number and character of the gatherings, international and
national, that were brought about in connection with it. The
most notable of these was the International Congress of Arts
and Sciences, which opened September 19th. "This Congress,"
said President Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University,
in an article describing its plan, "is not such a series of
gatherings as took place at Chicago and at Paris, but is
rather a carefully elaborated plan to educate public opinion,
and the world of scholarship itself, to an appreciation of the
underlying unity of knowledge and the necessary
inter-dependence of the host of specialties that have sprung
up during the past century. … For participation in this
congress there will assemble a large body of the world’s
greatest scholars. They will come from all parts of the world
to contribute surveys of their several departments of
knowledge, planning those surveys so as to emphasize the
mutual relations of all the separate arts and sciences."
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: A. D. 1904.
Meeting of the Interparliamentary Union.
See (in this Volume)
WAR: THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1904-1909.
ST. MARK’S CATHEDRAL, at Venice:
Fall of the Campanile.
See (in this Volume)
VENICE: A. D. 1902.
ST. PETERSBURG: DISTURBANCES IN.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA.
ST. PIERRE:
Volcanic Destruction of the City.
See (in this Volume)
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS: WEST INDIES.
ST. VINCENT ISLAND:
Volcanic Eruption of La Souffrière.
See (in this Volume)
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS: WEST INDIES.
SAKHAROFF, General:
Assassination of.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
SAKURAI, Lieutenant Tadayoshi, The story of.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Resignation of the Premiership in the British Government.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1902 (JULY).
SALONIKA: A. D. 1903.
Dynamite Explosion by Insurgents.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1902-1903.
SALONIKA: A. D. 1903.
Center of the "Young Turk" organization.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER), and after.
SALOON QUESTION.
See (in this Volume)
ALCOHOL PROBLEM.
SALT TRUST, Dissolution of the.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1906.
SALTON SEA, The.
At a point not far from where it runs into Mexican territory
the Colorado River, for a long recent period, has been
deflected by bordering sand deposits from a great depression
in the neighboring desert, known as the Salton Sink. In 1901
an irrigation company began works for supplying water from the
Colorado to lands in that vicinity, and seems to have taken no
proper precautions for controlling the flow through its
canals. The result was a break through the sand hills, into
the Salton Sink, which converted it for the time being into
the "Salton Sea,"—so described in all accounts of the
catastrophe. For nearly two years the flood of the Colorado
was poured into the Sink, forming a sea or lake which covered
an area of about 400 square miles. It was not until February,
1907, that the combined exertions of the Southern Pacific
Railway Company, the California Development Co. (whose works
produced the trouble) and the engineers of the United States
Reclamation Service, succeeded in returning the Colorado to
the channel it had escaped from. Since that was done
evaporation has been steadily emptying the Sink, at the rate
of five or six feet annually, according to the Chief of the
Weather Bureau, which has maintained a station there. At the
end of a year of observations he was reported as saying: "We
will get the data we want within another year probably and
then we can cut off the Salton Sea station. The evaporation
data we expect to obtain will be valuable for calculations on
irrigation works and reservoirs."
SALVADOR.
See (in this Volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
SAM, Theresias Simon: President.
See (in this Volume)
HAITI: A. D. 1902.
SANBORN, Judge Walter H.:
Opinion in Suit for the Dissolution of the Standard Oil Company.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &C.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1906-1909.
SANTIAGO, Chile:
First Pan-American Scientific Congress.
See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES.
SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1901-1905.
Financial Conditions.
Dissipation of Revenues.
"Many years ago the government, being unable to raise money on
ordinary security, adopted the practice of vesting the power
of collection in its creditors. Duties are settled in
_pagarés_, or promissory notes, duly indorsed, and
payable usually in a month or two months. In order to secure
loans, these _pagarés_ were handed over to the creditor,
who collected the money directly from the importer or
exporter. This expedient, which was designed to protect the
creditor against the government itself as well as against its
enemies, was in vogue when the government in 1888 sought
financial relief in Europe. Such relief was obtained from
Westendorp & Company, bankers, of Amsterdam, who in that year
underwrote and issued, at 83½ per cent., 6 per cent. gold
bonds of the Dominican government to the amount of £770,000
sterling, the government creating a first lien on all its
customs revenues, and authorizing the Westendorps to collect
and receive at the custom-houses all the customs revenues of
the republic. Under this contract, which was ratified by the
Dominican Congress, the Westendorps created in Santo Domingo
an establishment, commonly called the ‘Regie,’ which collected
the duties directly from the importer and exporter and
disbursed them, the Westendorps sending out from Europe the
necessary agents and employees. It was further stipulated that
the Westendorps should, in case of necessity, have the right
to constitute a European commission, which it was understood
was to be international in character. The power of collection
and disbursement was exercised by the Westendorps down to
1893, when it was transferred to the San Domingo Improvement
Company, of New York, which continued to exercise it till
January, 1901, when the company was, by an arbitrary executive
decree issued by President Jimenez, excluded from its function
of collecting the revenues, though its employees were
permitted to remain in the custom-houses till the end of the
year.
{583}
"As an assurance to the foreign creditor, whose legal security
was thus destroyed, Jimenez constituted in the same decree a
‘Commission of Honorables,’ with whom the sums due to foreign
creditors, including the American companies, were to be
deposited; but their capacity as depositaries was not destined
to be tested. Late in 1901, it became known that out of the
reported revenues of the year, amounting to $2,126,453, the
percentages for the domestic debt had not been set aside, and
that no payment had been made on the floating interior debt,
but that the Jimenez ‘revolutionary’ claims had been paid
without previous warrant of law, and that there existed a
deficit. Since that time, with the exception of comparatively
small amounts, nothing whatever has been paid to the foreign
creditor. The omission, however, has not been due to lack of
revenues. It has been due to conditions which, if all the
debts of the republic were with one stroke wiped out, would
continue to prevent the government from meeting its ordinary
expenses. The revenues have been seized and dissipated by the
government and its enemies in ‘war expenses,’ and in the
payment of '_asignaciones_' and ‘revolutionary claims.’ …
That foreign governments will stand by and permit such
conditions to continue cannot be expected. They have already
manifested their desire to intervene."
_John Bassett Moore,
Santo Domingo and the United States
(American Review of Reviews, March, 1905)._
SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1901-1906.
Participation in Second and Third International Conferences of
American Republics.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1904-1907.
Years of almost Incessant Disorder and repeated Revolutions.
Jimenez, Vasques, Wos y Gil, Morales and Caceres in
succession at the Head of Government.
Menace from the Creditors of the Republic.
Appeal to the United States.
American Treaty.
President Roosevelt on the Situation.
The assassination of President Heureaux and the election of
President Jimenez are related in Volume VI. of this work (see
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC). Jimenez’s rule was not long, and he gave
way to a provisional government, under General Vasques, which
was upset by a revolt that broke out in March, 1903, and which
planted General Wos y Gil so obviously in power that his
Government was recognized by the United States in October. But
the rapidly revolving wheel of political events seems to have
soon whirled Wos y Gil out and brought Jimenez back, to be
tossed into private life again in 1904 by General Carlos F.
Morales, of whom Mr. Sigimund Krausz gave a most favorable
account in _The Outlook_, of September 17, 1904. "The
common idea," said Mr. Krausz, "that the population of Santo
Domingo consists exclusively of a horde of savages, and that
the generals and politicians causing the kaleidoscopic
sequence of revolutions are of the same class, and, without
exception, uneducated brutes and degenerates, is quite
erroneous, and has been created for the sake of
sensationalism, largely by journalists and magazine writers
without personal knowledge of Dominican conditions, or by
native exiles who, naturally, are always enemies of the party
in power. … While it is true that the vast majority of the
Dominican people in the interior of the island live in a
fearful state of ignorance, superstition, and even barbarism,
caused by many decades of internal warfare, there is, however,
also a class of natives who certainly ought not to be thrown
in the same pot with them. These are the better citizens of
the capital and the larger coast towns, among whom are many
intelligent and educated men who had the advantage of fairly
good schools and intercourse with foreigners. Among this class
are a number who have received all or part of their education
abroad, who speak two or three languages, and who, in their
social intercourse and manners, may safely be pronounced
gentlemen. They follow the occupations of merchants, planters,
lawyers, physicians, etc., and while, as a rule, they keep
aloof from politics, it is from their strata of society that
spring most of the military and political leaders of Santo
Domingo. There are few of these men who, by their appearance,
betray the strain of negro blood in them, and the type is
hardly distinguishable from that of Latin-Americans in
general.
"Carlos M. Morales belongs to the better class of Dominicans
mentioned before, masters French, English, and Spanish
fluently, and has the advantage of an ecclesiastical education
in a seminary of Santo Domingo City. He was, in fact, for
eight years a priest, before disagreement with various dogmas
of the Church and the desire to take an active part in the
political affairs of his country induced him to throw aside
the cassock. He is a close student of West Indian conditions,
and well acquainted with the affairs of the world in general.
While being an ardent admirer of the United States and its
institutions, and sincerely desiring its political friendship,
he is at the same time the strongest opponent of any policy
that would tend to make Santo Domingo a political dependency
of Uncle Sam, either in the form of annexation or a
protectorate."
Morales was soon beset with claims from insistent foreign
creditors, on account of debts which his predecessors had
incurred, and which they had left nothing to satisfy. Several
European governments were threatening forcible measures to
secure payment for their subjects, and Morales asked for help
from the United States. The situation and its outcome were
reported subsequently to Congress by President Roosevelt, as
follows:
"The conditions in Santo Domingo have for a number of years
grown from bad to worse until a year ago all society was on
the verge of dissolution. Fortunately, just at this time a
ruler sprang up in Santo Domingo, who, with his colleagues,
saw the dangers threatening their country and appealed to the
friendship of the only great and powerful neighbor who
possessed the power, and as they hoped also the will, to help
them. There was imminent danger of foreign intervention. The
previous rulers of Santo Domingo had recklessly incurred
debts, and owing to her internal disorders she had ceased to
be able to provide means of paying the debts. The patience of
her foreign creditors had become exhausted, and at least two
foreign nations were on the point of intervention, and were
only prevented from intervening by the unofficial assurance of
this Government that it would itself strive to help Santo
Domingo in her hour of need.
{584}
In the case of one of these nations, only the actual opening
of negotiations to this end by our Government prevented the
seizure of territory in Santo Domingo by a European power. Of
the debts incurred some were just, while some were not of a
character which really renders it obligatory on, or proper
for, Santo Domingo to pay them in full. But she could not pay
any of them unless some stability was assured her Government
and people.
"Accordingly the Executive Department of our Government
negotiated a treaty under which we are to try to help the
Dominican people to straighten out their finances. This treaty
is pending before the Senate. In the meantime a temporary
arrangement has been made which will last until the Senate has
had time to take action upon the treaty. Under this
arrangement the Dominican Government has appointed Americans
to all the important positions in the customs service, and
they are seeing to the honest collection of the revenues,
turning over 45 per cent to the Government for running
expenses and putting the other 55 per cent into a safe
depositary for equitable division in case the treaty shall be
ratified, among the various creditors, whether European or
American. …
"Under the course taken, stability and order and all the
benefits of peace are at last coming to Santo Domingo, danger
of foreign intervention has been suspended, and there is at
last a prospect that all creditors will get justice, no more
and no less. If the arrangement is terminated by the failure
of the treaty chaos will follow; and if chaos follows, sooner
or later this Government may be involved in serious
difficulties with foreign governments over the island, or else
may be forced itself to intervene in the island in some
unpleasant fashion. Under the proposed treaty the independence
of the island is scrupulously respected, the danger of
violation of the Monroe Doctrine by the intervention of
foreign powers vanishes, and the interference of our
Government is minimized, so that we shall only act in
conjunction with the Santo Domingo authorities to secure the
proper administration of the customs, and therefore to secure
the payment of just debts and to secure the Dominican
Government against demands for unjust debts. The proposed
method will give the people of Santo Domingo the same chance
to move onward and upward which we have already given to the
people of Cuba. It will be doubly to our discredit as a nation
if we fail to take advantage of this chance; for it will be of
damage to ourselves, and it will be of incalculable damage to
Santo Domingo."
_President’s Message to Congress,
December 5, 1905._
Twenty days after the above was sent to Congress President
Morales was a fugitive from his capital, expelled by a sudden
revolutionary movement in which Vice-President Caceres and
most of the Morales Cabinet appear to have taken a leading
part. Some fighting occurred; but the Morales forces were
beaten decisively in the first week of January, 1906, and
their General, Rodrigues, was killed. Morales, wounded, sought
protection at the American Legation and resigned the
Presidency, January 12. Caceres succeeded to the office, and a
treaty of peace between the contending parties was signed on
the 17th, on board an United States vessel of war. The new
Government of San Domingo adhered to the arrangement made by
Morales with the United States.
As ratified ultimately, in the spring of 1907, by the United
States Senate and the Dominican Congress, the treaty provided
for the conversion of the embarrassed republic’s debt and the
floating of a new issue of bonds, through the agency of a firm
of New York bankers which had undertaken the management of the
affair; while the Government of the United States, by its
agents, was to continue its supervision of the collection of
revenue.
SAN DOMINGO: A. D. 1905-1907.
The American Receivership of Dominican Revenues.
The Modus Vivendi of 1905 and the Treaty of 1907.
The working of the Arrangement.
"By the _modus vivendi_ of March 31, 1905, it was
provided that until the Dominican Congress and the Senate of
the United States should act upon the convention of February
7, 1905, the President of the Dominican Republic, on the
nomination of the President of the United States, should
appoint a person to receive the revenues of all the
custom-houses of the Republic. Of the net revenues collected,
45 per cent was to be turned over to the Dominican Government,
and used in administrative expenses. The remainder, less the
expenses of collection, was to be deposited in a bank in New
York to be designated by the President of the United States,
and to remain there for the benefit of all creditors of the
Republic, Dominican as well as foreign, and not to be
withdrawn before the Dominican Congress and the Senate of the
United States should have acted upon the convention then
pending. During the operation of the _modus vivendi_ all
payments were to be suspended, without, however, in any way
interfering with or changing the substantial rights of
creditors. This _modus vivendi_ went into effect on April
1, 1905. Under the receivership created by this _modus
vivendi_ there has been collected, to August 31, 1907,
$7,183,397.56. Of this amount 45 per cent was turned over to
the Dominican Government, and $3,318,946.97, to bear interest
while on deposit, has been remitted to New York. This is in
striking contrast with the results of the customs operations
of former years, when, having control of the entire revenues
of the Republic, the Dominican Government had not only been
unable to pay its current expenses, but found its apparent
public debt increased at an average rate of almost $1,000,000
a year for some thirty odd years. The convention between the
United States and the Dominican Republic, signed at Santo
Domingo City on February 8, 1907, was transmitted to the
United States Senate on February 19, 1907, by the President,
for ratification, and was ratified on the 25th of the same
month. After formal ratification by the President of the
United States and the Dominican Republic, ratifications were
exchanged July 8, 1907, and formal proclamation made by the
President on the 25th of the same month. Regulations have been
drawn up for the application of its provisions. The treaty
sets forth that the debts of the Dominican Republic amount to
more than $30,000,000, nominal or face value, which have been
scaled down by a conditional adjustment and agreement to some
$17,000,000, including interest, in the payment of which the
Government has requested the assistance of the United States.
{585}
The latter agrees to give this assistance subject to certain
conditions set out in the treaty, the principal among which
are
(a) the President of the United States shall appoint the
general receiver of the Dominican customs and his assistants;
and
(b) that the Dominican Government shall provide by law for the
payment to such general receiver of all the customs duties of
the Republic.
The money collected is to be applied as follows:
(1) To paying the expenses of the receivership;
(2) to the payment of interest on bonds issued by the
Dominican Government in connection with the settlement of its
debts;
(3) to the payment of the annual sums provided for
amortization of said bonds, including interest upon all bonds
held in the sinking fund;
(4) to the purchase and cancellation or the retirement and
cancellation, pursuant to the terms thereof, of any of said
bonds as may be directed by the Dominican Government, and
(5) the remainder to be paid to the Dominican Government.
On the 1st day of each calendar month the sum of $100,000 is
to be paid over by the receiver to the fiscal agent of the
loan, and the remaining collection of the last preceding month
paid over to the Dominican Government, or applied to the
sinking fund for the purchase or redemption of bonds, as the
Dominican Government shall direct. Should the revenues thus
collected exceed $3,000,000 for any one year, one-half of the
surplus is to be applied to the sinking fund for the
redemption of bonds."
_Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs,
October 31, 1907
(Abridgment, Message and Documents, 1907, page 797)._
----------SAN DOMINGO: End--------
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1901-1909.
Water Supply.
The Hetch Hetchy Project.
"Under this name is designated a plan for obtaining a water
supply for the city of San Francisco from the head waters of
the Tuolumne River in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Hetch
Hetchy Valley is one of the most widely known regions of the
high Sierras, second only to Yosemite in scenic interest. It
is formed by a widening of the gorge of the Tuolumne River,
about 30 miles westerly from the crest of the Sierras. It is
thus described in the United States Geological Survey, 21st
Annual Report.
"‘The valley proper is about three and one-half miles long and
of a width varying from one-quarter to three-quarters of a
mile. The rugged granite walls, crowned with spires and upon
battlements, seem to rise almost perpendicular upon all sides
to a height of 2500 feet above this beautiful emerald meadow.
"‘The Tuolumne River leaves this valley in a very narrow
granite gorge, the sides of which rise precipitously for 800
or more feet, thus providing naturally a most favorable site
for a masonry dam.’ As the result of exhaustive
investigations, in 1901, having reference to the procuring of
an adequate water supply for the City of San Francisco, that
city, through its proper officers, selected, surveyed, filed
upon and made application for the reservoir rights of way in
the Hetch Hetchy Valley and Lake Eleanor, which lie within the
reservation known as Yosemite National Park. These reservoir
sites were recognized and surveyed as such by the United
States Geological Survey, in 1891, and the survey filings and
application were made in conformity with the act of Congress
of February 15, 1901, relating to rights of way through
certain parks, reservations and other public lands.
"Lake Eleanor is situated 136 miles east of San Francisco on
the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is about 300
acres in extent and lies in a broad, flat valley enclosed by
precipitous walls of granite, narrowing at the lower end of
the valley. It is 4,700 feet above sea level and receives the
direct drainage from 83 square miles, and by a diverting canal
6 miles long from 103 square miles additional of uninhabitable
mountain slopes which reach an altitude of 11,000 feet, and
receive a mean annual precipitation of from 40 to 50 inches,
most of which is snow. About a mile and a quarter below the
lake, the valley closes into a granite walled gorge and offers
an excellent site and material for a dam. …
"Hetch Hetchy reservoir (site) is about 140 miles from San
Francisco on the main fork of the Tuolumne River and is about
3,700 feet above sea level. It receives the drainage from 452
square miles of the uninhabitable slopes of the Sierra Nevada,
reaching to elevations of over 13,000 feet. …
"The Hetch Hetchy project proposes to conduct the water
liberated from these reservoirs by way of the gorge of the
Tuolumne River 16 miles and thence by canals, tunnels and
pipes."
_Frederick H. Clark,
Head of History Department, Lowell High School._
The application of the City to the United States Government
for the Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy reservoir sites was
denied, in the first instance (1903), by the Secretary of the
Interior, the Honorable A. E. Hitchcock, but subsequently
granted, on a reopening of the case and a rehearing, by
Secretary James R. Garfield, in whose decision, rendered May
11, 1908, the considerations for and against the proposed use
of these famous seats of natural beauty and sublimity were
discussed at length and concluded to have the greater weight
in favor of the application.
One stipulation made by Secretary Garfield was that within two
years the City should submit the question of water supply to
the vote of its citizens, as contemplated in its Charter. This
was done on November 11, 1908, and the voters of San
Francisco, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the
private water company, recorded their approval of the Hetch
Hetchy Project by the overwhelming vote of 34,950 for, to 5708
against the proposition. At the same election a sale of
municipal bonds to the amount of $600,000 was authorized in
order to enable the City to proceed to perfect its titles.
These bonds have been sold and at this date (June, 1909) the
acquisition of the required land is under way.
Almost passionate protests and pleadings against this use of
the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley have been uttered by John
Muir, the word-painter of "The Mountains of California," and
many earnest voices from all parts of the country have been
joined to his in the expostulation. Mr. Muir writes: "It is
impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains and
mountain temples. They are the greatest of our natural
resources, God's best gifts; but none, however high and holy,
is beyond reach of the spoiler. These temple destroyers,
devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect
contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the
mountains, lift them to dams and town skyscrapers. Dam Hetch
Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals
and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated
by the heart of man.
{586}
"Excepting only Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy is the most attractive
and wonderful valley within the bounds of the great Yosemite
National Park and the best of all the campgrounds. People are
now flocking to it in ever-increasing numbers for health and
recreation of body and mind. Though the walls are less sublime
in height than those of Yosemite, its groves, gardens, and
broad spacious meadows are more beautiful and picturesque. It
is many years since sheep and cattle were pastured in it, and
the vegetation now shows scarce a trace of their ravages. Last
year in October I visited the valley with Mr. William Keith,
the artist. He wandered about from view to view, enchanted,
made thirty-eight sketches, and enthusiastically declared that
in varied picturesque beauty Hetch Hetchy greatly surpassed
Yosemite. It is one of God’s best gifts, and ought to be
faithfully guarded."
When this work went to press, in May, 1910, Secretary
Ballinger was giving hearings on the question of revoking the
permit to San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1901 1909.
The Struggle with Political Corruption.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: SAN FRANCISCO.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1902.
The Chinese Highbinder Associations.
Report of the Industrial Commission on their Criminal
and Dangerous Character.
"Investigations made under the directions of the Industrial
Commission reveal the dangerous importance to be attached to
the existence of the so-called associations of ‘highbinders’
among the Chinese population of San Francisco. It is variously
estimated that of the total number of Chinese in that city,
amounting to 25,000 or 30,000, there are about 1,000 members
of the highbinder associations who represent the worst class
of criminals. Many of them have been compelled to flee from
their native country on account of crimes committed there.
They are organized under the semblance of benefit societies,
but for the purpose of blackmail and violation of the
immigration laws. They impose fines arbitrarily upon the
hard-working and prosperous Chinese, and enforce their decrees
through criminal violence and even assassination. They nullify
the judgment of American courts through their own secret
tribunals and their paid assassins; they make a business of
bringing to the United States slave girls and coolie laborers,
and through their system of intimidation it is difficult, and
often impossible, to secure witnesses who will testify to the
truth. It is generally believed by those who have given
attention to this matter, that if the country could be rid of
this criminal class of Chinese, and the highbinders societies
be permanently suppressed, one of the greatest factors in the
commission of fraud in the administration of the Chinese
exclusion laws would be eliminated. An eminent authority
asserts that fully 75 per cent of all the frauds committed at
the present time against the exclusion law can be traced
directly to the highbinder associations. So perfect is the
organization of these societies, and so thorough their reign
of terrorism, that the efforts of the authorities to suppress
them have never been successful. The only thing which they
fear above all others, holding it in greater dread than our
laws, our courts, and jails, is deportation to China. The only
decisive remedy in that case is legislation through Congress,
which should render aliens who are members of such societies,
or any society having for its purpose the commission of crime
or the violation of our laws, liable to deportation. What is
true of the highbinders of San Francisco is probably true also
of certain anarchistic societies which are recruited from
Europe."
_Final Report (1902) of the Industrial Commission,
page 1009._
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1906.
The Earthquake Shock of April 18, 1906.
The Geological Explanation.
Stupendous Destruction by Fire following the Earth Tremor.
Conditions produced by the Fire.
Relief Measures.
"On the morning of April 18, 1906, the coastal region of
Middle California was shaken by an earthquake of unusual
severity. The time of the shock and its duration varied
slightly in different localities, depending upon their
position with reference to the seat of the disturbance in the
earth’s crust; but in general the time of the occurrence may
be stated to be 5h 12m A. M., Pacific standard time, or the
time of the meridian of longitude 120° west of Greenwich;
and the sensible duration of the shock was about one minute.
"The shock was violent in the region about the Bay of San
Francisco, and with few exceptions inspired all who felt it
with alarm and consternation. In the cities many people were
injured or killed, and in some cases persons became mentally
deranged, as a result of the disasters which immediately
ensued from the commotion of the earth. The manifestations of
the earthquake were numerous and varied. … Springs were
affected either temporarily or permanently, some being
diminished, others increased in flow. Landslides were caused
on steep slopes, and on the bottom lands of the streams the
soft alluvium was in many places caused to crack and to lurch,
producing often very considerable deformations of the surface.
This deformation of the soil was an important cause of damage
and wreckage of buildings situated in such tracts. Railway
tracks were buckled and broken. In timbered areas in the zone
of maximum disturbance many large trees were thrown to the
ground and in some cases they were snapped off above the
ground.
"The most disastrous of the effects of the earthquake were the
breaking out of fires and, at the same time, the destruction
of the pipe systems which supplied the water necessary to
combat them. Such fires caused the destruction of a large
portion of San Francisco, as all the world knows; and they
also intensified the calamity due to the earthquake at Santa
Rosa and Fort Bragg. The degree of intensity with which the
earthquake made itself felt by these various manifestations
diminished with the distance from the seat of disturbance, and
at the more remote points near the limits of its sensibility
it was perceived only by a feeble vibration of buildings
during a brief period.
{587}
"The area over which the shock was perceptible to the senses
extends from Coos Bay, Oregon, on the north, to Los Angeles on
the south, a distance of about 730 miles; and easterly as far
as Winnemucca, Nevada, a distance of about 300 miles from the
coast. The territory thus affected has an extent, inland from
the coast, of probably 175,000 square miles. If we assume that
(he sea-bottom to the west of the coast was similarly
affected, which is very probably true, the total area which
was caused to vibrate to such an extent as to be perceptible
to the senses was 372,700 square miles. Beyond the limits at
which the vibrations were sufficiently sharp to appeal to the
senses, earth waves were propagated entirely around the globe
and were recorded instrumentally at all the more important
seismological stations in civilized countries.
"Various manifestations of the earthquake above cited,
including the cracking and deformation of the soil and
incoherent surface formations, were the results of the earth
jar, or commotion of the earth’s crust. The cause of the
earthquake, as will be more fully set forth in the body of
this report, was the sudden rupture of the earth's crust along
a line or lines extending from the vicinity of Point Delgada
to a point in San Benito County near San Juan; a distance in a
nearly straight course, of about 270 miles. For a distance of
190 miles from Point Arena to San Juan, the fissure formed by
this rupture is known to be practically continuous. Beyond
Point Arena it passes out to sea, so that its continuity with
the similar crack near Point Delgada is open to doubt; and the
latter may possibly be an independent, tho associated, rupture
parallel to the main one south of Point Arena. It is most
probable, however, that there is but one continuous rupture.
The course of the fissure for the 190 miles thru which it has
been followed is nearly straight, with a bearing of from North
30° to 40° West, but with a slight general curvature, the
concavity being toward the. northeast, and minor local
curvatures. The fissure for the extent indicated follows the
old line of seismic disturbance which extends thru California
from Humboldt County to San Benito County, and thence
southerly obliquely across the Coast Ranges thru the Tejon
Pass and the Cajon Pass into the Colorado Desert."
_Report of the California State Earthquake Investigation
Commission, Volume 1, pages 1-2._
SAN FRANCISCO:
The Great Conflagration.
General Frederick Funston, commanding the United States troops
at San Francisco, lost no time in ordering them out for
service in the emergency, and his report gives many
interesting particulars of the struggle with outbreaking and
spreading fires, in which they took an heroic part.
"By 9 A. M.," he wrote, "the various fires were merging into
one great conflagration, and were approaching the Palace
Hotel, Grand Hotel, Call Building, Emporium, and other large
buildings from the south. … By the morning of the 19th the
fire had destroyed the main portion of the wholesale and
retail section of the city, and was actively burning on a line
from about the corner of Montgomery avenue and Montgomery
street southwest on an irregular line to Van Ness avenue at
Golden Gate avenue. … The progress of the fire was very slow.
It averaged not more than one block in two hours. … By the
night of the 19th about 250,000 people or more must have been
encamped or sleeping out in the open in the various military
reservations, parks, and open spaces of the city.
"On the night of the 19th, when the fire reached Van Ness
avenue, Colonel Charles Morris, Artillery Corps, in command of
the troops in that portion of the city, authorized Captain Le
Vert Coleman to destroy a number of buildings far enough ahead
of the fire to make a clearing along Broadway, Franklin and
Gough streets, which space the fire was unable to bridge, and
in this manner was stopped after it had crossed Van Ness
avenue and the fire department seemed powerless. It is my
opinion that if it had not been for the work done at this
place the entire Western Addition of the city would have been
destroyed.
"By the morning of the 20th the Western Addition, as that part
of the city lying west of Van Ness avenue is called, was
considered safe, except from the danger arising from a very
threatening conflagration working along the slopes of Russian
Hill toward that part of Van Ness avenue lying north of
Broadway. All day of the 20th an heroic fight was made by the
soldiers, sailors, firemen, and citizens to stop this fire,
which had a frontage of about half a mile, and was working its
way slowly against the wind. A number of buildings were
destroyed here by high explosives, and back firing was
resorted to. The fight, at this place was greatly aided by
water pumped from the bay at Fort Mason. …
"By the most tremendous exertions the flames were prevented
from crossing Van Ness avenue between that port (Fort Mason)
and the point where they had once crossed and been fought out.
By the morning of the 21st the Western Addition was considered
safe, and the advancing flames south from the Mission district
had been stayed; but a rising wind caused the fire to turn
northeastward from Russian Hill and destroy a portion of the
city along the bay shore that had hitherto been spared."
Of the work of dynamiting that was done, mainly by the
soldiers, Major General A. W. Greeley, in a special report,
says: "The authority for demolitions was in every case derived
from the Mayor or his representatives. During all of the 18th
and until the afternoon of the 19th the city authorities
withheld their permission to blow up any buildings, except
those in immediate contact with others already ablaze.
Consequently, although we were able to check the fire at
certain points, it outflanked us time and again, and all our
work had to be begun over in front of the fire. … By
[afternoon of April 19th] the Mayor gave permission to take
more drastic measures to stop the fire."
SAN FRANCISCO:
After the Fire.
Of conditions after the fire General Greeley gives a vivid
description, partly as follows:
"On April 18 this was a city of 500,000 inhabitants, the
commercial emporium of the Pacific coast, a great industrial
and manufacturing center, adorned with magnificent buildings,
equipped with extensive local transportation, provided with
the most sanitary appliances, and having an abundant water
supply. On April 21 these triumphs of human effort, this
center of civilization, had become a scene of indescribable
desolation, more than 200,000 residents having fled from the
burnt district alone, leaving several hundred dead under its
smoldering ashes. …
{588}
"The burnt area covered 3,400 acres, as against 2,100 in
Chicago and 50 in Boston. … Even buildings spared by the fire
were damaged as to chimneys, so that all food of the entire
city was cooked over camp fires in the open streets.
"Two hundred and twenty-five thousand people were not only
homeless, losing homes and all personal property, but also
were deprived of their means of present sustenance and future
livelihood. Food, water, shelter, clothing, medicines, and
sewerage were all lacking. Failing even for drinking purposes,
water had to be brought long distances. Every large bakery was
destroyed or interrupted. While milk and country produce were
plentiful in the suburbs, local transportation was entirely
interrupted so that even people of great wealth could obtain
food only by charity or public relief."
SAN FRANCISCO:
Loss of Life and Property.
General Greeley "gives the loss of life in San Francisco,
including some who subsequently died from injuries received,
as 304 known and 194 unknown. In addition, 415 persons were
seriously injured. Estimates of the value of property
destroyed made up from the reports of settlements by the
insurance companies are given as follows in Best’s Special
Report on San Francisco Losses and Settlement, published in
New York, February 25, 1907:
‘The total loss to insurance institutions throughout the world
was from $220,000,000 to $225,000,000. It is probable that the
sound value of the property represented by this loss was
nearly or quite $100,000,000 greater than the last named
figure, so that this conflagration takes rank as the largest
in history in point of values destroyed. The loss fell on 243
insurance institutions, plus those foreign companies (twenty
or more in number) which have made no report to us.’"
SAN FRANCISCO:
Maintenance of Order.
"After the arrival of state troops ordered into service by the
governor of California, five separate organizations were
maintaining order in San Francisco—the municipal police, the
national guard of California, the United States navy,
citizens’ committees, and the United States army. Under this
multiplied control it was inevitable that some clashes of
authority should occur, and that citizens should at times feel
hampered by excess of regulation. ‘It bears testimony,’ says
General Greeley, ‘to the judgment and forbearance of the
personnel enforcing order and to the sensible, law-abiding
qualities of the people of San Francisco, that during such
prolonged and desperate condition of affairs there should have
been but nine deaths by violence. All killed were men, and
four of the cases have been the subject of investigation under
the civil law.’
SAN FRANCISCO:
Relief Measures.
"Invaluable service of relief was rendered by the railway
companies, the Southern Pacific, under the personal direction
of President E. T. Harriman, and the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe, giving free transportation over their lines from
April 18th to the 26th, and affording every possible facility
for the forwarding of relief supplies. The ferries and
suburban lines did the same.
"Food, clothing and tents furnished by Pacific coast cities
began to pour in, followed quickly by similar supplies from
more distant points and by the War Department of the United
States under special appropriation promptly made by Congress.
The proper handling and distribution of these vast quantities
of material and the control of the refugee camps that filled
the public parks devolved upon the military authorities.
Relief service was promptly systematized by the army officers,
ably assisted after the opening week by Dr. Edward T. Devine,
special representative of the National Red Cross. After July 2
the army was withdrawn from the refugee camps and the relief
work passed under the control of the Red Cross and citizens’
organizations. Mr. J. D. Phelan of San Francisco, chairman of
the Finance Committee of the Relief and Red Cross Funds, thus
commends the services of the army in its management of the
relief operations: ‘As citizens we feel that the army in time
of peace has demonstrated its efficiency and usefulness as it
has in our days of trouble signalized its splendid qualities
on the field of battle.’
SAN FRANCISCO:
Behavior of the People.
"General A. W. Greeley in his special report thus
characterizes the behavior of the people of San Francisco.
‘It is safe to say that nearly 200,000 persons were brought to
a state of complete destitution, beyond the clothing they wore
or carried in their arms. The majority of the community was
reduced from conditions of comfort to dependence upon public
charity, yet in all my experiences I have never seen a woman
in tears, nor heard a man whining over his losses. Besides
this spirit of cheerful courage, they exhibited qualities of
resourcefulness and self-respect which must command the
admiration of the world. Within two months the bread line,
which at first exceeded 300,000, was reduced to a comparative
handful—less than 5 per cent. of the original number.’"
_Frederick H. Clark,
Head of History Department, Lowell High School._
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1906.
Segregation of Oriental Children in Public Schools.
Resentment of Japanese.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1906 (April-October).
During and after the Suppression of Saloons.
See (in this Volume)
ALCOHOL PROBLEM: CASUAL OCCURRENCES.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1906-1909.
The Rebuilding of the Shattered and Burned City.
Improvements in the Reconstruction.
"The great fire of April, 1906, practically obliterated the
business section of San Francisco. Vast heaps of brick and
stone and iron beams, twisted and bent, filled the area where
the great hotels, banks and mercantile establishments,
wholesale and retail, had stood. The opportunity to correct
original errors and to make improvements in the ground plan of
this portion of the city was at once recognized. People said
to one another: ‘ London, Chicago, and Baltimore have bitterly
regretted, since their great fires, that they did not improve
their streets. Are we to fail to take advantage of their
mistakes?’ A Citizens’ Committee on Reconstruction was
appointed; many valuable suggestions were brought together;
and an expert engineer was directed to study the plans and
make practical estimates of the cost of the more important
improvements. A set of most commendable changes was thus
brought to the point of authoritative adoption. These changes
included, particularly, the widening of streets needed for
main thoroughfares, extension of a few main streets so as to
facilitate the distribution of traffic, the extension of
shipping facilities along the water front, and improving the
thoroughfares leading thereto. The opportunity of making these
improvements while the whole area was destitute of buildings
was, of course, never likely to recur.
{589}
"At this point the whole matter came to a standstill. It was
the misfortune of San Francisco at this critical moment to be
under a municipal administration, wholly incompetent and
corrupt. Private enterprise was strained to the utmost in the
effort to recover from the great losses, and from the want of
governmental initiative, all projects of municipal improvement
failed for the time. Under a reformed city-government after
1907, a great deal of municipal work was undertaken which will
be indicated below.
"Rebuilding of private structures is a wonderful record of
courage, energy and resourcefulness. The first stage was the
rushing up of temporary wooden structures,—any sort of a
building that would afford shelter and permit the resumption
of business. For the most part the lumber yards of San
Francisco were untouched by the fire, and thus the city had a
considerable stock of material for immediate operations. Van
Ness Avenue and other former residence streets were soon lined
with one-story wooden buildings over which appeared the
well-known names of down-town firms.
"The second stage in reconstruction was the removal of the
ruins left by earthquake and fire. The business section of the
former city was constructed mainly of brick. Whether from
ignorance or prejudice the former building laws of San
Francisco did not permit the use of concrete except for floors
and foundations. Only a few of the more recently constructed
buildings were of steel. Thus the first great problem was
presented by the standing brick walls.
"For a few days the use of dynamite for the overthrow of
standing walls was permitted, and in this way much additional
damage was done to buildings not wholly ruined by the
earthquake and fire. Subsequently it was found to be far more
systematic and advantageous as well as safer to pull down the
standing walls by means of wire cables and stationary engines.
Pulling down old walls became for a time a trade in itself.
"Thousands of men found employment in cleaning the old bricks
and stacking them up for use in rebuilding. For the removal of
the vast quantities of debris,—twisted pipe and beams, broken
brick and crumbled plaster, temporary railways were
constructed over the level down-town district, and elaborate
plans were made for a wholesale business by steam
transportation. There was trouble over loading facilities,
however, and the greater quantity was carried away by two
horse dump-wagons, the material being used for filling in low
lands along the water front and elsewhere. All California felt
the demand for horses and wagons that this great work created.
"Immediately after the fire the work of revising the building
laws was taken up. Fortunately this task received the
intelligent guidance of a citizens’ committee composed of
local builders, architects and engineers. The building
regulations were rescued from their contradictions and
confusion, and a clear, systematic ordinance was secured. The
most notable forward step was the authorization of reinforced
concrete buildings.
"Architects and engineers interested in the problems of
reconstruction organized a ‘Structural Association’ as a
clearing-house for improved building methods. The utmost pains
were taken to study the effects of the earthquake and the
conflagration in order to secure every possible advantage from
the lessons inculcated. The results of this study may be
summarized as follows.
"Steel frame buildings (Class A) were perfectly able to resist
the effects of earthquake shock of the severity of the
disturbance of 1906, and when properly protected, to endure
the test of conflagration as well. Concrete, both plain and
reinforced, rose rapidly in favor as structural material.
Opinion as to the continued use of brick in construction was
divided, but on account of the need of brick in the cheaper
buildings, there was no tendency toward its falling into
disuse. Wired glass, that is, plate glass in which a mesh of
fine wire netting is embedded has been brought into favor, the
idea being that when this glass is subjected to great heat it
may crack, but will not fall.
"Along with the improved methods of construction, the
rebuilding of office and business structures afforded an
opportunity of modernizing them. Merchants went so far as to
form a ‘Down-Town Association’ which held weekly meetings for
the purpose of studying the problems of rehabilitation and of
taking advantage of every suggestion for improvement. The new
buildings have been perfected in lighting and sanitation and
in exterior finish and interior arrangements have been brought
up to the standard of the world’s best types. Thus the
business district of the new city has been made immeasurably
superior in durability, cleanliness and appearance, to what it
was before the fire.
"The amount of reconstruction that has been done is shown in
the following table taken from the San Francisco
_Chronicle_ of April 18, 1909, which summarizes the work
done in three years. The table was compiled from the municipal
records.
"Private building operations, April 18, 1906 to April 18, 1909:
Number. Cost.
Class A 82 $19,391,982
Class B 109 8,042,831
Class C 1,369 42,416,072
Frame 12,352 50,962,813
Alterations 6,334 9,528,310
Total $130,344,008
"Class A
buildings having steel frames;
stone, brick or concrete facing, fire-proof floors.
Completely fire-proof.
"Class B
buildings of reinforced concrete,
brick or stone, with steel beams entering into the main walls,
fire-proof.
"Class C
brick, stone or concrete buildings
with floors and floor-framework of wood.
"As the actual cost usually exceeds the estimate that goes
into the public record by about 15 per cent. it would be
proper to estimate the cost of all this construction at
$150,000,000. Of this amount it is estimated that less than
$10,000,000 has been furnished from outside of San
Francisco,—local capital having proven itself sufficient for
this vast work. Within this same period the public service
corporations have expended nearly $20,000,000 in
reconstruction,—the greatest work being the practical
rebuilding of the street-car lines. For municipal
reconstruction the city has repaved nearly all of the business
streets and has voted bonds for $18,200,000. From the funds
thus provided permanent improvements of great importance are
now (August, 1909) in progress.
{590}
"The election authorizing the sale of bonds was held on May
11, 1908. The purposes for which these bonds were issued are
thus announced by the Public Utilities Committee of the Board
of Supervisors:
"‘Fire Protection Bonds, $5,200,000, for the installation of
an extensive high pressure water system which will give
superior fire protection to the greater part of the thickly
built portion of the city, and designed to be the most
serviceable of its kind in the world. With this installed it
will be almost impossible for a conflagration to ever again
visit the city.
"‘Sewer Bonds, $4,000,000, for the construction of a complete
sewer system which will discharge the sewage in a manner that
will perfectly safeguard the health of the city.
"‘School Bonds, $5,000,000, for the construction of
school-houses to the number of more than thirty, replacing
those destroyed by fire in April, 1906, and providing sites
and additional structures in districts now inadequately
supplied.
"‘Hospital Bonds, $2,000,000, for the construction of modern
hospitals.
"‘Hall of Justice Bonds, $1,000,000, for the construction of
buildings for the police and other departments of the city
government.
"‘Garbage System Bonds, $1,000,000, for the construction of
modern works for the disposal of the city’s waste in a
sanitary manner.
"‘With these improvements the City of San Francisco will be
equipped with public works that will insure it a prominent
place in the cities of the world in respect to all things that
go to make stability and give permanence to the community as a
great trade and industrial center.’ The rapid recovery of San
Francisco from the losses of the great fire is further shown
by the following comparison of values from the Assessors
Reports:
Value of Taxable Property.
1905. 1906. 1908.
Real Estate $304,136,185 $237,082,752 $258,642,215
Buildings 97,830,165 50,250,480 90,996,500
Personal Property 122,264,596 88,805,510 103,912,469
Total $524,230,946 $376,138,742 $453,551,184
_Frederick H. Clark,
Head of History Department,
Lowell High School._
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1908 (July).
Visit of the Battleship Fleet.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: NAVAL.
SANITARY UNDERTAKINGS.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.
SANTOS-DUMONT, A.
See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.
SARRIEN-CLEMENCEAU MINISTRY.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1906.
SARTO, Giuseppe, Cardinal:
Elected Pope.
See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1903 (JULY-AUGUST).
SASKATCHEWAN:
Organized as a Province of the Dominion of Canada.
See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1905.
SAXONY: A. D. 1906.
Political Reform.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.
SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: INTERNATIONAL INTERCHANGES.
SCHMITZ, EUGENE E.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: SAN FRANCISCO.
SCHOOL CHILDREN, UNDERFED.
See (in this Volume)
POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF.
SCHOOL PEACE LEAGUE,
The American.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1908.
SCHOOLS.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION.
SCHOUVALOFF, COUNT, ASSASSINATION OF.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).
SCHREINER, W. P.:
Opposition to Disfranchisement of Colored Natives
in South Africa.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1908-1909.
----------SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Start--------
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Aeronautics:
The Development of the Aeroplane and the Dirigible Balloon.
To be lifted from the earth by an inflated sack of gas lighter
than air, and be drifted with it by the winds, was an
interesting experience for a few adventurous people, after the
Mongolfiers, in 1783, had found it could be done; but the
practical advantages from it were slight, so long as the
voyager of the air had no slightest control of his journeying.
The possibility of such control only came within the range of
inventors’ dreams when motor enginery had been carried far
towards the promise of much power with little weight. The
promise was half a century behind its fulfilment, however,
when Henri Giffard, the notable French engineer, is said to
have constructed a balloon which lacked nothing but the
adequately light and vigorous motor in order to be as [much a]
dirigible as any of the present day. But the needed motor
began to take form, and success in the propulsion of balloons
on steered courses, with some independence of the winds, began
to be realized, in the experiments of Count Zeppelin, in
Germany, and of M. Santos-Dumont in France, beginning about
1898.
Before that date, however, invention had been started on
bolder lines, seeking independence of the clumsy gas-bag, and
striving to mount the air as the bird does, by pushing against
it the inclined planes of his wings. Otto Lilienthal, in
Germany, began experiments to that end in 1893. He had no
motor; but starting from a height, and "making judicious use
of the movement of the wind," he accomplished gliding flights
of about 1200 feet, and the machines he constructed were
suggestive of ideas to the experimenters who followed him. He
was killed by a fall in 1896. Many were then working at the
problem of aerial flight without the lifting force of light
gases.
{591}
Some studied it scientifically and some attacked it in the
rough manner of sheer empiricism. Of the former, in the United
States, were Octave Chanute, the engineer, and Professor
Samuel P. Langley, the astronomer and physicist of the
Smithsonian Institution; in England there was Sir Hiram Maxim.
These gentlemen arrived at no practical success in their own
experimenting, but they furnished good guidance to the work of
their more fortunate successors. A little later the scientific
students of the problem were joined by the inventor of the
telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. And then came the two
workers who advanced from empiricism to science in their
undertaking, and who won the first great successes by a happy
combination of the two.
The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright have told, in an
article contributed to _The Century Magazine_, how they
were stirred to serious interest in the aviation problem in
1896 and began to read what Langley, Chanute, Mouillard and
others had written on it. Entering, purely as a sport, on
experiments in gliding flight, on Lilienthal’s lines, they
became fascinated by the pursuit. From the first they appear
to have chosen what is known as the biplane structure for
their machines, the invention of which they credit to a
previous inventor, Wenham, whose design of it had been
improved by Stringfellow and Chanute. To this construction, of
two planes, one above the other, for supporting surfaces, they
have steadfastly adhered.
At the outset of their experimenting the Wrights found a
difficulty in the balancing of "flyers" which previous workers
did not seem to have treated seriously enough, and they
settled themselves to the conquest of it at once. This and
other problems soon carried them from empirical testing into
scientific studies, which occupied several years. They found
that the accepted measurements of wind pressure, on given
plane surfaces exposed at different angles, were unreliable,
and they applied themselves to the making and tabulating of
measurements of their own. It was not until this work had
given them "accurate data for making calculations, and a
system of balance effective in winds as well as in calms," as
well as the necessary data for designing an effective screw
propeller, that they felt themselves prepared "to build a
successful power-flyer."
So far, these thorough-going workers at the problems of
aviation had been experimenting with a machine designed, as
they said, "to be flown as a kite, with a man on board," or
without the man, "operating the levers through cords from the
ground." Their active experimenting began in October, 1900, at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1901 they made the acquaintance
of Mr. Chanute, and he spent some weeks with them, observing
and encouraging their work. In September and October, they
say, "nearly one thousand gliding flights were made, several
of which covered distances of over 600 feet. Some, made
against a wind of thirty-six miles an hour, gave proof of the
effectiveness of the devices for control." Late in 1903 they
had reached the point of testing a power-machine, and sailed
into the air with it for the first time on the 17th of
December in the presence of five lookers-on. "The first
flight," they tell us, "lasted only twelve seconds: a flight
very modest compared with that of birds; but it was,
nevertheless, the first in the history of the world in which a
machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into
the air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course,
without reduction of speed, and had finally landed without
being wrecked. The second and third flights were a little
longer, and the fourth lasted fifty-nine seconds, covering a
distance of 852 feet over the ground against a twenty-mile
wind."
In the spring of 1904 the experimenting of the Wright Brothers
was transferred from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to a prairie
not far from their home, at Dayton, Ohio. There they overcame
final difficulties in the maintaining of equilibrium when
turning their machine in circles of flight; and then, at the
end of September, 1905, they suspended experiments for more
than two years, which they spent in business negotiations and
in the construction of new machines. Their experimenting was
not resumed until May, 1908 (again at Kitty Hawk). At this
time it was directed to the testing of the ability of their
machine to meet the requirements of a contract with the United
States Government to furnish a flyer capable of carrying two
men and sufficient fuel supplies for a flight of 25 miles,
with a speed of forty miles an hour.
Meantime, during the two years of suspended experimenting by
the Wrights, other workers in Europe and America had been
approaching their successes, so far as to be competitors for
the important prizes now offered very plainly for winning in
the aviation field. M. Santos-Dumont, turning his attention
from dirigible balloons to aeroplanes, had made, at Paris, the
first public flight on that side of the ocean; and though he
covered no more than 220 yards, it was a long stride in
practical success. Henry Farman, Louis Bleriot, M. Delagrange,
in France, Glenn H. Curtiss and A. M. Herring, in the United
States, were making ready to dispute honors with the Dayton
aviators, of whose actual achievements the public knew little,
as yet.
On all sides there was readiness for surprising and
astonishing the public in 1908. Farman, at Paris, in March,
exceeded a flight of two miles; Delagrange, at Milan, in June,
covered ten miles, and more; Farman, in July, raised his
record to eleven miles, and Delagrange carried his to fifteen
and a half in September. The Wrights had made flights that
ranged from eleven to twenty-four miles in the fall of 1905;
and now, in their renewed trials of 1908, these distances were
more than doubled. Wilbur Wright went abroad, to exhibit their
machine in France and elsewhere, while Orville, in September,
submitted it to official tests at Fort Myer, near Washington.
There, on different days in that month, rounding circuits of
the parade ground, he made time records of continuous flight
that ran from 56 to 74 minutes, travelling estimated distances
that stretched in one instance over fifty-one and a third
miles. These trials at Fort Myer were interrupted sadly by an
accident, from the breaking of a propeller-blade, which caused
the machine to drop to the ground while in flight. Lieutenant
T. E. Selfridge, U. S. A., who rode with Mr. Wright at the
time, was killed, and Mr. Wright suffered a broken leg.
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Wilbur Wright, meantime, was entering on great triumphs in
France. At Le Mans, on the 21st of September, he traversed 68
miles in a continuous flight of a little more than an hour and
a half. This achievement was far surpassed by him on the 18th
of December, when 95 miles were travelled in an hour and
fifty-four minutes, and again, on the 31st of December, when
the stay in the air was prolonged to two hours, nine minutes
and some seconds, and the distance covered was 76½ miles.
These records of the Wrights for time of continuous flight
were beaten by a number of European competitors, as will be
shown below. Otherwise, the records of 1909 show no very
marked advance beyond those of 1908; but the year had
excitements in aviation, connected especially with attempted
flights over the English Channel. Hubert Latham, a recent
French practitioner in aviation, was the first to venture this
leap through the air from France to England. His machine was
described as being an Antoinette monoplane, designed by M.
Levevasseur. He launched it from Calais in the early morning
of July 19, and traversed about six miles of the passage when
his motor failed and he fell to the water, unhurt, and was
rescued by an attendant steamer. Six days after Latham's
failure, on the 25th of July, Louis Bleriot, using another
monoplane machine, made the crossing with brilliant success,
flying from Calais to Dover, 21 miles, in 23 minutes, and
winning the prize of £1000 which the Daily Mail, of London,
had offered for the performance of the feat. M. Latham then
repeated his attempt and was unfortunate again, his motor
giving out after it had carried him within two miles of the
Dover shore.
Orville Wright, at this time, July 27, was demonstrating at
Fort Myer the ability of his aeroplane to carry two persons in
a well-sustained flight. With Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm, of the
Signal Corps, as a passenger, and having President Taft among
his spectators, he made a flight of an hour, twelve minutes
and forty seconds, accomplishing upwards of fifty miles at an
average speed of forty miles an hour. A day or two afterwards
he carried Lieutenant Benjamin D. Foulois over the ten mile
course from Fort Myer to Alexandria at a speed of more than
forty-two miles an hour.
In the last week of August the first race meeting for
heavier-than air flying machines occurred at Rheims, France,
and a dozen aviators from France, England and America competed
for large prizes in long distance and duration flights. A
number of new records was made, and new names acquired note.
Louis Paulhan kept the air for two hours and forty-three
minutes with a Voisin biplane, covering 83 miles. Hubert
Latham surpassed this in distance and speed, making 96 miles
in two hours and eighteen minutes; and this again was beaten
by Henri Farman, who travelled 118 miles, remaining in the air
over three hours. M. Latham used the Antoinette monoplane, and
M. Farman a biplane of his own design. Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss
won the prize for speed, doing 18 miles in twenty-five minutes
and forty-five seconds.
Orville Wright had now gone abroad and his brother had
returned to America. In August and September the former gave
exhibitions at Berlin, breaking some of his own records,
carrying a passenger in his machine for an hour and
thirty-five minutes, on the 18th of September, and rising, on
the 1st of October, to an unexampled height, believed to have
exceeded 1000 feet. This, however, was greatly exceeded in
January, 1910, by Hubert Latham, at Mourmelon, France, who
rose to 3280 feet, and by Louis Paulhan, at Los Angeles,
California, 4165 ft. On the 3d of October the Crown Prince of
Germany was his companion in a short flight.
Meantime Wilbur Wright, in America, had endeavored to supply
one of the spectacles arranged for the Hudson-Fulton
celebration at New York; but the intended programme of
aviation was spoiled by forbidding winds. He did, however,
make one astonishing flight, on the 4th of October, from
Governor’s Island, up the Hudson to Grant’s tomb, and, on his
return, passing over the British battle-ships then lying in
the river. The distance travelled was about twenty miles and
the time of the journey thirty-three minutes and a half.
Unfortunately it was unexpected, and was seen by a small part
only of the millions who had been watching several days for a
flight. On the next day Mr. Wright made the statement that no
more public exhibitions would be given by his brother or
himself. "Hereafter," he said, "we shall devote all our
efforts to the commercial exploitation of our machines, and
fly only as a matter of experiment, to test the value of
whatever changes we decide to make in the construction."
Turning now back to the development of the motor-propelled and
dirigible balloon, we find that field of aeronautics very
nearly monopolized at the beginning of the twentieth century,
so far as the public saw it, by the Brazilian millionaire, A.
Santos-Dumont, who spent his time and his wealth at Paris in
ballooning. The French Government had been authorizing army
experiments in dirigible ballooning since 1884, and a
motor-driven air-ship of that description, designed by Captain
Renard, and named "La France," had made a trip from
Chalais-Meudon to Paris and return in September, 1885, being
the first balloon ever navigated back to its starting point;
but not much in the same line to excite public interest
appears to have been done in the next sixteen years. Then, on
the 19th of October, 1901, a lively stir of interest
everywhere was excited by the exploit of Santos-Dumont, in
navigating his balloon from St. Cloud to and around the Eiffel
Tower and back to the starting point. He had done the same
privately three months before, at a very early morning hour of
July 12, on which occasion he broke his rudder at an early
stage of the journey, descended in the Trocadero Gardens, made
repairs and then went on doing the whole round in an hour and
six minutes, including the stop.
Expectation, however, that controllable navigation of the air,
in average conditions of wind, might really be an approaching
and not very distant fact, cannot be said to have had much
awakening in the world until the performances, in 1908, of
Count Zeppelin’s huge airship, 440 feet in length, called
Zeppelin No. IV., which enclosed numerous envelopes of gas in
a rigid aluminum frame. On the 2d of July, 1908, he drove this
great balloon from Friedrichshafen, on Lake Constance, to
Luzerne, 248 miles, within twelve hours. Starting again from
Friedrichshafen, August 4, intending a 500 mile trip, he made
a lauding at Oppenheim, 260 miles distant, returned thence to
Stuttgart, and finally to Echterdingen, where a hurricane
storm wrecked his airship completely, causing its motor to
explode. Public sympathy with the veteran aeronaut and public
faith in his work were so strong that a fund was raised
promptly by subscription for the building of another of his
costly balloons.
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With this he was ready for new voyages in the spring of 1909,
and started from Friedrichshafen on the 30th of May, carrying
two engineers and a crew of seven, travelled 456 miles to
Bitterfield, where, without landing, he turned back; but
landed later near Goeppingen, receiving a slight injury to the
balloon in landing by contact with a tree. The whole distance
travelled was about 850 miles, in 37 hours. Late in August the
Count accomplished a long desired voyage from his headquarters
on Lake Constance to Berlin; but was forced to land at
Nuremberg for repairs, and again at Bitterfield, disappointing
the great crowds which waited at Berlin, till late at night on
the 29th, with the Emperor, to welcome his arrival. When he
came, the next day, however, the public enthusiasm showed no
cooling. "He was received," says a despatch from Berlin, "with
all the honours which the Court and capital could pay him, and
his triumphal entry into the city this afternoon as the
honoured guest of the Emperor, was not merely a dramatic
success but a national demonstration." And now, from this
glancing survey of achievement thus far in the navigation of
the air, with and without help from the levitation of gas,
what expectations of further achievement can we reasonably
indulge? Here is one answer, from a notably scientific
mind,—that of the late Simon Newcomb, the astronomer:
"It would seem that, at the present time, the public is more
hopeful of the flying-machine than of the dirigible balloon.
The idea that because such a machine has at last been
constructed which will carry a man through the air, there is
no limit to progress, is a natural one. But to judge of
possibilities, we must advert to the distinction already
pointed out between obstacles interposed by nature, which
cannot be surmounted by any invention, and those which we may
hope to overcome by possible mechanical appliances. The
mathematical relations between speed, sustaining power,
strength of material, efficiency of engine, and other elements
of success are fixed and determinate, and cannot be changed
except by new scientific discoveries, quite outside the power
of the inventor to make. That the gravitation of matter can in
any way be annulled seems out of the question. Should any
combination of metals or other substances be discovered of
many times the stiffness and tensile strength of the fabrics
and alloys with which we are now acquainted, then might one
element of success be at our command. But, with the metals
that we actually have, there is a limit to the weight of an
engine with a given driving power, and it may be fairly
assumed that this limit is nearly reached in the motors now in
use. … Owing to the levity of the air, the supporting surface
must have a wide area. We cannot set any exact limit to the
necessary spread of sail, because the higher the speed the
less the spread required. But, as we increase the speed, we
also increase the resistance, and therefore we must have a
more powerful and necessarily heavier motor. … Bearing in mind
that no limit is to be set to the possible discovery of new
laws of nature or new combinations of the chemical elements,
it must be understood that I disclaim any positive prediction
that men will never fly from place to place at will. The claim
I make is that they will not do this until some epoch-making
discovery is made of which we have now no conception, and that
mere invention has nearly reached its limit. It is very
natural to reason that men have done hundreds of things which
formerly seemed impossible, and therefore they may fly. But
for every one thing seemingly impossible that they have
succeeded in doing there are ten which they would like to do
but which no one believes that they can do. No one thinks of
controlling wind or weather, of making the sun shine when we
please, of building a railroad across the Atlantic, of
changing the ocean level to suit the purposes of commerce, of
building bridges of greater extent than engineers tell us is
possible with the strength of the material that we have at
command, or of erecting buildings so high that they would be
crushed by their own weight. Why are we hopeless as to all
these achievements, and yet hopeful that the flying-machine
may be the vehicle of the future, which shall transport us
more rapidly than a railroad train now does? It is simply
because we all have so clear a mental view of the obstacles in
the way of reaching such ends as those just enumerated that we
do not waste time in attempting to surmount them, and we are
hopeful of the flying-machine only because we do not clearly
see that the difficulties are of the same nature as those we
should encounter in erecting a structure which would not be
subject to the laws of mechanics.
"I have said nothing of the possible success of the
flying-machine for the purposes of military reconnaissance or
any other operations requiring the observer to command a wide
view of all that is on the landscape. This is a technical
subject which, how great soever may be its national
importance, does not affect our daily life."
_Simon Newcomb,
The Prospect of Aerial Navigation
(North American Review, March, 1908)._
Here is another, from Thomas A. Edison, the inventor:
"In ten years flying machines will be used to carry mails.
They will carry passengers, too, and they will go at a speed
of 100 miles an hour. There is no doubt of this."
These are the words of Mr. Edison in an interview published in
the _New York Times_, August 1st, 1909. But while he is
sure that the "flying machine has got to come," he is not at
all sure that it will come along the lines pursued in the
present experiments. "The flying problem now consists of 75
per cent. machine and 25 per cent, man," he said, "while to be
commercially successful the flying machine must leave little
to the peculiar skill of the operator and must be able to go
out in all weathers." He continued:
"If I were to build a flying machine I would plan to sustain
it by means of a number of rapidly revolving inclined planes,
the effect of which would be to raise the machine by
compressing the air between the planes and the earth. Such a
machine would rise from the ground as a bird does. Then I
would drive the machine ahead with a propeller."
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Mr. Edison believes it is a question of power. "Is it not
thinkable that a method will be discovered of wirelessly
transmitting electrical energy from the earth to the motor of
the machine in mid-air?" He asked and answered his own
question, saying:—"There is no reason to disbelieve that it
can and will be done." He added, however, that there was great
room for improvement in explosive engines. "Any day we are
likely to read that somebody has made picric acid or something
else work—done some little thing that will transform the
flying machine from a toy into a commercial success." And when
it is perfected, he says, the flying machine may end war by
becoming a means of attack that cannot be resisted.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Agriculture: Dry Farming in the West.
For twenty consecutive years, in scores of places from the
James River to the Arkansas, Mr. H. W. Campbell, of Lincoln,
Nebraska, the pioneer "dry farmer" of Arid America, "has been
uniformly successful in producing without irrigation the same
results that are expected with irrigation, with comparatively
little additional expense, but not without a great deal more
watchfulness and labor. What Western people have become
accustomed to calling the ‘Campbell system of dry farming’
consists simply in the exercise of intelligence, care,
patience, and tireless industry. It differs in details from
the ‘good-farming’ methods practised and taught at the various
agricultural experiment stations; but the underlying
principles are the same.
"These principles are two in number. First to keep the surface
of the land under cultivation loose and finely pulverized.
This forms a soil mulch that permits the rains and melting
snows to percolate readily through to the compacted soil
beneath; and that at the same time prevents the moisture
stored in the ground from being brought to the surface by
capillary attraction, to be absorbed by the hot, dry air. The
second is to keep the sub-soil finely pulverized and firmly
compacted, increasing its water-holding capacity and its
capillary attraction and placing it in the best possible
physical condition for the germination of seed and the
development of plant roots. The ‘dry farmer’ thus stores water
not in dams and artificial reservoirs, but right where it can
be reached by the roots of growing crops.
"Through these principles, a rainfall of twelve inches can be
conserved so effectively that it will produce better results
than are usually expected of an annual precipitation of
twenty-four inches in humid America. The discoverer and
demonstrator of these principles deserves to rank among the
greatest of national benefactors."
_John L. Cowan,
Dry Farming the Hope of the West
(Century Magazine, July, 1906)._
"It is difficult for one who is used to the commonplace
methods of tilling the soil which obtained a quarter of a
century ago to believe that a new method has been discovered
which will triple and quadruple the results of the old system
in those parts of the country in which the rainfall is
somewhat restricted. The imagination cannot immediately grasp
the statement that dry farming methods would lift the Kansas
wheat crop from 75,000,000 to 216,000,000 bushels. Yet this is
a fact.
"If the mind of the eastern farmer can grasp this tremendous
fact he will be ready to credit the statement that there are
millions of acres in the western country which were until a
few years ago regarded as utterly worthless, but which are now
cheap at $25 an acre. To the wheat industry alone of the
western country the proved fact of the value of dry farming
means more than any other development fact in the agricultural
history of this country. What is true of increased yields in
dry farming is equally true, and in a larger degree, perhaps,
with respect to irrigation. For years the government has been
warning the country that the increased production of wheat is
not keeping pace with the increased consumption.
"Should this continue it would mean that ere long the United
States would be compelled to draw a part of its wheat supply
from the Canadian Northwest. It would also mean that the
United States would lose the export wheat trade with the
Orient, which is bound to increase rapidly. It is not
generally known that the 400,000,000 people in China are being
educated to the use of wheat and other cereals than rice, and
that, therefore, the demand for wheat will continue to
increase. …
"One of the facts which Mr. Harriman realized far in advance
of any one else and which was an important factor in his
transportation plans was the possibilities of dry farming as
well as irrigation. Before he began to talk much about these
subjects he set about to prepare his system to reap the first
and most substantial part of the results of dry farming and of
irrigation. Other railroad builders are now beginning to
realize that Mr. Harriman is prepared to transport the
products of the West, of the Northwest and the Southwest
between almost any parts of this country, as well as through
many ports from San Francisco to the South Atlantic ports,
including one or two on the western coast of Old Mexico.
Although he and former President Roosevelt were at war in many
respects, it was Mr. Harriman that gave the former President
much of the information he acquired regarding the boundless
resources of the West. By doing so he caused the government to
work even more energetically than it had been working for the
conservation of the nation’s resources."
_Chicago Record-Herald,
July 11, 1909._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Anniversary Celebrations.
The eightieth birthday of Dr. Rudolph Virchow, founder of
cellular pathology, was celebrated on the 13th of October,
1901, by a remarkable assemblage of distinguished physicians
and surgeons from many countries, who made pilgrimages to
Berlin to do him honor.
The centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the
semi-centennial year of the publication, in 1859, of his work
on "The Origin of Species," were commemorated in every part of
the world; but the great collective demonstration of honor to
Darwin’s memory, organized by the University of Cambridge, his
_alma mater_, was a tribute of surpassing impressiveness.
As described by the London _Times_, on the opening day of
this extraordinary celebration, June 22, 1909, "the whole
learned world, from Chile to Japan," was joined in the homage
paid. "Some of those who will be present," said _The
Times_, "were his comrades, most of them have been in some
measure his working contemporaries.
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Two hundred and thirty-five universities, academies, and
learned bodies at home and abroad have nominated delegates to
represent them; and of these 107 are situated in foreign
countries and British dominions outside the United Kingdom.
Thirty of the most famous institutions in Germany, thirty in
the United States, fourteen in France, ten in Austria-Hungary,
eight in Italy, as many in Sweden, seven in Russia, and lesser
numbers in seven other foreign countries have honoured the
occasion by naming some of their most distinguished members to
take part in it. The distant seats of learning in the younger
British countries have responded with not less cordiality;
seven in Canada, seven in Australia, five in New Zealand, and
the same number in South Africa have appointed delegates;
India and Ceylon are represented by eight. Within the United
Kingdom 68 universities and societies are lending their
support; and, in addition to the appointed delegates, there
are some 200 invited guests, who include men eminent in every
walk of life. … No such academic tribute as the present
festival has ever been paid to the memory of an individual
within so short a time of his own life."
The commemorative exercises of the occasion were continued
through three days.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Astronomy: The Astronomy of the Invisible.
"The discovery of double and multiple stars from the effects
of the gravitational attraction on their luminous components
is known as the ‘Astronomy of the Invisible.’ It was first
suggested by the illustrious Bessel about 1840. … The greatest
extension of the Astronomy of the Invisible has been made by
Professor Campbell, of the Lick Observatory. In the course of
the regular work on the motion of stars in the line of sight,
carried out with a powerful spectroscopic apparatus presented
to the Observatory by Honorable D. O. Mills, of New York, he
has investigated during the past five years the motion of
several hundred of the brighter stars of the northern heavens.
… With such unprecedented telescopic power and a degree of
precision in the spectrograph which can be safely depended
upon, it is not unnatural that some new and striking phenomena
should be disclosed. These consisted of a large number of
spectra with double lines, which undergo a periodic
displacement, showing that the stars in question were in
reality double, made up of two components, moving in opposite
directions,—one approaching, the other receding from the
Earth. There were thus disclosed spectroscopic binary stars,
systems with components so close together that they could not
be separated in any existing telescope, yet known to be real
binary stars by the periodic behaviour of the lines of the
spectra so faithfully registered on different days. …
"Campbell’s work at the Lick Observatory derives increased
importance from its systematic character, which enables us to
draw some general conclusions of the greatest interest. He has
thus far made known the results of his study of the spectra of
two hundred and eighty of the brighter stars of the northern
heavens. Out of this number he finds thirty-one spectroscopic
binaries, or one ninth of the whole number of objects studied.
… It seems certain that a more thorough study will materially
increase the number of spectroscopic binaries; and Professor
Campbell thinks one sixth, or even one fifth, of all the
objects studied may eventually prove to be binary or multiple
systems. Such an extraordinary generalization opens up to our
contemplation an entirely new view of the sidereal universe. …
"If we accept the conclusion that with our finest telescopes,
in the best climates, on the average one star in twenty-five
is visually double, it will follow from Campbell’s work on
some three hundred stars that five times that number are
spectroscopically double. Thus, although over a million stars
have been examined visually, and some five thousand
interesting systems disclosed by powerful telescopes, the
concluded ratio would give us, at last analysis, four million
visual systems among the hundred million objects assumed to
compose the stellar universe. On the other hand, the large
ratio of spectroscopic binaries to the total number of stars
examined by Campbell would lead us to conclude that in the
celestial spaces there exist in reality no less than twenty
million spectroscopic binary stars! Could anything be more
impressive than the view thus opened to the human mind? …
"It may indeed well be that the dark and unseen portion of the
universe is even greater than that which is indicated by our
most powerful telescopes. Half a century ago Bessel remarked:
‘There is no reason to suppose luminosity an essential quality
of cosmical bodies. The visibility of countless stars is no
argument against the invisibility of countless others.’"
_T. J. J. See,
Recent Progress in Astronomy
(Atlantic Monthly, January, 1902)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Biological:
Mendel’s Law of Variation in Species.
"Gregor Mendel was Abbot of Brünn in Moravia when Darwin was
at work on the Origin. He does not appear to have had any
unusual interest in the problem of evolution; indeed, his main
concern was with an essentially pre-Darwinian question,—the
nature of plant hybrids. With this problem as an avocation
from his serious clerical duties, the abbot busied himself in
the garden of his cloister; a leisurely, clear-headed,
middle-aged churchman in whom a great scientist was spoiled.
For eight years he experimented with varieties of the common
pea, and in 1865 communicated to the Society of Naturalists in
Brünn the substance of the discovery which is hereafter to be
known as Mendel’s law, ‘the greatest discovery in biology
since Darwin.’ Unfortunately, at that time, the Brünn Society,
like the rest of the world, had other things on its mind. …
Somehow or other, Mendel’s discovery escaped attention until
four years ago [1900], when De Vries reached it independently.
Two years later Mr. Bateson, who had been among the first to
realize its significance, made a translation of the two
original papers. … Since then, Mendel’s Law has been found to
hold for a considerable number of cases, both among animals
and plants, but most unaccountably not to work for a few
others; so that, as yet, no one knows how nearly universal it
may prove to be, nor how it is to be reconciled with the older
Law of Ancestral Heredity of Galton. …
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"One illustration will serve to make clear the practical
workings of Mendel’s principle. If a single rough-coated
guinea-pig of either sex be introduced into a colony of normal
smooth-coated individuals, all its offspring of the first
generation will be rough-coated like itself. In the next
generation, if one of the parents is smooth and the other
rough, the young will be half of one sort and half of the
other, but if both parents are rough, three quarters will take
the ‘dominant’ rough coat. In the next, and all subsequent
generations, one half of these rough-coated individuals which
had one smooth-coated grandparent, and one-third of those
which had two smooth-coated grandparents, which were not
mated, will drop out the 'recessive' smooth-coatedness, and
become, in all respects, like their original rough-coated
progenitor, even to having only rough-coated young, no matter
what their mates may have. Thus Mendel’s law, though by no
means simple, is very precise. The essential part of his great
discovery is that in each generation of plants or animals of
mixed ancestry, a definite proportion lose one half of their
mingled heritage, and revert, in equal numbers, to one or
other of the pure types."
_E. T. Brewster,
Some Recent Aspects of Darwinism
(Atlantic Monthly, April, 1904)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Promotion of Original Research.
The following information relative to the founding, the plan
and the work of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is
derived from the, authorities of the Institution:
The Institution was founded by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, January
28, 1902, when he gave to a board of trustees $10,000,000 in
registered bonds, yielding 5 per cent annual interest. To this
endowment fund an addition of $2,000,000 was made by Mr.
Carnegie on December 10, 1907. The Institution was originally
organized under the laws of the District of Columbia as the
Carnegie Institution. Subsequently, however, it was
incorporated by an act of Congress, approved April 28, 1904,
under the title of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The
articles of incorporation declare, in general, "that the
objects of the corporation shall be to encourage in the
broadest and most liberal manner investigation, research, and
discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement
of mankind." By the act of incorporation the Institution was
placed under the control of a board of twenty-four trustees,
all of whom had been members of the original board referred to
above.
The President of the Institution is Dr. Robert S. Woodward,
formerly of the faculty of Columbia University. The Chairman
of its Board of Trustees is Dr. John S. Billings, Director of
the New York Public Library. The Board includes such notable
members as William H. Taft, Elihu Root, Seth Low, Andrew D.
White, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Henry L. Higginson and President
Henry S. Pritchett.
Since the object of the Institution is the promotion of
investigation "in the broadest and most liberal manner," many
projects in widely different fields of inquiry have been
considered, or are under consideration, by the Executive
Committee. These projects are chiefly of three classes,
namely:
First, large projects or departments of work whose execution
requires continuous research by a corps of investigators
during a series of years. Ten such departments have been
established by the Institution. …
Secondly, minor projects which may be carried out by
individual experts in a limited period of time. Many grants in
aid of this class of projects have been made.
Thirdly, research associates and assistants. Under this head
aid has been given to a considerable number of investigators
possessing exceptional abilities and opportunities for
research work.
An annual appropriation is made for the purpose of publishing
the results of investigations made under the auspices of the
Institution, and for certain works which would not otherwise
be readily printed. Its publications are not distributed
gratis, except to a limited list of the greater libraries of
the world. Other copies are offered for sale at prices only
sufficient to cover the cost of publication and transportation
to purchasers. Lists are furnished on application.
Since its organization in 1902, about one thousand individuals
have been engaged in investigations under the auspices of the
Institution and there are at present nearly five hundred so
engaged. Ten independent departments of research, each with
its staff of investigators and assistants, have been
established. In addition to these larger departments of work,
organized by the Institution itself, numerous special
researches, carried on by individuals, have been subsidized.
Seven laboratories and observatories, for as many different
fields of investigation and in widely separated localities,
have been constructed and equipped. A building in Washington,
D. C., for administrative offices and for storage of records
and publications, is now approaching completion. A specially
designed ship for ocean magnetic work has just been completed
and started on her first voyage.
Mr. George Iles, in his "Inventors at Work," describes and
characterizes the aims and guiding principles of the
Institution as follows: "In its grants for widely varied
purposes the policy of the Institution is clear: only those
inquiries are aided which give promise of fruit, and in every
case the grantee requires to be a man of proved ability, care
being taken not to duplicate work already in hand elsewhere,
or to essay tasks of an industrial character. Experience has
already shown it better to confine research to a few large
projects rather than to aid many minor investigations with
grants comparatively small.
"One branch of work reminds us of Mr. Carnegie’s method in
establishing public libraries—the supplementing of local
public spirit by a generous gift. In many cases a university
or an observatory launches an inquiry which soon broadens out
beyond the range of its own small funds; then it is that aid
from the Carnegie Institution brings to port a ship that
otherwise might remain at sea indefinitely. Let a few typical
examples of this kind be mentioned;—Dudley Observatory,
Albany, New York, and Lick Observatory, California, have
received aid toward their observations and computations;
Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, has been helped in measuring
the distance of fixed stars. Among other investigations
promoted have been the study of the rare earths and the
heat-treatment of some high-carbon steels. The adjacent field
of engineering has not been neglected: funds have been granted
for experiments on ship resistance and propulsion, for
determining the value of high pressure steam in locomotive
service.
{597}
In geology an investigation of fundamental principles has been
furthered, as also the specific problem of the flow of rocks
under severe pressure. In his remarkable inquiry into the
economy of foods, Professor W. O. Atwater, of Wesleyan
University, Middletown, Connecticut, has had liberal help. In
the allied science of preventive medicine a grant is advancing
the study of snake venoms and defeating inoculations.
"At a later day the Institution may possibly adopt plans
recommended by eminent advisers of the rank of Professor Simon
Newcomb, who points out that analysis and generalization are
to-day much more needed than further observations of a routine
kind. He has also had a weighty word to say regarding the
desirability of bringing together for mutual attrition and
discussion men in contiguous fields of work, who take the
bearings of a great problem from different, points of view."
_George Iles,
Inventors at Work