SKETCH OF EDWARD ATKINS OR. 



119 



made to obtain information about the homespun fabrics that are 

 made and worn by the people of the mountain-regions of that and 

 the adjoining States. In a discussion concerning the conditions 

 of transporting flour from Minneapolis to Europe, he acknowl- 

 edges indebtedness to twenty-six distinct sources whence he ob- 

 tained information, including railroad presidents, manufacturers, 

 editors of special journals. Government officers, and managers of 

 land-mortgage companies. The purpose of the discussion just 

 named was to prove that it was possible to supply the European 

 markets with breadstuff s at a very low cost, and at the same time 

 secure high earnings to farm-laborers, coupled with reasonable 

 profits to the farmers, millers, and transportation companies. 

 Having shown that the wages of one day's work of a good me- 

 chanic on the Eastern seaboard of the United States will suffice 

 to move his year's supply of grain and meat one thousand miles 

 from the Western prairie, while the skilled workman of Great 

 Britain may also move his year's supply of grain and meat four 

 or five thousand miles at a cost of two days' labor, possibly three, 

 he adds : " Have not the scientists who have eliminated time and 

 distance made the whole world one great neighborhood in which 

 each man may serve his neighbor ? But the masters of physical 

 science have only removed natural obstructions. There is work 

 now for the masters of political science. It now remains for 

 Legislatures to remove the artificial obstructions created by their 

 predecessors in order that each nation may serve the other. When 

 that is done, the interdependence of the men of all countries and 

 of all climes will be established, and the foundation of peace, order, 

 industry, good- will, and plenty among all nations will be firmly 

 laid." 



Such is the destiny to which Mr. Atkinson, despising the petty 

 devices and make-shifts of politics, and looking only to what will 

 contribute most directly to the ultimate result, would lead us. 



Mr. Atkinson is a member of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, of the British Association, Fellow of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American 

 Statistical Association, of the Political Economy Club, of the In- 

 ternational Statistical Institute, of the Cobden Club, and several 

 other bodies of like kind. He has never held any public office 

 except when commissioned by the President in 1887 to report 

 upon the status of bimetallism in Europe. He has always been 

 an independent in politics. 



The various papers which have been written by Mr. Atkinson 

 are constantly referred to in economic discussions by persons who 

 differ with each other and who do not accept his conclusions, his 

 analyses of the facts of the economic life of the nation being ac- 

 cepted even by those who do not agree with his theories. 



