896 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 440. 



The principal suggestions of Mr. Aus- 

 tin's paper were: 



1. That the increasing population of the 

 world and the increasing facilities for 

 transportation require that its various 

 sections shall contribute their proper pro- 

 portion to the requirements of man. 



2. That the world, and especially the 

 temperate zones, is constantly increasing its 

 demands for tropical and subtropical prod- 

 ucts. 



3. That although the belt lying between 

 the thirtieth parallels of north and south 

 latitude contains practically half the land 

 area of the world, it contributes but one 

 sixth of the exports which enter into the 

 international commerce of the world. 



4. That conditions in the temperate zones 

 are such as to render available surplus 

 capital, energy and experience which may 

 now be devoted to the development of the 

 tropics. 



5. That recent discoveries for the protec- 

 tion of life and health in the tropics, and 

 the use of natural power, will now enable 

 the temperate-zone man to accomplish 

 many things in the tropics not possible in 

 earlier years. 



6. That those sections of the tropics in 

 which the native labor supply is insufficient 

 may be readily supplied with the necessary 

 amount of tropical labor from India, south- 

 ern China and other sections of the Orient 

 whose populations have shown themselves 

 capable of and willing to labor in the 

 tropics. 



7. That the development of compara- 

 tively recent years has brought practically 

 all of the tropics, except tropical America, 

 Tinder control of temperate-zone countries, 

 thus facilitating the application in the 

 tropics of the capital and energy of the 

 temperate-zone man. 



Economic Operations of the Treasury De- ■ 

 partment: Hon. Milton E. Ailes, As- 

 sistant Secretary of the Treasury. 

 The economic operations of the depart- 

 ment relate chiefly to the management of 

 the revenues. In the public mind this part 

 of the treasury work is what makes or un- 

 makes a secretary of the treasury. The 

 world little knows or cares how heavily 

 burdened that officer may be with the man- 

 agement of the customs (unless he ex- 

 amines baggage over-zealously) or how a- 

 secretary of the treasury lies awake at 

 night devising ways and means for stamp- 

 ing out the latest yellow fever epidemic, or 

 is harassed with the intricacies of con- 

 structing innumerable public buildings or 

 caring for more than three hundred al- 

 ready in existence. When storms ravage 

 the coast it is the Secretary of the Treasury 

 who prays that not one of the keepers of 

 his 1,200 lights and lighthouses may have 

 failed, or that any of the surfmen of the 

 life-saving service have been found want- 

 ing in courage at the supreme hour. It is 

 the Secretary of the Treasiiry who must 

 know that navigators' charts from the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey are correct, that 

 the Steamboat Inspection Service has done 

 its work faithfully, and, in fact, that all of 

 the 26,000 employees accredited' to his de- 

 partment and engaged in its many and 

 varied services are faithful to their 'trusts. 

 And yet, he must keep his fingers on the 

 pulse of government receipts and disburse- 

 ments. He must observe an approaching 

 deficiency and give timely warning to con- 

 gress, or arrange for public loans, in order 

 that the treasury may be replenished and 

 strengthened. In the days of prosperity he 

 must also observe the phenomena of a sur- 

 plus. Acciamulating funds in the treasury 

 mean withdrawals of money hitherto 

 profitably employed in trade or business, 

 and so he must set about to apply a remedy. 



