Apeu, 3, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



509 



tation and all sent delegates except the Uni- 

 versity of Iowa. The institutions represented 

 were the University of Missouri, the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska, Washington University, 

 Drake University, the Iowa State College, and 

 the University of Kansas. Of these the uni- 

 versities of Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas 

 were represented by members of the board of 

 regents or curators and the presidents of the 

 institutions. Drake University was represented 

 by its president, Iowa State College of Agri- 

 culture and Washington University by pro- 

 fessors sent by the governing boards of the 

 institutions to represent them. The meeting- 

 resulted in a general conference upon athletics 

 as affecting institutions in the Missouri Valley 

 and rules were passed by the Conference and 

 afterwards reenacted by the individual boards 

 of regents, largely affecting the status of inter- 

 collegiate football. Among these was the rule 

 abolishing the game on Thanksgiving Day, 

 abolishing the short-term professional coach, 

 and requiring that all college games be played 

 on college grounds. 



The second conference was held at Des 

 Moines, January 6, 1911, at which various 

 questions left over from the Kansas City meet- 

 ing were discussed and acted upon. At that 

 conference the University of Iowa was also 

 represented by its president and board of 

 regents. Washington University was not rep- 

 resented. The discussion at this conference 

 widened out to include other things than 

 athletics. A general discussion of the fra- 

 ternity question was ordered for the next 

 meeting and committees on uniform financial 

 accounting and uniform pedagogical account- 

 ing were authorized. It was plain from the 

 discussions at the second conference, and in- 

 deed by formal action, that it was intended 

 to make the conference a permanent one to 

 take into consideration any question touch- 

 ing the common life of universities that might 

 need consideration and uniform action. 



The third meeting of the Conference was 

 held in Lincoln, Nebraska, January 19, 1914. 

 The University of Iowa had in the meantime 

 withdrawn from the Missouri Valley Confer- 

 ence and the State Agricultural College of 



Kansas had been added. All of the institu- 

 tions in the Conference were represented. 

 Most of the attention of this conference was 

 given up to matters other than athletic and 

 it was more evident than before that the 

 Conference was developing into a general con- 

 ference on the welfare of the universities hav- 

 ing so much in common. The fraternity 

 question received much attention, as did the 

 question of competency in teaching. It is 

 probable that in succeeding meetings such 

 questions as the following may be tal^en up 

 and discussed, if not formally acted upon : the 

 ethics to be observed in calling teachers from 

 one institution to another; substantially uni- 

 form salaries for the same grade of in- 

 structors; cooperation in giving advanced and 

 little called for courses; interchange of stu- 

 dents and instructors; cost of education. It 

 seems possible, therefore, that this Conference 

 is a beginning of a new type of cooperation, 

 having especial significance and authority 

 because of the fact that the Conference is 

 made up of presidents and governing boards 

 where the primary power lies. 



Frank Strong, 



Chancellor 

 University of Kansas 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 From the Letter Files of S. W. Johnson. 

 Edited by his daughter, Elizabeth H. Os- 

 borne. Tale University Press. 1913. Pp. 

 292. 



A notable feature of the applications of 

 science to the arts and industries which char- 

 acterized the second half of the nineteenth 

 century was the phenomenal evolution of 

 agencies for scientific investigation in the in- 

 terest of agriculture and the rise of a system 

 of public research institutions extending over 

 every country of the civilized world. The 

 life story of the subject of this biography is 

 essentially the story of the birth of this sys- 

 tem in the United States and its growth from 

 a few modest analytical laboratories to an 

 imposing group of national and state institu- 

 tions actively engaged in agricultural re- 

 search, in the teaching of agricultural science. 



