January 27, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



meeting. Owing to the conditions existing, 

 there would no doubt be a tendency to 

 divide the annual congress into two sec- 

 tions, as has been done in the ease of the 

 Geological Society of America ; one to hold 

 its meetings on the Pacific and the other 

 on the Atlantic coast. Such a division 

 would lessen the influences for good, for 

 which the congress would be organized, and 

 demands careful consideration. 



2. The gains to be expected from a con- 

 centration of publications are, to a marked 

 degree, expressed by the fact that the pro- 

 posed magazine, in case all of our geo- 

 graphical societies united in its support, 

 would start with a circulation in excess of 

 ten thousand, not including libraries or 

 subscribers not members of the affiliated 

 societies. With such a vigorous start rapid 

 growth and a constantly widening influ- 

 ence for many years to come may reason- 

 ably be predicted. In the list of advan- 

 tages is to be mentioned also the desirabil- 

 ity of having a large body of correlated 

 information in one series of volumes, in- 

 stead of in many series, thus securing 

 ready reference, and conferring a blessing 

 on future generations of geographical 

 workers. Perhaps the greatest gain to be 

 hoped for, however, is in the direction of a 

 higher tone and better preparation, that a 

 widely recognized, well edited, well printed 

 and well illustrated magazine would have 

 over the for the most part obscure and in- 

 differently printed proceedings, journals, 

 magazines, bulletins, etc., now issued. An- 

 other and important advantage which the 

 proposed magazine would have over several 

 of the publications which it would replace, 

 would be the securing of the services of a 

 competent editor, who should receive ade- 

 quate compensation for his labor. Again, 

 it may reasonably be expected that an at- 

 tractive geographical magazine would re- 

 place to a considerable extent the popular 

 literary magazines of to-day, and secure a 



large number of readers outside of the 

 societies from which it derived its main 

 support. A magazine having for its aim 

 the diffusion of all branches of geograph- 

 ical knowledge would be welcomed by tens 

 of thousands of our school teachers and 

 other intelligent people in isolated com- 

 munities who are debarred from oral in- 

 struction by leaders in geographical ex- 

 ploration and research. 



In reference to the financial aspect of 

 the proposed scheme, it seems self-evident 

 that at least as great a sum of good as is 

 now attained could be secured at less ex- 

 pense, since duplication of reviews, news 

 items, lists of new books, maps, etc., and, 

 to a considerable extent, of matter con- 

 tained in leading articles, could be avoided ; 

 and, also, because one editor would take the 

 place of several editors. Again, the new 

 magazine, by having a wider circulation 

 than any one, and, as may reasonably be 

 expected, in excess of all the publications 

 it would replace, w^ould be enabled to se- 

 cure an important revenue from advertise- 

 ments. 



One reason for the failure of our present 

 geographical publications to secure a wide 

 circulation outside the immediate members 

 of the respective societies issuing them is, 

 as it seems, lack of business management, 

 coupled with the fact that the enterprise 

 in hand in most instances is too small to be 

 worth energetic exploiting. The publica- 

 tions referred to are not brought before the 

 public in the manner in which literary 

 magazines are promoted, or advertised in 

 the various ways familiar to book publish- 

 ers. With the proposed concentration of 

 publications there w'ould also be a concen- 

 tration of effort in the direction of market- 

 ing the products of the several affiliated 

 societies, which all persons interested in 

 the matter must agree could not fail to be 

 far more efficient than the present method, 

 or rather w^ant of method, in that direction. 



