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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the people, just as the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History is worth three 

 hundred thousand dollars a year and 

 Columbia University is worth four mil- 

 lion dollars a year. But a private cor- 

 poration can not be expected to sub- 

 scribe indefinitely ten thousand dollars 

 a year for the benefit of the public. 

 The weekly journal Science was in like 

 manner supported for a time by Dr. 

 A. Graham Bell and Mr. Gardiner G. 

 Hubbard, at a total expense of about 

 eighty thousand dollars. There are over 

 a hundred journals and proceedings de- 

 voted to the publication of research 

 work in America not one of which pays 

 its expenses on a regular business basis. 

 Magazines connected with applied sci- 

 ence and popular mechanics may do so. 

 This represents a step in advance, which 

 we may hope indicates that ultimately 

 there may be a general interest in other 

 and more fundamental departments of 

 science. 



It would probably be undesirable for 

 scientific journals to be directly sub- 

 sidized or endowed. Indirectly they are 

 now subsidized by the work of contrib- 

 utors and editors supported by endowed 

 or tax-supported institutions and by 



subscriptions from public libraries. In 

 so far as they require additional sup- 

 port, it can probably best come through 

 an increase in the number of public li- 

 braries subscribing for such journals 

 and by an increase of subscribers among 

 those who may realize the importance 

 of supporting an institution essential 

 to society and its betterment. 



SCIENCE AND NATIONAL WEL- 

 FARE 



One of the alleviating circumstances 

 in the disaster of this war is the fact 

 that it thrusts on the attention of all 

 the place that science holds in national 

 and international affairs. Science does 

 not necessarily or at once make us moral 

 or wise, although its general influence 

 is in this direction. Human nature can 

 not be greatly altered by a change in 

 the environment effective for a short 

 period and on some individuals. But 

 when the new conditions become general 

 and individuals are favored who fit into 

 them, so that an altered race is pre- 

 served by natural selection, science will 

 make our morality and enforce its ob- 

 servance. We may look forward to the 



Copyright by The International Press Exchange, New York. 



Field Railway used in the German Advance in Russia. Within a week of the 

 capture of Warsaw an express railway service has been established between Lille and 

 Warsaw. 



