AvGisT 7, inoS.] 



SCIENCE. 



177 



ploitfd by some crafty unscientific dealer. 

 But to put the whole question on a much 

 higher plane than that of mere financial 

 well-being, I venture to say that since 

 science stands for accuracy, probity, clear 

 statement of fact, unveiling of error of every 

 kind— whether intentional or unintentional 

 —it can have no sjTiipathy with the deceit 

 and chicanery that are so rampant aroimd 

 us, and that threaten at times even to 

 swamp the high ideals of oiir universities. 

 Toward the close of his valuable work on 

 'The Rise of the Swiss Republic,' Mc- 

 Cracken says: "It has become somewhat 

 of a commonplace assertion that polities in 

 the United States have reached the lowest 

 stage to which they may safely go. There 

 seems to be no longer any necessity to prove 

 this proposition, for the general conviction 

 has gone abroad, amply justified by the 

 whole course of history, that no democracy 

 can hope to withstand the corrupting in- 

 fluences now at work in our midst, unless 

 certain radical reforms are carried to a 

 successful conclusion. Our calm Ameri- 

 can complacency seems, at length, to have 

 received a shock; our habitual optimism 

 to have given place to a feeling of appre- 

 hension, lest the malignant forces now up- 

 permost in our national life may not. after 

 all, prove too strong for us ; and a corre- 

 sponding desire is being manifested to set 

 in motion other benign forces which shall 

 save the state from destruction while there 

 is yet time. 



Unfortunately aU attempts to probe the 

 fundamental first causes of our corruption 

 are checked at the outset by the difficulty 

 of bringing the popular will to bear upon 

 public questions. Our whole administra- 

 tive system, and all the methods by which 

 the people are supposed to make known 

 their desires, are perverted and diseased, 

 so that the sovereign body are prevented 

 by mere tricksters from exerting their legit- 



imate control over the making of the laws 

 which are to govern them. We are sufifer- 

 iug not only from deep-seated economic and 

 social diseases, of which perhaps the most 

 alarming symptom is the concentration of 

 wealth into the hands of a few, but fi'om 

 the rule of the boss, and from the lament- 

 able fact that the people at large are di- 

 vorced from legislation. As a matter of 

 fact nothing stands between us and the 

 tyranny of municipal, state and federal 

 bosses, as unscrupulous as any feudal lord- 

 lings in the thirteenth century, except pub- 

 lic opinion, imperfectly expres.sed by the 

 press. ' ' 



Later he says: 'As for the introduction 

 of the referendum and the initiative into 

 the United States, there are, in reality, 

 no insurmountable obstacles to bar the 

 way.' And again: "Those who have no 

 faith in the principles which underlie all 

 genuine democracies, in the equality and 

 brotherhood of man, and in his natural 

 rights ; who fear the people as an unreason- 

 ing beast which must be controlled; and 

 therefore look to reform by means of arti- 

 ficial laws, rather than by those of nature 

 —such men will naturally dread anything 

 which savors of direct government, and 

 will of course find the referendum and the 

 initiative a stumbling block and a bugbear. 

 But the increasing number of tho.se who 

 place their utmost confidence in the com- 

 mon sense of the people as a whole 'will 

 welcome both as the most important con- 

 tributions to the art of self government, 

 which this century has yet seen. ' " I have 

 thus quoted at length on a subject that may 

 not seem to be germane to our meeting, but 

 which on a little reflection we can all see 

 should most concern ms. Assuredly all 

 who desire their country's good will ac- 

 knowledge that the writer speaks forth 

 words of scientific truth and soberness. 



The exposure of such existing evils, 



