418 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ness record of each candidate and 

 intent upon making to him a candid 

 statement of the qualifications of 

 that candidate ? Did the newspapers 

 in the city pursue the same rational 

 plan for the enlightenment of his 

 puzzled mind ? For answers to these 

 questions look into the speeches de- 

 livered and the articles written. 

 There was first the claim that the 

 candidates of the party of virtue and 

 ability were models of integrity and 

 capacity ; and next, that the candi- 

 dates of the party of vice and in- 

 capacity were monsters of iniquity 

 and inability. If, as sometimes 

 happened, nothing could be urged 

 against a candidate personally, he 

 was charged with being either a 

 goldite or a silverite, and therefore 

 unfit to be mayor, or an alderman, 

 or a school commissioner. At the 

 same time this discussion of the mer- 

 its and demerits of the several can- 

 didates was carried on with a heat 

 and often with an absurdity of argu- 

 ment that made the discovery of the 

 truth about any subject or any man 

 absolutely impossible. Is it any 

 wonder that the voters elected some 



men notoriously unfit, and defeated 

 others of the highest character and 

 ability ? 



If these statements of the prob- 

 lem of municipal government and 

 the method adopted to solve it were 

 open to question, then an enlarge- 

 ment of the amount of business 

 to be done through politics might 

 not be so absurd. But nobody im- 

 peaches their accuracy. The advo- 

 cates of municipal ownership are not 

 less vigorous in their denunciation 

 of the evils that we have tried to de- 

 scribe than the opponents. "When 

 their attention is especially directed 

 to these evils their speech becomes 

 a prolonged jeremiad. It is only 

 when they come to advocate what 

 they are pleased to call in clumsy 

 phrase the i% municipalization " of 

 gas works or streetcar lines that 

 they become optimistic and insist 

 that cities can undertake these new 

 duties without an aggravation of the 

 very evils they deplore. They seem 

 to believe that by some hocus-pocus 

 an enlargement of the sphere of 

 politics will transmute its inherent 

 and unavoidable vices into virtues. 



j^jcietxtific %iUx%tUX&. 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



The purpose of Mr. Israel C. Russell's Volcmioes of North America * 

 is to make clear the principal features of volcauoes in general, and to place 

 in the hands of students a concise account of the leading facts thus far dis- 

 covered concerning the physical features of North America which can be 

 traced directly to the influence of volcanic action. The account is compre- 

 hensive as to what it includes, and accurate so far as present knowledge 

 extends. Regarding the western hemisphere as divided into two portions, 

 the author assigns Central America to the northern division, because its 

 relations as to volcanoes are closer with North than with South America. 

 For a similar reason operating inversely, the volcanoes of the Windward 

 Islands are regarded as South American. Much of the work is derived 

 from the results of personal observation ; but, of necessity, in so large a 



* Volcanoes of North America. A Reading Lesson for Students of Geography and Geology. By 

 Israel C. Russell. New York : The Macinuian Company. Pp. 346. Price, $4. 



