922 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 441. 



duction. Hence, the exchange value of 

 gold in relation to each other thing was the 

 governor of production and determined the 

 direction in which capital should be em- 

 ployed. It would deprive society of any 

 accurate means of determining the proper 

 direction of capital, and the necessity for 

 increasing or decreasing production of 

 given articles, if it should be attempted to 

 replace gold by a system of averages in- 

 tended to give uniformity to prices without 

 regard to the relation of demand and sup- 

 ply between different classes of goods. 



Cooperation, Coercion and Competition: 

 Professor Lindley M. Keasbey, Bryn 

 Mawr College. 



Industrial organization is determined by 

 two factors, by the character of the social 

 surplus, and by the monopolization of the 

 sources thereof. History shows us three 

 characteristic systems of industrial organ- 

 ization—the cooperative, the coercive and 

 the competitive— which have succeeded 

 each other in the order named. In the 

 natural state before the appropriation of 

 natural resources for pastoral and agricul- 

 tural purposes, the cooperative system pre- 

 vailed; during the proprietary period 

 which followed, when natural resources 

 were appropriated, but before the institu- 

 tion of exchange, the cooperative system 

 became subservient to the coercive system, 

 while with the rise of the commercial era, 

 resulting from the development of ex- 

 change, the coercive system was superseded 

 for some time by the competitive system. 

 Present tendencies appear to point to a re- 

 versal of the original order of this succes- 

 sion. Owing to the gradual monopolization 

 of the sources of the industrial surplus by 

 the great capitalists, the older competitive 

 system is breaking down. In its place the 

 coercive system is being reestablished. But 

 coercion when applied stimulates coopera- 



tion. The laborers are combining to resist 

 the coercion of organized capital. If, as 

 seems likely, capitalists and laborers co- 

 operate in profit-sharing undertakings, 

 then the consumers may possibly be coerced 

 by the producers. It will then be necessary 

 for the consumers to cooperate. Or to put 

 the general thought theoretically, we may 

 expect the present monopolization of the 

 surplus sources to be extended gradually 

 to admit laborers as well as capitalists, and 

 finally, perhaps, some monopolies to be still 

 further extended so as to admit consumers 

 as well as producers. 



Economic Work of the Weather Bureau,: 

 Professor Willis L. Mooee, chief of Bu- 

 reau. 



In connection with the economic worth 

 of the Weather Bureau the question is 

 often asked, ' Does it pay ? ' I will cite a few 

 facts in answer to that question. 



The first year of the Aveather service the 

 annual appropriation was about $20,000. 

 This year that appropriation is $1,250,000, 

 and congress and the people are plainly 

 well satisfied with its expenditure. Our 

 daily survey of the atmosphere is the larg- 

 est attempted by any country or organiza- 

 tion, and our system for the dissemination 

 of warnings of severe or injurious weather 

 conditions, such as storms, hurricanes, cold 

 waves, frosts, floods, heavy rains and 

 snows, is so complete that these conditions 

 seldom occur without the country being 

 notified well in advance. To give you some 

 idea of the value of the storm warning ser- 

 vice alone, I may say that there are 6,000 

 sailing vessels and as many steamers en- 

 gaged in the trans-Atlantic trade, which 

 leave our ports in a given year, and 17,000 

 sailing vessels and 4,000 steamers which an- 

 nually ply between the ports on the At- 

 lantic coast. Marine insurance people esti- 

 mate that one West Indian hurricane, if it 



