284 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 192. 



there is no adequate policing of the reser- 

 vations. In arid or semi-arid regions re- 

 foresting, when once the original timber has 

 been removed, is extremely difficult or in 

 many cases impossible. Anj'one who has 

 traveled through the comparatively treeless 

 countries around the Mediterranean, such 

 as Spain, Sicily, Greece, northern Africa, 

 and large portions of Italy, must fervently 

 pray that our own country may be pre- 

 served from, so dismal a fate. A good 

 forest administration would soon come to 

 support itself; but it should be organized in 

 the interest of the whole country, no matter 

 what it may cost. The estimate of the cost of 

 the organization, as made by the Forestry 

 Commission of the Academy, was two hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand dollars a year for 

 the first five years. This is about the an- 

 nual cost of the maintenance of the pro- 

 tected cruiser San Francisco. 



The government has carried on for many 

 years past an inquiry into the habits, feed- 

 ing grounds and modes of breeding and mi- 

 gration of the fish which make an important 

 part of human food, and inhabit the west- 

 ern Atlantic and the eastern Pacific, the 

 Great Lakes and the rivers and brooks of 

 the continent. It is obvious that no power 

 but that of the general government can 

 carry on effectively a research of this mag- 

 nitude, covering such enoi'mous areas and 

 dealing with such a variety of creatures, 

 and it is obvious that such researches 

 require expensive outfit, long time and 

 highly-trained observers. Now, in this 

 great enterprise the expenditures of the 

 government during the five years 1893-97 

 have been §360,000 a year, which is less 

 than the annual cost of maintaining one of 

 our battleships. 



One other mode of beneficent expenditure 

 the United States government has main- 

 tained for a generation, namely, the annual 

 appropriation of money for certain colleges 

 of agriculture and mechanic arts, which 



were founded under the Act of 1862. In 

 aid of these colleges the government appro- 

 priated in 1897 a million of dollars. Can 

 any one of us see with satisfaction our gov- 

 ernment spend as little on the annual sup- 

 port of education in agriculture and the 

 mechanic arts throughout the country as on 

 the annual maintenance of three battleships 

 in time of peace ? 



In instituting these comparisons between 

 militarjr and naval expenditure, on the one- 

 hand, and expenditure forpurely beneficent 

 objects, such as the advancement of science, 

 the development of technical skill, the sav- 

 ing of life, the improvement of industries, 

 and the support of education, on the other, 

 I have no intention of even suggesting that 

 the expenditures on military and naval 

 preparation should be diminished, much 

 less stopped, as Charles Sumner proposed. 

 As war becomes more and more a matter of 

 science — chemical, physical, biological and 

 fiscal — and of highly-trained skill on the 

 part of all who direct or operate the com- 

 phcated machinery of war, it is manifest 

 that it is the duty of the United States 

 to build and maintain the most perfect 

 instruments and appliances of war that 

 the utmost skill of our engineers and 

 mechanics can produce, and to keep in 

 training adequate bodies of men to use effec- 

 tively this elaborate machinery. But is it 

 not equally clear that the nation which can 

 afford to make this expenditure can afford 

 to make much freer expenditures than our 

 nation has ever made on the wholly benefi- 

 cent agencies of the government, which 

 save life, increase food and ore production, 

 avert evils, facilitate transportation, pro- 

 mote industries and commerce, and foster 

 education. 



After everything possible has been said 

 in favor of martial virtues and achieve- 

 ments, whenever our people really take up- 

 the question how best to win glorj^, honor 

 and love for free institutions in general,. 



