286 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 164 



the most complete realization of the ends of all edu- 

 cation ; yet how rarely is a step ever taken in the 

 direction of putting into execution these four princi- 

 ples, and how often are they violated entirely ! 



Even to-day, as in years gone by, we find the scien- 

 tist placed in charge of hospitals full of sick men, 

 and with the lives of women and children in his hands 

 besides, when he can see with his own eyes that 

 every time he is called to attend, as physician, upon 

 the sick, his very presence is detrimental to their 

 recovery, while his painful attempts to demon- 

 strate to those about him that he is trying to do his 

 full duty, only results in total lack of confidence on 

 the part of all the friends, relatives, and attendants, 

 who draw a sigh of relief when he has left the room, 

 and scrutinize his rather vague directions with sus- 

 picion. 



The same applies to all the other incongruities that 

 I cited above ; and examples of every one of them 

 for the last thirty years could and still can be found 

 at any time represented in the government, and in 

 most instances require a radical change, to say noth- 

 ing of the benefits that would result to humanity for 

 all time. R. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Wingate, N. Mex., March 14. 



The silver problem. 



It is generally taken for granted in arguments on 

 this and finance or money problems generally, that 

 the state of business, industry, or economic prosperity, 

 of the nations as they now exist, depends in a very 

 large measure on the substance of which their money 

 is made. Stagnation, crises, and all the baneful con- 

 sequences thereof, are ascribed to the money system 

 without any intelligent reason. 



Money is any thing whose exchange value serves 

 as a standard for measuring the exchange value of 

 other things or of services. It follows that the best 

 money is that whose exchange value is most fixed 

 and unvarying. By a 1 survival of the fittest ' pro- 

 cess, gold now has gained its place as the money I ot 

 fitted for our present economic system; i.e., the 

 exploitation or capitalistic system. 



The customary blunder of the finance tinkers and 

 thinkers is to ascribe the evil results of the present 

 economic system to the money or finance department 

 thereof. This they never do intelligently or clearly, 

 and never can, because that relation does not 

 exist : hence the confusion and general intellectual 

 bankruptcy that prevails on this issue. In the 

 prevailing capitalistic system, money and all other 

 exchange values are permitted to become private 

 property. The producers of exchange values have 

 to give them over to a middleman (capitalist), who 

 compels them to do that by the power of the state, 

 which upholds him therein by upholding him as 

 owner of the means of production. But the pro- 

 ducers are by this process exploited (fleeced) by 

 this third party. For example : a shoemaker and 

 tailor would, if free to make their exchange di- 

 rectly, exchange, say, three pairs of shoes for two 

 coats. But the middleman (capitalist) fleeces both by 

 keeping for himself as much as he possibly can of the 

 labor-products of both, without giving any thing in 

 return. He gives the tailor in money the exchange 

 value of only one pair of shoes in exchange for the 

 two coats, and the shoemaker only the exchange 

 value in money of one coat for the three pairs of 

 shoes : consequently, by the hocus - pocus of the 



money system, he is 'in' one coat and two pairs of 

 shoes. This right to be ' in ' is his ' legal ' or 

 ' vested ' right, — his ' profit.' The producers may 

 deem it a 1 vested wrong,' and a great many are be- 

 ginning to think that way. 



Besides being a ' shaving ' system, it is also a ' com- 

 petitive ' system ; that is, those workingmen get the 

 ' prize,' work'and wages, who will live in the meanest 

 and cheapest manner ; that is, who work for the 

 lowest price, or, in other words, who will consume 

 the least. The capitalist gets the prize, ' profit,' who 

 has the most integrated and differentiated means of 

 production along with the cheapest labor ; that is, 

 who can produce the quickest and most. On one 

 side, the consuming power is decreased ; on the 

 other, the producing power is being increased ; and 

 in the middle both are fleeced. The result is this 

 remarkably anomalous spectacle of people who are 

 willing to work suffering from want because there is 

 too much produced, and -non-producers consuming 

 enormously. 



Herein, and not in the money department, is the real 

 ' root of the evil.' Only a remedy that goes to this 

 root, that is, in the root-sense of the word, radical, 

 will cure the evil. This remedy is socialism. 



Chas. Field. 



A swindler abroad again. 



A person has been operating in Illinois and Iowa, 

 representing himself to be Prof. H. S. Williams at 

 some points, and Professor Oelrich at others ; in all 

 cases, so far as heard from, assuming to be con- 

 nected with the faculty of Cornell university. His 

 modus operandi is to borrow scientific works, money, 

 and paleontological specimens, and contract with 

 colleges to furnish series of fossils illustrative of 

 American geology. He is an expert in classifying 

 fossils, and his method of work is strongly suggestive 

 of the individual who duped many scientific workers 

 last year under the alias of Lesquereux. He has 

 worked his games at Galesburg, HI., Burlington, 

 Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, and Oskaloosa, Io., being 

 at the latter place March 8 last. He is undersized, a 

 man of from thirty to thirty-five years of age, light 

 hair, beard, and mustache, and apparently having no 

 use of his right arm, though this defect may have 

 been simulated. H. D. Crawford. 



Ottumwa, Io., March IS. 



Reports of the National academy of sciences. 



From inquiries which I have received, there 

 appears to be a general misunderstanding concerning 

 the reports made by committees of the National 

 academy of sciences. It is assumed by the public 

 that these reports have been examined and approved 

 by the academy, and therefore that they express the 

 opinion of that body. This is a mistake. Generally 

 a report is not submitted to the academy for discus- 

 sion, and it must be understood to represent only the 

 opinion of the committee who sign the report. An 

 example will be found in a late report, published as 

 senate document No. 67 (forty-ninth congress, first 

 session), in which it is recommended to change the 

 beginning of the astronomical day from noon to mid- 

 night. Probably a majority of the astronomers of 

 the academy would oppose such a change if they 

 were permitted to speak. Asaph Hall. 



March 18. 



