NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



The proceedings of the Society during De- 

 cember, 1902, and January, 1903, will be pub- 

 lished in the March number. 



Regular Meetings. 



February 13. — "The Work of the Census 

 Office." Hon. William R. Merriam. 



February 27.—" The Work of the Naval Ob- 

 servatory." Capt. Charles H. Davis. 



March 13.—' ' The Work of the Geological 

 Surve}'." Hon. Charles D. Walcott. 



March 27 — "The Work of the Library of 

 Congress." Hon. Herbert Putnam. 



This is the last meeting of the season. 



Popular Lectures. 



February 6. — "From Paris to New York 

 Overland." Mr Harry de Windt. (Illus- 

 trated ) This is the account of a remarkable 

 journey of 18,000 miles by land from Paris to 

 New York via Bering Strait. 



February 21.* — "Tropical Development, a 

 Temperate Zone Problem." Hon. O. P. Aus- 

 tin. (Illustrated.) 



March 6. — "The Geographic Distribution of 

 Insanity in the United States." Dr W. A. 

 White, Director of the Binghamton State 

 Hospital, New York. 



March 20. — (The last lecture of the season.) 

 " Captain John Smith and Old Virginia." Mr 

 W. W. Ellsworth, of the Century Company. 

 ^Illustrated. ) 



As Mr Paul du Chaillu has not yet returned 

 from Russia and will probably not return for 

 some months, contrary to his original plans, 

 his lecture before the society on ' ' Russia of 

 Today " has been postponed until next winter. 



The Afternoon Course of Lectures. In 

 Columbia Theatre at 4.20 p. m. 



The general subject of the course is "The 

 United States." During recent years our 

 country has been advancing by leaps and 

 bounds, until today it is the most wealth}' of 

 nations. New York is now practically the 

 financial center of the world. American capi- 

 talists have within the last four years floated 

 loans for Mexico, Germany, England, and 

 Russia, and have placed hundreds of millions 

 of dollars in investments abroad. The ques- 

 tion now in every mind is, What elements in 

 the United States have helped us to earn this 

 tremendous national wealth and power and 

 have won for us commercial supremacy in the 

 markets of the world? To partially answer 

 this question is the aim of the present series of 

 five lectures. In other words, the subject of 

 the course is "The Basis of the Wealth and 

 Power of the United States." 



Diagrams and illustrations will be used very 

 freely, but statistics and tables will be avoided 

 as far as possible. The lecture committee de- 

 sire to have the subject treated in a popular 

 way rather than from a statistical or technical 

 point of view. 



* Please note that this is Saturday. 



1. "Lands and Waters." The first lecture 

 in the series, will treat of the unexcelled natu- 

 ral features of the United States — our deep,, 

 secure harbors on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pa- 

 cific seaboards, our great rivers which pene- 

 trate into the heart of the country, our vast 

 fertile plains and lofty mountains, in which 

 are buried untold mineral wealth, and our in- 

 land lakes, all seemingly ranged in most for- 

 tunate conjunction to mutually help each 

 other, and the elements and routes of com- 

 merce. Lecturer, Mr Cyrus C. Adams, the 

 noted writer and lecturer on geographical 

 themes. February 10, 1903. 



2. "The Soil and its Products." The sec- 

 ond lecture will deal more particularly with 

 the land and the products of the land — agri- 

 culture. Twenty billions of dollars are in- 

 vested in the agricultural interests of the 

 United States. We raise annually two billion 

 bushels of corn and reap every year a larger 

 crop of wheat than the combined wheat crops 

 of Argentina and Russia. 



In 1901 the United States sent nearly one 

 , billion dollars' worth of food — wheat, pork, 

 beef, etc. — to the people of Europe. We are 

 literally the storehouse of Europe. Lecturer, 

 Secretary of Agriculture, Hon. James Wilson. 

 February 18, 1903. 



3. "The Industries." The third lecture 

 will treat of the industrial wealth of the United 

 States. The value of our manufactures exceed 

 that of any other nation. In the manufacture 

 of steel we lead the world, and in cotton and 

 woolen fabrics we are eclipsed by no one. Our 

 railways — two hundred thousand miles of 

 them — penetrate to every corner of the country, 

 binding the whole nation into one compact 

 unit. Our telegraph and telephone systems 

 enable men to communicate instantaneously 

 though thousands of miles apart. Lecturer, 

 Hon. O. P. Austin, Chief of Bureau of Statis- 

 tics, Treasury Department. February 25, 1903. 



4. " Mines and Mining. " The fourth lecture 

 will treat of the mineral wealth of the United 

 States. During each of the last three years 

 we have produced more coal than England ; 

 in 1902 we produced more than one-half of the 

 refined petroleum ; more than one-third of the 

 world's production of iron ore in 1902 was ob- 

 tained from the United States mines ; three- 

 fifths of the copper output for the same year 

 came from the United States. Lecturer, Mr. 

 Charles Kirchoff, editor of The Iron Age. 

 March 4, 1903. 



5. "The Men Who Make the Nation." The 

 fifth and last lecture will treat of the people of 

 the United States. The mingling of races and 

 peculiar conditions have bred a distinct and 

 original people, who mould the gifts of na- 

 ture to their will. The inventive genius of 

 the American has enabled him to increase 

 many times the resources nature has given 

 him. The typical American has not yet been 

 bred, but we may prophesy what he will be and 

 what place he will hold in the world. Lecturer, 

 W J McGee, LL- D., Vice-President National 

 Geographic Society. March 11, 1903. 



