JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 19 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
Read November 1st, 1906. 
BY S. A. MORGAN, D. PAD. PRESIDENT. 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : 
In assuming the Presidential chair of your Association ,— 
a chair adorned by so many worthy and distinguished occu- 
pants in the past—it will be but proper that I give expression 
to my appreciation of the high honor you have thus conferred 
upon me. I cannot, however, be insensible of my own 
unworthiness to rank as the first of your twentieth century 
presidents, and am fully conscious, moreover, that in extend- 
ing me this honor you have not sought out one whose 
capacities fitted him for these high duties, but have desired 
rather to recognize my years of service (and, I trust, of faith- 
ful service) in the lower offices. Whatever value these 
services may have been to the Association, I can assure you 
they have been to me but as a labor of love, and that the same 
effort for the welfare of the Association shall mark my labors 
in the higher office. 
Before proceeding to the subject to which I would espe- 
cially draw your attention this evening, let us briefly survey 
the present outlook of the scientific and sociologic world. 
The gigantic strides with which physical science has, during the 
latter half of the closing century, been working out the problem 
of man’s mastery of his physical environment, give no signs 
of decline on this its entrance into a newcentury. Since the 
close of our last session marked advance has been made in the 
problem of electric transmission which gives promise that 
distance will shortly become a vanishing factor in the problem 
of force transmission. 
In the social world we are still confronted with the 
galling friction between labor and capital; and it must be 
