there is nothing to prevent their abusing to almost any extent. But
what is theoretically possible is not always practically possible.
The President of the United States possesses great powers, which
theoretically he might abuse to any extent; so does the Queen of
England; so do many other potentates. But of all the evil that is
theoretically possible, how much is carried out in practice? All kinds
of things _might_ happen if people were fools enough to do all the harm
that it is in their power to do. The great saving fact is that it is
not possible to go very far in doing harm to others without doing it
to yourself. It is this fact which the insatiable legislation-monger
ignores. He has an infinite faith in the mischief that will happen
if things are left alone. He can not bear to think that somebody is
not looking after everybody. He has no faith whatever in natural
law or natural actions and reactions, and would hoot the idea of
what the poet Wordsworth calls a "wise passiveness." Such people
have little conception of the mischief they do, and of the good that
fails of realization through their pestilent activity. The readers of
Dickens will perhaps remember Mrs. Pardiggle and the admirable system
of education she applied to her numerous family of children. The
unhappy youngsters were under orders every hour of the day; they were
marched round the country with their mother when she went on visits
of charity, and compelled to contribute out of their own (nominal)
pocket money to all kinds of religious and benevolent schemes. How
they kicked and rebelled, and what distressing passions were roused in
their youthful breasts, the great novelist has told us; and we think
we may take his word for it. The fussy legislator is a Pardiggle. If
he would leave things alone, opposing interests would find a _modus
vivendi_, and practical justice would more and more assert itself.
The more interference there is between parties who in the last resort
are dependent on one another's good will, the less likely they are to
recognize their substantial identity of interest. If the interference
is wholly in the interest of one of the parties, the other is sure to
be forced into an undesirable attitude; while the one whose protection
is the object in view will not unnaturally take all the protection he
can get, and look for something more.
What is wanted to put the relations between the railways and the public
upon the most satisfactory footing possible is, in the first place,
less legislative interference; and, in the second, a higher tone of
business morality throughout the community. We place this second not
as underrating its importance, but because we believe it would to some
extent flow from the first. It is when the public transfers its right
of eminent domain to a railway corporation that it should take adequate
measures to protect its own interests; but how can this be done when
legislation is sold--when charters are given or withheld, according
to the amount of money available for purposes of persuasion? With
honest legislators and honest courts there would be very little trouble
between the railways and the public, and such as arose could be easily
remedied. Commerce commissions are a testimony to the existence of low
standards of business morality; and, unfortunately, they tend to keep
them low, if not to make them lower.
The sooner we make up our minds to trust more to moral influences
freely acting in the intercourse of man with man and of interest with
interest, and less to legal compulsion, the better it will be for us
in every department of our national life. The Thirteenth Annual Report
of the Interstate Commerce Commission is a virtual confession of the
failure of legislation to accomplish a purpose which was supposed to
be easily within its field of action. The confession is coupled with
a demand for more legislation, but, were the demand conceded, who can
guarantee that more still would not be wanted? The railways are not at
the end of their resources, and new laws would, we fear, be only too
likely to suggest new means of evasion. No; the remedy lies elsewhere,
and if Congress is wise it will give that remedy a trial by allowing
the railways and the public a chance to arrange terms between them,
with public opinion as the principal court of appeal.
_THE FUNCTION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY._
A paper that was read by Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public
Library, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Library Club, on the subject
of Paternalism in Public Libraries, and which we find in the Library
Journal for November last, is one which, in our opinion, deserves to be
separately printed and widely circulated. It abounds in good sense, and
preaches a doctrine of self-help and self-reliance which is much needed
in these days.
A question which the author of the paper does not discuss, but which,
it seems to us, lies at the threshold of the whole subject, is whether
the very existence of a public library--if we understand by the term a
library supported by public taxes--is not in itself an exemplification
of paternalism. Mr. Swift strikes us as a benevolent bureaucrat who
wants to give the people at large a wider liberty in the matter of
reading than the ruling influences of time and place are disposed
to allow. He sees that liberty is good, that leading strings belong
to infancy, and he raises his protest against a paternalism in the
management of public libraries which, under the plea of providing only
the most approved reading for all classes, would tend to the repression
of individuality in the reader and the establishment of the supremacy
of commonplace. But what if commonplace insists on being supreme and
shutting out whatever is not of one complexion with itself? How are
we to resist its demand in the administration of a State-supported,
and therefore majority-ruled, institution? "You offer us," say its
representatives, "a liberty we do not want for ourselves, and are not
prepared to concede to others, as we are sure it can not be for their
good. We are not going to consult the tastes of cranks, criminals,
intellectual aristocrats, or social mugwumps of any kind. For all
practical purposes we are the public, and we mean to run this public
library." To the objection that a portion, at least, of the taxes is
paid by those whose views and tastes are not going to be consulted, the
answer would be ready: "It is for the majority to say how taxes shall
be applied." We recognize the excellence of Mr. Swift's intentions and
sympathize with his way of looking at things, but we feel that his
objections to "paternalism" in connection with public libraries are
delivered from a somewhat shaky platform. We observe that a periodical
quoted in the Library Journal--the Overland Monthly--makes the remark
that "there is nothing to be said for free books that could not be
urged in favor of free beefsteaks and free overcoats."
Some of the points, however, that are made by Mr. Swift are deserving
of attention. The several professions--law, medicine, theology,
etc.--would more or less like to have only such books placed upon the
shelves of a public library as represent what may be called their
respective orthodoxies. But, as Mr. Swift observes, "libraries are as
much the depositories of the folly as of the wisdom of the ages." A
library, therefore, should tell us what men have thought and attempted
in the past, and what they are thinking and attempting now. It is for
schools and colleges, for newspapers and reviews, to afford guidance
in the wilderness of opinions, not for the library to make a point of
putting out of people's reach everything that is not in line with the
scientific, literary, or other orthodoxy of the hour.
"A subtle form of paternalism is the deliberate inculcation of the
patriotic spirit, especially in children." Mr. Swift is a brave man
to attempt to stem this particular torrent. He thinks there are times
when one who loves his country would feel shame for it rather than
pride, and that the motto "My country right or wrong" is not the most
wholesome sentiment that can be impressed on the mind of youth. "To
fill a child with the consummate virtues of Washington, Jefferson, and
other of our immortals, and to leave him ignorant of the greatness of
Cromwell and of William the Silent, is a serious injustice to the child
and to the cause of education." Not only is this done, but, in the
domain of literature as well, it seems as if the only names with which
public-school pupils obtain any acquaintance are those of national
authors. So far as poetry is concerned, Mr. Swift says that almost the
only name he hears from the lips of children frequenting the Public
Library is "Longfellow." He can not remember ever having had a call
from a child for Tennyson, while Wordsworth in the school region is
equally unknown.
Apart from the studied inculcation of a narrow patriotism, the author
of the paper we are considering thinks that there is altogether too
much paternalism shown in the choice of children's reading. He has only
a limited and feeble faith in "children's rooms" in public libraries.
They are very much, he thinks, like Sunday schools--convenient places
for parents to unload their offspring. The aim of the censorship is
to eliminate everything that is not in accord with the most approved
canons of juvenile life and thought, leaving only what is ready for
immediate acceptance and assimilation. Such a policy, Mr. Swift holds,
is not favorable either to individuality or to intellectual growth.
"We must," he says, "take books, like life, as we find them, and learn
to distinguish good and bad; learn, as we ought, that the good is not
so good as we have been told it is, and that the bad contains a strong
infusion of good. No wrecks are so fearful as those which come to the
young who have up to a point led 'sheltered lives.'"
It is not, however, children only who get the benefit of a benevolent
protective policy. Selecting committees are quite prepared to look
after grown-up people as well, and keep out of their way books which
might prove too exciting, which might reveal depths of passion such
as persons leading decorous lives are not supposed to know anything
about, or otherwise agitate the tranquil mill pond of their existence.
It does not occur to them that thus the salt and savor of human life
are expelled, and that, instead of the free play of vital forces,
there supervenes a dreary mechanic round of semi-automatic activities
unvisited by enthusiasm, untouched by strong desire, without dream or
vision or any quickening of the heart or the imagination. Some good
people are excessively particular not only as to what may threaten
moral disturbance, but as to anything that may encourage departures
from conventional modes of speech and deportment. They do not like
to admit books that they regard as vulgar, and a great mark of
vulgarity in their opinion is the use of slang. Yet so accomplished
a _littérateur_ as Mr. William Archer told us lately that he pleads
guilty to "an unholy relish" for the talk of "Chimmie Fadden" and his
Chicago contemporary "Artie." To him, as to Mr. Swift, the books in
which these worthies disport themselves _mean something_, and something
deserving of attention. That being the case, the vulgarity, which is
part of the picture, becomes in proportion to its truth an element of
value. Mr. Swift, very bold and like the ancient prophet, says plainly:
"Harmless books in general are mediocre books; if a new note in morals
or society is struck, the suggestion of a possible injuriousness at
once arises."
Taken as a whole, Mr. Swift's paper is a strong plea for individualism
and liberty. As such we have felt it a duty to call attention to it,
and we trust that it will in some way obtain a more general circulation
than can be afforded by the useful, but somewhat technical, columns of
the Library Journal.
Fragments of Science.
=Longevity of Whales.=--Some light was thrown, a few years ago,
upon the subject of the vitality of whales by finding one of these
animals in Bering Sea, in 1890, with a "toggle" harpoon head in its
body bearing the mark of the American whaler Montezuma. That vessel
was engaged in whaling in Bering Sea about ten years, but not later
than 1854. She was afterward sold to the Government, and was sunk in
Charleston Harbor during the civil war to serve as an obstruction.
Hence, it is estimated, the whale must have carried the harpoon not
less than thirty-six years. In connection with this fact, Mr. William
H. Dall gives an account, in the National Geographic Magazine, of a
discussion with Captain E. P. Herendeen, of the United States National
Museum, of cases of whales that have been supposed to have made their
way from Greenland waters to Bering Strait, and to have been identified
by the harpoons they carried. While it is very likely that the whale
really makes the passage, an uncertainty must always be allowed, for
ships were often changing ownership and their tools were sold and put
on board of other vessels, and harpoon irons were sometimes given or
traded to Eskimos. It therefore becomes possible that the animal was
struck with a second-hand iron.
=Solidification of Hydrogen.=--As soon as he was able to obtain liquid
hydrogen in manageable quantities, in the fall of 1898, Mr. James Dewar
began experiments for its solidification. The apparatus he used was
like that employed in other solidification experiments, consisting
of a small vacuum test-tube, containing the hydrogen, placed in a
larger vessel of the same kind, with excess of the hydrogen partly
filling the circular space between the two tubes. No solidification was
produced, and the effort was suspended for a time, while the author
attacked other problems. The experiments were renewed in 1899, with
the advantage of more knowledge concerning reductions of temperature
brought about by reduction of pressure. A slight leak of air in the
apparatus was observed, which was frozen into an air snow when it met
the cold vapor of hydrogen coming off, and this leak at a particular
point of pressure caused a sudden solidification of the liquid hydrogen
into a mass like frozen foam. An apparatus was then arranged that could
be overturned, so that if any of the hydrogen was still liquid it would
run out. None ran out, but by the aid of a strong light on the side
of the apparatus opposite the eye the hydrogen was seen as a solid
ice in the lower part, while the surface looked frothy. The melting
point of hydrogen ice was determined at about 16° or 17° absolute
(-257° or -256° C.). The solid seemed to possess the properties of the
non-metallic elements rather than of the metals, among which it has
been usual to class hydrogen.
=The Gegenschein.=--Much interest prevails among astronomers at present
concerning the question of the nature of the _Gegenschein_. This German
word, which means "opposite shine," is applied to designate a small,
somewhat oblong, bright spot which is sometimes seen in the sky at
night, nearly opposite the point which is at the time occupied by the
sun on the opposite side of the globe. It is near the ecliptic, but
appears two or three degrees away from exact opposition to the sun.
It seems agreed that the _Gegenschein_ is not atmospheric, but rather
meteoric, being a reflection from some collection of meteors. The
problem set before astronomers is to identify the meteors. A theory
that they are connected with the asteroidal zone, or mass of meteors
of which the known and numbered asteroids are conspicuous examples,
has, according to Professor Barnard, "much in its favor, but there
are objections to the theory which can not easily be reconciled with
the observed facts." Mr. J. Evershed, of Kenley, England, assumes the
_Gegenschein_ to be a tail to the earth, produced by the escape of
molecules of hydrogen and helium away from the globe in a direction
opposite to the sun--much as a comet's tail is formed. Other observers
suppose it to be connected with the zodiacal light or band, which is
regarded as a body of meteors connected with the earth and accompanying
it, and is plainly visible in the western sky after sunset in the
spring, rising from the place of the sun toward the zenith; and Mr.
William Anderson, of Madeira, publishes a figure with a demonstration,
in The Observatory, to show how its place and appearance may be
accounted for on this supposition. The _Gegenschein_ has been compared
in a homely way to the radiance which may be seen around the shadows of
our heads cast by the sun upon the dewy grass early on a bright summer
morning.
=Literature for Children.=--Mr. Richard le Gallienne, in an article
published in the Boston Transcript, laments the flood of rubbish that
is poured out under the guise of children's books. The subject of
literature for children is discussed in the Studies of the Colorado
Scientific Society by Prof. E. S. Parsons, who remarks that three
of the greatest classics of childhood were not written for children
at all. "Pilgrim's Progress was a new type of sermon written by the
tinker preacher in his prison cell at Bedford; Robinson Crusoe was a
pseudo-history from the pen of one of the first great English realists;
Gulliver's Travels was a political satire by the greatest of English
satirists. The same thing is true of the stories of the Bible, of the
Arabian Nights, of the folklore which strikes a sympathetic chord at
once in the child's nature.... Child study, then, reveals the fact that
the child nature is the counterpart of what is best in books--that
children can appreciate literature." A friend of Professor Parsons
wrote him of her daughter, nine years old, being very fond of her
father's library, and "simply devoted" to the Bible and the plays
of Shakespeare. Harriet Martineau, when a child, "devoured all of
Shakespeare," sitting on a footstool and reading by firelight, and
making shirts, with Goldsmith or Thomson or Milton where she could
glance at them occasionally. Another of Professor Parsons's friends
read "all of Goethe's Faust with his little thirteen-year-old girl,
to her great enjoyment," and the little girl afterward read alone
all of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. "Many teachers have found young
children delighted with Dante." These incidents and others point to the
inference that it is not necessary to go outside of the world's great
literature for fit material for a child's imaginative and emotional
nature. One of Mr. Le Gallienne's main conclusions is that it is very
hard to guess beforehand what the child will like.
=Geography and Exploration in 1899.=--No great geographical discoveries
were recorded during 1899, but much good work was done in exploration.
Considerable interest has been taken in preparing expeditions of
antarctic research, of which a Belgian expedition has returned
with some important results, and Mr. Borchgrevink has begun work
at Cape Adar, on the antarctic mainland. The search for Andrée has
helped increase our knowledge of parts of the arctic coast. In Asia,
Captain Deasy has laid down the whole of the before unknown course
of the Yarkand River, and has furnished other information concerning
little-known regions; and other surveys and explorations have been
diligently prosecuted. About as much may be said of Africa, where "the
want of adequate exploration of the mountainous regions on the borders
of Cape Colony and Natal has been only too forcibly brought home" to
the English. Expeditions sent out by Canadian surveys are constantly
opening up new countries and producing maps of great geographical and
industrial value. Mr. A. P. Low finds Labrador not quite so bleak
and hopeless a country as had been generally believed. Sir Martin
Conway has done some very creditable exploration in the Andes and in
Tierra del Fuego, the scientific results of which are of considerable
value. In Chile, Dr. Staffer and his colleagues have been exploring
the wonderful fiords of the coast and the rivers that come down to
them from the Andean range. Dr. Moreno has described the results of
twenty-five years' exploration of the great Patagonian plains, and of
the lakes and glaciers and mountains on the eastern face of the Andes.
One of the most important scientific enterprises during the year, the
London Times says, was the German oceanographical expedition in the
Valdivia, under Professor Chum, which went south through the Atlantic
to the edge of the antarctic ice, and north through the Indian Ocean to
Sumatra, and home through the Red Sea.
=Royal Society Medalists.=--The Copley medal was conferred, at the
recent anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, upon Lord Rayleigh
for his splendid service to physics, his investigations, the president
said in presenting the award, having increased our knowledge in almost
every department of physical science, covering the experimental as well
as the mathematical parts of the subject. "His researches, from the
range of subjects they cover, their abundance, and their importance,
have rarely been paralleled in the history of physical science." A
summary account of the principal ones was given in the sketch of him
published in the twenty-fifth volume of the Popular Science Monthly
(October, 1884). At the same meeting of the Royal Society the Royal
medals were conferred upon Prof. G. F. Fitzgerald, for his brilliant
contributions to physics, and Prof. William C. McIntosh, for his very
important labors as a zoölogist. Professor Fitzgerald's investigations
have been in the field of radiation and electrical theory, and in a
manner complementary to those of J. Clerke Maxwell. Among his works is
a memoir presenting a dynamic formulation of the electric theory of
light on the basis of the principle of least action, which concludes
with a remark upon the advantage of "emancipating our minds from the
thraldom of a material ether." Professor McIntosh was spoken of as "one
of a distinguished succession of monographers of the British fauna,
who, beginning with Edward Forbes, have, during the last fifty years,
done work highly creditable to British zoölogy." He is author of a
great monograph of the British Annelids, which is still in progress
of publication by the Royal Society, and of an important contribution
to the Challenger reports, and was the founder of the first marine
biological station in Great Britain--the Gatty Marine Laboratory at St.
Andrews. The Davy medal was bestowed upon Edward Schunck for researches
of very high importance in organic chemistry. These works include a
remarkable series of contributions to the chemistry of the organic
coloring matters, particularly those relating to the indigo plant and
to the madder plant. Of late years he has studied, with distinguished
success, the chemistry of chlorophyll.