SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 467 



in 1881, has in its agitation of twelve years "been the chief agency 

 at work in combating the claim that " to the victor belong the 

 spoils." To-day one fourth the offices in the gift of the Federal 

 Government are subject to reform rules, with promise that at no 

 distant day "the aristocracy of 'pull' shall make way for the 

 democracy of merit." Mr. Curtis and Mr. Schurz, in their stirring 

 addresses from the chair of the association, have reached audi- 

 ences a thousandfold greater than those within sound of their 

 voices ; the press has made the Rocky Mountains their back 

 benches. Against another iniquity battle was waged, in 1883, 

 when the Copyright League took form. The league began as a 

 handful of men, few of them rich or influential, attacking a com- 

 pact and well-armed pirate crew and a solid mass of unsound 

 public sentiment. Within eight years the people were brought 

 to preferring to a cheap book a book honestly come by, Congress 

 passing a bill declaring that literary property is property still, 

 even when a foreigner creates it. The league in its series of au- 

 thors' readings given in the principal cities of the Union had a 

 magnet of uncommon power, evoking vastly more interest in 

 the cause of international justice than any set arguments could 

 have done. It is only fair to say that the agitation which the 

 league inherited dated back to 1837 ; it may be worth while to add 

 that the money cost of the league's work was but ten thousand 

 dollars. 



Not the least of the attractions which Chicago offers her vis- 

 itors this year is her programme of congresses. Associations 

 educational, industrial, scientific, and philosophical are assem- 

 bling in the Western metropolis in rapid succession and under 

 circumstances in which the art of their management can easily 

 be carried a step further than in any past achievement in Amer- 

 ica. The local committees for the reception of visiting bodies 

 will have more or less permanence, and will therefore through 

 experience grow proficient, an exceptionally large number of the 

 well informed and inquiring can be drawn upon from the throngs 

 attending the fair, and the manifold departments of the exhibi- 

 tion will furnish in profusion illustrative material of rare qual- 

 ity. Hon. C. C. Bonney, chairman of the World's Congress Aux- 

 iliary, is in permanent charge of the congresses convened during 

 the Columbian Exposition. He supervises the working details 

 of each special committee ; and his chief aim in his work is that 

 relations among the leaders of thought and action which hitherto 

 have been only local, shall henceforth become international. 



To those whose duty it is to attend meetings, scientific and 

 other, remarkable contrasts in their management are familiar. 

 The success of a meeting is earned only by a business-like con- 

 trol, which makes thorough preparation months beforehand. The 



