hello^, Dr. John H., Battle Creek, 

Mich. 

Kimhall, B. A., Concord, N. H. 
King, Rufus, Cincinnati, O., 95 East 

:>,d Street. 

Kinii-shury, F. J , Waterbury, Conn. 
Krans, I'rof. John, New York City, 7 

East 22d Street. 
Lawrence, A. A., Boston, 13 Chauncy 

Street. 

Lee, Henry. Bogton, 4 State Street. 
Leete, Dr. James M., St. Louis. Mo., 

l">12 Washington Avenue. 
Leonard, N A., Springfield, Mass. 
Leonard, Mrs. C. T., Springfield, 

Mass. 
Lewis, Dr. Dio, Bible House, New 

York. 

Livermore, Rev. A. A., Meadville.I'a. 
Lowell, Mrs. C. R., New York City. 

120 East .".Oth Street. 
Lyman. Arthur T., Boston, 18 Sum- 
mer Street. 

Lyman, Theodore, Boston, 191 Com- 
monwealth Avenue. 
Lynde, Mrs. Wm. 1'., Milwaukee, 

Wto. 

Macomber, A. E , Toledo, O. 
MeLeod. C. A., Troy, N. Y. 
Magoon, Rev. E. L, 1319 Girard 

Ave.. Philadelphia, Pa. 
May, Rev. Samuel, Leicester, Mass. 
McCandless, E. V., Pittslmrg. Pa. 
Means, William G., Boston, 40 Water 
Street. 



ANNUAL MEMBERS. 



185 



Mercer, George G., Philadephia, 330 

Walnut Street. 
Meyer, Henry C., New York City, 140 

William Street. 
Minot, William, Jr., Boston, 39 

Court Street. 
Minturn, R. B., New York City, 78 

South Street. 

Mitchell, Alex., Milwaukee, Wis. 
Mitchell, Charles L. , New Haven, 

Conn. 
Mitchell, Mary A., Villa de Bouyn, 

Ave des Fleurs, Nice, U. M., 

France. 
Morgan, W. D., New York City, 26 

Washington Square. 
Mumford, J. E., St. Louis, Mo. 
Murdock, C. A., San Francisco, 

Cal. 
Neilson, James, New -Brunswick, 

N. J. 
Nordhoff, Charles, Washington, D. 

C., 1731 K Street. 
North, Thomas M., 120 Broadway, 

N. Y. 

Northrop, Rev. B. G., LL.D., Clin- 
ton, Conn. 
Nourse, B. F., Boston, 35 Federal 

Street. 
Oliver, Mrs. Grace A., Boston, 124 

Boylston Street. 
Olmsted, Frederick Law, Brookline, 

Mass. 
Paine, Robert Treat, Jr., Boston, 6 

Joy Street, 
Palmer, Dr. H. B., Ann Arbor, 

Mich. 

Parker, Hon. LeRoy, Flint, Mich. 
Parkman, Henry, Boston, Rogers 

Building, 209 Washington Street. 
Parsons, John C., Hartford Conn. 
Peabody. Charles A., New York 

Citv, 110 Broadway. 
Pell, "Alfred, New York City, 56 

William Street. 
Pellew, Henry E., New York City, 

9 East 35th" Street. 
Perkins, Joseph, Cleveland, Ohio. 
PJ;itt, Johnson T., New Haven, Conn. 
Porter, Dr. Charles H., Albany, 

N. Y. 
Post, Rev. T. M., D.D., St. Louis, 

Mo. 
Post, Von H. C., New York City, P. 

O. Box 37. 
Potter, George A., New York City, 

80 South Street. 
Prang, Louis, Boston, 286 Roxbury 

Street. 



Putnam, Charles P., M.D., Boston, 

63 Maryborough Street. 
Putnam, James J., M. D., Boston, 63 

Marlborough Street. 
Ramsey, J. H., Albany, N. Y. 
Remick, Ninian B., Troy, N. Y. 
Robbins, George A., .Box 947, New 

York City, N. Y. 
Ropes, John C., Boston, 40 State 

Street. 
Ropes, Joseph S., Bocton, 4 Congress 

Street. 

Rotch, Miss Joanna, Milton, Mass. 
Round, W. M. F., 65 Bible House, 

New York City. 
Runkle, Prof. J. D., Institute of 

Technology, Boston. 
Sands, M:thlon, New York City, 100 

Fulton Street. 
Schlesinger, Barthold, Boston, 6 

Oliver Street. 

Scarborough, W. W., Cincinnati, O. 
Schuyler, Miss Louisa Lee, New York 

City, 19 West 31st Street. 
Schwab, Gustavus, Box 137, New 

York City. 
Seguin, E. C., M.D., New York City, 

24 West 50th Street. 
Sewall, S. E., Boston, 5 Pemberton 

Square. 
Shattuck, George O., Boston, 35 

Court Street. 
Slocum, Miss Jane M., Canandaigua, 

N. Y., Granger Place. 
Smith, Eugene, 33 Pine St., N. Y. 
Smith, H. D., Plantsville, Ct. 
Smith, J. H., Chicago, 111., 161 La 

Salle Street. 

Snow, Prof. M. S., St. Louis, Mo. 
Spear, C. V., Pittsfleld, Mass. 
Spencer, Mrs. Sara A., Washington, 

D. C. 
Von Spiegel, Dr. Christian, Saratoga, 

N. Y. 
Stearns, James S., New York City, 

45 Williams Street. 
Stevenson, Robert H., Boston, 58 

Chestnut Street. 
Stickney, George, Grand Haven, 

Mich. 
Stokes, James, 67 Wall Street, New 

York. 
Sullivan, Richard, Boston, '79 State 

Street. 
Sumner, Prof. W. G., New Haven, 

Conn. 
Sunderland, Rev. J. T., Ann Arbor, 

Mich. 



186 



AMKKICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



Swartz, James S., Philadelphia, Pa., 

I South Ith Street. 
Talhot. Mrs. I. T., Boston, 68 Marl- 

liurough Street. 

Talrott. .1. 15., New Britain, Conn. 
Taylor, .James li , Brooklyn, N. V., 

268 Henry Street. 
Thomas, Allen C..Huverford College, 

Pa. 
Thomson, Charles II., New Haven, 

Conn., Id Klin Street. 
Thurber, F. B., New York City, 116 

li'c.-ldc Street. 
Titsworth, Rev. A. J., Chelsea, 

Ma . 
Toppan, Jtobert N., New York City. 

American Bank Note Co., 14'2 

Broadway. 
Tousey. Sinclair, New York City, 39 

( 'liamhers Street. 
Townsend, John P., New York City, 

41 Broad Street. 
Townsend, Prof W.K., New Haven, 

( 'onn. 
Trumbull, Rev. H. C., Philadelphia, 

Pa.. <;i<> Chestnut Street. 
Tweedy, Edmond, Newport, R. I. 
Urbino, S. R., 613 Tremont Street, 

Boston. 
Van Bibber, Dr. \V. C., Baltimore, 

Md., 47 Franklin Street. 
Villard, Henry. New York City. 
Waite, Henry Randall, Washington, 

D. C., Census Bureau. 
Ware, Dr. Charles E., Boston, 41 

Brimmer Street. 
Waring, George E., Jr., Newport, 

R. I. 
Warner, Charles Dudley, Hartford, 

Conn. 
Watson, Prof. William, Boston, 

Mass., 107 Maryborough Street. 
Wayland, Miss A. E. .Saratoga. N.Y. 
Wayland, C. N., New York City, 9 

West 36th Street. 



Wayland, Mrs. Francis, New Haven, 

Conn. 

Wayland. Rev. Dr. H. I,., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Week.-, .Io-eph I)., Pittsburgh, I'a. 
Weeks, Mrs. Mattie F.. Pittsburgh, 

l';i. 
Wells. ICdward W., Hartford Conn ., 

34 Prospect Street. 
Wells, Mrs. Jolin, New Brun>wick, 

N. J. 
Wells, Prof. William P., Detroit, 

Mich. 

Wendte. Rev. ( '. W., Newport. I!. I. 
White, Alfred T., 4!) Uan.-en Street, 

Brooklyn, N. V. 

White, Andrew I).. Ithaca. N. V. 
White, Horace, New York Citv, 

Mills Building. 
Whittcmorc. Dr. James If., Boston, 

Ma.-s. (Muss. (Jen. Hos])ital.) 
Wheeler, 1C. S., New Haven, Conn. 
Wilkinson, Alfred. Syracuse, N. V. 
Williams, Chauncev P.. Albanv, New 

York. 

Wines, Rev. F. H., Springfield, 111. 
Winthrop, Robert ('., Boston. Mass.. 

90 Marlborough Street. 
Wolcott, J. Huntington, Boston, 

Mass., 238 Beacon S 
Wolcott, Mrs. Harriet F., Boston, 

Mass., 238 Beacon Street. 
Wood, Frederick, New York City, 

245 Broadway. 

Wood, Rev. Horatio, Lowell, Mass. 
Woodbury, Rev. Augustus, Provi- 
dence, R. I. 
Woolsey, Theodore D., LL.D., New 

Haven, Conn. 
Woolsey, Prof. Theodore S., New 

Haven, Conn. 

Wright, Carroll D., Boston, Mass. 
Young, Charles L., Boston, Mass., 

71 Mt. Vernon Street. 



LIFE MEMBERS. 



187 



LIFE MEMBERS. 



Illinois. 
Myers, Sydney, Chicago. 



Maine. 
Hill, Rev. Thomas, Portland. 



Massachusetts. 



Angell, Geo. T., Montgomery Place, 

Boston. 
Baker, William E., 63 Chester Sq., 

Boston. 

Barnard, James M. , Boston. 
Barnard. Mrs. James M., Boston. 
Blatehford, J. S., 13 Exchange St., 

Boston. 
Bradford, Gamaliel, 113 Exchange 

Street, Boston; 
Brimmer, Martin, 47 Beacon Street, 

Boston. 
Chapman, Miss Maria W. , Wey- 

inoutli. 
Eliot, Mrs. Samuel, 44 Brimmer St., 

Boston. 
Endicott, William, Jr., 10 Mt. Ver- 

non Street, Boston. 
Farwell, Mrs. A. G., 16 Beacon St., 

Boston. 
Forbes, John M., 30 Sears' Building, 

Boston. 



Gray, Hon. William, 20 Mt. Vernon 

Street, Boston. 
Kidder, H. P., 113 Devonshire St., 

Boston. 
Little, James L., 2 Commonwealth 

Ave., Boston. 
Lodge, Mrs. J. E., 31 Beacon Street, 

Boston. 
May, Miss Abby W., 3 Exeter Street, 

Boston. 
Pierce, Hon. Henry L., 158 State 

Street, Boston. 
Robeson, William R., 212 Beacon 

Street, Boston. 
Sanborn, F B.. Concord 
Sanborn, Mrs. Louisa L , Concord. 
Warren, S. D., 67 Mt. Vernon St., 

Boston. 
Wigglesworth. Edward, M.D., 79 

Boylston Street, Boston. 
Wolcott, Roger, 8 Pemberton Square, 

Boston. 



New York. 



Cole, William A., 41 Broad Street, 

New York City. 

Dike, Henry A., New York City. 
Dodge, William E., Jr., 11 Cliff St., 

New York City. 

Dodge, Charles C., New York City. 
Field, David Dudley, 4 Pine Street, 

New York City. 

Field, Cyrus W., New York City. 
Hewitt, Abram S., 17 Burling Slip, 

New York City. 
Hoe, Col. Richard M., 29 Gold St.' 

New York City. 

James, D. Willis, New York City. 
Kirkland, Hon. Charles P., 21 Nassau 

Street, New York City. 
Lctcliworth, W. P., Portageville. 
Libbey, Jonas M., 47 Park Avenue, 

New York City. 



Pierrepont, Edwards, New York City. 
t Stokes, Anson P., 45 Wall St., New 

York City. 
Stokes, Thomas, 45 Wall Street, New 

York City. 
Thompson, Mrs. Elizabeth, New 

York City. 

Villard, Mrs. Henry, New York City. 
Ward, J. Q. A., 9 West 48th Street, 

New York Citv. 
Ware, William R., New York City, 

Columbia College. 
Wolcott, Miss EllaL., Elmira. 
Young, J. Edward, New York City. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 32 Pine Street, 

New York. 



OTHER STATES. 



W. G. Hammond, St. Louis, Missouri. 
D. F. Lincoln, M.D., Reading, Pa. 
Prof. Goldwin Smith, Toronto, Can. 



J. W. Hoyt, Cherenne, Wyoming. 
Francis Wayland, LL. D., New Ha- 
ven, Conn. 



183 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



1 1 n N OR AR Y AND CORK KS I >< ) N I > I \ < ; M 1 : M ] j I ; R s . 



A. Bronson Alcott, Esq., Concord, 

Ma 
Mi-s Kli/alu-th P. Peabody, Boston, 

Ma 
Henry Barnard, LL. D., Hartford, 

( 'mm. 
Charles L. Brace, Esq., i: Ea>t 4th 

Sm et, New York. 
Major-Gen. (). O. Howard, Portland, 

( M-egon. 
Edmund A. Meredith, Esq., Ottawa, 

Canada. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, New 

York, H'4 W. 4:>th Street. 
Rev. Frederick N. Kaapp, Plymouth, 

MAM. 
Hon. Domingo F. Sarmiento, Buenos 

Ay res. 

Lewis A. Sayre, M. D., 795 Broad- 
way. New York. 
Prof.* Daniel Wilson, Toronto, Can. 

In Great Britain and Ireland. 

Thomas Hughes, M. P., London. 

Sir Walter Crofton, The Close, Win- 
chester. 

Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers, M. P., 
Oxford. 

Right Rev. James Frazer, Bishop of 
Manchester. 

Lord Kadstoek, London. 

Miss Frances Power Cobbe, 24 
Cheyne Walk, London, S. W. 

Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C. B., Park 
Cottage, East Sheen. 

Henry Dunning McLeod, Esq., Ox- 
ford and Cambridge Club, London. 

Alfred Field, Esq., Birmingham. 

Thomas H. Baker, Esq., Manches- 
ter. 

G. W. Hastings, Esq., M. P., Lon- 
don. 

Henry W. Acland, M. D., F.R. S., 
Oxford. 

Mi-s Edith Simcox, London. 

Miss Louisa Innes Lumsden, Aber- 
deen. 

Mohcure Daniel Conway, Esq., Lon- 
don. 

Herbert Spencer, Esq., London. 

Mi-s Frances Dove, St. Andrews 
Scotland. 



In France. 

M. Pionneville de Marsangy, 7 Rue 

clc IVnthievre, Paris. 
M. Jules Simon, ParN. 
M. I.inilf Muller, Pari<. 
M. Joseph Gamier, 14 Rue liichelieu, 

Paris. 

M. AiiL,ni>t Laugel, 19 Rue de la Vill 

PEveijue. Paris. 
M. Emile Cacliciix, Paris. 
M. Emile Trelat. Paris. 
M. Victor Honnat, Paris. 
M. F. Bonssin, Paris. 

In Germany. 

Dr. Franz von Holte/endorf, Royal 

l.'niversity. Munich. 
Dr. George Varrentrap, Frankfort. 
Dr. Ernc.-t Engel, IJoyal Statistical 

Bureau, Berlin. 
M. Engel-Dolfus, Miilhouse, Alsace. 

In Italy. 

Signor Martino Beltrani-Scalia, 

Rome. 

Prof. C. F. Gabba, Pisa. 
Princess Helene Koltzoff Massalsky, 

Villa d'Istria. Florence. 
Prof. Alberto de Errera, Cavaliere 

della Corona d'ltalia, Venice. 

In Sweden. 

Dr. Friederich Theodor Berg, Stock- 
holm. 

In Greece. 
Aristides Dossios, Athens. 

In Hungary. 
M. E. Horn, M. P., Budepest. 

In Holland. 

Dr. W. F. M. Gori, Amsterdam. 
M. P. Buls, Brussels. 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 189 





PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



Journal Of Social Science. Containing the Transactions of the 
American Association. Nos. I. V. 8vo, paper, each $1.50. Nos. 
VI. XVIII., each $1.00. 

CONTENTS OP NUMBEB Two. Current Record of the Association. I. Immigration Frederick Kapp. H. 
The American Census James A. Garfleld. III. The Mode of Procedure in Cases of Contested Elections- 
Henry I,. Dawes. IV. The Public Charities of the State of New York Theodore W. Dwight. V. The 
Public Libraries of the United States Ainsworth R. Spoftbrd. VI. The Science of Transportation Joseph 

D. Potts. VII. Vaccination A Eeport presented by Francis Bacon, William A. Hammond, and David F. 
Lincoln. VIII. The Election of Presidents Charles Francis Adams, Jr. IX. Life Insurance Sheppard 
Homans. X. The Administration of Criminal Justice George C. Barrett. XI. Health Laws and their 
Administration Elisha Harris. XII. An International Code D. D. Field. XIII. General Intelligence. 
XTV. Constitution. XV. List of New Members. XVI. List of Works relating to Social Science published 
in 1869. 

CONTENTS OF NUJTJEB THREE. I. Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns^-F. L. Olmsted. II. Art 
Education in America C. C. Perkins. III. Civilization and Health Francis Bacon. IV. American 
System of Patents S. A. Duncan. V. Nature and Sphere of Police Power T. T. Woolsey. VI. Legisla- 
tion and Social Science E. L. Godkin. VII. Representation of Minorities D. D. Field. VIII. Rela- 
tions of Business Men to National Legislation II. A. Hill. IX. Houses in the Country for Working Men 
G. B. Emerson. X. Minority Representation in Europe Thomas Hare. XI. Application of Mr. Hare's 
system of Voting to the Nomination of Overseers or Harvard College W. R. Ware. XII. General 
intelligence. 1. Home. 2. Foreign. 

NDMBEB FOUB is out of print, as well as NTJMBEB ONE. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB FIVE. I. Municipal Government Dorman B. Eaton. H. Higher Education of 
Women T. W. Higginson. III. Restoration of the Currency Joseph S. Ropes. IV. Some Results of 
the Census Francis A. Walker. V. Public Vaccination F. P. Foster. VI. The International David A. 
Wasson. VII. Legislation in Relation to Pharmacy G. F. H. Markoe. VIII. General Intelligence. 

CONTENTS OF NTJMBEB Six. General Meeting at New York. I. Opening Address George William Curtis. 
n. The Work of Social Science in the United States^-F. B. Sanborn. III. Financial Administration 
G. Bradford. IV. Conference of the Boards of Public Charities. V. Pauperism in the City of New 
York. VI. The Farmers' Movement in the Western States Wrilard C. Flagg. VII. Ocean Lanes for 
Steamship Navigation Prof. B. Peirce. VIII. Rational Principles of Taxation David A. Wells. IX. 
American Railroads Gardiner G. Hubbard. X. Reformation of Prisoners Z. R. Brockway. XI. The 
Deaf-Mute College at Washington Edward M. Gallaudet. XII. The Protection of Animals George T. 
Angell. XIII. American Finance Prof. W. G. Sumner. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBER SEVEN. I. Private Property upon the Sea Rev. Dr. Woolsey. n. Conference of 
Boards of Health. III. (School Plygiene) Drs. D. F. Lincoln and A. L. Carroll. IV. Tent Hospitals 
Dr. J. F. Jenkins. V. National, State, and Sectarian Universities A. D. White and Dr. McCosh. VI. 
Free Lending Libraries W. W. Greenough. VII. The Young Men's Christian Association Cephas 
Brainard. VIII. Ocean Lanes. IX. Prison Reform in Europe and America Dr. Wines and F. B. San- 
born. X. Social Science Record. XI. Conference of Boards of Charities. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB EIGHT. I. The Production and Distribution of Wealth David A. Wells. II. The 
Work of Social Science F. B. Sanborn. III. Progress in International Law J. B. Angell. IV. The 
Experiment of Civil Service Reform Dorman B. Eaton. V. The Treatment of the Guilty W. G. Elliot. 
VI. Health in Schools Drs. D. F. Lincoln, J. J. Putnam, etc. VII. Financial Policy of England and the 
United States G. Bradford. VIII. Limitations of Judicial Power Emory Washburn. IX. Life 
Insurance for the Poor Elizur Wright and Sheppard Homans. X. Legal Education W. G. Hammond. 
XI. The Detroit Meeting. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB NINE. I. Social Science in Theory and in Practice F. B. Sanborn. II. The Sil- 
ver r 
P. 
Qu 

tionlJaws of Great Britain and of the United States Hamilton A. Hill. IX. The Tariff Question Horace 
White. X. Custom House Forms Henry D. Hyde. XI. State and Municipal Government Samuel 
Bowles. XII. Municipal Economy Daniel L. Harris. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB TEN. Transactions of the Association, 1879. I. American Education, 1869-1879. 
Annual Address by President Oilman. II. The Method of Study in Social Science William T. Harris. 
III. Report of the Department of Education Mrs. I. T. Talbot. IV. The Voting of Women in School 
Elections A. P. Peabudy. V. Relations of Christianity to the Common Law M. B. Anderson. VI. The 
Place of the Practical Man in American Public Ati'airs Hamilton Andrews Hill. VII. Chinese Immigra- 
tion S. Wells Williams. VIII. The United Slate* and The Declaration of Paris-Theodore S. Woolsey. 
IX. Recent Changes in our State Constitutions Simeon E. Baldwin. X. The Policy of Patent Laws- 
Frederic II. Belts. XI. The Sewerage of the Smaller Towns George E. Waring, Jr. XII. Industrial 
Arbitration and Conciliation Joseph D. Weeks. 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB ELEVEN. Report of the Annual Meeting, 1880. List of Members. I. Southern 
Questions. 1. The Negro Exodus from the Gulf States Frederick Douglass. 2. The Emigration of 
Colored Citizens from the Southern States R. T. Greener. 3. Colored Schools in Virginia Mrs. Orra 
Langhorue. II. Recent Changes in the West Robert P. Porter. III. A Report on Protection from 
Casualties in the use of Machinery Prof. William Watson. IV. International Coinage Robert Aoxon 
Toppan. V. Social Economy Papers. 1. Report of the Department of Social Economy F. B. Sanborn. 
2. The Care of Poor and Vicious Children Charles L. Brace. '3. Social Economy in Illinois Mrs. Har- 
bert. 4. Co-operative Distribution Wm. A. Hovey. 5. Co-operation in England James Samuelson. 
Saratoga Papers of 1877. 1. Extradition Sheldon Amos. 2. Graduate Courses at Law Schools Prof. S. 

E. Baldwin. 







190 AMKRICAN SOCIAL 8CIEN( I. A--< ICIATIOV. 



1N 



COWTENTS OF NUMBES TWELVE. Professor Pclrcc's Cincinnati Address: The National Importance o' 
Socials ,t Gilman's Opening Address. Report of til 

tan-, by F. 11. Sunburn. Report of tlic Treasurer anil Publication 

! the Public Library; 
! : .:.ni::!i. V. The American Newspapcrand A 

-1'icv. n. i). i: 

, , d und \Y,.:1. 
D. TheCarc : 

.ng Value of a Public Park 1'. L. Olmstcd. C'oiistituti. 
.. Association. 

' Nl'Mr.rR TIIIBTEEN. Order of Business nt Saratoga in 1RS1. Papers of the Jnrispr 

. i-edcrick .1. Kiii>"-l.iiry. II. 
rty Rights Henry Hitchcock, LL.D. III. 'I 
Henry W. ! amain. IV. Th> '"iny, Historically an.l 

Ilattwcll. M.A. Papers of tlic Health Deportment: I. The Trcatincut of Insanity in its I 

Waller Channing, M.D. 11. Adulteration* in Food Prof. s. \v..' 
tions. Remarks of G< I. General Papers: I. 

Charles L. Brace. 11. Indeterminate Sentences and their Results in New York '/,. K. Brockway. 111. 
Changes in American Society Julia Ward Howe. Appendix ; Infant Development 

CONTENTS OF NUMBEB Forr.TrEN. I. The General Meeting of 18S1. Death of President Garficld. II. 
Opening Address of Professor Wayland, President of the Association. 111. The Thru 
Social Science. Report df the General Sen. horn. IV. Civil Service lieform, an Address 

by George W. Curtis. V. The American Newspaper Charles Dudley Warner. VI. Prohibitory 
Uon P. Emory Aldrich. VII. Province of Legislation iu the Suppression of Int 
VIII. License and Prohibition Rev. Leonard \V. Bacon. IX. The .Mia 
Dr. Woolsey. X. Divuro- ! n. XI. Lax Divorce I 

Dike. XII. Addrcsson Health andlnsanitv Walter Chaimii';-', -M.l>. XIII. V. . 
cine Dr. E. F. Pope. XIV. Constitution, Libt of Members, Oliiecrs and Committees ol 

CONTENTS OF Nusrnr.K FII-TEEX. I. Pupers on Infant Development Prof. Harris, Mr. Darwin. 1'r. Alcott, 
Dr. Prevcr, >I. '1'iiinc, etc. II. Repo t. 111. Iteljgiou* and Moral Education of Children- 

Prof. 0. S. Hall. IV. Treotmcni of Incipient Insanity Mary Putnain-.Iacobi. M.I>. A'. 1 
Insanity Prof. W. T. Ilynis. Dr. Cliunuinji. F. B. Sanbom, etc. VI. Pajicrs on Bniluii 

. Paine, Jr., and Addisou 15. Burk. Vfl. Homes for the People iu Washington John lliu. VIII. 



R. T. , . 

Art in its Relation to the People Martin Brimmer. 



of the Chairman v. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER SIXTEEN. Papers of the Health Department: I. Address of t 

Channirg, M.I). II. The MirhhMii Plan i,,r Uoards of Health Dr. Henry B. Baker. III. T 

Care of Households with Special Reference to House Drainage Ezra M. Hunt. M.D. 1\ 

Bovs' Boarding Schools D. F. Lincoln, M.U. V. The llea'lth of Criminal Women 1.. 

M.I). VI. The Management of Chronic Inebriates nnd Insane Drunkards A.I 

VII. Remarks of Mr. Parker on. Boards of Health. VIII. International and National Relief in War- 

Miss Clara Barton. Papers ef the Social Economy Department i I. Address of the Chairman F. It. 

Sanbom. II. The Factory Svstcm as on Element in Civilization Carroll D. Wright. Ill Eaiv.' 

Life in New England Mrs. 11. H. Robinson. IV. American Factory Life Miss Lucy Lareom. V. Ten 

Hours Rev. Jesse H. Jones. 

CONTKVIS i IF M-.MIIKK ISKVKNTEF.N. I. Introduction. II. Address Rev. A. 1). MH.VO. cm \iiti..' 

to Kdiieation. III. Ad.lri-ss Prcsiilent Angcil. ou Diplomatic Kehiti.ms 1,,-twccn China and the Cnited 

l\'. Ppen oi the Jurisprudence Department, viz. : 1. Professional El 
2. I>ocal Self-Government Kdward W. BcinK ::. Dilfranchisement for Crime Jar 
A plan forExtinjruishing Crime Edwin Hill. 5. Punishment for Certain Crimes H. A. Hill. V. UU 
dn Prof. W. T. HMT&. vi. The Darwin Commemoration. VII. A Paper on the P 
ing Rev. H. L. Wayland. VIII. Miscellaneous Matters. 

CONTENTS OF NI:MHKK EIGHTEEN. I. Introductory. II. Openini Address Prof. Wayland. III. Re- 
port of the General Secretary F. B. Sanbom. IV. Papers on Health and Education: 1. II 
Social Science Dr. E. M. Iliint. . Physical Training in Homes and Training Si D. A. vir- 

aeiit. :',. Trne Higher EdncationW. C. Thoraa*. -I. Can ...... f Inianity Dr. W. Channlng. ',. Ine- 

briety in Women Dr. L. M. Hall. 6. The Disease of Inebriety Dr. T. D. Crothers. 7. 11- ; 
Ing and Drainage Q. E. Waring. Jr. 8. Moral Education in Schools Pn.f. W. T. Han:-. V. Papen 
ofthe Jurisprudence Department: 1. Araertion of Right-J. T. Pktt L'. International Kthies L. M. 
Gallaud. t. 1.1..I) 8. Legal Hi story of the T<-:.'i.h.,n, M. F. Tyler. VI. Addn , - iu .1 Special Papers: 
1. American i I.L.I). 2. Public Libraries J. M. Larned. 

S'on of India Mr. Mozoomdar. 4. New . Methods of Study in History H. B. Adams. VII. I 1 
- .1 Economy Department, viz.: 1. K: i fce United States Prof. C. A. Oardiner. 2. 

Relations between Employers and Employed Mrs. S. K. Bolton. 3. Child-Helping in New York C. L. 
Brace. 4. Prison Labor. 

CONTENTS <>r Ni MHI:R XINETEF.X. I. Introductory. II. Report of the Secretary F. B. Sanborn. 
III. Papers of the Finance Department I. ScienUflc Basis of Tariff Legislation C. D. Wrieht. !. 

Financial Standing of State- Henry C. Adams. Ii. The Hate of Wages Edward Atkinson. 4. Indus- 
trial Education F. A. Walker. IV. Papers of the Jurisprudence Department. I. Conflic 
Laws Ku.'eno Smith. 2. The Pardoning Power F. Wnyiaml. ',. Threef.,1,1 Basis ot the. Criminal 
Law F. M. Wines. V. Hebrew Charities-Mary M. Cohen. VI. Constitution, and Members of the 
Association. 

Sold by CCPPLES, UPHAM & Co., Boston; G. P. PUTNAM'S SINS, >Vw 

York ; and by 

F. B. SANBORX, Secretary, 

CONCORD, MASS. 



JOURNAL 



SOCIAL SCIENCE, 



CONTAINING THE 



TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



NUMBER XX . 



JUNE, 1885. 



SARATOGA PAPERS OF 1884. 



PART II. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 

AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 

BY CTJPPLES, UPHAM & CO., BOSTON, AND G. P. PUTNAltf'8 SONS, 

NEW YORK. 

1885. 



KDITKI) BY 

F. B. SANBOHX, 
GKNEKAL SECKKTARV OF THE ASSOCIATION 

CONCOKD, MASSA( III si:ll>. 



TO L MAX & WHITE, 

Printers for the American Social Science Association, 
383 Washington Street, Boston. 



CONTENTS OF JOURNAL No. XX. 



I. PAPERS op THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, . . . 1-60 

1. THE FUNCTION OF LATIN AND GREEK IN EDUCATION 

Dr. W. T. Harris, . 1-13 

2. PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION Mrs. Emily Talbot, . . 14-24 

3. ATHLETIC EDUCATION Dr. Edward Hitchcock, . . 27-44 

4. PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES Mrs. 

K. S. Bryan, . . . . . . . . 45-48 

5. THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN IN GREAT BRITAIN 

AND IRELAND- Miss Lumsden, 49-60 

II. ADDITIONAL PAPERS OF THE JURISPRUDENCE DEPARTMENT, 61-86 

1. THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS Mr. 

F. H. Wines, . f 61-77 

2. LUNACY LEGISLATION IN THE NORTHWEST Prof. A. 

O. Wright, ........ 78-86 

III. PAPERS OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, .... 87-97 

1. DR. SARGENT'S SUMMARY, 87-90 

2. TENEMENT HOUSES Dr. Lucy M. Hall, . . . 91-97 

/ 

IV. .THE CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES Edward M. 

Shepard, 98-131 



PREFACE. 



The Papers included in this number of the Journal of Social 
Science are less than half of the Saratoga Papers of 1884. As 
some misapprehension may exist in regard to the publication of 
Papers by the Association, it ma}- here be said that all Papers, 
engaged for the General Meeting of the American Social Science 
Association, are so engaged with the understanding that they may 
be printed in the Journal of Social Science, if the Council so 
decide ; if, therefore, the writers choose to publish their Papers 
elsewhere, (to which the Council offers no objection), it must be 
with the stipulation that these Papers may also be published in 
the Journal, at the option of the Council as to the time of publi- 
cation. Several of the Papers read at the last General Meeting 
have been omitted from the Journal No. XIX and the present 
Number, at the request of the authors or for other reasons. 

ERRATUM. The date of the reading of Dr. HARRIS'S Address, 
and Mrs. TALBOT'S Report, was September 9, 1884, and not 
September 4 as printed. 



I. PAPERS OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. 



I. ON THE FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK 
IN EDUCATION. 

AN ADDRESS BY PROF. W. T. HARRIS, CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT 
OF EDUCATION. 

(Read Tuesday, September 4, 1884.) 

All modern Christian nations make a study of Latin and 
Greek occupy the essential place in the cdurse of study prescribed 
for a thorough education. Yet these are dead languages, so-called. 
They are no longer spoken by any people, and they are not used 
to any extent as a written language. Such a state of facts is cal- 
culated to arouse question and protest. Why should so much tkne 
be occupied in learning languages that are not to be used in writing 
or speaking? 

When we ask how this happens, we are told that the study of 
language is the study of human nature, and that the Latin and 
Greek are the two most perfect tongues known to the world. 
Hence they form the best subjects to study for discipline, and for 
training in exact thought. Moreover, these languages exert a 
refining influence on those who study them. 

Such reasons as are based on the "discipline," " exactness of 
thought." or " refining influence," supposed to be derived from 
their study, are somewhat vague, and need explication. So, like- 
wise, the assertion that the\' are "perfect" languages. 

Upon inquiry, we find that the Latin and Greek languages are 
spoken of by some as being "perfect," in the sense that they are 
complete as regards further growth, or by others as regards etymo- 
logical inflections ; or, again, as regards syntactical organism ; 
or, finall}', as regards capacity for expression, whether artistic, 
scientific, or historical. This designation of "perfect" does not 
seem to recommend itself as a substantial reason for the prominent 
place that Latin and Greek hold in education. In the first sense 
intended that they are complete as regards growth that they 
are "dead" languages, they would have no advantages over 
the Anglo-Saxon, the old Norse, the Zend, the Sanscrit, or any 






2 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

other dead language. Nor is it obvious at first glance why such 
completeness is an advantage. Why should we not study a living, 
organic growth wherein we can trace a process actually going on ? 
I.:i\vs are manifested and revealed to us only in the actual changes 
which transpire within a process and not in its dead results. 
Again, if inflections are considered, what thoughtful man will 
assert that inflections are a mark of perfection? Is the Sanscrit 
more perfect than the Latin, because it inflects twice as much as 
the latter language? Does not maturity of spiritual develop- 
ment rather do away with inflections? Could the syntax of Greek 
and Latin do any more wonderful things than the syntax of Milton 
and Shakespeare? Could the language of Cicero express what 
that of Burke could not? Could the language of Plato and Aris- 
totle express what Hegel and Schelling found German inadequate 
to express? It is doubtful if any of these questions could be 
answered in such a way as to defend Latin and Greek on the 
ground of perfection over all other languages. 

A far better ground is urged for classical study by English 
speaking peoples in the fact that it furnishes the root words to 
that part of our vocabulary which is more especially the language 
of thought and reflection, while the Teutonic or Gothic ground-work 
is the language of sensuous experience and of common life. 
Hence it happens that even a little study of Latin makes a great 
difference in the grasp of the mind as regards generalization and 
principles. Without Latin, the trope and metaphor underlying 
the abstract terms necessary to express all elevated sentimeut or 
thought in English, and, more specifically, all scientific results, 
whether moral, legal, spiritual or natural is not perceived or felt. 
Such trope and metaphor is the basis of abstract terms, and hence 
the latter have been called "fossil poetry." To gain command 
of the resources of a language, one must revivify this poetic 
element, must acquire an ability to feel the trope and metaphor 
which it contains. 

This argument for the study of Latin by English-speaking 
peoples holds good, in a greater or less degree, for the Romanic 
nations of modern times. But it is not so convincing when 
applied to the Germanic, Norse, and Sclavonic peoples. It is 
when we come to look at the study of Latin and Greek, in its rela- 
tion to all European culture, that we find a more satisfactory 
reason, and begin to see its truer and deeper psychological bearing. 



FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 3 

The general principle which determines insight-giving studies is 
this ; they must be of such a kind that they lead the individual out 
of his immediate and familiar surroundings, and cause him to 
breathe the atmosphere and become familiar with the accessor}' 
conditions of an earlier historical stage of the people from whom 
he derives his culture and forms of civilization. Each stage of 
civilization is a product of two factors ; one factor being the ante- 
cedent stage of civilization, and the other factor being the new 
social force which modifies the former. Every stage of civilization 
goes down into succeeding ones in human history as a silent factor, 
still exercising a modifying influence upon them, but in an ever- 
weakening degree. 

The education of the child, therefore, takes him out of his imme- 
diate atmosphere of feeling and desire, and bathes him in the rare 
atmosphere of the early infancy of his race. The nursery tales 
that greet his dawning consciousness and later the fair} 7 stories 
and mythological material that delight his youth are simply the 
transfigured history of the deeds of his race. 

With the education of the school, begins the serious appropria- 
tion of the classics of his people, wherein he becomes by degrees 
conscious of the elements of his complex being. He finds one 
after the other the threads that compose his civilization ; threads 
that weave the tissue of his own nature as a product of civilization. 
The Chinese youth reads Confucius and Mencius and sees the 
universal type and model on which the Chinese world of to-day is 
formed. The Hindoo child listens to the stories of the Hitopadesa, 
and lenrns the Vedas and Paranas, and becomes conscious of the 
ideal 'principles of his caste-system. The young Turk reads the 
Koran, and learns to recognize the ordinances which direct and 
control the life of his fellow-men. 

It will be acknowledged without dispute, that modern civiliza- 
tion is derivative, resting upon the ancient Roman civilization on 
the one hand, and on the Greek civilization on the other. All 
European civilization borrows from these two sources. To the 
Greek we owe the elementary standards of aesthetic art and litera- 
ture. They have transmitted to us the so-called perfect forms. 
All culture, all taste, bases itself upon familiarity with Greek 
models. More than this, the flesh and blood of literature, the 
means of its expression, the vehicles in which elevated sentiment 
and ideal convictions are conveyed, largely consist of trope and 



4 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

metaphor derived from Greek mythology. Before science and the 
forms of reflection existed, the first method of seizing mid express- 
ing spiritual facts consisted of poetic metaphor and personifica- 
tion. Images of sense were taken in a double meaning ; a material 
and a spiritual meaning in inseparable union. We, and all Euro- 
pean nations, even the ancient Romans, are indebted to Greek 
genius for this elementary form of seizing and expressing the sub- 
tle, invisible forms of our common spiritual self-hood. One can 
never be at home in the realms of literature without an acquaint- 
ance with this original production of the Greek people. 

More than this, the Greek people, essentiall}' a theoreticall}" in- 
clined race, advanced themselves historically from this poetic 
personification of nature towards a more definite abstract seizing 
of the same in scientific forms. With the Greek race, theoretical 
reflection is also indigenous. The Greek language is specially 
adapted to this function, and in the time of the historical culmina- 
tion of the Greek race, appeared the philosophical thinkers who 
classified and formulated the great fundamental divisions of the 
two worlds, man and nature. All subsequent science among 
European peoples has followed in the wake of Greek science ; 
availing itself of Greek insights and piously using the very techni- 
cal designations invented by the Greek mind for the expression of 
those insights. 

The theoretical survey of the world in its two phases of develop- 
ment, sesthetical or literary, and reflective or scientific, is therefore 
Greek in its genesis ; and a clear consciousness of the details as 
well as of the entire scope of that side of our activity, requires the 
use of the elementary facts that belong to the genesis or history 
of its development. A knowledge of Greek life and literature is 
a knowledge of the embryonic forms of this great and important 
factor in modern and all future civilization. 

The Roman contribution to modern civilization is widely different 
from that of the Greeks. Instead of aesthetic or theoretic con- 
templation, the Roman chooses the forms of the activity of the will 
for his field of view. He has seen the mode and manner in which 
man must limit his practical activity in order to be free. He must 
act in such a manner as not to lame and paralyze his own 
activity, nor mar the products of the activity of his neighbors. 
Let each one act so that his deed will not be self-destructive if 
adopted by all men. This is the Kantian formula for free moral 



FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 5 

activity. Man is placed in this world as a race and is not complete 
as a single individual. Each individual is a fragment of the race, 
and his solution of the problem of life is to be found in the proper 
combination with his fellow-men so as to avail himself of their help, 
theoretical and practical. Theoretically, they will help by giving 
him the results of their experience in life ; their pains and pleasures, 
their mistakes and successes ; the theoretical inventory which 
the} 7 have taken of the world in its infinite details, and the princi- 
ples they have discovered as the units which reduce those details 
to a system. Without this combination with his fellows, he re- 
mains an outcast, a mere embryonic possibility of man. How 
important, then, it seems to us, is this invention of the civil forms 
which make possible this combination and cooperation. 

Other peoples, before the Romans and contemporary with them, 
may lay claim to this invention of the civil code. But their claims 
cannot be sustained. Moral and ethical forms in sufficiency they 
have ; but the civil form which gives and secures to the individual the 
circle wherein he shall exercise supremely his free will, and beyond 
the limits of which he shall submerge his individuality utterly in 
that of the State, the supreme civil institution such a civil 
form elaborated into a complete code of written laws, we do not 
find elsewhere. It is, moreover, a settled fact in history, that 
modern nations have received their jurisprudence from the Roman 
peoples, modifying the same, more or less, to accommodate it to 
the developed spirit of the Christian religion. 

It is essential for a correct view of this subject to consider 
carefully the nature of the forms of expression which must be used 
in order to define the limits of the free will. The code which 
expresses such limits must deal with prohibitions only, in so far as 
it defines crime. But it must furnish positive forms in which all 
agreements and contracts are to be defined. The full exercise of 
free will within the sphere allotted to the individual, is accom- 
plished only by means of the institution of property. The complete 
idea of property implies the possibility of its alienation or trans- 
ference to others. Contract is the form in which two or more wills 
combine, constituting a higher will. The Roman law furnishes the 
varied forms in which this higher will, essentially an incorporate 
will, is realized. This is the most important contribution of Rome 
to the civilization of the world. So important is contract to the 
Roman mind that it deifies soulless abstractions, seeing in them 



6 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

incorporate powers. The State is its Jupiter, its Mars, its Jnno, its 
Venus. The word Reliyio etymologic-ally expresses the highest 
spiritual relation, as conceived by tin- Koinan. IK- makes :i vow, 
proposes a contract to his gods, and the gift of the god being 
obtained, he will faithfully fulfil his v\\. 

The Roman people possess, as individuals, a double conscious- 
ness, a limitation within the self, the self as supremely free 
within the circle of its property, the self as utterly submerged in 
a higher will, [that of the State], beyond its personal limit. All 
modern civilization, rooting as it does in Rome, which had 
conquered the whole world, receives as its heritage this doubk- 
consciousness, and can never lapse back into the naive, childish 
consciousness of pre-Roman civilization. Just as the technical 
terms and expressions, the very categories in which literary and 
art forms, or philosophical and scientific forms are possible, are 
derived from a Greek source, so too, on the other hand, these 
most important civil forms of contract and incorporation and 
criminal definition are borrowed from Rome, and were originally 
expressed in Latin. Latin derivatives, in most of the European 
languages, still contain and define these distinctions. 

To stud3' Latin, just the mere language and its grammar, is to 
study the revelation of this Roman spirit in its most intimate and 
characteristic form. Language is the clothing of the invisible 
spiritual self of the people a revelation of its primary attitude 
towards the universe. A study of the literature, politics, history, 
religion and law making of the Roman people is a still further 
initiation into the ncrysteries of this phase of modern civilization. 

Comparative philology and sociology owe to society the duty of 
investigating the Greek and Latin languages with a view to dis- 
cover the grammatical and logical adaptation of those languages 
to express the fundamental point of view of those peoples, the one 
theoretical, and the other practical, and also to ascertain how it is 
that they stimulate, by reaction upon the minds of those using 
those languages, the original, theoretical or practical tendency. 
The modern 3'outh, by common consent in all modern civilized 
countries, is trained upon Latin and Greek as especial discipline 
studies. Little or no mention is made of the rationale of this 
process to the pupil. Very little is done to point out the relation 
between the facts obtained within the sphere of classic literature, 
and the modern facts which surround him. Nevertheless, these 
ancient facts concern, in one way or another, the genesis of the 






FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 7 

modern facts, and all effective activity of the student's mind goes 
to the construction of bridges of relation from the one to the other. 
Merely by thinking the modern facts of our civilization through 
the prisms of the ancient facts, the classically educated man is 
able to decompose the compound rays united in the modern. All 
unconscious that the classical material of his education performs 
the function of a decomposing prism, or that the ancient facts are 
embryonic stages of the modern facts, the student finds that he 
has practical possession of a superior power of analysis and gener- 
alization, and that he is able to fix his attention upon a single 
strand of modern civilization, its political and legal forms, or its 
theoretical and its sesthetical, and use the same theoretically or 
practically. His facility is a real possession of the highest practi- 
cal value, but he ma}' not have any true theory of its existence or 
its origin. He may call it a college " fetich." 

It is the subtlest and least observed or most rarely formulated 
expression of the spirit of the Greek and Roman peoples, namely, 
its impression upon the grammatical forms and categorical terms 
of their languages, that exercises the surest and most powerful 
effect on the classical student. 

One may say that of a hundred boys, fifty of whom had studied 
Latin for a period of six months, while the other fifty had never 
studied Latin at all, the fifty with the smattering of Latin would 
possess some slight impulse towards analyzing the legal and polit- 
ical view of human life, and surpass the other fifty in this direc- 
tion. Placed on a distant frontier, with the task of building a new 
civilization, the fifty with the smattering of Latin would furnish 
law makers and political rulers, legislators, and builders of the 
state. 

In the same way, a smattering of Greek, through the subtle 
effect of the vocabulary and forms of Greek grammar, would 
give some slight impulse, not otherwise obtained, towards theoret- 
ical or sesthetical contemplation of the world. On the highest 
mountain ridge a pebble thrown into a rill may divide the tiny 
stream so that one portion of it shall descend a water shed and 
finally reach the Pacific ocean, while the other portion, following 
its course, shall reach the Atlantic ocean. It requires only a 
small impulse to direct the attention of the immature mind of 
youth in any given direction. A direction once given, subsequent 
activity of the mind follows it as the line of least resistance, and 



8 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

it soon becomes a great power, or even what we may cnll a faculty. 
Certainly, it follows that the busying of the mind of youth wilh 
OIK- form or phase of Roman life will give it some impulse towards 
directing its view to the forms of the law. Or, the occupation 
with the Greek language and life, will communicate an impulse 
towards literary and philosophical views of the world. 

But Latin and Greek ought not to be advocated as a substitute 
for English literature, science, or mathematics. Each topic gives 
something to the mind ; each one omits something. 

The one who arranges the course of study must carefully ascer- 
tain the educational value of each branch of learning, and lix the 
proportion accordingly. The classical studies help to give 
perspective to the mind. They enable the pupil to become con- 
scious of the separate tendencies that enter his life. 

In the concrete world into which we are born, there are complex 
relations an infinite manifold of historic tendencies and influ- 
ences have mingled. The present life is like a web of cloth into 
whose texture are woven threads of the most diverse description 
and origin forming its warp and woof. 

We are powerless to discriminate the elements which form our 
present life, because the}' are so complicated and blend into so 
close a unity. 

If, however, we can leave the study of this complex result, and 
find an opportunit}" to investigate its elements in a separate form, 
and become familiar with their appearance by themselves, we 
shall acquire the capacity to recognize them when united in the 
life of the present. 

Analysis must precede synthesis in conscious or scientific knowl- 
edge. In primitive or first knowing, there is little consciousness 
a mere life of feeling. Cultivation of the intellect begins by 
analysis and follows with synthesis. 

Thus, it is, that Latin and Greek are retained as most important 
studies in higher education. Latin and Greek are the languages 
of the two peoples that hinge European civilization to Asiatic 
civilization. The spirit of Asia the Oriental world is not in 
favor of the individuality of man neither in religion, nor 'politics, 
nor art, nor science. There is an all-devouring primordial unity 
as deity (Brahm), which lacks the attributes of consciousness 
itself, and is hostile to any and all forms of human individuality. 
There is only despotism or irresponsible rule in the states of Asia ; 



FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 9 

only intellectual subordination in the Asiatic mind, and only the 
portrayal of snch subordination in Oriental art and literature. 

Greece and Rome form the entrance to the western civilization 
which unfolds individuality, and regards the human attributes as 
essentially divine and substantial. 

The Greek mind, under the purpose of Providence, develops 
and expresses free intellectual insight under the form of science, 
and symbolizes freedom in all forms of art gracefulness being 
the appearance of freedom in material guise. 

The Greek has had this function so wholly to itself, that it is 
the source from whence the forms of theoretical insight are bor- 
rowed by all modern European peoples. Its sculpture, architec- 
ture, poetry (epic, dramatic, lyric), eloquence, history, and the like, 
have furnished models for the modern world. If we have departed 
from those models in our highest reaches in literary art or science, it 
is rather by additions to the Greek original than by new foundations. 

The Greek mind furnishes us a sharp contrast to Asiatic absolut- 
ism and debasement of individuality. We feel at home with the 
Greeks when we come to them from a sojourn among Oriental 
nations. 

"What Greece has done for theoretic and art development of 
civilization, the Roman has done for political forms and usages. 
It is the law-making consciousness of the world. It emerges 
from Asiatic absolutism and irresponsible power, and defines 
rights and duties, and sets up these definitions as conscious stand- 
ards which shall limit alike the governed and the governing. In 
the course of time the distinction of the law from the men who 
administer it, becomes so clear that constitutional forms are 
written out and acknowledged, and the people become so free, that 
the obvious purpose of the state is declared to be the security of 
the people in a rational exercise of their individual powers. 
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " on the part of the 
individual subjects require laws and definitions, and for this, gov- 
ernment is caused to exist, and all the machinery of legislative, 
judiciary and executive departments organized and perpetuated. 
The personal element of the government has been entireh" con- 
cealed, and those who act in the government are governed by 
written laws like all their fellow-citizens. 

Roman history is the history of the transmutation of rude vio- 
lence robber life into mutual recognition of rights explicitly 



10 KICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

stated and defined. The deeds of the human will have been the 
sole object of consideration through ages, and discrimination has 
been reached in regard to the effects of human actions what can 
be done without injury to others, and what can not be done, lias 
been slowly but surely discerned. The individual shall act so that 
his action may not collide with those of his fellow-men, and each 
action annul the other but it shall take such a form that 
it reinforces the rational actions of his fellow-men. When tin; 
forms of reasonable action are discovered and defined, institutions 
become possible. " Institution" is a Latin word, and describes a 
spiritual existence created by the Roman mind. It is a spiritual 
combinational' man with his fellow-men just as a steam-engine 
or a mill is a material combination. 

All modern State forms, municipal governments, corporations, 
public or private ; all forms of justice, are based on the Roman 
contribution to civilization, and they are expressed in Latin words 
for the most part in all modern languages. 

The study of Latin and Greek is a species of self-alienation, or 
estrangement, therefore, which familiarizes the mind with essential 
elements that enter modern civilized life it familiarizes the mind 
with these elements in their early and independent forms, as they 
existed in history in their first origination and before they mingled 
and lost their separate significance. Familiarity with those ele- 
ments in their earl} 7 and isolated existence gives one power to 
recognize them in modern life. 

Analytic power of mind which cannot recognize and trace out 
connectedly these great essential threads of social life, is not of 
much strength or value. It is not able to discriminate practically 
nor understand and decide on practical questions. It is hopelessly 
lost when one of the threads it is trying to see disappears under 
the meshes of other threads and comes up under some superficial 
change. It is the essential relation which Greece and Rome have 
to Modern civilization that makes the study of their spirit so im- 
portant in modern education. 

A study of Arabic or Sanscrit or Chinese, would have far more 
self-alienation or estrangement in it, but it would have no return 
to our modern life ; it would furnish no keys to our situation for 
Chinese and Arabian and East Indian life has not developed into 
our own but is an arrested development halting on the other side of 
the two great emancipations performed for us by Greece and Rome. 



FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 11 

It happens that a very little study of Latin has an influence to 
put the mind into an attitude of observation of the activity of the 
will-power. The genius that formed the Latin language has every- 
where impressed itself upon that language so that an acquaintance 
with its mode of expression habituates the mind to contemplating 
will-forms rather than intellect- forms ; it is practical, rather than 
theoretic ; it lacks the pronominal development in the form of the 
article, and suppresses the demonstrative method of defining 
which belongs to theoretic peoples. The Greek, on the other hand, 
has the perfection of pronominal development in the direction of 
the article, or demonstrative, and its use favors theoretical 
habits of mind. An infant of a few days or weeks old is made by 
its parent to hold the rattle-box in its right hand. After a few 
corrections, it becomes a second nature to grasp and hold things 
in its right hand. A very slight impulse at the beginning, makes 
a change in the entire bod}'. For the right hand and arm grows 
much stronger and more skilful than the left. Finally, one hemi- 
sphere of the brain grows larger than the other, and one lung 
develops more than the other ; each of the five senses develops 
one of its pair of organs, so that one side is the special organ of 
voluntary attention. 

So a very slight impulse, derived from a few months study of 
the grammar and vocabulary of the Latin or Greek language, 
results in forming a habit of looking at essential forms which enter 
modern life, either on the side of the will or of the intellect, and 
the individual's view of the world is fixed for his whole life. His 
capacity to see and clearly define these forms, and to recognize 
their essential nature under protean shapes grows with his growth 
and strengthens with his strength. 

If the few in a new community happen to have a mere smatter- 
ing of Latin and the others of the community have none whatever, 
the business of expressing and administering the forms that relate 
to the combination of men into institutions will fall to those few. 
It makes little difference whether they have read Latin literature, 
and still less difference whether they have heard lectures on Roman 
institutions, or read about them. Six months' study of the Latin 
language does more to develop a habit of the mind to view will- 
forms than many years of mere study of Roman history or of 
Roman customs. 

Thus, for ages, the mind of youth has been trained in the 



12 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

schools on the two "dead" languages, Latin and Greek. For 
the evolution of the civilization, in which we live and move and 
have our being, issued through Greece and Rome on its way to 
us. We kindled the torches of our institutions of the watch- 
fires of our civilization at their sacred flames. The organism 
of the State, the invention of the forms in which man may live 
in a civil community and enjoy municipal and personal rights ; 
these trace their descent in a direct line from Rome, and were in- 
digenous to the people who spoke Latin. In our civil and politi- 
cal forms, we live Roman life to-day. That side or phase of tin: 
complex organism of modern civilization is Roman. Our scien- 
tific and aesthetic forms come from beyond Rome ; they speak the 
language of their Greek home to this very day, just as much as 
jurisprudence and legislation pronounce their edicts in Roman 
words. 

To assimilate this antecedent stage of existence, therefore, it is 
not sufficient to form an acquaintance with it by reading its history 
or literature in translations. The thorough assimilation of it in con- 
sciousness demands such an immediate contact with it as one gets 
by learning the languages of these people the clothing of their 
inmost spiritual selves. "We must don the garb in which they 
thought and spoke, in order fully to realize in ourselves these em- 
bryonic stages of our civilization. 

If we now inquire what the substitution of a modern language 
say German or French for Latin or Greek would effect, the 
answer is clear that a modern language stands to English in the 
relation of co-ordination and not in any sense in that of presup- 
position. As immediate facts, German and French stand in need 
of explanation through evolution, just as much as the English 
does. Their civilizations are not embryonic stages of the English 
civilization, but derivative forms from the same source. 

No one modern language is an embryonic type of another, nor 
does it present in its literature the embryonic form, of the civiliza- 
tion of another people, even though it may be an " arrested 
development" of some type of civilization. To study the embry- 
ology of the butterfly, we must begin with the caterpillar, and not 
with the mosquito. So to understand the frog, we must stud}- the 
tadpole and not the toad. 

Schopenhauer says, that "A man who does not understand 
Latin, is like one who walks through a beautiful region in a fog ; 



FUNCTION OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK. 13 

bis horizon is very close to him. He sees only the nearest things 
clearly, and a few steps away from him, the outlines of everything 
becomes indistinct or wholly lost. But the horizon of the Latin 
scholar extends far and wide through the centuries of modem 
history, the middle ages and antiquity." 

In conclusion, let me formulate : The vocabulary of a language 
gives a person, to the extent he understands it, the view of the 
world attained by its race or people. 

The vocabularies and syntax of the Latin and Greek languages 
give to the people of Europe and America, an insight into the 
embryonic part of their civilization, and help them to understand 
themselves, and to analyze the forms and usages of their intellect- 
ual and moral being. 

" Know thyself," means, know the general forms and conditions 
which you must live in your life, unless you will fail to live well. To 
the self-knowledge of Americans and Europeans, then, some study 
of Latin and Greek is essential, and the most productive of all higher 
studies in directive power and practical ability to understand and 
deal with one's time and situation. Asa practical matter for the 
people of Asia and Africa, a knowledge of Latin and Greek is also 
necessary if they are to make a thorough study of the character of 
the conquering nations of modern times. 



14 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



II. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, MRS. EMILY TALBOT, OF 

BOSTON. 

(Read Tuesday, September 4, 1884.) 

Never have the educational forces of the world been so active, 
aggressive and progressive as during the last few years. The old 
methods of dependence upon authority, of following precedents, 
of looking to the past for light and knowledge, have given way to 
the new methods of inquiring, examining, inventing, proving ; 
searching for "short cuts "to practical knowledge, so that the 
individual maj* lose no time in getting into the full tide of work to 
be done. Within the memoiy of each one of us, to carry life and 
light to the heathen meant to bear the cross of personal consecra- 
tion and the Gospel as taught by Jesus Christ. Today, this work 
means not only that, but it includes the miracle-working powers of 
steam and electricity ; it means the creation of new wants, that 
new industries may creep in ; it embraces the penetrating and 
enlightening power of the press ; all these forces now conjoin to 
educate the world out of barbarism into a higher life. The rise 
and progress of one or another method of instruction, the supposed 
results of routine work in school or college, deeply concern the 
practical educator. The student of social science seeks to ascer- 
tain what the public are thinking, and how that thought is applied 
to the best interests of the race. A recent writer says ; " Human- 
ity wants to know how to keep itself alive, and well, and doing 
well ; it wants brought up for consideration, the wrongs which 
oppress it, the evils which defile it, the crimes which degrade it ; 
to have these causes investigated, and their remedies suggested." 
Among the interesting subjects connected with recent educational 
work, this paper will treat only of those which seem to reflect most 
truly the spirit of the present, or which promise to give an impetus 
to the civilization of the future. 

SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS. 

Some of the greatest evils of the present time, which can hardly 
be considered too seriously, are the repudiation of debts, the 



REPORT OF MRS. TALBOT. 15 

betrayal of pecuniary trusts, and generally dishonest methods in 
business. Education may do much to remedy these great evils. 
It may be assumed that the child who is early trained to deposit 
small savings in the bank is on the road to frugal and careful liv- 
ing ; that the man who has been trained to habits of prudence and 
economy can be trusted. It was faith in the importance of a right 
beginning, and in the power of habit, which inspired a French 
teacher, M. Dulac, in 1834, to open a savings bank in his school. 
This habit among school children of depositing small savings, thus 
begun in France, has extended to Germany, Hungary, Italy, Bel- 
gium, and Holland. In France, the number of school savings 
banks in 1880, was 10,261, with 213,135 depositors. The whole 
amount thus deposited by children at that time was more than a 
million of dollars. M. Laurent, pi'ofessor of civil law in the Uni- 
versity of Ghent, said to the directors of the city schools, " Saving 
must be taught like any other virtue, by causing it to be practised. 
Children are the best agents of social reform. While small sav- 
ings are of great value to all the children, they are specially so to 
the children of the poor, who see more pennies than larger coin, 
and for whom the habit of saving will be the only means of success 
in later years." This gentleman went from school to school to 
give the children practical lessons in economy, and thus, with the 
encouragement of the school commission, savings banks have been 
opened in many of the Belgian schools. In the city of Ghent, 
nearly one-third of the school children are now depositors. These 
savings banks are nowhere established by law, nor are they sus- 
tained by an}* government agency. They originate with, and 
depend solely upon the efforts of the teachers and scholars, and 
their success is due to the attractiveness of the idea of accumu- 
lating wealth, and the persistence and interest with which it is 
carried on. 

The plan is very simple. After having made arragements with 
the nearest bank, the teacher informs his pupils that he is ready 
to receive their small savings, and that, as soon as the deposit 
amounts to one franc, he will transfer them to the regular savings 
bank, and the scholar will receive a bank book. The teacher 
fixes a da}- in each week when deposits will be received. He keeps 
a register in which he enters the names of the pupils and the 
amounts deposited. Each pupil keeps a duplicate account. 
Sometimes the registers and the blanks for the duplicate accounts 



16 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

are pivpaivd by the pupils themselves, as an exercise in writing 
and in simple book-keeping. The business outside the school- 
room, with the savings banks, is also very simple. At the begin- 
ning of every month, the teacher adds up the deposits of evri y 
pupil, and in case they exceed one franc he deposits the evm 
francs, and keeps the amounts of less than one franc on the regis- 
ter of the school savings bank. When the pupil leaves the school 
the bank book is passed over to its parent or guardian. No pupil < 
can withdraw a whole or a part of his savings without the consent 
of his legal guardians. 

A statement has recently been made, and to my knowledge, not 
contradicted, that the recent losses in this country through repudi- 
ation and defaulting equals the amount of the national debt. 
Whether this be true or not, the fact remains that more pains 
ought to be taken to form in our children habits of frugality and 
economy, if we would have the people of this country practise the 
virtues of honesty and fidelity. 

PHYSIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS. 

There can be little question that, to a certain extent, it is desir- 
able to instruct children in regard to the functions and normal 
condition of the human system ; yet this should be done with the 
greatest caution, otherwise erroneous and often injurious notions 
will be inculcated. Recently, legislation has been secured in the 
States of Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and 
Rhode Island, requiring that "physiology and hygiene shall be 
taught in the public schools of these States, with special reference 
to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the 
human system." The advocates of this law propose not only to 
introduce this proposed instruction into advanced schools, but 
according to the statute of Michigan, instruction in these special 
topics must be given to " all pupils in every school." Thus the 
pupils in primary, infant and kindergarten schools supported by 
the State must be instructed in " the effects of alcoholic drinks, 
stimulants, and narcotics on the human system." We think it 
quite time to enter an earnest protest against this method of nur- 
turing children. This whole plan, however philanthropic may 
have been its origin and aim, is, to say the least, a misconception 
of the function and duty of the public school, and is impracticable 
in execution. 



PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION. MRS. TALBOT. 17 

It is not proposed by this legislation to teach the normal, but 
the abnormal ; not health, but disease ; it is not physiology, but 
pathology ; it is not temperance, but intemperance ; a line of in- 
struction the farthest possible from the true work of the public 
school. That it is impracticable in execution is apparent from the 
fact that teachers themselves cannot be prepared to give correct 
instruction upon "the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and 
narcotics on the human system," where authorities differ so widely 
as to these effects, which are so unlike under different conditions. 
That incorrect, uncertain, or vague instruction on such a subject, 
would be futile or injurious, requires no argument. These laws 
have, without doubt, been framed for the purpose of instructing 
children as to the effects of inebriety. The Church calls it a vice ; 
the State punishes it as a crime ; and science considers it a dis- 
ease ; but whether it be vice, crime or disease, it is an unfit sub- 
ject for children to study. Though it appears under the title of 
physiology, it is fair to presume that the statutes contemplate the 
study of this subject from the pathological or scientific standpoint, 
as a disease, marked by a progression of symptoms, which, if not 
arrested, go on to death. This disease, inebriety, arises some- 
times from an inherited tendency, and sometimes from a weakened 
body or brain, which in its debilitated state craves stimulants. 
All the causes which produce this disease are not yet known. 
Neither are all the pathological conditions or the best methods of 
cure. Scientific investigators consider the field still an open one 
for research and inquiry, and would as soon require children to 
study the phenomena of cancer, consumption and lunacy as that 
of inebriety. The pushing of children into these abnormal fields 
of observation and study tends to produce the very effects which 
it is sought to prevent. 

It is a curious phase in state legislation that without abrogating 
the laws which permit inebriety to be punished as a crime, it also 
compels the infants and youth of the state to study its etiology 
and symptomatology as of a disease. But one more step in 
absurdity remains to be taken and that a logical one to teach 
the therapeutics of inebriety, as well as its etiology, to infants. 
We do not believe in the method of the old Greeks, who trained 
their children to avoid drunkenness by bringing a drunken man 
into their company ; but hold that any person ma}' well be debarred 
from service in the schools of the state who brings into the school- 
2 



18 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

room a tainted breath from the use of alcohol, an offensive odor 
from tobacco, a shaking hand from the misuse of coffee, an irri- 
table temper from tea, headache, prostration and stupidity from 
chloral, chloroform or opium. Thus would we teach temperance 
in all things to our children. The civilization of today demands 
that the atmosphere of the school-room be pure and wholesome ; 
that the instruction be adapted to the capacity of the pupils, and 
that a temperate and rational manner of living may be incited by 
the lives and examples of their instructors. On the other hand, 
let children suffer from long and continuous hours of confinement 
in school, let their brains be crammed and their bodies overworked, 
let their food be improper and their sleep deficient, and we shall 
soon discover morbid appetites and a craving for stimulants, which 
often lead the way to inebriety, lunacy, and kindred diseases. 

VACATION SCHOOLS. 

The gradual establishment of vacation schools in our large cities 
is an interesting stud}' to observers of educational processes. 
These schools are the outgrowth of a tender and philanthropic 
sentiment among those who abound in charitable deeds. To keep 
the children of the poor from the noisy streets during the summer 
heat is the first object, to occupy and amuse them rationally fol- 
lows. But to divert and amuse should not be considered the chief 
end of vacation schools. In one of these schools (recently visit- 
ed), where the primary object is not only to instruct but to teach 
the children to respect work, the results seemed to be happier and 
more successful than in those where the chief object is to amuse. 
This model vacation school numbers one hundred and thirty girls ; 
the average attendance is one hundred and twelve. The first and 
last lesson each morning is in manners, a teacher being always at 
the door to properly welcome and instruct each child in courtesy, 
on arrival, and at the close of school to speed each child on part- 
ing, as though she were an honored guest. It was a novel and 
delightful experience to watch the lesson in carpentry ; the girls, 
in light dresses and white aprons, using the saw, hammer and 
chisel with deftness and precision, and turning out neatly made 
knife trays, and cutting boards, and tables, as well as miniature 
beds and bureaus, the directors explaining that housekeepers have 
to drive nails, and put up shelves, and repair furniture and play- 
things, and that it is better to be trained to do each of these neces- 
sary things properly. 



REPORT OF MRS. TALBOT. 19 

The lessons in housekeping and marketing are given with the 
view of making the girls capable housekeepers, and not simply ser- 
vants. Lessons in the harmony of colors and in coloring pictures 
are followed, as the girl grows older, by lessons in embroidery, the 
tasteful application of color to articles of use or ornament for the 
house or person. There are also lessons in sewing, knitting and 
drawing, in modeling in clay, and object lessons in flowers with 
talks about them, together with singing and gymnastic exercises. 
The director attributes the success of this school to the fact that 
the teachers in each department are skilled, having been specially 
and severely trained. 

More time should be allowed for vacation schools such as these. 
Three months are none too long to devote to practical instruction 
in industries, to avoid the excess of brain work, of memorizing 
and cramming, which is so properly a subject of complaint and 
alarm. Were the hand and brain of pupils developed in due pro- 
portion, the result would be self-helpful, self-respecting, capable 
boys and girls, of whom the county cannot have too many. 
These schools would also prove nurseries in which those with spe- 
cial talents could be discovered, and, through schools of technol- 
ogy, developed into the skilful artisans whom we now are often 
compelled to import, and who have been fostered and trained in 
their own country in schools supported by government appropria- 
tions. We do not need to further overload our public schools. 
Let us shorten the school terms, give the children time and oppor- 
tunity to use hand and eye as well as brain, set them about it and 
show them the first steps, and we shall have no just cause to com- 
plain of the lack of practical working abilitj 7 among our }'outh. 

ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE ALUMNAE. 

It is with satisfaction that I speak of the Association of Col- 
legiate Alumnse formed in 1882, to unite graduates of different 
institutions for practical educational work. Its present members 
are graduates of Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Sj'racuse, North- 
western, Boston, Cornell, and Wesleyan universities, of Oberlin, 
Vassar, Smith and Wellesley colleges, and the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. Its methods of work are unique in 
kind and progressive in spirit. The health of women, as students, 
was the first concern of this Association. A circular of informa- 
tion was issued, showing the relative amount of instruction and 



20 . AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

opportunities for physical culture afforded to women in the institu- 
tions represented in the Association. This tabulated statement 
exhibited at a glance the deficiencies in this respect in all these 
institutions. It was sent to the college authorities from their own 
alumna?, and proved a needed spur to improvements in this direc- 
tion. To this statement were appended practical suggestions con- 
cerning the best means of preserving the health of students: 1st, 
to parents ; 2d, to the governing bodies of institutions which grant 
degrees to women : 3d, to women studying in these institutions. 

The Association has made an effort to obtain health statistics 
from graduates in order to ascertain whether or not the health of 
women students suffered from a systematic course of study. For 
this purpose 1250 papers, containing some 40 questions relative to 
their health during childhood, college life, and the period passed 
since graduation, were sent to the graduates of the twelve institu- 
tions represented in the Association of Collegiate Alumna. About 
700 of these papers have been returned with answers. These have 
not yet been tabulated, but, so far as examined, exhibit a favora- 
ble result. Many of them show a decided improvement in the 
health of women during and since the course of collegiate study. 

SANITARY SCIENCE CLUH. 

In accordance with the suggestion of the first president of the 
Association of Collegiate Alumnae in her opening address, several 
members of the Association met, November 9th, 1883, and organ- 
ized a club for the study of sanitary science in its direct relations 
to the home. The following is from the report of the secretary of 
the Club to the Association : 

It was very quickly discovered that the scheme required inde- 
pendent and original methods of work. There was no one manual 
containing all the desired information which could be used as a 
text-book by all. No general course of reading, at the same time 
authoritative and practical, could be recommended. The plan 
adopted was for each member to act as an investigator of a certain 
topic, and report the results to all the others at the fortnightly 
meetings, which were continued during nearly six months. The 
general subject chosen was the House, which was sub-divided as 
follows : Location and surroundings, care of the cellar, drainage 
and plumbing, ventilation and temperature of the sleeping room, 
living room and sick room, lighting, furnishing, relative merits of 
different methods of heating, and State and municipal statutes and 



PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION. MRS. TALBOT. 21 

ordinances. A few important books were purchased, subscrip- 
tions were made to two sanitary journals and board of health 
reports, and health tracts were procured, all of which form the 
nucleus of a good working library. Beyond these the members 
depended largely on public and private libraries, collating from 
many different volumes, rejecting what was purely theoretical or 
abstruse, and presenting, in an abridged form, facts and statements 
which had a direct bearing on the subject under consideration. The 
reading of these reports was followed by a discussion which never 
flagged from lack of interest or point. Personal experience was 
not merely cumulative but helpful, and evidence bi'ought from 
home life showed that the interest was not confined to the hour of 
meeting. Each one was expected to contribute to the point under 
discussion some illustration from her own home or boarding-place 
or a friend's house. 

In order to make a useful diversion from the regular sessions, as 
well as to gain wider experience, special visits of inspection were 
paid to a carefully-planned schoolhouse whose sanitary equipments 
had been proved satisfactory, to a house in process of erection, 
where the pipes and drains were exposed to view and carefully 
explained by a master plumber, and to the new building of the 
Institute of Technology, where the system of ventilation was shown 
in detail by the instructor in ventilation. The final meeting was 
held at the house of one of the members, who invited her associ- 
ates to inspect it thoroughly and critically, and suggest changes, 
with their estimated cost, in accordance with the conclusions 
drawn from the winter's study and observation. The guests made 
the most of the opportunity given them, and were as frank in 
making their criticisms, as their hostess was good-natured in 
accepting them. A dinner followed, which proved conclusively 
that hygienic food and real savoriness are not in the least an- 
tagonistic. 

The members of the Sanitary Science Club cannot too strongly 
urge upon the Association of Collegiate Alumnae the importance 
of giving thought and attention to the hygiene of the home. This 
duty falls more or less upon all women, but with none should it be 
more exacting than with college graduates. The problems of 
social and economic science are beginning to receive the attention 
they rightly claim, and the women of our country should not only 
be ready to learn from the discussions which are rife, but, by com- 
bining theory with practice, as no others can, aid in solving the 
great questions which so seriously affect the interests of the home 
and the family. The experience of the past year has shown that 
it is practicable to give systematic thought to these subjects. The 
time devoted to the work was necessarily small, but the interest 
which was steadily manifested was a sure proof that the results 
were satisfactory, while the spoken testimony of all is even 
stronger. 



22 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCK. ASSOCIATION. 

The members of the Club intend to continue their study through 
another winter, taking as the subject, " Living in the House ." 

Tin 1 following sub-topics will be assigned : 

Food 1. Materials and relative cost. 2. Adulteration. 8. 
Preparation. 

Drink 1. Water: dangers, tests and filtration. 2. Other 
beverages. 

Care of the House 1. Cleaning and washing. '2. Cure and 
management of servants. 3. Planning of the daily work and 
overseeing the supplies. 

Incidental Expenses What, and how much? 

Clothing Material and methods of making. 

Incited by this example, other sanitary clubs are now 1 icing or- 
ganized by the members of the Alumnae Association. This As-u- 
ciation has arranged with the Society to Encourage Studies at Home 
to furnish special opportunities for advanced studies to college 
graduates. A circular of information has also been issued showing 
what opportunities for post-graduate stmVy were open to women in 
the United States and England. An interesting meeting of the 
Association has just been held in Philadelphia, where the special 
subjects discussed were, "The Relation Between the Home and 
the College," "Occupations and Professions for College-bred 
Women " and " The Duty of College Graduates to Preparator}' 
Schools." Through the courtesy of the committee of arrange- 
ments, the Association was invited to be present at the scientific 
meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, and to assist in receiving its foreign guests. 

No excuse is needed for thus presenting in detail the work under- 
taken b} T this Association of college-bred women, in the two years 
of its existence. It is the best refutation yet offered of the asser- 
tion that "the interests of the home will suffer if women are lib- 
erally educated." After the originality of the whole scheme of 
work is considered, the attention can but be arrested by the great 
emphasis given to the consideration of topics which bear directly 
upon the well-being of the home and family, "how to keep 
humanity alive and well, and doing well." There is another point 
in the short life of the Association worthy of note, there are no 
reflections upon the status of men, mental or physical, natural or 
acquired. They express no interest as to whether a man's brain 
be light or heavy ; indeed, in reading their circulars, one observes 
how distinctly the promotion of education is expected to improve 
the condition of the whole of societ}', and not a part. We have 
in this association of college graduates, a tribunal of scholarly 
women to which may safely be entrusted the consideration and 



REPORT OF MRS. TALBOT. 23 

determination of questions pertaining to the higher education of 
women ; a tribunal competent to relieve theorists from their self- 
appointed tasks and needlessly magnified responsibilities. 

SCHOOL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY. 

Columbia College has recently taken the initiative in a very 
important educational work the training of librarians. Some 
of the reasons of this forward step are so urgent and convincing, 
that a restatement of them will be instructive. The work of the 
librarian has come to be regarded as a distinct profession. He 
has ceased to be a mere jailer of the books, and is becoming an 
aggressive force in the community. The librarian, who is master 
of his profession, is a most potent factor for good. There is a 
growing call for trained librarians, animated by the modern library 
spirit. An increasing number of competent men and women are 
taking up the librarian's occupation as a life work ; but they have 
sought in vain for an opportunity to fit themselves for it. The 
few really great librarians are self-made, and have obtained their 
eminence by literally feeling their way through long years of dark- 
ness. 

The plan proposed by Columbia College, is to give the special 
training needed in order to select, bu}-, arrange, catalogue, index 
and administer, in the best and most economical way, any collec- 
tion of books, pamphlets or serials. The methods of instruction 
will be by lectures, reading, conference, discussion, visiting libra- 
ries, and work supervised by trained teachers. The aim of the 
school is wholly practical, and it will use the methods indicated in 
such proportion as experience proves to give the best results. 
While New York offers great inducements to students in library 
work, yet the establishment of similar schools in other educational 
centres would largely increase the influence and efficiency of libra- 
ries throughout the country. 

i 

ARBOR DAY. 

From the Department of Agriculture we are informed that the 
custom of annual tree-planting originated in Nebraska, and has 
been adopted by Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, West 
Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. To Ohio must the credit be 
given of making arbor day a school holiday, and of interesting the 
school childi-en in planting memorial groves. The methods of 
securing concerted action in the different States are quite unlike. 



24 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

For example, from information obtained of the governor of Ne- 
braska, " arbor clay" is a creation of tin- Stale Board of Agricul- 
ture, which each year designates the day to be appointed for tree- 
planting. The governor then issues a proclamation to the people 
of the State, calling public attention to the importance of the 
subject, and earnestly requesting the trustees, superintendents and 
officers of the schools of the State to arrange for a proper cele- 
bration of the day by their pupils, in the planting of author's 
groups and memorial trees, accompanied by appropriate literar}' 
exercises. The day is so generall}* observed as to partake of the 
nature of a holiday, so the occasion is not only made useful to the 
State, but pleasant and instructive to the children. In Nebraska, 
the State Board of Agriculture offers a premium of fifty dollars for 
the greatest number of trees planted, to include all varieties ; 
twenty-five dollars for the greatest number of hard-wood trees 
planted ; and ten dollars for the greatest number of cuttings. In 
Ohio, the State Forestry Association has established the annual 
arbor day. The superintendent of the public schools in Cincin- 
nati, Dr. John B. Peaslee, has published a pamphlet entitled, 
"Trees and Tree Planting, with Exercises and Directions for the 
Celebration of Arbor Day." This pamphlet is designed to arouse 
an interest among the pupils of the public schools of Ohio, in tree 
culture and in the protection of trees,' and is accompanied by 
selections from authors who have written concerning the poetry 
and beauty of trees, and their value and influence upon waterways 
and climate. Already several beautiful groves have been planted 
by these young foresters, which commemorate events, and the 
practice is constantly extending. 

In the Eastern states, Fast Day, which is still continued, al- 
though its religious significance has to a great extent passed away, 
might well be utilized as an arbor day. The children weuld in this 
way be instructed about trees and tree planting. With trees and 
groves would be associated in their minds, names immortal in hisi 
tory ; and better still, it would teach each child the way to make 
early use of its tender and pliant muscles for the permanent bene- 
fit of the whole country during succeeding generations. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes emphasizes the use and poetry of tree-planting 
for children in the following graceful language : 

When we plant a tree we are doing what we can to make our 
planet a more wholesome and happier dwelling-place for those who 






PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION. MRS. TALBOT. 25 

come after us, if not for ourselves. As you drop the seed, as you 
plant the sapling, your left hand hardly knows what your right 
hand is doing. But nature knows, and in due time the power that 
sees and works in secret will reward 3'ou openly. You have been 
warned against hiding your talent in a napkin ; but if 3-0111- talent 
takes the form of a maplekey or an acorn, and your napkin is a 
shred of the fold that covers " the lap of earth," 3'ou may hide 
it there, unblamed, and when you render in 3'our account you will 
find that your deposit has oeen drawing compound interest all the 
time. The trees may outlive the memory of more than one of 
those in whose honor they were planted. But if it is something to 
make two blades of grass grow where only one was growing, it is 
much more to have been the occasion of the planting of an oak 
which shall def3 T twenty scores of winters, or of an elm which shall 
canopy with its green cloud of foliage half as many generations 
of mortal immortalities. I have written many verses, but the best 
poems I have produced are the trees I planted on the hillside 
which overlooks the broad meadows, scalloped and rounded at 
their edges by loops of the sinuous Housatonic. Nature finds 
rlrymes for them in the recurring measures of the seasons. Win- 
ter strips them of their ornaments, and gives them, as it were, in 
prose translation, and summer reclothes them in all the splendid 
phrases of their Ieaf3 r language. What are these maples and 
beeches and birches but odes and idyls and madrigals ? What are 
these pines and firs aud spruces but holy h\ r mus, too solemn for 
the many-hued raiment of their gay, deciduous neighbors ? 

" To be taught to think," says a distinguished educator, " to be 
developed as a human being, this is education." But do we not 
see in the educational movements to which our attention has been 
called, a broader meaning to education than merety to think or to 
know ? Is there not a constant endeavor to compel knowledge to 
minister to the well-being of the public, not only to know, but to 
do for the good of all? Difficult to execute though it be, it is a 
grand conception of a true education. Phillips Brooks, that sym- 
pathetic and cosmopolitan preacher, says : " Learning and life, 
that which is known in the world, and that which is to be done in 
the world, stand over against each other, and the perpetual prob- 
lem is how the3' shall be brought together. Like two strong men 
who gaze into each other's eyes and know that they ought to be 
standing hand in hand ; like two great promontories, which stand 
and watch each other, and feel the sea which runs between, and 
yet feel under the sea the sweep of the continuous earth which 
makes them one, so learning and life, that which is known upon 



26 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the earth, and that which is to be done upon the earth, stand gaz- 
ing at each other, and knowing that however they may be separ- 
ated and kept apart, they belong together." 

This is indeed a great problem, and the world will unceasingly 
demand its solution. 



III. ATHLETICS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES. 

BY PROFESSOR EDWARD HITCHCOCK, OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 

The desire to prolong his life and enjoy it to the fullest extent, 
is a regnant idea in almost every man. And to this end nearty 
every one labors to the best of his abilities. This the individual 
does. 

But national and state governments, some corporations, local 
communities, and educational institutions also, have duties to per- 
form in this direction. For in every community there are sure to 
be some selfish and negligent persons, who are not only willing to 
injure themselves, but greatly endanger others. Hence National, 
State and local laws are enacted to protect the public health, and 
officials are appointed to execute sanitary and Irygienic measures. 

The attention given to the health of bod}' and mind among 
educational institutions, is one of the marked features of modern 
progress. Its beginnings have been shown in attempts to secure 
physical exercise for students, by manual labor, work-shops, 
agriculture, horticulture, militaiy discipline, calisthenics, and 
gymnastics. 

About the close of the last century, Pestalozzi and Salzmann 
seem to have given us our earliest ideas of physical exercise, as 
gained by the fixed apparatus of modern gymnasiums. In 1811, 
Jahn opened in Berlin the Turnplatz, or gymnasium which was the 
alma-mater of all the gymnasiums in Germany. In Switzerland, in 
1815, gymnastics were introduced into the schools and colleges of 
the country. At the Royal Militaiy Academy at Woolwich, Eng- 
land, German gymnastics were introduced in the year 1823. At 
the Round Hill School, in Northampton, Mass., a gymnasium was 
established in 1825 ; also one in the Salem Latin School at about 
this period, and one on Charles Street, in Baltimore. And be- 
tween 1830 and 1840, so-called gymnasiums were established in 
several colleges and academies in New England, where with lim- 
ited apparatus, usually in a cold, cheerless building, or a grove, 
students were allowed to exercise their bodies when and how they 
pleased, with no guidance, system or protection. Like music, and 
some other branches of education, physical culture has been ap- 
pended to and recommended by many educational institutions, but 

(27) * 



L )s AMKKICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

in only a very few, up to the present time, has it been made a 
vital part of the regular course of culture. 

The modern i.U-a is to recognize, control and direct physical 
culture, reeivation and amusements as a part of our educational 
systems, in order to make use of all the energy of the student 
while in college or school. Probably 1859 is the period when first 
a rational and systematic idea of physical culture came to the 
minds especially of the leading educational institutions in this 
country. And right here comes up the practical question to every 
educator, how much must the institution do for the individual in 
the matter of private and public health? To how much must the 
college give direction and demand attention, and how much must 
be left the individual to provide for himself? 

At the age when students go to college, it is to be presumed that 
they have had the early home training of mother and nurse, and 
generally that the}* will remember and act up to it. But with the 
growth and development of their powers, additional instruction 
must be given them which home does not afford, in regard to their 
growth and more mature abilities. At this period, if healthy, they 
need special guidance and control, not because they are ignorant, 
but because much more self-reliant, they have more confidence in 
their ability to direct themselves and others, are more impulsive, and 
if injured or under the power of a slight malady, recover more 
readily than later in life. They need at this period some definite 
laws laid down to them, more or less explained in connection with 
their anatomy and physiology. It is time they understood the 
reason of many of these things. Hence by recitations and lec- 
tures, students should be early taught the common laws of hygiene, 
specially as pertaining to college life, and exactly for the same 
reason, and in essentially the. same manner, as they are taught 
how proper!}- and advantageously to use their mental powers. 
After they have been directed how to take good care of the body, 
the college is bound to give facilities, apparatus, appliances and 
inducements to obey these rules of health, in certainly as accessi- 
ble and profitable ways as it gives apparatus, charts, blackboards 
and libraries to develop and guide the intellectual powers. A col- 
lege is at fault if it furnishes incorrect or imperfect apparatus, or 
those means which are obsolete, or are shown to be injurious to 
the student. 

The student comes to college with presumably a good physical 
and mental health. The college should furnish him with such 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 29 

healthful surroundings as will promote his growth, and not tend to 
impair his health. Locations and buildings must be approved by 
the laws of h3'giene and the Commonwealth. The laws of the 
proper heating, ventilation and drainage of buildings must be 
obeyed most rigidly by the college authorities. More strict atten- 
tion must be given to these laws in a college, than in other more 
sparsely settled portions of the community, because of the close 
crowding and the greater danger of the contagious diseases. 

As the idea of a college is to so train men that they ma} T most 
profitably use all their powers in the advancement of knowledge 
and culture among men, it is its duty so to arrange its whole course 
as to promote this culture in as profitable a manner as is possible. 
It should give the best instructors, the most approved apparatus, 
and other means of developing the mental powers, and so con- 
dense, arrange and methodize all work, as in the best way to 
economize the time and the strength of the student. The courses 
of study should be so arranged that one subject prepares the way for 
another, which should supplement the first. Time and energy 
must not be lost by a change from one department to another. 
And facilities should be furnished so that the best work may be 
grafted directly upon previous good work. 

And the necessary care and culture of the body must be so pro- 
vided for that it may come in at proper times and places, when 
the man needs muscular activity and rest from study, or demands 
recreation, or at least a change in the way of using his nerve force. 
This is where a Department of Physical Education serves its pur- 
pose. It is not enough for the faculty of a college to enlarge 
upon the value of long walks, inspiring pure air, an occasional 
bath, as the condition of the weather, the inducements of the nat- 
ural surroundings, or the inclination or daily duties of the student 
ma}- allow. With the present material surroundings of nearly all 
our homes, in these days of steam and electricit}-, and the many 
conveniences, comforts and luxuries of every-day life, it is de- 
manded of the college that good facilities be offered to its students 
for pleasant, profitable and well-directed muscular exercise, and 
in an attractive form : exercise which is not excessive, but regular 
and healthful, which is pleasurable, which may be carried on 
amidst such surroundings as are equal to those in other depart- 
ments of the college ; and the matter of personal bodily cleanli- 
ness should be provided for, since the student cannot enjoy the 



30 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

comforts of a home. Hence it should be the duty of the college 
to direct its public health, by the provision of proper baths and Un- 
necessary attachments. 

In fine, then, the advanced idea of a college should recognize 
as a part of its work a supervisory care over the conditions of the 
health of the student, and an education how to use the physical 
powers in harmony with the intellectual, by instruction and en- 
forced attendance, healthful and recreative duties, so far as to be 
able to maintain the highest powers of the whole man to keep 
them thoroughly active in the summer time of existence. 

If one were asked to state the important point to be secured in 
the education of the body, he would probably say endurance, 
strength, activity, and grace of motion ; and in systems of phy- 
sical culture these have been striven for with earnestness and zeal. 
"We admire the crew who can hold out well to the end of the 
course; the runner or the boxer who has the best wind, and the 
gymnast who sustains himself in a trying position for the longest 
period. And we are pleased with the strong and agile feats of 
the gymnast, vaulting, dipping, turning or leaping, with an ease 
and strength so graceful and accomplished, with apparently so 
little exertion. And yet we never find the man who is master of 
all these accomplishments at once. The boating man has a gait 
most peculiar to himself, and one not marked with ease and grace ; 
the ball-players and athletic men do not exhibit grace in the 
dance, though they may well measure the step, and be in accord 
with the cadence of the music. 

Yet, in many of our systems of physical education, there is a 
radical error, because the desire is to produce a powerful effect 
by proclaiming strength alone, or endurance alone, or grace alone, 
as the end to be secured. The mistake has been to create- a high 
market value in a limited part of the body, to unduly develop 
muscle or lung power, which while essential, are not the only or 
perhaps the main ends to be attained. 

A modern writer and philosopher has said, " To be well is the 
first duty of man." Thence the attainments sought after in a sys- 
tem of physical culture should be to sustain all tJie potcers of man, 
symmetrically, equably, and harmoniously, up to the normal stand- 
ard. No steamboat or railroad will arrange its time-table squarely 7 
up to the utmost speed of its engines. No bank will divide all its 
earnings. And the possibilities of hygiene in college should be 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 31 

to be well, to be happily and comfortably well; not to be an athlete 
or gymnast at the expense of mental and moral powers, but to 
secure for this end whatever things may tend to keep up, in the 
growing period, the normal and natural strength of mind and body. 
Gymnastics and athletic sports are a part, and an essential part, of 
college education, but when these dominate the man, then he is in 
a great peril, as great as he incurs who makes himself only a 
philologist, mathematician, metaphysician, or anything else, in 
disregard of any or all his possibilities as a physical, intellectual, 
and accountable being. 

About the year 1856, the late President Stearns, of Amherst Col- 
lege, developed the idea that physical culture, or a proper care 
and knowledge of the body, should be as necessary a part of a 
college system as the mental or moral discipline, and that the 
maintenance of all the normal powers of the body in a college 
student, is as important to his present and future work, as is the 
intellectual and moral training which the college imparts. As the 
student must know what are the leading faculties of mind and 
heart, and how to keep them in their highest efficiency, so should 
he be familiar with his bodily powers and their mutual action and 
reaction upon mind and soul ; and it is as much the duty of col- 
lege to ensure facilities for the one as for the other. This, of 
course, implies that activity must be enjoined upon all faculties, 
mental and bodih-, especially in the growing and developing stage 
of young men. Hence the correct and dominant idea that physi- 
cal, muscular activit} 7 , in its proper amount and direction, is a 
great regulator of health, and an important aid in the bodily devel- 
opment of all people, especially the young. This is based on 
the fact that about half of the human body is muscle lean 
meat and the only way to keep it healthy, active, and vigorous, 
up to the normal standard, is by actively and properly using this 
muscular tissue, or by "taking exercise," as it is commonly 
termed. This use is necessary in order to furnish the muscles 
with a healthy growth, to promote sufficient circulation of blood 
through them, to induce a sufficient absorption of the waste, to so 
excite and control the nerve force, that it will readily, promptly, 
and efficiently arouse the muscular fibre to activity, when either 
automatically, or by demand of the will, the action is required. 
And it is a fact of great importance that if the muscles are nor- 
mally strong and in good order, the other organs of the body are 



32 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

much more likely to be in good condition. One of the tests, often- 
times, in ascertaining occult disease is to try the muscular strength 
of the forearm, and if it is up to a fair standard to give encourage- 
ment to tho patient. 

Good bodily muscles almost always imply good lungs ; " capa- 
cious lungs" are important points to life insurance companies 
a large heart with an abundance of blood ; and a stomach and 
bowels competent to nourish every part of the body. A strong 
man is apt to have a will of his own, and a power to direct his 
intellectual forces intelligently, whether the mental capacity be 
great or small. A strong man usually has a voice able to make 
himself felt by others. In fine, properly regulated physical 
prowess, the world over, does give the advantage to a man over 
all his own powers, and those of his fellow-men also. 

But muscular strength and agility are not the sole attainments 
of physical culture in educational institutions. Nor is it to growth 
and development entirely that attention should be given. As the 
health of a city in ordinary times depends as much on the cleanli- 
ness of its inhabitants, its streets, and back yards, and the elli- 
ciency of its sewers, as it does on its food markets, so does the 
body need to maintain in full vigor its excreting or waste organs. 
Of these the principal ones for the student to give attention to are 
the skin and the lungs. Of the six pounds of food and water 
taken by the average man daily, at least one half is taken from 
the body by these two waste organs, and through an almost infi- 
nite number of minute glands and tubes. If now these organs do 
not maintain the average activity and carry off deleterious sub- 
stances, these must either remain in the body, or the work be per- 
formed vicariously by other organs, thus overtasking them and 
disturbing the health}' balance of work in the different parts of the 
body. These organs are ordinarily stimulated to healthy action 
by muscular activity which regulates the amount of blood sent to 
them, and at the same time excites normal nervous impulses, and 
thus secures a proper secretion of the matter to be rejected from 
the body. But in addition to the impulse of activity of the body 
other stimuli are necessary, such as the solvent power of water 
and the excitement of heat. These are accomplished by the 
application of, or the immersion in, water or steam of varying 
temperatures, as well as dry heat. Pure air also, with the proper 
amount of moisture in it, is an essential for the health of both skin 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 33 

and lungs. Both the skin and lungs are furnished with an almost 
infinite number of sensitive nerve fibres, which if maintained in 
proper health and sensitivit}- not only keep these excreting organs 
in health and vigor, but by their reaction and reflex influence 
greatly control other and more important organs of the body, and 
not onh* the emotions and feelings, but the intellectual states also. 
Or, as Dr. Sargent, of Harvard College, says : " The object of 
muscular exercise is not to develop muscle only, but to increase 
the functional capacity of the organs of respiration, circulation, 
and nutrition : not to gain in physical endurance merely, but to 
augment the working power of the brain : not to attarn bodily 
health and beauty alone, but to break up morbid mental tenden- 
cies, to dispel the gloomy shadows of despondency, and to insure 
serenity of spirit." 

Based upon these general ideas, Amherst College has, for 
twenty-four years, sustained a Department of Physical Education 
and Hygiene, by which is meant the instruction of all students in 
the laws of the structure and use of the body, and some specific 
instructions to the individual for his health, and a required system 
of physical exercise, combined, so far as possible, with recreation 
and enjoyment. This instruction has not been of such a nature as 
to make anatomists or physiologists, nor a study in the direction 
of disease, or how to treat disordered bodies, nor to create or main- 
tain athletes ; but only such knowledge as will help the better to 
understand how to keep healthy and vigorous minds and bodies 
working harmoniously together ; how to keep the growing powers 
active while in the developing period of college life, so that the 
training may tell in the world's work. It has been accomplished 
by plain, simple and familiar lectures and recitations, amply illus- 
trated by the well-known classic models of Auzoux of Paris, and 
a series of lectures to the freshman directly on entering college. 

The idea has been carried out at Amherst. that a college can be 
furnished with such means for some plysical exercise by which all 
the students may be benefited, and this when the}' are in a class 
together, as in other departments ; thus securing the stimulus and 
animation of fellowship in the duty, as well as a personal ben- 
efit at the same time. As Mr. C. F. Adams says, "The contact 
with his equals in the class and on the playground, is the best 
education a boy ever gets." This communuvy or associated exer- 
cise must be of such a kind as not to have military rigidity on the 
3 



34 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

one hand, or the looseness of rowdyism on the other ; and this 
feature is an essential part of the whole plan which is the most 
dillieult to manage and arrange, and the benefit of which must be 
judged of more by the opinion of the graduates who have gone 
through it, than by the passing judgment of outside parties. The 
nucleus of the work has been an exercise with wooden dumb-bells 
by each class at a stated hour each day, guided by the music of a 
piano, under the leadership of a captain. And this exercise does 
not over-develop the muscles, nor tend to make mere muscular men. 
The muscle is not put to a severe trial, but is only actively and 
moderate!} 1 called into action, so as to keep up its normal or 
healthy growth. It is only swinging light dumb-bells for a short 
time ; and yet, onry those who have gone through the actual work 
of swinging wooden bells to lively music, for even twenty consecu- 
tive minutes, know the healthy exercise and stimulus that is fur- 
nished to the muscles, skin and lungs. The exercise may be 
called gymnastics or calisthenics, or by whatever name is accepta- 
ble a rose would smell as sweet if called by any other name, 
but the exercise, as carried out in this way, gives fuller breathing, 
a more vigorous circulation, an increased action of the sweat 
glands and the supple and active muscles, to which no young 
man of an average body can offer objection. Professor Wilder, 
of Cornell University, sa}'s : " For students, agility is more desir- 
able than great strength. It may be attained by movements of 
the body and limbs, with or without light weights, or dumb-bells, 
or Indian clubs." It is not asserted that this exercise with light 
bells and piano music is sufficient exercise for every student in 
college. It only claims to be a minimum. The demand for food, 
for fresh air, for sleep, for study, vary exceedingly, and the per- 
sonal equation in these hygienic demands must vary as well as in 
the necessary amount of muscle use. Probably, ever}' other man 
who has come to Amherst College to get the most out of the col- 
lege, in any way he can, by using ever}' aid the department 
furnishes required and voluntary will obtain recreation and 
exercise enough to keep himself in good working order by living 
up to the requirements of this department. But others do not get 
a full amount of physical care and culture to keep them up to the 
highest standard of physical health by these required facilities of 
college. A goodl}' number of the class perhaps a half, will 
never do more work than is required of them in any branch of 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 35 

study. And if this is not a characteristic of nearly everybody 
outside of college, as well as in it, to do as little of anything 
which they are required to do, without an immediate and personal 
and selfish gain, then some of us have observed human nature in 
vain. Will any teacher in college tell us what proportion of his 
ivliole class make the most of work under him when it is required, 
and not optional work? Does he find one in ten or five? While a 
majority will do as well as they can with ordinary work under his 
direction, does he find the enthusiasm, the zeal, the eagerness- to 
embrace every point, as perhaps the five per cent, of an} T college 
enthuse when a regatta or base-ball season is at hand? 

Is it right, then, to expect that young men, averaging from 
twenty to twenty-two, generally of good pln-sical inheritance, with 
vacations of one-fifth of the year, more than one day in a 
week, when the elasticity and buoyancy of hope, good cheer and 
present comfort are at their maximum, when sickness is at its 
minimum, when experience of pain and dark days are unknown 
to them when all these are matters of their every-day lives 
can we expect many of them to give special attention to the 
health which they seem to possess, and especialh' if it interferes 
with their present comfort and pleasure, if it be left to their own 
choice to provide for it, or without some special attractions towards 
it? And again, I ask, do even a majority of older, wiser and more 
experienced men, on the average, more than ten per cent, even, 
take any better care of themselves than the same percentage of 
college students ! 

If, however, this be the just statement of things, in regard to 
the care of the health, which people will take when in ordinary 
circumstances, it does not mean that we should let things alone, 
or allow them to drift. It is in an adverse direction which Am- 
herst College has been tending for nearly twenty-five years. She 
has endeavored to adopt those means and emplo}' those agencies, 
by which the students shall secure for themselves such physical 
exercise as can be provided without making it tedious, burdensome 
or objectionable, but wholly necessary and pleasant. She has 
directed the students to follow such guidance, and do so much for 
their recreation and exercise, as can be secured without interfer- 
ence with study, at the same time enforcing so much attention to the 
rules and practice of health as will the better enable them to find 
out what are their intellectual, moral and physical powers, and 



36 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

how to handle them to the best advantage. For the college does 
not strive to make specialists, monstrosities, or athletes, but only 
so to train the powers that the graduates ma}' become successful 
in that special direction which the}' may choose, when they settle 
down to the work of life, after college discipline, training, and 
direction have done their full work. And without doubt, to nine- 
tenths of college graduates, for the solid work of life, physical 
endurance will be far more important to success than simply the 
highest intellectual attainments. 

The required exercises of this department, as at present con- 
ducted, furnish all of the students a modicum. The college requires 
all of them to get a regular, constant and uniform physical exercise 
with recreation : gathers them together at a stated time and place, 
and tries to induce by the surroundings to help them to secure a 
change of occupation, a good time, and forgetfulness of study for 
the short hour. The object aimed at is, to secure and keep in good 
health and activity all the powers, making them to act in perfect 
harmony, and not seeking to secure only handsome and well shapen 
bodily forms, or the greatest amount of power in lungs, heart, 
nutritive organs, and muscles. To secure that health and general 
power and endurance of the body, which shall the most completely 
supplement and associate with mental and moral culture, is the 
object of the methods adopted at the Amherst gymnasium. 

Thus far Amherst College has been considered in the Depart- 
ment of Physical Education only, as it has been, and is at present. 
It started on a new experiment twent\'-five years ago, with some- 
what crude ideas, and without the immense strides of material 
progress which the nation has taken since the civil war. It began 
with the wants of two hundred students ; now it has three hundred 
and fifty ; and with the paternal idea of college full in view. Now 
it deals with students of the average age of twenty-one years- and 
one month. Twenty-five years ago, bare very bare necessi- 
ties were furnished to the student in his surroundings. Now, b}' 
the facilities of steam, electricity, and material developments 
eve^where, in public and private, bodily comforts, care and 
attention, and legal governmental supervision, the college must 
keep pace, and perhaps a little ahead, in order to make itself the 
most efficient in its work. So that the plain, simple, and cold 
gymnasium, with but very little apparatus for individual develop- 
ment and attention, with no means for bathing, must be supple- 
mented by something abreast of the times. 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 37 

And for this very appreciation and aid, the college is most for- 
tunate in one of its alumni; not a mere "pro auctoritate mihi 
commissa " graduate, but one who, as the captain of the class of 
'79 for three }'ears, most thoroughly appreciates the wants of the 
college in its physical culture, and who has handsomely come to 
the front, and proposes to put this department in such a position 
that it may accomplish for the future what it has steadily tried to 
do for the past; or, in his own words, "to increase the useful- 
ness of the Alma Mater in that department in which he ever felt 
an interest." Charles M. Pratt, of Brooklyn, has given to the 
college such a superior building as the department recognizes the 
necessity of, for today and the future. And the Pratt Gymnasium 
stands as a munificent gift of an alumnus to his alma mater, and 
a gift expressing an appreciation of the needs in the direction of 
physical education in our schools and colleges. 

This new gymnasium does not only mean more and better appli- 
ances which the student may use for his health, but will require 
more knowledge of, and better guidance of the student. He is 
not only to have more and better means to do with, but is to be 
better instructed how to use the methods and opportunities for his 
individual good. At the same time, it is not best to require and 
oversee all the physical exercise of a student, any more than a 
literary professor can watch all the time over the men in his 
department. Be it in phj'sical health or mental study, each student 
must have not a little freedom to work in his own way, somewhat 
according to his own taste and choice, and not by an inflexible 
method with no allowance for the personal equation. Students 
are urged, allowed and induced to secure recreation, exercise, and 
a daily outing, and some fun aside from the requirements of the 
class exercises. And a majority of the students will avail them- 
selves of this un required exercise and recreation. And yet, the 
new gymnasium, well apportioned in all its parts, is so furnished 
with appropriate appliances as to give every man a chance for 
some physical exercise, in spite of the, at times, uninviting climate, 
and other contingencies, which keep us within walls and under 
roofs. 

While it is proposed to maintain the daily class drill as the 
rallying point for all the physical exercises of college, the great 
number of pieces of special apparatus and machines now intro- 
duced, will not only give greater advantages of voluntarily varied 



38 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

exercise to the well-developed and entirely normal student, hut 
advantages will he offered and prescribed to the few who are un- 
symmetrically developed or only well developed in a portion of their 
bodies. 

The earliest stud}- of the human form and its proportion, so far 
as can be ascertained, dates hack to the early centuries of the 
Christian Era. And the first record of such study we find in a San- 
scrit manuscript of the remote civilization of India, called the 
kt Silpi Sastri," or, " A Treatise on the Fine Arts " The leading 
idea of this monograph is that of the vertical measure of the hody, 
and its division into certain parts, which, when existing in the 
proper proportion, constitute the perfect human hody. These 
parts number 480, and are divided as follows : 

The hair, 15 

" face, 55 

" neck, 25 

" chest, 55 

From the chest to the umbilicus, .... 55 

Thence " " pubes, 53 

" " " knee, 90 

The knee itself, 30 

The leg and foot, 102 

480 

The idea suggested by these " parts" of the Silpi Sastri, is, that 
the body is planned and constructed according to certain " canons," 
" modules," or "standards," which are determined by arithmeti- 
cal or geometrical proportions, and up to almost the present day 
the artistic idea has been to discover what this occult, mysterious, 
and wonderful quality of triangles, squares, circles, and numbers, 
is, that will furnish the key to unlock the absolute perfection of 
the human form. 

In the Egyptian monuments we find a wonderful and vigorous 
adherence to a definite scale of proportions, and the persistent 
unwillingness of these artists to represent their figures in any man- 
ner except that of sitting or standing upright, gives an inaccurate 
idea of the human form as it then existed. And still the charac- 
teristic features of the negro are so well preserved here, that we 
can but wonder at the plvysical change which has come over this 
race during 4000 years. 






PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 39 

Almost 400 B. C., Polykleitus, a Grecian sculptor, wrote a treat- 
ise on human proportion entitled the " canon." This was illus- 
trated by a statue called Doryphoros or Spear Bearer, which 
history confirms as a work of almost perfect proportions, and which 
Vitruvius, a Roman of later date, dwelling upon at great length, 
gives an intelligent account of, and describes in many of its 
details. 

Phidias it is said to arrive at elegance, employed 20 
models : he borrowed from each of them the most beautiful parts, 
his knowledge of the human form permitting him to arrange them 
with all the necessary strength and dignity." 

During the "Renaissance" the artists of Itaty, Germany, France, 
Belgium, and Holland, as well as mathematicians and anatomists, 
made the study of the proportions of the human body the subject 
of theory, practice or treatise, to a very considerable extent. 

In 1770, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in England, seemed to appreciate 
a most clear conception of the true theory of human proportion 
(and like a true artist sought to carry out the theory on canvass) , 
though he took no pains to establish his views by measurements 
and weights of the body. His language is this : " From reiter- 
ated experience and a close comparison of the objects of nature, 
the artist becomes possessed of a central form from which every 
deviation is deformity. To the principle I have laid down, that 
the idea of beaut}" in each species of being is an invariable one, 
it may be objected that in every particular species there are vari- 
ous central forms, which are separate and distinct from each other, 
and yet are undoubtedly beautiful ; that in the human figure, for 
instance, the beauty of Hercules is one, of the Gladiator another, 
of Apollo another, which makes so many ideas of beauty. It is 
true, indeed, that these figures are each perfect in their kind : but 
still none of them is the representation of an individual, but of a 
class. And as there is one general form which belongs to the 
human kind at large, so in each of these classes there is one com- 
mon idea and central form, which is the abstract of the various 
individual forms belonging to that class. But I must add, further, 
that though the most perfect foims of each of the general divisions 
of the human figure are ideal, and superior to any individual form 
of that class, yet the highest perfection of the human figure is not 
to be found -in any one of them. It is not in Hercules, nor in 
the Gladiator, nor in the Apollo : but in that form which is taken 



40 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

from them all, and which partakes equally of the activity of the 
(iladiator, of the Delicacy of the Apollo, and the muscular strength 
of the Hercules." 

Up to the early years of the present century, the study of this 
subject was exclusively given to find out the mysterious key or 
idea of the plan of the human form. The desire was to find the 
artificial idea of the body, as Linnaeus classified plants and ani- 
mals by a simple numerical quality. But between 1820 and IN.'X) 
the natural system of investigation and discovery was introduced, 
and was, by Sir John ITerschel of England, and Baron Quetclet 
of Belgium, applied to the human form. This depended upon a 
certain use of numbers, it is true that of measuring and weigh- 
ing but it was a simple collation of data, and so comparing and 
arranging them that the much-coveted " idea," or " canon," or 
44 module," could be obtained by finding the variations in the body, 
and thus deducing the true form, casting aside the irregularities, 
the greater first and then the lesser ones, till an approximation to 
the ideal was exhibited. The examination, the weighing and the 
measuring of the body and its parts, was quite extensively carried 
out by these two men, who, by establishing a "mean individual," 
not an 44 average," are bringing us nearer to the determination of 
the typical man or woman, than ever before. 

And here must be considered the difference between the typical 
4 average man" and the typical "mean man." By an average 
individual is meant the young man who is like the greater part 
of his fellows in certain matters say height or weight: that is, 
if all are arranged together for comparison, the average man will 
be the most like the largest number. And the mean student, too, 
will be somewhere near to the average student ; but in arranging 
all the students to show the mean student, we shall find the mean 
at the top of a curve descending both ways, called the u binomial 
curve." The mean student represents a central magnitude, all 
deviations from which are to be regarded as deviations from a 
standard. A n average gives us the medial sum or quantity be- 
tween two or more sums or quantities, while the mean gives the 
intermediate point between two extremes. The mean gives us a 
regular march of groups, from the least up to the standard, and 
then a march down to the smallest, while the average shows the 
irregular groups here and there. 4t An average gives us no 
assurance that the future will be like the past ; a mean may be 
reckoned on with the most implicit confidence." 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 41 

The method at present employed to ascertain the average, or 
mean man, and thus the typical man, is by comparing as many as 
possible of certain outline measurements of the living man, and 
from these to construct the t3 - pe. With this object in view, very 
many men especially medical ones have been compiling them 
by the tens of thousands. These have been mainly of persons 
congregated in prisons, hospitals, and armies, and latterly schools 
and colleges. When work was first begun in this department at 
Amherst College, twent\*-four years ago, " vital statistics," as they 
were termed, were taken of every man entering, and yearly after- 
wards during his course. These were " anthropometric " man- 
measuring items such as weight, height, several girths, lung 
capacity, and a simple test of strength, secured mainly for ana- 
tomical and physiological science, and to allow the student by 
annual comparisons to see what his development might be. These 
have been carefully maintained, and enlarged extensively up to the 
present time, jind valuable tables secured therefrom. 

But a more extensive series of measurements, and a more accu- 
rate examination of the student, and some knowledge of his ante- 
cedents is now demanded. For all people, young and old, are 
not equally developed. And in every college class a few are sure 
to be defective in certain points, and at their age may be furnished 
some development of their weaker parts, by judicious inspection, 
advice, and proper gymnastic apparatus. Or, as an old English 
poet says : 

"Few bodies are there of that happy mould, 
But some one part is weaker than the rest ; 
The leg or arm perhaps refuse their load. 
Or the chest labors. These assiduously 
But gently in their proper arts employed, 
Acquire a vigor and elastic spring, 
To which they were not born." 

Thus, with the means at hand of the Pratt gymnasium, the old 
system of statistics is greatly increased in number and minuteness, 
there being sixty-two items now secured of each man, as he enters 
college, and twice afterwards during the course. This examina- 
tion not only considers his present and hereditaiy condition, but his 
arms, legs, body and bones are tested, and the more important vital 
organs such as heart and lungs are specially looked into by stetho- 
scope and percussion, as well as the eyes considered in regard to 



42 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

m-ar sight, astigmatism and colorblindness. An accurate record of 
tliis examination is kept on file at the gymnasium, which may be 
consulted by the student at any time ; that is, each man may know 
and study his own record. Tin's record is also the basis for advice, 
prescription and suggestion by the department; and on his en- 
trance to college, every student is furnished with the average con- 
dition and measures of a student of his own height, which he may 
use, and the professor also, as a basis for advice and gymnastic 
training. And, while a student is to enjoy the advantage of the 
class exercise, as heretofore, he ma}" now be able to attend to the 
growth and development of any parts of the body which are not up' 
to the normal standard. And by the large additions of new 
apparatus, not only is the defective man guided and helped, but 
the average man will find more apparatus, appliances and baths to 
supplement the service of his dumb-bells, and will be invited 
to give his muscles, skin and lungs a quota of increased relaxa- 
tion from study and physical exercise, such as he may desire. 

The matter of athletic sports and games, indoors and out, seems 
to need a recognition and reasonable support from the authorities 
of college. In spite of the excess of competition, not only in 
games, but in business and intellectual and religious life at the 
present day, there is a feature of much good and recreation in the 
games of today, which demand a proper recognition, support and 
control. Were our climate without its rigors of cold and its pun- 
gency of heat, no doubt it would be best to have no covered 
gymnasiums, but use only the field and grove for recreation and 
exercise. But when military men tell us that through the average 
year, only about half the da\-s are suitable for the ordinary drill of 
the soldier out of doors, we must provide walls, roofs and artificial 
heat. And yet during the delightful out-door months of the year, 
all people should be incited to be out of doors for work, exercise 
and recreation, to the fullest extent possible. And while it is 
very true that for the most harmonious development, the games of 
base-ball, foot-ball and tennis are not equal to the symmetrical 
work of dumb-bells, gymnastic apparatus, or even boxing gloves, 
yet the exhilaration, freedom and fresh air of these games are ex- 
cellent means of promoting and maintaining the health of very 
many, and especially } - oung people. It, therefore, seems safe and 
wise to say that clubs for these games are to be encouraged in a 
college. And the formation of the club is a very essential part, 






PROF. HITCHCOCK'S PAPER. ATHLETICS. 43 

that the games may be controlled and guided by what are the 
rules and methods obtained by experience and practice. That 
while many ma}' enjoy and profit by a regular half or whole hour 
daily, there should be a centre to rally around, and a method to be 
followed to gain a good result from the exercise. For the good 
effect of most of these games is not only muscular work, sweat of 
the skin and inspirations of the lungs ; but the playing by rule, the 
spirit of submission to decisions, of obedience, of quick determi- 
nation and cooperation are of great value, specially to the young 
man in process of mental and moral training. 

Results of course are expected. And accurate statistical data 
have been secured at the college during the existence of the depart- 
ment, but not before that time. Hence comparisons are ver3* dif- 
ficult to secure, because anything reliable and carefull}' recorded, 
as to the condition of body or health, previous to about 1860, is 
merely a matter of present opinion or tradition. No earlier records 
of health are preserved, not even the deaths noted in official returns, 
nor the physical condition of the students made of any account, in 
any college so far known to the writer, save where the faculty 
accounts of the intellectual or moral standing of the student inci- 
dentally bring up the matter. 

Perhaps the earliest note of warning and need of the subject 
was made by President Stearns, of Amherst, in his yearly report to 
the Trustees in 1859, when he says : "By the time junior year is 
reached many students have broken down their health, and every 
3'ear some lives are sacrificed" ; and " during the year two of the 
most promising students in the senior class have just deceased." 
Dyspepsia used to be heard of and endured. But during the last 
twenty-four years only two cases are recorded as causes of dis- 
ease. Nervousness and exhaustion formerly were sources of 
much trouble to students. There has not, however, been a single 
case in each of these years. Boarding-house keepers say that 
they are compelled to furnish more and better food, such as oat- 
meal, bread and meats. And the opinion of the faculty is most 
positive that a much better condition of health prevails than 
before the establishment of a Department of Health in the col- 
lege. 

It is not possible to state the amount of sickness in any com- 
munity with exactness, it is snch a peculiar quantity, and is so 
varied a factor with different individuals. But careful observa- 



44 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

tions have shown that in England, for ever}- death there are two 
persons constantly sick, and there are seven hundred and twenty 
days of disability for every death. And in Europe every individ- 
ual loses from nineteen to twenty days by sickness, each year. 
In Massachusetts, during 1872, there were 13.9 days lost to each 
person from labor by sickness. The average loss of time of Hie 
entire men not officers of the United States navy, on account 
of sickness and accident, for the year 1881, was 11.9 days. 
These were men known as " under treatment." 

The manner of estimating the amount of sickness among the 
students of Amherst College, has been to enter a man on the sick 
list if he has lost more than two consecutive days from all college 
work by sickness or accident. As a result, during twenty years 
1860 to 1880 we find the amount of time which has been lost 
by sickness, when averaged upon the whole number of students, 
to be 2.65 days to each man. 

Another fact which seems to reflect credit upon the value of this 
department, is the decrease of illness during college life. As it 
stands in a tabulated form, we find the following per cent, of the 
class who lost by illness : 

Freshmen, 29 

Sophomores, ........ 28 

Juniors, .23 

Seniors. 19 

Or a decrease of disability of about ten per cent. And this has 
not been a sudden increase at either part of the course, but a 
steady growth, year by year. The number of Amherst students 
from whom the data were obtained is 2,106, and their average age 
21.1 years; the period of their observation was four years, and 
their average per cent, of good health was seventy-five per cent, 
of the whole number. 

NOTE. For an abstract of Dr. Sargent's address, and Dr. Hall's report to the 
Healtb Department, see a subsequent page. 



IV. PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 

BY MRS. K. S. BRYAN, OF ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. 

The desirability and necessity of gymnasiums in women's col- 
leges is, today, ardently advocated ; it is, therefore, pertinent to 
inquire why this demand ; and also " Are there any objections to 
an athletic training for college girls"? The " why" may concisely 
be answered by a plea for health and diversion ; the objections 
depend upon the management of any given gymnasium. If young 
women, unfitted for their tasks, crowd into collegiate institutions, 
doubtless it is necessary that those who supervise them, limit the 
mental efforts of such girls within the bounds of fatigue, and pro- 
vide for that building up of the bod}' which should have been 
thought of years before ; but young women and }'oung men who 
enter college with health and an assured phj T sique in their favor, 
should not need a special and extensive course of routine gymnas- 
tic work to keep them in tone. Moreover, to suppose that a girl 
who is exhausting herself mental!}', will be benefited, while doing 
the same amount of brain work, by unaccustomed physical labor, 
is a physiological error, financially illustrated thus : Peter robbed 
to pay Paul, and Paul robbed to pay Peter, till both are bankrupt. 
Otherwise stated, when a girl enters college, it is the duty of those 
who send her there to believe that she is ready for the strain ; since, 
as it is not the best economy which delays strengthening the 
foundations until the goods stored in the warehouse are causing 
them to tremble, though it is wise to keep them in order. 

"The due and proper training of the muscular system is among 
the most important means of antagonizing the tendency to various 
disorders," but there is a time in the development of the individual 
which is far better than the college years for this training. The 
college bred girls of today, who are forced to curtail their desire 
for study because of their unbalanced physical powers, will gladly 
see that to their children comes a different heritage. There is, I 
repeat, an age in which the benefits to be gained from physical 
education are especially emphasized ; an age when the girl and 
boy may easily be trained side by side ; when the consciousness 
that she has performed a difficult feat may be unalloyed pleasure to 
the shyest little maid, and when the hope of emulating her cousin 

(45) 



4(5 AMKKICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

or her brother will add a legitimate zest to her endeavors, us 
surely as it conceals the fact that she is hoarding up treasure lor 
herself. But this training must not be careless. "It is a scienee, 
not a mere rude art." It will cost more money and more thought 
to provide proper physical instruction for this child of seven, than 
for that daughter of seventeen. The teacher to whom is trusted 
the education of those easily overtaxed muscles, the strain upon 
that tender heart, must be far more cautious and skilful than he 
who supervises the exercises of a girl older or less eager, who 
knows when she is tired, as children never do. But the result : 
A fine, muscular adjustment, an educated nervous system ; the 
previous development of girl into woman checked, with a direet 
gain to the individual and to the race, provided marriage be corre- 
spondingly delayed. 

There is a time for all things, and the majorit}' of our mistakes 
come, perhaps, through confusing the varied seasons and their due 
fruition. We insist upon berries in December, only to lose their 
zest in June ; we send our children to hot-house assemblies at five, 
and a flirtation is dull at fifteen ; we gorge them with grammar 
and the catechism in their boyhood, and make up for our indiscre- 
tion a score of years later. For all drafts drawn upon the bank 
of humanity are, at last, payable in the coin of the nervous system ; 
which is neither infinitely expansible nor inexhaustible. We must 
therefore wisely time our demands to meet existing needs. 

From babyhood, through seven or eight years, the child should 
vegetate ; gain its stomach and teeth, its unstriped muscle and its 
sympathetic nervous system ; from seven to twelve, we may edu- 
cate and strengthen striped muscle and sinew, while the brain work 
demanded is earnest and short. "Strenuous diligence during 
school hours, and the maintenance of a high standard as to the 
quality of the work exacted, are on the side of nervous health ;" 
provided, that, like medicine, the dose be proportioned to the age, 
and in inverse ratio to the physical training which should accom- 
pany it From twelve to sixteen, should be brought the natural 
unfolding of the emotional instincts, the diversion of consciouso 
from self, and a physical regimen which will not infringe upon the 
evolution of the special organs that are, through these years, in 
process of development. Ten hours, at least, of sleep, two hours 
of mild, physical culture, in the open air, if possible, and the pur- 
suit of studies which shall give vent rather than repression to the 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 47 

newly awakened feelings, will go far to arrest the catastrophes 
imminent at this period, and to insure girls against them, in whom 
the previous five years have been devoted to the building up of a 
sound, nervous system. 

The critical years passed, the student should be prepared to 
enter upon intellectual pursuits, and to subordinate the direct 
growth and training of the body to that of the brain itself. 
" Life is longer, vitality more tenacious in women than in men," 
so the word cornes from all our co-educational institutions that 
they bear the present strain as well as their brothers, and they 
might be able to hold their ground in the class-room with the 
added pull of a craze for athletics ; although it is doubtful if for 
them is to be feared the temptation to accord to athletics a more 
absorbing allegiance than they are ready to give to mental pur- 
suits. Women will never, as a class, vie with men for the honors 
of the ball field or the lacrosse ground, and since, to stand side 
by side with the other sex in the race for existence is now their 
legitimate aim, they will not yet waste their force in paths which 
will onl}- end in defeat. 

" I question the propriety," says Julian Hawthorne, " of making 
health the deliberate object of exercise ;" and he proceeds to show 
that the winning of a race, or the thrashing of a senior bully, are 
more potent incentives to daily training than any hope of being 
strong, merely for the sake of strength," and I think many col- 
lege girls will agree with him, and confess that being denied the 
incentives of a possible public appreciation, they have too often 
found the obligatory swinging of clubs and clashing of dumb-bells 
a labor of duty, from which the}* have turned, not refreshed but 
fatigued. 

One of the especial dangers to which young women are exposed, 
in their own colleges, comes from the wear and tear of institution 
life ; from the frictions and jealousies incident to a community 
made up of individuals of a single sex, debarred from any free 
interchange of thought and feeling with the outside world. En- 
forced physical training will not meet this difficulty, and the gym- 
nasium must not be substituted for recreation. It is only adding 
one more ground of competition between the same rivals, one 
more line of action in which the perfection of the me centres the 
girl's interest upon herself ; and it is not possible to remedy this 
personal phrase, by substituting class or institutional rivalries, 



48 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

without creating the same dangers and difficulties which are felt to 
be imminent for young men. If a gymnasium, therefore, is con- 
templated in any collegiate institution for women, may it not be 
wisely urged that it be limited as follows, and if our own thought 
has been justifiable, will not the same restrictions eventually prove 
admissible and advisable in colleges everywhere? 

(1.) Create a Chair in each college faculty, to be filled by a 
competent Professor of Physical Culture. 

(2.) Require that a certain physical standard be made a neces- 
sity for matriculation. 

(3.) Demand that enforced attendance in the gymnasium !><> 
founded upon the needs of the individual. 

(4.) Subtract the time given to enforced g3"mnastic exercise, 
from the hours assigned to study. 

(5.) Encourage voluntary athletic work in the g3 i mnasium, 
and in out-door sports, as a recreation. 



V. ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN GREAT 
BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

BY MISS LOUISA INNES LUMSDEN. 

(Read September 9, 1884.) 

The Higher Education of Women in Britain is of too recent a 
date to allow of much obvious result from it being yet apparent. 
If I am asked what is the outcome of the movement, what use 
women are making of this education, and how they are adapting 
themselves to new positions and new responsibilities, I have but 
scanty information to give in reply. That there are now women 
graduates of the University of London, one having obtained the 
degree of Master of Arts, and another that of Doctor of Science, 
perhaps the most distinguished the Universit}- can grant', not to 
speak of more than sixty who have taken the B.A. and B.Sc. 
degrees ; that there are women graduates, in all but in name, of 
Cambridge and Oxford ; and that many of these women are doing 
good work as Head and Assistant Mistresses in the girls' schools 
which are springing up all over England, or as Lecturers in the 
colleges and halls for women at Cambridge and Oxford ; that a 
considerable number of women have entered the medical profession, 
and a few the legal ; and that a vast amount of public work, 
philanthropic and other, is being done by women these are the 
bare facts. This is the outcome which we at present see, and 
considering that it is hardly more than thirty years since the move- 
ment for educational reform began, it is a satisfactory result. But 
is this entirely the result of Higher Education? Certainly not. 
The fact is that it is difficult to view Higher Education alone, 
separately from that general movement of which it forms a part 
that wave of progress, which is gradually changing 'the position of 
women in our modern world, and bearing them and with them, I 
would fain hope, the race up to a loftier standing ground. 

It is natural that in an age of high civilization and refinement 
the question of the position of women, social and political, should 
assume new importance. The influence of women is in such times 
recognized as being a weight}' factor in the constitution of society. 
History gives us parallel cases. The present movement is essen- 
tially a popular and liberal one, the natural product of a liberal 
age, and the prominent place held in it by education is a hopeful 
4 . (49) 



50 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

sign. It shows a recognition of the duties and responsibilities 
which a larger freedom brings. The liberty which women are 
seeking is in truth not liberty selfishly to serve themselves, but 
liberty to serve with free, unhindered powers, every just, and noble, 
and pure, and merciful cause. The right the}' claim is a right, not 
of enjoyment, but of service. 

" True freedom is to share 
All the woes that others bear." 

If the}' sought freedom in another spirit, if they were like the 
women of the Roman world, in the later days of the Republic, or 
under the Empire, who had suc2eeded in practically emancipating 
themselves from the barbarous bondage of their legal position, but 
had, unhappily for themselves and for the world, gained no corre- 
sponding freedom from the low moral ideals of their time the en- 
larged freedom they claim might well be dangerous to the com- 
munity. Many people do, undoubtedly, dread it, at least in the 
political sphere. Yet it is, I think, even now, to some extent, 
acknowledged, both on theoretical and on practical grounds, that 
it is earnestly to be desired, for the common weal, that the influ- 
ence of women should be more freely exercised, more deeply felt, 
both in the social and political spheres though the how of its 
exercise in the second, may still be matter of discussion. And it 
follows, of course, from this, that the right education of the women 
who are to wield this influence is of enormous importance for the 
world. It is precisel}' this importance which is dawning upon our 
age. Yet it is, of course, nothing new. If women are, as has 
been often pointed out, the first educators of the race, what more 
important than that they should themselves be educated in the 
fullest sense of the word ? On every ground, therefore, both for 
the new duties and for the old, the need of educating women is 
beginning to be recognized. 

Even were this not so, were the education of women not a 
matter of practical public importance, women have, of course, in 
the abstract, a right to enter freely into the world of knowledge. 
That the love of Knowledge or of Truth is inborn in some minds, 
in women as well as in men, that it is indeed a divine gift, who can - 
question, and on what ground can its satisfaction be denied to 
women? It was, I think, a saying of the late Professor Jevons, 
that it is the happy fact that this love of Knowledge is an inborn 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. MISS LUMSDEN. 51 

possession, which has saved the education of women in all ages 
from being utterly sterile of good. But through the want of 
method and training, power has been endlessly wasted, and bitter 
disappointment and dejection have often been the sole reward of 
honest effort. It is this want, above all, which true Education 
supplies. 

As regards the matter or subject of education, we must allow 
that in Britain I do not know how it may be in America a 
vague sort of idea still survives that the nature of women is in 
some mysterious way complemental to that of men, and that the 
education of the sexes should therefore be complemental also so 
that, as Miss Emily Davies once remarked, it almost seems as if 
what is good for a boy must be bad for a girl, and vice versa. A 
pleasant variety, we are told, would thus be secured. Discord 
would be, 1 think, the more natural, and is very often the actual 
result. No doubt, if we could at will work with another person's 
mind, and see with his mental eyes, it would be amusing and 
refreshing that the furniture of his mind, and his way of looking at 
things should be as different as possible from our own. But, since 
we stand each " on our attainment," has not each individual to 
round his own life and complete his own culture as best he can? 
Happily for men, as well as for women, the complemental theory 
is dying out in England, and the old and sounder belief in liberal 
culture as good for all is yearly gaining strength. 

I say the old belief, for the complemental theory is a curious 
modern fancy. It seems at least probable that some 200 years 
ago, girls shared more equally in the then existing means of edu- 
cation than until very lately they have done in our times. The 
boys and girls of the upper classes seem generally to have been 
taught together by tutors at home, and in the middle classes they 
doubtless attended the mixed schools, which still survive here and 
there, notably in Scotland, and which are, I believe, common in 
parts of America. No doubt, however, the standard of culture 
actually attained by girls was as a rule, low. A woman's life, then, 
like that of German women now, was too full of household duties 
to allow time for study after the years of early girlhood were over. 
But, whatever was the worth of the old education, it had been lost 
to girls, parti}- through the exclusion of girls from the benefit 
of endowments, and 'partly too, no doubt, from the indifference of 
parents, the general belief that, as Mr. Tulliver puts it, " over- 
cuteness was no gain for a little lass." 



52 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Another cause for the gradual withdrawal of girls from the 
mixed schools was probably the roughness of manners prevailing 
in them. I know, at least, that this has been, and still is, 1 In- 
case in Scotland. But the true cure for this roughness would be, I 
believe, not to withdraw the girls, but to introduce into the schools 
refined and cultivated women as teachers. This, I understand, is 
the American plan, and this brings me to another point in my 
subject, the double good resulting from the system of High Schools 
now established in England. Not only do girls now receive a sound 
education in these schools, preparing them for University training, 
but when, in its turn, their University career is gone through, they 
can find at once, if they desire it, honorable and independent 
positions as Head or Assistant Mistresses, or Lecturers. The case 
is different in Scotland. A strong prejudice^ exists there against 
women teachers. They are employed sparingly, and, as a rule, 
in subordinate capacities only. The prejudice has a respectable 
foundation. The Scotch have never been indifferent to the claims 
of education, even for girls, the}' have alwa3 - s been determined to 
have none but qualified teachers, and as no woman was actually 
qualified by learning or University degree, it followed that they 
would have no woman teachers in responsible positions. Preju- 
dices die slowly. England, once behind Scotland in the secondary- 
education of girls, is fast going ahead of it. Here and there in 
Scotland good schools may be found. But, in general, girls 
schools in my country have hardl} 7 yet felt the influence of reformed 
ideas. Scotchwomen who have gone through University training, 
are compelled to look almost entirely to England for a worthy 
professional career. And if they miss the work, the work misses 
them. Nothing can compensate a girls' school for the want of the 
refining, educating influence of a high-minded, highly cultured 
woman at its head. 

Under the reformed system in England, women are more and 
more employed in schools. The " Establishment for Young 
Ladies," in which " the best masters attend," is happily becoming 
rarer. Reform was certainly urgently needed. Until lately, 
English schools for girls of the upper classes were, as a rule, 
beneath contempt. No wonder that quiet, old-fashioned people 
have even now a horror of all schools. And middle class girls' 
schools hardly existed at all. All this is changed, sound training 
is given, good work is done, and the only want which is not yet 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. MISS LUMSDEN. 53 

adequately met is that of good boarding schools for country girls. 
High schools do not meet the needs of dwellers in the country, 
and it can hardly be denied that, as one consequence of this, 
the daughters of the landed gentry bid fair to become the worst 
educated class in the community. 

The need of a public .examination to test the work done in girls' 
schools by a recognized standard, was felt from the beginning of 
the movement for reform. The gain, therefore, was great when, in 
1865, the local examinations of the University of Cambridge were 
first extended to girls, in answer to a petition presented to the 
Senate, by a committee which had been formed to obtain the admis- 
sion of women to University degrees in Arts and Medicine. Since 
then the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examining Board has 
also extended its examinations to girls, and there are besides the 
examinations of the College of Preceptors, and the Cambridge 
Higher Local Examinations, first held in 1869. Doubtless this 
list is not exhaustive. There is indeed no lack of examinations, 
and, to saj' the truth, no little danger in consequence of cram 
and overwork. A few years ago vehement complaints were made, 
both by parents and physicians, on this score. And, allowing 
for exaggeration, and even unfairness in the charge made, it 
must be granted that these dangers are real and serious. It is 
not so much that mistakes have been made. Probably some 
mistakes are inevitable at first, even in an educational reform. 
It is that the reform has not been an all round one. The 
defectiveness of the old system, as regarded physical training, was 
not sufficiently recognized. If a painter can't " paint soul," as 
Lippo says, " never minding the legs and arms," can a teacher 
afford not to mind them dare he " forget there's such a thing as 
flesh ?" But the cure is not stopping the work. Far less is it to 
return to the old system of dreary rote learning, petty rules, per- 
petual surveillance, cramping body and mind. It is, as nature 
herself teaches, simply begining to play. Play is, according to 
Richter, " the first poetry of the human being." Not physical 
education so-called, not gymnastics, excellent as they are too in 
their place, but play. Play braces muscle and nerve, refreshes 
the brain, supplies a moral training of incalculable value. I speak 
out of the experience of many years, first as a student, then as 
Resident Tutor at Girton College, and last as Head Mistress of a 
girls' school. The best games are, I believe, rounders and cricket. 



54 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Tennis is of course a splendid game, but too few can play at once 
to make it the best game for children and schools. Every school 
should have its playground, some already have. Head and 
Assistant Mistresses cannot do better than join in the play- but 
simply as members, not as directors. The girls should organize, 
their chosen leaders should command it is excellent training 
for the work of life. And they should wear suitable garments 
else play with its possible overheating and exposure to weather, 
may be actually dangerous woollen, light-skirted, easv-iitting, in 
which the limbs have perfect freedom. I do not think that tin- 
value of play has been yet recognized heartily or widely enough by 
our school mistresses. For my part, I believe that the moral and 
physical gain directly derivable from the Higher Education since 
real work, to be harmless, necessitates real* play is of as much 
value as the intellectual gain itself or even of more value. Is 
not Education harmonious development moral, intellectual, physi- 
cal? And are modern women so strong that the real fear is lest 
they should become, like the bodyguards of the Princess Ida, 



"mighty daughters of the plough, 



Huge women, blowzed with health " ; 

I could almost wish it were ! 

Play is the antidote to overwork on the physical side. On the 
mental, I believe, the best is resolutely to cut down the number of 
subjects taught in our schools. Their multiplicity is simply over- 
whelming. What should go, or what can at least wait, I do not 
venture to suggest here. But let anything go rather than train 
our girls, first at school arid later at college, to hurry from subject 
to subject, skipping here and cramming there at the dictates of this 
or that examination, and learning, as Bacon said long since, noth- 
ing save to believe "that they know that which they know not, 
impatience to doubt, temerity to answer, glory to know, seeking 
things in words, resting in part of Nature." 

It is on the school foundation, after all, that the Higher Educa- 
tion is built, and if our girls go up from school to the Universities 
sickly and overworked, what gain is reaped from all our labor? 
They should go tip fre.sh, body as well as mind in the highest con- 
dition of efficiencj". Doubtless many do. Still I think reform on 
the physical side is not yet nearly so universal or so thorough in 
our schools as it ought to be. 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. MISS LUMSDEN. 55 

I cannot attempt in this paper to go into the details of the his- 
toiy of the movement for Higher Education in Britain. I am 
assured, besides, that the subject is familiar to my audience. Yet 
I wish I could have dwelt for a moment upon the benefits conferred 
upon women by the University of London. It is thanks to the 
liberality of that University, in throwing open in 1878 all its 
Examinations and Degrees to women, that in the man}" colleges 
throughout England and Wales, which now prepare students for 
those Examinations and Degrees, women are received on an equal 
footing and share every advantage with men. Perhaps I should 
except medical training, the London School of Medicine for 
Women being still, I think, the only Institution in England 
where women can obtain instruction in Medicine and Surgery, and 
qualify for the London Medical Degree. 

To University College in London the praise is due of having 
first made what was then thought the daring experiment of mixed 
classes of men and women an experiment which has succeeded 
admirably. The Victoria University has followed the liberal 
example of London, and as a direct consequence of this, women 
can now receive instruction in the Owens College in Manchester 
those who have passed the Matriculation Examination of Victoria 
in the same classes with male students. I should have liked too 
to speak of the great concession made by the University of Cam- 
bridge in opening its course for Honor Degrees to students of 
Girton and Newnham Colleges, and of the similar, but as yet, less 
complete step more lately taken by Oxford ; of my own old Col- 
lege, Girtou, whose early struggling days at Hitchin I so well 
remember ; of Newnham, younger sister and friendly rival of 
Girton in tripos and on tennis green ; of the new Halls at Oxford, 
Somerville and Lady Margaret's, doing in Oxford the same work 
which Newnham does in Cambridge but time forbids. Of 
Ireland it must suffice to say that the Royal University is as freely 
open to women as is that of London, and that it counts already 
more than one hundred women members, although the first set, so 
recent was the concession, will not have had time to graduate 
until next month, October, 1884. The University of Dublin is, 
however, still closed to women. For the degrees of the Royal 
University, women can prepare in the Alexandra College for 
women in Dublin, or at the Queen's College, Belfast ; and, no 
doubt, the colleges in Galway and Cork would also be open to 
women if there too entrance was sought. 



56 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

In Scotland the action of the Universities is less satisfactory, 
It i.s hoped that a change is even now impending. 1'robably the 
new Universities' Bill will give power to the Universities to admit 
women to Matriculation and < iraduation. It seems strange that 
tin- interference of Government should be necessary to logali/e the 
admission of women to Universities founded on the model of those 
in Italy, in which, as every one knows, women have been not only 
students but even professors. So unfortunate, however, has been 
the course of events during the last fifteen years, that we are 
aspired that Government alone can cut the knot. In the mean- 
while useful work is being done in Edinburgh b}' the Association 
for the University Education of Women, and in Glasgow by the 
CJueen Margaret College. The L.L.A. Examination and Certifi- 
cate created for women by the University of St. Andrews, meeting 
the wants chiefly of women who study at home, is a help to many 
a solitary student. But one flaw is everywhere apparent the 
uncertain value of the special certificates granted to women. Not 
the degrees themselves, as in the London Victoria, and Irish Uni- 
versities ; not even the same examinations under the same con- 
ditions as to undergraduates, as at Cambridge and Oxford ; but 
something corresponding, something the value of which cannot be 
exactly estimated, something which is actually inferior in market 
value to what can be gained in England is granted to women by 
the Scottish Universities at present. Women in Dundee alone 
have more satisfactory opportunities. To the new College there, 
founded by a woman, women are freely admitted, as to the English 
provincial Colleges, and it will be open to them to study for tLe 
degrees of the University of London. Remembering the belief in 
the ordinary Scottish mind that women are incapable of filling 
high positions in the scholastic profession, it seems specially 
hard on Scotchwomen, that the fact of the degree course in the 
Universities being still closed to them should perpetuate this 
prejudice. 

Recent as the movement for Higher Education is, a good many 
fallacies about girls and women have been cleared away in the 
course of its working. First, there is the greatest and most dan- 
gerous fallacy of all, that hard stud\' is specially hurtful to the 
health of women. The same people who will without protest see 
.women guilty of all sorts of follies pinching their waists to suit 
.a false, ideal of beauty, sauntering with cramped, ungraceful .gait 



HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. MISS LUMSDEN. 57 

instead of walking, because skirts are too narrow and too weighty 
to allow of free, graceful motion, and doing fifty other wrong and 
silly things in obedience to fashion are seized with virtuous 
indignation when other women take to intellectual work. Study 
is at once, in their eyes, to blame for eveiy ill. But this outcry is 
beginning to subside, and it has even been pretty well accepted 
that work in moderation is actually wholesome. One may still 
however hear the plea put forward in defence of excluding women 
from high examinations and degrees, " The best women would be 
killed." For people who hold this belief I would prescribe a course 
of visits, first to a few schools, where the value of play is, I need 
hardly say, recognized, and then to Girton and Newnham. The 
sight of so many happy, healthy, young faces could be trusted to 
convert any honest doubter. 

A second fallacy is that this or that " hard " subject is unsuita- 
ble for women. What subjects are feminine and what masculine? 
Botany, for some inscrutable reason, used to be considered a 
specially feminine subject. Practically this question has solved 
itself. Another fallacy was that women worked faster than men. 
No doubt under this seeming compliment lurked the popular belief 
in the essential shallowness of the feminine mind. Shallowness 
and inaccuracy having been laboriously produced by so-called edu- 
cation came to be looked upon as innate. Experience very soon 
showed that there was no difference whatever as to speed in men's 
and women's work respectively, though of course individuals 
varied. With regard to the charge of shallowness brought against 
girls, it may be interesting to notice that in the last Report issued 
by the Cambridge Senior Local Examiners, we are told that in 
essay writing the boys as a rule showed more observation, imagina- 
tion, and enthusiasm than the girls, while the girls were superior in 
simplicity and directness of style, in thoroughness of treatment, 
avoidance of generalities, and in a "painstaking and generous 
fairness of mind which was very striking." I quote this Report 
only as showing how false are popular theories about the shallovv- 
uess, unfairness, &c., of women, not because I think it particu- 
larly flattering to the gills. Observation, imagination, enthusiasm 
are gifts full of promise for future life. Yet even here must we 
conclude that this inferiority is due to Nature ? May it not be due 
to special causes at work in a girl's life ? A girl almost always has 
some home duties to perform to mend her own and others' 



58 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

clothes, mind the younger children, help the mother in a hundred 
little ways. She has few or none of those leisurely moments 
which come frequently enough to boys. And these are the mo- 
ments, 1 think, in which observation and imagination work unhin- 
dered, and enthusiasm is born of reverie. I believe it would be 
good for both girls and boys to share home duties more equally. 
Let the boy know something of the jo}' of unselfish service, and 
the girl more of that divine leisure which is the nurse of genius. 

One fallacy more, that if girls are allowed to play as boys are 
they will become rough and unladylike. There could be no more 
ridiculous mistake. I can testify from five years' school expe- 
rience that play actually helps good manners. The reason is sim- 
ple. Self-control, fairness, good temper are essential to play. If 
these fail, it fails. And are not these the soil out of which cour- 
tesy naturally springs ? Not to speak of the promotion of health by 
play. Are not ill-temper, selfishness, peevishness often the mere 
result of ailing health? And do they produce good manners? 

To conclude. The value of Education is beginning to be fully 
recognized among us. Cultivated men are in general showing a 
generous eagerness to share with women all the advantages which 
they themselves enjoy. Young men in particular are often strik- 
ingly liberal minded. I have heard of some who out of a moder- 
ate income, gained by their own labor, have aided sisters to obtain 
University and Medical training. But the old idea that education 
is necessary for teachers only, " for women who are obliged to 
work for their living," as the phrase goes, as if work were not a 
blessing, and idleness and dependence a curse dies hard. The 
fact is that we are yet in a transition state. Old-fashioned por- 
tions of society, the conservative and moneyed classes the 
landed gentry, for instance are as yet almost untouched by the 
new ideas. It is felt among them that sons must push their way 
in the world. There is perhaps not enough of money for the edu- 
cation both of sons and daughters, and it is taken as quite a right 
and every-day arrangement that the girls should go to the wall. 
And the\* are told that this is only fair, since they have not to 
work for their living, while their brothers have. But what is the 
truth? Girls are not expected to work, granted, and so they are 
not trained to work and independence. But they are expected to 
gain a livelihood by marrying. A worthy ideal of marriage, 
indeed, it must be confessed! Or, if the}' do not many, they 






HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. MISS LUMSDEN. 59 

must know how to starve and piuch in respectable poverty and 
vacuous dulness, without loosing caste as gentlewomen. This is 
the ugly reality underlying the fair show of society, and it is the 
loss of this which people sentimentally affect to dread and depre- 
cate as if with this miserable pretence would go the truth and 
sweetness of the womanhood so outraged in the name of propriety 
and respectability. The mistake is to regard paid work as deroga- 
tory to the dignity of a lady. Why should it be less honorable for 
her to live by her own labor, than by that of her father, not to 
speak of being dependent on a brother, or other relation ? Every- 
one makes money somehow, the peer and the squire, who live by 
their rents, as much as the artizan and the dressmaker. The sim- 
ple cure for the evil is to accept capacity for any work, not com- 
pelling poverty, as the only right reason for undertaking the work. 
We must let patience and education have their perfect work. Slow 
and reluctant as are our upper classes to learn, the}' will grasp the 
fact in time that education is a good in itself, and that there is no 
work to which a hnman being can be put in office, or shop, or house, 
or nursery, or farm, or factory, in the doing of which trained and 
developed capacities will not help man and woman. Capacity to 
do philanthropic work, above all, depends much on training, as 
endless mistakes made by would-be Lady Bountifuls show. Yet 
it is to work among the poor that young, untrained, inexperienced 
girls are constantly put ! I suppose it is thought that the employ- 
ment, if useless, is at least harmless. My school experience has 
taught me that it would be a great gain if all girls could look for- 
ward to a possible professional career. Not that all need enter it, 
or even go on to the technical preparation necessary for it ; but 
that It should be an every-da}' thing to enter a profession, and 
that to be capable of entering it should be considered honorable 
and desirable. Some girls do not need this stimulus, but many do. 
It would steady them, deepen their characters, and make them 
not a whit less bright and charming and loveable, but more so, 
because more truly womanly. 

The arguments against professional careers for women seem to 
me mostly of the kind given not long ago by a certain poetical M. 
P. against women's suffrage " Women are the silver lining which 
gilds the cloud of man's existence ! " As for more practical and 
intelligible reasons, diffiulties would, under fair trial, solve them- 
selves. 



60 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

To return to our main subject. Of one thing, I think, we may 
be sure, that Education is the only influence not even excepting 
ivligion. for to define the term religion would lead us too far 
a-field which can stem the dangerous symptoms of our age (in 
my country, at least), the fastness which is its most unlovely pro- 
duct, the unbounded luxury and vulgar ostentation of wealth, the 
hick of high ideals, the proneness to saunter through life with, at 
the best, a mere aesthetic enjoyment, and that shallow scepticism 
at second and third-hand, affected by people haunted in truth 
themselves by no " obstinate questionings," but who catch up, 
parrot-like, the current phrases, like the fashions of the day. For 
the aim of true education is surely that man and woman may 
grow alike 

" Not alone in power 

And knowledge, but from hour to hour 

In reverence and in charity." 



ADDITIONAL PAPERS OF THE JURISPRUDENCE 
DEPARTMENT. 

I. THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS. 

BY F. H. WINES, SECRETARY OF THE ILLINOIS BOARD OF PUBLIC CHARITIES. 

The publication by Mr. George L. Harrison, of Philadelphia, at 
his own personal expense, and the gratuitous distribution of a work 
prepared, under his supervision, at great cost, entitled " Legisla- 
tion on Insanity," has made it possible for me to present a brief 
summary of the laws relating to the commitment and detention of 
the insane in all the States and Territories of the Union. Mr. 
Harrison's book, for which he deserves the thanks of all who take 
an interest in the condition and treatment of the insane, purports 
to be "a collection of all the lunacy laws of the States and Terri- 
tories of the United States, to the year 1883, inclusive, also the 
laws of England on insanity, legislation in Canada on private 
houses, and important portions of the lunacj- laws of Germany, 
France, etc." In the following digest, I have not gone outside of 
this, book, to consult original authorities, but have based my state- 
ments upon his researches. 

Public interest on the subject of insanity centres in the inquiry : 
Under what circumstances and by what methods may an insane 
man be deprived of his personal liberty? How must the neces- 
sary proceedings for the commitment of lunatics be conducted, in 
order to guard against the incarceration of- sane persons falsely 
charged with insanity ? What precautions need to be taken to 
prevent the improper detention of persons, sane or insane, who no 
longer require the restraints of an insane hospital or asylum? As 
will be seen, the answers given to these questions in the statutes 
of different States are very varied, and for the most part, too vague 
to be satisfactory. The laws of Illinois are peculiarly open to 
criticism, and call loudly for revision and amendment. 

Insanity, in the medical sense, may exist, where there is no 
necessity for the commitment of the insane person to any institu- 
tion for the insane (since he may be as well or better cared for 
elsewhere), and no justification for any restraint upon his actions, 

(61) 



62 AMKRICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

(since he is in no danger of harming himself or others, if let 
alone). Insane persons may be disqualified for the transaction of 
business and the care of their property, and yet require no re- 
straint. Where the commitment of any insane person to an insti- 
tution is requisite or proper, it must be because the character of 
the manifestations is such as to imperil the community ; or because 
the patient is himself in danger, if allowed to go at large ; or be- 
cause there is hope of his restoration, if treated in a hospital ; or 
because his commitment will promote his comfort, if incurable. 
He may have no home, or his remaining at home or in an alms- 
house, if a pauper, may be manifestly hardship both to himself 
and others, whose interest must also be considered. For an insane 
person, although not dangerous, may be very troublesome and dis- 
agreeable, so much so as to render the depriving him of his liberty 
a less evil than his freedom to annoy others, who cannot escape 
from his presence, would be. In the legislation of the several 
IStates, these principles are more or less clearly recognized, but not 
always grasped, apparently, in their full extent. The double pur- 
pose in the commitment of lunatics their own good and that of 
others is well stated in Rhode Island, where it is defined to be 
" either for cure or restraint ;" and in Maine, where any insane 
person may be committed to the hospital, " whose comfort and 
safety, or that of others interested, will be promoted." In North 
Carolina, the finding of the inquest must be that the person ad- 
judged to be insane "is a fit subject for an insane asylum, and 
that his being at large is injurious to himself and disadvantageous 
if not dangerous to the community." But in many States, the 
wording of the law is'far less comprehensive. 

DEFINITIONS OF INSANITY. 

The statutes of several States contain sections in which an at- 
tempt is made to define insanity, as follows : 

"A person shall be considered of sound mind who is neither an 
idiot or lunatic, nor affected with insanity, and who hath arrived 
at the age of fourteen years, or before that age, if such person 
know the distinction between good and evil." 

" The term lunatic shall be construed to include idiots, insane 
and distracted persons, and every person who, by reason of in- 



THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS. 63 

temperance, or any disorder and unsoundness of mind, shall be 
incapable of managing and caring for his own estate." 

" The term ' insane,' as used in this act, includes any species of 
insanity or mental derangement. The term ' idiot' is restricted to 
persons supposed to be naturally without mind." 

" The words ' insane person ' include idiots, lunatics, distracted 
persons and persons of unsound mind." 

" The terms l insane ' and ' insane persons ' include every species 
of insanity, and extend to every deranged person, and to all of 
unsound mind, other than idiots." 

"The term 'insane' includes every species of insanity, but 
does not include idiocy or iinbecilit}"." 

' The word ' lunatic' shall be construed to include ever}- insane 
person who is not an idiot." 

These definitions make one think of the two famous conun- 
drums : What is mind? No matter. And what is matter? 
Never mind. A person of sound mind is one who is not a lunatic, 
and a lunatic is one who is not of sound mind. A lunatic is an 
insane person, and an insane person is a lunatic. Idiots are some- 
times lunatics and sometimes not, according to the State in which 
they reside. Where a distinction between insanity and idiocy is 
expressed, as in Ohio, Kentuck}' and Iowa, idiocy is wrongly 
defined. One definition of insanity is required, where the insane 
person is to be committed to a hospital, another where he needs 
to have a guardian appointed, and a third where he is on trial for 
crime. Accordingly, some States have more than one definition, 
as in Minnesota, where contrary definitions are given. 

CLASSIFICATION OF INSANE PERSONS. 

The definition of insanity, either in a medical or in a legal 
sense, being a task of such difficulty, it is not surprising that there 
should be found to be also a great variation in the subdivision of 
the insane as a class. It is usual to describe specifically what 
classes of insane persons may or may not be received into the 
institutions for the insane created and maintained by the State. 
Idiots are excluded in Arkansas, California, Dakota, Illinois, In- 
diana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Vermont, 
West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Kentucky, pauper idiots are 
excluded, unless the jury find, by their verdict, that the}* are so 



(54 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

dangerous or so uncontrollable that they cannot be safely and prop- 
erly kept within the county. But in Florida, Georgia and South 
Carolina, they are expressly included in the classes for whose ben- 
efit the asylums are established; and in Ohio, by implication, in 
the words, " all insane persons over the age of seven years." 
Epileptics are excluded in Arkansas ; and in Kentucky, if not oth- 
erwise insane. They are expressly admitted in Georgia and South 
Carolina. In many states, the question whether the patient is 
epileptic must be determined at the inquest, or answered in the 
certificate of the physicians by whom the patient was examined. 
Persons suffering from any contagious 01* infectious disease are 
rejected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Washington 
Territory. 

Demented inebriates are admitted in Georgia. The definition of 
a lunatic in Colorado includes them. Habitual drunkards may be 
sent to the asylum in Kansas. The law in New Mexico is not 
specific as to this point, but will bear a similar construction. Per- 
sons temporarily insane by reason of the intemperate use of intox- 
icating drinks may be committed to the Western Pennsylvania 
Hospital for the Insane (Dixmont), until such temporary fit of 
insanity is cured. But in California, the admission of any case of 
delirium tremens or acute mania-a-potu is forbidden, as it is also 
in Utah. Both in California and Utah, the reception of any case 
of harmless, chronic, mental unsoundness is prohibited. There is 
a like provision in the law of Wisconsin, to the effect that no 
physically infirm or mentally imbecile person, not deemed to be 
dangerous when at large, shall be committed solely because of 
such inh'rmit}' or imbecility. 

The State of Arkansas forbids the removal of any insane convict 
from any penal institution to the State lunatic asylum. The law in 
most States provides for such removal. In New York and Michi- 
gan, special asylumns for the criminal insane have been estab- 
lished. 

The admission of pay-patients is authorized in nearly all the 
States. But the institutions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, and Mississippi, are open to all residents of those 
States, free of charge. Non-resident patients are excluded from 
the State institutions for the insane in California, the District of 
Columbia, Tennessee. Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia , but 
with some exceptions. The admission of patients from other 



PAPER BY MR. F. H. WINES. 65 

States is authorized in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, 
Nebraska, and South Carolina. 

In some of the States, it is provided that if, for want of room or 
any other reason, it becomes necessary to discriminate in the ad- 
mission of patients, a certain order of selection shall be observed. 
The preferences expressed relate (1) to recent and curable cases, 
in Alabama, Arkansas, Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, 
Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and the territory of Wash- 
ington. By recent cases are meant those of less than one year's 
standing. (2) To the indigent insane, in all the States just named, 
except Arkansas, Illinois and Ohio, with the addition of North 
Carolina. (3) To the order of application for admission, in 
Dakota, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio. (4) In Illinois, 
violent, dangerous or otherwise troublesome cases have the prefer- 
ence over those of an opposite description. Similar distinctions 
are made in the matter of the retention and discharge of patients. 

There are few if an}' States, in which the provision made for the 
care of the insane in public institutions is adequate to the demand. 
Hence it is necessary to ordain rules for securing to each portion 
of the State its equitable share in the benefits of the existing insti- 
tutions. This end is reached in two ways : first, b}' districting the 
State, geographically, where there is more than one institution ; 
and second, by assigning to each town or county its legal quota of 
inmates, in proportion either to the insane population or to the 
total population. Districts have been established, and their boun- 
daries defined, in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, North 
Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In Virginia, commitments are 
made to the nearest asylum. In Kansas, all of the State institu- 
tions of a benevolent character are under the government of a 
single board of trustees, and the board designates the superinten- 
dent of one of the insane asylums, to whom all applications for 
admission must be made ; this superintendent determines, under 
rules established by the trustees, to which asylum each applicant 
shall be admitted. In Iowa, the superintendents of the two hospi- 
tals and the governor of the State adopt regulations in regard to 
what patients or class of patients shall be admitted to the respec- 
tive hospitals, and from what portion of the State patients may be 
sent to either of them. In Michigan, the boards of trustees of the 
different hospitals meet in joint session, for the adjustment of all 
questions which may arise pertaining to them. 



6G AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION. 

Where the insanity of any person is of such a description that 
no necessity exists for any interference with his freedom of action, 
the question of his condition may be regarded as a purely medical 
question, as in the case of any other disease. The treatment of 
ordinary diseases is left entirely to the plrysician, without the inter- 
vention of a court. But insanity is not an ordinary disease. Its 
peculiarity consists in its tendency to unfit its victims for the 
maintenance of normal social relations. It is often indispensable 
that the insane man should be, to a greater or less extent, deprived 
of his personal freedom. His right to the control of his person 
and estate is involved in the decision of the question of his sanity. 
It is not merely a question of insanity, but of custody, and that is 
not a medical but a legal question. 

No man can be rightfully deprived of his liberty, otherwise than 
by due process of law. Commitment to a hospital or asylum for 
the insane, however we may gloss it over, is deprivation of liberty. 
It is to be shut up under lock and key. It is to be subjected to 
liability to undergo painful discipline, at the will of another ; the 
discipline of the camisole and the muff, for instance, if the medical 
officers of the institution deem such treatment important or judi- 
cious. It is to have no assurance of any termination to this irk- 
some confinement ; for there is no patient who may not have to 
remain in custody for the term of his natural life, if no improve- 
ment takes place in his condition. It is to be cut off in a large 
degree from the companionship of friends not only, but from their 
present and active sympathj', and even, in many cases, from their 
very remembrance. That such deprivation is unavoidable, that it 
is proper, that it is beneficial, does not render it less painful, nor 
change its essential nature. 

But what is due process of law? Is it a private agreement 
between the friends of the patient or his attending physician and 
the authorities of the hospital? Or is it a judicial inquiry and a 
solemn, responsible decision by a court, based upon evidence? 

It is the right of every alleged lunatic to protest against a judg- 
ment which would consign him to imprisonment and give the con- 
trol of his property to another. It is his right to have notice and a 
healing. Not even the right to have his case passed upon by a 
jury can be lawfully taken from him. If he is not capable of 
entering any protest, nor of appreciating or insisting upon his 



THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS. 67 

rights, as patients in acute mania or a state of dementia are 
incapable, so much the worse for him. But this is not the state 
of doubtful lunatics, and it is for their protection that the arm of 
the law is made strong. 

CLASSIFICATION OF STATES. 

Roughly speaking, the States and territories may be divided into 
four groups, as follows : (1) Those in which insane persons may 
be committed without even the formality of a medical certificate of 
insanity. (2) Those in which, for the reception of the patient 
into the hospital, a medical certificate is required, but not the 
order of a court. (3) Those in which a judicial inquisition into 
the fact of insanity is a necessary pi - e-requisite to the patient's 
commitment, but such inquest need not be by jury. (4) Those in 
which trial by jury is obligatory and indispensable, and the ver- 
dict of the jury is the warrant for the action of the judge. 

Actually, it is impossible to discriminate thus sharply between 
different States, since the insane are in many of them sub-divided 
into classes (particularly into the self-supporting and the non-self- 
supporting), and the processes of commitment vary according to 
the class to which the individual patient belongs. It is perhaps 
worthy of notice, that wherever there is more than one mode of 
commitment provided, in any State, the easiest method is always 
prescribed for persons possessed of real or personal estate, in 
apparent forgetfulness of the palpable fact that the inducements 
to seek for their incarceration, and the chances of injustice and 
injury, are far greater in the case of the rich than of the poor. 
Not only so, but the likelihood of their discharge from an insti- 
tution, after commitment, is less. That this should be so, argues 
that the framers of the statutes had in mind chiefly, if not solely, 
the question of liability for the support of the patient in the hos- 
pital or asylum ; and that, since persons in independent circum- 
stances are able to pay their own way, no necessity is believed to 
exist, in their case, for any reference of the question of the 
patient's insanity to any tribunal for judicial investigation and 
determination. 

COMMITMENT ON MEDICAL CERTIFICATE. 

The thirteen States in which insane persons may be admitted 
into the hospitals, on the simple certificate of a physician or phy- 



68 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

sicians that they are insane, are : Alabama, Connecticut, the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and 
Vermont. In Kansas, for the admission of private patients, in 
addition to the medical certificate, a certificate from the probate 
judge that he has been "informed" of the insanit\* of the patient 
is necessary ; in other cases he certifies that the patient has been 
" adjudged " to be insane. In Alabama, the District of Columbia, 
Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, admission on 
medical certificate alone is expressly restricted to pay-patients. 
In the other States named, this right is unrestricted ; it extends to 
pauper patients committed by the persons having them in charge, 
unless in conflict with some other provision contained in the 
statutes. 

In Connecticut, the certificate must be made within one week 
after the medical examination of the patient, and it must be pre- 
sented within thirty days after it is made. In the District of 
Columbia, the request for admission must be made within five days 
of the date of the certificate of insanity. In Missouri, the cer- 
tificate must be signed on the same day with the medical examina- 
tion, and presented within two months. In New Hampshire, the 
committal must be within one week after the examination of the 
patient. In New Jersey, the committal must be within one month 
after the making of the certificate. In New York, the certificate 
must bear date of not more than ten days prior to commitment. 
In Tennessee, it must be dated within one month of the presenta- 
tion of the patient at the hospital. In Vermont, it must be made 
within five da}-s of the medical examination, and not more than 
ten days previous to admission to the asylum. 

In New York, the medical certificate must be approved by a 
judge or justice of a court of record ; and the judge or justice 
may (not shall) institute inquiry and take proofs as to any alleged 
lunacj", before approving or disapproving of such certificate. 

COMMITMENT WITHOUT CERTIFICATE. 

The States in which patients may be committed (so far as ap- 
pears from the statutes), without either judicial investigation or 
medical certificate, are: Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missis- 
sippi, South Carolina and Virginia. In Louisiana, the board of 
administrators (trustees) is given authority to receive insane per- 



PAPER BY MR. F. H. WINES. 69 

sons, not sent to the asylum by a district or parish judge, on such 
terms and conditions as it may see fit to adopt. In Maine, 
parents and guardians of insane minors, if of sufficient abilit}' to 
support them there, may, within thirty days after an attack of 
insanity, send them, without any legal examination, to the State 
hospital or to some other hospital for the insane. In Maryland, 
the provisions relating to judicial investigation apply to insane 
persons confined at the expense of the county or city ; but nothing 
contained in the act shall prevent the friends or relations of a 
lunatic or insane person from confining him or providing for his 
comfort. 

In South Carolina, inquests are obligator}' in case of insane 
paupers ; but the regenc}' (trustees) must admit idiots, lunatics or 
epileptics, where their admission is requested under the hands of 
the husband or wife, or (where there is no husband or wife) of the 
next of kin of idiot or lunatic ; and nothing contained in the act 
may be held in any manner to apply to the entrance of pay-patients 
into the asylum. In Virginia, on application for the admission of 
a person into an asylum, the examining board, if unanimous that 
he ought to be admitted, may receive him as a patient. 

COMMITMENT AFTER INQUEST. 

The States in which provision is made for a judicial inquisition 
into the mental condition of persons alleged to be insane are : all 
the States except the District of Columbia (where commitments 
are made on the order of the Secretary of the Interior, based upon 
the certificate of a judge of the supreme court of the district or a 
justice of the peace, that two physicians and two householders of 
the district have made the required depositions before him) , and 
Maine (where the municipal officers of towns are constituted a 
board of examiners, and their decision is final, unless an appeal is 
taken within five days to two justices of the peace and quorum). 

The States in which no patient can be admitted to an insane 
hospital without a judicial inquest are : Arizona, California, Colo- 
rado, Dakota, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massa- 
chusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, 
North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, 
West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming 24. There is some 
obscurit}- in the law in the States of Arkansas, Delaware, Florida 
and Michigan, which renders it difficult to assign to them their 
proper place in the classification which has here been attempted. 



70 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

In Michigan, the law appears upon its face to warrant no com- 
mitment without inquest ; but there is an obscure section which 
reads as follows : " This act shall not be construed to authorize 
the confinement of any person in any asylum, except such person 
be expressly required by law to be so confined, contrary to and 
against the wishes of any parent or guardian, or other legal cus- 
todian of an}' such person, provided said board of trustees shall 
be satisfied such parent or guardian or legal custodian shall have 
sufficient pecuniary ability to maintain and support such insane 
person." It is possible that this section is designed to authorize 
the confinement of insane persons by their friends, if of sufficient 
pecuniary ability. 

It may be seen that there is a close connection between the 
method of support of a State institution for the insane, and the 
form of inquest into insanity of the persons who are to be bene- 
fited by it. The more entirely the State assumes the pecuniary 
responsibility for its maintenance, the simpler the question of 
inquest becomes. If, in the first place, there is no distinction 
between the rich and the poor, but the institution is free to all 
insane residents of the State, there is no need for any investigation 
of the patient's pecuniar} 7 condition. If, on the other hand, the 
State insists that all who are able shall pa}- for custody and treat- 
ment, but it assumes the liability for all pauper and indigent 
patients, there is no necessity for dispute as to the patient's resi- 
dence. The question reduces itself to the simple question of 
insanity. .This connection is very apparent to a close student of 
the lunacy laws of the several States by comparison with each 
other. A further obvious relation exists between the law of 
inquest and that of settlement. The more complicated the law of 
settlement, the more involved the law of inquest must of neces- 
sity be. 

The lunacy laws would be immensely simplified, if in each State 
there were but one mode of procedure, and but one inquest, for the 
determination of the patient's mental condition, irrespective of the 
end sought in such inquest, whether it be to commit the insane 
person to some institution, or make some other order for the dis- 
position of his person, or whether it be to socure the appointment 
of a conservator of his estate ; and if, further, the judicial inquiry 
provided for were made obligatory in all cases, irrespective of the 
patient's pecuniary condition. 



THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS. 71 

STATEMENT AND APPLICATION. 

The exercise of jurisdiction by the court usually is based upon a 
written paper filed with the court, which is variously known as the 
statement, or application, or petition, or allegation, or suggestion, 
or information, or complaint, or affidavit, or deposition, in which 
some person alleges his belief that some other person named is 
insane, and that action on the part of the court is necessary, for 
the patient's good or that of others. It may be remarked, in 
passing, that every term which suggests any analogy between pro- 
ceedings in lunacy and criminal proceedings ought, as far as pos- 
sible, to be eliminated from the law, as both unfeeling and mis- 
leading. For this reason, the term application or petition is pre- 
ferable to information or complaint. The filing of the application 
may be voluntary or obligatory, official or unofficial. Application 
may be made, in the great majority of States, by any person ; but 
in Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, 
Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin, by any citizen. In Illinois, by 
any near relative, or in case there be none, by any resident of the 
count3 7 . In Delaware, by relatives or friends of the patient. In 
Vermont, by the wife, any friend or relative, or the overseer of the 
poor. In Oregon, by any two householders. In New Mexico, by 
a relation by blood or marriage, or by a person interested in the 
lunatic's estate. Application must be made, in Connecticut, for 
the commitment of pauper insane, by a selectman of the town ; in 
Michigan, by the county superintendents of the poor, or apy town 
or city supervisor ; in New Jersey, by the township overse^vof the 
poor. In New York, if the relatives or guardian of a dangerous 
lunatic, fail to confine him, it is the duty of the overseers of the 
poor, or constables of the cit}' or town where such lunatic is found, 
to report the same forthwith to the superintendent of the poor, who 
must apply for his commitment. 

In Kentucky all applications are by the attorney of the com- 
monwealth, or, if he be absent, by the county attorney. 

The purpose in making application by certain officials obligatory, 
is to insure the performance of an unpleasant duty, which might 
otherwise be neglected, and where the insane person is a pauper, 
to guard him against the consequences of official apathy and 
neglect. 

In many of the States, there is no specific provision as to the 
place of holding inquest. Two views may be taken of the duty of 



72 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the judge, where the law is silent as to this point ; cither that the 
inquest is intended to be held at the court-house, the place where 
judicial business is ordinarily transacted, or that the judge has the 
right to use his discretion in this regard. The latter is the UK re 
humane interpretation, since there are cases in which the patient 
cannot be brought to the court-house without great hardship and 
risk. It is common to order that the patient shall be brought 
before the judge ; but he is before him, if in his presence, \\here- 
ever the judge may be. 

In Illinois, the case must be tried in the presence of the patient. 
In Indiana and Wisconsin, if there is a trial by jury, lie must In- 
present. In Kentucky, no inquest can be held, unless the person 
charged to be of unsound mind is in court and personally in the 
presence of the jury ; but his presence may be dispensed with, if 
two physicians make affidavit that they have personally examined 
him and verily believe him to be an idiot or lunatic, as the case 
may be, and that his condition is such that it would be unsafe to 
bring him into court. 

In Massachusetts, the judge must see and examine tfte person 
alleged to be insane, or state, in his final order why it was not 
deemed necessary to do so. He has him brought before him. if in 
his judgment his condition or conduct renders it necessary or proper. 
In Ohio, if, by reason of the character of the affliction or insanity 
of the patient, it is deemed unsuitable or improper to bring him 
into court, then the judge must personally visit him and certify 
that he has so ascertained his condition by actual inspection, and 
all prodredings may then be had in his absence. 

CERTIFICATE AND HISTORY OF THE CASE. 

The medical evidence in an}- case may be either oral or written ; 
but it is in nearly every State put in the form of a certificate, for 
permanent preservation, either in the archives of the court, or of 
the hospital or asylum. It is usually, but not always, a sworn 
statement of the opinion of the medical witness or examiner. The 
finding of the commission or jury, when it includes a physician, is a 
medical certificate. But for the information of the medical officers 
in charge of an institution for the insane, much more is desirable. 
Accordingly, we find that many States direct that an elaborate 
medical history of the case shall be prepared, at the time of 
inquest. 



PAPER BY MR. F. H. WINES. 73 

The advantage of this practice must be obvious. It is often 
ver\- difficult'for the medical officers to learn the particulars of the 
patient's condition, previous to admission ; and no occasion is so 
favorable for obtaining the desired information, in the patient's 
own interest, as when the witnesses are all present and all the 
facts accessible fully brought out. 

SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS OF PHYSICIAN. 

In addition to the customary requirement that the physician who 
signs a medical certificate of insanity shall be respectable, reputa- 
ble, of good standing, competent, a practitioner, a resident, etc., 
special qualifications are sometimes prescribed. In Montana, 
Nevada and South Carolina, he must be a licensed physician ; in 
Arizona, California, Idaho, Massachusetts and New York, he 
must be a graduate of a medical college ; in New York, he must 
have been in the actual practice of medicine for at least three 
years, but in Pennsylvania, for five, and in Massachusetts, for 
three years, in that State. It is unlawful in Massachusetts, New 
York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, for any officer of any hospital 
or asylum to certify to the insanity of any person committed to 
the institution of which such physician is an officer. In Pennsyl- 
vania, the medical certificate cannot be made by any relative by 
blood or marriage, and the two examining physicians must examine 
the patient separately. In Vermont, they may not be members of 
the same firm. In Wisconsin, they must be " disinterested." 

FORM OF INQCEST. 

Three forms of inquest may be distinguished from each other ; 
that in which the judge appoints some other person to investigate 
the case and report to him, that in which the judge himself (with 
or without asssistance) hears the testimony and decides the case, 
and that in which the evidence is passed upon b\" a jury and a 
verdict rendered. A commission is sometimes called a jury. The 
precise point of difference between the two is difficult of definition ; 
but where the jury acts independently of the judge, and not with 
him, it may be regarded as a commission. Where the judge asso- 
ciates certain persons with him to share the responsibility of his 
action, but retains the conduct of the case and the right to decide 
it, this is inquest by the judge. Where the jury hears the evidence 
in the judge's presence, and the verdict of the jury is the ground 



74 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of his decision, this may be considered, for onr present purpose, 
as trial by jury. 

Inquest b} T commission is authorized in Connecticut, Georgia, 
Montana. New Mexico. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wis- 
consin. One member of the commission must be a physician, in 
Connecticut, Georgia, and Pennsylvania ; in Wisconsin, the com- 
mission consists of two physicians. 

In Pennsylvania, one member must be a lawyer; and in Con- 
necticut, a lawyer or a justice of the peace. 

The number of commissioners appointed is, in Connecticut and 
Pennsylvania, three ; in Rhode Island, not less than three ; in 
Wisconsin, two ; in Montana, one ; in New Mexico, one or more ; 
but in Georgia, the commission is directed to eighteen discreet and 
proper persons, requiring any twelve of them, including the physi- 
cian, to make examination and inquiry and make return to the 
ordinary. 

The States which authorize inquest by the court, without a jury, 
are : Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connect- 
icut, (by justice of peace, if any person is dangerously insane and 
at large), Dakota, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, 
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebras- 
ka, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Car- 
olina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, 
Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia. 

Discretionary power to summon a jury is conferred upon the 
judge in Alabama, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jer- 
sey, New York, and Tennessee. 

The right, on the part of the person alleged to be insane, to a 
trial by jury is acknowledged and protected in Colorado, Georgia, 
Massachusetts, Montana, Penns}'lvania, Washington, and Wiscon- 
sin, where the inquest must be hy jury, if demanded by the patient 
or an}- friend acting for him. 

Trial by jury is obligatory, in the States named, in the following 
circumstances : 

In Maryland, for all insane paupers. 

In Kansas, for all insane persons not placed in the asylum at 
private expense. 

In Texas, for all public patients, whether indigent or not indi- 
gent. Public patients are such as are not sent under a medical 
certificate, without inquest; all private patients and some public 



THE LAW FOR THE COMMITMENT OF LUNATICS. 75 

patients are maintained at their own expense or that of their 
friends. , 

In New Mexico, for all pauper and indigent insane. 

In Montana, for all insane, except insane wards. 

In Illinois, Kentucky, and Wyoming, for all the insane. 

COMMITMENT TO A STATE INSTITUTION. 

In all States which have State hospitals or asylums for the 
insane, they may or must be committed to them. The only States 
which do not have such hospitals or asylums of their own are : Ari- 
zona, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont, and 
Wyoming. These either place their insane in some private insti- 
tution, as in Vermont, (Brattleboro) ; or enter into contract with 
some institution outside of the State, as in Delaware, Arizona and 
Idaho. 

There are other States which have State institutions of their own, 
but allow patients to be sent to institutions in other States. In 
Virginia, the governor may cause insane persons to be placed and 
kept in any asylum beyond the limits of the State, in his discre- 
tion. In North Carolina, the justices who hold the inquest may, 
together with the physicians, if his income is amply sufficient to 
justify it, recommend that any person adjudged to be insane, who 
shall prefer, or his friends prefer it for him, to be placed in any 
named asylum out of the State, be so placed at his request. 

PKIVATE ASYLUMS. 

Insane persons may be committed to private asylums for the 
insane, in Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and (by implication) in Connecticut, 
and Maryland. The governor of Massachusetts may license any 
suitable person to establish and keep an asj'lum or private house 
for the reception and treatment of insane persons, and may at any 
time revoke such license. The New York law forbids the estab- 
lishing or keeping any private asylum without a license from the 
State commissioner in lunacy. The board of public charities, in 
Pennsylvania, has power to require private asylums to take out 
license, and to appoint boards of visitors to the same, to pro- 
vide for their inspection and make regulations which must be 
observed by them. In Wisconsin, private corporations may be 
formed for any charitable purpose, including the care of the 



76 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

insane. Every such corporation is subject to visitation by the 
State board of charities and reform to the same extent as State 
institutions. 

THE INSANE IN ALMSHOUSES, JAILS, ETC. 

The commitment of insane persons to almshouses, instead of to 
State institutions, is allowed in a number of States. 

The most elaborate and altogether the best law for the care of 

o 

the insane in county institutions, is found in Wisconsin. The 
board of supervisors of any county in the State, ma}*, if authori/cd 
by the governor and the State board of charities and reform, erect 
and establish county asylums, into which may be received any ine- 
briate, all inmates of the State institutions for the insane, who 
belong to said county and are held as chronic or incurable insane, 
all insane inmates of the county poor-house and all other residents 
of the county, legally adjudged to be insane ; but acute cases of 
insanity may be transferred to a State hospital. Patients chargea- 
ble to other counties, and private patients not chargeable to any 
county in the State, may also be admitted. These county asylums 
are subject to the supervisory care of the State board of charities 
and reform, without whose consent it is unlawful for the authori- 
ties of any county, to assume or retain the care and custody of 
any insane person. The plans and specifications for the buildings 
so occupied, must be approved by the governor and by the State 
board, and the State bears one-half the cost of their construction. 
The asylums are managed by trustees, three of whom are appointed 
by the governor, and two by the county supervisors in each county. 
The State pays for the support of pauper insane maintained in 
these county asylums, at the rate of two dollars and seventy-five 
cents each, per week. 

The temporary confinement of lunatics in jail is sometimes a 
necessity. Such detention may be pending inquest, or pending 
admission to the hospital. It is sometimes limited in its duration 
b} - law to a certain number of days. 

In the census of 1880, there were found 417 insane in county 
jails 129 of them in Virginia and West Virginia. 

Instead of committing the insane to any institution, for care and 
restraint, they may be given in charge of private persons, either 
their relatives and friends, or other persons authorized to care for 
them for a remuneration. Such commitment maybe by the courts, 
or by the hospital authorities ; it may be at the time of inquest, or 






PAPER BY MR. F. H. WINES. 77 

of discharge from the hospital ; and it may be with or without 
bond. 

TRANSFERS OF CUSTODY. 

The Secretary of the board of State charities, in New York, may 
order the transfer of an} T inmate of any almshouse, who is, in his 
opinion, not adequately and properly treated, to a State asylum for 
the insane. 

In Rhode Island, if any person is not humanely cared for, or is 
improper!}' restrained of his liberty, in any town, the State agent 
of charities and corrections may complain to the supreme court, 
which must forthwith examine into the circumstances alleged in 
the complaint, and if the same be found to be true, cause such 
idiotic, lunatic or insane person to be removed to the State asylum 
for the insane. 

In Pennsylvania, the board of public charities may apply to the 
presiding judge of the court of common pleas, in any County for 
the transfer of any indigent insane person, in an almshouse or 
otherwise, in the custody of the directors or overseers of the poor, 
to a State hospital. 

The Massachusetts board of health, lunacj" and charity may 
transfer and commit, to either of the State lunatic hospitals, any 
inmate of the State almshouse or State workhouse, whose condition 
requires such transfer, but no such transfer may be made without 
the certificate of two physicians to the insanity of such inmate. 
The board can also, on. application of the authorities in charge of 
a private asylum for the insane, transfer any inmate to another 
private or public asylum, with the consent of the patient's natural 
or legal guardian. When it has reason to believe that any insane 
person, not incurable, is deprived of proper remedial treatment, 
and is confined in an almshouse or other place, it must cause appli- 
cation to be made to a judge for the commitment of such person to 
a hospital. In addition to the powers thus conferred upon the 
State board, the governor may order the removal of any insane 
person legally confined in a jail, house of correction, or county 
receptacle, to any other jail, house of correction, or other suitable 
place. 

NOTE. The Paper of Mr. Wines has been abridged, and that part relating to the 
northwestern States has been specially shortened, in order not to trench upon the 
subject of the next paper, by Prof. Wright. Both papers were followed by a debate 
in which Dr. D. H. Tuke, of London, and Dr. Baker, of the York Eetreat, England, 
took part. 



78 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



II. LUNACY LEGISLATION IN THE NORTHWEST. 

BV A. O. WHIQHT, SECRETARY OF THE WISCONSIN STATE BOARD OF CIIAIUTIKS AM) 

HKFOBM. 

(Presented Thursday, September 11, 1884.) 

The States carved out of the old Northwest Territory, with those 
States lying next west of them beyond the Mississippi, form a 
great natural division of the United States, formerly called the 
Northwest, but now frequently called the Interior. The popula- 
tion of these States came principally from New England and New 
York, with a large addition of foreign immigrants, except in the 
southern part of this region, where immigrants from Pennsylvania, 
Kentucky and Virginia made the bulk of the population. Indiana 
is the only one of these States which has shown the influence of 
this element on legislation, and consequently differs from her sis- 
ter States of the Interior in many features of her public life. In 
all the rest legislation has been on substantially the same lines of 
thought as in New England and New York in the earlier years 
copying their laws, and more recently leading off in experimental 
legislation, in directions in which the more conservative East \vas 
moving, but moving more slowly. 

According to the census of 1880, the Interior States had a pop- 
ulation of 14,000,000, and an insane population of over 25,000, 
of whom less than 11,000 were in hospitals for the insane. Since 
that date there has been a considerable increase of population, 
probably 2,000,000, at least, and a yet more rapid increase of 
insanity, making probably 30,000 insane. While the proportion 
of insanity is still much less than in the Eastern and Middle 
States, it is drawing toward that proportion with considerable 
rapidity. 

In the legislation upon the subject of insanity in the Interior 
States, there seem to have been three stages of progress, each 
about half a generation apart. 

About a generation ago public attention was directed to the 
need of provision for the insane. All the earlier legislation was 
prepared under the influence of hospital superintendents, who were 
at the time the only persons acquainted with the humane and skil- 
ful treatment of insanity. This legislation was according to the 
besi ideas of the time, and in the line of public opinion in the 



LUNACY LEGISLATION IN THE NORTHWEST. 79 

East, which t that time we were accustomed to follow. Under 
these influences legislation was had, the leading ideas of which 
may be summarized as follows : 

1. All the insane should be cared for in'State hospitals, as fast 
as such can be provided. These are curative institutions, conse- 
quently congenital idiots should not be admitted ; and, if all the 
insane cannot find room in the hospitals, then the more hopeful 
cases should have preference over the apparently incurable ones. 

2. Admission to the hospitals should be made as easy as possi- 
ble, because delays in sending recent cases to the hospital may 
prove fatal. Discharges should be in the discretion of the hospi- 
tal authorities. 

3. The management should be in the hands of a skilled medi- 
cal superintendent, with a board of trustees removed as far as 
possible from direct political influence, and all power should be 
centred in the superintendent, responsible only to the trustees. 

Under these ideas hospitals were erected on the congregate plan, 
usualh" at a cost which was not extravagant as compared with 
some of the newer Eastern hospitals, but which at that day was 
sufficiently great. It was claimed that the insane would be rap- 
idly cured in these institutions, and a comparatively small hospital 
in each State was at first asked for. But the effect of hospital 
treatment was in general not to cure the insane, but to prolong 
their lives and thus accumulate them. The hospitals were added' 
to from time, to time, until they grew far beyond the original inten- 
tion of their projectors, one of them, the Indiana State Hospital, 
having now a capacity of 1,600 inmates. 

The early erection of these State hospitals forestalled private 
asylums, and few of these have ever existed in the Northwest. 

The insane increased faster than hospital capacity, and the sur- 
plus insane were necessarily kept at home or confined in poor- 
houses or jails, or in a few cases boarded out in some family 
willing to take them. These measures were regarded as expedi- 
ents for temporary relief only, and consequently very little special 
provision was made in the laws for local care of the surplus insane. 
But a few of the counties containing large cities obtained special 
legislation for institutions under their own control. 

The cost of maintenance of the insane was collected from all 
persons able to pay, and in other cases charged up to the counties. 



80 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

The effect of this was to enable the well-to-do class to keep their 
insane in the Slate hospitals as long as they were willing to pay 
for them, at rates very much less than private asylums would have 
charged, to give the poorer class free treatment for a time, until 
sent back to make room for more recent cases, and to cause the 
friendless pauper insane to be sent directly to the poorbouses, 
because cheaper for the county. To remedy this inequality, some 
States have more recently made hospital treatment free for all 
insane, and various devices have been adopted by others. 

About half a generation ago a movement of public opinion, 
common to the East and West, to England and America, began to 
make itself felt in the Interior States, in various forms of lunacy 
legislation. This movement of public opinion was one of dissat- 
isfaction with the methods of the State hospitals. It took the 
following directions : 

1. A closer supervision of the hospitals. The only super- 
vision hitherto had been by a committee of the legislature. In most 
of the Interior States, Boards of Charities, lunacy commissions or 
visiting committees have been created. 

2. Greater care in the adjudication of insanity. 

3. Attempts were made to facilitate the process of releasing a 
person unjustly held as insane. * 

Within a few years another movement of public opinion has 
begun to make its mark on legislation in the Interior States. This 
movement has not as yet reached the stage of legislation beyond 
the Mississippi, but in several of the States formed from the old 
Northwest Territory it has found some expression in legislation. 
This movement has for its object, four things : 

1. Greater economy in the construction and management of 
institutions for the insane. 

2. A limitation of the size of all new institutions, bringing 
them back to their original plan, so that they shall not be beyond 
the power of the superintendent to personally treat the case of 
eacli inmate. 

3. Provision for occupation and liberty for the insane. 

4. A better classification of the insane. 

In this movement Illinois and Wisconsin have led in two differ- 
ent directions. 



PAPER BY PROF. A. O. WRIGHT. 81 

Economy in the management of existing institutions has been 
secured in Illinois, by the special powers granted to the State Board 
of Charities, in their quarterly auditing of the accounts of State 
institutions. In Wisconsin, economy in the management of State 
institutions has been secured by the creation. of a paid board of 
trustees, who give their whole time to their management. 

Economy in the construction of institutions for the insane, and 
provision for occupation, liberty, and classification, have been 
secured in one institution in Illinois by the cottage plan. Under 
the influence of Illinois, the States of Indiana and Ohio are now 
engaged in erecting institutions on the same plan. 

The same objects, together with the additional one of smaller 
size, have been secured in Wisconsin, by the creation of county 
asylums for the chronic insane, under the close and effective 
supervision of the State Board of Chanties and Reform. 

The present situation of laws respecting the insane in the Inte- 
rior States is as follows : 

I. THE ADJUDICATION OF INSANITY. 

In nearly all the States safeguards have been established to 
prevent persons being unjustly confined as insane. Three methods 
of adjudging persons insane prevail. 

1. In Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, the 
probate judge of the count}' has jurisdiction, assisted by medical 
advisers appointed by himself, and is required to summon wit- 
nesses. In Illinois, a juiy trial is required in every case, in the 
presence of the alleged insane person. In Wisconsin, a jury trial 
is guaranteed, whenever called for by the alleged insane person, 
or any relative or friend in his behalf. In Minnesota, the judge 
appoints two persons, one of whom must be a physician, who with 
himself decide the case. 

2. In Iowa and Nebraska, there is a board of commissioners 
of insanity in each county, consisting of the clerk of the Circuit 
court, and a physician and lawyer appointed by the circuit judge, 
for two years. These commissioners are required to take testi- 
mony, and, when called for, to hear counsel and subpoena witnesses. 

3. In Indiana, a case may be brought before any justice of the 
peace, who must then associate with himself another justice of the 
peace, and a physician who is not the family physician of the 

6 



82 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

person alleged to be insane, who try the case with the aid of wit- 
nesses, and file their certificate of insanity with the clerk of the 
circuit court, who conducts the further merely formal proceedings 
relating to admission to the hospital. 

It will be seen that in all these forms there is provided a public 
and responsible court in each county, to determine the question of 
insanity, and a permanent record of the proceedings of such court. 
The action of such court is necessarily a little slower, but at the 
same time safer than the old methods. 

The discharge of persons held as insane is in the discretion of 
the superintendent or trustees of the hospital, subject to the oper- 
ation of the writ of habeas corpus, and to the following special 
provisions of law : 

1. In Iowa and Nebraska, the circuit judge, on an application 
in writing, must appoint a commission of not more than three per- 
sons, one a physician and one a lawyer, who shall go to the hospi- 
tal and examine the case and report upon it. The superintendent 
must also make a written statement. Upon the statement the 
judge must decide upon the sanity of the person confined as 
insane. If he decides that he is sane, the judge makes an order 
to the superintendent directing his release. 

2. In Minnesota, the lunacy commission ma}- remand any 
patient to the probate court of the proper county, to be detained 
there a reasonable time under surveillance, till the judge is satis- 
fied of his sanity or insanity. 

3. In Wisconsin there are two methods of procedure, in addi- 
tion to the one by habeas corpus. The State Board of Super- 
vision may act as a lunacy commission, with power to discharge 
persons not insane who are held as such, and also to discharge any 
insane persons " who can be cared for after such discharge with- 
out danger to others and with benefit to such person." Or a 
rehearing of the case of any insane person may be had before the 
county judge, either of the county from which he was committed 
or of the count}* in which he is confined, on the application of any 
respectable person in his behalf. In this case the proceedings are 
the same as on the original trial, and a jury trial maybe demanded. 

The effect of all these legal precautions is to make it almost 
impossible for any person to be wrongfully held as insane, for any 
length of time. 



LUNACY LEGISLATION IN THE NORTHWEST. 83 

II. THE CRIMINAL INSANE. 

The very common practice of criminal lawyers, of pleading 
insanity in order to clear criminal clients, has been met by pro- 
visions in all of the Interior States. In all, it is intended to provide 
that a person accused of crime shall not escape both State prison 
and insane asylum by the plea of insanity. The clearest law on 
this subject is that of Wisconsin, which provides that the question 
of insanity, if raised at all, must be tried separately from the ques- 
tion of criminality, and before it. If decided insane, the person 
on trial shall be sent to a State hospital. If he recover, the trial 
shall proceed where it left off, when he was decided insane. 

Criminals who become insane while in prison, in all these 
states, may be transferred from prison to a State hospital. In 
Michigan, an asylum for the criminal insane is in process of con- 
struction, in connection with the State House of Correction at 
Iowa. 

III. HOSPITALS AND ASYLUMS. 

In all these States hospitals for the insane have been erected. 
In nearly all of them they are managed by unpaid boards of trus- 
tees, appointed by the Governor, who appoint a skilled physician, 
a superintendent, and all other officers and employes on his rec- 
ommendation. This is the general type. The variations are 
these : 

1 . In Nebraska the Governor appoints the superintendent of the 
hospital for the insane, and two assi3tant physicians, one of whom 
must be a woman ; a board of trustees manage the hospital in 
other respects, and appoint, on the nomination of the superintend- 
ent the subordinate officers and employe's. But the buildings and 
grounds are controlled by a board consisting of the Commissioner of 
Public Lands and Buildings, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer 
and the Attorney General. They also audit all accounts of the 
hospital as well as of all the State institutions, quarterly. With 
the addition of the Governor they meet with the superintendent of 
the State institutions and determine the supplies needed for the 
next three months and provide for letting them by contract This 
is a very complicated system, and must produce some confusion of 
authority. 

2. In Iowa the trustees are appointed by the general assembly, 
and three out of live must be women. 



84 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

3. In Wisconsin a board of five men, paid a salary of 82,000 
a year each, appointed b} T the Governor, called the State Board of 
Supervision of Charitable, Penal and Keformatory Institutions, 
acts as a board of trustees for all State institutions, besides having 
lunacy powers which the}* have not exercised. A number of mis- 
cellaneous provisions may be grouped here. 

In Nebraska only is it required that one of the assistant physi- 
cians shall be a woman. In Michigan only is it provided that 
one of the State hospitals shall be under homeopathic manage- 
ment. 

In four States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota, all insane 
are supported free of cost in three others, Wisconsin, Iowa, and 
Nebraska, a part or the whole of the cost of support is charged 
back to the county and collected from the insane person's estate or 
his relatives, if collectable under liberal exemption laws, other- 
wise not. In Michigan it is charged back to the counties for three 
years and thereafter made free. In Nebraska the correspondence 
of the patients is as free as that of any citizen of the State both 
as to receiving and sending letters, and they must be provided 
with writing material and stamps for at least one letter each week. 

In Minnesota a report of the condition of each patient must be 
sent to the next of kin each month. 

But the most radical changes inaugurated in the Interior States 
have not yet been given. All these States have State hospitals 
built upon the congregate plan, and enlarged from time to time, 
till in one institution in two buildings, the Indiana State Hospital, 
there is now capacity for 1600 insane. The ordinary capacity is 
500 or 600. Many arguments have been made for and against this 
plan, not necessary to recall here. But two experiments are going 
on which bid fair to revolutionize the system of building for the 
insane. 

Illinois has for several years had a comparatively small hospital 
at Kankakee on the cottage or segregate plan. This is in process 
of enlargement, and Ohio and Indiana each has an institution in 
process of construction on the plan of that at Kankakee. The 
cost of construction is cheaper and the insane are more comforta- 
ble, and have greater freedom and can be treated more variously 
than in a large congregate building. A discover}* was made two 
or three years ago in another Illinois State hospital, which aston- 
ished all the officials concerned. Owing to the destruction by fire 



PAPER BY PROF. A. O. WRIGHT. 85 

of the male side of the Illinois Southern Hospital for the insane, 
the men had to be kept in cheap frame barracks in large associate 
dormitories. When the palatial congregate building was restored, 
the men did not want to go back, but preferred the humble bar- 
racks with the liberty and sociabilit}^ there enjoyed. It was a rev- 
elation of the fact that palaces are only needed for architectural 
display, but are useless for helping the insane. 

The system of county insane asylums for the chronic insane is a 
further experiment in the same direction in Wisconsin, and as it is 
the most novel thing about lunacy legislation in these States, I will 
dwell on it a little longer, than would otherwise be necessary. It 
has been proved by experiment during the past three years that 
expensive buildings are not needed for the chronic insane, and that 
a medical specialist is also not needed. Of twelve county insane 
asylums in Wisconsin only one has a medical superintendent : the 
others arc managed by intelligent and humane laymen. The one 
having a medical superintendent has a capacity of 300 and is essen- 
tially a hospital on the usual plan. None of the others have over 
100 inmates. The}' are on large farms, and occupation is generally 
provided for the inmates, while mechanical restraints are rarely 
used, and chemical restraints never. Visiting physicians inspect 
the institutions frequently. The safeguard against abuse is in the 
quarterly visits of the State Board of Charities and the power they 
possess of withholding a State appropriation if the insane are not 
treated properly. The points of interests are : 

1. Economy in cost of construction and maintenance. Con- 
struction costs about $300 per capita, in solid brick buildings with 
all needed comforts. Maintenance costs about $2.00 a week or 
$100 a year per capita, in a style of living like that of a well-to-do 
farmer, including all salaries and wages, and deducting the pro- 
ducts of the farm. 

2. The needlessuess of medical attendance for chronic insane. 
No acute insane are received in those institutions, and all the 
chronic insane in the counties having such as3 7 lums, are received 
in them, except the homicidal cases. The chronic insane are fully 
as comfortable, and fully as many recover as of the same classes 
under skilled medical treatment, and no opiate drugs are adminis- 
tered to them. The best medicines for them is occupation, liberty 
and cheerful surroundings. 

3. The competency of local authorities under the stimulus of a 
State appropriation to care for the chronic insane and to do it well. 






86 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

4. The ability of intelligent persons to originate methods of 
treatment which it would he wise for specialists to investigate. 
One such man in Wisconsin, in charge of a county asylum, with 
forty inmates, has originated a method of educating the insane, 
which would give him a European celehrity, if he were a physician, 
and could disguise his method under a Latin name. On a visit to 
his institution, a year ago, the writer found all the male insane, 
except four, too feeble to work, many miles away, camped out with 
one attendant, upon a two months' job of wood-chopping. Several 
remarkable cures of persons just sent back from the State Hospital 
as chronic cases, show stijl further the value of his system of 
education of the insane. 

The matron of another asylum originated a system of treatment 
of filthy insane, which wholly cured thirteen of the worst cases of 
filthiness, all there were, so that they have never had a relapse. 

In another institution containing a hundred insane, which the 
writer visited recently, with the correspondent of a Boston paper, 
ever} 1 door and most of the windows were open ; there were no 
fences and no bars on the windows, and the institution was left so 
while we sat down to dinner with all the sane people on the place. 
The insane had already had their dinner, and were so well trained 
that they could be trusted half an hour alone in complete freedom. 
Many of the insane had been put in charge of others, and looked 
after them well. 

5. Not least of the advantages of these small local institutions, 
are the nearness of the insane to their friends, who see them fre- 
quently, the public interest taken in the treatment of insanity, and 
the diffusion of more correct ideas respecting it among the general 
public, and even the medical profession outside of specialists. 

I have thus given a brief sketch of lunacy legislation in the 
Interior States. Many changes have been made in that legislation 
in the one generation which has thus far dealt with this question. 
Many more may be expected in the future, especially in those 
States which have State Boards of Charities to help guide public 
opinion. 






III. PAPERS OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT. 

This Department met on the 10th of September, 1884, and 
listened to an address by its chairman, Prof. D. A. SARGENT, of 
Harvard University, on The Evils of the Professional Tendency of 
Modern Athletics. A Report was also submitted by the Secretary 
of the Department, Dr. LUCY M. HALL, of Brooklyn, N. Y., on 
Pli3 - sical Training, Tenement Houses, and other subjects. Dr. 
Sargent has withheld his address from publication, submitting 
only an abstract ; and Dr. Hall has furnished chiefly that part of 
her Report which relates to Tenement Houses. In consequence of 
the close connection between Physical Training in Colleges, and 
Education, the papers of Prof. HITCHCOCK, of Amherst College, 
and Mrs. R. S. BRYAN, on that subject, have been included among 
the papers of the Education Department ; so that only Dr. 
Sargent's abstract and Dr. Hall's extract appear here among 
papers of the Health Department. 



1. DR. SARGENT'S SUMMARY. 

[As many of the evils pointed out in his address at Saratoga 
upon this subject have been already acted upon by some of the 
colleges, Dr. Sargent has deemed it best to furnish only a sum- 
mary to be printed in this Journal.] 

To many persons who are only superficially familiar with life at 
our fashionable shore and mountain resorts during the summer 
mouths, there would seem to be no ground for the assertion that 
we are an overworked people ; but such superficial impression is 
misleading. In- his days of recreation, the American does not 
lay aside the anxiety of his business. The mail and the telegraph 
are as indispensable at Newport as on Wall street. The business 
man's vacation is little more than a feverish combination of 
business and pleasure. In very recent years, however, the 
demands of our physical well-being have assumed a new impor- 
tance. Bodily health is the basis of almost all success, and 
the recognition of this fact has been followed by an increased 
respect for the claims of a systematic physical training. Every 
well-equipped college is now supplied with a gymnasium. College 

(87) 



88 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

sports are commended and encouraged by parents, and approved 
by college faculties. But, as in most good tilings, this popular 
encouragement may be carried too far, and be followed by per- 
nicious results. Today we are face to face with one of these 
harmful results, the deplorable tendency to professionalism in our 
college sports. The love of competitive sport is inherent in 111:111. 
Every tribe, town and city in history has its swift-footed Achilles, 
its Samson and its Hercules. Organized efforts for amusement 
come with accumulated wealth. Clubs are formed in friendly local 
rivalry ; then prizes furnish the incentive to effort ; then the objoct 
being no longer sport, but victory at any cost, specialists are 
hired to play at large salaries. Friendh' rivalry has gone, and the 
bitter and unscrupulous contests of professional sportsmen have 
taken its place. The growth of the professional spirit in our col- 
lege sports is a most serious evil. Today college clubs, like pro- 
fessional clubs, play to win, and to win by an}' possible means. 
The old spirit of courtesy and generous competition is disappear- 
ing, and some of our college contests now are little more than 
exhibitions of brutal violence. The old motto of " fair play and 
no favor," or " let the best man win," has lost its significance, and 
contests are now conducted in great part with an eye to pecuniary 
results. College clubs play and college .crews row where they are 
offered the best inducements. In this way they may be said to 
form a business partnership with the hotel proprietors and trans- 
portation companies. Then the "demoralizing work begins. The 
contestants are in the hands of their trainers, and the trainers are 
too often in the hands of the betting rings. Betting will ever be 
the bane of competitive contests. Sporting men bet to win. To 
make betting a paying business, "tips," "points," and "under- 
standings " must be obtained, or, in other words, bets must be 
made frequently on a " sure thing." Many of our fashionable 
pool rooms are run on this principle. 

Still another evil connected with our athletic sports is the mania 
for excitement. In this age of electricity the demand is for 
stimulating food, stimulating drinks, and stimulating amusements. 
Evenly matched games are the most exciting; if the contest be 
one-sided, the crowd goes away dissatisfied. To insure good 
financial results, therefore, a preliminary arrangement must be 
made whereby, whatever may be the relative skill of the con- 
testants, the contest shall be a close one. Most of our glove con- 



DR. SARGENT'S SUMMARY. 89 

tests arid wrestling matches are " arranged " in this manner. The 
result is a degradation of the popular taste and a general distrust 
of athletic contests. 

Another evil which is working incalculable harm to our popular 
sports is the notoriety given to them by the public press. When 
a newspaper devotes three columns of its valuable space to the 
detailed report of a " fistic encounter," and a few editorial lines 
to moralizing upon it, a hundred will read the report where one 
will read the homily. So great is the demand for sporting news 
that many large daily papers have their sporting columns and their 
sporting editor. The most insignificant details are published con- 
cerning the participants in college contests, and all their sa}-ings 
and doings before and after the events are given to the public. 
The paper that publishes the most gossip of this sort sells the 
most copies. When it comes to a question of the moral aspect 
of the sports, .and the eradication of certain evils connected with 
their practice, we have the anomalous spectacle of some of the 
most conservative of the great metropolitan dailies coming out in 
support of acknowledged evils, while.the sporting papers, hitherto 
looked upon b}* some people as the representatives of professional 
chicanery, protest against these evils, and unite with the religious 
press in favor of moral principles, manly dealing and fair play 
in amateur sports. 

The next danger that threatens our athletic sports is the atti- 
tude of educators and men of prominence with regard to them. 
It is only within recent years that college faculties have acknowl- 
edged that the body was worth}' of an}' systematic training. Now 
there is a danger that they may go too far in the acknowledg- 
ment. They ma} T be willing to encourage sports played according 
to the present vicious principles. They may not see or under- 
stand the professional spirit that has crept in, and the degradation 
which college sports are consequently undergoing. Gymnasiums 
are built, only to become the training school for specialists. In 
too many institutions faculties permit themselves to be influenced 
by the unwise, though perfectly natural, demands of the students 
in athletic matters. They close their eyes to the degrading 
influence of the professional spirit that is beginning to control 
college sports. But many of our leading presidents have awakened 
to the serious evils of our present tendency. In their addresses 
and reports they show great disagreement in their way of viewing 



i*0 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the subject, but it can be safely predicted that they will all come 
eventually to the ground occupied b}- President Eliot, of Harvard, 
who said, in a recent report, that " college clubs and crews should 
be forbidden to employ trainers, to play or row with professionals, 
or to compete with clubs or crews who adopt either of these 
practices ; that they should be forbidden to give exhibitions in 
large cities for the purpose of money making ; and to receive 
subsidies from railroads and hotels in furtherance of this object." 
Finally, the influence which the growth of the spirit of pro- 
fessionalism exerts upon the students themselves is dangerous. It 
gives them a false idea of the place and purpose of college sports ; 
it weakens their principles of honor and fair play ; it develops 
the skill and physique of a few students, but does not benefit 
the mass of students ; it is maintained only at great expense, 
which bears heavily upon the poorer men in college ; it fosters 
an unhealthy excitement, and seriously interferes with the proper 
intellectual work of college life. While the measures for reform 
proposed at the Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, held in 
New York last year, may be capable of improvement in detail, 
they certainly mark out, in their general tread, the line along 
which future progress must be made in the regeneration of college 
athletics. 



2. TENEMENT-HOUSES AND THEIR POPULATION. 

BY LUCY M. HALL, SI. D., OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

(From the Report of the Health Department of the Association, Read Wednesday, 
September 10, 1884.) 

A large portion of those who dwell in cities and towns, by virtue 
of their occupations, are compelled to remain almost exclusively 
within doors, and to others, who, by choice or necessity, are wont 
to spend a large part of each day in the open air, there is left no 
inconsiderable portion of time, which, in accordance with our 
modes of life, must be passed in some kind of a habitation. Hence 
the great necessity for healthfully-located, healthfully-constructed, 
and properly supervised buildings. A healthful habitation, simply 
considered, is one which will shield its occupants from the inclem- 
encies of the weather, the necessary accessories being an abundance 
of sunshine and pure air, with sufficient artificial warmth added 
when necessar}', to maintain the normal body temperature. Not a 
difficult standard to attain, it would seem ; how difficult, only those 
who have labored to its accomplishment can attest. 

Among the topics brought prominently before this Association 
in the past, have been studies of the best methods for the disposal 
of the waste products of the house with the least degree of con- 
tamination to its atmosphere ; and the most painstaking instructions 
for the care of both country and city houses have been given. 
Where the wet system of removal has been adopted, the most 
conspicuous necessities and cautions are for the free ventilation of 
sewer-pipes, copious flushing (and how few people understand this 
term ! a pint of water being considered an ample supply for the 
purpose), the need of all receptacles for slops or excreta being 
defended by linings of non-absorbent material with a perfectly 
smooth inner surface, preferably porcelain ; these to be always 
accessible for thorough cleansing at the will of the housekeeper ; 
avoidance of cesspools when possible ; and in opposition to the 
craze for so-called "modern conveniences" in every part of the 
house, the restricting of all appliances which must in any way be 
connected with sewer-pipes to a limited, and, if possible, separately 
constructed portion of the dwelling exclusively appropriated to 
these purposes. 

(91) 



92 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

I am happy to Deport that these important recommendations 
have taken a strong hold upon the public mind and are bring 
lar-vly adopted, not only in the construction of new buildings, 
but in the rearrangement of older ones. The most important 
question now under discussion in connection with house-drainage, 
is that relating to the separate ventilation of each trap on the 
waste-pipes. This is required by many of the public health authori- 
ties. Its efficiency, and even its propriety, have alwa} - s been 
doubted by some and defended by other leading sanitarians. Exper- 
iments recently made by Mr. J. Pickering Putnam, in Boston, 
seem to justify, in a very marked way, the opposition to the 
method. There are various points arising in the discussion which 
are important. Some of them are less clearly established than 
others. One which is clearly established would seem to warrant 
the condemnation of the practice. This is the fact that the cur- 
rent of air produced in the vicinity of the trap by a thorough 
ventilation, leads to the rapid evaporation of the sealing water, so 
that even if the ventilation were a reliable preventive of siphon- 
age, the breaking of the trap by evaporation, unless in constant 
use, would seem to be assured. 

In the houses of the wealthier classes there is too much luxury 
and elaborateness of furnishing and ornamentation, and sanitary 
precautions are made to give way to the multiplied artificialities of 
existences. Our civilization is becoming overdone. The tendency 
should now be toward greater simplicity. 

A noted physician of New York, in recognition of this fact, 
has caused his house to be refurnished, and has, so far as possible, 
substituted polished surfaces, both in floors and furnishing fabrics, 
instead of the dust and germ-secreting carpets and upholstery, 
which he has discarded. Also any appliance which prevents the 
free ingress of sun and air into every part of the house during at 
least a portion of the day, he most rigorously condemns as a 
potent enemy to health. The custom of surrounding dwellings too 
closely with trees and shubbery (seen in village and country 
homes especially) is a most pernicious one, and in these damp and 
sunless rooms it is no wonder that phthisis, rheumatism, and ma- 
laria find a fertile atmosphere for their development. Another 
source of nervousness and lowered vitality in connection with in- 
sufficient ventilation, is the extreme degree to which our houses. 



TENEMENT-HOUSES AND THEIR POPULATION. 93 

places of business, theatres, churches, hotels, and railroad cars 
are overheated in winter. A newly arrived foreigner, unac- 
customed to this seven-times heated atmosphere, finds it almost 
irrespirable, and in addition to his discomfort, great embarrassment 
to health results. This custom alone is sufficient to prevent 
Americans from ever becoming a robust people. 

The recent action of the Legislature of New York in passing a 
bill by which a commission was appointed to inquire into the con- 
dition of the tenement-house population, is significant in that it 
shows a powerfull}' awakened interest in this most important sub- 
ject. The necessity for interference lies in the fact that disease 
and its offspring, drunkenness, degradation, vice, and crime, are 
engendered and propagated in these environments. 

The fault\- conditions are: 1, improper buildings with small 
sunless and unventilated rooms ; 2, inadequate and faultily- 
arranged appliances for the disposal of waste products of the 
house and person ; 3, failure of the tenants, from lack of in- 
telligence or inclination, to comply with sanitary rules and pre- 
cautions ; 4, overcrowding. The condition of New York City in 
these respects ma}- be taken as an extreme illustration of that of 
other large American cities. 

Thinking that some of the published accounts which I had seen 
might be sensational in character, I procured the services of a 
policeman, and with a gentleman also interested in sanitary mat- 
ters, made a careful inspection of a large number of tenements on 
Elizabeth, Mulberry, and the neighboring streets. There are no 
words which are adequate to describe these places. Every sense 
must contribute to form an impression, which once received, can 
never be forgotten. We first visited what are called " The Big 
Flats," on Elizabeth street. (These were the best of all the places 
which we saw, and yet a more bitter satire upon " Home, Sweet 
Home" could not well be imagined.) In a large proportion of 
the rooms, the sleeping-rooms of the suites, there is no means of 
ventilation, and a ray of sunshine has never touched the blackened 
walls, which a dimly burning match revealed covered with damp- 
ness and vegetable organisms. The air was thick with decaying 
filth and its products. The portions of the building where waste 
and excreta were, or should have been disposed of, were literally 
reeking, above and below, with what seemed the accumulation of 



94 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



years, and yet we were gravely told that Hie pluee W.-IK cleaned 
( ?) daily by the janitor. This building is occupied by nearly 
fifteen hundred human beings. As our guide proceeded we found 
ourselves in an ever-descending scale of poverty, squalor, and 
wretchedness. The noisome air of the small, dimly lighted, and 
unkept rooms was rivalled by that of the court-yards, where the 
masses of garbage, tossed recklessly in every direction, were made 
sodden by slops, water from the hydrants, and streams of excreta 
pouring unhindered from the dilapidated structure which occupied 
one extremity of the yard, destined for the common use of the 
occupants of both front and rear tenements. Here were homes 
without bed, chair, table, or other furniture than a battered stove 
and a few benches. Men and women, many of them stupid with 
drink, and swarms of pale, sickly, prematurely old, and neglected 
children filled every available space. 

The first impression produced by this sudden opening of a world 
of horror, a city of desolation and doom in a city of grandeur 
and pride and prosperity, was one of despair, and I said in my 
heart, "All hope abandon ye who enter here!" These people 
can never be educated or induced to comply with any rules which 
are necessary to decent and healthlul living. Degraded, drunken, 
hopeless beyond compare, they are a fixed fact, a necessary com- 
ponent of the city's mass. As a centre of moral and physical 
miasm the}- must remain, and that they may be cared for in the 
various exigencies of life the bulk of the enormous charities of the 
city must be expended ; while through the many avenues by which 
our daily life goes on we must share the contaminations engendered 
here. Happily, others more hopeful than I have been, are bravely 
meeting some of the difficulties which to me seem insuperable, and 
their efforts are already crowned with the most gratifying results. 
Their work, though only a beginning in the right way, is an index 
of what might be accomplished by bringing to bear a greater 
degree of influence, interest, and assistance. 

The sanitary dwellings, ai ranged and conducted by Mr. Henry 
E. tellew (Improved Dwellings Association), in New York City, 
and of Mr. Alfred T. White (Improved Dwellings for Laboring 
Classes), in Brooklyn, have met with unqualified success. Mr. 
White says: "While the buildings are yet too new to allow 
any very close predictions as to the exact ultimate death-rate, 
it has so far not exceeded fifteen in the thousand per annum, 



REPORT BY DR. LUCY M. HALL. 95 

against an average of over thirty in the old style of tenement- 
houses."* 

The general oversight exercised by the " New York Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor," by its organized 
methods of tenement-house inspection and the reporting of defects, 
has done valuable service. The reform which has more especially 
readied the lowest class of tenement-house population is that begun 
by Mrs. N. Miles, upon the plan of Miss Octavia Hill's work in 
London. It is now being carried on by Miss O. H. Dow, and a 
similar work is being done by Miss Ellen Collins, the latter lady 
being the owner of the tenements which she controls. The houses 
are located in the worst neighborhoods on Water, Cheny, and 
Mulberry streets, but by thorough renovation, disinfection, and 
improved means of ventilation, together with suitable plumbing, 
the} T have been rendered fit for habitation ; and under the careful 
and wise management of these ladies (Miss Dow and her assistant, 
and Miss Collins and her agent) , about two hundred families have 
been rescued from the deplorable conditions of their former en- 
vironment and are now living in clean and well-ordered homes. 
At the time of my visit, August 18th. Miss Dow informed me that 
of her one hundred and seventy families not a single child was ill, 
while in the houses in the immediate neighborhood, where the old 
regime was continued, there was much illness, and children were 
dying in large numbers. 

Some of the remedies for existing evils would seem to be : 

1. The construction of a large number of sanitaiT dwellings 
for the poor in the suburbs of the city, and in connection with these 
special arrangements for much cheaper, or free transportation 
before and after working hours would be needed. (Thus the neces- 
sity for overcrowding in the heart of the city would be obviated.) 

2. The gradual demolition of old unclean and dilapidated 
tenements, their places to be taken by dwellings suitable for 
habitation. 

In London the death-rates in the Improved Industrial Dwellings and the Peabody 
Fund Buildings have been carefully recorded; these, compared with the general 
death-rate of the metropolis, are as follows: Improved Industrial Dwellings, in 1877, 
Death-rate in buildings, 17; in metropolis, 21.9. 1878, Death-rate in buildings, 17.2; 
in metropolis, 23.5. Peabody Fund Buildings 1880, Death-rate in buildings, 17; in 
metropolis, 22.20. 1881, Death-rate in buildings, 17.22; in metropolis, 21.20. 1882 ( 
Death-rate in buildings, 18.42; in metropolis, 21.40. When we consider that in Lon- 
don as well as here, the deate-rate was reduced from 30 to 15, through the occupancy 
of the sanitary dwellings, and that the proportion of deaths to the cases of illness is 
as 1 to 28, we may understand how great a saving of life and health is made possible. 



9P> AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSCIAOTOIN. 

3. Renovating and putting into sanitary condition all houses 
occupied by tenants, and placing them in the care of agents who 
will, by conscientious and painstaking surveillance, establish a 
code of good order, decency, and smiitary observances. 

4. More careful inspection and rigid enforcement of rules by 
health boards, including the restrictions against overcrowding. 

NOTE: THE REPORT OF THE NEW YORK TENEMENT-HOUSE COMMISSION sub- 
mitted to the Legislature, February 17th, 1885, reports 968 tenements inspected, 
estimates the number of tenement-houses in New York at 26,000, and recommends a 
registration of tenement statistics. The percentage of deaths in tenements has 
increased from 51.11 in 1876 to 56.50 in 1884. The percentage would be greater were 
it not that sick, occupants of tenements go to charity hospitals, to which their 
deaths are credited. In the district known as " the Bend," the mortality of 
children under five years is over sixty-five per cent. It is recommended that this 
block be cut through, extending Leonard street to Pell street, removing thus some 
of the worse tenements. There are 3,000 rear tenements in New York, where is the 
greatest sickness. Yard spaces should be expanded here, or the buildings should be 
remodelled. 

Frederick M. Owen, Chief Inspector, makes a supplementary report with the fol- 
lowing conclusions : 

1. There are buildings that should be ordered immediately vacated. 

2. The number needing inspection of plumbing is very large. 

3. It is impossible to make owners or tenants obey sanitary laws without system- 
atic inspection. 

4. Such inspection is impossible with the small force of inspectors of the 
Health Department, even in its present efficiency. 

5. The privy vaults in this city should be condemned. 

6. The water-closet is preferable to the school-sink. 

7. All water-closets, vaults, and school-sinks in tenement cellars should be re- 
moved. 

8. Cellars in made ground with tide influence are flooded at high tide. 

9. City cellars throughout lack care and cleanliness. 

10. The waste of water requires special attention. 

11. The majority of bedrooms are without light or air. 

12. The darkness of halls conduces to immorality. 

13. The location of fire-escapes often exposes to unnecessary danger. 

14. The condition of tenants is in advance of that of tenements. 

15. Tenants generally appreciate the importance of sanitary measures. 

16. That some of the worst tenements contain only three families. 

17. That rents are unnecessarily high among the poorer tenements. 

18. That illegal crowding is universal among the Polish Jews, Italians, and low 
Irish. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the death-rate is larger as the number of tenants is 
smaller. The following table shows the total deaths in New York, total In tenements 
and percentages, 

Total Total in Per 

Deaths. Tenements. Cent. 

1880 38,866 17,677 45 

1881 38,609 21,171 55 

1882 37,951 20,690 55 

1883 33,982 18,359 54 

1884 8,044 19,801 56y 2 



TENEMENT-HOUSES AND THEIR POPULATION. 97 

In the upper part of the city fifty per cent, of the tenements were built before 1881, 
in the middle part sixty-six to eighty per cent.., and in the lower wards ninety-eight 
per cent. The sanitary condition of the older houses has greatly improved in the 
past five years. The chief obstacles in the way of improving tenements are care- 
lessness of tenants, indifference of landlords, difficulty in finding owners, non- 
residence of owners, mortgages, disposition of agents to do mere patchwork, etc. 
The Commission concludes its report with the draft of an elaborate series of amend- 
ments to the powers of the New York Health Department. 



The Papers of the Social Economy Department were but two 
in number, one of which, Hebrew Charities, was printed in Part 
I. The Paper of Mr. SHEPARD, on Civil Service in States and 
Cities, is here extended by a Note to May 1, 1885. 



98 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



Tl I K EXTENSION OF REFORM METHODS TO THE CIVIL 
SERVICE OF STATES AND CITIES. 

BT EDWARD M. 8HEPARU, E8Q., OF BROOKLYN, N. T. 

(Read Friday, September 12, 1884.) 

The reform of the American civil service runs the same course 
which the constitution of modern society prescribes for all political 
reforms. First came mere observation of phenomena of corruption 
and incompetence in subordinate official life. Very little and not 
very careful search was made for the efficient cause of these phe- 
nomena. During many years, popular teachers and humorists 
attacked and derided the scandals. Picturesque observers, like 
Trollope and Dickens, wounded Americans of a former generation 
by their superficial accuracy in trifling matters, far more than by 
their crass blindness to the tremendous and enduring work then 
going on before their eyes, work which, for the time, left little 
vital strength to perfect the details of economic and efficient 
administration. These thoughtless critics of a painfully self-con- 
scious people fancied such scandals to be normal fruit of democracy 
and of the American character. Even De Tocqueville, among his 
many broad and interesting generalizations, some just and some 
singularly inapt, when he touched the matter of official dishonor in 
America, found nothing better to say than that in democracies 
statesmen were poor and had their fortunes to make. The intensity 
of party feeling was by many wise men believed to be the cause. 
It is only during our time that educated men, in the second stage 
of the reform, the investigating or philosophic stage, reached a 
nearly unanimous opinion that these abuses were no essential part 
of American and democratic life, but that their cause la}* in the 
removal of fit men from business places under the government, 
and in the appointment of other men for political or personal rea- 
sons, and not for fitness. After the serious dangers of adminis- 
trative corruption and incompetence had become widely known and 
appreciated, and after their cause had been once found, the next 
and third stage in the reform was the discovery and application of 
the remedy. It is the current stage. It has about it neither the 
sentimental nor the philosophic interest which attended the two 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 99 

earlier parts of the journey. But it is a vital part, and, indeed, 
the crown of the work. It is suited, in its sober and laborious 
detail, to the steady north light of administrative reform, into 
which American politics have at last come, after sixty years of 
moral and sentimental excitement. We Americans are now doing 
no less a thing than the reconstruction of our political frame-work. 
I dare hardly say that this work transcends in importance, even 
for the present, all other social work. But I confidently assert that 
in the domain of practical politics in America it is now the most 
critical, the most enduring, the most fruitful work. It needs 
patient thoroughness in the treatment of those forms in which 
alone can be made manifest the essential and operative virtue of a 
sound political principle. It needs a masteiy alike of the details 
and of the dominant motives of administration. It needs that true 
statesmanship, whose imagination does not indeed shrink from new 
procedure and untried forms, but whose sincere devotion to a 
lofty ideal attends with humility the usages and practical sense of 
unlettered citizens. 

It is, perhaps, well to recall at the outset that the first wish of 
civil service reformers was not construction but prevention. 
Competitive examination, and the restraints at the point of admis- 
sion to the public service, were not supposed to be in themselves 
the best, or, indeed, even satisfactory devices for the selection of 
public servants. They were rather thought to be the only practi- 
cal measures susceptible of systematic application. The reformers 
did not fancy they had found new and better methods for choosing 
servants of the great corporate emplo3"ers of labor, of which the 
government is the greatest. The constant and unreasonable 
changes in business places under political administration oppressed 
the reformers with a vivid and terrible prevision of the growth of 
political abuses. These changes were to them the evil. Their 
aim and even their hope, therefore, were simply to prevent unjust 
removals. The}' attacked the odious and contemptible superstition 
about "rotation in office;" and under their attack, warmly cher- 
ished as the superstition was, and still is, by the older school of 
politicians, it proved incapable of explicit and rational defence. 
A comparatively slight agitation was therefore able to give an 
impetus which cannot be stayed, to the antagonist of this super- 
stition the " merit sj^stem." And by the " merit system" I here 
mean the system under which an officer is retained so long as he 






100 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

does his work well. This idea has made great strides toward 
popularity ; and its complete hold on the popular sympathy is not 
far off. Most of us will see every dexterous and selfish politician 
its professed supporter. 

As soon as public sentiment had put some checks on the 
removal of business servants of the Government, while they faith- 
fully and efficiently performed their duties, the reformers made, 
however, an unpleasant discovery. It turned out that restraints 
upon the removal of good servants frequently became in practice 
restraints upon the removal of bad servants. It was perceived to 
be a serious blow at the unity and efficiency of executive service 
to compel a superior to retain a subordinate whom he disliked. 
Some of our popular institutions, and some, indeed, which 1 be- 
lieve to be essential to our national life, doubtless now and then 
placed in power unworthy superiors. This, however, was an 
insufficient reason for reversing the rule, so agreeable to common 
sense, that a superior should find no personal obstacle to the 
ready control of his subordinates or to their willing and ample 
service. 

This lesson was very quickly learned by the reformers* Thej* 
ceased to advocate restraints upon the power of removal. Their 
sole desire was still, however, some constraint of superior officers. 
But improper removals, they came to think, could be best pre- 
vented by the destruction of two powerful and perennial motives, 
from which the v.ery best men in public life have not been and are 
not now altogether free. These motives were the wish to gain or 
keep political prestige through the power of giving livelihood to 
large numbers of men. and through the hope, fear and respect 
which that mere power created ; and the wish to gratify a personal 
liking of the candidate or of his friends. Neither of these motives 
it must be admitted, was in itself, sordid or otherwise despicable. 
And, indeed, other motives which one is compelled to believe were 
both sordid and despicable have sometimes influenced men clothed 
with great power. The reformers proposed to prevent the opera- 
tion of such motives, whether the motives were honorable or not, 
by depriving the superior officer, upon a removal, of the power of 
selecting the successor, leaving to him only the right to pre- 
scribe the general qualifications for the place to be filled. This 
obviously meant the application of impersonal tests by a body 
different from the appointing officer. These tests, it was soon 



PAFER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 101 

found, if they were realty impersonal, constituted an open compet- 
itive examination. There could, indeed, be no other impersonal 
test. For, in the very idea of an impersonal test was involved the 
condition that every person without preference should be admitted 
to the test. 

It ought to be noticed that there was elsewhere ample evidence 
that the mere irremovability of efficient subordinates did not pro- 
duce efficiency of service. In Great Britain, before the reform of 
the civil service, such irremovability had practically existed. But 
the motives to unfit appointment were quite as potent there, to say 
the least, as they have ever been here. The scandals of British 
administration in the Crimean war gave public sentiment in Great 
Britain a shock which largely brought success to civil service agi- 
tation. And we are told that " the concurrent testimony of a 
number of civil servants of the largest experience, given before 
the Russian war" was " that the civil administrative departments 
were rendered insecure by corrupt parliamentary and political pat- 
ronage, and by being the ' sinks towards which the scum and 
refuse' of boroughs habitually gravitates."* In America the 
scandals in removals were added to the scandals in appointments ; 
and both produced the conviction that an impersonal test must be 
established for admission to business places in the public service. 
From the necessit}' of the case, as I have said, this test became 
open competitive examination. And this test was adopted, not 
because it was intrinsically a good test, but because it was thought 
to be the only available test. 

The other restraints proposed by reformers to be placed upon 
an appointing officer were either a qualifying examination of a 
single candidate named by him, or a limited competition among 
several candidates also named by the appointing officer. The 
qualifying or " pass " examination is a part of the present reform 
system in the state administration of New York, and was adopted 
from English administration, where it has largely prevailed. It 
was until recently a main part of the civil service systems of the 
cities of New York and Brooklyn ; and is still retained, or has 
been recently adopted by the other cities of New York State. Its 
motto is detur digno. If the man be simply worthy of the place, 
why should the superior not be at liberty to appoint him, though 
there be indeed better men seeking the place ? In a fine scorn of 

Journal of Statistical Society (1858), vol. 21, p. 18. 



102 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the survival of the fittest, so distinguished a public servant and so 
accomplished a man of letters as Sir James Stephens, less than 
thirty years ago, seriously advocated the claims to public prefer- 
ment of " mediocrity and dulness." Patronage, he considered, 
ought to be used in some sort as a refuge of the weak and help- 
less. Justice, he seemed to think, required that better men seek- 
ing appointment should sometimes (and presumably often) be 
excluded in order that inferior men might be appointed.* It is a 
curious and ancient delusion that public places are gratuities, to 
be fairly distributed, instead of being entitled to the best talent 
and character which are willing to take them. The decay to which 
these " pass" examinations are inevitably subject I shall refer to 
hereafter. 

The system of competition between a limited number of persons 
selected b}' the superior has seemed to some a reasonable compro- 
mise. It has been used in Great Britain, and is now in a few 
cases theoretically admissible in the federal service, and in the 
services of New York State. It has recently been abolished with 
the " pass " examination in New York City and Brooklyn. I am 
not aware that it has, at least to any extent, been employed in the 
United States. Its motto is detur digniori. It proceeds upon the 
theory that admission to even a possibility of appointment ought 
to flow from the personal favor of the superior. The open com- 
petitive system has however the still nobler motto, detur dignix- 
simo. It assumes that the public service, maintained, as it is, by 
the labor of the people at large, who do not hold office, and 
intended, as it is, to do their work, ought to exist for their benefit 
only, and ought in bare justice, therefore, to have the best talent 
and the highest character which are tendered it. And if there be 
such a thing as a right to public employment, that right, it 
assumes, first belongs to the most worthy. 

Reformers had always urged that public employment should, in 
its conditions, be assimilated to private employment. Here, how- 
ever, curiously arose an inconsistency. For in private employ- 
ment competitive examinations were very rare. In seeking to make 
public service like private service it was strangely enough pro- 
posed to use in the former a test unknown to the latter. A pri- 
vate employer relies largely on his own ability to detect skill and 
competence, and to read character in other men, and to acurately 

Westm. Review (1865), vol. 7 (N. S.) p. 450. 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 103 

weigh the value of testimonials brought b}~ candidates from those 
who know them. Theoretically, it might seem that the head of a 
public office ought to do likewise, if public service and private 
service be put under the same conditions. The answer to this is, 
of course, that the self-interest of the private employer furnishes 
him with a sufficient motive to decide as correctly as he can ; and 
that lamentable experience has shown that self-interest is very apt 
with public officers to operate in the opposite way. The desire to 
perform well the public business is too often overcome b}'the mon- 
strous appetite to play the part of a terrestial demi-god, a fount 
of life and honor to numerous worshippers, or the more innocent 
and kindly wish to serve friends, or the less demoralizing and 
some times half noble desire to serve a political party or strengthen 
some great political cause by the use of patronage. For in a polit- 
ical party, it ought to be observed, that the continuous life, the 
past with its traditions, the future with its hopes and fears and 
the loyalty to the party, almost like a personal loyalty, as it is, 
make a substitute for public opinion, or indeed a true part of pub- 
lic opinion ; and as such powerfully restrain most public officers. 
If it had not been for all these, indeed, America might to-day be 
in too serious a plight to even discuss the reforms with which we 
are here concerned. 

The inconsistenc}' was, however, only apparent. The real 
assimilation proposed by the American reformers of public to pri- 
vate employment was to make improper removals as rare in the 
former as in the latter ; and only the means of accomplishing this 
end needed to be different, and that because of the differences 
between the motives of private employers and those of superiors 
in public service. The reformers may now, however, I believe, go 
further and insist that the open competitive test is intrinsically 
a good test for any employment on a large scale, public cr private. 
It was with much apolog}* that reformers adopted it. Native 
force, the power to direct men and other forms of human vitality, 
it was assumed, could not be satisfactory measured. The apol- 
ogy was, as I have said, that no other practical test was safe ; 
that, imperfect as the test was, the conditions of public life per- 
mitted nothing better. This apology you will find in English dis- 
cussion until quite recently. And so, in America, we have with 
much timidity tried competition, chiefly in clerical positions, but 
have more than doubted whether it could be safely used elsewhere. 



104 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

I desire in this paper to present the intrinsic merit of the open 
competitive examination. Even if the motives and the moral res- 
olution of the appointing officer be ideally perfect, is not open 
competition absolutely the best test known to us, whether for gov- 
ernment or for any other large employment? And is not this test 
applicable to mechanical and executive as well as clerical places, 
or those requiring scholastic qualifications ? Is it not better than the 
average personal judgment of an}- single man, exercised as it must 
be, in comparative haste and with comparatively little system or 
thoroughness ? 

This is indeed the question practically presented upon the exten- 
sion of reform methods to American cities an extension which 
is probably the most important administrative reform now being 
effected in America. The question arises indeed in the federal 
and state reforms ; but its chief importance is in municipal reform. 
I do not of course mean that the problem of reform is essentiall}' 
different in cities from the same problem in the federal govern- 
ment. But in the latter service, clerical and like positions, to 
which the competitive test has hitherto been deemed peculiarly 
appropriate, though many thousands in number, are largely 
massed in certain great offices, having at least fifty employees. 
These were formally the chief centres of corrupting patronage ; 
and all of them have been subjected to the civil service regula- 
tions. The military and naval service have a system of their own ; 
and are measurably free from partisan interference. The remain- 
ing federal offices, those not properly political, are scattered in 
very small groups over the land or in foreign countries. Abuses 
of patronage are not so obvious in them as they were in the cleri- 
cal positions I have mentioned. In cities, however, the clerical 
places are predominant neither in reality nor in appearance. The 
mechanical, executive and supervisory places are quite as formida- 
bly grouped. One need mention only the public works depart- 
ments of American cities to recall conspicuous and scandalous 
abuses in municipal places not of a clerical nature, abuses which 
have lately existed, even if they do not still remain. If in cities, 
therefore, the open competitive test be applied only to clerical 
positions, but a small part of the evils are reached. Grosser 
abuses and more serious dangers are left untouched. The lodg- 
ment of the reform in the clerical force is, besides, comparatively so 
slight that the reform does not readily extend itself ; and from want 
of adequate fortification it is itself in no little danger of perishing. 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 105 

The civil service of a city must indeed be taken as a whole, and 
as such must be robustly treated. But a large municipal service 
includes very many distinct classes of positions, which may be 
roughly grouped as police, fire, clerical, mechanical, supervisory, 
and executive. In Brooklyn, for instance, there have been estab- 
lished nearly fifty distinct classes for separate competitive exami- 
nations, each class being subdivided into grades. To how many 
of these positions the competitive test can be wisely applied is the 
great question in the present stage of civil service reform. And 
in the answer to this question will appear the intrinsic merit of 
that test. 

A brief narrative of the recent progress of reform in States and 
cities will not be irrelevant to this question. Within four months 
after the enactment of the federal civil service law, which had 
been secured by the popular utterance in the elections of 1882, the 
legislature of New York passed the first civil service law enacted 
in any American state. At the end of the session of the legisla- 
ture of 1883, and after the reform had many slighte and little 
progress, and when the older reformers had given up hope, a very 
small number of young men, active in their differing party S3 r mpa- 
thies, but holding no official place, accomplished with a good deal 
of impetuosity what had seemed hopeless. This they were enabled 
to do through the sagacious vigor and parliamentary skill of the 
speaker of the assembly and the well known sympathy of the 
governor. The prestige which the political party controlling both 
the branches of the legislature had gotten from its victories in 
November, 1882, had seemed, from experience, a serious obstacle 
in the way of reform. But experience was, as it often can be, 
reversed. I refer to these matters to warn against the despond- 
ency and executive helplessness into which reformers are too apt 
to fall when their arguments and rhetoric seem to be under the 
defeat of mere apathy. Under the New York law, the governor 
appointed an admirable commission, which, in signal illustration 
of the spirit of the law, selected as chief examiner, a member of 
the minority party in state politics, one who had in another place 
most successfully applied the reform methods. 

This law distinctly declared the true test to be open competition, 
as did the federal law, and as the British House of Commons had 
done by its famous resolution in 1857. This test was to be em- 
ployed, according to the New York and federal laws as far " as 



106 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the conditions of good administration will warrant." The New 
York law reached, after excepting political and important execu- 
tive positions, and also nurses and attendants in asylums and 
hospitals and day workmen, about nine hundred places in the civil 
service of New York. This service does not, however, include 
places in the city and county services, which are far more nunn-r- 
ous. Under the regulations promulgated upon the advice of the 
state commission by the governor under this law, there were, of the 
nine hundred places subject to the law, about sixty excepted 
from examination, as being confidential or requiring special 
executive gifts or involving peculiar trust. About two hundred 
and fifty places were to be filled, as before, by appointment ; 
but the appointment was subject to the qualifying examinations 
of which I have already spoken, or the appointing officers could, 
if they pleased, open them to limited or open competition. In 
these places, however, no actual competition has, I believe, 
3 - et been permitted. The remaining six hundred and fifty 
places could be filled solely by open competition. There 
are, besides the nine hundred places I have mentioned, per- 
haps one thousand nurses and attendants in hospitals and asy- 
lums, who, under civil service regulations, must pass a qualifying 
examination. These regulations, affecting as they did nearly two 
thousand places, were a very great step ; and their moderation 
was a proof of the wisdom of the Commission. For even in social 
science associations, it will not be forgotten that the introduction 
of a great change in political administration must be tentative, 
keeping well within intelligent public support and sympathy. If 
the municipal experiments just inaugurated in New York and 
Brooklyn have the ample success which they promise, I believe 
the state commission will, at no distant time, transfer to the com- 
petitive schedule the greater number, if not indeed all, of the 
seventeen hundred places now subject at most to a qualifying 
examination. 

In the spring of 1884, a year after this step was taken in New 
York, Massachusetts followed. A general law was enacted, under 
which regulations are to be prepared affecting both the state and 
municipal administrations. A bill for the reform of the state 
service was also introduced in Maryland, but it did not become a 
law. The political capacity of Americans is such that we may be 
fairly sure that in that and other states, the reform will be adopted 
with reasonable rapidity. 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 107 

In the New York law of 1883, there was inserted a clause per- 
mitting the mayors of cities, having 50,000 inhabitants or more, 
to prescribe for their cities civil service regulations. This was 
done with little expectation of large immediate result ; but in the 
hope that the permission might bring about wholesome municipal 
agitation. There were only seven cities whose mayors could exer- 
cise this power; and where the power existed, the law excepted 
from its exercise the police, health, fire, educational and law 
departments departments which included by far the greater part 
of the municipal service. The mayors of the largest three cities 
of the state, New York, Brooklyn and Buffalo, deserve honorable 
distinction for promptly establishing civil service regulations under 
this law. The mayors of Albany, Troy, Rochester and Syracuse 
did not afford their cities this benefit. The regulations of New 
York, Brooklyn and Buffalo were modelled upon those of the 
state, making the competitive test compulsory only for clerical 
and like positions. The municipal experiments thus partially tried 
were so successful that within a few months the friends of the 
reform were able to procure from the legislature of 1884, a law 
compelling the mayors of all the cities of the state to establish 
civil service rules, from which should be excepted on\y the educa- 
tional departments and a few officers of high rank or who had the 
keeping of money. 

The practical application of this New York law of 1884 has 
barely begun ;* but I do not hesitate' to pronounce it the most 
critical piece of political administration now before us. It is 
nothing less than a vital and organic charge. It is being 
wrought out indeed with much prosaic talk and elaboration of 
detail, and in a half pedagogic atmosphere. It attracts, there- 
fore, little public attention, which, from even thoughtful men, goes 
rather to the more obvious and striking political changes and 
those in which some personal element is involved. This law, how- 
ever, applies to twenty-five cities having about half, or 2,500,000 
of the 5,000,000 people of the state ; spending annually between 
$35,000,000 and $40,000,000, while the state spends but $8,000- 
000 ; and having a civil service probably seven times as numerous 
as that of the state. Materially as the misgovernment and waste 
in these cities have been lessened in late years, it cannot be denied 
that when the practical effect of these laws began the other day, 

* See Note at end of this Paper. 



108 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the political and personal abuse of patronage was very great. 
This abuse has indeed been by no means absent from the VITV 
best governed of the New York cities oftentimes in spite of the 
sincerest and most intelligent efforts of their mayors. To reverse 
within a year municipal traditions as old as the century in the 
most populous, the richest, and, politically, b}- far the most 
powerful American state; to drive out of American politics the 
most dangerous single corruption, these are achievements we did 
not dare hope for so soon, and whose import for good is hardly 
less than tremendous. The change would be great, even if in these 
twenty-five cities, the competitive test were applied on\y to clerical 
and like positions, and the remainder were merely subjected to the 
qualifying examination. But the regulations prescribed in the 
summer of 1884, first by Brooklyn and then by New York, have 
not only, as the law directed, extended the reform methods to all 
municipal departments except the educational. They have besides 
in those great cities carried the competitive test vastly further than 
was a year ago fancied to be possible ; they have carried it not 
only be} - ond the regulations of the federal and state services, but 
far beyond the practice prevailing in Great Britain or probably in 
any civilized nation. They have, indeed, abandoned any other 
test for admission to the offices set within the operation of the 
civil service law. This extension of competition is, however, 
neither hasty nor inconsiderate. It proceeds from a clear recog- 
nition that no lesser reform will sufficiently meet the evils of 
municipal patronage. So great a change, transcending as it does 
the experience of foreign communities that are still veterans to us 
in the work, is, I believe, of the highest sociological interest. I 
shall not, therefore, apologize for a brief account of the very fruit- 
ful experience which, in Brooklyn, led to the extension ; for in 
Brooklyn the extension was first proposed. 

The offices subject to the law of 1883 were, in Brooklyn, divided 
into competitive and non-competitive the former including cleri- 
cal and like positions, and the latter including positions of so-called 
" special qualifications," inspectors, engineers, foremen, and many 
others. 

As to the latter, the option was with the appointing officer, either 
to nominate, subject to the approval of the examiners, upon a 
special examination of the nominee, or to open the appointment to 
a competitive examination, which might, as the appointing officer 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 109 

directed, be open or be limited to certain persons whom he named. 
The appointing officer not unnaturally exercised his prerogative of 
nominating a particular person to the examiners, leaving to the 
latter the mere duty of categorically answering the question, " Is 
the candidate fit?" The English experience of these "pass" 
examinations had not been very promising. Of their civil service 
administration it was said, in 1858 : " In the system of pass 
examinations, rejections are extremely rare, however frequent may 
be the failure of the strict or due proof of qualifications for being 
intrusted with the care of the lives and limbs of the population. 
The general avowal I have met with is to the effect, ' One feels it 
to be a serious injury to a family to reject a candidate on whose 
education they have spent much money, and one cannot help being 
indulgent.' It cannot be expected that much lenience will not 
prevail in favor of the parties present, at the expense of the un- 
known and absent public."* 

Pass examinations had been provided for in the federal civil 
service many years before the Pendleton law of 1883 ; but the}* 
had become the merest forms long before the passage of that law 
provided much more efficient machinery. The embarrassments in 
the application of the qualifying examination in the municipal 
service were, however, far greater. The mere inconvenience of a 
separate examination for every appointee was a serious objection, 
unless the municipal examiners were, like the federal commis- 
sioners, to be continually employed. But the chief, and probably 
an insuperable objection, was the tendency of the qualifying 
examination to become perfunctory. A body like the United 
States or British commission, constantly engaged in its work, 
deals with so large a number of candidates that it can reach a 
standard of sufficient attainment. It is far removed from most of 
the appointing officers, few of whom are personally known to its 
members ; and the latter come through ample and varied experi- 
ence to rate, and doubtless to rate justly, their own knowledge of 
the qualities needed in the appointee, quite as highly as that of the 
appointing officer. Such a bod} r may (although in practice it 
probably does not) answer the inquiry, "Is the man fit?" without 
an undue inclination to return an affirmative. But municipal 
examiners, in mere qualifying examinations from time to time of 
single individuals proposed for any given kind of place, cannot 

Journal of Statist. Soc, (1858), vol. 21, p. 18. 



110 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

usually obtain the experience, or the range of men necessary to the 
establishment of a just standard. If the appointing officer, 
responsible as he is for the work in his office, says that A is one of 
the ver} - sort of subordinates he requires, municipal examiners, 
knowing of course, far less of the work of the office than its head, 
will most reluctantly pronounce the appointee incompetent. After 
an examination of fifty men to say that one of them, A, has done 
the worst, requires no moral courage ; simply because somebody in 
the nature of the case must be graded lowest, and because to place 
A at the foot is no harder than to place B or C there. If A com- 
plain, the examiners have the approval of at least the other fort\'- 
nine candidates. But if A, after painfully gathering together the 
varied weapons of influence and favor, at last overcome the ap- 
pointing officer, and then come to the examiners, the case is very 
different. If they reject him he is injured and humiliated, and no 
particular person is benefitted. The great public is, of course, in- 
attentive, and it is a contest between the examiners and the can- 
didate, in which the latter has the good will of ever3*body. If he 
fail he ought doubtless to attribute his fate to his incompetence. 
But this, neither he nor his friends nor veiy possibly the public 
will do. And then the appointing officer is pretty sure to feel 
affronted. The examiners have declared his judgment bad in a 
matter relating to his own department. Etiquette and prudence 
prevent the examiners in many cases, where they might justly do it, 
from pointing out to him that he really ought not to be affronted, 
because he made the appointment, as he knows, for personal or 
political reasons and not for fitness, whereas the examiners have 
considered fitness alone. It is quite idle to say that examiners 
ought to be firm and courageous and to ignore personal and other 
considerations like these. We have to deal with actual and not 
with ideal human beings. The personal element cannot be elimi- 
nated. The Brooklyn examiners were unwilling, therefore, to 
continue the " pass " examinations, and urged the Mayor for that 
reason, if for no other, to extend open competition as far as was 
prudent, and as to places where competition could not wisely be 
tried, to leave the appointing officers an undivided responsibility. 
At the same time a curious find wholesome criticism of the reform 
system came from its enemies. They said that this or that ap- 
pointment, made upon a qualifying examination, was a piece of 
favoritism. To this the reformers replied : " Perhaps it is. But 






CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. Ill 

for this reform, however, all appointments would be pieces of 
favoritism ; and now your complaint is not of any result of the 
reform, but is of one of the cases in which the reform does not 
operate and in which the very abuse you have supported, and now 
support, is preserved. Jf you will help the reform to reach the 
abuse, the favoritism of which 3-011 complain will no longer exist." 
But this defence, complete as it is, did not avail. These critics, 
not unnaturally, grouped all these procedures together, and 
regarded, and often quite honestly, ever}' appointment upon a 
qualifying examination as a proof that the system was a pretence. 
Under these two immediate motives the mayor and examiners 
of Brooklyn turned to the competitive test in the hope that some 
places, not clerical, might be brought within it. The examiners 
were permitted to try the test with inspectors of buildings, and 
with success. These officers required technical knowledge as 
masons or builders ; and there was, therefore, neither practical 
nor theoretical difficulty in grading them according to that knowl- 
edge. It was not an unsafe assumption that practical thorough- 
ness in inspecting would generally run with technical knowledge 
of the work to be inspected. Other like examinations followed, 
and with the same success. Of these the examination of candi- 
dates for foremen of gangs of laborers upon street repairs was a 
crucial test of competition, whose success, leading, as it largely 
did, to the extension of competition I am discussing, deserves a 
brief account. The proposal to competitive!}- examine these fore- 
men roused great opposition ; and was general!}' pronounced 
unpractical, if not absurd. The sincerest friends of the reform 
doubted and even distrusted so extreme an application. Innate 
force, vigor of will, the ability to make other men work, were the 
real qualifications of a foreman. And how could these be detected 
by scholastic questioning? The technical requirements, it was 
said, were too slight and vague to be subjects of examination. 
The general reply was the statement of the rationale of a complete 
competition, which I shall by-and-by present. The large oppor- 
tunity of abuse in precisely these places, it was further replied, 
made competition there eminently necessary. The very difficulty 
of formulating and measuring the merits of so subordinate an 
officer as a foreman, it was pointed out, made the places peculiarly 
open to political and personal scandals. The defects of a bad 
foreman were not so obvious as to be readily drawn to the public 



112 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

attention. For this reason and because the foremen were neces- 
sarily close to masses of voters, these places were very dear to 
" political workers " and easily open to abuse. 

The present mayor of Brooklyn*, with the devotion to fair and 
open methods, and the liberal, yet prudent courage, which are so 
natural to him and to which reform owes so great a debt, resolved 
at least to try the experiment. The competition was held with a 
success which surprised those who had been averse to even an 
experiment ; and surpassed the hopes of those \)y whom it had 
been proposed. The men were graded : first, upon their own 
account of themselves, their occupation and experience ; next, 
upon their knowledge of the requirements of their work, the 
necessary tools, the number of men who could be worked together, 
the manner of laying paving stones, and like matters ; and finally, 
but to a much less degree, upon simple arithmetic and writing, to 
show a general intelligence sufficient to enable them to make daily 
reports. The examiners, it ought to be noticed, were new to the 
work and had no precedents or traditions to guide them. But the 
conclusions they were enabled to reach were so nearly accurate 
that the department concerned, though it had viewed the experi- 
ment with much more than apprehension, admitted its success. 
The department knew most of the men ; and so far as it knew 
them, the examination had substantially graded them in the order 
of their merit as shown by the actual work they had formerly done. 

The result, therefore, of this examination, and of like examina- 
tions for inspectors of plumbing, street inspectors, sewer in- 
spectors, levellers, rodmen and watchmen, showed that open com- 
petition was no less satisfactory a test for varied and special 
positions than for the clerical positions to which it had been 
formerly deemed chiefly applicable. After these successes, such 
was the admirable temper of the Brooklyn administration, that 
the heads of the departments subject to the law, although not so 
required by the mayor's regulations, surrendered nearly all posi- 
tions to open competition. And open competition was in prac- 
tice the rule in Brooklyn when the New York law of 1884 went 
into operation as to cities on 29th August last. In no other com- 
munity, as far as I know, had it been so completely established. 

Agreeably to this experience, and early in July, 1884, a sketch 
was made of regulations to be applied under the law of 1884 to 

Seth Low. 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 113 

all the departments of Brooklyn except the educational. These 
regulations proposed an almost universal application of the 
competitive test. On the 28th July they were submitted to the 
state commission, which, for wise reasons of uniformity, are 
given the power to disapprove municipal regulation. After an 
attentive and thorough consideration by that commission, the 
regulations were approved and promulgated late in August. 
About the same time the new regulations for New York 
City, under the same law of 1884, were published. These 
were drawn by Everett P. Wheeler, E. L. Godkin and E. Ran- 
dolph Robinson, at the request of the mayor of New York ; 
and form an admirable and thorough code for the selection 
of civil servants, some of whose skilfully devised detail is not 
elsewhere to be found. In treating the police and fire depart- 
ments, whose treatment is at best involved in many diffi- 
culties, they followed the interesting report made by Edward 
Gary, and others of the Civil Service Reform Association of New 
York. This report clearly presented in theory an important and 
probably novel conclusion which the authors, so far as I know, 
had reached independently, but which had already been practically 
adopted in Brooklyn. This conclusion was that ph} r sical qualifica- 
tions, general character and experience might be matters of com- 
petitive examination to be marked for the grading of candidates, 
precisely as literary qualifications are marked. The new regula- 
tions for New York and Brooklyn subject to open competition the 
civil services of those cities excepting important officers, heads cf 
bureaus, persons in confidential positions or having the custody of 
money, employees of the educational department and of the board 
of aldermen and laborers. Omitting chief executive officers, day 
laborers and employees of the boards of aldermen and education, 
the excepted positions in New York are, I believe, less than 150 
in number, and in Brooklyn about 60. The new regulations open 
to free competition in New York probably about 6,000 positions, 
and in Brooklyn about 1,300. For a few months, under the 
limited regulations adopted under the law of 1883, about 350 
clerical positions in the two cities had indeed been open to com- 
petition, the remainder being still within the conditions of patron- 
age. But a year ago its spoils included, at this great centre of 
American life, all of these 7,000 places, now happily subjected to 
free competition.. 



114 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

I have ventured to be tedious in describing this great step. 
This detail ought to be recorded ; and the narrative cannot well 
be made vivid. It is indeed the sort of dull and quiet procedure 
in which are so often effected profound and far-reaching political 
changes. How serious is the change will be obvious upon very 
slight consideration. The shameless pecuniary corruption in New 
York City, which years ago was proverbial the world over, was in 
large part created and preserved by patronage which is now 
abolished. The grosser forms of corruption have, in later years, 
it ought frankly to be said, largely disappeared. The superior 
and inferior municipal service of New York have recently had and 
now have very many intelligent and upright officials. But patron- 
age has remained a seriously demoralizing and debasing influence. 
Nor has the influence of New York patronage been confined to 
that city. Appointments to its civil service have been distributed 
throughout the state, even if they did not go into other states, in 
order to secure legislative or executive influence. Federal politics, 
but little less than state politics, have been swayed to and fro by 
the exigencies of the manipulators of this patronage, controlling 
by it, as they have been supposed to do, compact masses of voters, 
of critical moment in state and federal elections. And as the 
public life of that great city has been far more conspicuous than 
that of any other American community, so the moral evil of its 
example has been wider and more potent. 

You will not, therefore, think the speaker magnifies his theme 
when 1 rate so highly the importance of the transfer of seven 
thousand offices at the very centre of the nation's public life and 
public opinion from the domain of personal and partisan favoritism 
to the field of open and impersonal merit. These places are 
probably half as numerous as the places now under the operation 
of the federal civil service law. The money annually paid to those 
who fill them is not probably greatly less, and so compact and 
disciplined a body have been these urban office-holders, in the midst 
of the heterogeneous and shifting population of New York, that 
their direct and immediate political effect has probably at times 
been far greater than that of all the federal officers affected by the 
Pendleton law. It may, I believe, be said with sobriety, that 
within the present generation, if there be excepted the abolition of 
slavery, the solidification of the federal union, the extension of 
the suffrage and the resumption of specie payments, no single 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 115 

political change has been so vital and so full of beneficent promise 
as this almost complete establishment in these great cities of open 
competition. It is, as John Stuart Mill said in 1855, of the 
proposal to establish open competitive examinations in the English 
service, " one of those great public improvements, the adoption of 
which would form an era in history." 

Such, then, has been the fruition in the federal government in 
the great states of New York and Massachusetts, and in their 
cities, of an agitation onl}* about seventeen years old. In the 
most important single arena of the contest, open competition, the 
real crown of the reform, has been carried further than in Great 
Britain thirty years after the establishment of the first British 
civil service commission. Without having an accurate knowl- 
edge of the civil service of other lands, and without daring to 
prophesy with certainty what will be the practical results of civil 
service administration in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, I 
do venture to doubt whether any other municipality in the world 
now has a wiser, more complete, or more scientific code regulating 
admission to its civil service than those cities. 

I said some time ago that the great question now left to civil 
service reformers in American cities is upon the merit of the open 
competitive test. Is it intrinsically the best, or is it a mere make- 
shift from which we shall seek to escape as soon as existing dan- 
gers seem to permit? Upon this most serious inquiry I had in- 
tended to make the chief part of this address. But I have found 
so much to sa}' upon what was meant to be preliminary, that I 
shall be content with an outline of the ample discussion I had in- 
tended. Open competition is simply a new subdivision of labor. 
The selection of civil servants is itself a kind of work in which 
those who do it will grow more and more expert through especial 
study of the peculiar problems attending the work, and through 
stead}- and systematic attention to the details of its performance. 
There is the same fatuous resistance to this specialization that 
there has been to the division of mechanical and commercial labor. 
There is the same thoughtless praise of an untrained and dis- 
orderly exercise of common sense, as something nysteriously 
better than the trained and orderly exfircise of common sense. A 
superior, busy with other matters, from which his attention must 
be diverted to select a new subordinate, under every temptation, 
as he is, to give the slightest possible consideration to an occa- 



116 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

sional task which interrupts his ordinary and familiar duties, has, 
it is believed, in this as in nothing else, an extraordinary and 
subtle power of finding out human nature. His keen insight, a 
sort of fancied " mind reading," discovers the character and ability 
of a candidate in a few moments desultory conversation with him, 
and from the brief testimony of others, testimony which is rarely 
scrutinized with thoroughness. This is a mere superstition. And 
the superstition feeds upon the vanity which almost every mini 
cherishes, that he has an exceptionally trustworthy genius for 
reading at a glance the faces, the bearing and the manners of men. 
The blunders which the wisest of men continually make in their 
estimates of acquaintances, or even friends, the accounts we read 
every day in the newspapers of the amazement felt by private and 
public employers at the suddenly discovered dishonesty of their 
cashiers, book-keepers, confidential servants, the common over- 
estimate which we, who look disinterestedly at our neighbors' 
affairs, perceive to be made of the ability of men by those very 
close to them all these show how largeh' imaginary is the accu- 
racy of mental perception supposed to exist in an extraordinary 
degree between employer and employee. 

The fact is, that in general, when a superior selects a subordi- 
nate, he simply does a piece of work in which he is not expert. 
He is too apt to reach a generalization, which, to use Mr. Gallon's 
expression in the " Fortnightly Review " for August, 1883, "is 
nothing more than a muddle of vague memories of inexact ob- 
servations." As with all work about which everybody knows at 
least a little, there is rarely, of course, the obvious and utter 
failure of an unlettered man who attempts to read a dead language 
or solve the problem of an eclipse. But failures are still common ; 
and as soon as there comes to be an order of employers, made 
highly expert, as the new civil service rules contemplate, and with 
whose work may be compared the work of ordinary untrained em- 
ployers, we shall find that failures have been vastly more common 
than we supposed. 

There are, indeed, rare instances like Napoleon, or some modern 
railway organizers, where an amazing and almost incomprehensible 
rapidity and sureness of mental instinct do, in the selection of 
subordinates, what, in other instances, can be done oulj* by trained 
ability acting in the light of experience. But, in the conduct of 
employment, it is as absurd to act upon these exceptions as it 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 117 

would be, upon the career of Benjamin Franklin, to advise scien- 
tific aspirants to avoid formal scientific training, and to engage in 
the pursuits of the editor and the publicist. The heads of govern- 
mental departments, of municipal and great corporate bureaus are 
rarely geniuses ; and to obtain the best results, system and a scien- 
tific attention to details are essential aids to that mediocrity of 
practical abilhy which is almost universal, and upon the assump- 
tion of which the rules of administration must proceed. It ought 
to go without saying that where the employer does not have, as 
very few employers have, an extraordinary gift for detecting ability 
and virtue, it is not possible thatjhe should do the work of select- 
ing employees with the success with which it will be done by men 
chosen for their aptitude for the work, men who enter upon a 
special training in its performance, men who by experience 
acquire a facility in detecting imposture, and learn how to read 
the exterior signs of ability. 

This would not, I fancy, be disputed, but for three assumptions : 
(1) that the selection of subordinates is an essential part of the 
duty of the director of an executive work ; (2) that the selection 
of a subordinate can be done well only by one who is practically 
and immediately engaged in the work to which the subordinate is 
to be called ; and (3) that no examination can measure vital energy 
and good sense, which, after all, mainly determine the efficiency of 
any official. From these assumptions, arise the opinions of very 
many friends of reform, who assent to the competitive test as no 
more than the best practical device to prevent the operation of 
dangerous or improper motives upon the appointing officer. 

These assumptions I believe to be ill-founded. It is not an 
essential part of a superior's duty to select in the first instance, his 
business subordinates, though it be afterwards indeed an essential 
part of his duty to determine whether the work be well done, and 
in that determination, necessarily to measure the merit of those 
subordinates. The reform methods are therefore far more im- 
portant upon admission to the civil service than for promotion 
within the service. An important officer usually needs, of course, 
the confidential services and advice of some one having with him a 
personal sympathy, with whom he can readily and agreeably con- 
fer, who is eager for the personal prestige of the chief which will 
arise from official success, and who shares his own views of ad- 
ministration. This assistant is a private secretary or deputy. But 



118 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

as to the other subordinates, those whose work is regular and of 
one kind, whatever the policy of the oflice, to select these in the 
first instance, is a burden to the chief. It is a serious waste of his 
vital force and efficiency, to leave the executive work which he 
and his subordinates ought to do, and attend to the utterly different 
work of weighing evidence about the merits of men, none of whom 
are now serving him. If the main work of his office be, as it 
should be, important and engrossing, his experience in the first 
choice of subordinates can have been but irregular and subsidiary 
to other labors ; and the attention he can spare to it will, at best, 
be only desultory and unsystematic. There is probably no im- 
portant executive, in political or private life, who does not bitterty 
complain of both the personal burden and the interference with his 
normal duties caused b}* the appointment of inferiors, and of the 
serious difficulty he has in finding suitable assistance. What the 
head of an office needs in the performance of executive or creative 
work is to have disciplined force supplied him, as fuel, water and 
machinery are supplied an engineer. The engineer can, indeed, 
measure and care for those necessaries after they are given him ; 
but he cannot advantageously be diverted to the finding of water 
or fuel, or to superintend the construction of the machinery. The 
skilled workman may often, doubtless with advantage, prescribe 
the general design of the tools he uses ; but he wisely pa} - s for the 
skill and labor of the manufacturer and dealer who make and find 
the precise tools he wants far better and more easily than he can. 
These tools are made by men who do nothing but make tools, and 
whose time is not consumed in using them. They will, therefore, 
be made with a pains and under a guaranty, and in the light of 
tests and experience, which the busy workman cannot use, unless 
indeed, he leave his own work. 

Nor is it true that the original selection of a subordinate ought 
to be done by a man practically and immediately participating in 
the work which the subordinate is to do. In a large number, if 
not indeed in much the greater number of cases, the superior, 
whether in public or private service, does not so participate. He 
judges of the workman by the value of his work, as ^ou do of your 
cook by the dinner she serves, or as you do of a music teacher by 
the performance of his competent pupils, and not by his own. But 
beyond this, it is to be noticed that a civil service examination is 
not designed to, and cannot measure the merit of the work which 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 119 

the candidate does in his place, and which must be dons after the 
examination. Such an estimate must be based upon observation 
of the work through a sufficient period of time. That observation, 
in the nature of the case, belongs to the superior. To permit that 
very observation, civil service rules make original appointments 
simply probationary. The final appointment is the act of the 
superior done after abundant opportunity to observe the ability of 
the probationer in actual performance, without the superior being 
himself diverted from or disturbed in his own work during the 
process of observation . And to give complete effect to the judg- 
ment of the superior he ought generally to retain under proper 
rules, a complete power of dismissal, even after the probationary 
period has expired. The duty of civil service examiners, on the 
other hand, is not to observe and measure actual work done in the 
position sought. It is the very different duty of weighing such 
evidence as can be at once and briefly presented upon the question 
whether the candidate be likely in the future to do the work. It 
is the question whether he, or another person shall be admitted to 
the final and determining test of some actual performance of the 
duties of the office. And in this final and decisive examination, 
the superior must be the sole examiner and judge. This, indeed, 
is the true qualifying or "pass" examination, to which, in the 
very nature of the case, only one candidate can be admitted. 

It is also to be said that the places now under discussion are of 
a conventional type, places in which is required a sort of skill and 
training which numbers of men in the community possess. How 
far his character and experience in a well known kind of work are 
shown by the candidate's own account of himself and others' 
account of him, and by the partial and hasty performance possible 
in an examination, intelligent men, aided when necessar}-, by 
experts, can judge as well as the head of a bureau. They will, 
indeed, judge much better. For in the very work of the examina- 
tion, as I have pointed out, the examiners experienced in precisely 
such examinations, will be experts, applying their tests with a fa- 
cility, thoroughness and scientific accuracy possible only to those 
who have been trained to that sort of work. 

The third and most popular objection to competitive examina- 
tions is, that they do not reach the native force, the staying 
quality or endurance of men, and their practical tact and dexterity. 
I shall frankly admit that an examination of a candidate, such as 



120 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

the exigencies of the public service permit, does not adequately 
reach these qualities. The)- can be reached only by his actual 
trial for a sufficient length of time in the very place to be filled. 
Hence the necessity of a probation ; hence the reservation to the 
superior of the final decision and of the power of dismissal. If 
these qualities cannot be adequately reached by a civil service 
examination, still less, and far indeed less, can they be reached by 
the vague, careless and hasty tests applied under the old system 
of personal appointment. But a competitive examination can 
reach these qualities, if not conclusively, yet with a good degree 
of accuracy. The objection that this is not done by a competitive 
examination chiefly arises from faulty conduct of the examination, 
or from the limited and imperfect ideal of a competitive examina- 
tion which has until very recently existed. Such an examination 
is commonly but erroneously fancied to be purely literary, a mere 
series of formal written tasks. May I not therefore, as the closing 
part of this discussion, outline what seems to me to be a complete 
competitive examination, an examination which measurably reaches 
the vital qualities of the candidate ? 

A competitive examination for the public service ought, as I 
have already intimated, to test the candidates in all the points 
which are deemed material in private employment. If a man you 
have not personalty known apply to you for a position, your judg- 
ment of him, if you be careful and thorough, will be formed upon 
five considerations : 

1. The man's general and spontaneous account of himself. 
You question him about his occupation and his experience. The 
substance, the fulness, detail and frankness of his replies all pro- 
duce upon you an impression which largely colors your estimate 
of the other evidence you have of him. 

2. The man's reputation. This usually and justly, and espe- 
cially where the man applies for a place requiring experience, has 
great weight. 

3. His appearance in respect of physical ability. 

4. His exhibition of general intelligence. 

5. His exhibition of practical and immediate knowledge of the 
kind of service he is to do for you. 

There is occasionally, perhaps, apart from these, a certain sub- 
tle fancy of face or of bearing which influences the employer. 
But what is imagined to be a mysterious inclination of personal 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 121 

liking is ordinarily resolvable into the results of the man's own 
account of himself, his physical appearance and his exhibition of 
general intelligence. Where some of these results do not deter- 
mine the fancy, it is apt to be a caprice, wrong perhaps quite as 
often as right, and too inappreciable to be deemed a main factor 
in the conduct of private employment, or to be worthy of a gene- 
ralization. 

These, then, are the five elements which enter more or less con- 
sciously and distinctly into the consideration of a private employer. 
The relative weight to be given to them will of course vary for 
different positions. But it goes without saj'ing that no intelligent 
man employs a servant, however humble or however important, 
while regarding with absolute indifference either the servant's own 
account of himself, or his neighbors' account of him, or the 
appearance in him of general intelligence or of physical or techni- 
cal ability. If the servant is to do the lowest order of physical 
work, 3 T ou may indeed be content with mere physique ; but if the 
candidates have equal or nearly equal physique, you will do 
unwisely not to take the candidate who gives the best account of 
himself, or about whom other people give the best account, or who 
shows the most general intelligence or knowledge of the work he 
is to do. If the work be of a highly intellectual and technical 
character, and in general and technical knowledge the candidates 
be alike, you are sure to be influenced by superiority in the candi- 
dates' own presentation of their merits or in their reputation or 
even in their physical strength. You do, indeed, sometimes over- 
look serious deficienc\ T in one or more or most of these elements 
because of superiority in others. Or because you can get no 
better help, and because you must have some help, even if it be 
unfit, you may take a servant who has none of these elements in a 
proper degree. In either case, however, what }-ou do is done in 
spite, and not because of a deficienc}* in an}* of these elements. 

You will, I hope, observe that the five points I mention are 
not absolute qualities of the candidate. They are merety five 
kinds of evidence. And it cannot be too much accented that the 
act of either public or private empk^ment proceeds in the first 
instance not upon actual performance but upon evidence of what 
the performance is likely to be. The retention or promotion of 
the servant on the other hand proceeds upon actual performance. 
In other words, the preliminar}* employment, whether public or 



122 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

private, proceeds upon examination ; and the question is at best 
what shalljae the nature of an examination which in some form or 
other is an inevitable preliminary to emplo3*ment. Shall it be the 
occasional task of a private employer, called to it from his regular 
work, done hastily, with impatience, with no accurately recorded 
traditions to guide him, reaching his result b}- a sort of guess- 
work, which is very rough at the best, sheerly dependent upon a 
particular kind of mental keenness and facility, and often uncon- 
sciously vitiated by personal caprice and momentary temper? Or 
shall it be the task of examiners, whose number greatly reduces 
the personal element, who use the results of the recorded observa- 
tion of themselves and other examiners upon the same matter, 
who use the results of their observation of the careers of men 
actually appointed upon examination, showing, as those careers 
will, what is better and what is worse evidence, on the moment, 
of what will be the future performance, who use the results of 
their experience in ranking one element higher and another lower, 
and who use a skill and experience which only practice brings, in 
detecting shams and superficial acquirements? 

Now, a true and scientific competitive examination will seek, as 
I have said, to do what an intelligent private employer seeks to 
do, but can do less perfectly. The competitive examinations will 
be directed therefore to the five sources of information I have 
mentioned. It is said, however, that although general information 
and technical knowledge in those branches whose learning is 
formulated, may be tested by competitive examination, the same 
test cannot be used for technical ability in other branches, for 
character, experience, physique. This is an error. The school or 
college examination is the popular ideal of a civil service test. 
And it is, indeed, the type of most civil examinations in the past. 
One sees in the annual reports of the British civil service com- 
mission, a formidable array of questions in Greek, Latin, Hindoo, 
history, literature, political econom} 1 and the higher mathematics. 
All of this may, indeed, be a part, and for many places it ought to 
be the chief part of the examination. I admit, and indeed insist, 
that this test by academic interrogation often exhibits the vital 
energy, the readiness and industry of the candidates, those chief 
qualities which indeed bring success in any field of work. But it 
is, after all, a partial and imperfect examination, very properly 
open to criticism even in positions for which clerical ability and 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 123 

learning are the chief requirements, and totally inadequate for a 
great class of positions, which ought to be, and in New York and 
Brooklyn now are, brought within the competitive test. The true 
civil service examination distinctly touches all of the five sorts of 
evidence I have mentioned. This I can better show by describing 
the competitive examination contemplated by the new regulations 
of New York and Brooklyn, and such as have been practically 
tried in the latter city. 

The candidate is first required to state his own case. He is 
asked about his occupation, past and present, and his own ideas 
of his equipment for the place he seeks. He is asked where, when 
and by whom he has been employed, why he left his employment, 
and why he now seeks a new employment. He is asked his 
experience, if any, in the precise kind of work to be done, and the 
times, places and auspices under which this experience was attained. 
His answers to the questions constitute his " experience paper." 
This paper is marked as you might mark a paper in Greek prosody. 
A weight is given to the paper relative to the rest of the examina- 
tion, according to the nature of the position. The ability to 
property present his case, to be presumed in an applicant for the 
particular position, is carefully regarded. This part of the exami- 
nation is strictly analogous to the testimom- an applicant himself 
gives when he comes to your office for employment, testimony 
b}* which every wise employer is materially affected. Two objec- 
tions can be made to this. Some men are cleverer than others in 
stating their merits, and some men may intentionally falsify the 
facts. These objections have, however, precisely the same, and 
no more force in public than they have in private employment. 
Safeguards may be as thorough in the former as in the latter. 
The opportunities for detecting mere skilfulness or unskilfulness 
of form or positive imposture, in a carefully conducted competition 
are very considerable. The provisions for punishing deceit are 
ample, or can be made so. And the errors which will arise in 
either case, will be either eliminated or reduced to a minimum by 
the remainder of the examination, by the testimony of other men, 
by the exhibition of general intelligence or technical knowledge, or 
by the more obvious evidence of physique. 

The candidate, as the next part of his examination, presents his 
testimonials. These are marked and graded, the relative weight 
given them in comparison with the rest of the examination, being 



124 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of course, determined by the position. For watchmen, for in- 
stance, this part of the examination has very great weight. Testi- 
monials, it ought to be said, are required as a condition of admission 
to the general examination. But as these preliminary certificates 
may easily be perfunctory, or even worse, their authors are 
sought out and required to answer a series of written questions 
which should avoid the categorical form and be made as searching 
as possible. "With an adequate machinery for the civil service 
system, it will be practicable to adopt the further improvement of 
having the examiners orally interrogate the authors of the testi- 
monials, their replies being stenographically taken and record^ I. 
The statements thus gotten constitute the examination of the 
candidate's "reputation." These statements are marked and 
graded. The objection that this procedure gives advantage to the 
man who has many friends, or to the man whose friends are astute 
in the form of their statement or mendacious in its substance, are 
again objections quite as applicable to private as to public employ- 
ment. These are inherent difficulties in every effort to obtain in- 
formation about men. No rational system can be devised in which 
merit that is known will not have an advantage over merit that is 
unknown. The skill and experience of the examiners in scruti- 
nizing testimonials, their power of examining other witnesses, and 
the results of the other branches of the examination all afford 
reasonable checks against errors. 

The third matter of examination is the physique of the candidate. 
Mere proofs of general!}' sound health would, perhaps, be sufficient 
for many places like ordinary clerkships. As no one is admitted 
to any examination, unless preliminary proof of this kind be sub- 
mitted, physique need not, in such cases, be the subject of rank- 
ing or grading. Theoretically, indeed, in every place, although 
the work be purely mental, a preference between healthy men 
ought to be given to the stronger, as presumably capable of more 
endurance, even in mental work. We may, perhaps, come to this 
in the future, with ampler machinery and a more vigorous popular 
support. This would, perhaps, be a fair revenge upon us lean, 
feeble and decayed doctrinaires. In places like policemen, watch- 
men and firemen, physique, however, is one of the most important 
elements. This part of the examination affords comparatively 
little opportunity for deception ; it is, of course, conducted by ex- 
perts, and can be made the subject of reasonably accurate grading. 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 125 

That physique can be satisfactorily rated is admirably pointed 
out in the report of the Civil Service Association of New York, 
about the police and fire departments of that city. "There have 
been developed," that report saj-s, "largely by the intelligent 
labors of Prof. D. A. Sargent,* of the Hemenway Gymnasium, of 
Harvard University, a simple, practical and scientific system, 
which brings out clearly the general phj-sical capacity of the man 
examined, together with his special points of superiority or defici- 
ency. The direct examination consists of a series of body 
measurements, taken after a uniform plan, and a corresponding 
test of each of the parts measured, as nearly as possible. The 
strength of lungs, back, chest, legs and arms is taken by means of 
ingenious but simple spirometers and dynamometers, made for the 
purpose, and carefully adjusted. The sums of the tests for 
strength are then compared with the sums of the measurements of 
developments of the corresponding parts. What a man can do, is 
thus contrasted with what he ought to be able to do, and the ratio 
between the two fixes his relative standing." Without, however, 
so careful and minute an examination, it has been found perfectly 
practicable in Brooklyn upon a competition for watchmen, for the 
physician expert to grade the candidates. " Pass examinations" 
in physique, are. of course, universally known in the military, 
naval and polica services, and in life insurance. In these a 
minimum is fixed. But, where a minimum can be fixed, a further 
grading is practicable. Indeed, the numerical expression of phy- 
sical merit is probably easier than a like expression of the merit 
of scholastic knowledge. 

The fourth test is some exhibition by the candidate of his 
general intelligence. This rouses, perhaps, more jealousy than 
any of the other tests. It is a jealous}*, however, ill founded, or 
which arises, not from the mere requirement of such a test, but 
from needless faults in its application. There is no. calling which 
does not have some exterior relations, superiority in which gives 
advantage of efficiency in the calling itself. To every place in 
business, to every specific work, to even* specific income, each 
community unconsciously assigns a rough amount of general in- 
telligence as appropriate, if not necessary. If a man do not have 
that intelligence there arises, to say the least, considerable doubt 
of his ability to fill the place, or do the work or earn the income. 
This will hardly be disputed. . It is doubtless conceivable that a 

Chairman of the Health Department. 



126 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

man ma)' be an expert and useful book-keeper and yet believe the 
United States to be a kingdom. It is possiMr that a good in- 
spector of plumbing may think that London is the chief city of 
Persia. Yet, if in a man who seeks to be a book-keeper or a 
plumbing inspector of good rank and entitled to a liberal salary, 
we discover ignorance so great, we justly enough suspect some 
mental defect, some failure of adjustment to environment which 
may be a serious obstacle to the continuously efficient performance 
of work in which he must act with or over men, however unre- 
lated the work may be to the political constitution of the land or 
to the sites of famous cities. For no occupation is isolated. The 
competenc)' of the humblest day laborer depends in part upon his 
ability to meet those unusual emergencies which sometimes arise 
in even his calling, and need intelligence he does not ordinarily 
use. His competenc}" depends in part upon the respect in which 
his associate laborers hold him ; and that respect is largely 
measured, as every observing person must have noticed, by their 
estimate of their comrade's general information. In some occu- 
pations this consideration will, of course, weigh much less than 
in others. It is of slight moment in a farm-laborer. It is of 
real importance in a policeman. It may possibly be the chief 
requisite in a foreign consul. 

There is, besides, a lurther consideration, which is by itself 
worth an ample discussion ; but which I may now only touch. 
General intelligence, misleading as it sometimes is, affords the 
easiest, and on the whole, a pretty sure proof of mental power. 
Such intelligence, when it successfully meets a series of distinct 
and varied inquiries, itself probably comes from alert powers of 
observation, from precision of attention and from mental readiness, 
adaptabilit3 T , persistence. To have these qualities in a good de- 
gree, if it do not perfectly equip a man for the immediate per- 
formance of very technical duties, still gives reasonable assurance 
that the especial duties of most ordinary positions will be easily 
learned. General intelligence and general force are often, indeed, 
far more important than actual experience. The value of experi- 
ence in most places is enormously overrated. The heads of 
bureaus, who in the days of patronage had no supreme concern 
for experience, are apt now-a-days to insist upon it very stren- 
ously to civil service examiners. It may well be that the mere 
fact that after long experience in doing a particular work a candi- 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 127 

date seeks a position to do the same work, itself shows his ability 
or vitality to be of a low order, so low indeed that he gives no 
promise of growth or improvement. And in employing men for 
many junior places in the civil service, if the service is to gain a 
permanent character, it ought to find those who are likely to earn 
a promotion. The civil service ought never to be, as under most 
reputable administrations it has to some extent been in the past, 
an asylum for either incompetence or decay. 

The fifth and last division of a complete competition is the 
examination of the practical knowledge the candidate has of those 
things necessary to the work he seeks. The importance of this 
goes without saying. Every one believes, where the place needs 
some particular knowledge which cannot be gained in very brief 
practice by a man of proper general intelligence, that such knowl- 
edge should be a chief subject of the examination. The popular 
mistake has indeed" been in attributing an almost exclusive im- 
portance to this element. The error is doubtless largely 
responsible for the belief, but lately so general, that competition 
could not be extended to places not needing a technical and formu- 
lated knowledge. In the selection of a scientific expert this 
element of the examination ought doubtless to have great pre- 
ponderance. But if candidates for policemen, watchmen, firemen 
have proper physique, character and general intelligence, they 
may be safely trusted to learn in those places facility in their 
especial duties. 

Such, then, are the five divisions of an examination. Such is 
the true competition to which all candidates for the business 
places under government ought to be admitted, and by superiority 
in which alone they ought to succeed to the final test of a pro- 
bationary performance of the duties of those places. Such is the 
fair and impersonal field now open in place of the secret and 
narrow lane of personal and partisan favoritism. 

There will not come to this refom, however, a complete and 
immediate triumph. The prejudices surviving from the favoritism 
of the past, the suspicion that civil service commissioners and 
examiners are, in spite of the lofty ideas they preach, like all ap- 
pointees of political officers the slowness with which a new 
device becomes known and trusted all these will, for a time, 
prevent man}- of the best men from entering for the examinations. 
And then much will be said against the reform with apparent 



128 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

reason. The friction and disarrangement, and the embarrassment 
of the public service, which inevitably attend the inauguration of 
every great administrative change, will be said, with more or less 
honesty, to be a permanently necessary result of open com- 
petition. The mistakes of examiners new to the work and with- 
out the help of recorded experience and of those traditions, 
which it will be their duty to accumulate these faults will again 
and again be attributed to the reform itself. The new work will 
doubtless now and then be discredited by the open hostility, or, 
what is worse, the secret hostility, of executive officers. Unlit 
appointments will occasionally come out of open competition, for 
the plain reason that the test, though better than any other pre- 
liminary test we know, is still, like other human devices, imper- 
fect. Every unfit appointment, however rare, will be widely told 
of as the natural fruit of the reform. The blunders of the old 
patronage, though ten times as numerous and ten times as serious, 
having drifted into the vague and obscure past, will be forgotten 
by every mournful laudator tempo ris acti. The nine out of ten 
candidates who fail of success will no longer abuse the appointing 
officers as they used to do ; and as the publicity of the examina- 
tions and of their reasons will shield the examiners, they will be 
sorely tempted to abuse the reform itself. But in spite of all this, 
so plain is the justice of open competition, so shining and solid its 
merits, so persistent to final triumph is the common sense of 
American politics, that popular support, rarely active and rarely 
zealous as it is in things of this kind, will grow steadily stronger 
and broader. We shall, before long, see every wise politician 
pronounce open competition a political axiom. 

When there is reached that complete establishment, which some 
of us will live to see, of open competition for all offices, not 
essentially political, in the United States and in their various com- 
munities, the secondary results of the reform will doubtless be 
far greater than the primary results. Official places will come to 
be more scientifically classed, and their duties better divided, 
through the generalizations necessary to the arrangement of com- 
petitions. The compensations of officers doing the same work 
will not, as now, capriciously vary in different departments within 
the same city. The temptation will disappear to unnecessarily 
employ new subordinates, and to treat those already employed 
with undue indulgence. The motives of executives to economy of 



PAPER BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD. 129 

administration will become keener. Official prestige, a wholesome 
esprit du corps, and a higher standard of honor and efficienc}- 
among public servants themselves will arise. On the other hand 
a wise jealousy on the part of the people will be better directed 
towards public officers as public servants, who have no other right 
to their places than in the faithful doing of their duties. All 
these things will soon follow the reform. And when 125,000 
officers throughout the United States are selected by fair and open 
tests, which stimulate to the highest order of excellence, the effect, 
by example and by contrast, will, it is not unreasonable to think, be 
prodigious even upon private employments, first, upon the great 
corporate organizations and then upon the smaller staffs of mer- 
chants, bankers, manufacturers. A higher standard of competence 
and character for every service will be set up in the community. 
This gathering regards, however, with intelligent anxiety wider 
and deeper social problems than even efficiency and honor in the 
personnel of the public service. Last, therefore, and to 3'ou 
doubtless chiefest, is the effect upon greater matters of the with - 
drawal from politics of patronage, so often the chief though false 
element of political agitation. Here is the richest promise, here 
the most abiding splendor of the reform. Taxation, rights of 
persons and property, the prevention of crime, the punishment of 
criminals, the treatment of those whose crimes are normal fruit of 
social wrongs, the removal of legal restraints upon innocent 
freedom, the ampler performance by government of the construc- 
tive functions which higher civilization brings, all these are 
questions lying near us in the future, questions which, to reach 
the practical stage, must become essentially political ; but which 
in politics cannot be treated with sufficient honesty or intelligence 
until there are beneficently removed from politics the distractions 
of odious and sordid personal ambition. These are indeed the 
highest legitimate subjects of legislative discussion and of execu- 
tive action. But they have been darkened or altogether hid by 
the enormous part in politics which patronage has played. Now at 
last they will be heard in primaries as well as in the ostentatious 
and often insincere utterances of the greater party conventions. 
The political gatherings of citizens will again find their chief con- 
cern in the honest and thoughtful treatment of those great problems, 
out of whose solution will come the larger, the steadier, the more 
enduring blessings of the future social life. 



130 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

NOTE: May, 1885: Since this paper was read, the work of establishing the reform 
methods in cities has proceeded with great rapidity in New York and Massachusetts. 
The fundamental principle that open competition is to be the general test, and that 
:i|'l'"iiiinn-iii upon a mere pass examination, or without any examination, is to be 
permitted only for exceptional reesons, has been thoroughly established in most of 
the cities of New York. The mayors of only a few of its smaller cities have omitted 
to obey the requirement of the law of 1884, that they prescribe civil service regula- 
tions. And the regulations so far adopted have been based in substance upon the 
thorough and almost sweeping regulations prescribed by the mayors of the cities of 
New York and Krooklyn, and described in the foregoing paper. The large cities of 
IHitlalo, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Troy, and most of the smaller cities, are now 
guarded by rules which are probably superior to those which govern admission to the 
civil service of any city not within the State of New York. 

These cities have not, of course, worked out the details of administering the reform 
without many embarrassments and difficulties. Most of the civil service examiners 
have been new to their work; and the work has been new to their communities. 
Many honest jealousies, and some dishonest ones, have obstructed the work. The 
traditions and practice of such a reform are always established slowly and with 
difficulty. There has been a natural, even if not always a wise, timidity on the part 
of examiners in fixing the moderately high standard wich tends to place the system 
beyond that contempt of " practical politicians" to which an easy good nature may 
expose it, and which is far more dangerous than active hatred. The system is 
rapidly taking deep root in the cities; and, under the protection of the law, that 
changes in the municipal regulations, wkich are once established cannot be made 
without the approval of the State Civil Service Commission, it is reasonably well 
assured that the changes in administration through which the cities must pass this 
year and next year, will not endanger the permanence of the system. 

Petty efforts have been made in Buffalo, and perhaps in one or two other cities, to 
cripple the civil service administration by refusing adequate appropriations, but 
with only trifling success. In the New York legislature, a dangerous effort was made 
to break the effect of the civil service law by exempting soldiers and sailors of the 
late war from its operation ; the effort failed as it did in Congress, but has been 
renewed in the legislature of Massaaeusetts. 

Since the paper was read, the regulations of the civil service commission of the 
latter State have been promulgated and their administration has actually come 
menced. They are of great interest as being the first effort to establish rules to 
prevent political abuses in the employment of day laborers. In other respects, the 
.Massachusetts regulations are more restricted than those of New York, the former 
applying only to clerks, prison attendants, firemen and policemen. These classes are 
however, of very great importance;' and it was deemed wise in Massachusetts to com- 
mence the reform system with a few general classes. The laborers governed by the 
Massachusetts regulations are those employed in the public departments of Boston. 
The civil service commissioners are to gather [lists of applicants for these places, 
with information as to age, dependency of others upon the applicants for support; 
military or naval service; previous occupation ; references and personal description. 
When a requisition for laborers is received the civil service commission is to send to 
the department requiring of them the names of twice the number of men required. 
There is no provision for an examination of the laborers; but, in answering a requi- 
sition, the civil service commission is to make " an impartial selection by lot, or 
otherwise, giving preference, other qualifications being equal, to those who have 
served in the army or navy of the United States in time of war, and have been 
honorably discharged therefrom, and to those having families depending upon them 
for support." 

In the "impartial selection by lot, or otherwise," there is a vague grant of power 
which is perhaps open to criticism. Civil service commissions ought to act upon a 
strictly impersonal procedure, the terms of which are public and precise. It would 
not be reform to substitute the mere personal choice of civil service commissioners 
for the like choice of other political officers. The preference of men with families 



CIVIL SERVICE IN STATES AND CITIES. 131 

looks towards a principle of dubious correctness; but it may, perhaps, be defended 
as one method of picking out men who have given hostages to society for their 
steadiness and industry. It is to be hoped that a practicable, and not cumbersome, 
method | may be discovered of grading laborers upon their recommendations and 
former work and experience. 

It will not be improper, as this note becomes part of a record for reference in the 
future, to point out the surprisingly rapid progress which the reform idea has within 
a few months made in the nation at large. 'Ihe party in power has changed. And 
within three months after the change we find the integrity of the federal civil 
service statutes and the administration of those laws to be secure beyond even 
doubt or discussion. More than this, we flnd established, though still under discus- 
sion, the rule that officers appointed for terms shall not be removed during their terms 
because of political opinions. More than this, we find the general rule rapidly 
proceeding to establishment that merely administrative officers, although not en- 
titled to specific terms and not protected by the civil service law, shall continue in 
place if they render faithful service and do not practice partisan abuses. And more 
even than this, the American executive has commenced to reappoint or to promote 
administrative officers of high rank, although their political opinions differ from his 
if they have rendered important services to the public. These reappointments or 
promotions are still few; public sentiment is barely ripe for the practice; but step 
after step is being taken which will not be retraced. The chief satisfaction in this 
does not lie in the behavior of any man, or body of men, but in the permanent ad- 
vance of public sentiment which has made these steps possible. And at present, it 
seems almost as important to insist upon the wisdom of not going beyond vigorous 
and solid public sentiment as upon the necessity of finally refusing to surrender any 
ground which has already been won. 



- 



I' 



JOTJKNAL 



SOCIAL SCIENCE, 



CONTAINING THE 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



NUMBER XXI. 



isse. 



SARATOGA PAPERS OF 1885, 

WITH A SYNOPSIS OF 

SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION AT AMERICAN 
COLLEGES IN 1886. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 

AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 

BY CDPPLES, TJPHAM & CO., BOSTON, AND G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

NEW YORK. 

1886. 



EDITED BY 

F. B. SANBORN, 

<;KXKKAI- SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION, 
CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS. 



GEO. E. CHOSJJY & CO., 

Printers for the American Social Science Association, 
383 Washington Street, Boston. 



CONTENTS OF JOURNAL No. XXI. 



PAGE 

PREFACE iv 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES ........ v-vi 

GENERAL MEETING OF 1886 ........ vii-viii 

PRESIDENT EATON'S ADDRRSS, 1885 ix-xxiii 

BUSINESS AND DEBATES OF 1885 xxiv-xxxiii 

SYNOPSIS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES . xxxiv-xlix 

REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY F. B. SANBORN . . 1-12 

METHODICAL EDUCATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE, .... 13-20 

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS W. T. Harris, . . 21-22 

PAPERS OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY DEPARTMENT . . . . 28-75 

I. THE UNNAMED THIRD PARTY H. L. Wayland, . 25-32 

II. SOCIALISM AND STATE ACTION Edward W. Bemis, . 33-65 
III. LABOR UNIONS UNDER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 

D. M. Means, 66-75 

PAPERS OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, ..... 76-104 
I. INFLUENCE OF CITY LIFE ON HEALTH AND DEVELOP- 
MENT Dr. G. Peckham, 76-88 

II. THE HEALTH OF AMERICAN CITIES C. F. Wingate, 89-5)9 

III. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF WOMEN Dr. L. M. Hall, 100-104 

PAPERS OF THE JURISPRUDENCE DEPARTMENT 105-158 

I. THE CONSTITUTION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

E.V.Reynolds, 105-112 

II. LAND AND LAW AS AGENTS IN EDUCATING INDIANS 

President Gtes, 113-146 

III. ARBITRATION OF LABOR DISPUTES Rev. W. Gladden, 147-158 

PAPERS OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, ..... 159-231 

I. THE PLACE OF ART IN EDUCATION Thomas Davidson, 159-187 
II. THE RELATION OF THE DRAMA TO EDUCATION W. 

O. Partridge, . 188-206 

III. CHILD-LIFE IN CITY AND COUNTRY C. D. Kellogg, 207-223 

IV. CITY AND COUNTRY SCHOOLS W. M. BECKNER, . 224-231 



P K E F ACE. 



The Papers included in this number of the Journal of Social 
Science arc nearly till the Saratoga Papers of 1885. They are 
here arranged according to their natural classification, and not 
as they were read in the several departments ; thus the Social 
Economy Papers were sometimes read in the Jurisprudence! 
Department. As some misapprehension may exist in regard to 
the publication of Papers by the Association, it may here be 
said that all papers, engaged for the General Meeting of the 
American Social Science Association, are so engaged with the 
understanding that they may be printed in the Journal of Social 
Science, if the Council so decide ; if, therefore, the writers 
choose to publish their papers elsewhere, (to which the Council 
offers no objection), it must be with the stipulation that these 
Papers may also be published in the Journal, at the option of 
the Council as to the time of publication. 

A list of all the Addresses and Papers at the Meeting of I<s8;j 
will be found on pages xxiv v. Those which are not here 
printed were accidentally omitted by the Secretary, in conse- 
quence of the mislaying of his papers. 

The synopsis of an extensive correspondence of the Education 
Department with colleges and universities in the summer of 1886 
will be found on pages xxxiv-xlix. ; and the, circular to which 
this correspondence was a reply will be found on pages 23-4 
of the Arabic paging. The Introduction containing the Synopsis 
just mentioned is paged in Roman numerals. 






OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, 

1885-1886. 



President, CARROLL D. WEIGHT, Boston. 

First Vice- 1 1 resident, JOHN EATON, Marietta, Ohio. 

Vice- Presidents. 



FRANCIS WAVLAND, New Haven, Ct. 

DANIEL C. OILMAN, Baltimore, Md. 

MARTIN B. ANDERSON, Rochester, N. Y. 

THOMAS C. AMORY, Boston. 

RUFUS KINO, Cincinnati. 

Mrs. JOHN E. LODGE, Boston. 

Miss MARIA MITCHELL, Poughkeepsie, 

X. Y. 
Mrs. CAROLINE H. DALL, Georgetown, 

D. C. 



WALTER HILLMAN, Clinton, Miss. 
HENKY HITCHCOCK, St. Louis, Mo. 
THEODORE D. WOOLSEY. New Haven. 
HENRY B. BAKER, Lansing, Mich. 
W. H. DAVIS, Cincinnati. 
NATHAN ALLEN, Lowell. 
HENRY VILLARD, New York. 
HUGH THOMPSON, Columbia, S. C. 
JOHN M. GREGORY, Washington, D. C. 
R. A. HOLLAND, New Orleans, La. 



General Secretary, F. B. SANBORN, Concord, Mass. 
Treasurer, ANSON PHELFS STOKES, 45 Wall St., New York. 



Directors. 



DORMAN I?. EATON,, New York. 
HORACE WHITE, " 

CHARLES A. PEABODY, " 
F. J. KINGSBURY, Waterbury, Conn. 
T. W. HIGGINSON, Cambridge. 



GEORGE T. ANGELL, Boston. 
H. L. WAYLAND, Philadelphia. 
WASHINGTON GLADDEN, Columbus,Ohio. 
J. L. M. CURRY, Richmond, Va. 
GEORGE W. CABLE, New Orleans, La. 



Department Officers. 

I. Education. Prof. W. T. HARRIS, Concord, Chairman; Mrs. EMILY TALBOT, 
Boston, Secretary. 

II. Health. H. HOLBROOK CURTIS, M.D., 29 W. 30th St., New York, Chairman; 
GRACE PECKHAM, M.D., 25 Madison Avenue, New York, Secretary. 

III. Finance. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Boston, Mass., Chairman; Prof. HENRY 
C. ADAMS, Ithaca, N. Y., Secretary. 

IV. Social Economy. Y. B. SANBORN, Concord, Chairman; Prof. E. J. 
,)AMI:S, Philadelphia, Secretary. 

V. Jurisprudence. Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, New Haven, Chairman; Prof. 
WILLIAM K. TOWNSEND, New Haven, Secretary. 

Executive Committee. 

CARROLL D. WRIGHT, President; F. B. SANBORN, General Secretary; ANSON 
PHELP.S STOKES, Treasurer; Mrs. EMILY TALBOT, Education Secretary ; Dr. GRACE 
PECKHAM, Health Secretary; Prof. FRANCIS WAVLAND. ./iiri^/irin'i-in'f r/mii-i/nui; 
CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Finance Chairman; Prof. E. J. JAMES, Social Economy 
Secretary. 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



I ) Kl'A KTM ENT COM M ITTKKS 1 8*:.-i; . 



Education Department Prof. W . T. Harris, Concord, Mass. ; T. W. 
Iligirinson, Cambridge, Mass. ; Justin \Vinsor, Cambridge, Mass.; 1C. K. 
I.. (Jould, Washington. 1>. ('. : I'rot'. Alpheus Myatt, Boston. Mass. ; 1'rcs. 
F. A. P. Barnard. Xew York; Louis F. Soldan, St. Lorn-. Mo. ; Mis> 
Alice E. Freeman, Wcllesley College. Mass.; Prof. \V. II. Payne-, Ann 
Arbor, Mich. ; Mrs. Emily Talbot, Boston. 

Health Department. II. Ilolbrook Curtis, M. 1)., Xcw York; E. M. 
Hunt, M.D.. Metuchin, X. -I.; Walter ('banning, M.I)., Boston; W. G. 
Wvlie, M.D.,New York; Prof. W. II. Brewer, New Haven, Conn.; Geor-e 

B. Waring, Jr., Newport, K. I.; J. S. Billings, M.I)., Washington, I). C. ; 
Henry B. Baker. M.I)., Lansing, Mich. ; John Ranch. M.I)., Springfield, 111. ; 
E. C. Seguin, M.D., New .York ; Mary Putnam Jacobi, M.D., New York ; 

C. F. Wingate, Xew York; Lucy M. ilall. M.I)., Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Grace 
Peckham, M.I).. Xew York. 

Finance Department. Carroll D.Wright, Boston, Mass.; Hamilton A. 
Hill, Boston; George S. Coe, New York; Francis A. Walker, Boston; 
Miss Anna L. Dawes, Pittsfield, Mass.; Edward Atkinson, Boston; Wil- 
liam F. Ford, New York ; Miss Katharine Coman. Wellesley, Mass.: Prof. 
II. W. Farnain, Xew Haven, Ct. ; Prof. Henry C. Adams, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Iii risprudence Department. Prof. Francis Wayland, New Haven, Ct. ; 
Charles A. Peahody,' New York; Prof. Henry Hitchcock, St. Louis, Mo. ; 
liiit'ns King. Cincinnati ; Prof. Carleton Hunt, New Orleans; Prof. T. W. 
Dwight, New York; E. Coppee Mitchell, Philadelphia; B. H. Bristow, 
New York; Emerson Etheridge, Dresden, Tenn. ; Theodore Bacon, Koch- 
ester. X. Y. ; Theodore S. Woolsey. Prof. William K. Townsend. 
New Haven. Ct. 

Social Economy Department. F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass.; Robert 
Treat Paine, Jr., Boston : Rev. Washington Gladden, Columbus, O. ; Charles 
L. Brace, New York; Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, Indianapolis. Ind. ; Mrs. 
Clara T. Leonard, Springfield. Mass.; Miss Mary M. Cohen, Philadel- 
phia; Mrs. Henrv Whitman, Boston; William B. Weeden, Providence, 
R I. ; Prof. E. J.' James, Philadelphia. 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



The General Meeting of this Association for 1886 will be held 
at Saratoga, N. Y., from the 6th to the 10th of September, inclu- 
sive, opening at 8 P. M ., September 6th, with an address by the 
President, CARROLL D. WRIGHT, of Boston. The Department of 
Education will meet on Tuesday, September 7th ; the Health 
Department on Wednesda}', September 8th ; the Department of 
Jurisprudence on Thursday, September 9th ; and the Social 
Economy Department on Friday, September 10th. The Order 
of Business will be as follows : 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 

At 8 P. M., Opening Address by CARROLL D. WRIGHT, President of the 
Association on Popular Instruction in Social Science. 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 

Department of Education. 

At 9.30 A. M., an Address by the Chairman of the Department, Prof. W. 
T. HARRIS, on The Definition of Social Science and the Classification of the 
Topics belonging to its Several Provinces. 

At 10.30 A. M., Report of the Secretary of the Department, Mrs. EMILY 
TALBOT, of Boston ; followed by a Debate on The Teaching of Social Science 
in Colleges and Universities, in which remarks will be made by Mr. G. W. 
CABLE, Prof. A. L. PERRY, and others. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. 
Department of Health. 

At 9.30 A. M., Report on Nervousness of Americans, by the Secretary of 
the Department, Dr. GRACE PECKHAM, of New York. 

At 10.30 A. M., a Paper Concerning Noses, by Dr. H. HOLBROOK CURTIS, 
Chairman of the Department, of New York. 

At 11.30 A. M., a Paper on Babies, and How to Prevent it, by Dr. VALEN- 
TINE MOTT, of New York. 

At 12.15 P. M., a Paper on The Science of Dietetics, by Dr. WALLACE 
WOOD, of New York. 

At 8 P. M., an Address on Mineral Waters at Home and Abroad, by Dr. 
T. MUNSON COAN, of New York. 



Vlll AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

TliriiSDAY, SKlTK.MUKi; '.i. 
Department of Jurisprudence. 

At 9.30 A. M., a Paper on The State and the Savings of the People, 
\>\ Krv. II. L. WAYLAND, D.D., of Philadelphia. 

At 10.15 A. M., :i Paper on Education as an Ally of Law, by S. T. DI;T- 
TON, Superintendent of Public School.*, New Haven, Conn. 

At 11 A. M., a Paper, How to Deal with Habitual Criminals, by Pro! 1 . 
S. E. BALDWIN, of Yale College. 

At 11.45 A. M., a Paper, Jioycotters and the Law, by Rev. T. R. BACON, 
of New Haven. 

At 8 P. M., a Paper. Shall Foreign Immigration be Further Restricted by 
Legislation f by Rev. T. T. MUNGER, D.D., of New Haven. 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 
Department of Social Economy. 

At 9 A. M., Report of the General Secretary, F. B. SANBORN, of Concord, 
Mass., on Social Questions of the Time. 

At 10 A. M., a Debate on The Right of Properly and the Ownership of 
Land. Opened by Profs. E. J. JAMES, of Philadelphia, and W. T. HARRIS, 
of Concord. Short speeches or papers are expected from Messrs. V. B. 
DENSLOW, EDWARD ATKINSON, THOMAS DAVIDSON, ETC. 

Other Papers and Debates may be announced. 

The election of officers for the j'ear 1886-87 will take place on 
Tuesday, September 7, at 8 P. M. 

The Association will have headquarters at the United States 
Hotel, where members will be received at the reduced rate of 
$3 per day. 

The sessions will take place at the BETHESDA PARISH HOUSE, 
15 Washington St., except when otherwise announced. 

F. B. SANBORN, 

General Secretary. 
CONCORD, MASS., August 19, 188G. 



GENERAL MEETING OF 1885. 



The General Meeting of this Association for 1885 was held at 
Putnam Hall, Saratoga, N. Y., from the 7th to the llth of Septem- 
ber, inclusive, opening at 8 P. M., September 7th, with an address 
by the President, Hon. JOHN EATON, of Washington : 

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 

BY HON. JOHN EATON, OF WASHINGTON. 
A WORD ON THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN THE COMMON AFFAIRS OF LIFE. 

(Delivered September 7, 1885.) 

Our active life is beset with ever recurring questions, many of 
them full of perplexity. There are questions of right and wrong, 
questions of expediency. They challenge the individual and 
society. Our answers to them determine our success as individuals, 
and our peace and prosperity as communities. Indeed, that civili- 
zation is most advanced which has answered the most of these life 
questions rationally and wisely. 

The answers to life problems are marked by the discovery and 
application of truth. These truths, thus disclosed, pertain to man 
and his environment ; they reach into the mysteries of his being 
and of all beings ; they go into the heavens above, and clown into 
the earth beneath. These truths have their modes, methods, and 
laws of action, and their discovery is preeminently the work of 
science. These laws are in us and around us ; we use them and 
must abide by them whether we will or no. They determine our 
plans and pleasures, our disease and health, the rewards of our 
industry or the punishment of our sins. Childhood is called short- 
sighted because it cannot see them ; age is described as wise 
because it has gained from its own experience, or that of others, 
a knowledge of their action. The father trembles for the son's 
disregard of these laws, and the wise and philanthropic often 
become martyrs that their fellow-men may be saved from the pen- 
alties of their violation. 

Thoughtful minds naturally seek to eliminate the uncertain, to 
ascertain the variable, and to rest their conclusions on solid foun- 



X AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

dations. Under the inllnence of this desire the uncertainties of 
alchemy and astrology gave way after a long simple to the cer- 
tainties of chemistry and astronomy. Yet the nature of the mind 
was essentially the same when astrology was the generally accepted 
belief as that nature is now ; there is in the human mind a certain 
aptitude for the mysterious, and the untutored imagination is 
charmed with the marvellous even in our day and country. Few. 
very few. have thought out the truths of chemistry, or astronomy, 
or mathematics, or the other sciences : much less are they able to 
describe them. The great proportion of the people are ignorant, 
not only of the truths upon which these sciences rest, but of the 
methods by which they are ascertained. The weather affects every 
one, yet how few understand those principles of meteorology 
already ascertained ! and this condition of ignorance becomes a 
temptation to a class of designing minds. They play upon it, 
trade upon it. Have we not seen men of the most limited knowl- 
edge, by their ntterlj* false predictions, control the sowing and 
reaping of the farmer, the undertakings of travellers, and the sail- 
ing of the ships of commerce? It is a fact not to be overlooked, 
that those great evidences of progress, the telegraph and printing 
press, are quite as well fitted to communicate these falsehoods as 
the most wholesome truths. 

What volumes could be filled with descriptions of the super- 
stitions that affect or determine the conduct of man ! Too often 
the blunders that attend the shortsightedness of childhood are 
matched by the follies of age, in spite of its experience. Igno- 
rance is expected to go astray, to blunder, to practice folh*, and 
we describe its extreme social condition as barbarism. Ignorance, 
according to its measure, lives Iry the rudest methods, in caverns or 
huts, or with no shelter ; dresses in skins or rags, or is naked ; has 
poorl3 r cooked or uncooked food ; for government has a tribal rela- 
tion or no government at all ; has for literature the traditions and 
stories of the elders; for religion, the worship of the objects of 
sense or the vagaries of the imagination, or is guided by a per- 
verted or inadequate conception of the true God. Over against 
all this, growth in knowledge is expected to guide to wisdom, to 
give light for darkness, to find truth and reject error, to establish 
what is right and overturn what is wrong, to lift man up, to give 
him greater breadth of view and greater mastery over material 
nature, to make improvements in himself and his conditions by 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. HON JOHN EATON. XI 

conforming to established laws, and thus to give progress to civil- 
ization. Thus, law is expected to take the place of license, 
liberty the place of slavery. In all this departure from the con- 
ditions of barbarism to those of the most enlightened civilization, 
there has been a method ; human reason has been active. .The 
mind has discovered the laws of its own action, and in accordance 
with those laws has found a method of care, of patience, by com- 
paring, counting, measuring, putting facts and ideas together 
and taking them apart, of generalizing ; this method is called 
scientific, and this body of truths, thus ascertained, thus acquired, 
precise and accurate and systematized, has been called science. 

In view of the passions and appetites of man, there need be no 
surprise when he in his ignorance rejects the scientific method ; 
but it is not in accordance with natural expectation when scientists 
limit the scientific method each to his own specialty. Why should 
science withhold its method from the ordinary affairs of human 
life? Why should not sociology or Social Science be as ardentby 
sought and disseminated as the sciences of physics and chemistry? 
Why is it less scientific to apply the scientific method of inquiry 
and investigation to the problems of sanitation and education and 
statesmanship than to the questions relating to the action of elec- 
tricity or gravitation? Why is it less scientific to seek out and 
mark the distinctions between the ceitain and the uncertain, 
between the probable and the improbable in the ordinary affairs of 
daily life, and touching the customs, laws and activities of society, 
than to establish by similar methods similar distinctions in refer- 
ence to those facts which are more remote, perhaps prehistoric, 
or that have the most to do with the stars and stones and the least 
to do with man ? Why is it more scientific to examine the pottery, 
the houses, the clothes,. the food or the ornaments of dead races, 
than to investigate the corresponding facts in the life and condi- 
tions of society, and attempt to ameliorate them by urging the 
observance of the proper laws? Are the facts of psychology 7 , 
which enter so largely into Social Science, less difficult or abstruse 
than those of astronomy? May we not as properly call him a sci- 
entist who applies the methods of science to facts of history, or 
current events, as call him a scientist who applies them only to 
the prehistoric? 

It is true, science has had a hard struggle for a standing against 
the ignorance of mankind. * A host neither small nor amiable has 



XII AMFIIK \N SOCIAL SCIKNCK ASSOCIATION. 

lu'i'ii arrayed against it. Naturally its advocates selected the 
ground most tenable and most easv of defence, or where their op- 
ponents, under the influence of any motive, were ready to give 
till-in peaee or possession of opportunity for research. lie it far 
i'roiu us to crnsurc scientists because they intrenched in those 
fields where they could defend themselves by appeals to the 
senses, or by the instruments of precision, or by the demonstra- 
tions of mathematics; or, shall we say. in regions in which the 
critical issues of man's every-day conduct were not encountered. 
Still I am not sure but history, when made up in the remote future. 
may express surprise that modern scientists, nay. that American 
scientists, in a land where all values are determined by their power 
to help man in his conduct as a man and as a citi/.en, should so 
long and so largely have shunned all applications of scientific 
methods to questions of sociology, to the rugged issues of daily 
conduct. 

"\Vliy should scientific men oppose the application of their chosen 
methods, nay of the best methods, to questions of evcry-day life, 
to its statistics and to its economy, to its follies and passions? If 
mathematical principles and processes are available in their appli- 
cation to the statics and dynamics of physics, why then may they 
not properly be applied to the statics and dynamics of society, at 
least so far as expressed by figures? If mathematics have their 
use in economics, why should they be n-jectcd when we consider 
the structure of personal and domestic life, so far as it may be put 
in mathematical formulae, or be estimated or measured? True, we 
must never forget that all moral questions, all questions of conduct, 
in their very nature must in their discussion leave to man the free 
action of his will, that there must be in all such questions room 
for doubt, for alternatives, for the contrary choice ; but in how 
many of the questions of daily life now left to the merest conjec- 
ture, or to superstition, or to the wildest imaginings, may definite 
certainty be given and a large percentage of blunders prevented? 
"NVe smile as we read in ancient or pagan history that a great com- 
mander regulated the movements of his army by the flying of a 
crow, or by consulting the entrails of an animal. We feel the 
force of the statement that a great ruler's mind was freed from the 
influence of superstition by his great teacher, that he might rule 
intelligently and justly ; but we should not forget how many among 
us regulate some portion of their affairs by signs without meaning, 



GENERAL MEETING OF 1885. xiii 

how many good fortunes are determined by a horseshoe or by see- 
ing the moon over the right shoulder. He would need be better 
at cataloguing than Homer, who should attempt to name the 
myriads of groundless notions that regulate and affect the conduct 
of personal or public affairs, in these days of scientific triumph. 

Is it not high time that science should oppose this nonsense with 
sense, these superstitions, these groundless notions with well 
grounded beliefs? True, if science enters with its certainties, 
with its careful discriminations, into the questions of daily life, 
many a juggler will lose his business, many a cheat and fraud will 
and should go to the wall ; and as a consequence many of us would 
find our opinions and prejudices at fault. The questions to be thus 
determined would involve our pockets, our policies, and our poli- 
tics, and be attended with the most decided expressions of feeling. 
Moreover, the disposition to revel in the marvellous, or dally with 
the uncertain, or to treat all mystery as a concealment of the super- 
human, would be disturbed. Fortunately observation, record, gen- 
eralization, are doing their work in forwarding all departments of 
science, but in no field are the}' doing more than in that of econ- 
omic science and statistics, and we hail with exultation every new 
approach of science to man's daily questions. The phrases, " we 
guess," "we reckon," are giving way to the phrases "we will 
inquire," " we will try to know," " we will compare." 

In answer to the question, What is the true, the unperverted 
method of science? it may be said, 

First, That the scientific method accords with the nature of the 
human mind and its healthful principles. 

Second, That it accords with the nature of truth, and is adapted 
to its discovery, statement and application. 

Third, That it promotes accuracy, comprehensiveness, and com- 
pleteness of knowledge. 

Fourth, It favors fair and just conclusion and action. 

Fifth, It is a corrective of errors and of the evils which flow 
from them. 

Sixth, The unperverted, true scientific method should be timely, 
never too slow, never too fast. 

It should be repeated that the use of this scientific method is 
not limited to scientists or those who have been taught in the 
schools. It is the method of common sense, the method which 
every thoughtful and honest, patient, earnest worker may most 



XIV AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

naturally adopt in his endeavors for his own improvement or the. 
advancement of his fellows. This method, employed by the spirit 
of truth, philanthropy and t'hristianity, marks the forward steps 
of the great eras of progress. 

An intelligent scientist has said, "It may indeed he maintained 
that no accurate knowledge of anything or any law of nature is 
possible unless we possess the faculty of referring our results to 
some unit of measure; and thus it might lie truly said, to know is 
to measure." Another allirms, k ' Scarcely a scientific research can 
be made without the assistance of measurement. In all Hie sci- 
ences we have now more or less passed the logical or qualitative 
stage, and have entered, to a greater or less extent, into the sphere. 
of exact quantitative research." Says Sir William Thompson, 
u Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific 
imagination a less lofty and dignified work than looking for some- 
thing new ; " but he adds, " Nearly all the grandest discoveries of 
science have been but the rewards of measurement, and patient, 
long continued labor in the minute sifting of numerical results" ; 
and he confirms his statement by pertinent illustrations from the 
discoveries of Newton, Faraday, and Andrews. Thus it is appa- 
rent that the methods to be employed in our common economies 
are not only the same as in other sciences, but it is also apparent 
that all other sciences yield certain results which bear upon the 
economy of man's daily life. 

A scientific method, therefore, not only befits the measurement 
of the passage of light from the satellites of Jupiter to this planet, 
b} T which the traveling of light is measured everywhere ; the sci- 
entific method not only befits all the steps by which all the knowl- 
edge we possess of the sun's rays has been discovered, and all the 
investigations that led up to the discovery of gravitation and of 
electricity ; but scientific methods equally befit the turning of all 
the truths connected with these and all other important scientific 
discoveries to the practical uses of our daily lives. 

It is unfortunate that the aspirations and notions of scientific 
men are so exclusively turned toward original research, (so named,) 
as to call for the enforcement of the statement of this truth hardly 
less than do the prejudices of the ignorant. We need scientific 
men who, alike for the love of science and for the love of mankind, 
will patiently find out the scientific methods of making great truths 
of science useful to all men, us much as we need men who will 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. HON. JOHN EATON. XV 

patiently find out new truths, from the love of science or the love 
of truth. It was equally an honor to Livingstone that he should 
explore Africa, and that he should desire that thereby the benight- 
ed Africans should be blessed with the light of civilization. Says 
President LESLEY in his late admirable address to his scientific 
associates, slightly modif3 T ing his phraseology : 

" Let us avoid the sacrifice of character to science. As the saying of Jesus 
of Nazareth that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, 
lias rung through the centuries a tocsin of alarm to rouse mankind to resist 
ecclesiasticism, so let the warning cry fill the air of scientific associ- 
ations, from meeting to meeting, that science is our means, not our 
end. Self culture, man's culture, is the only real and noble aim of life," 

He adds : 

" I have been saying then that we should pursue science, like any other 
business of life, with a distinct and unwavering intention to ennoble our own 
characters. It were a trite addition to propose that the pursuit be made 
ancillary to the public good. What wiser or better thing can we say of any 
branch of physical science cultivated by us, than that its votaries are know- 
ingly or unknowingly bettering the condition and character of mankind? 
Every advancement of science is of its own nature an improvement in the 
commonwealth. Every successful study of the laws of the world we inhabit 
inevitably brings about a more intelligent and victorious conflict with the 
material evils of life, encouraging thoughtfulness, discouraging superstition, 
exposing the folly of vice and putting the multitudes of human society on a 
fairer and friendlier footing with one another. The arts of philanthropy are, 
therefore, as direct an outcome of science, as the lighting of the public streets 
or the warming of our homes. Cruelty and shame are products of the night. 
The daylight is a friend to friendlessness. The progressively brilliant and 
general illumination of our cities marks the progress of science and typifies 
the progress of civilization." 

Is science for man or man for science, and can there be any 
good for science that is not good for man? Indeed, is there any 
good in science that is not measured by its benefits to mankind? 
How else can the value of its qualities be determined? And yet 
how often scientific men will have almost infinite patience in 
watching a mosquito or an ant to learn its ways, and no patience 
whatever if they are asked to make the results of their researches 
useful to the world ! 

True, in bringing their scientific researches to the practical ap- 
plications of life, in making their discoveries and inventions useful 
to the world, they must encounter all the follies and obtuseness of 
ignorance. No doubt it was far harder for Stephenson to make 



XV'i AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

his improvements of the steam engine. than to carry conviction to 
tin- r:irli:iment:iry committee, from one of whom there c:une the 
absurd question, in substance, ''Would il not be a bad fix if the, 
engine should meet a cow on the track?" to which he made his 
noted reply in broad Scotch, tk lt might be bad for the coo." 

Is there not too much after all, of a lingering feeling that ellort 
for the dissemination of the truths of science is not quite scien- 
tific? Occasionally scientists seem to think that truth cannot be 
expressed in the vernacular of common people ; indeed, that truth 
cannot be truth unless it is dressed in a terminology known only 
to them ; just as some college men have felt that the college 
"triennial" would lose its character with the loss of the dignity of 
bad Latin. All this foolishness ill befits scientific minds, if science 
is to become the handmaid of man in his daily life. Already it is 
becoming an honor to teach science as well as to advance its 
domain in the unknown, and it will be all the more deserving of 
honor when the scientific method of teaching is understood and 
practised in all our chairs of science. The scientific method of 
instruction is far more rare to-day, and far less understood, than 
the scientific method of research. Here, therefore, is a first step 
to be taken, and one of great importance, not only to the schools 
of science, but to all who would interest mankind either orally or 
by the printed page. 

This scientific method of communicating truth recognizes the 
fact that early life is the period in which man's powers are shaped 
and his habits formed; and, for the vast majority, the period in 
which the most of knowledge is acquired. The scientific method, 
therefore, while it willingly consents to any terms necessary for 
the exact preservation of scientific truth for exclusive use among 
scientists, lays down as a fundamental rule for its guidance the 
law of simplicity in the use of language and the presentation of 
each truth in the concrete, or as seen in the object or act, and thus 
appreciable even by the young, instead of in the form of an 
abstract doctrine. 

This scientific method of instruction is needed to preserve classi- 
cal learning from disuse and disgrace. This method adopted in 
the domain of scholastic instruction would immeasurably increase 
the number interested in the highest science, those who would be 
read}* to appreciate its truths in their most abstruse form, and who 
would sustain with sj'mpatby and the most substantial aid those 



GENERAL MEETING OF 1885. XV11 

engaged in scientific inquiries farthest removed alike from pecuni- 
ary profit and from daily life. There would grow up a taste for a 
better method in all forms of literature. Low writing and inac- 
curate writing would be at a much greater discount. Herein the 
economy of right teaching would appear. The education of all 
would become a condition precedent to the most successful pro- 
motion of science. 

This idea of carrying science into the daily walks of life, wel- 
comes all facilities for its dissemination ; the cheapening of 
scientific literature, the popular library, the museum for illustra- 
tions to the eye, the publication of its data in the daily press, and 
their discussion in the pulpit, in the forum, and in the quiet of 
private conferences. When we witness the ignorant, plague- 
stricken population rising up to destroy the agencies that would 
restrict, prevent, or cure the disease ; when the ignorant mob, 
maddened by some supposed or real cause, rushes to destroy the 
very object which can alone afford the food, or shelter or comfort 
or gratification that it desires if we inquire for the cause of these 
phenomena, we shall speedily find that there has been little of the 
scientific method known or practised among these populations ; it 
has been neglected by the pulpit, the press, the school ; the great 
agencies for the dissemination of truth have been in abeyance. 
Yet these destructive outbursts of human passion cannot be quieted 
by anathemas. 

Society, calling into action the strong arm of the law, must first 
secure quiet, and then, one b\' one, minds must be reached, truths 
must be disseminated, reason aroused, conscience brought into 
action. We shall overcome the influence of wild and reckless 
leaders, not so effectually by assailing them, as by informing and 
directing into safe, healthful and profitable activities the minds of 
those they lead astray. We shall correct the taste for low and 
degrading prints, not so much by inveighing against them and 
thus advertising them, as by supplying better, more attractive, and 
more valuable reading, and thereby creating a taste which will not 
be satisfied with the vile. This body of literature cannot be the 
same for all persons. All would not have an interest in the same 
subjects, and their variety and vastness would overtax anyone ; 
but the scientific method would pervade t:e communication of all 
ideas ; morals would not be excluded, but illustrated and enforced ; 
the imagination would not be neglected, but all its powers would 



XV111 AMKUH'AX SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION'. 

In- brought into play and purified and elevated, not poisoned and 
debauched. 

Ilriv we should be brought to a pause by the question, "What 
shall be the body of the scientific infonnation or the literature thus 
to be put within the reach of all desiring it. or all who are sub- 
jected to instruction ?" a question worthy of the profoundest 
attention of the most prescient, minds. ' Through this body of fact 
and thought science would most effectually carry the blessing of 
its methods into the ordinary all'airs of life. This body of infor- 
mation could not exclude any data or any truth of service to man. 
Every great subject would bring its vast contributions shaped to 
scientific methods the earth as influenced by the sun and the 
starry world, its surfaces of land and water, of mountains and 
streams and valleys, of barren and productive soil; the plant-life 
that dwells on it, the circumambient atmosphere and its phenom- 
ena, and nian,the scientific animal who makes all this ado and for 
whom it is made, and to whom the earth has been given to pos- 
and dress. 

The Adam of this period of scientific thought might call up his 
several sciences and name them, astronomy, geology, miner- 
alogy, biology, botany, zoology, anthropology, psychology, mathe- 
matics, chemistry, physics, sociolog\", and all the other "ologies" 
named or to be named and call upon each to yield whal it may 
possess to this correlation of useful thought for human instruction 
and guidance, and enjoyment and betterment, this evolution of 
science for the greatest good of man, by doing its utmost for the 
common things of daily life. 

The laws of gravitation, we are told, weigh by the same stand- 
ard the most volatile particles of matter and the most vast of the 
far off stars, which are suns to other systems than ours. Thus 
the laws which science discloses will trace the small as well as the 
great in man's life ; they will enlighten him with respect to all that 
concerns him. There will be a law by which he knows the price 
of his salt, and laws by which he will measure his liberty. \Vhat 
comes to man from any science and its art will be checked and 
numbered and placed. The statement need not be in the termin- 
ology of Latin or of Greek, and however abbreviated or statistical, 
it will be intelligible. 

To understand or practice the truths of science thus embodied 
or stated, man will need neither to be a college graduate nor a doc- 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. HON. JOHN EATON. XIX 

tor of philosophy. He will not go far to find them, they will 
speuk to him in voices that he will understand, and charge him no 
price he cannot pay ; the}' will guide him in his conduct, cheer 
him in his discouragement, moderate him in his prosperity, guard 
him against disease and folly, satisfy his wants, and inspire him 
with higher endeavors. Toward this gathering up for each man's 
daily use of the lessons of 'all nature, and the lives of all men, 
the progress of mankind is moving. Steam and the telegraph and 
the telephone focus all thought and action, however near or remote. 
In many directions the youth of to-day know more than the phil- 
osopher of the past. Who shall set the limit to individual attain- 
ments ? 

The steps to the highest crown may lead up from the humblest 
walks of life. But in addition to all other agencies there is a great 
increase of associated action. More and more, men in like pursuits 
and unlike pursuits, from parts near and distant, are coming together 
to confer with one another, reporting experiences and observa- 
tions, comparing data, formulating conclusions and sending them 
forth to the world. How often in human histoiy, politics or relig- 
ion have been the chief topics to call men together in conventions ! 
Now they come together as lawyers, as doctors, as mathematicians, 
as workmen, as sanitarians, as sociologists, educators, historians, 
penologists, philanthropists. To what a triumphant record this 
Association ma}' already point ! Pursuing its inquiries in the do- 
main of practical life, considering the questions that involve the 
economy and skill of industry, the care and training of the young, 
the rewards of virtue and the punishment of crime, the prevention 
of disease and the preservation of health, the establishment of 
right social customs, and the enactment of wholesome laws, it has 
become the parent of other associations pursuing lines of great 
interest in human affairs, and has developed and established many 
conclusions which have directed the thought and activity of large 
numbers of our people ; and many times have its propositions been 
enacted into wholesome laws. The English Social Science Asso- 
ciation has a corresponding history, full of encouragement to this 
order of endeavors. 

If the scientific, thoughtful and intelligent, if all who cherish 
and abide by scientific methods, would carry this spirit of benefi- 
cence into all the walks of daily life, how soon the attitude of the 
ignorant would change from opposition and shyness to one of 
regard and interest and aspiration, how soon the ignorant would 



XX AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

unite thoir energies with the learned in disseminating truth. The 
American is snid to challenge every comer with " Cui boii'i'l" but 
in tin' noblest sense lie may fitly ask eaeli department of knowl- 
edge. " What good to man?" Kach science will have its body by 
itself, and yet fill all its relations to every art and yield its lessons 
to every man according to his understanding and preparation. All 
data thus correlated will meet the child, nay, will guide the pater- 
nal influence and action in its behalf. 

Now, in spite of all the progress of science, how is the child in 
its years of greatest dependence treated. With the follies of igno- 
rance. Neglects, mistakes, or downright violations of Nature's 
laws, very likely consign him to an early grave, or plant in him 
the seeds of permanent feebleness. Physicians may relieve his 
colic or cure his disease, but how rarely do they make an effort to 
direct the course of nursing or training to assure health and pre- 
vent disease ! 

Perhaps the impairments are not physical, but more especially 
mental, and we go to those in care of the insane for advice. They 
will tell us, possibly, that two thirds of the cases under their treat- 
ment could have been prevented, but their records are all directed 
to cure, to the science and art of curing, not prevention. AVho 
could estimate the beneficent changes of life, if all its conditions 
subject to the application of the scientific methods could be made 
to harmonize with them ; questions of food, of raiment, of shel- 
ter, of air, of vocation, of occupation, not for one man or one 
class of men, but all men in all conditions. The diseases which 
are brought upon our nervous systems by the excitements of the 
sensational in many cases prepare the way for interminable evils. 
The mother is not satisfied with the quiet and repose and sleep of 
her infant child, and must excite it, to gratify her desire for a dis- 
play of its activity. The teacher does not always exclude the 
sensational from the school, and social arrangements, a great mass 
of literature, and a large share of the activities of life proceed 
upon the idea that they are nothing if not sensational. Nervous 
excitement and nervous strain are the order, and nervous exhaus- 
tion the calamitous result. Could all people bring to bear upon 
health alone what has been already ascertained and contributed to 
the body of knowledge in regard to the principles of hygiene, what 
ills would be arrested, or reduced, or modified, along all the diverse 
lines of human activity ! 

Are these ideas chimerical? Far from it. There are already 



GENERAL MEETING OF 1885. XXI 

signs of approach toward their realization. Scientists are busy in 
their laboratories in all the fields of research, settling principles, 
harmonizing results, reaching their totalities, and preparing them 
for men's use. The period of diffusion, of universal communication 
has commenced. Fifty years ago how slightly had the plr^sical 
sciences found embodiment in text-books or recognition in the 
schools! Is it too much to expect that in the next fifty years 
there may be a corresponding embodiment of the results of inves- 
tigation in sociology in literature, and that it may take the form 
of text-books and become subjects of instruction in our schools 
and colleges? Already this has commenced in the direction of 
hygiene and of our common business transactions, and there are 
text-books in carpentr}-, on nursing, on domestic economy and the 
various departments of agriculture and international commerce. 

Any large aggregation of men, or of pecuniary interests, by 
degrees sees the value, feels the necessity, and can afford the ex- 
pense of gathering, grouping, generalizing, and bringing out the 
data which give them a clearer measure of the health, the com- 
fort, the pleasure, the profit, or the loss involved. Balance sheets 
are studied in every business, questions of finance or of public 
taxation and expenditure are investigated. The town, the county, 
the city, the State, the Nation has its Reports. Great operations, 
like those in corn, in coal, or cotton, or woolen, or silk, leather or 
lumber, or iron, or gold, or silver, and all the great industries 
the agricultural, mechanical, commercial, professional demand 
and have their collections of statistics and their vast accumula- 
tions ready, as contributions to those sciences which enter into 
the economies of common life. 

But the correlation of all these and their actual results have not 
been reached. The miscellaneous publications in these fields are 
beyond our enumeration. Investigators are becoming experts, 
and they are more in demand. Money sees the profit of this wis- 
dom, and is more willing to pay for it. Public action, government 
action, could not go on without it. The idea of a republic, that 
its citizens shall act patriotically and virtuously from a choice of 
the right course and on their own knowledge, demands it. Napo- 
leon the First is credited with the rexark that "statistics mean 
the keeping of an exact account of a nation's affairs, and without 
such an account there is no safety ; " and Goethe declares, "I do 
not know whether figures govern the world, but this I do know, 
they show how it is governed." 



XX11 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

The idea of this statistical result has already taken on manifold 
forms. America, has left behind the idea that the only function of 
government is that of shrievalty, and has accepted the responsibil- 
ity of reporting its operations and accumulating and disseminating 
information for the benefit of the people. Hoards of health, of 
chanty, of education, and bureaus of statistics of labor, are de- 
manded by the State and by the Nation, and they are becoming 
potential agencies in reducing to something of order the ehao> of 
data so long without form and void. The character of the infor- 
mation demanded marks the progress of the age. How long, 
during the ages of the past do we find all the counting of men and 
the measure of their condition undertaken solely to ascertain their 
capacit}' for war. Indeed, our own colonial census was taken for 
the same purpose. How much savage war could the Colonies en- 
dure? l>ut the constitution of the States, adopted by the Fathers, 
provided tor representation in the House of Representatives and 
in the Electoral College according to population. The carrying 
out of this constitutional provision has led to vast results. What 
a magnificent world of data is now spread before us by the census ! 
It has begun and ended, and comes to us, with the full force of 
national authority. Every man, woman and child and their inter- 
ests enter into it, and it*has its lessons for each in all their various 
capacities and relations. But not more than a hundred thousand 
can possess it, and lew can master the whole of it. It comes in 
as an aid and corrective, with all subordinate divisions and sum- 
maries of cities, [counties and States. Besides, it would be too 
much to occur annually, and therefore cannot be frequent enough 
to meet every condition. But man}- statements should be annual, 
to meet the diversified demands of millions of individuals, to place 
within their reach the conditions of the conclusions they must 
establish for the guidance of their conduct. Have you thought 
how our system of government affords excellent opportunity to 
perfect a system of statistics, parallel to the decennial census, and 
fitted to meet all the demands not met by that, and to add greatly 
to the observation, record and use of the data demanded in com- 
mon affairs and to promote the scientific method in their treatment ? 

Publicists have said much of the importance of the town meet- 
ing as found in a portion of our system. An important character- 
istic of this institution is the bringing of all questions of public 
taxation and expenditure and polic}' to the consideration of all the 
citizens for their action. This attention of each person to all 



ADDEESS OF THE PRESIDENT. HON JOHN EATON. XX111 

the details of municipal action, in a large city, would be impossi- 
ble. Therefore, there are reports, manifold statements for public 
information, so that each citizen may have within his reach the 
means of a just judgment. But should the town system of reports 
be everywhere adopted, and these followed by summaries by coun- 
ties, and each State gather these summaries for itself, and the 
Nation group these in their great generalizations, the whole would 
have a variety of form and result, and come to each one with data 
according to his interest. The questions of the town, county and 
State would have their appropriate answers. The student and the 
statesmen would find them falling into an appropriate classifica- 
tion, and sufficiently frequent, and this, taken in connection with 
the decennial national census, would place us in the very front 
rank with respect to knowledge of ourselves as a people. 

This is now measurably done in certain departments of inquiry. 
I can speak with more personal familiarity of that of Education. 
The county does not even in this subject enter specially into the iorm 
of statistical statement, but the institution publishes its reports or 
catalogues, and the town or city usually in some form its report. 
Each State, the centre and source of authority, gathers up the 
data of instruction within itself, and the Nation, carefully avoiding 
participation in the authority of the States, merel}* and solely for 
purposes of information, gathers a summary of the whole into an 
annual volume. The ten thousand contributions from authoritative 
official sources coming into this volume present a result unique in 
the history of voluntary statistics. Here is on one side of educa- 
tion a growing preparation for the scientific treatment of educa- 
tion. The parent may know not alone how his child is affected, 
the teacher not alone how his school is affected by a given method, 
but the results produced by that method wherever applied are 
reported. Were this system to be carried into the field of every 
other great subject, and the whole result distilled into a single 
volume, and should each nation do the- same as far as possible, 
there would be the beginning of a solid foundation for the initiative 
of internationalism. All nations would be influenced, and the 
atmosphere of the scientific method would pervade the world of 
thought. These methods would determine the most far-reaching 
generalizations, and have an effect upon common life not now pos- 
sible. Child life and all life would be ushered into new conditions, 
and alike the humblest and the highest would more easily find the 
truth, follow it, and receive their blessings from it. 



BUSINESS OF THE MEETING OF 1885. 



The Order of Business after the Address was as follows : 
'ITKSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. 
Department of Education, 

At '.).:'.(), A. M., Report of the Secretary of the Department, Mrs. EMILY 
TAI.HOT, of Boston. 

At 10, A. M., a Paper by Mr. WILLIAM OKDWAY PARTRIDGE, of Brooklyn, 
N. V., on The Relation of the Drama to Education. 

At 11, A. M., a Paper by W. M. BECKNKR, Esq., of "Winchester, Ky., on 
Education in the City as Contrasted with the Country. 

At 12, M., a Paper by Prof. E. ,7. JAMES, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
on Schools of Political Science. 

At 8, P. M., a Paper by Prof. THOMAS DAVIDSON, of Orange, N. J., on 
The Place of Art in Education. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 
Department of Health. 

At 9.30 A. M., a Keport by the Secretary of the Department, Dr. Lr< Y M. 
HALL, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 

At 10, A. M., a Paper on Cities and Health, by C. F. WINGATE, Esq., of 
New York. 

At 11, A. M., a Paper on The Influence of City Life on Health ami 
Development, by GRACE PECKHAM, M. D., of New York. 

At x 12, M., a Paper by D. A. ROBINSON, M. D., of Bangor, Maine, on The 
Therapeutics of Exercise. 

At 8, P. M., a Debate on The Adulteration of Food, particularly in 
Cities, opened by CHARLES HARRINGTON, M. D., of Boston. 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10- 
Department of Social Economy. 

At 9. 30, A. M., Annual Report of the General Secretary, Mr. F. B. SAX- 
HORN, of Concord, including a Special Report on Social Science Lectures in 
American Universities, and followed by a Debate. 

At 11, A. M., a Paper by Prof. E. J. JAMES, of Philadelphia, on The ~\< /' 
Charter and City Government of Philadelphia, followed by a Debate. 

At 12 o'clock, a Paper by EDWARD W. BEMIS, PH. D., of Springfield, 
Mass., on Socialism. 

At 8, P. M., a Paper by CHARLES D. KELLOGG, Esq., of New York, on 
Child Life in City and Country. 



BUSINESS OF THE MEETING OF 1885. XXV 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 
Department of Jurisprudence. 

At 9.30, A. M. a Paper by EDWARD V. RAYNOLDS, D.C.L. , of Grand Rapids, 
Mich., on The Constitution in its Relation to National Development. 

At 10, A. M., a Paper by Rev. Dr. H. L. WAYLAND, of Philadelphia, on 
The Unnamed Third Party. 

At 11, A. M., a Paper by Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, of Columbus, Ohio, 
on The, Arbitration of Labor Disputes. 

At 12, M., a Paper by D. McG. MEANS, Esq., of New York City, on Labor 
Unions under Democratic Government. 

At 8, P. M., an Address by MERRILL EDWARDS GATES, Ph. D., LL. D., 
President of Rutgers College, Member of the U. S. Board of Indian Com- 
missioners, on Land and Law as Agents in Educating Indians. 



At the business meeting of 1885, the officers whose names ap- 
pear on page v. were chosen, and M. ARTHUR RAFFALOVITCII, of 
Frankfort, German}-, was elected a Corresponding Member of the 
Association. 



DISCUSSION OF THK 1'Al'KRS OF 1885. 



Thi' (li-l Kites following these papers were nut reported by the A .sa- 
tiation, and ouh" a few of the remarks in:i<le can be given here, 
drawn from the newspaper reports. In discussing Dr. 1'eckliam's 
paper, Dr. K. W. Bemis said : 

Mr. Carroll D. Wright's statistics show that the mortality is 
twice as great in factory villages as in farming villages. Among 
the poorer classes, it is almost impossible to provide means for 
warming the entire house ; and so all sit in the kitchen and breathe 
the impure air. The children suffer In" the mother being employed 
just before and just after the birth of the children. In some in- 
stances in Germany, the wages of women are continued for some 
weeks before and after confinement. The employment of married 
women in factories is a great curse, tending to destroy the family 
life. There is need that the evils of bad cooking be brought home 
to our working people. Much can be done to make the cooking 
better at a reduced expense. With the poor, GO to 65 per cent, of 
the income goes for food. As they grow richer, a large propor- 
tion goes for rent and clothing. 

Dr. H. L. Wayland spoke of the employment of young children 
in factories as ven r injurious to health and life ; Prof. Francis 
Wayland of the unwholesome food prevalent in the country, the ab- 
sence of good soups, the prevalence of roast pork, and heavy 
mince-pies. 

Mr. Sanborn urged that, on the whole, country life is more 
favorable to health and life than city life, especially in the matter 
of pure air and pure water. Of course, it is to be considered that 
in cities there is a large foreign population, of a very lo\v grade as 
to health. 

Mrs. French described the work done in New York, through 
women as cit}' missionaries and Bible-readers. A lady gave to 75 
of these, each week, a plain, simple lecture on health and sanita- 
tion. One missionary said, that in the 100 families which she vis- 
ited, there was in three weeks a great improvement in cleanliness 
and care for health. 

Rev. E. W. Clarke, missionary in Assam, spoke of the malaria 



DISCUSSION OF THE PAPERS OF 1885. XXVI I 

prevailing there at night and during the day. The people can work 
in the malarial districts in the day, if they stop on the crest of the 
hills at night. The diet of country people in America is better 
than has been represented to-day. 

Dr. Peckham said at the close : 

"The children of working-women are not large, but they 
are health}', unless there has been great privation. Child-bear- 
ing is natural ; and the health of the mothers is often better for 
pursuing their usual avocation. The water supply is better in the 
cities than in the country, where the people depend on wells. 
People from the city often suffer from the water, when spending 
the summer in the country. The working girls' clubs in the cities 
have an excellent influence ; lectures are given on health there." 

In the debate following Dr. Eobinson's "Therapeutics of Ex- 
ercise," the writer of the paper was called on for illustrations, and 
showed how to exercise the muscles of the chesjt, of the waist, the 
thighs, the calf, the shoulders, the fore-arm. He added : 

" It is the light, quick movement that you want ; not the heavy. 
The great trouble is that people go at it so fiercely that they lanie 
themselves, and thus are repelled from exercise. Exercise till you 
feel warm and just a little tired. Do not overdo it. Exercise 
must be regular and systematic. Twice a day is very well for fre- 
quency. It is better to take the exercise by way of amusement 
or employment, with some object besides exercise. It is easier 
and more graceful to have the movement in a circular direction 
rather than ending with a jerk." 

Mrs. Adams, of Chicago, in some interesting remarks, devel- 
oped this last point. 

Dr. Robinson further said : 

" Consumption is one of the most preventible of diseases. My 
parents were both consumptive ; I coughed for a year, and was 
going the downward road ; but by care, exercise, and preventive 
measures I have wholly averted the tendency. In one case, two 
of three sisters had died, and the third was coughing and was fol- 
lowing the others ; we gave her no medicine but exercise and out- 
door air, and she is now doing well, and the cough has left her. 
Swimming is one of the best exercises to check consumption." 

In the debate on Social Science Instruction, Rev. S. W. Dike, 
ol' South Royalton, Vt., said : 

" Some years ago I began to give lectures in a Theological Sem- 



XXV1H AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

inary. The course embraced six lectures on various aspects of 
the family in its relation to property, to religion, etc. Christian- 
ity is to be lodged in human society ; and the minister must under- 
stand social conditions. Great interest \vasshown in these subjects 
by the students." 

.Mr.. ('. II. Dallsaid: 

What our young people need is not to have a sentimental in- 
terest in the poor and criminal' classes, but to have practical les- 
sons. It is a very hopeful thing when the women graduates of our 
colleges are banded together for the study of political and social 
science." 

I 'n>f. II. ('. Adams (I'niversity of Michigan) said: 
'There is a future for this line of study. There is a difficulty 
growing out of the present system of instruction in colleges. 
After a man is eighteen years old, it is idle to speak about the 
need of studies for discipline or culture ; it is time for him to 
take hold of studies that have a practical bearing." 

Prof. A. Johnston (Princeton) said : 

"Within four years, we have instituted courses of instruction in 
various branches of political science, international law, jurispru- 
dence, common law, common school law. After the Sophomore 
year, the studies are largely elective. The historical method pre- 
vails largely. 

" I would bear testimony to the help I have derived from the 
Theological Seminary at Princeton. Dr. Pattou urges all students 
for the ministry to acquaint themselves with political and social 
science." 

Prof. Wayland (Yale Law School) said : 

"In the Yale Theological School, instruction is given in juris- 
prudence. Social science is taught in the college. I protest 
against social science being added to the over-loaded course of the 
High or common schools. It is doubtful if the State is not mak- 
ing an expensive blunder in carrying public free education too far. 
In every college there is a large body of young men studying, not 
for law or medicine or any specific profession, but to get an edu- 
cation. Let these young men be taught the principles of Social 
Science. It is desirable that a pastor should have some knowl- 
edge of this class of subjects." 



DISCUSSION OF THE TAPERS OF 1885. XX ix 

Commenting on Mr. Kellogg's paper, Mr. F. H. Wines, of Illi- 
nois, said : 

" I was interested and touched by this paper. There is in the 
Northwest a growing opposition to the coming of these bad chil- 
dren from New York. The public school system is not accom- 
plishing for the children of the poor what we have a right to 
expect. It does not fit boys and girls to earn their own living. 
The Kindergarten system is very beneficial to the children alike of 
the rich and of the poor. I think the picture of Mr. Kellogg was 
perhaps a little too sombre." 

President Eaton added : 

' It used to be said that there were enough bad boys in Paris to 
overthrow the government. Benevolent persons organized l Ma- 
ternal Schools ' for children from two years old up ; there were 
presently 60,000 children in these schools. The kindergarten- 
school system was applied with such adaptation as was needful. 
Child-life in Paris has been taken out of the fatal line spoken of, 
and put into a better line. There are also nurseries where the 
very youngest are received for the da}', while the mothers are work- 
ing. Some of these are springing up in this country ; one in Buf- 
falo, one in Cleveland. In Baltimore, Mr. Wilson left $500,000 to 
to form a' Sanitarium ; it is near the cit}-, and is a blessing to a 
great body of children. 

" Recently, there were 9,000 applications for sittings in the 
public schools in New York that could not be furnished ; and dur- 
ing three years, while there was a constant increase in the school 
population, there was no increase in accommodation." 

After the reading of Dr. Raynolds' paper on the American 
Constitution, Prof. Goldwin Smith of Toronto said : 

" I have seldom listened, with more pleasure to a paper, than 
this morning. The Constitution of Great Britain is a series of 
documents and acts of Parliament. But we are largely governed 
by understandings. Our public life is stable compared with yours. 
Hence, our understandings are handed down. But we have now 
adopted universal suffrage, and we shall require something more 
fixed for a constitution. The new Canadian Constitution tippeals 
to the well understood principles of the British Constitution. 
Under a democracy, all powers ought to be strictly defined. I 
think that England will find need for a written cun.xtitution. In 



xxx AMKKFCVN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

tin- American Constitution yon find no tr:io> of the present mode 
of government through parties. In England, the Privy Council 
mixes politics with its interpretation* of the law. Thus, in (he 
decisions on the "heresy" cases, they have been intliivneed by their 
desire to include all opinions in the Church. The decision of the 
Tinted States Supreme Court as to the Legal Tender Act is :i 
distinct abrogation of tin- Constitution. The opinions of the 
people will register themselves inevitably in the interpretation of 
the Constitution." 

The paper on the Labor (Question aroused much discussion. 
President White of Cornell University said : 

We pass a large part of our time in a ''fool's paradise," 
supposing that our institutions are the best, and that no harm can 
come to us. whatever may come to others. "We have blundered 
through ; and we imagine that we shall keep on blundering through. 
This cannot go ou for ever. We ma\ as well look at the problems 
presented. Those now presented by Dr. AVayland are very 
serious, though I doubt if his off-hand way of dealing with them 
is always the best. But .of that presently. Take the holding of 
great tracts of land. We are worse off than Great Britain, where 
Parliament can do anything. We have no power to undo this 
evil. I was once sent with two other gentlemen to negotiate a 
treaty with a Spanish American Republic (Santo Domingo) with a 
view to its annexation to the United States. I had occasion to 
negotiate with the Papal Nuncio. I asked him what the Church 
would claim. There had been confiscations of the Church land by 
the Republic. That is the method of the Latin races, as seen in 
Spain and Itaty. In negotiating that treat}* (which never came to 
anything), I said to His Grace that there was no country whose 
institutions made it more impossible to interfere with landed 
property than the United States. I found that he understood that 
very well. The authorities of the Church were very willing to 
favor annexation to a heretical country, because our country 
offered such security against confiscation. The cry is, 'Leave 
things to the law of supply and demand; let them take care of 
themselves.' But these things will not take care of themselves. 
I must dissent from what Dr. Wayland puts forth as a remedy. 
The most unsafe thing we can do is what looks toward con- 
fiscation. A revolution is the simplest, but the most expensive 



DISCUSSION OF THE TAPERS OF 1885. XXXI 

method. The extinguishment of abuses by force is the French 
method ; the extinguishment by compensation is the English 
method. Henry Clay proposed to extinguish the right in slavery 
by compensation. We stood aghast ; 'it would cost $100, 000, 000.' 
We took the other method ; and it cost us not less than $10,000,- 
000,000. It is better to buy out the so-called vested rights than 
to extinguish them by force. If the liquor traffic can be thus extin- 
guished without a long and bitter struggle, it will be well. I am 
heartily with Dr. Wayland in the scope of his paper. In the 
laissez-faire doctrine, we do not look to what is for the welfare of 
the State through all time. An illustration from the destruction 
of forests is greatly in point. We should extinguish the right to 
cut down forests, in the interest of the state and nation. This 
paper takes us into a wide range of interesting questions. We 
are in a two-fold danger ; on the one hand, from the lack of power 
to undo long-standing evils, on the other hand is the danger of 
taking revolutionary steps." 

Prof. Johnston, of Princeton, said: 

" I feel a very strong sympathy with what has been said by Dr. 
Wayland and Pres. White. We need to teach men the meaning 
of the word ' right,' which was used in several senses in the 
paper. Here are men dealing with rights which are given 
by society ; yet, when the State proposes to interfere, men get up 
a cry of natural rights. There is danger in allowing the introduc- 
tion of Dr. Waylaud's principle ; but I am not afraid of such a 
principle if properly limited. So long as Dr. Wayland will teach 
us that the State grants these rights, and can take them awa}', we 
know that we have here a great machine that needs to be watched 
and guarded." 

Mr. F. J. Kingsbury of Waterbury, Ct., said: 

" Dr. Wayland's paper is interesting and brilliant; but the 
method proposed needs discussion. I was surprised to hear the 
applause in response to portions of the paper that seem to me 
radical and revolutionary. There were questions raised about 
which there can be no doubt. Fraud vitiates eveiy transaction. 
But if a man has by labor acquired property, the right to convey 
that land to whom he will, is so strong that society is chaos with- 
out it. Society must be founded on justice or it will go to ruin. 
The great safeguard is the distribution of property. But in order 
to make that protection good, the property must be acquired by 



NXXII AMERICAN. SOCIAL SCIKNCE ASSOCIATION. 

honest industry. I have been i'or many years :in employer; lint I 
have never had any knowledge of a strike. As to profit sharing. 

this proceeds on tin 1 supposition that every maim fact tiring enter- 
prise is a success, whereas, not more than half of them arc a 
success." 

Dr. (Jladdcn said : 

"Whatever makes labor more ellicient is a gain to the employer 
and to the employed. 1 doubt if it is expedient for working-men 
to combine and direct their own labor. l>ut profit-sharing, Of in- 
dustrial partnership, where the employer pays the men at the 
market price, and then gives the men a stipulated share of the 
profits, inspires the workman with good will, with hope ::nd 
courage and enterprise, and enables the employer to make as much 
money as he made before this, is the solution, and it is sure to 
come." 

Pres. White referring to the paper of Dr. Gladden said : 
." Might not cooperation be introduced into the great railway 
corporations? The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is trying an ex- 
periment, looking toward this, which is successful and which has 
not yet reached its limit. This would set every employee on the 
side of economy. The town of Pullman, though not the last word 
or the last attempt, is in the right direction. Workmen should 
become something beside wild beasts. Mr. Pullman built this 
beautiful little town, laid out by landscape gardener and sanitary 
engineer; and expended $750,000 before erecting a single house. 
The difference between this town and the average mud-hole of a 
prairie town is like that between heaven and hell. The death rate 
has fallen from thirty-two in 1,000 to seven. The first right of a 
man is to life ; and Mr. Pullman has secured this. He is not a 
philanthropist; lie makes everything pay G per cent. The gas 
pays 6 per cent., and costs the people 70 cents a 1,000 feet. 
You must compare the laborer in Pullman with laborers elsewhere. 
There was at the start a distrust between employees and employed ; 
but confidence is increasing. Recently, Mr. Pullman wanted to 
take a contract for making 100 platform cars. He said to the 
workmen, 'We will throw off a part of our profit, if you will 
thow oil' a part of your wages,' and they consented. The liberty 
of men in Pullman is, however, to some extent restricted. If a 
man wants a glass of beer at his table, he can have it ; but there 



DISCUSSION OF THE PAPERS OF 1885. XXXlll 

is no bar, and no 'perpendicular drinking.' If a man wants a 
drink at a bar, he must go several miles to get it; and that 
'makes a good while between drinks,' as a workman sard. I 
believe in arbitration with all my heart ; and I am glad that Dr. 
Gladden advocates it. I have no doubt that it will come." 

Prof. Goldwin Smith said : 

" The word 'state' requires a precise definition as much as the 
word 'right.' The State appears as a wise and beneficent being ; 
but the State practically is the persons which are in the possession 
of power. If a man has no right to what he has earned by the 
sweat of his brow, there is no such thing as right." 






SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLttiKS, 1886. 



Tin- Report ami Discussion of 1885 on 

\i >. [RN< i 18 i ML ill IN Tin. COLLEGES AND !'NI\ I.I:MIII> <>r 
Tin; I NIIT;I> Si A i E8, 

has lu'i-n followed up by the Department of Kdiication, which. 
mentioned on pages -J2 and '2',} of the Journal of >'o<Va/ 
Science, No. XXI., has undertaken to collect statistics 
regarding the actual iust ruction given in the several departments 
of Social Science by American Colleges and I'niversities. For 
tliis purpose they sent out in the summer of l-ssi; the circulars 
there printed and obtained returns from upwards of one hundred 
institutions affording higher education. The ten Topics covering 
which questions were asked were the following: 

1. Theory of property, real and personal. 

'2. Production and distribution of wealth. 

3. Theory of Government National, State and Municipal. 

4. Public and private corporations. 

5. Punishment and reform of criminals. 

C>. Prevention of vice (intemperance, prostitution, vagrancy, 
etc.) 

7. Public and private charities (care of the poor, insane, blind, 

idiotic, deaf-mute, foundlings, orphans, etc.) 

8. Sanitation of cities and of private dwellings (water supply, 

ventilation, drainage, epidemics, etc.) 

9. Theoiy of public elementary education. 

10. Higher education (as furnishing the directive power of 
society). 

In the following table the returns arc given alphabetically by 
States. The answers are symbolized as follows : 

a. Taught in preparatory department. 
i. Taught incidentally. 
]). School of political sciences. 
*. Subject taught, but year not stated. 
1. Subject taught in Freshman }-ear. 
2. " Sophomore " 

3. " Junior " 

4. " Senior " 

5. " Post graduate course. 

6. " Law School. 

7. " Medical School. 

8. " Normal department. 

9. " Scientific School. 

\. 1st and 4th years ; f 3d and 4th years ; \ 4th or 3d years ; 
1-4 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th ; 2-4 2d, 3d and 4th. 
Un. University. Col. College. 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. XXXV 



NAME OF COLLEGE. 


TOWN. 


1 


3 


3 


* 


5 


6 


7- 


8 


9 

4 

* 

4 

4 

8 

a 

1 

i 
4 

2 
4 

i 
4 

1 

i 
4 


i 

i 
5 

4 

i 

i 


1 
1O 


ARKANSAS. 
Little Rock Un 


Little Rock, 

San Jose, 
Los Angeles, 

New Haven, 

Washington, 
Washington, 

Atlanta, 
Atlanta, 

Quincy, 
Ewing, 
Galena, 
Jacksonville, 
Hloomington, 
Lake Forest, 
Naperville, 
Evanston, 
Lebanon, 
Upper Alton, 
Chicago, 
Champaign, 
Westfield, 
Wheaton, 

Irvington, 
Richmond, 
Franklin, 
Hanover, 
Hartsville, 
Bloomiugton., 

Coll. Springs, 
Mt. Vernon, 
Des Moines, 
Fairyfield, 
Tahor, 
Iowa City, 
Fayette, 

Topeka, 

Berea, 
Richmond, 
Danville, 
Georgetown, 
Farindale, 
Bowling Green 

Jackson, 

Brunswick, 
Waterville, 

Baltimore, 
Ellicott City, 

Amherst, 
Boston, 
Cambridge, 
College Hill, 
Williamstown, 


4 

# 
4 

4 

4 
4 

4 
4 

2 

i 
4 
3 

4 
4 
4 

4 
4 

4 

4 
3 

3 
3 

3 

3 

2 
i 

6 
a 

4 

4 

i 
4 

3 

j 

4 
4 
1-4 
4 
3 


4 

* 
4 

4 

4 
4 

4 
4 

2 
4 
i 
4 
3 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 

4 

3 
4 
3 
3 

I 

3 

2 
4 
4 
2-4J 
3 

4 

4 
4 

i 
4 
2 
4 

4 

4 
3 

i 

4 
4 
1-4 
4 
3 


4 

# 
4 

4 

4 

4 

4 
4 

1 

i 
4 
1 

4 
4 
3 

4 

i 

4 
3 
4 
3 
2 
4-3 

1 
a 
1 
1 
1 
2-4 
3 

i 
4 

4 

4 
4 

I 

i 

4 
4 

* 

4 
3 


4 

* 
4 

4 

4 
6 

4 

2 

i 
4 
3 

4 

4 

3 

* 

1 

6 

i 
4 
2 

3 

1 

6 
6 

3 


4 

* 

* 

4 

i 

4 

4 
i 

! 

4 

4 

i 
2 

i 
5 

4 

7 

* 

i 


2 

a 

i 
4 

4 

i 

* 

4 
a 

4 

i 
2 

i 
i 

4 

7 

* 

i 


4 

i 
4 
3 

i 

* 

i 

i 

5 

1-1 

7 

* 

i 

i 


2 
3 

2 
i 

a 

i 

* 

3 

7 

2 

i 

7 
i 

7 
9 

i 


* 
4 

1 

i 

4 

4 

i 
4 

1 
4 

* 
i 
2-4 

3 

1 
5 

4 
i 

i 


CALIFORNIA. 
Un of the Pacific 


Un. of South'n California 

CONNECTICUT. 
Yale Col 


DIST. OF COLUM'A. 
Columbia Un 


Howard Un 


GEORGIA. 
Atlanta Un 


Clark Un 


ILLINOIS. 




< ic nil an English Col 


Illinois Col 


Illinois Wesleyan Un 
Lake Forest IJ n 


Northwestern. Col 




McKendree Col 


Shurtleff Col 


Un. of Chicago 




"Westfield Col 


Wheaton Col 


INDIANA. 
Butler Un 






Hanover Col 


Hartsville Col 


Indiana Un 


IOWA. 

Amity Col ... ... 


Cornell Col 


Drake Un 


l';i i sons Col 


Tabor Col 




Upper Iowa Un 


KANSAS 




KENTUCKY. 
Berea Col 


Central Uu 


Centre Col 




Kentucky Mil. Institute.. 
Ogden Col 


LOUISIANA. 


MAINE. 


Colby Un 


MARYLAND. 
Johns Hopkins Un 


Rock 11 ill Col 


MASSACHUSETTS. 






Tufts Col 


Williams Col 



XXXVI 



AMF.KK'AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



NAME OF COLLEGE. 


TOWN. 


1 


a 


3 


4 





<; 


7 


8 





10 


MICHIGAN. 

ll'ittli' Clerk Col 


I'.atlli- < 






1 










1 




1 


HilKil ilr Cul 


Hill-. lair. 


4 


4 


1 


1 


1 


T 


4 


i 


1 




1 '11 <>! M ifhi";in 


\tm Arbor, 


* 


* 


* 


* 






* 


* 





* 


MINNESOTA. 

Carl ton Col 


Norililii'ld, 




4 


4 








4 








I M of M hmi'sotu 


Minneapolis, 


4 


4 


4 


1 






4 


4 


4 




MISSOURI. 

( 'ontral Col 


Fayette, 


3 


3 


4 




4 




4 




4 


1 


Diurv ( ol 
I'ritrhi'tt lust it nit 1 


>\v. 


2 


4 


: 


4 










4 


1 


Slrwartsvillt" Col 


Stcwartsville, 






3 
















I'n. State of Missouri 
Washington CM 


Coliiinliia, 
St. Louis, 


8 
4 


3 
4 


4 
I 


C 
i 


6 
i 


4 
i 


4 
i 


3 
i 


4 
1 


4 
i 


William tit-well Col ... 


Liberty, 


4 


4 


I 


4 


i 


i 


i 


i 


4 




NEBRASKA. 
Creighton Col 


Omaha, 


* 




















NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Dartmouth Col 


Hanover, 


4 


4 


4 
















NEW JERSEY. 
Ilutger Col 


New Brnnsw'k 


3 


3 


3 


4 


i 


i 


i 








NEW YORK. 
The Col. City of N. York.. 
Columbia Col 


N. V. City, 
New York, 


3 

u 


3 
p 


Ji 


i 
fi 


i 
p 


i 
p 


i 
p 


i 

g 


1 




Cornell Un 


Ithaca, 


1 


3 




i 




a 




r> 






Syracuse ( 'n 


Syracuse, 


4 


4 




i 


4 




4 








linion Col 


Schenectady, 


4 


4 


4 


4 








t 






1 n . of Rochester 
Vassar Col 


Poughkeepsie, 


1 


8 


H 


3 


] 


# 


* 


] 


4 


4 


OHIO. 

Buchtol Col 


Akron, 


* 


* 


* 


* 














1 1 H am Col 


Hiram, 




4 


4 


i 




i 


i 


i 




i 


Kenyon Col 


Gambier, 


4-3 


l-.'i 


4-3 


4-3 








3 




1 


Ohio fn . 


Athens, 




3 


3 




3 


.'{ 











< )liio Wcsli'van I'll 


Delaware, 


i 


i 




i 


i 


i 


i 


i 


i 


i 


Un. ol Cincinnati 


Cincinnati, 


4 


4 


















Un. of Wooster 


Wooster, 


4 


4 


8 


4 


i 


i 










Urbana Un 


I'rbana, 




4 


4 




4 








4 




WillH'iToroe I'n 


Wilberforce, 


3 


8 


1 


3 


4 








1 


r 


OREGON. 














2 




: 


2 




PENNSYLVANIA. 
Franklin Ot Marshall Col. 
Un. of Pennsylvania 


Lancaster, 
Philadelphia, 


4 


4 


4 

i 


4 


4 
8 


4 


4 

i 


4 


4 


4 


Washington iV .IclTerson.. 
Western Un. of 1'enn 

RHODE ISLAND. 
Brown Un 


Washington, 
Allegheny City 

Providence, 


4 

3 


4 
a 


3 
4 

4 


3 


4 


4 


i 


i 


i 


i 


SO. CAROLINA. 

Un. of Smith Carolina 

TENNESSEE. 
Central Tennessee Col 
( 'hristian Brothers 


Columbia, 

Nashville, 
Memphis, 


c 

3 

3 


r, 
3 


r, 

3 

i 


6 

3 
4 


C 
i 


i 


i 


i 
2-4 


* 
i 


* 
i 




Lebanon, 


(i 




<> 


6 


6 












G rant Memorial Un 




8 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 










Un of the South 


Sewanee, 


2 


2 


2 






i 


i 


3 




i 


Un. of Tennessee 


Knoxville, 


4 


4 


4 


4 


i 


i 


i 


i 


i 


i 


VERMONT. 
Middlplwrv Col 


Middleburv, 


4 


1 


4 
















Un. of Vermont 


Burlington, 


4 


4 


4 








4 


3 




4 


VIRGINIA. 
Hampden Sidney Col 
Roanoke Col 


Hampden, 
Salem, 


4 


4 

i 


4 
2-4 


4 


i 


i 
4 


i 
4 


i 
2 


i 


i 


Washington & Lee Un 
WISCONSIN. 
Ripon Col 


Lexington, 
Ripon, 


6 

4 


4 


6 
4 


6 

4 


6 






9 






Un. of Wisconsin 


Madison, 


3 


4 


3 


3 










4 





SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. XXXVU 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. 

Owing to the fact that many of the institutions for higher 
education have elective courses or are divided (lilce the Univer- 
sity of Virginia) into separate "schools" or departments, it has 
been found difficult to answer the schedule by naming definite 
years. 

The following remarks are copied from letters received from the 
presidents or from professors of political economy in the several in- 
stitutions named : 

Atlanta University (Ga.) : " None of these subjects are taught 
except incidentally, . . . but some of them would be very 
valuable even in an elementary course especially Nos. 5, 6, 7, 
and 8." 

Clark University (Ga.) : "Topics 1, 2 and 4 are studied under 
the head of political economy ; topic 3 in a special text-book ; 
topic 9 in our Normal Course ; discussions have been held in topic 
5. We endeavor to impress on our students their relations to 
society and the duties arising. Considerable attention is paid to 
hygiene and kindred topics. I think that more attention should 
be given in all grades of schools to topics 3 and 8 especially." 

German English College (111.) : " We touch on these topics quite 
extensively in class instruction on political economy, civil gov- 
ernment, physiology and In'giene, moral philosophy, commercial 
law, etc." 

Illinois College (111.): "Topics 1 and 2, 14 weeks ; 3 and 4, 
1 1 weeks ; the others by lectures." 

Karlham College (Ind.) : " One term of twelve weeks, five hours 
each week, devoted to political economy." 

Indiana University (Ind.) : " My course in political science can 
be taken either in the senior or junior year, and is, I. Theory of 
Government; II. Comparative Constitutional Law ; III. Interna- 
tional Law and Political History. I have also a course in Econ- 
omics and Sociology covering the two years (3d and 4th), and 
the topics 4 to 8 inclusive are taken up in a summary manner, 
and also as topics of special investigation. The coming year 
I hope to investigate the town and count}' poor-houses in our 
vicinity. As the work gets more thoroughly in shape I shall hope 
to extend this kind of original investigation on the part of the 
students." 



XXXVIH AMKRICAN SOCIAL Sf'IKM I! ASSOCIATION. 

Persons College (Iowa) : "Topics 1, 2, 3, 4, !) and 10 arc pre- 
sented to classes in civil government, political economy, and intcr- 
iiatitnial law." 

I'niversity <>f Iowa (Iowa): "There is need of instruction in 
all the topics placed upon the schedule in collegiate work (besides 
the instruction given the Law and Medical departments)." 

Berea College (Ky.) : "We teach Perry's 1'olitical Fconomy 
with discussions ; Young's Science of Government ; Anatomy and 
Physiology and Hygiene : give much instruction on the subjects of 
intemperance, ventilation, etc. ; Fail-child's Moral Philosophy, with 
lectures on chastity and on every vice, as well as on punishments 
and reforms; twelve lectures a year on Public Fducatiou, with 
discussions ; the Bible, two days in a week ; a weekly religious lec- 
ture ; many prayer meetings, well attended : Young Men's and 
Young Women's Christian Associations ; much social intercourse 
with constant moral improvement." 

Centre College (Ky.) "Instruction given on all these topics in 
connection with the study of Moral Philosophy, Political Econ- 
omy, International Law, Constitution. Physiolog}', etc., etc. Fach 
of the ten topics are discussed to a greater or less degree. In text 
books many of these subjects are treated directly, others come 
up incidentally or are treated in lectures during the four years of 
the college course." 

Johns Hopkins University (Md.) : " Instruction is given in topics 
5, 7, 9 and 10 in advanced (university) work. One lecture and one 
meeting of the Philosophical Seminary each week to post-grad- 
uates only. Topics 2, 3 and 4 are treated in the courses in Polit- 
ical Science extending through two years." 

Boston University (Mass.) : "I enclose the following syllabus 
of Mr. F. B. Sanboru's course before the School of Medicine : 

FIRST LKCITKE, Wednesday, Jan. 27, at -S r. M. 

I. Wlio, and How Many, the Dependent and Delinquent Classes 

are. 

1. The physically defective ; including the blind, the deaf mute, 
the idiotic, the congenitally disfigured, the crippled, etc. 

2. The mentally or morally abnormal ; including the insane, the 
inebriate, the unbalanced or " cranky class," etc. 

3. The unfortunate and therefore dependent ; including widows 
and orphan children, the old and infirm, strangers in the country, 
persons thrown out of work, or suddenh" deprived of means, by 
fire, flood or other calamity. 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. XXXIX 

4. The sick, with those dependent on them. 

5. The vicious ; including persons habitually intemperate, pros- 
titutes, vagrants, petty thieves, young offenders, etc., with the 
families of such, or persons who depend on them more or less. 

G. The criminal class ; including those who suddenly or habit- 
ually commit crime, and are either in -prison, or are living in the 
community and ma}- at any time be arrested for crime, with those 
dependent on them, and often involved in their crimes. 

7. The actual inmates of such public establishments as prisons, 
almshouses, hospitals for the sick, the insane, etc., schools for the 
blind, deaf and idiotic, asylums for special classes, such as old 
men and women, soldiers, sailors, orphans, etc. 

8. Estimated number of these classes. 

II. General and Special Duties towards the Classes named. 

1 . Duty of the State, as representing the whole community. 

2. Duty of the Public, in its individual capacity. 

3. Duty of the Professions, and especially the Medical. 

III. The Health of the Community, and of Individuals, as an 

Agent in producing the Dependent Classes. 

1. Sanitary conditions and ordinary sickness. 

2. Contagious diseases and epidemics. 

3. Insanity and its causes. 

4. Maternity and diseases of vice. 

IV. Anomalous Position of the Medical Profession in regard to 

Disease and Vice. 

SECOND LECTURE, Wednesday, Feb. 3. 

V. The True Character of a Public Establishment for a Dependent 

Class. 

1 . Its relation to the State and the public treasury. 

2. The admission and detention of its inmates. 

3. Their sanitary condition and treatment. 

4. Their visitation and inspection by individuals or committees. 
"). Professional and general criticism upon the management of 

an establishment. 

6. Its direct educational value to the medical profession. 

VI. Hospitals for the Sick and the Insane. 

1. These two classes unreasonably separated in medical educa- 
tion. 

2. Insanity a specialt}*, but also involving the most general 
considerations. 



Xl AMKKK AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

:'.. Insanity in general practice. 

1. Clinical instruction as necessary in regard to insanity as to 
surgery, or ordinary disease. 

."). The West borough Hospital, as related to the Massachusetts 
llonm-opnthic Hospital and Boston I'niversity School of Medicine. 

VII. Almshouses of the State or the Municipalities. 

1. In-door and out-door relief. 

2. An almshonse necessarily a hospital in some degree. 

3. Out-door medical relief and dispensary practice. 
1. The Massachusetts sj'stem of out-door relief. 

5. The regulation and visitation of almshouses. 

6. The almshouse at Tewksbury and its history. 

7. The city almshouses of Boston. 

THIRD Li:< it I:K, Wednesday, Feb. 10. 

VIII. Maternity Hospitals and the Care of Young Children. 

1. The need of maternity hospitals in cities, and the evils to be 
guarded against. 

'2. Infanticide and the desertion of children. 

3. The Massachusetts system of care for motherless infants. 
1. What may be done by physicians in this matter. 

5. The disposal of " children of the State." 

IX. Truant Children and Juvenile Offenders. 

1 . Vagrancy among children and grown persons. 

'2. Truant schools and local or private reformatories. 

.">. State reformatories. 

4. The family system for reforming young offenders. 

FOURTH LECTURK, Wednesday, Feb. 17. 

X. Prisons and their Inmates. 

1. The convicts themselves. 

2. Their families and dependents. 

3. Discharged prisoners. 

XI. General Remarks on the whole Subject." 

Harvard College (Mass.) : " As the course here is entirely elect- 
ive, the topics are taken by men of all classes. Of course the 
higher studies (as indicated by the higher numbers) are generally 
taken by older men. The following in history answer your ques- 
tions 3 and 4 : 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. xll 

2. Constitutional Government in England and the United States 
(Introductory to Courses 11, 12, 13, 14, and 18). Tu., Th., 
Sat., at 11 (first half year}, counting as a half-course. 

[4. Political and Legal Institutions of the Roman Empire. De- 
velopment of the Fraukish Constitution to the death of Charle- 
magne. Wed., Fri., and (at the pleasure of Hie Instructor) 
Mon., at 12 (second half-year), counting as a half course. 

[8. History of Government and Administration in France from 
the Frankish period to modern times. Wed., Fri., and (at 
the pleasure of the Instructor) Mon., at 10. 

[9. Constitutional and Legal History of England to the Sixteenth 
Century. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. 

13. Constitutional and Political History of the United States (1783- 
1861) Tu., Th., Sat., at 12. 

18. American Colonial History (to 1783). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. 

The following syllabus shows the scope of the studies in Politi- 
cal Economy for 188G-87, thus answering questions 1 and 2 of 
your circular : 

GENERAL, PLAN. 

"The courses are so arranged as to attain two objects. (1) 
Familiarity with the leading principles of the science is not only 
desirable for purposes of discipline, but indispensable as a prepa- 
ration for the study of practical questions. Course 1 (with Divi- 
sion B for the second half-year) aims to give that general know- 
ledge which every educated man ought to have. For those, how- 
ever, who wish to attain a thorough mastery of the principles of 
economics, one course is not deemed sufficient, and such students 
are strongly urged to continue this disciplinary training through a 
second year. To enable them to do so, an advanced course 
(Course 2) has been provided, devoted to a study of the principles 
and systems of various writers selected from different schools. 
(2) It is desired to turn the attention of students to the historical 
and practical side of the subject, affording training in the use of 
books and sources, the collection of statistics, and the investiga- 
tion of such public questions as constantly arise from year to .year. 
This second object is provided for in Courses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 
and 10. 

The purpose of the plan being clear, it can be used either by 
those who have only a limited time to give to Political Economy, 
by taking Course 1 and afterwards an applied course, or by those 
who expect to make a more thorough study of the subject, by tuk- 
ing I and 2, and as main' other applied courses as may seem de- 
sirable ; and, those who take Course 2, can at the same time carry 



xlii AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

on work in any of the practical subjects. With this explanation 

of the scope ol' tin- general plan, sludeiits will lind it useful to 
ki;o\v the particular bearing of each course. 

i ) ii \ii.i -.! STATEMENT. 

1. /-V/-N/ //d/f->/i'/ir : Mill's Principles of Political Kcouoiny. 
Dunbar's Chapters on Hanking. 

Second half-year: Division A -(Theoretical): Mill's Principles 
of Political Kconomy. Cairnes's Leading Principles of 
Political Kconomy. ]Jirixi<>ii /> (Descriptive) : Lectures 
on Money, Finance, Labor and Capital, Cooperation, So- 
cialism and Taxation. Mon., Wed.. Fri., at 0. 

Course 1 is intended not only as a means by which a student 
may obtain the necessary preparation for advanced courses, but 
also as a means of acquiring that general knowledge of the subject 
desired by those who have little time to give to UK; study. Dur- 
ing the first half-year attention will he given to the main principles 
of Political Kconomy and to the elements of Hanking, and all who 
elect the course will have substantially the same work x J. S. 
MILL'S Principles of Political Economy (the revised and abridged 
edition) , and C. F. DUXBAR'S Chapters on Banking, will be used 
as the basis ol the teaching, with illustrations, explanations, and 
questions in the class-room. 

For the second half-year the members of the course will be 
separated into two groups, on the basis of their preferences and 
plans for the future. If a student expects to give further study to 
Political Kconorrry he is advised to join Division A. About the 
middle of the year each student will be given an opportunity to 
choose between Division A and Division J3. For admission to 
Courses 2 and 3 a student is required to have passed satisfactorily 
in Division A. It is understood, however that instructors may 
consider individual cases on their merits, and make possible excep- 
tions to the rule for good reasons. 

In as much as Division A will contain those who expect to make 
a more serious study of Political Kconomy. the work of the second 
half-year will be largely given up to a study of the principles, in 
order that greater familiarity with economic reasoning may be 
gained. It is intended to use portions of Mill, and of .7. K. 
Cairnes's Leading Principles of Political Economy as the ground- 
work. It is hoped to carry on this part of the course through the 
means of problems accompanied by references to the authors. 

Division B is intended primarily for those who mean to take but 
one course in Political Economy. Its object will be to illustrate 
the application in practice of the principles dealt with in the first 
half-year. Brief consideration will be given to the labor question, 
cooperation, industrial partnership, trade-unions, socialism, free- 
trade and protection, money, bimetallism. The work will be large- 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. xliil 

ly descriptive and historical. The instruction will be partly by 
lectures, and partly by the discussion of Upton's Money in Poli- 
tics, Jevons's The State in relation to Labor, and other brief books. 

*2. History of Economic Theory. Examination of selections 
from Leading writers. Lectures. Mon., Wed. (at the 
pleasure of the Instructor), and Fri.. at 2. 

Course 2 is intended for those who mean to make a more ex- 
haustive study of the literature and the leading principles of the 
subject than is given in Course 1. An examination will be made 
of the historical development of Political Economy and of the 
views of contemporary writers on important questions of principle. 
The first half of the year will be occupied chiefly with the history 
of economic doctrines. The instruction will be partly by lectures, 
and partlj' by the discussion of passages from the works of great 
economists, such as Adam Smith and Ricardo. In the second half 
of the year certain selected topics will be taken up, and their treat- 
ment at the hands of writers of the present time (such as Cairnes, 
Sidgwick, Walker, George, Leroy-Beaulieu, Wagner) will be ex- 
amined. The topics for 1886-87 will be taken from the following 
list : the wage question ; interest ; rent ; manager's profits ; the 
theory of money ; international trade ; the method and scope of 
political economy ; socialism and the relation of the state to econo- 
mics. For admission to Course '2 it is required to have passed 
satisfactorily in Course 1, Division A. 

*3. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. 
Short Theses. Tu., Th., at 3, and a third hour to be 
appointed by the Instructor. 

Provision is made for the discussion and study of such practical 
questions of the day as may come up from time to time. Only 
those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1 will be admitted 
to this course. Special and detailed investigations are confined to 
Course 10. In Course 3 it is expected that a number of topics 
will betaken up, thus requiring no exhaustive treatment of single 
subjects. Without losing more tame than in an ordinary course, it 
is intended that each student shall have practice in collecting the 
facts and in making a simple statement of opposing arguments on 
some part of a question of the day, in the form of a short thesis. 
The topics thus presented will be the basis of discussion by other 
students, or by the instructor. It is the plan, however, to keep 
this essentially an elementary course in investigation, open to those 
who do not intend to carry on an elaborate investigation in Course 
10. So far as can now be stated, the topics for 1886-87 will be 
taken from the following list : 

The navigation laws and American shipping; bimetallism ; ap- 
preciation of gold ; reciprocity with Canada and Mexico ; advan- 



AMKKK'AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of government issues of notes compared with those of the 
national tanks; rnilway transportation; American competition: 
the surplus revenue ; cooperation. 

4. Economic History of Europe and America since tin- Seven 
Year*' War. Lectures and written work. Mon., Wl.. 
/>/., at 11. 

It is intended in Course 1 to trace the economic effects of the 
great events in the history of the last one hundred and twenty-five 
years. This course does not require any previous study of Politi- 
cal Economy; but it is greatly for the advantage of the student 
electing it to take or to have taken either Political Economy 1 or 
History 12 or !.">. The following topics will be treated : 

The economic results of the invention of textile machinery and 
of the use of steam ; of the American and French Revolutions ; of 
the introduction of railways ; of steam navigation ; of the new dis- 
coveries of gold ; of the refined uses of credit ; of the civil war of 
ixdi-i;.") ; and of the Franco-German war of 1x70 and the politi- 
cal reorganization of Germany. 

In addition to the lectures in which these topics are treated, 
text-book work will be prescribed for 1XXG-X7; and, besides the 
regular mid-year and final examinations, hour examinations will 
also be held ; in place of which, however, proficient students may 
substitute written work, upon special subjects assigned by the 
instructor. 

*5. Economic effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, 
France, and Germany. Lectures and Theses. Once a 
week, counting as a half-course. 

This course is open only to those who have passed satisfactorily 
in Course 1. Special topics are assigned to members, and the 
written thesis when prepared is made the subject of criticism and 
discussion by the instructor. In these studies students are ex- 
pected to reach conclusions through their own investigations, and 
by the aid of the collection of facts and statistics in the College 
Library. This course covers the questions now of politic:'! im- 
portance in England. Ireland, Erance, and Germany in their eco- 
nomic aspects, and embraces the following subjects: 

In England: the land laws; relative position of landlord, ten- 
ant, and laborer in the last one hundred years ; tenant-right ; 
leases ; prices and importation of grain ; repeal of the corn-laws ; 
American competition; peasant proprietorship. In Ireland: the 
ancient tribal customs ; English conquests; relations of landlord 
and tenant ; security of tenure ; Ulster tenant-right ; absenteeism: 
parliamentary legislation ; acts of 1869, 1870, 18X1, 1.SS2; popu- 
lation ; prices of food and labor. In Erance : feudal burdens on 






SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. xlv 

land ; relation of classes, and condition of peasantry and agricul- 
ture before the Revolution ; small holdings and the law of equal 
division ; present condition of peasantry and agriculture ; growth 
of population ; statistics of production, wages, prices ; peasant 
proprietorship. In Germany : reforms of Stein and Hardenberg ; 
condition of agriculture ; peasant proprietors ; statistics of wages 
and prices. 

*6. Histoiy of Tariff Legislation in the United States. Tu., 
Th., (at 2 second half-year), counting as a half-course. 

Course 6 is partly economic and partly historical. The eco- 
nomic principles which should govern tariff' legislation, and the 
fiscal and administrative questions arising in connection with it, 
will be discussed. In the historical part of the course attention 
will be given mainly to the history of legislation on the tariff in 
the United States from 1789 to the present time. Brief considera- 
tion will also be given to the experience of the Colonies in foreign 
trade before the Revolution ; and, in the latter part of the year, to 
the tariff history of England, France and Germany. It is recom- 
mended that this course be taken in connection with Course 8 and 
with History 13. The nature of the course is indicated by the fol- 
lowing summary of the topics taken up in the tariff history of the 
United States : 

I. 1789-1816: Tariff system adopted after the formation of 
the Constitution ; Hamilton's report ; the state of the protective 
controversy before 1816 ; the beginnings of manufacturing indus- 
try. II. 1816-1840: The American ^System ; Henry Clay; the 
tariffs of 1824, 1828, 1832; the Compromise Tariff of 1833; the 
growth of manufactures ; the economic effects of protection. III. 
1840-1860: The political tariffs of 1842 and 1846; the industrial 
progress of the country from 1846 to I860. IV. 1860-18^3 : the 
Civil War ; the development of the existing tariff system ; the act 
of 1864 ; the tax reducing acts of later years ; the tariff revision 
of 1883 ; the economic effects of the protective system. 

For admission to Course 6 a student must have passed satisfac- 
torily in Course 1. 

*7. Public Finance and Banking. Leroy-Beaulieu's Science des 
Finances. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 3. 

In this course it is proposed to review the financial s}-stem of 
two or three of the leading modern countries, their methods of 
taxation and of borrowing, and the characteristics of their bank- 
ing-systems, especially as connected with the public finances. Il- 
lustration by comparison with the practice of less important coun- 
tries and by historical examples will be an essential part of the 
work. 

Written reports by the students upon assigned topics and dis- 



xlvi AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

(Missions thereon in tlie class-room will be chiefly relied on in con- 
ducting this course, and lor admission to it a satisfactory record 
in Course I is required. 

*8. History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 7V., 
T7t., at 2 (Jirst half-year), counting as a half-course. 

In this course, for admission to which it is necessary to have 
passed satisfactorily in Course 1, a comprehensive review will he 
made of the financial history of the United States, with special 
consideration of Hamilton's financial system, the struggle over the 
second Bank of the United States, and the finances of the civil 
war and of the period of suspended payments. This course is ad- 
vantageously taken with Course 6, making a full course for the 
year, and is also a useful accompaniment to History 1.'!. It will 
be carried on with a limited number of lectures, with frequent 
reports by students upon assigned topics, and with a prescribed 
course of reading. 

*10. Special Advanced Study and Research. In ISWi-ST, com- 
petent students may pursue special investigations of 
selected topics under the guidance of any one of the in- 
structors. 

Course 10 is open only to Graduates, to Candidates for Honors 
in Political Science, and to Seniors of high rank who are likely to 
obtain Honorable Mention in Political Economy. The subject to 
be pursued is selected upon consultation and agreement with the 
instructor under whose direction the student is to work, and the 
course can then be taken, either as a full course or as a half- 
course, as the nature and extent of the investigation may in the 
judgment of the instructor require." 

-. 

Williams College (Mass.) "Topic (1) all the Junior year, one 
hour daily ; (2) sixteen weeks of Junior year, one hour daily ; (3) 
all Junior year, three hours weekly. Topics 4-10 are touched on 
incidentally in connection with the Constitution of the United 
States, which is learned and recited; and in connection with 
lectures on the Common and Roman Law. Two terms of history, 
English and American, six hours a week, give additional oppor- 
tunity to treat social science topics." 

Michigan University (Mich.) " Impossible, with our s}"stem of 
electives, to say in what year of a student's course these studies 
will betaken ; but it is safe to answer that most of this work comes 
in the third and fourth years of collegiate residence. Some of the 
more elementaiy studies may be begun in the second half of the 
second year." 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. 

University of Minnesota (Minn.) " In my judgment, subjects 
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 should be taught to all undergraduates of 
course only elements can be given to undergraduates. No. 5 will 
receive some incidental notice in the department of Ethics as also 
will No. 6 ; No. 8 should be so generally taught in lower schools 
as to give all necessary instruction not technical. The secretary 
of the State Board of Health gives an admirable course of lectures 
to our Seniors. We plan to instruct post-graduates in any of 
these specialties, according to their choice. Last year the special- 
ties chosen were Money, Property, Taxation and Laud Systems. 
The course for undergraduates is this : 

Full Term. Political Economy (topics 1 and 2.) 

Second Term, Civil Government (topic 3.) 

Spring Term. American National Economy (topics 4-10 except 
5-8.)" 

University of Missouri (Mo.) : " Topics 1, 2, 4, 5, taught in 
the Law School ; 3 and 4 in the English School ; 6 and 7 in the 
course on Ethics ; 8 by the professors of the Medical School ; 9 
and 10b} T the Normal School [Missouri having a Normal depart- 
ment in the State University.]" 

Washington University (Mo.) : " Topics 4-10 discussed in con- 
nection with work in political economy and ethics." 

College of the City of New York (N. Y.) "All the topics in 
question are treated or touched upon either in the Junior year 
course in political and social science, or the Senior year philosophy ; 
some of them from more than one point of view." 

[A printed paper on " the method of meeting the new social issues 
by education," was received from Prof. G. B. Newcomb.j 

Columbia College (N. Y.) : "All the matters embraced in the 
schedule, except pedagogics, are taught in this college, but not in 
the same School. Those falling under political economy are taught 
in the School of Arts and in the School of Political Science. The 
other topics are taught in the Schools of Law and of Mines." 

Rutgers College (N. J.) : " Lectures on ' Duties of Civilization' 
in Senior year. The President in brief discussions before the 
college ' Bible Class ' treats these topics as applications of Christi- 
anity to social problems of our time. Also, in Lieber's Political 
Ethics in Senior year." 

Hiram College, (0.) "All the subjects mentioned in the sched- 
ule sent me are worthy of the careful and critical attention of the 



xlviii AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

educator, especially the topics numbered I. <;, 7, X and 10. One 
of the most pressing questions of the day in America is, ki What 
is Education ?" It is a question in the minds of sonu' so-called 
"educators" whether a knowledge of the things incntioned in 
your schedule should niter as a factor into education. I believe 
we seethe dawn of that day in which "Civics" and ''Social Sci- 
ence" will occupy a prominent place in the curriculum of American 
colleges." 

Keiiyon College, (O.) "As to what topics in the list may beprof- 
tably studied by college students, I would say that 1 regard those 
numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and .10 on the schedule, as coming before the 
others. But in my judgment the theory of Iluctuatious in market, 
values ought to be made a special topic, and precede items 1 
and i>." 

Ohio Wesleyan University, (O.) "We teach under No. 1 that, 
propert3 T is a trust held first for God, second, for the State, third, 
for the family, fourth, for self. Under No. 2 that Republican 
institutions necessitate higher prices for labor, and greater distri- 
bution of comforts than despotisms, monarchical governments, or 
privileged classes. Under No. 3, that the organic unit of all 
mankind is the state that is best for all, and at the same time for 
each. Under No. 4, that corporations have no souls to save, nor 
faces to slap every big fish feels it a religious duty to swallow 
the little ones. Under No. 5 we teach, contrary to Dr. Woolsey, 
that the first motive in punishment is to reform and save the 
criminal. Under No. 6 we teach that it is best to watch children 
as an officer watches a convict, till they reach majority, and insist 
on instant obedience, and "mix it a' wi' prayer." Under No. 7 
we teach that the State should be father and mother to the help- 
less, but should not interfere with Providence in warding off from 
the able and intelligent the consequences of crime. Under No. 8, 
that lack of light, murderous cellars, imperfect sewage-pipes, are 
the crying sins of builders, mechanics, and city authorities. Under 
No. 9, absolute perfection in reading, writing, spelling, grammar, 
arithmetic, geography, and physiology should be attained. Under 
No. 10 the perfect and symmetrical development of all the 
powers of the mind. Technical, professional, elective education in 
the development of the mind as an end (which is liberal culture), 
is an abomination of abominations." 

University of Wooster, (O.) " A new professorship, now more 



SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES. xlJX 

than half endowed, has just been established here ; it is named the 
chair of Morals and Sociology." 

Pacific University, (Oregon.) " I look for the next great ad- 
vance of man in the line of the social sciences, rather than in the 
natural sciences." 

Franklin and Marshall College, (Pa.) " We continue to use 
the old College Curriculum. In the senior year we teach political 
economy, and devote a whole year to ethics, in which I lecture on 
the famity and the State, covering a full course of instruction in 
Social Science viewed from the standpoint of ethics i. e., the 
ethics of social economy." 

University of Vermont, (Vt.) "Sanitary Science is taught in 
detail ; all except sanitation is taught under the general subject oi 
political economy and social philosophy." 



THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 

THEIR GROWTH AND FUTURE. 

(A Report read before the American Social Science Association, September 10, 1885, 
at Saratoga, N. Y., by F. B. Sanborn, General Secretary.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Association: 

It is twent}' years, lacking some four weeks, since our society 
held its first meeting in Boston, which was called together by a 
department of the state government of Massachusetts and con- 
vened in the State House. I mention this fact, otherwise of little 
moment, to show what view was then taken of a question some- 
times discussed among us the share which a popular government 
should have in discussions such as we carry on. It was then be- 
lieved (at the close of our great civil war, in which the govern- 
ment had, from necessit} r , been absolute and military in most of 
its branches,) that there were many social concerns, not hitherto 
held as very closely related to the government, in which the people, 
through their representatives and the administrative officials, 
should take a certain definite part. These related to the public 
education, the public health, and that arrangement of the public 
finances upon which the whole structure of private commerce and 
pecuniary activity depends ; and, from that time onward, in the 
United States, it has been more and more the affair of government, 
both local and national, to bus}- itself with school funds and school 
boards, with boards of health, boards of charities, commissioners 
of lunacy, of valuation and taxation, tariff commissions, Indian 
commissions, the official inspection of banks, factories, mines and 
crops ; the collection of innumerable census statistics ; the inves- 
tigation of railroad and telegraph traffic, and its partial regulation ; 
the establishment of parks, museums, libraries, art galleries, etc., 
wholly or in part at the public cost, and so on, to a degree which 
has excited in our distinguished associate, Herbert Spencer, seri- 
ous alarm lest modern society may be reduced to slavery and 
socialism. Without pausing to consider this danger now for it 
does not seem immediately pressing I would only remark that 
our Association, at its veiy outset, seems to have contemplated just 
this expansion of the powers and interests of a popular govern- 



2 AMF.RICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

raent, and iiot to have divaded disaster therefrom. But we also 
contemplated as our own more special work, the combination of 
private initiative and associated activity with whatever government! 
might undertake ; and this was foreshadowed in our first meeting, 
at which many official persons from several of the states were 
present. 

( )f those who then associated themselves for this purpose, but few 
remain active in our association, and every year removes some of 
them, and of those who have since joined us. Among such deaths 
in the past year I would mention with deserved commemoration, 
Dr. Edward Jarvis, of Massachusetts, who, in 1865, stood among 
the foremost in America for statistical research and philanthropic 
breadth of view. Others may have overtaken or distanced him in 
these later years, when the range and the instrumentalities of sta- 
tistical science have so vastly increased ; but none could excel Dr. 
Jarvis in sincere interest and tireless industiy for such pursuits. 
He was no less devoted to sanitary questions and to the care of 
the insane and idiotic that painful province of modern civilization 
in which society has so much to learn and to suffer, before a por- 
tentous evil can even be understood much less checked and 
abated. In these fields, and in all the domain of philanthropy, Dr. 
Jarvis was constantly hopeful perhaps beyond the scope of rea- 
sonable anticipation, but this is a rare and generous fault even in 
the 3"oung, and how seldom do we find it in experienced age ! His 
private virtues were the natural accompaniment of these public 
qualities, and he was fortunate not only in the peace of his life, 
but in the felicity of his death. 

What shall I say then of that other and far greater citizen, 
whose life lately ended, amid the admiring regret of his couutry- 
men and of the whole world drew its chief distinction from the 
bloody annals of war, yet sought peace alone in that labyrinth of 
battles, and bravely achieved its aim? GENERAL GRANT was for a 
short time one of our members, though he took no active part in 
our organization, and is chiefly remembered, in this connection, 
for the early and effective recognition he gave as president of the 
United States to those principles of civil Service reform which our 
Association so long ago presented and maintained. It was he who 
appointed to high position in the early work of this reform our 
associates, Mr. Curtis and Mr. Eaton, who have been permitted at 
last to see the result of their labors in the arrest and prospective 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY. 3 

downfall of the "spoils system" of appointment to public office. 
True, President Grant did not show that wonderful power of com- 
pleting a campaign, in matters political, which General Grant had 
displayed in the affairs of war ; and it was left for others to fight 
out the civil service battle on that line, through many snmmers. 
But much is due to the silent soldier for his initiative in this affair, 
undertaken, as it was. against the open or secret hostility of his 
party friends or supporters, to whose ill advice he owed the errors 
of his civil administration. Forgetting these, until such time as 
the good of our country may force us to remember them, let us 
dwell with a more generous satisfaction on General Grant's unex- 
ampled military career. If the genius of this great soldier had led 
him, like other famous conquerors, to victories however brilliant, 
over trampled nations and the institutions of his own country, it 
would not be the part of the social science to celebrate them. War 
in itself is unsocial and abhorred by the students of our science. 

We love not this French god, this child of hell, 
Wild war, that breaks the converse of the wise. 

And our champion, irresistible in war, was one of the few great con- 
querors who hated the deadly art by which he rose to fame and sought 
only peace in all his campaigns. His upward progress was swift 
and sure, more rapid and more brilliant than Cromwell's, equally 
fortunate, on a far grander scale, and at the same time more per- 
manent in its successes. Like Cromwell, Grant broke forth from 
obscurity and seemed to command good fortune as well as vast 
armies, by that singular personal quality which forbade Caesar and 
Alexander to be defeated : 

For, if we would speak true, 

Much to the man is due, 
Who, from his private gardens, where 
He lived reserved and austere, 

As if his highest plot 

To plant the bergamot, 
Could by industrious valor climb 
To ruin the great work of Time, 

And cast the kingdoms old 

Into another mold. 

* * * * 

But he, the war's and fortune's son, 
Marched indefatigably on, 

And for the last effect 

Still kept the sword erect. 

And when Grant laid down the sword all armed contention ceased, 



4 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

so perfectly had he finished the work of war more remarkable in 
this than Alexander or Ctesar or Cromwell or Napoleon because, 
unlike them, he sought neither dominion nor glory, but peace 
alone, and the welfare of mankind. 

It is this ever advancing goal of human welfare that the students 
of social science aim at, and when some phase of it has been ob- 
tained, we still find it in other forms as far before us as ever. In the 
twenty years' period now closing we have seen many results once 
deemed unattainable, resting in secure accomplishment, while 
other objects of hope that were long despaired of, seem now close 
at hand. I will not stop to point out what these are, and will 
dwell for a moment only on the growing community of thoughts 
and interests among the nations of the world, which has at last 
made the universal study of the social sciences possible. The 
ever-flowing currents of commerce, like those ocean streams upon 
which its cargoes are borne, and the main tidal-wave of emigration, 
pushing forward into every unoccupied land, have at last reached 
the long inaccessible regions of central Africa ; while the vast 
solitudes of central Asia are opening at the march of armies and 
the serpent-like approach of the railroad. These are but new and 
extreme illustrations of that advancing, co-operating civilization 
which has been at work for centuries to bring together the ends of 
the earth in a league of interest and mutual good-will ; but the 
process is wonderfully hastened of late, and even since our Asso- 
ciation was organized in 1865. Twenty years more of such pro- 
gress in international relations, and the geographical extension of 
trade and of democrac}*, and the whole face of the earth will seem 
changed. There will be throughout the world what the American 
patriot sighed for long ago " no North, no South, no East and no 
West " ; the points of the compass will no longer indicate anything 
but geographic facts, and civilization will be of no particular hem- 
isphere or latitude, for there will be but one civilization. "Three 
hundred religions and only one gravj* ! " sighed the disgusted 
Frenchman in Great Britain ; and it must be confessed there are 
resources against ennui in the variety even of pudding-sauces. 
" All men of sense," said the first earl of Shaftesbuiy, " are of one 
religion;" but when his inquisitive friend asked, "What religion 
may that be, my lord?" he was fain to answer, "That, madam, 
men of sense never tell." I will not undertake to forecast what 
our own civilization will be in 1905 ; but it is safe to say it will be 



THE SOCIAt, SCIENCES. 5 

broader, more tolerant, more inclusive and less selfish than the 
present dispensation. Our friends of the pessimistic school dwell 
with grim satisfaction on their doctrine that teaches "survival of 
the fittest ; " but if the fittest do survive, they must make the world 
a fitter place to live in. It is the survival and not the extirpation 
upon which the student of social science fastens his attention, 
letting the dead bury their dead. But we must never forget that 
moral fitness is an element in natural selection ; there is also a 
spiritual something that comes in due time after the natural and 
survives it, as being the fittest. If men, or even dogs, were 
what some economists describe as men, creatures of selfishness 
alone, enlightened only in order to satisfy self more exquisitely 
this earth would be a very different and far worse planet than it is. 
Dr. Johnson declared that he had constantly found men less just 
and more beneficent than he had expected, that is to say, less 
logical and more sympathetic ; and if I were to select a single 
term by which to qualify the whole race of mankind, perhaps sym- 
pathetic would be as good as any. Even Lucan's Cato inflexible 
disciple of a harsh sect, whose boast was to follow nature and 
scorn metaphysics viewed himself as born not for self but for the 
wide world of men, 

Nee sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo. 

In other words, he was sympathetic, and instead of seeking the 
survival of the fittest that is, of himself he pledged his life for 
his country, and was tender of the public rather than of his own 
carcass. 

Patriaeque impendere vitam, 
In commune bonus ; nullosque Caton's in actus 
Subrepsit parteinque tulit sibi nata voluptas. 

This native delight of selfishness, which had so little share in 
Cato, has long been the portion of mankind in general, and may 
be taken for granted and reasoned from, as the economists and 
pessimists have done ; but it by no means tells the whole story. 
There is a suppressed premise in this enthymeme of human his- 
tory, which is sure to declare itself in the conclusion, to the shame 
of " sophisters, economists and calculators," as Burke called the 
pedantic class in his time. The whole chronicle of our civil war, 
and the career of him whose sword cut the Gordian knot that tied 
up our liberties with slavery, is one long protest against that theory 



6 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

of human nature which founds it on selfishness, enlightened or !><- 
ni< r hted. Mankind are both selfish and " sentimental" sonic- 

D 

tiiiu'.s sentimental in their selfishness; but, on the whole, the sen- 
tinieuts prevail over the desires. This should be understood 
by those economists who waste so much breath in denouncing 
"sentiment"' and "metaphysics," forgetting that their own 
science is a metaphysical one, and in few respects to be assi- 
milated to a natural or an exact science. M. de Laveleye has 
lately spoken to some purpose on this point, saying : k - When cer- 
tain laws, which are only suitable to natural science, are borrowed 
from biology and applied to local relations, men's moral senses 
must inevitably become deadened, and the thirst for perfection be 
destroyed. Generations educated in this school would never etl'ect 
such revolutions as those of the 10th century, or that of 17M'. 
They would be perfectly ready to submit to every tyranny, con- 
sidering it a decree of nature." To the same effect, but more 
positively, as was his wont, Emerson says, " The sentiment of 
mercy is the natural recoil which the laws of the universe provide 
to protect mankind from destruction by savage passions." 

You have had an opportunity to learn in the past two days what 
are the aims of that newest organization, the American Economic 
Association. I have found them concisely stated by one of the 
members, Mr. Edward Bemis. who will have something to sa}' on 
" Socialism " at one of our meetings. He declares that " a grow- 
ing number of the most scholarly investigators " who refuse "to 
recognize as all-embracing those old theories of the English econo- 
mists which exalt selfishness, and insist that the greatest progress 
is secured only when the freest competition prevails," are now 
seeking " to study what is and also what changes are practicable 
to bring about what ought to be" Methinks this expresses very 
well what our association has been doing in its broader field and 
with more miscellaneous activity, for the last twenty years. To 
learn patiently what is to promote diligently what should be, 
this is the double duty of all the social sciences, of which political 
economy is one. 

It is a pleasure to find in the essays of a former associate \\ itb 
whom we do not always agree, and who perhaps would differ from 
us in the remark just made a full recognition of the broad task of 
what he calls "Sociology." Prof. Sumner says: " Sociology is 
the science of life in society ; it investigates the forces which come 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY. 7 

into action wherever a human societj" exists. Its practical utility 
consists in deriving the rules of right social living from the facts 
and laws which prevail by nature in the constitution and functions 
of society. At this moment our knowledge of social science is 
behind the demands which existing social questions make upon us. 
It is to the science of society, which will derive true conceptions 
from the facts and laws of the social order, studied without pre- 
judice or bias of any sort, that we must look for the correct 
answer to those questions." 

A perception of this necessity, which Prof. Sumner has stated 
none too strongly, has led within a few years to the systematic 
teaching of social science in American colleges and universities. 
Perhaps the earliest example of this was in a Massachusetts college 
not far off (at Williamstown) where Prof. Perry, in connection 
with his specialty of political economy, has for twenty years given 
more time to the generalizations of social science than most college 
instructors. Next to Williams college, in point of time, has been 
the university of Michigan, so far as I know ; for there several de- 
partments of social science have been dealt with by lectures tor the 
past four years. Dr. Edward S. Dunster (whom I remember at 
Harvard college thirty years ago) , has given two lectures a week 
for half the university year at Ann Arbor to the discussion of the 
more direct social problems, such as Popular Education, the La- 
bor Question, the Burdens and the Prevention of Pauperism, the 
Punishment of Crime, etc. Prof. V. C. Vaughan at the same 
university has been lecturing during the same four years on sani- 
tary science, including a discussion of food, water supply, clothing, 
heating and ventilation, healthy homes, etc. His first class in 
1881 consisted of four students with some few citizens of Ann 
Arbor; his class last year contained 112 students. At Harvard 
university Prof. F. G. Peabody, a clergyman, commenced system- 
atic instruction in social science last year to a class finally consist- 
ing of fifty students ; and I cannot do better than to state from his 
letter to rne the manner in which he began and conducted his work. 
He says : " I was led to my subject by a somewhat different road 
from most of those who deal with it. As a teacher of ethics I be- 
came aware of the chasm which exists between such abstract study 
and the practical application of moral idea's ; and it seemed to rne 
possible to approach the thcoiy of ethics inductively, through the 
analyses of great moral movements, which could be easily char- 



8 \\IKUICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

notarized and from which principles could be deduced I studied 
thus with my class the problems of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, 
tin- Labor Question, Intemperance, with results of surprising 
interest. My class, under our elective method, grew from ten 
to fifty and was made up from five departments of the university. 
Each student made written reports of personal observation of some 
institution of charity or reform ; and from these data thus collected 
I endeavored in each case to draw out the ethical principles in- 
volved. The results of the examination showed that the students 
felt a. living interest in the subjects treated ; and I think they will 
be more public-spirited as citizens and more discreet as reformers 
by even this slight opportunity for research. There is in this de- 
partment a new opportunity in university instruction. With us it 
has been quite without precedent. It summons the young men 
who have been imbued with the principles of political economy and 
of philosophy to the practical application of those studies. It 
ought to do what college work rarely does bring a young man's 
studies near to the problems of an American's life. \Vhatyou say 
of the conflict with laissez-faire economics is precisely that which, 
under each head of my discussion, I have tried to make clear; and 
it is refreshing to see that young men are quick to see the insulli- 
ciency of that school." Another clergyman, Rev. S. W. Dike, of 
Ro3'alton, Vt., a well-known member of our association, has also 
introduced social science in the past year at the Andover theologi- 
cal seminary, where he gave six lectures on " The Family, with 
Special Reference to Social Problems." The subject was treated 
from the moralist's point of view, with some regard to doctrinal 
theology ; and this course was perhaps the first on such topics ever 
ever held in a divinity school. 

A third clergyman, Rev. R. E. Thompson, of Philadelphia, 
better known as an author and a professor in the university of 
Pennsylvania, has for some 3 - ears been lecturing at that universit}', 
on those themes of social science which are closest connected with 
political econoim-, on which Prof. Thompson is an authority for 
his school of opinion. He wrote me in regard to his method of 
instruction : " I change every year the ground traversed, so as to 
keep the subjects fresh to myself. I generally take up the living 
questions in political economy, and give my lectures as foot-notes 
to the newspapers. But I also include more general topics of 
social science, such as Communism, Socialism, Organization of 



THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 9 

Charity, Prison Discipline, the Elevation of the Working Classes, 
the Temperance Problem, the Public Education. My lectures are 
open to the public, and in some years I have quite a considerable 
attendance. One year I had to adjourn my class to the college 
chapel." 

Concerning other forms of social science instruction at Philadel- 
phia and Baltimore, we have alread} 7 heard from Prof. James, 
Prof. Ety and others, or shall hear this morning. As a text for 
the discussion which will follow this report, I may now give, rather 
more at length than these professors have written, my own experi- 
ence as a lecturer at Cornell university last spring. 

For several years past President White had been proposing to 
me a course of lectures on social science, in some of its many ap- 
plications, to be given at the university which, without bearing his 
name, owes its marked success and rapid growth to his wise, per- 
sistent and patient direction, and to the inspiration of his broad 
scholarship and his just perceptions of what an American univer- 
sit} - might and should be. I had said to him that, while I dis- 
trusted my own fitness for the task, I would undertake it, so soon 
as he would indicate definitely what course of instruction would be 
suited to the young men and women under his charge at Ithaca. 
It seemed best to him, in 1884, to begin the new department 
neither with ethics nor economics nor with what is broadly termed 
sociolog}', but with practical lectures on the treatment of the public 
dependents, the insane, the poor, the vicious and the criminals 
of an American state illustrated and enforced by visits to the 
larger establishments in the "Empire state" of New York, several 
of which lay in eas}' proximity to Cornell universit}*. Such a 
course did not exclude, but rather required exact definitions of 
these different classes among the great mass of the dependent and 
dangerous persons for or against whom society must provide ; and 
I endeavored to base these definitions, not on an assumed meta- 
physical state of mind in the abstract man, but on the actual state 
and circumstances of many thousands of such persons who had 
come under my notice in some twenty years' contact with them. 
An experience of this kind naturally leads one to generalize, not 
without deduction, but on the whole inductively, and with a regard 
to the probable rather than the inferred or hypothetical result of 
what might be done concerning the classes in question. Such 
generalizations 1 threw into the form of introductory lectures, trac- 



10 A MICHIGAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

ing historically the methods of dealing with crime, pauperism, 
ins.-mity. preventable disease, public vice, etc., and showing how 
tiiese evils and therefore the mode of meeting them had been 
affected by the changing conditions of modern civilization. I pur- 
posely avoided most of the doetrinary points about which writers 
have been disputing for centuries, except as these seemed to have 
been disputing for centuries, except as these seemed to have been 
settled by the consent of mankind. But of course it was not pos- 
sible to avoid meeting the chimera of non-interference by govern- 
ment, the Franco-Britannic specter of laissez-faire, which has 
been conjured up so man}' times to thwart \vise statesmanship and 
a. decent public policy, in the ethical relations of government. My 
hearers were instructed so far as thirty lectures and visits to 
prisons, asylums and poorhouses could do so, that civilization 
itself is an affair of self-restraint and mutuality of help among 
individuals ; that where self-restraint fails, this help consists in 
actual restraint by others ; that the manifold forms of restraint and 
assistance, which good parents exercise toward their children, 
must also be exercised b} T the virtuous community toward its weak, 
vicious ond rebellious members who are to the majority as children 
are to parents ; and that the experience of mankind fully justified 
this view of social ethics. Of course I pointed out that individual- 
ism must be respected and cherished, that there was a hurtful as 
well as a helpful paternalism, and that experience, not bald 
axioms and doctrinaire precepts must be the guide of mankind, 
as it commonly had been. I therefore preferred that those who 
heard me should form their own opinions from observation rather 
than indoctrination; that they should not "run of a notion " as 
onr New England grandfathers used to say, but should look into 
every case as it came up, and apply the tests of fallacy according 
to common morality and common sense. 

Such being the plan and the course being in a two-fold sense 
experimental, we were compelled to diverge from a strictly logical 
path by the visits which we made to the public establishments. 
Thus early in the series of lectures an opportunity offered to visit 
Mr. Brockway's remarkable reformatory prison at Elmira which 
in itself is a social science university so that I turned aside, after 
a general view of the social sciences and their manifold applica- 
tion in a single lecture, to give three upon Crime, Punishment and 
Prison Discipline. The most useful of these, no doubt, was that 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY. 11 

conference which we held in the Elmira reformatory, in the very 
presence of the class whose character and conduct we were study- 
ing. Few of those students who made the visit are likely to forget 
the impression then received, if I may judge of the remarks they 
afterward made, and by the essays they wrote descriptive of what 
they had seen. 

We then passed along, by two general lectures on Public Edu- 
cation, Public Health, and some economic aspects of social science, 
to the consideration of public poverty, to prepare our minds for a 
visit to the county poorhouse. This was followed by a few lectures 
on Insanity and its Treatment, historically considered, in antici- 
pation of a visit to the largest collection of insane persons in the 
United States the Willard asylum on Seneca lake where we 
spent a whole day, and were thus enabled to examine thoroughly 
the economy of a great and well-managed public establishment. 
Subsequently, and in the light of practical observations already 
made, we took up again, for more thorough discussion, the prob- 
lems of public charity, of crime and insanity, the education and 
reformation of poor and vicious children, the management of prison 
labor, etc., closing the course with a visit to the old-fashioned 
state prison at Auburn, where we found the convict industries 
demoralized by the absurd agitation against convict labor. In this 
tentative course of instruction, with a miscellaneous class of stu- 
dents numbering from forty to sixty, it was not possible to be sys- 
tematic in the sequence of topics and the order of visits, which we 
called our "laboratory work." But another year, with a more 
exact knowledge of the task before us and the acquirements of 
those who take part in it, we can so arrange the subjects of study 
as to bring them forward in a logical order. The time assigned 
for these lectures at Cornell university is the spring term from 
April to the middle of June and the students who attend them are 
members of the four undergraduate classes, of the special schools 
and of the small post-graduate body. I was agreeably surprised, 
as all who lecture on these subjects seem to be, with the warm in- 
terest manifested, and the progress made by most of the class. 
Special works of study and reference were given out to them ; they 
were required to write essays on topics involving research, and 
their acquirements were tested by oral examination. In the second 
year written examinations will be held, and a course of visits 
arranged, if possible, so as to illustrate more completely the general 
studies pursued. 



12 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Without entering more in detail into the work done at Cornell, I 
leave the matter here, to be further considered in the debate ; which 
will perhaps turn partly on the best methods of study, and partly 
on the scope and result of these studies. I regard the introduc- 
tion of definite instruction in the social sciences, as a whole, into 
so many American universities as both the result and the exten- 
sion of our work in this Association. The zeal with which such 
instruction is sought, wherever it is offered, sufficiently indicates 
the need of it, and also that the time has arrived when it can be 
given with broader scope and for more practical uses than ever 
before. Much, very much, remains to be done for the methodical 
and judicious direction of these studies, the whole outline and 
classification of the social sciences is still to be defined and pru- 
dently maintained. They need to be guarded, on the one hand, 
from these who would push their . analogy with exact science, and 
with the natural sciences which are not exact, too far, and thus 
hasten into generalization and prediction for which the facts of 
human nature afford no warrant. On the other hand, they need to be 
protected from those persons of a more practical turn, who would 
submit all the applications of social science to the tests of an imme- 
diate and shifting expediency, and from those also who too hope- 
fully and philanthropicallj- rush to conclusions which the experi- 
ence of mankind has not yet justified. Yet we must regard this 
last-named class of thinkers as by no means shallow enthusiasts, 
but often as prophetical persons who arrive by anticipation at theo- 
retic results which the tardy race of men do not reach for years 
or centuries. We should be bold deniers of the indefinable 
potency of the human spirit, urged onward by its divine inspirer 
and guide, did we venture in view of the spaces alread}' gained, 
or even those which the last twenty years have made visible to 
assign limits of possibility for the advancing, uplifting wave of a 
better civilization. Evils no doubt, and great ones, attend each 
onward movement, but these are a part of human destin}-, and of 
ever slighter range and tenure, century by century, as the benefi- 
cent current of ages flows forward. 



METHODICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 13 



METHODICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 

A special committee of the AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSO- 
CIATION, appointed in December, 1885, and consisting of Prof. E. 
J. JAMES, of the University of Penns3'lvania, Prof. FRANCIS WAY- 
LAND, of Yale College Law School, and Mr. F. B. SANBOKN, Lec- 
turer on Social Science in Cornell University, has prepared for 
consideration the following schedule ; which was approved by the 
Council, June 26, 1886. 



TOPICS PROPOSED FOR LECTURES AND CONFERENCES ON SOCIAL 

SCIENCE. 
UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE LECTURES. 

(Arranged according to the Five Departments of the American 
Association : Education, Health, Trade and Finance, Social Econ- 
01113-, and Jurisprudence.) 

I. 
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

1. The Relation of Government to Education. 

a. Schools an essential part of State Policy. 

b. Primary Education to be undertaken by the Public. 

c. Limits of Public Common-School Education ; with the argu- 

ment for and against its extension. 

d. Religious and Secular Instruction. 

e. Special and High Schools under the Patronage of the State. 
/. Education of the Poor, the Neglected, and the Vicious. 

g. Relation of the State to Higher Education, Liberal, Technical 

or Professional. 
h. Academies and other Learned Societies. 

2. TJie Course and Object of Education. 
a. Physical, Mental, and Moral Training. 
6. The Study of Nature and of Language. 

c. Mathematical Studies and Pure Science. 

d. Applied and Developed Science. 

e. History and Philosophy. 

/. The Family, the Church, and the State. 



14 AMKRICAN SOCIAL SCIENCK ASSOCIATION. 

3. Institutions of Education. 

a. The Kindergarten and its Equivalents. 

//. Tlif (ioverncss, the Tutor, and tlii> Private School. 

c. The Common-School of America. 

d. Co-education of the Sexes. 

e. High Schools, Colleges, and Professional Schools. 

4. Pedagogy as a Social Science. 

a. The Teacher's place in the Community and in History. 

6. Teaching by Men and by Women. 

c. Instruction Scientifically Considered. 

'/. The Order of Development in Systematic Education. 

e. Conversation and Conference as a Method <>!' Education. 

f. The Lecture System in its Professional and its Popular Aspect. 

g. Libraries and Newspapers. 



5. Moral Education as a Social 

(These Educational topics may be extended indefinitel}-.) 

II. 

PIIB.LIC HEALTH. 
1 . Sanitation in the Broad Sense. 

a. Why Governments must regulate Sanitary Conditions. 

b. The effect of Dense or Sparse Population on Public Health. 

c. Hereditary Influences Longevity and Transmission. 

d. Earth, Air and Water as Sanitaiy Agents. 

e. The Prevailing Unsanitary Conditions. 
/. Preventives and Remedies. 

2. Birth, Marriage and Death. 

a. Vital Statistics defined and illustrated. 

b. Records of Parentage, Nationality, Diseases, etc. 

c. Infancy and Infant Mortality. 

d. Marriage Laws and Divorce in Relation to Health. 

e. Poverty and Sanitation in Cities. 

3. General and Specific Diseases. 

a. The Nature and Origin of Disease. 

b. Recent Theories of Germs, of Bacteria, of Contagion, etc. 



METHODICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 15 

c. Relationship of one Disease to Another. 

d. Small-Pox as a Typical Disease its Past and its Future. 

e. Insanity and its Causes. 

/. The Diseases of Degeneracy and Vice. 

4. Sanitary Necessities. 

a. Ventilation of Structures, and Aeration of Soils and Waters. 

b. Varying Climatic Needs. 

c. House-Building and House-Warming. 

d. Drainage and Water-Supply. 

e. Sunlight, Rain and Wind. 

/. The Removal of Offensive Substances ; Burial and Cremation. 
g. Hospitals and Dispensaries. 

5. Relation of the Medical Profession to the Public. 

a. The Learned Professions all exist for the Public Good. 
6. Peculiar Relations between Physicians and Families. 

c. The Attitude of Ph3 r siciaus, as a Class, to the State and to 

Individuals. 

d. Anomalous Position of Physicians in respect to Diseases of 

Vice. 
(This also can be extended indefinitely for Medical Schools.) 

III. 
FINANCE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

1. Relation of the State to Economic Questions. 

a. The Doctrine of Laissez-Faire, and its Consequences. 

b. The Right of Taxation, and the corresponding Duty of Gov- 

ernment. 

c. Questions of Currency and Coinage. 

d. The Regulation of Useful Trade and Commerce. 

e. The Suppression or Licensing of Hurtful Trades. 
/. The Collection of Revenue Practically Considered. 
g. Expenditure by the State, its Limits and Methods. 
h. Appointments, Salaries, and Pensions. 

2. National, State, and Local Debt. 

a. Origin and History of National Debts. 
6. Their Effect on War and Peace, 
c. Borrowing Power of a People. 



16 AMI.KICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

d. The Localization of Public Debt; its Payment or Repudiation. 

e. Debt as a Basis for Currency and Banking. 
/. I'ublic Property and its Disposal. 

g. Recent Socialistic Theories. State Socialism. 

3. The Right of Property, Individual and Corpora /c. 

a. Foundation and Uses of Individual Property. 

b. Communism, Historically Considered. 

c. Corporate Property a form of Communism. 

d. The State as a great Corporation. 

e. The Perpetuation of Individual and Corporate Property. 
/. Land Tenure and Privilege. 

g. Ownership of Land and Home as a Social Anchor. 

4. Labor and Wages. 

a. The Malthusian Doctrine of Production and Population. 

b. Over-Production and Under-Population, the Rule, not the Ex- 

ception. 

c. The Wage-Fund Theory. 

<I. The Cooperation of Capital and Labor, 
e. State Regulation of Income and Profits. 
/. The Hours of Labor, and Restrictions on Employment. 
g. !No Conflict between Capital and Labor, but between Emploj'er 
and Employed. 

5. Railroads and Machinery in Relation to Labor. 

a. Production and Distribution. 

b. Producing Machinery must be accompanied by Distributing 

Machinery. 

c. The Railroad the greatest Distributing Machine of Man's In- 

vention. 

d. The Steamship Accessory to the Railroad. 

e. The Mobilization of Labor. 

/. Pauperism regarded as a Congestion of Labor. 
g. The Value and Reward of Organizers of Labor. 

6. Tine, Problems of Pauperism Economically Considered. 
<i. Natural and Artificial Pauperism. 

b. Excessive Pauperism an Artificial Product. 



METHODICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 17 

c. The Circulation of Labor a Remecty for the Congestion of 

Labor. 

d. The Banquet of Life a Collation, or an Exclusive Feast? 

7. Banking, Landlords-, Rent, and Interest. 

a. Shepherds the first Bankers, then Slave-Masters, then Land- 

lords. 

b. Usury and Rent Interchangeable Terms. 

c. The Landlord a Lender, the Tenant a Borrower. English 

Theory of Rent. 

d. Modern Banking and its Problems. 

e. The State as Landlord and Banker. 

/. The Relation of Currency to Banking. 

8. Value, Exchange, Money. 

a. The Metaphysics of Value. 

b. Social Life an Infinity of Exchanges. 

c. Money the Medium of Exchange. 

d. The Value of Mono}*. 

?. Credit the Child and the Father of Value. 

f. Stocks, Debentures, and other apparatus of Value. 

g. The Puzzle of Monometallism and Paper Money. 

(And so on ad infinitum.) 



IV. 

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 

1. Two Aspects of Economic Questions one looking towards 
Wealth, the other towards Welfare. 

a. Welfare is the Moral Aspect of Wealth. 

b. Social Prosperity and Sordid Wealth. 

c. Social Economy reconciles Wealth and Want. 

<l. All Wealth Comparative ; Sordid Wealth Self-Destructive. 
e. Is Free Expenditure by the Rich desirable or otherwise? 
/. The Golden Rule as an Economic Maxim. 
g. The Social Whole is greater than the Sum of all its Parts. 
/. The Ethics of the Modern Industrial Corporation. 
2 



IS AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

_'. Civilization and the Social Whole. 

a. Religion unites Individuals; Civilization unites Communitii 

b. The Iiidividii d exists liy the Coininuiiity. 

c. Civil Life Contrasted with Social Life. 

d. What Classes and Social Distinctions arc natural and proper? 

e. War as an Integrator and Disintegrator of Society. 
/. Industrial Civili/ation replaces War with Competition. 

g. Democracy and Christianity the last results of Civili/ation. 

3. In Social Economy the Mass of the People are to be C'o//.s->W,<m/. 

a. Histor} 1 and Biography a Record of Exceptions. 

b. Exceptional Wealth and Aggregate Welfare. 

c. The Housing and Clothing of the People. 

d. The Savings of the People. 

e. Employment and Amusement of the People. 
/. Vice as an Employment or an Amusement. 
g. Woman's Place in Social Economy. 

4. Financial Aspects of Social Economy, 
a. Labor and Leisure. 

&. Wages, Savings-Banks, Benefit Societies, &c. 

c. Life and Accident Insurance. 

d. Migration and Immigration as affecting Labor. 

e. The Labor of Women and Children. 
/. Trades Unions Socially Considered. 

5. Art in Education and Amusement. 

a. The Necessity for Recreation. 

b. Popular Amusements Economically Considered. 

c. Art as a Bread-Winner. 

d. Museums, Theatres, Picture Galleries, and Concert Rooms. 

e. Music and Dancing. 

/. Parks, Water-Parks, and Ice-Amusements. 

6. Domestic Economy. 

a. The House as a Workshop. 

b. Cooperation in Housekeeping. 

c. Econom}' in the Choice and Preparation of Food. 

d. Education and Apprenticeship of Children. 

e. Socialism as affecting the Family. 



METHODICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 19 

7. Holidays and Observances. 

a. The Place of Religion in Social Economy. 

b. Sabbaths and Sundaj's. 

c. National Festivals. 

d. Preachers and Public Orators, Actors, Singers, &c., in Social 

Life. 

e. Cooperation of all Classes in Religious and Social Life. 

V. 

DEPARTMENT OF JURISPRUDENCE. 

1. Law in Ancient and in Modern Times. 

a. The Ultimate Sanctions of Law. 

b. Historical Development of Laws and Governments. 

c. Law in Popular Governments. 

d. The Stable and the Changeable Portions of Law. 

e. The Modern Legislature. 

f. The Modern Court with its Jury. 

2. The Penal Law. 

a. Crime Defined ; Punishment. 

b. Methods and Places of Punishment. 

c. Prison Discipline. 

d. Reformation as an Object of Legal Enactment. 
<?. Pardons and Conditional Remissions. 

/. Appointment of Judges and Prosecuting Officers, Prison War- 
dens, &c. 

3. Legislation and Vice. 

a. The Temperance Question from the Legal Standpoint. 

b. Prohibition and License. 

c. The Regulation of Vice by Government. 

d. Police Problems. 

e. The Revenues of Indulgence as State Property. 

4. The Amendment of Laws. 

a. Constitutions, Written and Unwritten. 

b. Statutes and Local Ordinances. 

c. Decrees and Summary Orders of Courts. Governors and 

Generals. 



20 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

d. Law-Amendment changes the Ukase into jin Ordinance, then a 

Statute, finally a Constitution. 

e. The Amendment of Existing Laws and Constitutions. 
/. Parliamentary Lawyers and Judicial Legislators. 

5. The Administration of Law. 
a. Courts and their Machinery. 
6. Military, Ecclesiastical and Civil Administration. 

c. The Daily Administration of Law Ollicial Persons. 

d. The Enforcement and Penalties of Law Appeals, Decisions, 

Execution. 

e. The Extreme Penalty of the Law Conquest and the Death- 

Penalty. 
/. The Conflict of Laws in different States. 

C. Legal Education, 
a. Origin of Lawyers as a Class. 

6. In Ancient and Mediaeval Times, no special Advocates or 
Prosecutors. 

c. The Government as Prosecutor. 

d. The Lawyer a State Official, like the Priest. 

e. Law-Schools and Bar-Examinations. 

/. Law-Studies in General, and for all Professions. 

7. The Relation of Jurisprudence to Modern Civilization. 
a. Legal Aspects of the Family ; Marriage and Divorce, Inherit- 
ance, &c. 
6. Legal Aspects of Public Education. 

c. Legal Aspects of Public Health. 

d. Legal Aspects of Trade and Finance. 

e. The Laws of War and Neutrality. 
/. International Courts. 

g. Formal and Ethical Law ; The Golden Rule. 



SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. PROF. HARRIS. 21 



SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 

[An Abstract of remarks made by W. T. HARRIS, Chairman of the Department of 
Education, September 8, 1885.) 

The social conditions of the United States have changed rapidly 
during the present century, chiefly owing to the growth of cities 
and the consequent preponderance of urban population over rural 
population. According to the census of 1880, about twenty-five 
per cent, of the entire population lived in cities of 8,000 inhabi- 
tants and upwards. If we count the suburban populations so 
situated by railroad that they are in close contact with cities and 
form really parts of the cities, we shall find that the urban popula- 
tion forms nearly or quite fifty per cent, of the entire nation. 

The most important characteristic of the social conditions of a 
modern city population, as contrasted with a rural population, is to 
be found in the means of instant intercommunication invented by 
man in order to secure for each individual a complete survey of 
the doings of his fellowmen in all parts of the earth. The morn- 
ing newspaper, perfected by the telegraph and the early express 
train, gives to one-half of our people a survey of the entire world 
of man and nature ever}' morning at the breakfast table. The 
consequences of this spiritual device are numerous and of essential 
importance. It makes life move on from day to day with an epic 
significance to each and all. Village gossip is replaced by world- 
gossip the trivial incidents of neighborhood scandal give way to 
colossal movements of world-history. The educative influence of 
this cannot be overestimated. 

This is the one greatest humanitarian or humanistic influence of 
our time. It is the largest counteracting force in the presence of 
the vast utilitarian movement which threatens to engulf us in ma- 
terialism and a grovelling pursuit of wealth. 

The study of the function of the means of intercommunication, 
invented by a utilitarian age, is the best specific against pessimistic 
conclusions. The student of social science desiring to find ten- 
dencies in society which correct the evils of modern civilization. 
is to be cheered and strengthened by the discovery that the course 
of onward progress in subduing nature by invention does not lead 
away forever towards the gratification of man's physical appe- 



22 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

tites aiid desires, luit lu-inls round towards the satisfaction of his 
higher nature. It is in the very constitution of man himself to 
place highest among the objects of his desire, the communion with 
his fellowmen. This participation of the individual in the life of 
his race is the most potent spiritual influence in human life. It is 
the essential principle of human history. 

Man becomes ethical only as he becomes social, and each indi- 
vidual squares his life b}' the standard imposed by the conditions 
of social life. 

The narrow limits of isolated and exclusive communities can be 
removed only by international communication. Cosmopolitanism 
is the product of the widest intercommunication of people. 

Just here one sees that trade whose immediate object is the 
gain of wealth indirectly but more potent!}' contributes to man's 
higher spiritual development through this cosmopolitan tendency. 
Commerce with the world renders necessary those higher ethical 
qualities of action those based on divine chanty peace on earth 
and good will to all men which to the abstract student of morals 
seem to be the most impractical and the least likely to commend 
themselves from a utilitarian point of view. 

In this connection it is a matter of congratulation that the study 
of history that is to say the study of human institutions the 
study of the manifestation of the essence of human nature receives 
just now a fresh impulse by the formation of a society devoted to 
the discussion of the methods of historic investigation and to u 
comparison of results. 

Coiled up in human nature is this social instinct which unfolds 
into human institutions ; these institutions are the colossal selves 
of humanity the true vocation of man is the realization of these 
selves. 



[The list of questions on pages 13-20 was purposely made full, in 
order to cover many topics, and the classification was mainly that 
of the five Departments of this Association. The Department of 
Education, however, for a special purpose, and in order to intro- 
duce another classification of topics, issued in June last, the fol- 
lowing circular letter and schedule, the answers to which, since 
received, will be submitted at the Department meeting in Saratoga, 
September 7th, 18G.] 



CIRCULAR LETTER. 23 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCITAION. 
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT : 

JUNE 20TH, 1886. 
To O. W. Eliot, LL. D., 

President of Harvard College. 

SIR, The Department of Education of the American Social 
Science Association desires to collect information regarding the 
amount and scope of the instruction given in American Colleges 
on the subject of Social Science. 

Knowing that your time is fully occupied, the Committee has 
prepared the accompanying schedule with a view to reduce to a 
minimum the labor of filling out returns. 

It is necessary only to underscore such of the topics in the 
printed list as belong to your course of instruction, and to write 
opposite each the numeral indicating the year in your curriculum 
in which the subject is taken up. 

The Committee would be happy to receive from you any sug- 
gestions as to what topics in the list may be profitably studied by 
college students. 

The Committee would also ask you to name any books or pam- 
phlets in which you have discussed the best method of meeting the 
new social issues by education or otherwise, and would be thank- 
ful for a copy of anything on these themes- that you may have 
printed for distribution. 

The department respectfully invites your attendance at the next 
meeting (Sept. 7th, 1886, at Saratoga), to assist in the discussion 
of the question of INSTRUCTION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE IN INSTITU- 
TIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 

Respectfully, 

EMILY TALBOT, Secretary, 

66 Marlboro' St., Boston, Mass. 

W. T. HARRIS, Chairman. 



24 



,\MKi:i( AN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



SCIIKDILK '10 1!K FI1.I.KD OUT, 

In the first column below, please under score the topics in 
which instruction is given in your institution. 

In the column at the right hand write opposite the 
topic the number indicating the year or years in which 
the topics underscored are taught indicating Freshman year 
by 1 ; Sophomore year by 2, etc. 



1. Theory of property, real and personal, 

2. Production and distribution of wealth, . 

3. Theory of Government National, State and Muni- 

cipal, ........ 

4. Public and Private corporations, .... 

5. Punishment and refonn of criminals, . 

6. Prevention of vice (intemperance, prostitution, va- 

grancy, etc.,) ....... 

7. Public and private charities (care of the poor, 

insane, blind, idiotic, deaf-mute, foundlings, 
orphans, etc.), ...... 

8. Sanitation of cities and of private dwellings (water 

supply, ventilation, drainage, epidemics, etc.), 

9. Theory of public elementary education, 

10. Higher education (as furnishing the directive power 
of society), ....... 



College. 



.President. 



To THE AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. 



PAPERS OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY DEPARTMENT. 



I. THE UNNAMED THIRD PARTY. 

BY H. L. 'WAYLA.ND, D. D., 'PHILADELPHIA. 

I. 1 To every covenant, written or oral, there are two parties. 
But there is also a Third Party, who is not named, who does not 
appear, yet without whose consent and co-operation the covenant 
is worthless. This Unnamed Third Part}-, I need not say, is the 
State, acting as trustee for the public welfare. 

Of course, it is not to be supposed that the state is going to use 
its powers to enforce a contract harmful or criminal. If Benedict 
Arnold had been slow about carrying out his bargain, would Clin- 
ton have expected Washington to compel Arnold to come to time? 
The contract made immortal in " The Merchant of Venice," de- 
manded the killing of a citizen, an act in violation of the public 
welfare. The ground put forth by Portia in the case is, of course, 
trivial ; if it were a lawful act to cut a pound of flesh from next 
the heart, then the shedding of blood would be a necessary inci- 
dent, and could not justly be objected to. But no one may agree 
to destroy, or to allow to be destroyed, his own life. I need not 
pause, ill passing, to remind so intelligent an audience, that 
Shakespeare has reversed the facts of history, and that in truth it 
was a Christian (nominally) who exacted the hard condition, and 
it was a Jew of whom he sought the forfeiture. 

If a tenant, under stress of relentless need, engages to pay a rent 
that he cannot possibly pay, the effort to pa} r which will make him 
and his family beggars, shall the contract be enforced, or shall it 
be revised in the interest of the public welfare? If, after all his 
frantic efforts to pay a rent which the soil will not earn, he 
finds himself oppressed with a debt which all his efforts will not 
satisfy, shall the State try to enforce the contract, and leave him 
crushed with a load from which he can never free himself; or shall 
it interpose in the interest of the public weal ? These were the 
questions proposed to the greatest Englishman of our day ; and 
lie replied by the Irish Laud Laws. Under these laws, if a tenant 



26 AMKIUCAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 



charged with a rent which he could nol pay, he could sum- 
mon liis landlord into the land-court, which had the authority to 
lix the rent at a rate just to both parties. Also, where a tenant 
had fallen hopelessly behind, the landlord was compelled to throw 
on" one-third of the arrears, the State provided one-third, and the 
tenant was to make up the other third. 

All this was a sacrilege in the eyes of those with whom land is 
a religion. But it seems to me that nothing in the long and ben- 
elieent life of the "Grand Old Man" entitles him to such enduring 
honor as his brave recognition of the fact that there is something 
higher and more imperative than the sacredness of property, than 
the immobility of contract, than the inviolability of vested 
interests. 

In a speech made forty-five years ago, Mr. Cobden said: ''The 
middle and industrial classes of England have been cheated, rob- 
bed. and bamboozled upon the subject of taxation ; the landhold- 
ers, 150 [now nearly 200] years ago, deprived the Sovereign of 
his feudal rights over them ; they made a bargain with the King 
to give four shillings in the pound upon their landed rentals, as a 
quit charge for having dispensed with these rights of feudal ser- 
vice from them ; afterward this landed aristocracy passed a law 
to make the valuation of their rentals final ; . . . and then stop- 
ped the progress of the rent by a law (only so far as it affected 
Imid-tax; they never stopped raising rent to the tenant) making 
the valuation final ; the land has gone on increasing, ten-fold in 
many parts of Scotland, and five- fold in many parts of England. 
while the land-tax remains the same as it was nearly 200 years 
ago." 

Now, I have not the least doubt that if, or when, it is proposed 
to break up this iniquitous system, there will be a tearing of hair, 
a cry about the sacred rights of property, about the land and the 
church, about vested interests, as though when a wrong has ex- 
isted 200 years, it became a right. 

Js it not possible that we have made a fetich of the right of 
property, and have sacrificed to it all that man holds dear ; have 
we not made property more sacred than human health, or human 
life, or human rights? It is not so very long ago that we shrunk 
from interfering with slavery, because it was a " vested interest." 
But could a right be founded upon a wrong? Was there not 
something more venerable than the alleged right of property? 



THE UNNAMED THIRD PARTY. 27 

And had the negroes no rights ? But the day came when Abraham 
Lincoln recognized the fact that there is something more divine 
than paper constitutions, the voice of the Unnamed Third Party. 

In the city of Philadelphia, time out of mind, the mill-owners 
and the brewers and the residents have been pouring filth of every 
kind into the Schuylkill, to be drunk by the people. An effort 
has been made to stop the pollution. It was not denied that the 
law was express ; but it was amazing to see what care, what de- 
lay, what tenderness was practised in forbidding the owners of 
property longer to make a sewer of the Schuylkill ; every thing 
for the sacred right of property ; but during every day granted 
to the vested interests, the people were drinking sewage. 

Recently, an effort was made in Birmingham to limit the num- 
ber of dram-shops and to introduce a new system which should 
prove a partial remedy or palliative for the evils of drunkenness. 
But it soon appeared that the vested rights of the dram-shops 
stood in the way ; to buy them out demanded such a gigantic sum 
that the effort was abandoned. But had families no rights? Had 
mothers and wives no rights ? Had the public no rights ? 

I need not remind you that it is proposed in England to raise 
the age of " legal protection" for girls from 13 to 16 or 18. A 
writer in the Pall Mall Gazette 



"Whatever may be done ultimately, I strongly deprecate a sudden rising 
of the age of protection at one bound from thirteen to eighteen. An advance 
to sixteen would be quite as long a step as can safely be taken at present ; 
and, considering the number of young girls who have already been launched 
upon an immoral life between the years of thirteen and sixteen, the proposal 
to destroy their present means of livelihood is quite as forcible an interfer- 
ence with vested interests as can safely be contemplated. 

In other words, prostitution is a vested interest. 

II. But while we thus on the one hand discredit the Unnamed 
Third Part} r , yet we have so far recognized its existence as to 
justify it in pressing its claims. 

The bankrupt laws are all based on the existence of the Un- 
named Third Party. It is not for the welfare of the state that a 
debtor should for all time be pressed to the earth by claims which 
he cannot satisfy. So, in the public interest, the State invalidates 
his former contracts, and sa}'s to the creditor, "You cannot use 
our machinery for the enforcement of a contract which is injurious 
to the public." 



28 \\ll.i:iCAN >()( IM. X IKNCE ASSOCIATION. 

In a former day, the State granted to a cemetery company the 
right for all time to bury in certain premises; but the prem 
have come to be in the center of the city ; the public welfare re- 
quires that the so-called perpetual charter be abrogated ; of course, 
with adequate compensation, if injury appear. 

When it was found, as in England and more recently, in Mex- 
ico, that the Catholic Church had become, under the leverage of 
her spiritual forces, possessed of a third or a half of the land, the 
State, acting for the public good, took possession of the land. 

Recently, the States of Europe, finding that the little principality 
of Monaco was the scene of limitless robbery, have been grad- 
ually arriving at the conclusion that no State is justified in 
maintaining a nuisance in the midst of Europe : and we may live 
to see them proceed to the logical result. 

When the owner of mountain tracts, desirous only of present 
gain, persists in cutting down the forests, the State says, " >' ; 
you must not so use your property as to dry up the springs of the 
rivers. No matter if you have contracted to send down the stream 
so many million logs ; the Unnamed Third Party has not given 
his consent." 

It is on this ground that we rest the Sunday laws and laws 
relating to polygamy and divorce. 

III. Suffer me now to apply briefly the principle which has 
been so imperfectly and inadequately stated and illustrated. 

Suppose the legislature 3~ears ago granted to some person or 
corporation, a monopoly of the right to transport freight and pas- 
sengers ; suppose that this monopoly has become intolerably 
burdensome and prejudicial ; shall not the State break the monop- 
oly? How far may a legislature mortgage the prosperity of 
coming generations? 

Suppose that a monopoly has become established, not by direct 
action of the legislature, but by the power inherent in vast cap- 
ital ; shall the monopoly remain always intact? 

The same principle applies to temporary monopolies or corners. 
"When speculators had gained control of all the salt in Bengal, and 
were holding it at a starvation price, the government said, "If this 
continues, we shall throw all our stores of salt on the market ;" 
and so, wisely and bravely, the government broke the cruel corner. 
More recently, certain capitalists in Liverpool gained control of all 
the cotton in the market, and put the price up. Presently, all the 



TAPER BY H. L. WAYLAND, D. D. 29 

mills in Lancashire were compelled to stop, and the 3,000,000 in- 
habitants of the county were reduced to great suffering, all in order 
that a few operators might make each a million pounds. Was there 
not a place here for the Unnamed Third Party to assert itself? 

The Marquis of Bute owns all the land in and about Cardiff. 
No one can live in Cardiff without his consent. He is a member of 
the Catholic Church, and he refuses to sell or lease a site for a 
Protestant chapel. Ought this to be? Is not property a trust? 

Does not a similar principle apply to grants made by the State 
without adequate consideration ? Many of our pensions were ob- 
tained b}' fraud. Ought they not to be at once vacated, on the 
fraud being proved? The Duke of Richmond is receiving from 
the British Treasur}" 1U,000 a year, because of the relation in which 
his ancestress, Louise Querouaille, stood to the Merrie Monarch, 
Charles II. This sum has been paid for something over 200 years ; 
$20,000,000 in all. Must this payment be continued to all coming 
time? 

A careful and bold attention is demanded in the matter of en- 
dowments and funds, bequeathed for various uses and on various 
conditions. Grant the right of men while living to use their money 
as the}- will (and I grant this to save argument just here), can any 
one assert that a man has a right to dictate what shall be done with 
his possessions through all time? 

A man in England left an estate, the income of which was to 
buy fagots for burning heretics ; must all coming generations use 
the income thus ? Suppose a man left a fund for the perpetual sup- 
port of a hospital where a certain method of treatment should be 
pursued, and suppose that time has showed that the treatment is 
useless or pernicious? Suppose he provided for the teaching of a 
certain system of philosophy, which has long since been proved to 
be absurd. Suppose he left money to be annually dispensed in 
charity in an irrational manner, as in the case of one testator, who 
provided for a shilling being paid annually at Easter to a certain 
number of very aged women who should pick up the coin with their 
mouths from off the grave of the testator. Suppose, as is the fact, 
that the dole provided by the will promotes pauperism. 

After the death of the testator, the income of his property ard 
its increase, is due to the labor of the present generation. Shall, 
then, this generation have no voice in its disposal ? The hand that 
gathered the property is cold ; the brain and the heart that might 



30 AMKKir.VN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

have guided the hand are dead. Shall, then, this dead hand con- 
tinue to hold relentlessly, to the injury of the public, the property 
that was gathered centuries :i-o? Shall \ve not say, "We will use 
this property as he would probably use it, if he were living now, and 
felt and saw and judged with our light?" 

The acquisition of large tracts of land in the old world ami in 
the new comes in as a matter on which the Unnamed Third 1'arty 
may, must, have a word. The area of Scotland is about 1'J, 000, <)<)<> 
acres, of which one man owns 1,300,000 acres; seventy persons 
own one-half of the land ; and 1,700 persons own nine-tenths of it. 
Is this for the public welfare? Or ought the Unnamed Third Party 
t<> come in? Shall the State sustain by all its machinery, a land- 
lord in Scotland, while he turns adrift hundreds of tenants whose 
fathers fought under Bruce, in order that he may make a vast sheep 
walk or deer park? Shall rich men hold in Dakota and California, 
tracts of 100,000 or 200,000 acres, against which the tide of immi- 
gration surges in vain ? Shall the non-resident continue to hold 
great estates, and be enriched by the labor of the neighboring 
settlers, while he contributes nothing, but rather is a hindrance? 
It is stated, on apparently good authority, that a hundred and 
fifty million acres of land are fraudulently held in America by in- 
dividuals and corboratious, under patents obtained by perjury and 
other iniquitous means. Shall not the State reclaim these stolen 
goods ? 

I do not join in any indiscriminate cry against gigantic corpora- 
tions ; I do not see how gigantic works can be executed without the 
resources of many persons combined into a gigantic corporation. 
But I do aflirm that we ma}- pay too high a price for the execution 
of gigantic works, for material advancement; and it should never 
be forgotten that these corporations exist for the public, not the 
pul die for the corporations. 

Shall the sacred cry of property and of vested rights be raised 
only in behalf of the large property holder, and never in behalf of 
the small holder, or the man who owns only his own muscles? 

IV. In what I have said, I have only raised inquiries, I have 
asked questions, I have occupied the only point which becomes me 
in presence of such an audience, the interrogation point. If, how- 
ever, what has been said seems to look toward a suggestion of any 
new element in our social ecouorm', I can imagine many objections 
arising. We shall be told of the celebrated Dartmouth College 



THE UNNAMED THIRD PARTY. 31 

case. But in that case, for one thing, the State had given to the 
corporation nothing ; it had only made express and articulate the 
natural right of citizens to combine, and to do as a united body 
what each of them had a right to do severally. The State had 
given them neither mone} 7 nor land. No monopoly had been granted 
them. Again, no misconduct was pleaded, nor any ground for 
forfeiture. If the corporation had been granted the monopoly 
of educating the young men of New Hampshire, if it had been 
shown that the corporation was failing of carrying out its professed 
objects, or was acting in violation of the public welfare, the case 
would have been greatly changed. 

If Mr. Webster meant to affirm that the State may never modify 
a charter which it has once granted, then it seems to me that this 
would not be the only deliverance of Mr. Webster which is subject 
to revisal at the bar of posterity ; and I am informed by legal 
friends toat the recent New Orleans Slaughter House decision by 
tho U. S. Supreme Court practically reverses the Dartmouth Col- 
lege decision. 

If it should be said that we are in danger of interfering with 
the axioms of society, with that, for example, which declares 
that a man has a right to acquire all that he can, and to hold all 
that he has acquired, and to use as he will all that he holds, then 
I suggest that these axioms, like all axioms in practical life, require 
to be taken with a great deal of modification and limitation. The 
axioms as to property, theoretically true as to man as a single hu- 
man being, are greatly modified by his entrance into society. The 
Unnamed Third Party asserts his right to take from the citizen a 
portion of his property in the form of a tax, and in time of war to 
seize whatever is needed, and even to demand the life of the citizen 
for the defence of the State. The only plea for all this is the pub- 
lic safety. And does not the same plea hold good whenever any 
contract or alleged "vested right" menaces the public good? 

Of course, adequate compensation is to be awarded ; justice is not 
spoliation ; but adequate compensation is based on the legitimate 
use of the property in question. And what adequate compensation 
is, is a question demanding most careful consideration ; if the 
State should take possession of the Western Union Line of Tele- 
graph, must the State pay $80,000,000 for $60.000,000 of water, 
and $20,000,000 of plant ! Excessive compensation, as in the 
case of the enormous payment made in the disestablished Church 
of Ireland, is in reality spoliation of the Nation. 



32 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

Where ft pension has been enjoyed for years or centuries which 
was based originally on fraud or shame, is there any compensation 
due from the State, when the grant ceases? 

It is perhaps alleged that the course suggested would destroy the 
motive to accumulation. It would notdestroy it among the masses ; 
rather it would inspire them with a hope of having something. If 
it lessened the greed for excessive accumulation among the mil- 
lionaires, small harm. 

Would the line of policy suggested throw great power into the 
hands of the masses whose votes control a Democratic State? 
Then see that each citizen, each voter, has a stake in the public 
welfare, in maintaining the present state of things, in resisting 
communism and anarch}'. The instant a man has a little lot of 
land, or a bond, or a deposit in the Postal Savings Bank, he be- 
comes in the best sense a conservative. The men who are absorb- 
ing all, the men who have sucked up the earnings and the savings 
of millions, these are they who are fostering anarchy and com- 
munism. 

A State in which the few have air interest in the present distri- 
bution of property, is a pyramid resting on its apex ; a State where 
the million have an interest in the present distribution, is a pyra- 
mid resting on its base. 

It ma}- be said that an assertion of the rights of the third party 
would often work injustice to innocent holders of property or 
franchises. Of course, this is a point that needs to be guarded. 
But still it must be remembered that a purchaser can only buy 
what the seller possesses. If A. sells to B. C's farm, or if D. sells 
to E. the sun and moon, why, the buyer can hardly expect the 
delivery of the premises. 

In this imperfect presentation of what seems tome an important 
subject, I have not sought to learn what the law is ; it has seemed 
to me that not what is, but what ought to be, is the proper goal of 
the enquiries of Social Science. 

I cannot better close these imperfect remarks than by a sentence 
from Cicero, for which I am indebted to my friend and former 
teacher, Prof. John L. Lincoln of Brown University: "Those 
things are done according to the auspices, which are for the public 
good ; those things are done contrary to the auspices, which are 
opposed to the public good." 



SOCIALISM AND STATE ACTION. 33 



II. SOCIALISM AND STATE ACTION. 

BY EDWARD W. UEMI8, PH. D. 

(Read September 11, 1885.) 

When every one who wishes to change existing social and in- 
dustrial conditions, whether as the advocate of state supervision 
of railroads a