528 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 617. 



additional vertebras for the city. More 

 and more in the life of great cities is im- 

 proved transit of importance, the tendency 

 being for traffic to mass at intersecting 

 points with inferior utilities in the quiet 

 side streets. 



Insurance Problems relating especially to 

 the Management of Assets and Legal 

 Regulation of Investments: Dr.- Lester 

 W. Zartman, Yale University. (To be 

 published elsewhere. ) 

 The New York insurance investigation 

 revealed the dangers and abuses in the 

 management of insurance assets. As a re- 

 sult stricter legal regulation has become 

 necessary. The evils of insurance fund 

 management are of three classes: (1) Of- 

 ficers and trustees made personal profit out 

 of the company's funds; or (2) they took 

 no interest in the disposition of the funds, 

 and (3) the policy-holders to whom the 

 funds belong exercised no control over their 

 property. 



Stricter limitation of the investing pow- 

 ers of officers and trustees has not proved 

 an adequate reform. It has rather pro- 

 duced abuses, such as collateral loans and 

 trust company deposits, both of which 

 should be given up. 



The vulnerable point in insurance is the 

 making of personal profits by officers and 

 trustees. Making this a penal offence 

 would tend to divorce insurance manage- 

 ment from other lines of business. Stock 

 insurance companies should be forbidden, 

 because of the danger of stock control, and 

 real mutuality secured. Abolish the proxy 

 system and provide voting of policy-hold- 

 ers by mail for boards of managers are in 

 the right direction. More reliance should 

 be placed on the election of responsible 

 directors than in strict legal regulation. 



Mathematics and Formal Discipline: Joseph 

 V. Collins, State Normal School, Stevens 

 Point, Wis. 



In the training of the reasoning powers 

 the service of that faculty in social and 

 economic science is to be considered. Pro- 

 fessor Lewis (Dartmouth) in his study of 

 formal discipline by tests in geometry and 

 practical reasoning (School Review, April, 

 1905) shows that a relationship exists but 

 does not prove the faculty theory true. 

 Tables prepared by the author of the pres- 

 ent paper show that what a student does in 

 any subject depends more on his mental 

 equipment and native environment than on 

 the particular matter considered. 



Mathematics gives a training sui generis. 

 In arithmetic the problems correlate at 

 many points with the actual affairs of life. 

 Speaking broadly, though the most im- 

 portant effects of the mathematical training 

 are abilities of quite general application : as, 

 holding a number of particulars in the mind 

 at one time, training in sustained reason- 

 ing, habit of overcoming difficulties, recog- 

 nizing the universality of the application of 

 correctly stated laws, perceiving the need of 

 care to secure the accuracy of results re- 

 quired, and so on. These powers have 

 identity of qualities with multitudes of ac- 

 tivities the individual finds himself engaged 

 in in after life. They thus furnish hooks 

 on which to hang new experiences and con- 

 quer new problems. In these ways perhaps 

 more than in any others mathematics justi- 

 fies its place in the course. 



The following papers were read by title 



or in abstract: 



Conditions and Needs of Southern Agri- 

 culture: Professor Andrew M. Soule, 

 Blacksburg, Ya. 



Labor Conditions in Southern Farming: 

 Professor F. W. Massey, Ealeigh, N. C. 



Value of an Organized Working Force in 

 Industry: President E. L. Blackshear, 

 Prairie View, Texas. 



