170 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 944 



but also "political," quite in the original 

 sense of political economy. The very name 

 of the movement which in a way is a con- 

 structive reaction from the economic stim- 

 ulus of a lessened purchasing power is sig- 

 nificant. I refer, of course, to the conser- 

 vation movement. The word conservation, 

 although vague, stands for the diminishing 

 of wastes. In the conservation movement, 

 we have a return to the original purposes 

 of "political economy." The items which 

 make up the cost of living as represented 

 by an average family budget suggest 

 plainly the directions in which the preven- 

 tion of wastes may prove most fruitful. 

 In the attempt to reduce the absolute cost 

 of living, society wages an eternal warfare 

 against the destructive wastes of nations," 

 which are preventable war, preventable ig- 

 norance, preventable sickness, whether 

 physical, intellectual or moral, preventable 

 death, preventable accidents to life and 

 property, and preventable lack of oppor- 

 tunity which may delay or prevent the 

 productivity of exceptional minds like 

 those of Edison and Burbank, which exist 

 in all degrees in certain proportions in the 

 population. The latter waste is the great- 

 est waste which society still permits. The 

 public school system is an institution cre- 

 ated to furnish equal opportunity for edu- 

 cation, but it is probable that a system of 

 vocational guidance for exceptional chil- 

 dren, i. e., above the average, would prove 

 an extremely profitable policy for a nation 

 to undertake on a large scale. 



If we admit that in a population some 

 ai*e exceptional beyond others in intelli- 

 gence, in foresight and in inventive ca- 

 pacity — ^^and we know this to be true by the 

 prevalence of idiots, insane persons, crim- 

 inals and paupers, classes below the aver- 



" Norton 's ' ' Economic Advisability of a Na- 

 tional Department of Health," Journal of Amer- 

 ican Medical Association, August, 1906. 



age — it follows that the larger the popula- 

 tion of the same strain, the greater will be 

 the number of exceptional minds above the 

 average. It is self-evident that the na- 

 tional dividend of a better civilization is 

 created by the exceptional minds of a na- 

 tion for the higher utility of all. We re- 

 duce absolutely, not relatively, the cost of 

 living when we discover a cheaper method 

 of controlling the matter and the forces of 

 the world. Thus, a natural tendency to 

 progress^'' is inherent in an increasing pop- 

 ulation, unless checked by the destructive 

 wastes of nations. Nor can we overesti- 

 mate the importance of ethical and hygienic 

 standards in the study of political econ- 

 omy. Our measurements and standards of 

 utility must be based on ethical and 

 hygienic values rather than on conceptions 

 of ophelimity or desirability. 



By ethical standards, we mean to in- 

 clude among others the more enlightened 

 conceptions of jurisprudence, and by 

 hygienic standards the well-balanced judg- 

 ments of enlightened medical and sanitary 

 experts. But the guidance of present 

 statistics of the cost of living supplemented 

 by vital statistics is essential to a balanced 

 judgment and the lack of accurate statis- 

 tics on social and economic subjects is well 

 known. Without measurements, our con- 

 clusions must be vague. 



J. Pease Noeton 



New Haven, Conn. 



FLANS FOB A GFEATEE UNIVEESITY OF 

 MONTANA 



Between forty and fifty prominent citizens 

 of all parts of the state of Montana met at 

 Helena, December 23, and organized the As- 

 sociation for the Creation of a Greater Uni- 

 versity of Montana. This is to be brought 

 about by the consolidation of the present iso- 



^° Norton 's ' ' Cause of Social Progress and the 

 Eate of Interest," Popular Science Monthly, Sep- 

 tember, 1910. 



