172 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 271 



Chicago conferences aim to remove this lack of mutual understand- 

 ing and appreciation, and to pave the way for a better state of things 

 in that strike-ridden city. The conferences are to take place on 

 successive Sunday evenings, and are seven in number. There are 

 four representatives of the working-men to speak : namely, George 

 A. Schilling, on ' The Aims of the Knights of Labor ;' Thomas J_ 

 Morgan, on ' The Labor Question from tlie Standpoint of the 

 Socialist ; ' Joseph R. Buchanan, on ' A View from the Labor 

 Sanctum ;' and A. C. Cameron, on ' An American Trades-Union- 

 ist's View of the Social Question.' The business-men are allotted 

 three representatives : Lyman J. Gage speaks on ' Banking and the 

 Social System ; ' Charles L. Hutchinson, on ' Is the Board of Trade 

 Hostile to the Interests of the Community.'' and Franklin Mac- 

 Veagh, on 'Socialism as a Remedy.' Miscellaneous discussion is 

 not to be allowed at these conferences, because of its obvious dan- 

 gers ; but at the conclusion of each address any one in the audience 

 is to be at liberty to question the speaker on any point, provided 

 the question is stated respectfully. It is hoped that such questions 

 and answers will prove an instructive and profitable feature of each 

 meeting. We shall await with considerable interest some account 

 of these conferences, and their success. 



SCHOOL OF MECHANIC ARTS AT THE ALABAMA 

 POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 



Since manual training as a feature of general education is ex- 

 citing increased interest, we are gratified to note the advance of 

 this important movement in industrial education in the South, and 

 present as a matter of interest to our readers the plan of the rooms 

 and the scheme of work of the School of Mechanic Arts at the 

 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala. This school is under 

 the charge of Mr. George H. Bryant, a graduate of the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology. 



The department of mechanic arts at the Alabama Polytechnic 

 Institute was organized in 1885, and during the summer of that 

 year the motive plant for the whole department, and the machinery 

 and equipment for the wood-working shop, were purchased and 

 erected. The former consists of a 25-horse power Harris-Corliss 

 engine, steam for which is supplied by a 30-horse power steel, hor- 

 izontal, tubular boiler, for Vv'hich a substantial brick boiler-house 

 and chimney were erected. 



The wood-shop occupies one half of a room 50x90 feet (the 

 lower story of one of the college-buildings), the other half being 

 taken for the machine-shop. The equipment for this shop com- 

 prises the following : 20 double wood-working benches, each with 

 complete set of carpenter's tools ; 20 turning-lathes, 10 inches 

 swing, each with set of tools ; I double circular saw ; i band saw ; 

 I surface planer ; i buzz planer ; 2 scroll saws (power) ; i large 

 pattern-maker's lathe ; i 36-inch grindstone. In addition to these, 

 the tool-room is supplied with a variety of extra hand-tools for 

 special work. 



During the summer of 18S6 a substantial brick building, 32 x 72 

 feet, one story high, with monitor roof, was built for the forge and 

 foundery departments. This is divided into two rooms each 35 x 30 

 feet, each department occupying one room. 



The equipment for the foundery consists of moulding-benches 

 for twelve students, each supplied with a complete set of moulders' 

 tools ; a 14-inch cupola with all modern improvements ; a brass 

 furnace with a melting capacity of 100 pounds of brass at a heat, 

 with a set of crucibles, tongs, etc. ; also a full supply of ladles, large 

 and small moulding-flasks, special tools, etc. 



The forge-shop equipment consists of 12 forges of new pattern,, 

 each with anvil, set of smith's tools, etc. The blast for all the 

 forges is supplied by a Sturtevant No. 3 steel pressure-blower 

 (which also furnishes blast for the foundery cupola) ; and a No. 15 

 Sturtevant exhauster draws the smoke from the fires, and forces it 

 out through the chimney. 



In the machine-shop are the following tools: 6 14 inches x 6 feet 

 engine-lathes; 2 16 inches X 6 feet engine-lathes ; I 22 x 22 inches x 5 

 feet friction-planer; i 15-inch shaper ; I 20-inch drill-press; I 

 Universal milling-machine; i post-drill 15 inches; I corundum tool- 

 grinder ; I bench emery-grinder. Chipping and filing benches for 



twelve students, each with vise, set of files, chisels, hammers, etc., 

 are provided, one-third of the shop being set apart for this work. 

 In the tool-room are found a good variety of cutting and measur- 

 ing tools, shop appliances, etc. The full course in mechanic arts 

 runs through three years, as follows : — 



First Yea!-. — First term, elementary mechanical drawing (one 

 month), carpentry ; second term, carpentry, turning begun ; third 

 term, carpentry and turning alternating. 



Second Year. — First term, pattern-making (six weeks), foundery- 

 work begun, moulding and casting ; second term, foundery-work 

 finished, smithing begun in forge-room ; third term, smithing. 



Third Year.— First term, chipping and filing ; second and third 

 terms, machine-work in metals. 



During the second year, lectures are given on moulding and cast- 

 ing, and the metallurgy of iron and steel, and in the third year oc- 

 casional lectures on mechanical subjects connected with the shop- 

 work. 



A special course in steam and mill engineering, with practice 

 with the apparatus, is provided for advanced students who wish to 

 take extra or special work in practical mechanics. The average 

 yearly attendance in this department during the past three years 

 has been about ninety. 



SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PARADO.XES.' 

 The Artificial is Superior to the Natural. — Reforms are Chiefly ailvo- 

 cated and brought about by Those who have no Personal Interest 

 in Them. — Discontent increases with the Improvement of the 

 Social Condition, eic. 



The progress of science has always been jeopardized by two 

 classes of persons, who, though the exact opposite of each other, 

 are both constantly striving to circulate specious errors under its 

 name. One of these classes of persons seeks to induce belief in 

 improbable things, on the ground that most now accepted truth has 

 once been held to be improbable. The other class seeks to shake 

 confidence in established truths on the ground that they have not yet 

 received mathematical demonstration. On the one hand, theories 

 which are still awaiting proof, or which lie on the extreme confines 

 between the known and the unknown, are taught as established 

 truths ; and, on the other hand, great principles whose establish- 

 ment has cost ages of most laborious research are brushed aside as 

 if they were but visionary hypotheses. The first class judges every 

 thing by analogy ; the second confronts every thing with a para- 

 dox. 



The sincere searcher after truth has much more to do than mere- 

 ly to acquire a knowledge of the truth that has been made known : 

 he has to distinguish between real truth and apparent truth ; and 

 this when the apparent truth is presented to him under all the out- 

 ward guise of real truth, and when the real truth is presented to 

 him in the form of error to be shunned. The two classes may 

 therefore be called respectively 'analoguers' and ' paradoxers.' be- 

 tween whom the honest and uninitiated inquirer must run the 

 gauntlet; and strong indeed must be that judgment that comes 

 through unscathed. There will always be Stokeses and Zollners to 

 offer specious proofs of what seem impossibilities, as there will al- 

 ways be Lobatschewskys and Dr. Deemses to question geometric 

 opinion, and Dukes of Arg)'ll to undo the work of Darwins. 



When, therefore, we approach the subject of the paradoxes of na- 

 ture, we must do so fully aware that we may be placed in the, category 

 of paradoxers in general, and fully prepared to have our paradoxes 

 discounted accordingly. And while the physical paradoxes that 

 the universe presents are most of them too well known in our 

 day to admit of being called in question, as they all were when 

 first announced, I fear that in the case of social and economic 

 paradoxes there will be no body of truth to which appeal can be 

 made. 



I propose to point out a few of those propositions in sociology, 

 and especially in political economy, which are now on trial, and to 

 indicate what I regard as the probable verdict of history upon their 

 truth or falsity. But in this latter task I do not arrogate to myself 



' Paper read before the Anthropological Society of Washington, D.C., March 20, 

 1888, by Prof. L. F. Ward. 



