March 24, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



401 



the recent reciprocity treaty put the com- 

 mercial relations between the two countries 

 on a basis which makes economic annexa- 

 tion inevitable. Furthermore, every lead- 

 ing British possession in the West Indies 

 has for some years been seeking reciprocal 

 trade treaties with the United States, as a 

 means of economic salvation. The fact is 

 that the American tropics find their nat- 

 ural market for raw materials in the 

 United States. We must find enlarged 

 markets in these as yet undeveloped 

 peoples. Step by step both the pressure 

 from within and the course of events from 

 without are drawing us out into i^elations 

 with transoceanic countries which already 

 make it necessary to look to the main- 

 tenance of communication with the differ- 

 ent continents by sea. 



At last then we are numbered among the 

 great powers which have borne the burden 

 of the world 's colonization. We are there 

 primarily because of the inequality in the 

 degree of economic development, compar- 

 ing tropical communities with our own. 

 The relation of the more highly developed 

 countries of the temperate zone to the com- 

 paratively undeveloped peoples of the 

 tropics is one of the greatest of problems 

 arising out of maritime expansion. The 

 experience of most countries has resulted 

 in one form or another of political depend- 

 ence on the part of the natives; this polit- 

 ical dependence with its varied institutions 

 has its basis generally in an economic 

 dependence or rather interdependence. 

 Among these economic relations are in- 

 variably lines of communication and com- 

 merce by sea between the foreign country 

 and the dependent territories. Great 

 Britain requires control of the Mediter- 

 ranean by reason of her relations with 

 Egypt, India and Australia. One can not 

 understand the history of modern peoples 

 without taking into account this relation 



of the white races to the tropical peoples. 

 With all of its dark pages, there are many 

 proofs of the truth that the greed for gain 

 has been subordinated to dictates of hu- 

 manity, in dealing with these wards of the 

 northern races. The missionary spirit has 

 helped to temper the ferocity of mammon, 

 and sooner or later insisted on the abolition 

 of slavery throughout the entire region of 

 conquest. There has been a moral ex- 

 pansion running parallel with the political 

 and the economic expansion. Develop- 

 ment of purchasing power rather than 

 wasteful exploration of the population has 

 come at last to govern tropical policy. 



John Franklin Crowell, 



Secretary. 



THE SAINT PETERSBURG CONFERENCE ON 

 THE EXPLORATION OF THE 

 ATMOSPHERE. 



As some readers of Science may remem- 

 ber, the International Meteorological Con- 

 gress which met at Paris in 1896 appointed 

 a committee to further the exploration of 

 the free air, then already in progress in 

 Europe by means of balloons, and at Blue 

 Hill in this country with kites. The 

 committee bears the somewhat ambiguous 

 name : ' International Committee for Scien- 

 tific Aeronautics, ' and has had for its presi- 

 dent Professor Hergesell, director of the 

 meteorological service of Alsace-Lorraine. 

 Originally consisting of eight members, it 

 now numbers about fifty, representing 

 eleven European countries and the United 

 States, for, although our national Weather 

 Bureau has not had a representative on the 

 committee, the writer attended the meet- 

 ings that were held at Strassburg in 1898, 

 at Paris in 1900 and at Berlin in 1902, and 

 has endeavored to advance the objects of 

 the committee in the United States. 



The fourth meeting, appointed for last 

 autumn at St. Petersburg, was regarded as 

 of exceptional importance and, according- 



