Febbuaky 10, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



by an opinion rendered by Judge Holmes, 

 noAv of the United States Sxipreme Court, 

 when requested by the General Court of 

 Massachusetts to interpret its powers in 

 these respects. This opinion is quoted in 

 Judson's 'Taxation' (1903), page 426, foot- 

 note 1, as follows : 



' ' I am of the opinion that when money is 

 taken to enable a public body to offer to 

 the public without discrimination an arti- 

 cle of necessity, the purpose is no less pub- 

 lic when the article is wood or coal than 

 when it is water or gas or electricity or edu- 

 cation, to say nothing of cases like the sup- 

 port of paupers or the taking of lands for 

 railroads or public markets. I see no 

 ground for denying the power of the legis- 

 lature to enact the laAvs mentioned in the 

 question. The need or expediency of such 

 legislation is not for i;s to consider." 



Services of Commercial Organizations in 

 the Social and Economic Development of 

 Cities: William Flewellyn Saunders, 

 Secretary Business Men's League, St. 

 Louis, Mo. 



Of these organizations there are nearly 

 a thousand in the United States. The 

 high-grade modem business organizations, 

 through the volunteer service of their ofS- 

 eers and members and the paid work of 

 their secretaries and experts, are doing 

 work which is systematic, thorough and of 

 great value to the purposes of science. 

 Their fundamental usefulness is in pre- 

 venting the deplorable waste of fine in- 

 dividual power that Avould occur without 

 them, either by the dissipation of energy 

 through lack of organization or by the fric- 

 tion arising from the exertion of the force 

 along different lines of individuals having 

 the same general purpose. They organize 

 and systematize commercial experiences ; 

 they reduce to uniformity the variety of 

 business practises; they apply accepted 

 principles of trade to local conditions ; they 



collect statistics; they promote beneficial 

 legislation and prevent harmful legislation ; 

 they prevent litigation and waste of com- 

 munity energy; they mold public opinion 

 on economic questions; they generally de- 

 velop the associative efficiency of citizen- 

 ship. 



No commercial organization could enter 

 practical politics further than influencing 

 legislation, without great injury to its use- 

 fulness as a business organization, and it 

 should lay stress upon the necessity of these 

 organizations confining themselves to com- 

 mercial work. 



Some Recent Developments in Representa- 

 tive Government : George H. Shibley, 

 Bureau of Economic Research, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



The referendum and initiative are sys- 

 tems whereby the people possess a right to 

 a direct vote on legislative questions. Far- 

 reaching results are observed by those who 

 for years have been studying the workings 

 of the system in Switzerland and in this 

 country. The system is well established in 

 several countries, is being rapidly extended, 

 with scarcely a reversion, then only tem- 

 porarily, thus demonstrating that it is part 

 of the evolutionary process — a world tend- 

 ency. 



Where the people take to themselves the 

 right to a direct ballot, the results are ex- 

 ceedingly important. The final power is 

 in the people through the right to a direct 

 ballot, by means of the optional referendum 

 and direct initiative. It follows that the 

 party machine or boss can no longer enact 

 legislation. The elected representatives 

 simply recommend. This ensures the 

 termination of legal privilege, thereby ren- 

 dering it unprofitable for monopolists to 

 invest money in politics, thus leaving the 

 people free to nominate and elect men who 

 really represent their interests. In short, 

 representative government is restored and 



