62 
any station, to have it right again both at home and 
with the world. 
The adoption of such a standard would not necessi- 
tate the substitution of new time-pieces for those 
now in use, nor expensive alteration of them. A very 
simple, inexpensive way of adapting existing watches 
to the suggested change would be to etch the Green- 
wich dial upon the watch-crystal in a little smaller 
circle than that of the dial proper. The crystal could 
then be set to indicate the difference of time between 
the given place and Greenwich, and secured by a little 
white wax. Clocks could be similarly changed also. 
If the hours are to be read from one to twenty-four, 
as seems desirable, and as some roads have already 
agreed to do, this will necessitate not only a change 
in the rate of motion of the hour-hand of time-pieces, 
but in the dial also. Now, since a change is to be 
made anyway, why not avoid twice changing by re- 
considering at once the action already taken, and 
move immediately in the direction Mr. Schott has 
suggested. This would avoid the necessity of pub- 
lishing in time-tables local times; while the traveller 
would have simply to consult his time-table, and refer 
to his Greenwich dial, to know at what moment to 
take a public conveyance, not only anywhere in the 
United States, but anywhere in the civilized world. 
Train-men and station-hands could experience no 
inconvenience in being guided by their Greenwich 
dial, it being necessary simply to make that dial the 
more conspicuous which is to be consulted oftenest. 
F. H. KING. 
River Falls, Wis. 
THE DUTY ON IMPORTED SCIENTIFIC 
TEXT-BOOKS. 
Avr the last meeting of the American asso- 
ciation for the advancement of science, there 
was some discussion of the effects of the 
existing tariff on foreign text-books on our 
school system. This is the first considerable 
effort to call the public attention to the results 
of our Chinese commercial policy upon the edu- 
cation of our youth. ‘That system of policy is 
such a vast elaboration of rules, and the effects 
of its regulations are so hard to trace in the 
machinery of our society, that it has derived a 
strength and a safety from its very magnitude 
and its obscurity. The ordinary mind shrinks 
from the effort to trace the complication of its 
effects on great labor-employing industries like 
pig-iron manufacture. It requires the courage 
of a great soldier to give battle to the tariff on 
such fields; for, however convinced the free- 
trader may be of the right of his cause, he sees 
that his victory will mean destruction to many 
whom he cannot regard as foes. But here and 
there around the tariff jungle there are places 
that may be improved without danger of any 
serious consequences to great interests. Some 
years ago, in a lapse into discretion, if not into 
rationality, the tariff men took off the duty on 
quinine. A few score men had to seek other 
employment, probably to their serious but not 
permanent inconvenience, and that greatest of 
SCIENCE. 
all helpers of the sick was free to go untaxed 
to its users. | 
As real though less sympathetic claim may 
be urged for the removal of the tax on educa- 
tional materials and methods. Even in our 
money-earning state of society the amount that 
can be spared for the education of our chil- 
dren is so small that such money should be 
the last thing to receive the burden of taxation. 
What would have been thought, if in the fier- 
cest struggle of the war, when we were taxing 
the physician’s right to minister and the drug’s 
power to heal, if some legislator had proposed 
to tax each college-student, say, three dollars 
a year, for the privilege of pursuing his educa- 
tion in the most effective manner? ‘Taxes on 
this principle may be warranted in a besieged 
city ; but even on our darkest day such a meas- 
ure would have been laughed out of Congress, 
would have been denied even the rites of decent 
burial in a committee. Yet substantially this 
is what is practically done in this day of un- 
paralleled prosperity, when, for the first time 
in all history, a government is sore burdened 
with its revenues. A commission of well- 
paid experts, charged to contrive some means 
to clear away this excess of income, retains 
this amazing tax after a year of pondering on 
the subject ! 
The singular character of the tax is evident 
enough in the most. general statement of its 
nature, but close inquiry shows us that it be- 
comes even less comprehensible the better we 
understand its details. The books excluded 
by the tax are not the spellers, readers, arith- 
metics, etc., that are made by the million. 
Against these, no foreign books would stand 
any chance whatever, unless they were intro- 
duced to the schools through the existing pub- 
lication-houses. ‘The books that are affected 
by the lawgare those that have at best a narrow 
sale. They are principally books in French, 
German, Latin, or Greek, used only in college 
classes for special purposes, which it would not 
pay any American publisher to reproduce. But 
let us suppose that the English, German, or 
other printers could furnish a set of school- 
books so decidedly better and cheaper than 
our own that our thrifty publishers should be 
driven from the field: will any reasonable man 
say that we should continue to maintain them by 
a head-money tax on the pupils of our schools? 
There is no good reason to fear that our pub- 
lishers would lose by a free trade in educa- 
tional materials. If the change be made in 
such fashion that they may have as good a 
chance in foreign markets as foreigners should — 
have in our own, we can trust the business 
