February 3. 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



Office), Gen. A. W. Greely (chief signal-officer), Dr. C. Hart Mer- 

 riam (Department of Agriculture), A. H. Thompson (United 

 States Geological Survey) ; treasurer, C. J. Bell ; secretaries, 

 Henry Gannett (United States Geological Survey), George Kennan ; 

 managers, Dr. J. C. Welling (president of the Columbian Univer- 

 sity), W. B. Powell (superintendent of schools, Washington), Capt. 

 Rogers Birnie, jun., U. S. A., W. D. Johnson (United States Geo- 

 logical Survey), Henry Mitchell (United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey), Marcus Baker (United States Geological Survey), G. Brown 

 Goode (National Museum), Cleveland Abbe (United States Signal 

 Office). 



— ' Little Poems for Little Children ' and ' Stories for Little 

 Readers ' (Chicago, Interstate Publishing Company) are books of 

 elementary reading for students in primary grades. They are con- 

 siderably above the average of such books. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



* J,* Correspondents (ire requested to be as brie/ as possible. The 'turiter's name is 

 in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Twenty copies of the number containing his comntunication mill be furnished 

 free to any correspondent on request. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of 

 the journal. 



A New Meteorite from Texas. 



We have this day received a new entire meteorite from Texas, 

 weighing about two hundred and eighty pounds. It belongs to the 

 class siderolites, although the nickeliferous iron apparent to the 

 naked eye is scarcely more than in some of the aerolites. Olivine is 

 present in great abundance, giving a yellowish-green appearance to 

 the whole mass. A hasty examination also reveals anorthite and a 

 few specks of a bronzy looking metal, which is doubtless noilite. 

 The meteorite was brought to us by one of our assistants, who 

 found it near the south-west bank of the Colorado River, about 

 three miles south-west of La Grange, Fayette County, Tex.: we 

 would therefore suggest the name of ' The La Grange Meteorite' 

 for it. A fuller description, with complete analyses, will be pub- 

 lished later. Ward & Howell. 



Rochester, N.Y., Jan. 31. 



Jacobson's ' Higher Ground.' 



Your notice of ' Higher Ground' in Science (x. No. 254) was so 

 kindly, that I hesitate to impose upon your good nature by asking 

 you to devote additional space to the subject. And whatever I 

 may say will not be said in a spirit of controversy. 



You approve of manual training in public schools, and you ap- 

 prove of the succession-tax as a means of enabling all children to 

 get the benefit of the schools. Your only question is. Would the 

 proposed succession-tax pay the bill ? and your answer is, that it 

 would not. 



If a change so great as the one proposed could be made all at 

 once, the proceeds of the succession-tax would not be sufficient to 

 pay the bill. But it would take years and years to bring about so 

 vast a change ; and I believe that the proceeds of the succession- 

 tax would -be sufficient to pay the bill as fast as the change could 

 be brought about, because wealth is increasing much faster than 

 population. As an illustration of a change to which there is com- 

 paratively little opposition, see the length of time it takes for the 

 high-license movement to make its way, — a movement full of good 

 sense, to which, from pecuniary interest only, the liquor-dealers are 

 opposed. What would not the opposition be to the succession-tax 

 movement, and the apparent absurdity of paying people for keeping 

 their children at school .' 



To say that there were in this country, in 1880, 8,347,731 chil- 

 dren of the age in question ; and that to pay, at the rates proposed, 

 three-fourths of their number for going to school, would require 

 $919,502,737.50 ; and that this sum could not be raised by the pro- 

 posed tax, — is not that very much as if some one had said in 1830, 

 " To do the transportation business of this country, we shall need 

 140,000 miles of railroad, costing eight thousand millions of dollars, 

 and such a sum could not be raised for such a purpose " ? 



The money for the railroads has been found, because it has been 



found that railroads develop and enrich the country ; that the money 

 spent for railroads comes back, and comes back a hundred-fold. 



The money for the education which I propose will be found when 

 the people shall become convinced, that, invested in improving the 

 brains of the people, — the motive power of all motive powers, — 

 it will be more profitable than money invested in railroads or in anj 

 other enterprise whatever ; that the money spent will come back, 

 and come back a hundred-fold. 



If in 1830 any one had predicted that in 1888 we should have our 

 present mileage of railroads at its present cost to the country, he 

 would have been laughed to scorn, because such an expenditure 

 for highways must then have appeared absurd to the average man. 

 But we spend all this money for highways, and thrive by it. 



The figures in ' Higher Ground ' are only tentative, re-adjustable 

 at every point. Any public body into whose hands the practical 

 working should fall would of course cut its garment according to 

 the cloth on hand. My proposition is, that children shall be paid 

 for going to school from twelve to twenty years of age, and that 

 the amount to be paid for the eight years shall be $1,200. But if 

 only money enough could be raised to keep them at school till 

 eighteen, then the pay must cease at eighteen. That would require, 

 in all, only $575 for each child. If at first only enough could be 

 raised to keep the children at school till sixteen, then sixteen must 

 be the limit. That would require, for the four years of each child, 

 only $250. Even then the gain of the people in intelligence and 

 efficiency would be immense, and the expense for the four years 

 would be $250 only, instead of $1,200 for the eight years. 



My proposition is, that all children from twelve to twenty years 

 of age shall be paid for going to school substantially what they 

 could earn out of school : at the age of twelve to thirteen, $50 ; 

 thirteen to fourteen, $75; fourteen to fifteen, $100; fifteen to si.x- 

 teen, $125; sixteen to seventeen, $150; seventeen to eighteen, $175 ; 

 eighteen to nineteen, $225 ; nineteen to twenty, $300. 



This, I think, would keep the children at school, and we should 

 have an intelligent and efficient population, such as the world has 

 never yet seen. Perhaps a trifle less annually would keep the chil- 

 dren at school. I should be in favor of the smallest amount possi- 

 ble that would accomplish the object. But of course this could not 

 begin all at once all over the country. If the proposition shall ever 

 be carried out anywhere, it would take years and years after the 

 beginning before all parts of the country would adopt it. All the 

 children would not go. Wealthy people would still prefer to send 

 their children to private schools ; perhaps some Catholics, not 

 many, would persuade themselves that the supposed interests of 

 their children in the next world demand their absence from the 

 American public school ; and there are perhaps people among us so 

 shiftless or degraded that they would not send their children to 

 school, no matter what the inducement. 



It is not necessary that I should be able to show that we could 

 to-day provide for a state of things which can only be brought 

 about after years of agitation. The state of things which I advo- 

 cate can only come about gradually. The people will have to be 

 convinced. Schoolhouses will have to be multiplied, and these 

 things can only be done slowly and gradually. That the tax would 

 be sufficient to begin with in large cities, there can be no doubt ; 

 and, as wealth increases more rapidly than population, the proceeds 

 of the tax would tend constantly to come nearer being sufficient 

 than it would be to begin with. In discussing matters of taxation, 

 the Chicago Tribune said a few days ago that there are five 

 hundred millionnaires in New York City : there were probably not 

 fifty millionnaires in Nev/ York twenty years ago. There are prob- 

 ably one hundred millionnaires in Chicago to-day : twenty years ago 

 there were not five. Smaller fortunes are increasing in proportion. 

 Wealth is increasing much more rapidly than population. 



No man can tell what the succession-tax would yield : it can 

 only be found out by experiment. Did we not lower the tariff in 

 1883 to decrease the surplus, and then find that we had a steadily 

 increasing surplus ? I do not pretend to be able to calculate what 

 the succession-tax would yield in the whole country, nor in any 

 one state or city. On p. 44 of ' Higher Ground ' I gave it as an 

 estimate that the tax would yield annually from three to six millions 

 in Chicago, and from twenty to fifty millions in New York. To 

 this estimate I still adhere. The many large estates falling in from 



