December 29, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



755 



family, subfamily, tribal and divisional names 

 which Mr. Baker's novel idea implies. 



H. M. Paeshlet 

 Smith College 



THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN GEOLOGY 



To THE Editor of Science: Referring to 

 Dr. T. C. Mendenhall's article on page 661 of 

 the current volume of 'Science, I desire to say 

 that I have no wish to enter into any contro- 

 versy in xegard to the facts of Newberry's conr 

 nection with the Geological 'Survey of Ohio and 

 I sincerely hope for the benefit of the history 

 of American geology that Dr. Mendenhall is 

 correct. Moreover, I yield to none in my high 

 regard for 'both Newbenry -and Orton. My ref- 

 erence was entirely to a period prior to Orton's 

 accession to the directorship of 'the sui'vey and 

 to the feelings which Newberry publicly ex- 

 piressed at the time I was a student under him 

 'at the Columbia School of Mines. 



In confii'mation of which I can only add that 

 Charles A. White, than whom none knew New- 

 berry (better, writes in Ms memoir that was pub- 

 lished "by the National Academy of Sciences as 

 follows : 'In 1874 the work of the survey was 

 suspended by failure of the legislatui'e to pro- 

 vide the necessary funds and much dissatisfac- 

 tion and even bitterness of feeling was engen- 

 dered among those who had taken part or had 

 been interested in it. Dr. Newlberry thought and 

 with apparently good reason that injus'bice had 

 been done him in his relation to the survey." 

 Marcus Benjamin 



QUOTATIONS 



THE FEDERAL BUDGET 



The estimates of 'the money needed by the 

 federal government for 1924 are a)bouit 

 $3,000,000,000, excluding the Post Office, which 

 it is hoped will be self^Tippiortinig. At a very 

 moderate estimate, over two thirds of ithis will 

 be spent on wars past, present or future. 

 Nearly ihalf a 'billion goes to the veterans, 

 a'bout a billion goes into 'the service of ithe 

 debt accumnlated in the last war, well over half 

 a billion to maintaining 'the army and navy. 



Half of the total expenditure is a debt to 

 veterans amd to 'bondholders. It is fixed. The 

 other half of the expenditure is for the ai-my. 



the inavy and the civil govermnent. Here alone 

 retrenchment is possible. Assuming that the 

 administration sees no way 'to reduce the cost 

 of the army 'and navy, ibut on the contrary, ac- 

 cording to Secretaries Denby and Weeks, 

 would like to increase these costs if possible, 

 the taxpa3'er's position comes to this: If the 

 whole civil government were dismantled or run 

 free of charge the tax-savin'g would 'be less 

 tha;n 30 cents on a dollar. 



Some part of this 30 cents is all that Mr. 

 Harding has any hope of saving. The p'a»t 

 which he 'is now thinking about is the part 

 which goes into "reseai'<3h, improvement and 

 development." Less than $11,000,000 goes to 

 research. If it were all abolished it would s'ave 

 just a trifle over one third of a -cent on each 

 dollar. Ten roillions goes to education. Abol- 

 ish this item and you have cut your budget 

 .003 per cent. Sixteen millions goes for public 

 heailth. Cease this activity and you save 'half 

 a cent on a dollar. Abolish all public works, 

 river and harbor improvements, road construc- 

 tion, tlie Reclamation Service, Alaskan railroad 

 expenditures, hospital constructio'U 'and other 

 public improvements -and the total saving would 

 ■be less 'than 5 cents on a dollar. Abolish every- 

 thing in tlie way of "research, improvement 

 and development" and the taxpayer would not 

 save 7 cents on a dollar. 



The budget figures are the greatest indiet- 

 'inent of modern civilization. They show that 

 two thirds of the energy of government goes to 

 the business of fighting, and that less than a 

 third of the remaining third goes 'to 'the civ- 

 ilized business of i^esearch, improvement and 

 development. — The New York World. 



THE APPRECIATION OF SCIENCE 

 At the anniversary dinner of the Royal So- 

 ciety it is customary to include 'among the 

 gueslts some public men of distinction in other 

 fields than those with which scientific men are 

 concerned. Among such guests this year, at 

 the dinner held on November 30, were Mr. Jus- 

 tice Darling, who proposed the toast of "The 

 Royal Society," and Mr. L. S. Amery, first lord 

 of the Admiralty, who responded to the toast 

 of "The guests." If the assemibly had consist- 

 ed of leading representatives of literature or 



