6i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cause of insufficient capital, the difficulty 

 being rather that capital is Iviug idle. 



4. I am accused of attributing the busi- 

 ness depression to over-production, whereas 

 I distinctly said speculative over-production 

 over-production brought about by cen- 

 tralization of wealtli and vast appliances 

 of machinery, which under artificial stimu- 

 lus produces an excess at one period, and 

 tlien at another, stopping all production, 

 turns hosts of workmen into the streets 

 idle and empty-handed, followed conse- 

 quently by a great reduction of consump- 

 tion. 



5. I laid no stress upon cooperation to 

 regulate production, merely mentioning it 

 as the only remedy I could suggest. Such 

 cooperation is doubtless impracticable ex- 

 cept to a limited extent. The fear is, there 

 is no remedy, and that we shall have as, 

 indeed, has been frequently predicted con- 

 tinually our intermittent periods of over- 

 trading and speculation, offset by those of 

 prostration and suffering. The elimination 

 of speculation and other" crazes" that is, 

 the maintenance of production in legitimate 

 and healthful relation to consumption is, 

 as I think, indisputably the only remedy ; 

 but how this is to be brought about is more 

 than I can say. Economists, surveying the 

 broad field over long distances of time, are 

 contented to say that these periods are but 

 perturbations ; that production in the end 

 iloes adjust itself to consumption. While 

 this is true, our concern is how to reduce 

 the intensity and duration of these pertur- 

 bations. 



There are other points that call for an- 

 swer in Mr. Leland's letter; he gives me 

 some elementary instruction as to the mean- 

 ing of capital and of money ; and he de- 

 cries the fact of " released labor ; " but 

 it seems unnecessary for me to take your 

 space merely to vindicate my opinions or 

 to establish my knowledge of elementary 

 principles your readers can have no con- 

 cern in these matters. The thing is, to get 

 at the truth of the causes of our business 

 distress, and those interested are referred 

 to the article of Mr. David A. Wells than 

 whom there is no better authority in the 

 last North American Review, wherein we 

 are told that the community is suffering to- 

 day, " strange as the proposition may at 

 first thought seem, not because we have 

 not, but because we have ; not from scarci- 

 ty, but from abundance ; " that is, not from 

 impaired capital, according to Prof. Price; 

 and that " the only remedy is the creation 

 of more wants or demands for our products, 

 and, as a consequence, more and enlarged 

 employments for our labor." That is to 

 say, it is not by the community economical- 

 ly reducing consumption to its minimum 

 that a revival of trade is to come, as we 

 hear asserted on every side, but by the crea- 



tion of new wants, by the stimulus of con- 

 sumption. This is the essential basis of 

 my aTgument. 



With respect, yours, etc., 



0. B. BUNCE. 



"THE TIDES." 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly. 



The article on " The Tides," in the July 

 number of your Monthly, would be amus- 

 ing had it not appeared in a scientific peri- 

 odical of high standing ; but, when such 

 erroneous and ill-digested views are set 

 forth in a reputable journal for public in- 

 struction, they call for a public notice which 

 they do not at all deserve. 



The author of the article referred to has 

 unfortunately adopted the errors of state- 

 ment and conception generally found in our 

 text-books of natural philosophy, prepared 

 by authors of no authority, for our public 

 and preparatory schools. I have had occa- 

 sion recently to examine several such books 

 on the subject of " Centrifugal Force," so 

 called, and have found very few that are 

 not in error. If the author of " The Tides " 

 had expended a portion of the time devoted 

 to the elaboration of his subject in an ex- 

 amination of the basis of his explanation 

 centrifugal force he could not have reached 

 conclusions at variance with the simplest 

 fundamental principles of physics. 



Newton's first law teaches that a body, 

 once set in motion, will continue to move 

 on with uniform velocity in a straight line 

 forever if left to itself. To produce circu- 

 lar motion a constant force directed toward 

 a fixed point must be applied in addition to 

 the original force. The fixed point then 

 becomes the centre of revolution. The 

 original impulsive force (or continued force 

 acting during a finite time), and the constant 

 force directed toward the centre, are the 

 only forces concerned in uniform circular 

 motion. " Centrifugal force " expresses 

 merely the resistance of a body to deflec- 

 tion from a straight line in which it tends to 

 move, according to Newton's first law of 

 motion. It is its inertia with reference to 

 motion in a specified direction toward the 

 centre. If only that which produces or 

 tends to produce motion or change of mo- 

 tion is force, then there is no such force as 

 "centrifugal force;" for the only motions 

 that a body moving in a circle has are tan- 

 gential, due to the original impulsive force, 

 and the radial toward the centre, due to the 

 constant centripetal force. If the centripe- 

 tal force ceases to act, the body moves on 

 tangentially, in obedience to the tangential 

 force; if its motion of rotation ceases, it 

 falls toward the centre. It can take no 

 other direction of motion unless some force, 

 additional to those required for uniform cir- 



