January 23, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



69 



Small as this makes the force of the competition 

 appear, the real effect is smaller still. The com- 

 peting power of the prisons was, as appears above, 

 23,524 convicts. But, relying on the most scien- 

 tific tests and measures that the English prison 

 managers have been able to apply to the productive 

 force of convict labor, we find that it takes the 

 labor of two convicts to equal that of one free 

 laborer (see 'Report of the superintendent of 

 state prisons of the state of New York for the year 

 1884,' p. 24). This results, of course, from the low 

 mental and moral equipment of the average con- 

 vict, as well as from the peculiar conditions under 

 which prison labor is carried on. As it is a well- 

 known fact that the artisans in the United States 

 accomplish more work in a given time than their 

 European competitors do, it will be necessary to 

 allow for a somewhat higher standard of convict 

 labor. Putting this allowance at 10 per cent, we 

 find that the productive labor of an American 

 convict is 60 per cent of that of the free workman. 



Therefore, while the percentage of convicts to 

 free laborers was 1.83, the competitive productive 

 power of the former was only three-fifths of that, 

 or. 1.1 per cent. And it is this minute percentage 

 of competition that has caused all the hue and 

 cry against convict labor. 



In a recent paper on ' The rate of wages,' Mr. 

 Edward Atkinson of .Boston, basing his statistics 

 on the census of 1880, states that 17,400,000 per- 

 sons are engaged in some gainful occupation. Of 

 this number, 150,000 are in government employ : 

 so there remain 17,250,000 producers, who, by 

 exchanging products with others, also obtain the 

 means of living, and thereby become consumers. 

 1.050,000 of these are engaged in mental rather 

 than manual work ; such are clergymen, lawyers, 

 teachers, artists, chemists, engineers, officials of 

 banks, railroad 6, insurance companies and corpo- 

 rations, merchants, traders, and dealers. When 

 these are deducted, we have a remainder of 16,- 

 200,000, who constitute the actual working-class. 

 7,000,000 of these are farmers and farm-laborers, 

 and the rest are artisans, mechanics, clerks, 

 laborers, operatives, domestic servants, and 

 other wage earners. The products of the me- 

 chanical industries of the United States amount 

 to more than five thousand million dollars an- 

 nually. The total product of the state prisons of 

 the country is not over twenty millions per annum, 

 or two-fifths of one per cent of the whole manu- 

 factured products of the country ; and this figure 

 is obtained by taking prison labor at a valuation 

 of two dollars per day, — the average price for 

 labor outside of prisons. As the convicts earn, on 

 an average, only forty cents a day, their earn- 

 ings represent a product of less than one-fifth 



of one per cent of the products of the United 

 States. 



We are convinced that those who participate in 

 the crusade against the employment of convicts 

 in productive industries on the ground of unfair 

 competition with free labor, are innocent of any 

 acquaintance with the facts and figures that bear 

 on the question. Nicholas Murray Butler. 



THE NEW VOLCANO IN THE PACIFIC. 



The New Zealand herald of Nov. 3 contained 

 the following account of the recently reported 

 new volcano in the Pacific : — 



" In yesterday's paper we stated the news brought 

 by the schooner Maile, that a new and vast volcano 

 had arisen in the Pacific Ocean. A correspondent 

 in Tonga, dating Oct. 19, gives the following par- 

 ticulars : ' At daylight on the 13th of this month 

 (October) we observed dense volumes of steam, 

 smoke, and clouds, ascending in a N. N. AV. direc- 

 tion. At one o'clock p.m. on the same day pro- 

 ceeded in the Sandfly in that direction, having on 

 board the Premier, Mr. Baker, Mrs. Baker, two 

 Misses Baker, Mr. S. W. E. Baker, Miss Tuckow, 

 Dr. Buckland, Rev. Mr. W^atkin, Mr. F. Watkin, 

 Mr. Wilson, Mr. S. Roberts, Prince Liponie, Chief 

 Tongi, and several others ; sailed sufficiently close 

 that evening to see that it was a submarine vol- 

 canic eruption. Considering it not prudent to 

 approach it any closer, night coming on, and think- 

 ing there might possibly be a set of currents 

 towards it, shortened sail, and worked to wind- 

 ward of it, keeping it at a respectable and com- 

 fortable distance from us during the night. In 

 the morning at daylight made sail with a fresh 

 breeze from E. S. E. About eight a.m. my judg- 

 ment was, we w r ere about 1+ to 2 miles from the 

 crater, it bearing then about N. W. I have not 

 words to express my admiration and wonder at 

 its changing splendor. Eruptions take place every 

 one or two minutes, changing its appearance 

 every second like a dissolving view. I can only 

 say it was one of the most awfully grand sights I 

 ever witnessed in all my fife on the high seas. 

 And now for the position, as near as I have been 

 able to calculate at present, of the island that has 

 been thrown up by this volcanic eruption. It is 

 on the S. E. edge of Culebras reef, as placed on 

 the chart by H. M. S. Falcon in 1865, and N. N. 

 W. i W. magnetic, 14 to 15 miles from the island 

 of Honga Tonga. As to the size or extent of the 

 island thrown up, I am at present unable to state 

 correctly, there being so much steam and clouds 

 hanging about and over it ; but I should imagine, 

 from what little I could see of it, that it was from 

 2 to 3 miles long, S. W. and N. E. ; height about 



