158 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE INFLUENCE OF EAINFALL ON COMMERCE 



AND POLITICS. 



Bv H. HELM CLAYTOX, 

 I'.IIE mil. METEni;ol.or;'(AL OBSERVATOKV. 



THE causes which control human life and human actions are com- 

 plex and difficult to grasp; yet, to act reasonably and to progress, 

 man must somehow unravel the tangle of causes and assign to each its 

 true value. 



Perhaps, in no department of life are the causes assigned for cer- 

 tain results more varied than in politics. Yet every man with a sense 

 of duty toward his nation feels that he must accept some of the sug- 

 gested causes as the proper ones, in order that he may form the ideals 

 which guide his actions. 



The causes popularly assigned for political and economic changes 

 are almost universally those arising from human actions. A high 

 tariff is assumed as sufficient cause for business prosperity by one class 

 of thinkers, and by another class is assumed to tend toward financial 

 distress. The threat of a silver standard in monetary affairs is consid- 

 ered by one party as a sufficient cause for tremendous business dis- 

 turbances. With equal certainty these disturbances are considered by 

 another party to be due to the gold standard. Even the success at the 

 polls of a certain political party is assumed by some to be a sufficient 

 cause for general prosperity. One well-known senator has maintained 

 his ability to show, notwithstanding the various phases of opinion 

 through which each of the large political parties has passed, that the 

 success of one particular party at the polls has always been followed by 

 prosperity in the nation, while an opposite result has followed the elec- 

 tion of the other party. 



It is not my object, nor is it possible for me here, to collect and weigh 

 the evidence which has been given for each of these opinions. My 

 object is to show that, besides those mentioned, there are other forces 

 which act on man in his business and political relations, and that no 

 satisfactory opinion can be formed as to the relative importance of the 

 various causes until these also are considered. 



As a professional investigator in science, I am frequently brought 

 to consider the tremendous influences that natural phenomena in the 

 earth, air and sky have on human affairs, and to wonder that these in- 



