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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 958 



work has languished a good deal because 

 sufficient funds were not available. 



The Solar Union has no funds whatso- 

 ever and is even unable to pay for its own 

 publications. Sufficient has been said to 

 show how wide a range is already covered 

 by international research. Further exten- 

 sions of the work are constantly being 

 called for, and we are brought face to face 

 with the problem that separate associations 

 can not be multiplied indefinitely without 

 introducing difficulties which, as their 

 number increases, endanger the objects 

 which they are intended to serve. Apart 

 from the overlapping of interests and ques- 

 tions of finance, the time spent in corre- 

 spondence and administration is already 

 serious. The nature of the problems suit- 

 able to be dealt with by international ef- 

 forts is such that the same persons are 

 generally interested in several of them, 

 and the meetings succeed each other so 

 rapidly as to become a serious tax on the 

 time of those who attend them and some 

 who used to look with favor on interna- 

 tional work are beginning to be frightened. 



Perhaps we may look forward to some 

 arrangement to combine the meetings of 

 the different associations in the manner of 

 the different sections of the British Asso- 

 ciation, for instance. But this would re- 

 quire some central authority to act as a 

 bond between the bodies which at present 

 are separate and independent. 



Economy of working, both financial and 

 administrative, points in the same direc- 

 tion, and we are driven to the conclusion — 

 and that, I think, I should like to make the 

 moral of this paper — that the present 

 policy of establishing a separate associa- 

 tion for each new extension of interna- 

 tional work should be reconsidered and an 

 effort made to economize time in working 

 and administration by some larger scheme, 

 including the various separate interna- 



tional institutions on related and similar 

 subjects. 



Realizing that it is necessary to take 

 some action in this direction, yet perhaps 

 not understanding correctly why the ac- 

 tion is necessary, an ambitious undertaking 

 has been evolved in Belgium, where it is 

 proposed to erect an office uniting interna- 

 tional associations, whatever their object 

 or character may be. The promoters have 

 drawn up their statutes, one general con- 

 gress has already been held, and another 

 is now being organized. No success can, 

 however, be expected from a scheme 

 launched by a self-constituted and irre- 

 sponsible body, unless its program com- 

 mands general respect. 



Is this the case in the present instance? 



I do not know whether you realize the 

 number of associations which exist. I shall 

 not call them "international associations," 

 but associations which call themselves in- 

 ternational. The number to be united in 

 this Belgium scheme is 279, and each of 

 them, if I understand the proposals cor- 

 rectly, may have an office in a large build- 

 ing to be erected for the purpose. If you 

 read through the list of these associations, 

 I do not know what your feeling would be, 

 but I can describe to you what mine has 

 been; and it is exactly like that which I 

 should have if I were to enter a musevun, 

 and find, side by side, the Venus of Milo, 

 a living tiger, a collection of rare manu- 

 scripts and sanitary appliances. You will 

 be interested to hear that, amongst the 

 institutions which are to be provided for 

 in this building, is the International Bu- 

 reau of American Republics; but it is also 

 intended to include "The International 

 Congress for Providing Cheap Lodgings." 

 Any one who enters the building and tries 

 to find the particular room to which he 

 wants to go has to ask the man in charge. 



