EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



It is stated also to have been felt at a point 

 twelve miles south of here. This place is 

 eighteen miles south of Rutland, and we 

 call it about two hundred and fifteen miles 

 north of New York by rail, and the rail- 

 road route is quite direct — certainly near 

 two hundred. L. D. Mears. 



Dajs'bt, Rutland Countt, Veemont, 

 August IS, 1334. 



SCIENTIFIC PHILANTHROPY. 



Messrs. Editors : 



I HAVE just read "Scientific Philan- 

 thropy," in the August number of "The 

 Popular Science Monthly." While I agree 

 with the general tenor of the article, yet I 

 wish to make objection to some of the 

 statements. 



Sociology is getting to be an exact sci- 

 ence ; and those who wish to write upon it 

 will have to be much more careful as to 

 what they assert than they have been in 

 the past. All positions are criticised, and 

 nothing will pass but what is true at all 

 times, under all conditions, and in all cir- 

 cumstances. 



Mr. Vance says, page 482, " With suc- 

 cessive differentiations of individual func- 

 tions and pursuits, there comes an in- 

 creasing specialization of each differen- 

 tiated member of society, and hence indus- 

 trial virtues and vices, which the parent 

 fixes for the child by heredity, lead to the 

 existence of two very different classes in 

 community — the rich and the poor, the 

 strong and the weak, the rulers and the 

 ruled." 



Now, so far as certain industrial virtues 

 or vices fixed by heredity being the source 

 of the two classes, the rich and poor, the 

 rulers and the ruled, I for one entirely deny. 

 Those classes, as we know them now, 

 are maintained by certain social institutions 

 that give special advantages to those in 

 possession, and prevent others, however 

 possessed of all necessary virtues, from 

 reaching the place for which they were 

 fitted, "of that there are so many proofs 

 that there is only the difficulty of choice. 



In England, advancement in the army 

 is only possible to a certain class. In 



ranee, where class distinction was abol- 

 ished, the best officers of the Revolution 

 rose from the ranks. 



In the United States, where chances are 

 more equal, it is the common observation 

 that men who come here with money lose 

 it, those who come poor become rich. Does 

 any one suppose that Vanderbilt would be 

 the rich man he is, or Bennett own the 

 " New York Herald," if they had depended 

 upon their inherited virtues for their posses- 

 sion? 



But that which can be easily proved is 

 that when a man has reached the upper 

 class, either of riches or rulers, he next 

 strives to pass to his children, not the vir- 

 tues that brought him there, but the results 

 of his labors ; and not only to pass them, 

 but to so arrange matters that the benefits 

 may not be squandered through any follies 

 of theirs. 



And when not one man, nor one thou- 

 sand, but untold generations strive in one 

 special direction, the result is not difficult 

 to perceive. 



This result is a class of rich and of 

 rulers that not only hold possession, but 

 who have so intrenched themselves that it 

 is almost impossible to dislodge them, and 

 the battle that is coming on is simply one 

 to equalize the chances, so that the parents 

 will have to transmit the virtues as well as 

 the possession. 



There is an imdercurrent, deep and 

 strong, that will make itself felt some day 

 before long. Mr. Ward's book, " Dynamic 

 Sociology," is a precursor of it. Those who 

 would check it must be more accurate than 

 the general run of writers on " sociology." 



Mr. Vance says, furthermore, page 493 ; 

 "The sentimentalist employs in sociology 

 the empiric method; in ethics, he builds 

 upon intuition; in political economy, he 

 favors the principle of co-operation." 



It may be true of the sentimentalist, 

 but the natural inference that those who 

 favor co-operation are sentimentalists is a 

 great mistake. The principle that works 

 in favor of co-operation is to avoid the 

 immense waste of competition. 



Albert Chavannes, 

 Adair Cbekk, Tenn., August 16, lt84. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SCIENCE m SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 



THE progress of popular education 

 is gradually bringing into promi- 

 nence a class of questions of funda- 

 mental importance, the existence of 

 which was hardly recognized in its 

 earlier stages. It seemed at first a very 



simple aflfiiir to organize a common- 

 school system, and nobody anticipated 

 that any very serious diflBculties could 

 arise in carrying it out. Children were 

 to be taught the rudiments of knowl- 

 edge—chiefly reading, writing, and ci- 

 phering. There was but little trouble 



