45 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



vent the spread of diseases; to stop the publication of indecent lit- 

 erature; to close all factories producing injurious foodstuffs; to 

 divorce politics from the public schools, to deal vigorously with the 

 tenement-house problem, the liquor habit and like evils which impair 

 individual, and consequently national, health and productivity. In 

 the event of pestilence, famine, flood, drought, war, or any similar 

 calamity in any part of the land, it should be the function of this 

 bureau to render immediate assistance as required. This bureau should 

 have power to appoint from time to time as needed competent tribunals 

 to adjust and prevent strikes and the like, selecting for service men 

 especially fitted to deal with special conditions as they may arise. 



The Bureau of Publicity of the Department of Public Betterment 

 should organize a corps of lecturers, the men composing which should 

 be recognized authorities in the departments of knowledge which they 

 severally represent. They should be selected with the greatest care. 

 The highest authority on a given subject would not necessarily be the 

 most useful lecturer for the department. The best man for the pur- 

 pose of this plan would be one who has the gift of conveying in com- 

 paratively simple and concise English scientific facts, and who, withal, 

 is an attractive and entertaining speaker. Excessively technical treat- 

 ment of any subject would soon result in empty lecture rooms. To 

 understand the need for, and the appreciation by the public of, such 

 free lectures as here contemplated, one has but to familiarize himself 

 with the history and operation of free lecture courses as given in some 

 of our large cities. It is idle to address people on subjects which do 

 not interest them, and matters in which the population of one district, 

 affected by a certain combination of conditions, are greatly interested, 

 would not attract the slightest attention in another section of the 

 country where other conditions obtain. There are certain subjects 

 relative to personal health, municipal administration, trusts, patent 

 medicines and the like, which should prove popular as material foi 

 lectures throughout the country. 



The elaboration of a schedule for the suitable distribution of lectures 

 and their varied subjects is but an administrative detail. Some plan 

 incidentally determining the relative popularity of the several lectures 

 upon given subjects would serve as a valuable guide in the matter of 

 their selection. It would also tend to stimulate in each lecturer a desire 

 to improve his matter and his style. At times there would be a greater 

 demand for lectures upon certain subjects than at others. When a 

 city was considering the reorganization of its school system, or the 

 improvement of its water supply, there would naturally, in response 

 to the popular interest in these matters, be a greater desire to secure 

 authoritative information upon these subjects than at other times. In 

 the event of the invasion of the Pacific coast by the bubonic plague, 



