October 26, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



525 



remedy lies Mdth the stockholders to put 

 such out of office. Stockholders are respou- 

 sible for the corporate conscience when they 

 permit corporate measures they would not 

 personally sanction. 



Few stockholders attend annual meetings. 

 If they absent themselves, what right have 

 they to complain that the directors are self- 

 elected and a small number or even one 

 gains control? Attendance gives oppor- 

 tunity to ask questions ; the more searching 

 these are, the more welcome are they to 

 directors who have nothing to conceal and 

 who have kept the corporate conscience 

 clean. 



The Public Bath System of Brooklyn: Wil- 

 liam H. Hale, Brooklyn, N. Y, 

 A system of free public baths is a most 

 important and beneficent exercise of muni- 

 cipal ownership, conducing as it does to 

 public health and ultimately to improve- 

 ment of public morals. 



The floating baths have long been in use 

 along the river front during the summer 

 season ; three of these dating back nearly or 

 quite thirty years are still in commission; 

 two more were built in 1897, and the five 

 are now open to the public. It is estimated 

 that 1,500,000 people used these baths last 

 summer. 



The system of interior baths open the 

 year around is very recent. Six have been 

 opened thus far. 



These baths provide shower baths, with 

 hot and cold water, free to all. Soap is 

 provided at a cent a cake and use of towels 

 for a cent. Tubs in private rooms with 

 soap and use of towel, cost five cents. 



Great care is taken to keep the bath 

 houses well cleaned, and this is so well done 

 that many of our good citizens use the 

 public baths, and many persons regularly 

 come from New York to use them. 



Receipts for soap, use of towels and use 

 of tubs in 1905 were $4,446.75. The esti- 



mated attendance during 1905 was 6,000 a 

 day. 



The cost per capita of each bath for the 

 Montrose Avenue bath for April, 1906, was 

 3.42 cents. The number of bathers for this 

 month was reported as 47,956, and the cost 

 of operation of that bath above receipts for 

 that month was estimated at $1,594.01. 

 This does not include the cost of the water 

 used nor any estimate to cover rent for the 

 building, but merely operating expenses. 



And it is indeed doubtful whether public 

 funds can in any way be better expended 

 than in the cleansing of the people by these 

 baths, in promoting health and comfort, 

 and in its generally ameliorating effect. It 

 is the testimony of the attendant in charge 

 of the bath which we have just been dis- 

 cussing that it has a distinctly perceptible 

 effect not only in improving the health, but 

 also in elevating the moral tone of the com- 

 munity in that immediate neighborhood. 



Regulation of Freight Rates: N. T. Bacon, 



Peace Dale, R. I. 



The railroads legitimately object to 

 freight charges based on mileage only, that 

 in many cases, and especially for short dis- 

 tances, haulage only represents a minor 

 part of the cost to them, being of less im- 

 portance than switching, and the use of 

 terminals and rolling stock. To meet these 

 objections rates are proposed based on three 

 subdivisions of the charge: 



1. Terminal charges for switching and 

 use of terminal facilities. For this all sta- 

 tions should be graded, according to annual 

 freight receipts, into say six classes, ter- 

 minal charges to be uniform for each grade 

 of stations for the different services ren- 

 dered at each end. 



2. Use of rolling stock. 



3. Haulage. 



All these should differ for the different 

 classes of freight, but all rates and gradings 

 should be published, and no modification 



