January 9, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



States 'National Museum; and " The Expenditures of Foreign 

 Oovernments in Belialf of History," by Professor J. F. Jame- 

 son, Brown University. Election of officers for the ensuing 

 jear, and report of committees, followed the reading of these 

 papers. The following were the oiBcers elected: president, 

 the Hon. William Wirt Henry of Richmond, Va. ; vice- 

 president, James B. Angel, president University of Michigan ; 

 second vice-president, Henry Adams of the District of Colum- 

 bia; secretary, Herbert B. Adams, professor of history, Johns 

 Hopkins University ; assistant secretary and curator, A. G. 

 Clark; treasurer, C. W. Bowen of New York. 



The committee on time and place of meeting reported 

 Washington as the proper place for the next meeting, and 

 during the holidays as the proper time. 



The annual meeting of the association was in every way a 

 success. There was a large attendance, the papers were in- 

 teresting, and the discussions that were evoked, spirited and 

 instructive. 



THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. 



The American Economic Association held its fourth an- 

 nual meeting Dec. 26-30, in Washington. The association 

 numbers between six hundred and seven hundred members, 

 and includes among this number all the professors of political 



. and social science in American colleges and universities, 

 besides many others prominent in economic studies. The 

 next number of its publications will complete its fifth volume 

 of economic monographs. 



The present programme embraced twenty eight papers. 

 President Francis A. Walker of the association delivered 

 the opening address, in which he commented on the various 

 phases of economic activity as exhibited in the increased 

 attention given to economic study, in the rise of nationalism, 

 the spread of the single-tax idea, the recent silver and finan- 

 cial disturbance, and in the change in the character of im- 

 migrants who have arrived on our shores within recent 

 years. 



Prominent among the papers read were the reports of the 

 different committees, — on economic theory, by Professor J. 

 B. Clark; on transportation, by Professor E. J. James; on 

 statistics, by Hon Carroll D. Wright; and on technical 

 education, by President Francis A. Walker. Other papers 

 •were, "The Concepts of Utility, Value, and Cost," by Pro- 

 fessor F. H. Giddings; "The Term 'Wealth' in Economic 

 Science," by Dr. Charles A. Turtle; "Tlie Ethical Principle 

 in Industrial Relations," by Miss Marietta Kies; "A Con- 

 tribution to the Theory of Railroad Rates," by Professor F. 

 W. Taussig; " The Relative Cost of Water and Rail Transpor- 

 tation," by Hon. George H. Ely; "The Relation of Railroad 

 Passenger Traffic to Freight Traffic," by Professor E. J. 

 James; " Street-Railway Statistics," by Charles H. Cooley. 

 Esq. ; " Statistics as a Means of Correcting Corporate Abuses," 

 by Professor Henry C. Adams; "The Incidence of Local 

 Taxation," by Professor Edwin R. A. Selignian; "Direct 

 Taxation as a Source of Early Federal Revenue," by Dr. 



•Roland P. Falkner; "Crooked Taxation," by Hon. T. G. 

 Shearman; "The Educational Value of Political Economy," 

 by Professor Simon N. Patten; "A Syllabus of Public 

 Economy," by Professor William W. Folwell; "Land Trans- 

 fer Reform, The Torrens System of Land Registration," by 

 Professor J. W. Jenks; "The Third, i.e., the Social, Revo- 

 lution," by Professor E. P. Cheney; "The Growth and 

 Economic Value of Building and Loan Associations," by 

 Hon. Seymour Dexter: "The Tailoring Trade and Sweating 



System," by Miss Katherine Coman; and "Girls' Boarding- 

 Houses," by Robert Stein. 



The last session was held jointly with the American For- 

 estry Association, and included papers on "The Duty of 

 Government in Regard to Forests," by Professor E. J. James; 

 " The Present Condition of Forests on Public Lands," by 

 Edward D. Bowers; "Government Forestry Abroad," by 

 GifFord Pinchot; and " The Feasibility of American Forest 

 Administration," by E. E. Fernow. 



The meeting just closed was one of the most successful in 

 its history. The following officers were elected for the en- 

 suing year: president, F A. Walker; first vice-president. 

 Professor C. F. Dunbar of Harvard; second vice-president. 

 Professor W. W. Folwell, University of Minnesota; third 

 vice-president. Col. C. D. Wright, Department of Labor; 

 secretary, Richard T. Ely, Johns Hopkins University; treas- 

 urer, Frederic B. Hawley. Esq., New York City; publica- 

 tion committee, Professor H. C. Adams. Professor J. B. 

 Clark, F. H. Giddings, Professor F. W. Taussig, and Pro- 

 fessor E R. A. Seligman. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN JAPAN. i 

 The new era in the history of Japan was inaugurated by the 

 opening of a few treaty ports on the Japanese coast to foreign 

 trade in 1854, and was further marked by the restoration of the 

 Mikado in 1868, and the abolition of feudalism in 1871. Since 

 then immense strides have been made towards an assimilation of 

 the old Japanese-Chinese world to Western civilization. The 

 progress of Western political, commercial, and industrial ideas in 

 Japan has been astounding. There have also been some changes 

 in social life; and in matters educational a somewhat slower, but 

 nevertheless remarkably steady, advance must be recognized. A 

 complete system of primary, secondary, and university instruc- 

 tion has been developed. Primary instruction is imparted in the 

 elementary and higher elementary schools ; secondary instruction, 

 in the ordinary middle and in the higher middle schools. In ad- 

 dition to these, there are several commercial schools in different 

 parts of the country, and a higher commercial school in Tokio. 

 There are also agricultural, military, and naval schools and col- 

 leges, and there is in the vicinity of Tokio a veterinary college 

 and a forestry school of high standard. 



Special attention has been paid to female education. There are 

 two higher female schools in Tokio, in which very creditable work 

 is already done. Great care is taken to teach European methods 

 in the making of clothing, and in other forms of female manual 

 la' or, particularly in Tokio and in Kioto. There are, further- 

 more, a certain number of kindergartens, and two schools for 

 European art and music. Teachers, both men and women, are 

 trained in normal schools. There is one higher normal school in 

 Tokio for the training of teachers for the normal and ordinary 

 middle schools. 



Japan, a country of thirty-six millions of inhabitant.-, possesses 

 but one university, with about Feven hundred students, the pres- 

 ent Iinpeiial University of Japan, which has sprung from several 

 originally independent establishaients. It comprises five facul- 

 ties or coUeges, — those of law, medicine, engineering, literature, 

 and science. The engineering college, which for some lime was 

 under the direction of foreign professors, and the mcn'ical college, 

 rank comparatively high. In the law college much attention is 

 paid to political economy, and in the literature coUege to the 

 teaching of history, pliilosophy, and German literature. Through 

 tlie impulse given by Dr Rle^s, the German professor of history, 

 a special historical department has been established in connection 

 with the university, in which original investigations in Japanese 

 history are conducted by an eminent Japanese professor. The 

 scientific instruments and apparatus used in the engineering, sci- 

 ence, and medical coUeges, are of the best manufacture, and of 

 latest European models. Recently there has been established in 



> Abstract of a paper read at the Travellers' Club of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, Oct. 10. Iti90, b.v Dr. Emil Hauskneebt of Tokio. 



