Ly) 
dant powers of self-protection or recuperation, and to indicate the equal 
applicability of this law to both primeval and artificial conditions, or 
wild nature and nature as influenced by man. I have attempted to 
show also the local character, when broadly viewed, of most damage 
from insects. I have endeavored to explain the underlying principles 
accounting for the excessive multiplication and resulting injury, usually 
temporary, characterizing new or introduced species. 
In further support of the laisser-faire policy, as limited above, I have 
pointed out the futility, in the long run, of attempting to keep out for- 
eign insects, or of preventing their ultimate natural spread within our 
borders, and have shown that these are world movements and the work- 
ings of fundamental law, and not to be thwarted in their final accomplish- 
ment by our puny efforts. Inthe same connection I have shown the 
great undesirability of exploiting what are probably short-lived, or at 
least easily controllable ills, thus unfairly putting restrictions on com- 
merce. In the further support of the same policy I have attempted to 
demonstrate the absolute futility of our attempts to exterminate pests 
once at all well established, and I am finally led to the inevitable con- 
clusion that local control as outlined above is the chief, if not almost 
sole, legitimate field of effort in applied entomology. 
A general discussion of the address followed its reading, Mr. Osborn 
presiding. The views expressed as recorded by the secretary and 
subsequentiy revised by the several participants were as follows: 
Mr. Osborn stated that there was much in the address with which he 
heartily agreed, but that he feared it might be misinterpreted in some 
quarters, and that some of the statements seem not to be warranted by 
the facts. Thereis so much difference in the habits of different insects, 
their mode of attack, and means for migration or dispersal, that they 
must be considered separately, and it seemed to him that our duty as 
economic entomologists is to determine these facts and urge the adop- 
tion of all measures which may protect our constituents in their different 
localities from insect invasions or ravages. Pleuro-pneumonia would 
not have been suppressed under a laisser-faire policy, nor the control of 
Texas fever achieved; and so also with smallpox or yellow fever. We 
could not hope for many triumphs in applied entomology if this were 
allowed to be our watchword or become the policy of the communities 
for which we labor. He believed that economic entomology had accom- 
plished some valuable work in some of these lines, that loss had been 
prevented, and that injury might often be lessened, or the spread of an 
insect retarded to the extent of preventing tremendous losses in certain 
regions. He felt certain that, in drawing a line for the application of 
the laisser-faire policy, many people would adopt a very different one 
than would be drawn by our worthy President, 
