SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 389 



medicine, mathematics, geology, geography, biology, fisheries, and 

 patents will be held in connection with the Brussels meetings. 



The plan of voting suggested for the international council and the 

 international unions is: One vote for nations having a population 

 of less than five million; one vote additional for each additional five 

 million of population or fraction thereof, except that nations having 

 over twenty million have five votes only. The colonies of Great 

 Britain will probably vote as separate nations. 



THE TARIFF ON SCIENTIFIC SUPPLIES 

 Hearings were held on the three bills concerned with the tariff on 

 chemical and optical glassware and scientific apparatus (H. R. 3734, 

 3735, and 4386) before the Committee on Ways and Means of the 

 House of Representatives on June 11-13, 1919. Representative J. W. 

 FoRDNEY, of Michigan, Chairman of the Committee, presided. Among 

 those who testified at the hearing were: representatives of the glass 

 workers' unions; representatives of the manufacturers of chemical 

 glassware, chemical porcelain, optical instruments, and scientific ap- 

 paratus in general; and Dr. Charles H. HerTy, Editor of the Journal 

 of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Dr. W. F. HillEbrand, of 

 the Bureau of Standards, Mr. H. E. HowE, of the National Research 

 Council, Dr. Charles L. Parsons, Secretary of the American Chem- 

 ical Society, Lieut. Col. M. A. Reasoner, of the Field Medical Supply 

 Depot, U. S. A., Col. J. K. Rutherford, Ordnance Dept., U. S. A., 

 and Mr. F. J. Sheridan, of the U. S. TariflP Commission. Practically 

 all the evidence was in favor of the removal of the duty-free importa- 

 tion privilege, and the imposition of whatever tariffs might be necessary 

 to insure the establishment of the scientific apparatus and chemical 

 glassware industries in the United States. 



As these bills are of direct interest to all scientists and scientific in- 

 stitutions, the essential paragraphs of the bills are reproduced below : 



H. R. 3734. (Introduced by Mr. Bacharach, of New Jersey, on 

 May 28, 1919.) A Bill to provide revenue for the Government and to 

 establish and maintain the manufacture of optical glassware in the 

 United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on 

 and after the day following the passage of this act, there shall be levied, 

 collected, and paid upon the articles named herein^ when imported 

 from any foreign country into the United States or any of its possessions, 

 except the Philippine Islands and the islands of Guam and Tutuila, 

 the rates of duties which are herein prescribed, namely : Glass plates or 

 disks, rough cut or unwrought, for use in the manufacture of optical 

 instruments, spectacles, and eyeglasses, suitable only for such use, as 

 covered by paragraph 494 of the Tariff Act of October 3, 19 13, 45 per 

 centum ad valorem. And such articles and all scientific instruments 

 in which such articles as enumerated in said paragraph 494 are used, 

 shall not be entitled to free entry under paragraph 573 of the above 

 mentioned act. 



