474 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 377. 



functions of the unions ; the men may join the 

 unions or remain free as they may choose and 

 the employer may employ union or non-union 

 men; piecework is approved and restriction 

 of output specifically disapproved. No limi- 

 tation of the number of apprentices is per- 

 mitted. In case of disagreement regarding 

 any question arising between the two parties, 

 reference and arbitration will be prescribed 

 and work shall not stop when such question 

 arises or during the session of the committees 

 of arbitration. 



Had these principles been in force in recent 

 years, it is hardly to be believed that the long 

 and costly strike which finally broke up the 

 former tyranny would have occurred or that 

 Great Britain would have experienced, as now, 

 competition of serious character within her 

 own boundaries. 



On the other hand, should the false prin- 

 ciples formerly so destructive of British indus- 

 tries find extensive lodgment in the United 

 States, as now seems possible, it can hardly be 

 doubted that the experience of the older 

 country will be repeated in our own. Restric- 

 tion of production has been a cardinal prin- 

 ciple with many associations though, fortu- 

 nately, not with the most intelligent and well- 

 managed, nor so generally and effectively as 

 to as yet seriously impair the industrial pros- 

 perity of the nation. The future of our indus- 

 trial organization may be found to depend, 

 nevertheless, upon the intelligence, the cour- 

 age and the firmness of the leaders in the 

 luiions and upon their success in the main- 

 tenance of right principles in fixing the rela- 

 tions of employer and employee. Freedom in 

 bargaining, independence of the individual 

 who chooses to be free and independent, free- 

 dom of the ambitious and industrious and 

 skilful, within or without the union, to secure 

 the full value of his best efforts, and entire 

 freedom to secure maximum output in both 

 quantity and quality are now assured the 

 British workman, for the first time in at least 

 two generations, and, in default of similar 

 freedom and independence and of similar 

 economic practice in the United States, the 

 tables may once more be turned. The spirit 

 of fairness and the intelligence and knowledge 



of economical principles displayed by the lead- 

 ers of the unions of most intelligent and 

 highly skilled workmen in the United States 

 and the rapidity with which a good example 

 makes its impression in this country give 

 assurance that the progress of the country 

 industrially is not likely to be suddenly or 

 soon checked. When an enormous organiza- 

 tion like, for example, the Railway Train- 

 men's Association, makes fair play and indus- 

 trial peace a cardinal doctrine, and when their 

 associates of the Locomotive Engineer's unions 

 have a record of not more than two or three 

 serious strikes in a generation, it may be 

 fairly anticipated that reason and justice will 

 ultimately prevail generally. 



MR. Marconi's achievement. 



The month of February and particularly 

 the 23d and 25th of February, 1902, will 

 undoubtedly become historically recorded as 

 the beginning of what may be known as the 

 Marconian era. It was on the first of these 

 dates that a message was transmitted more 

 than a thousand miles, between a station on 

 the coast of Cornwall and a ship at sea in 

 the midst of the Atlantic, and it was at the 

 second of these dates that distinct signals 

 were repeatedly transmitted over a distance 

 exceeding two thousand miles under similar 

 circumstances and permanently recorded on 

 the tape of the receiving instrument. The 

 practicability of the system of wireless teleg- 

 raphy operated by Mr. Marconi was thus con- 

 firmed as effectively for these enormous dis- 

 tances as it had been, long before, by constant 

 use over shorter ranges, for months together, 

 on the coasts of England, France and the 

 United States. 



The Marconi station at Poldhu, Cornwall,. 

 has been in use a long time, not simply for 

 the usual work of exchanging messages with 

 ships at sea in that neighborhood, but also in 

 the investigation of the problem of transmis- 

 sion over the ocean, from shore to shore. 

 Weeks before it had been found possible to 

 reach the coast of Newfoundland with dis- 

 tinct signals and Mr. Marconi, returning to 

 England, refitted his apparatus for a test 

 which should be crucial. He left Southamp- 



