April 12, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



573 



to aid the banks, but to remove restrictions 

 upon the use of credit in this form where 

 it is found to be useful. If the govern- 

 ment will remove the outgrown restrictions 

 and require proper security, there can be 

 no danger to any economic interest in- 

 volved. 



Commerce determines the amount of 

 bullion currency, not the government. 

 And this is just what we ask in regard to 

 note issues. The idea that a government 

 can or ought to determine the amount of 

 money in circulation is not held in any 

 civilized country. The government ought 

 only to determine the rules that insure 

 that a currency shall be what it purports 

 to be, and that it shall have stability and 

 flexibility. 



The regular papers were presented in the 

 following order: 



The Evohition of Property: Logan G. 



McPherson, New York City. 



The problems of to-day in the United 

 States are largely problems concerning 

 property. The corporate regime has ex- 

 tended ; and attacks upon corporations have 

 extended. 



The change from the artisan and the 

 tradesman doing business in a small way 

 to the great organization operating in an 

 extending field, unquestionably marks one 

 of the great transitions in the mechanism 

 whereby property is held and transferred, 

 one of those cataclysms, it being understood 

 that every cataclysm is the slowly accumu- 

 lated result of forces long at work, one of 

 those cataclysms that has marked the pas- 

 sage from one property regime to another. 

 Three such regimes are clearly discernible 

 in the history of the human race. These 

 are the tribal or gentile regime, the feudal 

 regime and the joint stock or corporate 

 regime of property, representing in a gen- 

 eral way the ancient, medieval and modern 

 forms of property evolution. 



Under the system of the gens it was 

 every family for itself. Under the system 

 of Cleisthenes it became, subject of course 

 to the modifications of the political govern- 

 ment, every man for himself. The regime 

 of the joint stock company has come with 

 that progress of invention through which 

 the efforts of all men are coordinated for 

 the benefit of all men. This regime tends 

 more and more to reach that status where- 

 under any person who through frugality, 

 thrift, foresight obtains a measure of re- 

 source above his living need may partici- 

 pate in the ownership of one or more of 

 the great corporations that produce and 

 distribute the things of material need. 



That it is possible for a great organiza- 

 tion to produce more cheaply and seU more 

 cheaply, that the ability of administrative 

 officers can be directed into channels for 

 which it is best fitted, that it presents— if 

 properly steered— a formidable resistance 

 to the dangers of both the waves of 

 prosperity and the slough of adversity 

 have time and again been demonstrated in 

 theory. 



That in practise all of these advantages 

 have not been attained at all times by all 

 corporations, that in practise all of these 

 advantages may not have been attained at 

 any one time by all corporations, is known 

 to all men. It may even be that there are 

 corporations which have not in practise 

 attained any of these advantages at any 

 time. But it is incontestable that every 

 one of these advantages has been attained 

 at one time or another by one corporation 

 or another; and the ultimate salvation of 

 any corporation lies in its attaining and 

 maintaining in its practise every one of 

 these advantages all the time. 



The Concentration of Wealth: Henry 

 LAtTBENS Call, Washington, D. C. 

 Fifty years ago there were not to exceed 



fifty millionaires in the whole of the United 



