316 A Century of Science 



from the Riverside Press. It is an enlivening 

 story of progress, but like every story* it has a 

 moral, and I am going to pass over details and 

 make straight for that moral. Americans are a 

 bragging race because they have enjoyed immense 

 opportunities, and are apt to forget that the true 

 merit lies, not in the opportunity, but in the use 

 we make of it. Much gratifying progress can be 

 achieved in spite of the worst sort of blundering 

 and sinning on the part of governments. The 

 greater part, indeed, of human progress within his 

 toric times has been thus achieved. A good deal 

 of the progress of which Americans are wont to 

 boast has been thus achieved. Now the moral of 

 our story is closely concerned with the fact that in 

 the city of Cambridge such has not been the case. 

 Our city government has from the outset been up 

 right, intelligent, and helpful. We are satisfied 

 with it. We do not wish to change it. In this 

 respect the experience of Cambridge is very dif 

 ferent from that of many other American cities. 

 The government of our cities is acknowledged to 

 be a problem of rare difficulty, so that it has begun 

 to seem a natural line of promotion for a successful 

 mayor to elect him governor, and then to send him 

 to the White House ! In some cities one finds 

 people inclined to give up the problem as insoluble. 



