300 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 112. 



then, if approved, binding him by contract 

 for a definite time, retaining a part of his 

 wages in the earlier period to insure liis re- 

 maining the full time agreed upon ; one of 

 the dilficulties met with being the fact that 

 the average boy has little idea of the bind- 

 ing force of a contract. 



The trades-unions apparently exert no 

 important influence either for or against 

 the system. Where they do seek to con- 

 trol at all, it is by restricting the number 

 of apprentices to that proportion which, 

 in their opinion,will give a sufficient number 

 without flooding the trade with unemployed 

 young men or displacing older workmen 

 by their youthful rivals. According to the 

 editors of The American Machinist, no founda- 

 tion has been by them discovered for the 

 sweeping conclusions of the Century arti- 

 cles. In so far as the system, once universal, 

 of taking apprenticeship has been given up, 

 the fact is probably due, not to adverse ac- 

 tion of trades-unions, but to the fact that 

 modern methods of manufacturing, in 

 many cases, do not well lend themselves to 

 this older way of providing workmen. But 

 " nothing like a complete or general aban- 

 donment of apprenticeship has taken place 

 in machine shops, and apprentices can be, 

 and are, taught the trades of machinist, 

 molder, pattern-maker, etc., with entire 

 success and with satisfaction to all con- 

 cerned, even in shops where modern methods 

 of working and management have been 

 most highly developed." 



One of the most important deductions 

 from all this valuable testimony is that it 

 is essential to success that, first of all, boys 

 should be admitted to the privileges of ap- 

 prenticeship only when good natural me- 

 chanics, when evidently intended by nature 

 for the work, and when earnest and ambi- 

 tious, honest and frank and reliable. 



These communications and the editor's 

 comments will well repay deliberate study. 

 K. H. Thueston. 



HENRY L. WHITING. 



Mr. Heney L. Whiting, Assistant U. S. 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey and Chairman 

 of the Massachusetts Topograpical Survey 

 Commission, died at his residence in West 

 Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard, on Thursday, 

 February 4th, the last day of the seventy- 

 sixth year of his life. Mr. Whiting's posi- 

 tion as a public ofiicer was in many ways 

 unique ; his services in the corps to which 

 he belonged were noteworthy, and he had, 

 in addition, filled many positions of re- 

 sponsibility and dignity, which came to him 

 in recognition of his high character and 

 professional accomplishments. A brief ac- 

 count of a career so remarkable will be of 

 interest to the many who knew him, either 

 personally or through his work, and to all 

 who appreciate a life full of useful activi- 

 ties in faithful and efiicieut public service. 



In the length of that service it is doubtful 

 if his equal is now living. Had Mr. Whiting 

 lived a few weeks longer he would have 

 entered his sixtieth year of continued public 

 service, all as an ofiicer of the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, which he entered at an 

 early age. He served some time under 

 Hassler, the first Superintendent, and for 

 many years he stood alone as the only mem- 

 ber of the corps who had served under 

 every Superintendent of the Survey. 



Mr. Whiting was born at Albany, New 

 York. His father was a Judge of the Court 

 of Common Pleas at Troy. His grandfather 

 was William Bradford Whiting, a colonel 

 in the Eevolutionary War and a lineal 

 descendant of Governor William Bradford, 

 of the Plymouth Colony. One of his brothers 

 was a classmate of General Grant at West 

 Point and held high rank in the army 

 at the time of his death ; another was 

 graduated at the Naval Academy, was one 

 of Commodore Perry's ofiBcer's in the Japan 

 Expedition, himself holding the rank of 

 Commodore at the time of his death. Others 

 of the family were distinguished, but Henry 



