xxx PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. 



are to-day citizens of prominence in our commonwealth and all over the United 

 States. We have the finest public schools, we have the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania and many other educational institutions, each in its own way adding its 

 share toward the education of our people and the advancement of our great 

 country. 



One more thought a thought that has been dear to me for many years: 

 Science is one of the great powers for progress and light, but it must be combined 

 in its teachings with hard, common sense. Let us get as close as we can to 

 nature, for all science comes from and is closely related to nature, and the more 

 natural we are, the wiser we shall become. Sense and science should govern us 

 in the problem of government, especially that of municipal government, for it 

 comes closest to us and is all-important in the destinies of our land. If we have 

 honest, efficient and pure municipal government, the question of the future of 

 our country will be solved. 



We are to-day attempting in Philadelphia to solve this important question. 

 Our people suffered for many years because selfishness had taken the place of 

 public spirit; avarice, that of high-minded devotion to the public good; cowardice, 

 that of courage; partisanship had conquered patriotism. The people had for 

 many years failed to rule Philadelphia, just as they failed in other municipalities. 

 At last we proclaimed in our own city a new Declaration of Independence. The 

 people arose in their might, threw off the shackles, declared for and obtained 

 freedom. This is a government, as Lincoln so vividly and tersely expressed it, 

 "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Let us have this kind of 

 government. It is the legitimate rule; the natural, the scientific and philo- 

 sophical direction of public affairs. You members of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences can help to establish a "Public Academy of all the Sciences," of splendid 

 common sense and patriotic spirit for the whole city. Then we shall solve the 

 great question of municipal government, of honest and progressive government 

 on business lines. 



Forgive me for speaking of myself, but thirty, aye forty years of my life have 

 been devoted to this problem. The opportunity has at last presented itself 

 for solution. We have commenced and are doing the best we know how. 

 We are applying scientific methods to every department of the city government, 

 and I ask you, members of the Academy of Natural Sciences, to help us apply the 

 principles that prompt your devotion and energy, to the solution of the question 

 of municipal government. Then one hundred years hence, at your bi-centennial 

 celebration, it will be related as a proud historical fact that, when the Centenary 

 of the Academy was celebrated, the prediction was made and has been fulfilled 

 that this great society could, would and did lend its weighty influence to the 

 popular cause. That it applied the same thoughts and ideas to the solution of 

 municipal government that it has given to the investigation and expansion of 

 the natural sciences. 



Then the second centenary of this influential body will not only be identified 



