156 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VUI . No. 185 



ployers and employed. Labor has been degraded 

 and despised. There is still a feeling that there 

 must be fixed classes in society, and that the ma- 

 jority must work hard enough to relieve the 

 muiority from labor. Once it was the privilege of 

 the employer to command, and the duty of the la- 

 borer to acquiesce ; but this feeling of inferiority 

 on the part of the employed is gone, and the age 

 of civility is past. The workman has made prac- 

 tical the doctrine of human equality, and looks on 

 those around him as his equals. He no longer re- 

 spects any distinctions founded on birth and cir- 

 cumstances and not on personal worth and power. 

 He holds truly that labor is service for an equiva- 

 lent, and that the employer and employed stand as 

 equals in an interchange of service. He does not 

 admit that wages are paid by the employer, but 

 regards them as the product of the joint effort of 

 the employer and employed, of which the laborer 

 should receive his just proportion. In fact, the 

 employer has no more right to dictate to the la- 

 borer how he shall seek his interests, and what as- 

 sociations he shall form, and what trades-unions 

 he shall establish, than the laborer has to dictate 

 to the employer in corresponding matters. A great 

 part of the alienation between classes, and the bit- 

 terness of the poor toward capitalists, lies in the 

 fact that wages have been substituted for aU other 

 ties, and the laborers are regarded but as a part of 

 'the plant' in a great manufacturing establish- 

 naent. In American society there is a marked 

 manifestation of the degradation of labor. All la- 

 bor which involves personal attention, and espe- 

 cially labor in household service, is stiU thought 

 degrading. The term 'servant' is still used, but 

 it should be banished from a civilized people, and 

 become as obsolete as 'slave' and 'serf.' 



There are serious errors that in some form have 

 been advocated by leading political economists, 

 which, under the teachings of such modern popu- 

 lar writers as Henry George, have caused serious 

 evil. They are such maxims as this: that "all 

 wealth is created by labor, and the title to all 

 wealth ought to be vested in the laborers who 

 have produced it." These maxims are fallacious ; 

 but they are received with great favor by the mul- 

 titude, who are led to believe that the accumula- 

 tion of great fortunes is a wrong to the laborers, 

 and that such fortunes should be divided for the 

 public good. 



For the discontent of the laborers, and their dis- • 

 agreement with the capitahsts, various remedies 

 have been proposed, but they have proved, in 

 practice, vain and inefifective. This may be said 

 of strikes, lock-outs, and the doctrine of unre- 

 stricted competition. A reasonable mode for the 

 settlement of difiQculties would seem to be a con- 



ference between the classes or their representa- 

 tives. When a settlement cannot thus be reached, 

 it would seem the wisest course to refer the points 

 in dispute to arbitrators chosen in the usual way. 

 Boards of arbitration may be either temporary or 

 permanent. There are many reasons in favor of 

 permanent boards, which might be as effective in 

 preventing difSculties as in their settlement. 



We are persuaded that the present difldculties 

 that threaten the peace and order of society will 

 never be removed till a higher standard of ethics 

 shall prevail. They are the direct result of selfish- 

 ness, encouraged by the prevalent selfish theory of 

 morals. These are personal sins and social wrongs 

 that civil government may not by law or force cor- 

 rect. It is not according to the will of God, as 

 made known by natural or revealed religion, that 

 a few should control vast fortunes, using them to 

 gratify selfish personal desires, while multitudes 

 suffer not only for want of knowledge, but of 

 bread, and struggle through a brief existence, 

 realizing in no proper sense the true object of Life. 

 Nothing is right that is not in accordance with the 

 divine will ; hence no man can have the right, 

 though he has the power, to do wrong. Because 

 a gifted man has power to accumulate property, 

 he has no right to arrogantly say, ' ' This is mine 

 and I will spend it as I please." The wealth of the 

 world is designed for the public welfare ; and it 

 is the duty of those who have it in charge to 

 consider themselves as only agents, bound to use 

 it so as to serve the greatest good. He who has 

 wealth and does not intend to act thus, is false to 

 his trust, and is the enemy of society. 



In the Christian use of money will be found the 

 great remedy for social wrongs. The right use of 

 money wUl requu-e much tact, wisdom, and skill. 

 Multitudes on multitudes of the poor have low, 

 selfish, sensual aims ; and indiscriminate giving to 

 them would only encourage indolence and vice. 

 They need education and culture, and higher ideas 

 of life. AU these the right use of money now 

 worse than wasted would secure. 



AN INVENTORY OF OUR GLACIAL DRIFT. 



After an introduction, and a reference to re- 

 cent acquisitions in the field of geography and 

 other departments of geology, the southern limits 

 of the great glacial formations of North America 

 were sketched and illusti-ated by wall map. In 

 addition to the already known hmits in the east, 

 new facts were given respecting the outline in 

 Dakota and Montana, the line being found to pass 



Abstract of an address before the section of geology 

 and geography of the American association for the advance- ^ 

 ment of science at Buffalo, Aug. 19, 1886, by T. C. Ohamber- 

 lin, vice president of the section. 



