SEPTEMBER 29, 1899. ] 
‘The Power of the Consumer, Economically 
Considered.’ The paper was well written 
and admirably presented. Its general con- 
clusions were :—The consumer, at present, 
has the power to decide that a given article 
shall not be produced, by refraining unani- 
mously from buying it ; to promote the pro- 
duction of a given article by demanding 
it; to decide within certain limits the con- 
ditions under which the production of de- 
sired articles shall be carried on. The con- 
sumer has, however, hitherto done none of 
these things in an orderly way, except so far 
as cooperative buying has been practiced, 
and the intervention of adulteration laws 
and factory laws has been invoked by con- 
sumers. The power of the consumer, while 
potentially very great, is really slight at 
the present time, and increases only in 
proportion as consumers organize, get into 
direct communication with manufacturers, 
and inform themselves minutely with re- 
gard to the conditions of production. 
Professor Mansfield Merriman presented 
a study of the ‘Median Age of the Popu- 
lation of the U.S.,’ showing a marked and 
steady increase. His results were derived 
from curves obtained from the Census re- 
ports. The abdscissas of the platted points 
were the ages from 0 to 100 orabove. The 
ordinates represented the summation of all 
the population below the ages represented 
by the corresponding abscissas. For ex- 
ample: onthe curve representing the cen- 
sus of 1890, the ordinate at the abscissa 
20, represented the number of persons enu- 
merated in the census of 1890 whose age 
was 20 or less. The curves become tangent 
to the lines of total population at about 104 
years. 
The abscissa of the point where the curve 
crosses the line of half the population marks 
the ‘ median age’ since one-half of the whole 
people are less than that age and one-half 
are more than that age. In addition 
to the median age of all classes, the median 
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ages of particular classes were given, as 
shown in the following table : 
Census F Native All 
year. Whites. Whites. Colored. Classes. 
1850 18.6 — 16.5 18.3 
1860 19.3 — 16.5 18.9 
1870 19.9 16.2 17.7 19.6 
1880 20.9 17.8 17.5 20.4 
1890 21.9 18.9 17.6 21.4 
1900 | (22.9) | (20.0) | (17.6) | (22.4) 
This indicates a steady increase in the 
length of life, though it does not tell what 
that length is. 
Mr. H. T. Newcomb’s paper on ‘ Trusts, 
a Study in Industrial Evolution,’ was ex- 
ceptionally fine in both form and substance. 
No brief abstract can do it justice... There 
was no sentiment in it, no partisan bias, 
but a careful and impartial statement of the 
growth of the various forms of combination 
and cooperation by both employer and em- 
ployed, from partnerships through trusts to 
corporations; from trades unions, to the 
American Federation of Labor. Mr. New- 
comb’s paper will undoubtedly be published 
in some form at an early date. 
Dr. Washington Gladden’s paper on the 
‘Moral Tendencies of Existing Social Con- 
ditions ’ was an able discussion of the moral 
effects of the prevailing industrial and com- 
mercial system. Dr. Gladden is a close 
student of men and affairs, and his observa- 
tions should have great weight. The com- 
petitive system is responsible for the ten- 
dencies whether good or ill. He enumerated 
the gains we seem to be making: 1. In com- 
mon honesty. There is less of cheating and 
fraud in ordinary business than there were 
fifty years ago, though buyers are more 
reckless in running into debt. 2. In the 
development of the fiduciary virtues. Men 
learn to trust each other more and to de- 
serve more confidence, notwithstanding an 
occasional embezzler. 3. The system en- 
forces a valuable lesson in cooperation. Dr. 
Gladden believed that the big corporations 
