536 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1302 



not be acliieved by so simple a device as 

 quantitative displacement. Indeed, society 

 Lias always paid a price of defeat when it has 

 attempted to nurture, through mere descent, 

 a so-called better class superposed on a cl.=iss 

 of alleged iuefficients. A group, a, socially 

 and economically efficient has no guaranty 

 that an offspring group, a', will be likewise 

 superior. What is " good blood " anyhow ? 

 It is that blood which manifests the skill and 

 purpose to behave uprightly as a member of 

 civilized society. But behavior can not be 

 calculated in advance like the ephemeris of 

 a comet. It lies outside the realm of any 

 law of heredity as yet disclosed; for in the 

 sequel the first of blood are apt to be last 

 and the last first. 



Mr. Dublin's contrast of native-born stock 

 with foreign-born to the disadvantage of the 

 latter is especially unjustified by facts. The 

 most " native " of us are not so very native 

 that we can with any propriety look with dis- 

 dain on the great numbers of devoted and 

 able citizens of the United States who happen 

 to have been born on the east side of the 

 Atlantic. 



It is too late now to evade the business of 

 defining "democracy." The Eeconstruction 

 Program of the British Labor Party — ^prob- 

 ably the most important document which 

 world conditions have brought into existence 

 during the past five years — starts us on the 

 way to a definition by reciting that " the first 

 condition of democracy is effective personal 

 freedom." " Effective personal freedom " is 

 a mocking phrase unless it means freedom to 

 choose one's work, to choose one's forms of 

 service, and to live one's life not hindering 

 others and not hindered by others. What- 

 ever it costs of traditions and prejudices and 

 theories democracy requires now that there 

 be no subject race, no subject class and no 

 subject sex. 'Mr. Dublin does not seem to 

 grasp this idea. He appeals to government, 

 to religion, and to the schools, to return 

 woman to what he believes to be her sphere. 

 But governments, religions and schools do not 

 originate or lead world movements; they 

 follow and if they are wise they accept the 

 inevitable. The movement briefly denoted by 



the phrase, " freedom of women," is here be- 

 cause its time had come. Constitutions of 

 governments, creeds of religions, curriculums 

 of schools, are adjusting themselves to its 

 requirements. 



A study of the folk-customs of savage 

 tribes has brought to light a system of tabu 

 which amounts to strangerhood between men 

 and women in all relations except the sex 

 relation. The new society, the Great State, 

 will show strangerhood replaced by comrade- 

 ship. Men and women will together own the 

 earth and together administer human affairs 

 — all human affairs. It is plainly so written 

 on the scroll which evolution unrolls. 



Ellen Hayes 



"Welleslet, Mass. 



SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES MEETING AT 

 ST. LOUIS 



The following societies have indicated their 

 intention to meet in St. Louis during Con- 

 vocation Week in affiliation with the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of 

 Science : 



Mathematical Association of America. — (Mis- 

 souri Section.) December 29. President, H. E. 

 Slaught; Secretary, Professor Paul R. Rider, "Wash- 

 ington "University, St. Louis, Mo. 



American Mathematical Society. — (Chicago and 

 Southwestern Sections.) December 30 and 31. 

 Joint session with Section A on December 30. 

 Acting Secretary, Dr. Arnold Dresden, 2114 Vilas 

 St., Madison, "Wis. 



American Federation of Teachers of the Mathe- 

 m,atical and the Natural Sciences. — Secretary, Dr. 

 "William A. Hedrick, Central High School, "Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



American Meteorological Society. December 29 

 to 31; joint meetings with Sections B and E on 

 dates to be announced. Secretary, Dr. Charles P. 

 Brooks, "0". S. "Weather Bureau, "Washington, D. C. 



American Physical Society. — December 30 to 

 January 1, in joint session with Section B, Presi- 

 dent, J. S. Ames. Secretary, Dr. Dayton C. Miller, 

 Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. 



Society for the Promotion of Engineering Edu- 

 tion. — President, Arthur M. Greene, Jr. Secretary, 

 Professor Frederic L. Bishop, "University of Pitts- 

 burgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Optical Society of America. — January 2. Presi- 



